About Me

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Texas, United States
Welcome to my blog. What is a triathlon? It's a swim, bike and run usually in that order. My goal is to give exposure and insight to triathlons along with encouraging living a healthy life style. My post will also contain my collective thoughts pertaining to my training experiences. Feel free to send an email to ej@trilifeblog.com with any feedback or questions you may have. facebook: www.facebook.com/TriLifeBlog

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Happy Holidays..!

I blinked and a week has gone by. I want to wish all of you a happy and safe holiday. I know most of my fellow triathletes and endurance runners will find some time over the holiday to squeeze in a workout or two. :)

I sometimes take for granted that there is an overwhelming selection of events where I live. It’s not hard for us to go online and find something to do on any given weekend. It’s usually when I have to travel out of town that my appreciation for those events set in.

A few weeks back I was planning an out of town trip and I was amazed to see that my destination did not have any events going on, not for that weekend but, for that entire month! I contacted the website’s webmaster was relived to find out that there was an event but, it had not been posted yet. I was hoping for a 10K event but, all they have to offer was a 5K event. I was happy they had something rather than nothing at all.

For those of you who are in the middle of training this time of the year can be a bit tricky. Take the time to look at your training calendar and plan your workouts appropriately. It will help you get through the holiday without having to worry about missing any workouts. You may not be able to squeeze them all in but, something is better than nothing. It will also help put your mind at ease when you are attacking those holiday meals. J

My lower abs are still healing day by day. I’m almost back to 100%. I’m looking forward to the day to be able to do core work again. I had a pretty solid workout week. I can usually gauge the effort based on how trashed my legs feel. This morning they were pretty trashed. I got in a good swim and relaxed in the hot tub to help try and loosen them up.

I take with me a positive this week. I ran a 5K this week. I knew it was going to be flat and fast. My last year time of 18:04 was good enough for 29th place overall and 4th in my age group. This year I went in with two goals. I wanted to beat last year’s time and I wanted to place in my age group.

My legs were pretty beat up by a Tuesday morning run work out and my Tuesday evening bike workout. I knew I would have to work to make my goals. This 5K had over 1000 chipped runners and 4000 non chipped runners. I made sure I got up front to avoid trying to get through hoards of runners.

The first mile was pretty fast I was maybe in 20th position and put in a 5:31 pace. The second mile was all head wind. My pace dropped to a 5:51. My legs were really talking to me after the second mile. I was also very careful with my foot placement. There were parts of the course that were not well lit and there were turns with some gravel on them. My first thought was, “Don’t fall”. J The last mile was my gut check mile. I put in my last mile at a 5:43 pace.

As I approached the finish line area I was well aware that there were 4 or 5 of us running in a pack. I had no idea where I stood on my time goal but, I did have my sight on a gentlemen who was running about 5 feet in front of me. He looked like he could be in my age group. I still had that goal in mind. I did not know how many others in my age group were in front of me.

With less than 200 meters to go I decided to sprint. I was going to leave it all out on the line and if they could keep up and beat me the more power to them. I went for it and crossed the finish line at a 4:18 pace. Yes, I was in a full on sprint for about 20 seconds. I can’t remember the last time I pushed this hard but, it felt good to compete with other competitive runners. I honestly can’t remember the last time, if there was a last time when I had to dig deep for a finishing position.

In the end I walked away with a PR (17:38) and a 1st place award in my age group. I finished 12th over all which is a good size move from last year’s 29th overall finish.

I’m eagerly waiting for my abs to be 100%. I want to be able to give the quality workouts I know I need for the upcoming 2012 season.

Again Happy Holidays to everyone!

Thank you for reading this blog entry. As always feel free to email me any questions or comments you may have.

..ej
ej@trilifeblog.com
www.facebook.com/trilifeblog

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Rough Start

My triathlon training officially started the week of Dec 5th. It’s been a rough start and I hope the worse is over. The week prior to Dec 5th I somehow managed to strain my lower abdominal area. It was painful anytime I had to engage those muscles.

I felt it most when I swam and ran. Kicking in the pool and trying to lift my knees up when running would put an additional strain on that area. I was concerned that I would take a while to heal up since my workouts would not let the area rest.

I had a company 5K I committed to on Dec 3rd and I showed up with every intention of running it. The soreness and discomfort was still on the back of my mind. That Saturday morning I put in a 2 hour spin then headed over to the event site. As I started my 2 mile warm up the first step I took left serious doubts in my mind as to weather I would run the 5k. Each step I took was pretty painful. Imagine you had sore abs and you sneezed really hard. That’s exactly how each step felt.

I told myself I had 2 miles to warm up. If the pain did not subside then I would not run the 5K. After my 2 mile warm up the area had warmed up enough that I went ahead and decided to run. The course also appeared to be pretty flat so I figured I would not have to put much effort in to lifting my knees as hills were not a factor.

This 5K was one of the most interesting 5Ks I’ve ran. It was more of a social fun run and there were lots of children in the race mixed in with the competitive runners. The start line was so packed that I had to start 3 rows deep in order to get my timing chip behind the mat. Yes, that meant that the 3 rows before me were on the other side of the timing mat.

The gun went off and there were kids everywhere. I spent the first ½ mile dodging kids. I was too busy concentrating on not running into kids that I forgot all about the sore area. Once I was out in the clear I started to focus on my run and the lower abdomen pain resurface. It wasn’t as painful as my 2 mile warm up however I felt it every time I lifted my knees to try and push harder.

I wanted to step on the throttle to go but, it was not happening. The course looped back towards oncoming traffic for about a half mile. That half mile was another game of dodge kid ball. J I found myself running on a road covered from left to right with oncoming runners/walkers. I had to do some serious maneuvering to keep from running into kids who were not looking where they were going. As I turned the corner I was happy to be out of that on slot of oncoming traffic.

I finished out the race the best I could and started my 5K cool down. As I was out on the cool down run a motorcycle cop drove up next to me and started apologizing for all the oncoming traffic during the race. He told me that there was a mix up with the 1 mile fun run and the 5K race. They didn’t turn the 1 mile fun run people around in time so they ended up on the 5K trail. That explained all the oncoming traffic. I laughed and told him, no worries it happens. I also felt for the people who started off the race thinking they were only going to do one mile and ended up doing a 5K.

Sunday morning came and I talked myself into taking some time off. I was still sore in the lower abdomen area. I was about to start my triathlon training the next day and I wanted to be as fresh as I could be. Monday came around and I had an easy swim to put in. As I lay in bed that morning I could still feel the lower abdomen area as I stretched out. It was still pretty intense so I decided to take that Monday off.

Here I was week one of training and I already started with a day off. Sometimes that’s just how the ball bounces. My thoughts are better now then later in the season. I got through my first week and I could still feel the lower abdomen area but, it was not as intense as the previous week, so positive thoughts were in my head. I know it would take a while to heal given that my workout engaged that area on a daily basis.

I’m almost done with week two of training and unfortunately I had another derailment in my training. I caught a bug on Tuesday that knocked me out. I ended up having to miss my Tuesday workouts and my Wednesday morning workout.

This bug was a nasty one. I was in bed for almost 17 hours. That’s unheard off for me. My body was fighting off something and left me with the chills for the majority of those hours. I kept looking forward to being outside again. As twisted as it may sound I enjoyed being sick as it allows me reflect and appreciate my health when I have it.

Most of us walk through life taking our health for granted. I’m not saying that we all have to go out and run a marathon but, we can at least get outside and enjoy the fresh air. There are thousands upon thousands out there who are not as fortunate as we are and would love to be in our shoes to be able to get outside and simply walk a few miles.

I’m still nursing my lower abdomen injury but, I know with time it will heal. I also know that I will workout and push through the soreness as it heals.

Thank you for reading this blog entry. As always feel free to email me any questions or comments you may have.

..ej
ej@trilifeblog.com
www.facebook.com/trilifeblog

Thursday, December 1, 2011

2012 Race Decision

It’s almost been three weeks since my last blog entry. It’s now been a month since my Ironman event. After taking three days off I took the liberty to keep my workouts going. The past four weeks consisted of unstructured workouts. I kept them pretty sporadic and fairly low intensity. With my first Boston Marathon coming up in April I decided to start running on Tuesday’s and Thursdays with the Texas Running Center. It’s a bit of a drive for me but, it’s definitely worth it.

I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to do with my 2012 triathlon season. I’ve firmly decided to train for 70.3 events. It’s going to be an interesting year. I’m going to see if I can increase my speed in all three events. I’d like to drop 20 to 30 minutes off of my current 70.3 PR by the end of the year. It’s and aggressive goal but, I feel that it is obtainable.

For now I’m going to try and continue to self coach. The next for months are going to be a discovery period for me as I’m going to try and mesh a couple training routines together. I still want to go sub 3 hour in Boston but, at the same time I have my sights set on Galveston 70.3 which is a couple weeks before Galveston.

My goal is to fit an aggressive 70.3 training plan with an aggressive marathon plan. I believe I can make this work. I know I’m not the first person to have come across this kind of race conflict. This is new waters for me and I’m eagerly anticipating the results. I’m going to start piecing this workout together this weekend. My training for Boston and Galveston 70.3 will begin next week, Monday Dec. 5th.

Thank you for reading this blog entry. Best of luck to all my friends running White Rock this weekend. I’m not running the race but, will be out there to support.

As always feel free to email me any questions or comments you may have.

..ej
ej@trilifeblog.com
www.facebook.com/trilifeblog