Time Management

A lot of us struggle with time management. Especially those triathletes that take it seriously and also have a full time job and kids. I think a lot of the negative assumptions for want-to-be triathletes or for any exercise on that matter is that there is not enough time in the week to train everyday. The reality of it is (for most of us) there is plenty of time! Let's break down a week:

Hours in a week = 168
(-)Sleep (let's just say 8 hr/night) = 56
(-)Work + commute = 50

So we are left with 62 hours to spare! Some of you may be saying, "Yea right, 50hrs a wk of work and commuting, I'm more like 60 or 70"...fine, you are still around 50 hours of time to spare. For those of you that only sleep 6 hours/night - you just earned yourself some more spare time...

The point is, a lot of our spare time is wasted and we don't even realize it. Where does most of that time go? Unfortunately for most people it goes to TV, Movies or Video games. According to the A.C. Nielsen Co, the average American watches 4 hours of TV a day or 28 hours a week! No wonder America is overweight!

Amy and I have gone a year and a half without the boob tube and it's done wonders for our marriage, our family and our training! Now, I'm not anti-tv and telling you that you should ditch your cable ---only to just be aware. This is probably the time that is robbing you from training the way you want to.

Amy and I discovered that when we have TV, we watched it everyday. So we just got Netflix instead....The days we are burnt out or when we need to keep the kids occupied while we make dinner or do chores-we throw on a show for them and every once in a while when we don't feel like chatting, reading or training, we pop on a movie and just chill.

The little monsters

For myself, kids have actually helped balance my training too. I honestly believe that being married with two kids has helped me focus MORE on my training than ever. It's often considered a negative or something that may hold you back as a triathlete when you have a family. I see it completely different. Instead of going out with the guys for some beers and the big game, I go home -play with my kids and get to bed early. Instead of going on a date and staying out all night, I get to come home to my wife everyday. Instead of going to Vegas for the weekend and partying - I get to hang out with the fam and get all of my workouts and recovery in.

I'm not saying it's bad to do those things every once and awhile -it's all about the balance right? But for ME, when I was running competitively and didn't have a family, I struggled with that balance and my training and racing ultimately suffered. So if you're like me and you have a family and you want to train to be competitive in the triathlon, there is hope! Breakdown a typical week for you and find out where all of your time is spent. Subtract the wasted time and put it to good use.

Check out Chuckie V's blog where he talks about time management.

Speaking of time management, my lunch is up----

Oh yea, it's time to finally race tomorrow with fresh legs, I'm excited!

Have a great weekend everybody-

The Great Urban Race

So this last weekend Amy and I did The Great Urban Race in downtown San Diego. I was a little skeptical about the "race" because it seemed like more of a scavenger hunt than an actual race, but I'm glad Amy talked me into it---it was a blast (and a good workout)! There were like 300 people there (150 teams) and each team dresses up. Some pretty funny names and costumes showed up. Amy and I decided on the name "Abercrombie & Wench." I tried to dress all preppy like an Abercrombie guy and she dressed as a wench. Amy is quite crafty so she made me a custom shirt and it looked great! Each team was given 12 clues and you had to solve them by actually running or taking the transit system all around downtown San Diego and Balboa Park going into different businesses and solving things. Some pretty funny shenanigans like running 2 miles fast and going into Wolffy's Place and taking an ice cold shot of Jager in order to solve a clue. We covered over 10 miles and finished in like 2:48. Afterwards we hit up our favorite, Joe's Crab shack and had a "celebratory" drink before heading home. It was a fun day with the wife and although I'm away from the kids often, I seem to miss those little monsters more when we are both away from them.

As far as training for the week, it was a decent one. I hit 9 hours, but had only one swim. Our HOA pool shut off the heat and when I went for my swim Monday morning...It was a lot colder than I thought it would be, especially with the cold rain we've had lately around here. Tuesday I did a Pilate's workout in the morning and then ran a very rainy track workout with the SDTC that night. Wednesday, I took Blue Steel out in the rain and knocked out a hilly 20 mile bike ride in just under an hour. Thursday morning I did a 5 mile run in the morning and then an hour "Strength" session at Rehab United that night. I didn't really know what to expect at Rehab and it ended up being a great workout. This is often a part of my training I overlook. I don't spend enough time in strength training or stretching -which I know is vital to staying injury free.

Lake Hodges ride

When I can fit it into my schedule, I'm going to make Rehab a part of my week. Friday I woke up sore and headed to the trails after work to get some time on The Mistress. I still haven't put on tubeless tires on her yet and in an effort to try and avoid a few less flats until I do, I put some Slime into my tubes. I'm actually very surprised how well the stuff works. On Friday, I ran over something that gave me a huge puncture. I heard the air whizzing out of my tire and your supposed to keep riding so the sealant can go to work, and sure enough it sealed it up. So until I make the switch, I'm all about the Slime. Saturday morning I went on another 20 mile bike ride in the morning and then raced the Great Urban Race that afternoon. I ended up bagging my long run on Sunday because we had a such a busy day----which was probably good, because my IT band is still nagging at me...As far as this week goes, I have one last tune up race in the Dirt Dog Series-a 6k down at Cuyamaca before the championship race. I'm going to try to set myself up to race fast these next few weeks. I've been training through all of these races, usually going in with tired cycling legs. So I'm going to lay low on the bike, attend to my IT issues and hopefully pop out a few good races before I solely focus on triathlon training.

Thanks for reading!

Off Season??

I've never really followed Ironman races until I started getting into triathlons. A 1/2 Ironman is one thing, but the full distance is just amazing. 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and 26.2 mile run (marathon). Talk about testing the limits of what the body can do! The 2010 Ironman World Championships came to an end and Chris McCormack ended up winning an exciting race by pulling away at mile 24 of the marathon for the win. All of that at the young age of 37. That's one cool thing about the longer distance triathlons, most of the players are in their 30's.
So as the triathlon season wraps up for the year and off season begins, I feel like I just started. Although I want to push it and get in shape fast, it's time to tone it back a bit and get some good base mileage, strength training and work on form/technique in all three disciplines so I can get ready for my first year as a triathlete. Over the last few weeks I started to get some serious IT band issues and have had to really scale back my training. When I first decided to start training for triathlons specifically, I worked with Trevor Glavin, a local professional Xterra and coach for a few months. I remember he said how important it is for me to get strength & flexibility training into my regime. Unfortunately, I've done very little. Some Pilate's here and there, but definitely not enough to keep me injury free. So this week, I actually got an email from Trevor recommending Rehab United for strength training and also so I can also address my ITB issues. So tomorrow the suffering begins!

I made a few changes to my schedule. The Carlsbad 1/2 already sold out! So my buddy Jayson (who just crushed the Leadville 100) is running the Surf City 1/2 in Huntington Beach in February---so I figured I'd jump in the race too. I also found out that "The Race Across the Sky" which is about the mountain bike portion of the Leadville 100 is premiering in theaters around the US, and one even in Temecula! Let me know if any of you want to go to it with me. Check out the trailer here. I think one day, I'll do it...On that same note, I think I might have talked my older bro Mike to jump in the Racers and Chasers MX/MTB team duathlon's this year. Basically, he would start us off on his motorcycle--- riding for like 40 mins and then transition it off to me where I would finish us with a 15 mile mountain bike ride. Not only does it look like a lot of fun, but it's also like 20 minutes from my house and looks very "grassroots." Camping, riding and beers with family? I'm in!

Last weeks Dirt Dog Series 8k, went just OK. Leading up to the race I swam Monday, worked on the track Tuesday, did a 50 mile bike ride Wednesday and I was feeling my IT band so I decided to take both Thursday and Friday off to see if I'd be able to race Sat. To top it off, I had one of my busiest weeks ever at my work, so I was thrashed come Saturday morning. I woke up to some rain and we decided for me to just head down solo (hence no photos from my awesome wife) for the race. I warmed up, leg was feeling OK, so I decided to race. I haven't done an 8k since college and it was very weird because this was actually a club/college race. Two of the schools I attended were there (CSUSM and CBU). It was very cool to see Cal Baptist there, because shortly after I graduated they cut the running programs. And then about 3 years ago they started them back up.

Just before the gun went off, the college teams started doing their weird chants to get pumped up (I never understood that-even when I used to participate) and then we were off. I went out in the first mile in 5:24 and was WAY back. These kids were flying. The field started to separate and after mile two, I almost immediately started to fade. I was tired and not very sharp from only running once that week. I fought to stay with the pack and ended up finishing in 27:55 (5:36 pace). Finished 6th in my Age Group and as I went to go for a cool down w/Masters winner and Xterra stud Mike Hansen (who crushed me with a 26:28), I felt sharp IT band pain so I called it a day early and hobbled home.

My focus now is to just get my leg better and get ready to start my base build for 2011.

Dirt Dog Series, Balboa Boogie 5k

After skipping the last few races, I figured I'd jump in and do a 5k last weekend -part of San Diego's Dirt Dog Series. I was a little worried because about three weeks ago after a 14 mile run and pushing the hills, my IT band flared up. It seemed like it went away, but the pain kept coming back on harder runs. So last week, I decided to rest up a little and see if it would feel better for this week. I only put in about 5 hours of training last week which included only one swim...Sucks, because our HOA pool turned off the heater, so needless to say I froze on my 5am swim. Time to finally jump into a Masters program!

Race: Getting the kids ready and packed for races is always interesting. Amy and I always laugh about it, because we've done it so many times, but we always seem to push the time frame every single race. It's always quick out the door, quick on the drive and I barely make it to the start. One of the cool things about having kids is - it really puts racing and training into perspective. When I ran in high school and college there was so much inward thinking, it's all about me, I have to be ready for this race, I'm nervous for this race, I have to win this race...etc. Now, the only thing I worry about is forgetting Scarlett's choppie (her pacifier), which we did for this race---so we got to hear her ask for it all the way down! I love having my cheering squad every race.

I only had about 15 minutes to warm up, so I'm surging HARD up some hills to try and get my Heart Rate up before the start. I was getting some funny looks because I was pretty intense and it just looked like a weird thing to do before a race. It worked though, I recommend that to anyone that has little time to warm up, I felt ready come start time. I took my Garmin and Heart Rate Monitor off for the race because I just wanted to race off of feel. I get to the start and look over and see pro triathlete Lesley Patterson to my right. Great...I'm gonna get "chicked" today...Come to find out, a lot of triathletes do these races. We took off and the smell of Morley Field brings back a lot of memories of racing there a ton back in high school. The smell of the grass, the cool air and loud cheering I remember, all brought back great memories.

After the first mile I was leading the 2nd pack and feeling pretty good. The course ended up being pretty rocky so you had to watch your footing. I was a little worried that my IT band would flare up, but it was feeling fine. At about the 2 mile mark, sure enough -Leslie passes me and looks strong. I didn't even respond, she went on to finish in like 16:07 or something. I knew I was having a decent race though, because I saw Brandon Mills (pictured above) -another good local triathlete that is on BSK just ahead of me. For the most part I was moving forward most of the race passing people and only remember getting passed after mile 2 by a few. I ended up finishing strong and even had a little kick which gave me an over 30 PR.

16:45 (5:24 pace)

7th in my AG

25th Overall

I was finally happy with a race. I improved over a minute off of my time from a month ago. I've been seeing a lot of gains lately in my workouts and I figured I'd be in the 16's sooner than later. I still feel like I have a lot room for improvement. I want to be in the 15's by the end of the year which I think will give me confidence coming off of the bike in next year's triathlons.

The next day I hammered a hilly 20 miles under an hour with Blue Steel and felt great. I feel like some of these long rides are really giving me strength to ride hard with tired legs. Next week starts another tough two week training block and another race (an 8k) on Saturday at the school I used to run for CSUSM....I'm debating on riding my bike to the race (30 miles), racing the 8k and then riding back....That sounds pretty brutal though, we'll see. Until next time!

~Cheers

James

Last weeks training

Last week was a big week for me. I put in over 11 hrs of training---which, it's not my biggest week but it was filled with a lot of quality. It's funny, when I talk to some of my running friends or family -hours is a whole different aspect when looking at training. For runners, it's all about the miles -who cares how many hours you put in? But with the tri, since you're training for three different disciplines, it makes sence to calculate how many hours you put into training. For those of you runners, 11 hours is equivalent to putting in about 95 miles/wk in training.

So I kind of had a break-through in training last week at my weekly track club workout. The workout started with a mile time trial (not all out, just @steady 5k pace) and then included about 4 miles worth of uphill and downhill 200 meter striding with a steady jog in between --basically a fartlek. Well I started out on the mile and just cruised, my legs felt great and I just went by feel. At about 1200 I checked in on my Garmin 305 and my HR was pretty low but I just still cruised in and to my surprise I finished at 5:06...Man just a month ago my heart rate was almost maxing out during mile repeats at 5:35! I finished the rest of the workout with ease.

The next morning I met up with Jim from The Bike Shop. He fitted me a few weeks prior on Blue Steel and I found out that they do weekly group rides. Sweet! I was a little intimidated because the longest ride I had done prior to this ride was a 45 miler the week before and he was taking us on a 60 miler! Of course it ended up just being the two of us and I was hoping I wasn't going to slow him down. Well the ride went great, except for my blow out around mile 40. Even he said that it was one of the bigger punctures he'd seen! I'm glad he was there to help because he helped me change the tire quickly and we were on our way. I was good until we hit about mile 58, then I started to bonk pretty bad.
I dialed in my nutrition pretty good for the most part, but I had ran out of
fluids and I was glad to call it a day.

The weekend included a 90 minute mountain bike ride after work on some new trails I found at Lake Hodges and then Saturday I went big (for me). I started the day with a mile swim at my pool, then I came back to the house and put on my new tires (the ones that came with the bike were junk). Blue Steel now looks ridiculously good-looking. I set off for a 35 mile bike ride that included over 3000 ft in climbing and as soon as I finished, I threw on my running shoes and did 4 miles steady where I ended up averaging 7:03 pace. 

I really wanted to experiment with my nutrition to see what my body needed over the course of 3+ hours. I ended up taking in a bottle w/2 scoops of Carbo-Pro, a bottle of water, a gel and 2 shot blocks. In lamens terms, a bunch of over-priced carbs/calories. For the most part I felt great until I hit the 2nd mile of my run. It was in the mid 90's by then and the heat started getting to me. It's amazing what the the heart rate does when you're pushing your body in the heat. By the time the run was over I was still sweating pretty good, so it seemed like I planned my nutrition pretty well. The next day I did a hilly 13 mile long run and called it a weekend.

In an effort to put on some of the pounds I shed over the weekend, I teamed up with New Belgium and drank some 1554. Now this week, it's time to get ready to run another Dirt Dog Series Race on Saturday. This one is a 5k Cross Country course down at Morley Field. This one should bring back some memories of battling in high school cross. Great course!

~Cheers

James

2010

Can't believe it's already fall! I've been doing full on triathlon training now for about three months now and I absolutely love it. Like most people say when they find the sport later in life "I wish I'd found triathlon sooner." The good news is, a lot of the greatest triathletes in the world are in their 30's, and at 31 -I feel like I still have some time to be competitive.

The best thing I am finding out is that all of that muscle memory, pain tolerance and discipline I obtained from running competitively for 10 years is all coming back pretty fast! It's amazing how the body can respond and adapt to it's old ways with smart and consistent training.

As far as plans for the rest of the year, I really don't have any. I just want to build a great base for next year so I can compete. I've been racing with the BSK/Running Center team in the Dirt Dog Series this year and have been enjoying Cross Country -which I hated in high school and college. I'm just trying to get as much swimming and biking in as possible and I might jump in the Xterra 17k Trail run in December. I did one earlier this year when I was still fat and they are tough and steep! Great training, so I know what to expect next year for the Xterra triathlons.

So that's it, no more triathlons until next year --just some running races and big training weekends so I can get my swim and bike fitness ready for next year.

About This Blog...

What inspired me to start this blog is:

1. Track my training / Hold myself accountable
2. Creative writing outlet
3. Inspire others

A little background...

Can Am Games

I grew up in a great family environment, where my parents always supported me in whatever activities my brothers and sister wanted to pursue. For me it was sports; baseball and soccer. I played both every year from when I was 5 all the way up to high school. Playing on club teams, traveling teams, All Stars...etc etc. My parents dropped a lot of money and a lot of time into me and I was grateful for that because it paved the way for me to be successful in endurance sports both in fitness and in mental toughness. As I was getting in shape for soccer season, my freshman year in high school -I naturally ran xcountry and was introduced to this old man, Coach Wilson who coached xcountry and track. Besides my parents, he later became one of the biggest influences in my life. After running a 5:02 mile in my first race with just soccer and baseball training, Coach Wilson convinced me that I could have a future in running. I finished HS with a 1:57 800 and a 4:19 mile which was fast enough (at the time) to earn me scholarships to different universities. I transferred around and went where the good coaches were and I ended up graduating at California Baptist University; where at the time, Coach Irv Ray (now head coach at UCR) was coaching. He guided me to 14-time All American status, 4 time National Champion, 1:51 800, 3:47 1500 (4:04 mile), and a 14:15 5000. After graduating, these times were good enough to land me a spot on Bob Shul's ('64 5000 Gold Medalist) Olympic Development team located in Dayton, Ohio. I was exposed to some very unorthodox training with influences of Mihaly Igloi which included a lot of speed work on the track (sometimes 12+ miles all on the track). My mileage and intensity were higher than it had ever been and I just felt tired...always. I wasn't racing well and after battling some injuries and burnout I decided to pull the plug and head back home to CA. I took a few months of recovery and raced an 8k for fun a few months later and ran a 23:47, my fastest 8k by like 90 seconds. Even though that was a huge PR, I was still burned out (and in love with my eventual wife) so I quit racing competitively in February of 2002.

Fast forward 7 years and after getting married, having two kids, gaining 44 pounds (I brewed my own beer...) and a full time job, I weighed in at 179 in November of 2009. It was a wake up call. I decided immediately to start training for the Carlsbad Marathon that was a little less than 3 months later. Bad call on that...I struggled to a 4:14  finish, but was excited about getting back in shape. In 2010, I ran into a lot of little injuries and I kept trying to push my mileage up so I could get into shape quicker. The body wouldn't let me, so I decided to give the triathlon a try so I could train more and avoid less injuries. The plan worked. After a successful run at triathlon which included many AG wins, one race as an "elite," qualifying for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships and completing an Ironman.

Hope you enjoy the blog, if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, feel free to email me anytime at: ilovethehurt@gmail.com

thanks for reading!

-James

Bikes

Since I got into triathlon I haven't ridden anything but Cannondale. TT, Road, MTB you can't go wrong no matter what your budget is. These are my rides:
 

Triathlon: 2017 Cannondale Slice

Road: 2014 Cannondale EVO di2

MTB: 2010 Cannondale F5

Race Schedule / Results -See Athlinks on sidebar for most up to date results

2017 RACE SCHEDULE

June 25, 2017: San Diego International Triathlon - San Diego, CA

July 4, 2017: Old Pro's 4th of July 10k - San Diego, CA

August 13, 2017: Chula Vista Challenge - Chula Vista, CA

September 9, 2017: San Diego Tri Classic - San Diego, CA

Fall: Dirt Dog Cross Country Series - San Diego, CA

October 22, 2017: Ironman 70.3 Arizona - Tempe, AZ

November 12, 2017: Rock & Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon - Las Vegas, NV   

2013 Results

Date	Race	Result	Blog
	Desert International Triathlon	1:54:02 **PR
March 3rd	Palm Springs, CA	1st AG	RACE REPORT
	3/4 Swim, 40k Bike, 6 mile run	14th Overall
	Ironman Oceanside	4:34:02 AM**PR
April 13th	Oceanside, CA	8th AG	RACE REPORT
	70.3	**Qualfied for WC's
	Ironman St. George	5:06:44
May 4th	St. George, UT	30th AG	RACE REPORT
	70.3	236 Overall
	San Diego Int'l Elite Division
June 30th	San Diego, CA
	1k, 30k, 10k Triathlon
	Ironman Lake Stevens
July 21st	Lake Stevens, WA
	70.3
	Ironman World Championships
Sept 8th	Las Vegas, NV
	70.3 **Qualified

2012 Results

Date	Race	Result	Blog
Jan. 15	Arizona Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon	1:14:40 *PR	RACE REPORT
	Phoenix, AZ	5th in AG
	Running	25th Overall
Mar. 3	Desert International Triathlon	1:57:56	RACE REPORT
	Palm Springs, CA	2nd in AG
	3/4 Swim, 40k Bike, 6 mile run	22nd Overall
Mar. 31	Ironman 70.3 CA	4:50:37	RACE REPORT
	Oceanside, CA	16th in AG
	70.3 Triathlon	166th Overall
Apr. 14	Big Rock Triathlon	2:12:57 *PR	RACE REPORT
	Perris, CA	3rd in AG
	Olympic Distance	7th Overall
April 20-21	Ragnar Relay	24 hours 18 mins	RACE REPORT
	Southern California	2nd in Div
	12 person Running Relay	11th Overall
May 4-6	Wildflower	5:09:13	RACE REPORT
	Bradley, CA	16th in AG
	70.3 Triathlon	92nd Overall
June 24	San Diego International Triathlon	1:37:02 *Chip timing fail	RACE REPORT
	San Diego, CA	1st in AG
	1k, 30k, 10k Triathlon	1st Overall Amatuer
July 4th	Old Pro's 4th of July 10k	33:27:00	RACE REPORT
	San Diego, CA	3rd in AG
	10k	10th Overall
Aug. 25	Santa Barbara Triathlon	3:10:03	RACE REPORT
	Santa Barbara, CA	2nd in AG
	1 mile swim, 35 bike, 10 run	18th Overall
Oct. 23	Soma 70.3 Triathlon	4:47:56  *PR	RACE REPORT
	Phoenix, AZ	4th in AG
	1/2 Ironman Triathlon	34th Overall

2011 Results

Date	Race	Result	Blog
Jan. 16	Arizona Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon	1:18:06 *PR	RACE REPORT
	Phoenix, AZ	10th in AG
	Running	52nd Overall (out of 19,200)
Feb. 20	Desert Classic Duathlon	1:44:25	RACE REPORT
	Phoenix, AZ	1st in AG
	Off Road Duathlon	4th Overall
April 3	Carlsbad 5000	16:30	RACE REPORT
	Carlsbad, CA	18th in AG (39 & under)
	Running
April 10	Xterra West Championships	3:09:55	RACE REPORT
	Henderson, NV	15th in AG
	Off Road Triathlon	107 Overall
April 15-16	Ragnar Relay	26:32:31	RACE REPORT
	Southern California	5th in Div (co-ed)
	12 person Running Relay	10th Overall
June 26	San Diego International Triathlon	1:44:35	RACE REPORT
	San Diego, CA	6th in AG
	1k, 30k, 10k Triathlon	31st Overall
Aug. 21	AFC 1/2 Marathon	1:17:05 *PR	RACE REPORT
	San Diego, CA	5th in AG
	Running	31st Overall
Sept. 17	San Diego Triathlon Classic	2:23:00 *PR	RACE REPORT
	San Diego, CA	6th in AG
	Olympic Distance Triathlon	35th Overall
Oct. 23	Soma Triathlon	38:28 Swim *PR	RACE REPORT
	Tempe, AZ	2:30 Bike *PR
	1/2 Ironman distance - 70.3	DNF