Putting on the Armor

Years ago I remember watching a National Geographic program and the topic was on mixed martial arts. It was talking about how you can train your body to withstand forceful impacts with years of proper training and tolerance. Your body naturally forms a protective tissue around areas that routinely get punished. Using mixed martial arts as a key example they talked about how a well-trained veteran would take an open kick to the rib cage and deflect the kick causing little pain. Where as, say I was to take that kick, my ribs would be shattered! I couldn't help but relate that to endurance athletes. But to take it a step further, also throwing in the mental aspect of it. Learning how to cope with pain, taking the abuse and pushing your body further than you thought possible takes years to accumulate -and although the "seasoned veterans" of triathlon can still get injured, they most definitely can take more abuse than your average triathlete.

Lake Wolford about 3 hours into my monster 6 hr
training day last weekend.

After running competitively for 10 years and then taking 7 years off and discovering triathlon in my 30's -I'm starting to realize that those 7 years off helped me in the long run. I'm not gonna say that it was "meant to be" or "everything happens for a reason" because I hate those sayings and don't believe in them. I just know that if I wouldn't have taken that time off I'd still be burnt out. It's recharged me and has motivated me more than I have ever been in ANY sport. The coolest thing about it is -I have those 10 years of running in my armor. I know how to take the abuse. My body is handling the workload and if I had more time, I'd ask for more! I was kind of curious how my body would handle big workloads again. When I was putting in 100 miles per week -I was toast. Everyday was a struggle to get out of bed and I was ALWAYS sore. I wasn't recovering and the more I look back on it, I wasn't doing all of the right things. The biggest thing; being diet. I didn't really have a choice though, I was poor but I also wasn't jumping in ice baths as much as I could have and definitely wasn't taking any type of supplements to help aid in recovery. Now, I feel like I just need one day here and there to recover and I feel ready to roll. It's a good thing cause this was how last week rolled down:

Swim: 4hrs 45 mins (13,800 yards)

Bike: 8hr 15 mins (142 miles) w/10,283ft of climbing

Run: 5hr 15 mins (40 miles)

Total: 18hrs 15 mins

It was a pretty big week for being a family and career man. A lot of the work was done on the weekend which included an hour swim, 4 hr ride with 5,500ft of climbing and then a fairly hard run off the bike. Then Sunday I backed it up with a 15 mile run. It was also the first time I have hit 40 miles in a week for the run in a looong time. Just slowly putting on that armor so that I'll be tough to beat come race day. Speaking of Armor, check out my early birthday present:

Custom Wattie Ink Aero helmet from one of our sponsors Kask. Check them out!

Wattie Ink is definitely coming out with a bang this year and the sponsor support is no exception. Pumped to be part of it.

So I totally lagged on getting this post up earlier this week. I've been so busy this week and didn't get around to it. Usually I post on Tuesday or Wednesday so I'm pretty much geared up already for the weekend. I'll just leave you with a few pics from that weekend and I should be back on track early next week.Thanks for reading!



One thing some of the guys on the team did was post their January totals....I like the idea
so I'm gonna start posting mine so it will be easy reference for me on this blog as a training diary.



The Kiddos enjoying this harsh SoCal weather

Some homemade pizza...sooo good

I didn't have my token beer shot, but fell in love with this bike (and the 6-pack carrier)
that Amy sent me....I told her I want that for my b-day too!