The Coyote and the Rattlesnake

OK, bare with me and the title. I tend to draw inspiration from a lot of things - in this case, it came on the final bike ride last week on what was the toughest, longest and most intense week of training I've had so far. More on this later....Sunday morning I woke up for the second time in as many days with a 4:45am wake up call to beat the heat and "meet" my expectations of being a good husband and father ie. not being gone all weekend training! I set two alarms so I don't sleep though it...Eyes wide open on the first one. Sweet, got plenty of sleep. First steps out of bed...Nice, not really sore after six tough days. Slam down my oatmeal concoction; 1/2 bowl oatmeal, 1/2 Amy's homemade granola, banana, almond butter, coconut flakes, few pecans, chia seeds, a little bit of honey and almond milk. Two ice cubes in the coffee (so I can drink it faster), three Sportmulti vitamins, kit up, FLUID bottle and nutrition for the day ready and I'm out the door at 5:30am with my blinking red LED light (circa de Ragnar) behind me and the sunrise in front of me.

There's something about bringing up the sunrise on your bike. You know that feeling when you are doing something special? I get that feeling when I ride early, dunno why. I don't want it to sound like I have this ego or anything (far from that), it's just a good feeling, like I'm making huge progress and in a way I am. Not only physically, but mentally I make big gains here. Me and the Slice and the road to myself. I plan out a hilly four hour/70 mile ride that I have to back up with an hour run off the bike. For now, "Let's just focus on the bike," I tell myself....I hear the tires rip the pavement and echo off of the walls across the street. Normally, I just hear traffic...this IS special. Music is off for now - time to soak it in...Can't believe how good my legs feel...Let's enjoy this day.

I rip down Pala mountain and head towards Cole Grade road. As I make the turn to head toward the climb I see what looks like a dog coming my way. Great, just what I need...For those of you that knew me in high school, let's just say I had a lot of fights with dogs on early morning runs before school. I've pepper sprayed more dogs then you'll ever know! Ramona doesn't have a leash law...ha. As I approach it, it's just trotting along on the other side of the road and I can tell instantly that it's a tame dog just out on a stroll. But as I get closer I find out it's a coyote with a huge rattlesnake dangling from it's mouth. You know how dogs smile? Well this coyote was smiling ear to ear and had a glow in his eyes. Now I don't know who's in the winning corner when it comes to coyotes and rattlesnakes but I would guess they both do their fair share of damage on each other. This morning the coyote won. He had a look in his eye that he could accomplish anything. Normally coyotes are scared to death of humans and cars. Not this one. His confidence was beaming. He got his kill. He conquered fear. He won and didn't have a single worry in him. I couldn't help but smile as I passed by because I want to be that coyote in triathlon. Soaring with confidence, knowing I did the work and all of the right things. I want to win!

I finish up the ride with ease. I hit over 200 miles on the bike for the week and my legs just seemed to get stronger each day instead of weaken and breakdown like they normally do. 10am I was out the door for my run and the thermometer read 100 degrees right on the button. It actually didn't seem that bad though - I've been training through some tough heat lately and combine that with exceptional bike/run fitness and the heat just becomes easier to manage. Oh yea...and I'm 138 pounds! All in all it was a great week and I'm going to post something I haven't done in a long time. I'm going to break it down for you day by day with Garmin files. Now keep in mind, this isn't what I do week in and week out. I'm normally around the 12-15 hr range. James labeled this a "crash" week so the volume and intensity is up more than normal. I was always very shocked and impressed with training logs some guys would post on their training and it would always amaze me on how much they trained and at what level they would do it at. I'm nowhere near the top guys yet, but maybe this will inspire someone reading this to train more to help them reach their true potential.

Monday:
am: Bagged the 45 minute morning run. Listening to body.
pm: 45 minute open water swim at Vail Lake.
Notes: Recovery day from a tough weekend of training.

Tuesday:
am: Bike intervals




















Notes: As you can see, big mix of intervals, some on hills, some on the flats.

pm: Run group workout

Notes: Basically this was 2 x 1 mile, 1200, 800 w/400 jog. I didn't stop my watch and caught the tail end of the first mile rep, but I basically averaged 5:14-5:33 on these.

Wednesday
am: 3+ hour/50 mile/4300 ft of climbing easy ride.
pm: 1 hour massage/adjustment session from Dr. Brett

Thursday
am: 1 hr/3400 yard pool swim. Drill, kick, interval session.
pm: Solo Track Session 5x1 mile w/200 jog recovery

Notes: Buried myself in this one. Hot and Solo with tired legs is not easy. Averaged between 5:21-5:42

Friday
am: 1 hour easy recovery spin on the bike
pm: 1 hr/3000 yard pool swim. 50's and 500's

Saturday
2.5 hour bike ride with 3x20 min efforts with a 5k brick run "steady"

Ride:

Run:

Notes: Saturday felt effortless. My legs aching to race.

Sunday:
4hr/67 mile/5,400ft of climbing with a one hour "mellow" brick run

Ride:

Run:

Notes: Great week of training!

Weekly Totals:

Bike: 12hrs 14 mins (206 miles)
Run: 3hrs 28 mins (30 miles)
Swim: 2hrs 39 mins (8500 yards)

Total: 18hrs 21 mins

So the intensity was there every single day except Monday and it was a huge confidence booster knowing that I can handle that kind of workload with...well, my workload.

And just to show you I don't take all of this too seriously, I leave you with one of my favorite SNL clips where Gus Chiggins (Will Ferrell) discusses Coyotes and Rattlesnakes!! Enjoy.