SDIT Race Week

Been climbing a lot of mountains! - Lake Wolford w/Kendra

It feels like St. George was ages ago. Even though technically it was last month it's been close to two months since I've raced and I'm itching to get on the starting line. With all the sickness I dealt with earlier in the year I pretty much took my mid-season break from Oceanside - raced St. George out of shape and sick - all the way till I started working with Flanny about a month ago. After a month of some really tough and focused training - I feel very prepared going into the San Diego International triathlon this Sunday. It's a 1k swim, 30k bike and 10k run. It's a very popular race and attracts a lot of good local talent and it will be my first time lining up against the pro's/elites. There's money that pays out to the top three I believe so there's always some super fast pro's that show up (last year included HJ, Lesley Patterson, Chris McDonald amongst others).

And running plenty of single track!

I'll have my hands full, no doubt but I'm embracing the opportunity. I'm going into the race probably in the best shape of my life and just like when I lined up against Bernard Lagat, Gabe Jennings, Michael Stember in the mile back in my track days - it elevated my game. I became faster, I walked away with more confidence, more fire and desire to get better. So it's a win, win situation for me and you can't beat that. And speaking of running, I'm pretty excited to enter T2 Sunday. There's no doubt after racking my bike, slipping on my shoes and crossing that "Run Out" line that I will be smiling. My running fitness has no doubt slowly blossomed working with Flanny. Over the past several months it's seemed stagnate and always felt like a struggle to hit pacing. NOW it seems like no matter what is thrown at me I can hit it and for this race - no doubt will come down to the run as the swim and bike portions are shorter than your typical Olympic race. So can't wait to race! Amy will try and send out tweets (follow me) as she sees me throughout the race. Otherwise I'll throw out an update after I'm done killing the beer garden!

As much as my focus has been on training, it's also summer and have made sure the balance of FUN is always there. Here's some pictures over the past few weeks. Thanks for reading!!!

Camping!

Fishing. Kids both caught their first fish!

Sidewalk Art Festival

My 2 beautiful girls going on a date

BBQ'ing it up a lot

Playing poker tournaments...Top 3 paid out on this one
and I placed 4th...doh!

Recovering right: www.recoverye21.com use code: Jadams for 10% off

Beer lineup lately

My favorite dark

So good, must try

My go-to camping beer

Cheers!

KONA

I'm pretty big when it comes to goal setting. I have all my goals hanging up all around in my bedroom, in my closet and even express some of them on this blog. Over the past year I've been obsessed with qualifying for Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Vegas and it felt great qualifying at Oceanside. It was a sense of relief and accomplishment from all of those hours of training. I finally put together a good race and executed. Now, I'm very excited to go race in Vegas and trust me I am dotting every I and crossing every T with my coach in training lately (follow him on Twitter). This is the most focused and disciplined I've ever been in triathlon and I've seen huge fitness gains in just the short month we've been working together. However, since qualifying for Vegas - I've been having KONA on my mind lately. I keep trying to ignore these thoughts and move on but it has kind of become an internal thought obsession.

I still think of Vegas as the minor leagues (for AG'er's not the pro's). There's a ton of roll downs at these races and really if you place top 10 in your AG you'll have a good shot. KONA slot? Not so much and The Ironman World Championships doesn't have that 70.3 astrik. It's just "The World Championships." The race that has made triathlon what it is today. The big leagues, the big show and I want it. I want to experience the feeling that ALL finishers at KONA talk about. A life changing experience - one that you'll never forget. That's why we are doing this right? For these kind of moments. Especially as an age grouper, I'm not going to be winning any big races overall. Sure, it would be sweet to win my AG or even better be an overall amateur at a legit race but you're still not the overall winner - those are the pro's! It's just not the same in my mind.

So for me, part of the excitement is chasing a goal. The fact that it is ridiculously hard to qualify for KONA really intrigues me. Then once you do qualify you get to fly away to a magical place and experience a whole week of paradise! I know Vegas will be one that I will never forget - but let's be real here. KONA vs. Henderson, NV? So I think 2014 will be my Ironman debut. Haven't yet decided where yet - need something hilly, at sea level and nothing too crazy far away. Tons of options, we'll see. Another reason why I want to chase a KONA qualifier is because I'm not sure how much longer I'll be doing this. I am NOT going to be a "lifer." I've got kiddos and dreams of traveling and experiencing life with them. As much as I think I have the balance between family, career and triathlon down, it's not pretty. As in, I don't have very much fun these days. If triathletes with a career tell you that every workout is "fun" they are either lying or not putting in enough volume/intensity. The casual triathlete is an exception of course because they do it for the fun of it, not to compete. Unfortunately, I am a huge competitor and hate to lose so I am either an all or nothing kind of guy and that's what keeps me going day in and day out. Most of all, I've learned an extreme amount of discipline through triathlon. Something that I will take with me/fall back on in the rest of my life during family and career decisions.

So it makes sense to chase a KONA qualifier. The run is so important in the full and I've got that in my hip pocket, so why not use it? If I were to quit triathlon anytime soon I do not see myself coming back to it years from now. When I move on, I move on and I'd like to check KONA off my checklist of things to do in this short life. A miler turned Ironman? We'll find out-

X-1 Audio "Momentum Earbud" Review

When I hooked up with H2O Audio (now X-1 Audio) last year I was super stoked to get my hands on some waterproof headphones. I pretty much only use headphones when I'm working out and when you add a ton of sweat during the hot months and some rain during those winter months - it's exactly what I needed to add to my gear list. For the past year I've used the Surge Mini Waterproof sport headphones for riding my bike on those long lonely rides (with my left ear unplugged to listen to traffic) and for running as well. They were super lightweight and they came with a ton of earplug sizes to choose from so you really do have a custom fit. The only problem was, when it rained, my iPhone was still vulnerable to the moisture so I got myself an X-1 Audio Amphibx Fit Waterproof Armband which works perfect for my phone and even fits nicely around my aero bars on my TT bike - win, win!

Recently, X-1 sent me their new "Momentum Earbud." I was excited to try something new and they came at the perfect time as I was about to head out for my long run. I loved my Surge Mini's but the Momentum's ended up being even better. The "ear fins" secure the headphones in place so they never come out of the ear especially when the wind was kicking. I even noticed the sound quality was a lot more full and clear.

I highly recommend X-1 Audio's products to anyone looking for a waterproof way to listen to your music. They have a ton of swimming products available too. I've just never used them in the water because I'm too busy hurting, panting and focusing on what I'm doing! If you do use them on the bike, just use extreme caution! As I mentioned before I only have one bud in my right ear with the music turned way down so I can hear traffic and my surroundings. On the trainer? Let it blast!

Visit their website at www.x-1.com

Consistency

4:15am wake up calls again!

My coach from the get-go has always harped on consistency. It's no secret that's is key to getting fast or doing well in anything, really. When I started coaching myself late last year the consistency really fell off. Since I was in control of my days/workouts - I would plan my workouts around my days instead of the other way around and the consistency suffered big time (along with my fitness). I would either have extremely fresh legs or completely dead legs because I'd miss some key sessions, make up for it on a few big days then suffer through the next few with no life or motivation. Sound familiar? I got away with a good race at Oceanside but ultimately the fitness dwindled.  I think when you know what you are doing, there's always someone out there that knows more - which is a big reason why even the big horses in triathlon have coaches too. Just in the three weeks I've been working with Flanny I've seen huge gains in consistency which is leading to quick fitness gains and I'm ITCHING to race.

Last week I entered my first swim meet. It was a US Masters meet in Mission Viejo and the masters group I swim with had a few that were going - so I decided to jump in. If I'm not racing any triathlons right now at least I can jump into a swim meet to satisfy my competitive desires! My tweet after my race kind of sums up how I felt about the day: Today I went to a swim meet just looking for a good workout and left with an overwhelming desire to get faster in the water.

Thanks Jeremy for the pic!

I had so much fun. It actually reminded me a lot of a track meet. Check in, seeded waves, warm up in the warm up pool (track), announcer calling out your name and most of all - accurately measured results. In other words no annoying comments about why your 10k time was too fast because it was short .12 miles or that the current is why the swim was so fast or the climbing on the bike was only 2000ft not 5000ft...oy. In my case, I swam 1500 meters (LCM) and not a meter shorter or longer. Here were my splits:

500: 8:10
1000: 8:08
1500: 8:06
Total time: 24:24, 2nd AG (out of 2 haha)

So for us 'emerican's that's 1:29/100 yd pace on some pretty tired legs as I put in a solid track workout Friday night and backed it up with a 75 mile ride with some HIM intervals the next morning. This was a good confidence booster that my 30:00 at Oceanside was not a fluke and that I'm capable of breaking 30 - especially with fresh legs, a wetsuit and drafting in the mix. However, the biggest take away from the whole race was the fire it lit inside of me. It made me really want to become a student of swimming. I've always just kind of went with the flow by going to masters and getting the work in, but now I'm on a mission to make swimming a weapon instead of my weakness.

Amy and the kids came with me and it was so cool to here them cheer me on every 50 meters. Afterwards we hung out at the beach and enjoyed the day as a family. I can't wait to incorporate more swimming meets in the future to keep feeding that fire. Next up is SDIT on June 30th. Until then it's all about keeping the head down and staying consistent.

Oh ya, does anyone have a cheap power meter they want to sell me? Hit me up on FB or twitter! I really need to start training with power...

Thanks Heather for counting with my kiddos!

Kids knocked out after a long day! 

Already summer here!

Padres + great seats + Ballast Point = good day!
For the record I did NOT quit drinking! I just quit drinking
alone or just with Amy. Official social drinker only haha

More Padre fun with my sister and friends

And plenty of work...