Finding the Balance



Couzer Canyon ride

 I really feel like I'm finding a good balance with everything in my life. When I took off 6 years of training and quit doing anything active (which I'd never done before since I was 5!) I felt like my life became extremely unbalanced. Not to get to personal or anything but besides my marriage, everything else pretty much sucked. I was moving from job to job, partied too much and kept looking for what it was I was missing. I now know that I need endurance sports in my life. It really does balance your time, energy, faith, finances and outlook on life (at least for me). I need it so bad now that if I'm forced to miss a day of training, Amy can tell right away because I'm miserable to be around. It's like a drug to me - but with good side effects :)

Tuesday nights at the track have now turned to Tuesday nights at Discovery Lake in San Marcos. As much as I love the track, I like the fact we switch it up periodically throughout the year. Plus the fact that most of it is running on the dirt, my fragile legs get a little break from the pounding. I had a great workout last week and it was really the first time I tested my calf with anything fast. I was surprised how effortless everything felt despite little to no running. I still can't believe how much cycling can improve your running - I've been seeing huge gains and I've only been running a few times a week for the past month.



Green Flash Brewery

 Thursday night my buddy Bobby and I hit up Green Flash and their new tasting room in Mira Mesa. I would say it lived up to all of my expectations. They had a lot on tap to taste and I couldn't believe how busy they were on a Thursday night (pic doesn't do justice). I'm really stoked to start filling up my growler on the way home now. Afterwards we hit up the Padre game only to watch the Giants tie us in the 9th against our only All-Star and then beat us in extra innings. Bummed on the Padres this year. Looks like we'll be playing with the AAA Padres soon. Fire sale. One cool thing though, earlier last week during the All-Star break I was able to go up on top of the Batters Eye and check out a roof that we will be doing. It was pretty cool to be next to all of the retired numbers up top, especially Tony! We will be making room for Trevor Hoffman's number. It's supposed to be a secret, but everyone knows about it!


On top of the "Batters Eye"

 On Saturday, I basically duplicated the 60 mile ride I did the week before. But this time it wasn't as hot and miserable. My legs felt like crap from a tough week of training, but I still rode about 1 mph faster than last week. These are starting to feel so effortless and I'm excited to see what I can do in a 70.3. Which by the way, I'll most likely be focusing on half-ironman's next year. After a year of training/racing triathlons, this is what I have learned: I definitely prefer the road over off-road. I love mountain bike racing, but the off-road triathlon (Xterra) not so much. I think this goes back to how I always hated cross country and loved track. I'm a slight heel striker and when you run off-road it can really zap your energy because you're constantly pulling at the terrain as opposed to running on the road (or track) where you have a slight bounce in your step on the concrete and not as much energy is wasted. Plus, I just like going fast. Xterra's are filled with ton's of technical sections and hills which means a slower pace and plays to the strong. The road, it's just all about speed. I also did my first half marathon and absolutely loved the distance. And after doing a sprint and an Olympic distance triathlon, I feel like the race is just over too fast. It doesn't give you much time to think or get settled - you're just all out. That's why I'm hoping to open up with my first 1/2 Ironman next March at the California 70.3 then maybe do Vineman 70.3 later in the Summer. Excited.

Sunday just called for a 90 minute long run and I did it right smack in the middle of the day where it was in the 90's. It was pretty brutal but I got through it and I'm actually glad that it was so warm, it's time to start acclimating to the heat as races are going to start heating up! Next up is an Aquathon this Thursday night with the Triathlon Club of San Diego. It's just a mellow race from what I hear. 1000 meter swim and a quick transition to a 5k run on the beach. I want to do it more for just some open water experience and a good workout.

Few more pics from the week:

Saturday's ride

Recommend the "Palate Wrecker"

Our seats for the night up in the Toyota Terrace

This is the room where the games are filmed

Question of the day. How am I going to say no to her???

10 Reasons to Race

Putting in countless hours into training, work, activity...basically fill in the _______ can really drain you after long periods of time without any type of result, reward or gratification. This is very apparent in endurance sports. You train basically everyday and depending on what your event/sport is - you might not race for months on end. Some people may pick up the sport just to loose weight, but it's the same thing; often you don't see the results you're looking for even after months of training. I think it's really important that if you put in hours of training that you race from time to time. That's when you get a chance to see some of the fruits of your labor and enjoy the fitness that you've worked so hard for. Sure, with endurance sports getting more and more popular - races entries are expensive, you have to get up early and some people may even be a little intimidated to race because of their lack of fitness. What the entry fee doesn't tell you is this:

#1 You get to accomplish something difficult with other people you've never met before and get through it together, who knows maybe even make a new friend!

#2 There's almost always someone faster or slower than you are, which makes you fit it with everyone!

#3 You basically feel like you're floating for most of the day after coffee, energy gels and caffeine shots.

#4 You realize that porta-potties at races are probably the worst porta-potties in the USA.

#5 There's a reason why everyone is smiling at the finish line. It's called accomplishment, it's called reaching a goal, it's called endorphins (or runner's high) and it's called relieved.

#6 Beer never tasted better at 9ish in the morning after racing so hard.

#7 Beer never hit you so fast after just racing so hard!

#8 It's the only time it's ever OK to walk around with a huge metal around your neck.

#9 The leg soreness/fatigue you have for the next 24-48 hours is a wonderful reminder of how much fun you had.

#10 It fuels the fire inside of you to get up, train and do it all over again so you can get a new PR!

I especially want to touch on #10. Training can get very discouraging if you're putting in countless hours each week and you don't race, you get injured or even burn out. Every time you race you learn something about yourself. You may learn how hard you can push yourself, what you need to work on or maybe you just take new motivation into your next block of training. For me all of those happened after the San Diego International. I was getting pretty discouraged with training after getting hurt, putting in countless hours by myself and nothing to show for it. Although 6th in my AG may seem great, I looked at it like I got my butt handed to me. My swim was pathetic, my transitions were terrible, my bike was so-so and I failed to finish strong on the run. It really ignited a fire inside of me to make things right. These past few weeks I've been just hunting for any free time I may have to go out and train, learn something online and find training partners to push me to the next level. It's been working, I feel like I've found a groove with all of my time commitments and it's going to make a big difference for the rest of the TRI season.

Last week's highlights include:
Doing 5 hill repeats with the Slice up a .6 mile 400ft elevation climb with a training partner. Brutal!
Doing my first 1 mile swim (straight) and then hitting up 45 miles and 3500ft of climbing
Doing my first long run in months with a training partner. The best thing about it? My calf held up.

Next up, I'm gonna try and jump into TCSD's Aquathon next Thursday which is a 1000 meter ocean swim followed by a 5k run on the beach. Should be fun!

Some photos from the week and some from SDIT:

All SDIT pics courtesy of 3 Hot Shoes

Why does my face look so fat and happy??

T1

The Slice and I have become quite good friends...







Pretty sure this is around the 5k mark

Finish

Not a fan of mass-marketed breweries, but "Rotator IPA" is actually pretty good

And it said this under the bottle cap...Kinda ties in w/the blog post no??

We donated $5 to our church's "local farm program" and received a bunch of fresh produce!

My love and I at my bros wedding last month





4th of July Weekend

I had a pretty bad case of the DOMS a few days after the race. I think most of it was due to that hard 10k at the end. I only put in about 8 miles worth of running two weeks prior to that race to try and nip my calf strain. So pounding out a 10k on concrete with a bum calf tore me up pretty good last week. I took Monday and Wednesday off completely to try and shake the soreness/fatigue. After a few swims and some light spinning I was ready to go come Saturday morning. I set off on a 60 mile solo ride on the Slice. I was out the door at 7:30am and you could already tell it was going to be a hot day. After a quick pit stop at the fire station to refuel, I starting making my way down Sage road for what was going to be a scary decent. For those of you that are familiar with Temecula this is a pretty steep/technical decent and it's also pretty shaded so you have to be careful with the pot holes. Instead of hugging the white line I rode about 3-4 ft to the left of it so that cars would a. see me better (shade) and b. not drive me off the shoulder. Well this truck with an empty trailer comes out of nowhere screaming by probably around 55 mph (in a 35mph zone) and just misses me. At this point he is in the other lane with a blind corner coming up and sure enough a car from the other side is coming. He swerves sharply, barely avoiding a head on collision and his trailer somehow follows his sharp swerve and comes within inches of hitting that car. Then he has to correct himself and the trailer then fishtails onto the right shoulder and somehow he pulls out of it. It was one of the scariest most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. I'm already super cautious and sketched out about riding on the road. I feel so venerable because your life really isn't in your hands, it's in the hands of the drivers around you and that's a scary thing! I didn't as much get shaken up as I was just so dumbfounded about this driver that was in such a hurry that he put my life, his life and the lives of whoever were in that car in danger just to get somewhere quicker.

Besides that, the ride was pretty uneventful. I just wanted to cruise a long ride, limit my stops and get back before it got too hot. With about 15 miles to go, the heat was on and I was feeling it! After having a few heat exhaustion episodes in my running days--I've become pretty sensitive to extreme heat. My HR starting rising way up, I started getting a little dizzy and had shortness of breath---all signs leading to heat exhaustion. I pulled over for about 15 mins, filled my water bottles back up, doused myself and rolled out. Within about 20 minutes my bottles felt like hot tea. It was definitely in the 100's by the time I was getting back home. Glad that was done! Here's the data from the ride:

On Sunday morning, Matt (from the race last week) and I did a brick workout. I told him I was pretty beat from my ride the day before, so we just did 35 on a flat course followed by a 5 mile run at 7 min pace. It was the first time I had run since the race and my calf felt slightly better so I'm excited that I didn't do too much damage from the race. Data from that ride:

I was stoked to see that even on a chill ride we almost averaged 20mph. My legs definitely started to feel it towards the end of the run. On the 4th I woke up, put in 3k yards in the pool and then Amy and I rode down with the kids on our bikes to the 4th of July parade they have down in Old Town. We had a lot of fun riding down as a family and it was really nice to just spin the legs out a bit as they were pretty beat. So even after taking two days off last week on a recovery week I was still able to get in 9.5 hours of training.

The weekend wasn't just full of training either. I think we BBQ'd Friday-Monday every single night with family, friends and neighbors. Good company, good food, good beers - Amy and I even snuck in some mojito's one day when the kids were down for a nap! The 4th has become quite a fun holiday weekend for our family and it seems to kick off the summer. Oh yea, I obviously didn't race the Scripps Ranch 4th of July 10k which I was bummed about. I was looking forward to racing that all year but I know my calf wouldn't have been happy about that...so I just put in a solid weekend of training, probably better on all fronts. Check out my tentative schedule for the rest of the year here.

Few more pics from the weekend:

Future triathletes!

At the parade

I also made a really good tofu recipe. For those of you that don't dig tofu, try this, I think you'll change your mind:

I pack extra-firm tofu, (drain water, cut into cubes) put on non stick pan (no oil) and brown.

While that’s cooking, in a small bowl combine 2 tomatoes (chopped), 1 shallot (onion diced), 2 cloves of garlic (diced), few tablespoons of lemon juice and olive oil. Add salt, pepper and generous amounts of diced fresh basil and stir it up. After tofu is done browning, pour in bowl and mix, cook for about 3-5 mins on medium heat.

Serve with couscous and hummus

San Diego International Race Report

3:30am: Eyes open fast. On race morning when you wake up, you don't have the normal tired looking/groggy eyes when you wake up. They look like they do after you have a few cups of coffee...Ready to go! I jolted out of bed 20 mins ahead of my alarm clock. After packing the night before, all I needed to do was to start eating, hydrating and stay relaxed. My body felt great, I kinda had an unplanned taper for this race. I had only run once in 2 weeks (to try and get rid of my calf problem) and the past week was so busy at work that I only put in a few bike and swims. Even counting the race I only put in 4.5 hours of training time for the week which is my lowest to date.

Dinner the night before: The kids went home with grandma and grandpa so we took this rare opportunity and went on a dinner date in Old Town. There's a new restaurant called Soro's which serves Mediteranean food (which we love) so we gave it a try. I normally don't like to experiment with new foods the night before a race, but come to think of it, I've never really had a dinner that settled well the morning of a race. The excited/nervous stomach always wins that battle. I ate the Chicken Scampi with some salad and a glass of wine. Probably ranks as one of the top 10 meals I've ever had. So good, if you're in town eat there!

Race morning breakfast: 1 banana and tried something new, a potato with a little bit of butter and spike. I decided to not have coffee which ended up being a great decision. I wanted the caffeinated gels to have more effect during the race. Coffee gets me too amped up for race mornings and also makes me have to pee like crazy and gives me an unsettled stomach. Instead I sipped on 1 bottle of Gatorade Fit Perform which I also raced with. This is a new drink I added and tested over the past few weeks. I've found that I need a lot of sodium in hard workouts/races. It helps prevent me from cramps and does the job at the fraction of the cost of what Hammer Nutrition's "Heed" does--which is what I've been taking in the past.

Setting up transition

We gave a ride to a local Temecula Valley Tri Club member, Mike Hebebrand (who qualified for Kona last year) down to the race and once we arrived it was packed! Couldn't find anywhere near transition to park so we had to park pretty far away and next thing I know I have only an hour till my race starts and I haven't even set up my transition! Since I already racked my bike the night before, I had to walk/jog about a mile to transition with all my stuff. I saw local pro and fellow SDTC member Charisa Wernick jogging and said hello while she was warming up like I should have been by then. The fact that this was only my 3rd triathlon really started to show! Once I finally arrived, I got everything set up and actually felt really calm. I accepted the fact that I was not going to be able to warm up, so I just suited up, hit the restroom one more time and got in the water for a bit of a warm up.

Swim start (I'm in the middle of that mess)

1K Swim: The water felt refreshing. I was a little worried that it would be freezing like it was for my Xterra Vegas race. That water took my breath away and tightened me up! I got it about a 200 meter warm up and next thing I know we were all lined up at the buoy for a floating start. Everyone commented in the water that are age group seemed a little small. It seemed like there was only like 35-40 guys, but come to find out there were 96---I guess when you are in the water spread out, it looks different. I lined up towards the front kinda on the outside and convinced myself that I was going to have a good swim this time. The horn went off and instantly it became a brawl. I got socked in the temple, dunked under, swam over, goggles knocked - so I started doing the same to others and just swam as hard as I could the first 100 meters to try and find some open water. This never happened. Every time I would finally get into a rhythm someone would ram right into me or I would do the same. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle pack about 400 meters in, but I started slowly getting pushed towards the rear pack. At this point my heart rate was skyrocketing so I had to forgo my bilateral breathing to breathing every other stroke. This in turn jacked up my form a bit, but when we finally passed the last buoy and started heading in -I finally got in a rhythm and passed a bunch of people. I finished in a time of 16:50 (1:41 pace) which was a big improvement over Vegas.

T1 (2:24) After practicing the past few weeks on transitions, I felt like I improved but still about minute slower than the leaders in my age group...Still a lot of work to do. However,  I knew exactly where my bike was, threw the wetsuit off, helmet, glasses on and decided to get into my shoes then and run out while taking down a Powergel Latte (2x Caffeine!).

Exiting the swim (notice not too many yellow caps...)

30K Bike: You don't understand how excited I was to get on my bike. I was even thinking about it during the swim. With the Slice in my artillery now, I knew I could post some good numbers on it. With the lack of swim skills I needed it! Most things you read tell you to ease into the bike, but with it only being 18.6 miles, I started hammering from the get go. Within the first 10 minutes of the ride I passed probably 40 people. A lot of them were from the earlier under 29 wave but I also saw tons of them from my age group. This got me pumped so when we started hitting the climbs, I hammered even more. Out of the 18 miles, I'd say only about 5-6 miles are flat. The rest is rolling (sometimes steep) hills. I stayed aero basically the whole time except for the really steep climbs where I just got out of the saddle and hammered some more. I didn't get passed at all during the bike except for one time going down a hill, I was pedaling pretty hard and this dude just flies by me with his $10k bike and wheels and he's not even pedaling! I guess there's something to say about having nice wheels, although it doesn't matter when you can't climb because I passed him back up right away on the next climb and didn't seem him the rest of the race. After I reached the tip of the climb for the 2nd time (2 loops) I started flying and as I approached a corner I decided to stay in the aero position (going pretty fast) and I felt my front wheel slip underneath me and grab again a few milliseconds later. Holy crap, that was awesome! I think I might have been smiling most of the bike, especially when a rabbit was playing frogger with the cyclists. He ran right past me and another rider and almost hit a racer going the other way and the guy yelled out some obscenities...Me and the other guy laughed it off and then I refocused and hammered. I had a sensation for this race that I have not had probably since my last race running competitively which was in the CanAm games in Boston, MA (back in 02?). It's kind of like you're in the zone. All pain kinda goes numb and a deep focus is enact. It almost feels like you're a machine and your just guiding it along. I braced this sensation and with each pedal stroke a burst of fire and energy filled the machine that I was guiding towards speed. Everyone I passed, I passed with authority like I was on a mission. Even though this was only my 3rd tri, I felt like I had been doing this for years. And I have. This is competition. This is pushing through pain. This is going fast and I was having a blast...My time ended up being 47:26 (23.5 mph) which I thought was decent considering the hilly course.

Leaving T2 (Matt on the left in gray)

T2 (1:17): As I approached T2 about 1/2 mile out, the first setting of fatigue in my legs finally hit. I think my effort played out perfectly. I took in about 3/4ths of my Gatorade bottle and felt pretty good. I got out of my shoes and just pedaled on top of them about 100 meters from the transition area. I dismounted, ran to my transition area, threw on my shoes, bib, visor and Garmin and as I started running out, took in another Powergel Latte but no fluids.

10K Run: As soon as you leave T2, you go through about 100 meters in the sand and as we ran up onto the sidewalk I ran past a few guys and then Matt - who I just recently met through the Tri Club yells, "James, is that you?" It startled me because I was kinda in the zone and I said, "Dude you must be having a good race or my swim reeeaally sucked (his wave started 5 mins behind me)! "He said, well I'll see you at the finish line!" I don't know if it was the gel or what, but it seemed like I couldn't get my heart rate down. I was breathing like I was doing intervals and I look at my Garmin and I'm only doing 6 minute pace! My tri suit felt tight and constricted and overall I was a little uncomfortable that first mile which I hit in 6:01.


Finally I started feeling better around a mile and a half so I picked up the pace. Then it happened. The calf I was so worried about sent a sharp pain almost like I just got bit by something. I look down and my Garmin reads 1.88 miles..."Wow, I've got a long way to go," I said to myself.  Every left foot strike sent a sharp pain straight up into my brain telling me to stop. It was then, like some people do when they are in a jam, I prayed. Sorry for those of you that are not religious -I don't share my beliefs on this blog because everyone has run into a christian or anyone religious for that matter that offended them in some way...I'm sorry.
However, I want to keep this blog real and praying is what I did. 100 meters later I come up on this guy that is running with a prosthetic running leg. I sincerely believe this was the answer to my prayer. This guy's missing half of his leg, from which the half that he does have is on fire and I'm complaining about my strained calf...As I ran by him, before I could even say anything, HE said good job. I said, "Likewise...." and headed off. The challenged athletes are so inspiring to me and this guy Michael Johnston (who finished in an impressive 2:00) that I passed inspired me big time. I hit my 2nd mile in 5:48 and my calf wasn't getting any better. At this point I just kinda embraced the pain, altered my form a bit (compensating more on my right leg) and started pushing harder. It's so hard to explain but the pain and hurt that you feel in triathlon is so different than it was for me running. Everything on your body is on fire, everything is just one step away from cramping up - and everything in your mind is telling you to slow down. To me, that's when you know you are pushing hard enough in a race. I pass through the 5k in 17:45 and at this point I've passed a lot of people and each one I go by has a fancier racing kit - so I know I'm getting close to the leaders in my age group.

Coming down the home stretch

One guy I remember most looks at me as soon as I come up on him and he said..."Aww man, dude what age group are you??" I said yours man, let's do this together..." He said, "Yea, it's only about 2 miles right??" He lasted about 200 meters and laughed saying, "Yea, your too fast -see you at the finish..." I don't think that chatty guy was pushing it hard enough....Mile 4 comes at a 5:39 clip and that's when I see Ryan and he runs up and gives me some encouragement. I asked him if he had any idea what place I was in - but he didn't. He said I looked super strong and that I could catch a lot more. I push harder. 8k comes in 28:31 (5:20 mile) and I just feel like I'm flying. I keep passing more and more guys and already wondering what I could do if I just learned how to swim better! Then with about a 1/2 mile to go it happened. Cramps. With me being so focused and feeling good (besides my screaming calf) I decided not to take in any fluids or gel during the run. I didn't want to break my rhythm. This was a mistake. Both of my lower quads started locking up bad. Maybe it was that last mile split....It was the same type of cramping that I got at the end of the Rock and Roll AZ 1/2 I did in January. The type where your legs just start giving out from underneath you. I stopped and walked a few steps every 400 meters. I was really getting worried that I wouldn't make it! I was on pace to break 35 mins (which was my goal), but as I looked at my watch at 6 miles it read 35:05 and knew it wasn't gonna happen. I jogged as fast as I could in and finished with a 36:38 (9th fastest run split on the day).

At the finish I was happy to see a lot of the pro's recovering in the athlete area and some age groupers. I had no idea where I was. I felt like I had a good race (I know I had a good run), but I also knew that my swim sucked. Amy was telling me that I was probably about the 30ish person to finish and that the pros weren't that far in front of me. I started getting pretty excited joking that I was gonna quit my job if I won my age group...haha. Not so much. I finished 6th in my age group out of 96. I was the 31st amateur with a time of 1:44:35. One second faster than Matt (who I passed earlier in the run) so I'm excited to have a great training partner! At first I was bummed because I thought I was one place from the podium, but come to find out, they only award 5 deep when there are over 100 in your age group which we were just short of. I put things into perspective and realized that I'm still so new to the sport and I can't expect to win big races like this with only 2 triathlons under my belt and a total of 4 open water swims in my life.

The thing that I took the most out of this race is that it lit a fire inside of me to get competitive in the swim and dominate my age group. I never intended to get back into endurance sports after I stopped running competitively and moved on to wife, kids, and a career. But I'm starting to realize with enough discipline I can do it all. I know my body well enough that if I really wanted to I could get back into 14:15 5k shape or run another sub 4:05 mile. The muscle memory is there, I'm still young (in my my prime if you ask me) and I feel like I can tolerate pain and stress easier. But I'm done with running, it's time to change the chapter. So I guess you can say I want to make a comeback, but this time in triathlon and this time I'm coming back with a fierce.

Coming into form

Amy caught me practicing transitions

Since I've had my bike, it's amazing how much more I want to get out and ride. I was looking at my Garmin data history and I found out that I started cycling last July. I would put in 20 miles/week here, 50 miles/week there...Every once in awhile jump up to like 100, then back down to 45...All over the place! A lot of that had to do with the nagging IT band issues that were associated with my old bike, Blue Steel (which I sold last week) and the fact that it just wasn't that fun. Jim at The Bike Shop always told me that riding a nice bike just makes it so much more fun and exciting to ride. I didn't really believe him at first, but boy was I wrong! For the past month I've averaged around 125 miles/week of riding and within that short time frame I've seen HUGE gains on the bike. Living in Temecula I have the luxury of a lot of hills and a lot of wind at my disposal. I often ride after work when the wind is at it's peak and it's amazing what being in the TT position can do to Slice (pun?) through the wind. No doubt it's a bit sketchy ---you get knocked around quite a bit with wind hitting you in all directions. However, I know it is making me STRONG. I get so fired up looking at data after my rides and showing me hitting averages of 19mph+. Even on my recovery rides, 20 seems so easy and when I compare that to my recovery rides on my old road bike it's like 3-4 mph faster!

No doubt climbing is a bit more challenging and awkward in the TT position. When I'm in the aero position, it seriously feels like I'm going 10mph and when I get out of the bars I feel powerless. I guess I'm gonna have to stick with fairly flat races until I get myself a road bike that is a racing machine...After I get a cyclocross bike...sheesh. This sport is WAY to expensive. The inaugural NY Ironman has like a $900 entry fee. Are you kidding me??

I'm excited about racing this weekend--although last week I tweaked my calf and haven't run since. I'm actually going to test it out tonight. The good news is after rolling/icing/massaging that sucker, it feels a lot better. Either way, I'm going to toe the line. The swim should be interesting. I haven't done an open water swim since my last race at Xterra Las Vegas. One of the biggest factors in my poor swim in Vegas was the cold water and lack of mobility/being comfortable in my wetsuit. It's warm/er now and I've been doing a lot of swims in my wetsuit and feeling much more comfortable in it. I did a semi-comfortable 500 meter time trial this morning. I kinda went at my 1000 meter pace (which is the race distance this weekend) and dipped under 8 mins. So I'm hoping this weekend being in the salt water and getting on some people's feet I can get in the 15 min range --which will hopefully keep me in the race. Last weekend I also practiced some transitions, picked up a few good tips online and hopefully that will quicken them up a bit.

Stayed tuned for next week's Race Report----

A week of high's and low's



On top of West Lilac Rd...Isn't she pretty??

 I've been kinda in a weird training funk these past two days. Tuesday night I hit up the track for what was going to be just a moderate effort workout, but literally 50 meters into the first 800 rep, I felt my calf twinge and had to pull up and head home. So frustrating. Just when I feel like my running fitness is finally getting to where I've imagined, I pull up with a lame calf injury. I know it's just a strain but it might keep me from racing next week. Right now it's all about massage, heat, ice. I'm pretty sure it's a culprit of things that caused it and I'll use it as a learning experience. First of all, I haven't been stretching like I normally do - just haven't had time for it the past few weeks. I've barely had time to squeeze in my workouts! 2nd, Dave Kloz pointed out that my new isoTransition shoes are way too minimal for the track. I hadn't planned on using them for track workouts - only racing, but I wanted to work them in before I raced...Guess that was a bad idea. Regardless, I'm still going to race the swim/bike portion - jump into the run and see how it feels. Hopefully the adrenaline and drugs can mask the pain...Dunno, hurts to even walk on it right now. Another culprit of the strain is not going to Rehab United for the past 3 months. It was either sacrifice RU or a bike workout...Seems obvious, but I know that I need the extra strength/conditioning with me being 32 these days. I have a feeling if I hadn't stopped going, I wouldn't have pulled up lame on Tuesday night.  Oh well, lesson learned.


My beautiful family

 As for the good stuff, my little brother Jason got married last weekend and it was a blast to be a part of the wedding. We got a chance to spend 4 days down in Ramona with family and we had a lot of fun. On the bike front, I've been posting really good numbers (HR/MPH/Perceived effort) on the bike. I wish I had a power meter to see what numbers I'm hitting there but regardless, I'm getting comfortable on the Slice and it's amazing how much faster it is than Blue Steel. Some more good things; an athlete I'm coaching Ryan Wilshusen had a 39 minute PR over last year in the Rock and Roll Marathon and qualified for Boston posting a 3:00:16 almost breaking the 3 hr mark! He earned it! I've dabbled with coaching before in the past and always enjoyed it, I might have some cool opportunities coming up - so we'll see.

I'll just leave with a few random pictures over the past week, and if you haven't noticed yet, my wife talked me into creating a twitter account to go in conjunction with this blog - follow along if you'd like.

Ryan on his way to a huge PR

Amy and I at the top of a Mt. Woodson hike

Crazy, Albertson's in Temecula has a whole aisle dedicated to craft beer. If you ever read my
other blog before this one, you can see my stance on this here. However, it's cool to see that the world is catching on to beer that has taste!!

Some serious bouldering going on here in Ramona!! Note dramatic face!

.36

Saturdays track workout consisted of 20 X 200 w/ a 200 meter float/jog (about .50 secs rest) for a total of 5 miles on the track.

My splits after a 3 mile warm up:
1st one: .35
2-20: .36 (4:49 pace)

Felt amazing to get into a rhythm. Like clockwork, it was almost impossible to go faster or slower. I'm starting to get flashbacks of my hay day. I feel younger and younger each time I go to the track. My long effortless stride, my relaxed jaw jiggling with each foot strike. The pain being brushed to the side like a piece of art that desperately wants to be finished.

The track has a tendency to capture the heat on a hot day and it delivers the smell of synthetic rubber that I absolutely love. After each .36 I would sometimes just close my eyes taking in the smell, feeling the heat form in my sock less shoes, listen to my heart pound and taste the salt on my lips. This is how I get in touch with my senses, this is my bliss.