Next..

On the list is Tejas Triathlon by:

It's next weekend and a 600 y swim, 11 mi bike and 3 mi run.

So after the cancellation of Cap Tex training has been slowly coming back around. Yesterday, was the first day back running and I hit a quick 3 mile run at an easy 12 min/pace, almost too easy and the last 1/4 mile I kicked it up and felt way strong, it was a nice feeling.

Today, I took the Fuji out and cranked out 18.8 miles in an hour and worked on staying in the aero position and keepin the heart rate down. It like a whole new toy as I was learning and playing with different gears/cadence and HR and finally the last 20 mins I was able to get a gear, maintain 18mph and keep my HR low 140's, which is great for me.

Tomorrow we are heading for an open water swim and this time I will be working on it without the wet suit as the Tejas race is 600 without suits, should be just fine.

And just to let you all know that the new job is still totally awesome and continuing to learn lots and how messed up we as athletes are and how to fix it so we can function 100%. I wish you all could come down for some love at Spine and Sports Therapy!

rockon`

and the Winner is ...?

The Weather! The Cap Tex Tri was rained out and canceled. So let's rewind and give you all the full story. Arriving on Saturday afternoon in Austin we meet up with Team in Training at the Barton Springs Pool which is a spring fed pool that averages 68*. It was a great easy swim to get used to the colder water and not be in shock for the actual race swim which was avg. 70*. Once finished at Barton Springs we made our way to the Hyatt hotel which is directly across from the race site/transition area. If you ever plan to do this race I would recommend staying here as it makes things very convenient, even if it's a little pricey. Checked in and it was later off to a dinner with the Houston-Memorial region TNT group. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to relax and get some sleep as Sunday morning would have us up early. Sunday morning all TNT'ers met at the transition area to ride the bike course loop and get a little familiar with it as well as take pictures in front of the Texas Capital Bldg and group pictures.

Gulf Coast Chapter - Team In Training The course was a little technical but not too hilly. After the ride and pics it was then back to the hotel for a quick shower and then head to breakfast, then back to the hotel for the Expo, which, was a little small but had great friendly vendors with lots of samples. I did find my future new transition pack! Anyway after this it was to bike check in and find your bike rack. With 2500 athletes there was three sections, Sprint, Oly, First time tri areas..

As you can see there are plenty of areas to rack your bike but it's clear by the soft sand/dirt in the transition area that any rain will make this T1 a sloppy muddy place.

After bike check in it was back to the hotel to relax for a while and then off to the TNT pasty party. It was a great party with good food and lasted about 2 hours. Then afterwards there was last minute instructions and finally checking with the team for any last minute aches and pains that we we're able to help and fix. During the whole day of Sunday the weather was Great! No rain, no wind, no super humidity, just great. But everyone knew that that rain was expected for the early AM so instructions were to get ready as expected and come down to the hotel lobby by 5am.

Sleeping was little as nerves and anxiety were already working. Throughout the early morning I heard the rain against the hotel window on and off. As the alarm went off at 4:15 am we got up and started getting ready, clothes, pre-race breakfast and quadruple checking the transition bag. As we opened the curtain to view the outside we could see the rain just coming down, Damn it! It did not look good. About that time a text message came through (we had signed up for messages from the RD for any information which worked great because we got times and messages on bike check in, expo, and weather stuff.) The message said Race is on!

Yahooo!!! We finish getting ready and head down to the lobby to meet the fellow TNT'ers.

As JD opened the door he noticed:

It was two great cheering posters and thank you from the TNT coach's and mentors. Matter of fact Every TNT athlete had one on there hotel door! It was totally great to see all of them around the hotel.

We then headed downstairs to check the latest on the weather but no word was known. After waiting for 25 mins and about that many trips to the bathroom :) we got word that the Swim was Canceled. Booooo!!! Now it was going to be determined what time a duathlon would start and it would be a 5k/40k/10k for the Olympic folks. I must say I was not too happy with the swim cancellation but I could understand as the bacteria count was too high due to all the rain run off but I was really not looking forward to running a totally of 9.3 miles.

Being as we had some time before the next update we went back up to the room and struck this pose:

We unpacked the swim gear and next thing you know a text message states Race has been canceled! Damn! Oh well, I was actually more satisfied with the whole thing canceled rather than taking on a du-athlon. So now that everything was off we changed clothes and went to breakfast, yeah, great big ol` breakfast tacos w/avocado and wheat pancakes. Yummy.

Further text's messages came across stating that we could return to transition with your timing chip and race number to get your bike. We got back to the hotel and put on crappy clothes and sandals as we knew this was going to be a muddy and wet experience.

As we head to transition area they make us actually walk down the area where the swim would have exited and you run through to the transition which is the following:

Don't we look fast! This is the route to run through to get to your bike!

And here is what transition looked like even after several hundred of bikes were already gone.

And finally my bike So even though it was great trip to meet fellow athletes, get the goody bag and know that with all the training I did, as well as JD, that we were ready for this race. So the next plan will be to focus on the upcoming Tejas Sprint Tri on June 10th.

Overall it was great experience as I learned some things for nutrition the day before the race, got a great picture in the TNT group and in front of the Texas Capital and am pumped up to focus on being with Team In Training for the fall marathon season. And I met some really really great people on a mission to raise money for Blood Cancer,

GO TEAM!

rockon`

And my Race # is......

Race number #1390, yahoo!!!

The Fuji is working great and loven` it. Little achy/soreness in the low back from the extra leaning over position. I have a stretch session here at the office today so should be good to go.

Latest weather outlook from the National Weather Service: Memorial Day: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 84. East southeast wind around 10 mph.

So that's not looking all that great and supposed to be raining on Sat and Sun. Booo!

OK, will be checking in on Sunday as I will take my puter.

rockon`

OMG!!!!

Look at my NEW 2007 Fuji Aloha 1.0!!!!

Compliments of being blessed and patiently waiting and trusting the Lord and with the help of Spine and Sports Therapy!

I really believe I have one of the best jobs there is!

And Now A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to all of you for the comments and cheering me on!!!!!

This week has been really in taper mode and taking it easy. Today, was playing with the new wheels above and getting used to it.

Blessings to all.

rockon`

Silverlake Sprint Recap.

What a great day so let's get to it.

First off the distance's were 400 m S/10m B/5k R. Arriving early enough to see the after hours partyers heading home I met JD at the parking lot where we had to park. Once getting situated we got all our stuff, hopped on our bikes (helmets on) and headed for the race site, it was about 2 1/2 miles away as they stated this in the packet pickup.

Go through body marking, #472, bike check, basically end caps in handle bars and break check.

Then it's on to transition to rack the bike, get a few things set up and then get in chip timing line. Then for some crazy reason I started coughing, and coughing and couldn't stop till about race start. Didn't cough anymore after that. Then came decision time, to wet suit or not to wet suit. The water temp was measured at 75* and by appearance most were not using wet suits but being as I had mine I decided I was going to use to to practice in/out for next weeks tri, JD did the same as did some of the TNT'ers.

We got into the water for a little warm up and really the water seemed warmer than they said and several other's were asking if they needed it but a quick not really, I was using it more for practice for another tri. Again, the majority went without.

So after getting out and crowd mingling I ran into Daniel who is a fellow doc with us and he was ready for his first triathlon and starting in the first wave! After a short rules summary it was time and the gun went off for the first wave.

Swim:

Our wave was the 3rd to enter and I quickly moved to the far right of everybody else. The swim pattern was a rectangle with the buoys staying on your right shoulder, Great, b/c I'm a right sided breather. The gun goes off and like a huge school of hump back whales the Clydesdale's are off. Staying to the right presented 2 situations: 1) I had no body in front of me or next to me as the ones that were to the left and right at the start I dropped in short time, but 2) being as I was to the right of the main pack I really caught the waves! After making the two right turns it was heading home time down the straight and reaching the exit in 8:50.

T1: I quickly pulled my wet suit string and had it down to my waist before I hit the timing mat. Transition was fairly close to the swim exit as was my bike position. I see JD changing out and after getting the suit off, sitting down, drying my feet, putting socks on it's go time, 2:01.

Bike: It took like forever to get clipped in as I struggled with this and it started to piss me off but I relaxed and got it going. JD was in front of me on the way out of T2 but by the time I got clipped in he was way ahead. I took a few drinks and realized I was totally out of breath, I looked at my HR and it was reading 170! Yikes! I worked on breathing and just staying clam but my HR really only came down to 163 but then I started to crank it when I saw JD on a out-back part of the course and wanted to catch him, besides it was only 1o miles so I had to, right?

Fine, if HR was gonna play in the 170's it was going to have to work for and holding 19 mph was where it was at. I continued to drink and even passed a few people. Finally, with the last 2 miles I caught JD and rode behind him till we got to bike dismount, time 31:31.

T2: Helmet off, bike shoes off, running shoes on, grap sunglasses and race belt and out da T2, time 1:17.

Run: As we started to run JD had his Garmin 305 and it said we were running a 10:20 pace and my HR was 167, I told him slow just a little and see where it goes. After the first 1 mile I was running at 162 but legs were feeling it from the bike. After a quick stop at an aid station which was at mile 2 I noticed JD was about 50 yards ahead and so I had to reel him back in. I caught him with about 1/2 mile to go and we finished out. Great race photo finish. Run time = 31:08.

Overall, it was a blast even though I went too fast on the bike, which, I will not be able to do during the Oly race. Learning was the key as I wore a singlet under my wet suit and didn't really like the feeling as it pulled on my left underarm even though I didn't really notice it during the actual swim and more during warm up but I think swimming 1500 and it will become annoying so I will go without it and put it on in transition so my time there might be a little slower.

Rest time now and get some food, wait, some more food and water, I feel a little dehydrated.

Great job to JD and Daniel his first, for knocking it out and having a blast too!

rockon`

#472

Yup that's my race number for Sunday's Silverlake Sprint Triathlon. What you all think of the light blue shirt? Different huh? There will be 29 in the Clydesdale division and there will be a total of 49 in our starting wave as it seems they grouped clyds and 50+ together. Hey, WTF? Are they trying to say that the Clyds are slow or move at the same pace as older athletes or the older age groups are slow enough for Clyds! :)

So this week has been pretty busy with the new job and getting the front office system down which I totally rocked today all by my self for about 3 1/2 hours in the busy morning. I passed my test of knowing how to run the 3 programs and front office stuff, sweet. Next week will be one on one training and fine tuning as June 1st is the new office go time!

Training this week has been light as I just really didn't want to push it and get sick or something for next weeks Cap Tex Tri. So Weds afternoon when it was like 90* I went for a 4 mile run, not too hard, just about medium pace but I did negative split the miles by about 5-10 seconds.

Today, went for a 900 meter open water swim out at Twin Lakes with the wet suit and then I took it off and swam about 250 meters. Felt pretty good so I know other than race jitters, I should be fine.

Yesterday I got my bike tuned up a little and moved my cycle computer back to the front bars to see what's going on as I had it near the seat on the top post for when I was on the stationary trainer, anyway, got the brakes adjusted and the gears are now in line as the chain was popping off at times when I shifted from lil front gear to big front brother gear.

Well it looks like Allez is in for a sprint this weekend too! So don't forget to hope on over there and check her race recap as well.

Tomorrow I have some yard work to do and just basically take it easy, probably do some easy spinning but other wise, eat good, no new foods, get to bed early and probably drink a beer or 2,3,4,5.. kiddin` that will be Sunday.

rockon and see ya for race recap on Sunday.

It's On!!

Yes, that's right! It's on!! Work that is and it's awesome!!!

Spine and Sports Therapy is totally awesome and soon will be a new office where I will be working out of!!! More on that later!

But I'm having a blast and training is coming along great!

Silverlake tri is in 5 days!

Thanks all!!! for encouraging me during the last couple of months!

rockon`

ps. sorry for not commiting on my fellow bloggers, just been busy, but I will!

..after listening.. Training.. Mother's Day

Thanks for all the comments on Listening... Hey, after updating my side bar for last weeks training, I noticed that my swim time was exactly the same but my distance was about a 1000 more meters!!! Yeah! Overall my training time went down, as expected, as did bike and run mileage. I feel better overall, will see how training goes this week as I head towards the short sprint of Silverlake!

Let's get to a training update: Saturday was a test race bike/run. So after driving with JD up to Montgomery area north of Houston, which by the way was our first time out on that bike route and let me say with the rolling hill's, some which are leg burners, and the great wooded and animal scenery it was totally GREAT RIDE! Pretty much worth the full hour it takes to get out there. So after the first 12 miles we were cruising and feeling great, I think we even said, Man, we're half way done and feeling great! Famous last words as the rolling hills came more frequently! At about 1 hour 30 mins we were done and pulling back into transition. We quickly changed into running gear as we had decided on the bike that we would drive over to a different area to run which took about 6 mins to get there. Once parked we were off and running. Now the temp was rising a little as the sun was coming up but with the help of JD's 305 Garmin it quickly let us know we were running Too fast. (I really gotta get me one of those)

After making a 2 loop circuit we pulled back to the truck with 4.9 miles in 56 mins. Good run.

Feeling tired but knowing that Cap Tex will be tough but crossing the finish is on Target! Yahoo!

During this training ride I monitored my drinking and gel use and determined that I needed more water during the run. I felt good but knew that I probably could have a) eaten more before starting (breakfast) or b) used a gel or 2 more on the bike or some other solid factor like a bar.

This week I will be getting the Tank Lotus (my bike) tuned up as the Silverlake is in 6 days!! And besides me changing out the rear tire on Friday night and messing up the rear brake controls and my rear wheel being a little untrue, the Tank L needs it!

Today, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! To my mom who I love dearly and even to this day I am still her baby! and to my wife who's sacrifices and giving loving heart are second to none.

I am blessed to be among two great mom's, As many of us are!! Enjoy your Mother's Day out there.

Listening...

Something my wife tells me I am not good at.. haha.. but seriously Listening is so important. We will all usually "Hear" but the same message is not coming across as in Listening. Now I know we all have our agendas and it's a busy world these days and trying to get everything done in the allowed 24 hours is sometimes impossible which is where our Hearing overrides our Listening.

Now there are many situations where we all Hear, such as the birds chirping, the freakn` roosters crowin` at 4:30-6:30 every am 2 house down from me, and hearing your kids tell you about this or that. Now the Listening situations are like your lost and someone is giving you directions to get back on track, Your Listening! or a drill Sargent yelling out orders to you, your Listening! But really fellow athletes I'm talking about Listening, ARE YOU LISTENING??

As athletes we engage in many hours of exercise and training for days at a time. We all have family and personal lives so fitting everything in is hectic along with getting the best adequate rest and sleep recovery. Now when your body starts to talk to you about things like slowing down, needing more rest, feeling fatigue, and/or no motivation to train along with some others we usually Hear this but for some reason we don't Listen!

Hearing our bodies but not Listening to them will eventually lead us to illness and/or injuries. The body can only take so much abuse and then will have to over adapt and shut you down in some way, shape or form. The being the case, many injuries can be prevented by just Listening to our bodies and know when your Hearing the signs!

Example: Currently training for my Olympic race on May 28th I have had my training schedule set and it has been working great and this was to be the last week of really pushing hard and then tapering for the next 2 weeks but as I was beginning to Hear my body to tell me to slow down I was not wanting to Listen.

Come on JohnnyTri body, you only got this week, you can do it, hang in there! Your tough!

Well, JohnnyTri body said OK tough guy how about this, I'm tired and don't have the energy and need rest/sleep so try that without me!

Yikes! Didn't happen this week. My body really took over and as I began to Listen and cut my training back my body has come around this week. (Oh yea, during my training schedule this was my week to cut back but due to the timing of the Oly tri I was attempting to push it another week, HA, didn't work)

So the Moral of the Story fellow Athletes, is LISTEN to your wonderful Bodies! Take the rest days, take the off days, get your sleep and Listen to your Hearing as it is telling you what you really need to know! Because if you don't, when your body starts to bring on injuries you will have to come all the way down to H-town to see me so I can fix you with my new sports techniques! :)

rockon`

PS. training today is another 1 mile open water swim before the rain rolls in this afternoon and tomorrow will be a 23 mile bike ride with some rolling hills (last 30 mins of ride at race pace) then followed by a 5 mile run! Then REST!

Training, Tired, Anniversary!

What a great training weekend it was. The bike ride on Sunday turned out to be 23 miles with 18mph head wind on the out which managed to keep me at a nice 12-13mph with a HR of ~150, sukd` but the coming back in was AWESOME! A steady 22 mph with a HR of 130. It was hot so it was good to get used to being out there and practicing my drinking/refueling.

After the bike I headed over to Twin Lakes where I saw some of the Team in Training (TNT) peeps who were finishing up there swim. I jumped in without my wet suit to swim about 500, but the dang wind was really kicking the water and at times it was white capping so but the time I swam to the first buoy I said forget it and came back in for a strong 220 meters! lol.. kidding..

What a waste of 5 bucks, oh well..

At work on Monday, (can you technically call it work if your not getting paid?) I went through some core/strengthening/stretching work in the morning and afternoon, each class was about an hour long. (back to this part later)

Then in the afternoon, JD and I headed for Twin Lakes only to find out it was closed on Mondays so we went to place B but that didn't work out either and then plan C! Which was swimming in a subdivision lake of one of my soon to be co-workers and JD's employee. Super nice house and lake, so with the new Garmin 305 JD just bought we swam about 1.1 miles. Wind was light and overall it was a great swim!!!!

Now today, I wake up and holy crap, my sides are totally sore, my shoulders are sore, my hip flexors are sore, my whole freakn` body is sore from the two 1 hour classes I was in!!! And I have to go through it again tomorrow but it will be a little more advanced so body, get ready.

This leads me to now. With feeling soreness in a lot of my body and actually getting only 6 hours of sleep the last 2 days and most important it's my 3 year Anniversary, Happy Anniversary Rebecca!!! I am taking today off from training and going out to dinner with my wife and we will take our daughter to come celebrate! Now that's what I call much fun and I will plan on getting to bed much earlier!

Besides training is going well and I just don't want to stress my body out too much as we are getting closer to Silverlake and Cap Tex, and you gotta listen to your body and mine is saying I'm fatigued I need some sleep.

Anyway, work is progressing and I am continuing to learn new muscular release patterns for the upper half of the body which is totally awesome because we all have trigger points in the trapz, upper and mid back, shoulders, neck, etc.. so come to Houston and let me practice on you and make you feel better while helping yourself and me! :)

rockon`

Yeah!!

Hey there all. As you can see I have not been as posty as I used, now due to the training at the office and trying to fit workout in the late afternoon, It's almost like I have a job but just don't get paid! haha, for now that is. That's right, for now. As you many of you may have read from previous posts I will be starting on May 15th, like next Monday! This past week I was under a lot of hands of stuff which is a great way to learn and then I would come home and get my family members to be my victims, I mean, let me help them feel better, haha.

Training this week has been as I have got a 20 mile stationary bike ride with big gear work done on Weds, Thursday headed to Twin Lakes for the open water swim and I was so in the ZONE! I was able to swim almost all the way around before I had to stop b/c I thought I swallowed a tadpole or something and couldn't clear my throat, but it was a quick regroup stop and I was back on my way to finish about 175 meters. Then I took of the wet suit and swam about 200 meters and was feeling great, would have gone further but some heavy rain clouds were rolling in so called it day. This totally shows me that the Silverlake Tri 400 meter swim is doable for me, whew...

Friday was a rest day and a long work day and Saturday was long run day instead of long bike day. I got a 6 mile run, if you call that long, in the middle of the afternoon and it was Hot/Humid! total Yuk, but was able to use some Accelerade and see how it worked with my stomach, no problems.

Today, is a bike ride of about 30 miles and of course, it's supposed to be freakn` WINDY! WTF! 20+, that totally sux's. Oh, well.

In case your wondering why I switched the bike and run it's b/c Saturday morning was the CBI Triathlon in The Woodlands and I went up to watch sports doc JD do his thing. He did great and it's a pretty nice venue, will have to look at doing this sprint next year. I got back home about 11am but had some honey-do's to do so then I was out running in the afternoon.

The week ahead looks to be the same, busy. I have a lot of other training stuff with work to get in this week and of course my Silverlake sprint is 2 weeks away but Cap Tex Olympic is 3 weeks away!!

rockon`

PS... updated what I think will be my training schedule for the next 3 weeks. Kinda pain n da azz to put it together and with my focus on Capital Tex Tri and Silverlake in there to have fun and practice transition etc..

If you have any recommendations please let me know on the training plans over the next 3 weeks.

Is it work or work?

Hey guys! Just popping in to give a quick update. First off, I have been coming to the new office of the sports doc, Spine and Sports Therapy and have been under training (more) and getting things down, which, is great because the official start date is getting closer!

Second, my training has been going as planned and even swam a 400 yard non-stop set in the pool yesterday in just about 10 mins, (ok, I know turtle speed) but got it done and that will kind of tell me what my expected exit from the Silverlake tri will be.

Third, Yesterday was a glorious day! I PR'd a 4 mile run at 43:30! totally great for me, yes, heart rate was a little high, my I was even able to walk just a few times to bring it down and stay within my Zone 3. Awesome!!!!

Fourth, umm... not sure! haha..

as for the work or work, I mean, I am at work (office) all this week but not getting compensated with dead presidents, only in valuable learning procedures and tactics which will prove to be more valuable later down the road, which, is only really like 2-4 weeks.!!!

rockon`

ps. I will soon be posting some pictures of my new sports chiro family!! haha.. and the crazy things we do..