Friday, December 11, 2009

In/Out Vegas, San Fran & The Man!

Leaving Cozumel on Thursday was a interesting deal simply because the majority of the plane was IM people. I was a little nervous as well because when I got to Houston I had to go through customs, grab my bike box and then recheck it through another check point area where it would be shipped off to the Vegas flight, all within 75 mins.! Yikes!! Luckily, everything went pretty well and fast and I got it all competed in about 35 mins so I had time to grab a snack being as my stomach was still not too happy from picking up an intestinal bug, yuk!! Just as I got to the gate they announced that flight was being delayed about 25-30 mins due to maintenance, so now I had plenty of time to relax. Soon it was time to board and I made it to Vegas.

It was nice to be back home and in my own bed. The night was quick and next thing I was up Friday morning doing laundry and packing again for San Fransisco. I had to run a few errands and then I met up with my Dad and we headed out to the airport via the expo at the Mandala Bay for the Vegas rock n roll marathon, my Dad was running the half marathon. The expo was pretty good and saw Jimmy and Jill working the expo at a couple of the booths. I also stopped to talk with race director Joyce, from CalicoRacing. After the expo my Dad dropped me off at the airport, i checked in and realized the plane was delayed, great, again! I found where Brendan was hanging out in the terminal, met up with him and we chilled watching people come and go.

Why was I heading to San Fransisco? For Team in Training certification for Triathlon coaching for the Las Vegas chapter!! As Brendan and I are going to be taking over the Tri team now for 2010 with our team participating in the Capital of Texas Triathlon Olympic distance. It will be great to take a TNT group to participate in this great event and because I have raced it myself and helped CoachLiz with her team at this event it will be great to have a team myself.

Getting into San Fran we jumped aboard the SpeedShuttle and holy shit this was quite the experience! It was basically, sit down, strap in, shut up, and hold on! This driver was a wanna be Nascar driver weaving in and out of traffic, jamming the breaks and gas. We finally made it to the hotel and I was never so glad to be out of a vehicle, I could only hope the ride back on Sunday would be better.

Checked in to the hotel and got settled in to the room and went to bed. Remember it has been less than 24 hours since I flew into Vegas and flew right back out so I am beat! I am feeling better with the stomach thingy but still not out of the woods.

The morning came and Brendan and I were up and headed down to the convention room where the class was being held. We were actually the first one' there and got a good seat. As we were setting our stuff down the instructor for the weekend walked in, Dave "The Man" Scott! Yes! He quickly said good morning and then Brendan and I went to grab some breakfast treats outside the room. Once everyone got settled in and class started one of the first things we had to do was go around the room and introduce yourself, tell where you from and how you got involved with TNT. A short 15-20 second Bio. There was about 50 of us in there and after we went through the whole room, Dave asked if we would run back through every ones name starting in the back row. As the names were called out, bill, Jane, Betty, john, Lisa, etc.. and back at the front row Dave then pointed at the back row and started saying, bill, Jane, Betty, john, Lisa, etc.. all 50 of us!! Yea he got hung up on a few but pretty much nailed every ones name!!! Show off!! haha, it was actually pretty cool.

There was lots of information to learn and get through and all of it was very interesting learning about putting schedules together and how to adapt the training from new athletes to veterans. After lunch we jogged about a mile over to a park to do some run drills. Now it has only been 6 days from Ironman and as soon as we started running my legs quickly reminded me! It was more like.. "dude, are you freakn' serious? Did you somehow forget we just did an Ironman 6 days ago and now your trying to run to impress who, Dave Scott, Heck.. he's already at the park by now and will never know if you walk, please walk, please!!!" Well I didn't walk and just kept a slow steady pace and made it to the park where run drills were taught and repeated. Then it was some nice invigorating glute/hip exercises that made your glutes burn from fatigue! It was all good but damn, It makes you realize how weak you are, which is a major problem in runners. After the drills we jogged back the mile to the hotel.

On the way back Dave left almost last and the majority of the group took off like it was a 1 mile race or something. My legs were feeling better but now tired from the drills and just jogged. Dave started making his way through the field and soon caught up with Brendan and I. We were just about to make a right turn on the running path when Dave was just kind of saying hello and made the right turn just a couple of steps ahead of me and Brendan and then I saw this fence on the right side of the path and now Dave was a couple more steps ahead and I quickly kicked it in and sprinted to the fence line, beating him out just a step before, Raising my arms and yelling "I beat Dave Scott to the line!!" Dave laughed and said "dang John, I was just getting ready to kick it in too." I said "well Dave it will be the only time I will ever beat you in anything so I had to take my shot." He just laughed and we chatted about Cozumel and Silverman as we made it back to the hotel. But I Beat Dave Scott!!!!

The afternoon was spent on bike positioning and Sunday was spent on swimming and nutrition. The swimming session was very interesting as just about everyone jumped in the outdoor pool at 8am Sunday morning with the temps in the high 40's and cloudy, so if you know San Fran, that's COLD! I was going to get in but had forgot my goggles and asked to borrow some from another person that was not getting in but by the time he got them for me everyone was in the pool lanes and Dave was evening out the lanes. It actually ended up better for me that I did not get in because I actually learned how and what to look for in swim strokes and I think that was more helpful. Brendan jumped in and was on the far left lane than where I ended up coaching from. Dave had everyone swim and started point out head positions, hand entry, cross over, face roll etc. We then had each person swim in the lanes and look for those specific things and then help them correct. After several laps the swimmers were working on several different mechanics of there stroke. This was the disadvantage of not being in the water is that your stroke was not being analyzed by many eyes and Dave so I being as mine sucks anyways I found it better to be on the Coaching side to learn. After more laps and walking around from different sides of the deck it was time to create the washing machine effect!

Basically everyone got in one lane and lined the sides of the lane with a kick board and some noodles. Then everyone started pushing the water back and forth towards each other and the swimmer swam right up the middle of this mess!
Getting whacked with the noodles and trying to breath in the chop! It was crazy! Then the coaches grabbed the kick boards and rotated them down to the end of the line where the swimmers could continue the chop. It was totally crazy and I walked by Dave and told him that it was way worse than any Ironman Start!! He agreed! Brendan said it was pretty tough and pushed you around. It's a great idea to recreate a choppy situation for swimmers that may freak out but it doesn't have to be that extreme, but again was totally cool!

After the massive swim chop we finished out the day with nutrition and some exercises with stretch cords which again only made me realize how weak I was! The day ended with a question/answer session and a great coupon to get a free pair of compression socks from CEP which I have already requested! We also got our TNT Certification Certificate and are now officially Team In Training Triathlon Coaches!

Then it was back in the NASCAR shuttle which was a little better but now it was raining so it made it more intense. We got to the airport only to find that the plane was delayed about 30 mins, ugh!! but being as we had 3 hours to kill we drank a couple of beers and ate dinner.

Landing back in Vegas was again great to be home and back in my bed! It has certainly been a long couple weeks starting back from the week before leaving for Ironman and heading down to Tempe, AZ. for the fascial stretch therapy certification class.

This week I have finally settled back into the groove and even hit the gym yesterday to do some cardio and start on my glute weakness training along with some stretching. It all felt good to be doing something and starting to get back in the groove. This week also brought a nice surprise when I got the office where I share space and was told that we were basically being evicted because the main dude hadn't paid the rent in a few months because he was not making enough money to cover it! So now, I have to find a new office to work out of by Jan 1! WTF!!! I could say many things regarding this topic but it won't change the fact so I'm not giving it any negative attention, find a new place and make it better than this one!

rockon'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The office situation sucks, but I'm sure it will work out for the better.

It was good to see you at the expo. When I saw your updates on FB from the airport I was thinking, "Hey, wasn't he just at the expo?" It definitely sounds like you were busy!

Josh said...

busy is right! congrats again on the race and the certification! Hope you're getting a few days of recovery somewhere in there!