Apparently I didn’t think I had enough races lined up.  So I just added Stamford Kic It to the list and now Rhode Island 70.3.

Why not?

I missed my first chance at World 70.3 Championships at the Oceanside 70.3 in March.  So with only Timberman 70.3 on the roster, I needed another inbetween.  Rhode Island is local, so why not.

I want to have some races as training inbetween the 70.3′s, so I signed up for a bunch of Olympic Tri’s with the first being St. Anthony’s in Florida in 2 weeks.  I just added the Stamford Olympic because it’s only 5 miles from my house, so….why not.

I just want to make it to Clearwater in November and Nationals in Alabama.

Why not???

So THAT race didn’t go well.  I missed my time by 15 minutes and I got a drafting call.  As of right now, I’m not going to Kona, not going to Clearwater, and not on task with the training I need for the season.

I am NOT happy.

However, the Oceanside 70.3 race is awesome!!!  Every triathlete should race it at some point.  The RD’s Paul Huddle and Roch Frey are great.  I had a problem finding the Ironman Bike Store after the race to ship my bike back to California and Paul Huddle took my bike from me and “took care” of it.  Awesome guy and easy to talk to.  The organization there is great.  The volunteers are awesome and a big thanks to our Marines for making their presence known there and letting us use their base for the bike route.  The views are out of this world between the beaches, the ocean views, the people.

I also met up with some really nice people/teams out there.  The QT2Systems people were great and invited me to go with them on a warm up bike ride.  They also saw me after the race and chatted me up.  They are from Boston and have Cait and Tim Snow as their Pro’s along with a power house full of athletes.  They choose 1 major race per month to go to as a team.  Most of them place in the awards and they all cheer each other on.  It was really cool to see team work in an individual sport.  If I lived anywhere near them I would try to join in.

That being said, I kind of want to be on a team again.  I was and still am a member of the Team Mossman Tri Club, but I’m looking for something a bit more I think.  Team Mossman members are a great group to socialize with and I jump at a chance to go for group rides with them.  But I’m looking for the QT2Systems feel.  A team with elite or close to elite triathletes.  Not just people that will congratulate you for “finishing” a race, but team members that will tell you to HTFU when you are behind and give you a nod when things are going well.

So here it is, 1 week after Oceanside, legs are feeling better (although I did a 90 mile bike ride, then followed that up with an aerobic 15 mile run, then tried to do an interval run tonight at race pace….I hurt again) and it’s time to train hard again as I have St. Anthony’s in 2 weeks and I REALLY want to get into nationals and try to get a sub 2:10. I don’t normally race olympic distances, so this will be pretty cool.

As disappointed as I am with myself on my performances at California 70.3, I have to remember that it is April and I have a few more weeks to really kick it into a whole new gear.

The bike is in California at Nytro.  My bags are all packed.  I leave in less than 24 hours.  1 more bike ride and then pack away the bike shoes.

Set the alarm for 3:30am, shower, put bags in car, drive to airport and get checked in by 5am.  Flight at 6am.

Starting to get nervous.  Slowtwitch is posting about Great Whites in the area for breeding and half eaten sea lions.  I’m not terribley happy about that.

When I arrive, I need to get my bike and assemble it, check into the hotel, get some food and beverages.  Then meet up with a fellow ST’er for a 40 minute run.  I need to get to a pool and swim too.

The only thing missing right now is a Zipp 900 Clincher Disc, but I’ll probably end up renting one, but I rather buy one for the amount of races I will want it for this season.

I’m starting to think about the race nerves that you get when you hear the gun go off.  The sickness in the stomach, the pain of the lungs as punishment for going out to hard.  Then you settle into a rhythm and before you know it you are back at the pain stage, but only because you went hard and are near the end.  Time to push.  If you want to prove something or do something, do it now.  Or sit down.  Make up your mind.

This is the race that I push until I have nothing to push anymore.

I’ll let you know how it turns out.

So the bike is packed and shipped to California.  The Hed 3 Clinchers with new Zipp Tangente 21mm tires are ready to rock.  My Zipp 900 CLincher should be on its’ way to Cali too, ready to get a new Zipp 21mm tire mounted on it.

I had my last bike fit last Friday and a good 32 mile TT on Sunday followed by a 10k run.  All at race pace.  Everything went smoothly.

My swim stroke is ok, at least as good as last year, maybe 1 minute faster.  New wetsuit ready to roack and new goggles coming from BlueSeventy.

Run shoes have been narrowed down to my 2009 Zoot TT 2.0′s as the 3.0′s aren’t ready for racing yet.  For St. Anthony’s next month, I’ll throw on the Zoot Ultra Speeds as it’s only a 10k run.

My watch is ready to clock my pace and my sunglasses are fitting on my face.  The iPod has been updated and the laptop is updated as well.  Just need to pack some motivational movies for the flight!!

Tomorrow I should be recieving my new race top and bottoms (yeah, lost a lot of weight and had to size down again).  The goggles should be here today at my front door.  I just need the Custom Ear Plug kit to arrive so I can make another set of ear plugs for the swim.

Saturday I’ll pack my bags.

Next Wednesday, I’m off.  Starting to get jazzed up!!

Ok, so a lot has happened it the past week, some good, some bad.

I finally got the 1-beat kick down for the swim.  It does help a lot with keeping the legs and hips at the surface of the water, a small amount of propulsion, and keeps the upper body a bit more even.  Maybe one day I can be a big boy and use a 2-beat kick….

I’ve lost it with my bike.  I’m not a huge fan of the Hed Blackdog Drops as they are too steep to actually sit up at all.  They feel very unstable to me.  So I decided to go with Xentis Aerobars.  I got the base, now I’m just waiting on Germany to send me the aero extensions.  DHL says their here, but I don’t see them.

Also, I found out I can’t mount tubular tires very well.  I fully invested  in Hed 3 Tubulars this year but my brick on Sunday consisted of a lot of bouncing, hopping, and generally off-center riding.  I’m going back to clinchers for awhile and will have my new/used Hed 3 Clinchers by Friday.  I’ll throw on my favorite Zipp Tangente 21 tires and go for another brick.

The brick on Sunday was pretty bad as far as the bike goes, but the run, well, the run was completed as assigned.  I biked 44 miles at a miserable pace (I’m blaming bad roads, bad tubular mounting, and getting lost) and then did my 8 mile run.  Side Bar – Ever see an Ironman or triathlon and the finisher collapses at the finish line.  Ever sit there and wonder why the hell they can’t just make it a few more feet and get out of the way before collapsing?  I’ve always wondered that.  Until Sunday.  I did my 7 minute pace for 8 miles after the bike, but on the last mile I was staring at my watch counting down the distance.  Finally as I took my last step to reach 8 miles, I just stopped, dead in my tracks.  I was dazed and confused.  I stumbled back to my car and would have cried if I had the energy to.  I went to 7-Eleven and raided the candy isle.  Bought a chocolate milk, peanut M&M’s, a Dr. Pepper, and some nasty whole wheat bagel with egg white and cheese that was probably sitting in a freezer for 10 years and nuked in the microwave 2 seconds before I bought it.  I ate most of the nasty bagel thing, the whole chocolate milk, half the bag of peanut M&M’s, and 2 sips of the Dr. Pepper before my stomach cried in mercy and I was about to throw up.

So, here I am, 2 weeks out from my race that I want to dominate.  Fixing up minor details, getting ready to pack.  Waiting on a few more items to be delivered.  Maybe have one more look at my bike fit.  Otherwise, I guess it’s getting close to taper time.  I always like the “thought” of a taper period, but within a day of “resting”, I get stir crazy and usually do something stupid, like a half marathon.

Ok, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch.  How about swimming with a naked head?

The past 2 days I have been swimming without a swim cap and it feels……awesome.  Honestly, I feel naked.  I mean, I’m pretty much all forehead anyways, so no drag there.  However, I noticed my ears are creating drag.  I know I have big ears, but causing drag, really?

I started to throw on the FSII speed suit this morning, but then realized what a tool I would look like in pool with it on.  What is next for me, a Lazer Skin Suit?  But since I’m going naked on my head, why not go for it and throw on a pair of short square legs and then maybe work my way towards……a true speedo.  The nut huggers, the banana hammocks, the tube smugglers, tighty whiteys (ok, that is for fruit of the looms, not necessarily speedos).

Anyhow, swam a 2200 yard at race effort this morning during long course at the Y.   It felt pretty good, strong even dare I say.  However, I forgot to time it, so I guess I’ll have to record my time on Tuesday for the next long course 2200 yard effort.

So with 4 weeks until the race, I’m starting to lose it mentally.
Saturday I went out for a 40 mile TT and then 6.1 mile run at race pace. Things went ok except for some serious GI problems at mile 4.6. I wil definitely skip the swedish meatballs at Ikea before a longer workout next time.
Sunday I was going to take out my new road bike for the first time and do a 40 mile spin. The weather was nice (for February). Got my bike ready, took my meds, ate enough food to fuel the ride, got bundled up, and jumped on the bike. Then .1 miles later, I jumped off the bike. The head set came loose. After a few choice words and arm flailing, I went back to the car and drove home….miserable. Now I was all dressed and no where to go, plus WELL fuelled.
Monday swim drills and run 1:20 easy. That went well. Tuesday, swim long course and then bike intervals. I go to do my 20 minute warmup on the computrainer with my tri bike and it fine. I crank up the watts to 300 and instant creaking from the BB. Not good. Get off the bike and play around with it (kind of like the way I raise the hood of my car and stare at it not knowing ANYTHING). It’s now 9:30pm and I’m going to throw something. I feel bad because I have screwed my training partner out of yet another training session as we are both looking at the bike. I call a buddy bike mechanic that tells me to bring it to him first thing in the morning. You would think that’s good enough for me, but nooooo. I look around my garage and see all the crap I have for triathlons which include 3 road bikes and 2 tri bikes….and I can’t ride any of them!!!! Either they have a problem or are kind of stripped of one part or another (like a junk yard). I can’t stop swearing at this point. Maybe I have turrets?

Wednesdays swim drills go well and the run goes off REALLY well with my new Zoot Ultra Speeds. So the Ultra Speeds don’t have laces but I modified my right shoe so I could add my foot pod to it for speed and distance. So when I look at my results, they are OUTSTANDING!!! Then I check the accuracy of the mileage on mapmyrun.com and I find out I’m off by .6 miles on a 10 mile run. That’s a 3.5 minute difference in speed. This means I might not be able to wear the Zoot Ultra Speeds as the damn foot pod moves around too much to get an accurate reading on speed and distance.

My only saving grace right now is that my buddy fixed my BB (the Look 596 has adapter cups to accomodate a non-Zed crankset) by re-sealing the adapter cups for my Quarq crankset. So the bike issue might be solved. And I’m hoping that my Zoot problem will be solved or else I have to revert back to the Zoot TT 2.0 which is a bit heavier.

We’ll see…..

The ending of last week was pretty bad.  On Friday I went for my interval run and was suppose to do 12 x 3 minutes at 5:50 pace.  After my first interval, my stomach started screaming.  I should also state that for the past 2 weeks, I had lost 10 pounds due to being sick.  Before the run, I knew I was running late on time (the whole family was leaving shortly to go to Vermont for the weekend) and I knew I had to fuel up.  Not sure why, but I grabbed a chocolate milk (protein and caffeine and sugar), peanut M&M’s (again protein, sugar, caffeine), and graham crackers (carbohydrates?).  Probably not the best mixture of running foods.

I blew up on the run and spent 30 minutes in a public bathroom stall sweating and I think crying.  Anyhow, it wasn’t good, and I was 3.5 miles from home, so I had to continue my run in agony.

By the time I got home, I decided I needed a break from training for a few days, especially since I would be in Vermont and skiing.  We loaded up the kids and were on our way for the 4 hour trip.  2 hours into it, we needed a bathroom break, naturally (my world does revolve around bathrooms for some reason).  My youngest son, Will @ 2 years old, has severe allergies to diary and we suspect corn as well.  At the 2 hour mark, which was exactly halfway from home and from Vermont, Will has a severe allergic reaction and we need to bust out the epi-pen.  Long story short, we go to the hospital in Hudson, NY for 3 hours and decided to just turn around and go home.

So, bad week.

This week starts out better with some new swim drills with a very cool swim coach from Virginia Tech that is allowing me to participate in his new book on swim drills for people that can swim already but want to be better and more competetive.  Fixing some problems per se.  Actually fixing a major problem for me, my giant crossover.

My workouts this week feel like baby steps (I only took 2 days off from training really as I was swimming on Monday).  I was able to get thru all my schedule so far without any major problems.  Tomorrow I do my 40 mile TT and run brick.  All in prep for my “A” race in 5 weeks at Oceanside California.

Only bad thing so far is the video of my swim stroke today.  Under water my stroke looks good, above water I look like I’m actively drowning, like a great white shark stuck on a divers cage thrashing around in absolute panic mode.

I’m looking forward to my run tonight as I’m expecting my shipment from Trisports.com….the all new Zoot Ultra Speeds!!!  I will try to post pics later of the cool new line from Zoot.

I’m trying to fix my crossover.  Basically, everytime I take a breathe to my left, my right arm comes WAY over to the left hemisphere of my body on the recovery and re-entry into the water.  Then my hips look like I’m at Studio 54 and I’m wearing tight fitting Jordashe jeans.  I look like a go-go dancer really is what I’m trying to say.

So I posted my frustration on slowtwitch.com and have gotten a LOT of really good suggestions.  However, being OCD, I have tried to incorporate ALL of the suggestions at the same time and now have effectively screwed up my F/MOP  (MOP = Middle Of the Pack, a term used in triathlon to call me out as being so-so, however, I trumped that by adding in the F/ to show that I have an ego to protect and stated that I’m in the front of the middle of the pack) swim stroke.

I received an offer I couldn’t refuse to be the test subject of some intensive swim drills that might help to correct my flailing.  I did my first session this morning and I feel pretty tired.  Plus some of the drills I was attempting had the lifeguards nervous and on stand-by.

Week 1 = 300 yard swim test = 3:57 time.

Let’s see what next week brings.

Ok, it was a bit cold and windy this weekend for training, but it had to happen.
Saturday, 40 mile TT. 20 degrees out and 15 mph wind. The first couple of miles were ok, actually very fast, but by 24 miles into it, I was too cold to care. Plus, my speedometer wasn’t working and I forgot to zero the powermeter. I had no idea how hard I was going but finished it out. My powermeter said I averaged 166 watts, but yet even with the head wind at 15 mph, I averaged over 20 mph. I think the powermeter was off a bit. Like maybe half.
The 20k run was Sunday and again, 20 degrees and 15 mph wind. Oh yeah, and all hills. The goal was to hold a 6:50 pace, but the first hill saw a stop to that. Besides wanting to die, I pulled off a 7:02 pace and ended the 20k with a 1:27:27 time.
Later Sunday night, my legs felt lifeless and I still felt horrible. Head aches and stomach cramps are no way to go through life!!