Bye, Bye September ...

Oh how I am going to miss you September.  Very solid month of training - here are the stats:

Swim -15 trainings - 20h 05m - 41300 Yd
Bike  -17 trainings - 28h 37m - 527.77 Mi
Run  - 17 trainings - 17h 35m - 122.55 Mi
-------------------------------------------------------
Totals:  49 trainings -  66h 17m


October is going to be even better as we have 5 weekends to log massive amounts of miles!

My goal is going to be to log over 600 miles on the bike this month heading into the next HIM on Nov 7th.

Also, coming this Tuesday will be some extremely hot NEW BIKE PORN!!!  Check back then!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Week 14 of 20 - Check!

Here are the stats for Week 14:

Swim - 3 Workouts  - 8400 Yds - 4h 10m
Bike  -  4 Workouts - 116 Mi - 6h 15m
Run   -  4 Workouts - 29.75 Mi - 4h 08m
-----------------------------------------------------------
Totals - 11 Workouts - 14h 33m


Long Run - 10.25 Mi
Long Ride - 44 Mi

Overall I was pleased with this week of training.  I missed one swim workout of an 1h 30m which would have put me around the 16h mark.  But with as strong as my swim fitness is feeling this was an okay one to miss.  And it was the long steady swim workout - still got in Masters and Intervals.

The upcoming Week 15 is calling for 20 hours of total training with a long run of 2h 20m and a long ride of 4h 30m.  The long run is going to be a grind on Sunday morning because we are going to see the late stand-up show (10:30PM) of Daniel Tosh - Tosh.0 - on Saturday night!  For as much as I enjoy the Tosh show I figure the Sunday sluggishness will be worth it!!

This is my last week of the Build Phase of the HIM program.  Week 16 will be a recovery week of around 12 hours and then the Peak Phase begins and I cannot wait - Week 17 is calling for 22 hours!

Here is a screen shot of Week 15:

Click Image to View

• The cold front did come through last night and this morning's run was freaking glorious.  It was 60 degrees and brisk.  I did 10 easy miles at an 8:13 pace and could have easily did another 10 miles.  It was so nice to sweat because you are working out as opposed to sweating because you are outside - such a difference.  This 20hr week is going to be pleasant.

• New TT Bike News will (hopefully) be coming soon. I was trying to work out the details today but work was extremely busy.  All I am going to say is that I might have to change the blog rating to "Adult Only" or "NC-17" because this bike porn is going to be HOT!

• A big Shout Out to my buddy Big Daddy Diesel for introducing me to Gordon Ramsey and Hell's Kitchen.  That show is great and Gordon Ramsey is my new hero.  I have been watching old shows of his on BBC and loving every minute of them.

• Trainer Material for Dudes:  Fight Quest - this is an old show that was recorded in 2008 but is being replayed on the Discovery Channel. It is about two dudes - one a boxer the other an MMA guy - going around the globe learning different fighting styles.  The format is they go through a 5 day training period and then at the end have to fight some Master's from the various martial arts they have just taken a crash course in!  So far I have seen 5 episodes and it is awesome.  They just learned Krav Maga in Israel and got the living shit beat out of them.  They had to take on 10 guys each in 15 second intervals - FULL CONTACT!   This makes the trainer time just fly right by because these two guys  are doing a lot more suffering than me!

• This Saturday was a big FAIL for me.  Yep, it was the Premier of SHARKTOPUS on SyFy and I screwed up the DVR.  Amateur move, I know.  Anyway, I tried to search for another showing and came up empty.  Surely, SyFy will have to play this sure-to-be piece of cinematic art again?  If anyone caught this gem please let me know just how craptastic it really is.

• In Fantasy Football News, I need Aaron Rodgers to throw for 5 TD's tonight and they all need to be to Jeremical Finley for me to win.

• In Real Football News, the Steelers are still rolling right along.  How good are they going to be when they get the alleged rapist QB back?

• This morning's run happened at 5am and because it is still dark out combined with the Snake Incident from last week the decision was made to drive to the middle of town and run my weekend route.  This didn't help because I probably hurdled a dozen or more sticks/leaves on the sidewalks.  Going to take some time to get back my nerve.

• Did anyone else watch the new Biggest Loser?  I liked how they went around to different cities and selected the contestants.  I did not like how the person who finished last in the competitions does not get to go on the show.  I mean these were the people who needed the help the most, right?  My wife is afraid that this is going to be the biggest crybaby, drama group ever - she thinks too many tears are being shed way to early.  If she is right it will at least make for good TV.

That is all I got tonight.  Tomorrow is a 4am wakeup for Master's Swim and then an evening bike ride with some vomit inducing intervals.  Hope everyone has a great week of training!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

R-E-L-I-E-F is on the Way

This morning I was supposed to get up an run for 1h 20m and then get in a nice 3000 yd swim.  When we got up the temp was in the high 70's and just steamy out.  I really have had it with the humid weather so when I heard about the upcoming forecast plans changed!

Yep, tonight we have what people are calling a Cold Front coming through the area. Now to the vast majority of you this would actually be a warm front, but to use folks in South East Texas this is going to be glorious!!!

With this knowledge it was an easy decision to take today as my scheduled rest day and push the long run back to Monday morning and the low 60's.

I'll post up my weekly totals tomorrow.  I am already over 100 miles running for the month and will be over 500 miles riding by Tuesday. Very strong month. I am ready to race right now.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

I Am Sick of These M#@$%# Snakes on My M$#$^$% Runs!

I am over these damn snakes.  Really I cannot not take them any more.  They are all evil spawns of the devil straight from hell who are out to get me.  I am convinced they will not quit until I am in the ER with a drip bag of anti-venom attached to me.

I cannot even tell you how many encounters with snakes I have had this summer because there have been so many.  The worst should have been when one struck at me on the bike and actually hit the rear wheel, but nope it wasn't the worst, tonight tops it.

So I am in the middle of a tempo run about 4.5 miles in and feeling just wonderful.  Holding about a 7:30 pace and I make the turn onto a sidewalk that is between the 9th Hole of the Golf Course and a stream.  I like running on this section because it is a pretty flat straight away that is about a mile long.  It is dark but we have a street light about every 50 yards or so.  We had a pretty windy day and quite a few limbs and branches are scattered about.  As I am running on the sidewalk I see what appears to be another branch about 10 yards ahead of me in a dark area of the sidewalk.  As I get to maybe a yard away from this "branch" on the sidewalk it is at this point I realize that it is a freaking huge ass snake - and it is looking right at me!  My only option is to jump over this snake. I was running to hard to try and pull up and stop because at this point I am right on top of the snake.  So I leap like Dominique Wilkins over this slimy bastard!

After I clear the snake I sprint about 20 yards away and immediately stop and turn around and I must have scarred it pretty good too because it is now in the coiled up strike position.  So at this time I am afraid it has friends but I really want to see what kind of snake it is so I jump over the grass onto the main road and literally tip-toe back towards the coiled snake while scanning the area like a U.S. Drone Plane.  Well, it is without a doubt a f'n Water Moccasin (or better known as a Cotton Mouth), these are extremely aggressive and venomous snakes.  It is about 4ft in length and about as thick as my forearm - one mean looking SOB.  Here is a pic of what this one looked like:

You can always tell the Water Moccasin by the shape of the head.  It has the shape of a spade, as you can see from the picture above.  If you see one like this stay away.

After I determined it was a Water Moccasin I became very antsy and sprinted back to the house - in the middle of the road - and avoided every stick or twig.  It really sucked.

No doubt in my mind if I wouldn't have had the presence of mind to leap this bitch it would have hit me.  I think my next few runs are going to be on the treadmill.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Who is that Puggy in the Window?

No, that puggy is not for sale!

Last week when I changed the header pic (Look Up) a lot of comments were left about how the pug got grease on it's side and many more comments about how cute this pug is.  I figure this a good time to introduce one of my dogs - This is Ernie:

Ernie is my 9.5 year old, 27 pound, fawn pug.  Ernie used to be a 32 pound pug so just like most of us he has changed his lifestyle and slimmed down.  He answers to the name Ernie, Big Ern, Buddy, Asshole, and Treat.  Big Ern is also my Trainer partner.  Not Training partner, but Trainer partner, as in - Indoor Bike Trainer.  He likes to lay on the ground next to the bike as I am sweating away on the trainer.  I'd like to think he does this to motivate me but the truth is that one day I dropped a GU Chomp and he devoured it.  So he is hopeful that one day that magic will happen again.

Ernie is just an overall awesome dog.  He gets into his share of trouble like stealing entire chicken wings and then having to poop out the bones.  Or knocking over the garbage can in the pantry and spreading trash throughout the house.  Even when he does things like this my wife and I find ourselves laughing about it later.

So how did Ernie get the chain grease on his side?  Well, actually I have no idea.  My wife noticed it first and snapped the picture above.  Ernie is a very mischievous little bugger so my guess is he was trying to knock my bike over and the grease mark was the reward for his efforts.

Or maybe he just wanted to look like a Triathlete?

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Something Cool Happened This Morning

Wednesday's are fun training days for me because I usually get to sleep in until at least 5:30am.  Today it was fun for a whole different reason.  The alarm went off and I got right out of bed and tossed on my Brooks and my running shorts and headed for the front door.  As I opened the door and walked outside something was different?  That something was that I was not immediately hit with air that felt like it was emanating out of a blast furnace.  It was, dare I say, comfortable?  Yep, 72 degrees and the humidity was bearable. It wasn't cold and I was still sweating like a pig after about 10 minutes but it was nice.

The workout was a tough one too!  It was the speed interval workout and it had more intervals than ever before.   The entire workout was for 1h 10m and had 12 x 1 minute Zone 5 Sprints with a 3 minute recovery.  The first 4 intervals I was averaging a 5 min/mi pace by the last two intervals my average was down to 6:30 min/mi pace and on interval #11 actually had some vomit come up in my mouth - it was not all that pleasant!  But the workout was awesome and I ended up logging a total of 8.30 miles.

It is amazing what can be accomplished outdoors when you can actual breathe!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

A Big Week and Some Random Thoughts ...

I had quite a few very strong trainings this week and am very excited about how my body has rebounded from a brutal state last week.

Here are the raw numbers:

Swim - 4 Workouts - 5h 45m -  11,800 Yds
Bike  - 5 Workouts - 8h 22m -  159.10 Mi
Run  -  4 Workouts - 4h 34m -  32.28 Mi
---------------------------------------------------
Totals - 13 Workouts - 18h 41m 

Long Bike - 61 Mi
Long Run - 15 Mi

Ok, as you can see I was very active this week.  Lots of Intervals, Lots of Tempo.  Just an overall very solid week.  My only disappointment is that I knocked an hour off of my long ride on Sunday in order to make it home in time for football.  Not a big deal because I hit all the volume goals but I still wanted to be closer to 20 total hours.

On to the Randomness:

- Great idea by Kevin and Jon:  They have created a site for anyone participating in an Ironman in 2011.  This site is called 201Ironman.com.  The goal of the site is to allow triathletes to share their experiences, network with others, and even arrange training meetups.  They have it setup so you can go follow and then post YOUR STORY.  The reason I think this is such a great idea is that it will create a community of triathletes that are banging the same proverbial Ironman training drum and give us a support group to rely upon.  When one decides to do an Ironman it is so much more than just training and with a group of fellow crazies this site could be a valuable resource for us 2011 Ironpeeps.  So I suggest you CLICK HERE and go check out the new site!

- My legs felt wonderful all week.  That little extra "bounce" had returned and didn't leave until after last nights run.  This means that my body is now absorbing the added intensity of my training from the Build Phase and is getting ready to peak. I just hope I can stay at this level until the Taper week begins - this is still 5 weeks away!

- This training program (Matt Fitzgerald's Level 10 HIM) is about the same level of volume of the full Ironman training that I will be doing for IMTX.  The only difference is that this plan is 20 weeks long and the Full IM plan is 24 weeks long.  My confidence level is going to be very high when I finish this plan and start the Full IM Plan.

- On Sunday, my buddy Dave and I did a group ride with Houston Racing Triathlon Club (HRTC) at the IronStar bike course site.  HRTC has over 800 members and they had their shit together!  Sag Wagon, rest stop at the mid-point, over 100 riders!  Made up my mind right there to change Tri Clubs.  Despite the high heat and humidity (what else is new?) the ride went very well.  It is different to ride in a group when it is actually cool to use your aero bars.  The ride took a little longer than expected - I had a mechanical issue with my cassette which was easily fixed but we still had to stop. Then we came across a guy who needed an allen wrench and Dave had one so we stopped for a few minutes and helped him out.  Then to top things off we got stopped on the wrong side of a passing train - luckily it was right next to a gas station so we got some gatorade and chatted with the locals.  Overall a very fun ride and I was impressed with the HRTC people.

-  I won both of my Fantasy Football league games.  Even though in one of them I left Javid Best on the bench (78 ru yds, 9 catches for 154 rec yds and 3 TD's).  Luckily the rest of my team was on fire!

- How devastating did the Steelers Defense look yesterday?  They absolutely annihilated Vince Young and the Titans.  IMO, they are the best team in the NFL right now - who else could go into an away game against a good team with their 3rd String QB and win convincingly?  

- I haven't been as active in the blogosphere over the last week because my computer had to be shipped to my corporate office for some maintenance. Was very relieved to see it on my front porch this evening. I visited a few blogs using my iPhone or the little netbook we have but found it hard to look at the little screens for more than a couple of minutes.  In other news, pretty sure I need glasses!

- Going to make a decision this week on whether to go with a new TT bike or not.  So far I am leaning heavily towards the Felt B14.  The real question is if I sale my Quintana Roo what should I do with the proceeds?  Roadie?  Race Wheels?  hmmmm....

I hope everyone has a wonderful week of training!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Keep Moving Forward

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done..."

I love this quote!  

Often when I am on a hard run or ride trying to figure out a way to dismiss the current pain this quote will pop into my head and it never fails to give me that little something extra.  Does anyone know who said this? Ironman Champion?  Ultra-Marathoner?  I'll let you know at the bottom of the post ...

The reason I posted this was because last week was hard on me both physically and mentally and it popped into my head quite often.  I was tired, sick, and sore.  My legs felt like they had ten pound weights strapped to them with ever stride, spin, or kick that was taken.  Mentally I had to fight off the voices that kept telling me to quit.  Even though last week was a recovery week and the overall volume was just a little short of 12 hours this was by far the most challenging week of training that I have ever gone through.

What a difference a week makes!

I am back and feeling stronger than ever.  Here is how the week is going so far:

• Monday:  Rest Day - This was the get my head and body together day - Reset.  I wore compression sleeves all day and ate extremely clean.  Bed time came early as I had a 4:10am wakeup for Master's swim.

• Tuesday AM:  Master's Swim - 3200yds.  I felt great the entire workout.  The last 400yds were 100yd intervals and I pulled out a 1:36/1:36/1:38/1:40 for those 100's.  Not my fastest 100's but still extremely strong at the tale end of a 3200yd workout!

• Tuesday PM:  Tempo Bike - 1h 45m (31.5mi) total with 34m of tempo in the middle.  I felt so strong that I did tempo for the entire ride.

• Wednesday:  BRICK DAY - 1h 15m of Zone 4 on the bike.  This was done on the trainer and I mashed in the big ring the entire time and the legs felt powerful.  The run called for 30m at Zone 4 pace.  This was done in 90F heat and finished up doing 4.01 miles in 30m 44s.  Splits were 7:50/7:40/7:52/7:16 for a 7:39/mi avg pace.  I could of held this pace for a few more miles - excellent run.

So what does all this mean?

My take away is that over the course of a training plan you are going to have highs and you are going to have lows.  The key is to just not overreact to either of these highs and the lows. Trust you plan and do the work and the results will follow.  Or simply, Keep Moving Forward!


Oh, and CLICK HERE to see where the above quote originated. (If you already know I think we can be BFF's)

Thanks for Reading.

Jeff

OMG, OMG, OMG .....

The new Ceepo Climax (appropriately named):

via Tri-bikes.com

I just drooled all over my keyboard!

Jeff

Welcome Back NFL ...

- What a great day to watch football!  The Steelers played Steelers Football today and pulled out an OT win against the Falcons.  In case you are wondering what is Steelers Football the definition is: physical, violent, enforce your will, pound your opponent until they break, win ugly.   Gawd, I love football!

- I have two Fantasy Football teams this year.  Looks like I am going to finish 1-1 to start the season and of course the better of the two teams is the one that is going to lose?

-  My long run was brutal!  At 6:30am it was already in the mid-80's with humidity near 100%.  I am really, really tired of the heat and humidity.  It is the middle of September and it should be gone by now?

- My long bike was only 1h 30m this week with a 40min brick after.  The plan called for both to be done in Zone 2. I went out alone instead of with a group.  I set my Garmin by time and HR and tried to keep the HR under 140 BPM. Usually I have the Speed and Mileage as well but I wanted to focus on staying in Zone 2 so these two stats were hidden.  Well, my average HR at the end was 136 BPM and when I checked my average speed later it was 20.2 MPH.  I am very please I was able to maintain that type of pace in Zone 2.  If you would have asked me to guess my average speed I would have said maybe 18.5 MPH  -- all this time in the saddle is definitely paying off!

- This whole week was very hard on me both physically and mentally.  This was week 12 of the training plan and it was an extremely well timed recovery week.  My motivation was lacking and my legs did not want to play the game anymore.  Each and every workout was a battle and toss in the little stomach bug  that was with me most of the week (at least I lost that last 5lbs) and I am extremely happy week 12 is in the books.

- Here are the Week 12 numbers:
Swim: 3 workouts - 3h 40m - 8100yds
Bike:  3 workouts -  4h 20m - 81.30mi
Run:   4 workouts -  3h 31m - 24.07mi
----------------------------------------------------------
   Totals:  10 workouts - 11h 31m 


- I missed 1hr 30m of Speed Intervals on the bike on Tuesday evening due to my stomach and then decided to skip this evenings swim due to overall fatigue.  Good call because I already feel 10x better and tomorrow is a rest day so 40+ hours of being off should do wonders.  I think the stomach bug is done so hopefully by Tuesday morning things will be back to normal and I can give it hell!

- I have been wearing CEP Compression Sleeves for the last few days for recovery and I gotta say that I am impressed!  Even though my legs are beat up overall because of the Build Phase of my training the soreness that usually comes after a run or long bike has been missing!  In fact, I am thinking I might need to buy the full tights!

-  Early this morning I dropped my iPhone on the concrete and cracked the screen.  Really it is impossible for me to have nice things (SEE - Garmin 305).  I am a klutz with electronics. Now the upper left hand corner has a nice big spiderweb looking crack ... lovely!

-  Also early this morning something shocking happened!  Yep, it is bad - I noticed a substantial amount of grey hair in my beard!  I haven't shaved since Thursday and the beard is pretty thick and as I was washing my hands over the sink I looked up in the mirror and noticed all the grey.  It was bound to happen but I just am not ready to be grey.

- Okay, so the upcoming training week is going to be around 20 hours - I actually am excited to try and climb this mountain.  The most I have ever done is 18.5 hours so this will be an all-time high.  Hopefully my body used this recovery week well and is ready to excel.

Thanks for Reading and I hope everyone has a great week,

Jeff

Mind Dump Friday ...

-  Usually after a Hurricane blows through the area the temperature drops and it becomes very comfortable.  Well, not this time.  The forecast for the next 10 days is:  Hi -95; Low - 75; Humidity - Ridiculous.  Please make it go away.  I have reached my tipping point (write that down Malcolm Gladwell) and can no longer take the heat. (Yes, I would gladly get out of the kitchen right now)

- Does anyone else find this 2011 Felt B14 extremely sexy?:

 Felt B14

- This has been a poor training week for me so far.  For some reason my motivation has been in the crapper and my intensity has been lacking. Luckily it is a recovery week and it might be my bodies way of saying it needs a break, but mostly I believe it is mental. Today that changes as I am about ready to do intervals on the bike and am going to BRING IT!

- Keynesian Economics = FAIL!

- Dear Nevada:  Over the years I have been a big contributor to your economy (SEE: Las Vegas) and would like to continue these contributions indefinitely.  However, if your citizens vote for the continuation of the train wreck Senatorial career that is Harry Reid I will be officially denouncing you as my favorite domestic  "vacation" destination. We will forever be done. You are on notice - that is all.

- Does anyone else find this 2011 Trek Speed Concept 7.0 extremely sexy?:

Trek Speed Concept 7.0

- Good times in the world of Fantasy Sports right now!  I have Pierre Thomas as one of my RB's on my Fantasy Football Team and he had a decent game last night and my Fantasy Baseball team is a finalist in the  Championship round and has a commanding lead.  The finals are conducted over two weeks so I'll know the results next Sunday AND if I win then one of the bikes above might become a reality! (Really I do not have a gambling problem, really).

- I am so excited for this Sunday because of the return of the NFL that I can barely contain myself.  The morning is going to be a nice little 10mile run, followed by 2000 easy yards in the pool, then an entire day of ass-in-front-of-the-TV watching games!  My favorite time of the year!

- Joel @ Tri Madness has an excellent interview with Ironman Stud Craig "Crowie" Alexander up on his site. Joel has been running a series of interviews with endurance sports folks over the last few weeks and this one is quite the scoop.  Nice work Joel!

-  Finally, Yes I did make the switch from a Blackberry to an iPhone.  My initial thoughts are that the iPhone has tremendous time wasting potential.  I came to this conclusion as I was sitting on the couch last night playing a game called African Safari, which was a free game I got from the App Store.  However, I do not view this as a negative but rather a challenge and will continue to download every mindless app I can locate.  The iPhone is awesome but the touch screen text messaging is not as user friendly as the Blackberry.  Surely over time I will adjust to the iPhone touch screen but I fear that it will never be as efficient as the Blackberry.  I am okay with this because  where else can you shot a Zebra while waiting for you wife to try on shoes?

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Triathlon Workouts: Running - Speed Intervals

As my training has progressed I have learned that each and every workout needs to be planned in order to maximize the efficiency of the workout.  As my workload increases so does the time commitment and since we only have so many hours in the day/week/month the ability to maximize the positive effects of each workout becomes increasingly important.

With that in mind, I am going to begin a new feature that explains the Triathlon specific workouts I am doing and why I am doing them.  The first installment is going to be on Running Speed Intervals.

What is a Speed Interval?  Here is the description by Matt Fitzgerald:

Speed Intervals are short (30-second to 1-minute) bursts of speed-intensity running (10 RPE) seperated by long active recoveries (4-5 RPE).  They increase stride power and efficiency.  Speed intervals are not full sprints; rather, they should be performed at the fastest pace you can maintain through the end of the last prescribed interval without slowing down.

The reason I decided to start with Speed Intervals is that I did this workout this morning.  The workout required a 10-12 minute warm up run, followed by 6x1min of Speed Intervals with a 3min active recovery period, and then a 10-12 minute cool down.  Sounds pretty simple right? Well it is, except for the actual interval part - this is hard!

I have been doing a Speed Interval workout at least once a week for the last 6 weeks with the interval increasing in time each week.  I try and maintain a 5min/mi pace during the length of the interval and then hold around an 8:45ish pace in the active recovery period.

Speed Intervals have become a key component of my training and I have noticed and increase in both my anaerobic threshold and aerobic conditioning.  Now Speed Intervals have their place in every training plan and, IMO, they are most effective when used after a running base has been established.  This means the most effective time to implement Speed Intervals into your own training would be during the Build and Peak phases of your training plan.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Labor Day Ramblings ...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Labor Day!

Just realized that it has been six days since my last post so a ramblings seems to be in order:

• Yesterday morning I was in the last mile of a 15mi run and as I was coming up to a cross walk two cars were coming out of a parking lot.  The lead car stopped and gave me a wave and a smile to cross and as I was crossing I noticed the second car with a woman driving.  Her window was down and she was smoking.  As I made eye contact with her she yelled out, "Hurry the F*&$ up!" in a very agitated voice.  I just smiled because the beauty of it was that the parking lot she was pulling out of was the Catholic Church and the morning service had just finished.  168 hours in a week, 1 hour of being holy, 167 hours of being an asshole -- Hypocrisy just cracks me up!

• This week was an extremely difficult but beneficial week of training.  My legs were beat but I pushed through and the added gains in fitness will be felt in the long term.  On Saturday myself and a buddy (Dave) drove up to Montgomery for some hill work.  We ended up doing over 65miles and many, many, many hill repeats.  The best part was that the last 10 miles were directly into a 20mph headwind.  Great Ride.  Then on Sunday I did a 15mi run in 2h 18m.  This was a  easy 9:10ish pace run.  This was the most comfortable long run I have ever done.  The weather was perfect and my legs felt great the entire run.  My run fitness is at an all time high right now and I can't wait to see how I perform in the next HIM run.

• Here are the Week 11 stats:  SWIM (5h - 10,500yds); BIKE (7h 57m - 137.87mi); RUN (3h 43m - 25.35mi);  Totals - 16h 40m.

• Week 12 is upon me and it is a Recovery Week (yeah!) here is the schedule:

(Click image for larger view)

• Patrick @ The Road is doing a virtual Triathlon called VirtualMan.  He sent out a spreadsheet and I completed all the workouts - just need to fill it out now!  Good job Patrick!

• 61 Days until the IronStar Half Ironman.  256 Days until Ironman Texas.  Man, time is just flying!

• I am thinking of doing a post about Training by Miles vs Training by Time.  Was wondering what everyone else does?  Do you do all of your training by mileage  (or yards/meters) or do you train by overall time or by a combination?

• We finally got a new camera since Annie lost ours.  This is the 4th camera in the last year - we are hell on electronics!  This is the reason why pics have been missing from my posts over the last month.

• So I have been a Blackberry user for years.  I can type a message faster on my BB keypad than I can on a computer.  I love my Blackberry but it has seen better days and a new device is needed.  Well, after careful thought I think it is time to jump into the world of the iPhone.  The apps are just to damn cool to ignore and I already use AT&T so by tomorrow I might be a former Crackberry addict!

• Yesterday we went to a BBQ and ate like crap and had a bunch of beers.  It has been forever since I have put this type of garbage in my body and am feeling it today.  We have another cookout-type thing to go to today and I am going to eat nothing but Chicken and bring my own green tea to flush the system.  

I hope everyone has a great week of training!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff