Random Thoughts ...

• It has been 5 days since IMTX and I am feeling wonderful.  The legs have been feeling good since Sunday morning and the soreness wa completely gone by Tuesday.

• A HUGE Thank You to all of you that commented, emailed, or tweeted about the IMTX Race Report.  It was very cool and I am appreciative!

• I have only done one workout since the race and that was a 4mi with the LifeTime Fitness Run Club on Wednesday evening.  It was your typical Houston day with 95 degree heat and dripping humidity.  The first two miles felt a little labored but after that I found my groove and held a 6:15pace for the final mile with a sprint at the end.

• After this week I am going to start training in earnest again.  I figure the body will be completely healed up and I do not want to lose all of my IM fitness so back at it.

• Annie has been freaking killing it the last couple of weeks - she has been putting long swims at the pool and running like a mad woman.  She has a Sprint Tri next Sunday and is going to do so good.  It is hard being married to a crazy triathlete that gets up at 4am and goes to bed at 8pm (-: 

• Pretty sure I am done with The Biggest Loser.  I love the show and the premise but I am so sick of every single freaking thing these people do being treated like they cured cancer.  It is more the production than  the contestants that has tired me.  I mean this year they were jumping out of a building, (queue dramatic music) yeah it is cool, but all the contestants tried to parallel the meaning of jumping out of a building with "letting go" or "overcoming obstacles" ... blah, blah, blah ... this is just one minor example.  I mean can't it just be fun to jump out of a freaking building?  Why does it have to have some symbolic meaning in association with weight loss?  I seriously think the producers encourage the contestant to say these things and after years of this they have hardened my heart - I'm out.

• Have you ever seen the show with Monica from Friends called "Cougar Town"?  Annie and I have caught a few minutes of a few shows and it is an absolute train wreck.  The dialog is beyond awful - it makes me want to ram scissors in my ears.

• On Monday Annie and a bunch of our friends are running in a 5k that finishes in Minute Maid Park.  We did it last year and the post race spread was the best I have ever seen.  However, this year will be different because I am not running.  Instead I have been put in charge of ... wait for it .. wait for it ... WATCHING CHILDREN!  Yep, no one saw that coming right?  3yr old and 5yr old boys - they will probably end up watching me!

• Next Race:  Well, I have two options.  Do the Sprint Tri with Annie next Sunday or do Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 on June 26th.  Or a 3rd option is to do both!  The BSLT is considered one of the more difficult 70.3 races out there because the bike course is crazy hilly.  You go up and down canyons!  What do you think I should do?

• Hope every one has an awesome holiday weekend!

Friday Randomness

Once again the weekend is upon us ...

Luckily, a scheduled step-back week with my training plan is upon me.  The last two weeks I have put in over 20hrs of training per week and last Sunday night my body was feeling that workload so this step-back week was perfectly timed.  The weekend is still going to include a long run, long ride, Open Water Swim, and a recovery run but they all will be a little shorter than the past few weeks and the overall volume for the week will fall right at  only 12hrs.

• Next week's training schedule calls for 22.5 hours (-:

• Thanks to everyone for your comments on my post about the 400lb Guy at the LA Marathon.  I figured my position would stir-up some emotions and after reading everyone's comments I stand by my position that the guy took a huge risk doing this race and that his reason for doing it - to get in the Guinness Book of Wold Records - was completely selfish and sends the wrong message to other overweight folks.  A few people commented that I should try and imagine what it would be like to cover 26.2 miles at that weight.  My point is that he shouldn't even have attempted it - there is a reason he set a World Record for being the heaviest person to ever complete a marathon and that reason is that is a 400lb person should not be doing a marathon - plain and simple.  Lose weight, train properly, do shorter races, and work your way up to this level when you are healthy enough to complete it by the cut-off time.  IMO, this was a publicity stunt and based on his numerous interviews he has no intention of dropping weight.

• Galveston 70.3 is in 15 days.  With the focus being on Ironman Texas (56 days) this race kind of snuck up on me.  My base fitness is right where it needs to be and I plan on doing Galveston as a long training day to practice pacing and nutrition for IMTX.  The hope is I am able to contain my meat-headedness and not get caught up in the actual RACE.  The plan is to not taper at all and hit the starting line with tired legs - this should temper the urge to hammer it!  And in even cooler news, Jon from SwiCycloRun.com is also doing Galveston.  We are planning on a few frosty beverages after the race! I will post up our bib numbers when we receive them so y'all can appropriately stalk us!

• In the very good news department: My talented wife, Annie, received a job offer the other day and has accepted.  She is going through all the HR paperwork stuff now but if all goes as planned she will be ending her short stint amongst the unemployed very soon.  Congrats Babe!

• In Jeff Bike News:  I absolutely LOVE my new Kestrel 4000 Pro.  This bike is a carbon rocket.  I have never ridden anything like this bike - it gives you a very aggressive position yet it does not compromise on comfort.  I could not be happier with my Kestrel.

• Check out this pic of my position.  Only one spacer remains (yes, the aero helmet makes me so much faster indoors):

• As usual lots of fun happening on the Team Trakkers front.  Rev3 is gearing up for the Knoxville Olympic and Half Rev on May 15th.  I have a work event so will not be able to race this one but a bunch of my teammates and other bloggers are going to be there.  There is still time to sign-up if you want to be included in the party!  Also, our Trakkers race kits and TYR Hurricane Wetsuits should be arriving very soon.  Excited to get some training in with the new gear.

• Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Week Two IM Training Recap & Other Randomness

This entire week can be summed up in one extremely descriptive word:  YUK!

Week Two Numbers:

Swim:  4600 Yd - 1h 55m
Run:    20.49 Mi - 3h 14m
Bike:   0
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Total Volume:  5h 9m

I you are a regular reader you are probably thinking something is off here?  You would be right.  My training plan asked for 12hrs of total volume and I hit less than half of that because I AM SICK. And it really, really sucks!

After my 5am Tuesday morning Master's class I started to feel a little crappy.  I had a ton of appointments and probably drove over 150miles that day and was progressively getting worse.  Annie and I had to go to a friends child's musical recital that evening and my plan was to hit the trainer later that night.  That never happened.  I got home around 8pm and started to feel like death.  Head was hurting, stomach was doing flips, and I was just nauseous all around.  Wednesday I woke up with plans of hitting the bike and couldn't get out of bed.  I finally did and had a long day working and started to feel better.  So I went to my Wednesday night run club at Life Time Fitness.  I did 4 miles and it was an awful experience - most taxing 4 miles I have ever done!  The results from that was to not do any training Thursday or Friday with plans of recovering for the weekend.

Saturday morning rolled around and I felt better.  I meet a few friends and we ripped off 16.5mi running.  I felt so good that I immediately went swimming and got in 2000yds at a recovery pace.  We went to dinner on Saturday night for Annie's Birthday and I still felt okay, not great, just okay.  This morning rolled around and my head felt like it was going to pop from behind my eye sockets and the stomach once again was not good.  Appropriate text messages sent to my riding buddies and it was back to bed until almost 9am.

As I sit here and type I am feeling better and hopefully am almost done with this bug.  I did nothing but sit on the couch today and despite a long day planned on the road for work tomorrow I will not begin training again until Tuesday.

On the bright side, I am now at my optimal race weight of 148 lbs.  That is an 8lbs loss since I got sick on Tuesday.  You got nothing on me Paleo Diet!

Randomness:

• I know I can be wordy, but that was a lot of rambling above.  Even for me.  Wow.

• Loved, Loved, Loved the NBC broadcast of Kona yesterday.  Good trainer material for this winter!

• We had our Annual Tri Club End of the Year Banquet on Friday.  It was an great time had by all and I managed to be medicated up enough to do a presentation on the plans for 2011.  If you are interested in hanging out with a bunch good people and experienced triathletes and live in the North East Houston area consider joining our club.  Click on the newly designed Kingwood Tri Club Website to register.

• I cannot believe the Steelers lost to the Jets.  Just a crappy game from a team that looked like they didn't even feel like being there.  Mike Tomlin, you and your team need an attitude adjustment.

• I have the DirecTV season ticket package and being that I was sick today I watched pretty much every NFL game. I am very skilled with the TV remote!  All I can say is that I love Tim Tebow, QB, Denver.  The kid is just a leader of men. He plays with such heart and passion that I wanted to jump off my couch and block for him.  AND since this is sure to come up in the comments - I am not a Flordia Gators Fan, and could care less about most of the SEC.  I just like the way this kid plays.  That is all.

• I ran 16.5 miles on Saturday and the entire run was effortless.  Just a great feeling and almost zero soreness later that day.  Despite an overall awful week the one silver lining (aside from shitting myself to race weight) is that my legs are in an extremely good place and are ready to take on the next 22 weeks of Ironman training.  The training for the late season 70.3 is 100% responsible.  The takeaway from this is:  Suck It Offseason!

• Annie and I have a special Christmas morning planned together:  A 15-mile Run!  I know, I know get you a Kleenex right?  I knew all you Endurance Peeps  would get all choked up at this!

• Check out the kick ass new header at Mandy's Blog.  Her friend made it for her and it is freaking awesome.

• Last but not least, Happy Birthday to my wonderful wife Annie.  You are even more beautiful today then when we met 13 years ago!

Thank for Reading,

Jeff

What's Up Y'all

It has been a few days since my last post and thought it will be good timing to drop in a few Random Thoughts:

• I got my first edition of the new LAVA Magazine and really enjoyed it.  Some of the complaints I have heard are that the numerous amount of Ads is a little much.  I actually like all the ads and reading about all the new gear and nutrition because I have a sickness when it comes to this stuff.  Hello, my name is Jeff and I am a gear addict.

• On Sunday Annie and I are running in a half marathon in LaPorte Texas.  With my IMTX training commencing on Monday I decided to just run the 13.1 miles at a nice easy zone 2 pace.  I might not even wear a garmin and just enjoy a nice relaxing run!

• Last night I ran with the LifeTime Fitness run club and tried out my new Brooks T6 Racers.  All I can say is WOW!  They weigh 6.1 ounces which is like saying they weigh absolutely nothing!  It felt like feathers on my feet and I was a little concerned that due to the lack of stability that my calves and shins would be sore today.  Well, no soreness at all.  I am considering wearing these on Sunday for the half.

• As I mentioned above, Ironman Texas training will set off on it's Maiden Voyage on Monday and I am ready to get to it and beach this baby on May 21st.  I have spent the last 4 weeks resting with just enough swim, bike, and run to keep me honest.  My body feels healed up and ready to conquer the 24-Week Training Plan that is before it.  If anyone is interested I am using the Matt Fitzgerald Week-to-Week Triathlon Training Book.  Or as Kevin like to call it: The Book.  I will be doing the Level 7 Iron Distance Plan and if you would like a copy of the super-detailed spreadsheet please send me an email (jeffirvin AT gmail.com) and I'll forward it on.

• All that cool and positive stuff already being said the training will be a little handicapped because I broke the middle toe on my left foot yesterday.  Really wish I had a cool story on how it happened but the truth is I kicked the bottom edge of the shower while stepping out and it caught the toe just right.  Hurt like hell and the toenail is already black.  The good news it that it is the middle toe so it can be taped to the other toes with very little pain.  I ran last night that way and it was fine.

• Check out this funny write up at the 201Ironman Site:  How to Brag About Doing an Ironman.

• Joel over @ TriMadness! has another excellent interview.  This time with Professional Triathlete Linsay Corbin.  Click Here to read.

• I was happy to see who went home on The Biggest Loser this week.  I won't ruin it for you DVR people like some others - Cought, BDD, Cough.

• Gordon Ramsey is my hero.

• On last TV thing:  With the indoor bike trainer season well underway with the cold temps hitting much of the country.  A TV series that you all need to get is Friday Night Lights.  You can get the DVD's for like $14 per season (4 so far) and they make for great viewing while sweating away.  Over the last 5 years this has been one of my favorite TV shows.  The acting, directing, writing and emotional connection the the characters is second to none on the small screen.  Do yourself a favor and pick this up.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and good luck to all of you racing!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Week Two, Day Three: 30 Min Swim Rest Day

I have done a workout for 10 straight days and doubles for 6 of those days. Well, the lack of rest and recovery hit me pretty hard today. Normally my meat head self would pretend it was fine and push through and make it worse. But today I used reason and common sense and decided to take a break. Well, that is what I am telling myself but the fact that traffic was freaking awful and my gym is next to a mall really helped me decide. Now I am not going to skip a day. That would be too much for me to handle so I will just replace today with the scheduled rest day on Saturday and get my 30 minute swim in then!

Okay now I have some random thoughts I need to get off my mind:

• Kudos to the congressman from Alabama Parker Griffith for switching parties to now become a Republican. I would have been more impressed if he switched to an Independent or Libertarian but at least he is taking a stand against the astronomical spending in our Congress.

• I used to think that a 3rd party (tea party, conservative ... etc) would be a bad idea and just divide Republicans the way Progressives have splintered the Democrats but now I think it might be needed to define where the Republican Party actually stands on anything.

• If I see one more story about some Special Interest groups being upset about Christmas displays including/excluding their religion/cult/whatever my head may actually explode. Really, this might happen. We have become such a soft PC nation.

• "Inside the NFL" is still the best football related show on the air today!

• I am feuding with my older Pug Ernie. He acts like he is always hungry and his new thing is whining. I have to break this or he will never stop. We have been avoiding each other.

Asshole:

• I really want to see "Avatar" at the IMAX. I know it is probably cheesy but those special effects just look so mind numbingly awesome.

• I was in the barber shop the other day waiting for my turn and started to read a Sports Illustrated. I used to love SI and had a subscription until my early 20's and never renewed after many different moves. It made me think of being a kid and how much I loved sports when I first picked it up. I actually found myself smiling at the cover. Then I opened it up and and began to read and felt bad at the piece of shit this magazine has turned into. Even go sports journalism has turned into a Tweet ... very disappointing.

• My mother sent Annie and I some homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies yesterday. Ever year I ask her not to do this because they are one of my few vices. Every year she still sends them and every year I eat every single one. This year is no different. Thanks Mom!

• I finally got around to watching the Ironman World Championship on the DVR. I have watched this for the last few years and have enjoyed every minute of it. Some of the stories from the Age Groupers are so inspiring! There was one guy who was 79 years old doing his 20th IM, just amazing. They had another story about a women who had a stroke and was unable to walk but fought back to compete at Kona. Then they also show some of the people that have incredible stories but are unable to finish the race. These always get me because you can see how hard these people trained and they failed but it is also humbling because it shows you just how hard doing an IM actually is. If you haven't seen it search for it on YouTube - it is so good!

• The Steelers vs Packers game last Sunday was one of the best games I have ever seen. The had a recap on NFL Network and the number of good plays in that game were absolutely amazing. Big Ben has his flaws as a QB but the one thing you have to say about the guy is that he is just clutch. Time and time again he makes the big throw and just puts this team on his shoulders. Dude dropped 503 yards passing last week. Amazing! Steelers are still on life support and if they can get by Baltimore this week they could be dangerous.

• I am very excited that both "Lost" and "24" are returning next month!

I feel much better.

I want to wish my readers a Merry Christmas and remind you to try and be sensible in your food selections!

Tomorrow is a 1 hr run.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff