One year ago this week ...

I was at The Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain - Running With the Bulls.

Riding of the Copper Bull!

In the Stadium after our "Run"

Hanging over the "Running" lane during a 3 Day bender!
Yes my clothes are stained with vino.

It is funny because this feels like it happened years ago but at the same time like it just happened a couple of days ago - very weird, but such is life I guess?

Looking back on the Running of the Bulls I realize it was a very cool experience but something that I will never do again.  First off, I was 33 years old at the time and we partied like we were in college.  It took me weeks to recover from the abuse.  Second, the actual Running was just crazy.  Crazy stupid!  I had a sore jaw and bruised ribs from getting clocked by other runners.  The other runners were almost as dangerous as the 1200 pound bulls.  Now all that being said, I am glad I did it.  A once in a lifetime experience!

Some Random Notes:

• I have really been enjoying the EFS Liquid Shots from First Endurance.  They are 5oz gel shots that are like GU or Hammer Gel but have 1500mg of sodium per serving.  With the extreme heat and humidity that we have all been experiencing lately these have really helped me keep my sodium levels up and prevent muscle cramping.
• In conjunction with the EFS above I have also been using Succeed S!Caps.  These little gel caps are loaded with electrolytes: 341mg per capsule.  On my long rides and runs I have been popping one of these per hour.  If my sweat rate is extremely high I have been taking one each half hour.  My performance has really been steady, even on the most humid of days.
• I am really sick of rain.  We have been having torrential downpours for over a week.  The buoys here are all filled and we are expecting more rain this weekend.  Sure hope I can get my long ride in this Saturday and not be relegated to the trainer again!
• Because of the rain and humidity I have been doing most of my running on the treadmill at the gym.  And as crazy as this sounds I am actually enjoying the treadmill runs.  Crazy, right? (Emz can relate!)
• Has anyone else noticed that Blogger has been a little freaky?  The Blogs I Follow has not been updating relegating me to using the dashboard feature?
• Week 3 of my HIM Training is going well.  I haven't missed a single workout but my body is feeling a little fatigue.  Week 4 is the recovery week and I am looking forward to a recovery week for once!
• My next Tri's are:  Aug 1st - Jack's Generic Sprint (500 yd/13.8 mi/3.1 mi); Oct 18th - Try Andy's Tri (400 yd/10 mi/3 mi); and Nov 7th - IronStar (1.2 mi/56mi/31.1mi). 
• I'm thinking about doing an Oly Distance Tri at the end of August, but a local 10K is happening and Annie wants to do that so we probably just run.
• I took the Zipp 440 tubular front and the disc cover rear wheels off of my bike and put the trainers back on and I got to admit that I didn't feel as fast.  It might be mental though because my Garmin data looks the same.
• Speaking of Garmin, my 305 died on my this week.  I have dropped it on the concrete probably 100 times as I am a klutz.  But the first time I dropped it on the tile floor in the laundry room was all it could handle.  It will turn on but when I try to select a different screen it shuts off.  I played with it for a couple of days and the aggravation finally led me to order a new Garmin 310XT.  I was thinking about getting the 310xt since it has a 20 hour battery life anyway, but it always sucks to drop that type of cash when it is unplanned.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

What the Heck is Wrong With Me?

Something is seriously not right with me these last few weeks?  I have been waking up at 4:15am every Tuesday and Thursday for the last three weeks and am REALLY enjoying it?  I KNOW?  CRAZY, right? Well, let me clarify.  The 4:15am wake up call is not what I am enjoying but the Master's swim classes that begin a short 45 minutes after the alarm beeps are what I am liking!

Let me explain in more detail: As I was deftly moving around the bedroom this morning with ninja-like dexterity trying not to wake the wifey - I saw my reflection in the mirror and something unusual made me take notice.  No it was not the abundance of grey hair in my 3 day old beard or the dark circles surrounding my tired eyes.  It was that I was smiling? AND  I was smiling because I was going swimming!

Yep, that is right - I like swimming and this morning was the first time I let myself acknowledge this fact.

Now I get to the gym and jump into the pool and exchange some pleasantries with Coach Katie.  I look up at the dry erase board and assume Katie is having a difficult morning because the 3000 yard workout is just loaded with kicks, pulls, and builds - she is trying to hurt us is all that I can assume!  Midway through the butt kicking Coack Katie tells me that my swimming is looking, "Strong today"!  I look over my shoulder to make sure she was indeed speaking to me and not someone else and lo and behold I am the only one in the lane.  She then tells me that I am ready to learn how to do a Flip Turn.


Now I have never attempted a flip turn in my life.  I always just assumed that a Flip Turn was something that only really good swimmers did and they had a super secret club that taught them how to do these Flip Turns  I even rationalized to myself that this group of swimmers probably even had like a cool secret handshake too!

Well today was my initiation into club because Katie showed me how to do this elusive Flip Turn!  I pretty much looked like I was having epileptic seizures my first few attempts.  The group had a couple good chuckles as my nose seemed to be sucking in more water than the new massive skimmer, A Whale,  in the Gulf.  But after a few more attempts I started to figure it out.  Still have a lot of practice to get it right but in a weird way I feel like I entered the exclusive Flip Turn Club - maybe on Thursday they will show me the handshake?

Here is a good video of how to do Flip Turns:


Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Recap - 2nd Week of HIM Training

Last week was another solid week in the books.  Unfortunately, after Hurricane Alex hit south of us the remaining storms decided to sit down right on top of us for pretty much the entire week.  We had just downpour after downpour and this forced my bike workouts to the indoor trainer and the run ones to the treadmill.  Overall here are the raw numbers:

Swim - 3 workouts - 3 hrs 5 mins (7710 yds)
Bike - 3 workouts - 4 hrs 15 mins (76.5 miles)
Run - 4 workouts - 3 hrs 16 mins (21.01 miles)
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                      Totals:  10 hrs 36 mins


One master's swim was missed on Thursday morning because I was sick.  On Friday afternoon I went to the gym to swim and the indoor pool was shut down because of lightning.  I thought this weird since the pool I wanted to swim in was indoors?  BUT the aquatics folks explained that the pools are all connect via an intricate underground network and you can be electrocuted indoors.  Okay, I actually used the term "intricate underground network" after they told me to get out of the pool but suggested they use it in the future to help explain things better.  They did not seem impressed.  The good news was that they did let us in for a little bit and I was able to get in most of the workout (1700yds) before more lightning came and forced me out again.

Then on Friday night I was going to spend an hour and fifteen minutes on the trainer but we ended up having a late dinner so I decided to just add that time into the scheduled hour and fifteen minutes bike on Saturday morning.  Well, I got up bright and early and it was pouring out sooooo it was time for the trainer again.  I needed to do 2.5 hours but could only do 2 hours.  It was so boring.

So that was Week 2 and today is my rest day and tomorrow begins Week 3 with the 5am Master's Swim.  Here is the Week 3 Schedule (click image below to see larger version):

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

Rendezvous With Destiny ....

With today being the day that America celebrates Independence I thought it appropriate to post the video and transcripts of a speech given by Ronald Reagan in 1964 called, "Rendezvous With Destiny" or as known in Conservative circles, "The Speech".  If you have never heard this speech please take a few minutes and read or watch, you'll be very glad you did and will feel even more patriotic as you light off the bottle rockets tonight.  Happy Independence Day everyone!


RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY CAMPAIGN ADDRESS FOR
GOLDWATER PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN (October 27, 1964)








CLICK HERE for the TEXT.

Jeff

Long Weekends ....

...ahhhhh!!!!

Yes, a long weekend is just what is needed.  As you can probably tell from my lack of posts it has been an extremely busy week.  Train, Eat, Work, sleep, Work, Train, Eat ...repeat.  Basically just one big blurr right now.

Overall, despite the crazy work week, my training is going extremely well.  This is the 2nd week of the new HIM plan. I did, however, miss my first scheduled workout yesterday.  It was the 5am Master's swim class.  The alarm went off at 4:15am and I jumped right out of bed but unfortunately so did an extremely upset stomach.  Not really sure if it was something I ate or stress related or maybe a little bit of both - BUT one thing for sure was that I wasn't leaving the bathroom house for a few hours.

I was disappointed to miss the master's class because I have been really enjoying the structured workouts and the coaching.  Sometimes you just got to get over it and realize you are not a machine and things happen.  So after working all day I came home and jumped on the trainer for an hour and fifteen minutes (replacing the missed swim) and then tossed on the Brooks kicks and got in the scheduled :50 minute Z2 run - in the pouring rain!

To wrap up the rest of the week my schedule looks like this:

Friday - AM - 1:30 Z2 Foundation Ride
              PM - 2400 yds swim (1200 Fartlek Intervals)

Saturday - Brick Day - 1:30 Z2 Foundation Ride followed by :30 mins Z2 Run

Sunday - AM - Long Run - 1:10 mins Z2
                PM - 2400 yds distance swim day - 1x1800 main

Monday is supposed to be my rest day but since I have the day off of work I am thinking of making Wednesday the rest day and doing the Wednesday workouts on Monday.  Guess I will see how I feel on Monday and make this decision then!

Some other Random Thoughts:

• Hurricane Alex missed us in Houston.  We have had some heavy rain (relegating me to indoor trainer duty - yuk) and flood warnings but the destructive winds hit well south of us.  None of us in Houston hope to ever get hit again like we did in 2008 with Hurricane IKE, but if it happens we are all ready.  That experience taught us Houstonians how to be ready for the next one.  We all have generators, flashlights, extra batteries, backup fuel, and water and food provisions. Seriously, we could probably hunker down as a community for a few months if we ever went to war domestically - you listening Mexican drug lords? I have already cleaned, oiled and fueled up my generator and revved it up for a test run.  We are ready for Hurricane season but hopeful we do not need to be!

• We saw that movie Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.  It had some entertaining parts but overall it sort of sucked.  If things like plot, acting, directing, or overall production don't matter to you then you might like this movie.

• An example of when training is wearing you out not just physically but mentally:  On Saturday night we were at the movie theater and the movie begins.  This is the conversation (whispered) I had with my wife: 

Jeff:  That sucks, aren't they even going to show previews?

 Annie:  What are you talking about?

 Jeff:  Previews? I like to see what new movies are coming out, how come they didn't show us any?

Annie:  **agitated voice **  They just showed like 6 of them?  We talked about them while they were showing?

Jeff:  Really? They showed previews?

Annie:  Are you okay?

• A massive oil skimmer has FINALLY showed up in the Gulf.  It is 10-stories tall and 3.5 football fields long.  It is supposed to be able to skim a shit-ton of crude per day.  My question is if we had this ship available to us why the hell did it take 2.5 months to put it to use?

• Speaking of the oil disaster.  Who else is really liking the way LA Governor Bobby Jindal is stepping up and kicking ass trying to contain this thing?  He has gained some serious credibility amongst us folks in the Gulf State region as a strong and capable leader.  Now if only Washington would show some of that gusto this oil spill could be a thing of the past.  Between Jindal and Chris Christie the GOP may actually have a capable candidate for Pres in 2012 - assuming the GOP doesn't some how screw this up and that is a big assumption.

• Speaking of Washington.  How about Al Gore being brought up on charges of sexually assaulting a masseuse?  Now this lady could be doing this to get a pay out. But much like Ben Roethlisberger, what the hell was Gore thinking having a masseuse come to his hotel room after midnight when he was alone?  Really Al?  
• And still speaking of Washington.  Did any of you what Nancy Pelosi said yesterday?  Let me paraphrase it for you:  "Unemployment benefits", Speaker Pelosi said, "It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name."   What??? Really???  How in the hell is this moron the Speaker of the House?  We need to vote all these career politicians out of office.  Here is the clip:

That is all I got today folks.  I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff