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
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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