Category Archives: Uncategorized

Happy New Year

Now that the new year has started, and the holidays have more or less come to an end, the real training season begins. For the last month or so, we have been working on maintaining/building some base fitness without a real target in terms of gains.

Starting monday, that changes. The targeted training gets rolling, with 2 weeks of foundation work, before settling into our training plan for the Chattanooga 70.3 that is our first big race of the year. Along with that will start the regular posts about training, nutrition, and equipment.

This year, we will be racing with Endurance House Atlanta for all of our races, and we hope to see so many familiar faces from the various groups as we hit these races.

Someone asked why I am so passionate about Endurance House Atlanta. The answer is a little tricky, but it really boils down to people walking the walk. When you visit with the people at EH, you hear a lot about “Redefine Your Possible”. Sounds a little trite. The thing is, these people live and breathe it. Sure, it is great to have the athletes out there that can and will be podium finishers. Supporting those athletes is fine, but when it comes to Redefining Your Possible, it is all about the every day athletes, the ones that just want to see what they can do, who want to finish, or maybe finish stronger than the last event they did, despite having no real chance at a podium.

I am one of those athletes. The people at Endurance House are every bit as much about supporting them as they are the ones that can and will podium. That is what Redefine Your Possible is all about. If you are thinking about triathlon in 2015, come out and join us for a tuesday night run, or a wednesday night spin, and see what I am talking about. There is a great group of people working hard to show themselves what is possible with some work, and a whole lot of redefinition of just what is possible.

Grinding it out

There will be days in every athletes regimen that just do not feel great. A workout will scheduled. You will get into the workout and it just feels off. The best description I have heard is that you just do not feel ‘into it’ that day. It is easy to quit the workout on those days, and this is the difference between success and mediocrity. Success means you grind through it.

Last night was a very good example for me.

I had a ride scheduled. I was looking for about 20 miles to just get the body back into the routine that has been so disrupted over the last couple of weeks. Time got away from me with work and family stuff, so I was finally hitting the road at 5:30 instead of the 4:30 I had planned. I had to be back before 7:00, so time was of the essence. As I rolled out, I was already feeling the pressure of getting it done, and by the third hill in the first 2 miles, I wasn’t feeling it. It had to be get done though, so it was time to just grind it out.

In the end, I never really did get into the groove. Never could get a sustained, comfortable rhythm going. Just kept turning it over, and the result wasn’t a terrible ride, despite how it felt. 18.8 miles, 777 ft of elevation, at an average speed of 18 mph isn’t bad by my standards, but it never felt very good either.

It doesn’t really matter much though, because it got done. This morning I feel better for it. I guess a picture sums it up best.

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Coping with Schedule Conflicts

One of the most difficult things we face as amateur athletes is that while we may want to train like the pros, this is not our job. We have other commitments and when it comes down to it, our training time doesn’t come out of our work time, but our personal time. Normally this is a challenge, but when you start throwing in things like business travel, well, sometimes your training schedules get more than a little disrupted.

Right now, I am feeling that pain. Having been on the road for 7 of the last 10 days, my training schedule has been a mess, and compounding matters, I have been battling the lingering effects of a minor, but uncomfortable injury in the form of a bruised heel.  In a stretch where I would normally have logged about 35 miles of running, 4 hours in the water, and another 80 miles on the bike, only a 15 miles of running, 2 hours in the water, and one 35 mile bike ride have been completed. Even those miles have been haphazard at best. The net result, is that I am probably fine, I don’t feel that way. I feel guilty, like I have cheated.

The thing is, I know from historical evidence, that not only will it be fine, I will likely benefit from the break. Personally, I have found that these lulls provide me a training benefit by giving some healing time that I am won’t to not take otherwise. Time will tell, but these ‘rest weeks’ may well be more beneficial than the rest days that I so hate.

The challenge though, is making sure that a rest week doesn’t overflow into multiple rest weeks. Getting back to the routine is hard after time off with a schedule disruption. That is my challenge this week. Overcoming the lethargy of a 10 days of travel, to get back on the horse, and not letting my hectic schedule overcome the training schedule.

Meaning that this afternoon will need some time on the trainer if the predicted storms roll in, and if not, well, I’ll see you on the roads of north Fulton and south Forsyth at about 4:30!

Weekend Randomness

WP_20140901_005As noted during the week last week, we had a race to do at Callaway Gardens on Sunday, so Saturday was mostly a travel day. The weekend was a long onethough, being Labor Day here in the states, so Monday was open for some play time. I was in need of a nice little post race recovery run, so I went and did a little exploring in the area. I knew there was a small trail loop down by the Chattahoochee River that I had not found a chance to explore before, so off I went.

WP_20140901_001The trail itself is very nice, though sitting where it does, there are some odors that might be a little much for some.  There is some nice wildlife to be seen as well. The whole thing is about a mile loop around, and can easily be worked into a pretty comfortable 10 mile loop including most of the Azalea Rd/Riverside Rd greenway system.  In addition, the traffic is light while the path itself is really quite good with few roots or large rocks to negotiate, making it a nice place to run for someone that is normally a ‘road’ runner.

WP_20140831_008Of course we also had the triathlon, which will get a full race report in a day or so, once time allows.  The short version though,  we arrived, we swam, we biked, we more or less ran.  We finished, and we got to represent our friends at Endurance House Atlanta.