Friday, June 26, 2009

40 days and 40 nights

So, I didn't announce this "double" challenge this past Sunday/Monday but I have already started several challenges. I am not eating sweets right now. I haven't had any since Saturday, so that is 6 full days as of midnight tonight. Even when Panera gave me a free cookie today for messing up my order, I decided to just bring it home for the roomies. The term sweets includes all of the following: cookies, candy, ice cream, chocolate, and anything else that may be a dessert. I plan on doing this until August 1st which will be the day after the 40th day. So technically, the challenge started on Monday, June 22nd. And I have Nationals on the 22nd of August so I'll keep some restrictions on my sweet intake until after Nationals. Casey and I had also discussed making a challenge of some sort related to "eating out" to help encourage us to cook more. I'll still eat at lunch type places such as Subway, Firehouse, Panera, and Chipotle, but we would be cutting out the dinner type places such as Cheddar's, Olive Garden, Pazzo's, etc. This may be challenging, but that's the fun part, right? And of course I would have to throw in the exclusion of when I'm traveling to race. It might be kind of hard to cook in a hotel. More details to follow July 1.

The second challenge is to run 40 times in 40 days. This may be a stretch, but I need to improve my running, so this is a little extra motivation to get me out the door. I have already skipped a day of running, but it's nothing a little 2-a-day can't fix. Any run over 3 miles counts as a run. That is about the only rule that I'm making for this challenge. And if I do a two-a-day then there has to be at least 1 hour between runs.

Training has been going great this week. I got to try out my new road bike thanks to Mercury. Mercury is a new bike company that offers some really nice bikes for a great price. I'm riding the Apollo road frame and the Trident tri bike frame. They both are amazing and I can't wait to race them. Check them out at: www.mercurybikes.com. I've been swimming a lot this week, and I feel pretty good in the water. I swam with the UK team this morning, and have been in the water with the Wildcat Aquatics team a few other times this week. On Wednesday, I did my first track workout in a while and it really hurt, ha. I'm not used to doing fast stuff, but I better get some turnover in my legs before some the the big races I have coming up over the next 2 months.

Now I'm looking forward to the big tv schedule for the weekend with the big Hy-Vee ITU race tomorrow, the Team Champs Tri on Sunday, and the US National track meet going on all weekend. The men's 10k last night was a pretty fun race to watch. You can find it at www.flotrack.org. And the men's 5k should be pretty exciting tonight. I haven't watched the women's 10k yet, but it looked exciting just by looking at the results (or at least the last few laps).

Tony

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad who has been super supportive of every decision that I've ever made. He has never doubted me in my chosen path, he has only provided support and encouragement and I owe a lot of my success to him for this.

I am back in Lexington after spending a wonderful few days at Lake Barkley for our annual family reunion. I arrived at the Lodge there on the lake Wednesday afternoon and my step dad and I went straight to the golf course to get in a quick 18 holes. I shot an 84 which is the best I've played all year. It was about 95 degrees with 90% humidity so we were extremely hot during this round of golf. The entire weekend was almost miserably hot. The coolest day was 91 degrees with only about 80% humidity. I played golf Thursday and Friday mornings and then spent the rest of the day on the boat or by the pool. I squeezed in a few runs on a trail that is there close to the lodge. My brother and I ran 8 miles after our round of golf on Thursday and we had to have lost about 10 pounds in water weight. I haven't sweated that much in a long time on a single run. Friday and Saturday's runs weren't much better, but they were shorter in distance so they weren't as bad. Friday night was our annual "wallyball" game. I happened to have a better record than last year. My team won about the same number of games that we lost, compared to last year when my team lost every game, ha. Saturday, I got the run over with early, then I went on the boat for a few hours, then sat by the pool for the rest of the day. We ended up playing wallyball again Saturday evening as well. I ate all kinds of amazing food while I was there, and I worked on my tan lines a little bit since I still have lines from my Kiwami suits from that last 3 races I've done.

I'm looking forward to hitting training hard this week. I feel rested and rejuvenated and ready to go. Nothing like a recovery week at the lake.

Tony

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Kansas 70.3 road trip (and race report)

Friday morning, Beth, Eric, Jeff, and I all left Lexington in route to Lawrence, Kansas. Beth had the amazing idea of borrowing her mother's full size van so we could all squeeze our bikes and gear into one vehicle. This turned out to be an amazing idea. All 4 bikes fit perfectly with the wheels still on the bikes, along with all of our other race gear and luggage. We left about 7:30 am Friday morning and were prepared for the worst. Casey made some homemade granola bars for the trip, Jeff put together his usual pre-race travel trail mix, Jeff's g/f made some muffins and cookies that we all got to share, while Beth, Eric, and Jeff all packed enough Gatorade to hydrate a football team. We made it to Lawrence faster than we expected to, and with all 4 of us taking turns driving, it made the trip to by faster. I didn't drive on the way there, but I drove from Kansas City back to St. Louis after the race on Sunday, so I did do my part. Eric drove the most. Thanks Eric.

Anyways, we had dinner at "Old Chicago" Friday night close to the campus of KU (I got some weird stares wearing my UK t-shirts around). We went back to the hotel and called it a night around 10 pm. We woke up and decided we wanted Panera for breakfast which is what we all eat pretty regularly. This Panera in Lawrence was a "serve yourself" Panera. They handed us bagels in which we had to do whatever we wanted to do with them, as opposed to having them slized and toasted for us like they are at every other Panera I've been to. After breakfast, we drove the bike course, went for an easy bike ride, run, and swim, got lunch, and went back to the hotel. After dinner that evening, we went back to the hotel and were all in bed by 8 which is extremely unusual for me, but we watched "The Dark Knight" until about 9:30 so that was fine with me. I don't like to go to bed super early.

Race morning we woke up and headed down to the race site. This was a 2 transition triathlon which is the first that I've ever done. We had to drop our running stuff in T2 and then head down to T1 to put everything we would need for the bike portion. It was a little hectic and I do not prefer this type of transition, but it wasn't bad. The water temperature was 71.6 degrees that morning (warmer than the Austin race) but because it was a longer race, the wetsuit "cut-off" temperature was 72 degrees as opposed to the new rule of 68 which will be in full effect next year at all swim distances under 3k. I proceeded to get everything ready, and then head down to the water. There were only about 30 Pro guys starting and they blew the starting gun promptly at 6:30 am.

I sprinted out like I usually do, but this swim start wasn't as crowded as some of the other pro races I've done this year. I didn't get out with the lead pack, but I found some feet that were almost the same speed as me, and I just stayed on those feet in the second pack. I came out of the water somewhere around 16th place or so in a group of about 6 guys. I had an average T1 and headed out onto the bike course where I was hoping I would make up some ground. Luckily, I was right and I passed my first 2 victims in the first 2 miles of the bike. I caught a few other guys in the next ten miles, and we all went about the same speed for about 20 - 25 miles. We weren't drafting, but we were working together to catch some of the lead guys. I got some momentum throughout the ride and ended getting away from the group I was riding with. I ended up about 1 mile behind the second group of guys. I was only about 5 minutes down from the lead group and only 2 - 3 minutes back from the second group. I ended up into T2 in 9th place and about a minute in front of the group I was riding with for a while. I had one of the fastest T2's in the race (only slower than the top 2 finishers) and headed out onto the run, not feeling very good at all. I was tight for the first 2 miles, then I felt great until about the 5th mile. I caught one guy before the mile marker, then I did not see another guy until I got passed by Simon Thompson around mile 4. Once he passed me, Andrew Hodges didn't wait too long until he came flying by me around mile 6. Once I made it to the second lap of the run, I was all by myself. I haven't experienced pain like that since the last few miles of Clearwater last year. I was on the verge of blowing up, but was somehow managing to hold just over 6-minute mile pace. I held this pace until the 11th mile when the wheels came off. I got passed by one more guy at about the 12.5 mile mark of the run and there was nothing I could do. I was in survival mode and was just hoping the finish line would come soon. I managed to pass Tim Deboom about 600 yards from the finish line and crack into the top 10.

I heard the mile splits were not accurate, but if they were, I ran the last 2.1 miles in 14:40 pace which is about 7 minute mile pace, which is slow compared to the 5:55 pace I was holding through 11 miles. But a lot of my mile splits were around 6:05 and my avg. pace for the 13.1 miles was 6:06, so I'm assuming those last 2 miles were a bit long even though I know I slowed down significantly. I finished in 4:02:57 and in tenth place.

After the race, we drove to the nearest Wendy's to get a "Toffee Coffee Swirly Frostie." We then drove to St. Louis to spend the night at the Miller residence. Thank you Miller family for hosting us after the race. Monday morning we woke up glad to only have a 6 hr drive ahead of us instead of the 10 hours it took us to get to Lawrence from Lexington.

I'm extremely pleased with my effort on Sunday. I had a decent swim, a good bike, and an average run. I need to really work on my run in the next few months, but I'm really looking forward to some of my upcoming races. But most importantly, I'm looking forward to going to the lake tomorrow and playing golf all weekend. And congrats to Eric, Beth, and Jeff who all PR's for that distance and to Jeff for qualifying for the World Championships in Clearwater. Congrats to my brother for placing third overall at a local race in Shelbyville, KY and qualifying for Nationals in Alabama in August.

Thanks for Reading. Up next: Waterfront Chattanooga Triathlon - July 12th

Tony

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Teriyaki Steak on a Sunday Evening

I'm sitting at Casey's right now after an amazing dinner of Teriyaki steak. It was a strips of steak in a bed of rice and snow peas with a teriyaki sauce over top. It was really good. Nothing better after an eazy evening run.

Just like my update on Tuesday, there really isn't much going on here in Lexington. I have been lifeguarding during the late morning/early afternoon, and working out afterwards everyday. I have had some great workouts this week which really makes me feel good going into this weekend. We're traveling to Lawrence, Kansas on Friday and returning the day after the race on Monday. I was really worn out after a long track workout on Wednesday which consisted of a 5k at threshold, then some fast stuff, and some tempo stuff. The 5k at threshold was in 16:59 which was a PR (for that workout, still over a minute slower than my actual 5k PR). Last year for the same workout, I was running around 17:15. I ended up running almost 7.5 miles fast that day. The following day, I decided to do a hard swim that one of the swim coaches at the pool suggested that I attempt. I was supposed to do 3 x ( 3 x 400) with a 200 ez between sets. The first set of 400's were at base pace (2,000 time trial pace) plus 3 seconds per 100, the 2nd set of 400's at base pace per 100, and the last set of 400's at base pace subtract 2 seconds per 100. It was one of the hardest sets I've done in the water. I am used to doing main sets of only about 1,500 - 2,500 with the occasional 3,000 yard main set on a really hard day. This main set was 4,000 yards and I was really tired for the remainder of the day. I had a great brick workout on Saturday with Jeff and Eric and then some normal workouts today.

Anyways, I have been on a reading "kick" for the past week or so and I'm loving it. If anyone has some good suggestions then you should comment on this post. I just finished reading the classic, "Brave New World" which was pretty interesting. I'm reading "I, Robot" right now. I decided that I would read some of the books that my favorite movies have been based on. Next on the list is "I am Legend." And I found a book in my girlfriend's basement that includes four of Ernest Hemingway's novels into the one book. I'm thinking that I may break that open after "I am Legend."

Who knows???

T-Bird

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Summer!!!

Since the summer is in full swing, I have had a great summer so far. This past week was a little more laid back since I didn't have to travel anywhere for a race. My training has been going great. I had a big bike ride on Saturday and a longer run on Sunday. My swimming is going pretty good too. I have been swimming with Wildcat Aquatics during the mornings, and they have been kicking my butt. It's never fun to swim with 15 - 18 yr olds and have some of them really work me really hard just to keep up, especially some of the girls. The long bike felt great on Saturday, and I had another medium distance ride today which again was good. The weather has been pretty warm, but I love it. Running in hot weather isn't the best, but I love to bike in hot weather. I have a big track workout tomorrow.

Everything else has been going great as well. I'm officially moved into my new residence at the Atnip household. I'm currently doing some laundry while I watch a show about the history of distilleries on the History channel. I have been eating a lot of food in between workouts, and just enjoying the summer. We cooked out Saturday night after our long ride. We ate at "Saul Good" after watching the new Terminator movie on Sunday evening. Yesterday I ate six meals (no exaggeration, I promise). I guess I was a little deprived of calories after my weekend workouts, and I just couldn't stop eating yesterday. I had Panera for breakfast, a sandwich around noon, a Firehouse sub at 2:30, a bowl of cereal at 5:00, veggies and a beef rollover thanks to Beth at 7:00, and some Hamburger Helper thanks to Casey around 9:00. I thought about having some ice cream, but my stomach really hurt around 10 pm so I decided I better not, haha.

And on a side note, I guess I go to Panera for breakfast too much considering that I walked in yesterday morning and the lady looked at me and said, "two cinnamon crunch bagels, sliced and toasted with butter?" which is what I order everytime I go to Panera for breakfast.

That's about it for now. Looking forward to racing again in 1 week and 5 days at the Kansas 70.3 event. My first 70.3 of the year.

Tony