Friday, July 24, 2009

Motto

I saw this commercial during the Tour de France coverage on Versus which really got me going. It is an amazing commercial which is really inspiring and I believe everyone should see this commercial. It is my new motto when I race, and I believe it should be everyone's. No one should go into a race expecting nothing but the best.

Here is the speech:

Here is the thing that makes life so interesting. The theory of evolution claims that “Only strong shall survive.” Maybe so, maybe so. But the theory of competition says, “Just because they are the strong, doesn’t mean they can’t get their asses kicked.” That’s right! See, what every long shot, come-from-behind, underdog will tell you is this; the other guy may in fact be the favorite, the odds may be stacked against you. Fair enough. But what the odds don’t know, this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of test, one where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking. Just remember, out here, the results don’t always add up. No matter what the stats may say and the experts may think, and the commentators may have predicted. When the race is on, all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if somebody decides to flip the script and take a pass on yelling uncle.

And then suddenly, as the old saying goes, “We got ourselves a game!”


Here is a link to the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LMEa0TVY_4&feature=related

Peace,

T-Bird

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Short and Sweet

So everything is still amazing here in Lexington. I have had an amazing summer. Training this past week was hard as usual. I did both my longest run of the year and the longest bike of the year in the same week. The run was almost 16 miles which was on Tuesday, and the bike was almost 85 miles on Saturday. Both of those workouts really beat me up for the next day's workouts, but I managed. I hit about 20.5 hours for the week last week and will be around 18 - 19 hours this week. Next week should be a little lighter thanks to Steelhead on Saturday, Aug. 1st.

I have had a great time keeping up with the Tour de France and every other sporting event over the past week. I love to watch Golf on tv, especially a major. The British Open was exciting to watch and I know I speak for everyone when I say that I feel sorry for Tom Watson. Stewart Cink is a great guy, and it was awesome to see him win his first major, but it was just heart wrenching to watch Tom Watson during the 4 hole playoff.

Anyways, off to the pool. I said I would keep it short and sweet.

Tony

Monday, July 13, 2009

Waterfront Chattanooga Tri RR

I traveled down to Chattanooga, TN on Saturday with Ben, Eric, and Beth to race in the Chatty Tri yesterday. Beth booked a room at the Chattanoogan which is an extremely nice hotel in downtown Chattanooga and extremely affordable. We almost didn't want to race Sunday morning so we could sleep in and take advantage of the room service breakfast that we could order. I mean what sounds better? A Tennessee Omelet or 2 hours of pain during a triathlon?

Anyways, we had a great weekend trip. We came on Corbin on Friday to stay with my mom before we headed on down to Chattanooga on Saturday. She fixed an amazing dinner Friday evening for us and I got to enjoy my grandparents peaches for the first time this peach season. Those peaches are better than any other fruit in the world. Saturday, we woke up and got our workouts over with, then went on down to TN. Once we got there, we checked into the hotel, picked up our race packets, then went to dinner at Big River. We had a great dinner then went back to the hotel. Sunday morning, we rode our bikes to the race since it was less than a mile from our hotel. I was racer #4 so I would be the 4th person to start in the time trial layout of the race. Two guys that I knew were better swimmers than I started in front of me, so I wanted to sprint and get on their feet from the start. At 7:30 AM, the first swimmer was off (who was racer #2. Racer #1 wasn't there). I sprinted but wasn't able to get close enough to their feet to hang on. I kept them fairly close considering they both swam in college, and they both only put about 30 - 45 seconds on me in the water. In the past, they both usually will put 1 - 1.5 minutes on me, if I had a good swim. I got out of the water in 17:58 (without a wetsuit) and this is my fastest mile swim ever (even if its a little short). I sprinted through T1 with only racers #2 and #3 in front of me.

Once I was on the bike, I caught racer #3 before the 2 mile mark. I started to climb one of the many hills on this course and looked down to find my water bottle; it wasn't there. So, I had no hydration for the entire bike ride. I thought about this for a second, and figured it wasn't too big of a deal, so I just hammered on. I caught racer #2 around mile 10 and I just flew by him. He stayed close to me for a mile and re passed me before the turnaround. After the turnaround, I went right back by him and I never saw him again. At mile 14, there happened to be a cycling shop van on the side of the road for race support. I asked him if he had any water and he said yes. He drove a mile up the road, got out of his car, and gave me the water bottle. I was so happy to have some hydration. I drank this entire bottle before the end of the bike, and was able to consume my GU also. Without any water, your mouth gets all sticky and it feels like cottonmouth when you eat a GU. So I want to thank River City Cycles for being out on the course for bike support. You guys really helped me a lot.

I came into T2 with no one in sight of me. I had a great transition and took off on the run. I heard them announce that racer #2 was in T2 once I was a few hundred meters into the run. I ran scared the whole run. I knew Eric Bell was behind me, and how fast of a runner he was. I wasn't sure how much time I had on him in T2 (he wasn't racer #2, he started behind me) but I knew I couldn't run slow and still beat him. I started the run slower than normal, but started to pick up the pace once I was out there. Every aid station I came to, had volunteers who were excited to see the first person, but unprepared for me. I didn't get any hydration at two of these aid stations because of this. They just sat there and clapped for me while I was trying to get water or gatorade from them. I got to the turnaround and saw Eric about 1 minute or so back from me. I just put my head down and continued to run scared. I was able to hold him off and win the race. I finished the race almost exactly 4 minutes faster than last year. I swam 2 minutes faster and biked 2 minutes faster, and ran the exact same time. I was really happy with the race and glad to take home my biggest paycheck to date.

However, before the awards and after the official results had been posted, the race officials came and talked to me. Another racer had accused me of taking outside assistance (the water bottle from the cycling shop van) and also of drafting. The official told me this was a 2 minute penalty and it would cost me the victory. No officials saw me break any rules, so therefore no officials recorded that I broke any rules. It is illegal for an official to assess a penalty without any official record of the broken penalty during the race (I didn't know this at the time). I argued that the van was out there for race support and that I didn't do anything wrong. He eventually told me that I need to work on my integrity and gave me a warning for doing something that was borderline illegal. I was unaware of any such rule, and I asked the official why he didn't cover that rule in the pre race meeting. I was more offended by the questioning of my integrity and just the fact that another racer accused me of cheating.

Other than that, I had a great trip to Chatty and enjoyed the weekend.

Next race: Steelhead 70.3

Tony

Monday, July 6, 2009

The Dog Whisperer

So I'm on my usual longerish bike ride on the weekend, only I'm in my home town of Corbin and I'm riding with my brother. I usually do a longer ride on Saturday, but it was the 4th of July so I ran the annual Bluegrass 10k on Saturday (more on that later). So anyways, I did my longer ride on Sunday with my brother. Well, he is in Corbin for the summer and he knows where the dogs are on the route that are going to bother us. He told me a few stories while we were riding about several encounters with these dogs but I didn't think anything about it. Well, we are riding by a house that has a few dogs, and we were rolling pretty good so I figured that we wouldn't have any trouble with them. Well, Ben slows down, gets out his bottle of water, swerves towards the dog, and sprays it in the face. It was hilarious.

So anyways, Saturday was the 4th of July and I ran the Bluegrass 10k for the 7th straight year. I was looking to run under 34 minutes considering this is a pretty difficult race. I ran just over 34 minutes last year, and the temperature was about the same as last year. I started the race pretty comfortable and just ran within myself for the first mile or so. I went through the mile in about 5:14 and I figured that was a great pace. I had a few guys to run with from about 1.5 miles until about 4.5 miles in the race. I just tucked in behind two guys from the 2nd to 3rd mile mark and then jumped in front of those guys trying to pick up the pace a little. That didn't really help much so I just tucked back in about a half mile later. I stayed there until about the 4.5 mile mark when another guy caught us and went by us like we were walking. Dave K and I sped up to go with this guy and we just latched on with him. I managed to pick up the pace pretty easily but Dave fell off pace a little after that move. Once we hit the 5th mile mark, it was me and this guy fighting for the 6th place spot. I put an acceleration on him but didn't manage to drop him. He passed me and put about 2 - 3 meters on me and he held that lead until about the 6th mile. With 1/4 mile to go I decided to fight like I used to, and to not just give in. I started to pick up the pace but I wasn't really catching him. I switched gears and was still not catching him fast enough to get him before the line. I switched into my top end gear and just managed to get him right at the line. I finished 6th place in a time of 33:23 with a NEW 10k PR. I haven't ran a 10k PR since the spring of 2006. I'm really excited about this considering the difficulty of the race and considering I haven't ran that fast in about 3.5 years.

Training is going great still. I'm headed down to Chattanooga this weekend for the Waterfront Triathlon with Beth, Eric, and Ben. I have put in about 41 hours of training over the past 2 weeks. This week may be kind of a down week with the race this weekend. I'm just enjoying my recovery day today by watching the Tour de France rerun right now and I'm about to go eat some pizza at Pazzo's.

T-Bird

Thursday, July 2, 2009

The month of July

I can't believe it is already the 2nd of July. Everything is going great here in Lexington. My training is going really well, and so is everything else. I hit over 21 hours of training last week which is the most I've probably hit since March or so. I just finished my second run workout of the week and I'm watching Serena Williams in the semi final match of Wimbledon. I love watching Wimbledon. I feel like I follow it very closely every year. This was actually the first year that our family vacation hasn't been the same week as Wimbledon in a long time.

The last week and a half or so, I have been swimming a lot. My workouts have been a little more intense and my yardage has been a little higher than usual. I don't normally swim long course, but I really feel like swimming long course is making me a better swimmer. I just feel stronger and more relaxed in the water (with an exception of those "off" days).

My no sweets challenge is going great. I almost had a piece of candy yesterday without even thinking about it, but I happened to remember the challenge as I reached for the candy. I have been eating some yogurt with fresh fruit instead of pigging out on some cookies or ice cream after dinner. I never really set any rules for the "no eating out" challenge which officially started yesterday. So here they are:

1. I will not eat out for dinner when I'm in Lexington other than Monday nights at Pazzo's.
2. I will try and cook dinner at least 4 nights a week.
3. If I eat out for breakfast or lunch it must be at either Firehouse, Subway, Panera or Chipotle.
4. I am also allowed to eat at one of these places for dinner once a week.

So pretty much I am cutting out dinner like restaurants that I would eat at usually 1 - 2 times per week when Casey and I didn't feel like cooking. So hopefully this challenge will help cut back on the amount of money I'm spending on food and maybe make my food intake a little healthier. I am also cutting out deep fried foods from my diet.

So... No sweets, no eating out at dinner, and no deep fried foods. These restrictions are a little more general than last year's food challenge, but will hopefully help me improve my diet habits.

And my running challenge is going ok. I have already skipped 2 days of running in the first 10 days of the 40 days, but that isn't too big of a deal. I have ran more in the past 11 days than I have in a while and I feel like I'm getting my running legs back. I'm running the annual Bluegrass 10k Saturday morning and hopefully I'll run faster than last year. Then, I'm headed to Corbin for the evening of the 4th to watch my dad's annual fireworks show. AND, the Tour de France starts on the 4th. What an exciting day!!!

Tony