Amazon.com Widgets
Subscribe by Email  |  Subscribe Subscribe
Because when you're out on the course, all that's there is your internal monolog

Recent Workouts from TrainingPeaks.com

Posted on Jan 26, 2011 under etc... | Comments are off

-trainingpeaks-connect#NEW-

Nutrition Research has Begun

Posted on Jan 24, 2011 under etc..., nutrition | Comments are off

I’ve found that in the mornings during my 1.5hr-ish swims, that my stomach is most sensitive to what I’ve put in it recently. Recently may be the night before if I ate late or a lot, or may just be whatever I ate before hopping in the pool, but something about being horizontal and rocking back and forth for 90ish minutes puts my nutrition choices to the test.

I’ve decided to use this situation as a vehicle for testing race and training nutrition. Seems logical right: if you’re frequently in conditions that challenge your gut, use those conditions to test substances that you may or may not tolerate well on race day.

I’ve started a page to track my research and happily share it with you in the hopes that you may find it useful too. The page is here. Bookmark it and revisit it often as I’ll just be updating it as I go without a lot of fanfare.

The Perfect Smoothie

Posted on Jan 24, 2011 under nutrition | Comments are off

Filed under the heading of “teach a man to fish…” the NoMeatAthlete.com site has a great writeup on how to fashion your own custom and delicious smoothie.

Find the article here.

I’d yet to trip across this website, but it definitely looks interesting. Especially since I try not to eat a lot of meat AND my wife is a 20+ year vegetarian with vegan desires. Must explore!

Week In Review

Posted on Jan 24, 2011 under etc... | Comments are off

How has triathlon helped me under pressure?

Posted on Jan 22, 2011 under etc... | 1 Comment

TriumphTriathlon.com today asks the question:

How has triathlon and being a triathlete helped your perform under pressure in your life?

For me, this is a challenging question, given that I’m new to triathlon but very experienced in high pressure life. I’ve been in software development for almost 30 years, and I’m a technical, cave, and rebreather scuba diver. Pressure, crisis management and keeping a level-head when the sky is falling are characteristics that I’ve lived with and thrived on for decades.

For me, triathlon is an extension of the journey that I started on in August of 2009. Then I was 250+ lbs. My hips hurt, my knees hurt, I had no energy, stairs would wind me, driving was preferable to walking – even short distances. I looked in the mirror one day and, facing my 42nd birthday in a few weeks, decided I really didn’t like what I saw, that it was only going to get harder to fix and set my mind and spirit to rehabilitating my life.

Sold the car, and bought a more serious bike (no more slow pedal pusher), started rock-climbing again. Climbing led me back to the gym to become a stronger climber. The gym led me to the pool to improve my cardio. The cycling, past running, and swimming led me to triathlon. It just seems like the next logical evolutionary step.

For me, I’m bringing my life, my disciplined mind and spirit, to triathlon. I hope, and expect, triathlon to reinforce and build upon those existing life skills.

Roasted Asparagus, Red Pepper, Mushroom Cornbread Quiche

Posted on Jan 22, 2011 under nutrition | Comments are off

Made this for breakfast brunch today.

Found the recipe/idea over at HealthyTippingPoint.com and embellished with stuff that we had in the fridge. Have to say it was pretty freaking good!

Thanks for the idea Caitlin!

My substitutions:

  • eggwhites instead of eggs
  • allegro probio skim milk cheese and a little parmesan for cheese

Nutrition based on a serving of 1/4 recipe:
Cals: 330 Fat: 10.7g Carb: 42g Pro: 19.5g Sodium: 560mg

Full analysis can be found on dailyburn here.

über swim!

Posted on Jan 21, 2011 under fitness, Raves | Comments are off

In case you can’t tell, I’m pretty excited about my swim this morning.

I’d hit the pool planning on just a long, easy effort. 4k, no drills other than watching technique. 1.5 hrs.. Did tempo drills on Wednesday and am going for VO2max testing with Ian MacLean on Sunday morning, so I figured a nice leisurely swim before my Saturday rest day would be a good way to end the week.

It was not to be the case, but I couldn’t be happier.

You see, on Wednesday, when I was doing my tempo drills, I had a few lengths (short short intervals) where, I felt like I was just flying through the water. That as fast as my arms and body could move, that’s how fast I’d go. I just getting faster, and faster and faster. Until I slammed into the end of the pool, lost the rhythm and had to start over again. (Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to swimming outside?!). Not really knowing what had happened, or what I was doing differently, I just accepted the fluke, marvelled at it a bit, and continued swimming.

Well, today.. about 1km into my swim, I think I figured out what was going on on Wednesday and managed to string it together. OMG! I was flying! I discovered that I was, in essence, doing the equivalent of a “heel strike” in the water. I have had a deadspot in my stroke during the recovery, where I was just coasting through the water, essentially negating any forward momentum I’d built up with my last stroke. This morning on figuring this out, I started working on making my stroke consistently paced throughout the entire stroke/recovery/stroke/recovery cycle and the difference was intense. My speed jumped almost 2x: swimmers who I’d normally outpace in 3/4 of a lap, I was catching in less than a length (< 18m). I even know how I got to the "in water heel strike" problem. You may recall me touting Total Immersion swimming technique. It’s great! Very efficient and there’s a lot of youtube videos and stuff on their website to help you sort out your technique. One of the drills is basically working the recovery, extension and rotation aspects of the technique. I think I latched onto that drill to hard and never strung each side of the drill gracefully together (until Wednesday and now today). Hurray!

This discovery is also, a little (but not much really) bitter-sweet. I’m already, typically, the fastest person in the fast lane (and I’m not fast), so when there are 3 or more swimmers sharing a lane, I’m constantly in someone’s toes. If they don’t let me pass and the end of the length, I either have to move through my stroke very slowly (which re-enforces the poor technique I’m trying to fix), change to a breast stroke (sure it’s exercise, but not particularly useful for my training meh) or just wait for them to get a length ahead of me so that I can catch them again and repeat. (Have I mentioned how much I’m looking forward to swimming outside?!).

Also, the lack of the “coast” section of the stroke raised my perceived effort a bit, makes sense I guess: no little micro rest built into each stroke. So I’ll have a new effort hurdle to break-down. No problem, kinda fun actually.

I hopped out of the pool after 2km (40 minutes, a lot spent waiting), while I was still pretty fresh and had been working my new-found technique pretty consistently for several lengths. I wanted to stop before I got fatigued so that my body would hopefully develop some good patterning from the discovery.

I may head back to the pool later today to do another few 2-4km just to better ingrain my new discovery. I’m so psyched! Can I balance this, with my need for some downtime prior to Sunday’s testing. I guess we’ll see… I guess we’ll see. 🙂

Recent workouts via TrainingPeaks.com

Posted on Jan 19, 2011 under etc... | Comments are off

-trainingpeaks-connect#NEW-

Only a Real Man™ can wear a kilt!

Posted on Jan 19, 2011 under etc... | Comments are off

Vanessa over at VanessaRunshas received 2 sport kilts from SportKilt.com. One girls, (that she’s keeping) and a boys model that she’s raffling off.

I have a kilt, but it’s a formal heavy non-sport model that mysteriously had a hole punched in it when we moved 6 years ago (and I’ve never had repaired). I was looking forward to running the the Toronto St. Paddy’s run, but unfortunately I’m going to be in Atlanata at Pycon2011 that weekend. Luckily, I discovered and signed up for a 10k St Paddy’s run in Atlanta. It’s a fundraiser for the Jr. League of America (sounds like an organization for young comic book heroes). They even have prizes for kilt wearing participants. Now there’s no way I could wear the formal kilt, but a sport kilt? Sure, I’d do that!

Here’s hoping I win 🙂

Week In Review

Posted on Jan 10, 2011 under etc... | Comments are off
« Previous Entries
Next Entries »