Spring Fling Day 4

Today was a massive effort. We raced up Mt. Figueroa. It is a 9.5 mile climb that averages 9%...this 9% is very deceptive as the first mile hits 22% and there are some down hills so it sticks around 10-12% a lot.

I was pitted against the camp coach who is a beast. He is a pro road rider from boulder and former pro triathlete. I was pretty nervous as sub 1 hour efforts on the bike are just nasty painful and I had never red lined a climb like that before. I knew I was climbing well but this is a completely different animal.

I took off and hit the first grade and was on the rivet immediately... 1k in and I was already ragged. I was passing tons of people and climbing well. Reality hit about 5k in and I knew I had spent all my pennies. Now it was about mitigating pain and time losses. I was cramping in the back of my hamstrings which has never happened and my back felt absolutely shattered. The camp coach ripped by me at 10k and I couldn't respond.

I was in a bad way when I finally got to the top. I threw up a few bits of bile and tossed in a couple thorough dry heaves for good measure. I laid there annihilated for about 15 minutes before I could eat or drink.

After I rejoined the land of the living, we descended 1/3 of the way down to a running trail for a brick...totally sadistic. I trotted off with my legs feeling like mud pie. I got to the turn around point and was joined by the camp coach, Jared. He apparently wanted to put the screws to me today and we hammered the second half of the run... I was happy for that to be over.

THEN...we rode back. Instead of riding easy, we had a tailwind and set up a paceline. We were absolutely flying.

Now my legs are beyond gone. I need food. I need a shower. I need sleep.

Solvang Spring Fling Day 3

Thank God for easy days...I crawled into bed last night completely smoked. I just laid there...My heart was thumping loud enough to keep me awake. That is a major sign for me...if you push through that sign good things literally NEVER happen. It took me a while to figure out that your heart shouldn't really ever beat hard while you are laying around like a lump...unless you're watching an awesome emotional hugh grant movie or something that makes you really mad I was a bit sun burned and also warm from running the engine hard all day. I woke up still slightly toasted but much better. We had an early run at the track...sounds scary but was very easy. We did some drills and cruised a few very comfortable. I actually came back feeling a lot better.

Next up was a 2 hr spin to loosen up the legs. I was testing out my new pedals and was happy to be rid of those filthy speedplays. I was pain free the whole day. No hot spots on the foot and no weird knee tension. I will ride looks til I die.

Back to the ride... I never really do recovery rides. I usually swim to recover. I just ride steady or I don't ride. It was weird to spin so lightly but kind of nice. I still would have preferred to watch tv as that doesn't hurt my butt as much but I kept that to myself.

The highlight of the ride was stopping for sandwiches...also eating my gummies.

I finished all that with a nap...maybe the most necessary nap ever in my life.

I just looked at the total for the camp so far and I have 14.5 hrs of training done in 3 days...crazy.

Solvang spring fling day 2

Wow... turns out being tired is going to be the theme of this week. I basically ended up face down, snoring in a bowl of pasta today. I had a cup of coffee that may have made me more tired. It was hard to tell...

We were up this morning @ 6:20 and straight to the pool for some reasonably light swimming. Then breakfast and onto a long ride. It was supposed to be sort of long and slow...I hate that. Needless to say I got a paceline going right off the bat and 45 minutes into the ride had shelled all but a couple. The climb hit and I spat the remainder off the back and got to enjoy one of the most beautiful rides I have ever done in perfect silence. It was awesome. I couldn't do justice to the landscape. You just have to be there. When people say "greener pastures" this is exactly what you picture...but watered way down because your imagination isn't powerful enough for this.

I got down to the beach where I was greeted by a small beach store that served ridiculously good burgers. I indulged. This combined with v8 (usually nasty but the salt content was spot on today) made the ride home much better. I headed back and was smashing it. But thanks to my speedplay pedals, my knees and feet were feeling like charlie sheen's liver. I hate speedplays. Never buy them. They are the worst thing to happen to bikes, knees, and feet in all of human history. I was motivated to finish the ride because I planned to buy different pedals immediately. I stopped off at the bike shop, got some new all white Look pedals and rode off pain free...I did all this before anyone caught me. WINNING.

Some Gummy worms, sandwiches, ice cream, pasta, bread, chips, coffee, carrot juice, chicken, and chocolate later and here I am. Still tired. Still hungry.

Solvang spring fling day 1

The first day of camp started out with a bang... 4.5 hr ride with some solid climbing through some of the country's greatest landscape. Legendary ride with some massively difficult climbs. I was feeling very solid throughout and was blasting through the hills.

We headed to a coffee shop after for some shakes. Afternoon delight...don't take that the wrong way. It was just a shake you pervert.

Run after that was almost immediate. We cruised the first loop then the majority of the group peeled off and I was left with a 90 lb running animal man named Chris. Chris has been known to run 1:05 half marathons... for those of you less running inclined, that shit is lightning. Anyways, he blasted me into oblivion. I was doing ok for a big-boned, sausage-legged rockstar but he was like a little billy goat and climbed like a whisp of smoke. I ate about 10 lbs of food after.

Good day.

In other news, I am interviewing to become Charlie Sheen's Social Media secretary. This is 100% true. I passed the first round of interviews and am now on to the second round...wish me luck, trolls. HA. luck is some heinous AA term made up by a bunch of droopy-eyed, armless, loser children. I don't need it. I have tiger blood and resentment to fuel me...luck has nothing to do with it. Peace out girl scouts.

First race of the season

The first race of the season is sort of like the first time you played pokemon. Jarring, upsetting, interesting, fast paced and seizure inducing. Thankfully it didn't prove to be seizure inducing.

Cait and I drove to Indio and set up shop. We went out for some thai food. Turns out red curry is not ideal "stomach settling" food. After that we gorged on cookies and gummy bears. As my pancreas was shocked into submission, I noticed that my tire was flat...I pumped it up to discover a leak. Total panic at the disco ensued!

Cait and I rushed to walgreens to get super glue. FAIL. Too runny. We rushed to wal MART and got bike patch kits and some more adhesives. Panic mode was awful but I finally got it to the point where the leak was super slow...

Race morning came and I was feeling good. I started quickly but in the completely wrong direction. Annoying. I jumped back to the main group and swam strong to come out in 7th or so. 40 seconds back of Inch and a minute and change up on kling.

I got on the bike quick and was super nervous that the third world fix would hold... I hit the back brake on the first hill and the junk on the tire ripped completely off and got lodged in my back brake. It rubbed bad and was making horrid noises... I ignored it and pushed to catch inch 15 minutes in. The rubbing continued for the next 18 miles. I was pushing great watts and averaged 340 for the whole thing. The speed was shit though until the junk dislodged from my brake. The speed then jumped and I shot away from the group....I also ditched inch when the stuff came loose.

I had an immaculate transition onto the run and hit the gas. 1st mile was 5:20 and it hurt. I was running in 4th overall. Inch was a ways back and I figured if I could keep the pressure on I could keep clear.

I came around the first three miles quick. I stayed moving ok but got run through by a couple pros. Ended in 6th overall and 1st amateur. I am closing the gap on some of the top guys in the area. Although this is the key stat: I beat inch and kling. Scoreboard was just like ironman florida.

Good weekend. Next race is at the end of March. Triathlon camp next week!

Magestic Hogs

One of my fondest memories is seeing potbelly pig racing at the state fair with my grandparents and sister. These races are so baller it is unreal. I would watch them every other day if time permitted. Pigs are hyper competitive beasts who don't take shit from anyone except each other. Pot belly pigs are the most deadly fast pig in all of pigdom. I've always admired them and their 'from the gun' mentality in racing. Even if they get lost on a circle track, they are heroes in my book. I'll get back to this later.

Into T1

I'm starting to come around from the early easy week feeling. The first part of every 'down' week feels like I am shutting down completely. My body is really warm and my legs feel like ham. I generally feel like I have no business exercising. It takes between 3-5 days to come out of that and then the snap returns to the legs and the heart and lungs almost feel excited to be used. My heart actually sometimes skips a beat during these couple days...super weird.

My legs feel lethal right now. I swam today and thought I needed a flop day as opposed to Jill's race pace workout. I got in the water and felt balanced and smooth. My pull felt strong and my legs actually felt good kicking (1st time in 2 years that I have actually kicked while swimming). The mini set was 2x100 on 1:30. I was told to take it out fairly strong. Goal was 1:10-1:12. I hit 1:09 and then 1:07 and felt cruisey. Then 6x100 on 1:30 where I was supposed to settle into 1:15 pace. I hit 1:09 for each of these easily. CRAZY. Again, 2 years since I could swim like this.

Back to that earlier pig nonsense, I just saw this quote and it was right up my alley.

You can't make a racehorse out of a pig. But if you work hard enough at it you can make a mighty fast pig. - Bob Akin

Lean Bacon (pig #2) slaying them around the first turn

I think I am turning myself into one lethal piggy.

RACE THIS WEEKEND! Inch, Kling, Iris, and Mariah coming for their spring break too!

Hopefully sweet porcine victory will be mine

Passed Gassed

I am beyond tired right now... Just to put it into context, it has been a monumental chore for me to get into a hot tub, type things, fill a water bottle, and eat chocolate. Usually these things are AUTOMATIC BABY!

If you were a betting man, would you ever bet against Dicky V?

The day started off with masters swimming which I have avoided due to the early nature of these workouts. It walks that fine line of exercise being fun and exercise being productive when you have to get up around 6 am to do it. However, the swim sets are always awesome thanks to the LEGEND, Jill Savege.

WARNING: Workout details below! This part will bore you if you aren't geeked up on tri crap...

Warm up
6x150 pull w/ paddles
3x100 on 1:30, 3x100 on 1:25, 3x100 on 1:20
2x100 on 1:30, 2x100 on 1:25, 2x100 on 1:20
1x100 on 1:30, 1x100 on 1:25, 1x100 on 1:20
100 ez
3x200 IM
cool down

It was sick and I BLASTED the 100's... super cruisey and fast enough to get massive amounts of rest even on the 1:20's. 3 weeks ago, I would have been pressed to make 1:20 intervals.

Double shot at starbucks and immediately off to a bike with Jason, Matt, and Tony. They had a 40k TT to do and I had 20k of over under intervals. My set was 3x (5min @ 360watts, 5min @300 watts). My powermeter had no batteries so I just kind of winged it...I ended up averaging 26.4 mph on a super windy day and without pinning it too bad. Again pretty comfortable and the speed was just there. I followed Tony around for the rest of his TT and then cooled down with them. 2hrs and 10 min on the bike. The boys smashed it. Jason and Matt hit 1:08-1:09 territory and Tony hit 1:04. Good early season stuff.

On to the next one... I immediately hopped off the bici and had a 5 min build to race pace followed by 15 min easy... I pushed a bit too hard I guess and ran the 5 minutes @ 5:24 min/mile pace! The effort didn't feel out of control but who knows. It's easy to feel good for 5 minutes.

I got home and fell onto the bed. It was noon. Just looking at all the crap I did before noon makes me tired. That is too productive for a Saturday morning in this blogger's humble opinion.

I'm only a man in silly red sheets but even Heroes have the right to dream!!!!!