S-as in super bowl sucks E-V as in Victory E-R-I-N

This weekend was underlined by horribly early mornings, highlighted by awesome racing, and punctuated with drinking and boring sports.

I'll start with the bad news... The super bowl sucks. Somehow I have gotten to the point where I hate watching sports to the point that I am just looking at the scoreboard to see how much time is left...it's a burn out the clock situation. I don't even do that at work. Me and Cait went to a Superbowl party and I was more interested in chatting with Cait and 'the girls' than watching the game. Even the commercials sucked. What happened to me?

The mornings were early due to the new regime. Under the rule of Jill Savege, mornings will be early and workouts will be difficult. That just sounds right... something about the name Jill Savege I guess. Really Jill is great. She is super calm, positive, and really helpful. We had scheduled a hard morning swim on Saturday that had me up at 6:30 and a TT race on Sunday that had me up at 6:40. Both brutal for me...

Here are the details:

Swim- 4600 or so with the main set being pretty tough

400, 8x 100 on 1:25, 400, 6x 100 on 1:20, 400, 4x 100 on 1:20

Sadly that is the longest and hardest swim I have done in about two years

Bike TT- 20k race north of LA

The wind was brutal (15-20mph) but I was feeling pretty good after a warm up. I saw Jordan Rapp, Jill's husband, warming up. He won Ironman Canada and Arizona and is a beast in general. It was a small race but there was some serious talent. I was super nervous because a 20k is a gut wrenching effort and that kind of discomfort is difficult to deal with. You'd be stupid not be nervous for a 20k. It would be like not being nervous the first time you were interviewed by Oprah. Or not being nervous if Oprah was trying to attack you with a brand.

Anyway, I got to the line and the countdown started. When he hit five, my heart rate was already sky rocketing. I jumped off the line and was sailing with a 20 mph storm at my back. I was hitting 35-43 mph and almost nervous going around corners. I was pushing solid watts and had directions to start conservatively. I hit the halfway with an average of 335 watts and something like 34 mph average...just nuts. The effort was comfortable though and I was ready for the wind in the face section which I knew was going to be ugly.

The wind hit me in the face and the effort went through the roof. My speed dropped by about 15 mph. I kept thinking, just gun it and it will be over faster. Get under thirty minutes and no one can laugh at that time. I thought I was fast but basically just didn't want to embarrass myself. Before the start I was thinking that 33 minutes would be a realistic time. Under 30 would be nuts, I kept thinking but I kept glancing at the clock and it looked possible.

I was spitting, huffing, and nearly throwing up, but I was reeling people in all over the place. Honestly I haven't breathed that ragged...maybe ever. I saw the trees that were near the finish and went all in. I hit the line and felt totally decimated.

The second half I ended up averaging 375 watts!

Total time: 29:52 which was good enough for 4th place overall! I went toe to toe with some BIG guns and was right there and even beat some pros!

average watts: 355

I couldn't believe the result really.

I might be more proud of this race than any I can think of in recent memory...

Fat? NO. Powerful.

Pure power, baby!

Alright so I have been doing a bit of thinking about the past year. It was by far my best year for a lot of reasons. I also had an excellent year 3 years ago. However after a couple awesome races that year, I trashed myself and put myself deep into the bucket which lead to a 3 year road back to where I am now. I have changed a lot as an athlete. I got smarter and trained differently. I am also WAY bigger. Not sure exactly why but I can’t seem to stop growing up and out. I think this Seinfeld scene sums it up pretty well…

Elaine is trying to set her friend up with George….

Cynthia: What does he look like?

Elaine: Um, well, he's got a lot of character in his face. Um, he's short.
Um, he's stocky.

Cynthia: Fat. Is that what you're saying, that he's fat?

Elaine: Powerful. He is so powerful, he can lift a hundred pounds right up
over his head. And um, what else. What else. Oh, right. Um, well, he's kind
of, just kind of….. losing his hair.

Cynthia: He's bald?

Elaine: No! No, no, no, he's not bald. He's balding.

Cynthia: So he will be bald.

Elaine: Yup.

I would say I am a way more powerful athlete now than I was. Maybe just fatter but I have numbers to back it up too. Ballpark power increase of 20-25% with a weight increase of only ~10%. I am still running the same which really annoys me but I’m biking lots faster with less effort. I want to be a gazelle but I am more of an elephant or a plow horse and that may just be the nature of the beast. The power has been great and despite the mass, at least I’m not bald…yet.

Haters gonna hate

Just had my first interval session on the run today. I was a bit nervous for it but super excited. I made the mistake of drinking about 4 shots of espresso prior to the run which turned my stomach a bit. I then promptly stepped in dog $#!+ on the warm up. I turned the shoe over thinking it was mud and scraped a bit off with my finger, only to find out it was indeed dog shit. Super nasty. I am kind of thinking about booting just writing it... If I knew the dog that wronged me, I would punt it off a cliff.

Anyway, the workout was 3x5 min @ 10k pace. I ran it a touch harder than that but came in @ 5:32 min/mile pace for the 1st, then 5:42 pace on the next much hillier route, then finally 5:30 pace for the last one. Legit. Not smoking but definitely good for a big rumbler like me.

I also found out I was a USAT All American this past year with a 98.5 rating. Theoretically the fastest amateur in the country scores a 100 so this was Huge! Especially in the 25-29 age group which is lots more competitive than 18-24. I'm on the scene baby. Definitely my best year ever!

2010 races:

6th overall at the olympic distance southwest region championship
5th overall at American Triple T ohio
2nd overall at Rev 3 cedar point half
9:24 at Ironman Florida and qualified for Kona

Hills and Bracelets.

Alright so, I balled out of control today. Hill repeats and I was getting some major flight and moving pretty good for a giant beast.

In other news, I just got suckered by the EFX bracelet scam. Perhaps you have heard of it. If you have, you are no doubt ROFL at me. Understood.

A guy showed me the bracelet and we did a stretch test. I got 2-3 more inches of stretch and actually touched the ground! I have never touched the ground! I really mean never. Not sure why or how... but it was repeatable and continues to work. It didn't work with other 'fake' bands either...

We tried it out on a variety of other balance related tests and it is a complete bogus thing and doesn't remotely help...but the fact remains that I can touch my toes with it and I can't without it. How the hell could this be? It doesn't make sense. My placebo loving brain is screwing with me as we speak. How could it be a placebo for one thing but completely bungus for another?

Apparently this braniac got suckered too... I felt so much worse after seeing this picture. You can officially lump me into a group with Lefty. We are lemmings together.

Off to the pool. Naturally I am probably going to drink some chlorinated kool-aid.

Slaying it on PCH

I have been using my full race setup lately as I haven't gotten around to replacing the tubes in my flat training tires. Lazy. The zipp 808 powertap combined with the joule powermeter keep training fast and interesting. I am starting to really love seeing all my numbers instantly. Especially when the numbers are big.

Today I did a 2.5 hr ride. The first 2 were moderate-hard. Here are the numbers from the 2 hr segment:

Average HR: 153 bpm

Average Cadence: 77

Average Power: 306 watts

Average Speed: 24 mph

Super windy so I am stoked with the speed. The wind got me through 40k in something stupid like 56 min only averaging 295 watts. I was like a sail. Then the wind turned on me and it was super slow but still the power was there.

I am moving pretty good right now on the bike.

Intervals?

I haven't really done proper intervals on the bike in a couple years. I am starting into them and *shocker* they are incredibly uncomfortable. I just did 10 x 2 minutes at 405-415 watts and it absolutely turned me inside out. I felt like my intenstine was going to come out my nose. I was snarling and spitting aggressively (but in a playful manner) sort of like Animal from the muppets.

Either way the watts were balling and I didn't fade terribly. Roughly 10-15 watt drop on the last 3 intervals. The wind was stupid too. 22 mph with gusts at 30 mph. That is a lot to handle when going downhill at 35+ mph. My bike felt like it was trying to throw me off like some sort of demented micky. Overall excellent workout. I am happy to be coming into a recovery week.

20 min TT

Another 20 minute TT... all I can say is wow those things sting the hell out of your legs. I felt like a vile animal with about 5 minutes to go. I had no idea of the amount of snot I could generate if forced. It is remarkable. I rode by a man walking his dog and he recoiled in disgust as I gnashed my drool-covered teeth and blew snot all over my jersey.

I tried to start out sort of conservatively as I was trying to negative split. FAILED. The goal was 350 watts and then build but for some reason I just can't hit that wattage consistently. I am between gears or something. The first 10 minutes were around 377 watts. The second 10 were just an exercise in holding on for dear life and fighting with the bike. I never seem to win that fight.

I ended with an average of 368 watts for 20 minutes! 2 watt PR. I wanted to validate my previous test as it seemed high. I hit it spot on. BALLIN

I wanted to vomit after. Well... I felt like vomiting. I didn't particularly want to.

Jarrod Shoemaker Gets His Cookies RAN as he qualifies for the US olympic team. JARROD-ERES UN ANIMAL ASCO.