Race day wheels

How cool is this? You can rent wheels from these guys.

Cycling Base

I wonder where most of my training is happening.

So, there's this Hottest Legs contest going on over at slowtwitch... 

Tour of Flanders

Here's a toast to Tom Boonen's victory at tour of Flanders. Now, I suggest that you, dear reader, don't do what I am doing; imbibing heavy drink after two days of heavy training.

Bad Boy Beach Bike

I needed a bike to ride to the beach and this is the one I picked.
Nice, no? It's the complete antithesis of my tri bike.

 

Bike Lust

I'm developing a serious bike addiction. I'm lusting after these old sears bikes and trolling craigs list multiple times a day looking for beach cruisers.

Miss Anne Thrope

Anyone know the story behind the news group posts of Miss Anne Thorpe? I really get a kick out of his/hers posts. The name is obviously a play on the word misanthrope.

Here's a small sample of "her" posts:


Golf

Golf disappointing? Did you really think that watching people
push balls into holes was going to be compelling?

Running

And if Miss Anne, while in her truck, does see that jogging silly shmuck, the rest
of the day will then be spent, cleaning the dna from the trucks front vent.

Running is something you do when you're being chased. What you all do
is called jogging. And don't take it personally when I use the term
"jogger". I don't mean it as an insult.....it's just that the other
words I was using were so filthy.

Ego Water Bottle

Sexy.

Injury Progress

I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill tonight. Never felt any heal pain. I did, however, feel some tightness in my groin and some transient pains in my ankle. I suspect these are normal given the time I took off due to the Achilles injury. I never thought I’d be so happy to run on a dreadmill.

First Open Water Swim of the Season

I'm doing my first open water swim of the season today. I hope the weather holds and that the seas don't get to rough. Martin will be swimming with me; so if I run into any trouble, help should be close by. Not sure what route we're gonna take but we might start from the beach in Capitola and swim to the cement ship. Dunno, yet.

Training Status

Here's a quick status report for the month of February.

Total Training Hours: 60.95 hrs.

My training went really well this month. My weight is down to 165 lbs and all indications are that it will continue to drop as I continue to increase my run volume. That means I am definitely on track to reach 160 by Wildflower and I might just make 150 in time for Escape from Alcatraz.

Swim: 7.3 hrs

Had a coach look at my stroke and was pleasantly surprised that there is nothing glaringly wrong. I occasionally drop my elbow when I am tired but everything else looks okay.

Bike: 27.5 hrs

I’m generating more watts and climbing better. For example, during one training ride I put out 253 watts (normalized power) for 30 minutes. Last year I was lucky to put out 200.

Run: 20.2 hrs
My recent move to Asics DS Trainers has gone well and the hip pain I've been suffering is subsiding. I know that it's not a lot for some folks, but I'm very happy with the 133 miles I put in this month. After all, during the first of the month it looked like I might be having a major injury related setback. I'm really lucky to be able to run at all.

My pace and duration of runs has seen improvement as well. Now I am running an ~8:30 pace @ 70% HRR. So that's, 8:30 @ 140 BPM.

I've also made some progress on the LSD front as I've increased my long run to 2 hours. My longest being 2:20.
Strength Training: 5.95 hrs
I’m seeing improvements in my core strength and this is translating well to actual performance.

I'm gonna need a road bike and this one matches my P3.  

I hear that the race ends w/ a gun shot to the head.  

I'm now 5.4 lbs away from my target weight for Wildflower and 15.4 lbs away from my Alcatraz weight. I don't trust the body fat % of the tanita scale but it does work to indicate trends.  

Here's my current bike fit. I suppose I could get a little lower. I'm not sure if my saddle is at the right height either. I posted this pick over at slowtwitch and hope to get some feedback.  

5 Day Forecast

Can I get a little freak'n sun, please?

2005 Race Schedule

Here's my current race schedule for 2005. I've not included any road races but I do intend to race a few 10Ks and 1/2 marathons.

Wildflower - April 29th
Escape From Alcatraz - June 12th
1/2 Vineman - July 31rst
Big Kahuna - Sept 11th

Martin and I did the Wildflower bike course yesterday. I'll post more details later.  

New Shoes

I recently started wearing Asics DS-Trainers. I was a little worried with the chance as a number of shoe sellers have told me that I should be wearing a stability shoe. This probably made sense back when I was 190 lbs. but at now at 167, it may be too much. In fact, I've read a number of folks opine that stability and motion control shoes can cause injury.

My PT tells me that I have been cured of Trendelenburg gait. I guess all the core work I am doing has paid off.  

Old Friends

Found some old pants the other day. Size 40. I'm now sporting 32s.

Is this the shoe of a heavy pronator? I recently bought a pair for Asics DS Trainers and I'm worried that they may be contributing to my hip pain. The DS Trainer lacks a lot of medial support and therefore is not a good choice for someone that over pronates. The trouble is, I really love the way the shoe feels.

This picture is of my Brooks Adrenaline. Notice that there is very little wear towards the "inside" of the shoe.  

Winter?

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours." ~Robert Byrne

 

Run Data.

Here's some data from my afternoon run.
Data Value Unit
Duration 0:39:20
Sampling Rate 5 s

Energy Expenditure 656 kcal
Number of Heart Beats 5794 beats
Recovery -69 beats
Minimum Heart Rate 86 bpm
Average Heart Rate 147 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 161 bpm
Standard Deviation 8.8 bpm

I find this image mesmerizing.  

Tomorrow's ride. It's gonna be pretty and it's gonna hurt.  

 

Are these for real? The site says they are for the Forefoot Runner, whatever that is.