Life goes on, training continues, learning from my mistakes and moving on.

I have lived my life being honest and truthful with everything. It's how my parents raised me and really the best way to live life. I am writing to let my friends, family and numerous followers of my blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts know the result of a video contest I entered over the summer. After sending you many email reminders, requests and begs for votes, I need to inform you all that I did not win the contest. Even after getting the most votes, which I thought -- and had many of you believing -- would help me win the contest. The contest was extended an extra 10 days to help everyone collect more votes and spread the word on social media. I guess I was wrong about trying to collect the most votes. When it came down to it, the votes were not how the contest was decided. The winner was chosen by some other method not clear to me.  Whether it was voting for elementary school class president or voting taking place on a TV show to see who is cast off, voting has always been a way of deciding the outcome of many things with the end result being good or bad, right or wrong.  I guess what I am trying to say is, I am sorry for wasting your time in helping me collect votes when they really never mattered. Yes, for those who are just reading this now, it was for the $500 SLiME video contest, held on their website. How can I compare this to my training and racing? Well, when I enter a race I expect the distances be measured correctly, knowing that if it's a marathon, I am running 26.2 miles, nothing shorter, nothing longer.
So life goes on, training continues, I learned from my mistakes and move on. Thank you to all my friends and family and social media followers.

Half way there and feeling very strong

Week nine of training started yesterday and I am feeling stronger than ever.  Allergy issues have gone away and it's full steam ahead. 
On Sunday my workout was a bike/run brick.  I think when it comes down to it, I really think this is one of the best workouts.  My pace on the bike was not killer, but it still had a few hills involved.  Coming off from Saturday's longer ride of nearly 40 miles I was feeling good.  Stopped by my house, transitioned in to my running shoes and out the door for a quick 2 mile out and back run. 
I was able Sunday to also squeeze a gym workout with weights.  The lactic acid in my upper legs made for a tough start to Monday, but nothing a little massage with "The Stick" to roll out my muscles. 
I have been trying to schedule some open water swims, but the pool will do for now.  

bounce back from allergies, tough weeks ahead

Training has been going well and am looking to turn the corner on it getting a little tougher.   Last weekend I was able to get my Saturday workouts in but had to use Sunday as a recovery day.  When I say recover in this instance I mean to get over a quick allergy problem.  A little over the counter allergy medicine, and I have been right back at it.  Swimming is moving right along with progress.  Last night I worked a lot on full pulls with my arm stretching out far, then giving each stroke a full pull making sure my thumbs touched my thighs.  Drills are key in perfecting ones movement in the water.  Last week I used my fins, Zoomers, to help keep my speed up in the water while working on my arms.  The fins give the upper leg a great workout too.  Looking forward to a great weekend training with some bike/run bricks. 

An easy fix with fogging sunglasses

About 4 years back I had a pair of custom sunglasses made.  The frame I chose did not have any nose pads, which was fine for the time being. However, after a few bricks of swimming and running I started to notice the lenses would fog up. While running I would take the glasses off and on to help the problem.  What needed to be done was a very simple fix and it helped in two ways.  I made a pair of nose pads using regular caulking, yes from the hardware store.  I placed a few small circles of caulking on some wax paper of different sized until I had a bunch of choices.  I let the caulking dry a few days, and then picked a matching pair, size wise, and stuck them in the nose piece of the frame.  AWESOME!  The pads help lift the glasses off my nose a bit letting air flow under them and help with the fogging problem.  They also work to help stop the glasses from slipping off the bridge of my nose being they are a little sticky.  A very simple and easy fix.  No more fogging issues.

Great weekend training

 The above image is created using my Mio Quest GPS enabled watch, with heart rate monitor.

 Last Saturday, I was able to nail down another 50 miler in the heat.  I have been working on keeping my heart rate constant.  Some hills were added in this weeks longer ride, but nothing long.  No flats this week.

I guess this could be filed in the "Too Much Information", so for my longer weekend ride, I took my weight before and after Saturday.  I lost about 6 pounds which is before I removed my tri-suit and lost another 2 pounds.  I guess my clothes soaked up more sweat than I thought.  The high humidity must have made the material just hold the water and not let it evaporate.

My running is coming together and getting easier.

This past week I have been pouring over new songs to add to my iPod I run and swim.  Previous playlists I have on my player are getting dull and need to be updated.  I look to post a new group of "What is on my iPod" playlist as soon as I get it made and stay motivated.

Learning from the past and changing the future

Over the past few years I have been training and racing, I have learned a lot about myself and my strategies during racing. Over the last week, I looked back on my training schedule and nutrition from my half Ironman race.  During this race I felt very weak at the end and over the 6 hours on was on the course lost about 11 pounds of weight.  CRAZY!  I was really only concentrating on liquids and gels during the race.
Things I am doing different this time around are:
1.    I have started in my training using more solid easy to digest PowerBars and Gel Blasts.
2.    I am eating more calories prior to training rides and runs as well as before races.
3.    I am taking in more plain water during training.
4.    I have started watching my calories being burned wearing my Mio Quest heart rate monitor

Training from last weekend

This past weekend I was able to get my longest ride in this year at 51 miles. On Saturday, I rode the first 20 miles with a local tri group.  The last 30 was done with a friend after I had a flat and he stopped and waited while I changed the tube.  I am once again working on getting more comfortable in the aero position with some adjustments I have made.   
I felt very strong through out, with an average heart rate of 142 for the just under 3 hour ride.  A little cloud cover helped hold off the heat so my workout was done before 8am. 
On Monday, I took in a 20 mile recovery ride, which was very humid.  I stayed away from the hills and just concentrated on a spinning and keeping my heart rate up.  The just over an hour ride had my heart rate averaging 136. 
My nutrition for both rides this weekend was perfect, with recovery time better than I expected.  Using a PowerBar gel still every half hour needed or not, and consuming 40 ounces of water an hour.