5 to 5

5 to 5, no i don’t mean 9 to 5. i’m talking about 4:55 am. that’s what time my alarm went off for the remaining workdays (thursday & friday) last week & 5 to 5 will continue to be the time my alarm sounds through the remainder of this ironman training season. one of the coaches at t3, maurice, taught me the 5 to 5 saying. 4:55 am just sounds too early to be waking up where as 5 to 5 doesn’t – it’s a mental thing.

so what kind of training am i waking up for? thursday morning was a 3000+ meter pool workout & friday morning was a 10 mile run. knowing that i’ve got to get these workouts in to stay on track, i am safer working out first thing in the morning because work & other things can’t get in the way. of course, to meet my training goals i’m sort of dependent on working out two times a day so this approach won’t really mean much – it will ensure i get at least one of the two workouts in a day that i need. just during this first week of training i have worked out twice on monday, tuesday, wednesday, & thursday. surprisingly this weekend’s workouts have been more relaxing & i’ve been able to sleep in a bit.

i’ve noticed that there are some really cool things about getting up early (especially in austin). like seeing the city from south 360 in the morning, seeing the steam come up off the lake, watching the rhythm of the sculling teams on the water, seeing bikers on the road with their lights beaming, & the sunset from almost any angle. not to mention that you get to hear most NPR stories twice because they recycle the 5am stories around 7am so if you the news didn’t sink in the first time you’ll have a second shot at it. oh & the last really cool thing is coming home & enjoying a cup of coffee after you’ve been out working out in the cold.

what is it like running 100K?

ever wonder what running 100K (62 miles) would be like? i couldn't begin to tell ya, nor do i want to know what it would feel like. my buddy peter who just finished the bandera 100K this past weekend can.

peter's account of his race tells you like it is. he knows how to put you right in his shoes & those are some big shoes to fill. my hat goes off to a guy like this who can get out there & push himself beyond both physical & mental extremes. i don't know many people that can run for 15+ hours & i know that was the easy part compared to the months of long run training. i mean this guy was doing beyond marathon distance runs for training week in & week out.

congratulations peter!

swimming is actually cool

i broke the cardinal rule during this past off season. i didn't practice the worst of my three sports. in fact, i've been avoiding swimming like the plague. today that all changed; i joined t3 this morning for their swim practice & boy did i need it.

i swam 2800 meters which was the longest i've ever swam in the pool for a single workout. the entire workout of various drills took just over 1 hour & 20 minutes. my fingers actually turned into prunes; it was great though. chrissie (coach pain) was awesome & kept me focused throughout the entire workout. i'm not actually as bad as i thought i was either & by the end of the workout i was really enjoying it. granted, i was wiped near the end & i'm sure to be sore (for the first time ever from swimming) tomorrow morning... it was just different pushing myself in the water. it wasn't like a really long run where your knees, feet, or hips start hurting - i was just physically getting tired. the muscles you use when swimming aren't the ones we normally work while in the gym lifting weights. i told kristin that after a month of doing these workouts with t3 (yes, i'm officially signing up) my shape is sure to change as a result of all the swimming & the new muscles that are going to be worked.

after the swim ed & i met noah down at the lake. we ran a quick 7 miles & all called it a day. i'm still iffy on the AT&T marathon in mid february. i suppose i don't want to give in; however, almost everyone is telling me that it's only going to conflict with my tri training & worse off it could slow me down due to the recovery time i'm going to need when the race is over when i'll need to be focusing on my tri training. we'll see - there is still time to decide either way.

don't let your brain fool ya

i read the article i’m not really running, i’m not really running by gina kolata which was published in the NY times on dec. 6 2007.

the story gives an example of an ivy league pole vaulter whose coaches and teammates always noticed that he could jump higher than he was. every time he made a jump he cleared the pole with about a foot to spare. however, if they moved the bar up just a single inch he would hit it every time.

so one day, when the vaulter wasn’t looking, his teammates raised the bar a good six inches & the kid vaulted over the new height, again with a foot to spare. when his teammates confessed about raising the bar, the pole vaulter could not believe he had done it. yet, when he tried jumping that same height now knowing how high it actually was he couldn’t clear it.

the story explains how our brains have the ability to hold us back if we let it; especially when dealing with endurance sports training. the story goes on to talk about zoning out while running & how to push your body to it’s peak even when your brain is telling you to take a break or slow it down.

as i gear up for this year’s ironman this is sound advice & i’ll have to learn to deal with my own brain & recognize when it’s in conflict with my body’s physical ability. of course, pain is an entirely different topic & i’ll need to realize when i’m encountering pain so that i don’t risk pushing so hard that i injure myself.

i often have to remind myself when i’m racing that i am *not* racing the guy or lady next to me, i am actually racing myself.

obama smokes

barack obama is a true intellectual in my opinion. obama graduated from columbia & harvard law school. while at harvard he was president of the harvard law review. while i know many people with power have their degrees paid for, i believe without a doubt that obama earned his. i’ve listened to him during the debates & on NPR & have also read excerpts from his book & there is no hiding his ability to think.

i suppose that’s why it’s so hard from me to understand why the man smokes. i understand addiction; however, anyone with half a brain knows how bad smoking is for you. while this one bad habit won’t prevent me from voting for him, it would bother me if our next president was a smoker when everyone understands the health risks associated with smoking.

week1 - CDA training in 2008

tomorrow, january 7th i start my hard core ironman training for CDA 2008. rather than start another blog i'm going to tag all entries with "CDA 2008 training". i need to work on a more sophisticated training log. my buddy noah is supposed to hook me up with his soon. for now i'm documenting in a simple format that makes posting to this blog easy.

(all times reflect start time of workout)

tue, jan 1 (4:30 pm)
- 3 mile jog around the lake w/ trevor

wed, jan 2 (6:45 pm)
- 30 minute spin
- 10 minute (1+ mile) treadmill
- abs
- misc: pushups & dips

thu, jan 3
- 3 mile jog around the lake w/ payton (6:30 am)
- abs (11:50 am)
- 45 minute spin class (12:00 pm)

fri, jan 4
- 3 mile jog around the lake w/ payton (7:00 am)
- 20 minutes on the elliptical (6:30 pm)
- quick total body workout (6:50 pm)
- lap swimming 750 meters (7:15 pm)

sat, jan 5
- 50 mile fitzhugh ride w/ aaron, jason, & billy (9:00 am)

sun, jan 6
- 2800 meter swim with t3 – 1hr 23min (8:00 am)
- 7 mile run – 56min 45 sec (10:30 am)

the audi is naked

the a4 is officially ready to sell. after i got home from biking yesterday i pulled off the bike rack & then took it over to arbor car wash for a cleaning. it's the first time in a long time that i've taken the car for a washing. i've always be adamant about keeping the interior in pristine shape (that's where i sit everyday). the exterior for the most part i could really care less.

i think the a4 is a beautiful car, (i wouldn't have bought it if i had thought i otherwise) i just think mine looks naked now without the bike rack. i suppose it's like the day after i shaved my "mountain man" beard that i was growing last month. i didn't even recognize myself for the first 24 hours after. hopefully soon i'll recognize the a4 too :) more importantly, i hope it sells quickly!

brussel sprouts 101

my lesson learned the other day about brussel sprouts... kristin i went grocery shopping at whole foods where we buy 90% of our groceries. the other 9% come from central market & the remaining 1% come from HEB. anyhow, we headed over to central market on the way home & kristin dropped me off to run in & grab three things: chicken, sandwich buns, & brussel sprouts.

the chicken was easy; three ancho marinated breasts & one greek marinated breast. the sandwich buns were even easier, they are already packaged up. the brussel sprouts however were a bit more complicated.

i've never picked up brussel sprouts before. kristin & i share the grocery shopping chore & i don't recall us every buying brussel sprouts. a few weeks ago when we were having dinner at whole foods i grabbed some grilled brussels sprout & they were amazing. then this past weekend while at my parents house my mom made brussel sprouts for dinner. so kristin decided she wanted to make some brussel sprouts too.

the brussel sprouts were easy to find, however, the approach to getting them wasn't so straightforward. they were on this long stalk that i'd never seen before. so thinking that central market is all foodie & all i assume you just start picking the sprouts right off the stalk. so i started picking one sprout at a time - filling up my little baggy all happy & all. then i noticed a couple of ladies looking at me kind of funny, almost giggling. i stopped what i was doing immediately & dialed the girlfriend. "kristin, i think i might be doing something wrong. i'm picking these sprouts off the stalk & some ladies where kind of giggling at me." kristin chuckled & said, "sweetie, you are supposed to grab the entire stalk. when we get home we break off the sprouts - not at the store." well that answered the question about why these ladies were giggling. geez, they could have just helped me out ya know...

anyway, i grabbed the full stalk & made my way to the checkout line as quickly as i could - lesson learned!

fitzhugh ride – saturday, jan. 5th

yesterday, saturday, jan. 5th i rode fitzhugh with aaron, jason, & billy. i had ridden a portion of fitzhugh with t3 some months ago & i wasn’t too thrilled with the ride. with t3 we left from the city (circle c) & had to work our way out there & then we didn’t go very far down fitzhugh.

we did it much different yesterday. aaron has a buddy whose parents own some land just off of 290. we parked the cars (last time the a4 is going to have bikes on it – assuming it sells quickly) & were able to get right to the riding (no stop signs, traffic lights, heavy traffic, etc.). i was all jazzed up when we got going because i knew aaron & jason really like to ride hard & fast. then one mile into our 49 mile ride i lost the ability to shift using my front derailleur & when my cable broke i was in my small ring. this meant i was going to be doing a lot of spinning today & i wouldn’t be able to take advantage of my power on the hills & on the down hill i’d only be able to go as fast as gravity would take me. while i was at a disadvantage to riding with these other strong riders i thought to myself it’s good to happen here & not in a race & two it’ll be good training (lemonade from lemons approach).

good training indeed! the ride was awesome, we did a quick loop on the main portion of fitzhugh road to add a few miles & then took it way west out to pedernales state park (i hear the falls there are worth seeing) & then looped back. the ride was fast, hilly, full of great scenery, & little to no traffic! it was a really fun ride that i want to do more often. with the wind & my loss of 10 gears basically i was still able to ride an average of 18.5 mph.

after the ride i swung by bicycle sport shop to drop off the tri bike, pick up the road bike (broke a spoke about a week ago & it needed a tune-up), & most importantly pick-up some warm weather riding gloves & a beanie. the guys at bicycle sport shop rocked again – they took my tri bike right from me & fixed it within 10 minutes. so when i left, i had both bikes on the car!

2008 texas tri series

it is going to be a fun tri season here in texas for 2008. the texas tri series has just been announced. check out the fun at www.texastriseries.com! last year i completed all but two races in the series - i plan to do them all this year (maybe not the longhorn race because i'm not a fan of the course). odd, but this year the texastriseries just looks like fun; not work :) see what signing up for an ironman will do to a person.

super healthy pumpkin bread

i would have taken a picture of the actual bread but i ate both loaves to quickly. if you don't want the super healthy version & don't mind settling for the healthy version you just need to add some sugar. kristin recommends 1 1/2 cups of sugar. this bread really is amazing folks!

super healthy pumpkin bread recipe:

- 3 1/2 cups: whole wheat flour

- 1 1/2 tspoons: salt

- 2 tspoons: baking soda

- 4 tspoons: nutmeg

- 4 tspoons: cinnamon

- 1 cup: chopped walnuts

mix dry ingredients together

- 2/3 cup: water

- 1 cup: apple sauce

- 4 egg beaters (or real eggs if you prefer)

- 1 can: pumpkin

- mix all ingredients together

- spray pans (makes 2 pans) with pam & then dust pans with whole wheat flour

- bake at 350 degrees for 1 hr & 10 mins

now keep this stuff away from me because i'll eat it all immediately!

product placement

i’ll lead off by saying i am fool for even watching tranformers the movie. the TV cartoon kept me company for many years & i wanted to see what it was all about. of course i knew the autobots would win in the end; i am referring to the special effects folks & how technology put this movie together. from the get go i couldn’t understand why bumble bee was a chevy camaro. everyone knows that bumble bee was a freakin VW bug. then i started doing some googling while watching the movie (i was at home & kristin was at central market enjoying a wine tasting) & i discovered that GM sponsored a good portion of the movie. hence why the autobots where all GM vehicles & the decepticon vehicles where ford (camaro versus mustang).

as i continued watching the movie i started looking for even more product placement. this movie was full of it. i suppose the audience for such a movie is quite vast unlike most of the grammy award winners that actually involve a story that requires some thinking, some emotion, & a damn good script. so what other product placements did i find while watching this movie?

an HP laptop, cisco, ebay (probably appeared 20 times), a reference to the 40 year old virgin movie, GM vehicles (the new camaro, a hummer, cadillac, pontiac, & GMC), apple computer, ford mustang, yahoo, the washington redskins, burger king, reference to the taco bell dog, radio shack, & mountain dew.

i find product placement in so many places now – it’s actually become very annoying. also, we’ve got to be cognizant of where we get our news & what stations fund what other programs, companies, politicians, etc. we all know what people think of fox news :)

about last night

while "about last night" is also the name of one my favorite 80s movies (stars demi moore, rob lowe, james belushi) i'm referring to how we rang in 2008. for 4 years now (excluding last year when we were in prague) kristin & i have made dinner reservations for two at 10pm at flemings. i think it was after our first new years together that we both decided that waking up late in the afternoon with a severe hangover is not how we wanted to start our new year off.

we would enjoy a nice dinner together, celebrate at midnight with a champagne toast at the restaurant, & then off to the house for bed. i think the first couple of years we did this we actually went to a party after we rang in the new year which would for the most part just result in the very thing we were attempting to avoid (waking up late with a hangover). so by year 3 we had perfected having a nice dinner, a champagne toast, & then home for bed.

this year we modified things just ever so slighty... we switched up the venue from flemings to vin bistro (www.vinbistro.com). it's a cool little restaurant next to kerbey lane that prides themselves on the wine & food pairings. kristin recommended vin after a night out with the girls there some months ago. we also invited another couple out with us - eryn & alex. we've known them for just over a year (i work with eryn - she's a graphic designer). they are very cool & interesting company & more importantly fun to hang out. they are actually getting married in april of 2008 in florence (where they met while studying abroad in college). anyhow, the company was great. eryn & alex met us at our place to visit with the new pup. i think eryn got a real kick out of payton - especially his ridge.

as for vin, it wasn't horrible & it wasn't great either. the decor at vin was nice & comforting. right out of the gates they warned us that they had run out of their fillets. eryn, alex, & i were all thinking fillets tonight too. eryn & kristin ordered wine & i went with a tito's & soda (wanted something other than wine tonight). kristin's wine actually tasted like a match stick so after she asked the waiter for a wine card & they didn't have one he offered to bring her a glass of something else. she went with a safe riesling (same thing eryn ordered) & all was well.

without the fillet the menu consisted of the usual sea foods: tuna, sea bass, halibut, & lobster. they were sporting a new years menu so chicken, lamb, salmon weren't on the menu last night. kristin, eryn, & alex all went for the sea bass. i was so close to getting the lobster when i caved for the tuna because it came with soba noodles (i swear the dish was made just for me). the sea bass was pretty nice. kristin & eryn didn't like the maple syrup that accompanied it. while alex finished his quickly i don't think he was a huge fan - just very hungry. i thought for sure that the tuna & soba were going to rock, however, the tuna wasn't that great a piece of meat & it didn't cut up very well & worse off it has some sort of bbq sauce like thing on it - oh well, at least it was healthy :) i forgot to mention the appetizer - the crab cakes were fantastic! lightly seared & almost nothing but crab.

the night was full of fun conversation. discussing '08 plans & goals. talking about our pets & other low key stuff such as movies, etc. we had some pretty good laughs throughout the night. we toasted at midnight with a glass of champagne & then eryn & alex came back to our house to see payton one last time & hear some more of thelonious monk's great jazz.

& that was our new year's celebration. 2008, i welcome you with open arms!

2008 texas caviar

for 3 years now kristin has made up a big bowl of texas caviar on new years day. i love the stuff not only because it taste good but because it is also so good for you. i think i may go the entire day & eat nothing but texas caviar. i'll be a vegan for the day! i've already finished the bag of organic blue chips w/ flax seed (sounds great huh?) & moved on to the whole earth wheat chips (super healthy version of a triscuit). hopefully we'll have texas caviar more than once this year.

first thing learned in 2008

something interesting about car insurance, at least in our case. it's actually going to cost more to have the same level of insurance on the '99 4runner than it is to cover an '03 a4 or the '06 4runner. it's about $100 more a year than the a4 & about $70 more a year than the '06 4runner. i would have thought for sure it would have cost way less. maybe after some time we'll drop the comp & collision on the '99 4runner. one thing that the agent from amica said was that newer cars just have more safety features & it usually costs more to get parts for older cars because they aren't as readily available. in the case of the 4runner i don't think the parts example is true because i see a crap load of 4runners with the same body style on the road everyday. oh well, lesson learned. i suppose this is my first learning experience of '08.