A little time off...

This week was scheduled as a recovery week and it couldn't have come at a better time. The previous week was no so great. I was tired, legs were beat and had to call a friend to come pick me up at sonic in celina because I bonked on a bike ride. My motivation and desire have been at an all time low. The bonk was particularly disturbing because I could have finished the bike ride I just chose not to finish.


I've spoken with a few good friends, got some good advice and also some straight talk (thanks Ryan). I decided to reduce my recovery training load this week and just take some time away from triathlon to figure things out and see if I can identify the issues and make the necessary changes to right the ship. The Ironman is a huge commitment and it can be a little overwhelming at times with everything else those goes on in your life. So... I'm in the process of making changes. I should have everything finalized by next week and will hopefully be ready to get the work in and get this Ironman going.

My wife and 2 older boys are in College Station this weekend so I'm at home with the baby. No PlayTri race this weekend which is fine as I don't get to spend much alone time with the baby and I'm really enjoying our alone time. We've got a big weekend planned. Today we hit Wal Mart, did a session of P90X and we might go swimming in a bit. Tomorrow we are going to hit the carousel at the Mall and go by REI to do a little window shopping.

That's it for now, best of luck to JT at Playtri. Go Seabiscuit.....

almost grinding...

One of my favorite shows, is the The Deadliest Catch. The fisherman commonly use a term called grinding as they are going through 20 hour days trying to catch crabs (that didn't sound quite right). I'm not grinding quite yet on the training plan but I'm getting closer to it. I've got a 100 mile ride scheduled this weekend and I would expect that will be the norm from this point forward. I say bring it on, this is the time where you earn it.

Health wise, body is feeling pretty good except for a head cold that kept me out of work on Tuesday. My house is like a germ factory. At any given time at least one of us is sick so it's a daily roll of the dice to see if I'm going to pick up something.

I'm starting to feel confident on the bike again. The biggest part of the confidence is just remembering how to cycle smart. Pushing the correct gears, not trying to over power everything. Pacing over long distances. I've had 2 very painful rides this month that have reminded of my capabilities and my limits....

Still waiting on approval from my life manager (jennifer) to sign up for the playtri olympic distance race. The past few Saturdays Jennifer has had to "run" late in the day because of my long bike rides. I think Jennifer is starting to dislike Ironman training again :)..

Finally, I had several friends participate in IMCDA last weekend and it always gets me pumped to see friends do well in their Ironmans. All I can say is the bar has been set high for bragging rights. Congrats to Raul, Rodney, Trent & Kevin. Great Job!!!

Crank it up

My training plan is starting to crank up. I've got an 80 mile bike ride schedule this weekend and 100 next weekend, so the light volume weeks are just about over and it's time to "put in the work".

This training cycle for Florida feels so much different then the training for Arizona. I have a new coach, with new philosophies but it's also my attitude towards the race. Previously, I was sky high about the challenge of the Ironman; now I'm still excited but I also know that I've got a lot of work to do to be successful. I've read before that the second Ironman is the toughest because the "excitement" and the "challenge" are just the not the same as they were for the first, and I can say from my standpoint it's true. I'm currently not as motivated as I was for Arizona but hopefully that will change over the next couple of months.

On the family front, we are starting to settle into our summer routine. We just wrapped up baseball and currently have no extra curricular activities which is kind of nice so I'm hoping to make more of the group workouts over the next few weeks. The kids are having a good summer. We took them to Turner Falls on Sunday and they had a ball. Turner Falls is an interesting place because it's a complete throwback. They have a natural swim area with a diving board and a slide from a 10 foot cliff and a lot of slippery rocks and steep trails from the waterfall. In other words it's kind of dangerous and I'm really surprised they don't have you sign all kind of waivers prior to entry, but for 3 little boys it's an absolute playground and Dad likes it as well.

That's it for now, I'm going to sign up for PlayTri Olympic Distance race on July 5th. It's time to see where I'm at.....

Kind of Tired...

Had a fun/painful ride in ardmore on Saturday. In fact the pain of the ride carried over to Sunday which in turn caused my long run for the week to be quite painful as well... So I say thanks to Team Seabiscuit for kicking my butt all over Ardmore, OK. These types of rides are always quite humbling and it's a reminder that there's a lot of work to do. We ended up climbing around 5000 feet that day which is certainly the most I had ever done. I'm hoping this can become a monthly ride....

I was in Wenatchee, WA Sunday-Tuesday and I can honestly say I love that area. It's absolutely beautiful, unspoiled/undiscovered area and they have Cajuns there. What else could you ask for, Mountains, Great Weather and Cajuns. I felt like I was back home in Louisiana. I am however quite tired. The traveling and trying to squeeze in workouts at 9pm at night, eating crap have caught up with me. I decided to take today off from working out to try and recoup. I need to become smarter with my training. I've been trying to force workouts here recently and it's caught up with me (and my coach gave me a good talking to).

I'm having a little trouble with the "breathing" again so I went back to the asthma doctor and got some new medicine, so we will give this a shot and see if helps. Apparently you have to take this medicine consistently not just when you feel like it if you want it to work.

Family is back and I'm glad. I think the kids actually missed me, especially the baby..... Looking forward to the rest of the week.

Long Week...

It's been a long week and I'm anxious for the weekend. I got tied up at work and missed my tempo run and some drills on the bike but other then that I'm staying on top of the workouts. In fact, I'm obsessing again with hitting everything on the training schedule which is good and bad. When I get in that mode it's hard to listen to the body and shut things down when I need to. The volume will start to pick up over the next few weeks and I feel like I'm mentally and physically ready for it.

Jennifer and the kids are in Baton Rouge for a few days so I'm a bachelor this weekend. I miss them, but I'm also going to enjoy my "free" time. I'm heading back to Ardmore tomorrow for a 70 mile bike ride with the Team Seabiscuit crew. These are the type of friends that 1o minutes into the workout you wished they wouldn't have shown up because they are already pushing the pace and kicking your butt!!! Should be painful but fun. Ardmore is really a great place to ride and it's a nice change of scenery from the McKinney area.

I've gotten a little lazy with the blog and I'm going to blame that on twitter. I did however promise my mother-in-law (my most loyal reader) that I would continue to update the blog.

Let me take the opportunity to congratulate my brother from another mother Ryan Brasher on completing his first triathlon. In fact in his first triathlon he placed 3rd in his age group. Who does that!!! This guy will be a beast once he gets the bike down.

That's all for now, at this time tomorrow I'll be in a lot of pain thanks to my good friends from Team Seabiscuit.....

San Antonio

I took off most of last week to head down to San Antonio to see my brother graduate from Air Force Basic Training. Week was well planned out. Drive down on Wednesday, Sea World on Thursday, Graduation on Friday. During that time frame I had mapped out all of my workouts in SA area and was ready to roll and stay on track.

We made it to Sea World on Thursday and Open/Closed the place with 3 kids. Everyone had a great time no major blowups from kids or parents. We ate dinner that night at Buffalo Wild Wings and then Friday morning hit. I woke up around 4am and knew something wasn't quite right and by 5:00am I was throwing up. 645am rolled around I thought I was feeling better so I attempted to go to the graduation ceremony. We finally got on base around 7:30 and I threw up again in the parking lot. Being the Ironman that I am, I figured I could just tough it out. This will be great training for the IM Marathon. I'll save you all of the gory details but I made it to the ceremony but didn't get to see it. I was really disappointed because that's a special moment for a soldier after he completes graduation and gets to see his family but I was in no condition to talk/visit. All in all I probably saw my brother for 10-15 minutes the whole weekend but I promised him I would make it up to him this summer when we go visit him in Pensacola. My webmd degree tells me I had food poisoning.

Last week was somewhat of a wasted workout week but hopefully I'll be able to make up some ground this week and pick up where I left off. My training plan has this marked as a recovery week but I'm going to talk to Coach and see if we want to adjust based on last week since I barely did anything.

I'm feeling the itch to race in a 5K/10K/Sprint race. I'm going to check the local calendars and see what's coming up....

Things are rolling and I'm getting in a pretty good routine. The workouts are fun and challenging and I'm enjoying things right now. Volume is minimal but the group workouts (track, interval bike, tempo run) are pretty intense and they are back to back to back, so by Friday I'm pretty tired but by the time the weekend rolls around I'm typically recovered and ready to roll.

This past weekend I drove up to Ardmore to ride in the Arbuckle Mountains (hills). The official ride of 70 miles was rained out but we stuck around until the rain lifted and rode about 30 miles mainly the hilly sections. The route is scenic and hilly and just all around awesome route. I'm going to go back with some of the old seabiscuit gang in early June. I'm hoping to make this a monthly ride, it's only an hour and half from McKinney and a nice little get away.

The training this week will be cut short a bit. I'm heading to San Antonio on Wednesday to take the kids to Seaworld and to see my younger brother graduate from Air Force Basic Training. Also, my sister (who I haven't seen in 2 years) is flying to Dallas tomorrow night and will drive to San Antonio with us. Coco Family Reunion, look out San Antonio....

It's way past my bedtime but I'm hooked on Michael Irving's "4th and long", I'm thinking Steven the DB is going to be the first one cut....