Galveston

Salt water wetsuit swimming with waves is fun!

Hello Nurse!

It is finally here.

Because of the spectacular weather we've had lately (sarcasm) I've only been able to ride it once outside and once on the trainer, but it's glorious. We had a little difficultly getting the magnet to activate the Quarq powermeter. I ended up filing down the magnet cable guide bracket and flipping it over so that it pointed up towards the bottom bracket and it works. My basic caveman understanding of the powermeter is that it should help me train in a particular power zone and then on race day, I can regulate my effort based upon power instead of heartrate. Today I'm doing a 30 minute test to establish a base.

Over the last couple months I've also been using Restwise. The goal of Restwise is to help you measure your recovery. Every morning I wake up and test my resting heart rate oxygen saturation with a meter that I clip onto a finger. I then weigh myself and answer a few questions about number of hours and quality of sleep, urine color (TMI, sorry), appetite, etc. It then produces a score that I track to see whether  my body is recovered for training. Here's a chart of my recovery over the last couple of weeks.

Green is better. You can see I had a day or two where I didn't get enough rest and my recovery was low.  My coach then adjusted my schedule to allow me to recover and I got back on track.

I leave for Memorial Herman Ironman 70.3 Texas in a few days. Dropping the kids off in Phoenix then heading to Texas. Last year I signed up for California 70.3 but had a frozen shoulder and couldn't get the training in to do the race. I'm looking forward to shaking off the cobwebs and gauging my fitness as I progress to IM Coeur d'Alene which is a mere 91 days away.

If you are reading this blog then you are interested in triathlons. I suggest you check out your results in Athlinks. It tracks your races by year and distance, and then determines who your rivals are based upon the participants in the race. It's Facebook for athletes.

Getting Closer

3 weeks until my first race, 70.3 Texas, and I haven't rode outside since September and my new ride is not yet finished.  It's getting closer though.

New Ride / Argon E-116

It's finally in the Northwest.  Here's my new frame, an Argon E-116.

Can't wait until it's all built up.

Here's what it would look like if I had an extra $8,000 to drop on it.

Alas, Jim at CycleMetrix in Coeur d'Alene is swapping my components from the old frame to this new one.  Can't wait.

If only the snow would go away.

Leadman 250

Last week I signed up for the Leadman 250 triathlon to be held on September 22, 2012, in Bend, OR.  It's a 5k swim, 223k bike, and 22k run.  By way of comparison an Ironman is a 3.86k swim, 180.2k bike, and a 42.195k run.  Should be a fun way to ring in my 38th birthday.  It's also about 3 months after Ironman Coeur d'Alene which should give me enough time to recover and get back into training.

Why did I sign up? I wanted to enter a late season Ironman but forgot about the time difference when I went to sign up for IM Arizona. IM Lousiville is too close to Coeur d'Alene (June 24). Leadman seemed to be a perfect way to keep in shape later in the year and allow me to recover.  Also should be a great way to ring in my 38th birthday later that month (assuming I survive).  

Greetings

Figured I should post something sometime. I'm married, three kids, a lawyer at Workland & Witherspoon, PLLC, and teach at Gonzaga University School of Law. I also 'do' some triathlons and with that I'm a member of Tri Fusion, a groovy tri club here in Spokane.

For a number of years post law school I grew, grew, and grew.  Got to 310.  I'm on the right; big, big boy.

Then on July 4, 2008, I was grilling some awesome sausage, burgers, etc. and realized (in my XXXL tee shirt) that being fat wasn't me.  I rowed at Boston College and was into sports my whole life, but let myself slip into fatness.  The next day I busted out my bike and started to ride.  After a quick loss of 20 pounds I returned to the gym, got a personal trainer, and started to lift and do plyo.  Then in November of 2008 started running 1 minute on, 1 minute off.  Then 2, 3, and 4 on with 1 off.
In May of 2009 my friend and co-worker told me about a sprint triathlon he did years ago in Medical Lake.  We looked it up and it was still around so we signed up.  I hadn't really swam since I was a kid, but I had lost some weight was feeling good and figured I could do it no problem.  I greased myself into a wetsuit Jim had and it took me 9 minutes to cross that tiny little lake.  Had to side stroke.  It was awful.  But I finished and was hooked.

So I signed up for more, bought a Tri bike when a local bike shop had a clearance sale and made the commitment to finish an Ironman.  In 2010 I did Boise 70.3 (with a nice expensive detour to the ER after, which caused me to learn about nutrition).

Then Troika (a local half), as well as a bunch of sprints and Olympic distance races.  In 2011 I 'did' Ironman Coeur d'Alene (finish 14 hrs plus, so FOREVER and then some) and learned a lot (no bibs, really hard to get off quickly when you have to go).

I'm a participant, I'm not fast, I never will be. But I have fun training and 'participating.'

This year I am again doing IM CDA and hope to update this blog along the way. Not that anyone will see it.  But I'm not a pro, I don't make money off of triathlons, spend too much money and time on it, and know, for me, it's about the journey not the time.

It's been almost 4 years since Big Fat Eric.  He was jolly, some say way more fun, but I'm glad he's gone.