I am one lazy bastard

I was at J&A's yesterday talking with Terranova. We were talking about his new bike, how he has created his own stimulus package and why his wife is so damn awesome. In the middle of the conversation I was ready to go home and he says...."Will you update your blog?" I was like...." that's a work in progress." Well here it is Paul.....best of luck tomorrow and you're lucky I'm not racing.
So...... I have been freaking wicked depressed lately. No real reason....ok maybe one but for the most part I have just been in a shitty mood. CDA is going to be tough for me since my training has been shit and I haven't had my head into it since I crashed on my bike. Just serious lack of motivation on my part. The one reason why I have been down a bit is that Pain is taking on a smaller roll at T3 and she is going back into the workforce. I found out the hard way.... a friend of mine was given her resume and this friend asked me about Pain. It was a tough pill to swallow but I knew it was coming. But...... as I told Pain, she has to be happy before she can make anyone else happy. I will still see her all the time and we text almost daily but she's "my coach" and I will miss that terribly.
Training as I said hasn't been all that great. Swimming sucks because my shoulder is still giving me a problem. I did make it 2400 m yesterday at the springs but I ran out of gas towards the end of that. My running is shit because my knee is killing me so all I can do is slow runs. I can barely get faster than an 8:30 mile right now. Cycling is just depressing. I haven't done one ride over 100 miles when I should have done 5 or 6 of them. I did 80 today and I almost passed out at mile 75 because it was so freaking hot out. So overall...... shit sucks right now.
Personally..... I got hammered drunk on Monday after the race. Will someone please tell me to slow down after my 10th beer!!!!! Jesus..... I was out of control.

Good things.....
I met up with a snake in the road on my ride today. I didn't shit my pants. Good thing.
I finally cleaned my bike today. It needed it badly. Reminder..... lube my chain tomorrow.
Mo paid me on time. I was amazed. Keep it up Mix master.
Jess and Elizabeth made me food this week. Thanks ladies.
Blythe made me cookies but Kevin Teh ate them. I'm kicking your ass this week Kevin. You son of a bitch!


So there is my update. Hope it treats you all well and that I can remember to update it more regularly.

An over due update

Training wise things are picking up again. Nothing crazy but things are building up for me and I am happy with that. This season had been a rough one for me. I was sick, had a staph infection removed from my arm, crashed my bike, separated my shoulder and 3 weeks ago I slipped a disk in my back. Needless to say I have missed a lot of the training that I had hoped to do. I had a sit down with Pain and we talked about how I really didn't want to do CDA anymore because I'm not going into the race like I wanted to. She convinced me to finish it off and pick up the pieces after the race. We both agreed that me racing this race is not going to happen. I'll be out there just chuggin' away but not like I had hoped. I am disappointed but I am already making plans for CDA in 2010 and plan to come back stronger.

Here's what I have been doing.
Sunday, May 3rd - I announced Skeese Greets in the morning and ran 9 miles in the afternoon. It has been very humid and hot here in Austin for about 2 weeks. The heat is ok but the humidity sucks ass. The 9 miles were the slowest 9 miles I have ever run.
Monday, May 4th - Played hookie from work because I was a bit hungover from Seba and Molly's party. No training but I did get my X washed and I changed the oil.
Tuesday, May 5th - Spin in the PM. Holy shit is it hot in the PTC right now. Good lord.
Wednesday, May 6th - Swam 2400 meters in the springs
Thursday, May 7th - Did an easy spin at the PTC before work because after work I met up with Lapuente and we ran our long run because we both had to work this weekend. We ran 20 miles in about 3 hours. It was about 95 degrees when we started with about 90% humidity. We went through a ton of water. When we finished we were both cramping in our legs like crazy and I was bleeding like crazy on the back of both of my heels since I wore very short socks for the run. Note to self..... don't do that ever again.
Friday, May 8th - Did absolutely nothing.
Saturday, May 9th - Biked 86 miles and averaged about 17.7 mph. I ran out of water with about an hour to go before I finished and I suffered for that. Ride went well. My shoulders and neck were ok and my back didn't bother me. I just don't have the legs right now for the long stuff.
Sunday, May 10th - I announced the Rookie Tri and had a blast.
Monday, May 11th - No training on this day, though I should have at least hit the pool.
Tuesday, May 12th - I ran 5 miles this morning before work. I had a massage during lunch from the PW. After work I hit the RunFar Time Trials. It's an 8 mile bike tt in south Austin. It's free and I wanted to ride outside today. I'm not sure how I did since my bike computer wasn't working and I forgot to start my watch. We'll find out tomorrow. I think I did it in 21 minutes. I an definitely not in tt shape. My heart rate was about 180 on average. I'm usually around 165.

Damn hippies

Today started off with me announcing the start of the Shiner GASP. It's a 100 mile ride from Austin to Shiner. Google it to find out more.

After that I jumped over to J&A's to go for a ride by myself to see where I was with my biking. Bad move on my part. I ended up meeting up with the J&A's shop team who were waiting for the ATC Taco ride to come rolling by. I was not prepared to take this on but I really didn't have a choice. Well.... it didn't take long for me to figure out my cycling sucks right now. I was dropped before the 10 mile mark. So I just settled in to what I wanted to do. It was made kind of tough since my bike computer wasn't working. But I did my best to gauge where I was in effort and went with that. I did the Bee Caves loop 2 twice and didn't do as well on the second loop as I did the first. I was a little disappointed with that. At about mile 50 my legs started to fade and I struggled a bit to finish off the 60.

What made the struggle a bit tougher was the march that was happening on Barton Springs Rd. Now I am all for freedom of assembly but when your cause is fucking ridiculous that's when I get a little pissy. The knuckleheads were blocking both lanes of the damn road marching to legalize marijuana. If you smoke the stuff that's cool with me but if you are going to protest something then do it the right way and not in my way. The fucking morons were all over the place totally disrupting the flow of traffic and generally being douche bags. They have a cause which is great but when you take 300 baked jackasses all you have are 300 baked jackasses and no love from me.

After the ride I spent about 3 hours at the shop just hanging out. I can't tell anyone how much I enjoy that. Just sitting there and talking bikes and tri's. I had no place to be and the place was hoping. Glad to see business is well.

2 last things.....

I have a new bike. It's a 2009 Kutoa Kaliber. Sram Red. V Flow Seat. Shimano Wheels. Speedplay X2 pedals. Great bike and a joy to ride. I'll attach a pic of it.

Also....another pic. Now I was reading Inside Triathlete mag the other day and a pic totally caught my eye. It's Chrissie Wellington walking through the infield of a track after she finished a set of 200's. I just think it shows that even the pros get tired and enjoy walking just as much as use regular age groupers. To me the pic just says a lot.

Letting the good times roll.

Well it’s been a while. My luck hasn’t been very good this training season. On Sunday the 19th I was on my way out the door to go ride. I bent over to pick up my running shoes and WHAM!!!!!! I slipped a disk in my back and I dropped like a sack of potatoes. I spent the next 2 days in bed and just now am starting to walk upright again. Man did that kick me in the ass. I still haven’t run and I just got back on the bike Tuesday. I have done 4 spin classes this week and each time I feel as though I am getting better. I’m riding 75 tomorrow outside so we’ll see how that goes.
Wed. and this morning I was at Barton Springs trying to get some open water swimming in. I swam 1 mile both mornings and both times my shoulder was sore after I finished. I kind of expected it to and with my back bothering me I almost forgot about the pain in my shoulder. Good times.
So with all the obstacles that I have had to face this off season I almost gave up on CDA. It’s just not going the way I wanted it to. But after some quality time with Pain we’ve decided to get me out there. I will not be in race shape for this but since I have already paid for everything I might as well go. Plus there are some other reasons that I will not go into here.
So I’m going to try and run this Sunday. My back is still bothering me so this may not be the best run and hell….. I may not even be able to take a step but I’m going to see.
One thing about this whole back/shoulder shit that I have dealing with that I am looking forward to is that it is forcing me to take some drastic measures. I have stopped drinking again until after the race and I have put myself on a diet until then as well. I would like to loose 10 lbs before race day. I have a partner in this endeavor and it’s my fellow coach Suzanne. She wants to drop a few more lbs before race day so we’re going to try and keep each other focused.