I 'heart' the Fluff

One of my athletes knows I love Marshmallow Fluff. My mom sends it to me sometimes and it's always awesome when she does. Guice found some at Central Market the other day and brought it to me yesterday along with some cookies. This what I eneded up with......

Sooooo good! Thanks!

First big weekend in a while

I finally put together a solid weekend of training. Happy to do it and happy to be done with it.
Friday I did the bomb run. I was actually ahead of Richie Cunningham (yes, that's his real name) at about the 1.5 mile mark. I was smart enough to peel off and do a different route before he and Evoe killed me. It was fun to get out there and get the blood flowing early on a Friday.
Saturday I swam @ LC for 3000m and I felt kinda ok. Straight was taking it to me but I hung in there. After the swim I went home, changed, ate and made my way to the PTC for a 3 hr trainer ride. Thank the lord that Pain was there shot calling. She kept that up for the first 2 hours and then the last hour was on my own. Watched about 4 IM videos so that kept me motivated. I had Lapuente and Kolko beside me so I always had someone to chat with. After the ride I took another shower and started to clean bikes. I cleaned 10 in one afternoon. Man that was tough but well worth it for the people that needed their bikes cleaned. Plus I made some cash and acquired a 12 pk of Miller Lite. Thanks Esther!
Today I was at the pool again for another swim. I need to work on it so I am forcing myself to get there. Pape was fantastic today. She pushed us but gave us enough rest when we needed it. I look forward to my next workout with her. After the swim I go cleaned up and changed into running attire. I headed to J&A's and departed for a 2 hour run on the trail. Good times but not all that fast. That's ok.... I needed to get the time in anyway so I'm good with that.

Overall is was a great weekend. I had some drama come my way but I tossed that crap in the trash and have moved forward. Some people just irritated me.

Here's something for your funny bones....
I was at the Sprint store today getting a new phone. My Blackberry was just killing me. I was there for a little longer than I had planned and started getting wicked light headed and weak. I knew I needed food. So as I sit there I start taking a mental inventory of what I have in the X for food. All I think I have is a cold Miller Lite. Just one! So now this is where I think I am loosing my mind. I start to contemplate whether it's ok to get the 150 calories from the beer and deal with the booze that comes along with it or do I suffer and hang on til I get home.
I'll let you all think on that and figure out the answer yourself. :)

Deserving, earning and down right cheating.

There is no fine line between earning and being given things. There is no comparison!!!!! I say this because this week was the Kona Lottery. Let me explain to those who don’t know what it is.
Kona is the Ironman World Championships. This is the big one. Yes, there are many other IM’s out there but those are qualifiers for Kona. To qualify for Kona you have to pretty much finish top 3 in your age group to have a chance. For me, that would be under 10 hours. Once you get a qualifying slot you get the chance to race in Kona. That’s all you get, nothing is free in this world and the people who put on IM’s make your wallet very aware of that. I could totally go into how IM (the event itself) is not worth the $575 entry fee after the first time but I’ll save that for another day.
The Kona Lottery is for folks who pay around $150 just to get their name in a hat for the chance to participate in Kona. That’s right….. they pay a good chunk of change just to be able to say they went to Kona. Notice I said “went”…..these people did not qualify. They were lucky and that’s about it.
My issue with the lottery is that you can pay the $150 bones and then cross your fingers for the chance to go to the big one. I believe this lottery thing is horseshit! It’s just another way to screw the age groupers who work their asses off out of their just right. There are people out there who absolutely bust their ass just to go out to a qualifier and have their dreams crushed because they came in 4th in their AG and only the top 3 get a slot. Why not get rid of the lottery and open up more opportunities for the AG’ers to EARN their spot @ Kona? I understand that there would be some situations that would qualify for someone who can’t qualify for Kona to get a chance to go. That’s cool and I don’t have a problem with that. Maybe having them write an essay as to why they should be given a bib # to Kona. If they have a disease that will not allow them to get there in the future, had a death in the family and there needs to be some closure or maybe their doing it for some honest reason like for the troops or something like that. I’m all good with those reasons. But don’t you tell me that a perfectly capable person who just doesn’t want to work for their spot can pay some money and get a chance to go to Kona. Again… horseshit!
I know people who have just about killed themselves through hard work and determination to get to race a qualifier and have the race of their life just to get that slot. A couple of names that come to mind are PT, Jim and Michelle Ryan. Shit… Michelle had to travel to Brazil to have a chance. All of these people have trained for years to get to where they are and have sacrificed soooooo much to make their dreams of Kona come true. I am very proud to call these people my friends as I look up to them and see that there is hope for me to get to the Big Island one day.
I almost don’t have anything personal against anyone who enters the lottery but don’t you dare even act/think that you deserve to go. Not for a second!!!!! You didn’t do the work. You didn’t sacrifice. You didn’t pay the personal price. You didn’t EARN it! You basically cheated yourself.
So if you are out and about and see someone with a Kona jersey or maybe overhear someone @ a party talking about how they went to Kona you should just pop in and say, “Where’d you qualify?” If they say anything other than a qualifying event…… look down upon that person and say….. “Yeah… that’s what I thought.”

If this offends anyone…… well…. toughen the hell up. This is my opinion and my blog. If you don’t like it change the channel.

Just been busy

Been real busy with the tri season kicking off and such.

Pretty tired right now but I thought i would share this with you.

On my bike ride to the track today I stopped at a light and my boss was a few lanes over getting ready to make a turn. He drives a convertible Porche and it looks badass. He sees me and yells over to me, "Hey you want a ride?" People see this so I reply...." No man I want to race. That car isn't shit compared to the Ltrain." I saw about 3 other people in cars laughing their asses off.

Shit....it's windy!

Yep, Austin, TX in the spring brings a few things. The Bluebonnets are out, the temps are in the 80's, allergies are through the roof and yes....it's windy no matter what the weather guy says. I have been riding more outside and I always know that somewhere, somehow....I'm gonna get some wind to deal with. I knew this going into the season so I have kinda embraced it. Yeah it's windy.... so what? This goes along with my other thoughts of, so it's raining......so what? There are hills on this route.....so what? I keep saying "Bring it!" I don't advise others to take this attitude on because you kinda have to have a different mindset and have the unique ability of not giving a shit of what people think about you. I look at it this way, if it's windy, wet, cold or hilly it's only going to make me better/ stronger. I am confident in my riding skills and I am comfortable riding with traffic so what others think about a said route doesn't get to me. If I came to ride then I am riding.

Today I rode to work again in the morning after a 40 minute core set with Mo. The ride was nice but the same as usual. On the way home the wind was worse than it has been all spring. I had a total headwind and I was ok with that. I just played it a little more safe than I usually do and pushed the best I could. At one point when going downhill on 360 I was pushing my second easiest gear the bike had with a 85 cad. I was going 12 mph......that's downhill!!! Just a bit of a breeze. Once back at the ptc I changed into some running attire and ran down to J&A's and back. Just about 4 miles. I would have ran with the Ship but the intensity of the runs that they are doing isn't going to keep me healthy for very long. I think one workout a week with them will be good. The run today was tough as I couldn't get into a good grove but that's fine. I have a long weekend ahead of me so I'll forget all about it by tomorrow.

Training makes you tired

I have no idea how I have trained for 3 Ironmans. I did one really hard workout yesterday and I have dragging ass all day today. I made it to the PTC this morning for a spin class with Pain. I lasted just over 30 minutes. That was my plan as I did not get in a good stretch yesterday evening. I spent 15-20 minutes this morning getting in some solid stretching. It felt pretty good. I used the spin class to mainly loosen my body up so I could stretch.
I hit the pool during lunch today. I got a bunch of sun on my back. I have to remember sun block next time. Amanda was the coach today and she wasn't too bad. Hell, she remembered my name and that's a big plus in my book. I was sloooooooow today but with more swim time scheduled I hope to get back to a normal swim feel.
My hamstring is killing me today. I think it was the swim because before it I think I was fine. It's tight as all hell. I am really hoping is doesn't bother my ride or run tomorrow. We'll see.

Catch up

This is the crunched version of the past few days.
Friday: Did nothing because my legs were fried from core, riding, riding again, running hills workout, riding some more and then 2 Step lessons. Being a big deal is tough!
Sat: Missed the opp to ride with Jess and the gang so I started at Akins around 7:30. Very windy but I was more than happy to put the work in. 73 miles @ 18.5 mph.
Sun: Did nothing. But I did go to the roller derby Sunday night! Man that stuff is crazy and the people that go to these things are totally fun just to watch.
Mon: Worked and coached.
Tues: Back to being a badass. At the PTC @ 5:30 for core. By 6:30 I was on the road riding to work in the dark again. BORING!!! I couldn't get my legs moving quickly. Must have been the Roller Derby beverages. After work I rode to O'Henry for a track workout with the Ship. This Run Fast Run Less shit is going to kill me.
On tap for tonight was a 1600, 3200, 800, 800
According to Big's chart I needed to run a 6:12, 12:40, 2:58, 2:58
This is how it panned out: 5:59, 13:21, 2:59, 3:01. I read the first time incorrectly and ended up going faster than I needed. The 3200 I think may have been a little longer but I really don't care. It finished on an uphill and I crushed that son of a bitch! Thought of PT while the crushing was going on. The 2 final 800's hurt like hell. Thanks to Big, Dave (?) and Bruce (my favorite liberal) for pulling me through.
After the painfest was over I had to ride back to the PTC. It really hurt to ride that 5 miles. The last hill almost did me in. Just downright hard work this afternoon. Oh and did I mentioned my ride after work had 17 mph headwinds and traffic was all jacked up. But yet again.... I welcome the wind. Bring it bitch!

Happy Birthday to my sister Stacey on Sunday
Happy Birthday to my brother Grant tomorrow
Happy Birthday to Matthew (Molly and Seba's boy) yesterday
Happy Birthday to Pain on Thursday

I think that should cover it for now.