M2 April Play List #2

After posting my last play list I was inspired to rip together another one to good review at class last night.  Happy too, since I'm teaching class and didn't want a bust of a music collection distracting me.  This last one may have tapped me out for a bit though.  Music is getting expensive, and this music came thanks to a great gift my sister gave me, $50.00 iTumes card, that was lost on my desk for the past few months, but just found!  Thanks Ash!

My brother deserves credit for my love of NIN and Rob Zombie type music. There is always a problem trying to find the good recordings from that time though. Putting old files like that into a play list makes it either too quite, or the next song nearly blasts the speakers out. Luckily guys like Trent Reznor and Rob Zombie were a bit ahead of the game with the recording quality and, embarrassingly, it is becoming "Classic" music and a lot of old tracks are being re-dubbed to improve play on modern devices.

Anyways, here's the new list. I hope you like it. It spans a few decades and a few genre's, so there is something for most everyone. Can't always please everyone.

Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work


Dirty Heads - Easy


Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama (trying to get something for everyone in this one)


Two Door Cinema Club - Come Back Home


Ludacris - One More Drink


The Airborne Toxic Event - Changing


Korn - Word Up!


Jet - Cold Hard Bitch


Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor


Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing


Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds


The Raconteurs - Salute Your Solution


Franz Ferdinand - Evil and a Heathen


Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus


Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows


Deadmau5 - Sofi Needs a Ladder


Tiesto & Diplo - C'mon (w Busta Rhymes)-One of the favorites.  Comes in around 45 minutes into class when we hit the most intense parts of the workout.


Steve Aoki & Sidney Samson - Wake Up Call


The Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be


Eminem - Lose Yourself


Onyx - Slam

M2 April Play List #1

Have some new music on tap for classes.  I actually get to teach a few, so fun times for me!  Not sure how much everyone else enjoys me up front, and its a bit nerve racking keeping track of time.

If you want to stop by its M2 Revolution.  Fully equipped spin studio with CycleOps Indoor Cycles, Alter G and high speed treadmills, along with Vasa Trainers and Ergometer and more.  Pretty much anything you want to help make you faster in all sports.

Another playlist is in the works too.

Dirty Heads - Believe


Flight of the Conchords - Business Time (yeah, went there)


Adele - Rolling in the Deep


Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks


DMX - Its All Good


Cage the Elephant - Aberdeen


Billy Idol - Dancing with Myself


Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher Ground


White Zombie - More Human Than Human


Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl


Dirty Heads - Morning Light


Deadmau5 - Moar Ghosts N Stuff


DMX - X Gon' Give It To Ya


The Kooks - Do You Wanna (Goldielocks)


Deadmau5 - Hi Friend!


Rage Against The Machine - Testify


Kid Rock - Cowboy


Run-D.M.C. - It's Tricky

Wildflower Training Weekend - SF Tri Club

DAY 1

This time of year is always fun.  My club, SF Tri Club, heads down to Lake San Antonio for a slugfest and debauchery.  Lots of people I haven't gotten to see in a while, and all the new faces to the club were coming down so it was set up for a great time.

Training day weather was perfect at 60-70 degrees, but night time lows were heading down to FREEZING!  We were all doing what we could to stay warm.

Morning came and nasty fog put a delay on our swim until the afternoon.  Swim Art was great to lend us one of their coaches for an overview of the course and swim tips.  He had some great insights to share along with overall ideas for a better race day.The sun finally broke and it was time for some hammering around the Long Course bike.  This was the first time out on my new Williams wheels, and they look sweet, and hopefully they were as fast as they look!  I also go the Power Tap Hub on the rear, so many new toys to play with this weekend.

Swim Art coach sharing wisdom

Anyone who is familiar with the Wildflower Long Course bike route knows its not pretty.  Well, its really amazing scenery, but lots of rollers along with BIG climbs and steep descents.  Road conditions improve every year, but there is one section that just grinds you down around 25 miles.  Wish they would repave it, PLEASE!

I really need to get out on these wheels a bit more to get used to the deep rim on the front.  85 mm takes some hits in cross-winds when you go over 35 mph and it made for some interesting descents.

We had a huge crew from SF Tri, and four or five other clubs doing recon on the course this weekend.  Made for a festive time out on the course and meeting people from all over the place.

My "buddy" Adam decided Nasty Grade repeats were a good idea.

Little crazy on the wattage.  Really good to see how inconsistent things are.  Managed it fairly well on climbs, but really need to concentrate on the flats and rollers to smooth out my effort.

Getting back to the campsite, time for a "fun" brick run.  After two miles Dan and Adam drop me like nothing once we hit a hill.  Legs were like lead, hopefully just from racing Oceanside last week.  Grinding away at 7 hilly miles, back to camp, a small bite to eat and a nice swim.

DAY 2

Up early and its a bit warmer than yesterday making everyone happy.  On tap is the Long Course run.  This run is almost constant harassment of hills, but almost all on trails making it nice on the legs.  I'm up for a good pace today, but again, Dan and this time Tim decide to punish and drop me hitting the first set of hills.  Very content to push the pace and have fun anyways, its time to be the teams mobile Photog.  I really recommend people get out to enjoy these trails to run and enjoy outside of the actual race.  Its great countryside and perfect to get out of your comfort zones.

Long Course Run

Long Course Elevation - Started 3 miles into the loop, 1,300 feet gain.

Wrapping up the weekend with a mile swim in the lake.  Finally felt good to get some sun and cool off as the temperature got above 70 for once!  Great weekend with the friends and feeling good about the coming races.

Ironman California 70.3 - Race Report

It was a great weekend down in SoCal.  Broke a few un-official and official rules.  Got to see the parents, the girlfriend and old friends from Scottsdale and Pittsburgh.  Couldn't ask for much more.  Oceanside was my first Tri this year, so my excitement was beyond control.  With some good results in training, and Kaiser Half, I felt good about the race.  The final few weeks didn't go exactly to plan, but I'm happy I took advantage of what my personal life had going, and I wouldn't have changed it.

Friday was a fun day.  Got out for my Dad's mini-tri warmup we always do before the race.  Unfortunately he's injured from the marathon of races last year, but almost all fixed up.  Swam just off the pier watching the surfers catch a few nice waves.  Talked to a few Canadians on their way out who looked frozen, which scared me a little.  Dove in expecting the worst and it was perfect!  Got out and could feel my hands and feet, so no problem for race day.


Next up a little ride to try out the Zipp Disc and 808 my Dad let me borrow for the weekend.  The disc sounds so cool, but weird until you get used to it.  Smooth 7 miles with some accelerations and back to the hotel.

Short 2.5 mile run up and down the strand to cap off a great morning and then to the hotel to put the feet up and chill.  Feeling good, dinner and to bed by 9:30 for the earliest I've been able to sleep before a race ever.

As usual, early to transition and took this creepy picture with my camera.  Looks like we might be marching our way into the light!  Its a long way down into the Marina, but once down there, got my spot all set up and then of course time to do some "business". 


Wetsuit on, everything set and off to the starting corral.  I was amazed at the number of people running through the crowd, either hook sliding into their start, or completely late altogether.  Settling in with my start group (#2 of 3 for M30-34) I find some talkers in the bunch of over anxious nervous types. 


I said I was breaking rules, well there are a few new pieces of equipment I'm using and it almost bit me in the ass.  #1 saved me, my Garmin 310XT.  Using it with the MultiSport function to get all my splits, I was most worried about using it correctly, or having it display the right stuff.  Figuring the GPS would be nearly worthless in the water, but on the bike and run, having all the data after would be fun.  Yes, I'm a geek.

Seeing my family and Whitney put a needed smile on my face.  Milling down through my start group, nerves start up and when the group ahead gets their horn, we have 3 minutes until our start. 


People racing to the start buoy, I try to keep cool and surprisingly nobody is really nudging up to the front once there.  I miss what is said over the PA, but see people reaching for their watches so I figure its the start about to go off, and I'm right.  Firing off the line, I decided early to stay out of the packs for my first race swim.  Last year I had a few mini panics after getting throttled, and the swim is definitely not what I've been able to put much time into so far this year.  Cruising along, I see a red blob when sighting.  Its a little soon for the first turn buoy so I take a longer sight, its a feaking red jet ski with a dude wearing a huge red jacket.  Note to race organizers, no red jetski or red jackets on the race course!  Luckily it didn't take me too far off course, but once we got to the real turn buoy it was a little hairy.  #1 two guys I got to draft for a while completely missed it and out of necessity, and a little kindness, I had to bulldoze them in the right direction.  Not sure they took it this way, but that's what I'm going with.  #2 there was some serious chop making it into the breakwater and my turn buoy mishap caused a good deal of people to catch up, compounding the rough water.  Fighting off a slight anxiety moment, I get back into the groove and make some good progress back to transition.  Surprisingly my GPS kept decent track through the swim.  Pretty happy with a 32:25 for my first Half this year! (50th out of 305)

LONG transition run and out on the bike!  I've heard so much good and bad (flat and fast to massive bike walking hills) about this course, so charging out on the course was really fun.  Out on the course, the first 20 miles went FAST.  I didn't realize it, and I'm glad, but we had quite a serious tailwind helping out.  My computer wasn't working with the 808 on the front, so I was purely going off my Garmin's heart rate for pacing.  Every once and a while I'd switch it to speed and time, and couldn't believe it when I saw we were cruising along at 27 mph at times!  Finished with the flats, we hit the first big hill with a nasty headwind to boot.  This was the hill people sometimes have to walk up if they drop a chain or just die, and believe it or not I saw someone walking up.  That would just be demoralizing and everyone was grinding away in their easiest gear.  Not sure what the incline is there, but its steep!  A few more hills, and tank crossings (wish I had my camera, and back to Oceanside.  The downhills were somewhat of a disappointment since they had a radar gun and a referee monitoring for speeding.  REALLY!  I guess some people just get a little over anxious and can get hurt.  The one official rule I broke was at the bottom of a downhill, with a full head of steam and screaming at the top of my lungs "ON THE LEFT", two guys couldn't hear me to get out of the way so I had to pass on the right.  There was no way I was losing the momentum to two dudes chatting it up side by side and I went screaming by.  Luckily no referee's were around, but I do not recommend doing it again.  I guess I was lucky again when I dropped a water bottle using the new X-Lab wing I put on for this race, so that's two official rules broken.  Felt bad about that one.  It can get dangerous for whoever is behind.

Finished up with a 2:36 bike (18th out of 305).  Respectable, but needs some improvement.  All in all with the headwind and the work I've put in this year I'm happy, but for those who said its on par with Wildlfower's bike course, I'm sorry, no comparison.



2200 feet elevation gain

 
Jumping off my bike, legs wobbled a bit.  After racking, changing, and getting as much Powerade down as I could I flew out on the run course.  Wobbling over with, my legs felt great!  Thanks Focus and Fly and M2, the treadmill and track workouts did the trick.  This became very apparent when someone crept up on me in the first mile from the wave that started 3 minutes after me.  Harold was a cool dude and we chatted for two miles.  He's actually doing IM Texas as well!  This got me worried because he was holding the 6:15 pace I was doing.  After the second aid station on the run, he was nowhere to be found.  My parents, friends and Whitney were all over the course cheering and keeping me going.  Saw a lot of the San Fran tri crowd during the race and we all cheered for each other.  Coming around the first lap and realizing I was golden to break 1:30 run split, my thoughts went to going for broke and seeing what sort of pain I could withstand.  I wanted an even split or better and the only thing running through my head was "Put yourself in a hurt locker" and it was on.  Every time I looked down at my watch and saw 7:00 pace it was time to push again and again.  Two miles left and time for a final push.  In Kaiser, I didn't have anything left at that point, but for this race there was plenty.  Seeing my Dad at about a half mile to go always gets me going and a mad kick developed in my legs and no turning back.  Crossing the line, nearly collapsing, and I got my 1:26 Half Marathon with a near even split! (6th out of 305)

This was a great day out and it helped me learn what to work on for Wildflower and IM Texas.  I was hoping for a better day, but I'll take 13th against a pretty good field.  Thanks everyone for your good thoughts and wishes.  Now its time to get serious on the bike, but maybe a few beers with some friends first.

Nearly fell asleep into my Boddington's

Track Running for Dummies

First off I'll offer up that I don't go to Master's swim practice because I have no idea what to do and I don't want to look like an idiot.

So, i write this trying to help others as well as release a bit of aggravation.  Running track at an early age (I think it was a form of babysitting for my Mom), admittedly, I am a track practice snob, but accept people don't have the same attitude towards it that I do.  Basically there was a coach watching nearly everything going on for every interval I did from age 6 - 18, created a serious sense of urgency and regimen that should be followed.  This is not for everyone I know, but there is a purpose for doing track workouts and that is to get faster so I've come up with a few guidelines (gripes) to help steer people to a better result for themselves, and others at the track.  It is such a powerful tool to get faster if taken seriously.

#1 Drills - Pay attention to the coach when they tell you how to perform them.  There are specific reasons for them to help with form in the long run.  Faster running starts with proper running, and it helps reduce injury too!

#2 Timing - Wear a watch.  If you pay a ton for a private coach, then fine, your coach is responsible for timing, but at a large group workout, with many people in your speed range, it is easy to think someone else will have one.  What happens though?  Nobody brings one or the person who always has one gets fed up with it.  Get a $20-30 Timex that lasts forever and be done with it.

#3 Workout Knowledge - This goes along with Timing in that each person should make an attempt to know the workout before showing up.  Don't rely on others in the group to remember it.

#4 Track etiquette - For the most part everyone gets the picture pretty quick, or others are quick to help them out, but you don't "jog" in lane 1 and if you do run there if you hear "TRACK!" that means, "please get out of my way" in the nicest form.  They don't mean to yell or sound angry, but their heart rates are probably up around 180 bpm and can hardly spare much more effort than that.

#5 Chatter - For warm-ups, stretching, drills, and rest sessions, talk all you want as long as you are getting what you need done.  For intervals, for the most part, if you are talking, then you aren't running fast enough and you should move up a group.  For longer intervals or training runs that don't take you up to VO2 someone might be able to get some good conversation in, that's why they call it conversational pace, but for track practice you should be pushing yourself to move that pace faster so you can feel what a pace past your comfort level is like.

#6 Group Mob - My club is fairly large and we bring a lot of people to the track for our practices.  Its not much of a problem for me, but I'm sure the other groups and individuals see it as a nuisance.  When doing intervals or drills, try to keep to 2 people widths.  All too often you see 3-5 people across when larger groups work out.  Its a bit of a problem for others to work out and avoid this mob, especially adding a HUGE chunk around a corner to pass.

#7 Clothes - This is advice purely for comfort.  "Cotton kills" was what my Dad always told us when working out in the cold.  This holds true for just feeling good in the SF weather.  When its 50 degrees out, you will still sweat, and cotton holds that moisture too well.  Your clothes stick to your body, and any warming capabilities are now lost.  Invest in some basic "Tech" t-shirts and proper running shorts or tights.  There is no reason to add negative aspects to going to track and uncomfortable clothes makes it miserable and adds to the chaffing dangers.

I guess the bright side is that I set out on this trying to come up with a top 10 list.  Maybe my perception is worse than reality and I have to lighten up.  Don't get me wrong though, I love seeing so many people out trying to add something positive to their lives and I always try to support that.  Having the fattest population in the world is not a race worth winning.  Good luck to everyone and I hope this was educational for a few.  Nobody wants to look stupid out on the track and it is a great, safe place to improve running, just stay out of lane 1;)

Just for a laugh - long time ago, me in the red.

"Personal Life" Season Almost Over

Coming out of March marks the end of a crazy time of year for me and marks the beginning of some massive blocks of training.  The year planned is both amazing and daunting.  Three bachelor parties, two weddings, volunteer events, family reunions, work responsibilities and of course a schedule stock full of races that I somehow have to get ready for.

Fortunately both my friends and loved ones are very supportive of the goals for 2011 and I am doing my best to be present both physically and mentally.  With just Tri For the Cure - AZ, and my friends Bill and Anne's wedding left before Oceanside, I'll finally have some breathing room for the smashing my coach has planned for me to get ready for the final push for IM Texas.

Its crazy the things you do to try to get your workouts in and remove some of the training anxiety that comes with both inactivity and guilt for missing a session.  Sometimes it wasn't quite the best idea, such as my hangover run through the strip.

That hurt a bit.  Instant headache.

I am a bit amazed that the body can absorb most of this punishment, and with a little rest, keep up with the training demands.  There is a limit though, and I think I have approached it and pulled back enough to keep from getting ill.  My friends are slowly coming to realize the changes in my priorities and lifestyle, and there isn't enough I can do to thank them for that.  While my former self comes out to play sometimes, he is now content to save those nights for very special occasions.  

As for my next two months, it is going to be a test both physically and mentally.  Oceanside, Wildflower and the IM Texas to top it off.  No more shirking swim practice, Aquatic Park is my friend.  With the longer days, come longer training.  Here's to crushing it for the next two months!

Below are the guys responsible for my lack of training, ha!

Kenny had to have a Vegas bachelor party

Nothing like it.

Bill's was a little more mellow watching Spring Training in Scottsdale.

Salt River Stadium

Performance Tracking for 2011

You can see my goals for 2011 from my past posts, but I have been wrestling with a good way to track my progress in training to make sure what I'm doing is helping.  One of the hardest things is to keep a manageable record of what an athlete is doing, that can translate into tangible evidence of improvement.  One of the greatest things an athlete can have going into a race is a sense of confidence that what they did in training has helped them prepare for race day.  My buddy Dan came up with idea in general and I've workout on my own tracking to fit my training.

In finding my data points to monitor, I also didn't want to interfere with my normal training, so in setting my record points, I picked the ones that were most logical, and wouldn't require a major change in training schedules.

#1 - 1 hours cycling wattage:  This can be done in any of the 2-3 classes I take at M2 Revolution.  The total average of the class is taken into account, including warm-up, and rest periods in between intervals.  A 10 minute treadmill run is completed before jumping on the bike.  Noting the 5-Sec Max wattage as well to see if the squats I am doing are helping overall strength.  The goal is to see my watt/kg ratio improve, not necessarily total watts improve.

#2 - 20 Minute Treadmill run distance:  As a normal warmup to many cycling classes I run for 20 minutes.  5 minute warm-up and 15 minute increasing pace to 20 minutes.  Will track total distance.

#3 - 1 Mile Open Water Swim:  I have 2-3 swims a week and I try to swim in Aquatic Park as often as I can.  In cramming this workout in before spin on most occasions, there is limited time after work, so I push myself to get three buoy laps in (approx. 1 mile).

#4 - Weight: As with anything, speed should go up with reduced weight, but there is a floor to this improvement.  Last year I got sick when I hit 180 pounds, so I want to track this very closely to see if performance drops off as I get closer to it, and if that is my ideal race weight.  I've probably been having too much fun with my new toy doing this.


You can see a worksheet I made here to track all these metrics.

Training for events is a hectic thing to do.  Monitoring progress is a great way to keep yourself on track with training.  Hopefully creating my benchmarks in my normal training schedule will keep interruptions to a minimum, while allowing me the insight to change workouts accordingly along the way.