End of 2008

I'm such a lousy blogger. Wish I could be better, but oh well. The xc season had its ups and downs. After the last race I mentioned here, I ran a poor race up in Bellingham- a 10k hosted by WWU. My calf felt really tight for most of the race, not sure why, and I was pretty slow and my calf stayed sore for a few days. I took it really easy because I was headed back to Penn State for their home meet to run on an alumni team. That race was October 17th and I actually ran decent there. It was really fun to be back in State College and see good friends plus I got a ticket to the PSU-Michigan football game where we finally beat them for the first time in 9 years.
Then, November 2nd, was the PNTF xc championships in Seattle. I was fighting a cold and had a tough time on the hilly 10k course, but did manage to beat some guys that had beaten me earlier in the year. However, a bunch of new fast guys came out and ran for Seattle Running Club and I just missed making the top 8 to go to Nationals. So my xc season was over. We'll see how 2009 shakes out and if I can be stronger next fall.
But now I switch gears and as of December 1st, I began formal triathlon training again. The big race for me will be Ironman 70.3 Oceanside on April 4th. I've done this race in 2006 and watched it in 2005 and 2008. I know the course fairly well and I'm excited to go back and race there again. Its well organized and very competitive.
My training got a small hiccup from the big snow storm in Seattle before xmas so I only ran once in about 10 days and didn't swim at all, but I did a lot of spinning which is good. Now, we're in Sunriver, OR, for a week with family. There is a lot of snow here but I did run twice, xc once, and finally snowboarded today. I love the snow and I need to enjoy it since I heard it all melted in Seattle.

Officical results

Here are the race results- wow, I was 11th overall. Very happy!


http://www.goseattleu.com/pdf5/144898.pdf?ATCLID=1596613&SPID=10770&DB_OEM_ID=18200&SPSID=89885

Emerald City Classic

My second xc race of the season went much better. This was on a much tougher course than 2 weeks ago and I actually ran faster. Everyone was perplexed-- I guess I didn't run very well 2 weeks ago, plus I'm just getting a little stronger every week. This race was 8km and consisted of 4-2km loops. It had rained most of the last 24 hours but the course handled it quite well. I wore spikes just to be safe and think it helped on the sharp turns and down hills. This race was smaller and more low-key than Sundodger which was good and bad. It was good because I thought I might beat more people, but had a fear that I would be alone for a lot of the race as can happen in small races. Luckily, I had people to run with for most of the race. Early on, I spotted a friend from my running group, Mike Bailey, and tried to keep him in sight. He is always very consistent and runs with the fast guys in our workouts. I haven't raced him in a long time but he is definitely faster in recent workouts. I was actually nervous after the first lap that I was running near him thinking I may have gone out too fast. At 1/2 way though I felt him start to slow a bit and I pulled up next to him. I was nervous to pass as there was still a lot of racing to go and I didn't want to die. But I was feeling ok so I decided to go by and saw a teammate and another friend from the running group, Ben Haber, not too far ahead. I set my sights on him and tried to bridge the gap steadily so I wasn't stuck running alone. I still felt good when I caught him and then saw Bobby, who was in first place for our team, Seattle Running Club. I again tried to bridge the gap. This took a little while but finally made contact at about 5km, 1/2 way through lap 3. We ran together for a few minutes and then I saw another pack of 3 guys ahead that looked like they might be slowing just a bit. This gap was tougher to close. I was actually alone for the rest of lap 3 and the start of lap 4. But those guys were in sight which helped plus I knew Bobby, Ben, and Mike were all still close behind and fighting hard so I couldn't slow at all. I inched toward the next guy, and Eastside Running Club member, and finally caught him at 7km. We ran together and we both passed a guy who stopped on the side and looked like he was about to lose his breakfast. Around one of the sharp turns I had looked back and saw a new face making up ground and by the cheers from people on the sidelines I figured it was a runner from Seattle University. As I pulled away from the Eastside runner, this new Seattle Univ. runner caught me with about 500 m to go. He got ahead of me but I stuck right on his back to try to see how much he really had left. As we crested the last little hill and turned into the last 150 m I got on my toes and started to kick and pulled up next to him, he responded and we were both in a dead sprint for the finish line. I think it was a photo finish but I might have gotten him with a lean and the officials put me ahead of him in the finish shoot. Due to the mad sprint finish, I didn't stop my watch for several seconds so I'm not sure yet what my official time was. I was able to get each lap split and I was really happy with how even my splits were. And I managed to be the top guy for Seattle Running Club. I'm not sure how the qualifying for nationals works on our team, but hopefully that helps me make top 8 to represent our club in Spokane in December. We'll see, we had a lot of good runners not race today and Ben and Bobby were within 15-20 seconds of me so anything can happen. It was just fun to have a solid race and compete with people and actually out-kick a college kid. :-)
2km: 6:56
2nd 2km: 7:06
3rd 2km: 7:04
last 2km: 7:10?
Total: 28:17?
Next Saturday is a meet in Bellingham, WA, hosted by Western Washington University. We should have a bigger team there. And I think it is a 10k race which will be another challenge.

Sundodger XC meet (8 km)

This race hurt and hurt a lot. I forgot what running a xc race full tilt felt like. My teammate, Mark Davies, picked me to carpool and we arrived at the course in the middle of the men's "Open" race. This was the race for junior colleges, small colleges, and extra runners not running in the "Invite" race. Watching them made me think I should be in that race. A lot of them would have still crushed me, but I would have been more in the "pack" I think. Watching the top teams warm up for the Invite race made me a little nervous: "can I beat any of these guys? Even their 7th runners?"
I thought my odds were good of beating SOMEONE, but again was a little nervous as the gun went off and the entire field took off. I was in the back of the pack. I went through the 1km in 3:07 and then the mile in 4:54. Yikes, I was hoping to average 5:20-5:30 for the race so sub-5 could mean a lot of suffering down the trail for Jake. But I didn't have much choice: I was only ahead of 3 guys at the mile mark.
Luckily this pace was too fast for a few others also and the pack started to string out and I started to pull ahead of a few guys. I was close to Mark Davies at this point and I thought I would end up running with him but he began to ease away- or I began to slowly fade more likely-- and I began to focus on runners from Gonzaga and Western Washington. I battled with their 6th and 7th runners through the middle of the race but lost contact with a few of them and was left with one guy to focus on. With about 2km left to go on a long uphill stretch I was able to pull away from him and started to make a little ground on the next two guys ahead. But the course turned down for an equally long down hill and I couldn't make up any more ground on them. We ran that long up hill one more time on the way to the finish I was able to make up a few more seconds on them but not enough to kick with them. At the 7km mark the course winds fairly close the finish and I could hear the roar of the crowd for the top runners. This meant not many spectators for me as they hurried to see the winners battle it out. I went through 7km in 24:07, and all alone. The guy I pulled away from was still pretty far back and I didn't have enough room to catch the two in front of me. This is probably a good thing since I was nauseous from about 1/2 way so having a big, full-sprint kick with other guys would have guaranteed breakfast coming back up.
My final time was 27:29 I believe. This is a 5:37/mile average. Not great but its a starting point. My average HR was 168 so I know I was pushing pretty damn hard. I just need to get faster is all! Next race is in two weeks here in Seattle, at a much tougher course than today. It will be another good test and another great workout to help me get faster.

Once a runner....

I'm a long ways from this photo (1992), but I am focused on running cross country this fall. For starters, I'm not running 90 miles a week like I was then....I'm lucky to hit 30-40. But I'm trying to get in some quality and more than anything, have fun out there while pushing as hard as I can. The first race is this coming Saturday, and is here in Seattle. It is a home meet for the University of Washington but luckily there a lots of small schools and other clubs running so hopefully I won't be last and maybe even top 2/3 of the pack.
Training has been going well, ie. no pain or injury, but hard to know what kind of shape I'm in and have no idea how fast to try to run on Saturday. It will be interesting, to say the least, but will then give me an indication for the rest of the season.

August recap

I drove up to Penticton, B.C. to watch Ironman Canada and help coach two of my athletes: Mari and Steve, as well as cheer on good friends such as Aaron Burby and Loree Bolin. Everyone had solid races and they all set personal records (it was Mari's first ironman).

It was fun as always to be at that amazing race. It is one of the oldest ironmans and continues to have fantastic community support. People kept asking me if I wished I was racing it....there were moments, yes, but on the whole, I'm still glad to not be doing an ironman this year. And still not planning on one in 2009 either. I will do at least one 70.3 (Oceanside) in the spring, and then focus on track racing in the summer with the goal of being fit at the next World Outgames in Copenhagen in early August.

Last weekend Justin and I took Jackson up to Whistler for the long weekend. We had a great weekend of relaxing, running, and hiking. We tried to play tennis one day but the rain said "no."

My running seems to be coming along- still love my Garmin 405 watch and feel it makes me run faster than I would without it. Last night at the wednesday track workout (my 2nd week back) I ran with Group 2a which was challenging. We ran a fartlek and I stayed right with the group for the first 3 intervals but then trailed off a little for the last 4. I kept them close and quickly caught up each time on the recovery period. I'm glad I did run with them as I think I wouldn't have pushed as hard with group 3.

I'm excited to start racing but glad I have another week before the first race. I really hope to be sharp when I go to Penn State in October to run on an alumni team in their home meet.

Trying to be better...

I tried my new Garmin 405 GPS watch yesterday for just the second time (the race was the first time). I just went for a nice run along the Burke Gilman bike trail. I decided to run 7 miles and used the watch to turn around at 3.5 mi. There are quite a few trees along the trail and I think that made the instantaneous speed less accurate, but I think the distance is dead on. After the run was done it said my average pace was 7:06/mile which I'm pretty sure is right, but during the run it would jump all over the place from 6:30 to 8:00 min/mile. It did get close the 7:00 mark when I was out in the open, without many trees. Its kind of a bummer though as the instantaneous speed is a neat feature. But since the distance seems to be right on, you can do some quick math with the time to calculate pace. All in all, still really glad I got it. Today I figured out how to upload the info into the Garmin software on the computer and it showed me on a map exactly where I ran in seattle, plus gave me the info I already knew: pace, time, distance. But its nice that it stores it, you can label that workout, and then I can be lazy and not write down in my log all the info because its stored on the computer. I still like my written log, but I don't have to worry about getting it all written down before erasing it from the watch now.

Italy pics: June 2008

Here is a link to my italy albums if you're interested:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jbartholomy/Italy2008

http://picasaweb.google.com/jbartholomy/ItalyWeek22008

hope it works, if not, let me know.

Summer vacation and races....

So, apparently I'm not very good at this blogging thing. Well, I guess I don't know the average time between blogs for others, but 3 months seems pretty long. Oh well.

Let's see where to start...since my last entry.....May started off ok- training was going well until a couple of hard running workouts injured my back. It wasn't that they were hard, it was the fact that I did some fast 400's that was too much for my tight and weak hip flexors. Since they attach to the front of the lumbar spine it gave me quite the flare-up in low back pain that I haven't had before.

I stopped running, but cycling and swimming were fine. And since I've been a little suspicious about my back for a while, I decided to see a physician. I went to Marla Kaufman, MD, at University of Washington, Bone & Joint clinic. She is fantastic and x-rays ruled out my fear of a spondylolisthesis (one vertebra slipping too much on the one below it). So this lead us to believe it was likely just super tight hip flexors which have plagued me before. I began stretching them and doing some more core work and tried a couple light jogs w/out pain. But then we left for Italy right after that.

Italy was amazing. We spent the first week on an organized bike trip in the Piedmont region. We decided to use the provided bicycles so we didn't have to haul our bikes to Europe on the plane and risk losing them as we connected through Terminal 5 at Heathrow, aka the black hole for luggage. Their bikes were plenty fine. Each day we had an established bike route of 30-35 miles and then an optional "extra loop" that would add 10-15 more miles. I chose this option most days. The scenery was amazing as we rode through beautiful little hill towns and some slightly more major towns like Alba and Asti. Besides the biking we had amazing food. Lunch was about 1/2 way through each ride- frequently multi-course with wine. This made it slightly difficult to get back on the bike for the rest of the ride. I learned to go easy on the wine and drink lots of water. Even still, it took about 20 min to feel good in the afternoon ride. The dinners were simply amazing. They weren't overly fancy usually, but very well-crafted and delicious. Again, the paired wine was yummy and dangerous.

The second week of the trip was spent in Italy with Justin's parents, his sister, and her fiance. We rented rooms at an Agritourismo in Tuscany, about an hour south of Florence. This was a nice and relaxing week with some fun little day trips to picturesque towns in Tuscany. I ran 3 or 4 times this week, but hadn't run at all the first week in Piedmont. There was a pool at our B&B, but it was small and I could only tolerate a few minutes of the super short lap swimming.

The day we came home I had a sore throat and a head cold developing with sinus drainage increasing steadily on the flights. Luckily I had taken the day after we got home off from work already. I was able to return as planned to work the following day. However, I still didn't want to run while trying to get over this cold.

So, all told, I only ran about 4 times in 5 weeks. Not a great training plan when I had a 1/2 ironman (Lake Stevens 70.3) scheduled 2 weeks after getting home.

The race really wasn't too bad though. I swam fairly average for me: about 32:30, then biked ok in 2:37. My run is where my lack of training really showed and I could only muster a 1:26 (compared to 1:21 that I ran on the same course in 2007). Now I had 4 weeks until my next race, a 1/2 ironman (Troika) in Spokane on August 3rd.

I trained hard those few weeks and saw good improvement in my cycling and tempo runs and the swimming started to feel better as well. I also entered the Fat Salmon open water swim (1.25 miles) in the non-wetsuit category, and ran a 5000 meter race on the track. I was not rested at all for the 5 km but squeaked out a victory in 17:05. Not stellar, but it was fun and I ran hard and got a good workout out of it.

I tapered well last week leading up to Troika and but a fun new toy for motivation: the Garmin 405 GPS stop watch with heart monitor. I learned how to use it on Saturday and decided to race with it on Sunday.

The swim felt hard from the start and it was in a warm, gross, lake (Medical Lake). My goggles fogged horribly and I stopped and rolled on my back to clear them at 1/2 way which made the 2nd half much more pleasurable. I pushed hard the rest of the way in and was fairly light-headed in transition as my body tried to get blood back to my head. I had worn the HR monitor strap in the water, but the GPS watch part says not to submerse in water for long periods so I had to put in on in transition after doffing wetsuit, cap, and goggles. I threw on my aero helmet (had purchased for Lake Stevens), grabbed my bike (with shoes already attached) and jogged out of transition. I mounted my bike and started my stop watch (and GPS function) and then got pedaling and up to speed before slipping my feet into the shoes. I first tried this technique at Lake Stevens to see if it could speed up my transition w/out losing too much time trying get my feet in while riding. It worked quite smoothly there and was pretty good this time too. Depending on how the transition zone is set up (gravel, rocks, grass, carpet) I'll probably continue this technique in the future. Besides saving time, I think it just looks cool to run barefoot through transition with the shoes already attached like the pro's do. :-)

On the bike at Troika it was fun to look at my HR, pace and distance on the watch as they didn't have markers out on the course and I know that my bike computer is a little bit off since I changed the battery and didn't set it exactly right for the tires I have on it. The GPS seems very accurate. For pace I chose the units of "Minutes/mile" instead of MPH since that would be more helpful to me on the run. But on the bike it was funny to see I was biking 2 1/2 minutes per mile. It made me feel fast.

Guys were jostling around me early on the bike: I would pass some people, while others would pass me and then slow down. This leap-frogging continued for about 15 miles but then most people settled into their comfortable pace and there wasn't much passing. Luckily I was within sight of an athlete who seemed about the same pace as me. I used him as a guide and stayed 5-6 bike lengths behind (within 4 bike lengths is "drafting" and is illegal in most triathlons). We road at a very steady pace, about 20-23 mph and my HR hovered around 145 bpm. About mile 35 we started to see some athletes ahead of us. I don't think we were speeding up, just maintaining our established speed better. I think these guys went out too fast and were starting to fade. I caught and passed about 5 riders over the last 15 miles including my good friend and training partner, John Bergen. Normally I would not catch John in the bike but he is training for Ironman Louisville in September and did not rest for this race. In fact he ran 21 miles just 3 days earlier in training. Catching him on the bike meant he was pretty tired from all the training. He stuck with me after I caught him on the bike and he actually got into T2 a little ahead of me. We both had good transitions and started the run almost together (he was about 10-15 sec ahead). I ran hard and caught him in the first 1/2 mile. From his bike, I knew he was tired so I figured I would out run him fairly easily since I was rested and usually a better runner. As I started to pull away he said some encouraging things and I tried to go catch some other guys up ahead. Around mile 4 I heard a spectator yell "go guys!" and there was no one in front of me in sight so I turned around and saw that John was still within 100 feet of me. Wow, I thought to myself, he's pushing hard and maybe I relaxed a little. I should pick it up a little as I really should be pulling away from him. I finally caught someone and asked him if he knew how many more guys were ahead of us as I didn't know what place I was in. He said he thought I was in 6th place now. Very cool because I would have guessed 10th.

The run is an out-and-back so I knew eventually I would see who was ahead of me as they headed back to the finish. I eventually saw the race leader, Matt Sealy, who is a pro triathlete from Montana. He had a decent lead of 2-3 min over 2nd place, Michael Gordon, who is a friend and local professional from Seattle. 3rd place was another few minutes back, Jeff Smith, and also a pro, but I'm not sure where from....I think Spokane area. In 4th place was Ben Bigglestone, who is also from Seattle and I've become friends with through the triathlon community. He and his wife both race and are very nice people. We cheered for eachother as we passed. He was many minutes ahead of me and looked very strong and I had no chance of catching him with him running so well. Then, as I approached the turn-around myself, I could see 5th place ahead of me. He was about 1 min ahead and as I made the turn I saw the John was still quite close- maybe 20 seconds behind. Argh! Surely his fatigue from training will start to slow him down on this 1/2 marathon, right?

I tried to push a little more to catch the guy in front of me and to hopefully not let John catch me. Within the next mile I caught the 5th place guy and he immediately tucked behind me and continued to run right behind me for the next 2 miles. During this time John did bridge the gap and catch us. At the next water station, John and I got through without slowing too much and dropped the other guy who must have slowed to take in extra fluid. So then John and I ran side by side for a while, trying help each other and not let the other guy catch back up. I felt ok at the pace we were running, but then John increased the pace. I tried to respond but was already at my threshold and he started to pull away from me. Now I desperately just tried to maintain my pace and still not let that last guy catch back up. At the next turn in the course I glanced back and couldn't see him so I was able relax but still tried to keep up the pace. When I was about 1/2 mile from the finish I saw an athlete up ahead who wasn't running very fast- he was in a gray top, so it wasn't John (who was in the same orange Pauole Sport top that I was wearing) and I realized it must be Ben. I pushed a little more just to see if I could get close to him before the finish. I was then able to catch right at the last turn, about 200 meters from the finish. I didn't care about beating him- being 5th or 6th by a few seconds wasn't a big deal to me and I wasn't concerned about my place in my age group at this point, so I encouraged him to run in with me, but just as I caught him he stopped to walk and told me to go on ahead. I didn't want to walk at this point so I did go ahead and finished in 5th and Ben was a few seconds back in 6th. 7th place was another 30 seconds behind Ben.

All in all, it was a good race. I had a decent swim, a very solid bike, and although my run was just 1:25 on a flat course, I pushed really hard and fought all the way. It was the best my body would allow considering my lack of run training this summer. And it turns out that 3 of the 4 people who beat me were pro's. Of course, that 4th place guy, John, was in the middle of heavy training for an Ironman and beat me at the best part of my race: the run. It just shows how incredibly fit he is right now and how mentally tough he is at the same time to fight through significant fatigue and claw back from 8th to 4th in the run.

So please think very positive thoughts for John as he races Ironman Louisville on August 31st. He is very fit and just needs one more solid race and he should qualify for Kona.

Not the strongest blogger....

Where does the time go??

Wow, February was my last post? Yikes. I think about it a lot, but find myself tired and wanting to get to bed instead of updating my blog. Things like this make me wish I had a more of a desk/computer job where I could take a quick break every few days to submit a post. But most days, I'm glad to be a physical therapist where I'm up and about and trying help people get rid of their pain and teach them how to take care of themselves to reduce the risk of recurrence. I've had three great weekends of continuing education course work in the last 5 weeks that has helped my skills and enabled me to make more accurate diagnoses and, thus, achieve quicker results. This is very rewarding for me and my patients. The bummer is that we've been a lot more busy at work meaning a lot less time to get notes done during the day so I've been working longer hours, which makes me less happy about my job. It is sort of the nature of the business to ebb and flow, but I wish it could be a steady rate of about being 85% booked, not 50% for weeks and then 100% for weeks. Oh well, just need to get through this crazy period. I do have our wonderful Italy trip to look forward to which is just 7 weeks away. Can't wait!
As far as triathlon news- -not much to report about me. My training has been fairly consistent. Indoor track ended and I rejoined the usual Wednesday night crew- always fun to see friendly faces. However, the first two weeks I went there was freezing rain and snow-- welcome back, Jake. The last two weeks were great and plenty of daylight since daylight savings. Love that.
The big news, though, isn't about me.....two of my athletes raced Ironman 70.3 Oceanside on March 29th. Steve, who has done several 1/2 and full ironmans, had a very solid race. We were nervous because he's battled achilles and calf issues for years. They had been doing well since last summer but had a calf strain in late January and we had to back way off his running and rely on the eliptical for some run simulation. After strong swim and bike legs, he was able to jog the whole 1/2 marathon without walking. We were both relieved as the furthest he'd run in 4 weeks was 45 min. And he has felt fine since the race also which is a good sign. Now he's headed to China this week for work and is going to do a 70.3 race while he's over there. He's nervous to do two big races so close to each other, but hard to pass up since such an opportunity doesn't come very often.
My other athlete, Nick, had an amazing race. He has never done any race, of any type, or any distance.....ever. Not even a 5km fun run. Needless to say, he and I were both nervous that a huge 1/2 ironman would be his sporting debut. But, we figured this would be better than Ironman Couer d'Alene as his debut, which was the alternative. (Quick history: he signed up last June for IM CDA having never done any sort of race and didn't have a bike). Steve and I both tried to think of every detail possible since we both take much for granted after years of racing-- luckily, between us and Nick's questions we covered almost everything (from registering and numbering bike the day before, laying out clothes, pre-race breakfast, getting to race, donning wetsuit, transitions and gear, sunscreen, to race number belt).
His race couldn't have gone much smoother. His swim was a scary fast 34:01-- came out of the water with seasoned swimmers-- I had no idea what to expect as I hadn't seen him swim and he normally swam alone in the evenings. I had been writing his workouts most of the year, but had no idea he could swim so fast. His bike was a solid 3:04 and then ran 1:52 for the 1/2 marathon. He didn't walk at all except to drink well at the aid stations. He said he felt some fluid sloshing in his stomach and nausea on the run so I think he was low on sodium and the fluid wasn't absorbing. He's going to use the electrolyte pills now as a supplement and will be sure to use them in the ironman. All in all, though, pretty amazing debut into a logistical nightmare of a sport called Triathlon.
This was a really rewarding experience as a coach and both athletes were really happy with their races. And, like every race, learned something (or several things) to improve upon for next time.
Well, I need to get some sleep so I can swim at 5:50am tomorrow!

I heart track

I missed my indoor workout two weeks ago as I had a cold coming on. I actually took 4 days off due to illness. Then that Friday, Justin and I drove to Whistler for a long weekend. We xc skied that afternoon and then snowboarded the next two days. The snow was amazing and we had a blast. We were also quite sore after all that. We drove home Monday afternoon and I missed another track workout.
I got back on to my workout routine on Tuesday and finished my week with my scheduled bikes and swims and a solid brick workout Saturday and a long run on Sunday (yesterday). On Saturday, the run portion of my brick took me by the athletic fields and stadiums near UW and I saw runners warming up and realized there was an indoor track meet. I raced over to the complex and got to see the end of the men's mile (top 3 broke 4 minutes) and then the 3000m races which were equally impressive with 4+ runners breaking 8 minutes. It also showed what a small world the running community becomes as I got to see the Cal Irvine coach who I've known since 1990 and two guys I competed against in college who are both coaching now: Robert Gary ran for Ohio State (now head coach) and was an Olympian in the steeplechase and Louie Quintana who ran for Villanova and is now coaching at Arizona State. So an all-around fun day-- seeing old friends/competitors and once again being inspired by great performances.

Tonight I finally got back to an indoor workout for me and ran 400, 400, 800, 400, 400, 800, 400, 400. It was a solid workout and I'll probably be quite sore in the morning, but that's ok. I love track.

Correction

In re-reading my last post I realized I put the wrong times for the 1000's. They were 3:17-3:20, not 2:17-2:20.

February

Wow, can't believe it's February, already. A few weeks ago I began working out on the indoor track at the university of Washington. It is amazingly convenient for me as it is less than 1 mile away. Two Mondays ago was my first real workout and was 5 x 800 with 2-3 min rest (can't remember exactly). I was really slow (2:34-2:48) but it was nice to be inside wearing shorts and racing flats. I tried to not think about my slow times because I knew it was the first workout and I have a long time to get where I want. Last Monday, I ran 6 x 1000m with 3 min rest. I was able to run with Mike Bailey which really helped. He ran with me for the whole workout and we took turns leading each interval. We were pretty consistent hitting 2:17-2:20 on all of them. I think Mike could have run faster and held back for me, but it was greatly appreciated as I was about maxed out. It was very encouraging though because we were at about the same pace I was running the 800's the week before.

I've been back in the pool 2 times each week as well. It is brutal to get out of bed at 5:20am, but once I'm in the water I'm really happy. I am a little tired during the day and find myself ready for bed by 9pm. Which is good as I need to get to bed early in order to get up to swim. Just a little hard to get back in that routine after a relaxing November and December.

Cycling is feeling good, but always hard to know where my fitness is when I'm spinning inside. I did ride outside one beautiful day for about 2 hours and that felt great. I've been riding 2-3x/week for 1-2 hours. This morning I rode the Ironman Couer d'Alene course (on the Computrainer) for just over 2 hours, then ran an easy 20 min with Jackson. He can't run very fast or long so I like doing some of these short early season transition runs with him.

On other indoor track news, my Nittany Lions are posting some great marks with two guys running 4:01 and 4:06 in the mile. Hopefully, the team will have a great showing at Big 10's.

Question

It's been over a week since I've posted and I have a few announcements: 1) I've been accepted into Brooks "Red" Team. I've had a small sponsorship with them the last two years which has consisted of 40% off all their products. Apparently, my successes in 2007 qualified me for the second highest sponsorship which includes $250 worth of their gear, and then the 40% discount for anything beyond that I order. I'm very honored as I'm learning they are sponsoring athletes around the country, mostly runners, and some very, very good ones at that. 2) I've been hired to coach with my coach. We've discussed the possibility of joining forces over the past 8 months and she feels she is finally busy enough and growing fast enough to warrant hiring another coach. I'm very excited for the opportunity for growth within my own coaching and to work along side someone I admire so much. I think we'll complement each other well with her amazing swimming background and my strong running background. Plus she has a fantastic coaching record and a superb reputation. All this plus no ego makes her someone I'm enthused about being associated with. I just gave her my signed contract today so I think she'll start sending new clients my way soon-- not exactly clear. I think she is going to take a few more athletes herself until she reaches 25 which she feels is a full load for her. Since I'm working 32+ hours a week in physical therapy still, I'm shooting for 6-8 more clients on top of the 3 I'm currently coaching. If I reach 8 new athletes to coach I think I'll talk to my boss about reducing my clinic hours down to 21. I'll need the extra time to coach them plus the income will offset my decreased PT salary. I think I'll really enjoy the combination of more coaching and fewer PT hours. I love physical therapy but it is demanding and I get really frustrated with the paperwork and insurance company hassles. Our healthcare system really needs a make-over.

And for item 3). I've had my first question posed by a reader. This is great it helps give me something to talk about and not just try to be creative and funny on my own-- which you can see isn't great. We'll see if having a topic makes it better. Mark A. asked how I deal with boredom/lack of motivation and other distractions such as doing fun social things with friends that conflict with scheduled workouts, etc.

This is a great question and I think something every serious, competitive athlete encounters with some frequency. Missing workouts is always challenging for me. I feel like I have "Catholic Guilt" without being Catholic. Its really not fair. I have a very strong desire to please others as well as huge competitive streak. This combination has helped me succeed in school and athletics, but also contributes to my moderately high anxiety level. However, I am also good at rationalizing and creating excuses to ease my anxiety about missed workouts.

I have a major theme in life that I try to apply to most things: EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. By this reasoning I don't do extreme diets, don't work 60 hours/week, and don't eat an entire chocolate cake in one sitting. This philosophy tends to work well for me and keep things in check. I have one friend who has food issues. He feels he has no self-control with food that is "bad" for him so he keeps very little food in his house to avoid the tempation. This frustrates me though as he wouldn't even taste a dessert someone made at a potluck we had. But I need to not judge and realize that maybe he needs to do what works for him. I just see a lot of people that go on these extreme diets where they cut out one whole food group for a specified period and then have other extreme measures and then eventually they're back in their old routine. It seems like a vicious and frustrating cycle to me. I don't want to deny (and, thus, punish) myself anything. To me, that is too negative.

I think I'm getting distracted with all this food talk.....I really want chocolate cake now, er, I mean a PIECE of chocolate cake. Oh yeah, moderation. I can justify missed workouts if they are few and far between. If I'm consistent and following my planned workouts for weeks and weeks, then missing/skipping a workout is no big deal in the scope of a season. Missing one a week, however, starts to add up. Right now I'm trying not to miss workouts since I've only had two weeks of them. If I miss one or two now, its a large percentage of the total. Come March, if I've only missed one or two, then its a relatively small percentage and it means I have a lot of consistent training under my belt. At the same time, if I'm able to get up and snowboard or xc ski with friends right now I justify it because there is a limited window and the triathlon season is a ways away for me this year. And you can always get really deep and philosophical and think about how precious our lives our and how short our time on this planet is. What is really important to you? There is no right answer, but something to think about. My competitive goals are pretty important to me, but not to the scope of my partner, friends, or mankind, in general. In 2007, my big goal was to qualify for Ironman Hawaii, the world championships. This served as great motivation in all my training that also started last January. Every day when my alarm went off and I layed there thinking about whether or not I could put off or skip that workout, my mind would go to my goal and I'd realize the people I had to beat were getting up to work out, so I better get my a$$ out of bed too. Sure, I missed some workouts to snowboard and xc ski, but just about 3 weekends between January and March. They were great weekends, but just a few of them. Aside from that, I worked pretty hard- no let me rephrase, I worked consistently. I didn't bust my butt week in, week out. I built my workouts appropriately and put in the distance, but didn't "race" in my workouts.

Missing three weekends was no big deal, and they were important moments to spend with Justin and other good friends. One was a weekend to Whistler with Steph who lives in L.A. She is one of my best friends in the world and I cherish the time we get together each year. Another 4 day weekend was in Sun Valley with Justin, Mark & Robb, and Rocky. I see them all quite a bit here in Seattle, but still fun to share new experiences with them and spend 4 solid days together outside of our normal Seattle routines. The last ski day was with Alice and John where we went down to Crystal Mt., about 2 hours away. It was wet and sloppy conditions, but the first time I'd skied with them. The three of them were patient with my slow pace but I think all had a good time. The 4 hours in the car always brings fun or deep conversation and always interesting trying to find music on the iPod that we all agree on. Alice and I could do show-tunes all day where as Justin wanted Jazz and, well, I'm not sure what music John would have liked. He was very polite and said he could "tolerate" just about anything.

I feel like I'm digressing again, but I think I can sum up by saying it comes down to your goals: both athletically and philosophically. If you have strong athletic desires, it is very important to think hard about them, get very specific, and write them down where you seem them frequently to help keep you on track when you get distracted. This could go for any goals you have- career, friends, family, sports-- write it down. Seriously. Write it in bold, put it near your computer or somewhere where you come across it frequently. Bathroom mirror is always good also if you're not at the computer a lot.

This morning when my alarm went off at 5:20 and I did not want to get up, my mind starts playing out my options: 1. keep sleeping 2. get up and swim; and the consequences: 1. your competitors are going to be training- how are you going to meet your goals for Lake Stevens and Troika Triathlons if you sleep and don't swim? 2. getting better at swimming will keep me closer to the front guys in these big races and give me a chance at catching them on the run. The result? I got up and got to the pool and had a good swim. My arms will still sore from last Wed. and Friday swims, but I'm glad I got there and it was fine once I was in the water. The toughest part is overcoming the inertia and getting out of bed and into the car. But after swimming I had this great satisfied feeling all day at work and wanted to tell everyone how I got up and swam this morning. I didn't, because most of them don't "get it", but I was still satisfied with myself and had no guilt. Hmmm....coming back to my non-Catholic guilt and trying to avoid it. :-)

Here's to you writing down your goals and taking appropriate steps toward them while cherishing your friends and family when you can.

Well, I didn't spin like I was supposed to today, because Justin and I went up to Steven's Pass to snowboard. They've gotten a lot of snow over the last week and we had a great day of riding. Some light flurries were coming down but we had some periods of sun which were great. I've struggled with snowboarding over the last 6 years-- I don't think it helped that I would just go 1-2x/season. Last season we went three times and finally bought my own gear at the end of the season that was all on sale. Today was probably the best day I've had. I felt a lot better about my turns and spent a lot less time on my bum. I declared my second to last run my best and thought about stopping but Justin was up for one more run. This run was going great for me too until I caught an edge near the bottom and landed really hard on my tailbone. Due to the force I was thinking there was potential for a fracture. I just laid there and the pain got really intense after a few seconds and lasted about 30 seconds. I was afraid to move and wasn't quite sure how I would get down if the pain didn't subside. I really didn't want ski patrol to have to come take me down on the stretcher. Fortunately, the pain then eased and I gingerly got back up. Needless to say, the last bit of the run was much slower and cautious than I had been all day. Not the way I would have liked to end the day, but very grateful to be in one piece and headed toward my car and not the ambulance. 5 hours later and I'm still not sore over my sacrum so I'm hopeful I really didn't hurt anything. I feel a little guilty for not cycling but I'm glad we got up to the mountain. This Alaskan needs his snow fix!

My first week of structured training is going well. Just one workout per day and its been an easy adjustment. I spun on the computrainer for an hour on Thursday before work, and swam again yesterday with my master's group. Its really hard to get up on Fridays at 5:20am since I usually have that day off from work. But it felt good to get the workout over. I had a very relaxing massage at noon which was almost as good as a nap. I nearly fell asleep a few times. Today I ran an hour with Rocky along Lake Washington. There was nasty wind and rain all night and it continued this morning but it stopped for about 45 min of our run. We really lucked out.
On a side note, I'm going to try to incorporate more pictures. I find them very motivating whether its past races of mine or pics of pros like this one with Andy Potts. He is one of my favorite pros- he just seems like a good-hearted and classy guy. I'm really happy for his successes, most notably winning 70.3 worlds in November in Clearwater, FL.

Happy New Year!

2008. Wow. A fresh slate, empty training log yearning to be filled. Luckily I can enter something for today, which is a long standing goal. I hate to start the year with a "0" entry for January 1st. My coach emailed my workouts to me yesterday for the next 2 weeks. I had told her last week that I haven't been training a whole lot lately and she took that into account and has started me gradually. This will be good to ease back into a structured training program.

I ran 40 min today. It felt great and was fun to listen to an episode of "This American Life" on my iPod. Its such a great radio program and I haven't been good about keeping up with their podcasts. I'll try to now as I start running more. Usually I like to listen to music while running, but I want to get caught up on these podcasts and since my runs should be easy for a while I don't need extra motivation that music often provides.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to resume my master's swim group. Ugh- this is the part I've been dreading to get back to. I love the swimming, just don't enjoy getting up at 5:15am to hop in a cold pool. Need to make a strong effort to get to bed early tonight.

My motivation to train is improving. I'm starting to think about goals for my two half ironmans I have planned in July/August. Focusing on those goals will help me get out of bed and on the bike which is set up in the basement now.

I hope you find your motivation for 2008.