Operation Ironman

Buenos Aires

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:28:00 +0000

Well here I am traveling again. I am now in Buenos Aires for a couple of days on business, then I onto Sao Paolo Brazil for a week and a half. At first glance it would seem that this trip is well timed considerring what is happening in my life. For those that do not know me personally, or that I speak to on a regular basis, I am going through a divorce, I dont think I ever said that here, so there you have it. This also explains the lack of posts on my part. Life has not been steady, nor has there been much time for me to focus on triathlon or athletic much recently.

So not much to post. But now as I begin to settle into a life of being separated, (thanks to a great amazing friend who has let me stay in this beautiful apartment in the upper east side of Manhattan) I have found that despite all the change, I am settling in quite nicely. This business travel does not help however. But such is life.

One of the good things about travel is the oportunity to see different things. Even during business travel whose main purpose is work I still get glimpses of a different culture. Today I arrived in Argentina early, so I had the rest of Sunday to settle in and see a little. I went out and started to walk because it was such a nice spring day here. Eventually I came across a park that was full of monuments. At least thats what it looked like to me. There was one monument that had 2 guards stationed in front. It was dedicated to all of the fallen in the Falkands war. Very reminiscent to the Vietnam war memorial. A Black Marble wall with hundreds of names on it.

There were also a number of other standard "general on horseback" statues and such. Beautiful all of them. The city itself is very european in feel. In fact so are the people. When looking at how they dress and act and physically as well I feel as if I am in Spain. Not what most americans would think of as Latin American.

Anyhow its very nice here, after my walk I did a 1 hr run, of course the Garmin was low on battery, so I dont know how far. And now I am having a late lunch. The rest of the day will be for preparing clothes for work and relaxing for a bit. Also start to think of what I am going to do with my coaching business which I plan on building on (slowly) and my focus for next years races. I havedecided to keep short races focussing on speed, but Iam feeling the pull of the marathon lately. May have to throw one of them infor next year also.

Stay tuned

Speed Speed and more SPEED!!

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Well having accomplished my IM goal, and dealing with serious time constraints due to work and circumstances, I have decided that next year my focus will be for Sprint distance races. They are short, fun, and do not require as much training time as Ironman distance races.

Also I have traditionally done relatively well always placing in the top 20% without specifically training for them . So I figure to do better than that once I do train for them. As such this off season I am developing a strength training program to help me develop power, thus more speed. I am also training to PR on a 10K in December.

I think this should give me enough focus for now to keep me going and also give me the room I need to take care of life.

A Time for a Change

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:14:00 +0000

Hi All,

Its been so long since I have posted. Very long. My life has been in real turmoil the past few months, between a merciless job, and some very serious life issues that were screaming to be resolved, I just did not have time for anything such as training or even posting here.

Anyhow little by little things are falling into place. I have seen life can be pretty freaken good, and things are changing. In time I will be able to give more details, but enough to say the changes are deep and substantial. Although sometimes change is very hard, it also offers hope for better days. I am truly looking forward to it.

Cheers to all

Chile 2009

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:50:00 +0000

Well I am back from my business trip in Chile, and I have to say it was interesting. My training sufferred immensely since I was not able to get in the training necessary for the Toughman Half IM due to long days at work.

The weekends however were different. Myself and Co-worker Shellah did quit a bit of exploring in the one full weekend we had and let me tell you exploring in Chile where some towns are not truly Tourist driven can be exciting.

The best of these was our visit to Valparaiso. This is a quirky town that has some real character. It sits on a bay and is dominated by hills that each have beautiful views of the Bay. At the turn of the century (ie 1900) they had built a number of trams (or Furniculares) that they call "ascensores" ie ascenders, to help the local population get up the hills. These same "Ascensores" are still around and it was our mission on this trip to see them. This was a far bigger task than we could have expected. You see each ascensor is known by its name ( yes they each have a name much like my old bike is known as "Dusty") and it is almost expected that you know what you are looking for.

Anyhow more to come on this later on.....I have to go back to working on fixing my damned Kitchen sink. But come back soon... you will learn of the secrets to quality wine making in Chile by playing music to the grapes! and that a GPS device can in fact tell you one thing and point you in another direction! So exciting!

Problem with the Domain name

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 20:47:00 +0000

Sorry folks, over the last few days it seems my Domain had been on the fritz. It seems I had an old credit card on file with Google, on the 15th the domain expired and they could not renew because the expiration had expired on that card. While in Chile my internet access was limited so I missed the email.

Anyhow its been straightened out and Operation Ironman is back in Business.

IMLP 09 Race Report

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:35:00 +0000

So up until the day before the race I truly did not know if I would be able to race. My Father-in-Law was at the time in truly dire conditions and it was expected he could pass-on at any moment. I had decided that if he passed the day before I would have to go home to be with my Wife. Up until Saturday all seemed good until Saturday afternoon that My Wife called me that they were taking Moel(F-I-Law) off Life support and he would probably pass on soon after. At which point I was planning to leave if the word came. But later that evening I called my wife to get a status and explained I was waiting to see if I had to leave. her response was "Who said you were coming home? I did not ask you to do that?" She told me I have been waiting for 2 years for this, and her dada was in bad shape for the past 3 months, its bad timing but there is nothing to do about that. Besides her dad would want me too. She said "Javier go flatten some hills" then come home as soon as you can.

So with that, I decided to stay and finish this journey. I decided I would dedicate the race to my Awesome wife, Retno, and her dad.

I put it on my arm so I would be reminded why I was doing this whenever I was in the Aero bars.

So that evening had a light meal and went to bed around 9:30 ish. I slept pretty well and got up around 4AM. The Tom and Phil were already up and getting their breakfast together. I had my usual two slices of toast with peanut butter, added a bagel with butter for good measure. Preparing breakfast I saw there were some inspirational notes left around by Guru (that crazy kid!):

This is the kind of thing one should expect when sharing a house with a bunch of creative, fun, slightly deranged and yet awesome folks.

Anyhow the Iron-Sherpas also got up to join us during breakfast at 4AM to see us all off.

Thats Guru in the front, clearly not happy to have been photo's in an unprepared state, yet trying to work in a smile anyhow ( I think she gripped that fork much tighter almost instinctively).

After Breakfast, Chem-lab began ( its that moment that you have 3-4 athletes in one kitchen preparing all sorts of drinks with powders and such you end up with a cloud of powder at one point). For me I was going with Heed and Perpetuom. I knew that the course was going to be well stocked I was not too stressed. My goal was to put in about 300 calories and hour, which according to many USAT coaches is the estimate that is needed to keep the body moving in a long course race. In my special needs I put extra powder in baggies so that I could prepare 2 more bottles during the second loop. With the Perpetuom each bottle had 280 calories. I also had some energy bars and such to make up the difference. My strategy was that on the bike I would stop ad aid stations only for water when the Perpetuom started to feel stagnant or I got tired of it. I also had made the decision to stop at every single aid station during the marathon. As such I would not need to worry about building a surplus of calories for the run.

After breakfast we packed up the gear and headed out with the crew. The house was only a few blocks away from the start which is perfect. dropped everything off and headed to the water.

So now maybe I should say something about my strategy for this race. I did not train for this race as I would have loved. There were so many issues and distractions such as a large workload that required me to get home late and such, that I missed many workouts. However I did make the KEY workouts so I knew I had the base necessary to get through it so long as I played my cards right. My plan was to be conservative the whole way through. In the past I had suffered severe leg cramps on the run and I had discovered that if I pace myself on the bike and not push more than at the level I train I am OK. Nutrition wise I was shooting for 300 calories an hour, which is teh estimate on what is needed to keep moving forward.

By the swim start everyone was gathering in basically 2 places, in the front treading water or in the back hanging out on shore. I lost Phil by this point and I found out later he was in the Front. I was hanging with Tom in the back. For this race we were not eager to get into water combat when we knew we had long days ahead of us. I was a bit excited at the though that the day was finally here.

After waiting awhile, the canon went off and sure enough the pandemonium began, but it was not out of control. I felt I went through the swim nice and relaxed with little trouble at all. I wa snot pushing myself. Sighting was not an issue one bit, they mark the course so clearly that Its hard to go off track by much. As I said the swim went easy I finished in 1 hr 23 mins.

Transition was a non event, saw Guru as I was headed out, she was a traffic cop atthe womens transition it seemed.

On the Bike my goal was to do 15 mph average. This was a pace I had figured out at Rev3 that I could maintain and NOT suffer leg cramps. The first loop was great, Lake Placid is Hilly but not so hilly that there is any one hill that you feel you would rather get off and walk on. They are just long gradual hills. Much of my first loop I spent exchanging places with people named Michelle, Jerry and Lynne. I also had the chain drop 3 times whenever I wanted to shift to the smaller ring. Overall, I was feeling good, in fact after the first loop my average was above 16mph and I started to feel a leg cramp coming on so I dialed it back for the second loop.

By the second loop I had started to exchange my water bottles out with the bottle of Gatorade they were handing out. So I went to special needs where I had put 2 baggies with Perpetuom so that I could add to whatever I received at bottle exchanges. This proved to be tricky. The Gatorade bottles were not large mouth bottles like water bottles so filling it with Powder was not so simple or fast. The result was I got 75% in the bottles, and 25% all over me lol

Having accomplished that I was onto the second loop.

Second time was NOT a charm, this time those long inclines seemed much harder. By mile 90, the miles just seemed to take forever. and I was real glad to get the bike portion over. All in all despite being tired I felt good, my nutrition was just right. So I was actually looking forward to doing a marathon now. kinda sick ain't it?

SO in transition I decided to take it easy, my legs were feeling it and I was still concerned about that Cramp I felt earlier in the bike. I wanted to make sure to give it time to pass. I went to the sunscreen latherer dude who proceded to just practically pourthe stuff on me like I was a cake and he just had to put icing on me it was that thick! No artform or style whatsoever, but it worked! I did not get burned! lol

Once I got started I felt pretty good. I was not going to Rock the run, I was sticking to my plan till the end. The whole run I stayed at a base pace trot, about 10-11 min/mile. I walked the aid stations and took in everything they had every other station. At this relatively slow pace I was passing without exaggerating hundreds. Soo many people that pushed on the bike only to end up walking the marathon. I was able to maintain this pace constant throughout the run. The crowd support was simple awesome. I think this was my favorite part of the race simply because there was much more interaction with the crowds. At this slow pace I moved up almost 700 positions in ranking from the bike to the run, thats how many people I passed that were walking after a pushing on the bike. On the run I saw basically everyone and saw Phil as he was about to enter the stadium, he was just rocking the race on his way to beating the sun ( finishing before nightfall). Tom was looking good also taking his time as he had planned prior to the race start. I saw triBoomer on the road he looked beat but determined (he finished of course after all he IS an Ironman). Turns out he was having stomach issues.

I saw Jackie V out on the run, she was there just to cheer me on and she nearly tackled me as I was getting water haha it turns out she was cheering much of the time from the local bar lol Some people they know what they are doing :)

Finally entering the stadium was simply surreal. They just make you feel that you are a star. In teh stands I saw Christine and Michelle waving at me. Then I heard "Javier Gomez ..You are an IRONMAN!" WOW!! FINALLY!!!

I stumbled into a pile of "catchers" who walked me to everything after. They were great.

Christine ( Guru) and Michelle then escorted me back up to the house. The plan was to get back down to cheer others but somehow the tiredness settled in at that point and I never made it back. Guru and Michelle missed Rambonies finish cuz they were helping me and they figured they would have tiome to get back down. But we underestimated the Rambonie machine. Who knew that in the spot where everyone else "Hits the Wall", Rambonie would choose to Tackle it! He picked it up at that point and finishedbefore they could get back down! Way to GO!

In the end, everyone in the house finished. Which was totally awesome.

My finish time was 14:37, not a time I would say was awesome but its still an IRONMAN finishing time :)

Ironman!

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:04:00 +0000

Well I did it! I finished IMLP 09. It was Awesome. More to come later

IMLP D-1

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Well its the day before the fateful Ironman. Taking the time to walk around and enjoy the Placid area. What a beautiful town. Walking around here is like walking through Athlete Mecca.

Walking around you kinda feel as if you are an Olympian of sorts. I went into a deli for some water and they saw my wrist band and asked me to sign their IMLP poster. It seems the businesses are doing this now. The businesses do try and make you feel special.

Yesterday myself, Phil and Tom went for a swim at Mirror Lake. I saw that many others already had the same idea:

The Lake is beautiful, and the swim course is extremely well marked. I mean there is literally a giant bouey's every 50 meters for the entire distance. Its kinda hard to get lost here.

Then after the swim I went to check in, it is done in teh School next to the Olympic arena. The transition is setup right in front:

Looks like its going to be INSANE!

The day is near!

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Finally! After almost 2 years, 2 cycling accident resulting in broken collarbone and a concussion( and a new nickname ie "crash";) , I am down to the final stretch towards my Ironman. I am now leaving to head up to Lake Placid where I am sharing a house with my buds.

I am excited and a bit nervous, but THATS GOOD!

So Off I go, if you want to follow me on race day I am bib # 1182

Wish me LUCK!

Random Taper Thoughts

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Its funny what happens in my head during a taper. Aside from the usual insecurities that come when you lower the amount of time spent workingv out, there also are effects on my thoughts. Different thoughts come up.

For example earlier today a thought occurred to me about how the "Clowning Industry" must consider it Abject failure that most Children and many adults are afraid of them? I mean really what clown thought up the idea of dressing up with psycho hair, Giant Blood red lips and crazy eyes in order to entertain?

They are supposed to make you feel happy and entertained. Instead they are almost universally hated. Talk about a PR nightmare!

Look at what the dog dragged in

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Well more like chased in. Around my neighborhood we know there is a community of feral ( the "in" way of saying "stray" )cats. So yesterday it seems Simba chased and cornered this kitten, pounced on it once before Retno was able to intervene. We don't know where it came from and wasn't sure if it was injured. So she brought it in. So far looks OK, and tomorrow the Vet. We are guessing its 5-6 weeks old.

11 Days

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:41:00 +0000

Well here we are 11 days to go. I would like to say that after almost 2 years of preparing (first attempt aborted after
cycle crash) that I am more than ready. No problems at all.

Truth is I am not. Physically at least. Training has been sporatic at best. Between work pressures, A very ill hospitalized Father in Law and other Domestic issues. I have missed a huge percentage of training.

The only reason I figure to have a chance are the recent huge weekends where I put in some good miles and time. That and my plan was original designed not to just finish but to CRUSH. As such I figure I can push through with the training I have done.

So really I have no goal time other than to finish. Also to have sufficient energy so I can get up from crawling about 500 meters from the finish so I can cross the finish with arm high in the air per the traditional Ironman finish line photo.

That is key!

Road Rash

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:51:00 +0000

In the past year I have by far received the most emails from my post about Extensor tendonitis than just about any other post. So in order to further improve my hit rate I have arranged to obtain some “Road Rash” so that I can write about it :)
Ok so basically my grand training weekend up at Lake Placid was cut short by a small accident that caused me a concussion and some nice road rash. A concussion is basically any head trauma that causes you to black out or lose memory. In my case it was both. I cant actually remember the accident. Which is disturbing since there is no obvious sign of what exactly happened. Basically, I was riding behind holisticguru on a flat portion of the course. The roads were not unusually bad, they were not perfect but I have ridden over much worse. Next thing I know I am picking myself up off the ground with my bike underneath me.

According to the doc at the ER I did take a pretty significant shot to the head (blunted by another cracked helmet). That’s it. I suspect my tire got caught in some rut in the road. Once I got up HG insisted on waiting 5 minutes to clear my head. Then we rode back ( the bike was fine only some additional scratches). It was about 10 miles back to Lake Placid.

Though I felt fine, the others at the house(Rambonie, Jennwilltri) insisted I go to the hospital. So Rambonie was kind enough to take me to the ER. There I had Xrays done, and a CT scan to make sure there were no Hematomas or other crazy shit going on in my head. Well aside from the usual crazy shit.
All was clear. I was checked out 3 hrs later with instructions to do nothing for 48 hours. The concussion could cause me to faint. Also exercising could make it worse. Somehow, this prognosis did not change even after I begged that I needed to ride the course one more time! WTF!

Anyhow I was given instructions on what to do for the road rash, which at the moment is by far the most aggravating result from this accident. So here you go how to treat Road Rash:

-Remove old dressings daily and apply new ones
-If the bandage sticks to the wound apply some moisture to help it come of easier
-Keep injury clean and dry at all times
-Apply a thin layer of antibiotic ointment 2-3 times daily to help it heal faster and avoid excessive scarring.

No medication was prescribed only Motrin (WTF! What about some good pain meds??!)
That’s it! Nothing special really. But here is some tidbit that is yet ANOTHER BLOW against the Male leg shavers out there!!
One reason I was given as to why cyclists and triathletes shave their legs is that it makes the healing of road rash go easier.

NOT TRUE per the ER doc, in fact it works the other way around. When you shave you expose the bacteria that resides at the roots of the hair. Therefore during an accident you are more likely to get an infection. MORE LIKELY! Take that you male shavers!

Anyhow that’s it. Aside from stating that the road rash is truly uncomfortable, and painful there is nothing more to add, about this.

Buying a used Bike?

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:48:00 +0000

I received an emailed question from someone in my home town about buying a used bike, Here was my response:

What is your goal for this triathlon? Are you just looking to have fun and experience a triathlon? or are you a competitive type and want to do really well. If you are looking for the experience only then see if you can borrow a bike, also you can do a tri in a hybrid. I personally prefer someone know what they want before spending any money on a bike. OK so you decide you want a bike.

Then, figure out your budget. Don't go looking for a bike and figure you will pay what you need too. Because you will end up possibly spending more than you want to or have to.
SECOND, go to a bike shop, ask them to tell you what size bike you will need. Bikes come in a variety of sizes. Getting the right size bike is KEY to having a bike properly fit for you. While there look around ask lots of questions, tell them your needs and heck even ask them if they have anything that fits your budget. Generally you can find a decent entry level road bike for about $800 and $1000. See if they have a new bike that fits your budget. I would definitely go with a road bike.

As for where to buy a used Bike, Craigslist, Ebay etc Unfortunately there are not too many bike shops that sell used bikes. At least not in Westchester.

If you go the used bike route, I know people who have had success getting a bike through Craigslist. That is because on Craiglist the ads are normally local and the buyer has been able to see the bike before buying.

Something to consider when you buy a bike used, there are other expenses you may not think about. for example It is recommended to get the bike fit for you. This is a process where the bike shop adjusts the bike for you ( ie handlebars, seat adjustments) so that you get most comfort and power from the bike.That will probably cost you somewhere between $1-200. You probably also have to get it tuned up, thats another $1-200. These costs are already included included when you buy a bike from a shop. That is why I suggest you figure out your budget before bike shopping. Because if you find a bike online for $500 its really going to cost you anywhere between 7-900 by the time you are ready. That is no deal unless you are buying a fantastic bike that would normally cost much more.

Finally, don't worry about aerobars, you wont need them. At least not now if you are a beginner.

handheld posting

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:32:00 +0000

So I am experimenting with posting from my phone. Such is my life that I no longer have enough time to regularly update anything. however I do have 2 hours of a commute to and from work where I sit on a train sleeping, reading, dreaming. figured HEY theres more time I can fill with stuff!

However, the only web connection is through this phone. So hopefully this works.

Ridgefield Triathlon

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Great race. Started off the day a bit tired and unmotivated. In fact I got there a bit late and barely had time to setup. I ran into Guru on the bathroom line while she was texting me " where the Freak are you?!" haha. As I said I was pretty nonchalant about the race. Very relaxed.

For breakfast I Had my normal peanut butter on wholewheat slices.

After setting up, Me and Guru went in and warmed up in the water prior to the first wave. I was in the second wave. The weather was perfect, the first wave went off and all looked good. This time for some reason I decided to mix it up with the goons in the mob. So I stuck myself in the middle near the front of the group. This was in fact a very stressful position to be in. Got smacked a few times and I am sure I kicked a few folks too. but I did not get caught up with going crazy at the start and allowed myself to be pulled by the draft. My sighting was Dead-on. I took the inner line and never left it. I literally hit the first bouey with my shoulder. Same with the second. I was steady in my pace and before reaching the first bouey I had past allot of the folks who bulldozed past me and was actually now hitting the first wave of swimmers. When I got out of the water I was in the middle of the previous wave. I think I finished like 9th or 10th in my wave. which was pretty good.

Went into the bike with no complications, and the bike was smooth. I felt great and because it was a sprint I figured to push as hard as I can. The Ridgefield course is slightly hilly but nothing too hard. Mostly Rolling. I was able to average about 18MPH.

I headed out to the run and was not feeling it. But much to my surprise, I managed to pull a 21:50 5k which is something like 7:20 min miles.

When all was said and done I had finished in the top 3rd of both my age group and my race. My buddies at the race did pretty damned goo too, Phil came in 4th in his age group, Pro and coach John Hirsch won the whole damned thing while breaking the course record. And My pal, and OpIron Athlete extraordinaire holisticguru, was in the lead in her age group when she Crashed on the bike. You can read all about it here. Good news is she walked out of it with a smile.

Website Launch!

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Well after months of working on it...the Opiron coaching website is ready.

I present to you...Opironmultisport.com

Even in my Sleep!

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:50:00 +0000

The setting..... 5AM last night---

SMACK!

Me- HuH? What?!

Wife - Will you shut up!

Me - What are you talking about, I am sleeping!

Wife- Yeah but you are yelling "Come on Christine!! Push it!! Push!! Get up! Come on Climb that Sucker!! GO!! CLIMB!! AW RIGHT!! WAY TO GO!!"

Me - Umm Sorry

Wife- Coach Tomorrow, Shut up and sleep now!! Come on Do it! You can do it!

LOL

The Natural Sports drink

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:01:00 +0000

I just received a shipment of ONE Coconut water, and let me tell you..LOVING IT!

I have already had 3 of these suckers. They are delicious. But the beauty is they are 100% natural and they give me similar benefits that you can get from drinking a sports drink. Now the coconut water does in fact point this out in the back, showing a comparison. Which looks pretty damned favorable for the coconut water. However, being a triathlete I happen to have handy a small collection of sports drinks to compare directly. I have Gatorade and Accelerade. So here are some stats:

Gatorade
110 MG sodium
30 Mg potassium
14 grams carbs
Coloring(artificial)

Accelerade
190 mg sodium
65 mg Potassium
21 g carbs
coloring artificial

O.N.E Coconut water
60 mg of sodium
670!! ml potassium
15 grams of carbs
coloring-none

So what does this tell me, it tells me that Coconut water is in some cases better as a sports drink than the Uber-popular gatorade. Accelerade is probably a better option for long events, or pop in a NUUN for the added electrolytes where I may need a bit more sodium. But for everyday workouts and recovery drinks. Coconut water is Plenty. That PLUS ITS 100% NATURAL!!

You should see the laundry list of ingredients that Accelerade has! What the heck is Trahalose ( Ascend tm)?

I'll take the Coconut water if I have it, thank you very much!

Am I overtraining or am I just a lazy ass?

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:13:00 +0000

This is the question I received today from one of my athletes who shall remain nameless. I looked at her workouts and what she logged about them. There could only be one conclusion....wrote her back "Your a lazy ass, now HTFU and get your workout done!"

Now I tend to goof around allot with this Athlete who normally works her Butt off. So I can say stuff like that, normally I wouldnt mention the lazy ass part ;)

But Overtraining is a serious thing, and you know it when you feel it. In this case once she got started with her workout she felt fine. That to me is the sign that its overtraining or just life stressing you out. Often I feel my feet dragging and dont want to go for a run, but once I get started I picku p within a few minutes. In fact if I dont get into a workout after 20 minutes thats a sign for me to take a day off. Which does happen.

But most of the time the workouts feel fine.

Overtraining is not just one workout but you know you are overtrained when a series of workouts just feel wrong, no energy, no zipp at all. If this goes on for awhile not just one day, then yes you may be overtrained.

If thats not the case, then just HTFU and get out there :)

Look at what I got in the mail

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

It oofficial I have the cert to prove it! I am a Tri Coach

Training plans and Life

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:23:00 +0000

It occurred to me last night that the things I love the most about Triathlon are the same things that can get me into trouble: I love the training, I love the adventure, I most of all love the friends I have made through the sport. There is such a sense of bonding because you go through something that is very different from the everyday life of home, and work. You meet people who are dealing with the same stresses, and so you find yourself drawn to these people.

I love that.

You can go to a race alone and yet know that when you get to a race, every single person there sees you as one of them despite the fact you are competing against one another. Maybe thats why the time I forgot all my water bottles at home for a race, I had all of these other folks I did not know offer me their spares and extra nutrition they had, so much so I had to turn away stuff. Triathletes are just plain awesome.

But Like all things good, it is possible to have too much of it. Life should be balanced and that includes triathlon. Which leads me to this post, I am following a plan that was created for me last year by fabulous coach and Pro triathlete John Hirsch. It was originally developed for IM Wisconsin. However when I broke my collarbone last year all of this was put aside. So naturally when I was able to sign up for IM Lake Placid of this year, I just dusted it off and started all over.

Last year I wanted a plan that would lead me to kick some serious booty, in the race. Its aggressive. It will no doubt lead me to crush the competition. The problem is that my life situation from last year has changed. Those things that gave me time last year to do this, have changed.

So now that I am reaching the real Meat of the training plan which has me doing back to back Huge rides on Saturday and Sunday, I am starting to feel the cracks widen in my life. My current situation cannot support me being away from my family for 6-8 hrs a day on both Saturday and Sunday.

This plan was specifically designed to turn my weakness, cycling, into my strength. So that I could annihilate all my competition. Yesterday when I was out on my ride I saw all of these people out raking and doing plantings and such. I got home and looked at my front lawn and realized that there is still tons of fall leaves all over the place. Spring is not springing in my house because I am spending two days each weekend doing long hard rides. When I get home its already late, and I am too exhausted to do anything. Retno cant do all of these things by herself, nor should she have to.

This plan no longer works for me

The perfectly good plan from a year ago is no longer perfectly good. Why? Because our lives change, our needs and goals change and maintaining a balance is critical to success in keeping a triathlon lifestyle. I had last week a plan to go on a 4 hour ride on Saturday and a 6 hour ride on Sunday ( today). I had made plans with a really fun group to take on a very hilly 100 miler. But yesterday I realized I have let my plan and triathlon life take an overwhelming priority in my life.

Truth is that annihilating the competition is just not THAT important (GASP!), I would be satisfied with just crushing them a little. So I am just changing the focus of my plan I will still have one long ride on the weekends, but I will make the other day a long run instead. That takes up 2 hours instead of 8. It also does not wipe me out. I can actually have energy to pay attention to other parts of my life.

I used to ask myself, why would would anyone in this day and age, pay me to coach them when they have access to all of these resources online? Why hire a coach?

Answer: You hire a coach when you truly want to achieve something in triathlon but realize that there will be challenges along the way. A coach will help you navigate those challenges by adapting your training to address those challenges. Case in point...read above :)

If you find that you are missing 30% of the training sessions scheduled on your plan, on a regular basis, I have news for you. That plan is not working for you. Nor are you getting the benefit of a plan that fits your life. When I say missing I do not mean that you can move things around from one day to the next, we all do that. What I mean is that you are just outright skipping workouts because you have no time to do them, and you find you are doing this on a regular basis.

This is why you get a coach. To help you evaluate if a training plan works for your current life situation, and help customize that for your goals. If you already have a coach, and you find yourself regularly missing 3-4 workouts a week, Call him/her or email and tell them you need to change your plan. You truly are not getting the benefit of that plan in my opinion.

If you have a coach that says no-can-do because there is a limit to changes made or a limit on communication, then drop that coach because you are paying too much money. A Tri coach should be your partner in getting you to that race feeling confident and prepared. You should feel like you are part of a team simply because you have a coach that is watching what you do and giving you feedback. That coach should be vested in your success. That includes dealing with life. If you are counting the time you have contacted them because there is a limit per month, drop that coach. Life happens and no training plan is perfect year round.

When I push out a plan to my athletes its generally no more than a month of training at a time. Most of the time its even less. Why? because in one month things can change. I develop a long term strategy, but the daily stuff is done a month at a time. I try to make sure the plans fit my athletes lives, and that if they have an injury we modify the training ASAP, and not wait until it becomes a bigger problem. I am ALWAYS in contact either through monitoring their workouts or email or simple interaction in Twitter. No communication limits. Thats my approach.

There are so many good coaches out there that do the same. Do not ever settle for paying someone a monthly or annual fee for a standard plan that cannot be changed. If you want that you can get a great plan by buying one of the thousands of good books with training plans.

So.. do you need a coach to achieve your goals? Nope. You can do it yourself. It just depends on who you are and how you approach things? If you are a DIY type then just take my advise and re-look at your plan if you are in fact missing that many workouts.

Cheers, I now have to go do some raking lol

So why was I grovelling?

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:16:00 +0000

So it was maybe two weeks ago that I embarked on my first 100 miler of the season. I had spent time on the trainer and time riding outdoors, but This ride with Phil, was hard. It was the first of many to come and I am still not in top shape. In particular this ride was HILLY! At one point I was at about mile 75 looking at possibly the hundredth hill to climb and I know that inside I was grovelling saying in a small voice "no not another one" (maybe it was a low end whine). Whatever it was it was ...sad

Anyhow I none the less sucked it up and pushed up the hill and the next one and next....

What was kinda interesting was what it was that made me so exhausted. It wasn't my legs. It was actually my shoulders and arms. As you climb hills you tend to rock the bike side to side, which involves almost your whole body working. My legs were fine and strong enough, my body as whole was not. I was feeling my core, shoulders, arms all were beat.

Since my operation on my collarbone late last year, I have layed off upper body work to let the shoulder heal. But now that is past and its time to focus and rebuild the shoulder strength. THUS on twitter I started 100 pushup Fridays. Its just a game in order to get some inspiration to do some core and strength work. Last year at Race with Purpose that crew was doing it on Wendsdays.

Also I figure I will be getting back on the 100 pushup challenge again. My pal HolisticGuru is also doing the 200 situp challenge which I think is probably another thing I may have to take on.

My first race is a Half marathon in April 29! Time to get serious.

Great long run!

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:06:00 +0000

There are workouts that just make you feel freaken good. Today was one of them. I had actually a ride to do but since the weather was rainy and windy, and I had missed my lomg run on Thursday evening due to work, I chose to get that done today since it better to run than ride in this weather.

Started off feeling stiff and unmotivated. The first half I ran with Simba, to get her her exercise. It was Hilly with wet and cold wind. But no sooner than I got my feet on the pavement, I was moving and moving with Purpose. The first half just went by easy as I stuck to the Long slow distance pace, keeping my HR in Zone 2. Dropped SImba off after the first hour, took in some water and resumed my run. I just felt like I had wings on my feet. There were plenty of hills but they seemed to just blend in, not even noticeable.

As the last half hour approached, I had on the plan to kick it up and finish strong. Not a problem I brought my average pace on the last half hour from my average of 9:30 to around 8 min/mile with ease and finished with plenty of energy for a sprint at the end.

The totals: 14.14 miles, 2 hrs 15 minutes, 3185 feet of climbing.

So its a day off.....from work

jg_65@yahoo.com (Javier) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:14:00 +0000

This translates to a day of swimming and running, along with doing essay questions for my Tri Coach exam, and doing a few training plans for my core group of athletes.

So really a day off translates to a day on of doing the stuff I love! Yeah Baby!

Anyhow did you guys know that there are some athletes out there that actually use their indoor trainers year round? Its true! The trainer has some benefits that you cant get from the great outdoors:

You control the effort level, if you want to do 5 10 minute hill climbs with 2 minutes rest, its kind of hard to find any hills conveniently placed so that you can successfully do this. Same goes for time trials or anything where you really need to control the effort level.
Its locked in place so you will not fall off. Great place to work on single leg drills to help improve your pedal technique.
Along the line with pedal technique, you can easily work on pedal cadence. A high pedal cadence is good in that its overall more efficient. For triathletes it also means your legs are fresher for the run if you maintain a high pedal cadence.

Despite all of these benefits, you still NEED the great outdoors. Bike handling is key to cycling and well you don't really move much on a trainer. Also balance is not really worked on.

There is also the mental workout you get from dealing with varied terrain. Learn to adapt to the unexpected.

Lets face it, cycling can also serve to just plain "Take you away" when its beautiful outside, a slight wind is blowing and you are just riding with some good friends. THAT cant be replaced by a trainer.