Digital Upgrade

I have a bunch of things I could post about today but I have really felt compelled to talk about Nepsa for the last couple of days.

I won an online contest sponsored by Nepsa last year and they created for me the awesome bloggerheadz you see above my blog and knocked off the .blogspot part of my web address by hosting my site. I really should have done both of those a long time ago, thats why I entered the contest.

I didn't honestly think CMS would become such a big part of my life. Nor did I ever consider that I would subscribe to about 80 rss feeds on bloglines. When I reached that sort of critical mass I knew I had to go to the next level. Maybe you don't personally feel that way about this online stuff but I guess I do. I didn't want it to become such an important part of my internal identity but it has.

I think that if anyone wants to distinguish their blog they need a kickass header. I tried to stumble through different online programs but really I could not create anything as sophisticated as what I got, in a fraction of the time. It just kills me to think of all my wasted training hours trying to butcher a subpar header and they got the current one up in a few hours.

On top of that the hosting gives a level of sophistication to your site by knocking out the blogspot domain name. Now I am not being snobbish, if you take my comments as such I do apologize, I am merely pointing out that if you use your blog as a connecting tool with professional organizations the .com ending has more cache. I started with blogspot because they were easy to set up and they are free. Nepsa lets you still use the blogpsot interface and you don't have to spend time redesigning your blog if your happy with what you've got. Of course if you do want to do some tiding up, well thats what their there for, so you don't have to spend frustrating hours working through html code.

When I started this crazy site I never thought I would use it as a medium to generate sponsorships or incentives. Now I find myself using CMS as a way to establish a level of credibility among people I am connecting with.

Maybe this is all in my head. Maybe I am thinking too much by half. Maybe I have 'drank the kool aid'. But I do know this. I got a kickass bloggerheadz and I got my domain, now, "All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz and I'm fine."

ETW: The day after

I feel pretty good. No training on Monday, a much deserved day of rest after a hard 48 hours. However, I like to keep myself busy so I scheduled the off day to coincide with meeting Ellie for the first time since she came to Arizona for the winter.

First off we met at a Starbucks. It wasn't hard to find her in the crowd since she glowed with energy and she had no coffee in her hands. I suppose the Senior Olympics Triathlon shirt didn't hurt either.

No No No I didn't take pictures. With all modesty I am a cross between Quasimodo and the Elephant Man. The best you get is my hardly shredded torn calf. Thanks for the ego boosting comment Shelley.

It is so amazing to met Ellie for the first time when knowing that in just a couple hundred days we will be floating the line at Ironman Florida together. Two more people on Team TriGeek Dreamers meeting up due to fate. We exchanged the funny nuances of our training and racing over the weekend, the sometimes strange direction were guided on with our walk with Christ. Movies, family...a very cool M-Dot tattoo that Ellie earned. Ladies I am thinking your going to go with her design when you see it. A bit too 'chick' for me but hey I wore pink tape on my calf over the weekend. No... too girlish for even my figure.

Give her some pressure maybe she will post a picture online.

Today is some light running, five miles tops I think. I have appointments to work around and this is supposedly a taper period. Someday I will do one correctly. I burned up a lot of fuel with Mistress due to long hours at work and lately long hours of training and need to make some appearances at home before she starts throwing my Training Contract in my face stating some clause about raising my son and being there for the family and all that stuff.

ETW Recap

Epic Training Weekend was a huge success. As a peak performance training block capping my No Limits Challenge I not only performed to my expectations but exceeded in some areas. We had new faces out there on the course thanks to the launching of our triathlon club website; one local, one from New Mexico, one from San Deigo and one from Glendale, which is technically the westside of Phoenix but might as well have a Palm Springs zip code.

Friday was John, his brother Dan from SD and The Good Doctor, who henceforth is known simply as The Machine. We met at Canyon Lake and swam along the beach for roughly 1.7 miles. For those of you who think that is too cold to swim, I confess with a 3mm cap it is quite comfortable after the initial shock. I set no speed record but completed the swim in 1:18, which when using Blog de Phil's excellent training calculators equals an IM swim finish just under an two hours.

Saturday was the true training peak. 0700 started with 8 intrepid souls swimming for distance. I swam 3,000 yards in 1:11. Didn't have to tack as much with a black line under me. Then we rode the IMAZ bike course for 3 loops. Due to a fun run taking over our normal staging area (IMAZ tranistion zone) we parked at a local park, which cut a couple miles off our course. I was still able to crank out 110 miles.

I had a great ride. I averaged 19.7 mph for the first 80 miles then hit some stiff wind which dropped me down to 17 mph for the last bit. In perspective when IronBenny and I rode the same course two weeks ago I was only averaging 18.3 mph for the first 80 miles.

I stopped and had my puke session right around mile 90. When I got off the bike for the run I was hurting. I was IMHO hydrated and sodiumed well, I think I really just had some GI issues, maybe the gatorade/carbpro mix I was living on.

The 4.5 run brick was a cruel joke on my system. I made it to 3 miles before another dry heave episode. Back at the truck, The Machine, already changed and waiting for me wanted to grab a burger but after watching me dry heave for another ten minutes he wisely decided to eat with his wife instead. I went home and boiled pasta in chicken broth and that was dinner. Well actually Mistress did the cooking, whole other story for you new folks reading this.

Felt much better Sunday. Two other guys I we rode with last summer came along for the ride. The wind was really blowing for the first 20 miles of the loop but the turnaround was strangely wind free so tore it up coming back. A quick transition into a 13.1 mile brick and I felt pretty good still. After all was said and done, after all the training in the previous 48 hours, I ran the half marathon in 2:25. I'll take that.

I think the best part of the whole weekend was the compliments I got from some of the other guys. Compliments on my riding improvement, compliments on my running and sticking through the puking to gut it out. I feel I crossed a critical line in IM training with this ETW.

I think I also made some improvements in my nutrition. Based on my ride with Benny and my ride Saturday I am removing Gatorade from my calorie bottles. Instead I am going to ride with just CarbPro/Water and a squirt of lemon juice in my bottles. I can get just as much bottle calories from the neutral CarbPro and can make up the electrolytes with nutritional supplements, I am already popping Succeed, adding a BCAA or other pill is no big deal.

Lessons learned from the edge of sanity.

Bike Sponsor

I am so excited to announce I now be riding a PHX Carbon TT/Triathlon bike from Valdora Cycles, a local bike company that has been designing and manufacturing bicycles, parts and accessories since 1996.

The PHX (pronounced: Phoenix) model, specs, is so new I am literally riding the first frame built off the boat. Valdora is known for its innovative and eye catching models like the AC-Tri and the BP2-Stealth. The PHX is their first all Carbon Fiber tri-specific model.


I feel that I have an inherent obligation now to ramp up my training even more in order to live up to this tremendous opportunity given to me. I do not want to fail Valdora in bringing people to their successful and beautiful brand. My mind is already full of powerful changes that I need to make to my 2006 training and racing season to show off this beauty.

I will be there from box to build to fitting and plan to put together a nice photo collection for you next week.

Thank you Valdora and thank you bloggers who motivate me to be a better triathlete. I don't want to let any of you down.

You have spoken...

In an effort to let you good people know just how much I care about you I am going to wear my racing stripe in pink this weekend.

For those that have forgotten or are new, the tape is for my torn calf muscle. I normally wear a nude or light blue, as seen in the photo. There is also a pink. In talkback many commenters suggested I should wear the pink.

You have spoken, I have listened.

Epic Training Weekend (ETW)

I didn't mention this but last weekend there was a speical Ironman training seminar going on in the Valley. While we did our long ride on the IMAZ course, we were catching glimpse of Paula Newby Fraizer and Paul Huddle as they corraled a bunch of young bucks and does through what looked like some good training. My training parter John actually rode a bit with Huddle when they got stuck at the turnaround. Very motivating. Had they not been so busy I would have tried to weasel in for a photo op.

In the spirit of kicking our collective asses into another level of training and as mental and physical preparation for the upcoming Ironman my training partners are doing here in the Valley Of The Sun, this is our ETW. Also its a great mini peak for the No Limits program I just completed.

Today come cold or frigid we are doing a long swim, at least 1.2 miles in Canyon Lake which if you remember was a mere 52 degrees just a couple weeks ago.

Saturday morning calls for swimming in the pool as far as you can for 90 minutes, then a full 112 mile ride of the Ironman course. My second century in three weekends.

Sunday is one 40 mile loop of the Ironman course and one loop of the marathon course (13.1 miles)

After that I firmally expect to puke my guts up and pass out.

Spring Fashion statements

In a further schism from my running background; from now on all running shorts will called 'diapers' on this blog. Tri shorts are so much more slimming.

It is a given that triathlon clothing is tight. From heretoforth it shall be called "Second Skin" on this blog.

Metrosexuals are not all triathletes though many triathletes are metrosexual. I think a man should only shave his his face, his back and his golf score on a regular basis. No man should ever shave his legs bare unless he lost a bet or Ironman is week away.

Thank God that the fashion houses have brought back thick, funky belts for spring. I no longer have to see size 12 girls wearing size 8 low rider jeans, so that their fat guts hang over their jeans and look like the tops of muffins which gave way to me labeling them "Muffin Guts' and being forever banned from the Express store near my house.

I want to end this post with a great link to a video from Pink. Its about 3 minutes long. Its a great message about female role models in society. I wish more people would preach this kind of upbringing for young women instead of trying to tell us things like Demi Moore looking fabulous for her age and not mentioning she had $325,000 of plastic surgery for Charlies Angels 2.