A sunny day in winter

Today was a beautiful day. Mid-60's and sunny with only a normal Oklahoma wind blasting you in the face. It was time for another big ride. Yet, just 15 miles in, I was struggling. Part of it could have been the hills and the headwind, but whatever the case, I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle the distance I wanted to at the start. That, however, did not stop me from continuing on out into the massive hills that awaited further on. Now since this is still base training, I tried to keep at least my heart rate as low as possible as I climbed, as slow as possible, with a very, very low cadence up each gargantuan hill. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. Or even that my heart rate stayed low. So why do all this? Why not attack the hills to make them as quick and painless as possible like ripping off a bandaid? Well this is exactly how you do strength training on the bike. An extremely important part in developing the strength and endurance to go hard and fast once racing season starts.

I only made it 43 miles. And I was half delirious and somewhat detached from proper muscle coordination at the finish. I didn't expect the 5 mile run an hour later to be fast. Or even to get finished. But it was both. Among being one of the more effortless runs in a long while. I barely got myself off the couch to start it. But once I had, I was immediately refreshed and ready to roll. And the feeling never left. This is what getting fit is like. Today was a beautiful day!

Back in the OK

Since leaving, wonderful, beautiful Florida, where my last run ended with me soaked in sweat, and returning to the cold, extremely hilly (by comparison) Oklahoma, I have been surprisingly fortunate to have good, sunny weather in the 40's and 50's to bike and run in. Though I am remembering why I disliked training here so much back in August. It wasn't just the searing, oppressive heat of three consecutive weeks of 100 plus degree days that stretched all the way into September. It was more the lack of good, safe places to ride. Now don't get me wrong, there are some decent places around, even in the Moore/Norman area, but they just don't compare to anywhere else in the nation I've been. Among my travels, I've found bike lanes and wide shoulders to ride on in even the most unsuspecting of areas. And almost always there will be good riding and bike paths galore next to a big University. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. Most of the bike routes seem to take one down the busiest, most dangerous, roughest road around. That is, until you try to take another road without a bike route sign. Though, despite all this, far enough away from the cities, there are a few roads that are quite good for low traffic and even have decent pavement, as long as you can handle the hills and the long, scary ride to get out there. Maybe I've just gotten soft from all that easy, breezy Florida riding?

Florida Training Camp Finale

It's Sunday afternoon. The weather is beautiful. Sun is shining. Wind is dying. Ocean is still and majestic. Today is the day I cap off my impromptu Florida Training Camp with the biggest day of all. And yet, my legs just won't go. Stick a fork in me, I'm done. From the morning's short swim, I knew today was going to be a challenge. But alas, 5 run miles at recovery pace are enough to let me know that I'm not biking any more than a recovery ride today.

So what happened? Was it from Thursday's big century brick? How did my legs handle that? Well to my surprise, the answer was quite well. The 45 mile bike ride Friday morning seemed very short compared to the previous day and was quite easy up until the final few miles where I started to get really hungry (a common occurrence, despite the vast quantities of food consumed each day). In fact, the run that evening was quite impressive. After warmup, I held 7:20/mi pace at an aerobic heart rate for the last 5+ miles of the run. Considering I had previously needed to be fairly fresh just to hold around 8:10/mi. pace for an aerobic heart rate and had been running most of my miles in a recovery zone around 8:40/mi. because my legs simply weren't able to go faster, this was quite the experience! Knocking around a minute per mile off run pace overnight is something that feels very very strange, and is extremely encouraging! After this day's workouts, I figured I was ready for a big weekend.

So what happened Saturday? The day's plan was a simple ride 80 and run 5. What went wrong? Well it was 6:30 AM and I was at the trailhead meeting up with the local Subaru cycling team for`a nice 3-4 hour base training ride, meaning easy and relaxed. With guys from the Cat 2 level to the Cat 4 level, I figured it shouldn't be too strenuous. And some of it, most of it, was nice and easy. In fact several times I decided to ride out front for awhile so I could go at my own relaxed pace. However, when riding with a big group of racers, there are always those moments where... EVERYONE takes off. The need for speed is often too great with so many capable riders that have been held back for so long while building base mileage. And so what am I to do? Sit there and let them leave me behind? I think not! And so I chase. And chase. And chase some more... but since the lead guys are putting out 500+ watts of power, I'm not catching. It might seem like I am at times, but I'm certain I'm not. All the while I'm trying to stay within myself as we still have a couple hours left to ride. And I do. In fact, I feel quite fine once they slow a little and I finally catch up. And that's when we hit the climb (rather big hill for anyone else not from Florida). Ok, NOW this hurts a bit. I have no problem letting everyone else go. But then I recover. And, of course, we have several more impromptu bursts of power like that one, often involving good size hills, where I, of course, am ready and waiting for the challenge. I've already got one taste of some high output excitement and I want more! But soon it is over as we only end up riding around 60 miles. No problem. I feel fine. I'll just go grab another 20 as soon as I throw some clothes on and... uh oh, I can't kkeeepp wwaarrmmm. I now realize that the temp had dropped all the way down to 50ish degrees while riding instead of warming up into the 70's like I had dressed for. Since Branson, I am now much more keen in recognizing the early signs of hypothermia. I'm not doing anything until I warm up good. And maybe take a nap too.

And that's when it happens. My legs let me know the full extent of all of those power bursts. They do not move. I can't get out of the bed. But, if I can't finish up the other 20 miles biking I had planned, I better at least get those 5 run miles in before it gets dark. So I gulp down a bunch more calories and get to my recovery pace, struggling the whole while, but making it. And effectively ending training camp mode, as it is now time to step down into recovery from all this workload. And to get ready to ramp things up again for, hopefully, even bigger workouts and even bigger results!

My First Century Brick!

Well after feeling fatigue set in yesterday and bumping my big day to today and cutting yesterday down to recovery, and still struggling through it, I wasn't expecting much today. But once I got going, I knew it was going to be good. 30 miles went like butter and yesterday's struggle just to get to that number was all but forgotten. I had biked all the way from the beach up into the national forest and was now moving through beautiful country, smooth pavement, and near deserted roads. By 40 miles I was starting to think that if I could ride a century without hurting than how the heck was I going to ride long enough to improve? At 50 miles some of the hills were starting to take their toll, but I was 3 hours down and headed back through the national forest. And right around 60 was about the time where it started to become a struggle. Luckily I happened upon a convenience store as I left the forest and chugged some cherry coke down to bring me back to life for the next few miles. And then I hit about 75 and it was all back into the wind from there. Each time I had to stop at a light it felt like a monstrously difficult task to get going and clipped in again. I did, eventually, make it however, and suprisingly the last 5 miles I felt myself revitalize to an extent. And so I went running...

How fast you ask? Did I trip over myself and fall into the ditch where I'm still lying because I'm too exhausted to move? Amazingly enough, I went right into a 7:30/mile clip and frequently had to back myself off from running faster! If you've been following my training, you might know that most of my runs and all of my bricks have been at a depressing 8:30/mile pace (or slower) and even my best aerobic runs done before biking were no faster than 8:00/mile. Now I had expected (hoped) to be back at a sub 7:30/mile aerobic run pace by the time I finished this training camp and had recovered enough from it, but to jump all the way back to that level at this time and AFTER biking 100 miles was completely, and pleasantly, unexpected.

Today. Was a VERY good day.

Florida Training Camp

So to kick off my decision to make a run at the pro ranks, I decided to come down to Florida for a few weeks in December for a mini training camp with a bike heavy focus. Why bike heavy? Simple. Biking will be the hardest thing to do when I return to Oklahoma for the holidays as I absolutely refuse to train indoors unless I have to. Why? I despise it. But more on that later.

My first stop off along the way was in Georgia at the Dauset Trails Nature Center. The trails were good and technical and easy to follow and I was loving it. I ran fast. That night I arrived in Gainesville and after checking out the local nightlife downtown, I made it back to my car and what turned out to be an excellent spot to stay the night. With 70 degree days and 60 degree nights, bike lanes and wide shoulders everywhere, and beautiful places like Morningbird Nature Trails to run off the beaten path (and concrete), Gainesville was the perfect place to kick off a training camp and get my body used to the continuous biking and running necessary to build a solid base.

After a few days I needed a shower. Bad. Luckily for me, I got in touch with my cousin in the western pandhandle of the state and arrived dirty and stinking like mad after a nice ride through the Appalachicola National Forest along the way. The weather cooled off but it didn't stop me from riding big and running (as much as possible after a twisted ankle in the Bear Creek Educational Forest). And quickly, it warmed up again, living up to it's slogan of The Sunshine State as I steadily and increasingly bumped my mileage up day to day with every 4th day being a recovery day.

Which brings me to where I am now. 12 days, 5700 yards swimming, 55 miles running, and 410 miles biking behind me and a plan for these last 4 days of my mini-training camp to be so huge that I ALMOST blow up my already heavily fatigued body.

Let's do this.

My Journey

After quitting my job sitting behind a cubicle all day and travelling all over most of the United States for the last half a year, I've finally decided to do it. To go after what I've talked about, dreamed about, and most of all worked my butt of for since I was just a kid.

First it was basketball. For most of elementary and junior high this was all I did. It was my life. From 6th grade on I was going to grow 3 inches per year while not losing a step and developing all my skills to extraordinary levels until I was playing in the NBA. Sounds crazy, right? But as a kid, I had no doubt in my mind that it was going to happen.

As soon as I figured out I wasn't quite going to be anywhere near as tall as I'd hoped, I began to realize my chances were quite slim. In fact, since I wasn't even starting on the junior high squad, extremely slim. That's about the time I discovered golf. From there on I was on the course 4 days a week in the summer and every chance I got in between. I got pretty good. Fast. In a year I had shot a round under par. Keep practicing and I'd be there in no time, right? Well, that's when things started to taper off as I split time between running cross country in the fall, swimming in the winter (had to do something now that I wasn't playing basketball), and running track in the spring. Somehow I surprisingly made the cut each week to at least go to the golf tournaments and play on the varsity squad, though most days I would be shaking on the first tee box from the lung busting set of 300's I had just run as part of half mile training for track. Needless to say, it meant I didn't do particularly spectacular at either sport. And on top of that, my inexperience in tournament play often led to me letting my nerves and anger blow my scores through the roof and costing the team big points.

And so college hits and it's time to forget all those dreams and join the "real world" with one of those "real jobs". OK, this could still be exciting, right? I'm good at math, how about mechanical engineering. I bet those guys do all kinds of fun, hard stuff, that keeps them entertained while also getting paid handsomely for it. Well, some do. I didn't. Like most of the engineers in the world, I ended up in a typical 9-5 cubicle environment straight from the world of Dilbert or Office Space. It was quite the joke for awhile. Up until the point I realized that if I didn't make a change, this wasn't just temporary, it was LIFE.

And that's about the time I discovered triathlon. Lucky for me, I had kept myself in shape by running, swimming or lifting 3-4 days a week and started out extremely competitive. In my first race, I must have beat at least 90% of all women over 40. Though there was some obvious cheating going on. Particularly by the old, fat guys with their belly's hanging out of their jerseys that were passing me up hills on the bike. I am still researching how they figured out how to control gravity. I will keep you all updated when I find out more.

A couple months later, I was hooked. Somehow a $2k carbon bike seemed reasonable and in fact, a bargain, when not long ago I couldn't believe I was spending over $200 on just one item for one of three sports! It made all the difference. Riding became much more enjoyable and along with my new vow to never miss a day to train, I was all of a sudden placing in my age group in races. Which simply means that there was only one guy in the 20-24 age group who was fast, and most everyone else was slow and very new to the sport like me. Whatever the case, the new hobby was exactly the distraction I needed from the mindnumbing endlessness of working in a cubicle ALL DAY LONG.

The next year I spent without missing a single day where I was healthy to train and it showed. I had steadily and rapidly progressed to a consistent top 10 finisher in local races and a sub-5 hour half ironman. And it continued from there, as I learned more and more about training properly (something I now realize I never did in high school) through periodization and steadily building the workload, always doing more than before, but allowing the body time to adapt.

And then, as I was biking down the coast of California with a buddy of mine, I thought "Why don't I do this everyday?" And so my journey began to quit my job and travel, and all within the back of my mind, the question, "what would happen if you trained hard enough, smart enough and long enough? ...Could you go pro?". Is it possible for a normal, ordinary athlete to transform himself into one of those extraordinary superhumans we see on TV gliding through the water with a flurry of motion, rotating the ground beneath them as they slice through impossible winds and float up monstrous hills, and then proceed to fly to the finish line with only a few taps to the ground below to let it know that he is still pretending to obey gravity.

Well I think so.

And I intend to prove it.

I am going to go Pro.

And this is the story of my Journey.