Blogland's quickest catch-up!

It's been nearly two full months since I last posted a blog.  Obviously, that's just too long.

Since I have a history of being somewhat longwinded when I write, I have decided to try my best to take a minimalist approach with this two-month update.  If it works for Vibram, it should work for me.

END OF JANUARY
Exciting news!  I was offered sponsorship for 2011 with Sarasota/Bradenton based Ryder Bikes.  Ryder is Southwest Florida's premier cycling center and they have earned every bit of that title.  Since beginning triathlon in 2008, I have made appearances at every bike shop south of Tampa and have been disappointed by most.  Ryder is what I would call PERFECTION!  From the moment that I first contacted the store last summer, I have been treated with friendly, old fashioned bike service.  Ryder knows fast bikes & they know triathlon, but they also have a grip on the human experience that goes hand-in-hand with endurance sports.  So, for the 2011 season I will proudly be wearing Ryder purple & yellow for all of my triathlon & road races!  Thanks, Ryder!

FEBRUARY

With my squeeze on a group ride.

I spent half of February at the hospital with a very ill Grandmother-- fifteen consecutive days to be exact.  My 85-year-old grandmother was admitted on an emergency basis with acute congestive heart failure brought on by an aortic valve (bovine) that was failing for the second time.  I'm happy to report that she received a new valve on Valentine's Day (how sweet is that?) and is now at home and doing very well.

Of course, extended hospital visits = hospital food.  I have gained 6 pounds.  Thankfully this is not everything that I worked so hard to lose from Dec 2009-March 2010, but nevertheless, it is disappointing.  I had options during those weeks at the hospital.  I could have packed a cooler and brought healthy choices with me; however, my stress level was ridiculously high and packing food (or doing much of anything else) was not on my radar.  The nagging issue with this is that once the pallet becomes accustomed to junk, it begins to want more junk.  My junk consumption continued right through mid-March before I decided that carting around 6 extra pounds was not what I wanted to begin the 2011 season with.  I am currently a work-in-progress.

MARCH
So far March has been exciting-- despite those extra few pounds.  MSL and I have been doing long bike rides just about every weekend with Sondra, Jeff and a few others.  I love the fact that none of these rides are more than 40-50 miles (aside from last weekend's 62 mile SNAFU).  I love short course!

Mid-march and NO WETSUIT!!!

With the Nautica Classic right around the corner, I've been doing a lot of interval training with swim/bike/run.  Again, I love short course!  My times have been coming down across the board... even in the swim!  I'm seeing 1:2X for 100y repeats now where last year I was a solid 5 seconds slower.  Not that any of this qualifies as "fast", but five seconds is HUGE in swimland!  I can say that the improvement certainly didn't come from yardage (I bet I'm only averaging 5000yd per week right now); so it must have come from technique (which I have been working on a lot this year).

My pacing during longer bike intervals is up by nearly 1mph this year as well and my run times have dropped so dramatically that I'm having trouble figuring out exactly 'where' I need to be training at right now. Stay tuned for my St. Patty's 8k report for more about this.

Obviously, this is all good stuff!  I'm just hoping that come April 10th and then again on May 1st, that it all comes together.

SEA CREATURES

Immediately before a "sea creature" freak out in early March!

There has been one training related SNAFU.  I don't understand the why/when/how of it, but nevertheless, a phobia has appeared.  I noticed last year while doing OWS in the Gulf of Mexico that I was beginning to entertain some fear of sea creatures.  Sondra believes it actually began in 2009 when our friend, Julie, accidentally stepped on a sting-ray and ended up with a horrible infection in her foot that caused her pull out of Ironman Louisville.   No matter the 'root' of the problem, the fact is that I am having issues swimming with the 'idea' of jellyfish, sharks, sting-rays, etc...  during practice.  In a race situation, I seem to be fine (so far).  If I'm swimming with feet directly ahead of me, I feel safe.  The problem is that there aren't always feet directly ahead of me in practice.  So when I'm out there and I can't really see anyone else around me (even though I know they are somewhere nearby), I freak out.  Hopefully this will not become a more serious problem.

FUN STUFF

With Sondra at her "comeback" 5k!

I have been dabbling in writing training plans for MSL & SH and it's been a blast.  I sincerely enjoy helping them.  I'm not "coaching"... just paying it forward.  Sondra hasn't raced in nearly 1.5 years and is returning to the sport after two unnecessary surgeries.  Scott's tri-season will be quite short this year.  After St. Anthony's in May, all of his focus will be on a 1600 mile, 22-day charity bike ride that he will participate in Aug-Sept.  I'm going to whip up a post about this ride in the near future-- the cause is out-of-this-world amazing!  Anyway, I'm honored that both Sondra & Scott trust in me enough to put basic plans together for them.  Writing their plans is the highlight of my Monday mornings!

In mid-February I ran Son's first official comeback race with her-- a rather large, annual 5k.  She had a goal in my mind and she nailed it!  I'm quite sure that by the end of the race she was ready to strangle me for whispering too many words of encouragement, but alas, I couldn't help myself.  I felt like a proud mother hen out there.  Way to go, Son!

THE FUTURE OF THIS BLOG
I've mentioned before that I would like to take this blog back to its roots.  This blog was started as a way for me to jot down my training experiences, highlight my improvements, reflect on my pitfalls and report on my races.  This worked very well for me and I absolutely love reading my posts from 2008.  By the end of 2009 things began to change.  I became sensitive about my training, paces, performances, etc... and backed away from writing about these items for most of 2010.  I look back on those posts now and I feel sad.  There is so much that is missing.

This year I am going to let my cup runneth over and try to be quite candid with my training & racing.  Ten years from now I want to be able to read these entries and 'see' what I was doing as well as how I was feeling.  So yep- there will be workouts, numbers, times, paces and all of the things that I felt the need to leave out last year.  I'm hoping that in a round-about way, this will also allow me to produce shorter, but more frequent blog posts.   I'm excited about this!

Up next on the draft table is my race report from the Shamrock 8k.  Stay tuned!

Disclaimer: This did not turn out to be "Blogland's quickest catch-up" after all.  Once longwinded, always longwinded.