Well, this week has been insightful, but I certainly wouldn't call it productive.
After a weekend of cold, wet time trialing (went 29.0 mph up in Boulder for 11.82 mi) and a hard tempo run/long run with Dr. Merrick and the Riptide team in Denver the next day, I spent Monday and Tuesday in bed. For some reason, I was just extremely tired. Finally after two full days off (which just makes my stomach hurt thinking about) I made myself run with Aspen in the Jog stroller for 35 min. then got in the Pool with Jessica P, formerly of the Adams State swim team. She rocked me pretty good. Then...actually wanting to swim again the next day, I found out that the pool will be closed for the next MONTH!! And there goes triathlon for the next bit!! Bike racing here I come!!
It turns out that the tiredness and the lack of motivation, we think, has something to do with my bipolar. Dr. Merrick and I spent some time talking over my history of inconsistency and think that it is more than likely related to my severe ups and downs. Also during this time, we have pinpointed a physical handicap of mine that involves my core. It turns out that having a six pack has NOTHING to do with having a strong core, and that I have zero internal stability. This is why my hips drop so bad while running, why my back cramps up on the bike, why I have no strength in my hamstrings, and why I have no rotational flexibility or strength in the pool.
Now that we know what's up mentally and physically, we are going to start the long process of fixing those things and getting into a good rhythm of training. This entire next year will be focused on building a good base and working on consistency. I'm sure this is what Damon Martin (head coach at Adams State), Derick Williamson (www.duratatraining.com), James Davison (former tri coach/forever swim coach) and Justin Litchfield (former roommate/forever conscience) have been begging for! The problem is simply that I never had the patience, humility or maturity to get this done. Lets hope that Dr. Merrick is up to the task of keeping me on a straightened arrow :)
Well, I'm back on the bike and hopefully I'll have my own bike to ride soon. I've been borrowing my old TT bike from Theresa as my road bike is at Jack and Adam's getting fixed up (actually the whole frame is being replaced). I can't wait to get it back!!!
K, I'm done. I just want to give a shout out to all my friends in the ATX and the MsM boys. Without ya'll I wouldn't be able to keep going in this crazy sport. Love you all!!
Hasta later.
-Yorek
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
What a great weekend!
Hey Everyone!
Friday through Monday was awfully good for me and I sure hope it was great for all of you as well.
Friday started off with a nice walk to Milagro's Coffee shop with Resie and Aspen for some coffee and breakfast. I got some good news from self proclaimed "micro-sponsor" Bill Dark that he loved seeing me race and meeting Aspen and wanted to help us out a little bit. Which our family needed TREMENDOUSLY! Then later that day I did a little over 42 miles with Sean and tri newbie Garrett. It was a nice day out and a great ride.
Saturday I awoke to news that Josh wanted to ride from Alamosa to the top of La Veta Pass. This would take us from 7544 feet alt. to 9413 feet in 45.5 miles. 90 % of the climbing would come in the latter 20 miles as well. I did not jump at the chance to ride with Dr. Merrick as he LOVES to hammer from the get go, but it didn't take much convincing as my motivation for training on the bike is at an all-time high as of late. We had the wind at our backs and averaged a little over 20 mph for the first 25 miles to Fort Garland where we topped off water bottles and Sean tried to get himself ready for the climbing to come. He hung on gamely as Josh and I took turns pulling up the Mountain. Sean finally popped about a mile or 2 from the summit and Josh and I raced to the top. I snuck by him on the last rise and finished only about a second or two in front of him. The ride back down the mountain was pretty wicked as we were straight into a head wind of about 30 mph and still riding at the same 30 mph. Poor Josh took most of the brunt on the way down to Fort Garland where we ate snickers bars and reloaded for a long, windy ride home. It took a few miles, but Sean dropped off the back and Josh and I pushed on trying to keep our 20 mph avg. going. We hit 80 miles in 3:59 (which made me awfully happy) and sat up for an easy stretch. At 83 miles we pulled off for more water for Josh and Resie picked me up as she had a Soccer game in Pueblo (a 2 hour drive from Alamosa). I gave the last of my gatorade to Josh for the lonely ride back to town, through my bike in the trunk and pulled onto the road just in time to see Sean. We gave him whatever food and water we had left and he took off to home some 10 min. back of Josh. The rest of the day and evening saw me taking in several thousand calories and the ASC Lady Grizzlies losing to CSU-Pueblo 2-1. Resie played a great game though!!
Sunday was supposed to be a 90 min. run for Josh and I, but it turned into a 50 min. run and a couple vs. couple tennis match with hot dogs and ice cream afterwards. An amazing Sunday that was very chill and relaxing.
Yesterday was another 2 hours on the trainer for me as it was very windy outside, but another great family/roommate day where we invited the new game Phase Dias which is the card game Phase 10 played with an entire deck of Uno cards thrown in. Tons of fun once we figured out the rules!
Now for a swim here in about half an hour then off to Fort Garland with Dr. Merrick for about 10-11 miles of hill running at 8500-9000 ft. altitude. That's 2500-2750 meters for you Euros out there! :)
Well, hasta later!!!
-Yorek
Friday through Monday was awfully good for me and I sure hope it was great for all of you as well.
Friday started off with a nice walk to Milagro's Coffee shop with Resie and Aspen for some coffee and breakfast. I got some good news from self proclaimed "micro-sponsor" Bill Dark that he loved seeing me race and meeting Aspen and wanted to help us out a little bit. Which our family needed TREMENDOUSLY! Then later that day I did a little over 42 miles with Sean and tri newbie Garrett. It was a nice day out and a great ride.
Saturday I awoke to news that Josh wanted to ride from Alamosa to the top of La Veta Pass. This would take us from 7544 feet alt. to 9413 feet in 45.5 miles. 90 % of the climbing would come in the latter 20 miles as well. I did not jump at the chance to ride with Dr. Merrick as he LOVES to hammer from the get go, but it didn't take much convincing as my motivation for training on the bike is at an all-time high as of late. We had the wind at our backs and averaged a little over 20 mph for the first 25 miles to Fort Garland where we topped off water bottles and Sean tried to get himself ready for the climbing to come. He hung on gamely as Josh and I took turns pulling up the Mountain. Sean finally popped about a mile or 2 from the summit and Josh and I raced to the top. I snuck by him on the last rise and finished only about a second or two in front of him. The ride back down the mountain was pretty wicked as we were straight into a head wind of about 30 mph and still riding at the same 30 mph. Poor Josh took most of the brunt on the way down to Fort Garland where we ate snickers bars and reloaded for a long, windy ride home. It took a few miles, but Sean dropped off the back and Josh and I pushed on trying to keep our 20 mph avg. going. We hit 80 miles in 3:59 (which made me awfully happy) and sat up for an easy stretch. At 83 miles we pulled off for more water for Josh and Resie picked me up as she had a Soccer game in Pueblo (a 2 hour drive from Alamosa). I gave the last of my gatorade to Josh for the lonely ride back to town, through my bike in the trunk and pulled onto the road just in time to see Sean. We gave him whatever food and water we had left and he took off to home some 10 min. back of Josh. The rest of the day and evening saw me taking in several thousand calories and the ASC Lady Grizzlies losing to CSU-Pueblo 2-1. Resie played a great game though!!
Sunday was supposed to be a 90 min. run for Josh and I, but it turned into a 50 min. run and a couple vs. couple tennis match with hot dogs and ice cream afterwards. An amazing Sunday that was very chill and relaxing.
Yesterday was another 2 hours on the trainer for me as it was very windy outside, but another great family/roommate day where we invited the new game Phase Dias which is the card game Phase 10 played with an entire deck of Uno cards thrown in. Tons of fun once we figured out the rules!
Now for a swim here in about half an hour then off to Fort Garland with Dr. Merrick for about 10-11 miles of hill running at 8500-9000 ft. altitude. That's 2500-2750 meters for you Euros out there! :)
Well, hasta later!!!
-Yorek
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I'm Back!!!
Well, Aspen is comin' up on 3 months now, which means we can finally sleep through the night (most of the time anyway) and I can start to get a schedule going again.
1st things first, I'd like to thank my family including Theresa, Aspen, Kelly (Mom), Mike (Dad), and my two sisters Shannon and Mackenzie, and all of my friends for being so completely supportive of me doing this triathlon thing. And now that Dr. Josh Merrick, my excellent new coach with Cross-Training Enduro-Sports (www.crosstrainingendurosports.blogspot.com) living with me, I have no choice but to be successful :)
Ok, so, updates on the last 3 months.
Racing has not been going my way lately. I went down to Phoenix for the Desert Classic Du, where it was freezing and raining (yes...in PHOENIX!) and had a great first run, then got on my bike to find the back tire was flat. After 2 hours the rear wheel was changed out and I finished the race to get 8th out of 8 pros. 7 got paid.
Then it was off to Birmingham, AL for Powerman AL and the US Duathlon Champs. I was fit for this race. Josh and I were doing some great workouts and I was starting to think I could not only qualify for Worlds, but could win the race. Well, after a stellar first run in 31:30 (10k) on some narly hills I had a 20 sec. gap on the 2nd pack of 3, which included Dr. Merrick, I was swooped up by all 3 on the bike by mile 4 and by mile 20 I was way back in a distant 11th and fading hard. My back was crazy tight and I'd lost all feeling in my right foot. Then after getting stopped and run off the road by stopped vehicles, I decided it was not worth the push to simply finish the race and pulled out. The PT on hand said that I had probably pinched a nerve in my back and that I might have even put a disc out of place trying to cram myself into my old TT bike. (If anyone with TT bike hookups is reading this, could ya help me out?!) Haha
My only other race was the Protest Du down in Austin. I was ready for an easy race that saw me out in front all day and boosting my confidence. Then the day before the race I hear that someone has brought in a young pro to give me some competition and his name is Philip Graves. Now I'd remembered that name from somewhere, then it hit me that I'd been watching him with the Timex bike split at KONA on youtube the day before!! Well, this is just great. I wanted an easy race, and this guy shows up. To make things worse, he's a great guy and not cocky in the least. Now I'm just jealous, haha. Well, the race is kinda different in that it's a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and another 2 mile run. Yes, it's a double du with lots of transitions. So I took out hard in the first run and got about a minute on Graves, then hammered the first bike with everything I had trying to get out of sight and got off with about a 20 sec lead still (turns out he had a mechanical and had to fix his rear wheel). I took it easy on the 2nd run so as to keep some legs for the 2nd bike and started with about a 40 sec lead. Well, about half way I looked back to see if I could see him, and there he was 5 meters back!! Shite! He went by me like I was standing still and left me with seemingly no effort whatsoever. So I blew myself up doing anything and everything to pedal this bike (now back in my road bike, which I think I might be faster in anyway) to keep him in sight. I ended up getting to transition about 45 sec back and only two miles to catch him. With my family being there and people cheering me on I knew this was going to hurt something awful, but I sure didn't want Aspen to see her Daddy lose! I ended up going by him a little past the mile marker and just hung on to win by about 20 sec. Wow, that hurt even more than I'd thought. A win...finally!
With all of these races and training sessions, I've learned that I need two things and a TON of both of them. Number 1: TITS (Time In The Saddle) and Number 2: Much more LSD (Long, Slow, Distance) The ability to churn out a couple of 4:30 miles doesn't really help me in a half ironman!
Ok, that's about it for now. I've got the Wildflower half (with Mr. Graves yet again and good friend Desiree Ficker) coming up as my next race on May 1st.
hasta later!
-Yorek
1st things first, I'd like to thank my family including Theresa, Aspen, Kelly (Mom), Mike (Dad), and my two sisters Shannon and Mackenzie, and all of my friends for being so completely supportive of me doing this triathlon thing. And now that Dr. Josh Merrick, my excellent new coach with Cross-Training Enduro-Sports (www.crosstrainingendurosports.blogspot.com) living with me, I have no choice but to be successful :)
Ok, so, updates on the last 3 months.
Racing has not been going my way lately. I went down to Phoenix for the Desert Classic Du, where it was freezing and raining (yes...in PHOENIX!) and had a great first run, then got on my bike to find the back tire was flat. After 2 hours the rear wheel was changed out and I finished the race to get 8th out of 8 pros. 7 got paid.
Then it was off to Birmingham, AL for Powerman AL and the US Duathlon Champs. I was fit for this race. Josh and I were doing some great workouts and I was starting to think I could not only qualify for Worlds, but could win the race. Well, after a stellar first run in 31:30 (10k) on some narly hills I had a 20 sec. gap on the 2nd pack of 3, which included Dr. Merrick, I was swooped up by all 3 on the bike by mile 4 and by mile 20 I was way back in a distant 11th and fading hard. My back was crazy tight and I'd lost all feeling in my right foot. Then after getting stopped and run off the road by stopped vehicles, I decided it was not worth the push to simply finish the race and pulled out. The PT on hand said that I had probably pinched a nerve in my back and that I might have even put a disc out of place trying to cram myself into my old TT bike. (If anyone with TT bike hookups is reading this, could ya help me out?!) Haha
My only other race was the Protest Du down in Austin. I was ready for an easy race that saw me out in front all day and boosting my confidence. Then the day before the race I hear that someone has brought in a young pro to give me some competition and his name is Philip Graves. Now I'd remembered that name from somewhere, then it hit me that I'd been watching him with the Timex bike split at KONA on youtube the day before!! Well, this is just great. I wanted an easy race, and this guy shows up. To make things worse, he's a great guy and not cocky in the least. Now I'm just jealous, haha. Well, the race is kinda different in that it's a 2 mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run, 10 mile bike and another 2 mile run. Yes, it's a double du with lots of transitions. So I took out hard in the first run and got about a minute on Graves, then hammered the first bike with everything I had trying to get out of sight and got off with about a 20 sec lead still (turns out he had a mechanical and had to fix his rear wheel). I took it easy on the 2nd run so as to keep some legs for the 2nd bike and started with about a 40 sec lead. Well, about half way I looked back to see if I could see him, and there he was 5 meters back!! Shite! He went by me like I was standing still and left me with seemingly no effort whatsoever. So I blew myself up doing anything and everything to pedal this bike (now back in my road bike, which I think I might be faster in anyway) to keep him in sight. I ended up getting to transition about 45 sec back and only two miles to catch him. With my family being there and people cheering me on I knew this was going to hurt something awful, but I sure didn't want Aspen to see her Daddy lose! I ended up going by him a little past the mile marker and just hung on to win by about 20 sec. Wow, that hurt even more than I'd thought. A win...finally!
With all of these races and training sessions, I've learned that I need two things and a TON of both of them. Number 1: TITS (Time In The Saddle) and Number 2: Much more LSD (Long, Slow, Distance) The ability to churn out a couple of 4:30 miles doesn't really help me in a half ironman!
Ok, that's about it for now. I've got the Wildflower half (with Mr. Graves yet again and good friend Desiree Ficker) coming up as my next race on May 1st.
hasta later!
-Yorek
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