A bike ride, a race, and some FOOTBALL!

Well, this weekend was a big weekend for an old Texas boy like me...it was the real start of FOOTBALL SEASON! The NCAA got rolling on Saturday with some decent games (Notre Dame v Michigan was pretty good) and some not so good games (BYU kicked Texas' ass up and down the field!) but all in all, I just enjoy watching. On a side note, if you don't know, people from Texas LOVE football. It's what I watched since I was born, and what I played all the way into hight school. It's a really big deal! Kind of like soccer over in Brazil or the cobblestone cycling races in Belgium...these are our heroes! I guess I did some training too, haha. Saturday was a nice long bike ride. I rode from Loveland to the North end of Boulder at the diagonal highway, and just came back. It was not super long, maybe 85km or about 55 miles, ish. I didn't do any crazy climbing or hard riding, just a solid tempo of about 21 mph. Took me about 2:40. Then Theresa was nice enough to let me rest my legs for the sprint race on Sunday. I was not overly pressing the race, but I knew I would give it a hard effort and didn't want to cause any injury. As she took the girls to the park (her Mother was in town, so they got to hang out with Grandma) I watched my Texas team get destroyed by BYU...yes, I'm still upset about it. Sunday morning came quickly as I guess I didn't set my alarm right and woke up an hour later than I would have liked! Then I started what would now stand as the WORST race morning ever! Along with waking up late, we didn't have the oatmeal I would normally eat, so it was toast and generic Nutella with a cup of coffee while running out the door. Upon arrival to the race, I got out the bike trainer to warm up. Normally I would just jog 20 minutes, but with the stress fracture I didn't want to run any more than I had to in the race. I got my bike all set up in the trainer, and went to go get my packet...only to be told that it was not there. Packet pick up was at another location half a mile away and walking there was not really an option as it was dark and I didn't know how to get there. So the trainer and the bike go back into the car, I drive out to the packet pick up place, get my number and drive back. Once all set up again, my hour ride before the race has now turned into maybe 30 minutes. Ok, I get calmed down, I feel good, my legs are starting to get warm...then BAM! The locking mechanism on my trainer comes undone and my bike just falls over and I crash to the ground. Yes, I crashed while on a TRAINER!! Now I'm just pissed! I start trying to get the bike back into the trainer only to realize that I have bent my derailleur hanger (the part of the gearing that shifts the chain up and down the rear cogs) and along with that, bent my wheel just enough that it's of no use. Thank God I brought my training wheel!! So I go to work on my derailleur, turns out it was only slightly out of place and I got it to shifting nicely again (the mechanics at Jack and Adam's would be proud!) and popped the wheel off, put my other back wheel on and just headed for transition... I hope 10 minutes of warm up is enough!! I could only shake all this off because it's not the most competitive race in the world and to tell the truth, I just wanted to be in a race setting with some hard effort to get ready for my bigger races in a couple weeks. I didn't use race wheels or an aero helmet and even wore a nice green speedo for fun! I got in a few laps before we got to racing in the cold pool and never really felt great, but like I said, I just wanted to push hard. The swim (a 450 yard pool swim) went about as expected or even a little better. My shoulders didn't hurt quite so much and my stroke felt decent. Other than the 13 year old girl that rolled me up, I actually felt ok. Then on to the bike, where a brisk morning chill didn't feel particularly great on me speedo clad body. What was I thinking??!! I caught the leader right out of transition and tried to get up to speed and settled into my shoes for the next couple minutes. After the 2nd turn a guy came flying past me wearing a full TT speedsuit, an aero helmet complete with visor, riding a Specialized shiv with HED 3 wheels and even shoe covers!! I guess this guy was taking his relay bike leg REALLY SERIOUS! Apparently he was a part of a relay that wanted to be competitive, I don't know, but it gave me someone to chase! I did my best to keep up with super biker, but I didn't feel great on the bike. I pushed a big gear and really tried to focus on turning the pedals over, but I certainly couldn't hang with that guy and eventually he was out of sight. The rest of the bike went about the same. It was 3 laps for a total of 13 miles, and by the 3rd lap I actually was feeling ok, but it was over! Figures...haha. Now for the testing part...the run. I haven't run a step for 3 weeks and was wondering how my shin was going to feel. Like I said I didn't use any race specific gear, so I actually used some trainers and tied them in transition. IT TOOK FOREVER! Speed laces for every race from now on no matter how small the race is! I got going and noticed two things almost immediately: 1st, my shin didn't hurt at all! That's some really great news! 2nd, my running rhythm and legs felt awful! That's "relatively sub optimal" (Chrissie Wellington, haha) I tried to settle into a pace I thought I could hold for the 3 miles I had left to cover, but it never felt right and I was running FOREVER thinking to myself "why don't they put mile markers out at t...oh wait..." then I saw mile marker 1! This is going to be a LONG run. And it was! It took just this side of eternity to finally get to mile 2 just to know I was still making progress. By this time, I had given up all hope of breaking my friend's (Ben Nelson) course record of 53:13. It was not really a goal, but it was going to be fun to give him shit about it, haha. Now he was going to be wondering what happened to that crazy fast run I USED to have. After getting through the run, still with no pain in shin, I saw the finish and just hung on. As I started to cross the finish line I looked at the clock and it read 52:30 ish. Wow, I HAD broke the course record...crazy! I had to smile to myself. After hanging out with the family and good friend Michael after the race, I asked where I could find the results to see what my splits were. (I don't like to wear watches at a race) The guy asked "Hey, were you bib #2?". I responded with "Yes, I was". "Did you cut the run course?" This gave my a puzzled look. I was kind of insulted, and kind of dumbfounded as it was nearly impossible to cut the run course, especially for someone who had never been there. I was thinking, "how could I cut the run course? There were cones lining the whole damn thing!" But I didn't say that, I simply told him that no I hadn't and asked why he would ask me that. He said, "Oh, well, you ran like 15 minutes for the 3 miles. That's 5 minute miles, ya know". "Uh, yeah, what's your point?" "Well, the next fastest time was only 18 minutes, and that's a pretty big difference. You can REALLY run 3 miles in 15 minutes?" Now I was just mad! "Well, I ran 14:22 for 5k in college and have run under 31 minutes for 10k on the end of an Olympic distance tri, twice...does that help?" "Oh...uh...ok. Good job, results are posted over there." I can't believe that guy thought I was cheating at a tiny little local race! Anyway, my splits were 6:15 for the swim, 29:20 for the bike (26.5 mph) and 15:24 on the run. I was a bit surprised by the run, but I was pushing hard and it was nice to know I could still run decently. Next time I do the race I'll run 14:50 or so and make that guys head spin!! I want him to be right there on a bike the whole way too! Well, the rest of the day was spent watching the NFL and was glorious! The Cowboys won, barely, but that's ok. Both my fantasy teams lost, but I'm not all that upset. Yesterday, Monday, I got in an easy 3k swim followed by some good lifting from Shannon, and about an hour on the bike trainer. (the wheel is till jacked up but I fixed the trainer) Major thanks goes out to my wife Theresa for really letting me rest by taking care of the girls and to her Mother, Carol, for helping out. Also, over the weekend my training partner and soon to be roommate, Scott Kimbell, crashed while on a training ride in Colorado Springs, breaking his clavicle AND his scapula! Thoughts and prayers out to him as he tries to heal up and be ready for Duathlon nationals at the end of October! Well, thanks for reading! Hasta, -Yorek

Life as a "full-time" PRO!

Well, I had this idea that when I quit working last wednesday that I would all of sudden have so much time to train, and more importantly, recover! It was going to be grand! Naps in the middle of the day, put my legs up, watch movies, and of course, train like crazy 3-4 times per day! Well, that's not exactly how it works right away, haha. I still have two little girls that take a TON of attention and time. They are beautiful and smart, and can be absolute SHITS!! The baby, Rhys, especially! So, it's still trying to squeeze in bike workouts on the trainer while the little one sleeps and Aspen watches a movie :) It was certainly a fail when I had the girls at the sitters and I went out for my first ride as a PRO. Three miles into my ride, I flatted. Never fun, but I have a spare tube and I'm good to go, or so I thought! The tube stem was too short and didn't work with my wheels, so I had to walk all the way back to the house! I still managed about an hour on the trainer, but that was not fun. Then, a couple of days later I was really pumped to run a tempo run. I want to run 8 miles starting at 5:40 ish and start working my way down to close to 5:10. Well, that didn't happen either! I chose to try out a new spot for tempo runs and it ended up being terrible. Not to mention after 4 miles I was completely cooked. I tried to double my workout hours in one week (from 10-12 to 20-24). This also led to my current injured state of having a stress fracture (or maybe a stress reaction, it's hard to tell). This means absolutely NO running for 4-6 weeks. It's been almost two whole weeks without running a step now and I don't like it! On the plus side, I know I need to work on my swim and bike, so I've really tried to push those disciplines along with a renewed vigor in the weight room. It seems to be paying off, as I am feeling much stronger. Also, with all of my new swimming skill, I decided to go to the Master's workout with our new roommate, Scott Kimbell, at the Loveland Master's Swim. I walked in with all kinds of confidence in my swim, and walked out realizing that I am an AWFUL swimmer and I need all the help I can get! These guys trounced me and I can hardly move my shoulders! All in all I think I got in around 3500 yards and most of it was WAY faster than I normally got when I train alone at the Rec center. Always a lot of work to do, but I'm very excited to do it! There is a balance to life, and like mein Deutsh fruend Daniel tells me..."just try and enjoy it!" I'll get back to writing much more often! Hasta, -Yorek P.S. I'm crazy excited about my new Strength and Conditioning schedule coming from Shannon and CrossFit Fort Worth. I'm seeing HUGE gains in strength and it's really showing on the bike and in the pool!