Dinger's All-Time Dodger Team

Everyone knows I'm a huge Dodger fan. I first went to a game at Chavez Ravine with my Grandfather some time in the mid 80s. He was the Commissioner of Water and Power for the City of LA, and was appointed to that post by Mayor Tom Bradley. With the job came tickets to lots of things. He got tickets to just about every event at the '84 Summer Olympics, and also had great Dodger tickets within reach.

I didn't start following the Dodgers until some point in the early '90s. We'd just moved to LA a few years earlier, and I was old enough to understand how to read box scores in the LA Times, and things just began to snow ball.

On this slow day before Xmas, I've decided to spend some time coming up with my all time Dodger team, but first, my criteria.

This team isn't going to be the best team ever assembled, nor is it going to have the greats like Jackie Robinson or Sandy Koufax. My rules are that these have to be guys on teams that I followed (so starting with the 1993 season), and guys I love for one reason or another. Maybe they were an underdog, maybe I saw them outside of the ballpark in LA one time and they were cordial. Whatever, it is my list and I'm picking.

I'm going to try to fill out a 25 man roster, and I'll give brief descriptions of why these guys made my team. So here we go:

Starting Fielders:

C - Mike Piazza: Is this any surprise. The most prolific catcher in baseball, won the rookie of the year with LA, was dominant, hit the longest HR I've seen in dodger stadium in person, then got dumped by the evil Fox empire. One word, mustache!

1B - Erik Karros: This was tough. Karros spent as much time hurting the team by playing through injuries when he wasn't effective as he did help it. His clout on the team made it impossible for any manager or GM to question him. Every September, we would finally hear about his season long back injury that had hampered his ability, and every March, we'd hear about some new revolutionary offseason core strengthening program he'd been through which would rejuvenate his career. All this being said, he manned first for 11 years, which is 2/3 of my years following the Dodgers. Plus, my mom always had a crush on him. A couple of years from now, James Loney will take this spot over in my mind.

2B - Eric Young: I was always a fan of his ability. He never got his due, but was a good fielder and an above average leadoff guy who would run. I have an affinity for leadoff hitters as you'll see in this list. He was one of our better ones, and the two tour stop with the Dodgers makes him unique.

3B - Adrian Beltre: What could have been, then what was. This guy broke in with the Dodgers at 20 years old, or was it 19? We ended up getting busted for signing him at 15 and falsifying his birth certificate, so I'm not sure how old he is, but he came up from AA young. Outstanding defender, and you could put him down for .260 with 20 bombs unless it was a contract year, in which case it was .334 with 48 bombs on a bumb leg. somehow, we convinced ourselves the bumb leg was causing him to be more patient at the plate allowing him to lay off the slider away in the dirt, but I think a pharmacist in Tijuana might disagree.

SS - Rafael Furcal: I love this guy. always have, always will. It started when we both resided in Atlanta for a number of years. Glad to see him back with us for 3 more. Switch hitter with pop for a little guy, and a fire hose for an arm. Again, a speedy leadoff guy who gets it done when healthy.

RF - Raul Mondesi: Did I say Rafi had a hose for an arm, well then Mondesi had a cannon. He even went so far as a tattoo one onto his arm. Vin Scully once said the Dodgers were lucky he grew up in the Dominican, because if he had grown up in the states, he'd be playing fullback for the Chicago Bears. Worlds of talent, 5 tools, a 30-30 guy in 1999. Good average, big pop, legs, subpar OBP. Vin also said the reason he didn't walk much was because Mondesi once told him no one walks off the island, you've got to hit your way to the bigs. He is now in politics in the Dominican so I've read.

CF - Brett Butler: My biggest man crush has to be on Brett Butler. The everyday guy who was lights out. This guy could bunt! He would say the difference between a sub .300 leadoff hitter and someone over was bunting. He added a dozen extra base hits a year with the bunt. He was a great fielder, good guy, great leadoff man, could run. My two favorite memories were one of him appearing on the home video show taking a whiffle ball off of his 3 year old son's bat to the groin, and that ridiculously long glove he used to snag fly balls in the OF. Cancer forced him to retire too early. He could have played for ever.

LF - Gary Sheffield: Another tough one. Never liked the guy, but he was the most talented guy the Dodgers had in my era. He could hit all of the good pitchers. Motivation and ego were his downfall. If he was mad, or ever got booed, or the game was on the line, he would deliver. Problem was only 10% of at bats fell in that boat. Coming in to replace Piazza was impossible, and he was always pissed Shawn Green made more than him. He never learned that attitude built a fan base more than numbers.

Starting Rotation:

#1 - Ramon Martinez (R): Ramon was a god for several years. I'll never forget his no-hitter, I believe against the Marlins. It was 1995 and I was driving around in Torrance listening to the game on the radio. As the innings wore on, I realized this was happening and had to pull off the road and find a TV. Piazza caught the game and said all they threw were fastballs and changeups, he was that good that day. Ramon was the oldest of the 3 Martinez brothers, all in our organization in the 90s. He is the last Dodger to have a 20 win season, and was always a good guy from what the fans could tell.

#2 - Orel Hershiser (R): The Bulldog had already solidified his place in Dodger lore before I jumped on board, but I did get to enjoy him first hand in 1993-94 as well as his return 2000. The guy was a saint, and I'll always enjoy my signed baseball I won in some swim meet raffle.

#3 - Hideo Nomo (R): Nomomania was almost as big as Fernandomania, and I enjoyed every minute of it. He extended the Dodger rookie of the year streak to 5 years, and contributed a No-hitter in Colorado of all places. His stats really are eye popping. In his first 3 seasons in LA, he was 43-29 with an ERA in the 3s, and 703 K's. Then we traded him to NYM right as the league was figuring him out. He nearly fell out of the league before recreating himself for a second life in baseball and a successful return to the Dodgers in 2002-2004 where he was almost as effective as he was in the 1995-1997 stint. He blazed the way for Asian players to come and be successful in the majors.

#4 - Chan Ho Park (R): Chan Ho had great numbers in LA, and was a more likable guy than Nomo was. He choose to learn the language and assimilate more than Nomo did. He was an enigma when he left our team, but with us, his numbers were great. And who can forget the Chan Ho double leg drop kick during a brawl with the Angels
#5 - Brad Penny (R): This was tough. I thought about Kevin Brown here but couldn't do it. The guy was lights out, but there was his horrible attitude and the obvious juice. I went with another guy I'd put in the hard ass category, but one I like. Penny is probably questionable in many people eyes, but I'm a fan. I like how he looks out there, I like the high socks, the audible grunting as he throws fastballs, and the 95 plus gas. Don't forget the All Star game he started where he was touching 98-99 and was unhittable. Dodgers fans turned blue in the face watching that just waiting for his arm to implode.

Bullpen:

Closer - Eric Gagne (R): Easy. This guy was the face of the Dodgers for 2-3 years. Welcome to the Jungle was his song, and he even had a caricature the Dodgers were throwing on T-shirts. This guy was nearly unhittable for 3 years (except in Allstar games) and pitched almost every night.


Setup - Jonathan Broxton (R): You gotta pick a guy named Bull. Conservatively listed at 6'4 - 240 but he is way bigger. Still he's got the baby face but the imposing relief pitcher look. He was great setting up Saito and hopefully there is more to come from him.

Situational Lefty - Scott Radinsky (L): Radinsky is a favorite of mine. He recovered from Hodgkins disease and was awesome for us. Three seasons with sub 3 ERAs. The best part was that he was the lead singer for a couple of punk bands my brother and I listened to Ten Foot Pole and Pulley. When I lived in Atlanta, I'd go to all 3 of the games when the Dodgers were in town. One season during game 1 or 2, I walked out near the bullpen and asked him if he'd sign my CDs if I brought them to the game the next day. Sure enough, the next day I handed him 3 CDs and a paint pen and he spend the rest of the inning drawing pictures of guys skating on the cover jacket of the CD. Cool guy!


Long man - Jose Lima (R): Lima Time! He sings, he throws, he dances, he wins post season games. He was with us for a short time, but I loved every minute of it.

Pen - Matt Herges (R): Matty Herges was good for us. Very versatile, and he was kind enough to take a picture with my wife and I at Vero Beach one Spring Training. I'll overlook the fact that he showed up in the Mitchell report for now.

Pen - Darren Dreifort (R): Filling this last spot was hard. Conventional wisdom says I should go with another lefty like Odalis Perez or Wilson Alvarez, but the Dodgers have not had many lights out lefty's in the pen that come to mind. Other guys in consideration for this last spot are Jeff Shaw, Mike Fetters, Jim Gott, Ismael Valdez, Pedro Astacio, and Todd Worrell, but I'm just not blwon over by any of these guys. Dreifort is one of those guys that had so much promise, but really under delivered, and yet, I seem to have forgiven him. He was partially misused and never should have been moved to the rotation. His body couldn't handle the load. But when he was right, he was devastating. Tony Gwynn never saw more movement on a fastball than he did from DD's two-seamer. I had the occasion to meet Darren in Torrance at a Dodger outing when he was in his early 20s, and he was a nice enough guy. So Darren gets my 11th pitchers spot.

Bench:

Backup Catcher - Russell Martin: I toyed with the idea of picking real backup catchers to occupy my bench spots, but at the end of the day, decided I wanted a mix of favorites. So apologies to Carlos Hernandez and Tom Prince, my favorite backup catchers, but Russell is getting this spot. Partly because he is a great ball players, and partly because he can serve as a backup 1B and 3B guy for me.

4th OF - Manny Ramirez: Is this fair? Picking a guy who has 187 ABs with the dodgers? It is and here is why. 1) Because no Dodger has ever had a more impactful 187 consecutive ABs, and 2) because it is my list. For the first time since Piaza and Sheffield, we had a guy on our team who I couldn't wait to see come up to the plate, and who could and did change the game entirely. Think about that. Sheffield had a great 2000 season, and a good 2001 season. But that is 7-8 years of hoping for a rally, or stringing together some hits only to be occasionally surprised by a shot. With Manny, I almost expected it. If he is back with us, and I think he will be, it isn't fair to expect it to continue, but I do expect it to be better than anything we've had in our lineup for years.

5th OF - Shawn Green: Shawn was magical for two season 2001 and 2002, then something happened and I'm not sure what. He began reaching for everything on the outside of the plate, trying to pull the ball which regularly resulted in beating the ball into the dirt just in front of his right (lead) foot to the 1B or 2B, often resulting in a DP. He was the poster boy of the organization, and that coupled with his salary really got under the skin of Sheffield. But he was a good ballplayer.

Utility IF - Chad Fonville: The little guy who could. He's listed at 5'6 155lbs, but I think that is generous. He could play a good second base, and I'm assuming he could play some shortstop if needed. He had wheels too. He didn't really put up good numbers and he only had about 500+ ABs with us, but he was fun to watch because he was so short. Honorable mention goes to Cesar Izturis and Alex Cora here. Had they not been pared together on Dodger teams, there offensive ineffectiveness wouldn't have stood out so much, and I might have liked them a bit more.

Corner IF - Olemdo Saenz: Olmedo the Tomato! This guy was clutch in a pinch hit role for us for years. And god for bid if he could play 162 games a year against the Pirates, he'd have put up Bonds type numbers. In 66 plate appearances against the Bucs, his avg/obp/slg was .429/.515/.857 with 7 HR and 22 RBI. He can't field, so I plan to use his bat off the bench and not the glove, but he can play the corners in a pinch

Mr. Everythign - Jolbert Cabrera: Jolbert played every position except catcher for the Dodgers, and he handled the bat well too for a guy off the bench. I've added him to my team so that I'm covered defensively in any possible circumstance that could come up.

I guess I need to pick a skipper and GM for this team too, so I'm going with Joe Torre to manage the egos, and will ask him to hire a pitching coach to handle all use of bullpen issues, as Torre clearly cannot. GM is tough. I think we have to credit Dan Evans with rebuilding the team after Fox tore it apart. He hired folks like Kim Ng and Logan White I believe, who are still with the Dodgers. Then there is Paul Depodesta who never got a fair shake. He made some good decisions and some questionable ones (Jae Seo and Hee Sop Choi). Fred Claire is also an option, but I think I'll have to go with Dan Evans. He signed my media guide at a Spring Training game once, and was cool about it. Come to think of it, I once had Kevin Malone sign a baseball of mine at Spring Training just after Fox hired him, and I distinctly remember thanking him for making the Dodgers "great" again after signing Kevin Brown. Oops. That ball is in my night stand, and I let my kids throw it around the house and stuff. Not much of a keep sake.

So there you have it. My 25 man roster.

All,

Baby Elise was born yesterday morning at 7:12am. She was 6 lbs 3 oz, and was 18.75 inches long. She is doing well as is mom, and both should be coming home tomorrow.

She's got a head of hair and is already a great eater, so we don't expect her to remain tiny for long.

When they brought her to us from the nursery yesterday, she came in a big stocking with a knit red hat. A nice touch!

My New Daughter

By this time tomorrow god willing, my wife and I will be tucked away safe in the maternity ward getting settled in, and my baby girl Elise will be all clean, measured, weighed, and in our arms.

All has gone very well with the pregnancy and we can't wait for our little Christmas present to be delivered.

Reagan can't wait to have a baby sister she can dote on, and Jake is looking for anything that moves so he can smash (he is actually quite gentle with babies to our surprise).

It will be a hectic couple of weeks, but this time of year always is and we welcome it.

We have such amazing friends and families and it is overwhelming to be so spoiled by their help, encouragement, and kindness.

I'm not overly spiritual, but realize that what goes on in making a family is far too complex and beautiful for it to be pure luck, so I'll pray that we continue to be blessed on our big day tomorrow, and hope you will do the same.

Photos to come this weekend, hopefully.

Data Live

My computer is back (4 days early) and all of the data is still there. Amen.

Computer Down

On Wednesday night, my computer went into hybernation mode and never came out. I called HP and they said this was a known glitch with HP Pavillion laptops and to send it in. All of my data on the computer is going to get whiped out, but luckily I was able to get the Geek Squad guys to back the data up.

Needless to say, putting the computer back the way I want it with my files in theright places, and all of the software I'd loaded back onto it is going to be a major undertaking.

With all of this, I'm running a little silent and will not be back and at it for another couple of weeks.

The funny thing about all of this is that I'm most concerned with loosing my workout data. I'd got WKO+ the way I wanted it, and it was really starting to reveal some interesting things about my training. As long as I can get that back up to par, I can live with the rest.

18 miles at Town Lake

David loaded me up with 3 consecutive days of running over the holiday weekend, and I made the most of it logging 18 miles out at Town Lake in Austin.

I've said it a half a dozen times over the past year plus on this blog, but Town Lake is hands down my favorite place to run in the world, period.

There are a few other places that come close. Running on the Timberman course in New Hampshire on a crisp late summer morning, maybe with a little fog is hard to beat. Running after work at the Memorial Loop at Memorial Park in Houston with a pare of shades on so you can people watch to your hearts desire is a good way to pass the time too.

But nothing tops Town Lake. You've got musicians, political activists, Asian Buddhists meditating, fast people, slow people, beautiful people (lots), ugly people (not many), pairs rowers, canoers, dancers, swimming dogs, leashed dogs, unleashed dogs, 2 cold water stops about 2 miles apart hosted by Run Tex, the local legit running store. It has it all!

The trails are crushed clay so they are good on the joints, and they dip down to the water line, then up about 20 feet above the water line and back down, so it is flat, but there is enough variability to give yourself a total body workout with no risk of an overuse injury. There are miles of trails, but the most popular sections run from the pedestrian bridge underneath Mopac down to 1st St. It makes for about a 4.2 mile loop. I ran this loop twice this morning.

The leaves were turning with lots of yellows, reds, and oranges. The temps were perfect. It was amazing.

I ran a hard 4.5 mile tempo run on Thanksgiving morning, a 5 mile recovery run on Friday, and a long 8.5 mile run this morning.

A funny thing happened this morning. I was very stiff starting out and my lower legs from the knees down were tight. My workout was 20 mins base pace, the 3x20 mins (15 mins base pace, then 5 mins marathon pace).

As the run went on, my HR in both the three base pace intervals, and the three marathon pace intervals got lower. In the base, it started at 158, then 156, then 154. Each interval also got faster starting at 10:00 pace, then 9:48 pace, then 9:32 pace. In the marathon pace intervals, it started at 162, then 160, then 155 and the speed of the intervals was 9:15, 9:09, and 9:12. A very strange phenomenon. I guess it was me just getting warmed up, and my lungs opening up as the run went on. It obviously felt good and not only did it feel like it was getting easier as I went on, but I guess the data would say, IT WAS getting easier. Weird, but I'll take it.

On Wed and Thursday, I headed over to Barton Springs, the spring fed public pool in Zilker Park to soak my legs in the constant 68 degree water which aided in recovery.

I'm back at home now hoping for some upsets in the top 4 of the BCS, but it isn't looking good.

At least my Owls are giving U of H all it can handle.

San Antonio Rock'n Roll Half Marathon

The SAT RNR Half Marathon is in the books. I'm back at home on my couch getting caught up the USC game from yesterday just trying to enjoy the rest of the Sunday.

The race went very well for me. I managed to exceed my expectations again which I've been doing a lot of lately for a change.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with my buddies Tim and Darren from Houston. We met up for the race expo on Sat, grabbed lunch and dinner together afterwards, and carpooled to the race together this morning.

The race had over 30,000 people in it, with 20K doing the half marathon, and 10K doing the full. Packet pickup was at the Alamo Dome and as you'd suspect with that many people, was chaos.

Race morning went pretty smooth. We got dropped off real close to the start, got in a few pit stops in the bushes near by, a small jog in, and we just chilled out. It was about 38 degrees, but it didn't feel too bad.

The gun went off, but it took us over 12 minutes to hit the start line. They were good about staggering the corals, so we were able to get up to pace straight away.

The three of us ran together for the first mile, then everyone started doing their own thing. Tim took off, and I slowly pulled away from Darren. By about mile two, I lost sight of Tim, and just settled in to a good clip while trying to force myself to hold back a bit.

The highlight of the race for me came early on as we ran right past the Alamo. There was a 20 piece mariachi band banging away out front, huge crowds, picture perfect back drop. It was awesome. I'm Texan!

The course was nice and fast. Pretty much flat the hole way with only one small rise around the 4 or 5 mile mark as I recall, but benign in the grand scheme of things. The scenery was pretty good, and it was well supported as you'd suspect.

I started off with a couple of low 9 min miles before dropping under the 9 pace for miles 3-5. At mile 5, I took in my first gel, then dropped the pace down below 8:30.

I felt real good at mile 8 and 9 where I clocked my fastest miles, both 8:11. Mile 10 is where I first started to feel some of the pain. My pace crept up to the low 8:20s, and I had to slowly layer in additional effort just to hold it there the rest of the way.

I came through an aid station at about 10.5 miles and caught sight of Tim about 30-40 yards up the road for the first time since the opening minutes of the run. I just held my pace in the low 8:20s and he slowly came back to me. I know he'll read this so he'll get a kick out of this.

I probably fully closed the gap to Tim at about the 12.5 mile mark, but didn't want to pass him for fear that he would drop the hammer, and I'd have no choice but to go with him. I decided I had about a quarter mile of giddy up in my legs, so I wouldn't say hi to him until I felt we were within the last quarter to go. I didn't want to smack it, but probably could have at the expense of the rest of the upcoming training week.

We hit a slight hill right at the very end outside of the Alamo Dome, Tim slowed a bit, and I pulled up beside him and mumbled something like hello to him. I think he said "shit" or something like that.

I wasn't going to drop the hammer on Tim, and he was kind enough not to drop the hammer on me. We rolled across the finish line side by side. It was pretty awesome. A PR for both of us.

Darren PR'd too with a 2:05 and a solid effort.

Here were my mile splits:
mi 1 - 9:11
mi 2 - 9:07
mi 3 - 8:48
mi 4 - 8:54
mi 5 - 8:53
mi 6 - 8:26
mi 7 - 8:24
mi 8 - 8:11
mi 9 - 8:11
mi 10 - 8:22
mi 11 - 8:21
mi 12 - 8:21
mi 13 - 8:21
mi 13.1 - 1:43 (8:03 pace, my watch had the distance at 13.21, probably due to weaving)

Time: 1:53.10 official (1:53.19 on my GPS)
HR: 173 avg

I'm pretty happy with the pacing. The goal was to negative split the run, and while I don't have a half way point split, my last 6 miles were 3 min 32 secs faster than the first 6, so that is good.

My sciatica in my left leg is pretty painful post race. It was nagging and sapped some of my power starting at about the half way point of the run. I'm going to have it looked at pretty soon, just to see if I can start managing the discomfort a bit better. I've had the pain for years, but with the recent focus on running, it is more of a nuisance than it has been.

Other than that, I feel okay, just a little beat up from the hard roads and the fast miles.

The trip was fun, it was good catching up with my friends. We'll have to get some of those other Houston guys out at the next one.

Back in the Water

My Masters swim team has been swimming at an alternate facility at super early times for the past 3 weeks while the bubble was being installed over the regular pool at Northlake Community College. It was supposed to be a 1 week install job, but they bought a new bubble for this winter and with it came installation troubles.

So I've only been in the water twice since Longhorn on Oct 5th, and only one of those swims was a propper workout.

This morning was the first day that the normal pool was back and business, which meant I was too.

I've got to say, I felt terrible in the water. Slow, weak, and sloppy. But I managed to get in 3,800 yards, and feel like it will come back quick.

When my swimming is going well, it is always a sign that the rest of my training is going well. I'm not sure why, and could probably spin a chicken and egg story if I had the time, but the two always seem to go hand-in-hand.

Here was the workout:

400 swim, 400 pull, 300 kick, 100 swim
5x200 swim even paced for all 5 (30 secs rest)
4x300 swim with fins descend 1-4 (30 sec rest)
400 warm down

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Advice of the week:
I think airline stocks are severly undervalued right now, and see a buying opportunity. The only thing to be weary of are airlines that hedged over the summer in a manner that puts their price floor on their collars $20+ above the prompt month price. They will have liquidity problems in 1Q09.

Florida 70.3

I just signed up for the Florida 70.3 race on May 17th. I was looking for a big race to get excited about in the Spring, and hope this will be the one.

I realize there will be challenges with getting in the riding necessary to excel at this thing. The weather doesn't typically get enjoyable here for riding until late March, and there isn't enough light in the day for me to do many mid week rides outside until around the middle to end of April, so that is going to be my challenge, but I'll do the best I can.

I'm looking at the possibility of doing a week long camp in a part of the country where the weather is a bit nicer, and will allow me to pack 2-3 times my normal weeks swimming and biking volume over the course of a week to take my riding forward a few levels, and to get me right for something as challenging as a 70.3, but that is all just a thought at this point. Not sure if I'll make it happen.

The Florida trip sounds awesome. We just used hotel points and will be staying at the Swan Hotel on the Disney property. We got two rooms, and are asking my in-laws to come down to help us with the kids. Our newest addition to the family joins us in a little over a month, so Elise will be very little when we are there and having an extra set of hands and someone to stay back at the hotel while we are park hopping with Reagan and maybe Jake will make the weekend more enjoyable for all.

Should be a good time. For now, I'm focussed on the running, and David is guiding me through this phase. We'll keep the swimming and biking on low for now, but will try not to neglect it despite colder weather.

Four Seasons Cool 10K

This morning I did the Four Seasons Cool 10K in Las Colinas, TX.

My friend and coach David and I headed over there this morning, and the race went well for me. I hadn't done a stand alone 10K road race since I did the Peach Tree Road Race on July 4, 2002, so I didn't really know what to expect, other than it would probably hurt like hell, and it did.

I ran a 49:54 averaging an 8:06 pace and 180 HR for the event. I sort of figured I'd be somewhere in the low 8 minute mile area, but probably thought 8:15 was more likely, so this was a pleasant surprise. Cracking the 50 minute mark was satisfying as well.

David and I were hoping to use the race to get a good benchmark we could use to set up pace and HR zones that will guide my training over the fall and winter. We'll test every month, so this is the first stake in the ground.

I had no idea what the course would be before hand, but it turned out I was very familiar with it and I am glad that I was. About 80% of the course was on my Wednesday night Dallas Athletes group ride. We basically started out with a steep climb, then it is pretty flat until mile marker #1. Then it was down hill for the next 11 minutes dropping about 110 ft. I looked across the street as we headed down and saw cones across the island, and knew I had to climb back up this thing at the end of the race. This climb is hell on a bike when hammering on my group rides with the DA studs, so I knew it would be worse on foot. Once your at the bottom of that hill, it is pretty flat until you hit some sharp rollers at the turn around before you are at the base of the climb at mile 4.1 ready to head back up to the finish.

I've got great graphs of my pace and the elevation, but can't figure out how to import them to my blog. I'll add them later if I can figure it out.

My splits were:
mi 1: 8:02
mi 2: 7:53 (lots of downhill)
mi 3: 8:06
mi 4: 8:12
mi 5: 8:33 (lots of uphill)
mi 6: 8:02
mi 6.2: 1:03 (7:04 pace)

Not much to report. It was weird having the race over so quickly. I paced it pretty well, didn't really die anywhere, ran with some folks for a while, and seemed to pick up more people at the end than there were people passing me.

I feel pretty good this evening. We'll see if I'm stiff or sore tomorrow morning, but I'm not anticipating it being too bad. The weather has been nice this weekend, so I'm looking forward to getting in a good ride tomorrow.

Garmin 405 is on it's Way

I couldn't make it to XMAS, so my gift is on the way. This will mean good data this fall, and more time to help my kids open and set up their toys on XMAS morning! A win-win!

10/18 SNL

Not sure if anyone else caught last night's Saturday Night Live, but it was probably the best one they've had in years.

Highlights included cameos from Oliver Stone, Sarah Palin, Alec Baldwin, and Mark Wahlberg, and the host was Josh Brolin, who I didn't realize was the big brother in The Goonies, an all time fav of mine.

Top skits for the night included:

• The opener with Tina Fey doing Palin, only to be walked in on by the real Palin
• MacGruber skits where MacGruber realizes that his stock portfolio has taken a hit which distracts him from defusing the bomb
• A scene with Andy Sandberg and Mark Wahlberg building on last week's hilarious imitation of Wahlberg by Sandberg where he talked in a classic Wahlberg style to animals. This week, Wahlberg was at 30 Rock to get revenge on Sandberg only to be interrupted by people (and a donkey) and recite lines from last week's imitation
• A Honkie Tonk bar scene where Brolin is hitting on a seated Amy Poehler only to realize when she stood up to come over that she was extremely pregnant
• The weekend update where the real Palin joined Seth and Amy, and Amy did a rap Palin was "supposed" to do that she at the last minute thought better of that included background Eskimo dancers, a guy in a snow machine racing suit playing Palin's husband, and someone in a moose costume - all the while Palin is bobbing her head along with Myers off to the side.

Adele was the musical guest. I'd never heard of her before, but was impressed by her talent. She is from London, and sort of has that Amy Winehouse/Lily Allen style that we're seeing from several UK female vocalists. I figured when I saw her and she looked like a background singer at best, that she'd probably blow me away with her pipes, and she has a good set. Her second song (Cold Shoulder) was better than her first (Chasing Pavement).

This show was probably one "A" list musical guest and host away from an all time classic. All of the memorable skits had little if anything to do with Brolin. This show goes to the writers and cast. It was nice for them to take half a step back from the political topic, and sprinkle in some of the economy as their undertone. It was also nice for the political commentary not to be the typical sledge hammer to face pro-Obama anti McCain stance it has been the last half a dozen episodes or so. I guess having Gov. Palin on the set was enough for them to bring it down a notch.

What's Next

I'm two weeks out from Longhorn, and am ready to turn the page. I didn't work out until the following Sunday a week after the race, and have had a light week here just trying to get into the swing of things.

I feel okay when I'm out there. My left hamstring which has bothered me for about 3 years now is still fatigued from the race, but is fine. The taper, and two weeks of hardly any training and I can tell that my fitness has taken a little step back. Nothing I couldn't get back in a couple of weeks, but the HRs are elevated, and although I've only put on a couple of pounds, I've probably dropped a lb or so of lean muscle mass in exchange for fat.

David and I have got things set up on TrainingPeaks.com where he'll be setting my workouts, and I'll be logging my data. My workouts are public (assuming David has no qualms) though I couldn't tell you how to navigate to them. My public username is Dinger.

So we've set up a plan to get us through Feb '09. It will start next weekend were I'll be doing a local 10K to put a stake in the ground and set my training paces and HR zones. Doing a flat out road race will be a new phenomenon and I expect it will hurt, but I'm game.

Once we've got that set up, we've got a couple of weeks of base training. We're going to train through the San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marry I'm doing on Nov 16th with some friends from Houston, then one more week of base before we enter into a series of build weeks with some rest-n-test weeks sprinkled in. David's got a 15K Bold-in-the-Cold race on my schedule on Jan 11th, and the run season will culminate with the Cowtown Half Marry at the end of Feb in Ft. Worth, TX.

My goals are to improve my half marathon race pace which I hope will translate over to my triathlon running next season, build up my run volume, stay fitter over the winter than I normally am, and stay healthy.

David's going to keep me in the pool for an hour or two every week, and I'll probably stay on the bike a couple of times a week, particularly while the weather is still nice.

So that is the plan. Looking forward to it.

Official Longhorn 70.3 Race Report

What a freaking week. Actually, what a freaking last two weeks. I am just now back home and sitting on my couch with my feet up for what seems like the first time in years. I promised a more detailed race report, so here we go.

We'll back up to the week leading up to the race. It was one of the longest weeks of work I've put in, and to be honest, it could have been much worse. I had analysts on my team working well into the morning hours most nights, was eating lunch at strange hours while at my desk putting down whatever I could find. I was missing planned taper workouts right and left. It was the worst possible week leading up to a race you could imagine.

I didn't have a minute to even think about the race, my nutrition plan, logistics for me or my family on race day, nothing until I got on the plane to fly down to Austin on Friday night.

Saturday came and it was packet pickup and bike drop off day. I did a short 20 minute ride around my parents house to make sure the bike was in working order, and to shake the rust off of my legs after not working out in a couple of days.

Packet pickup was at the Sheraton downtown on 11th street and it was a zoo. Lines, cramped quarters, etc. This was the second year of the race, but first as a 70.3 branded race, which means the entrants doubled year over year, so there were some organizational challenges experienced throughout the week that I'm sure Keith and Endorfun Sports will have ironed out by next year. I've got the race survey in my inbox and am waiting for some time to provide meaningful feedback.

I ran into David in line and we met up in the Pro Q&A for a bit. The panel was a good one. Kieran Doe, Richie Cunningham, Tim DeBoom, Bjorn Anderson, Simon Lessing, Bree Wee, Pip Taylor, Michellie Jones, and Lisa Bently. The questions were sort of boring, but the crowd was big.

I left the pickup to make the 20 minute drive east of downtown to the race sight, and while I was dropping of my bike, I noted how freaking hot it was, and that it was 2p, the time I thought I'd be finishing my race the next day. 90 degrees. So much for the low 80s Austin had earlier in the week. I took a big sip of gatorade and figured I'd better step up the hydrating.

I was in wave 12 of 14, so my race morning started off around 5a, not too bad. Parking was a zoo, but I found a good spot on the side of a road an easy walk from transition.

Body marking went smooth and I entered transition and started setting up. David was racked a couple of rows away from me and found me right away. We talked and got settled and it went smooth. A quick trip to the port-o-johns and I was ready to go.

Two weeks ago, we got an email from the race director saying the lake was in the high 80s, so wetsuits weren't likely to be legal, so I didn't even bring mine. By some amount of magical influence (ie icing down the thermometer, or dropping it in the deepest point of the lake) the temps were measured at 78 making it wetsuit legal for age groupers to the satisfaction of the slow swimming masses. There was no way this thing was 78.

So the waves set off in 3 minute increments and eventually I was up. We waded into the water, and the gun was off. For the first minute I was swimming through weeds and recall them wrapping around my neck and shoulders. Some even managed to latch on to my timing chip around my ankle and stay with me well into the first half of the swim.

In these 70.3 races, the competition is very good. You get the most serious of triathletes so I wasn't surprised when there were several swimmers up around me as we made our way to the first buoy. It took only 4 or 5 minutes before we'd caught the waves ahead, and it was chaos the rest of the way. I found a few feet to swim on for a minute or two in the first half of the swim and tried to take advantage when I could.

Before long, I was sighting the finish buoys and was up and running into transition. I looked down at my watch when crossing the first timing mat and saw 23:0x and thought, oops, someone measured this thing a little short. Another nod to the slow swimming masses by the race director. I figured I was going to swim about a 28 or 29 minute swim, so I'd say it was 5 minutes short at my swim pace.

Swim 23:28 (AG - 6th out of 224)

T1 was cake. I took my time, put my shoes on there rather than on the bike because so much of the transition area was dirt.

T1 3:33

Right after mounting my bike, some idiot was trying to get clipped in and was looking down at his pedals and not where he was going. He took a nice 90 degree left hand turn right in front of me and I had to slam my brakes throwing me off my saddle and headed for the ground. I managed to get a foot out of my pedals milliseconds before I was headed over and managed to stay upright, though I drove my chain ring right through the back of my leg opening up a pretty good scrape.

I told the guy he was an idiot, and went on my way.

The bike course was a blast. Rollers, wind, lots of turns. Because it was so variable, you were never doing any climbing or fighting the wind too long. It wasn't too hot that early in the morning and it was a pleasure. My meal plan for the bike was to take a clif shot block every time my stop watch hit a 20 min and a 40 min, and to take a gel when it hit the hours. I sipped water from my aero bottle whenever I felt like it and to wash down my gels and blocks, and tried to sip from my gatorade bottle every 10 minutes. I'd started putting just a few grams of whey protein into my first bottle of gatorade to promote digestion, and it seemed to work well.

The course was packed with riders, and I was overcoming people the entire way. It seemed a little like riding in the MS150 (more on the MS150 in a minute) because you are blowing past riders at a rapid rate all day wondering where the hell they are coming from. I guess that is a result of being the 12th of 14 waves and having such a short wetsuit legal swim.

I found myself riding with a few people for long stretches of the race. I'd pull ahead on flat or downhill sections, they'd pull away on climbs or when I was eating. Having that constant made me feel good. I rode through the first half of the course in 1:26 and was pretty pleased with that pace. I didn't have a computer on my bike, just my polar wrist watch (no HR strap) so I could occasionally look down at my speed, but the recording was intermittent so I knew the odometer wasn't going to be right. When I felt fast, I'd look down and be cruising at around 25 mph, when I felt slow, I'd only see 17 mph, so I knew I was moving well.

I tried to hold back a little on the climbs in an effort to save some legs, but other than that, was just riding comfortably. My cardio felt good the entire way. Legs did too. Back grew sore from being aero the entire way, but there were plenty of opportunities to stretch your back on downhills that had a sharp turn I'd have to break for anyways at the bottom.

Around mile 30, I was riding along up a slight hill when I dropped my chain. I thought about trying to pull it back on while still on the bike like I'd seen David Millar do at the start of the Prologue of a Tour de France a few years ago, but thought better of it. So I hopped off, spent a minute or so pulling it back on, then hopped back on and grinded my gears for a bit while trying to get going again before things were reset. I finished the climb and was cruising again.

During the second half of the ride, I looked around and felt like the scenery was very familiar. I figured the only way it could be was if we were on the same roads the MS150 used to roll into austin, and it turns out they were. Probably a good 7-10 miles toward the end was an overlap.

I ended up splitting a 2:43 which meant I brought the second half back in a 1:17 despite the chain incident. If I've learned anything in triathlon, it is that distances are never right, so who knows if the half way point was in the right spot.

Bike 2:43.04 = 20.6 mph avg (AG - 46th out of 224)

T2 was uneventful as well. I think I ran right past my spot on the bike rack for the 3rd or 4th consecutive race, but no big deal. Socks, socks, shoes, shoes, hat, number belt, go!

T2 2:39

I guess the run is where this thing got interesting. When does it not for me. I had to pee pretty bad, had tried to on the bike but couldn't relax enough to do it, and didn't think pissing all over my bike to save a minute was worth having a pissy bike I'd have to clean up when I got home. So I hit a port-o-john. One word of advice, if you have to pee after sitting in an aero position on a bike seat for 2+ hours, make sure your mouth is closed. You never know.

My plan for the run was to try to get comfortable as soon as I could, and hang on. I had no illusions of feeling golden at the end, so it was just a managed damage control march to the door steps of purgatory.

My HR shot up in the first few miles of the run from the excitement and change in motion. I think this may have led to my stomach shutting down a bit, because I noticed I slowly bloated as the race went on, and don't think I was absorbing as much of the fluid as I was putting down, but other than that, the GI track was good. No pain or cramping like last time.

The course was a 2 loop 6.5 mile track with about 4 miles on a long out and back on asphalt, and a 2.5 mile loop on grass/dirt trails. Let me tell you, this thing was hilly. Ups and down the entire way, including Quadzilla which was on grass/dirt at miles 4.7 and 11.2. The course had over 2,600 feet of elevation gain and loss on it according to my GPS watch.

Eventually I settled in and was ticking off 9:45 miles, was just trying to quiet my mind. Don't think about the heat, the hills, the people, anything. Zone out, hit the aid stations, and snap out of it twice a loop when I ran past my family.

After the first 4mi on asphalt, I was feeling okay, but as we hit the grass, the steep sharp hills started, and my legs started to load up with lactate acid.

I hit Quadzilla and there was an aid station at the bottom. I had no plans of running this thing, so I loaded up on fluids and started the climb up it. My GPS watch had the entire climb half a mile long at a 9.0% grade, with the steepest part 0.3 miles 13.9% grade.

At the top of the hill, there was a timing mat and a guy reading out names. About a second after my name was read, I hear the guy call out Female Pro Bree Wee from Kona Hawaii.

As she approached me from behind, I turned around to her and told her I loved reading her blog (http://breeweehawaii.blogspot.com/). She slowed a bit as she got next to me and gave sort of a sheepish laugh and said something I couldn't make out. I couldn't tell if she was laughing at me, so I asked her if I was coming across as a stalker, and she laughed harder. She said, "no, I'm just having another really bad day, and I'm sure you're tired of reading about my bad days on my blog." I told her to hang in there, and she looked over at me, stuck out her hand and said, "thanks, my name is Bree, what is yours?" We shook hands at the top of Quadzilla, she asked if I was on my last lap, and we talked about the weather a bit. She started to pull away from me, so I said goodbye to her, and she said "bye Greg, it was nice meeting you!" Pretty cool. The next thing I know, she turned the juice back on a bit and was gone.

As the run went on, my legs just started to lock up. At the start of the 2nd loop, I could feel my form going, and my power was gone. I started taking walk breaks on the uphills, which was very frequently. I tried to stick to the plan of running the flats and downs, and walking part of each hill, and all of the aid stations.

I was doing math in my head and knew no matter what, my swim and bike had set me up for a PR, even if I walked the second loop. I really wanted to go under 5:40, and started doing split calcs to make sure I was on track. When I got back on the trails for the last loop, I was hurting. It was hot as hell, and my legs were loaded. I ran down to the bottom of Quadzilla and started my march up it. At the top I had about 1.5 miles to go, and I was doing a run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute run/walk to bring it home. I cycled through about 5-6 times, and on the last few cycles, really had to dig deep.

I crossed the line with one arm in the air, proud of my PR.

Run 2:21.31 = 10:48 avg (AG- 129th out of 224)

Overall 5:34.17 (AG - 76th out of 224)

Usually when I finish, I am in terrible pain. I always leave it all out there. Normally within a few minutes of finishing, I start to feel better. For some reason, after I finished I didn't start feeling better. I actually started feeling worse. I made my way over to the medical tent and sat down for a minute. Someone found me a gatorade, and Ingrid found me and we just sat for a few minutes. My diaphragm started to tighten up and breathing started to become an effort. The volunteers at medical took me to one of the 50+ cots they had laying around in there as soon as one became available and hooked me up to an IV bag of saleen. I started to feel good in a matter of minutes, and the breathing was fine as soon as I lied down. Another bag (this time of electrolytes) and I was in good shape.

Ingrid and I left the kids with my parents that night and went to the post race BBQ that evening at the Hills Cafe in Austin. The food was good, the beer was cold, and the live music was outstanding as it always is in Austin.

I loved the race, and look forward to doing it again next year. I know I need more power to have a good run on that course. I'll probably need to hit the weights, and drop my weight a bit more (I lost 11 lbs in training for this thing, racing at 171lbs) to improve my power to weight ratio.

I've been out of town all week and am just now ready to go for my first run (or workout for that matter) since the race. I'm going to start with the running this week with the help of David, and hope to improve their a bit.

Off I go.

Long Horn 70.3 Mini Report

Just a quick update on how the race went. I'll try to find time to do a proper race report, though I don't know when I'll get the chance. I've got a full week of travel to Indianapolis and Atlanta this week, but hopefully I can check in early this week.

The race went well. The swim felt good, and was very short. I split a 23:28min swim, and I'd guess it was about 5 mins short.

The bike was a blast. I felt fast and calm the whole way. My cardio was good so I wasn't working my aerobic system too hard, but probably could have chilled a bit on some of the climbs to save a bit for the run. I think I split around 2:43.04 (20.6 mph avg). Pretty good, only one little incident were I dropped my chain on a climb and had to hop off and wrestle with it a bit.

The run course was a bear. It was pretty warm, and this run was up/down the hole way, and the ups were unbelievably difficult. I was running sub 10s most of the time, but did my share of walking the up hills and through most of the aid stations. I think my run was around 2:21.31, but I'm not positive. I took one pee break at the beginning, but other than that, it was just a bunch of hard work.

I pushed the run pretty hard towards the end shooting for a time goal I established after finishing the first loop of the run, and it really did a number on me. The good news was that I made that goal, and had myself at 5:34.20 on my watch, which was a PR by over 34 minutes. The bad news was that I destroyed myself pretty good, and ended up in the medical tent after the race to take on two bags of IV fluid.

I felt good about an hour later, and now am full from the post race BBQ party at Hills Cafe.

I just watched the highlights from the Dodger game last night, and am ready to hit the hay.

More later.

Longhorn Tri

Two weeks from tomorrow, I'll slip into Decker Lake and set off for 70.3 miles of fun in Austin, Texas for the Longhorn 70.3 Half Ironman Distance Triathlon.

Training has been going well, and I'm optimistic I'll have a good day. I put in a solid 10 week build for the race, and am feeling better than I have in the past 18-24 months or so. 10 weeks isn't a lot, but they've been a quality 10 weeks, and given my home and work life, 10 is about as good as I've been able to do in stringing them together in quite some time. Other than this little nagging cold Jake brought home from a birthday party last weekend that he's distributed around the family, I feel good. I'm hoping to shake the cold by middle of next week.

I know very little about the course, but I'd imagine the swim will be compact with lots of catching of earlier waves, not too choppy from winds, but well turned up from the hundreds of people who hit the water ahead of me. The bike is supposed to be "fun" according to David, with some rollers, smooth surfaces, but just a little bit of automobile traffic. I've actually walked a 5k out on the run course, so I am vaguely familiar with it, but am sure I am in for surprirses. About half of each of the two loops is on grass, and the course is famous for a hill called "Quadzilla" which doesn't sound welcoming. This year, they've set timing mats at the bottom and top of "Quadzilla" and will be giving out awards for the top male and female times up the hill.

My only 70.3 time was from Timberman in 2007, and I was a 6:08. I am certain I am more fit this year, and think I handle rollers better than true climbs like there are in NH, so I think the course itself might hand me 5 mins. I've also added aero wheels and an aero helmet to my bike set up, however I don't think I'll be in a wetsuit for this race, but the net of the 3 probably gives me another 5 mins.

I haven't spent too much time thinking about what my time might be. Partly because I really am not sure what I'm capable of, but partly because I don't want to be chasing a goal time that is out of reach, then blowing up on the course. I'll just say that I'd like to go under 6 hrs, and think I can do that.

I'm already looking ahead to what is next. Running has been going well lately, and I've decided to see if I can take my running a big step forward in the fall/winter, and have taken a couple of steps to do that. I have procured an amazing running coach who is going to work with me over the winter, and am going to do a propper run build up and peak for a half marathon in late February.

Who is this amazing running coach? None other than David Gillen, my neighbor, co-worker, and tri buddy who I speak of often here. David is headed out to SF in about a month to do a weekend triathlon clinic, and will become a USAT Certified Triathlon coach upon completion. He is working with his wife Sarah this fall in hopes of guiding her to a Boston Qualifying time at the White Rock Marathon in Dallas this December. David has a wealth of knowledge on endurance sports, and I'm really looking forward to his guidance this winter.

If anyone is interested in talking to David about his coaching, you can access his blog The Gillens here.

Thats all for now. Here is to hoping for healthy legs, and pleasant weather 2 weeks from tomorrow.

Recall on Look Pedals

I heard a couple of weeks ago about a recall on Look Keo pedals and found this website that had info about the pedals impacted, the manufacture dates in which the faulty pedals were made and some other relevant info.

I took notice because I have Look Keo pedals and purchased them in the window that Look suggested might correlate to the faulty pedals.

I knew I had Look Keo Carbon pedals, but couldn't tell if I had the Chromoly or the TI pair.

Turns out I have the Chromoly, and they have been recalled. You can tell by looking on the bottom of the pedal. There is a little circle with numbers and an arrow in the middle. There are two numbers, one on each side of the arrow. One is a zero. If the other is a 5, they're bad.

My bike store will have replacement spindals in on Wed, so I'll get them replaced next weekend. This weekend, I'm getting a new chain, and having my bike store re-glue my tubulars. They need a little realligning.

Hillary's Victory Speech

What a Tri Week!!!

I just finished up my Peak training week earlier today, and my friend Hillary put the cherry on top with her first place finish at IM Wisconsin. I believe this was her 30th or 31st ironman, but it was her first win. Way to go Hill!

So I logged 15.1 hours of training this week. I swam 8,200 yards, biked 129 miles, and ran 24 miles. I felt stronger as the week went on. I did my 3.5 hour long ride today, and was strong the entire way through. My speed is up, my HR is down, and I'm noticing that my speed at a given wattage is going up, which is likely due to dropping some weight.

I'm down to 173 lbs, which is the lightest I've weighed since before I graduated from college I believe. It is amazing how these 8-10 lbs have made running so much easier.

I've got a recovery week coming up here before I enter in to two weeks of build where I can start working on a little more speed. I plan to focus on stretching and eating very clean this week.

Good times!

Photos from NH

Train ride with the kids

Paddle boat with Reagan

Hiking in Gunstock

Timberman Tri Finish

Riding in to T2

Roasting Marshmellows at Gunstock

Listening to a band at Packet Pickup

The new SRAM Red rear Cassette

The Machine all Primed for Action

A Boat Ride with the Kids

Get out the Door, Please

Update:

I "got out the door" at 9am and had the best long ride I've had this training cycle. Legs felt good, low back allowed me to stay down on the bar for the entire ride, and I had a fast and comfortable transition run of 2 miles afterwards.

There was some cloud coverage which helped.

Now I'm just sipping endurox recovery watching my girl Hillary stalk Lisbeth Christiansen at IMKY. Could this be her first IM win? Hope so!!!
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It is 8:00am on Sunday and I'm hurting from yesterday/last night.

Yesterday's run ended up being at an effort level that was probably a bit too much. I didn't recover from it as well as I should have.

That effort coupled with a late night out to dinner with friends, and I'm dragging this morning.

It is supposed to be 96 degrees today, and if I don't get out the door in the next hour, I'm going to cook myself. I've got a 50 mile ride, and a 2 mile transition run on the schedule today. It might end up being a long day on the trainer upstairs if I can't get it going soon.

Here is the swim workout from yesterday (in a 25 Meter pool)

1000 swim
5x400 odds swim, evens pull on 6:30
300 warm down

Logging Laps on a Treadmill

Last night I spend about an hour forty on a treadmill getting my long run in. I have a few tricks to make the time pass that I can write about, but in general I was content and could have kept going.

Physically, I felt good. I was running slow, keeping my HR under 145 and my aerobic engine could have gone on for hours. My legs were towards the end of their rope at the end, but that was to be expected given it was my longest run in over a year.

My tricks to keep my mind occupied are the following. I listen to music or podcasts on my ipod. Last night, I listened to the end of a B.S. Report from the Sportsguy, all of Ironman Talk, then about 20 minutes of music on my training playlist. Every 10 minutes I drink some water from my water bottle, and every 15 minutes I check my PDA for emails and text messages. Sometimes I open up a magazine (my gym has some pretty good multisport/endurance/outdoor mags) that is rich with photos and just sort of scan the page for photos, captions, and any writing in font large enough to make out while bouncing along. It works.

While I was in NH a couple of weeks ago, I attended the pro Q&A on Saturday at the race expo. Pros on the panel included Andy Potts, Michael Lovato, Dede Griesbauer, Simon Lessing, Karen Smyers, Chrissie Wellington, Fraser Cartmell and Torenzo Bozzone. The crowd of spectators wasn't as big this year compared to last, so it was easy to get questions asked and answered.

One question I posed to Andy Potts and Dede Griesbauer was how their swimming background and coming to triathlon with an understanding of how to train based on what they'd learned in the pool for all of those years helped their tri training, as well as how it hurt them. The answers were interesting.

For those who don't know, Andy Potts was one of the best US Milers in the pool. I think he even ended up third at an Olympic Trials in the 1500M just missing a spot to Sydney or Atlanta. Dede was also a great swimmer finaling twice at Oly Trials in the 200 Backstroke (my event) finishing as high as 5th at the '92 trials.

Andy's response was that after years and years of following a black line up and down the pool, that he had no problems putting his back wheel up on rollers or a wind trainer and doing a long ride on a trainer. He could also get on a treadmill and do a long or intense run and he would be completely content focusing on critical things like pace, feel, and form and not once wishing he was anywhere besides where he was.

That hit home with me a bit. I've always been more comfortable on a treadmill, trainer, or doing a short cycling course over and over compared to my peers.

In Houston, there is a great 1 mile bike loop at Memorial Park that lots of cyclist ride on. I logged many miles there in prep for my Ironman in '05. I can recall doing a 60 mile ride there on that one mile loop, then getting off the bike and running the loop a couple of times to get a transition run in. It didn't bother me. It was safe (no cars), had bathrooms right there, you didn't have stop lights or interruptions, and I could keep my replacement bottles at my car so they were always close by.

My buddies I was riding with at the time weren't as fond of the loop, and liked to get out on the open road and ride through the rest of the park. It all sort of makes sense now.

Don't get me wrong, my last post was about the most amazing run I had had in ages on a beautiful road along a lake, and my other favorite spots to run are at Town Lake in Austin, and on the running loop (a different loop) at Memorial Park in Houston.

I'm just saying I tend to spend my time thinking about other things, gauging how I feel or how my workout is going, or enjoying my music or podcasts. The setting I'm in is just icing on the cake.

I think swimming for years and years has conditioned me to be content this way. It is at times a solitary sport. There is no one to talk to when you are hurting the most, except in between intervals or sets. You have no choice but to focus on technique, pace (if there is a visible clock), how your feeling relative to the other day, earlier in that workout, etc., and you are maybe doing a little racing/pissing contest with the other people in your swim group. Other than that, there isn't much to focus on, but that list there gives you plenty to think about to get you through the session, and looking forward to coming back again later that day or the next morning.

Let your mind wander the next time conditions force you to run or ride inside. There is plenty to keep you going.

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I'm going to start posting my swim workouts. I've found that my blog is getting lots of hits from people googling swim workouts, or solo swim workouts, so I might as well give the people what they are searching for.

This was in a 25 Meter pool:

300 swim / 200 kick warm up
12x75 IM order (fl/bk/br, bk/br/fr, br/fr/fl, fr/fl/bk repeat 3 times)
4x200 swim on 3:15
800 pull with paddles
200 warm down

An Awesome Run Today

I had one of those runs today that could have gone on for ever, and I would have been completely content with that.

I drove over to the run course of the Timberman 70.3 this morning and did one loop of the 2 loop half marathon course.

It was about 7:45am, the bank sign said 63 degrees, and it was a light rain with fog on the lake.

I felt good, was clicking off faster miles than my effort would have otherwise suggested, and could have gone on for another hour if I wanted to.

It was funny how easy the course felt when compared to doing it last year after a long swim and bike before getting out on to it. The monster hill that brought me to a walk last year was short and sweet, and was no problem.

I plan to do another run there, about 8 miles, on Thursday morning before we head back to Boston to catch our flight home. I can't wait!

Racing in New Hampshire Again

Its been a while since I raced, but I got back out there today at the Timberman sprint. My intentions were to do the 70.3 race, but the Europe trip and a crazy few weeks at work wiped the month of June out, so I down gauged to the sprint, ramped up my training for the Longhorn 70.3 in Austin in Oct., and trained through my race this weekend.

It fell at the end of the a rest week, so I wasn't completely trashed like I was at the beginning of the week, but I'm confident I can train through and be ready to go long in early Oct.

The course was perfect. The swim was flat and fast, the bike was extremely hilly, but the wind wasn't bad, and the run was a steady climb up for 1.5 miles, then right back down. The weather was a dream in the low 70s after weeks of 100+ temps in Dallas.

I'm pretty happy with the results.

The swim went well. It was only 600 yards, so it was nice and short. I only saw 2 guys get away from me, and had some feet to follow for a bit of the way. I pushed it hard, but didn't let it get out of control.

Swim 7:28, 21st out of 988

This bike course is a tough 15 miles that takes you up to a mtn pass. Right out of T1 you climb for about a mile, then get about a mile of down and flat before heading straight up. I was hurting early on, but tried to settle in. I recall this course well from the 70.3 race I did here last year. The 70.3 race is a bunch of climbing for the first 14 miles, then mostly flat with small rollers to the turn around at 28, then back over that same Mtn pass. The Sprint course takes you about halfway up the pass, then turns you around and sends you back down to the lake.

I felt great on the flats, did my best on the climbs, and bombed the downhills. The new Zipp 404 front and 808 rear felt great, and my glue job on my tubulars worked out okay.

Bike 46:40 (19.3 mph), 129th out of 988

The run is beautiful. It should be since it is held on "scenic drive." It winds right around the lake. It is a pretty steady climb up to the turn around then back down to the finish.

I wasn't really paying attention to my splits, but felt good and had a decent turnover. Most importantly, I wasn't getting passed like I was standing still which is mostly the case.

At the turn at the top of the course, I flipped it up a gear and held a real hard pace back down to the finish line. It hurt like hell, but I welcomed it.

Run 22:50 (7:37 pace), 322 out of 988

So I went a 1:21.14, finished 15th out of 56 for for my age group, 111th (out of 499) for the men, and 131st overall.

I'm a bit sore, but should be fine tomorrow. I need to get a couple of hours in on the bike, so that will help lossen things up if a good nights sleep doesn't do it.

We've got some decent photos and should have more after our vacation wraps up.

Thanks to our friend Chikako who came up from Connecticut for the weekend to hang out with Ingrid and I, watch us race, and play with the kids.

We're off to our favorite restaurant we found last summer called The Camp over in Meredith for a nice dinner!

Lezak and Men's 400 FR Go Main Stream

Coming in to work today has really been a blast. On the drive in, ESPN Radio was discussing the men's 400 Free Relay win last night. It was the biggest thing to happen on the sports landscape since the MLB trade deadline moves.

I was running on the treadmill at lunch and CNN was covering the victory and had an interview with Cullen Jones.

I've got emails asking questions about swimming from people who never paid the sport any bit of mind.

That swim last night transcended beyond the sports enthusiasts interest. It was a story about Americans, not a story about swimmers.

Congrats to Phelps, UT Alum Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones, and fellow long time socal swimmer and hero of the moment, Jason Lezak (even if he is a UCSB Gaucho, and my Big West allegiance lies with the 'better' Big West swim program, UOP - that ones for you Todd!)

Swimming Again

I've been swimming with a proper masters team for three weeks and am starting to feel a little better in the water. I last swam this consistently back in the Spring '07 so its been a while.

This masters team has 4 or 5 guys who are in to long distance open water swimming, so while their not speed burners they can grind it out at a good tempo and we tend to do what I'd call mid distance type sets. I've enjoyed pacing with them in workouts and watching my abilities to hang improve with each workout.

I'm still on that steep part of the improvement curve, which is fun.

We're on temporary hiatus from our normal pool, which is fine with me because the water at our normal spot was way to hot for anything up-tempo. The new pool is cooler, 25 yards (as opposed to meters), but doesn't have a pace clock so I have no idea what sort of pace I'm holding. It probably isn't anything spectacular, but I'm getting better with each session and can see some swimmer shoulders starting to peek out a bit.

This morning I got in 3,100 before I hopped out. I'm planning to run for an hour tonight and wanted to make sure that happened and that I didn't leave it all in the pool. This is what we did:

400 Reverse IM
12x75 alternating free/backstroke
4x400 alternating swim/pull
200 warm down

Nothing too creative, but I don't care as long as their are other people there doing it with me.

I'm off to New Hampshire on Thursday of next week to spend a week on the lake. I'd signed up to do Timberman 70.3, but down-gauged to the sprint distance race after not getting off my ass in time to get fit. I've got 8 weeks until Longhorn 70.3 in Austin, so I'm game planning to have a decent showing there. It would be nice to dip under 6 hours but I'm not sure if a 10 week build off of a 6 week hiatus on the couch will be enough.

Who cares I guess. Just looking forward to going long.