In Loving Memory of our Sweet Dog Maggie

Our Favorite Maggie Memories:

· The day I came home from work and Ingrid had our new puppy Maggie who had just flown to us from Connecticut waiting for me at the door. She was as excited to meet me as I was to meet her.

· Taking her to St. Petersburg, FL for the St. Anthony’s triathlon. We stayed in a seedy hotel that allowed dogs, and it was the only time we ever let her climb into bed with us. She had a blast mingling with other spectators while on leash at the race.

· Maggie’s infatuation with Christmas ornaments.

· 4 Years of Monday to Thursday evening companionship while Ingrid was on the road for work.

· Trips to the dog park by Buffalo Bayou in Houston

· Wrestling Maggie into her crate in the ticket area of Hartsfield Airport, and giving the sky cap a $20 to be sure she got on the plane.

· Maggie first meeting Reagan and Jake.

· Maggie roaming the shores of Richland Chambers Reservoir with Duke and Dakoda

· Chasing the sun spot to sit in across the room all day long

· Dog Socialization school in Atlanta

· Watching her run all out on the beach at Kiawah

· Road trips with her in the back seat of the civic

· Her white squirrel on her chest

· Her rarely heard but impressive bark

· Her velvet soft ears

· Unconditional love, always

Solo Swim Workouts

There is nothing I enjoy more than a swim workout with a group of people of equal ability, and a touch of machismo. I get so much more out of it compared to a workout I come up with on my own, and do by myself.

That is why the swimming has not been going all that well this year. While I'm getting in okay yardage, I'd describe most of the yards as garbage yardage. Logging yards with no real agenda. I put in 14,700 yards in Jan, the 3rd most Jan yards I've logged since 2002 (24,450 in '02, and 22,450 in '05 being the two years with more yards). For you two "real" swimmers who read my blog, you'll laugh at what I've become. We recall the days when we'd do 18,000+ yards in a day. I'm soft, I know.

Ever since I've moved to Dallas, the swimming scene has been a struggle. I had a great masters team I swam with in Atlanta. While the faces on the fringe of the group would change with life's priorities, there was always a good core group of people you could count on showing up, and pushing you a bit.

As we moved to Houston for grad school, time was the biggest limiter to getting in the water regularly, but as the course load eased up, and the job search was finalized, I was able to train with the masters team at Rice University headed up by the school's varsity swim coaches. I was swimming 3 times a week, putting in about 3,500-4,000 yards per workout which typically lasted about 1:15 long, and my swimming blossomed.

When I came to Dallas, things changed. There were no masters teams with evening workouts that were within a reasonable drive of where I lived and worked. I could swim with the big masters club here in town which would involve a 4:30 am wakeup call, and me getting to work a good hour and a half before the rest of my team would show up (did I mention I am not a morning person any more?). Also not ideal!

So I've been swimming with my tri team, and the level of consistency between who shows up, and when the workouts are offered has made it a struggle to find an environment conducive to quality swimming.

I've been doing swimming largely on my own, writing all of my own workouts. I've never had a problem coming up with a workout, but in the end, I tend to have myself doing the same type of workout, and usually lose interest before I hit my planned yardage total for the session. I'm also swimming them by myself, and I've always needed someone else to push me to work harder. Plus, a workout partner always helps the yards fly by.

I did have one good workout last week. I've been swimming at a high school pool and just decided to do the workout the high school team left up on the dry erase board. The intervals prescribed were a bit more aggressive than I had been putting myself through lately, but I decided to give it a go. As I recall, the workout went something like this:

200 free on 3:00
4x50 kick on 1:00
200 free on 3:00
4x50 pull on :50
200 free on 3:00
4x50 swim on :45

4x400 on 6:00 descend effort 1-4. (I went 5:45, 5:35, 5:24, 5:13)

200 warm down

It felt good to get it going a bit, and the laps did pass quickly. But I was back in the water today, and the mojo was gone.

There is a masters team I swam with twice as part of a trial back in 2005. They swim in Irving which is about 25-30 mins from my house, but about 10 mins from my office. They swim at 6:00am, which would mean a 5:15 wake up call. Still not ideal, but I'm just not sure if my tri team workouts are going to pick up for a while.

Conflicted, Dinger!

On the Mend

I succumbed to the illness that had been making its rounds in my family this week. It started with a sore throat last Sat and blossomed in to a full blown cold by Tuesday night. I cut my workouts on Mon and Tues short, and took Wed-Fri off completely.

I actually was in such rough shape on Thursday that I stayed home from work, which was the first time I've done that in years.

Anyhow, I felt like I turned the corner on Friday and felt better today (Sat) when I got up, so I decided to go out and do my run with no agenda other than to cover the distance, and keep my HR under 160. I'm not fully recovered because keeping it under 160 forced me to back off my pace by about 20-25 seconds, but the weather was phenomenal today, and I enjoyed getting outside.

I don't recall a winter in which I've been sicker, but hope it is behind me for good. I need an uninterrupted stretch during this base period to lay down some good foundation.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage

As some of you who frequent Triscoop are well aware, but many of you aren't, our triathlon buddy Gusano from Diboll, TX was in a horrible bike accident last August. The good news is that Gusano is well on his way to recovery, and hopes to get back out there on the race course this March at the Lonestar Sprint Triathlon down in Galveston, TX.

I'd read about his accident and later heard him interviewed on Tyler Darby's (aka Jetpack) podcast just days after the accident, but only learned recently that the person who hit Gusano wasn't insured. No problem right? It turns out, unbeknownst to Gusano, that he didn't have uninsured motorist protection which left him exposed to all of the medical bills his health insurance wouldn't cover.

I had Gusano send me a note giving me the details to post to my blog. My hopes are that everyone who gets out there on the roads to run or bike or into the lake to open water swim* will double check their auto insurance policies to be sure they have this coverage, and to add it if they don't. Here is Gusano's story:

On August 18, 2007 at 7:00pm after about 56 miles of riding, my sister and I were passing through a neighborhood to lead us back home. I was going down a hill when a suburban turned left onto a side street in front of me. I do not remember anything from about 15 minutes before the wreck to about 2 hours after the wreck. I am told that I smashed into the side of the suburban busting out the back seat passenger side window. My sister said when she rode up on me that I was lying down, holding my shoulder and saying it was hurting pretty bad. My arm was bleeding pretty badly so she took her cycling shirt and wrapped it around the open wounds. She said I kept asking what happened and where we were. The ambulance arrived and strapped me down onto a spine board and that’s when I mentioned that my neck hurt. We went to the local hospital and after many x-rays a CAT scan, and MRI they came in and said my neck was broken in three places and that they were sending me to Houston for surgery. This was the first I remember. I remember dying of thirst, but they couldn’t give me any water and the spine board was very uncomfortable. I laid in the ER in Houston on a Saturday night until around 6am Sunday morning. Hours later I had more x-rays and another MRI. This all showed that my neck was stable and I would not need surgery. The three broken vertebra turned into one and somehow two of the vertebra were already fused together. They had also slipped forward tearing all the ligaments and stuff holding them together. Without surgery I would wear a hard neck brace for about 12 weeks. They preformed surgery on my shoulder and removed tons of broken glass from beneath my skin. It would be weeks later until another doctor looked at my shoulder and determined that it had been fractured and separated. I was released from the hospital on Wednesday. I had many checkups on my neck and lots of physical therapy for my shoulder. It has been about 5 months since the accident and I feel about 90% healed. My scars remind me everyday and I feel grateful and very lucky.

During all this time I have talked to 3 different lawyers about this case. Turns out the guy that hit me did not have insurance on his vehicle but showed proof of insurance at the wreck. His excuse was that he was in the process of selling the vehicle. The officer did not ticket the guy for failure to yield and made excuses that I was hard to see. The man that hit me still says today that it was not his fault and I came out of nowhere. Luckily, I had medical insurance that pays 80%. But still when medical bills add up to about $100k and you’re still receiving them in the mail it can get expensive for you. So the guy doesn’t have insurance and no lawyer will want to take the case since they are not guaranteed any money. I could pay the lawyer up front for all the fees but in the end I would just be out more money. You can’t get anything from someone who has nothing. We looked into my car insurance for help. Turns out I don’t have Uninsured Motorist Coverage. This coverage would have paid for all my medical expenses and any other injury-related loss. We added it the day we found out. I have never known about this coverage and for a few bucks more it’s worth every penny. I did have PIP or Personal Injury Protection which was $2,500. Hey it covered my ambulance ride!!

Again, take a look at your coverage and make sure you all are in good shape.

Thanks for sharing the story with us Gus! Looking forward to reading your race report from Galveston!

*I had a masters swim teammate get chopped up by the prop of a drunk boater in Atlanta while doing a group swim

Triathlon Inflation

I signed up for the CapTex Tri today. I figured I'd try to cash in on the early bird savings. Much to my surprise, the all in costs after Active.com's ~$9 surcharge was $128!!! Is it me, or is that absolutely outrageous?

I first did this race in 2005, and while I can't find what I paid back then, I can tell that it cost $89 (with surcharge) in 2006, and I believe it was $100+active surcharge in 2007.

I just find this absurd, and yet, I still paid it. I guess I'm perpetuating the problem by handing over my hard earned dollars.

This is why ideas like self supported triathlons make some sense. If you haven't checked out 140dot6, give it a look. It is an online community that promotes the self supported triathlon.

For me, I prefer the social aspect of races so I can't see myself doing a self supported ironman like many at 140dot6 are preping for, but at $128 for an Olympic distance race, I'm starting to have doubts.

Off for a COLDDDDDDD run.

Back in the Saddle Thanks to Joe

Howdy to all.

I doubt you've been swinging by the blog lately, no reason to really. But if you have, you may have noticed that the last 5 workouts log on the right has been getting updated pretty regularly, and that I've been consistently logging some workouts again.

Work in Nov and Dec were insane and I couldn't seem to be healthy and find free time at the same time for about 6 weeks, so as a result my training suffered. I bagged the Houston Half Marathon, which seems to be an every other year tradition of mine, and decided to work on filling out the spare tire around my mid section.

Anyhow, I'm in the middle of Prep Phase week #4 (following Joe Friel's Triathlete Training Bible Training method). Next week will be the beginning of my base phase. I'm training up to the CapTex Tri in Austin Texas on May 29th. I'll do a couple of races along the way, but that is the first "A" race on the schedule for '08. I'll do 12 weeks of base training, 4 weeks of build, then 2 weeks of Taper/Race.

For those not familiar with Joe's training method, he uses HR Zones to dictate intensity in each workout. In order to establish your zones, you need to conduct Lactate Threshold (LT) tests for both the run and bike every 4-8 weeks. I think he has a test for swimming, but I'm pretty comfortable with controlling effort in the water and have always done my own thing there.

So back to the LT tests. They are basically 30 mins of an all out sustained effort. You take your Avg HR for the last 20 mins of your effort, and that is your LT. From there, you can set your zones using a table which you'll follow during your training as perscribed by Joe. Pretty common stuff for how triathletes train. Well I did my run LT test last night on the local HS track, and wow does that effort hurt. So my LT HR right now is 179. Much higher than I thought it would be, but the test went well. I dosed my effort correctly and didn't go out too hard or save too much for the end. It was a good test, so I'm going to trust the results.

Well I have a power tap for my bike that I got around the middle of last season and I was hoping to switch from HR as the unit defining my Zones to watts as the unit of measure. Unfortunately, Joe's most recent version of the Training Bible (the 2nd edition) came out before power meters had begun to be commonly held by amateurs, so he didn't elaborate on how to do this. There is some interesting info on use of Power Meters in the book, but no way to set zones which is critical if you are planning to follow his methods.

As I was contemplating this challenge I had, I recalled back in 2005 when studies regarding the impacts of vitamin E supplements came out that potentially contradicted some advice Joe put forth in one of his books (can't remember if it was Going Long or the TTB), that I found his email address on-line and shot him an email asking for his thoughts. Not expecting a reply, Joe responded to my email within 15 minutes of me sending it with a thorough explanation of the differences between the studies recently published and his recommendations for use of vitamin E as a supplement. You can't imagine how cool I thought this was.

So I thought, I have a question for Joe, why not send him an email again. It turns out that Joe now has a blog on Blogger [Joe Friel's Blog] with his email address published on it. I sent Joe an email with my question/dilemma, and what do you know - 15 Minutes later, I have a response from Joe saying he would post how to set zones using watts from a 30 min LT test to his blog some time this week when he had time. 24 hours later, my answer is published.

Lucky for me, the reference he sites as the source for his info, Allen and Cogan's book Training and Racing With Power (which can be purchased from Amazon using the link on the right side of my blog - cha ching) is a book I got over the holidays. I read the section outlining FTP last night, and there is no more to it than Joe outlines in his post. The only difference is that Allen and Cogan suggest doing a 10 min warmup at 65% of max effort, then 5 minutes at max effort to take the freshness out of your legs, then recover for 10mins at 65% of max effort, then do a 20min TT at max sustained effort. Your avg wattage over this 20 min effort is your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). You can set your zones with the following table:

Zone 1 <55%>
Zone 3 76-90% of FTP (tempo)
Zone 4 91-105% of FTP (lactate threshold)
Zone 5 106-120% of FTP (VO2max)
Zone 6 121-150% of FTP (anaerobic capacity)
Zone 7 >150% of FTP (neuromuscular power)

Like Joe says, FTP changes more rapidly than LT HR does, so testing every 4 weeks will probably be the way to go until I begin to plateau as I gain fitness.

So the bottom line is that I can use power this year to set my zones, and Joe Friel is a really freaking smart guy, who is super responsive to his readers' questions.

Definitely check out his blog, there are all kinds of goodies on it.

Off to the pool!

Cool Sites

Here are a few cool sites I've stumbled across over the last few months that I think you should check out.

Mad Sci Network is a great idea. Get the answers to every question you ever dreamed up. From "What is the meaning of life?" to "Why do I shiver when I pee?" and everything in between. Post questions and get answers from really smart people with time on their hands.

Atom Films is another good one. Its been around for ever and everyone has visited it in the past for its creative shorts. But maybe you are like me (hopefully not for your sake), and something takes you there about twice a year, and you enjoy it, and you try to make a mental note to visit the site more often, but never remember to hit it up the next time you are surfing. Well it is still good, and I think I've solved my dilemma by bookmarking it.

Revision 3 is a great site. I'm a fan of Digg Nation which is housed here, but there are a few other online programs that are worth checking out.

CNet is a great place to go to find cool free downloads in addition to reviews of gadgets and software. Go to the home page, click on downloads and read up on cool stuff that is helpful, reliable, and has all the bugs pretty well worked out of it.

Cellar Tracker is a must for all wine drinkers out there. For no fee, you can load your personal wine collection into your own profile, then read reviews on wines you have or are interested in buying, add tasting notes to the community, get viewer rankings, and manage your own personal inventory. Its a great idea. For a subscription, you can get info on pricing which can help you to identify deals at your local bottle shop if that is your thing. But there is plenty of functionality without paying a dime.

To-Do List is another one I've just stumbled across. I'm still trying to get in to it, but I love the concept. Rather than describe it myself, I'm going to copy the general idea right off of the blog. It is basically a "collection of 100 handwritten lists and the stories behind them. To-Do List celebrates the world of the overlooked and mundane, letting our lists serve as unique windows into who we are. Nothing is more revealing than someone's to-do list."

Check these out and give me your thoughts. If there is anything you would like to add, please do. And don't forget to thanks your respective god(s) when you go to be tonight for giving us Al Gore - Creator of the Internet!