bowie knives, beards, and stones!

This is what I'm talking about! I came across a very amusing and inspiring article yesterday on Xtri, but unfortunately it came about a month too late for me. This would have certainly helped with keeping me in the right frame of mind had I read it when it was published, about three days prior to the Blizzard of 2010, Snowpocalypse, etc. Still, I think I did ok even without it.This article captures the essence of ironman training through a Pittsburgh winter, when you just have to knuckle up, HTFU, or embrace the Winter of the caveman ala Duncan Larkin, and just get out in the cold and suck it up. Less time spent in the presence of this kind of crap....
And more time spent doing things that leave you looking like this....
Hopefully now this mentality may be stored away until next December, as the spirit of this post is certainly at odds with my last, but if not, I will be sure to reach into my shorts to see what I can find.

Indoor winter training at its finest

The ten pound bag of almonds arrived last Friday to start my weekend off right.
It continued with the sprint masters practice that night and then a long day of training on Saturday. Saturday morning Jocelyn and I drove up north a little to Mark’s house to meet up with what is becoming a pretty regular group of Pittsburgh area Ironman nut jobs. Mark had us all setup in his very spacious basement for a three hour trainer ride to kick things off for the day. We managed to go through one Spinervals video, a Universal Sports broadcast of the 2009 Ironman Louisville race that two of the morning's riders raced, and then finished up with a little bit more of Coach Troy with an "On the Road" of Lake Placid. After the trainer ride we transitioned to a quick (and I mean quick) ~4 mi run from Mark’s house out to a turnaround in Troy Polamalu’s neighborhood. After the run Mark and his wife Jenene had a wonderful brunch prepared for us and we got in some much need calories and continued the stimulating conversation of the morning and good times. After leaving Mark’s place, Jocey, the Holderbaums and myself made the drive up a little further north to the closest YMCA available, Cranberry (vs Baierl), that would admit scurrilous Sewickley Y travelers, and got in the third and final workout of the day. This was finished up with some obligatory underwater camera fun, waterslide action, and of course my beloved tradition of post-swim steambathing.
Saturday night Jocelyn and I just relaxed at home and watched a movie while letting our legs begin to recover. Sunday morning dawned with more rainy conditions, and while Jocelyn went out to North Park to meet up with a friend for her 12 mi run, I slept in a little bit longer and then ventured over to the Montour Trail for my own slopfest twelve on a nasty, muddy, icy/crusty rail trail. I made fellow Pharaoh Hounds runner sightings out in the miserable conditions, seeing Eric and Jo toughing it out as well. Sunday closed out with some NFL viewing, a trainer ride, and a nice family dinner where we got the latest on my brother and fiance’s wedding deliberations. Finishing the training week out on Saturday, I jumped up over 13 hours for the week so things are continuing to build on the ever present numbers chase and fitness enhancement.

This week started very well on the training front, with a tough masters distance workout on Monday, doing such fun sets as 200s on the 2:30 and 100s leaving on 1:15, and then a solid aerobic bike effort on Tuesday night followed by getting back out on the road to run yesterday morning and this one. Here's a shot from my run this morning - I had a so so swim last night, as I was kinda playing it cool as I had been feeling a little “off” since Tuesday night. Had nothing to do with the bike effort, but probably an encroaching bug of some kind that Jocelyn likely transported home from her elementary school. So far so good though, and I hope to fight that off as well as the niggling right foot discomfort I had been feeling off and on since last week. This probably resulted in running too hard, on the too far left portion of some of the highly cambered local roads. I shouldn’t complain too much though, as I’ve been relatively problem free (knock on wood) since I went minimal on the running shoes. Caveman style is good for more than just eating! Good information on minimalistic running can be found here.

So tonight I will do another moderately long trainer ride and plan to run tomorrow AM and then swim in the evening. And then Saturday morning it is back with the Ironman crew for another marathon training session. This time I heard there is even a waiting list for the session! Happy training and eating everyone! Caveman up!

Paleo living

The New York Times online edition recently ran an interesting article on the "urban caveman." It just so happened that I was already boning up on the subject when I caught scent of this piece. I had been reading The Paleo Diet for Athletes for a couple days and had begun implementing some of the diet recommendations. The plate shown above is my daily mid morning snack now. Throw a hardboiled egg in there too. I thought I'd give Paleo a try now that its resolution time and also because my current training volume is relatively low. If it doesn't get the job done once I'm hammering myself week in and week out, I can always drift back towards the typical triathlete's style of nutrition, that of the all out Carb-Fest. At a minimum I suppose I have committed to sticking with the almonds at least because I just ordered ten pounds of them yesterday online! So far though its going very smoothly and I am noticing that I am getting a little leaner around the midsection, and my energy levels are good as well. A plus about the body comp since the epic bike rides have yet to start, although those will surely take care of any extra energy I might hope to have. :)

With all of that said however, training has been going well and I am slowly building things up. The first two weeks of the year I have been up around 11-12 hours and the frequency and quality of sessions are good. Last weekend alone I hit 6.5 hours of training which was a great feeling, although it makes me laugh to read that now because in a couple months that won't even be a complete Saturday. Our friends Chad and Jen came out our way last Saturday and joined us for some s/b/r. That definitely helped to get a longer bike in and was good to catch up and talk shop. Since Chad's 30th birthday was also the next day, later that night we joined up with them again and a group of triathlete friends for dinner at the Yokoso Japanese Steakhouse at the Waterfront. Below, from l to r: Jen, Chad, Lisa, Ryan, Cari, and Nick. This was our first time meeting Ryan, Cari, and Nick, and it was definitely a pleasure. Good peoples. Not pictured: Kim, Garvin, Jocelyn, and yours truly. Dinner was followed up by a Shuffleboard tournament at Dave and Busters. We endurance athletes know how to party!
Well, I think its time to turn in and get some of that all important rest, but this weekend will bring more group training sessions and good blog material. I hope everyone out there is off to as good a start as I am this year and is getting the work done, for that first race of the season can't be that far away! For tonight I will leave you with an amusing video, SlowTwitch: The Movie, created (I think) by Chuckie V.