Thoughts while riding

The following are thoughts that I had while out riding over the last week and a half:


Long rides in the middle of a weekday cannot be beat. This is why we moved up here. This is why I quit my 8-5 job. This is why I now work at a Bar-b-que restaurant: so I can ride my bike when and where I want to. So I can train, and it doesn't have to be worked into a commute through the ghetto in order to get my mileage in. I love it.


Bike lanes are awesome! In the past, I have heard of these mythical sections of the road where you can ride your bike without blowing out tires or having cyclist try to kill you, throw things at you, cuss at you or wish that you had never been born. It turns out that they do actually exist in Colorado, and some of them are as wide as the lanes for the cars!

Prairie dogs are crazy looking little creatures. I saw hundreds of these little guys today! They were running all over the place and I was so close to some of them that I almost ran one over (on accident of course). It looked like a hundred little Ollies running around.

The wildlife is much different here. It is still really winter here, so I imagine I will see more and more creatures out, but instead of the only wildlife I see being road kill raccoons and possums and hookers, I saw longhorn cattle, horses, crazy birds and tons of black tail prairie dogs (ok, maybe the cattle and horses weren't wild, but they were cool to see).


The inverse law of cycling gains to cordiality: If you pass a fat slow guy on a bike, he will always wave back to you. In fact it is likely that he will wave to you before you wave to him. However, if you pass a fit or fast guy on a bike, he will almost certainly not wave back. The opposite is in fact true of women. If you pass a fat slow woman, she will not wave to you. But if you pass a fit or fast woman, she will almost certainly wave back and will often wave first. Note: as I typed this, I realized that I am by definition of this law, a fat slow guy.


The ocean and beach are awesome, but there is something special about the mountains. If you are one block away from the ocean, you might as well be 100 miles, but you can see the mountains (and ride into pot holes while staring at them) from miles and miles away. They look just as awesome from up close or far away. 


I am way out of shape right now. I am pretty sure this doesn't need to be explained.

I am really bad about matching my kit - therefore I could never be a roadie. On today's ride (3/5) I am wearing Louis Garneau shoes, with Shimano cleats, Specialized socks, Cannondale shorts, Pearl Izumi base layer, Primal Wear jersey, Giro helmet, Garmin watch, Louis Garneau jacket and, Cannondale gloves. 10 items, 8 brands. Also my wheels are different brands, and my drive train is made up of too many different groupos to count. Matt Cusack is puking as he reads this.

Moe's Southwest Grill is way better than Chipotle. I spent $12.22 today on a burrito, chips and a drink at chipotle. That same meal would have been $8 and change at Moe's. If Chipotle is 50% more expensive, it should be either A) 50% more food, B) 50% tastier, C) 50% better for me, or D) a combination of A, B, and C that adds up to 50%. It is none of those.

Eating that much Chipotle and then trying to ride again was not a good idea. Yeah, that food refused to digest. I had to pedal home with a food baby.

What in the world is a conch shell doing next to a creek in Colorado?? Today while walking home (refer to this post: http://hunterleerobinson.blogspot.com/2012/03/all-in-days-work.html) I found a conch shell laying on the side of the path next to a stream. All I can imagine is that this must have been one very lost hermit crab.

All In a Days Work

Today was certainly an interesting training day. Since November, I do not think I have had one ride outside. All of my rides have either been on the trainer or on a spin bike. Yes, I have been going through addict type withdrawals: headaches, twitching, convulsing, the junkie itch. But, all was cured today!

The weather today in Boulder was supposed to be 65 degrees (!!!). Finally some weather that I know how to tolerate! But, we moved into our apartment just a couple of days ago and I still don't know where anything is (on Sunday, I couldn't find the bag that had all of my clean boxers in them, so I ended up wearing tri shorts under my church pants!). So, I decided I was just going to ride to the bike shop, top my tires off and go. Enter Problem #1: both of my tires were completely flat. Ok, so now I have to find my pump, but when I found it (Problem #2), the nozzle was broken. I then decided to drive to the bike shop to get a new pump but (Problem #3), Anna had already left for the grocery store in the truck. Normally I could call her and get a ride but (Problem #4), I smashed my phone and had no way to get a hold of her. I checked the bus schedule, but it was going to be a while before the bus I needed came through. I then grabbed Anna's mountain bike but (Problem #5), the wheels on that bike were flat as well. So what's next? Her new road bike she got for Christmas. I found a couple of wheels that would hold air and took off for the bike shop! I am 6' tall. Anna is 5'1". This was the closest I have been to riding a BMX bike since I was 12! I received plenty of crazy stares riding a tiny pink and teal bike through town, I made it! I bought a much needed new pump, a couple of spare tubes, Co2 cartridges and tire levers and headed home to grab my bike and set out on my ride.

Once I got going, the ride. was. awesome! The weather was perfect. the roads were perfect. Drivers didn't try to kill me. I rode all over the place for 3 hours and 15 minutes and was doing my best to limp back home, when bam! "What was that? Why is my cadence so high? Why am I slowing down?" Yeah (Problem #6), I popped my chain. At this point (Problem #7), I have no idea where I am. I only know that my apartment is somewhere southwest of where I am. I always carry a power link and chain tool with me, but (Problem #8), I thought that I would be fine until I found my other bike stuff. I guess I was wrong on that account.

Normally in this situation, I would call Anna, but please refer back to Problem #4. So I started walking. After an hour of walking, I found my way back into Boulder then I stumbled upon a bike shop that I did not know existed. Score! I ducked in, bought a power link for my chain and borrowed their chain tool and I was back rolling again! I ended up making it home just as it was getting dark.

Despite the craziness, this was one of the most enjoyable solo rides I have ever had. This place is great! I can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

A Proper Sendoff

I admit, since I shared with ya'll the news of the move, my blog, twitter and facebook updates have left much to be desired. But now that it is 2:40 in the morning and I have been cursed with a sudden bout of energy over the last hour and a half, I guess now is as good a time as any to update!

We have known for a while that we were moving, but because of the whole need for employment, we could not tell that many people. After you have decided to leave your job, it is becomes extremely hard to perform a job that you really do not enjoy. But let me tell you, after you turn in your two weeks notice, it get's even harder to motivate yourself to do the work! But in those two weeks I had a ton of work to do cleaning up loose ends and getting ready to hand my duties off to others. I'm sure I didn't accomplish as much as they wanted, buy hey, I didn't do too bad! My last day of work was the 13th and let me tell you, after 3 and a half years of employment there, that was a happy day. Gregg even managed to send me off with a pizza lunch!

However, the fact that I was done officially working did not mean that it was time for us to party. That night we headed off to a local family's house to baby sit/house sit for their 3 kids while they went on a (really long) cruise. We baby sat from the 13th to the 20th and while the kids were great for the most part, I can say with complete certainty that I am nowhere near ready to have kids! I'm not sure I could handle a 10 year old girl running around the house much longer than a week. I grew up with all boys and Anna insist that I never learned to play with girls. She's probably right...

Well we finished baby sitting on the 20th and were supposed to head out of town on the 27th, so it was time to get busy! The plan was to get a camper shell for my truck and load everything we own into the back of my pick up truck, put the bikes on top of the camper, stuff the dogs into the cab with us and take off! Now that is a great plan if you own a truck like this. When you own a truck like this, it means you have to get rid of a LOT of stuff. It also means that with two crazy dogs, it is guaranteed to be an interesting trip! We had already sold most everything in a garage sale at a friends house so we just had to get rid of some odds and ends stuff. But I listed everything else worth selling on Craigslist, including Anna's car and our bed. I also sold a bunch of triathlon stuff I wasn't using any more and hopefully I can convince Anna to let me put that money back into a (desperately) needed bike!

Needy dog 1: Bailey

Needy dog 2: Ollie

The packing process continued on until a giant monkey wrench was thrown into the plans this Monday. I'm finally getting tired again, so I will tell you about that tomorrow.

A bit late, but BIG NEWS!

Disclaimer: There is a giant crack running through the middle of my computer screen which makes typing and proofreading very difficult. So if you see anything goofy, either ignore it or send me a message. I'll fix it when I get to a better computer and can proof this post! 

Disclaimer 2: Grammar mistakes will not be corrected as I probably won't recognize them as mistakes. If the nerd is reading, she will help me out.

As you are all aware, I have been slacking in the blog department. I promised a blog about some big news 2 days ago and failed to deliver. But as you are about to see, life has been exceptionally crazy lately. Anyway, let's get rolling!

Big news #1

Big news #1 isn't exactly a secret, many of you already know this, but for 2012, I will be sponsored by Endurance Junkie! Endurance Junkie is a high quality triathlon and cycling apparel company out of Belgium. This is a real sponsorship, and when I say real sponsorship, I mean Peter from Endurance Junkie is actually going to help me out! It has been very cool to see the level of support that I already have from this company.

This (official) announcement comes at a great time as I just last night received my race suit for the year! By the way, it's pretty cool getting a package from Europe.

As you can see, this baby is pretty stylish

Not a bad looking door either....

I would post a picture with me rocking this super comfortable suit, but Anna has already ditched off to bed.

And when I say "super comfortable suit," I'm not kidding. This thing is DEFINITELY the most comfortable piece of cycling or tri clothing I have ever put on. I would call this the triathlon equivalent to baseball's Manny pants. In other words, this joker is comfortable enough to wear as pajamas!

Big news #2

Let's go ahead and throw it out there: Anna and I are moving to Boulder, Colorado!!!!

That's right, we are packing up and heading west!  Yes, I know big news, big change (sorry to the few of you that already knew this). I know this brings up even more questions, so let's see if I can cover most of them here:

Why go?

Anna and I just got married back in September and both of our families live here. As much as we love them, this really makes it hard to break away and develop our own life together. Moving will be good for us. Plus, there will never be a better time to get out and explore. This decision won't ever get any easier. We will be back to Alabama/Florida area once we are ready to have kiddos, but for now, it's time to go play!

When?

Anna and I have been planning on moving away from southern Alabama for a while but haven't been able to say much because I needed to keep my job. Well, I put in my two weeks notice on Tuesday so now our news is out in the open and we are headed out quick! We will be leaving the week of January 23rd.

How are you getting there?




We are packing up the dogs and bikes in my truck and heading out on a massive road trip! We are selling Anna's car, so I have been busy cleaning up 10 years ((she has driven the same care since she was 16!) of coffee and make up spills and trying to get little bruiser ready to sell. On top of that, we are having a garage sale on Saturday and selling EVERYTHING that is not absolutely essential (these two reasons on top of still working and training is why I have been struggling to get this blog out). That means we are pretty much selling everything but clothes, bikes and kitchen stuff. It will be tough but I'm sure Anna won't mind decorating from scratch.

So if anybody has any road trip stops we should make between the Gulf Coast and Boulder, let us know! We are open to driving pretty much anywhere, especially if you have some kind of ridiculous tourist attraction.


Why Boulder?

We have seriously mulled over the possibility of several different cities. First of all there was Bend, OR  but for no particular reason, that never really panned out and neither one of us felt right about the move there. Then we decided on Phoenix. One of my teammates from last year just moved out there and it looked like he could help us find jobs pretty quickly. But then neither one of us could fall in love with moving to the desert. I am sure it is great in it's own way, but I like grass.

So then we thought about Boulder. Another teammate of mine lives out there and when I asked her about it, she had a billion great things to say about the town. Then we started seriously thinking about it and I fell in love with the idea for two main reasons: 1. The summer after my junior year of college, I signed a contract to play for the Cheyenne Grizzlies in the Colorado Mountain League. In these college leagues you pretty much live and play ball like a minor leaguer. It would have been heaven for me. But I ended up tearing my ACL, MCL and Meniscus during the school season. All of a sudden it didn't make so much sense to go. The coach offered me the chance to still go out with the team and workout as I could and help with the catchers, but I turned it down. This is the only regret I really have in life. So, that dream to head out west has burned deep down inside of me sense then. Here's my chance to go! And 2. Boulder is pretty much the North American triathlon headquarters. If you look at all of the pros that live and train there at some point throughout the year, it is pretty much ridiculous. If we were going to move away from our families, I wanted it to be to a place where I could really give myself every opportunity possible to succeed at triathlon. I have some lofty goals and why not get to chasing them? After all, there's nothing like laying it all on the line.

What will you do when you get there?

In short, we are going to play. I have had a pretty good job the last 3 and a half years, but I have decided I'm not cut out for the whole 8-5 office job.  So I will be looking for a job, more than likely in a restaurant, bartending or waiting. That way if I want to take a 4 hour bike ride on Tuesday, I can. And if we want to take 6 days to drive to the Grand Canyon or go snowboarding, we can do so without worrying about vacation days. I just have to say "hey Carl, mind covering my shift for me?" I mean, after all, if we are moving to training paradise to allow myself every opportunity to go as far as possible in this sport, I don't want to have an inflexible job standing in the way.

Ok, I'm getting tired and every though there is a ton more to this, you're probably about tired of reading, so hit me up on twitter if you have more questions. 

Oh, and how cool is this label on my new trisuit?

To Infinity and Beyond!

I think a big part of getting anywhere in life is to have goals.  Without goals, where are you heading?  I am big on lists, so it just seems natural to make a list of goals, right?  Recently I was cleaning out some paperwork and found a list of goals dated 8/5/10, so roughly 16 months ago.  Of those 20 goals, I have not achieved any of them.  I am making progress towards all of them, but I have not actually completed any of them.  Maybe putting all of these out there for the masses to view will help with some motivation to cross some of these off of the list!

1. Weight sub 170 (well, I made this one briefly)
2. Run a sub 1:45 1/2 marathon
3. Run a sub 1:30 1/2 marathon
4. Run a sub 4 marathon
5. Run a sub 3:30 marathon
6.  Run a sub 3 marathon
7. Run a sub 5 70.3
8. Run a sub 4:40 70.3
9. Run a sub 4:30 70.3
10. Average 24+ mph in a 70.3
11. Run a sub 45 10k
12. Run a sub 40 10k
13. Run a sub 20 5k
14. Run a sub 19 5k
15. Run a sub 18 5k
16. Run a sub 6 min mile
17. Run a sub 5:30 min mile
18. Run a sub 5 min mile
19. Sub 32 min 1/2 iron swim (I didn't have any swim goals on the original list.  I just added all of these)
20. Sub 30 min 1/2 iron swim
21. Sub 28 min 1/2 iron swim
22. Sub 1:05 ironman swim
23. Sub 1 hour ironman swim
24. Sub 55 min ironman swim
25. Sub 11 hour ironman
26. Sub 10 hour ironman
27. Sub 9 hour ironman
28. Win a race over all
29. Go pro in triathlon

Well, there you go.  There are some fairly easy goals on there and there are some extremely lofty goals on there.  It's time to make these dreams a reality.

How far are you going to swim??

Earlier this year I began following Hillary Biscay's blog.  It's a good read and she always posts plenty of pictures (but it is BRIGHT pink which makes it very difficult to pretend to be working when you are caught goofing off).  It wasn't long after I started following that I read about Linsey Corbin's 10,000 yard birthday celebration swim.  My first thought was "that’s stupid." My second thought was "I want to do it!"

The past two weeks have been my offseason and they have been glorious. I have done nothing but eat and drink and sit on my butt. Instead of morning swims, I have been sleeping in. Instead of taking lunch runs, I have been taking lunch naps. Instead of afternoon workouts, I have been drinking and then passing out early. Like I said, it has been glorious. But it doesn’t take long for me to get bored of this type of activity, or non-activity. So I decided that the Saturday after Thanksgiving would be a perfect time to do my 100x100 swim and to kick off the 2012 training season all in one fell swoop.

I thought this would be a good opportunity for a group swim and tried to enlist some friends and the local tri-club. Come swim time, not one person showed up. So I was off for a solo swim!

Since the longest I have ever swum was 6,000 yards, I wanted to pace myself. My goal was to try to keep my splits consistent between 1:32 and 1:35. For the most part I stayed right on track. I grouped the 100’s into sets of 10 to help break things up. After each of the first 10 100’s, I took a 5 second break. After each of the second 10, I took a 10 second break, then back to 5, back to 10, and so on. After each 10 100’s I would take a two minute break to catch my breath and stretch out whatever was getting tight.

I thought since I had not swam anything at all in the last two weeks that it would probably take 1500-2000 yards to find my stroke again and really settle in. Well after 4000 yards, I still couldn’t remember how to swim. So I did 1000 with a pull buoy. Nope, still can’t swim. I was hitting my times for the most part, but man was it a struggle fest! So I did another 1000 focusing on my stroke. Nothing. Alright let’s do a 1000 kick. "I’ve swam 7000 yards now, surely I have to be making progress." Nope, still can’t swim. So after another 1000 working on my stroke I went back to the pull buoy. On the last length of this set, at yard 8,975, something clicked! "That’s what I have been doing wrong!" After seeing my times slip to 1:36, 1:37, 1:38 as I got more and more tired, I finally figured it out!

I set to work on my last 10 100’s and busted out a 1:28. "That felt good, but take this one easy. You still have 900 to go." 1:28! "Slow down man." 1:28! "Same time?" 1:28! "Ok, screw it. Let’s go." 1:28, 1:29, 1:28, 1:24, 1:21, 1:17!

All in all my first 100x100 swim was a complete success, even if I was unable to lift my arms for the next 48 hours.

Miami Man Half Iron Race Report Part Deux!!

Ok, I know I'm late again.  If you haven't seen part 1, you can view it here, otherwise, here's part two of the report:

Race morning the alarm went off at 4:20. I ate my PB&J sandwich and drank a little mountain dew (the kind with real sugar!) and took a quick shower. We were checked out and in the car by 4:40! I love races with bike check in the day before, because race morning there is very little to do, just get my nutriton for the day set up, eat PB&J number 2 and stretch. Except even with the very little to do, I still forgot my endurolytes. So after a mad dash sprint back to the car, then back to the transition area, then to throw my wetsuit on and sprint to the start line, I was nice and warmed up and ready to go!

Swim
32:58 - 1:34/100yard - 6th in AG
This is the first time I have ever felt like I was racing in the water. I lined up with the front of our wave and when the gun went off I dove in and took off sprinting. I was determined to make it on the feet of someone fast when we made the first turn. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out how to swim really hard AND swim straight. Instead I swim way to the left. So my little detour kept me from getting right on the feet I wanted to be on, but I still felt like I was in good position.  I managed to stay in a little pack for the first couple hundred yards but after rounding the 2nd turn buoy, there was nothing left of the pack.  So off on my own I went! 

This swim was in a spring fed lake, so it was crystal clear.  I could see the rock formations on the bottom of the lake nearly the entire swim.  This was a very nice change of pace from the nasty lake and bay swims I have grown acustomed to where you can't even see as far as your elbow when you are swimming. 

I finished my first lap and jumped out of the water to round the timing mat.  As I did so, I heard my cheering section scream that I was in 6th place.  As I hopped back in the water, I could see the next guy in my AG about 25 yards ahead of me.  No matter how hard I swam, he always seemed to be that same 25 yards right in front of me and we finished the second lap in the same position.

I didn't quite make my goal of swimming a 31:xx but I have to say that I am still very happy with this swim.  I have a lot to work on, but just 6 months after swimming a 1:20:31 at Ironman I will call this an improvement. Of course all of the extra speed could be attributed to this swim cap:

T1 - 1:57

Bike
2:30:50 - 22.3mph - 4th in AG

 The bike was tough.  Much tougher than I thought that it would be.  The course was flat as a pancake, but the wind was howling!  And my bike is not quite an aero bike.  If you missed part one of my race report than you might not be aware of the fact that I am riding an ancient race bike, known as The Mummy.

Well, I did manage to alter The Mummy a little bit from the picture and add race wheels and aero bars to it.  But despite the changes, the components are still 26 years old.  And it didn't take long before that proved to be a problem.  I wasn't even out of the park that this race is staged in before my rear deraileur decided to throw my chain.  Fortunately though, riding this bike has made me quite proficient at working on a drive train.  So I was off the bike, fixed the chain, and was back riding again in just a minute or two. Now, time to get to work!

During Ironman Texas, I don't think I consumed near enough electrolytes or calories on the bike, so I wanted to make sure I did not repeat that mistake here.  I started with two bottles of gatorade diluted with half water and made sure that I drank a minimum of every 15 minutes.  I took a hammer gel every 30 minutes as well as 1 or 2 endurolytes (depending on how I was feeling) every 30 minutes.  I staggered the gels and the endurolytes so that I didn't have to take both at the same time. 

I wasn't on the bike long before a group of 3 guys, including 2 guys in my age group, riding in a peloton came past me.  I let them go and decided to stick to my heart rate, but after the initial pass, they didn't seem to be putting any additional time on me.  Then the more I watched them draft, the more mad it made me.  So I put a charge in and passed them and then put some space between us.  We ended up battling back and forth for most of the day.  Although one of them was not quite staying out of the draft zone and the other one was no more than half a bike length behind the person in front of him at all times, it was fun to actually race against them and to know where I placed in the race at pretty much all times. 

I started out feeling great on the bike, but as time progressed, the wind picked up big time and my heart rate began to drop.  I thought my inability to hold my heart rate was just the headwind, but after the race I started thinking about things and realised that the change in bike position the week of the race probably had a good deal to do with my heart rate.  Moving my position on the bike from more of a touring position, as the bike was designed, to an aero position moved a lot of the load from my hamstrings to my quads.  This just sucked my legs dry.

In the end, one of the guys I was battling with rode off, I dropped the other and then passed another guy to move up to 4th in my AG coming off of the bike. 

T2 - 1:14

Run
2:08:47 - 9:49 min/mile - 10th in AG

Yeah, the run was carnage.  My quads were cramping within the first half mile.  It didn't matter how much fluid or endurolytes I sucked down, there was no saving them.  My heart rate stayed about where I wanted it, but I couldn't get my legs to move any faster.  I would push harder and harder and my heart rate would shoot higher and higher, and then when I got to the next mile marker I would find that I was not actually running any faster at all.  That's not fun.  I walked through the aid stations and "ran" all the rest of the time.  But that "run" kept getting slower as the day went on.

Sucking down some warm Mountain Dew in a desperate attempt to keep moving.

As I stumbled through the run I began to calculate my times and negotiate with myself: "ok, keep pushing here.  If you can hold this pace, you can still break 5:05." "Ok, keep pushing here. If you can hold this pace, you can still break 5:10..."  In the end I had to run a 30 minute 5k to break 5:15.  I pushed as hard as I could, but once again no matter how much I pushed the hurt, my legs weren't moving any faster.  At one point in the last mile it felt like I kicked a towel or blanket or something and looked down to see what my leg was caught in.  There was nothing there.  "Ok, so now my legs are shutting down.  Let's not pull a Chris Legh here at the end of the race..."  So now I'm pushing as hard as I can and praying my body does not shut down in a collapse fit for Hollywood.  Fun stuff.

I dropped 6 places on the run and finished in 5:15:48.  I'm not exactly proud of that finish or that time, but I am proud of how hard I pushed.  That was the most I have ever hurt in a race and the hardest I have ever pushed. 

Now to find a bike...