Friday, October 31, 2008
Motivational Signs
Audrey making her motivational sign for the run course. To fully appreciate this sign you have to know the story. A few weeks ago I was out on a Tuesday doing an 80 mile bike ride and it was so absurbdly windy that as I was coming into the wind, on a slight incline, I was going about 11 mph and my heart rate was 161! I text Audrey and asked her if she would text God and ask him to stop breathing so hard. Hence...the sign! :)
Transition Bags
Getting all my gear together to drop off today! I'm getting better at this...the first time was a little stressful...what do I need, what do I need? You never know what the weather is going to do. But I think we are good to go for tomorrow! Can't wait!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
IM FL - the beginning
And so the adventure begins…Ironman Florida! It can never be simple, planned out or normal. What fun is that! Instead, Audrey and I hit the road Wednesday night at 9 pm after we finished Boot Camp. It’s only a 6-7 hour drive to Panama City Beach from Clearwater, why not do it at night and avoid the traffic. Honestly, it was a great move because we made it in 6 hours exactly and that’s including my potty breaks every 2 hours! And on a side note, who knew there were more deer along the side of the road in Florida than Michigan! Holy deer country!
The “plan” was to stay in a cabin at Campers Inn because Ponch and Nan are here with the motorhome and the campground is practically across the road from the host resort/transition area. Now, we stayed in the cabins at Fort Wilderness in Disney for the Half IM there so this will be the same thing, right? Um…could we have been more wrong. Yes, that was Disney and nothing is like Disney, but how different can cabins be. Let’s just say we couldn’t even figure out how to get the door open when we got there at 3 am for starters. Let’s also mention its 40 degrees outside, I’m getting over a nasty cold and we’re extremely tired! After figuring out you don’t actually use the handle to open the door (silly us!), you pull the rope which lifts the 4x4 level contraption so the door can be opened. We step inside and I do mean a single step because that’s all the more room there was before you ran into either the full size bed or the bunk beds. That’s all folks. If you shuffled your way in between the set of beds, you reached what we initially hoped was the heater fixed to the wall. Mistake #2 (or is that 3 now)! Our options were low fan or high fan and last I checked fan ≠ heat! We looked at each other, simultaneously let out a “Hell No” and ran for the HEATED car. We called Ponch and Nan and headed for the motorhome. Heat, bathroom, and sleep…we were now happy.
Come morning, we decided to discuss our options with the front desk help. “Yeah, you can rent one of these little space heaters for a $10 deposit. They’re a hot commodity this weekend!” she explains. No, really! That would have been a bit more helpful yesterday. But seriously, she was wonderful and I really appreciate their help because she fully refunded us for last night and the rest of the stay. We figured we might as well start with the host resort and take our chances on a room still being available. We were in luck; there was 1 efficiency she could get us into. Unfortunately, while we were making the phone calls to arrange the cancellations, it was booked out from under us. Again, the woman working was looking out for us because she comes back with an efficiency in one of their other properties that’s a bit bigger, has a balcony looking out over the gulf, and she will give it to us for the same rate. Um…is that a question! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We got checked into Sunbird Condos, made our way up to the 6th floor, entered our room and began shrieking with excitement when we saw the view! This is awesome! The rest of the day has pretty much followed suit, so I’m just going to pray that tomorrow and, most importantly, Saturday are the same! Bring on the IM!
The “plan” was to stay in a cabin at Campers Inn because Ponch and Nan are here with the motorhome and the campground is practically across the road from the host resort/transition area. Now, we stayed in the cabins at Fort Wilderness in Disney for the Half IM there so this will be the same thing, right? Um…could we have been more wrong. Yes, that was Disney and nothing is like Disney, but how different can cabins be. Let’s just say we couldn’t even figure out how to get the door open when we got there at 3 am for starters. Let’s also mention its 40 degrees outside, I’m getting over a nasty cold and we’re extremely tired! After figuring out you don’t actually use the handle to open the door (silly us!), you pull the rope which lifts the 4x4 level contraption so the door can be opened. We step inside and I do mean a single step because that’s all the more room there was before you ran into either the full size bed or the bunk beds. That’s all folks. If you shuffled your way in between the set of beds, you reached what we initially hoped was the heater fixed to the wall. Mistake #2 (or is that 3 now)! Our options were low fan or high fan and last I checked fan ≠ heat! We looked at each other, simultaneously let out a “Hell No” and ran for the HEATED car. We called Ponch and Nan and headed for the motorhome. Heat, bathroom, and sleep…we were now happy.
Come morning, we decided to discuss our options with the front desk help. “Yeah, you can rent one of these little space heaters for a $10 deposit. They’re a hot commodity this weekend!” she explains. No, really! That would have been a bit more helpful yesterday. But seriously, she was wonderful and I really appreciate their help because she fully refunded us for last night and the rest of the stay. We figured we might as well start with the host resort and take our chances on a room still being available. We were in luck; there was 1 efficiency she could get us into. Unfortunately, while we were making the phone calls to arrange the cancellations, it was booked out from under us. Again, the woman working was looking out for us because she comes back with an efficiency in one of their other properties that’s a bit bigger, has a balcony looking out over the gulf, and she will give it to us for the same rate. Um…is that a question! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We got checked into Sunbird Condos, made our way up to the 6th floor, entered our room and began shrieking with excitement when we saw the view! This is awesome! The rest of the day has pretty much followed suit, so I’m just going to pray that tomorrow and, most importantly, Saturday are the same! Bring on the IM!
Labels: florida, ironman, panama city beach, triathlon
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Despite the fact that the wind has been relentless the past few days, this 80 miler had to be done! The first 45 miles weren't too bad since it was more of a cross wind. But when I turned into it and the road was a slight incline, I glanced down to see my speed at 11 mph and my HR at 160! That's when you know it's a good ride. After stopping at Taylor Park to refuel and refocus, I was determined to see 80 at the end. It's rides like this that I love because the confidence you gain from finishing it power you through your next tough training ride or race! Activity
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Monday, October 06, 2008
USA-T Coaching Clinic
It's amazing how in a 12 hour span I can go from being in New Orleans chatting with fellow newbie triathlon coaches as well as veteran coaches who work at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, to flying back to Clearwater, to being back to the Monday routine at Lifestyles. I love my job, don't get me wrong, but I have to admit it was a little difficult to come back to after this weekend. I had been looking forward to attending the USA-T Coaching Clinic ever since I signed up months ago. I had no idea to what caliber the presenters would be! Bobby McGee who, it seems, has worked with anyone who is someone in the world of running...triathletes, marathoners, sprinters, you name someone, and chances are he has corrected their form and improved their speed! I felt like a kid at Christmas, loving everything I was getting, but still wanting more. He was amazing to listen to and I can't wait to put his ideas into practice. John Crawley and Bob Seebohar also came from the OTC. John presented on cycling techniques and Bob discussed nutrition as well as strength training. Ah strength training...my favorite and comfort zone! The funny part about this presentation was I expected him to discuss strength training in a functional manner. You know, focusing on core and balance with iso abs, 1 leg squats, stability ball exercises, and on and on. Well that's exactly what he did, but noone seemed to have any idea about this style of training. Most had a hard time doing the exercise. I was blown away! These are exercises I do with my clients in the first 4 weeks of training them. I had to give myself a little pat on the back that I actually knew what I was doing. :) Maybe I shouldn't say it like...for all my clients that are reading this, I promise I really do know what I'm doing... :) I just mean I'm ahead of the field in this area and I didn't realize to what extent. It was pretty exciting. Two of the other presenters were two of the guys that worked at Elmwood Fitness Center, which is where the clinic was held. Ben and Jeff also started up a triathlon club, Rising Sun through the fitness center. Not only did they do a great job presenting on swimming and triathlon specific training, but they were so incredibly helpful and allowed me to pick their brains about how to fully develop a triathlon team and what all I needed to do so. Thanks guys! All in all, it was an amazing weekend! The fitness center was more than I could have imagined...the longer I was there, the closer I was getting to telling the posse I was New Orleans bound. 2 outdoor pools (6-lane and 8-lane), 1 indoor pool, jacuzzi, huge lifting area with plenty of machines, large carpeted group fitness room, spin room with 52 bikes, racquetball courts, separate room for Hammer Strength machines, cardio equipment (that each had a flat, touch screen tv) upstairs in the center of a track, separate personal training studio, rock climbing ball, basketball courts, and a cafe/lounge area in the center with a Starbucks and wireless internet. I could go on and on, but I think you get my point...it was a personal trainer/coaches dream come true! Then today was back to reality. But to be quite honest, I love my reality because minus the fitness center, I can bring all that information I learned this weekend and pour it into what I've already been doing with my clients and my posse members, making them and me that much better, stronger, and competitive!
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