Thursday, December 24, 2009

MiM 2010

For those of you planning to race Memphis in May in 2010 just a little heads up. The entry fee is $95 now until 1/15/10. On 1/16 it goes up to $125.

FYI...

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Post-Race Party



I hope everyone's recovery and re-entry into some sort of activity is going well. The holiday season is upon us and here's to everyone enjoying Thanksgiving, turkey with all the trimmings and some football!

I bet you feel a little pudgy don't you?! I do! A little out of shape? I do! It doesn't seem fair!

This post is intended to revisit the idea of a post-Ironman Florida get-together. I'm definitely interested, how about you? I know it gets a little tricky this time of year to find a day. Can we do it? I wouldn't have to be something as big as dinner even. We could do some appetizer-type foods or a bag of chips and some M&Ms.

What say you?

Friday, November 13, 2009

IMFL '09 Pictures Ready



Ironman Florida '09 pictures are ready. You can take a look by going to ironmanflorida.com, clicking on 'store', then photos. From there, just enter your bib number or last name.

Happy viewing.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

IT IS DONE!

Congrats to all you 'All In-ers'!

What a great job by everyone and what an incredible journey it's been.

If you're so inclined after you have a chance to recover and gather your thoughts come by the site and post them.

And hey, don't forget.....YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!

Monday, November 2, 2009

What I Learned from IMFL '05

Swimming:
1. There will be big waves and lots of people
2. Lap 1 turn 1 will be severely bottlenecked
3. Items 1 + 2 = Physical Contact... just expect it and roll with it.
4. After turn 1, the sun will be low and directly in front of you. No worries, everyone else will be just as blinded and as as you are
5. There will probably be Jellyfish. I know from experience that they can't sting through wetsuits.
6. Starting the second lap, swim straight to the first turn bouy. The floating Ford sign is not a turn bouy.
7. Important! You will swallow some salt water. Salt water can make you feel nauseous and WILL dehydrate you more than swimming in freshwater. Drink more than you normally would in T1.

T1.
1. There will be rampant undesirable nudity in the tent. On this rare occasion it will likely be just as undesirable in the women's tent (I'm just guessing here)
2. You don't need you're own sunscreen, someone else will put some on you. Put on your clothes first!

Bike:
1. Has anyone told you it's really flat? Believe them.
2. Florida is generally a windy place. Expect the wind to shift throughout the ride so that it stays in your face, especially the last 12 miles. This may not happen this year, but I'd rather expect it and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't happen rather than the opposite.

T2.
1. ...not as much nudity this time. Don't be disappointed.
2. You will likely never, in a single moment, be so simultaneously elated and dejected about getting to run a marathon

Run:
1. A marathon doesn't become less of an endurance challenge just because you've done a 114.4 mile warm-up. Respect it.
2. The park at the turn-around is really, really dark when the sun goes down. Embrace you're childhood: glow sticks and anything else that glows can be lots of fun!
3. Expect to seriously consider quitting. Don't unless they force you to. Even then, go down fighting(thanks for that tidbit Jordan).
4. Drunk people make great encourager's. Pray for lots of drunken spectators from miles 20 - 25.

Finish:
1. You will never be so proud of getting beat in a race by hundreds of other people.
2. Whether they're in front of you or behind you, you'll never be so proud of your friends who took on this challenge

T3 (A.K.A. the Medical Tent)
1. They make a mean cup of warm chicken broth. When you come to, don't hesitate to ask for 3 or 4 helpings.
2. Free hot blankets! They will bring you as many as you want.
3. Don't forget to request a golf-cart rides to your car. If you're family is small enough they will take them too.
4. A couple of liters of IV fluid speed the recovery process, but probably not as much as hydrating properly during the event.


Any other lessons learned from you veterans?

-Kevin

Friday, October 30, 2009

RACE DAY



Partly cloudy with a high of 76. Not a bad day. Of course, that can change in the next 5 minutes. As a matter of fact when I looked this morning they painted a somewhat different picture. The sun was covered up by clouds with showers and they gave it a 30% chance. So the forecast changed in just a few hours. The bottom line is this...it will be what it will be. Prophetic, I know.

So, who's anxious? This is me raising my hand. I am. I'm the kind of anxious I was as a kid driving up to the ball field before a game. Only worse and/or more. Butterflies. But I also know this about those butterflies, as soon as I hit the field and it was "game on"....the butterflies flew away. I'm confident that will happen a week from tomorrow as well!

I'm looking forward to one last weekend of strong training. We've got a three hour ride Saturday and a long run Sunday. I'm really trying to focus on being relaxed. I concentrated on that Friday during my swim workout. I'll focus on that during the ride tomorrow and the run Sunday because that is what I want to do come race day....race relaxed. If I'm able to race relaxed I believe everything else will take care of itself.

I remember thinking that a lot during IM Wisconsin, especially during the run. I also remember by doing that as best I could it helped me "think" my way around the course. By that I mean I tried to focus on my form or my cadence and certainly my nutrition (which, obviously, is critical!). Don't get me wrong it still hurt, a lot. But it kept me from concentrating on that constantly.

I realize I'm not saying anything everyone doesn't already know. I'm more just saying (or typing) it out loud to remind myself of it and talk (or type) my way through the days leading up to November 7th...because I'm a little anxious....

....are you?

Friday, October 16, 2009

P-A-R-T-Y!!

Party for the 'All In' group scheduled for October 24th. Details coming very soon. T-shirts will be coming very soon also!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Excellence

To participate in this sport of triathlon you have to have a certain level of these 5 characteristics Joe Friel talks about in this post below. As I think about our "All In" group it's certainly true. I've pasted this from Friel's blog because I think it's appetizing food for thought. Take a look.

Excellence
Excellence is not for everyone. It’s far too difficult for the great majority of those who participate in sport. In fact, those who seek excellence are often ridiculed because they are different from their peers. And so it isn’t easy to seek excellence either. Humans are social animals; we don’t like being outcasts. It’s much easier to go along with the crowd than to stand out in a crowd. But there are athletes who pull it off, and with great aplomb. Have you ever noticed how young, pro athletes often try to give the impression that nothing about their training or dedication to the sport is unusual? They’ve learned to give the appearance of being “just like everyone else,” even though their performance in competition tells us otherwise. Going out of their way to be laid-back is how they cope with the dilemma and help prevent others from branding them as strange. And that’s a good strategy which I would recommend to anyone who truly seeks excellence: Try not to give the air of someone who is seeking excellence. Appear ordinary in every way you can.

What brought all of this up was a question someone asked me over dinner tonight. We were at a surprise party for an athlete I coach who had just won his age category at his state’s time trial championship. It was clear to my dinner-table neighbor that this state champ had altered his course in the past year and was becoming excellent at cycling. So my new friend wanted to know what I looked for in a person who wanted to hire me as a coach. How would I know if a person could be successful? I started to tell him all of what follows but we were interrupted by party goings-on. Here’s the long list of what I think are the best predictors of excellence in sport, in their order of importance, in case he gets a chance to read this post.

Motivation. This one is more important than all of the others combined. If the athlete isn’t motivated excellence is highly unlikely. In fact, the other predictors won’t even exist without motivation. This goes well beyond giving lip service to goals. The truly motivated athlete is on a mission and has a hard time keeping himself or herself in check. This person really needs a coach to pull on the reins to prevent overtraining, injury, illness and burnout. If the coach has to use a whip then it’s a losing cause no matter how talented the athlete is. The coach will never give the athlete motivation. It must come from within. When I’m interviewing athletes I ask lots of questions to find out how truly motivated they are. For example, I ask how often they train with other athletes versus alone. The low-motivation athlete will need companionship frequently. If you are motivated then all of the following predictors of excellence will fall into place eventually.

Discipline. This is very simple. The disciplined athlete will make daily sacrifices and make due with hardships in order to excel. This person doesn’t miss workouts short of a disaster. Weather is an insignificant factor. The disciplined athlete knows that the small stuff is important. He or she doesn’t get sloppy with diet, recovery, equipment or anything else that has to do with goals. Discipline is not easy. Others can accept motivation, but they have a hard time dealing with people who are disciplined. You’ve got to make light of or even hide your discipline is you want to be accepted by your peers. Good luck here.

Confidence. Some people seem to live life completely with an unwavering belief in themselves and their actions. These folks are indeed rare. I’ve met very few athletes who didn’t have some concerns about how well suited they were for whatever the task at hand may be. There’s a sliding scale of confidence. Most of us are somewhere in the middle. To move closer to the high-confidence end all we typically need is some success. Success breeds confidence. While it’s hard to come by you can create your own. For the athletes I’ve coached whose confidence was decidedly on the low end I’ve suggested a daily confidence-booster. When they go to bed and after the lights are out, I tell them to go back in their memories and find anything in their day’s workout or related activities that was successful at any level. This could be a very small success such as feeling strong going up a certain hill during the workout today, or eating fruit instead of a cookie for a snack. I tell them to then relive that small success over and over until they fall asleep. Occasionally there are big successes. These become “anchors” which they relive often and store away in a vault to be pulled out whenever they feel low confidence coming on, like at the starting line of a race. Thinking of one’s successes breeds success. Success breeds confidence.

Focus. This could also be called purpose; the athlete knows where he or she wants to go in the sport. Daily training is a purposeful activity that will lead to excellence. Each workout (and accompanying recovery) is a small building block that eventually results in excellence. But you have to take it one step at a time, which brings us to the last predictor, patience.

Patience. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Outliers it takes about 10,000 hours for a person to become a master of anything. I had never tried to quantify it in terms of hours, but experience told me that performing at the highest level in sport takes something on the order of 10 years of serious training regardless of when you started in life. So I think Gladwell is probably right. There are certainly exceptions, or at least it appears that way on the surface. But when an athlete comes along who seems to go to the top right away we often find on closer examination that he or she had been developing outside of the recognized success pathways. Patience also has another level that goes beyond this long-term approach to success. This is a more immediate, daily component associated with the ability to pace appropriately early in workouts and races. Athletes who seem unable to learn this skill are less likely to be successful than those who master it.

Notice that I didn’t say anything about innate talent, physiology, skills, or even experience in the sport. All of these things can be developed and learned if the other predictors are there. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have the capacity to develop each of these mental abilities. As mentioned earlier, the challenge for most of us in seeking excellence is learning how to do it without appearing to be doing so. Watch how most of the pros do it and try to emulate their apparently laissez-faire attitude. Good examples are Chrissie Wellington in triathlon and David Zabriskie in road cycling. In their own unique ways they give the impression of being unconcerned about excellence. But no one achieves their levels of accomplishment without being highly motivated, disciplined, focused and patient.

Monday, September 28, 2009

BDB 100



I hope everyone who did the BDB 100 had a great day!

Give us a race report. How'd it go?

Friday, September 25, 2009

What the.....!!



Does this look normal? Is it suppossed to be this way?

Dang! My saddle broke today. The bizarre thing is I didn't notice it until after my ride when I was putting it back in my car. It's such a clean break too, which seems weird.

I have to get a new saddle now....pronto.

Heather, how do you like your Adamo?

Monday, September 14, 2009

8 Weeks!



OK, athletes, the final push is here!

8 weeks of training remain. 6 weeks of hard training plus 2 weeks taper(assuming you're doing a 2-week taper. You can do your own math if that's different).

How do you feel to this point? Do you feel ready? Semi-ready? OMG, NOOOO!!!

If you're in the "feel ready" category, congratulations! Keep up the good work. If you're in the "semi" category, keep plugging ahead. You're going to get there. If you're in the "OMG, NOOOOO!" category, I suggest you're probably more ready than you think. Don't sweat it. Ironman is a daunting task and it makes everyone a little nervous.

I honestly think I could go out and do it tomorrow. Now, of course, I'm glad I don't have to and I'm grateful for 6 more weeks of hard training. But, I do think I could cover the distance.

My plan for the next 8 weeks is to train hard and recover when I'm suppossed to. I'm going to ramp up my hydration, lock down my training diet and buy a new pair of running shoes (motivation, right?). This last push is called the peak phase for a reason. I like to think about it this way: we've trained hard for 16 weeks to get our bodies ready to train really hard during this peak phase. We are not yet in the best shape we can be....these next several weeks will get us there!

Good luck to everyone. Stay focused. Train hard. All In!

Monday, August 31, 2009

Looking Ahead



I apologize up front because we obviously have have an 'A' race staring us right in the face in about, oh, 10-weeks or so. That said, thought I'd throw this out there as an option for next year.

Branson 70.3 is new to the event list in 2010. It's pretty close and should be pretty challenging with a 56-miler on the rollers in the Ozarks.

Just food for thought.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled IMFL '09 training program!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Week 13 - CLR11



CLR11 = 4.5 Hour long ride. What's the route going to be? I missed the last one so I don't want to dictate but I was thinking about the mental challenge of the flat ride toward England. What do you guys think? To throw in a curve-ball, what if we started in Maumelle (Trey or Dyron's house)? I'm thinking about a Maumelle start because that would add enough for us to make a viable fluid stop at the 440 gas station or at the Stone Links clubhouse (not sure what they think about cyclists, but I'm sure they'd be happy to take our money for Gatorade/water). I'm not el presidente, so chime in with other ideas if you don't like that one.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Tri Hard

Good luck to all of you doing the TriArk Saturday. May your swim be efficient, your bike powerful, your run smooth and may you race relaxed!

Friday, July 31, 2009

UltraBrick

Considering the importance of Brick workouts and that Saturday is Brick Saturday I thought I'd post this workout I saw in a magazine. Total it's 1:32 minutes of riding, 56:30 minutes of running and 15 minutes of walking. It's also an excellent way to practice T2.

Warm-up:
-10 minute easy spin
-5-10 minute easy run
-4 – 6 strides of 15 seconds or approx. 100 meters
-10 minute spin


Main Set:

-20:00 ride at race pace
-T2
-15:00 run at race pace
-3:00 walk recovery
-1:00 jog recovery
-4:00 easy spin
-15:00 ride at race pace
-T2
-10:00 run at race pace
-2:00 walk recovery
-1:00 jog recovery
-3:00 easy spin
-10:00 ride at race pace
-T2
-7:30 run at expected race finish

Cool Down:

-5 minute walk
-10 minute easy run or 20 minute easy spin
-5 minute walk

Friday, July 24, 2009

July 25th Long Ride

Troy and I discussed doing the Cato loop plus some to get in our 4 hour ride. I flushed out Troy's idea and came up with the following course (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=303389). For those of you who are not map people, it is basically adding the Round Mountain part of the BDB ride (almost to Conway then a loop that swings out to the west and back into Mayflower) onto the front of the Cato loop. It’s 75 miles but has some significant climbs, so it may take more than 4 hours. Because of that, I’m up for other suggestions if anyone’s got them. If not, let’s plan on meeting at Cooks at 6AM (rolling by 6:15) in the morning. The layout of this course could be non-ironman friend-friendly since one could choose to turn around as we make our turn near Conway (for a total of 43 miles mostly flat ) or they could bail when we get back to Hwy 365 (for a total of 52 miles with a couple of moderate climbs). In any case, I’m planning on making this an aerobic ride keeping the BPMs around 130 except while climbing (i.e. very little hammering). Who’s in?

-Bird

Sunday, July 19, 2009

In the Rearview Mirror

One-third is complete.

Two-thirds to go.

8-weeks are in the books as far as Ironman Florida 2009 training is concerned. 16-weeks remain, starting Monday.

Are you where you want to be?

Have you accomplished what you've set out to accomplish to this point?

Is your base stronger? Is your engine bigger? Are you getting mentally tougher?

During the course of normal life I'm sure you've missed a workout or two. I have. It's nearly impossible to not. Having said that, I encourage you with two things regarding those missed workouts, 1) let 'em go. You're not getting them back and if you try to make them up, well, you might just find yourself getting further behind or increasing your volume too much too fast which is no good in the end. And 2) try not to miss those workouts. In other words make sure those feet hit the floor when the alarm goes off. Get out from under those comfortable, snugly, warm blankets. The payoff comes when you're running down the finishers shoot, you look at your watch and realize...."I'm going to PR!".

The build phase starts Monday.

16-weeks to go.

Panama City Beach awaits.

Are you 'All In'?

TOP-10

T-Bras fared well this past weekend at the Mighty Mite sprint in Forrest City capturing a TOP-10 age-group finish with an over-all time of 1:10:21! The time was good for 8th overall in the young, whipper-snapper group of 30 - 34.

After coming out of the water at 8:36 he rode at nearly 21 mph for a time of 37:30 on the bike. Then after a smooth transition he tackled the 5k course with a pace of 7:25 and 22:13 time.

Nice job, Troy!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Age-Grouper of the Week

I was listening today to IM Talk, a podcast created by a couple of triathletes from New Zealand. They have this segment called "Age-Grouper of the Week" where they highlight an extraordinary age-group triathlete.

This week their age-grouper was Gary Taylor. It was funny hearing them say (Use your best New Zealand accent here) "Gary Taylor from Little Rock, Arkansas". We all know he's a phenomenal athlete but his nomination was as much for helping someone else as it was for his race performance.

As he was getting ready for his wave prior to the Austin 70.3 last October he noticed someone struggling in the water in the group that went off before him. This person was having an anxiety attack. According to IM Talk Gary went out to offer help and the swimmer was still in full attack mode and tried to pull Gary under with him. After a little struggle Gary manage to help this person to shore safe-and-sound.

After that Gary went off with his wave and torched the course to the tune of a top-5 age group finish earning a spot at the 70.3 championships in Clearwater!

Great job all the way around, Gary! Congratulations.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Going Long

Saturday's long ride calls for 3:30.

Who's in?

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Top 10

It seems no matter what the topic or list, Arkansas ranks at or near the bottom. It doesn't matter if it's population, education, income or teacher pay, if you'll quickly scroll down near the bottom....you'll find Arkansas.


I found a list yesterday that has Arkansas in the top 1o!


Naturally it's not a list you want to be in the top 10 but nevertheless there's Arkansas.


What's that old saying? "Thank God for Mississippi!"


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Saturday Long Ride

Long ride Saturday....3:15.

Who's in?

Cook's landing out towards England.

Rolling by 6:15.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

OVT Results


After much delay and apparent gnashing of teeth the OVT folks posted results from the race this past weekend.
Our crew really represented!
Heather had an incredible 2nd place finish in her age group posting a 1:49:41...a scant :38-seconds from claiming the top spot! Great race, Heather!
Once again, Bird was stellar overall posting a 1:31:31. He was strong in all three disciplines with good times in each. The finish put him in the 6th spot in his group.
TBras was dolphin-like once again coming out of the water 8th overall! I told him we have the number 8 in common because I was one of the last 8 still in the water! Overall Troy came in at 1:40:07 and 11th in the group.
Rory was solid in all three disciplines as well finishing in 1:47:09. Good race, Rory!
I came in at 1:41:17 for a top 5 finish in my group.
This year's OVT was a qualifying race for the USAT Age Group Nationals in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to be held August 22nd. Because of our finishes (top 33% in each age group or top 5, whichever is greater) Heather, Bird and I have qualified. Wow!
As is the case, it seems, in every race I'm sure everyone was pleased with some aspect of the race, wished they would've done a little better in another, but overall happy with the end result and enjoying the endurance life.
Congrats to all!
-Brick

Thursday, June 4, 2009

New Venue for OVT

I just noticed that the venue the 2009 Ozark Valley Triathlon changed. Read about it on the website <http://www.ozarkvalleytriathlon.com>. I'm sure you guys saw an email about it, but just in case, I thought I'd mention it here. So who's in so far?

-bird

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Winner, Winner...

Hey everybody, check out my new wheels! I'm winning IMFL for sure!

























Couple that with my new strategy in the water (notice the fins).........



....now if I can just do what that guy from "The Biggest Loser" did and have someone drive me in their van for a good portion of the marathon I can complete the cheaters hat-trick!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Wye Mountain Loop?


The plan calls for 2.5 hours on the bike tomorrow. Heather, Shannon, and I are thinking about doing the Wye Mountain Loop. I know it's a bit hilly, but many of us are doing Ozark Valley in a few weeks, so this would be a nice warm-up for that. We were planning on rolling by 6:30 AM from Maumelle Park. Who's in or who has a different idea?

-Bird

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Just A Thought

As we all embark on a 24-week journey towards Ironman Florida this November it's probably a good idea to keep these thoughts in mind. They come from one of the world's most prolific and well schooled coaches/teachers...Joe Friel.

"Most age-group athletes who train far less than 20 hours weekly have many years of improvement ahead of them depending on the effects of their aging curves. The older you get the fewer mistakes you can make in training if you want to keep the growth curve rising steadily. They must avoid injury, illness and other breakdowns that interrupt training. This is the biggest challenge for self-coached athletes there is. It’s a rare athlete who will limit himself. Most are intent on doing all that is possible. Hard workouts abound.I believe that the key to success in sport is not simply hard workouts but, more importantly, training consistency — practicing your sport day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. Uninterrupted. Athletes who focus on excessively hard workouts on the premise that this will quickly produce exceptional performance eventually find themselves overtrained, burned out, injured or sick. There is nothing that produces race results like years of consistent training. This is not to say there is no place for hard workouts. There is. It’s just a matter of how hard and how often."

Tuesday, May 26, 2009



And so it begins!

If you're on a 24-week training plan for Ironman Florida 2009 your adventure starts this week!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Sobering

Sobering news today about Steve Larsen, a former professional cyclist, an Ironman and mountain bike racer, who died of a heart attack at the age of 39.

Click the link to read the story:

http://www.everymantri.com/everyman_triathlon/2009/05/ironman-and-cyclist-steve-larsen-dies-of-heart-attack-at-the-age-of-39.html#more

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Ozark Valley Anyone?




Looking ahead just a little I'm wondering if anyone's interested in doing the Ozark Valley in Fayetteville towards the end of June? It's a modified sprint (1000 yard swim, 19 mile bike, 4 mile run).

The entry fee is $65 until May 31 and goes up to $75 June 1. The race is also a qualifier for the USAT age group nationals.

www.ozarkvalleytriathlon.com

-brick

Monday, May 18, 2009

Post MiM




Congratulations to all those who participated in Sunday's Memphis in May Oly! In all there were 24 triathletes from the central Arkansas area that competed. Of those 5 are doing IMFL this fall: Ernie, Bird, TBras, Trey and Brick. Gary Taylor, who's also signed up for IMFL, didn't race Sunday but was at the event in charge and in full support of all the racers. The CARVE group had quite a spread going. They rented a house on wheels and cordoned off an area to set up a base of operations.

Race conditions were mixed. The wind was high making for a challenging bike leg. Probably the toughest of the three years I've raced in Memphis. I think overall bike times were down as a whole. At a few points the wind gusts moved me on the road.

I didn't really notice the wind on the run but I did appreciate the cooler temperatures. I also appreciated the partial cloud cover.

Below are the results of the IMFL 5 (not to be confused the the LR 9):

18 86 Ernie Lechuga 33 55 27:57 1:30 5 58:08 24.3 1:36 18 41:40 6:43 2:10:49 Llittle Rock AR

39 224 Kevin Birdwell 31 49 26:38 2:23 40 1:09:29 20.3 2:13 31 44:17 7:08 2:24:57 Bryant AR

43 316 Troy Braswell 30 29 23:35 3:08 47 1:11:34 19.7 1:57 55 52:54 8:31 2:33:05 Little Rock AR

43 338 Scott Philbrick 45 61 29:29 2:08 32 1:08:44 20.5 2:17 54 52:09 8:24 2:34:46 Little Rock AR

101 563 Trey Chandler 40 65 27:44 2:47 96 1:17:24 18.2 4:21 110 1:01:07 9:51 2:53:20 Maumelle AR

As a reference the numbers after the name are:

age, swpl, swtime, T1, bkpl, bktime, avgmph, T2, rnpl, runtime, runpace, totaltime.

Congrats to Ernie for a great race! 2:10:49 is excellent and averaging more than 24mph on the bike. Wow!

Also congrats to Bird for setting a PR! 2:24:57. A 7:08 pace on the run is picking 'em up and layin' 'em down. Great job!

TBras, aka the human torpedo, swam a 23:35! That's fantastic especially considering it's his first open water swim in about 2-years. He was also averaging in the 8:15 pace-range until you-know-what reared it's ugly head.

Trey said he had a difficult swim but still managed a 27:44 (that's a great swim for me!).

Despite the windy conditions I still managed 20.5 average on the bike and I felt good about my run at an 8:24 pace. My goal was a sub-50 but ended up being 52:09.

All in all it was a good day and for the majority of us a great way to kick off the season.

IMFL '09 training officially starts next week!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

MiM



Memphis in May is this Sunday. Good luck to all those participating: Trey, Troy, Ernie, Gary, Bird & Brick.

Am I missing anyone?

-brick

Friday, May 8, 2009

Tomorrow's Ride (5/9/2009)


Several of us are planning on rolling from the church building at Kanis and Ferndale at 6:30 AM and doing the "Kanis Loop" (I've never done it but supposedly it's 40-45 miles relatively flat). If you're running late for some reason, call someone so we don't leave without you

Party Reinstated

We'll miss the Philbrick's but Kasie and I would be happy to host this at our house. We’ll do another one of these later so the Philbricks can get in on the action. If it's raining, things may get a bit crowded as our house isn't huge, but hopefully the rain will hold off. We’ll provide the meat (plus bread/buns, plates, forks, napkins, and ice). The meat will probably just be grilled chicken and hotdogs but we may be able to round up some pulled pork and chopped beef too (don’t hold your breath). If you don’t like those options, feel free to bring your own and cook it up on our grill. Also, if you guys want something besides meat, (i.e. soft drinks, not-so-soft drinks, side dishes, desserts) then we’ll need some volunteers to bring enough to share. Please leave a comment letting us know if you’re coming and what (if anything) you’re bringing. I think it’s understood, but bring your whole family and/or your significant others. We’ll try to have food cooking by 5:30 and you can stay as long as you want. My house is in Bryant, but I prefer not to post directions to my house online, so if you don’t know how to get here, please feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email (Gmail… it’s still on theTri-Carve list). If you don’t know the contact info, you can get in touch with Trey, Shannon, Heather, Scott, or Troy as I’m sure all of them have my contact info.
-Kevin

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Party Postponed


With apologize from the outset. The Ironman Florida participants get together was scheduled for this Saturday. It's going to have to be postponed until a later date.
My oldest plays on the CAC Mustangs baseball team and they're going to Fayetteville Saturday to play in the championship game for the state title! Pretty exciting stuff from where I sit.
I'm looking forward to our get together so we can all get to know one another a little better, including all of our families but it can't be this weekend....at least for me.
I'll throw some dates out there soon.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

CONGRATS


Congratulations to Dean and Jordan for completing the Arkanthaw this past weekend. According to Dean it was a pretty hilly bike and even worse on the run.

Way to jump-start the season fellas!
Photo is courtesy of Jordan.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Efficient Triathlon


What's a great way to do a triathlon but eliminate the swim? Easy, ride your bike in the rain. Heather, Shannon, Rory, Troy, Bird and myself did just that.

We did the river trail loop twice and then a few of us finished with a 30-minute run.

Riding in the rain is really not that bad. You certainly need to be more careful with the slippery roads and it's more difficult to see with all the water droplets on your glasses. But, once you're wet, you're wet. One thing is certain, you pretty much have the road to yourself.

Make sure you ask Trey how his ride went! Oh, wait, never mind!

Friday, May 1, 2009

BEWARE


I came across this article/warning today. If you take any of these products you might want to click on the link and read this article.

Arkanthaw or Ride

Jordan and Dean (any others?) are doing the Arkanthaw Oly tomorrow a.m. According to a comment Dean left if you haven't already signed up, no worries, you can do so @ 6a at Lake Norrell. The race starts @ 7:30am.

Good luck Jordan and Dean!

For anyone else interested several are meeting at Cook's landing at the crack (6am-ish) and rolling soon after. I'll probably throw the running shoes in the car for some brickwork.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Good Ride


Dean, Doug and I did the Wye Mountain loop this morning followed by a 2 mile transition run. It was a good ride and the hills were....well...the Wye Mountain hills. 45 or so miles total.
The wind was a little tough especially on the highway 10 eastbound portion. It almost seems unfair to grind up hill into a 20 mph wind with 30 mph gusts. We survived though.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Long Ride Saturday

Planning on riding about 2:30 hours Saturday morning followed by about a 20-minute transition run. Anybody in?

Scott

Sunday, April 5, 2009

POWER BREAKFAST


Nutrition is obviously a big part of the game when it comes to endurance sports. What am I putting in my body? It's a question we all need to ask ourselves.


Here's a link for a recipe that can answer one of the breakfast questions at least:




Happy training (and eating)



Scott

Friday, March 27, 2009

First Post

Fellow Ironman Florida participants:

I'm excited that we're all going on this journey together. For some it'll be an Ironman first...for others it's 'old hat'. No matter what category you fall under it'll definitely be an unforgetable experience.

I think it's cool that so many of us from the same area will be there to compete. To me, that adds to the adventure. While triathlon is an individual sport it also has a 'team' feel to it because we train together, share stories, tips, and cheer for one another on race day.

I thought it would be cool to create a place where we can all go to share information, discuss different things, coordinate training sessions, etc.

The idea is that everyone will have access to the username and password so you can go on at any time and create a post. If you're reading this it's because you received an email with that username and password.

If it's a training ride you're trying to coordinate, create a post and everyone can respond either with a comment or another post. You can put up pictures or links to helpful sites we all might like to visit and/or benefit from. If you create a post just sign it at the bottom with you name so we know who it's from.

This may not be the most efficient way to create a forum like this. If there's a better one I'm all for it. I thought something like this might be helpful for all.

Scott