Thoughts on weight training...

I think *strength* training is important and I do that training for Triathlon, or at least I believe I'm doing that...

Weights.. Hmm, I like lifting them but to be honest I've always questioned what I got out of it..

This last winter I skipped weights in favor of an extra workout bike, swim and/or run.. I was definitely more fit than I had been in previous seasons..

Anyhoo, this article is worth a look.

http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=5144&CAT=3&xref=xx

So, if you have problems with lean muscle mass then maybe you need the time w/weights.. Or maybe you're re-habbing from an injury, then it makes sense..

Or maybe you just like weights... Still...

The major downside to Rich's argument is that I think if lifting mixes things up for you, that is it's keeping you mentally fresh, then by all means keep them in your program mix.

Other places I'd move to for work...

Random list but I'd pretty much give just about anywhere a fair shake if the job was right:

Boise... Love it there.

Bend, Oregon...

Ashland, Oregon...

Denver/Boulder/Ft. Collins

Sacramento area.. I actually like it there...

Phx &/or Tucson...

Los Angeles

San Diego

Back east? It really depends.. North of Atlanta could be nice. NYC...

I've done HR work in the past and have pretty deep experience in it so that gives me some other options.. If you hear of anything lemme know!

Reflecting on the swim...

Well, I was thinking I was doing pretty good with sets of 200 SCY right on 3min or under, say, 2.55-ish..

Apparently that "only" gets me to 35min Half Iron/70min IM...

I did swim 35min at Escape from Alcatraz over 1.5mile so I guess this jives what I thought about my swim speed.

Apparently I have much further to go (see thread below) with regards to swim speed in the pool as it correlates to open water swim times..

That is pretty frustrating, and to be honest I'm not sure I have that kind of pure speed in the water to make 1.10-15/100y or 2.15-30/200y SC happen.

Here's the thread..

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/pool_split_q_for_~60%3A00_im_swimmers_P2104623/

Boy, sometimes I wonder if I missed the boat in the late 80's/early 90's when there was a large Duathlon series!

All that said, I just need to get back to 35-33min shape again, get the Half Iron run to about 1hr 20m and hit the bike hard and I will be fine.. What does that net me?

I dunno, I don't care about time.. I just like to race, to out run people.. It's that thrill of the push in the heat of the moment that keeps me coming back.. Times are almost worthless if you ask me...

Oh, yes.. Happy Thanksgiving to all the followers... And even to the famous Anon poster.. Whoever you are. :)

Fast times in Tempe at IMAZ ??

Yup, I looked at AG results.. Smokin' fast bike times, and good to decent runs off those bike splits..

Usually that means it was a draft fest..

Turns out that it probably was:

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/IM_AZ_Is_it_cheating_if_you_dont_get_caught_P2101372/

I'll spend the money on drugs instead....

Right.. This is pretty funny. Enjoy.

http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html

Looking for another gig...

I'm finishing some consulting with a start-up in Seattle over here in early December. After the triage/discovery phase we worked on some operational, reporting and marketing/branding strategic initiatives under a variety of functional umbrellas in the org.

In an ideal world the project or job would be in Seattle or Portland. I can live/travel to SF Bay as well.

Earlier in the summer I finished a project at Microsoft with the UC Product group,

Stuff I've been working on: Product Marketing, SaaS, BI, Web Analytics, Scorecarding/metrics, deployments, partner marketing, slicing and dicing the UC GSI budget.

Stuff I'm interested in: Product Marketing and/or Program Management in a role that leverages my past experience, and ideally exposes me to some new-ish tasks/roles that I'd successfully add some value to.

Here's my elevator pitch:

Strategically orientated MBA with hands-on international experience in finance, technology and energy sectors, strong history of leveraging experience and skills in developing strategy around infrastructure, tools and resources enabling organizations to meet strategic and tactical goals.

Functional strategic experience: finance analysis and planning, deployment of process and systems reengineering, enterprise communications and policy development/strategy.

Bizarro update...

There isn't much of a weekly update regarding training.

Early last week the start up I've been working for confirmed they are letting me go Dec 15th even with Series B funding, they just don't have the dough to fund my work. (And I'm working at a discount).

By Wednesday I had come down with the worst adult fever I've ever had in my life, and no thanks to my efforts to keep exercising when I was on fire I spiralled further into a terrible sickness Wed night after jogging for an hour in a friggin' monsoon. Argh.

Thursday I didn't work, but did some networking in between very deep and fever-y naps..

On Friday I billed some hours, but by 11am I started to literally lose my voice. I have to assume I had laryngitis since most of Saturday I could only speak in a whisper, and most of Sunday as well.

All in all I biked once early in the week before I was sick, swam and ran a few times total... It will be the first time since I started this that I won't have a "weekly update" with totals since I don't think the week counts toward anything.

To make matters worse, my car was parked in Seattle last night for a quick errand I had to run, and low and behold someone performed a nice little side-swipe/hit and run.

All I can say is "wow"...

I'm sick as a dog. My gig is not going to morph into FTE work. My car got effing hit.

All signs pointing to: "Get the heck outta Seattle" these days if you ask me.

On that note, I'll be back in Pdx this next weekend.

Week of 11/9

I reckon it's been a good week from a training point of view. Skipped my family trip to Oregon this past weekend, I really needed a break from all driving and some "me" time to get my house a little more squared away that kind of thing...

I've been inspired these days watching Crowie with Kona and Terrenzo win 70.3 Worlds this weekend, both were just awesome performances. Always good to feel like you can channel those images on workouts during winter workouts, motivation for me waxes and wanes.. Now that I'm "all in" for Wildflower I can't let my mates down, so guys, if you're reading this you can bet I'll commit to solid post and early season fitness.. I'm not going to let my fitness slide the way I did last year at this time.

What will I do? Well, keep running frequently, and long-ish.. Maybe this weekend a group run w/the local Seattle Tri team, or a 5k race? Either sound good.. I'm thinking the Turkey Trot too down in Pdx. I'll be honest I'm sure I'll go just fine but I haven't been on the track since before Canada.

Keeping myself in the water too. I've gotta admit the sets are short, but it's been good in there, and just the frequency works for me.

Riding is what it is. I've been on the bike frequently, the weather has managed to be mostly good so far, but the down side is that I just don't really feel like being on the bike both days on the weekend.

Monday

Swim- easy lunchtime paddle

Bike- aero base building, holding 200w during steady pulls =70% of FTP

Tuesday

Swim- Mainset= 300,200,100

Wednesday

Run-30min

Bike- 30min Carmichel Dvd

Thursday

Swim- Mainset 300,200,100

Bike- Big Gear Strength

Friday

Swim- 300, 200, 100

Run- 30min out & back on BG

Saturday

Bike- 1h 36 min on BG, 29miles

Sunday

Run- 1hr 2min out & back on BG. Felt fine, legs a tiny sloggy from yesterday.

Weights- Walked over to the fitness center and did a light set of upper and lower body work..

2009 Season Schedule....

Here we go with the tentative '09 skeddy:

First thing you might have noticed: No Ironman Arizona.

Yep. I scrubbed it.

I can't see doing another one this next season. It was a bit much on a physical and emotional level to train for a serious run at a Kona slot and have it come apart. I only ever did it for myself, but I felt like I became an island in doing so. To be candid, I was really pretty isolated by the training and the ghosts of a failed relationship. I wish the training had magically flipped things around but it didn't.

I was strong as an ox physically and tougher than nails internally, but right now I'm not feeling like committing to that all over again. This year I need to be a bit more connected to friends, family; people in general. I've got to make time for that somehow and I don't believe competitive Ironman training will allow for it, so there you go.

I love Half Iron/70.3 events alot, and if I can commit to a good block of swim training I might have some good races. I also feel like I've never really gunned it on the bike during a Half Iron, always just held too much in reserve. Maybe I'm fooling myself.

At the moment I'm still in Seattle.. I have a consulting gig that runs through December with no real commitment from this small start up to keep me on beyond that.. I mention all that because if I do happen to move I'll make some adjustments to the calendar. Right now, I have no offers or prospects work-wise beyond where I'm at currently so I'll be posting on that subject later this week.

Right now I'm fully committed to Wildflower with Portland Triathlon Club and very excited to be headed down there with a really awesome group of super cool people from Portland.. It's gonna be awesome. :)

2009 Schedule:

February-

Desert Princess Duathlon, Tempe

May-

Wildflower Long Course, CA

(Doing as a team effort with Pdx Tri club)

June-

Boise 70.3

August-

Lake Stevens 70.3, WA

September

American Triple T, NorCal

November

Clearwater 70.3

Ironman Florida Video Highlights from Men's Pro race..

Amazing, amazing performance from Dr. Tommy Evans of Penticton, BC...

It's so good to see a guy like him win with such an amazing time.

Congrats!

http://www.ironmanflorida.com/index.php?dir=RaceVids/imfla&vidname=RaceVid-2008-FLA-MPRO-low&playtype=mov&w=320&h=260

What's on the Ipod these days...

It's darker outside, morning to dusk and that means it's time for riding and running inside.

Surprisingly, you might be interested to know that what goes in there for a pre-workout prep isn't all that "amped up"...

Here's what I've been really enjoying:

Brian Eno, Prophecy Theme, Dune

Stars, (the album: In Our Bedroom After the War)

David Byrne

Portishead, Live @ The Roseland, NYC.. (this is amazing)

Week of 11/2

Monday-

Swim- Mainset= 4x200 on 30 sec rest.. Low 3min each rep.

Tues-

Swim- Random set of mixed pulling, some hard, some mod

Wed-

Run- Lunch time run at Greenlake, 43min

Bike- 55min aero basebuilding, 200w 5min repeats

Thurs-

Swim- 4x200 on 30sec (3min, 3min, 2.58, 3.08)

Bike- Big Gear strength, 55min

Friday- Halloween !

Run- Lunch time jog at Ymca

Swim- Halloween night !

Did a nice easy swim at the Ymca, was a bit tired, but the pool was vacant and I was just happy to be paddling along decently..

Saturday

Ah, refreshing morning of coffee and breakfast and typical Seattle weather. I went to Ikea and picked up a scatched piece of furniture before all the athletic fun started.

Bike- 28miles, 1hr 30min + (not sure as I didn't download the ride)

Sunday

Run- About 1hr ten min or so.. Went out just before noon, weather looked good, then half way rain and wind came through like nobody's business. I had a hat tucked into my shorts and was happy for that but it didn't change the fact that I wound up looking like a wet mongoose by the end.

O.k. had to post this thread, e.g. cheating at Ironman Florida..

Yeah, I have to say I'm sick of seeing how far people will go to get a faster time or even compete for a Kona slot, it's really pretty disgusting.. The sad thing about some of Kona qualifiers is that these people are strong athletes, they *shouldn't* need to cheat, yet they do..

I've seen so much of it in the last couple of years I really don't know what to say anymore. I still love the sport with all of my heart but whenever something like this comes up I'm filled with a good amount of indignation.

Guys & Gals, just man up and work hard; cheating is almost as much work and has more downside than upside..

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Ironman_Florida_Fin-Man_Outed!!!_P2072842/

Just bought a block of Orthlogic..(Nasdaq: CAPS)..

It's hard to go wrong with this one, the cash value is 100% greater than the current share price, so any Merger Acquistion bid means we get bailed out nicely.. Even then I'm not worried about that, the drug pipeline here is a longer term 2 year+ proposition it's a buy and hold, we'll keep our fingers crossed the applications for the peptide will make us happy down the line in the form of clinical trials..