Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Team....

At a Christmas party yesterday someone told me that they enjoy reading this blog (and that I had inspired him to start working out, which is nice!) but that he couldn't quite work out who all the characters are, so I promised him this update - here goes.....

First, and most importantly, my lovely wife who puts up with all of my crap; supports my crazy training and is the most wonderful Mom to our two lovely daughters.    Ladies and gentlemen......  "She Who Must Be Obeyed" ("SWMBO"):

SWMBO - for anyone who is wondering, the name comes from the late John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey books
Next up, of course, is "The Puppeteer" - my wonderful coach and all round good egg Stacey Richardson http://www.tristacey,com/ :

Finishing strong!


 Next up!    That would have to be "The Snitch" - fellow victim of The Puppeteer, friend and awesome short course triathlete.  She's heading to Nationals next year!  The name comes from her propensity for ratting me out to The Puppeteer if I don't train properly, eat a doughnut or otherwise stray from the path!

Get out of my way!

While on the subject of fellow victims and awesome triathletes, here's the recently introduced "Compass" looking far too happy as she competes at Ironman Florida a few weeks back:

Looking waaaaay too cool considering that she still has a full 26.2 mile marathon yet to run!

Now onto some the invaluable folk who help keep me running, both literally and figuratively.

First TRX expert, fitness trainer extraordinaire and good friend Kim....   The Dominatrix:  http://www.simplyfitraleigh.com/

She may look as if butter wouldn't melt....  but she can punish you!

OK, waaaay too many ladies, so next let's introduce the guy who keeps our bikes running and makes sure that they fit us properly....   Matt, "The Surgeon"....    http://www.carycyclesurgeon.com/

Sure he's not as cute as the rest of them, but he's cool!
Who else?   Oh yes, Holly....   "The Beast", who does deep tissue massege.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture, but you'll have to take my word for the fact that she's five foot nothing and about a hundred pounds of pure evil!   http://www.lavenderwillowmassage.com/

Finally, at least for now, the latest addition to the stable.....  "The Slut":

Love!.....












Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Introducing..... "The Compass"

OK, so it's been a while since I introduced a new charachter to the blog to join She Who Must Be Obeyed; The Puppeteer; The Snitch: The Dominatrix and The Beast (unless, of course, you count The Slut, but she's made of carbon and doesn't really count) so it's time to introduce......   ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.....     her sense of direction and spatial awareness are legendary on several continents.....   I give to you......    wait for it.......   The Compass!

This is the first time that a blog character has come up with their own name.   I really didn't want to allow this too happen, but in this case "The Compass" is perfect!

The Compass is another one of The Puppeteer's athletes who, in real life, goes by Lindsay and, let's just say, she has quite the reputation for getting lost on rides and generally not being able to find her way out of a paper bag!    Other athletes quivver with fear when they hear that they have to ride with Lindsay.   Most pack extra food and a tent and the sensible ones bid goodbye to their loved ones knowing that they are going to be gone some time and that it may be weeks before they return.  Extra life insurance is advisable and sales of flares and GPS tracking events have skyrocketed locally.


The way The Compass sees life.....
 Well, the day finally had to come and on Sunday I was scheduled for a 2.5 hour ride with The Compass and The Snitch.   Being a sensible fellow, I volunteered to plan the route and ensured that it would commence at my house.   Somewhat surprisingly The Compass found the house with the aid of a GPS app on her phone and made it on time.   Her reputation was soon validated though when, after coming in for a chat before we set off. she was unable to find her way out of our kitchen!   Not a promising start....

Thankfully The Snitch and I were able to tie string to the back of the Compass' bike and prevent her from going too far off the beaten path and we enjoyed a nice (but chilly) forty plus mile ride around the north side of Falls Lake, up to Creedmoor and back before spending some time back in the kitchen chatting with SWMBO, drinking coffee and trying to warm-up!


The compass, smiling because (a) she's relieved to be back in the warm, and (b) she's completely incredulous that we completed the ride in less than three days and that no helicopter assistance was required.....

Joking aside, The Compass is a lot of fun and I hope that The Puppeteer schedules more joint workouts.   She's also an awesome athlete, having recently finished her first Ironman event in Florida!
Welcome to the blog Compass!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Where's My Tutu?

Step aside Vaslav Nijinsky; move over Rudolph Nureyev; get out of my way Mikhail Baryshnikov.....   there's a new sherif in town!

Our girls are very keen dancers and every year at around this time they have a parent participation day at the dance studio.....   and today was the day!   I went along to support our youngest daughter, but primarily to take a few photos and have a good laugh at SWMBO's expense but I was soon drawn into the class!   I was pleasantly surprised to find three other Dads in the same position.

No, not this position.....



This was basically a full lesson and it started with five minutes of really good stretching.  Needless to say most of the Moms were more flexible than tha Dads, but I think that I might have been the most flexible Dad.  It's not saying much, but score one for me!   It turned out to be a lot of fun and a good workout - there's no doubt that ballet is a serious athletic endeavor and I can see why it is becoming a popular cross-training option!

OK, so I didn't actually wear a tutu, but it was fun!   OK, actually it was fun apart from the part where SWMBO accidentally kicked me in the "unmentionables!

Just to prove I was there......

SWMBO working the pole bar!


The Simple Joy of Walking

As you might have read in a previous post, I tweaked something in my right calf during a track workout at UNC Chapel Hill about a week back.    It was pretty painful for a couple of days afterwards, but things have been loosening-up pretty nicely.   I managed an easy run on it on Saturday and all was fine except the hills.   Despite this, The Puppeteer has me taking things easy so that I can fully recover and has scheduled a couple of walks over the past few days to keep things loose (thankfully I don't feel it at all on the bike).

The weather has been beautiful - crisp and sunny - and I have really enjoyed just heading out for a walk - without any training goal, target pace or HR objective - something that I don't do very often.  

I have spent a lot of time on these walks just enjoying the scenery and feeling thankful that I can walk out of my door and pretty quickly be in rural Wake County or even in local neighborhoods and enjoying places like this:

The covered bridge in Barton's Creek - decked out for the holidays...


It's also amazing at how much more you notice when you slow down a little (and when all of the leaves are off the trees!).  I discovered a nice little trail system that I can make good use of - a series of short interconnected gravel paths through the woods:


Finally, in addition to our resident wild Tom Turkey, who is still hanging out and still chases me occasionally (see post from earlier this year) it's nice to see so much wildlife.   I see whitetail deer almost every time I run (and generally think of them as a pest because of the damage they cause in the yard).  I had an unusual encounter on Saturday though and can only assume it's because someone is feeding them....     As I was walking I could see four whitetails just off the road perhaps 100 yards ahead.  Two does and two juveniles.  I'm used to them either running off or watching cautiously as I pass by and was fully expecting "the usual treatment".  This time, however, all four started walking towards me as I approached.  I slowed down and, to be honest, became a little cautious as they got closer - even a doe can give you a pretty good butting if she chooses to!   It was pretty apparent though, that they were in fact being friendly and they came within literally just a couple of feet.  I might have been able to pet them if I tried.  Beautiful animals, even though they are a pest - just hope that they don't turn up in our back yard!




The best news of all is that my calf is feeling pretty good again and after my bike workout tomorrow and swim on Wednesday, I hope to be back to my scheduled run workout on Thursday.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Chain Whips, Cassettes, Gears, Cogs and Compasses...

Now that The Slut is here I'm converting my road bike back to a straight "roadie" by removing the aerobars and, possibly, making a few adjustments to stem length etc. over time.   I hope to start doing more climbimg and hill work, so I also decided to change the rear cassette to a 12/27.   For the uninitiated, the "cassette" is the set of gears on the rear wheel in a derailleur set-up and 12/27 refers to the number of teeth/cogs on the smallest and largest gear within the cassette.  By increasing the number of cogs on the biggest gear I will give myself a few extra options when contending with steeper gradients.

I also have my Zipp 808 race wheels currently without a cassette, so the plan was to buy a new 12/27 cassette; put it on the road bike and put the current road bike cassette onto the race wheels.

It was a fun little project that included degreasing/cleaning both the existing cassette and the chain.  Here are a few snaps....


SRAM PG 1070 12/27 arrives!


Ooooh!   Shiny!
The exisiting cassette before removal

Inserting the cassette removal tool

Chain whip and grips in opposite directions

It's off!

Building the 12/12

Looking good

On the bike
Cleaning the chain
Cleaning the old cassette
Cleaned-up and ready to reassemble on the 808
Ready to go
Zipp 808 with cassette installed - it looks fast!


Next step was to try out the new cassette during a killer one hour interval workout on the trainer yesterday - quite the sweatfest!   There were a few "clicks" on some of the gears, so will be making a few adjustments before taking it for a full 50 mile test ride on Sunday with The Snitch and a new character in the blog to be revealed soon.........   "The Compass"!   :-) 




Sunday, December 4, 2011

Back in the Saddle..... and Right Back Out Again!

Since I did the Outer Banks Half Marathon in mid November I have been on a hiatus from serious training.  A few weeks of downtime; resting tired muscles and, yes, becoming a little slack on nutrition.

The plan was to start training on Dec 1st (Thursday), but work travel got in the way, so we delayed until this weekend.

Yesterday I went for a 32 mile ride on The Slut.   First longer ride on her and it felt pretty good.  I could tell that I hadn't done any longer rides for a while, but I was happy to be out on a sunny (but chilly) morning and to get some more "saddle time" to get the feel of riding the new bike.  The ride was scheduled by The Puppeteer as "easy/moderate", so I stayed "on the small ring" and kept high cadence over a rolling circuit around Falls Lake.   Also tried to spend as much time as possible on the aerobars.   It was pretty windy, so tough to make any judgements about how fast I am on The Slut, but I can say that I felt faster than when on my road bike when "cruising" at low effort/high cadence and that she also seems faster when free-wheeling and descending.  Fun!

This morning there was a group run workout scheduled at UNC in Chapel Hill.  Another chilly morning (judging by the way The Snitch was dressed you would think it was fifty below!) but The Puppeteer and coach Marisa Carter soon had everyone warming-up with some laps before we worked on wall drills and high strides as food for thought during the workout.

Scene of the crime...

After another few 400 M laps it was time for the drills.   200/600/1200 ladders with The Puppeteer leading and calling splits and Marisa videoing and looking at run gait.

The first 200 felt pretty good until I finished, when I could feel my right calf slightly.   Nothing to worry about - just keep going...    Unfortunately by the time I was about 300 m into the first 600 I knew that I was in trouble - my right calf felt like a brick!   I had to stop and walk in.   I stretched out a bit, but it was immediately clear that my day was done, so I had to watch as most of the others finished their sets.  

I'm bummed!   As I type this a few hours later it's still very sore and I'm limping pretty badly.  Ugh!   Not a good way to start the new training season!   Ice; compression gear and rest are the prescription.   Hopefully nothing too serious!

Post workout stretches....  The Puppeteer shows that she still has it despite recent foot surgery

Lili Fernandez stretching 'em out

I put this one in as it shows The Snitch gassing in the background while everyone else stretches!  :-)

That's better Snitch....   stretching with Marisa.   Nice gloves!