2013 Race Calendar

Well, after a lot of thought, I have finally come-up with my provisional race calendar for 2013 (provisional because life is crazy and family and work will come first and there are bound to be some unanticipated conflicts!).

Here goes:

Saturday March 09.          Cary Duathlon – short course.  2.5/17.65/2.5 (C)

Saturday April 06             St. Timothy's Spring Sprint 5k

Saturday April 20              IOS Olympic at Beaverdam (B)

Saturday May 4                 White Lake Spring International (C)

Sunday June 2                   Ironman Raleigh 70.3 (A)

Saturday July 20                Triangle Tri (Sprint) (B)

August                               To be determined.  Likely something at the coast.

Sunday September 15       Finish Strong Half Iron 70.3 (tentative) (B)

September 21/22              Outer Banks Olympic (Sat) or Sprint (Sun).  (B or C)   Will definitely be the sprint if I do FS 70.3 the week before!!!

Saturday October 26         Beach to Battleship 70.3 (A)

Sunday November 10       Outer Banks Half Marathon.   This will be strictly for fun with friends!

Thanksgiving                     Outer Banks Gobbler 5k

Race importance/priority is in parenthesis.  My two primary target races for this year will be Raleigh Ironman 70. and Beach-to-Battleship 70.3.   Links for all races are in the right hand panel.

I will be looking for a few more 5ks and 10ks to sprinkle in for training purposes.

Phew!   That should do it!

Changing Things Up....

Well, scarily, we're almost at the end of January and my early season work has been "disjointed" to say the least!   I was fighting a chest infection for the first couple of weeks of the year (left over from 2012!) and then spent this week in Switzerland and Germany for work.  Not a good series of events when trying to establish a good "training rhythm"!

It's particularly frustrating as I'm hoping to show my new coach what I'm made of.....  yes, I have a new coach!

I very much enjoyed working with The Puppeteer for the past couple of years and I learned and enormous amount.  For that I am very grateful!   I also met some great new friends and training partners through Tri Stracey, but at the end of the year I decided that I would try (no pun intended!) something new in 2013 just to "change things up" a little.   The Puppeteer was very gracious when I informed her of my decision.

I knew things would be a little crazy at the start of the year as our company has just made a huge acquisition and I was involved in some diligence activities and continue to be involved in some integration activities.  For those that may be interested, Watson Pharmaceuticals became Actavis, Inc. on Thursday of this past week (NYSE:ACT) and we now have annual revenues of around $6 billion - pretty cool!   I thought originally that I might "go it alone" in the build-up to Ironman Raleigh 70.3 in June, but then sanity returned and I decided to start working with Coach Marty Gaal.  

Marty is a very cool dude who, along with his wife Bri, runs One Step Beyond Multisport Coaching in Cary, NC.  www.osbmultisport.com   Those who read this nonsense regularly may remember that I took an Open Water swimmimg course with Marty and Bri a while back.   You've got to love a coaching firm that takes the name of a 1979 Madness ska song/album - my type of people!   Sad to say, but 1979 was my first year in college and the ska sound was huge in the UK at that time!


When I met Marty for breakfast to talk things over before signing-up, I immediately knew that I was making a good choice.  Very knowlegable, but laid back and cool and understanding of the pressures that family and work life put on a wannabe middle aged triathlete like me!

Here's coach Marty crossing a finishing line somewhere.  I'm pleased that he looks
as "knackered" (English term!) as I do when I finish a race!  :-)

So the next big task is to come up with nicknames for the purpose of this blog.   I don't know Bri that well yet, so she gets a pass for a while, but having spent some time with Marty now, I need to come up with something....

I thought about a play on Marty's last name and using this guy...


           ......no, waaay too complementary!

I need something that implies the same level of menace that "The Pupeteer" did, but obviously without being insulting or unkind.   Wait, I think I have it....     how about "The Coachman" or "The Evil Coachman"?  (The "Devil's Coachman" is a type of beetle - that won't do!).   Yep, that's it, I think "The Coachman" will do it.  In particular I'm thinking of the evil character from Pinnochio.....



                          ......yes, that should do it!    (Sorry Marty - bring on the pain!)  :-)



English Genes?

I have had a couple of good runs this week, including a nice, crisp, hilly six miler this morning, but my favorite by far was a short four miler that I did on Thursday....

The weather could only be described as miserable!   Foggy, cold and raining.  I normally love running in the rain, but I will admit to not having been at all enthusiastic about this one.  I sucked it up, got layered up and headed out.  I walked the first five minutes or so and did some dynamic stretching before I started running.

What was going on?  I suddenly felt light on my feet and soon had a good knee lift and a nice tempo going.  I felt good!  I haven't felt this good on a run for ages - how I wish running felt this way every time!   To make things even better, I ran some of the trails in the Barton's Creek neighborhood and they were wet, muddy, slippery and generally "gnarly".  In many places water was running across the trail like a river.   This was awesome!   I splashed and slipped my way around (very muddy shoes and running pants by the time I got home) and think I had a sh#t-eating grin the whole way.

Why was this?  I felt fine out there this morning, but nothing like as light on my feet as I was on Thursday.  I really don't have a good answer, but I'm going to attribute it to the weather and being English.   It seems to me that weather is like this:



I run like this:



But when the weather is like this:



I run like this:



Well, OK, maybe not quite like that!  But you get the idea!

Weird......

Asleep in the chair.....

Well, Christmas has come and gone (and a great Christmas it was too!) but my off-season work has been, well....    work!   I have to admit that I have struggled to stick to my off-season plans and that I have been a bit of a vegetable for the last couple of weeks.   All too often my days seem to have finished up like this...

Santa certainly earned his rest, but I have just been (to use an English term) "knackered" all the time.  Not quite sure why, but I guess that it doesn't hurt to get my body some real rest and chill for a while.  I'm also still finding myself coughing a little, so maybe that's a contributing factor?

Anyway, time's up and I need to get busy!   I have managed to swim most weeks and have managed the odd long ride and some mountain biking, but running has been almost non-existent, so it's time to get busy down at the coast over the New Year break.   

Sadly I can feel my calves this morning after playing "Just Dance 4" on XBox Kinect yesterday, but I have to say that it is an awesome workout!   Best of all, SWMBO and the two junior misses hate that they can't touch me dancing to "Call Me Maybe"....   this Old Fart still has a few moves!  :-)



Bring on the 2013 season!

Vidal....

OK, so it's time to come clean....    I have been annointed by my esteemed training buddies Compass and Rabbit with a nickname that seems to have some staying power.   No point in fighting it.....

For kicks last week I changed my facebook profile picture to this one:

Since then I have had numerous puzzled enquiries, including two people who seemed to think this is a picture of Bob Barker from The Price Is Right!   No people, this isn't Bob, this is Vidal Sassoon, the famed hairstylist and 60s style guru.  Apparently there is a certain amount of fascination with my hair......

I've always had plenty of thick hair and certain individuals are apparently marveling that it sort of looks the same after I come out of the water from a swim; take my bike helmet off after a 50 mile ride or come in sweaty from a long run.   I really don't think this is true, but who am I to argue with the ladies?  

So yes, my new monniker appears to be....   "Vidal".   What can one do?   I would certainly have preferred "Sparticus" or "Thor", but it's better than "Baldy" I guess.   One thing's for sure, my current "uber blonde" color much  more closely resembles the now departed Mr. Sassoon in this picture from later in life!

What's with this strange fascination with my freakin' follicles?   I have had people previously say that I have hair like this guy:

....and this guy:

...and my lovely wife, SWMBO, has previously compared my hair to this guy's:

So, in closing, I'll quote Jack Donaghy from 40 Rock....   "It dries like this.....".   Get over it ladies!

A blast from the past....

While my "triathlon swim" has only really taken good shape over this past season, I learned to swim at a very young age and have always enjoyed being in the water.

This picture surfaced recently....

This picture was taken circa 1968 and that splashing mess in the pool is apparently me!   The occasion was the opening of the new, outdoor, unheated pool at Parkfield County Primary School in Taunton, Somerset, UK.   I was selected as one of the first kids to get in and swim a couple of laps.   As you can see in the picture, it was a rainy day and I vividly remember the water being FREAKIN' COLD!!!

The pool was covered a couple of years later, but when I left to go to "the big school" in 1971 it still wasn't heated.   I also very clearly remember the Edwardian era municipal town pool in which I learned to swim......    the ugly brick building, the tiled pool, the stench of chlorine and the antiquated changing facilities were enough to put any kid off swimming for life!   Thankfully the town opened a new pool complex in the mid 70s, but believe it or not the original pool is still in use!   I found this photo on the web....

How I remember our neighbors' Dad taking us swimming every Wednesday night and going through that door.   I wonder if the fish and chip shop up the road is still open?

Why My 11 Year Old Daughter Will Soon "Chick" Me On The Run

As posted previously, we did our annual family fun run at the Outer Banks Gobbler 5K in Nags Head, NC on Thanksgiving morning.  I mentioned then that it's much easier now that our two girls can race the whole thing independently.

Thankfully I appear to still be the fastest family member over 3.1 miles, but I have a feeling that this may change soon based on some photos posted to facebook this morning by the race organizers.

Before I go on, I should probably also refer you to posts that I have made here recently about "running like a cart horse" and my need to improve my forward leg lift; strengthen my toe-off and lengthen my stride finish so as to increase my stride length slightly and decrease my contact time with the ground.

Now look at these two pictures....

 In this one, look at the great leg lift on the forward stride of the left leg.   She seems to have a really nice forward lean too and, as far as I can tell, good arm movement!

And in this one, look at the awesome finish with the left leg....  her left heel is almost kicking her own butt!

Finally, in both pictures, look at that awsome smile as she finishes the 5K in just a little over 30 minutes!

I'm completely and utterly inspired by her...   love!   :-)