You can't always get what you want.... But if you try sometimes.... You get what you need!

As the classic Rolling Stones song so aptly describes, things do not always go your way, but if you try, you'll get it. As we move through our lives, many things are given and taken away from us. We all experience losses and gains, weather they be material, spiritual, or mental. As we grow old friends and family move away, money may come into our pockets in greater or lesser amounts. The bottom line is that life is full of ups and downs, gains and losses, and most of all learning and accepting new ideas that come with those gains and losses.

There has been a point in all of our lives in which we have been either forced by a peer, teacher, coach, or most of all a parent, to do something that we didn't want to do. The motive behind someone forcing you do something is not always clear. As said by a wise man, you can't always see a tree through  the forest. When presented with new and foreign things its always easier to reject and not accept. The most difficult thing is to accept, learn, and become better. No one, no matter how motivating or encouraging, can make you get better at anything in life. It is evident through history that no one is more of a motivator for you than yourself. It's the minute that you decide to do something out of your own free will, for the betterment of yourself or others, that you become your biggest motivator.

A Pastor can preach all day from his pulpit, to an eager crowd of parishioners, but it isn't until those parishioners decided for themselves to follow the gospel of God, that they can begin to walk in the light of Christ. A coach can encourage you to lift weights and grow strong in the off-season to be better next year, but it isn't until YOU make the personal commitment to better yourself. A teacher can help your mind grow, but until YOU make the decision to grow your knowledge that you can truly succeed. The examples are endless.

Life is full of learning new things everyday. As a co-worker once said, if your not making mistakes your not learning. I want everyone to stop and think of a stressful time, whether it is at work, school, or in the sports arena--ask yourself why is this difficult?

The most obvious answers are:

1. Whatever you are doing is a new task or activity and it seems strange and foreign.
2. You don't feel ethically, legally, or morally comfortable with what your doing.
3. You don't understand why you are doing it.
4. You are unprepared, or unequipped to do the task completely.

All of those points are not only the reasons why a particular task is difficult, but your answers as well. Answer those questions and you undoubtedly will begin to see the light. The purpose of this post is to not let difficult times bog you down. Take on a hard challenge, by first accepting it. Once you can it accept it you can begin to solve. If you can never accept that you must face the challenge, you will never be able to overcome the difficult times. 

I wrote this because today I had a new challenge. I played racquetball for the first time in maybe 2 years. It is technical sport, but challenging. As I reflected back on the past hour of playing, I didn't get frustrated because I lost, or couldn't preform well, I get excited about practicing and becoming better. This was me accepting the challenge that is racquetball. So go into school or work tomorrow or today (depends on when you read this) and take on a new challenge. If one isn't already in your lap go out and find one. I guarantee that after accepting, solving, and mastering, you will feel a full sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Free, Free, thank God Almighty, I am free at last !

Resting and solitude--two words that are intertwined yet powerful. Resting is a simple act. It can come in the form of sleep, taking a walk, chatting with friends or reading a book in the sun. Solitude in my opinion is a necessary part of life. But too much of a good thing is always bad. I would venture to think that many triathletes also feel this way. It is an indescribable feeling to be set out for a 15 mile run at sunrise on a crisp fall morning, or gear up for a 60 mile solo bike ride. There is a certain sense of freedom that one has while pedaling or running into a sunrise, that feels empowering. This freedom is not something that should be taken for granted, because it can be taken away.

For most of us, it can be hard to think of when or why this freedom could be taken away. We are all law abiding citizens, with jobs, families, and hobbies. Yesterday, it became all too real that there are people in this world where that is not the case. My company is building an addition to a county jail in Houston. I was at this jobsite and part of a required meeting was to enter the jail where there are current inmates and criminals. Walking around the halls with the security guards and other co-workers was an eerie feeling. Convicts were in striped uniforms working about the halls. I for an instant felt trapped and nervous. There are no windows, so the light is only that from a fluorescent bulb.

Upon leaving, I was reminded of this freedom that we all have. Lets not take it for granted, because not everyone has it. Although all of the people in that jail deserve to be there for committing, what I am sure are heinous acts, it still is a depressing thought to be couped up in that building for the rest of your life. I know this is the case because of jail yard cemetery right next to the prison.

Stew on these thoughts for a minute. I guarantee that you can not begin to understand the feeling until you step foot in a prison like that. I never want to go back. So back to the two words, rest and solitude. I think every prisoner in that jail is all too familiar with both of them and that is why I chose to start the post with those comments, to get you to think what they mean to you and how to a prisioner they mean something entirely different.

Everyone reading this, do me a favor and don't go to jail !

The season Finale

The following is my race report from my third Ironman 70.3 race of the year. I will attempt to recount the experiences both emotionally and physically throughout the race.

I had decided for a couple reasons to really relax the week before my race. The first reason was I had been fighting some pain in the middle of gluteus the past 2 weeks. So I decided I wouldn’t run on it all the week before the race. After all I had put 30 miles of running the week before. So all I did was a swim on Tuesday of 2300m, a 2.5 mile walk on Wednesday with stretching, and a continuous swim of 35 min on Thursday. I rested on Friday and went for a 10 minute swim in the lake on Saturday.

Saturday was spent lounging and relaxing. I ate brunch at about 11am which was a hearty eggs, potatoes, toast and vegetables. This was followed by a snack at about 3pm and dinner at around 7pm. I ate pasta with chicken, bread, and a salad. I had also eaten pasta the night before as well. Not to mention I had eaten Pizza on Thursday night and pasta and vegetables on Wednesday night. I think I did my fare share of carbo loading the week prior. I was feeling really relaxed and loose all day Saturday. I went to packet pickup and got my packet and some gels at the expo. I was excited to see that we got a free Headsweats hat with our race packet. After that I went to the hotel to check in. I did this then went to the mandatory bike check in at transition. Upon arrival to the race site, I noticed the first thing I didn’t like about the race. The transition area was in a field, and there was absolutely no grass in the field. It was dirt. This poses a problem for running into transition barefoot, because you will get a bunch of stuff all over your feet before you put them in your cycling shoes and running shoes. Anyways I will start my official race report.

I got a wake up call for 3:30 am on Sunday morning. I woke up ate my usual breakfast of a banana, cliff bar, ¾ of a cup of plain instant oatmeal with a teaspoon of honey on top. I had a liter of water, and 20 oz of Gatorade. I also took 2 endurolytes and my vitamins. I was out the door by 4:15. I had met a fellow racer through a local Texas Triathlon online forum and he needed a ride to the race so I offered. I picked him up at 4:30am and we began our drive to the race site. We got to the race site at 5am and loading the shuttle buses to get to transition. We got to transition waited around for body marking. After that I went in to begin my setup for race day. This took me a while. I was in transition by 5:30am and was finally done setting up by 6:30. I had to mix all my Gatorade, lay out my gear, pack up my nutrition, get changed into my tri clothes, divvy out my endurolytes for the run and bike. I decided a while back during a training ride to use a new nutrition plan. My plan was to eat 3 times per hour, and take 2 endurolytes for each hour I was on the bike. I will get to that later. Anyways, they ended up pushing the race start back 15 minutes because of compilations with busing to the transition area. So I had some time to just sit around and relax. There were quite a few top PRO athletes racing in the race. Including, Tim DeBoom and Simon Lessing. I was set up in transition less than 100 ft from there transition racks. I snapped a few pictures of Tim DeBoom’s bike see below. Tim DeBoom has won the Hawaii Ironman before. Tremendous athlete.
So on to the race, as all the competitors gathered around the swim start the sun was just beginning to rise over the dam wall. It was a nice scene with relatively calm waters. There was still a current, but would be in our favor on all legs except the first. See the route below.

There was a wave start for everyone under 29 and some older age groups 50+. I like going first, I hate having to wait around for the start while watching everyone go. The swim started as usual, and I needed about 5 min to get into my rhythm and let the crowds thin out. I drafted off some folks for the first leg of the triangle but after that it was spread out. I like to keep my line and since there was probably less than 100 people in my wave drafting didn't work, unless I went out of my way to do so. I stuck as tight as possible to the buoy line. I didn't waste any strength going to follow someone else on a different line just to draft.

The swim moves on, I get to the last turn and look at my watch, I notice my Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) is working in the water. It indicates my HR to be around 155 bpm. What I also noticed was that my total swim time was about 18 minutes. I found this hard to believe that I was so close to being complete with only 1 short leg left. At this point I began to increase my swim speed. My HR jumped to 160's and I ended up climibing out of the water in 25 minutes and crossing the chip mat in around 27 minutes. I will do a full re-cap of times at the end.

I hustled to transition and rinsed my feet off, put on sunglasses, race belt, helmet, and bike shoes. I decided to try something new for this race that I saw an individual do at Buffalo Springs. I used Ear Plugs on the bike. When you ride at 20+ mph for 3 hours it can be quite loud with the wind and all. So I stuffed some ear plugs in and set off.

On to the bike leg. I had previously ridden the bike leg back on Labor day weekend. I am now a firm believer that if you can ride a bike leg of any triathlon prior to race day do it. It made the bike course go by twice as fast and I felt really comfortable because I knew what to expect the entire time. Its a feeling that you can't get just driving the course. I will say that if all you can do is drive the course than that is better than nothing. Take a look at the bike course elevation profile.

To start the bike off I didn't want to hammer as hard as I did in Lubbock, because I had no legs left for the run. I knew the hills on the bike course wouldn't kill me either. So I tried to keep a pace of about 20mph and a HR around 150 - 160. This was easy for me to do and at times I felt like I could have gone faster. I held myself back some. Note that I say some, I did after the half way point allow myself a little more speed.

My nutrition on the bike I knew was key for this race.In past races I knew I had not been eating enough while I was on the bike. I learned this on one of my long brick days in training. I did a 41 mile ride followed by a 7 mile run and ate a bunch more on the bike and felt twice as good on the run. I averaged sub 8 min miles It was as follows. A gel right as I got on the bike. I drank my gatorade and water as I wanted to as well. No rhyme or rhythm to my drinking fluids. I would then eat a second gel no less than every 30 minutes. After the first aid station on the bike I grabbed another gel and figured to myself, I was hungry so I began to eat them every 20 min. I consumed around 8 or 9 gels, 2 salt pills on each hour, and around 75 oz of gatorade, and another 36 oz of water during my ride. I ended up with a time of 2:42:41.

Whenever I do a triathlon, no matter what distance, I am always excited to get off the bike and run. The longer the races, ie Half Ironman distance, I am always ready to just go run. I can't imagine what it will be like when the Ironman distance comes around. The bike overall went great and couldn't have asked for more. The entire time I was on the bike I was thinking that I might be able to break 5 hours in this race. I remembered my swim time was around 25 minutes and I knew I would be off the bike in almost under 3 hours. The thing is my HRM doesn't show total time elapsed view when its also shows my splits. I would rather see my splits to ensure pace is correct than total time. My transistion times didn't help my under 5 hour goal either.

On to the run, I hoped off the bike and felt fresh and ready to run. The first thing I did was put on my socks, shoes, and hat. I also wore my sunglasses. I ran out of transition and popped 2 salt pills. I planed to take 3 gels every 3o minutes. I ended up only eating 2 but ate about 6 more salt pills over the next hour. The run was hilly. I set out to run the first 6.5 at even pace and then hammer the second 6.5 My splits and heartrates are as follows:

Mile Time AVG HR

1 8:30 155

2 7:25 157

3 9:25 155 (bathroom break)

4 8:13 158

5 8:34 158

6 8:37 160

7 8:51 159 (cramping occured in left quad stopped for a second and massaged out and took more salt pills)

8 9:26 157 (the effects of the hills were beginning to wear on me)

9 9:19 154

10 9:27 152

11 9:12 153

12 9:59 155

13 7:16 157 (this was all psychological. I was able to strum up the strength to finish fast

Overall the run was okay. A few lessons learned. Since almost 3 miles of each 6.5 loop were on trails don't wear racing flats. The support of a racing flat is not kind to running over dirt and rocks. Second, since its a hilly run as shown below, do some specific hill work before racing it again. If this run was flat, I could have probably broken 5 hours. I know for a fact if I went back to Galveston where I did my first Half Ironman, I would break 5 hours easily. Much learned through these races. I feel, this season of racing I have shown the most growth on the bike. I can now easily average 20mph at a Half Ironman Distance race without wrecking my legs for the run. Now goal for next season do that at the full Ironman distance... :) Check out the elevation profile.

To sum it all here are my times and splits

Total time -- 5:10:30

Swim split -- 27:07 averaged 1:24 / 100M (course was about 200 - 400M short)

Swim AVG HR -- 156

T1 -- 3:22 (rinse off feet and put in ear plugs)

T1 AVG HR -- 160

Bike Split 56 miles -- 2:42:41 averaged 20.7mph

Bike AVG HR -- 150

T2 -- 2:09

T2 AVG HR -- 148
Run 13.1 miles-- 1:55:08 averaged 8:47 / mile
Run AVG HR -- 156

I am very pleased with this race and think it was a great race and way to end the triathlon season. Now on to strength training and marathon running. See some pictures below.

Hard Work Pays Off when you least suspect it

So a week ago I decided to participate in the Tour Des Fleurs on Saturday 9/20/08. My only intention was to use this run as a training run on saturday morning. Many times running by yourself for 20K or 12.4 miles can be boring, so I figured why not do it with some 2000 others. So I signed up for the race on Friday 9/19/08. I went to the race and my only goal was to go even pace for the entire way or around 8min/mile. I went out and felt good from the start. The morning was cool and the air fresh. My splits are as follows:

1 -- 8:05

2 -- 7:56

3 -- 7:38

4 -- 7:45

5 -- 7:47

6 -- 7:45

7 -- 8:15 (I walked thru the aid station and took my Gel)

8 -- 7:53

9 -- 7:47

10 -- 7:38

11 -- 7:19

12 --7:38

.41 -- 2:58

So nothing too fancy or fast. I averaged 7:46/mile. So I get home and look at the results and low and behold I placed 3rd in my Age group. I was happy with that and I didn't even try. Apparently no one my age came to race that day, because 7:46/mile is not fast.

I now have to see if I got an award somehow.

On Saturday after the 20K I signed up for a sprint triathlon on saturday at 3pm the race was on sunday at 7:30am. I was only doing it for fun and a interval training day. The race was a 500m, 18mi, 5k. I was out of the in about 7:39. I knew there were 2 people in front of me because one was leaving transition and one was slightly ahead of him is what the volunteers said. So I said to myself, "F*%K it, lets hammer and see if you can win this race the entire thing!!

SO I hammered on the bike. I quickly passed the first guy ahead of me within the first mile and the other guy within the 3rd mile. I was riding my bike like I stole it. It was actually really cool to have a motorcycle escort and a lead car the entire race. I got off the bike with over a minute lead on the entire pack, or so I thought. I got passed on the run after mile 2, by a 35 yr old. Needless to say he is fast because his swim wave started 5min after me!!! I was still pleased with my run splits of 7:38, 7:08, 6:40. I thought since I finished 2nd across the line, but no. I go to look at the results and come to find out the 35 yr old, a 40yr old, and a 50 yr old all beat me by less than 3 min. O-well.. I still won my age group by over a minute.

It's interesting to think what I could have done if I hadn't spent the entire afternoon tailgating and drinking beers. My pre-race dinner consisted of beer, chips and dip, and hot wings. So fun days for me.

My total race time splits are as follows:

500m Swim: 7:39

T1 -- 1:42

18mi Bike -- 48:06 --averaged 22.0mph

T2 -- :35

5k Run -- 21:55 -- averaged 7:04/mile

So all in all a very productive weekend. I never thought I would have been able to achieve these things ever. Great Confidence Booster.

Its Official !!!!

A beautiful sun filled day was what Ironman Wisconsin competitors was blessed with. This day was followed only by a gloomy and rainy day. For me this rainy day was more important to me than the sun filled race day. As I began standing in line at 6:30 AM to register for the 2009 Ironman Wisconsin race, I thought to myself, this is where it all starts. All of the running, swimming, weights, yoga, and cycling has gotten me to this point. Standing in the rain, at the crack of dawn waiting to spend $525.00 dollars to just to race in an Ironman. Some would call it lunacy to have to pay that kind of money to put yourself through the tortuous day of racing that is an Ironman, but I call it beauty.

The purpose of this blog was to have an outlet for my training and life while I pursue a dream of racing in an Ironman. After having witnessed one of these events first hand, I can see myself being closely tied to these events for a very long time to come. So it begins, the story of the next year.

I recently just registered for my second FULL marathon. It is in Austin, TX on February 15th. It will be nice to shift the emphasis from Triathlon training to running. I will also start to work on some weight training excersices after the triathlon season is over and through the winter. So with a positive outlook and a fresh body the training will commence.

So to everyone who reads this mark your calendar for September 13th and plan on being in Madison, Wisconsin. I need all the support I can get. To anyone who has ever done an endurance event, it is a great psychological boost to see a friendly face in the crowd at mile 20 of the marathon or mile 90 on 112 mile ride. Not to mention having someone there for you at the finish line of a race. I have raced in so many races where I had no support after finishing and its far better to see family and friends after racing for some 12 hours. 

So to Grandma, Mom, Dad, Lauren, Donnie, Brooke, Jeff, Devon, Andrew, and William, I expect you to be there. And as Jeff said in his blog post, I would welcome and love anyone who would run along the sidewalks while I run the 2 - 13.1 mile loops in Madison.

Matt B -- I expect you to be there since it's only 2hrs from where you live.

Laura W-- You now have another reason to come up to Madison, other than just wanting to get a fish bowl and Wando's...

Another day -- Another year in passing

365, thats how many days are in a year, 8760, that’s how many hours are in a year and 525600, thats how many minutes are in one year. A great deal can happen in one year. One can age and grow weak physically but, yet grow stronger and richer in wisdom. New friends are made and old friends grow more distant. New passions discovered and old passions re-discovered. How many of those 365 days, 8760 hours, and 525600 minutes are spent happy, sad, or just simply letting the clock tick. For me many of those hours and minutes are spent being happy. No matter how hard one tries it is impossible for all of those 525600 minutes to be spent in a joyous state of mind.

However for me the past year has been good for me but most of all it has been a year I will never forget for numerous reasons. Many significant things have occurred in the past year that have had large impacts on my life, not only for the current time being but also long lasting effects.

In the past year I moved to Dallas, Texas. I started working full time after graduating from college. It was truly the beginning of my adult life. Upon arriving in Dallas I continued to pursue a passion for running and triathlons that had began, unfortunately, too late in my college career. Much lay ahead of me as began living in Dallas. At various times shortly after moving I questioned the move to Dallas and my motives behind it. Now that one year is past, questions of motives are no where to be found.

As the days of orchestrated routine past, I began to notice how I would look forward to the smaller things in life as opposed to the large events like summer vacations or spring breaks. In my eyes this is all very necessary since when working full time your life is dominated by others and doing what you want any time is simply not an option. For me this was time spent with friends, cooking, running, swimming, and riding my bicycle. Many of the 8760 hours of the past year were spent in the pool, on the saddle, and on the pavement. Many goals were sought after and eventually achieved. The initial 2 goals of the last year were to complete my second Olympic Distance Triathlon and run my 3rd half marathon. In my last Olympic Distance Triathlon I finished with a time of 2:55:52. My previous best time in the half marathon was ahcieved in Nashville, TN at the Country Music Half Marathon. I posted a time of 1:48:15, if my memory serves me correctly. Initial expectations for both races were to simply finish and feel stronger than previous and post a time that was still respectable. I set a goal to spend time in the pool and increase and grow my ability as a swimmer. I truly put dedication to this and even though 5am came early I would show up 2 or 3 times a week at the YMCA and swim before work. The time spent was not wasted. As the days past my running ability strengthed. My stride became more efficient, my lungs capacity grew, and my body lost weight. All of this would eventually contribute to a stellar preformance in my 2nd olympic distance triathlon. I finished with a time of 2:37:13. It would take realizing victory over the triathlon before setting my 3rd goal for the year. A television show would be inspiriational in helping me to set my 4th goal for the year. The 3rd and 4th goals of the past year respectively would be to complete a Half Ironman distance triathlon and running a Marathon. They day came and past of running my 3rd half marathon. I finished with time of 1:33:34. Right at the outset of moving to Dallas I had achieved so much and was not ready to stop any time soon. Within the first 4 months of moving I was able to shave 18 minutes off of my Olympic Distance triathlon time and 15 minutes off of my Half Marathon time. At that point in my life, late December, I thought that I could achieve anything if I truly wanted to. Little did I realize that the rest of the year I would have many more exicitng times both with my racing and my life as a whole.

And so the training would begin for my first Marathon and Half Ironman concurrently. Soon after the training began I chose goals 5 and 6. I would register for 2 more HIM races in 2008. I knew at the outset it would be difficult and it would take time before it would feel comfortable. As Lance Armstrong says, you can’t fake a marathon. Anyone who has ever completed a marathon or Half Ironman (HIM) knows that you can’t fake them. No matter who you are or where you are at physically, you have to be prepared to both mentally and physically to race these distances. The biggest change from racing in Olympic distance triathlons and Half Marathons to longer distances is the actual time that the individual spends training each week. The hours increase and can some weeks approach 12 hours of training. This a great deal of time spent each week training. Long runs and rides tax the body and mind. For me I have learned so much about the minds ability to overcome the body’s weakness. The mind harnessed correctly will always win out over the body. I will get to that a little later. For me I felt it a good exercise to take my log book after writing in it for one year and tally the miles.

I swam 97 miles in pools, lakes and oceans

I rode 1,998 miles on bike trainers, roads, and spin bikes

I ran 890 miles on sidewalks, trails, and streets

When put end to end, I covered 2,984 miles.

I did all of this because I can.

To put this in perspective time wise I used some simple average paces as follows:

1:45 / 100m swimming pace
16 mph riding pace
8:30/mi running pace

This works out to the following numbers

45 hours swimming
125 hours biking
130 hours running

For a total of 300 hours of training

or on average 6 hours per week

or an average of 49 minutes of training per day for 365 days.

To me this is amazing and is a testament to the fact that through discipline, desire, and devotion anything is possible. I am Looking forward to tackling my last goal of the year before the big one in 2009, Ironman Wisconsin and looking back on that year after the race is complete and reading this post along with many others and seeing how things have really changed.

So keep swim strokes long and smooth, your pedal cadence high and run stride efficient and you too can achieve anything.

Brett

A Positive Way to Start the Weekend

Here are a few quotes to start the weekend. I read these this morning and it just put me in a better mood and made me feel more greatful for what I have in life.


"The awareness to appreciate and keep perspective of what you DO HAVE each morning helps set a positive tone for rest of each day."
-JT


"Children are more influenced by the sermons you act than by sermons you preach."
-David McKay


"Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them."
-Andrew V. Mason


And...


"I'm growing older but not up, my metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. Let those winds of change blow over my head...I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead."
-Jimmy Buffett