I went to the PT yesterday like I do twice a week. My PT helps me more in the mental aspect of what I went, and am going through than with the physical part, and he finally had to tell me so. “Brian, your range of motion is back, your strength is getting there, what can I do for you next?” This was part rhetorical question, part kick-in-the-butt. And I appreciated it for both.
“Well, John, we need to devise a plan for getting me back to running without the threat of another stress fracture.” In Oct. I suffered a stress fracture as a result of doing too much in rehab. It was like a little game of “connect the dots” between the screw holes in my tibia.
So we did. I ran the furthest I’ve run in a year yesterday—10 minutes. And it was great. I ran nice and easy at 8 min/mile pace, so I guess the cycling I’m doing is working on my aerobic system. After 1.25 miles, I hopped off the treadmill and into John’s office, where I quickly proclaimed “John, I just ran 10 minutes and felt like I could have gone for 40!” His response: “Good, now let me see the program you write so that I can be assured that you don’t!”
Fair enough. Bottom line is I’m running a bit and it’s never felt so good.
Brian
Triathlon and Endurance Sports Coaching; Multisport camps, training, and racing in Arizona.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Collegiate Nationals Day 4
Today was a good opportunity to sleep in, as our vans didn’t leave until 1100. The flights home were smooth and on time, and all were a little tired and sore. A good race.
The men’s team finished 23rd of 50 teams for an improvement over last years’ 29th. The women were in 14th of 48. All in all, a successful and fun trip! Can’t wait until next year!
The men’s team finished 23rd of 50 teams for an improvement over last years’ 29th. The women were in 14th of 48. All in all, a successful and fun trip! Can’t wait until next year!
Collegiate Nationals Day 3
Race Day!!
That always means a 0400 wakeup, but last night’s business, lots on my mind, nervousness over the race—oh, and the smoke alarm beeping, random phone rings, and the garbage truck at 0200—led to a restless night for me.
We lost the keys to a car, so it was a tight trip to the race area. Every coin has two sides—having to make 2 trips back to the hotel meant I could pick up a coffee on the 2nd trip! Coffee isn’t so much a treat for me, it’s more a necessity. Especially today. I got 2.
I helped the TriCats get their tires pumped, brakes adjusted, and strategies developed and wished them each good luck and fast feet. Then they were off.
The race was exciting to watch. There were some of the sport’s top athletes in the field—including pros, amateur champions, and then the few first timers all in one race. Very cool. I felt like a proud dad with everyone out there. I have a stack of photos and a hoarse voice to go with my sunburn.
We as a team had a great race. We of course, had some cramping and small hiccups, but we had fun and succeeded in our goals of having fun and enjoying the day. Lots of victories today: Kathy blasted the 2nd best bike of the day for the women to finish in 5th overall. We knew that was an achievable goal, but she had to have a perfect race in order to do that. She did. Alex had an unbelievable swim and a good solid run to finish in the top 50. Renee and Quack PR’d by 40 minutes. Kiley completed her first Olympic dis
tance race. Andy(x2) had very solid evenly paced races and Makko had his best race of his career. Not all victories were apparent, however. Shawn’s race was plagued with cramping, but his attitude was impressive! I’m not mentioning everyone of the 20 athletes, but all finished! Nice work everyone!
After our race we got to stay and watch the pro women and men race for their spot in Beijing. Holy buckets they are fast! We bumped into the family of 3rd place finisher Sarah Groff during her race and rooted her on as family members. Then, in an amazing display of tactics and speed, newly-sworn American citizen Matt Reed broke away from a very fast men’s field to come in off the bike in the lead by 25 seconds…and held off the sport’s top runners! He high-5’d everyone in the front 2 rows bear the finish line and stayed for our cheering for a looong time. He was stoked! Congratulations and best of luck to you both in the Olympics!
We went to the awards ceremony to see Kathy get her hardware for her 5th overall and her 2nd among graduate students, and then went to dinner. We went to BBQ (what else in the south??) where we dined with Ohio athletes and hob-knobbed with Cal-Berkley and Montana. After that, ice cream and post race debrief with a few of the athletes and friends. Good times.
That always means a 0400 wakeup, but last night’s business, lots on my mind, nervousness over the race—oh, and the smoke alarm beeping, random phone rings, and the garbage truck at 0200—led to a restless night for me.
We lost the keys to a car, so it was a tight trip to the race area. Every coin has two sides—having to make 2 trips back to the hotel meant I could pick up a coffee on the 2nd trip! Coffee isn’t so much a treat for me, it’s more a necessity. Especially today. I got 2.
I helped the TriCats get their tires pumped, brakes adjusted, and strategies developed and wished them each good luck and fast feet. Then they were off.
The race was exciting to watch. There were some of the sport’s top athletes in the field—including pros, amateur champions, and then the few first timers all in one race. Very cool. I felt like a proud dad with everyone out there. I have a stack of photos and a hoarse voice to go with my sunburn.
We as a team had a great race. We of course, had some cramping and small hiccups, but we had fun and succeeded in our goals of having fun and enjoying the day. Lots of victories today: Kathy blasted the 2nd best bike of the day for the women to finish in 5th overall. We knew that was an achievable goal, but she had to have a perfect race in order to do that. She did. Alex had an unbelievable swim and a good solid run to finish in the top 50. Renee and Quack PR’d by 40 minutes. Kiley completed her first Olympic dis
tance race. Andy(x2) had very solid evenly paced races and Makko had his best race of his career. Not all victories were apparent, however. Shawn’s race was plagued with cramping, but his attitude was impressive! I’m not mentioning everyone of the 20 athletes, but all finished! Nice work everyone!After our race we got to stay and watch the pro women and men race for their spot in Beijing. Holy buckets they are fast! We bumped into the family of 3rd place finisher Sarah Groff during her race and rooted her on as family members. Then, in an amazing display of tactics and speed, newly-sworn American citizen Matt Reed broke away from a very fast men’s field to come in off the bike in the lead by 25 seconds…and held off the sport’s top runners! He high-5’d everyone in the front 2 rows bear the finish line and stayed for our cheering for a looong time. He was stoked! Congratulations and best of luck to you both in the Olympics!
We went to the awards ceremony to see Kathy get her hardware for her 5th overall and her 2nd among graduate students, and then went to dinner. We went to BBQ (what else in the south??) where we dined with Ohio athletes and hob-knobbed with Cal-Berkley and Montana. After that, ice cream and post race debrief with a few of the athletes and friends. Good times.
Collegiate Nationals Day 2
Today started early, with a drive-by preview of the bike course and a course layout walk. We talked about the course, transition area, and venue. After a nice dip in the murky-but-beautiful-to-swim-in Black Warrior River, we took a quick run on the race course to familiarize ourselves with the course. We decided to run the last mile of the course—it’s a good thing to do that so you can see the whole course as typically the tunnel vision takes away the beauty of the last mile…
Our bikes hadn’t shown up yet, one TriCat sprained his ankle on the run, we lost a carload of TriCats on the way to lunch… Par for the course so far. Actually, other than a few setbacks we’re having a good time.
It’s a great course—tree-lined smooth roads, rolling hills, beautiful water temperature. Beautiful. It’ll also be tough. The hills on the run will take a bit out of everyone. We spoke a bit about the course and our strategy in racing it.
While taking our team photo, we heard a new voice call out something funny. We looked up, and there stood two-time Olympian and champion triathlete Hunter Kemper! He stayed and chatted for a bit with us. Very cool. He and the rest of the top American pro triathletes were in AL to race the 2nd of three Olympic qualifying races. Whoever wins is going to Beijing!
After lots of bike maintenance and a quick shower we went to the pre-race dinner for a team feast, then off to bed. The TriCats’ assignment is to visualize a great race, where they feel strong and fast. I had emails to get to and plans to get out.
Collegiate Nationals Day 1
Every trip has its hiccups. Ours just started early. On Thursday, the U of Arizona TriCats began our trip to Tuscaloosa AL for the USAT Collegiate National Championships.
After Kyle’s death threats upon anyone who dared show late, we arrived individually at the airport 11:30…give or take. The flight to DFW went well, nice and smooth. In Dallas, we had enough time to find our next gate, eat dinner, chat a bit, take a nap, get some work done, and compose a symphony. It was a long layover. We boarded the late-arrived airplane under chants of “Hurry up! Hurry up!” by the flight crew in order to make it out before a storm. We did. Oh, that’s just the beginning.
When we got to Birmingham, the rental company lost our vans. An hour drive later the hotel lost our rooms, and we were beginning to lose sleep. At about midnight AL time, we were in the hotel, cozy and comfy in our rooms, visions of energy gels dancing in our heads.
After Kyle’s death threats upon anyone who dared show late, we arrived individually at the airport 11:30…give or take. The flight to DFW went well, nice and smooth. In Dallas, we had enough time to find our next gate, eat dinner, chat a bit, take a nap, get some work done, and compose a symphony. It was a long layover. We boarded the late-arrived airplane under chants of “Hurry up! Hurry up!” by the flight crew in order to make it out before a storm. We did. Oh, that’s just the beginning.
When we got to Birmingham, the rental company lost our vans. An hour drive later the hotel lost our rooms, and we were beginning to lose sleep. At about midnight AL time, we were in the hotel, cozy and comfy in our rooms, visions of energy gels dancing in our heads.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Collegiate Nationals
Right now I’m on my way to USAT Collegiate Nationals with my University of Arizona TriCats. This is the first year I’m traveling with them, but not the first year they are going. In the past we’ve had some good finishes, with a best of 19th place. This year, we have some great athletes and can and should do much better.
The team is interesting and fun. Many different personalities. It’s fun to be a part of the team, and more fun to see many different athletes of differing backgrounds begin, further, and develop their sport life.
The cool thing is that everyone gets something different out of this sport. For some, it’s a way to lose weight. For others, it’s a source of adventure; a source of identity, or a possible path to a career. For all it’s a path to having fun, learning about yourself, and making friends that will last a lifetime.
I got into triathlon via friends in college. I was running on the cross-country team but had lost the desire and passion for it. I stopped having fun—it was time for a new game. Some friends had gotten me interested in triathlon at various times in my life, and now I had the opportunity to give it a try. I did my first race, my first national championship race, and my first world championship race as a collegiate athlete and it has developed into a lifelong passion as well as a healthy lifestyle. Now it’s my turn to give that opportunity to others.
Brian
The team is interesting and fun. Many different personalities. It’s fun to be a part of the team, and more fun to see many different athletes of differing backgrounds begin, further, and develop their sport life.
The cool thing is that everyone gets something different out of this sport. For some, it’s a way to lose weight. For others, it’s a source of adventure; a source of identity, or a possible path to a career. For all it’s a path to having fun, learning about yourself, and making friends that will last a lifetime.
I got into triathlon via friends in college. I was running on the cross-country team but had lost the desire and passion for it. I stopped having fun—it was time for a new game. Some friends had gotten me interested in triathlon at various times in my life, and now I had the opportunity to give it a try. I did my first race, my first national championship race, and my first world championship race as a collegiate athlete and it has developed into a lifelong passion as well as a healthy lifestyle. Now it’s my turn to give that opportunity to others.
Brian
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Unequalled Fitness Part II
Ok, the man's crazy. That man is Brian, who hasn't been on his mountain bike very much lately because it hurts his ankle a little still. So, I figured I'd ask him to go ride with me at Fantasy Island...just the bunny loop since it's pretty smooth. I figured we could kind of have an easy ride, chat about our day. Oh nooooo!...back to what I said...the man's crazy. Yeah, we chatted for about the first 10 minutes. Then we both got excited and started really going. Brian hasn't lost any of his technical skills. Ok, true, there's not much technical about the bunny loop, but it is really twisty and Brian's cornering skills were not lacking at all. Amazing! To have not ridden the mountain bike much and still be that fast and smooth. True talent.
Also, his ankle didn't hurt at all. Yippee!
--Jill
Also, his ankle didn't hurt at all. Yippee!
--Jill
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Things that make me smile
I was thinking the other day of the things that make me smile.
Jill’s cooking.
Hitting “snooze” at 4:30.
Bedtime at 8:30—and being able to make it.
Nico’s Carne Asada Tacos.
My Slice and SuperSix.
Wetsuits.
Date night with Jill.
Chasing Jill to Windy Point.
The ping of new tires sending pebbles onto carbon.
Quiet Time.
Zone 4.
Wireless internet.
Lefty Carbon Speed SL.
Doing 100s on the 1:30.
Saguaro National Park.
Nonfat peanut butter Latte.
5Gs at 500 knots and 500 feet.
Jill’s cooking.
Hitting “snooze” at 4:30.
Bedtime at 8:30—and being able to make it.
Nico’s Carne Asada Tacos.
My Slice and SuperSix.
Wetsuits.
Date night with Jill.
Chasing Jill to Windy Point.
The ping of new tires sending pebbles onto carbon.
Quiet Time.
Zone 4.
Wireless internet.
Lefty Carbon Speed SL.
Doing 100s on the 1:30.
Saguaro National Park.
Nonfat peanut butter Latte.
5Gs at 500 knots and 500 feet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)