I’ll probably create a link on the homepage for this,
but I’ll post it on the blog for now.

Monday: 65 min, 14K run in the hills. Pretty hot and
humid for January. Even for Florida.

3K swim SCY
Main Set
4 x 300 on 4:20 in 3:58,55,52,50
150 on 2:00 in 1:52
150 on 2:20 in 1:50
3 x 100 on 1:25 in 1:15,14,13

Weights Max Strength
squat numbers: 3 sets of 6 with 220, one set of 5 with
225. whole body otherwise

60 min yoga and pilates later.

Tuesday:
12K run with 6 x 100m barefoot strides at the end,
felt good.

52K ride in 1:40 or so. Cherry Lake Loop. Lots of
rain. Huge Nap afterwards

4400 SCY swim in the evening. IM/short fast stuff in
the first half.
Mellow main set after 2.2K mix of stuff;
4 x 100 on 1:30
200 on 2:45
5 x 100 on 1:30
200 on 2:45
3 x 100 on 1:30
swam 100s relaxed 1:16s whole way through. 200s were
same pace so little more effort, around 2:32-33

Wednesday

morning run, 14K in 65 minutes on clay trail. finished
with 8 x 20 second skips uphill.

90K ride in 2:50ish. some steady riding in the flats.
Still feel leg fatigue from all the weightlifting.

evening swim. 3700 SCY
main set
4 x 50 on 40,45 2x
100 easy
4 x 200 on 2:50 swimming around 2:35 steady
100 easy
repeat set pulling on 40, 2:45; pulling 34s on the 50s
and 2:30 down to 2:25 on the 200s

Thursday:

Morning ride in the hills of Cherry Lake. Bit of
effort on the hills and flats. Call it 55K in 1:45.

Easy run shortly after the ride. rather tired so
started with a ‘molina warm up.’ legs came around
after 10 minutes or so. 11K

Swim 4000 SCY
1300 w/up
Main Set
20 x 100 on 1:30
50 easy
4 x 100 on 1:25
first 20 were 1:17 avg swimming steady bilateral. last
four in 1:14

Weights afterwards, Max Strength session. Got six reps
of 225 on last set of squats.

Friday:
Morning swim, 4K
Main Set
3x through
200 on 2:50 in 2:38,33,30
150 fast/easy/fast on 2:10 in 1:55,54,52
100 on 1:20 in 1:12,12,10
50 easy on 1:10
second set pulling
300 cruise on 4:00
200s strong on 2:30 (2:25s)
100 easy on 2

treadmill run afterwards with 20 minutes at 7:30 pace
on 4% grade
45 min, 10K.

Saturday:
Mostly easy run in the a.m. before driving to Miami.
Little more than 10K.

Sunday:
Miami Half Marathon. Good headwind for first 5 miles.
Flat course aside from a couple good causeways. Not
much oomph today, but good tempo effort the whole way
through. Boxed in pretty badly which led to slow
couple miles at the start. 1:22:50 finish. Extra 5K
running with w/up and c/d which brings me to just
under 100K for the week. Recovered with a nap on South
Beach then drove back to Clermont.

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Monday: 65 min, 14K run in the hills. Pretty hot and
humid for January. Even for Florida.

3K swim SCY
Main Set
4 x 300 on 4:20 in 3:58,55,52,50
150 on 2:00 in 1:52
150 on 2:20 in 1:50
3 x 100 on 1:25 in 1:15,14,13

Weights Max Strength
squat numbers: 3 sets of 6 with 220, one set of 5 with
225. whole body otherwise

60 min yoga and pilates later.

Tuesday:
12K run with 6 x 100m barefoot strides at the end,
felt good.

52K ride in 1:40 or so. Cherry Lake Loop. Lots of
rain. Huge Nap afterwards

4400 SCY swim in the evening. IM/short fast stuff in
the first half.
Mellow main set after 2.2K mix of stuff;
4 x 100 on 1:30
200 on 2:45
5 x 100 on 1:30
200 on 2:45
3 x 100 on 1:30
swam 100s relaxed 1:16s whole way through. 200s were
same pace so little more effort, around 2:32-33

Wednesday

morning run, 14K in 65 minutes on clay trail. finished
with 8 x 20 second skips uphill.

90K ride in 2:50ish. some steady riding in the flats.
Still feel leg fatigue from all the weightlifting.

evening swim. 3700 SCY
main set
4 x 50 on 40,45 2x
100 easy
4 x 200 on 2:50 swimming around 2:35 steady
100 easy
repeat set pulling on 40, 2:45; pulling 34s on the 50s
and 2:30 down to 2:25 on the 200s

Thursday:

Morning ride in the hills of Cherry Lake. Bit of
effort on the hills and flats. Call it 55K in 1:45.

Easy run shortly after the ride. rather tired so
started with a ‘molina warm up.’ legs came around
after 10 minutes or so. 11K

Swim 4000 SCY
1300 w/up
Main Set
20 x 100 on 1:30
50 easy
4 x 100 on 1:25
first 20 were 1:17 avg swimming steady bilateral. last
four in 1:14

Weights afterwards, Max Strength session. Got six reps
of 225 on last set of squats.

Friday:
Morning swim, 4K
Main Set
3x through
200 on 2:50 in 2:38,33,30
150 fast/easy/fast on 2:10 in 1:55,54,52
100 on 1:20 in 1:12,12,10
50 easy on 1:10
second set pulling
300 cruise on 4:00
200s strong on 2:30 (2:25s)
100 easy on 2

treadmill run afterwards with 20 minutes at 7:30 pace
on 4% grade
45 min, 10K.

Saturday:
Mostly easy run in the a.m. before driving to Miami.
Little more than 10K.

Sunday:
Miami Half Marathon. Good headwind for first 5 miles.
Flat course aside from a couple good causeways. Not
much oomph today, but good tempo effort the whole way
through. Boxed in pretty badly which led to slow
couple miles at the start. 1:22:50 finish. Extra 5K
running with w/up and c/d which brings me to just
under 100K for the week. Recovered with a nap on South
Beach then drove back to Clermont.

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Someone once asked me:

“If you were famous, would rather live in NYC or LA?”

I replied: “Miami.”

Now, this obviously resulted from one of those
seemingly pointless (yet totally consuming)
conversations that you have with your buddies when you
likely should be doing something else. It becomes even
more pointless in my case given the limited amount of
time I have spent in any of those locations.

I have been to LA a few times, but I wouldn’t really
venture to say that I have a real feel for the scene
there. I also doubt a twelve year old fully
appreciates NYC and that was the last time I spent a
considerable amount of time there outside of JFK Intl.

And Miami? Well, funny I should choose that as the hot
spot for my future celebrity home since I went there
for the first time this past weekend. Before Saturday,
A1A was nothing more than a line from a Vanilla Ice
song.

A group of friends of mine had planned to race the
Miami Marathon (or half) so I decided to join them and
race the half. I wanted to take the oppurtunity to get
to South Beach. I got the chance to see it at 6:30 in
the morning while running Mile 5 of the race. Nothing
like two worlds colliding. Some clubs were still
rolling as the weekend warriors came strolling through
their world.

When I was in college I used to eat breakfast with my
roommate as he was ending his night and I was starting
my day. We would chat a bit, he would head to bed, I
would head out to ride, and we had lunch together when
I got back. It reminded me of that.

As far as the race is concerned… …I did not really
have any expectations since I have had little
structure to my running since getting back to training
in December. Nevertheless, I figured I could get in a
good long run at a solid effort and get the feedback
with some mile splits.

I lined up for the race very late (as in 30 seconds to
the start) so I couldn’t make my way to the front.
This forced a 6:47 first mile as I kept getting boxed
in. After that I mostly ran 6:20s into a strong
headwind through mile 5. From there I moved to a 6:15
pace and ran that into the finish with mile 13 being
the fastest around 6:00/mile or so. 1:22:50 finish.

I thought I could run 1:22 flat, but I suppose I was a
little off. It will be a good starting point as I do
more road races through the spring. I believe I am
going to head to Austin, Tx in three weeks to run the
half there while my brother and his girlfriend run the
full marathon (her first).

Everybody had good races and we headed to South Beach
for some recovery afterwards. After a long nap on the
beach we headed back to Clermont.

I didn’t see a lot of Miami, but I really enjoyed what
I did see. Pretty people and a pretty place. I think
my assumptions about trumping NYC and LA were right
on.

jd

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Folks-

I have a friend in the Peace Corps and he has been in
Jamaica for nearly six months now.

He is currently trying to gather enough funds to
outfit a soccer team with shoes, jerseys, and shorts.
Please take the the time to check his blog here:

http://schleicher.blogspot.com/

On the blog titled “$$$” it will explain how donations
can be made. He is looking to raise around $1,000.00
U.S. so anything will be a great help, but he needs to
do it within the next two weeks before the season
starts.

Ryan has always been there when others have needed him
so please take the time to help him. You will be
assisting a great person and a great cause.

Thanks,

jd

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I think I hear less about Lake Huron than any of the
Great Lakes. Ontario gets a bit of the shaft, but not
like Huron. I am speaking from the lowest of the lower
48 so I cannot relate to how often it gets spoken
about in the Midwest and Northeast. I am only
commenting as to what I hear on the news, weather
channel, etc.

You can educate yourself on the Great Lakes here:

http://www.great-lakes.net

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I am not really sure where I am going with this, but
here it goes…

There is a constant debate on training
philosophies/protocols on Gordo’s forum (I mean debate
as a collective description, not simply a reference to
one specific thread).

Now, the reason I have been a frequent visitor and
commentor on his forum is because of the quality of
discussions and debates/arguments. However, my
tolerance for some of the discussions goes up and down
at times. This is likely a reflection of my own level
fatigue. The more annoyed I get, the more I have to
stay away from such discussions, as they fill my
overreached mind with bad mojo. The harder you train,
the more you need to be away from like-minded
individuals during your recovery. You need to be
having light-hearted discussions about rainbows and
lollypops. You surely don’t need to take part in
arguments that involve LT,FT,AT,AeT,Vo2,MLSS, blah,
blah, blah.

The fact of the matter is that when you are tired you
just cannot think like you need to. You would (or at
least I would) probably lack the sharpness to
articulate any valid points and would probably end up
with something as convincing as “just because.”

Anyways, off tangent… …There are several groups of
individuals that take part in these arguments/debates.
There are those with exercise physiology backgrounds
(or careers) that go with what science has proven.
Another group of folks have had success by simply
racing and training on their own and they can actually
be subdivided into two groups:

1)those that have learned firsthand what works for
them, but are still willing to learn from exercise
phys folks; and

2)those that have learned firsthand what works from
them and take less stock in what the exercise phys
folks suggest.

Then, in come the new folks. The fresh, innocent minds
that thought they were just having fun and then they
see a thread with 10,000 views that argues back and
forth over how to train properly

I never followed any triathlon forums until I had been
training and racing for nearly three years. I think
this was a serious blessing because my foundation in
the sport was driven by adventure. I certainly never
really had a lot of knowledge about training protocols
in the beginning, but I did have a desire to see what
I was capable of from day-to-day. Eventually I started
reading books, internet sites, exercise phys papers,
etc. I even slanted my college papers in my final
three semesters so that I could read more on these
topics despite studying history and poli sci.

In the beginning, a new triathlete needs to just get
out the door. They need to know that this is something
they enjoy and that its ok to train unbalanced,
without purpose, without heart rate monitors or mile
splits. Eventually structure will take its place in
your training and you will begin to find a new purpose
behind your choice of
lifestyle/hobby/passion/whatever.

Training for fun is fun. Training to win is fun. You
don’t need to start with both, but I imagine that the
“fun is fun” folks will stick around longer when the
“training to win” part gets really tough.

Enjoy yourself.

-jd

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Here’s an interesting fact:

I spent ten dollars on haircuts in 2005. In May I went
in for a haircut and came out looking like a tool. My
brother and I had a good laugh about it. I went back
and asked them to shave my head. They didn’t charge
extra.

That was it. I trimmed it on my own for the remainder
of the year and my Aunt in Sweden gave me a haircut
when I went to visit last November.

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that I was going to
need to either:

1)Get a haircut; because its gotten to the “too long”
stage for swimming; or

2)Spend one dollar on a swim cap.

I bought a swim cap.

Later that day I found out that my buddy Tim has some
hair trimmers so I reckon I’ll get by on the cheap
this year. Good thing too, because swimming with a cap
in the Florida sun is damn hot.

I imagine I can come through with a net savings of
nine dollars after my short-sighted investment on the
swim cap. Anything to reduce the yearly burn rate. I
imagine my father will certainly be proud of a son
that looks like a Marine and manages to be economical
at the same time.

Anyways, this all came about in regards to a
discussion on nutrition. Some people say that eating
well (healthy, not fancy in this sense) is expensive.
I suppose if you only look at the bottom line there
are cheaper ways to eat, but deciding where you want
to save your money is a choice. Some choose cheap
food, I choose cheap (read: no) haircuts. I think
making compromises on your health is a poor choice,
but that’s just me. However, I’m not here to rant
because saving money on (good) food is always on my
mind as well. I’ve come up with a some ideas that can
(hopefully) help some folks save cash on the good
stuff.

1) Join Costco if it is in your area. Costco is great
for things like eggs, oatmeal, potatoes, rice,
walnuts, almonds, pecans, peanut butter, (lots of)
meats and fish, dried fruits, etc. Their produce is
good, but you need to be careful about purchasing here
because everything is pre-bagged. Now that might be
cheaper on paper, but if 25%+ of the produce is bad
then its a wash. For this reason, I suggest buying
from a local grocery store so that you can personally
pick each piece of fruit. Costco fruit and vegetables
are typically transported frozen and then defrosted
(in a room that is about 33 degrees F) at the store.
This doesn’t apply to onions, avocados, bananas,
potatoes, etc.

2) Most grocery stores have a day in the week where
they try to clear their meat products. In college, the
HEB always marked a lot of meats up to 50% off on
Tuesdays and even more on Tuesday evening. In Florida,
Publix does this on Friday mornings. The meats have
usually met their “sell-by date” so you buy in bulk on
this day and freeze everything you don’t use. And
don’t confuse “sell by” with “eat by.”

3) The more out-of-season a fruit or vegetable is, the
more expensive it is going to be (and it probably is
of lower quality because it may have traveled over an
ocean).

4) Find local produce stands whenever available. (Big)
Farmer’s markets can be good, but its better to find
more of a Ma and Pa type place. People get to know you
at these locations and will start to hook you up with
extras from time to time. They also start to give you
the best of their products. Support local communities
and farmers and you will be rewarded (along with
saving a few bucks… …everybody wins).

5) Eating out is the quickest way to have your food
bill skyrocket, so plan ahead. It might seem tedious
at first, but you will eventually become accustomed to
carrying fruit with you, and making extra at dinner
for leftovers will become natural.

all for now,

jd

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I have periodically been sitting at this computer
uploading CDs to my Dell MP3 player and its been
bringing back a lot of memories. I buy most music
online now so anything that comes from an original CD
is a bit older. So what albums/artists do I listen to?
Well, I pretty much listen to anything if its good,
but not much pop country (read: Toby Keith, Big and
Rich, Kenny Chesney, etc.) I don’t avoid this kind of
music. It just turns out this way.

In no particular order, some of the CDs in front of me
include The Specials, 2Pac, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, The
Doors, Master P, The Offspring, NOFX, Buck-O-Nine,
Beastie Boys, Fatboy Slim, Pink Floyd, Unwritten Law,
Marley, Hendrix, Vengaboys, ABBA, Sublime, Metallica,
OAR, Jack Johnson, Sublime, Riverdales, weezer,
Widespread, Jurassic 5, Zeppelin etc, etc.

So what do some of these CDs remind me of:

The Doors (Best of the Doors): I did an elementary
school project in fourth grade about Jim Morrison. I
dressed up like him and did a biographical
presentation. My peers didn’t think much of it, but
the adults must have been a bit perplexed.

Master P (Ghetto Dope): Man who doesn’t remember
jamming to ‘Burbans and Lacs’ back in the day? I must
have honestly thought I was the coolest person in the
world as I blared that from my car in high school.

NOFX (Punk in Drublic): Summer of 1995. I took a trip
to Sweden to visit my family for almost seven weeks.
Somehow I forgot every CD except this one and another
one by Ten Foot Pole. I probably have every word
memorized on both those albums. Its amazing that I
don’t actually hate this album.

Jack Johnson (On and On): This takes me back to 2003
when I spent the month of August in and around
Boulder. I was staying with my friend in Wandervu
(just behind the Cafe if you know the area). I had to
drive about 30 minutes at the beginning and end of the
day to train in the Boulder valley (his place sits at
9000 ft above Boulder). Every morning I would listen
to this album on the way to train for the day.

Sublime (40oz to Freedom): In 95-96 I went to the
Crested Butte Academy and Sublime came to town (yeah,
to CB) in December of 1995. I had just started
listening to them and I blew off the concert for
whatever reason. Brad died the next month.

ABBA (Gold): In the summer of 1999 My father, brother
and I took Swedish classes at my mother’s former
university in Lund, Sweden. After four weeks there,
the three of us took a road trip to Spain and back
(with stops along the way). We were in this little
French car that had the weakest radio ever. It got a
signal for a radio station that would last a few
kilometers and if were weren’t in a city, then forget
it.

The car did have a tape player, but none of us have
any tapes. We eventually found ourselves in some music
store in Andorra and I decided that we needed to get
something. The tape selection was very limited so we
ended up getting ABBA Gold, Janis Joplin’s Greatest
Hits, and the Beach Boys’ Greatest Hits. All very
macho for our macho trip.

I assumed we would get more music at the next stop or
at least some time in the future, but_we_never_did.

Funny thing is that at first we would delay the
“replay”. We would listen to the three tapes, then
take them out and look around and chit chat.
Eventually the three-play would start all over again.
Soon enough, that down time became shorter and shorter
and we literally came to the point where we just
played them over and over without delay. It was really
funny because we were cracking ourselves up day after
day and all three of us were good sports about the
whole matter.

OK, I need to swim.

-J

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