Lonestar Tri Report

Here is a copy of the report I sent out today:

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Family, Friends, Sponsors:

I want to start off by thanking the folks at Tri On the Run, in Houston, for being so patient and helpful this week as we worked on my bike. If anyone out there wants an accomodating shop with a friendly staff; that's your place.

I competed in the Lonestar Triathlon yesterday in Galveston, Texas. All of the participants had to have been fairly concerned about the possibility of a cancelled race given the wicked thunderstorms/flooding on Saturday before the race. The Sprint race managed to go through on Saturday morning and its amazing that they managed to find a window of oppurtunity in there.
The gun went off at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and my 2007 triathlon season had begun. The start was not overly aggressive, but I lost contact with the main pack by the first turnbuoy and cruised solo to the finish, coming out of the water in 7th position and about three minutes down on Todd Gerlach (no surprise there).

I headed out onto the bike course and I quickly found a rhythm pacing with Adam Wilk of Dallas. We made up some really good ground on the field on the first half of the out-and-back, but he put about 30 seconds into me with the tailwind back into town. I wanted to get contact with him as soon as we started the second loop again, but just as the second loop began I had a blowout on my rear tire.

I had been dealing with bike problems all week (because of the installation of my new ergomo) and when I heard my tire go flat I literally said something along the lines of "of course." I hopped off and went to work on it. My change took a little longer than I might have hoped, but I got it done as quickly as I could.

I was back out onto the course and the headwind had grown from the first loop. It was probably hovering right under 20 mph so it was a real grind to the turnaround. Nevertheless, I felt pretty good and I tried to get it together to prepare for the run.

I hit the two loop run course and my quads were on the verge of cramping which is not a typical issue for me. I think I was a bit behind on hydration, but it probably was a result of the body reacting to the first continuously hard effort of the season.

My goal was to try and float the first loop of the run and go from there. I moved into third halfway through the first loop, but Gerlach and Ronco (from Co Spring) were easily ten minutes ahead so my race was more about my own time and effort at this point. I had a little fade in the middle of the second loop, but I came back around and finished well in 4:16 behind Ronco and Gerlach who finished in 4:07 and 4:08 respectively.

Aside from the mechanical setback I was pretty pleased with the day. It was a nice way to get back into things after five months without any triathlon races. I feel great about this upcoming season and I am really excited to get things rolling in Boulder in April.

Many thanks are in order for my friends and famliy who made the trip down to Galveston to watch the race. Additionally, I want to thank my coach, Joe Friel, and my sponsors: EAS, www.trainingbible.com, Descente, Javelin, and Fuelbelt.

-Justin

Aggies lose, training, colorado

Well the Aggies 'fell short' last week against Memphis. Aggie fans (or those who picked them to win in their bracket) should not be bummed out, nor should they be kicking themselves over that loss. I read some article from a link on texags.com about the game and the journalist really nailed it when he pointed out the athletic upperhand that Memphis had. Both teams fought hard, but that slight advantage of quickness kept costing us. In fact, I was surprised to see it come to down to the final few seconds because it seemed like Memphis could make a run at any point. The home crowd was our advantage.

So the season ended 'early' and trips to Atlanta have been cancelled. I often tell some of my triathlon peers to 'never been disappointed with improvement.' Falling short of your dreams should not cloud the goals that an athlete or a team has achieved. You have to set your sights high, but there is only so much you can actually achieve. Obviously a team wants to win every game, but only B Knight has done that. He pointed this out in an interview I saw with him and said (abouting winnine every game); "by those standards I've failed every year, but one." (For the record, I think that his undefeated IU team is one of the most impressive performances in sports history).

Aside from winning every single game the ultimate goal is to win the national championship, but when you come from 0-16 in Big 12 play its going to take time. Gillespie reminds me of what I often hear about Brett Sutton (triathlon coach): "Lots of coaches can make a good athlete great, but Sutto makes average athletes great."

That's Gillespie. Law is a good athlete turned great. But TAMU was a piss poor program one year and a favorite for many in the Sweet 16 3 years later. Please hang around Coach G. You don't owe TAMU anything so I hope the university commits itself to keeping you.

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I finished up a three week cycle of training yesterday and I will be resting up for this weekend's race; the Lonestar HIM in Galveston, Texas. This will be a good chance to get a glimpse of my early season fitness before I head off to Boulder for another summer. This year is much different from the past as I put training in 'moderate mode' throughout January and February (and all that after a light December and hardly anything in November). It feels great to have held back for that long. I feel as though I have another gear to go to as the training in Boulder begins in April. However, I still think I can get a decent result this weekend with what I have done.

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U of H hosted a Sectional Masters Swimming competition (hope I got that right) this weekend and some friends of mine from the Worth of Fort came into town to race.

Swimming became an obvious topic of discussion and I always love to hear the war stories of swimmer kids. This time I was fairly impressed when Nicole told me she swam 15 x 1500 Long course in a workout once. That's a good week's worth of volume for me. It just goes to show how marginal the gains are at the top and what athletes do to try to gain an edge.

So is it necessary to do a workout like this? Probably not as it relates to physiological gains, but the psychological gains can be tremendous. Coaches have to take their athletes' heads into account when designing a training program. Author/Coach Cecil Cowen talks about one coach is his book, Breakthrough Swimming, who prescribed weightlifitng for his sprint swimmers. He wanted his athletes to look in the mirror and see strong arms; strong arms that could outspint anyone. He cared little about what the weight training did for their actual times.

I knew another athlete, an All-State Offensive lineman in high school (Stephenville), that told me he worked his biceps and triceps every day when played. He knew that this sort of training had little functional use, but he said he did it for intimidation. "I wanted the defense to see the most powerful arms in the state. And those arms were guarding our Qback."

You have to love that.

jd

Port Aransas, Spring Break, and March Madness

For those who aren't in the know... ...my parents are professors at Western State College (www.western.edu) in Gunnison, Colorado. They decided to take their spring break on Mustang island in Port Aransas, Texas this past week. Port Aransas is a small fishing/beach/tourist town about halfway down the gulf coast between Houston and Harlingen/Brownsville/So Padre Island. My family has been coming here since the 1970s (before me obviously) and they still have their original condo from then (minus the uber awesome 1970s furnishings). I decided to come down and join my parents for the week since my training plan was lower in volume (but higher in structure). There isn't a lot of variety for training on the island, but it does have a nice outdoor 25-Meter pool, a beach to run on (packed, not loose sand), a decent track, and one main hwy with a massive shoulder that runs the length of the island for cycling.

However, I did have to be a bit cautious with the Spring Break crowd so I had all my cycling done by 10 or 11 in the morning. I thought I might be hard to see from those monster trucks running around the island. If you ever want to be thoroughly entertained I suggest you head down here for spring break some time and park on the beach. The beach is like one main drag with people cruising up and down all day long (for 5-6 miles). Its something worth seeing once, if not more.

A bunch of my non-tri buddies came down for the weekend from Houston so I spent all day and evening with them yesterday. We spent time on the beach, in the bar, and at the house watching the NCAA tourney. The Aggies actually made it to the Sweet 16. I cannot believe it.

TAMU is to basketball what Rutgers was to football this season. The past four seasons have progressed as such: ZERO wins in the big 12; to 8-8 in Big 12 and bubble team that did not make tourney; to making the tourney, upsetting Syracuse and losing to eventual Final Four finalist, LSU, by 2 points; to making the Sweet 16 and perhaps more. Amazing. They could not pay people to go the games when I went to school (all of three-plus years ago) and now tickets are a pain in the ass to get.

One of the biggest, and well-supported, universities in the nation should have nationally recognized athletic teams in every discipline most years. I'm glad to see that seems to be taking shape. We need work with our XC team (not sure as many folks care like I do), but I imagine that might come in time as well. We just need one kick ass runner and everything could change. I don't think Whetmore is too worried about it though.

Anyways, I'm heading back to Houston shortly so that I can catch the UNV/Memphis game (winner places us in SA next weekend).

Take it easy,

jd

Ladies and Gentleman; Conway Twitty

I finally got a solid week of training behind me in 2007.

As 2006 ended I sat around and debated what I wanted to do in 2007. I was pretty unsatisfied with IMFL, but I wanted to avoid going into a 'redemption cycle.' In other words, I didn't want to compromise my recovery in the offseason, or my preparation early in the next season, to offset my disappointment from the previous season (I think I said that right).

Nevertheless, I found myself getting fired up in December as I recharged my batteries in the mountains surrounding Crested Butte. I was all set to race IMAZ, but as January neared I knew my_mind_was not ready for intensive focus. I still needed more time.

As a result, I decided to work during the months of January and February and put my training in a more moderate role. This was fine and dandy, but as February came around I was having a really hard time dealing with the lower levels of training. Its always a good sign to see motivation rise.

While this was hard, I still had another goal of trying to postpone my harder/longer training weeks in hopes of finding the right form with my new A race of Ironman CdA in June. I came onto good form in April/May last year as a result of having two excellent training partners in Florida throughout the spring. However, it was probably all coming together a little quickly as my A race was in late June.

Soooooooooooo, now its March and the heavier training has begun. My training blocks have a frontend loaded component to them which is followed by more intensive training prior to a short recovery block. A four week cycle might look something like this:

7 days of high volume, lots of steady state intensity and some tempo work
3 days of skills, lower volume; high cadence work, strides, normal swimming
11 days of moderate volume with higher intensity; mostly HIM pacing and/or threshold work
4 days of recovery, test day, easy day, test day

Test days can be long; usually AeT steady state rides and runs at this time of year. I might have a main set of a long ride with 2-4 hours of 150-155 HR. Hard, but appropriate. I also might place a race at the end of one of these blocks.

Anyways, this past week was the first overload week and I was very pleased with the results. My volume bumped up to 30 hours (can be 40 at its highest) and I had not even put in a 20 training week since this season began. Not only did I get in some good volume, but I also managed to handle a great amount of quality. This week's key workouts included 2 rides with 2.5 hours (in each) of continuous steady state riding (150-155 HR) and a 105 mile ride on Sunday with a wide range of intensities. I also got on my bike every day this week. My run volume was moderate, but it included a Vo2 workout, a 21k steady state run, a 10K race, and two short T runs. Swimming had a couple decent main sets, but it was generally a frequency week. I always think that something has to give a bit during a big week of training and this time it was swim intensity, but not swim volume or frequency.

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Last weekend I participated in the Tom Rodger's Texas Tri Camp (www.texastricamp and www.endurathon.com) and it was a great success. We had a great group of triathletes attend the camp and they were all highly motivated to learn how to improve. I know I made some great contacts and I will be looking forward to seeing all of them crush their respective races this season.

John Cobb, Coach Joe (Friel), Tom and I also had some brief discussions about some potential winter camps involving the wind tunnel at TAMU. TAMU's wind tunnel is more affordable than most, but availablity is always an issue so let's keep our fingers crossed that we can make it happen. I will keep you posted as everything develops.

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I will have some updates added to the website in this coming week, inlcuded a FAQs section to address some of the questions that I frequently get asked about triathlon, training, and myself.

It will also include a race schedule, but here it is for those who are biting their nails in anticipation...

April 1 Lonestar Triathlon; Galveston, TEXAS

May 6 Tri One O One; Brandeton, Florida

June 25 Ironman CdA; CdA, Idaho

July 22 EAS Boulder Peak; Boulder, Colorado (maybe depending on recovery from the IM)

August 12 EAS 5430 Triathlon; Boulder, Colorado

August 18 EAS Pikes Peak Ascent; Colorado Springs, Colorado

October 13 Ironman World Championship; Kona, Hawaii

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Have a great Monday,

JD

what up

Man, being sick is pretty lame. I spent the last weekend horizontal after some sort of illness kept from doing little more than sleep. Oddly enough, I still got in a 10k race on Saturday morning. I woke up feeling like absolute s**t, but I was hoping it was just a fluke. The race didn't begin until 10:00 in the morning so I was hoping I would come around in the hours leading up to the start. I didn't, but I went down there anyways. I decided I would warm up and if I felt alright, I'd roll. Again, I didn't, but I started anyways. Within one mile my heart rate went into the 190s and I realized I was in for a loooooooooooong 6.2 miles. That was honestly the highest level of discomfort I'd ever had to deal with in a race. Seriously. HARDEST RACE EVER. It was also the slowest 10k I have ever run (standalone).

I'm one of the more conservative individuals when it comes to balancing health and fitness. IOW, I often back out of situations and/or workouts if things don't feel right. I guess I was overly anxious to know whether I could tolerate the discomfort of racing after four months of none of it. Well, I guess I can, but I still should have been sleeping in my bed on Saturday morning instead of running that race like a yahoo.

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You guys need to check out Blakes's blog on www.blakebecker.com if you aren't already. He's got a really detailed outline of his Ironman Arizona training in there. I know we all like to get a little geeked out from time to time with that sort of stuff so that can be a great fix us all. He's really laying it down in the Land of the Mont.

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Speaking of blogs; my coach, Joe Friel, has a blog up and runnng at http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html

He talks about some plyometrics I did during the month of February. Essentially it involves box jumps and 20 sec hill sprints on a treadmill. I didn't have a good setup in any local gym so I did my workouts in Herman Park in Houston. I found a big cement block to jump on and a hill outside Miller Outodor theatre to run up.

Totally Rocky stuff. I often did the box jumps with bums drinking malt liquor around me. They usually tried to send words of encouragement, but outsiders might have been confused and thought they were yelling at me.

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I'll be participating in Tom Rodgers' Texas Tri Camp (www.texastricamp.com) this weekend in Keller, Texas. Joe Friel and John Cobb will be there and we really have things running smoothly after three successful camps behind us. This is a great time to get one-on-one time with those dudes and there is typically enough downtime to get a lo of your questions asked from guys who know their stuff.

There are currently 4-5 spots still open and, interestingly enough, we tend to have people sign up the week of the event. If that's you, then bring it on; we'd love to have you. Its probably best to contact me or Tom directly. If you tell him you got your info from my blog he'll hook you up with a little discount and you'll get lots of jokes from me for no extra cost.

Keep it realz,

jd

Happy Ash Wednesday.

The sun came out in Houston. In fact, I would venture to say that last Sunday was likely one of the best days I have seen in all my life in this corner of the world. 60, sunny, no wind. Love it. Today it reached 80 degrees so who knows what the remaining time will be like here in Htown.

I’ve squared away my next living arrangements in Boulder from April-September. I’m not sure as to whether or not I will stay longer, but this is the longest planned stay I have had in one location in quite some time. I might stay in Boulder permanently, but we’ll have to see how financially viable that is for me once things get rolling.

Training has gotten rolling as well. Over the last couple weeks I managed 20 hours/week and even threw a birthday in the mix (26). One of the better bdays I can remember; for sure. My hometown buddies stepped it up and I think we all achieved rock star status for a night. I did train quite a bit on my actual birthday, but I assure you that I did_very_little (read:nothing) the day after.

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This Season:

I had a deep break this year from the previous one. I hardly rode my bike for two months and then I spent about six weeks with only 12-15 hours/week of training. I just kept moving at a reasonable pace until I started to feel that fire to fight. It took some time, but as February nears it end I feel physically and mentally sharp; and all before the heaviest and hardest training has even gotten rolling. I don’t think my choice to lay down solid training in Jan and Feb of years’ past was a mistake, but doing so this year might have been.

Tentatively it looks as though my season will include:

Lonestar Tri HIM April in Galveston

Tri 101 in Brandenton, Florida on May 6

Ironman CdA on June26

Boulder Peak (maybe)

5430 HIM Aug 12

KONA

Not much of a race schedule, but it’s a start. Off to massage,

jd

Training styles

Yesterday I was out for a 90-mile ride ‘Bjorn-Style’: strong, steady, long rides with no HRM, PM, etc. He might not do so anymore, but I still credit these types of rides as such.

As I was riding yesterday I noted the fact that I was ‘Bjorning’ the ride and I started to think about the other names that have been incorporated into training/workouts.

I really don’t have that many. Whenever I do “Cam Brown training” it means I attack the day’s training so that its completed by 2-3 in the afternoon. However, you have to get in at least six hours of training so you have to get rolling early.

I figure I can probably think of some others.

“Lessing training” would involve sessions where everyone is absolutely pinned. Just staying with the group would be solid workout execution.

“Mike Larsen training” would involve me calling my not-as-fit friends out for a ride and then promptly drilling them (sorry buddy. I look forward to the day I can return the pulls).

“JD training” would only be training during traditional business hours; 8 or 9 to 5. You also have to drink coffee that is at least twice as strong as everyone else’s and get very, very quiet when tired.

“Chris McDonald training” would be somewhat similar to JD training (minus uber coffee) except his days start earlier. IOW, one must train no later than 5 in the evening, but 5:00 a.m. swim sessions are ok. If you do this you must also be the most chipper of the group and never complain.

“Marilyn training” is similar to CMac and JD training. Take the coffee from JD and the hours from CMac. Fatigue includes a need for cold rooms.

“Armando training” incorporates goals of looking good as well as getting fit. Absolutely no mismatching gear.

“Marc Bonnet-Eymard training” is hard.

“Molina training” incorporates six-hour recovery days.

“Partain training” involves mandatory late nights before early morning sessions and lots and lots of fuel belts.

“BB training” includes ridiculous indoor training hours. If someone else has put in_consecutive_40+ hour training weeks indoors they can claim lead name. Oh yeah; You also have to work 20+ hours_on_your_feet and sleep NO more than five hours a night during these weeks.

I’ll think of some more. Anyone would reads this and can think of more send them to me and I’ll post them.

jd

Football

I was watching Kordell Stewart (my hero from 1994) in a debate with Skip Bayliss (sp?) on Cold Pizza the other morning. Stewart was asked: “what is the one thing you do NOT miss about being a professional football player?” He answered: “getting hit.” IOW, just constantly getting hit after hit all night long; not necessarily getting rocked, just slowly beaten down as the days, weeks, and months roll by. A Chinese torture of sorts.

Skip fired back (as he always done) in a hotheaded manner by saying (not exact quote) “he did not feel sorry for him since he got paid so handsomely.”

I thought this was a little uncalled for because Stewart was responding to a question, not stating a complaint on his own.

However, that’s not really where I’m going with all this. What I really wanted to address is the constant demeaning of high profile pro football players in the U.S. for the money they make. People always point out the salaries of these players and assume that their job is one of the best ones possible. They might be right about THAT. These athletes might have one of the best jobs anyone could ask for (assuming they love their sport) and are paid well when they are on top of their game.

BUT… …the real issue at hand is how these players came to receive such good pay.

Owners are looking for a sure thing when they choose a player. No different from any business manager/owner who looks for an employee who’s going to perform. But I really find it no less absurd that football players make millions of dollars while lawyers (or any professional. I like lawyers all the same), fresh out of law school, could make $100,000. By the time a professional football player has made his way to the pros he likely has over 10+ years of profession-specific “training.” A new lawyer has never actually practiced real law, but a football player has potentially been playing football since grade school.

Now an argument might be made about the different tiers of the sport and how the game changes from high school to college to pro ball and until one has played pro ball he has no experience. However, a rookie isn’t going to sit pretty unless he goes early in the draft. Most players aren’t Reggie Bushs or Vince Youngs; they’re the no names later in the draft and they are going to have to prove themselves again(assuming they even get playing time) before one of those sexy paychecks come in.

The NFL has the fortune of weeding out talent with two levels of unofficial, “unpaid” minor leagues. I think high school ball can qualify when one considers that some high school games draw tens of thousands of people and are featured on national television. And College football? C’mon man. DI ball is so intense that a spring scrimmage game (for Alabama) is going to be on ESPN. Freaking crazy dude. Most NFL stadiums’ capacity levels pale in comparison to Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, ATM, Ohio State, Ala, Auburn, Florida, etc. NFL teams don’t have to take a chance on a great high school player because they get to see (for free) if they falter throughout three (or four) years of college ball.

Now talking about college ball gets a ton of people fired up because they start pointing out how athletes get treated and how they get a free education, etc. That’s true, but they don’t have a choice if they have dreams of the NFL. Some of them might not have a chance in the world of making it to the big show, but the only way they will find out is playing college ball. There is no minor league for them to go to. This also ends up compromising the integrity of some programs since educators, coaches, boosters will start bending the rules to keep these guys rolling.

I’m not defending the unethical and (especially) disrespectful manner that SOME student-athletes conduct themselves with. I remember sitting in Entomology (yeah bug class) at TAMU a few years ago and getting absolutely furious with how unprofessional and disrespectful the football players could be to their professor and fellow students. I don’t think it helped that the team absolutely sucked at the time (posting the first losing season in a redonkulous number of years).

Essentially my point is this: a football player makes what he makes because of his value in relation to the NFL’s earnings. By the time he starts to actually see a paycheck he has been ‘training’ for nearly his whole life. An employer who hires a salesman, engineer, lawyer, etc takes risk when these professionals start their respective careers. On the other hand, a lawyer, salesman, etc. with 20 years experience is much less of a risk for a big paycheck, as is an NFL player with a few years of pro ball experience.

Does a football player deserve $250,000 for four hours of play time. Dunno. Does a lawyer deserve 300/hour for filing your divorce?

I guess people complain about every situation when it doesn’t seem fair. Nevertheless, there is no real reason to get hung up on one absurdity in an absurd world.

Don’t get worked up on the politics of the game this weekend. Underneath it all are two groups of men that are going to have a chance to live out their childhood dream. That cannot be said of too many people in this world.

Watch the Superbowl.

And all this from a guy (me) that doesn’t even like the NFL….

I guess if you decide to discuss what makes you happy you also need to discuss what does NOT make you happy. Well its about 40 degrees and raining right now and that does NOT make me happy. In fact, I believe that in any hypothetical questioning I often describe the ‘least appealing weather conditions’ as ’40 and raining.’

My brother started drilling me last night about not updating my blog. I guess the whole point of keeping a blog is to keep those-who-care informed. However, I prefer to think that you all might be more interested to hear what I think, as opposed to what I do or did. It becomes especially hard to tell you about what I was thinking on a long ride since I haven’t been on any long rides as of late. My life has been consumed by a job in Houston for Jan+Feb lately and when you throw in 2-3 hours of training it just leaves me a little spent at the end of the day (hints not blogs).

BUT… …My friend and I did make it out to ride this weekend (after not seeing the sun in Houston for ten days). It was my first ride over two hours since IMFL (its good to back WAY off from time to time) and we threw around some thoughts and ideas in between our cow-spectating. I think a lot of guys that are into hunting/camping probably experience some of the similar bonding moments that I have had with friends while cycling. Sometimes the road brings out that honest self awareness and there’s actually enough time to share it.

We chatted about training and blah, blah, blah, but eventually we tried to pinpoint what makes us happy. It could be a person, place, movie, song, type of food, etc. It didn’t really need to fit into one category or another; it just needed to be something that you associate with happiness in your own life.

My friend’s very first response was “the feeling I get when I see my wife after each day at work” Touching, but a little hard to relate to right now.

My first response:

Coffee.

I’m not that cold. I got a little more deep and sensitive and came up with:

The_presence_of family and friends

Any conversation that lasts considerably longer than either party anticipated (assuming both are enjoying themselves, of course).

Mountains.

Sunshine.

Long walks (especially with my mother).

Jager. Just kidding, but not really.

The Simpsons.

Very hard bike rides when I DON’T blow up.

All joking aside, the presence of family and friends really does make me quite happy. Houston is not an ideal setting for an active individual. In fact, I would probably suggest that Houston is the antithesis of active communities amongst the developed world’s largest cities. However, it is where I am from and the friendships I developed here started when I was learning to walk. Many of those friends and family are still here and they probably don’t realize how often I miss them (but more specifically the ability to see them at my will). Visiting via travel is one thing. Its another to know that you can see those close to you at any given hour of the day should time permit. So while the triathlon side of my life is kind of cruising in neutral, the personal is thriving.

Sooooo I’ll continue to run the same loop over and over again, ride the trainer, and forget what the sun looks like… ….but I’ll be sure to hang out with family and friends as much as possible for the time being. I’ll be back in CO riding the Epic Death Loop soon enough.

Happy Monday working folks,

jd

I need to be more consistent in posting

I really need to be more consistent with these entries because I often find myself having too much to write and as a result; I write nothing. I will try to give a quick synopsis of the past couple weeks.

After returning from Sverige I traveled to my adopted (because I'm registered to vote there) town ofMelissa, Tx to have Thanksgiving with some family. Afterwards I left my car in Stephenville, Texas (home of Jewel and a new Starbucks) to travel to Santa Fe for a night and then Crested Butte where I am sitting 2.5 weeks later writing this super, awesome, amazing blog.

Since arriving I have been reviving my relationship with exercise and my lack of recent movement (and the high altitude) have forced me to really_ease_back into things as opposed to_jumping_back into things. I actually think my decision to restart training in CB this year (and last) has been a smart decision. The high altitude helps to keep things slow in the early days.

This past weekend I headed to Durango, Colorado to visit a friend (who I have known since middle school) that recently moved there in May. I was also interested in checking out this town in Colorado since it has been known to have a strong athletic presence. It sort of seemed like a cross between Boulder, Gunnison, and Santa Fe, NM to me. It has upper and high end housing, a college, and a visually athletic community (as well as an excellent rec and aquatic center, but not 50m). I have since returned to CB after driving hwy 550 north in a snow storm (awesome).

I will be spending another 4-5 days here in CB before returning to Tejas (Melissa, Tx specifically). Training will still be relatively light until after the NY. Trying to ramp things up around the XMas/NY time doesn't really fly con mi familia (spanish inspired by Kori) so I don't try to fight it.

jd

Sverige

Those who have followed along for the last year or so
know that I traveled to Sweden directly after racing
IMFL in 2005. 2006 was no different, but this year my
brother and mother joined me. It has been six years
since all three of us have been in Sweden at the same
time.

As a child I spent quite a bit of time in Sweden;
sometimes upwards of 6+ weeks during the summer
months. As I grew older my trips became more sporadic
as I pursued various interests in the U.S. I know I
will eventually get back to Sverige for an extended
period of time, but for now my trips are limited to
short adventures in the offseason.

I did manage to come home with a few interesting
stories from this trip including a night out on the
town over the weekend. I always like going out in
Europe and I'll tell you why:

I highly doubt there is a place in the US where you
can: go to a fashion show, play blackjack, get kicked
out of the VIP area, and drink Jager all in the same
place. You could probably combine three of those over
and over again in the States, but getting four of four
would be a tough one. Vegas would obviously be an
exception, but I'm sure the list would grow as well if
I were in, say, Monaco or the like.

The daytime hours had its highlights as well. The
local paper interviewed me about triathlon and such.
The paper features various folks connected to the
Halmstad area and I spent a couple hours answering
question for my new friend, Jonas, on Monday. I'll
post a link when it comes out, but you might need to
use google to help read it since it will be in
svenska.

Another highlight: My brother and I attending my
cousin's engligh class (She is the equivalent of a
junior in high school in the U.S.). The class was
split into two groups and each group asked Jason and I
questions for an hour about any topic they decided to
address. You might think that the topics would be
limited with a language barrier, but there is no
language barrier for the Swedes at that age. They had
no problems grasping international (as it relates to
the U.S.) issues including North Korea, Iraq, the
death penalty, etc. This hour was probably the
highlight of the trip outside of visiting family. Very
interesting young adults.

And now I'm back in the states. I finally got some
sleep after rolling on coffee for 30 hours straight. I
am going to pay for that some time in the next week.

I will be heading up to Crested Butte this week and
will begin to start training for the next triathlon
season on Dec 4. After 3 weeks in CO I'll return to
warmer weather as I begin preparations for Ironman
Arizona. This will be the first spring Ironman I have
done and I am certainly looking forward to it.

All for now. Happy Thanksgiving,

JD

Justin Daerr IMFL report

Here is a copy of the race report I sent out.

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

Hey all,

This past weekend marked the completion of my fifth
Ironman and my first as a professional. The 2006 race
season had a mixed bag of results, but I felt that my
preparation and form for Ironman Florida was right on.
I wanted to end the season on a high note.

All IMFL participants were greeted with cooler temps
and high winds on race morning. However, I was
prepared to deal with these conditions and I was
confident that it would not be a major issue. I got
everything in order for the day, put my wetsuit on,
and headed down to the beach. The winds had kicked up
the ocean considerably and it looked as though we
might be in for a rough ride. The winds were running
parallel to the shoreline so the swells would be felt
in every direction.

I had expected a high octane swim start, but it turned
out to be much more civil than I anticipated. The
conditions of the water created much more of a
challenge than the pace of the swimmers in close
proximity to me. I settled into a group halfway
through the first loop and did my best to stay relaxed
in the tough conditions. Everyone was getting tossed
around and I imagine they all swallowed nearly the
same amount of salt water as I did.

The group stayed somewhat organized for 50 percent of
loop two, but eventually everyone got split up. I
towed a few folks in from that point and tried to keep
the pace up. We crossed the timing mat in 58:xx and I
was not disappointed given the conditions. I just
wanted to get on the bike and get rolling.

The bike offered some challenges in the first few
miles since my Powertap computer kept popping out of
its harness. I fiddled with my aero drink bottle
position and I assumed I had everything in order.
Unfortunately I was wrong and my PT computer bounced
out of place around mile 20 forcing me to ride back
and pick it up. I lost some time, but I quickly
settled back into my ride.

I rode as strong as I could, but it really did not
appear to be enough for the day. I never had contact
with (many) other riders and it made for a LONG ride
as I grinded away hoping that others might be fading
up the road. Unfortunately my colleagues up the road
held their ground and my progress was limited.

I came into T2 feeling beat up and bit out of focus.
My lower back had given me a lot of problems on the
bike and the pain had been enough to let the dark
thoughts of quitting enter my mind as I changed into
my running gear. However, I had made a promise to my
coach (and myself) prior to race day to fight for
every position no matter how far out of the race I
was. My back hurt, but I hoped it might subside as I
settled into a rhythm on the run.

I took the the run out more moderately than I have in
the past three Ironmans. I had hoped to hold an even
pace throughout the first 20 miles and then run a 10K
as hard as possible. The pace fell off a bit in the
second loop, but at mile 25 I saw that I could
potentially break my IM marathon time from 2005. If I
ran under 4:00/kilometer for the final 2K of the run I
would get a 3:04:xx run split. I managed to run 7:35
in this section and that gave me something positive to
take away from the end of this race.

I made up seven places on the run to finish 16th
overall with a time of 9:05. I came into the race
hoping to improve upon my 8th place finish last year,
but sometimes a race provides different challenges. I
dealt with a large level of discomfort (probably the
most from any IM), but I managed to still do what I
could on the day. I like to think that managing pain
on a less-than-optimal day will make it much more easy
to tolerate it on a day when things are going my way.

Its been a long year and a break is in order. I will
be sure to let everyone know my 2007 race schedule as
it develops over the next couple months.

Many, many thanks are in order for my family, my
friends, my coach Joe Friel, and my sponsors: EAS,
Ultrafit, Oomph!, Javelin bikes, Fuelbelt, and
www.wheelbuilder.com.

See you next year,

JD

Nine days out

Yesterday I left my super secret training spot in
Melissa, Tx and headed to my old hometown of Houston,
Tx. I completed my second-to-last race simulation
workout on Tuesday and I wanted to get here long
before my final race sim workout on Friday. I always
try to avoid key training sessions on a day following
travel. The reason I'm doing my final workout here in
Htown has to do with Blake flying into town on
Saturday to drive over to PCB with me early next week.
Blake has been training hard in Madison, WI in the
all-too-early-to-arrive winter; the exact opposite of
my entirely-too-long summer last year in Texas.

Once again I was blessed with a long drive as the
heavens decided to open up and promptly drop every
ounce of extra water they had reserved in the clouds.

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

On Tuesday this week I did a workout as such:

3500 swim with tempo 2k main set;
Start ride within one hour of swim; ride 90 minutes
with 50-60 min at IM-IM+20 power; transition to ten
mile run on the track running steadily.

I didn't have to do the run on the track and many of
you might classify 40 laps of the track at a steady
pace to be just about the worse idea EVER. However, I
had asked my aunt to come out and hand off coke and
water every 4th lap so that I could continuously run
at a certain pace to see how my body responded to that
particular pace (and with race day fueling).

Couple things I have noticed over the past few weeks
that might apply to everyone:

1. It takes about 12 minutes (or two miles) for HR,
PE, and Pace to line up (in training) when running off
the bike. Until then HR is low, PE is low and pace is
high. I was running nearly 20-25 sec too fast to start
this workout and I still felt like I was only running
at a crawl. This sensation could last up to 30-45
minutes on race day depending on conditions, how hard
you/I ride, nutrtion on the bike, etc. Just imagine
how much an a rested, fit athlete could run the first
10K when you throw in a competitive spirit and
spectators. RELAX. Look at Sergio Marques' first 10K
split in Kona. Nearly the same as his final split. The
result? 2:43 and the fastest split of the day. He did
NOT take it out hard and he obviously had the run
fitness to absolutely blast the trek down Ali'i Dr.

2. I tend to pick up the pace once I have nutrition
handed off to me. I need to stay relaxed, get the
nutrition in, and continue. I kept spiking my pace and
HR during the workout when after my aunt handed off
the drinks. I also think its important to take your
time to get those calories in. If you try to rush the
coke/gatorade/water/whatever through the aid stations
you'll likely find that you didn't take it all that
much. Treat that coke like gold and take in small
amounts until that cup is empty.

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

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blah

Blah.

That's all wrote in the 'comments' section in my log
after Tuesday's training. Such is life during a taper.
I seem to be coming around though so life is good.
Life was over on Tuesday, but its back on Thursday.

I didn't get on here to comment on the Aggies' victory
over Mizzou because I was too busy helping Miss
Melissa become Mrs. Melissa over the weekend (cousin
Melissa for those in the know).

My weekend consisted of traveling Thursday, big day
of training Friday, rehearsal dinner Friday night,
Saturday morning workouts, go to church around 1:00n
to be the best damn Usher in the world, watch cousin
get married, take pictures outside church while
constantly checking Aggie game on cell phone, listen
to finish of game in car, announce wedding party at
reception, enjoy reception, go home at midnight, go to
bed, wake up, watch the 12,000,000 inches of raining
falling outside, put on running shoes, run 21 miles in
that dumb weather, watch the Texans 'play football',
hang out with friends, go home, go to bed, drive a
four-hour-drive in six hours because of another
12,000,000 inches of rain, go to swim practice, go
home, look at my watch at 8:15 and decide its time for
bed. Sleep 11 hours.

And for some reason I can't seem to understand why I
feel completely wiped out on Tuesday. HMMMMMMMMM.

But seriously... ....The wedding was great and I'm
psyched she found such a great guy.

The run was miserable though. I have the patience for
about one of those sessions/year. Since the year is
almost finished I figured I had better cash in on it.

Let's see; what else?

I heard on the radio that Brandon Flowers of The
Killers claimed that their latest album was the best
album in the last twenty years. Well I listened to it
three times through on my way back home. Its not the
best album to come out in the last twenty years, but
it did get me to start thinking about what album might
fit that title.

I couldn't come up with an answer. In fact, I wasn't
even bold enought to narrow it down to the top 5
(Weezer's first album would be in there).

I did decide what the worst album in the last twenty
years is: Master P's "Last Don." Awful. You might find
something that is_just_as_bad, but nothing is worse
than that.

Time for the NLCS.

-jd

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