A cup of Joe is a go

It is well known that caffeine may help the endurance athlete, but now there is a study that coffee may help promote a longer, healthier life. Drink up, but remember: friends don't let friends drink Starbucks.

Weekend Pick me up

How does this sound.
1. 14 mile Saturday morning run with my running buds.
2. SUP with Ellen
3. Dinner at Supraricas
4. Sunday morning ride
5. UCSB graduation of my assistant
6. Tri tip BBQ
7. Laker Victory!

Life is Good!

Fatigue

After the Honu Triathlon I was totally fired up to pick up my training but I can't believe how much I have been dragging over the past few weeks. I guess being sick, racing hard, and ahem, being OLD maybe a factor in my less than speedy recovery. This morning I did manage to pull off one of my favorite master's workouts: 30x50 fly

V

Chuckie V mentioned this subject on his blog yesterday. Here is an article from Fox Sports.

I see you

As triathlons have become more and more competitive I have noticed an disturbing trend . Drafting has always been a problem, but now I see an increasing number of people using a little rear view mirror to watch out for draft marshals. I first noticed it at Ironman Florida a few years ago. I saw quite a few mirrors at Wildflower this year. At Honu, an age group winner and Hawaii qualifier used one. So is it still cheating if you don't get caught? Apparently some people think so. Bad karma I say. I use a mirror. Only to make sure I look good for my finish line photo. Good karma I say.

Perfect post race food

The spam musubi is a perfect combination of carbs, protein, and fat, plus plenty of sodium to replace those electrolytes. I contacted Power Bar to see if they they would add this to their product line. I haven't heard back from them yet but don't be surprised if you see them on your grocery shelves soon!

Race within the Race, Part II

In the all important battle of the speed suits with Duncan, I once again tasted the fruits of victory. Or should I say Mai Tai of victory. We celebrated with post race Mai Tai's and I have to admit, victory tasted sweet!

Scary

This unbelievable photo was taken from a bike race in Mexico via AP News. Scary

A path well chosen

For a thousand years, native Hawaiians traveled along the lava fields creating a well worn path. Petroglyphs tell the story of their journeys. It is a great piece of human history. Today, much of this path is covered by golf courses and rubble from construction. Unbelievable.

The Honu

All I can say is, Thank God for pharmaceuticals! I have discovered a wonderful mix of advil, day quil, mucenix, and zicam that works miracles to get you thru, or at least most of the way thru a half ironman. The Honu is a great race. It has the craziness of a mass start, big howling winds on the bike, and oppressive heat on the run. I faded a bit on the run, was passed by many people, finished in 5:26, 8th age group, and you know, I couldn't be happier! Back to Santa Barbara tomorrow.

Finished

Here's my finish line photo from today's Honu half ironman. I think I look a little dehydrated.

Island Magic

I am hoping the magical powers of the islands will speed my recovery. That along with the hand full of cold meds I'm popping every few hours. At any rate, it is fantastic to be back and I am really looking forward to the race tomorrow, feeling crappy or not.

That's Sick

Ellen has been sick the past week and I really thought I may have avoided the dreaded plague but this morning I awoke with a scratchy throat. So tomorrow I'm leaving for the Big Island and I am going to be "that guy" who is sitting on the plane coughing on everybody. I am preparing myself for the sink eye.

Bad Ticker

I was shocked when Cook called yesterday to inform me Nick "the Wad" Boyer suffered a heart attack the other day. Fortunately he is OK. Nick had just finished a workout at his gym when his arms went numb. He told the the staff to call 911 and one coronary stint and an Rx of Plavix later he seems to be on the mend. Nick is a lucky guy. Next week he was off to Africa for a vacation. If he had is heart attack there, well he probably would have been sh*t out of luck. The two things I remember most about the Wad was his claims of athletic prowess (he once bet Cook he could leg press 1,100 lbs) and for passing out on a park bench after drinking all night before the Keauhou-Kona Triathlon.

Row, row, row your boat

Adventurer Roz Savage left San Francisco this morning bidding to be the first woman to ROW solo across the Pacific. Her trip is planned to take 3 years and her first stop will be Hawaii. You can follow her progress on her website. I can hardly imagine the grueling hardship she will endure spending month after month on the open ocean. I wonder how many times she will sing "100 bottles of beer on the wall." Like Roz, I too will be traveling to Hawaii this week for the Hono Half Ironman. I will suffer the grueling hardship of traveling on United Airlines.

The Sea Was Angry

Well, not really too bad. Today was our annual battle- SB Tri Club vs. UCSB Triathlon Team. We met out at East Beach for a little swim-run competition. The Gauchos whooped us pretty badly. Ahh, to be 20 and fast again. I swam for our team, and as I churned away in the cold, choppy water, I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite Seinfeld moments.

Nice Save

I don't know if you are aware my buddy Fred Maggiore rides cycles, both motor and pedal power. I caught this video of Fred. Looks like Tuesday night track workouts are paying off. Nice save!

http://view.break.com/505730 - Watch more free videos

Tri Geek or Nerd?

Are you a Tri Geek or Nerd?
1. A Geek wears his body marking number days after the race. A Nerd knows there were exactly 753 finishers, and he finished 9th out of 93 in his age group.
2. A Geek prefers to drink from a water bottle, even at dinner time. A Nerd painstakingly monitors his fluid intake, making sure his urine is pale yellow at all times.
3. A Geek uses his race wheels on group rides. A Nerd knows his wheels are 5% more aerodynamic than a 32 spoke wheel.
4. A Geek fantasizes he is Lance Armstrong, the yellow jersey king of the bike path. A nerd knows Lance Armstrong can hold 450 watts over an one hour time trial.

I think I am a Geek/Nerd hybrid, slightly more nerd. 67.3% to 32.7% to be exact.

A Relaxing Swim

If you think the swim at Nite Moves can get pretty crazy, take a look at the recent 2008 Open Water World Championships. Open water swimming is the newest contact sport for the upcoming Olympics.

Bullseye

Lately while I've been riding I feel like I must have some sort of bullseye painted on my back. I ride solo mostly, and lately random cyclists will come racing past me, legs pumping, taking a quick glance to see if I respond to the chase or am dropped. I never peruse, content with enjoying my ride. Most of the time they ride off into the distance, no doubt satisfied they are the new leader of the Giro de Santa Barbara. Sometimes I will creep back up to them, slowly pass, only to have them once again launch a furious attack. At that point I will purposely find a different route, slightly annoyed. Cook says that's the roadie mentality. I say definitely too much Cyclism Sunday.

Fear of Heights?

I found this video on Jasper Blake's Blog. "The Best Trail Run I've ever Done" I think this belongs in the new Indiana Jones movie.

My New Mug

My running friend, George, made me this mug with a little picture of me running. How cool it that!

My Next New Sport

After my weekly torture session with Mike and Rusty, I was able to spend the rest of the morning on my SUP. Absolutely a great day. Even ran into K. Moore on the water. Now I have found an intriguing new sport and am itching to give it a try.

I love this Place

And now you know why.

The Cube

If you watch this summer's Olympic games you are going to see a lot of this building. It's the 150 million dollar Beijing Aquatic Center, "the Cube". It is patrolled by the Beijing Hospitality Committee. They are a lot like the greeters at WalMart. Except this guys pack guns and have bad attitudes. At WalMart, they just have the attitude.

One Wheel is enough

I have enough problems staying upright on two wheels. This guy only needs one. Tomorrow I'll show you a one legged runner...

Dr. Livingstone, I presume?

I never knew much about that famous phrase. Now I do. Back in the 18 and early 1900's explorers and adventurers were the international superstars of the day. Stanley and Livingstone were about as big as you get. They were two gnarly dudes.

Race within the Race

It pays to be fast. Especially if you are Duncan Thomas. Duncan just told me he received a sponsorship offer from Blue Seventy so he'll be sporting the new swim skin and swimming really fast at the Honu Half in a couple of weeks. You see, Duncan and I have an on going battle of swim splits. What usually happens is I swim like mad and try and hold off Duncan on the bike as long as possible until he sign posts me on his way to some record setting race. At Wildflower, I was victorious at the 1.2mile swim/ 2 mile bike race. I won a bowl of Duncan's wife's, Terry, famous shortbread cookies for that effort. So Duncan receives sponsorships, and I get cookies, and to tell you the truth I think I get the better end of that deal.

Don't be this Guy

This is T Motion's new T- Zero jacket with a handy zipper to make body marking a little easier. OK, I'm sorry, but if you wear this you have reached a new level of geekdom. It will totally go with your Ironman ankle tattoo.

Macca Attacked!

What is awesome about this video is not Macca's surge to victory at this year's 08 Wildflower Triathlon, it's the woman mountain bike sprint finisher trying to run him down while he is celebrating down the finishing line. I think she would have got him if not for a race official pulling her aside. She was really going for it. Also, another moment of awesomeness is you can see my silver truck parked on the side of the road at minute 3:15.

Mr. Wizard

This just goes to show you how screwed up the State of Florida is: A teacher preformed a magic trick for his class then was later fired for practicing wizardry. After reading this I had to go for a long run. People are idiots.

Vittoria Pit Stop

I got this tip from cagey veteran Duncan Thomas. Vittoria Pit Stop seals punctures and inflates all in one step, eliminating the need to carry a spare tube or sewup during a race. This is great for me since I have found it near impossible to remove a flatted sewup from my race wheel during the heat of competition. Both a time and weight saver. Can't beat that!

Big Cookie Award

I decided to create a new award for Wildflower for those foolish enough to big ring it all the way thru the bike. And the winner is ... Me!

Big Ring Madness

My finely tuned machine was as tuned as I expected when I found I couldn't shift from my little ring to the big ring without getting off the bike and using the old finger shifter. After climbing beach hill at yesterday's Wildflower long course I decided to see if I could big ring it thru the entire bike. There were times I thought I was really doing some damage to myself, but I managed to finish and hobble thru the run. Next time given a choice I think I stick with the little ring.

Ready for Battle

I think I set a record for most accessories attached to a race bike.

Off to Wildflower I Go!

Off to the Wildflower Triathlon tomorrow . Wildflower was my first triathlon in the early 90's. That is when the long course had a whopping 300 entries! Over the years it has grown to be one of the largest triathlons ever. It has lost much of the appeal for me and I have not competed for several years. Duncan Thomas talked me into it this year. I've raced Wildflower when I've been in tremendous shape and have really suffered. Today, not so fit, so I can only surmise it is going to be utterly ghastly. Pray for me.

Eat Well

"You eat like you are on chemotherapy!" That's what Ellen always tells me, probably due to my penchant for pounding down a liquid meal or eating some sort of bar in lieu of eating real food. So in an attempt to improve my diet, I am now under the care of Besty Markle of Sunshine Wellness. I'll let you know how it's going.

George Costanza Cyclist

Not everybody knows George Costanza is an avid cyclist. Fortunately he was packing his wallet on his last ride. I saw this new story in today's LA Times:



Wallet Protects Cyclist in Drive by Shooting

A bullet fired at a man riding in South L.A. is deflected, but a second cyclist is fatally shot.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:28 PM PDT, April 29, 2008

A wallet in a man's back pocket shielded him from injury early this morning in a drive-by shooting in South Los Angeles that left a 37-year-old man dead, authorities said today.

The uninjured man, whose name and age have not been released, was riding a bicycle alongside Travon Lee Gentry, in the 200 block of East 52nd Street about 1:40 a.m. when a blue Chevy Malibu pulled up alongside them and two men inside began shooting, said Los Angeles police spokesman Richard French.

Gentry was shot in the back and neck and died at the scene, Los Angeles County Coroner's Capt. Ed Winter said.

The other man was shot in the buttocks, but his wallet stopped the bullet, French said. Authorities did not immediately have further details about the type of wallet or how it deflected the shot.

No arrests had been made this morning in connection with the shooting, and police had not released descriptions of the gunmen.

Oklahoma!

Fred M. recently flew to Oklahoma, picked up a new BMW, then drove pretty much non stop back to SB. That reminded me of a website, If Celebs Moved to Oklahoma.
I thought it was pretty funny.

Long Hot One

We've been having a bit of a heat wave in SB over the past few days so for today's bike ride I chose between the cool breeze of coastal ride or head up into the hills of un-godly temperatures. I ridiculously chose the later and suffered plenty. Here's a pic from the ride in honor of next weeks Wildflower triathlon.

The Chuck

I really enjoy reading Chuckie V's blog. His training is very scientific. A lot of adaptation, sub threshold, threshold, lactate tests... All sort of stuff I don't do. My training has been a bit willy-nilly. I blame that mostly on work and life in general, and perhaps a tad of just being lazy. So now I live vicariously thru Chuckie, thinking yes, I could do that too. But then again, being willy-nilly has advantages too.

The Summit

The Summit is on top of the Ojai Valley or coming from the other direction, Santa Paula. From Santa Barbara it is a great ride up the Casitas Pass, thru Ojai, up the Dennison Grade to the Summit. You can then drop down a nine mile descent to Santa Paula and then on to Ventura and back home for about a 100 mile loop. I turned around at the Summit, discouraged I wasn't able to get my double cheeseburger and fries.

Daily Observation

Have you ever noticed that guys who ride recumbent bicycles all have beards and are probably engineers?
Mike T. once told me during a Lance Armstrong press conference a gentleman asked Lance why he didn't ride a recumbent bicycle in the TDF. Lance politely answered the question. Mike didn't say whether the questioner was bearded or not.

Ironman SUP

Here's Paula Newby Frasier leading out the swimmers at last weeks Ironman Arizona. Everybody's getting into SUP. I heard its Scott Tinley's new sport. I guess its the new thing for beat up old triathletes

Reality Check

As I struggled thru last nights track workout I came to the terrifying reality that Wildflower is a mere two weeks away. This morning at Masters swim workout, Duncan Thomas was bemoaning how out of shape he is for Wildflower. Of course, Duncan, who is a freak, will breeze thru the race, easily winning his age group, while I'll be curled up under some bush half way thru the run.
Last night's track strugglefest: 10 x 800 @ 3:15

Busted!?

Buster Martin pauses for a smoke half way through the London Marathon. Buster finished the marathon in a little over 10 hours however there is a bit of controversy. Apparently race officials say Buster is actually 94, not 101 as he claims. Never the less, that is still pretty incredible. Just like Vic.

Mr. Incredible

While I was cruising around this weekend doing a little biking and running, my buddy, Vic Britalan, easily won his age group at IM Arizona. So now Vic qualifies for Hawaii for an amazing 11 times in a row. Incredible!

Good Luck at Boston

This is dedicated to my friend, John Nelson, who will be running Boston this week.

Another Brick in the Wall

I've been taking a liking to heading out to the Valley for my major workouts . Today, my first brick, cycled 70, ran 9 miles. It was also the first warm day of any note so heading out for my run in 80 degree weather was a bit refreshing. Tomorrow is the London Marathon. I'll be pulling for my friend Buster Martin to finish.

Way cool

Check this out from the Honolulu Advertiser. I'm heading over to the Big Island in June for the Honu Half Ironman but I think this looks way more fun.

Squeaky Wheels

One thing I've noticed as I have gotten older is my legs have become two squeaky old rusty pegs. Maybe I need to drink more water or do yoga. But I find yoga is so damn boring.

Shadow Divers

Another book that shows you are not as tough as you think you are and getting the bends sucks big time.

Picture Perfect

Ellen asked me the other day what the heck I think about when I'm riding my bike all day. I told her I take pictures. I guess this shows the level of intensity of my rides lately. Here's one from Drum Canyon.

Big Valley

It was off to the the S.Y. Valley today. I wanted to see if I was fit enough to ride 100 which was probably a bit delusional. I finished, which is all I have to say about that.

Top of the World

Or at least Santa Barbara. It was foggy all day in SB, but bright and sunny on top of La Cumbre Peak. Great ride today.

We are people too

Funny Nike SB commercial - Watch more free videos

Question of the day

How many people would have an Ironman tattoo if you also had to tattoo your finishing time? Brian Cook and I often ponder this question and have decided this is the ultimate in geekyness. Enjoy your Ironman, but please, no tattoos.
Last night at the track: 4x1 mile @ 6:36

Be Like Mike

No not that Mike, I'm talking about Mike Smith. Smitty raced as a pro triathlete in the early 90's and all these years later shows he still has it by winning overall at this past weekend's UCSB Triathlon. I asked him after the race how he keeps motivated. "I love triathlons. I'll do this forever. It's in my blood."