And the weakly "damage" is:

With today and yesterday being an off day and with the dust having cleared, the body finally recovering and the bike safe and sound (but not happy) on the trainer: here is the weekly damage: (You can see all the details on TP if you want to be a nerd):

            Total Training Hours 1/21-1/25: 25 hours

            Swimming: 7:45/24,276 yard

            Biking: 11:40/210 miles

            Running: 4:05/35.4 miles

Strength (not including yoga): 1:15 (2 TRX sessions and 1 extra core) (2 hours if you include yoga and foam roller)

           

(note does not inlcude last Sunday's 5hr ride

Weight at beginning: 127.0 End: 125.2

Body Fat Percentage: 3% End: 2.5%

Heart Rate Variability at End: 100 (shows I recovered!)

Approximate TSS:1400 (this may be higher or lower if I had worn my garmin in the pool and if my HR monitor had been working properly)

Some caloric highlights worth noting between Mary and myself (mostly me)—this is by no means all that we ate but some pretty impressive stats that we racked up. We should get some TSS points for this one.

·       1.5 tins of coffee which equals a lot of caffeine and a lot of cups

·       40 decaf green tea bags, we drank it pretty weak so this was a lot.

·       2 bags of sweet potatoes

·       3 tubes of Nuun, and two tubes of Gu Brew

·       1 bag of raw almonds

·       4 bags and two lb tubs of spinach

·       2 spaghetti squashes and 1 butternut squash

·       3 bags of frozen broccoli,

·       5 cartons of Almond milk

·       1 tub of Protein powder

·       2 bags of baby carrots 

·       3 bags of avocados

·       36 eggs

Other stats worth a peak at:

·       4 loads of laundry

·       6 days of awesomeness

·       .5 wicked tan

·       0 regrets 

I am from the the school of hard knocks...

We kind of look alike

One of the many “helmets” that I wear working at Bonzai Sports, Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland’s oldest and best triathlon store (shameless sponsor plug there), is bike fitter. When you buy a bike from Bonzai, you are entitled if you want to get a free bike fit with me (Lucky you!). While I don’t have an official degree or certification in bike fitting, I would say that I am more than qualified for the job. People almost always ask what fit school I follow or went to. I tell them that I graduated from the “school of hard knocks.” Well, I do not really tell them that, but what I mean is that regardless of the fitter, regardless of the school, regardless of the “optimal angles,” how much you spend on the bike, the fit and the components, the best fitters are you, the rider, and experience. 

People come into the fit with high expectations. Some think that a fit will instantly add on 50 watts to their FTP and that all their post ride soreness will evaporate, but honestly, it will not. A bike fit will help but it will not make everything perfect. In fact there is no such thing as a perfect bike fit. I myself can testify to this. I got my bike fit done two years ago a few months before Eagleman. Yes, it was stupid to get a fit fairly close to my “A” race but that’s not the point of this little parable. Anyway, I went to my local bike shop and shelled out a cool, crisp $300 to get a fit with the best bike fitter in the area (Note my fits are only $150—last shameless plug I promise). My bike fit pretty well already without any problems, quirks, but I had read in Triathlete Magazine that all the pros had their bikes fit so damn it I should too. I spent a good two hours with Paul, the bike fitter, talking about my previous injuries, looking at my proportions (inseam, hip, balance, etc), taking measurements and then finally getting on the bike and riding. He aligned my angles perfectly and made a few minor tweaks and adjustments here and there. Overall he moved the seat post two millimeters up, the saddle back  three mm and then moved my cockpit down one and a half spacers.  On my next ride, I felt like a million dollars—for the first 10 minutes. After that I started to get a bit uncomfortable. My back began to ache, neck felt strained, and my butt began to tighten up. By hour three, I could not go on any longer. I called up Paul, to see if we could have another appointment, but he assured me Paul that it would take some time to adjust so I spent the next six weeks riding as much as I could but the same thing would happen. I knew I would never last in the race if this continued.

With a few days to go, I finally decided to void the certified fit and tweak my position myself. I lowered the seat down a millimeter, kept the spacer in place, and angled the seat back up a bit more. On the next ride, I felt much better but I tweaked my fit some more and then a bit more. Finally by race day, I had the perfect fit. Yes the angles were not text book perfect nor was the fit an official fit from “F.I.S.T” or Specialized or Guru or whatever school Paul had attended to become certified, but my fit received a better certification from the “school of hard knocks.”

While a fit in a fit room with a certified or even uncertified fitter will get you an approximate the right fit, but the only way to get the best fit is to ride, learn, test, and keep an open mind to change, even then though it will never be absolutely “perfect.” To be honest, it never will be, but that does not mean you should not strive for that perfection. Just keep in mind that it is impossible. By recognizing this paradox of striving for a goal that can never be attained, you free yourself from the torment of focusing on the negatives and instead refocus and embrace the journey towards perfection. Professa’ E.X Perience taught be this in his class at the school of hard knocks. He is I think the best fitter you can have, but that is my two watts. 

On the road less traveled

And on the seventh day, I rested (actually my coach is forcing me to rest for the next three days. I think I may need to go on Prozac since I am already getting antsy. I am sure God/whatever high power floats your boat rested a few days after the creation too). These past six days at my first annual “Beach Body Base camp” have been extremely exhausting but at the same time absolute heaven. People say that I am crazy (most likely am) when I tell them that my idea of a vacation is to fly out into the middle of the desert and do nothing but train for six days. However, that really is my dream. For me this week was more than about having some fun in Vegas and training a bunch; it was about testing my limits, and whether I honestly wanted to pursue this type of lifestyle or is it just a pipe dream.

One of the many pitfalls of any athlete who wants to go pro is that, once they begin to do it full time, it becomes a job. The sport then loses all of its fun, and the athlete begins to regard training and competing as obligations. Obligations inherently come with external and internal pressure to perform, which further leaches any enjoyment that the athlete might have left.  I like to call this the “Tom Sawyer” or “White Picket Fence” effect after the scene in Mark Twain’s classic “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in which Tom tricks all of his friends into doing his punitive chore of white washing his Aunt’s picket fence by telling them it would be fun, turning a job into something coveted. Anyway I digress.

While this past week may not have been a true test of the pro life, it was pretty close especially with regards to training. Pros train a good deal with some (especially the younger ones who need the base work) doing upwards of 20-30 hours a week. Swim practice every morning, followed by a morning bike or run session and then another workout in the afternoon would leave anybody drained of energy, but pro triathletes do it and not only do they do it, they wake up the next morning and do it again and then again. More importantly though, they enjoy it or I hope they do.

Like any job in which the risks are high, the pay is low, and the proper recognition almost non existent (think teachers, fire and police men and woman, ministers, social workers, and civil servants among a multitude of others), you really have to enjoy and feel fulfilled in what you are doing to carry on that lifestyle. It requires a “vocation.”  Being the son of two ministers, an occupation that ranks as one of the lowest paid in the US, I hear a lot about vocation and discernment. Ministers do not go into the ministry lightly but truly have to be called into the profession; they are not in it for the money. My parents have seen many a candidate have their passion fizzle out quicker than Pete Jacob’s T2 split, when he/she encounters the daily difficulties of the job. If, however, that occupational passion not only stays alive when exposed to the occupational reality but actually increases, then you know you have a calling. After this week, I think I am a few swim strokes, pedal rotations, and Brooks-shoe-clad steps closer to finding that calling.

I recognize that a huge majority of pros have and need jobs outside of being pro triathletes. I wish and they do too that they didn’t have to deal with the stress of yet another occupation outside of training and racing, but this is the hard reality of our under-funded and often overlooked sport. (I fell like this is slowly changing but that’s for another future post). Only the extremely good triathletes—like the top 1-2%—can train all the time without another job and even they had to spend years of doing two jobs to get there. This past week therefore was a taste of the “uber pro life” but a taste nevertheless and one that I want more of. Even if I go pro this year, I most likely will have many years ahead of me before I can get to the point where I can live off my sponsorships and purse prizes. However, this week has given me a peak into that life and given me the motivation and drive to want to live it. I now know partially what I am getting into and my passion is still very much a flame.

Happy (s)miles!

Welcome to the good life… After an intense 45 minutes of yoga, followed by my trademark corkscrew abs circuit, and the foam roller, day two and three are now in the books, and I am getting used to this “pro” life. I will not bore you with the details about the specifics of my workouts because that would just be so typical wanna-be-pro triathlete blogger move but instead the top three things that I have learned thus far so that hopefully you can sit back, reflect, and then think to yourself: either “this kid is full of shit” and/or “just blow it out your ass Hague” (to quote Blazing Saddles, one of the best comedies ever) 1) Stress kills workouts: According to the CDC is the number one killer of triathletes and their workouts. My major problem as an athlete is that I think too much. I over analyze everything: what my wattage is; my heart rate; my pace; whether I am doing it enough; whether I am training too much; my swim form; my nutrition; my weight; my body image; so pretty much everything. This really destroys my motivation, my workouts, and my training. However, this week, I have tried my best to shut my mind off and be relatively stress-free week (at least mentally, physically definitely not). Instead of knowing my swim workouts ahead of time, my coach is giving them to me the moment we hop in and as we are doing the workout. I therefore focus not on what is ahead but what I am doing right then. I am also not wearing a watch and going off effort. Liberation! I love geeking out on data and analyzing my workouts after the fact but during, its better for certain workouts to just listen to my body. (note for some workouts that are HR and/or wattage specific I am not tossing away my Garmin anytime soon).People say that the main difference between pros and amateurs besides pros being genetic freaks, is that they have more time to recover from workouts. While I disagree with this since the majority of pros hold full time stressful jobs not to mention families, pros I think know how to deal with stress, and their good management and control of this stress sets them apart 2) I have an appetite of a 250lbs lumberjack: With all this training, I am working up an appetite. I am pounding down the food but still am hungry. However, I am fueling with quality foods. Our kitchen here is stocked with plenty of dark leafy greens, avocado, fresh salsa, sweet potatoes, squash, lean protein (cottage cheese, sardines, chicken breast, organic sprouted tofu), and no refined carbs, which is odd for many athletes. I have found that this diet cleanse has helped me recover from morning workouts before mid day and evening sessions. I am not focusing on the quantity of the calories as much as I am the quality. Regardless, with all this training I need to fuel properly. If I don’t, then this ship is sunk. 3) Plans can and should change: Workout schedules are not set in stone. If they need to change then they need to change and that is fine. This week, I had some high expectations for myself and what workouts were on each day, but many of these workouts have changed. We have moved swims, bumped bike rides, added runs, and changed the intensity based on how we were feeling. This flexibility makes life and training so much more enjoyable than stressing out on the myth that I “should do this” or I “absolutely need to do” A few other things that I have learned: 1) Hummus and mashed cauliflower is awesome 2) Drink water during swim workouts 3) I have a small obsession with Felt bikes 4) I need to do more yoga 5) Always bring an extra water bottle in your bag wherever you go 6) Henderson, NV is an ideal training environment Well its almost 8pm which means its bed time. I think I may be going to be earlier than the old folks living next to us. I hope you have had many (s)miles today!

After an intense 45 minutes of yoga, followed by my trademark corkscrew abs circuit, and the foam roller (all of which were harder than the double swim), day two and three are now in the books, and I am getting used to this “pro” life. I will not bore you with the details about the specifics of my workouts because that would just be such a typical wanna-be-pro triathlete blogger move. Instead, I will bore you with the top three things that I have learned thus far so that hopefully you can sit back, reflect, and then think to yourself: “this kid is full of shit” and/or “just blow it out your ass Hague” (to quote Blazing Saddles, one of the best comedies ever)

1)                 Stress kills workouts: According to the CDC is the number one killer of triathletes and their workouts. My major problem as an athlete is that I think too much. I overanalyze everything: what my wattage is; my heart rate; my pace; whether I am doing it enough; whether I am training too much; my swim form; my nutrition; my weight; my body image; so pretty much everything. This really destroys my motivation, my workouts, and my training. However, this week, I have tried my best to shut my mind off and be relatively stress-free (at least mentally, definitely not physically). Instead of knowing my swim workouts ahead of time, my coach is giving them to me the moment we hop in and as we are doing the workout. I therefore focus not on what is ahead but what I am doing right then. I am also not wearing a watch and going off effort. Liberation! I love geeking out on data and analyzing my workouts after the fact but during, its better for certain workouts to just listen to my body.  (note for some workouts that are HR and/or wattage specific I am not tossing away my Garmin anytime soon).People say that the main difference between pros and amateurs besides pros being genetic freaks, is that they have more time to recover from workouts. While I disagree with this since the majority of pros hold full time stressful jobs not to mention families, pros I think know how to deal with stress, and their good management and control of this stress sets them apart

2)                    I have an appetite of a 250lbs lumberjack: With all this training, I am working up an appetite. I am pounding down the food but still am hungry. However, I am fueling with quality foods. Our kitchen here is stocked with plenty of dark leafy greens, avocado, fresh salsa, sweet potatoes, squash, lean protein (cottage cheese, sardines, chicken breast, organic sprouted tofu), and no refined carbs, which is odd for many athletes. I have found that this diet cleanse has helped me recover from morning workouts before mid day and evening sessions. I am not focusing on the quantity of the calories as much as I am the quality. Regardless, with all this training I need to fuel properly. If I don’t, then this ship is sunk.

3)                    Plans can and should change: Workout schedules are not set in stone. If they need to change then they need to change and that is fine. This week, I had some high expectations for myself and what workouts were on each day, but many of these workouts have changed. We have moved swims, bumped bike rides, added runs, and changed the intensity based on how we were feeling. This flexibility makes life and training so much more enjoyable than stressing out on the myth that I “should do this” or I “absolutely need to do”

A few other things that I have learned:

1)                    Hummus and mashed cauliflower is awesome

2)                    Drink water during swim workouts

3)                    I have a rather large cottage cheese addicition (if its good enough for Dave Scott, damn it its good enough for me)

4)                    I need to do more yoga 

5)                    Justin Beiber and LT intervals go hand in hand

6)                    Henderson, NV is an ideal training environment

Well its almost 8pm which means its bed time. I think I may be going to be earlier than the old folks living next to us.

I hope you have had many (s)miles today!

What's in a Name

Warning: This post is incredibly long and potentially boring. Please proceed with caution! You may not want to read before operating heavy machinery or driving. It may be best to read when suffering from insomnia. 

So if you read one of my previous posts/rant about training gear, you know that I got a new bike, and let me tell you it was well worth it! I am the type of guy who has buyers remorse over groceries, but with this bike, there were and are no regrets. In fact, I have never had buyers remorse over any of my bikes. Maybe because I know I did my research, maybe because I know I will put it to very good use, or maybe because I just love bikes, but I knew it was the right and best choice.

This will be my sixth racing bike to date and evolutionarily, it is by far the best. I have to admit though that I am one of “those triathletes” who has to name his bikes. Jokes aside (like “I rode [insert typical name like Jessica or Tony] all day long”) naming my bike has a deeper meaning for me. Similar to how parents name their kids to carry on a tradition (such as family names), honor a person (Jefferson, Robert, Caesar, Jesus) or to represent an idea or emotion (think Hope, Desire, Deloris etc.), my choice of bike names is highly symbolic.

Like all triathletes or at least most of us who do not have trust funds or hit the lottery, my first bike was a bike that I bought off craigslist in 2006 when I was training for my first triathlon with Team In Training. It was a 2001 Jamis Ventura, 100% steel (their last steel model), cherry apple red, Shimano 105 components, SPD pedals and a pair clip on of carbon alloy aerobars.  Although it was far inferior to almost every bike on the road, I felt like Mark Allen when I saddled up.  Being my first bike and the fact that it was rather old and slightly rusty, I named him Priam after the old king on Troy (I told you I was a classics nerd). Priam carried me through many miles and through all 56 miles of my first race without a single mishap. After I completed that first race I was hooked on triathlon so wanted to upgrade to a real tri bike.   As a high school graduation gift my parents scraped together a couple pennies and bought me an Orbea off eBay. I am not sure the exact model or year because the online seller did not provide it, but I do remember that it was one fast machine. Although it never quite fit right nor shifted properly, this bike made me feel like a real triathlete. With my TT bars, and the cut out on the seat post, there was no stopping me. I still kept Priam but it never got the attention it once did. Since I felt like the my new bike had “killed” Priam (NB to prevent the barrage of emails from Classicist and nerd out there: Achilles did not kill Priam but his son did), I named my new bike Achilles. This name also provided me with mental motivation. Like the great hero himself, I had to realize that no matter how good I got, everyone has a weakness. Moreover, I should always keep my ego and anger in check. While training and racing I would look down at the name Achilles written on a piece of tape that I had put on the handle bars and remember to keep things under control. When I had to put triathlons on the back burner I sold Achilles to another person on Craigslist. It broke my heart to do it, but I had to move on. However, I immediately started saving up for my next bike.

I watched the bicycling industry carefully but no bikes caught my eye. Then one day in my junior year, I saw her online: the Felt AR4. It was one of the first aero road bikes on the market and I loved it. From the Green accents on the 100% carbon fiber frame to the slick Ultegra components everything screamed fast to me.  I immediately called up the “local” bike store in Nashville and bought it. Oh the miles I put on that bike both on the road and on the trainer. I rode that bike almost everyday even if it was just around campus before bed. Whenever I finished a ride, I would immediately clean it and oil the chain. It was not a true TT bike but I still felt like a pro. For me this was bike marked a “rebirth” in my training and racing career as well as a change in my mental attitude towards life in general. I wanted to get back into triathlons but not for the same reasons that I started. Now that my weight was stable, my depression in remission, and my anorexic habits finally coming to a close, my training focus was on improving myself. I saw my journey before me even though I did not (and still don’t) know the way entirely. I therefore named the bike “Lotus” the symbol of rebirth and rejuvenation in western Buddhist culture.

When I moved to New Haven to do my psychology internship at Yale, I started to consider getting a tri bike. My new coach there recommended a great shop that I decided to pop into one Saturday just to “poke around.” Little did I know that I would walk out with another bike, a Felt B16. This bike was almost a mere twin of Lotus, but a TT bike. Same color scheme, components, and style. I loved both bikes equally and it was always a struggle on which bike to ride. I felt like a parent torn at which child was my favorite—and like a parent, I did not have an answer. I liked both equally. I was not sure what to name my new bike but during a training ride, it came to me: Karma. Karma symbolized my general life philosophy and especially about my training.

The general principle of Karma is that what ever you do as an impact on what you will do next. In the traditional sense, what you do in this life will determine your next life. By naming my bike Karma though I am taking the more western psychological approach. Everything that you do has an influence on your next action and thought. For example, if we nurture positive thoughts and attitudes, then you are more likely to have a positive outlook in the future. This principle also applies to training: if we put in junk miles we will get junk result, but if we put in quality training we will get quality results. Karma also carries undertones of cyclicality (pun in tended considering it’s a bicycle). Everything comes full circle. Your pedals rotate in a cycle and so does life and training. Everything is constantly changing and shifting (like your on your bike). The world breaks down then rebuilds itself like our muscles do.

Similar to how each of my previous bikes marked a new chapter in my life, my new bike marks my next step in my “journey.” It is incredibly corny to say but triathlon is no longer a hobby for me but a lifestyle. It influences every other part of my life from my occupation and hopefully pro athlete in a few years, nutrition, social life, my psychological mindset, and my physiology. When I got my new bike, I therefore decided almost instantly on “Dharma” (and no, not after the TV show character). In the traditional, Buddhist sense, Dharma carries with it the ideas of life style and laws that we live by. I live by a “triathlon code of living.”

So I have gone on too long right now so if you made it through the whole post, you have some extreme mental endurance! Whether you name your bike or not, love it like a child and every time “you ride her/him” hard, think about where it has taken you and where it will lead you next on this life journey, but that’s just my two watts.  

Beach Body Base Camp Day 1

"Beach Body" Base Camp: Day 1!

The beach Body Base Camp has officially begun! Mary and I got in and connected last night at the airport. Fortunately my bike made it alright. The TSA gorillas unpacked it and did not pack it up properly so it got two small scratches that are barely noticeable so no worries there. Anyway, after a quick dinner and shopping trip to the land of milk and honey known as Whole Foods, we checked into our rented condo and immediately crashed. It is one sweet set up to say the least. 

Being Day 1, this morning was all about setting a base line. Being the tech/tri geek that I am, we took some body fat analysis stats using my bodyview scan, a nifty little ultrasound device that is far more accurate than the typical calipers. 

Here are the results: 

The yellow section is the depth of my fat in mm then the red zone is muscle. Overall 3% so where I have been for a while. Tracking this is not a huge priority nor a stress, but I do it because I like to keep an eye on it and geek out on the data.

Rocking the W!

We then set off on our first training ride of the camp! We set the bar high for the first workout:  5 hr ride with 6x30 minutes at race pace and 10 minutes recovery. Since we are condo is right on the Championship course we warmed up over to Lake Meade Park and then went straight into the intervals. The new bike exceeded my expectations and I cruised through all my intervals with the perfect weather conditions, great sun, and the cool temps, it was hard not to rock it. I don't think I stopped smiling the whole way. This was not only my first ride on my new bike it was my first ride outside in too long of a time. It is amazing how much easier it is to do this workout, which I have done several times, outside compared to in. The time seems to slip away. I did just under 90 miles,
holding about 270 watts for race pace work. Unfortunatley my HR monitor died into the second interval so I had to go off power and effort for the rest of the ride. You can check out the TP log for full data but thats just down right boring.



After the ride, we were both starving so we immediately hit up Whole Foods for a celebratory lunch, after which we dashed off to Trader Joes to stock up on groceries:

 Nothing but high octane fuel and with the exception of the tomato sauce all on the perimeter of the store. I avoided the cereal aisle like the plague. It really is the aisle of temptation. 

Since the pool was closed today, we rounded off the day with some yoga and core work and then a delicious dinner of spaghetti squash, mushrooms, spinach, chicken, and tomato sauce. Absolutely "scrum-diddly-uptious" to quote Charlie and the Chocolate factory!

Alright, day one is complete and in the books and I better hit the sack. Day 2 will only be better!

Plenty of (s)miles!