I got lucky while flipping through the channels tonight and came across Insider Training on Fit TV. The episode tonight just happened to be all about Triathlete training with Lokelani McMichael and others. If you can catch this program, I highly recommend it. I know not everyone is hip to the doing a triathlon, at least not yet, but there were tons of tips and tricks that can be incorporated into your Livestrong Challenge training. An example is the tip of taking your resting heart rate each morning. Naturally your heart rate will vary 4-5 beats each day but if you’re seeing 5-10 beats difference it means that you haven’t recovered completely from the day before or you may be on the first steps of getting sick. Another tip was in swimming to use your legs sparingly since you’ll be doing cycling and running the rest of the race. There was plenty of really valuable tips in the show and I only wish I had caught it earlier. Ill be looking for a rebroadcast myself to catch the first 20 minutes I missed.

Today was a hour on the trainer which was 16.12 miles and yesterday was a run of 3.47 miles.

It was a nice, long, relaxing birthday weekend with bouts of beer involved.  As far as birthday’s could go it was tame but it was good in that monotony.  Basically it was a weekend of poker, which I sucked out another win, a few beers out with friends, and a round of golf.  The golf ended up being way more expensive than we expected due to the course moving the twilight rates later, luckily the poker winnings which would’ve covered the week’s expenses was just enough to cover the round.  An upside was I shaved 13 strokes off the last time I played.  While that sounds good Im still three strokes over 100 so its not too impressive.  Golf can be a fun or frustrating game depending on how serious you wanna take it.  It would’ve been better to have walked the course but with the heat I cant complain about having the cart.

Nothing compares to last years birthday present of the Carolina Hurricanes bringing home the Stanley Cup four days before the 23rd though.  After going to every game of every series, except Game 2 against Montreal, it was a good month.  I have no worries they’ll pull it out for me again sometime soon since they’re currently averaging a trip to the finals every 5 years.

This week will be back to training mode, starting with a four mile run and then soccer tonight.  Usually I don’t run on soccer days but Zack was telling me that he’s been doing it and it doesn’t wear him out to bad.  So I’ll try it out and see how it goes, since we’ve got subs again finally I can get off the field if I get too tired.

Its been a quiet week with the posts.  With the wedding, work, and my final exam for the first summer session there really hasn’t been any time to do much and thus not much to report.  There were plenty of races to choose from around the fourth of July weekend coming up but I decided on the Wilmington Tri Span 10K.  Zack did this race last year and asked if I wanted to run it with him.  According to him its a really fun race and goes across the Wilmington bridges and around the battleship.  A side advantage is that after the race we’ll take some kayaks out onto the sound and wander around for a few hours.  It should be fun and a relaxing weekend.  There was a triathlon the same weekend but its in a local lake that I’ve heard horror stories about due to pollution for years now.  While I’m sure its fine based on the fact they’re still having the race there it’s kind of hard to get past those rumors.

It seems to be a pretty popular opinion from those I’ve talked to that its great to run after it rains because it feels so much better outside and everything is cooled off.  I’d have to break with tradition though and say that 90% of the time I really dislike running after rains.  The humidity is so much higher it makes me feel like I cant get a deep breath while Im running which makes the whole effort uncomfortable.  Such was the case yesterday when I had to put in my 45 minute run which ended up being about 5.3 miles total.  My average pace was pretty slow which I attribute to the humidity and more likely the Moe’s burrito.  Those things are like crack and I have to have at least one a week.  Maybe someday Ill get to a point where I can get a sponsorship from them and get some free ones.  How nice would that be?  Then again I’d have to win something first.

Today was supposed to be a 2.5 hour bike ride but I dont have the time to squeeze it in.  I need to catch up on some work, pick up my tux for a wedding this weekend, buy a wedding present for the same wedding, and then go out to eat with my dad whose in town.  I did knock out a quick 30 minutes on the trainer for a little over eight miles before I sat down to get some work done.  Not the same as what I was supposed to knock out but its always better to do something than nothing.

Swimming is out of the picture this week with my back issues.  I want to make sure I give it time to heal up before hitting the pool again.  I hate the fact it’s keeping me out of the pool because swimming is still a major issue to me, or at least I feel like it is.  The flip side is my back isn’t cutting into my Livestrong Challenge training, only the half-Ironman training.

The Livestrong Challenge routes for this year are up on LivestrongChallenge.org. Unfortunately there aren’t any maps yet but the route has a short description. This year the Austin route has changed, since I haven’t ridden the others I have no idea if they’re the same or not.

Austin Route Description

The 2007 LIVESTRONG Challenge Austin will see the ride move out west to start and finish in Dripping Springs, Lance Armstrong’s training grounds. Dripping Springs is a quiet, picturesque community 20 miles from the Austin city limits and is commonly referred to as the ‘Gateway to the Hill Country’. Dripping Springs terrain lends itself to any cyclist who wants to enjoy a quiet, challenging ride that encompasses everything the Hill Country is known for: Texas Ranches, rolling hills, riverfront views, whitetail deer and quintessential Texas Longhorns.

The course departs out of Dripping Springs High School, and the beauty of the ride is immediately evident. The 70 and 100-mile courses head southeast towards the quaint town of Wimberley nestled along the Blanco River where the shaded roads and riverfront view is the ideal place for riding. 100-mile riders then head due west towards the town of Fisher and northwest traversing the town of Blanco. The course then turns back towards Dripping Springs for the Post Event Party.

Overall, all the course distances for the Austin Challenge encompass moderate to difficult terrain with some steep climbs. The long course will ascend a total of 6,000 ft. before finishing back in Dripping Springs. Ride and 5K course maps, profiles and logs will be placed on the website soon.
*All courses subject to change.

http://www.livestrong.org/site/c.khLXK1PxHmF/b.2793351/k.8468/Austin_Route_Description.htm

I’m a little torn about the Austin change. I liked the old course which I’ve ridden for two years now but I like the idea that I’ll get to see and ride somewhere new this year. The fact that its “Lance Armstrong’s Training Grounds” is kinda cool, knowing that you’re riding in the tracks of a Tour winner. The flipside is that I doubt he rides an easy route. The description makes it sound as if we’ll hit the hills a lot earlier, where with the old route it was 30 miles in. Since I knew the route last year I was able to determine whether to do the 70 mile or 100 mile version when I got to the split because my knee was bothering me so much. With the new course I’ll have no such option because I wont know which distance is harder regardless of the distance.

In the end I don’t expect the unknown to matter too much because with my half-Ironman training Ill have trained more this year than any other so my knee shouldn’t blow up and 100 miles should be an easy ride this time.  Then again any ride that will “ascend 6000 ft” is not going to be easy.