Saturday, May 31, 2008

Training Focus

Partly out of necessity, partly as a result of experience, I'm not competing in any "B" races this year. I don't enjoy racing in less than peak fitness. The "B" races feel like lost training opportunities.

Instead of racing, I'm focusing my energy solely on getting faster through training. On Tuesday I leave for training camp in Lake Placid. My time there and the following week of recovery will be very telling. I'm planning about 375 miles of cycling in 4-days. I really want to bust through to a new cycling fitness plateau.

I'm pondering Ironman again. I feel great and my training metrics are showing solid improvement.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Got the Nerve Triathlon


Nice photo of about 3/4 of our tri team this morning. I did not race, but provided support to other athletes. I'm in the midst of week #1 of my race specific program that ends in early September. My training jumped quickly from 7-1/2 hours per week to 13-hours. A lot of 4:30 am wake-up calls this week! So far so good!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Ugliness in Competition

I've tried to avoid using my blogging as a venue for spewing negativity, but tonight's baseball game was another example of why competitively-minded adults should keep physically active with competitive outlets of their OWN. Read: NOT USING THEIR CHILDREN FOR SATIATING THEIR COMPETITIVENESS.

In the past two weeks, I've personally observed the following-

A 12 & under baseball team picked up players from another team and inserted them in their line-up to humiliate an opponent they classify as a rival...

In that same game, said team was up 12 - 0 in their last at bat and the coaches gave the steal sign. I guess they wanted to reach the teens. Maybe someone had a bet to fulfill...

A 10 & under team, losing to their "arch rival," tried to sneak a better hitter to the plate out of order...

In that same 10 & under game, an otherwise well respected dad publicly melted down on his son for making two errors in the same inning. It was very loud and very embarrassing. The boy is 10-years old...

Parents.... COACHES... Get a hold of yourselves! You're an embarrassment to your kids and not doing them any favors.