Pocono 70.3 and IMFL

A little over two weeks ago, I made a last minute decision to race Pocono 70.3 in upstate PA. It was last minute only because I was trying to apply a lesson learned from IMTX. Following Texas, I put in a couple races early in the summer, but neither panned out to much. I just simply didn't recover very quickly from Texas. I'm not exactly sure why, but it seemed to be a consistent feeling among a few other finishers I spoke with. The heat, concrete run, etc just added up to a little longer recovery time. ANYWAY, I opted not to commit to any race following Louisville unless my training gave me positive feedback. I decided that the training was 'good enough' post-Lou to give the race a try and I flew off to Philadelphia.

Unfortunately the race had to cancel the swim two days out from the event. Apparently the river was too high following their constant rainfall and was deemed unsafe to swim in. I'm not sure what the river usually looks like, but the current was MOVING and it would definitely make for an interesting swim since the course is not entirely down current.

As a result, we had to do a bike/run TT start with 30 seconds staggered between each professional. Aside from the flooded river, we also had cold temperatures and wet roads. I was wearing a skinsuit, bike jersey, arm warmers, tall socks, toe covers, and full-fingered gloves. And at no point was I too warm.

I was one of the last athletes to go off so I was going to have to chase from the get go. The bike course was very hilly, technical and challenging and I felt this would play to my favor. As the race got going, I settled into a nice rhythm and I thought things were going pretty well as I moved through the first 20 miles of the course. However, I really didn't have the gearing for some of the steep hills and I was getting pretty worked as I climbed these short, steep grades over and over again. At any rate, I had caught up with two athletes and the three of us were moving along the course trying to catch as many other athletes as possible.

Unfortunately at the 60K point I could tell my front tire was going flat and I had to pull off and make a change. I got the tired off, replaced and inflated in about five minutes and got back out onto the course. Stopping for that long had really stiffened me up with the cold weather and I lost some mental mojo now that I was riding along solo again (and lost a lot of time). I also blew through a turn at one point and lost a little more time. I was starting to race fairly sloppy, but as I approached T2 I got a second wind because, if nothing else, I wanted to try and run a fast split off the bike.

The run start with a pretty convoluted first mile, but then we went out onto the meat of the course. Once again we were treated with some nice hills, but the rise and falls were moderate grades for extended periods of time. I found these hills to be challenging, but also very 'runable.' I managed to start to run some people down and I thought maybe I could actually get back into the money.

I only managed to get back into 6th place and finished one minute out of 5th (the last money spot). I had the second fastest run of the day, but only by a ~60 second margin over several other athletes. I felt like my effort on the run was good, but I still was hoping for 60-90 seconds quicker in the end. I didn't hit my half marathon goal of the season (sub 76) and that will just have to wait until next year.

My final race will be Ironman Florida in a little less than three weeks. Even though its only been a couple weeks, the training after Pocono has been encouraging and I believe I still have one day of fight left in me for 2011.

-j

Ironman Lou Podcast and race this weekend

Chris, Marilyn and I did a podcast together shortly after Ironman Louisville. I prompted most of the questions, but I answered them as well. If you want to check out what we experienced on race day go here: http://www.endurancecorner.com/IMLou_podcast

I'm heading out to Pennsylvania this weekend to race Pocono 70.3. I penciled this race in some time ago, but I only decided to race late last week. I thought that training was starting to go well again and that I might have good enough legs (and arms) for a race. It looks like its going to be a bit chilly for me, but it might be a welcomed change from only racing in hot conditions.

j

Crescent Moon Triathlon

I got back out onto the racing scene yesterday with a short sprint race at the Cheery Creek Reservoir. I did this race last year so I thought it might be fun to come back and give it another go. I took a couple weeks pretty easy (one nearly off) after Louisville and this week has been the first actual week of structured training. I haven't been feeling tip top (pretty normal) so I wasn't really sure how I might feel yesterday. All I really wanted to do was try and ride as hard as possible since I've felt as though my last few races had fairly passive bike rides. The race itself went pretty well. I swam alright, but I fumbled with my wetsuit in T1 and really lost some valuable seconds there. I came out onto the bike course about 40 seconds down from the lead and that is quite a lot to make up in 19K. I tried as hard as I could to move up, but I only made ground on second place and lost time to first (Dave Scott's 21-yr old son)

I started the run and I could see second place just up the road. I took a split about 1/4 mile into the run and I was about 24 seconds down. I kept taking splits and I brought it down to about 11 seconds with 1 mile to go, but I think he got a second wind at that point because my progress stagnated and I ran the last 2K with about the same distance between us. I finished in 59:44; my bike was about a minute faster than last year (though I missed a turn last year) and my run was 17:14 this year instead of 17:42. That gave me an overall finishing time that was about two minutes faster than 2010. It actually went much better than I thought it would and I had a lot of fun racing. It also keeps me on track of my goal to race at least 1x/month from Feb-Nov. this year.

Ironman Louisville

Last weekend I made the trip over to Kentucky for Ironman Louisville. The final weeks leading into the race had gone really well and I was looking forward to racing long again. The race director told us at the pro meeting that the water temperature taken that morning was 86 degrees. That meant the swim would have similar conditions to swimming a hard set at many YMCA pools that I've frequented. I struggle a bit in warm wetsuit swims and usually non-wetsuit swims avoid this problem entirely, but 86 degrees is warm even if you could do the swim naked.

Nevertheless, I wanted to start the swim at a fast pace to try and hold feet to the turnaround (800m) while the swim went up current. Unfortunately I only made it to 400 meters before my head felt like it was about to explode. It might have come from the heat or it might have come from Ambrose's pace. At any rate, I slowed way down to the turnaround and had to spend a little while regrouping as I started the swim back to Louisville. Unfortunately this allowed Chris (eventual winner) to have nearly two minutes on me as we headed out of T2. Not the race start I wanted.

I started to roll out of transition and within about 10K of riding Patrick Evoe (2nd on the day) caught me and we proceeded to ride together. At IM Texas, Pat and I shared a lot of pace making on the bike and I had hoped we might do the same given the situation we were currently in. However, I was really struggling to keep up and after 30 minutes or so I simply let him go. Once again, not the start of the day that I wanted.

At this point in the day I was struggling a bit to keep my head in the game. Basically, I was having a difficult time dealing with my level of discomfort. That's the best way I can describe it. So I turned my power meter off and proceeded to put my head down and ride. I just rode along by feel and did everything I could to try and ride as smart and as fast as possible.

Coming into town I could see Romain which was the first sign of life (from the pro race) I had see in several hours. That perked me up a little bit. At least I caught someone before the bike was over.

I transitioned quickly and headed out to run. The run starts with a short out-and-back so I was able to get a glimpse of what might be happening up the road. As I approached the first turnaround I could see Pat running strong, but I was feeling good and I thought that a 3-minute gap was within my reach.

The miles started ticking by and as I approached the next turnaround I could Chris in 1st, Paul in Second, and Pat in third. At this point, not much had changed and everyone looked pretty good.

As we got back into town (mile 14) I moved into 3rd and Pat had moved into 2nd since Ambrose had decided to call it a day. I kept running to my best ability and I was trying with all my power to break Pat and move into second. As I neared the mile 21 marker, I got a final split of 2:44. With 21 miles I'd essentially only taken a handful of seconds out of him. At this point, I figured that my chances of moving up were likely gone and I was now just running for myself (and for time).

I crossed the line in third in 8:34:35. All I could do. I can't really look back on the race and find a lot of time that I could have made up. Chris and Pat both raced better than I did and my hats off to them for their great races.

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

There were a lot of notable performances from Endurance Corner athletes, coaches, and camp veterans.

Sue Aquila sets a new PR and runs the fastest marathon in her Age Group.

Tom Goth finishes 2nd in his Age Group and qualifies for Kona.

Jeff Shilt finishes 4th in his Age Group and qualifies for Kona for second time this year.

John Shilt sets a PR, breaks 10 hours, and breaks 4 hours on the marathon for the first time.

Brady DeHoust runs a 3:07 marathon and finishes 2nd in his Age Group.

Paul Linck finishes 2nd in his Age Group.

Coach Marilyn McDonald returns to Ironman after a four year break and finishes 7th Overall.

All in all, it was a lot of fun to race alongside these other great athletes and I just wanted take a moment and say congratulations to all of you.

-justin

Ironman Louisville

Since Ironman Texas I haven't ventured too much into the racing scene. Following IMTX, I had a conversation about the remainder of my season with Cliff and we eventually decided to focus on a late summer Ironman. We tried to pick a race that might suit me a little better than others and eventually we came up with the idea of racing IM Louisville. Essentially, IM Lou is a warm, non-wetsuit swim, a rolling bike and flat, warm run. Its also an easy trip from Denver which is always nice. I only managed to get out once to race this summer (Muncie 70.3) and it didn't amount too much (14th overall). IM Texas took a lot out of me and in hindsight, I simply wasn't training fast enough before Muncie to race fast in Muncie. Nevertheless, the trip gave me the chance to check out Louisville the day after the race and I tailored my training routes simulate the course as best I could.

Outside of that, this summer has primarily revolved around running a couple Endurance Corner Camps and training consistently in between them. I treat each camp I run as a 'race' in terms of stress, recovery, etc so I opted out of extra racing before Lou so that I could train appropriately.

Now its race week and I'm easing into the 'sit and wait' mindset that it requires.

See you on the other side,

j

Muncie 70.3

I'll be racing on Saturday in Muncie, Indiana. It took a little time to recover from IM Texas (at least to the point of training well again), but the last 3 weeks have gone quite well and I'm looking forward to racing again. Check out www.ironman.com on Saturday @ 8:00 EST and follow along.

Cheers,

j

Ironman Texas

Ironman Texas. I remember hearing rumors about an Ironman coming to Texas nearly ten years ago, but it didn't actually happen until a couple weeks ago. I had some doubts about the venue, the timing, etc, but I have to say that WTC and The Woodlands got it done. I thought it was a great place to host a race and many athletes and spectators have said the same thing. Sure it was warm, but no more so than many other North American Ironmans to date. Race Day.

I was a bit concerned that they might call wetsuits for this race since they said the water was hovering at 76 degrees the day before. Fortunately on race morning it had warmed to 78 and wetsuits would not be allowed. Even though I don't come from a swim background, I still prefer to race without wetsuits; particularly when the water is that warm.

I hopped in the water about twenty minutes before the start and proceeded to get a nice warm up in. I eventually made my way to the line and got ready for the day. After the gun went off I tried my best to get out quickly and position myself in a group. I wasn't able to hang with the likes of TO, Llanos, etc, but I got out in front of the group that eventually swam 52-53. They came around on my right and I slotted in on their feet. Seemed like I was in the perfect position, but I was struggling to hang on. I kept yo-yoing off the back and somewhere about 1500 meters into the swim a gap opened up in front of me.  I kept trying to get back on, but I just could not make it happen.

This was not really the way I wanted to start my day. I swam the remainder of the swim entirely solo and I've never had to swim by myself for that long in an Ironman. That was not a preferable experience so I'll do whatever it takes in the future to avoid that happening again.

I exited the water very far down from the front and started hustling through transition. As I was making my way towards my bike, I could hear that a small group of guys had exited the water shortly behind me (one minute or less). With that in mind, I decided to ride steady until they caught me and then go with them. This worked out pretty nicely because I had about 30-40 minutes of riding to sort myself out before they rolled up on me. At that point, I linked up with all them and we proceeded to chase as best we could.

The first 60K of the bike had a few fast sections, but after spending the last three Ironman bike rides solo, I was determined to stay with a group no-matter-what. Contrary to the swim, I was doing well in the group and I took my turns setting the pace at the front as well. WTC had a lot of officials for this race and I can easily say that we had an official watching us for about 80% of the ride. This kept everybody honest and allowed for clean racing.

I was expecting the second half of the bike course to slow down with typical southerly winds, but they never really came. As a result, you'll see the bike times for the pro race (and the AG race) to be on the faster side than usual. This was definitely welcomed as I knew the run was going to be tough with the warmer temps (high of 90 and high humidity).

We got into T2 at 5:30ish  race time so I knew I had ridden close to 4:30 (4:31 official time) which is the fastest bike time I have yet to post in an Ironman. I've come close to posting that before, but I haven't backed it up with a good run on either occasion.

I wasn't quite sure where I was in the race, but it sounded like I came off the bike just inside the top 15 so I thought a top ten was doable with a good marathon. Patrick Evoe and I started the run together, but he quickly put a nice gap into me. I would say it was at least 30-40 seconds by the time we hit mile 3. However, I was ok with the mile splits I was seeing on my end so I decided to not worry to much about racing for the first couple laps of the run.

With the high heat and humidity, I was really trying to take my time at each aid station. I would slow way down and try to consume as much fluid as possible while also putting ice and wet sponges everywhere. This resulted in slighter slower mile splits, but by the second loop of the run it was starting to pay dividends as I moved into 8th place. At that point, I wasn't too sure if I would be able to gain any more spots because Evoe was running strong and maintaining the same time gap he had established earlier. As I started the final loop, I was actually more focused on simply trying to finish under 8:30.

Just as the final loop started I could see the gap to Evoe start to come down and right around the mile 20 marker I got across. I never take anything for granted late in Ironman so I kept doing my best to push to the finish line. I held my 7th place and crossed the line 8:29:44 so I managed to break 8:30 in the end as well.

I felt mostly good about everything that happened that day. I was quite disappointed with how the day started, but the bike and run both went well and I managed to make up a lot of the ground I gave up at the beginning of the day.  I had the fifth fastest marathon of the day (2:56:xx) which was more satisfying that anything else. 2010 saw my fastest marathon to date and it also saw my longest stretch of poor marathons. It really meant a lot to me to get back on track.

Additionally, I had more friends and family along the course than probably every race I've ever done COMBINED. It was so much fun to race in front of the hometown crowd and I'm definitely planning to get back there next year.

cheers,

j

Galveston 70.3

Not the race I wanted, but it ended on a good note. For whatever reason, I just didn't seem to be firing on all cylinders on Sunday. After a subpar swim to start the day, I got on the bike and it felt like I was already in the middle of an Ironman. I just lacked that freshness that I usually feel at the start of a race. Nevertheless, I rolled on hoping to warm into the day. Things never really improved and somewhere between miles 30-35 I realized my front tire was flat. I stopped and pulled the wheel off to find a tack/nail in the tire. I changed the tire and got back on the road. At this point I was probably the last male pro on the bike course or at least very close to that. I rolled along at an easy effort for a little while and decided that I would try to get something out the rest of the day. I decided that I would ride 4:30 as hard as I could followed by 30 seconds easy (we had a cross/tail wind now so I could float a little) all the way back to T2.

This gave me something to work with and I rolled the last 15+ miles of the course following this pattern. I got into T2 and changed into my running gear. I had planned to just run a steady pace and finish off the day.

I started running and I actually felt ok which was the polar opposite to how I felt at the beginning of the swim and bike. I took a split and saw I was running a little faster than 6:00/mile and it seemed like trying to hold this pace to the finish would be a good challenge to end the day.

I managed to do just that and even though I didn't catch very many people, it still felt good to feel like I was racing again.

This brings my four week racing block to a close. I got some nice experience out of the three races and I definitely think I can take what I learned into Ironman Texas. Now its time to start training again and move my fitness up before May 21st.

until later,

j

Update from Houston/KInetic Bodyworks

I'm a couple days away from the Galveston 70.3 (US Pro champs on Sunday).  I've had a crazy month+ so far and to give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.... After the Endurance Corner Tucson Camp ended, I spent a couple days driving back to Boulder.

I spent ten days in Boulder training; then

Spend all day traveling to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Spend two days resting for the race, one day racing San Juan 70.3 (7th overall), then up at 5:00 a.m. the day after the race and spend a whole day flying home.

Spend four days in Boulder recovering and training.

Spend a day flying to Jackson, Mississippi.

2.5 full days of a triathlon camp for Mississippi Heat Triathlon Team (Great group!). Instructing/presenting/coaching all day(s) long.

Spend a half day at the hospital (nothing is wrong with me, I'll write about this trip some other time); the other half traveling back to Boulder.

Spend three days training in Boulder.

Get on another airplane and fly to Houston.  Transfer to Clear Lake, near Kemah, Texas.

Rest one day in Clear Lake.

Race the Memorial Hermann Gateway to the Bay Olympic Distance Triathlon in Kemah (9th overall). Tranfer to inner city Houston where I've been resting most of the week.

Today I'll transfer to Galveston until Sunday when I race Galveston 70.3. Then I'll head back to Houston and fly out on Monday to Boulder.

Good times....

Its been a little hectic, but all in all I think I've managed to do a pretty good job of training when I can, resting when I can, and racing as hard as I can in between it all. San Juan 70.3 was a really good race for me. I managed a 7th place finish, but with two miles to go I was still running in 11th place so the final result was quite gratifying.

Kemah was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I swam and ran fairly well and rode somewhat poorly; which is somewhat surprising given my usual MO involves a stronger bike leg. At any rate, it was a good hard effort that I hoped would set up nicely for this weekend's US Pro Championship. I think the field has about 47,000 professional men on the start list so its nice to have an effort in me above HIM pace.

I'm looking forward to getting another race under my belt this weekend in preps for Ironman Texas on May 21st.

While spending some time in Houston, I've been fortunate enough to take on a great new local sponsor: Kinetic Bodyworks. They will be helping me with my recovery needs along the way to Ironman Texas; and with this busy schedule, I will definitely need it.

I'll touch base post-race,

justin

IM Talk Podcast

On Monday, I did a podcast with IM Talk for their column "Workout of the Month." In this column, an athlete submits a workout for a coach/athlete from Endurance Corner to complete and then the coach/athlete comes on the show to comment on the session.

This month the criteria they used was: A 90 minute strength run session done during a run focus period.

Rich Swan, from Wellington, NZ, wrote in and suggested a workout consisting of hill repeats. In his session, he used a hill a little over 1200 meters long that he runs 5 times, taking ~5:20 to complete. Completing the hill in this time period yields a HR of 170 and a pretty solid/hard effort on his part.

You can hear my thoughts on the session here:

www.imtalk.me

Closing out the Season in Mexico

Hey Gang, Earlier this year, my mother-in-law (oh, by the way, I got married in October) called and told me she had decided to race Ironman Cozumel in November. She has raced triathlons for many years now, but had yet to take on an Ironman. So at 58 years young she signed up and I booked a couple tickets to Mexico to come watch. I wasn't sure whether or not I might race myself, but I knew we were at least going to Mexico in a support role.

I never wrote about my race in Hawai'i. I did a lot of things right going into the race, but didn't really do things so well on the actual race day. I approached the race as a learning experience, but I still wanted to have a successful race by my own standards. I managed to get the learning part accomplished, but that was about it. All that is to say, I decided to go ahead and race in Mexico after my race in Kona.

The last time I went to this part of Mexico I lost a lot of brain cells. I was a senior in high school celebrating the liberation of the Mexican drinking age of 18. I never would have imagined that my next trip, 11 years later, was for an entirely different purpose. I always enjoy looking back in the past and realizing that I am so far from where I thought I might be. It makes the next ten years seem a lot more exciting. I never enjoyed things that were predictable, which is likely why I enjoy racing so much.

ANYWAY, I traveled down to Mexico on Thanksgiving day (for a Sunday race). We had a delay from taking off because Frontier had to load 48 bikes onto the plane. I got a pretty big kick out of hearing that. I'm sure half of the plane wasn't particularly impressed by this delay, but people are more easy going when you're traveling to Mexico. If we were on a routine flight to Toledo there might have been a riot (no offense Toledo).

Most of the athletes racing in COZ were staying at one of the all-inclusive host hotels on the island. This really sounds like a good idea, but in my opinion, I think its overrated. I didn't particularly take the the food and the grocery stores in town are first class. If you go down to COZ to race, I would stay at a hotel of your choosing and do some local shopping. The groceries are cheap, fresh and you can get anything and everything you need. (FWIW, I bought some groceries one day and it was cheaper than an IM Cozumel coffee mug I bought for a friend back home).

The race is a point-to-point with two transition areas. The swim start is south of downtown; followed by a three loop bike that finishes in downtown (so the third loop is a few miles shorter). The run then goes North from downtown along the west side of the island.

The swim is (obviously) in the ocean and the water is quite warm; much warmer (and shallower) than Hawai'i, for example. Even though I don't have a background in swimming, I prefer the non-wetsuits swims (particularly in the ocean). For whatever reason, I'm just more comfortable swimming straight up and I seem to do better as it relates to my position out of the water.

I felt good getting into the water on race morning. We didn't have a lot of time to warm up, but I did some accelerations and some fly strokes and my arms, and body, felt great. This was really encouraging because I wanted to redeem myself after such a disappointing swim in Hawai'i.

I lined up left of the group and got clear water at the start. This worked out better for me as I could make my way over and see  my position relative the masses. A group of very fast swimmers were well off the front (Potts, etc), but another group of five was sitting about ten meters ahead of me as I came together with the majority of the swimmers. I figured this would be my ticket and I made a move to go across the gap. This turned out to be a good move for me as I separated myself from the (bigger) pack and caught a good draft for the rest of the swim behind a group of five.

I exited the water at the front of the group so I could move through transition quickly. I managed to get through T1 in front of my swim group and was out onto the bike course in 7th place. Brooke told me that Michael (Lovato) was up the road by 90 seconds so I set out to try and make contact with him. Eventually Sturla, Galindez, and Beke rode up on me and I did my best to stay in contact with them through the crosswind section on the east side of the course. I felt really solid and I was very pleased with the way things were working out. I had assumed I was going to have to chase all these guys on the bike, but I managed to actually get out onto the bike course before them. Perfect.

Then we turned into a tailwind and I got dropped. Damn it.

I wasn't too concerned about it at the time as I thought I was still in a good position, but then something wasn't right.

I'll avoid being too descriptive about 'things', but lets just say my stomach was a bit out of sorts. It was to the point where I was debating whether I should stop or not. However, I really wanted to keep my position in the race so I decided to back off and drink water for a while. I seemed to be able to cope with my situation and I thought I could make it to T2 without stopping. I knew I was going to have to make a pit stop in transition, but I thought that would be all I would be faced with.

After a slightly-longer-T2-than-usual, I got out onto the run course in 8th place. I was really looking forward to trying to run fast, but unfortunately my stomach situation did not seem to be under control. What followed was a series of pit stops and attempts to keep racing, but I was only getting worse. After a while, I really couldn't even jog any more without beelining it for some privacy. Eventually, I thought it best to call it a day. I wasn't eating or drinking anything and I was as swollen as an Oompa Loompa (to quote Torrenzo). I have never had to pull out of the race because of my health, but there's a first time for everything.

At first, I assumed I made some errors with my nutrition on the bike (though I was feeling sick before I had hardly taken in any calories), but apparently there were quite a few other athletes with a similar story to mine. At any rate, it is what it is.

I've been asked if I'm disappointed/sad with Sunday, but I don't really feel that way necessarily. I feel a little frustrated to end the season this way, but that's pretty much it. I would love to go out and smash a run, but that's going to have to wait for another day in another year.

HOWEVER, my mother-in-law stayed the course all day long and finished her first Ironman in 14:55. I think she felt very satisfied with the experience, but she also voiced her opinion that this would be her first, and last, race of this distance. As a result, she will retire with a 1-0 record against her son-in-law.

Until the next one,

Justin

Article from www.endurancecorner.com about Nutrition +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Nutrition Choices for Consistent Performance"

When I was about 12-13 years old, my father started reading “The Zone” books. He was at a point in his life where his health started to become a priority and numerous health books started to appear in our house. Out of curiosity, I started to read through some of these books and eventually I became more and more interested in improving my health. Considering the fact that I was entering adolescence, my motivation was probably not the same as my father’s, but my interest never really waned from then until now. My cynicism for the “next big thing” might be greater, but prioritizing my health continues to exist.

It can be difficult to remain healthy as triathletes in terms of optimizing our nutrition. We have a huge energy output from training so many hours and it becomes easy to start eating anything we see. After 2-3 years in the sport, I had gone from casually training to putting down serious swim, bike and run hours week in and week out. It was at this point that I came to realize that I couldn’t simply treat myself every time I trained big. A five-hour training day was no longer limited to one day on the week. Now it was occurring on Tuesday and Wednesday, and that meant I was eating poorly more days of the week than not.

It's easy to treat yourself after you’ve worked hard. It’s the reason someone came up with the term “comfort food.” The problem is that this pattern can also be the reason that body composition remains a limiter for many athletes, myself include. Just think about what might be different if we had a normal dinner instead of Mexican food after every long ride we did (and this not a knock on Mexican food, I’m a big fan).

My buddy Gordo said a long time ago that “eating well is simple, but not easy.” This is such a great point because we almost always know what the superior decision is when it comes to nutrition, but something holds us back. I have a few suggestions to help reinforce this simple idea:

1. Out of sight is out of mind. Don’t keep foods in your home that you only tend to eat “because its there.” If you really want it, you can leave the house to get it. 2. Eat foods with the least degrees of separation from their natural state. Example: An apple came from the tree. "Easy Cheese" came from a lot places before it settled in that easy-to-use can in your hand. 3. Avoid anything that is marketed as a “snack food.” Replace these with fruits and tree nuts. 4. Eat more fat. Including more things like avocados, tree nuts, good oils, eggs, seeds, fatty fish like salmon, and butter will help you leave meals more satisfied. Trying to appease your hunger with sugar and starch will just have you eating more. 5. Do not skip breakfast. 6. Do not expect to be perfect. If the last meal was not-so-healthy, just make the next one healthy. Don’t think one, or even a series of, bad decisions means that you can’t get back on track. 7. Plan ahead. My wife is hypoglycemic and has to travel with good foods everywhere she goes. If she can do it, so can we.

I’m going to single out my final suggestion so that if you forget everything else, at least you remember this:

If you are looking to improve your body composition: Eat better before you eat less.

Article: "You need discipline, Son."

Here is an article I wrote posted Sept 22, from www.endurancecorner.com: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"You Need Discipline, Son"

A few nights ago I was at a dinner party outside of the triathlon bubble and naturally the conversations trended towards… triathlon. This often tends to be the case when people ask what I do for a living; or at least how I tend to spend all my time. Quite often, as was the case the other night, people will look at what my peers and I do and suggest that we must have a lot of "discipline."

This is an interesting statement that commonly comes about. In some ways the people that think I am disciplined are correct, but in other ways they are entirely wrong.

They are wrong because they assume it takes discipline to swim, bike and run. This, in and of itself, is incorrect. I suppose I cannot speak for everyone that gets a professional license in triathlon, but most of us find a real sense of joy moving in those mediums. I know I personally went from a 13-hour ironman guy to a professional because of how much I enjoy(ed) riding my bike. I wanted nothing more than to spend most of my day cruising around corn fields in Brazos County, Texas, when I was 21 years old. It did not take discipline.

What has taken discipline, and what continues to take discipline, is not doing what I want to do, for the sake of improvement and performance. When I started the sport, I could pretty much get out the door and expect to improve. After a while, the improvements were not as pronounced and the need to really look at myself and determine what my limiters were became paramount to improvement. That continues to ring true. What I came to find over time is that the workouts that often got pushed aside in the beginning had helped create my weaknesses.

Soon enough, the workouts that sounded like the worst idea were often designed for my best interests. It was easy to get out bed and do what I was good at; it was difficult to do the same when I knew my weaknesses would be exposed. By buddy Alan offered up a relevant quote from Jim Rohn: “If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse." It takes "discipline" to do away with the excuses.

Additionally, not doing what I want is not only limited to workouts, but to lifestyle choices. It might be fun to stay up late, eat bad foods, avoid heart rate caps (okay that’s workout related), etc., but it might not be part of the whole package when it comes to becoming a faster athlete. Unfortunately (and fortunately) we cannot rely solely on the training we do to get faster.

In the end, I still don’t consider myself to be disciplined. Even when I’m doing workouts I don’t want to or going to bed early or eating more broccoli…. ultimately it is what I want to be doing. It has resulted in a fun and fulfilling life for the past decade. And it doesn’t take discipline to want that to continue.