EAT A CHEESEBURGER!

156.7

That was the number staring up at me from the scale this morning. I was over the moon, as I wanted to really focus on nutrition and eating well ALL the time aka being a 24 hour athlete. My big reason for wanting to lose all the weight ( I walk around normally at 170lbs, and raced Texas at 163) going into Ironman Hawaii? Besides being able to wear those Z. Cavaricci’s I saved from middle school, I wanted to be as small as possible for the heat. So the truth is that triathlon is a power/weight sport. But, how far is too far when it comes to dropping the lbs.?

Well, first I finally took a good, long look in the mirror. Sure I was skinny, but there was definitely some “fluff” that could be dropped off without too much argument. In short, I thought I ate well but couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t lean like some of the other guys I race against. So step #2 was to start a food journal. Me? I’m inherently techhy and geeky, so I went with the LoseIt! App on the iPhone. Not only does it chronicle my food choices, but also tells me how many calories I’ve eaten and what my calorie budget per day is to hit my goal weight. So when I put in the goal weight, I went for a number that was “perfect world” scenario. 156. Man, I am 168 post-Ironman Texas and 12 lbs is a lot of weight. So how’d it happen? I wish I could tell you that it was all trash bag sweat suits and running at noon. But the truth is that I had to act like an adult.

I don’t get “a treat” because I went to the grocery store all by myself. And I don’t “deserve” a box of Newman’s own mint Oreo cookies cause I ran 2 hours. Just keep my net calories at or below what the devil box tells me. And voila! No magic pills, no “Body by Vi” bullshiite. Just being smart about my calories. That, and not eating like a newly freed inmate at Golden Corral. I figured out the Greek buffet WILL in fact let me get seconds, I just need to grab a clean plate. Apparently eating 5 plates of healthy food will still make you gain weight. So I pulled my mouth away from the trough and started to eat a little less like a horse and more like a human with (alleged) manners. I remember telling Elyse during the Tour that Bradley Wiggins cuts 20 lbs from offseason to the tour de France. And the article went step by step on how he did it (cyclingnews if you’re interested). Anyway, other than Elyse saying that was very girlish to be talking about how to lose weight, I looked at how simple the plan was on paper. And that’s when it hit me. Losing the weight for me will be simple. Losing the weight will not be easy.

Things I learned from this weight cut? Well, I really wasn’t eating enough calories during “normal” training. Sometimes my net calories would be like 900. And anything under 1,100 net calories sends your body into “oh boy we’re back to caveman days and starving” mode. In essence it shuts down. Friday, Saturday and Sunday when I was doing “Epic” training, well it really wasn’t so epic calorie wise. So I would over eat by at least 1,000 calories per day. That meant I was starving during the week which caused me to struggle with energy in workouts and save fuel, then gorge myself on the weekends because I “rode X hours today”. Once I evened this out, the weight started to come off just like the app said. Almost 1.5lbs per week like clockwork. Why am I telling you this other than to brag that I will be wearing one of the only usable pairs of Z. Cavaricci’s in existence (tight rolled of course)? I am telling you this because I’ve struggled with weight all my life, and there is a simple way to lose weight that is right in front of you. It just takes patience, commitment and focus to get it done. Doesn’t really matter if your reason to lose is for beach season or to wow your ex-girlfriend at your 20 year reunion. As for me? I hope the focus on nutrition and weight loss is gonna be more for this:

And not just for this:

Cross post blog from RKF

Rocketkidz foundation is an AWESOME non-profit/charity that I am excited to partner with. Their mission is to bring the sport I love (Triathlon, not NASCAR although I do love NASCAR) to the youth of Baton Rouge and surrounding areas (including Lafayette). I do plan on posting some of my writings there as well. Rocketkidz takes financial contributions (of course), but where they really need help? Your time and enthusiasm for sport by volunteering your time at a Rocketkidz event. Peruse the website and see if there is an event that you can be a part of. After a morning helping those kids acheive "the impossible" of finishing a triathlon, you will be leaving with more energy, enthusiasm and excitement than you arrived with. You'll show up to help them, and they'll end up making a lasting impact on your life. Guaranteed.
Anyway, here is my post from the RKF blog:

http://rkfracing.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/my-ferris-bueller-blog-by-john/

Cajun, Man!

Well, it’s really no secret that I’ve always wanted to win the Cajunman triathlon. When I got into the sport in 2003, it was THE triathlon in south Louisiana. Every year it was the state championship, and all the guys that I looked up to like John Deshotel, Neill Rowland, Ken St. Pe’, John Thompson, and even the incomparable Bobo Anderson showed up fit and ready to rock. Couple that with the fact that it is still one of the only races that I can do without spending the night in a hotel, and you have a race that is and will always be close to my heart.
I’ll save you the dramatic suspense of the race; i.e. what I ate pre-race, swim strategy, watts on the bike, run splits and all the shenanigans that I sometimes pay a little too much attention to. All I’ll say is that all race long, I just felt like I was on a good day. I believe George Hincapie once referred to those days on a bike as “no chain”. That explained my race perfectly Sunday. It felt like I was pedaling the bike with no chain. It was effortless. I will say in cliché fashion that winning the race felt a whole lot like it did when I was 2nd on the results sheet, or 28th, or just a couple pages down the results list. After the race, however, was a different story. My family was there, and it was nice to finally check off that bucket list item of “Winning Cajunman” with them in attendance. However, Elyse conveniently missed the Cajunman start, race, and finish. A couple people asked if I was mad or grumpy that she missed it. This is where I’ll have to reality check all you type-A triathletes. Newsflash: We run around in Lycra with helmets that look like they came off of the movie “Spaceballs”. A non-triathletes view of every race is the same;
The start looks like a flock of ducks trying to land. Then you frantically put on said Spaceballs helmet, mount your bike and disappear for a pre-determined length of time (you always give her an estimated time that would put you in the start house of the Tour de France Prologue TT, because if you were honest with her she may think she has time to go get breakfast). You fly into the transition area while trying to undo feet from shoes like a kindergarten shoe tying lesson, then off on the run. Finally, you run in the shoot with your hands raised like you tackled a gorilla, climbed Everest, or want everyone to admire your freshly shorn armpits. And if all this “excitement” for said spectator isn’t enough, they get to stand next to you like a puppy waiting for a treat while you and your buddies relive every inch of the course like it was an Epic battle slated for a made for TV movie.
So yeah, I have no clue why she wouldn’t want to be a part of that. Seriously, I told her it was cool to miss it, as she sacrifices and helps me out enough to accept and encourage me to get out the door daily for training. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the selfish view “Look what sacrifices I MAKE getting up early to train”, we forget that training = tired post training. Tired post training = minimal movement and general avoidance of all chores. And to come back to that encouragement part, Elyse’s favorite motivational speech goes something like: “Don’t be a little bi@tch. Go run. Don’t run for you. Run so I don’t have to hear you whine later about not running.” That’s a motivational nugget of gold, right there.
Back to the race, I would like to thank Rusty Bex and his big entourage of volunteers that make Cajunman possible. It is one of the longest standing races in Louisiana, if not the south, and such an icon in the Louisiana multisport world. Just now I thought about how many people have used Cajunman as a catalyst for fitness, or as a challenge to get them off the couch and motivated, or simply as an excuse to go outside and train with their buddies. That’s a lot of lives, and paying it forward. I’d also like to give a thanks to the evil Dr. Jones for helping me accomplish that bucket list item of Cajunman. Thanks for that, and scheduling a ride after Cajunman. Nothing like starting the bike at noon! Also a big shout out to Lisa at Capitol Cyclery for that beautiful speed concept, and the Run bird at Mizuno for making some super sweet run slippers.
Now all that’s left for 2011 is that little Iron distance race October 8th. As my favorite contestant from “Rock of Love” says, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Thanks for reading.

The X and Road to Kona

Well, to be totally honest I am a procrastinator. I have been meaning to write my race report from IM Texas for about three months. Well, as it turns out I never did get around to it. You know those last 2 miles of that run in The Woodlands I started to think about all of the people that I was gonna thank. I was thinking of all my peeps that were coming with me to Kona. In truth, there’s no way that I could thank everyone that has helped get me here nor is there any way that everyone that has played a role in my success could make it out to the big island to see me race. So after pondering it a bit, and some prodding from my mom (who is a future New York Times bestselling author) and wife, I’ve decided to just write about my experiences on my journey to Kona. This will serve as a few things. From a selfish standpoint, it’ll help me remember this most excellent but also most crazy journey. And from a different standpoint, it’ll allow me to take you along for the ride. All the good, the bad, and the comical. Since I know putting in public will put some solid pressure on me to perform, I’m planning to blog 2-3 posts a week up until race week. Then race week, it will probably be every day. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the show.

Elyse and I have a very good understanding of the racing season. And by understanding, I really mean that she has the tolerance of a Tibetan monk. See, her dad is a triathlete, trail runner, and general crazy endurance person. So just like daughters of hunters who think guys being gone from November to January is totally acceptable, Elyse thinks that training hard 10-11 months out of the year is, well, normal. So when we talk about races coming up, there is always concern for where on the calendar the X falls. See, the X dictates when play time is over and it’s now time to make training, recovery, and big training priority. Before the X, it’s all fun and sun, mixed with coffee rides and crazy good food. After the X is 9pm bedtime, endless 2-a-days, and an obsessive familiarity with the Loseit! App on the iPhone. So the X for Kona fell on August 13^t. That date sticks in my mind like the day I found out that my mini mullet wasn’t as cool as I thought it was. The past 3 ½ weeks have been pretty much summed up by the words: train/rest/train/eat/sleep/repeat. Not that the routine is a bad thing, it just gets a bit mind numbing at times. There is a part of me, however, that craves the routine. That X dictates my life. It’s that X that has me sitting in a car en route to the training Mecca of Minden, LA. Yeah, you heard me right. That X reminded me that the race is approaching, so I evacuated ahead of Tropical Storm Lee to higher ground. As womanish as it sounds, I evacuated so I could make sure the 5 hours of bike training got done. And I made sure it got done outside in the sun, as opposed to inside on the trainer or in 65mph winds. The trade-off to the training retreat is that there may be a “few” more hills than what the swamp has. Regardless of the hills, it’s funny how an approaching race helps us justify ridiculous decisions. 3 hours each way in a car and a hotel stay just to get in that long ride? Well, of course. The race is coming. Fly out to Tucson so we can rack up big hours in the sun instead of indoors? Certainly, the race is coming. And it seems that the closer race day slides toward us, the larger amount of stupidity, I mean leeway, we give ourselves. Uh, the race is only two weeks away, I DEFINITELY need new shifter and brake cables. No wait, while I’m changing the cables we should just go ahead and replace the shifters and derailleurs. I mean, the race IS coming up you know. Ah the lunacy. In the end, I’m still convinced that Ironman makes you a bit crazy. And with that, let the craziness begin.

The Big Catun (aka Big Cajun)

Building up for IM Cozumel, I figured I needed a good hit out to get some more racing intensity. Not that my WJones trainer sessions that may qualify as torture in some countries aren’t hard, but it’s always good to race against a few people to see how you’re going at the moment. After I did the Oxbow in April, I knew that Andy Kennedy would put on a first-class race. So when he put the only Olympic distance race anywhere around us on the calendar, I knew I had to drop the cash down to race it. Not to mention that False River/New Roads is one of my favorite venues to race. Maybe it’s the nice open water, maybe it’s all the live oaks and plantations, or maybe it’s Jimmy Bienvennue’s wit and his family’s hospitality at the Rear Dock. Either way, I was stoked to head down there. After the packet-pickup at Satterfield’s, it was off to sample some local cuisine (read: Subway). I knew the race was gonna be interesting as it was the first race on the speed concept, and it was the first race test since WJones and Jed simultaneously smacked me in the head about my lazy long bike training habits. So like the classic book goes, deeper into the rabbit hole I went.

Race morning was fun as always, and I really dig the system for racks that Andy’s crew uses. Number the racks with 6 bikes per rack. So simple, yet so brilliant. I was a bit bummed with the announcement that wetsuits were allowed as I wanted some non-wetsuit pain in prep for Cozumel. Anyway, after mis-timing the race start AGAIN, I got a whopping 2 minutes for warmup. Our wave went off, and I thought maybe I could swim with this Brady fish that crushed my dreams in Cajunman. Well, once again he evaded my pursuit. I lay blame squarely on my parents for not putting me in club swimming J Anyway, about 5 or 6 minutes into the swim my goggles fogged up. I mean, bad fogging. I couldn’t see the next bouy. Or are those my goggles? Wait a sec, how can it fog on the outside of my goggles? Well as it turns out, my dad’s proverb of “3days fog then it rains” came true as yesterday’s fog was back and this time it was thick as bayou water. I could barely make out Satterfield’s in the distance and just swam there.

Out of the water, I saw my buddy Brian in transition about to head out on the bike. Mini freakout moment as I thought to myself, “Self, did a guy who took 2 years off of swimming just outswim you? Are you even working in Master’s swim? Way to dig yourself a nice hole for the bike.” Well as it turns out, even though Brian is from the old school (you know just like your dad said “When the men were men”) he’s only 26. That meant he was in the first wave. Disaster averted. However, they still had a few people up the road and I needed to erase the swim damage. At Oxbow, the bike is out and back on the levy road. Well, I advocate to always checkout the course before the race. Maybe I should’ve at least had a look at the course pre-race cause we hit the turnaround cone after like 5 miles. When you’re in the pain cave, a minute seems like 10, and 5 miles could easily be mistaken for triple that. I thought though, “I am on the form and day of my LIFE!! I am already at the turnaround. BEAUTY!” Well, it turned out I was a long way from home. So to the turnaround and the surprise of having to go straight where Oxbow lets you turn left was overshadowed by seeing that on the road I was 3rd. And that’s where the magic happened. On the road I was 3^rd, but I knew that with a 3min gap between waves if I caught the guy/fish that was in 2^nd I would be leading the race. The first biker had the lead car on the way down the levy road, but all of a sudden I see him coming in the opposite direction with no lead car. Then 2^nd place just busts a U-turn in the middle of the road. I was a bit confused and mad that this guy just cheated right in front of me. Then the lead car is headed in the opposite direction and yells something at me. Because the aero helmet covers my ears coupled with the fact that Elyse SWEARS I’m half deaf, I didn’t hear the lead car. So I hit the turnaround and the ladies’ there are way too excited to see me. At first I thought it was maybe because I looked quite dashing in my race outfit, but once I hit the cone they said “You’re the first biker!” Uh, what? Did both guys turn early? What is going on here? Before the conegate shenanigans, I was reeling in 2^nd and 1^st place. Now, they were way gone. Once I was on the way home, I had like a country mile between me and the next guys. I thought to myself that even if those guys turned early, the WJones torture sessions are working cause I’m crushing the bike! All I have to do is run these two guys down. Getting back into town, I found out where that country mile gap I had came from. Apparently the lead car got nervous that we went off course and started turning people around early. Now I’ll vouch for Andy and say that he runs a first class operation, so I knew that we weren’t lost on the course and there’d definitely be a well-marked turnaround. So the lead car made an honest mistake, no worries. It gave me a great opportunity to run really hard and see if I could catch anyone. During the run, Brian said something to me that stuck with me on the day and has gone up on my motivation board as almost a coined phrase, “Hey, win anyway.” Pretty simple but pretty profound. Focus on the task at hand and not the shenanigans that took place. Well it all turned out in the end, and I was fortunate enough to get the W at the Big Catun. Even with the fog and the lead car shenanigans, Andy and his crew did a great job of taking it all in stride. I’m already looking forward to defending my “Interim” Big Catun title J Author’s note: Why am I referring to The Big Cajun as The Big Catun”? Well, someone at the swim cap shop got a little confused on how to spell Cajun. Apparently it’s local diction, and hasn’t hit webster’s yet because he spelled it Catun. And Voila, the Big Catun was born.

The Old Man in the Donut Shop

I know I know. You thought that either your RSS feed for this blog was broken, or that I fell off the face of the earth. Well, both sound way better than the actual truth. The actual truth is that I have been writing, but mainly in my journal. Anyway, it’s about time I start blogging again, and I have a doozy to start this whole party off. It’s about that time when everyone is kind of getting tired of the training and the racing, and that tailgate party you keep getting invited to is looking way more exciting than another 5 hours with a bike seat. I mean, boudin, beer and BBQ, or Gatorade and Gu? I know, tough choice.

Since that desire is creeping in all of us to wrap up the season, most people are definitely not pondering what their weaknesses are and what they need to work on for a successful year next year. I am definitely in this camp, as I’m sort of like the grumpy old man that has been drinking his community coffee and reading the paper every day at the donut shop. I mean, I’ve done what I’ve done for many years now. There are certain workouts I think I need to be ready for an Ironman, or some wattage/pace/swim numbers that I need to see before I’m comfortable and confident knowing I’m about to race. And it’s not just the comfort in these numbers, but there’s a “relatively” comfortable training path to get there. They say men love routine, and I must be the annotated picture in the science literature that proves this. So I kind of shocked myself that I wanted to start asking some people that I trust what they see and what I can do/change to improve. Well, if you do decide to do this, make sure you have had an EXCELLENT few days or are half drunk. Cause hearing where you suck might be a touch of the buzz kill. But I think it’s important to do this, as everyone myself included, views their training/numbers/log with rose-colored glasses. And there is a definite explanation for certain biases, workouts, ideas that you have. Even if these ideas are completely stupid, they are your ideas so you stick to em. So I’m writing this to you, but also as a public challenge to myself. The only way you get better is by improving (Thanks, Captain Obvious). And the only way to improve is to work on what you’re not good at. And the only way to truly know what you’re not good at is to look at the numbers, or ask some training mentors/confidants and get your answer. Once you get your answer, it’s all up to you. As for me, I started the process and getting ready to make a few changes to my grumpy old man in the donut shop training. I do love my training set up, and the way I’ve done things up to this point. However, if I keep doing what I’ve been doing, I’ll keep getting what I’ve always gotten. The way I look at it is that I can only get better. And if not, I know exactly where the donut shop is.

Chicken or Fish? Uh, Cajunman....?

Now, why would I write a race report on a sprint race? Well, it’s simple. First, Rusty puts on a killer race. B, winning this race is one of only two things that I’ve wanted to accomplish since starting triathlon. I mean, it IS my hometown race (Technically, the Scott Triathlon is, but since it is now defunct we will annex Cajunman as the hometown race). And 3, whether it’s a state championship or not, Cajunman is THE race that started it all (mad respect to New Roads tri, another long-standing classic on the south Louisiana race calendar). Rusty’s race set the bar on what and how a top notch sprint triathlon is supposed to look and feel like. Anyway, I digress. The Cajunman is a crown jewel that I’ve never won but continue to swing for the fences on. I came close in 2007, finishing second to a studly and wicked fast Neil Rowlland. That close call is what keeps me coming back, and a reason I signed my name on the dotted line to race again.

This year was, uh, hot. I mean, that kind of hot where it’s summer and you’re standing next to a running 18-wheeler engine and there’s not breeze outside. Yeah, that kind of hot and it’s only 7am. The good news about the heat is that your warmup can be pretty minimal. Anyway, after seeing and chatting with a few people pre-race, it was time to get in the water. Since it is South Louisiana, and I get exactly zero opportunities to wear that badass TYR wetsuit in the swamp, I called Kiwami and had them whip up a Kaiman onesy with my favorite bike shop’s logo on it. I knew it’d be a good boost (even if it was just mental) to have a super fast tri suit on for the swim. The only problem? Well, it is red and when it gets wet, um, let’s just say people can tell if you’re Jewish or not. So I modified a pair of tri shorts to fit under this super slick, super fast suit. All I remember of the swim is that the bouy kept creeping over toward us, and then I was getting bumped around. After about the 5^th time of getting hit, I knew it was time to swim wicked hard. After that, I had some clean water and just swam long and controlled. I focused on reaching the stroke, and not getting frog kicked in the face by one of the stragglers in one of the previous waves. A unique part of the Cajunman is the deep water start and exit. After exiting the water with your heart rate at MAX + 10, you have a nice long stroll to your bike. However, if you’re trying to win it’s an opportunity to sprint while hopping from carpet square to carpet square and moving that heart rate to MAX + 30. After my carpet hopping, I got to the beautiful, always ready newly slick Speed Concept. Sometimes I just get my geek glasses out and just gawk at all the details and engineering that went into this steed. But this was not the time, as I knew that of the other main contenders here, I had to push my swim advantage as far as I could. Onto the bike I was so excited to go that I MAY have almost wiped out in the first chicane out of transition. I was hoping no one saw it, but there were about 40 people that got a nice giggle out of my elementary school bike handling.

You know that route you go home every day, and you feel like you could drive it with your eyes closed? Well, that’s how I feel about this bike course. I’d hate to even give a guess on how many times I’ve ridden parts of that course. But just in case the previous 400,000 trips down these roads didn’t do it, I pre-rode the course the day before for about 2 hours. I knew every bump in the road, and at times I just buried my head and hammered. About halfway through the ride, I see what just about every triathlete sees during the bike. It’s almost like a mirage on the horizon, as you see people and they look like they are grouped together. As you get closer, you realize that they aren’t anywhere near each other. However, this time there was a group that looked like they were riding tip to tail with one poor soul pulling the train not knowing he’s towing a school bus full of kids. As I passed I reminded them triathlon was “individual effort”. And I honestly felt bad for the guy towing all these guys shamelessly drafting, as he had no idea they were camped out on his wheel. That was all of the infamous drafting that I saw, and honestly a lot more goes on in just about every race I do. I didn’t really have a wattage goal for the bike, but I knew that if two things happened I would be going well. One was going cross-eyed and the second was drooling on myself. Check and Check. Into transition is where things really got interesting. I was hauling into T2, and saw Kevin Cart’s bike already racked in transition. Now, Kevin has PHENOMENAL bike skills, but how did he outswim me too? I started to freak out a little that I had to run him down. As I hit the run, a friend of mine yelled that I was only 1:30 down. Oh great, I ONLY have to run 30 seconds a mile into him. Uh sure. Well, it must be Kevin’s excellent skin and taking care of himself that made me forget that he is 41 and went off in the wave in front of me. In my oxygen depleted state, I finally realized this at mile 1.5. After this groundbreaking discovery, I just tried to run as hard as I could because I knew that the Primeaux brothers were gonna unleash some nasty fast runs and it was gonna be all I had to hold them off. In retrospect, I thought that maybe I could’ve run harder. But my buddy Eric put me in my place when he said, “Dude, I disagree. I heard you before I saw you. You sounded like a race horse with a weezing problem. You were in the hurt locker.” Crossing the line was nice, as was my sister and Scott bringing me a bag of ice to stick on my chest. I joke when I call myself a big diesel engine, but this was one of those times when you could feel that engine overheating. I wanted to climb into either the ice bucket with the beer, or the big ice chest with all the bags of ice. Neither worked out as there was a security guard next to the ice chest and I had enough groping in the swim so the beer ice was out too.

In the end, I got 2^nd place, and was beaten by a faster athlete on the day. Mark had a great race, and was really strong across all 3 disciplines. He’s got a bright future in the sport, and it’s fun to watch these young guys go so fast. As opposed to saying the young guys are the racers of the future, they’ve proven they’re here now to win. It’s good motivation for 2011 as I drag these old bones around training for next year. However, I did get a 2^nd place trophy AND a hug from Tammy D, so that’s as good as the winner’s trophy for me! Thanks a million to Rusty Bex and his people for keeping this classic race going. It’s one of the original and still one of the premier races around. Also thanks to my awesome family at Capital Cyclery. Jason built up the sick Speed Concept and keeps it running flawless. And what can I say about Lisa, except that she’s the best and I am grateful to have her help to continue chasing the dream. And of course thanks to Elyse, Kellee and Scott for suffering through the heat to cheer me on. I don’t know if free Buffalo Wild Wings was a fair trade for being out in that blast furnace, but it’s a deal I’ll take every day! Till next time, it’s back to the grind. Thanks for reading.