The launch for Project IronHeart will be happening on Thursday December 10 at Hazelhurst Gallery Theaterette.  The night will have a few things happening.

1. A short seminar on “The top 5 mistakes made by endurance sports athletes” given by myself (wearing my Sports Physio hat…I’ve probably made 6 out of the top 5!!)

2. An interview with Tony Unicomb, former professional triathlete and Commonwealth Games representative, and Heart disease sufferer. Tony’s story should be compelling listening for anyone who exercises at any level. I’ll launch Project IronHeart and explain what I’ll be up to over the next 4 months.

3.  The highlight of the night will be an interview with back-to-back World Ironman Champion and Sports Performer award winner, Craig Alexander.  I interviewed Craig back in March at another of my seminars and it was a fantastic night. Craig is a class act and straight shooter, he answers freely and like last time, is donating his time.

The details:

• Thursday December 10, 2009, 7pm
• Hazelhurst Gallery Theaterette, Kingsway Gymea
• $10 admission, all proceeds go to the Heart Foundation
• To book you need to ring 9548 3372 and make payment via credit card, or pay in person at Parkside Sports Physio, Shop 2, 39-41 Railway Pde Engadine.
• Numbers limited to 65.  

Der angepeilte Interview-Termin mit Sandra Wallenhorst fällt nun fix auf den kommenden Montag. Wir werden in Würzburg mit der Athletin von Hannover 96 unter anderem auch intensiv über die Erfahrungen von der vergangenen Weltmeisterschaft sprechen.

Iron Man Retro 5 by marvelclassics
Browse more 4 color T-Shirts

And this is the last Iron Man hoodie I think I will post for a while. It is a cool graphic hoodie with the old cover graphic that they used to have on all of their comics, and I really think it makes a great design for a hoodie. I hope you’re enjoying these as much as I am sharing them.

This is the letter I wrote to myself the morning of the Hawaii Ironman after just 6 months of training.  I wish I would have read this afew times over the last few years.

When I found out I was going to Ironman, I didn’t know what to expect.  I wasn’t fully aware of the impact it would have on my life.  When you’re sitting on a bike for seven hours, or running down the same road for four, you have a lot of time to contemplate and make realizations that otherwise you may have never picked up on in the cloud of time we call our lives. 

 I think that is why so many people are hooked on Ironman. 

 It inevitably gives your mind time to come down and think about your life on a different level.  Ironman races and the training that goes into them will take your body and mind to the breaking point and beyond.  It has given me the time to think of where I have been and cleared the path to where I am going.  It has made it clear to me that the key to a wealthy life isn’t money, and success should never be measured in dollar signs. 

It has taught me to key striving ahead but appreciate what I have and all my achievements along the way. 

The biggest realization I have made is that life and everything in it has a cycle.

  In training you have a cycle of workout time when you feel amazing and you could go on forever.  In life you have these same cycles when everything seems to be clicking so well and you literally think to yourself that from that point on, nothing could ever go wrong again.  But it is human nature to self- sabotage and that is exactly what we do.  In training, you can hit a negative cycle, when training is so monotonous and painful that your body and mind tries to make a quitter out of you.  In life, all it takes is one minor glitch in your perfect life cycle to set off a chain of events that what will seem almost irreversible.  In training, when you have these moments, you have to take whatever obstacle your body, mind or Mother Nature is going to put in front of you, step back, and understand why it is happening. 

 Then… deal with it.

If your body tells you to stop because you are tired, this is the best time of your training.  This is when you really find out how deep you can dig to get your training back on that positive cycle.  In life, it is exactly the same.  When you think you can’t work anymore that day, or you are too tired when you get home to do the dishes.  Think of the chain of events something that small can create. 

It is at these times that if we can dig deep no matter how big or small the task, we can work harder, get more done, have less stress, achieve more goals, and have a great life. 

No matter how today goes, I have learned more about myself in these last six months than I ever have, and plan on continuing to dig deep in everything I do to live the life I have always dreamed of for my family and me.

First off – my apologies for my long awaited return – and whatever happened to my last blog in September! It went awol. I meant to re-type it but there’s been a lot going on in my life and the desire to write just fell by the wayside. I did re-type it. It was basically all about my new coach’s training plan.

Okay – onward. September was tough. Work was tough – trying to figure out “tri language” from the new coach was tough. Getting back into a work out routine was tough.

I did get into it though by the beginning of October. I bought a book about triathlon for women. It’s a great reference book and half way through it, I realize in terms of equipment, I’m pretty prepared. I do still need to learn how to change a bike tire though before outdoor training! The plyometrics are definitely working. My muscles are firing quicker – and my legs got bigger! Putting on skinny jeans now is like putting on tights.

We advanced to two runs, a long run and a swim and increased difficulty on the core workouts and plyometrics. Unfortunately, I went away on holidays at the beginning of November for a week back to Palm Springs with my mom right when the bike workouts started. I had forgotten what it was like to not be on a schedule and loved it – maybe too much.

Now that I’m back, it’s been hard to get into routine. Last night I was cranky. The thought of sitting on a windtrainer indoors for a half hour or doing burpees because I have to was making me angry. I compare biking on a windtrainer to running on a treadmill. I suddenly detested living in this cold climate. I told Marc last night that maybe I’m feeling a bit of burn out. He suggested working out for the fun of it. Don’t do what I was scheduled to do – just do any kind of work out I want. So I was on the eliptical for 20 minutes and ran for 10. Did I enjoy myself? Yes.

Don’t get me wrong. I like to swim, bike and run. I see the purpose to plyometrics but mentally, I find it boring. I like weights but doing 4 sets of a lot of different weights is time consuming. I look forward to training outside again. It’s going to be a long winter.

Maybe I could deal with this more if work was a little less stressful. We had to apply for a Work Share program (the business reduces employees’ work hours to save money and in turn, employees are allowed to collect EI). It’s a good program but it’s a sign of the times. My boss isn’t sure if things are going to turn around for her business and it might mean the end if we don’t get out of this in a year. I’ll survive – my skills are easily transferrable – but the rest of the staff are professionals with Masters Degrees in a field where there isn’t a lot of jobs. It’s been tough on everyone and contracts are being put on hold “until next year” or so our clients say. They’re suffering too with budget cuts.

But I digress. I need to get focused. Following Marc’s suggestion is a good start. Enjoy working out and don’t look at it as training just yet – just maintenance. Oh, I got my Alberta Triathlon Association membership, registered for the Calgary marathon and I have two 1/2 Ironman races that I have in mind to do next year. If I can make it through Christmas and avoid the excessive drinking and eating, stay focused, I’ll get back on track. Just need to stay positive and have faith.

Anyway, I’m back. I’ll keep you posted on my progress!

If you are like me who works 8 hours plus a day, got a wife, kids plus other activities and hobbies but truly interested in joining next years Ironman 70.3 Philippines next year…you may want to check this out.

This program is based on my years of experience in the sport, and my life as an ordinary working-family man in consideration of the many responsibilities (personal and professional) that somehow, the need to accomplish a feat comes close to priority 1-must need to! Moreover, this is in response to the many emails and text messages from friends and readers of my site wanting to join IM Phil with little or no experience in triathlons. For the naysayers and dickheads, I would like to reiterate that I am no expert nor champion but merely an average age-grouper a few pounds overweight with blisters and corn in every crevice of my body.

For starters, I would like to emphasize that this program is meant for those who have a considerable amount of fitness. Meaning, those who can swim, bike and run (not consecutively) in a moderate manner. I highly suggest to consult your doctor or physician before getting into this program or any physical activity for that matter. I cannot guarantee that undergoing this program will give you “uber” supernatural strength and finish the race below cut off time.

As an average pinoy, my limited budget dictates that I do not have the luxury of a heart rate monitor, gps system or cyclometer with cadence. Hence, i am going old school with this training program like the early days of Dave Scott and Molina. If by chance that your are blessed with cash, do partake in proper equipment such as those mentioned earlier. Nothing beats technology nowadays.

Ok here we go…

This training program begins December of this year, wherein this is called the Adaptation phase. Like any well written speech, this given you an eye opener what to expect in the next few months of training. The intensity is fairly low but some may find it a too strenuous to begin with. Ergo, go easy at first. Adpatation will last exactly 4 weeks before 2009 ends.

Guidelines

• PE or Perceived exertion, 1 little effort and 5 being 100% effort.
  
• Swim means pick any of the previous swim programs I have posted in the past.
• Don’t fret if you missed a workout. Its fine, we are human. Just go on and continue the next day
• Leave 1 day for total rest
• Speed is not as important as consistency.
  
• Easy workouts every 4th Week called active recovery
• Listen to your body, DO NOT OVERTRAIN – go easy if you have to.
• This is time based to prevent serious injuries.
• BRICK: Means bike and run immediately – dont forget your shoes
  

Adaptation Week 1-4 Dec 2009

Monday                       Easy Run 30min

Tuesday                       BRICK: Bike 60 min trainer w intervals. PE 4, BRICK: Run 20 min intense PE 4

Wednesday                 Swim, Bike: 60min steady. Light recovery High Cadence

Thursday                     Rest

Friday                           Swim, Run: Easy Run 30min PE 2-3

Saturday                      Bike: Long 90 min PE 3-4

Sunday                         Run: Long Run 60min PE 3

Be safe and train wisely. Next Build Phase.

Tonight’s show is all about endurance as we catch up with three Western Australians who give the word stamina, a new meaning. I’m glad that our show is only 2-hours long.

As usual we promise to continue covering topics that are not necessarily run of the mill and tonight we talk to two men in their 60’s who put a lot of us to shame.

Netball
The West Coast Fever has announced their squad for the coming season and there are a few changes in personnel. They have also started pre-season training, so we catch up with Joh Curran to find out what the mood is like amongst the girls.

Cricket
The Warriors start to the season has not been the one everyone would have hoped for, but we have seen young talent given a chance. Tonight we catch up with Luke Towers during their Ford Ranger Cup Clash with NSW.

Ironman
Ironman WA is just over a week away and we are catching up again with Melbourne based West Australian Kelly Jarrett, who has since we last spoke, has turned professional and will be heading over to Busselton to try and take out the women’s event. We will also find out what it has meant to focus totally on the sport she loves.

Wheelchair triathlon
We will then catch up with 62-year-old wheelchair athlete Bob Thomas who recently competed in the Triathlon World Championships held here in Perth.

Wheelbarrow man
If that made you feel tired wait till you hear David Baird’s story! He ran across Australia and into the Guinness Book of World Records by pushing a wheelbarrow across the country, from Cottesloe to Manly. He too is in his 60’s! Not only is that remarkable but when you hear he had to give up rugby because of a bad back it is even more incredible.

Iron Man Retro 3 by marvelclassics
More 4 color T-Shirts

Another one of the cool graphic hoodies that Marvel has released of Iron Man. I really love the dynamic pose in this one and the fact that he is pretty big on the front of the hoodie!

3 in all under 12hrs, all with PBs. Not too shabby. Great job guys!

Tim went 11:02.   Under a previous coach he was a DNF at his IM attempts.  Crossing the finish line, to me, is a PB for him since he has started Ironman races before.  I’m actually looking forward to his progress next season.  He has managed to knock off over 32 minutes from his half IM PB this year dropping that into the low 4:30’s.  I think next year he should be turning some heads around the AZ racing scene with people asking where he came from.  Sorry Tim, I didn’t get any pics of you that my thumb wasn’t in the way.

Jeff went 11:35. He overcame some late season injuries caused by a shoe switch which limited his run mileage during the final build. Jeff has a group of friends that are, or actually were of similar ability in IMs.  To quote one of them, “I’m going to have to put the wife and newborn up for adoption if I want to get close to his time”. When you drop over 65 minutes off your IM PB, you actually just have to de-friend your old ones and go get faster new friends. Or you become King among the commoners.

Jeff telling me what he really thinks

Billy was the third athlete going 10:14.  He went about 30 minutes faster then he ever had.  This was the first time he ever broke 4 hours in the Ironman marathon.  He got off the bike 7th in his AG, within striking distance of a Kona slot, but ultimately finished 14th in his AG.  I’ve know Billy know for over 12 years, train with him often and have been coaching him for just over three. It’s been nice watching him get faster and faster as he does the work season after season. Now at 45, he is faster then when he was 35 or 40!

Starting his 2nd loop

Finishing to a new Ironman PR

I’ve added results for Ironman Arizona 2009 to triresults.com.

URL: Results for Ironman Arizona 2009

I’m no stranger to heavy training schedules.  I’ve been racing multisport events (some of them quite long) for the past several years, and have now trained for and completed two marathons.  But, it is one of the most tragic aspects of the human condition that experience does not necessarily lead to wisdom.  I’ve read the books (re-reading Friel and Byrn’s Going Long at the moment, which I first bought for Mary when she had just started triathlons.  She laughed in my face and said there was no way she was ever going to do something like an Ironman.  Now, I don’t want to suggest that I could foretell the future or anything. . .but I foretold the future!).  I’ve read the blogs.  I’ve followed Coach Ed’s advice to the aspiring Ironmen over the last year and talked to many of them.   All that has made me more informed.

To judge from the evidence of the last week, however, it has not made me any smarter.

This week’s lesson: you cannot train for an Ironman, even in the early stages, and expect your life to function the way it did before you started.  Pretty obvious, huh?  However, knowing is not doing.

Last week was heavy.  It started off with a weekend where I basically did two races.  There was a short (4K) trail race at Potomac Overlook Park.  The event was being held to benefit the Branch Nature Center which is in danger of closing due to Arlington County’s budget woes.  A lot of Zers were participating, and Ed was also grilling up a storm and donating the proceeds to the cause.  There was an 8K event also but since I’d never done any trail racing before I opted for the shorter, safer (so I thought) option.  Even the 4K was bloody hard work.  It had been raining constantly for two days, was drizzling during the race, and the trails were muddy and covered with leaves (plus all the usual off-road hazards of tree roots, rocks, steps).  The name of the park should have clued me in to the nature of the terrain in advance: where there is an overlook there will also be a what . . .underlook?  uplook?  At any rate, it was steep uphills, steep downhills, stream crossings. . .  Once the race was over, I loved it.  At the time, I thought I was going to die.  And die less than a mile into the race.  However, I loved the fact that you couldn’t switch your mind off, you had to be thinking all the time.  I really loved the downhills.  I found that if I just relaxed and reacted rather than trying to over-think things I just flowed down the hills, catching and passing several people (who then passed me smoothly on the uphills as I gasped and wheezed in their wake).  I was pretty pleased with the result: time of 23:07, sixth overall (out of 37), second in my age group (and yes, there were more than two people, there were a whopping 5, in fact!), and I didn’t have a seizure.  I did, however, feel as if I had been sat on by an elephant.  I said sat on, although the other would work just as well.

Another reason why I only ran the 4K is that we had a bike time trial the following day: 23.6 miles across rolling terrain with a couple of short, moderate climbs.  This was an organized team event and it was great to see so many people giving it a go.  This kind of event, particularly if it is repeated several times (and that is the plan) can give you some valuable indication of changes in your form and fitness as they result of training.  Plus, the fact that so much of the training that multisport athletes do is long and slow means that the rare opportunity to get your fast on can be a welcome break from the normal training routine.

There is, however, a good reason that you don’t do time trials every day of the week.  They destroy you.  This is supposed to be a test of how fast you can go leaving absolutely nothing in reserve.  It is balls to the wall and beyond.  It is also a test, however, of your mental discipline, your consistency, and your pacing.  You can’t blow it out of the water in the first ten miles or you will have nothing left for the last part of it.  I was pretty pleased with the way it went for me.  My plan was to start out in high zone 3 and try and keep it there for a few miles, but that pretty much went by the wayside and I settled in to low zone 4.  Except for the climb I kept it there, and then pushed it toward the end (aided by the fact that it was mostly uphill) so that I was in zone 5 (which, typically, is very hard for me to reach on a bike) for most of the last three miles.  Final time: 1:13:58.  I was also happy that I was only 50 seconds slower on the second half than on the first half.  Ideally I’d want to be faster on the second half, but I felt that I was a lot slower than I obviously was.

However, that weekend left me pretty much wrecked for the rest of the week, and just trying to get by.  Typically my week looks like this:

• Monday and Wednesday: biking to and from work, with the bike home transitioning immediately into a short session of strength training at home (since I am warmed up);
• Tuesday: track workout in the morning, and swimming in the evening;
• Thursday: track in the morning, spin class and swimming in the evening;
• Friday: Off.
• Saturday: Long Run
• Sunday: Long ride and, ideally, swimming in the evening.

A time trial or a race typically leaves me feeling pretty buzzed the day after the event, one of the after-effects of having your body drenched in adrenaline.  It is two days after that it really hits me. . .and it did.  Felt like complete shite on Tuesday for both the run and the swim.  Things began to look up a little on Wednesday, and by Thursday I managed to get through the day, although I was pretty happy to be doing nothing on Friday.  Long run went well on Saturday.  However, after the long bike I was exhausted, so much so that I couldn’t even contemplate swimming.  I felt completely fatigued and my legs ached.

So, yes, the race/trial weekend had a lot of lingering effects.  But I compounded this with two huge mistakes.

1) By all that is holy, turn off the TV, put away the computer and haul your exhausted arse to bed!  I’ve been trying to stick to my usual routine, which typically involves staying up pretty late.  I am used to about 6-7 hours of sleep max.  I find it harder to sleep longer than that, normally.  However, when training for an Ironman you have definitively entered into the realm of the non-normal.  You need sleep.  Lots of sleep.  More sleep than you think you need.  I know this, so why I haven’t been doing it is a little mysterious.  There is, perhaps, a large part of me that is still in denial about the Ironman and trying to pretend that I’m just training for some short race.

1) You are not 133t, you will never be 133t, so stop trying to pretend that you are 133t.  Made a big mistake on this weekend’s ride.  Well, a couple really.  I keep forgetting how hilly some of the parts around Poolesville are.  As usual, I was so glad to be on the bike that I jumped all over it from the get go as if I was doing another time trial instead of a slower ride in heart rate zone 2.  But I also for a while tried to keep up with the lead group.  I have to face the fact that I am never going to have a zone 2 ride trying to keep up with the likes of Sebastian, Damon, and Chris.  I obviously have this mental picture of myself as a cyclist which bears only a passing resemblance to reality.  Whether or not those guys are really riding zone 2 on these rides is not an issue.  The point is, everyone needs to be riding their own ride, working their own zones.  This, I think, is going to be the hardest part of the entire training for me.  I love the bike.  I love going fast on the bike.  I love long rides on the bike.  But the bike in the Ironman has one goal and one goal only: to ensure that you get off the bike in reasonable shape to complete an additional 26.2 miles.

Waking up this morning too fatigued to be bothered biking to work has made me see that I need a change in game plan.  Some of this will get easier.  Picking up the swimming on a regular basis is a huge change both in training style and overall workout volume for me and it will take a while for my body to adapt.  So there will be a few more weeks of tiredness, no doubt.  But normal training tiredness is a different thing from being completely wiped.

Well, look at the time, it’s almost 3pm.  If you’ll excuse me, I need to be getting to bed.

What a weekend!

Coming home from work on Friday I had it all planned out. A little jog that evening, the following day was going to be a big one with Untamed Adventure/Spiffing Ales Orienteering event being organised by Grant Killian near Uetikon am See, then I had a kayaking session planned for Sunday, a good excuse to let the legs recover. I had a great week, you can see what it was like here and on Thursday night I met my new coach, Markus Köhl for the first time, we get along well and I feel he will be really great for preparing me for the Ironman. I went to a swim training session with the Free Radicals triathlon club and met some nice people there too. I have a long way to go yet but Im confident I will eventually get there.  Ive also been completely inspired by Chrissie Wellington, the story of her climb to success is awesome!

First things first and thats Abu Dhabi on the horizon!

Friday evening`s run went really well, a little too well perhaps as I charged around Uetliberg, eventually convincing myself that I may as well “go for it” as there was no harm in having one good strong last weekend before a two week taper in the lead up to Abu Dhabi. I have been having a great time listening to podcasts from IM Talk these guys are so funny I have been getting strange looks from people while Im out running and nearly have to stop Im in tears laughing at what Im listening to.

Uetikon am See – Untamed Adventure – Spiffing Ales

ORIENTEERING

The following morning I got up relatively early, got my bike ready and headed out the door to the erm Post office en route to Uetikon am See and the Spiffing Ales Brewery, what a great idea to hold an event from a British ex-Pat brewery! I figured it would take me about 90 mins to get there on the mountain bike. What I didnt calculate was actually biking past Uetikon am See and up the hill behind it. It wasnt until I reached the top that I realised that the village below was Uetikon and I had gone too far, riding my legs in an unecessary uphill slog with a backpack full of gear. The trip also took me closer to 2 hours! But as on Friday night I reassured myself that it was a good thing I was going the extra mile (or 6, as it were)

Finally arrived at the brewery, passing a couple of guys running with maps along the way. There were plenty of people about and a group of runners marking maps with multi coloured pens indoors. I joined them, pretending to know what I was doing and releived at least, that we werent given just a set of coordinates to map like in Adventure Races. This was easy peasy – draw the red line along the apparently best way to get from ct (control) to ct. There were a few interesting elements thrown in to confuse us too. We had a general area map and 3 extra 1:15,000 scale maps to help us with more detail and micro navigation. There was also a nice hidden map which consisted of blank rectangle on the main map, copied in a larger scale to a blank A4 paper with only 4 small peep hole squares of exactly where the cts were located, so you had to guess the orientation of the micro map and what was actually underneath the white.

SO. I began to look around for someone to follow or run with. Thankfully all the super competitive guys had already left so I hadnt made the mistake of teaming up with one of them and having my legs run off all day for fear of being left behind or getting lost.

I saw another friendly face, Ben Prior and asked him if he would mind running together with me. He was very open to the idea as it was his first event ever of this kind and as it turns out we had an awesome run together. We went at a similiar pace, not beasting outselves and basically just enjoying the day and being out there having fun. Our navigation turned out to be spot on also. We only missed a couple of cts (one of the more difficult ones worth 40pts from the experimental photocopied/blank micro map) and the rest of them, we hit bang on. I was so happy with that and it gave me so much confidence with regards to my navigational skills.

We came in after nearly 4 hours and 26 km out on the course. Happy to be finished and also happy with our decision not to stretch ourselves to the outer controls which would have added on another 15 km to our route. We collected 38pts, far off the impressive 770 of the winner, Swedish adventure racer Staffan but nevertheless a good result for two rookies. The ale was also fabulous, I really enjoyed a glass of it after the run and the pizza was tastier than ever.

SUNDAY – SABBATH – REST?

Sunday was a write off however, I had great intentions of getting up early, meeting friends from brunch and setting of to Rushlikon to head for a kayak session. I barely made it to the brunch as I was late leavign the house and got stopped by police on the train as I had forgotten my half fare card. So it took them 20 minutes of intimidating form filling before they left me go free, brunch was nice, but by then I was really tired and just wanted to take a nap. I even bought the train ticket to Rushlikon but opted out at the last minute. I returned home and went for an easy 2 hour hike instead in the woods. I was happy with that decision as it is getting dark pretty early now and it also started pouring rain and Im not sure how happy I would have been in my tired post orienteering state, out on the lake!

So this week it gets easier. I went for a swim this morning before work in Oerlikon, that was really nice. I think I am getting the hang of this swimming lark. Tonight perhaps a quick 30 min run around and some conditioning and tomorrow the same again. I have a gear list to cross check, although it appears as though I have nearly everything already.

Im nervous! But excited at the same time!

I came across this interesting solution from checkpointzero for not getting sand in their shoes in the desert.

But dont you think that after 5 hours your feet might be over heating?

I think Ill stick with my Raidlight sand gaitors!



scanned some of my old 2006 drawings inspired by frank miller’s sin city (these 2 have my initials from before i got married)

shellie from sin city by frank miller

lucille from sin city by frank miller

and here’s something i did last night in anticipation of the tokidoki x marvel release in february.

i really want to learn how to draw chibibotness fairly consistently. i’ve tried doing stuff inspired by lil formers and my mr. bear’s drawings, but so far have not been doing as well as i’d like. i’m so tired…i’ve been staying up into the weeeee hours because i’ve been trying to really get time to myself…overall i’m happy to be a parent, but dammit, sometimes i just need some time alone…also, i’ve been trying to get back into drawing as an outlet for all the crap that’s swimming around in my brain…ewww i just realized that makes my brain sound like a sewer…i wonder if i have pizza eating teenage mutant ninja turtles living in my brain?

Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058 User Review

This is an excellent item for the ipod. I’m using this with the 80GB classic and it works like a charm. The range is great and I haven’t had any glitches, lack of reception or radio interference.
Keep in mind that the receiver is powered by the ipod, so when not in use, you’ll want to remover the receiver so you don’t drain your battery. It doesn’t make a significant impact on play time when in use, but you will see your power drop if you just let it site for hours at a time.
All in all, a great product.
Plus the watch works well in that respect as well. It’s easy to read, super bright when you need the light, and the alarm will actually wake me up. It’s also sealed to 328 feet, so you don’t have to worry about the weather or diving. Just don’t use the buttons underwater.
I love that I don’t have to worry about my ipod getting wet when roaming the streets of Seattle anymore. Keeping it in a jacket pocket or slot in my bag while controlling it via the watch works perfectly. I’d definitely recommend this.
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Reviews Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058

Products by : Timex
Top Model : T5K058

Rating Reviews : 5.0

More Info. Click to See Now! at amazon.com

*** Product Information and Prices Stored : Nov 21, 2009 22:36:31 ***

*** More Information of : Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058 *** You can

Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058 Overviews

The unisex Timex Midsize Green Ironman Sleek iControl Watch transmits signals seamlessly to your ipod. Simply connect the included receiver into your iPod and you can control your music in a heartbeat. Designed to work with your body and coordinate with your iPod or with your iPhone (in airplane mode), the iControl watch is sleek and comfortable to wear. This watch is compatible with iPod 5th generation (video); iPod Nano 2nd generation (aluminum) 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB; iPod 5th generation (video) 60GB and 80GB; iPod Nano 1st generation 1GB, 2GB, 4GB; and the iphone. By using the buttons surrounding the dial face, you can easily adjust your iPod’s volume, use track forward or reverse to select your song, and play or pause your music.

The digital-gray dial face with its Indiglo night-light offsets the green and silver-tone bezel, and the case, which is made of durable resin, measures 41.5 millimeters. A resin band and buckle clasp ensure a steadfast fit. For further practicality, a day-date-and-month calendar is also included, and the watch can be adjusted for three time zones. Other features include a 50-lap memory, three alarms, a countdown timer, two interval timers, and a chronograph function. This sophisticated timepiece is powered by digital-quartz movement, is water resistant to 330 feet, and is backed by a 1-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058 Features

• Quartz movement
• Strong acrylic crystal protects dial from scratches and scrapes
• Case diameter measures 41.5 mm
• Resin case; Digital-Gray dial; Day-date-and-month functions
• Water-resistant to 330 feet (100 M)

Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058 Specifications

Timex Unisex Green Ironman Sleek iControl Resin Strap Watch #T5K058 ListPrice : $99.95

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I watched in awe…

… as these two women struggled to balance and run on their own two legs.  Teetering, wobbling and staggering towards the finish line.  My heart ached as I watched them collapse a few feet from the finish, and, felt my heart wrenching, as I witnessed their desperate crawl to the finish for 4th and 5th place; respectively. I couldn’t avoid that lump in my throat.  I cried.

Did I cry because they were in pain?  Was it because they were struggling?  Or because I couldn’t understand their anguish?  Maybe, because I wanted them to finish strong when they looked so feeble?…

I suspect that it was because they were in such agony, but unwilling to quit.  Their “Ironwill” inspires me!  Finding that will to overcome physical obstacles; unwilling to give up even when you’re ready to fall like a deck of cards.  They have proven that finishing is winning, even if others finish before you!

I guess that’s what we call the tenacious battle of the human spirit.  (Things like this make me cry AND SMILE!)  :D

Run Happy!

“It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated…it is finished when it surrenders.” -Ben Stein

I’m often on stage in Augusta.  Here’s the skinny on that.  How cool is it to be a clogger in Augusta, GA?  I’m able to do something completely Southern in Heritage and have the venues available to share my talents.  Augusta is small enough that something as Southern as clogging truly fits here, but large enough that the venues and the opportunities in which we can perform are limitless.  We’ve danced for the Georgia Games, cheered on the winners of the Ironman Triathlon, and danced with Ricky Skaggs at the Morris Museum of Art.  I have a pair of ‘retired’ clogs with Ricky Skaggs signature on the sole.  We were once annoyed that we had to dance on the pavement so the band could go ahead and set up on stage. The band was the Rascal Flatts just a few years before they went double platinum.  We open up the Day in the Country Festival every year for top Country Artists.  Thanks to the local Arts Community.  Many cloggers travel to other cities for unique dance opportunities.  In Augusta, we’ve got all that right here.

Un jour, un fils dit à son père :

- Papa, tu veux courir un marathon avec moi ?

Et le père dit : oui.

Ils courent ensemble leur premier marathon.

Une autre fois, le fils redemande:

- Papa, tu veux courir encore un marathon avec moi ?

Et le père dit : oui, mon fils.

Un jour, le fils demande à son père :

- Papa, tu veux courir avec moi le Ironman ?

(Le Ironman est le triathlon le plus difficile qui existe : nager 4 km, faire du vélo pdt 180 km et courir 42 km)

Et le papa dit : oui.

Cette histoire incroyable a fait un buzz sur Facebook autant que sur Youtube : Jusqu’ou l’amour d’un père pour son fils handicapé peut mener.

Le Team Hoyt (Équipe Hoyt en anglais) est formé par Dick Hoyt et son fils Rick. Dick Hoyt, né en 1940, est un ancien lieutenant-colonel de la Garde nationale aérienne. Rick, né en 1962, est gravement infirme moteur cérébral suite à une complication à la naissance. Ils courent des marathons et des triathlons.

Dick tire son fils dans un bateau lors des épreuves de natation, il le porte sur un siège à l’avant de son vélo, et le pousse dans un fauteuil roulant lors des épreuves de course à pied. Au 31 août 2008, ils ont pris part à 984 événements dont 229 triathlons (dont 6 ironman), 20 duathlons et 66 marathons dont 26 marathons de Boston. Ils ont également traversé les États-Unis à pied et à vélo, parcourant environ 5600 km en 45 jours.

Le récit semble simple. Jusqu’à ce qu’on regarde ces images …

Mi sono iscritto, al mio primo mezzo Ironman, e che sia di buon auspicio. Ho scelto Rapperswil, per il periodo, perchè è del circuito Ironman, e perchè le altimetrie mi sembravano fattibili. Sperem …
Ho visto dal calendario Fitri che quest’anno ne sono apparsi alcuni anche in Italia, bene! Il 70.3 mi sembra una bella distanza

Per l’allenamento sto ancora cercando la tabella ideale, ma per ora mi sono orientato su questa di Trinewbies, ma se ne conoscete altre dite pure …

Chi si iscrive con me?

Pre race:

Post Swim

I arrived in PCB on Wednesday and stayed with my Aunt about 3 miles from the Boardwalk, race start. It was nice because I could get away from all of the rest of the athletes and constant working out going on. Crazy atmosphere. If you have any self doubts about your ability or are super competitive it’s best to keep off your feet and away from the pre-race “races”. Swam in the gulf twice, the water was perfect, like a pond, no breakers.

Total hours of training and racing (just cardio) since February 2009: 250 hours. About 6-7 hours a week average. I had weeks with 12-15 hours and weeks with 3 hours. Almost no speed work (except for the pool).

Nutrition:
Ate lite the day before the race and stayed hydrated. Bike check in/bag check was a bit crazy, but all went well. One salt stick cap the night before. Sonny’s BBQ chicken dinner, yum.

Morning of:
English Muffin with Peanut butter finished at 4:15 AM.
Forgot to take my 5 hour energy right before the race. Probably better that I didn’t take it.

Race Morning:
One word: Nuts. The atmosphere reminds me of the MCM except you have to worry about more details. My tire valve broke while adjusting pressure. Luckily the WTC had mechanics on site for that purpose. Decided not to put on sunscreen before the swim or put it in my T1 bag because volunteers were putting sunscreen on racers. Not a good idea.

Swim:
Since everyone looked crazy fit and it was my first Ironman race, I decided to start in the very back, as in last one to hit the water, back. Hugh mistake. I worked on my swim this year, a lot, and I was thinking I could swim a 1:00-1:05 at FL. Starting in the back is not the way to go about that, not in a mass start of 2500+ people. So yeah, it took about 3 minutes to actually start swimming. I would have started swimming as soon as the water was just above my knees. Pushing off the bottom in dolphin like jumps until about waist deep. But most of the racers were waiting to swim until about waist deep. Then there was the first turn buoy, talk about traffic jam. The best I could muster was a breast stroke. My first lap time though was at about 37 minutes. Not too bad, I’ll negative split so I thought.

2nd lap:
It’s funny how the majority of age groupers took the longest route back in the water, walking out in the surf and waiting until the last-minute to swim. I took the direct, non-crowded route and was able to pass a lot of people. Made it to the first turn buoy pretty fast, not so much of a jam this time, though on the way I noticed a lot of white/clear things in the water: jellyfish. Hundreds of them, not all at the surface of course, but close enough to keep the elbows high for sure. I was stung by one at around the 2nd turn buoy, right in the armpit. No worries, I thought, nothing can be done about that right now, so I continued to swim normally. The water had a bit more chop than the 1st lap and I had trouble seeing the buoys, I figured out that I could sight off the corner of a hotel right into shore, so that’s what I did, and it worked well. A couple minutes later, a swimmer came right into my path, almost perpendicular to my direction and elbowed me right in my left eye. I swam right over him, kept going. About a minute later, I got a headache, followed by nausea, and then a fit of dry heaving. The first dry heave took me by surprise and I sucked in some sea water, which caused more dry heaving. I had to stop swimming, go upright, catch my bearings, then continue, and stop to repeat until the end of swim. I’m getting nauseous just writing this…

Time: 1:23

T1: Still nauseous, I made my way to transition, sat in the change area, which felt good and asked myself if I were good to go. I thought, yup, and made it out of T1 in approx. 11:58 minutes (wow..I could have had breakfast there) Went to get some sunscreen and noticed that the volunteers were applying thick sunscreen sweaters. I decided to pass.

Bike:
I knew I had a flat course ahead of me though with some wind and my position wasn’t that aero, so I knew it could be a tough day. Put that in perspective with being nauseous, I just took it a moment at a time. This had to pass. So it did, about an hour in. For nutrition, I didn’t start taking in salt until I could taste the salt in the Gatorade endurance (thanks to the saltwater). After 1.5 hours I started my saltstick caps. The wind was tough, the course was not though. I settled into an easy 75% MHR and enjoyed the rolling bike expo that passed me.
Side note: USAT judges really need to start riding quieter motorcycles if they are going to catch more people breaking the drafting rules. I was passed by several pacelines. Yeah pacelines. Harleys are great, but you can hear them a quarter mile away.
The last 40 miles I average just under 18 mph.
Ate about 14 gels with caffeine, two whole bananas, and about 5 Gatorade bottles.

Time: 6:30 (hours)

T2: Came in, sat down again in the change area, put everything on, checked to make sure I had everything and headed out.
9:08 minutes (Stopped by the porta jon for a bit)

Run:
Started my run feeling like I was at the end of a marathon. Took a Five Hour Energy, two Advil and pressed on. After four miles I started feeling better. My game plan was this, walk the aid stations (that was all I walked) and press hard the last 10K. I was feeling better as the run progressed. I think it was the Advil.

The last two miles I was a man on a mission, I really think I was going at an 8:30 pace or faster. Either way, I was feeling good when I crossed the finish line.

Run: 4:28

Overall: 12:43

At the Finish

Post Race:
Massage, Beer, and Pizza. No soreness at all the following week. Massage on the Tuesday after. I tried running 8 days after, but my heart rate jumped above 80% within two minutes. I’ll try again in a week.

Lessons learned:
Overall:
I need more speed. Next season will be all about speed. I want people to say I’m F&%^ing fast. More short races and speed work.

Swim:
Go out hard to the first buoy, and settle into a solid pace for each race next season, this does two things:
1. Avoids the crowds at first (then you have to lap some of them)
2. You can find a more dependable pair of feet to draft off of with elite swimmers in the group.

More masters swimming.

Transitions:
Practice. You don’t have to go to the change area/tent. Wear your uniform under your wetsuit (like I usually do).

Bike:
Adjust position for more aerodynamics, upgrade from a triple to a compact, more speed work and big gear work in the offseason.

Run:
More speed work and short fast racing in the offseason.