Long weekend of training

Whew... 3-day weekends, specially around this time, mean lots of hours of working hard. This one was no exception. Saturday and Sunday were both long/hard brick days, Monday was build day, which totally kicked my butt. I had help from Theresa and we basically spent all day Monday building this:

The structure was given to us by a neighbor. One trip to Home Depot, lots of drilling, sawing, wrenching, lifting... The end result? One very happy 5yr old, two very tired and sore parents. Who knew re-building and retrofitting one of these was such hard work???

back to training.

new schooliform on its way

Here is a shot of the new trisuit, on its way from getting printed, ready for some summer racing. This also gives me an opportunity to thank everyone in my corner. Thank you Mike @Blue Seventy, thank you Robert @1st Endurance, thank you Chance @Blue Cycles, thank you Kimberly @Nuun, thank you Scott&Julie @Oomph! and thank you Mona for putting me on this Earth, and keeping watch over us.

 See you at the races.

draggin, to kickin, to draggin again

What I mean to say is these last few days I've had a combination of low and high points, where I feel I've been dragging my butt around, feeling lots of fatigue, and general 'heavy legs',  and then I'll have a kick-butt workout where everything goes perfect. Not every workout can be/should turn out perfect. If they were, you are simply not challenging yourself enough. One of the hardest things to figure out is when you need to push past the fatigue and when it is time to back off and work on recovery

We had a pretty good weekend. Spent some good time building lego spaceships after devouring waffles, then headed over to the Museum of Flight, one of our fave spots to go hang out in the city.

On Sunday, somebody was really excited about getting a lava lamp for their room.

sunny skies in the emerald city

The sight of bright sunny dry skies is very welcome for us all here in the PNW. The spring has been miserable up to this point, grayer, colder and wetter than what is considered normal, so a few days of happy weather has everyone sheding the coats and reaching for the shades.... ahhh... now it just needs to warm up.

Today I want to talk about 1st Endurance's awesome product line and the stuff I use. First off, EFS drink, in grape flavor, is the staple for me. It gives me the carbs, electrolytes and amino acids to keep the engine turning all day long. I have been experimenting with the low-carbo fueling strategy, even on harder days, and 4hrs seems to be my breaking point, where 1scoop/hour of EFS is enough, but not if I need to go beyond that time. I plan on racing on 2+scoops per hour.   Next up is liquid shot, vanilla. I grab a flask for those long runs, and just hit water fountains along the way. Like EFS drink, liquid shot is a blend of all the goodies necessary to keep the legs cranking.

Ultragen both as a pre-race and post-race fuel is hard to beat. Cappuccino for me, pls. As the name implies, Pre-race (1-2scoops mixed in to EFS drink) helps kick-start early workouts and races. Finally, like a lot of the other guys who use 1st Endurance, I take Optygen HP and their Multi V on a daily basis. If you want to take your racing and training to the next level, don't hesitate to try out these aswesome products. If you don't want to take my word for it, just ask the guys with the bonafide firepower, like Cavendish or the Wurteles.

peace!

Mother's day

Happy mother's day to all you moms out there! We honored Theresa by waking up extra early (well, Donovan's normal wake-up time, but super early for me), and heading out to this bakery to get some "panecitos" to surprise her. We did this on Friday and Sunday. We then took Grandma JoAn out for a pretty good lunch on Sunday. Today, Diez de Mayo, is mother's day in my homeland. I think Donovan and I might opt for a restaurant rather than trying to convince Theresa we can make waffles for dinner. As always, we will think of Mona and remember the good memories we have of her...

On to happier things, today the sun is out. Holly crap, what a rare occurrence! I'm not one to notice much the weather when running, but the weather today made for a glorious mid-day run, with hill repeats up this road here, known as the Magnolia Bridge. It's about a half-mile climb before it flattens out, and because it is so exposed, on headwind days like today, it can be one tough hill.

Anyhow, enjoy the sun if you are in the 206.
Peace!

Donovan's 1st Race of 2011

It's official. My 5-yr old beat me to the start of the race season. A local 5k race (which my sis-in-law ran in fast style) put on a kids race, and Donovan jumped at the opportunity to toe the start line and show his early-season form. I could tell he had pre-race jitters, it was awesome. We shook them out by shaking our legs and arms before the gun.

Donovan did not stop once, keept an even pace, and kicked hard for the finish. Afterwards, he enjoyed the spoils of his effort in the form a donut. 

"This donut is awesome, let's do the run again!"

We are starting to finally enjoy somewhat warm and sunny days. Well, at the very least, they are happening on the weekends, which is always a plus.