Tour de Cure

For the past few years I have been participating and have had a hand in helping to organize the Tour de Cure in the Oregon and Southwest Washington area. The Tour de Cure is a group of rides around the country that benefits the American Diabetes Association. The goal of the Tour de Cure is also to bring awareness of the symptoms and ways to help control and prevent diabetes.

I ride in the Tour de Cure as a team of friends and family members called Tony's riders. We each ride different distances based on our abilities anywhere from 10 miles to 100 miles. This is a great cause we are still developing the website for this year but as soon as we have it updated I will post a link to it so you can check it out. Stay posted for Tour de Cure updates!

Run and Bike with new toy!

I woke up in the pitch black today to get in my workout for the day, it called for a 35 minute run and a one hour bike ride. I put on all my gear to go on my run I could tell it was going to be a cold one. I put on my Garmin Forerunner heart rate monitor and started my run. I had a good heart rate and it was incredible how easy it is to see the screen on the Garmin Forerunner 310xt even though it was so dark. I know it has a back light but I just want to glance at the watch and see my stats and that was no problem at all.

Then it was time to change all my gear and head out on a very very cold chilly ride in the darkness. I wanted to use my heart rate monitor for this which I had not done before so I was a little unsure as how to do it but I was able to figure it out pretty easily and again it was easy to glance at the screen.

Another thing that I have discovered is that the heart rate monitor strap is not obtrusive at all. I thought it was going to bother me as I had never used one before but I can't even feel it! Love my new toy! I can't wait for triathlon season to start!

Garmin Forerunner 310XT got it!

My Christmas wish for this year was for my whole family to pitch in and get me the Garmin Forerunner 310xt and it happened! It was a great surprise I did not think they were going to do it but they did and they even got me the heart rate monitor!

For those of you who do not know what a Garmin Forerunner 310xt is it is a GPS watch that is made with triathlon in mind as it is the only one that is actually waterproof. Now there is some discussion about if this is the best Garmin because it does not actually measure ones distance when swimming and the face of the watch is on the larger side so that bothers some people but not me.

So far I am really impressed with the Garmin Forerunner 310xt my favorite feature other than it being waterproof is that it beeps and vibrates after each mile completed! I love that it "talks" to me while I am running!

So far great! I will keep you posted the more I discover about this great triathlon GPS watch!

Ironman coverage on TV

I don't know about you guys but I feel like there is not enough triathlon on TV. There is plenty of football, basketball, and baseball coverage even extreme sports such as snowboarding but it is very very hard to find triathlon events on TV so I was very excited when I heard that NBC was going to show the triathlon championship in Kona on Saturday!

I recorded the event because of course it is not shown at a very convenient time. I watched it and although it was fine I did not feel like they showed enough. It did run for 1 hour 30 minutes but I just don't feel like they showed enough of Chrissie Wellington beating the record or Craig Alexander winning for the second year in a row. Now how much can you show of someone swimming biking and running one might ask, a lot more I would say.

I also like when they show the age groupers and I don't think like they did enough of that this year either, the stories were too brief in my opinion.

I want more triathlon on TV without having to pay extra for a fancy cable channel! It will be interesting to see what sort of coverage triathlon gets once Lance Armstrong gets involved.

RoadID great idea!

When I started to do triathlon training my family was constantly worried about me being out on the open roads at all times with no sort of identification on me. When I rode my bike I would sometimes bring my drivers license but I would often forget. Also I did not want to carry my driver's licence around and move it from location to location for fear of loosing it. When I went on runs I brought no for of ID at all.

After constant battles with my family members we came across this website we realized that my ID problems could be easily solved with RoadID. They have many products to choose from at reasonable prices. I ended up getting the bracelet and use it all the time and I am very satisfied with it. I highly recommend RoadID to everyone. Safety First!

Saturday December 19 Workout

This is a pretty typical workout for Saturdays:

Bike MixType:
BikePlanned duration: 1:00
15 min PE2-end with 3 X 30 sec race pace
Main set: keep rpm 90+ throughout
1X 10 minutes at PE 4
2 minutes easy spin
1X 7.5 minutes at PE 6
2 minutes easy spin
1X 5 minutes at PE 7
Plz let me know corresponding HR's
Cool down PE 1-2 for the remainder of the 60 minute workout

Workout #2: T-runType:
RunPlanned duration: 0:20
Have your gear all laid out ahead of time..Spend no more than 3 minutes in Transition. Easy endurance run-
9:50 pace-i
intersperse 3 X 15 sec strides within...
Keep cadence at 90, and focus on perfect form, relaxed upper body

Now it does not seem that hard or time consuming but for some reason when I get to the run I am not able to keep the pace, I always go way too fast! I then realize I am going way too fast and try and slow down but by then the whole pace is off. I am not sure why I always do this. Does this happen to anyone else?

Lance Armstrong Hawaii 2011

I got a couple of comments on Lance Armstrong doing Ironman Hawaii and this is what I am going after other people's opinions! I read in cycling magazine today that lance will be participating in the Kona triathlon in 2011. I am sure at lot is on the line here with advertisers I would think that Ironman Triathlon viewing would go up just because Lance Armstrong is racing?

So this is the question I have now do I accept that yes Lance Armstrong is a great athlete. Yes he loves triathlon, yes he is cocky, and he is going to do great things for the sport by making it more televised and getting more sponsorship interest? This is something to consider, he might make the sport more popular which means that we get to watch it on tv more often.

I still think that he should qualify though and I hope he gets humbled.

Lance Armstrong, Kona?

For the past couple of months I have been hearing rumors about how Lance Armstrong will be participating in the Hawaii Ironman. At first I thought people were just trying to speculate but it seems to be true. The first rumors I heard said that Lance Armstrong thought that he would finish in the first ten of the pros, now I hear he thinks he will finish in the top five.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that Lance was once a triathlete, that he placed 3rd in the 2009 Tour de France, and that in general he is a great athlete but him thinking he is going to place that well?!?!? I have almost never heard a well seasoned pro talk about finishing that well in Kona the way Lance is. He is really starting to get on my nerves. I am going to do more research on this and see how much of it is rumor or true but if most of the things I have heard/read are true then I have a bad taste in my mouth.

My rib is ok!

On Saturday when I woke up my rib hurt so I was not sure if I should do my triathlon workout or not so I emailed my coach Larissa and she responded right away. No workout today! She that I should never try and workout through that pain. So I took the day off and did some stretching and Christmas shopping instead.

My workout for today was a 35 minute run if my rib felt better which it did. So I woke up and went for my run and the conditions were great and my rib felt great. It definitely helped that it is about 15 degrees warmer than it was last week. So far my rib is still fine. I hope it stays this way!

My rib hurts!

This week has been a hard week for my triathlon training. I feel really busy because we are close to the holidays. It is also freezing cold 12 degrees its the coldest it has ever been! Anyway I powered through did all my workouts and have been really proud of myself for not even missing one but today I woke up and my rib hurts. In fact it hurt last night and it did not let me sleep.

So today I have to go for a run and do a strenght workout but I am in pain. I have to do some Christmas shopping and then I am hoping that the rib is going to get better. I do not like to miss a workout! It gives me anxiety!

I'm back home!

After a great time visiting my family in Illinois I am back in Oregon and back on my bike. While I was in the Midwest I was only able to run and do core and strength exercises so now I am able to get back in the pool and back on the bike for nice well rounded triathlon training.

On the triathlon training menu for today was a 35 minute run and a 45 minute ride. I went on my run at about 6am and it was 14 degrees!!! Very cold colder than in Illinois. Five minutes into the run the cold had penetrated my tights and my skin was in pain but I powered through it. When I got back home there were little bits of ice on my hat!

It is not usually this cold where I live so I don't have the right bike gear for this temperature so I did my ride on the rollers. Workout went well now I am really hungry and have to go to work after a long weekend of family fun.

The weather channel says it will be really cold in Oregon for the next few days I hope I can cope!

Vacation in the Midwest!

I am on vacation in the midwest and it is cold, but triathlon training must go on. I woke up this morning and there was a little bit of snow on the ground and a very cold strong wind. I ran for 35 minutes with a few intervals not knowing what direction I was going in because I was in a strange city.

Once I got going to cold was not that bad although when I got back my hands were frozen and so were my legs. Tomorrow the forecast is 16 degrees, its going to be a cold one, but I have to do it for the love of triathlon!

Swimming with a wetsuit PART 2

So I was one of the only people at a triathlon without a wetsuit and it was cold! Time to buy a wetsuit!

I did some research I wanted to buy a good triathlon wetsuit but at a good price. I was talking to a friend at work who is an Ironman and he told me about a local company out of Hood River, Oregon called ProMotion and recommended them to me. As look had it a was headed to Hood River in a few weeks so I decided to go check them out.

It was a very hot day in Hood River 100 plus degrees and the last thing I wanted to do was try on a wetsuit but I did. Of course it was hard to get it on since it was so hot but once it was on it felt good. They were also offering one that had been used a couple times for a great price so I bought it!

2 months later I wore the triathlon wetsuit for the first time at a race. It was true! It makes you float! Since then I have worn ProMotion wetsuits a few times during races and have had great times on my swims. I still prefer to feel free and not wear a wetsuit but it does help you float and maybe be a little faster. The things one learns in life.