Ayerd{dot}com :: Triathlon

Always remember the words of the great Homer Simpson: "trying is the first step towards failure." With that in mind, I'm going to lay out my hopes and dreams for the 2005 season here. Lots of stuff on tap and we'll see how it works out. Here a listing of the bigger things:

• Score a new bike
• Marathon
• Half-Ironman
• Ironman Florida

Right now, I'm still laying out my training plan where I'll define the actual goals of the season in a little more detail. When it is done, I'll post it here as well.

I have a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.
-Edmund, Blackadder III

Okay, training plan done. The Triathlete's Training Bible has guided me to a fairly reasonable goal of not dying in the race while preserving something like a life outside of the gym/pool/road. To help with my weak-ass running, Advanced Marathoning has provided (with some minor changes) an 18-week/55 miles-a-week program. I figure those miles plus the biking plus the swimming will at least allow me to finish the Jersey Short Marathon without shaming myself or my country. At least that is my hope.

17 week... 130 days. Seems like it should be more time than it is. Never enough time.

Next steps include turning this page into a blog for easier updates.

As hoped for many moons ago, the tri-pages on Ayerd{dot}com are now blog enabled. This should allow for easier updates. I'd like to thank the crippling flu-like (if not the actual flu) that kept me home from work for two days for making this possible.

Sure, curling up on the floor while alternating between bouts of freezing to death and then erupting in sweat for two days took a toll on ye olde training schedule, but I hope to catch up shortly.

More updates soon.

A fine week for training. Lots of stuff to record from this week so here goes. After last week's run-swim-bike combo things looked great for another go this weekend. Even better, it was supposed to over 40° all weekend. w00t!

The great weekend weather held up and Saturday was a nify 9-mile run at 6:00. Last week there were only two of us on the early morning trek, but this weekend we were up to five. Can I get a "Hell yea" from the crowd? For sure!

After the run some of the group headed to a tri-clinic to work on overall tri-related stuff while the lovely Angela and I headed to the pool to attempt the 5,000 yead Saturday swim. I'll admit I was a little more tired than I'd like to be but rather than face my own version of CMS — and after goading Angela into the pool in the first place — it was into the pool for some swimming goodness. Things went well. After about 3,000 a request came over to work on flip-turns. So, yea, I stopped swimming! After all, the Marathon is 35 days away but the first Tri of the year is 70-days away. Plenty of time to swim later 'cause it was turn-time!

Sunday was the day of the Bonk. Up at 7:30 for food and prep. At 9:00 it was onto the bike and off to the races. Or, at least off to the town about 20-miles up the river. The ride went smooth and while trying to keep my speed up I worked on drinking plenty of fluids — I have this habit of missing the bottle holder and having to stop to retrieve the bottle from the road side. Next ride, start to work on eating foods. I'm still not sure how you nosh 300+ calories an hour in an Ironman, but I suppose this is why we get to practice.

After the bike came the bonk. I've told myself that after every ride this year I'll run for 30 minutes. Today, I hopped off the bike and started down to the canal. At the 1.5 mile mark I felt good! So good I said the heck with the stopping, lets try for 4-miles. About mile two it happened. The spirit was willing but the body started to make noises along the lines of "didn't we run yesterday?" and "the bike was plenty for you today". With the complaints coming in, I 180-ed and started to head home. I got about half a mile and made a mistake. I stopped running.

When I tried to restart the motor, I had nothing. /sigh. Let me just say that 40°-45° feels good when you're moving. Not so much when you stop. And are sweaty. And happen to be about a mile and half from home. Sucked walking, but don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

I think I would have been okay 'cept for the running yesterday. At least, that is my story and I'm sticking with it.

Next week, I think I'll bike on Saturday. Maybe. I think I've been talked into the Ocean Drive 10-miler and that may be enough running for one weekend.

Long time, no entry.

Still been working on the workouts. Lots of running and swimming. Big bike ride coming up this weekend. 100 miles. I'm kind of looking forward to it. It will be a great chance to practice the nutrition for the Ironman.

Speaking of Ironman: 26 weeks. 26 weeks from Saturday dragging my butt down the road hoping towards to finish. It is going to be great!

Looking at my schedule, I thought I had no life with all the training before the 26 week mark. I was wrong. Coming up, I'll have no life. Good thing I enjoy the pool, love the bike, and have great people to run with... oh yes, and a wife who doesn't mind the hours I'm putting in.

I'm also pretty psyched this week because after the bike ride, I get started on the tri- and open swim races. First tri- on the list, Columbia (17 days from this post), followed closely by Eagleman (38 days from this post). Eagleman will be a good test, a fun race and I can only hope to finish with the enthusiasm of the TriGeek crowd.

I know you're curious, so here it is. My 2005 training schedule. It is still evolving as some events — that won't crush the training plan — get added in. I'll try and update it every day.

I was thinking of how to get this posted when lo-and-behold, Open Office came to the rescue. It produced the HTML file and about 5 minutes of clean-up reduced the file size by 1/3. Nice huh? Word.

Share and enjoy.

Terrible. I feel terrible. Around Saturday I started to feel a little icky. Cough started and rapidly got worse. Nose running. Just felt tired. Yea, it is a cold. After the weekend run/swim came home and slept.

Sunday was weak. I was feeling worse as the day went on.

How crummy is this? The week before the first tri of the year and I'm to ill to even go through my taper. I had an appointment with my doctor to talk about knee problems (for some reason 2+ hours of running results in great knee pain) so while I was there I got my co-pay worth's out of him by getting hooked up with cold meds.

I'm not usually a big on pills and stuff but for this one I'm making an exception. I really want to get Columbia done in under 3 hours and if that means I got to take the antibotics for 5 days, go through the Crayon box and color me there.

After taking off Sunday and Monday, I went for an easy 2-hour bike ride today after work. The first 40-minute pace as a bit high — around 19-21mph — but then from 0:40 to 2:00 we went a more comfortable 15-18mph. It felt good to be moving again. I'm taking that as a sign the cold it starting to lose some power and I may be okay this weekend. I'll know more after trying a 40-minute run tomorrow.

Finally got around to making reservations for November. Probably could have acted sooner, but better late than never. On the Ironman Florida web site there is a list "event friendly" hotels — places that are supporting the event. Might as well go with one of them, right? That is what I thought too.

Called the Host hotel. Minimum 5-night stay. At this time the only place they had space was in the condos next to the hotel. Smallest room/condo was going for $149 a night — 1 bed job with a mini-fridge and a microwave. If you wanted something with a kitchen (important for pre-race meals as I found out during the marathon) it went up to $199 a night but it was a two-bedroom model. Plus taxes and stuff. Around $1,000 a week seemed a bit steep for the hotel if you're not splitting the costs with someone.

Next place I called was the Sugar Sands Beach Resort. Helpful staff. They had plenty of rooms on this date. Rates were lots better: $60 a night, full kitchen. Hot Dog, we have a weiner! Only downside, if you can call it that, is they are about 15 minutes away from the start. That just means I'll have to get moving 20 minutes earlier from my restless pre-race tossing and turning to get there. Since I don't have to worry about the bike — thank you Elite for bring the bike down, tuning it up, cleaning afterwards, and bringing her back home for only $200 — that isn't as big a deal as it could be.

Cold Update

Feeling better. Meds are doing their magic. As soon as the cough medicine phase of over I think I'll lose the groggy feeling. I do, however, need to get out and run or something. Been sitting fairly inactive for two days now and I'm getting twitchy.

Here are the numbers for my 2005 Columbia Triahtlon:

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the sub 3-hour time. The cold I had all week continuted to work it's magic on race day. My stomach was a nightmare and we won't even talk about my nose was up to. Still, the day was beautiful: sunny and cool from a slight breeze.

The swim was pretty good. The lake is fresh water and a little on the cold side when you first jump in. The kind of cold that takes your breath away the first couple of times you stick your face in. I missed my goal time of 21-ish minutes, and actually went almost 1 full minute slower than last year. The problem was that when the guy said "go" I was in the the process of working towards the outter edge of the pack. I got boned, dead center near the front. The fools around me decided become a wall with all the normal kicking and extra arms you expect in the middle of a swim pack. It took a while to work around them. I also had problems once I hit the back-end of the wave that started before us. It was a pretty good time and I think if I had been swimming strong the last two weeks instead of other stuff, it would have been better.

T1 sucked ass. I not sure exactly what went wrong but 5 minutes is too long. Maybe I had more problems with the wetsuit than I realized? Maybe I was trying to run in the clip-shoes? Maybe, it was just a bad day for transitions.

The bike was nice. The new hotness made it happen and I felt fairly good on the bike. Telling moment for me was when I was going down hill at around 35 mph and dudes were passing me. Sup wit dat? But, yo, it was a good ride. Killed last year's time by almost 10 minutes and 2 mph. My bike computer claims a top speed of 38.1 — Sweet. I think I could have done better with my liquid and nutrition on the bike but my stomach wasn't going to allow that. It was a pretty unhappy beastie out there with me.

Look at that cumulative place 361! Nice. I will now lobby the race director to stop all future events at this point and simply call it a day!

Hopping off the bike into T2 wasn't all it could be either. My stomach was really rolling by then and I needed to really take a leak. Dumped the bike and headed to the port-a-potty for a wiz. I think that cost me a minute or two.

The run wasn't too bad by my standards. Way better than last year's, but still pretty slow compared to most people. I was hoping for less than an hour and was fairly close (even counting the bathroom break). Stupid stomach was doing me wrong and was plenty uncomfortable for the first 4 or so miles. Right near the end it started to come to terms with the idea it wasn't going to make me stop and we got into a groove. At least I finished strong!

Overall, not unhappy. See all those "better than last year" references above and you know I cannot complain too much. Without the cold (and flood and car problems) the two weeks before the race it would have been better, but hey, that is why we get to race again next year.

Next up Eagleman. I can't wait for a race with no hills. I'll take my chances with the wind. And, the damn cold better be done soon so I can get back to some real training. I miss the pool.

I just loved this bit of text from the welcome letter for the Eagleman 1/2 Ironman:

WE appreciate your support for EagleMan 2005. WE look forward to renewed friendships and a Fun 4 days of EagleFest 2005. WE expect that you will have the Race of Your Life, so just Be Great!! You handle You and we will Care for the Rest!! This event is all about YOU and your Goal is to Finish and Be Proud of Your accomplishment. The Competition is among the best and deepest in all of the 2005 Half Ironman events across the USA.

"WE expect that you will have the Race of Your Life, so just Be Great!" That just rocks. I'm so psyched for this race. Why can't it be next week, like, now?

Okay, so the weather this Sunday at Eagleman is starting to freak me out. NOAA is claiming:

A slight chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 9am. Partly cloudy, with a high around 91. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

"High around 91." That falls into the "sucks" category of temperatures to race in. Even more so when you know there is about 1 mile of shade over the 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.

If anyone knows a sure-fire rainy-type dance/voodoo, now would be the time. The heat and humidity will be bad enough. Searing sunshine will only make it worse... I gots to find me a hat!

This is a recovery week. You know, those much-looked-forward to weeks with only 12 hours of training instead of the grinding 22+ hours that normally makes you get up at unGodly hours to run, bike, swim, or some combination of the three. A recovery week. AHhhhhhhhhhh...

But, then there is the guilt. What do you mean, I just go home and... and go home? Sup wit dat? Feels weird to not be moving or planning the next run for tomorrow morning. I'd never thought I'd be saying it, hey, the weekly long run of 60 minutes isn't that long.

Feels like I'm cheating.

Then there are the races. A goodly number of folks I train with are off to the Musselman Half-Iron. Man, I wanted to do that race but it fell on a bad time for me in terms of getting ready for Florida. Instead I recover this week and think about Timberman.

There is a swim this weekend, and it should be a nice swim. One mile ocean swim down at Wildwood Crest. The bad part: 'down at Wildwood Crest'. I really don't want to sit in a car for three hours to sit around for 40 minutes before the swim, swim for 20-25 minutes, and then sit in the car for another three hours. What a waste of a day... especially when there is another ocean swim that morning only 45 minutes away.

Oh yes, Ill'in in January was bad, but this may be worse. I think I have a "stomach flu" type thing. No stuffiness, no cough, just... ummm, general unpleasantness.

It is messing up my training plan!

Friday I slept. A lot. Bailed out of work a little early and got in a solid 14 hours of rest between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. All that really did was rest the flu bugs.

Saturday instead of a 3 hour ride/1 hour run I sat in misery on the couch sweating to death and then just before dying, a vast chill would descend upon me and I'd start shivering. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Sunday was better. No body aches. Stomach was a still mostly on the fritz so I bailed out on the planed 100 mile ride. 6 hours in the saddle isn't the best way to spend a morning but it beats sitting around the house getting calls from friends asking just one more time, "are you sure you're not going to be riding?"

Today, Monday, I was confident. Up early, shower, work... bam! Started shivering and sweating and, yea, the nasty flu symptom all at work. Back home for more rest.

This inactivity is killing me. Hard to get in a solid workout when you cannot leave your porcelaine wubby for more than an hour at a time. /sigh.

Thanks for all the kind words when I was ill'in. Starting to feel a little better today. Yesterday I awoke at the ungodly hour of 4:30 get my butt to a planned 2-hour hilly ride. Wasn't too bad but after 4 days off the last 15 minutes where a tad tougher then they needed to be.

Today it was off for a 150 minute run in the now, much cooler, canal path. Sweet run it was. Ribs are a bit sore from the lack of effort over the last few days but I think it will pass soon. Myabe I should have considered the weights in the bathroom....

One thing that did happen over my weekend of illness was the Lake Placid Ironman. Beacoupe props to Bruce and Sara who completed the race.

Bruce's race report had two gems that I gladly pass on to you:

...On land again I was flung to the ground by a middle-aged lady "stripper" who, in one motion, tore off my wetsuit with the alacrity of a mud wrestler (hypoxic fantasy #1?). [dhj: #1?! That implies others. Maybe they just go down hill from there?]

...My tip for newbie triatheletes (of which I still count myself one) is to beware of piles of water bottles at any distance from an aid station. While wondering at the isolatedness of one such pile, I thunked into a huge hole at high speed and found myself a water bottle short...

Priceless information, indeed!

I know, I blaspheme. Just want to stop getting up at ungodly hours to swim, bike, and run. I think this is beginning of burning out.

How sweet would it be to take a week or two completly off? I'd love to, but I'm afraid of losing the pitiful conditioning I currently have. So, somehow I don't think those weeks off are very likely.

Anyway, up at 5:30 for an hour run. Should have been 105 minutes but didn't have the time or the heart to go that long. Got in just over 6 miles so I wasn't going too slow, but the effort just wasn't there. I could tell. Then there is the guilt from not putting in a quality workout. Maybe I'll go home and run another hour to make it up?

On the plus side, I'm still looking forward to the races! Got a sprint this weekend down in Brigantine — .25/11/4. I'm hoping to get the swim done in 6:30, average 24-25 mph on the bike, and then really push the run and get 8:30 or better on the miles. Going to be a real close on the run. Real close.

Okay, back to feeling guilty about not wanting to work out.

Coeur d'Alene? Sounds French, really in Idaho. Very tempting. I know I've been talking about Florida next year but the long, very long, and just way to freak'in long bike and runs in July-August are pretty horrible here in NJ. There is a reason the guys in DC started taking the summer off when there wasn't air conditioning.

IM-CDA is in June. That means long training in April-May. It is nice in April and May. It would also free up the dog days of summer for sprints and Olympic distance events. Not to mention nachos and rum!

This could be a plan. Stay tuned for an update.

/me hums Private Idaho to self

Wil, over at Through th3 Wall has uncovered, via Dave, the Running Guru, the quintessential term to describe the folks that help normal people like me (okay, there are probably people closer to "normal" than me, but you get the idea) complete the training needed for Ironman type events.

Iron Sherpas

She says it best, so I'll quote at length:

See, there's a lot of behind the scenes that goes into triathlon for we age-groupers, or any hobby, really. Any hobby that isn't so much a hobby as it is a lifestyle, and anyone who lives with one of these people with a lifestyle knows what I'm talking about. My very inspiring friend, Dave, the Running Guru, put it best when he said that they are the "Iron Sherpas."

These are the people in our lives who make sure that everything doesn't blow away while we're out chasing our dream. They make sure that we have somewhere comfortable to come back to when we're done hunting for the day, and they don't ask for credit or for payback.

It is all so true. I get all choked up just thinking about it. So, to all the Iron Sherpas out there — and, Bretta, I'm looking at you — "Thanks!" It would be truly be impossible without out.

Okay, 6 days until Timberman. This weekend was too hot to do much.

I did get in a 5-hour ride on Friday after work. Crikey, but it was hot. Found this horrible hill about 15 miles away from the homestead. After 15 minutes of grinding my way up the 10° incline I thought I was going to die. The worst part was coming back down — stop sign at the bottom where it Ts into a fairly busy road. At full breaking power I was still moving. Very scary.

Saturday was a 4,500 yard swim. Chasing Bill Segal up and down the lane is a plenty tough workout. My only goal is to not finish the interval too far back!

Sunday was brutal. 95°+ and 90%+ humidity. No way was I heading out. So I started the taper a day early. I figure if a 4-hour bike ride and an hour run really make the difference between a finish and a DNF, I'm not doing something right in all the other training.

This week is all about the taper and getting plenty of salts into the body. The key, I feel, is starting Wednesday, to drink at least one bottle of Gatorade (or the non-union Mexican equivalent) and take an Endurolyte every 2-3 hours. Sure it makes you feel a little bloated... but on race day heavy salt sweaters like myself don't cramp up or bonk.

For now, back to my 'resting'. Hoping for an hour run and 3,000 yard swim tomorrow.

Starting to get a little psyched!

Starting to check out the weather for Timberman. Looks like it is going to be okay nice on Sunday. Small chance of rain on Saturday, but partly cloudy with a high of 81 on Sunday.

Could be a nice day for a half Ironman!

Okay, so the short workouts as part of the taper are kind of fun. After the grueling longer workouts, there is something kind of nice about running for an hour with friends. Way less pressure, way more fun.

3,000 yards in the pool only takes an hour. Just enough time to enjoy the water. Not long enough for you to curse the Gods for requiring so many laps to not DNF a race.

I suppose it is like that "How many licks to get to the Tootsie Roll center of Tootsie Pop" type of question. How many laps is enough to not shame yourself in an Ironman? Indeed, the world may never know!

Tomorrow is a 50 minute bike ride before the big packing day on Thursday.

Weather Update

Chance of rain is up to 50% for Sunday in NH. Drops to 10% for Monday so I'm guessing the big chance for rain is in the morning. Swimming in the rain is okay. Let's just hope the roads are dry by the time the bike legs starts. I actually hope it does rain during the run.

The one thing that cannot happen is the swim gets turned into a run because of lightening. No sir, that is just not allowed.

The marketing think tank at the World Triathlon Corporation thought they'd build off their "Ironman" brand by changing the name of all the Half Ironman races we know and love to "Ironman 70.3". Yea, good thinking.

I just really don't like it. I think it cheapens the label "Ironman" by using the exact same term to describe both full and half distance race. 70.3 sounds like a bad radio station or something. Might as well called them "Ironman Light".

Does that mean all the true Ironman races are going to be rebranded "Ironman 140.6". No, becase that would be dumb!

At least their logo is bad too. If you're going to fail, fail big.

Personally, I'm going to stick to call them "Half-Ironman" races.

Okay, so last week I was a bad triathlete. I did two things I don't think you should ever do: I slacked on my workouts and spent time feeling sorry for myself.

First up on the problem list: I milked the "recovery" week after Timberman to the max. I barely got on my bike, only ran twice, swam once. Five total hours of not sitting on my butt getting slower. Yes, I know recovery is important, but I think I was just mentally tired (and see the next point). Sunday I went so far to not even go through the motions and after sleeping late I completely skipped a 5-hour ride/30 minute run brick. I felt wonderful. Boo-ya!

Then, I was feeling sorry for myself. Why? My weak-ass run in Timberman. After getting grief from workout partners and thinking a tad more about where I am in my training and my mad skillz as a triathlete, yea, the run wasn't that really that weak. Plenty of people weren't able to do as well and one friend, who I know is a better triathlete, had a terrible day and DNF-ed.

I suppose that is part of the problem when you start to approach mediocrity. You think you're better than you are. When that happen you just need to stop and have a reality check.

Well, problems overcome. Got up this morning and did some core stuff. After work it was off to the pool for wee 3,500 yard swim where I spent time working on technique. Tomorrow, back on the bike for 90 minutes in the hills!

So, check it out. Coach-type man Chris Martin thinks that some of the run issues I had at Timberman may have been caused by overheating and that if I had used a tri top without sleeves and tight enough to tuck a sponge or two in, I may have been more comfortable out there.

I can dig it, it makes sense. I normally race/train in stuff with sleeves 'cause, well, I've lost about 40 pounds since I've started triathlon training (down from 220+ since mid 2002). I'm, like, all sensitive about hanging flesh out there for (1) people to see and (2) be jiggling around.

Well, I've made the big move and placed and order with GoTriSports.com for a Sugoi Irod Tri Tank, in the spiffy blue color. I just want to say, the guys at GoTriSports have the best attitude I've come across in triathlon sales. Sure I've only heard their voice-mail message and talked briefly on the phone, but, damn, there was a lot of energy in those calls.

I have no idea if their prices are the best, although the seemed pretty good, if the shipping will actually get to me, or even if the right product will end up in my hot little hands, but for sure I would place another order with them.

More information on the order and fit of the top when it shows up.

Ho-ho, check it out: 76th Annual Atlantic City Pageant Ocean Swim. It may be worth adding the 1.5 mile ocean swim to my workouts this weekend. So far my weekend looks like this:

Saturday: 90 minute run (15 warm-up, 65 minute at base-pace, 10 cool down). Then "Later in Day! Bike: 3 hours low-end aerobic base with 30 minute run off the bike (w/5min drills+strides)".

Sunday: Run: 30min "stretcher" followed by Bike: 2 hours IM pace (20 min base, 2 x 40 min IM pace + 5min base, 10 min cool down) and at some point later in the day another 90 minute run (20 min warm-up, 2 x 20 min IM Pace+10 min ½-IM pace, 10 min cool down). Probably just hop back on the running shoes after the bike. Ummmm, run-bike-run.

Monday: Still waiting for my schedule, but I'm putting my money on a 4-5 hour bike ride. Joy!

I'm thinking on Saturday head to the Pagent Swim and do the 90 minute run right off of the swim. Shower on the beach. Grab some grub in AC, and then head back home. Some rest and then, BAM, back on the bike for the three hour ride.

What could be better?

(As a side note, I wonder if this will be the last "Pageant" swim now that Miss America is no longer going to be held in Atlantic City?)

Saw this quote at my local bike shop while getting my crank arm adjusted¹:

Fitness is something that happens to you while you practice good technique.
— Terry Laughlin, Total Immersion Swim Coach

So true. So true.

1 – Check it out, I was riding the other day and the left crank arm slipped off the front crank. About killed me. Oh yea, and just as an fyi, there is no graceful way to stop and unclip when something like this happens.

With Elite being far enough away to make it inconvenient, I headed out to Wheelfine Imports for a fix. Can't say enough good stuff about the shop. Solid LBS's are few and far between. I'm very lucky these guys are so close.

The bike will need a little plastic bit to get that allows the tension in the crank shaft to be adjusted (don't ask me, I just ride the thing — that is why I work with computers and not bikes), but I'll be good to go for my 6-hour ride tomorrow.

Yes, a 6-hour ride followed by a 1-hour run. On a school day! I'm *cough* too sick *cough* to make it into the office. Sometimes weekends are too nice to waste a whole day riding. This is one of them. Weather is supposed to be nice.

It is moving into fall. In fact, it may already be there. Don't go by the calendar, you just go by how the air feels. Yesterday morning was a perfect day for [insert what you want to do here].

Up at 5:00 for a quick stretch and then a 75 minute run. The air was crisp, but not cold. As usual it was dark when I started out. I normally don't like running the dark. Even with the a light I'm prone to whack my feet against fallen tree limbs and the slightly uneven canal path plays havoc with my ankles. And there could be snakes. Man, I hate snakes. This time of year they like to hang out on the path as it gets sunlight early and stays warm late. Running with the light, every twig or small branch could be a snake. /me shudders. But not yesterday, it just didn't feel like snake weather.

After the first 4 miles there was enough sunlight creeping over the river and trees to bag the headlight. Over the four miles back home it got brighter and warmer. Not a cloud in the sky. Just a hint of warm breeze.

I should have called in dead from work and done something fun. Would-a, should-a, could-a — but I didn't. Note to self: next time it feels like a "stay home from work day", stay home. You'll be happier.

What a difference a day makes. This morning at 5:30, the dark was just dark and gloomy. The air was cold and my breath fogged the air for the first part of the run. Only 30 minutes. but it was enough to get a feel for the day. Nothing special, just another day.

Hopefully it will get better by this afternoon. In time for a planned 2-hour run. Quick recap since the last update.

Tuesday

Up early for a 75-minute run along the canal path. Solid run. First hour always seems easy. After work, 4,500 yard swim. Some pace work, some intervals. Felt better than my last swim at the pool. I think the few days away help more than I realized.

Monday

Recovery day. Long weekend.

Sunday

Planned for a 4-hour ride... Saturday kicked too much of my buttocks. Instead an easy 1:30 with the Loving Wife™ in the hills. Then football.

Saturday

6 hour ride working on getting the heart-rate up and keeping a steady cadence. Hour run after was planned, but at 5:00 into the ride I semi-bonked. I think the 2:30 two days before caught up with me and fried my legs. Nutrution was good, hydration was good, energy level and mental toughness lacked.

Friday

Recovery

Thursday

2:30 run after work. Yes, it was icky. First hour or so felt good. The 45 minutes after that were okay. The last 45 got more difficult, well, because I had been running for over 2-hours! But, I lived. Got about 16 miles in the alotted 150 minutes.

Wil at Through th3 Wall had an interesting day watching someone spend another day making bad decisions. I can dig it. I've been there. You wonder why, you try to help but, you can't want it for them.

Then I had another series of thoughts as I read this:

"Sally," I said with as much compassion in my voice as possible, "do you know how many calories your body needs to do everything it does each day?"

She didn't. I knew she'd be embarrassed about disclosing her weight to me (because I would have been, and WAS!), so I told her that I'd forward her a few webpages to help her figure it out. I explained that 3,500 calories is equivalent to one pound, and that the two little frosted rectangles of evil in her hands were approximately 430 calories right there!

She seemed less than ignited about the whole thing, thanked me for the webpages, and TOOK ANOTHER BITE OF THE POP TART!

I'll be honest, my first thoughts were along this line: did you consider slapping the Pop Tart out of her hand? Then it switched over to "Whoa, 430 calories. I thought it was only 400? May it was the frosting?" Then a little sadness that I knew off the top of my head how many calories there are in a package of Pop Tarts. Followed quickly by "I wonder if Wil knew the calories off the top of her head?" (I decided she probably did.) Finally, did I have enough Pop Tart goodness for my long rides this weekend? (I do, but they are Frosted Raspberry.)

I can't decide if this was a good thought chain or a bad one.

Update

There are 210 calories per Blueberry Pop Tart, or 420 per package. BWe were a little off.

Surprisingly, Frosted Blueberry Pop Tarts have less calories than the unfrosted. Weird.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been taking a few days off. Last week on Thursday I went for my 2-hour run (missed it on Wednesday with a bike, then took the day off of work and ran during the daylight). At some point in the run, something bad happened.

Don't know exactly what went on, but the net result is my knee hurts like hell. A dull ache just above the kneecap, a little towards the inside. I think it is just a strain and I'm hoping the few days off makes a big improvement.

On Saturday I tried a swim-bike-run. The 4,500 swim went well and I zipped out of the gym and onto the bike. Right away I knew it was bad. After 30 minutes the knee started acting up. After 3 hours I needed to head home. The 4th hour was bad, so I skipped the 5th hour and the 30 minute run.

Sunday I tried again, but Mr. Ice Bag convinced me it would be a mistake to push it. Ice and easy self massage were how I spent the afternoon.

I rested Monday and by Tuesday it felt a little better. There was a 5000 swim in Tuesday after work that wasn't too bad:

600 warm up
300 kick
-
1500 pull, neg. split
1200 IM/Free by 100
1200 Free, neg. split
--
200 Cool down

Of course, two days with nothing doing but core and swimming has convinced me all the bike-run endurance I has is now gone (not true, I know, but the mind will believe what it wants to believe).

This morning I tried a short, slow 40 minute run. It felt better, but there was still some soreness afterwards. I'll baby it a bit more and try some longer bike-runs this weekend. What could be better than a long bike in the cold fall rain?

Technically, this is a crappy time to get nicked up. 30 days to IM and I was about to start the taper. At least I have another week where hopefully I can get some more work in before I have to start the obligatory pre-race freak out.

No, not that dancing "twist and shout", more along the lines of slip on the wet leaves, twist the knee that was just starting to feel better and then shout out obscenities.

Yes, after babying the leg for a whole week, it felt pretty good. Saturday I set off on a two hour run in the warm, fall rain. The knee held up pretty well. Some soreness, but that always happens to me after two hours of running and as usual it went away after a few hours.

Sunday it was time to try a little bit more. I had a run-bike-run on the schedule. Started off well, but around minute 28 of 90 on the first run I slipped, recovered awkwardly, and twisted the knee that was just starting to feel better.

&^%$#@!!!!

With that, I took another two days off. Yesterday was a nice 4,000 yard swim and it was Good. Today there was a 40-minute stretcher run after work. On the plus side, I lived. Some slight pain around the patella. Iced it down and now it feels a little better.

24 - eat me - days until Ironman and I have hitch in my giddy-up. I'm hoping the lighter loads of the taper will allow me to push through the race. It should. I'm also going to try a patella-stap-support thingy. Who knows, maybe it will help.

What the knee really needs is few solid weeks rest but that cannot happen until November 6th.

Props to Tara and Chris who just started swimming in Kona. GO TARA! GO CHRIS!

Over at ironmanlive.com you can watch the event live. How cool is that?

Update: Chris Finished

w00t! Chris finished at 9:20:12 in 101st place. Yea!

Update: Tara is an Ironman (err, woman)

Happened after I hit the bed last night but after 13:37:26, Tara crossed the line. YEA! 5:07 for her first marathon ever and an Ironman marathon. Pretty sweet.

543. Kind of like a count down. 543, my people, is my official race number for Ironman Florida. Don't know if it is Good Number or a Bad Number. At least it will be easy to remember.

On a side note, and completely unrelated to the Ironman at hand, ye olde iPod just kicked back "Milkshake" by Kelis and the only thing I could think of was the very end of Dodgeball (after the credits). Childish, yea. Still made me laugh though.

11 days. Nutrution plan set. Pre-race eating plan established. In about as good a shape as I can be. Still feel a little "blah", but that could be the weather, the effect of the taper, the pressure of a good run after Karen pushed in a 3:47 at the Detroit Marathon and Tara ran the whole marathon at Kona, or just generic nerves. Hard to say.

The one thing completly out of my control for Ironman is the weather. All you can do is have a plan in place for all types of weather and be ready to act. The really good news is that thanks to teh Interweb™, there are sites than can help us figure out how boned we may or may not be on race day.

• dryday.com: Claiming there is a low-low chance of rain. Hell yea!
• weather.com: Seems to be leaning towards good weather. True, as of this posting the weather for Saturday isn't listed, but their stuff seems to somewhat match up with dryday.com.

I keep in mind the weather dudes are paid to lie to us. That is their job. They spew the lie and then sit back and laugh like hell when we believe them. All we can do as weather consumers is pick the weather reporter *cough* Stephanie Abrams *cough* that will be easiest for us to turn to day after day as we listen, believe, and act on their lies.

I'm comfortable with that.

The important part is that there might be great weather for racing on November 5th. Sweeeeeeeeet!

Yesterday I was supposed to bike for an hour followed by a 30 minute run. By the time I got home from work it was too dark for biking. Instead I extended the run by 10 and called it even. The 40 minute run (42:21 is you really must know) felt really great. I had loaded up on layers to try and keep a hint of the warm weather conditioning for the Florida heat, so I was sweating a ton. I'm sure it looked pretty funny. I passed a few dudes who looked at me like I had a third eye, but hey, better to look odd running in NJ than look like a fool DNF-ing in Florida, right?

Today was a 3,500 yard swim. Mostly sprints and 100s at 90% effort. At least the short overall distance meant I was done pretty quick!

And, yesterday I got an email from Karen — and fellow IM-CDA triathlete — asking about 2006 plans. While the future is still hazy, I think a bunch of us are going to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon. Whoa, does that course look sweet! I think regisration is tight, so I hope I'm on the ball enough to make it happen. I should be, but until you complete the paperwork you can never be sure.

Five days... four really as today is basically over. Started packing and we start driving tomorrow for PCB. We'll make a slight detour over to West Virgina to drop the dawg off at the dawg sitter, then south.

Hoping to arrive in PCB on Wednesday afternoon and check into the hotel. Up Thursday morning for a swim and a bike, then check-in and all that noise. Friday maybe another swim and then off of the feet and into bed by 8:00PM

Saturday... well, Saturday is Saturday. Looks like good weather. Looks like a good temp for the water. I think it is going to kick ass.

I'm hoping the hotel in PCB has interweb access. If it does I'll post updates over the next few days. If not, we'll be back in (cold) NJ near the middle of next week and I'll post updates then.

Rock on.

Now that a few days have passed by and I've had a chance to think a bit more about Ironman Florida, I thought I'd post those thoughts. If you missed the initial report, it is below.

First up, damn, that was a cool race. When you wake up on race day, you really feel like you're going to be overwhelmed by the event, but once you get moving all the practice, prep, and other race day experiences come into play and it just all works.

The swim was beyond cool. I've done some two mile swims in the past. They all seemed a bit long. The Ironman swim felt short. I don't know if it was me focused on the bike and run or if it was just a perfect day. I think it was a little of both. I did see two jellies on the swim but it was near the end and by then I was so focused on the transition and getting on the bike, they didn't faze me.

The bike course at IMF is pretty sweet. Nice and flat and not as long as you'd think. Getting the flat tire was a bit disappointing, but it happens. That 21 minutes will be gravy to take off on the next IM. The start of the course is through town and then across the bridge. Pretty neat, really. Then you settle into a chip seal road with a generous shoulder. I'll admit the bits in the middle are somewhat a blur. I remember the people I talked to on the course more than the course itself. Near the end, the road got bumpy and broken up. Not too bad by any stretch, but after the smooth sailing of the first 70 miles it really sticks out. It also started to get a tad lonely. Not the end of the world by any stretch, but I see why everyone said to get some long rides in solo. On race day, you're alone and practicing that mental toughness really paid off.

If I could change anything, it would have to be on the run. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty pleased with my time, but as with Eagleman and Timberman, I kind of let myself down during the run. I had a good pace the first loop, but by the middle of the second my legs felt shot. I'm not sure how much of this was mental and how much was physical. I know 125 or so miles tends to cost your body in terms of effort, but I keep thinking I should have had more in the tank. Since this is the "Off Season of the Run™", I hope to build up that run endurance. At least on this run I never, not even for one second, felt I wouldn't finish. It was just a matter of how far I could push myself between walks. Bah, no matter how well I could have ran that marathon, I would be bitch'in that it should have been faster. I suppose that is a Type A side effect that is both good and bad. (Aren't all triathletes Type A by default? Yea, I thought so too.)

Recovery from IMF was easier than I ever expected. Sunday I was up at 7:00 AM and didn't feel too bad. A little sore around the lower back and my feet hurt. I had a few people tell me that the IM marathon was easier than a stand alone marathon. I didn't believe them, but now I do. After the NJ Marathon, I could barely walk for three days. The day after IMF I was moving, two days later I spent the afternoon drinking beer and eating fried foods. No way that was happening after the run at the shore.

Commodore asked about hotels. The hotel we stayed at was about 30 minutes from the host hotel. It wasn't 5-stars, but it was clean and had a good price point. Staying away from the other athletes was a goal, and this place made it happen. If you're heading down there for IMF-06, call around. There were about a dozen of mega-hotels being built between where we stayed and the host hotel. They should be open by IMF-06. Since IMF falls during the off season in PCB, there were also lots of houses for rent. I'm not sure who you could call about them, but a local real estate agent could probably hook you up. Get a place with a kitchen! Food stuffs in the area tended to be closed, close very early in the afternoon, or be not as family friendly as you'd like. I know Bretta didn't mind when Bill and I went to Hooters on Sunday — we got great seats where we could see 4 different football games and the wait-staff wasn't too bad on the eyes (What more could you ask for?), but the fried wouldn't have worked before the race.

We did find one breakfast place that completely kicked buttocks. It was a little hole in the wall that had... I hope you are sitting down... bacon pancakes. Yes, there were hunks of crispy bacon in the pancake! OMG, it was yummy. You knew it was bad for you as you dumped a few pounds of butter and syrup on them, but it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo worth it.

If anyone has any questions about or would like more information about my hotel stay, my email address is in the upper right of the header. Don't be shy!

Two more things about the Ironman, and then I'm done: (1) Don't pre-pay for photos. The line to get the pre-paid photos was HUGE. The line to score the pics without the pre-pay was short. You do the math. And, you can always buy the photos online after the fact. (2) I cannot wait for IM-CDA!

Okay, Ironman done. Did nothing for about 14 days and by nothing I mean that number just before one. If even that much. This weekend it was time to think about starting to move again and get ready for IM-CDA. 216 days to get ready, plenty of time.

This weekend I went to for an easy 1-hour run with friends on Saturday morning. After the run, it was off to the pool for a cool down swim. I started my swim with the masters group and switched to a 100 cool down after their 1600 warm-up. Didn't feel too bad but my legs were a tad tired during the kicking bits.

Sunday was a 7-mile run around/through Princeton. That went pretty well even with the 30° temperature. Got to see running friends I've not jogged with since before the IM taper started. It was great to see everyone again! After the run Karen, Drew, Bill, Bretta and I headed to Philly to see the Body Worlds exhibit. It was coooooooool.

This week I start to get in shape for the Disney Half Marathon. The goal for this race isn't speed, it is good running form. Got to get that cadenance up and work on leaning forward when running. My running form sucks pretty hard but this Off Season of the Run™ will fix it! At least I hope it will.

Goals for the upcoming season:

1. Run the whole 13.1 without walking at the White Lake Half Ironman
2. 12-hour Ironman at Coeur d'Alene
3. 4:30 or better at the Marine Corps Marathon

To go along with the race goal, there are also some training objectives:

1. Comfortable run cadence of 180 by 26 Feb.
2. Complete every scheduled core workout
3. 55-minute 2.4 mile swim
4. Achieve racing weight of 180 by 07 May
5. Bike and run workouts completed with heart rate monitor – understand and work with the numbers!

All in all, those goals and objectives should be with in my reach. I think the hardest things listed will be the 12 hour IM and the core workouts. Last season the core workouts were like a rest period and I think that was the cause of the sore lower back and shoulders after IM-F. I've already talked to my trainer at the gym and on the 29th we're going to lay out a core, upper-body, and lower-body workout. The core will be done three times a week. Once at the gym followed by upper-body, again two days later at the gym followed by lower-body, and once on the weekend before the Saturday run (between 3-5 miles).

To help with the heartrate stuff, I've upgraded my Polar monitor with a spiffy new Timex 5E671 Ironman Triathlon Bodylink Performance Monitor and I got the data recorder so that, if everything goes well, I can post charts a long the lines of those posted by The Commodore. The monitor was less than I thought it would be and came with free next day shipping. Sweet.

I've updated my workout schedule over there on the right with a new file and have roughly outlined the hours that I'll be spending during the 23 weeks getting ready for IM-CDA. This Sunday I'll sit down with Chris and we'll see what needs to be adjusted.

If you need an office type program to open and work with Excel files, I highly recommend Open Office 2.0. IMHO, it is far superior to Microsoft Office and has a much better price point. Make the switch, you'll thank me later.

I don't know if you've noticed, but posting has been light of late. (Some, but not much more posting over on the main page.) 'Tis the off season where you do very little and claim you can start again whenever you want. You also do dumb things like agree to go running with your slightly insane (but not in a bad way) friends before finding out exactly when they plan to start running and how far the run is. It happens like this:

Insane Person: Run on Saturday?
Me: Sure, just let me know when and where.
.... time passes...
Insane Person: 5:30 AM at the gym, around 12 miles in a loop.
Me: /sigh. I'll be there.

The 12 mile loop then becomes a 14-mile struggle in the cold through hills and along the canal path followed by a 2,000 yard swim. I blame myself.

I've also been working on my core and overall body strength. Ek, I'm like girly-man weak. I know it will only take a week or two to get the abs into good enough shape that I'm not cringing the day after the workout, but man, those are a long two weeks.

Arrrrggghh. I've put it off as long as I could. I do not like getting up at 5:30 AM. I like playing video games until all hours of the morning. I don't like the pool when it is no degrees outside. Sadly, none of these things are compatable with finishing an Ironman in 12 hours. So, it begins. Again.

Last week I got started on the core workouts. In fits and starts, but started none the less. The other day it was off to the gym at lunch for a 30 minute run followed by a 30 minute swim. Last night hit the Masters workout for a relaxing 3,500. Saturday already have a 10 mile group run (that may or may not get upped to 20, depends on how I feel), and then on Sunday there is a 5.3 mile run in the hills at Tyler State Park. Yea for the Bucks Road Runners and the Winter Series.

Only a few more months of snow to go. Next step to start working the bike trainer. Joy.

Part of the new year is to sign up for all the cool events that open up registration on New Year's Day. On tap for from now until IM-CDA is a pretty good range of stuff.

• White Lake Half
• Einey-Meenie Half Marathon
• 100 x 100s (careful, PDF file)
• Belleplain (Sprint) Tri

Got some other swimming events including at least two meets to help support the local Master's Team. They better have some distance events!!

Add in an organized century ride or two and hopefully "The Donut Derby".(35-mile "race" with rest stops every 12 miles where racers can get water, use the bathroom, and get donuts. For every donut eaten, five minutes is deducted from your official finish time. There are only 2 rules: All donuts must be eaten in the Donut Zone: and if you chum, you're DNF. Wasn't held last year, technical problems. Hoping it works out this year.)

It is going to be a great year.

Whoa, went to the gym last night for a swim. It was packed. Beyond normally fully, we're talking "to the gills" full. Stupid New Year's Resolutions. People, you know you're going to abandon ship some time in the next few weeks. Stop early. Give me space to park and room to get in a flip-turn or two.

Don't get me wrong. I know you're trying and you do and should get props for that, but here is a hint: don't try to make up all the workouts you've missed in the last 10 years one month. You can't. Just start-up slow and go from there. 2 hours every night will make your heart explode and make you hate the idea of getting up off your butt. 30-minutes, that what I'm asking you to limit yourself to until you're truly able to do more.

Don't tell me about the freak diet you're on while attempting to drop down to mearly obese from the "need to be buried in a piano case" size you're currently at. I don't care. You're going about it all wrong. Carbs are actually good for you... as is fat and protein. Here's another hint: it doesn't matter so much what you eat. Try eating less! That combined with the 30 minutes will do the trick.

I hate January at the gym.

/end rant.

"Blah." That about sums up the first week+ of getting ready for IM-CDA. Started off with the Disney Half as a training run. Not bad, but coldness of the day in Florida should have tipped me off to the over "blah" that was about to show up on my door step.

It is so hard to find the juice to get moving when it is below 30°. You want to go, but actually deciding to run for an hour in the dark (oh so dark—sunrise isn't until around 7:00AM) and cold. Once you're moving it is okay, but that first step is brutal.

So, last week got moving on the swimming, biking, and running. The swim went pretty good. Once practice involved a 30-minute swim. For the first swim of the year I kept a pace between 1:20s and 1:25s per-100. Not too shabby for all the time away from the water. Then Wednesday the meat of the workout was 3x3x200s on 3:10, 3:00, and 2:50. The goal was the keep the same pace as the rest between 200s dropped off. Managed to keep 2:40s for all 9 while leading the lane. Only took 20 years, but I think I've got a handle on pace while swimming.

The biking parts actually worked out pretty well (save for a bike problem that I'll post about in a bit). The weather was petty warm on Saturday for a 2-hour ride with Karen. It went very well. Got to used my old-old bike as the new hotness was feeling under the weather. Riding the old wheels, I realized I love the elliptical front crank (Bio-Pace) installed on that thing. It was very cutting edge 15 years ago, then passé, and now hip again. Q-Rings seems to the way to go. I have to ask the folks at Elite about making the move from the standard round crank to the "Q".

The running... was the running. I'm starting to warm up to it, but, whoa, I'd rather do other stuff. Sunday was a 2-hour, 12 mile affair out and about from the gym. I was moving slow but it was all about the heart rate. I nailed the whole thing in Zone 2 and still managed 10-minute miles. For me, that is freaking unbelievable! I'm pretty stoked.

We'll have to see how this week plays out. Last night was another 4,000 yard swim. I am a tad under the weather so the laps were harder than they should have been. Still, I guess it says something that with no "umph" and feeling bad the 4K in the water was do-able. We did have a good laugh watching the (painfully young) blonde lifeguard nodding off while we swam.

So, now back to you regularly scheduled workouts!

This has not been a good week for training. It fell apart on Sunday night. Sunday was good: 1.5 hour run. Sunday night I must have slept awkwardly or something. When I woke up my neck was killing me. Over the course of the morning got worse and worse and worse. By Monday afternoon I couldn't move my head without some pretty solid discomfort.

At first I was, just do something light! Maybe was just a muscle thing and some swimming would lossen it up. Ha! I got the pool, crawled into the water and started to swim. Once I got moving it was okay... up to the first flip turn. Tucking the head for the turn and then lifting the head to look forward again about made me want to puke. Sticking with my "muscle" concept I kept going for all of about 400 yards. At that point, I had to stop. I kept think "it will feel better any minute now", but it never did.

Getting changed was a hoot and driving home felt bad.

Tuesday morning was bad so I loaded up on Advil and headed to work. Sitting at the desk was less fun than you'd like to think, but by Tuesday afternoon the neck started to feel better. I could turn a little to left and right without feeling like someone was stabbing me in the neck with a knife. I decided to skip the swim and a weight/core session.

Wednesday morning felt even better. I could sit up and down without pain and coughing didn't make me want to throw up. I was feeling good enough to risk a run. A wee 4.5 mile, 40 minute jog down the canal path. It didn't feel great, but it wasn't too bad either. Everything but the neck was working it. The neck complained but got the job done. Wednesday night I headed back to the gym with visions of lifing and swimming but after the weights there was slight neck pain.

93 days to the White Lake Half, I think (hope) I can afford some more rest, so home it was.

Today was even better. Neck feels pretty good. Only slight pain at the extreme range of left/right/up/down head movements. Maybe I somewhat pinched something in the neck? For sure it didn't happen while exercising, so I think that is a positive. I'm hoping it is even better tomorow.

If things are good tomorrow morning will be another run and then yoga (Bikram style–my favorite as you just feel so über relaxed afterward). Saturday we're back to a long bike and run with Sunday being a long day of events: long run, Chili-fest, Super Bowl).

The neck, however, did put the pinch (haha, see a clever play on words!) on getting lots of other stuff done. Things like the promised pictures of the new new Hotness. I'll try and make that happen this weekend! Whoa, I hate being sick/ill/laid up. I just don't have the patience for it.

On the plus side, time away from working out allowed me the time to post stuff on the main blog. Cool. Even scored 15 nanoseconds of fame with a mention on Instapundit.com! Yea me!

This has been a rough two weeks. Real Life™ has been puttin' a hurt'in on the triathlon updates. To start off with, lost almost a week with something in my neck. Don't know what happened, but I'm glad it passed. It sucked not being able to move about, let alone train, without out pain.

Once the neck was better, it was back to the swim/bike/run routine. Then the weather crapped out. Stupid winter. You'd think it would know that snow and sub-zero temps interfere with Ironman training. There is a greater chance of getting out for a 3+ hour bike ride then hoping on a trainer for 3+ hours. On the very plus side, when the indoor ride is needed there is a super group of people I can spin with, but it is not the same as riding out side.

Then we got another dog! Went to see Jordan and while we where there, we met a great dog named "Killer". Don't know why you'd name a pug Killer, but someone did. We were weak and brought him home. We may have too much dog-power now, but only time will tell.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things are still on track for IM-CDA and the White Lake Half, so I have that going for me. Next step is to get my act together and get back into the habit of updating my training (b)log.

Oooooohhhhhh Yea! 100 days to IM-CDA.

I'm pretty psyched for this one. Sure I don't feel I'm getting in enough bike or run or swim at this point, but there are still 100 days to go. I know this came up in getting ready for Florida. At what point should you wake up and say, "I am ready for Ironman." I know that moment never came last year, but I lived through the race. I'm hoping this year will be different. (in that I'll feel ready for the race :->)

Until then, think about the next 100 days. Sweet!

What, you say I'm overlooking something? Well, sort of: 50 days to White Lake. Ummmm, Half-Ironman goodness. 5:30 or better, here I come!

Earlier this year, I finally broke down and got a new car. A Mazda 3 5-door in Strato Blue. The ride is sweet. Lots of room for junk in the back because, let's face it, it is a little station wagon. /sigh

Still after slapping my 140.6 sticker on the back window, it still needed something. A bike rack! No more taking off the tires and lying that baby down on her side. No sir, bolted to roof is the way to go.

Sadly, Mazda USA sucks ass in terms of making it easy to get a rack on the top of a 2006 Mazda 3 5-Door. To start off with, there isn't a factory option. Then, both Thule and Yakima both seem to think the car door/year combination does not exists. They both offer racks that hang off the back... for the 2005 models. No joy there.

Since we all know strapping bikes to the top of the car has to be an option, I decided to see what teh interweb could provide me. After much praying over the keyboard, the all powerful Google did provide. (again) At Mazda3Forums.com there was a most aptly named thead: UK Thule Rapid System Rack installed and bike attached. Hell yea. They even had pictures.

Then it got complicated. It seems all of the Mazda 3s have mount points under the factory rain gutters. But, the bitches at Mazda don't off the rain gutter clips that expose the mount points to the fine citizens of the United States. Instead like an old geezer looking for cheap meds, you need to head north. Mazda of Toronto was able to hook me up. Then you'll find the bitches at Thule or Yak don't sell the rack feet, or Fit Kits that plug into the now exposed mount points. For that, you need to head overseas.