A Collection of Random Talking Points

SUNDAY
Again, I spent much of the day consumed with grown-up stuff and packing in preparation for my move away from DC in late May. Why so soon? Well, I will be out of town for at least 3 more weekends between now and would rather start too soon than too late. Plus, I'm going to try and sell half of my belongings so I have to make time to deal with that process.

I was able to squeeze in a run and a short gym workout. I raised the rehab bar by turning in 1.5 miles @ 7.0mph at 1.5 incline. Definitely felt good and definitely felt the ridiculously rusty running form start to show through towards the end. I hope to continue with 1.5 mile efforts for the remainder of the week. If all goes well, I'll raise the distances up first thing next week. (crosses fingers).

That afternoon I was also able to find the time to give my bike a total rubdown while watching some college basketball. I hadn't done that (the cleaning), well... EVER. Don't get me wrong, I've cleaned and greased the components many times, but this was the first time I've ever done the FULL-body treatment. It was a strangely emotional experience that left me feeling closer to my bicycle. Or, I could have just been reacting to an hour of sniffing Citrus Degreaser.

I then made meatloaf.

MONDAY
I had a good swim today and I'll again attribute it to the fact that I was able to keep a more positive attitude throughout the workout (sans watch). Thanks to some advice I received in a previous post, when fatigue started to set in I made sure to get the most out of my form as possible. I also did lots of stroke counting to keep my mind occupied... which also worked.

My calves were really sore today from yesterday's run. It's a great feeling and something I haven't had in a while. Oh, for the day when I can run respectable distances and have that be the reason for my sore calves.

TUESDAY
Today was just a quick 1-hour on the indoor trainer. I played with the idea of taking the trainer out in the backyard but it was supposed to rain (which is why I was indoors to begin with) so I didn't.

I spent the majority of my evening (~4 hours) helping to write 32 pages of Elaine's dissertation for her. And when I say write, I mean lay out and label a few hundred images she had captured with an electron microscope. It was rough work that required heavy reliance on a variety of Adobe products, but if it means Elaine graduates sooner then I'm ALL FOR IT.

OUR NEW CAR
Elaine and I are now the proud new owners of a 2010 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI. It's an awkward feeling because I was so irresponsible/uninterested with cars growing up, yet I feel such a strong sense of pride-of-ownership and responsibility with this one. Unfortunately, Elaine is in Michigan with the car so I have yet to actually see it in person. BOOOO! Until I'm able to descend on that nice piece of German engineering with my nice piece of Japanese technology, this photo will have to suffice.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

In my excitement, I started looking up highly-rated rooftop bike-racks and JESUS, those things are expensive. We're talking $300+ just for the hardware to hold 2 bikes, and slightly less than that for only one. DAMN. My internet research led me to the Yakima Steelhead. Anyone got any other recommendations? One way or another, it looks like I'll have to add the rack of choice to my wedding registry.

OTHER
Wednesday = run, then swim.

Thursday = outdoor bike ride: laps around Haynes Point.

Friday = visiting family in PA for the weekend.

Someday = update the banner photo for this blog - I'm tired of looking at the pool!

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2 Swims, 2 Burgers and 30 Rocks

Thanks to netflix, I recently saw my first (and then 18 more) episodes of 30 Rock. In usual Sean fashion, I seem to have a knack for hopping on bandwagons EXCEEDINGLY late (e.g. Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, the list goes on...). In any event, a show that I thought was only a couple of years old ended up being about 4, maybe 5 years old. But that doesn't matter, because the show was still awesome. Jack Donaghy is my favorite.

Wednesday Swim - 3000m - Short Intervals
500m - warm-up
5 x 100m, 10 sec rest
100m easy
5 x 100m, 10 sec rest
100m easy
5 x 100m, 10 sec rest
100m easy
2 x 100m, 10 sec rest
6 x 50m, 5 sec rest
100m easy
100m - cool down

I'm so creative, huh? It was nice to depart from the usual routine and try something new. Plus, it was great being able to swim with SOLID form the entire time. This was a solid effort and I felt good the whole time.

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Thursday Bike Ride - CANCELLED

Yeah, yeah.. BUT BASKETBALL WAS ON TV!! And, I was invited to a co-workers house for a round of Peruvian chicken and really really good beer. To make matters cooler, he let us all try this stuff called Chartreuse VEP. This isn't any normal liqueur, no sir. This shit has been made by the Carthusian Monks since the 1740s...

According to tradition, a marshal of artillery to French king Henry IV, François Hannibal d'Estrées, presented the Carthusian monks at Vauvert, near Paris, with an alchemical manuscript that contained a recipe for an "elixir of long life" in 1605. The formula is said to call for 130 herbs, flowers, and secret ingredients combined in a wine alcohol base. The monks intended their liqueur to be used as medicine. The exact recipes for all forms of Chartreuse remain trade secrets and are known at any given time only to the two monks who prepare the herbal mixture. 
No one monk knows the recipe in its entirety.

Pretty cool back-story, huh?

Oh, and the drink? AMAZING. It was probably the most complex thing I have ever put into my mouth. (That's what she said.) If I had the bank-roll to drop $150 or so on a bottle, I'd definitely do it - and so should you!

But yeah, this took the place of Thursday's bike-ride.

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On Friday, I found myself in the gym again to run on the treadmill. Now, don't be too impressed, but I upped the rehab running to 1.25 miles instead of just 1.00 (still at 7.0mph, 1.0 incline). I was still "running tired" at the end, but it felt great to be able to do this pain free. In addition to easing VERY SLOWLY back into distance/speed/regularity with regards to my running, I'm also working on trying to improve my mechanics. Primarily, this means landing way more on the mid-to-forefoot, as opposed to the heal. Of course, this leaves my calves GASSED at the end, but overall I have a raised sense of confidence in my form.

After the run, I bused it up to the pool to do a few longer-distanced sets. In other words, the exact opposite of Wednesday's swim workout.

Friday's Swim - 3,000m - Distance Workout 
500m - warm-up
1000m - easy
900m  - easy
500m - easy
100m - cool-down

It's more painful to swim slow than it is to suffer while swimming fast. Geeeeeez. But I got it done... and I think it was because I knew that I would reward myself with a MAGNIFICENT burger from Rugby Cafe. (I didn't tell you about the first one which was from Five Guys at lunch that day.)

For some quick background, I got some really weird stomach/intestine infection almost three years ago that nearly hospitalized me and left me days away from having my gall bladder removed. Nobody could figure out what the problem was, but my body would just about shut down if I ate any red-meat, pork, fried foods or foods high in sugar. After a couple months, I could handle everything but the red meat. If I ever ate anything with beef broth or tempted myself with one bite of steak, I was presented with the feeling as if someone stuck their hand inside my abdomen and made a fist around my gall bladder. This continued on until just about 3-4 months ago when I started being able to digest it all again. (!!!!!). To celebrate my body rediscovering its digestion powers, I have been sampling the city's best burgers, and loving every second of it. Man, I've missed red meat.

Saturday was spent doing grown-up, life-planning-related stuff so unfortunately no working out.

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Re-Learning to Enjoy Workouts: aka Swimming Without a Watch

I recently read an article from Matt Fitzgerald in the April issue of Triathlete Magazine that spoke a lot of the level of "fun" we have in our workouts. Granted, fun in this sense doesn't embody all definitions of the word; it tends to touch more on the mindset where you set out to accomplish certain goals in your workout and do so with positive results and a positive attitude to boot.

I've had this recurring angst with my swim workouts these last couple months and only stumble on 1 truly enjoyable workout for at least every 2 weeks of swimming. Is this normal? I mean, I've not heard of anyone enjoying their swim training, especially in comparison to their biking or running. However, I never quit on a bike/run workout and are CONSTANTLY tempted to doing so in my swim workouts.

In run/bike workouts of the past, I'm usually in a constant state of motion with varying levels of exertion. Unless I'm taking the ever-so-rare bathroom break while on the bike, my mind is always locked into action. However, in swimming there are so many "rest stops" between sets where you are just sitting there on the wall catching your breath. Granted, they're only anywhere from 5-45 seconds, but my mind tends to associate each break as a mini finish-line which it then has to recover from and get me back into the competitive mindset.

It's rough, I tell ya! Arguing with yourself in your head mid-stroke... and it doesn't even take into account the heavy breathing.

But anyway, Matt's article stressed the importance of enjoying your workouts more because that positive enjoyment leads to positive results. Fun, huh? It's also important to point out that dips in attitude are only detrimental to your training if they accompany dips in your performance. Sure, we'll all get tired and worn out after doing heavy training for weeks on end, but it's only truly a bad thing if that worn-out attitude starts to make your performances suffer. And not just on one or two workouts, either.

Duh!

That could simply mean your body is revolting and needs some rest. We're talking a string of below average performances here... like 3-4 swims/bikes/runs minimum. 

With that in mind, I've made some subtle changes in an effort to help me enjoy my time in the pool more. The number one decision has been to swim without wearing my watch on many occasions. This will keep me from getting bogged down by hitting/missing timing goals. The downside of this approach is that I won't have the positive motivation associated with hitting my timing goals. Whatever. The important thing to note is that I will still time my breaks in between sets. This will allow me to focus on form and breathing and to RELAX.  I hate swimming like a maniac because I'm afraid to get a poor time.

Monday  Watchless Swim - 3000m
500m - warm-up
300m x 8, 45 second rest
100m cool-down

I swear my first 300m was almost dead on 5 minutes (I cheated and looked at the clock when I started). That felt good! But then, my energy/endurance just plummeted and I was fairly certain that respectable times after that point would not have been had. Oh well though b/c I didn't have that damn watch to haunt me.

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Tuesday I was all ready to go on a bike ride after work but the weather SUCKED. It rained all day and then got cold. I was frozen by the time I drove the 1.7 miles from work to my house on my scooter. Then it started pouring rain again. FAIL!

So, instead I journeyed to the gym and did a plethora of cross-training exercises that were good for my abs and my knees. I also put in 1 mile on the treadmill @ 7.0mph and 1.0 incline. (PROGRESS). I've fallen way out of running shape, which is no surprise, but I've also forgotten what running fatigue feels like. I had a healthy reminder at the end of that very slow mile with muscles being activated that had laid dormant for so many months. To be prudent, I iced and medicated right once I got home. Tomorrow looks like a swimming day, perhaps followed by a short stint on the trainer.

Thursday is supposed to be GORGEOUS outside so I'm definitely penciling a good bike workout.

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Here, have some Utah photos...

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Bracket (and Quad) Busting Sunday

And just like that, my interest in NCAA basketball is again on life-support. The teams I picked to win have almost all lost (Kansas, I'm looking at you) and the times I have willed so hard to lose are still in it (damn you, ohio state...). I still could get two teams to the Final Four though, so hopefully that'll hold my interest for these next two week until baseball season FINALLY starts!

After the pump 'n ride adventure I had on Saturday night, I was anxious to get out and put in a good, solid ride on Sunday consisting of nothing short of hard efforts.

Sunday morning did not disappoint!

I met my friend Patrick over at Dupont Circle shortly after 10am. It would've been 10am sharp, but I had to donkey around with a lump in my tube b/c I didn't put the tire back in correctly. (SUCH. A. NOOB.) After riding slowly on the lopsided tire for about 1/8 of a mile wondering if it work itself out naturally, I finally stopped to inspect. I didn't know what the hell was wrong so I had to call Patrick and ask him. He made fun of me and then told me how stupid/easy this problem was and how to fix it. I fixed it, then raced over to meet him.

We headed off toward MacArthur Blvd. to follow in the tire-treads of a Master Half-Marathoner whose blog I follow. Dirk was cool enough to give me the turning cues for his 40k route and I really wanted to give it a shot. After all, I am still kicking myself for training almost exclusively at Hains (FLAT) Point last year and thinking that my flat-land speeds would somehow translate to rolling hills during an actual race. Dirk's course definitely had some hills and lately I have a new-found pension for suffering on hills. It was looking like it'd be a good match.

We hit the startling line and were cruising along quite comfortably. Eight miles from the line and we encountered this monster of a hill. It was awful, but it was wonderful! I found myself repeatedly pondering why I have aerobars attached to my bike. In my mind, they looked like a couple of clip-on, lead weights. As far as hills go, I used to take them all sitting down in gear that would allow me to keep my cadence up (is that a low gear or a high gear?), but now I stand up and pump the crap out of my pedals. Hell, I even threw in a bunch of "up-strokes." Hellooooo cyclic mechanics awareness!!!

After The Monster, we were greeted with a bunch of big rollers where we'd cruise downhill between 30-35 mph and then ride our momentum back up the next one. Eventually we found ourselves at the halfway point and decided to swing by a gas-station for some fresh, chilly gatorade. Half a bottle of purple-flavored stuff later and we were back on the road, albeit in the opposite direction.

That monster hill was so wonderful to be riding down, instead of up. I was FLYING! My legs were pretty thrashed from the ride the night before so as soon as we hit flat-ground and started working through the mini-rollers I could really feel it.

I also learned a new lesson in continuous pedal stroke. As I get tired, my front wheel starts to flounder (more than normal) all around. I never really noticed or cared much before because I was always riding on a wide stretch of road that is otherwise closed down to car traffic. But, put me on a country road with a tiny shoulder and I develop a particularly strong affinity for keeping that wheel straight. To help, I focused more on a continuous pedal stroke. Magically, that closer-to-even power distribution does wonders for your balance. I suppose with a bunch of practice I could learn to keep my wheel straight enough that I could ride comfortably in closer quarters with others, peloton styyyylllllllle.

We concluded the ride at CycleLife (bike shop) where we picked up a couple of AMAZING smoothies and sat out in the sun on the Georgetown waterfront. It felt pretty damn good. Ahhh....

Once the smoothie was emptied, it was back on the bike to tackle three big hills en route to my house, a shower and some beer & food!!!

Chicken Jerusalem (wine, lemon, mushrooms, green onion, 

garlic, artichokes) and a Vegetable Medley

Stone Smoked Porter, in a glass (always).

Monday means swimming so I'm hoping for a good one.

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Just quickly, it looks like there was some closure between Lance Armstrong and Tony Kornheiser. You can read a couple of different takes on the matter HERE (USA Today) and HERE (Slowtwitch). I think Tony over-stepped his bounds when letting loose very embellished comments on what he thinks about cyclists. Do I think he's sorry? Yeah, but mainly because of the huge publicity hit he took.

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I Dug Two Holes

Friday's swim was a celebration of medium distances. No watch, no pressure, no problem.

 My scooter made a friend!

Long Distances - 2500m
500m warm-up
1000m straight
1000m straight
hot-tub (only 5 minutes)

I hadn't swum those kinds of distances in quite a while so it felt good to get back out there and see if I could pace myself. I wasn't swimming overly fast, but wanted to work on even-pacing throughout the whole distance. If I had to guess, I'd say that pace worked out to somewhere around 1:48-1:50/100m. Slow, I know... but I wasn't out to break any records so who cares.

On the way home from the pool I saw this...

Porky peloton!?

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Mmmm... dinner I had last week.

Garlicky chicken & hummus wrap, greek chicken wrap and bbq chicken wrap.

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Saturday was a new day.

Today was my FIRST run since October 17, 2009 (Detroit Marathon - the day my knee said NO). I decided it was best to do it in a controlled environment - aka the gym, on the treadmill. I stretched out well and hopped on not knowing what to expect. Before I knew it though, it was over. I had a healthy sweat going after just 1 mile at 7mph @  1.0 incline.

No pain. No tightness. No soreness.

PROGRESS.

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Of course that wasn't my whole workout. I then did some weights and abs and calves for another 45 minutes or so.

I then rushed home, hopped on my bike and headed out to the friendly neighborhood Volvo dealer. I was really excited to test drive some cars - namely the V50, the S40 and the V70. For those not in the know, 2/3 of those cars are wagons. Exciting, huh? Shutup - I'm excited. They didn't have the exact car-combo that I wanted to test-drive - I had to test-drive the S40 in order to get a feel for the turbo-charged version of the engine I would most DEFINITELY get should I get this car.

As part of my test-drive, and since I don't have a car, the dealer offered to pick me up from the Metro stop nearby. So, I biked to the metro and took the train out to that stop (don't want to be sweaty for the test-drive, right?). 

 He then picked me up and I promptly asked that he pop the trunk so that I could put my bike in there to see how it fit. It fit - score! The rest of the test-drive was rather normal so I won't waste anymore space talking about that.

But anyway, enough about cars...

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After the dealership, I hopped back on the bike and rode out to some neighborhood in VA where a coworker lives. I was itching for some manual labor and he was itching for some help sooooo we got to work! Part of the ride, however, had me tight-rope pedaling on the white line of a shoulder-less road. I couldn't help but think back to my comments about cyclists respecting motorists... 

::forehead slap!::

At a couple points, I was even delaying traffic. I'm sorry!!

At the coworkers house I dug two holes.... BIG holes. In my biking clothes (sans helmet, of course). The holes are in preparation for the movement of two large shrubs. Exciting, huh?

A few hours and a couple of glasses of sparkling lemonade later and I was on my way. It was a good 25 miles back to the house from there. Ahh, memories... The last time I rode this trail at this time of day/night I was overcome by excruciating knee pain. However, this time I was pain free! 

Buuuuuuut my bike was a different story. I got a flat. Then I changed tires and THAT one got flat. CRAP. Since I was still about 5 miles from the house and taking a cab was out of the question, I had to settle for quickly pumping up the tire, SPRINTING for about half a mile then pumping it up and repeating the process all over again.

Never a dull moment, huh?

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Burn, Baby, BURN!

I am sunburnt. My face is peeling, and I love it.

I just got back late Tuesday night from a great ski-trip out West in Utah. I'd never been skiing on actual mountains before, but were relegated my whole life to skiing on a pile of road-debris in Michigan and on those baby-peaks called the Poconos in Pennsylvania. This was awesome, though. I experienced many different levels of excitement throughout the trip. The first was awe (landscape/view), then absolute fear (fell HARD twice on the same black-diamond) and followed by elation (figured out how to ski normally again and never fell again in 3 days).

My god... my quads took a whoopin' on those slopes! It was that really good suffering feeling where your thighs are just BURNING... and then you squat down further and really bring the pain! It felt good to torture them like that and I knew I was at least getting some kind of a workout. I'll post some pics at some point this weekend.

I also ate like a fat kid the whole time I was out there. Am I sorry? No... not really. It would've been nice to be healthy the whole time, but c'mon!.. I was on vacation and part of my idea of a good vacation is sampling feasting on the best food that city has to offer. And feast, I did!

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Speaking of food... costco has brought a new addiction to my life. I don't know what it is about these little granola bars, but they're AMAZING. I've got this box of what feels like 100 bars that I CANNOT stop eating them. You should probably go to costco and buy yourself a box so you know what I'm talking about.

Mmmm... tasty!

I went for a swim on Wednesday and didn't expect fireworks, but I was able to put together 3,000m of goodness.

3,000m Swim - Countdown Workout
500m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m... x2

It was untimed and I went ahead and counted the strokes again. It proved very helpful and constantly reminded me to lengthen my stroke and not pound the water.

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Thursday had me outdoors for the 2nd outdoor bike ride of the season. It was back to the old stomping grounds for laps around Hains Point (~3 miles/loop) with the rest of the people who compete in the Thursday Night World Championships. For those of you not in the know, there are literally about 100 cyclists out doing laps on this flat, nearly car-free course. To make things more fun, about half of these riders get in a HUGE peloton and just dominate the course. It's really cool to link up with them and cruise around the course at around 25mph, but that's nowhere near my actual speed so I don't want to instill any false confidence. It was a good, short ride and put me at about 25 miles for the day. On a side note, I dominated all the hills on the way back to my house in a way that I have NEVER done before. It looks like the time spent on the trainer ended up being worth a damn after all! Hurray!

The weatherman is predicting 76* on Saturday and 77* on Sunday so you can be damn sure I will get out there with the bike again for a nice, long ride. I'm thinking about following the route for the 10am route made popular by local cycling aficionados.

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I also plan on throwing down my first run since last October. I feel confident enough in the knee that I can get out there and start running again without risking sudden injury. I hope the work put in over the winter paid off and has strengthened the knee to a point where I can just get back into enjoying running instead of fearing injury.

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There has been a lot of talk lately about the comments made by local radio host and ESPN TV personality Tony Kornheiser (March 11th Show, Part 1, 33 mins. in). Knowing-the-style-of and listening to Tony for years, I can easily identify when he's taking creative license with his words and going far beyond his true beliefs just for the sake of comedy/entertainment. However, he seems to have picked on the wrong crowd of folks (cyclists) on a topic that isn't ripe for humor (hitting them with cars). I guess it's one thing to make fun of cyclists for their affinities for spandex, but quite another when you start making a joke out of a serious problem.

Personally, I'm not as up-in-arms as a lot of folks out there. Yes, I think what he said was unbelievably stupid, but "no" I don't think his words will cause more drivers to bump more cyclists. I guess I have a fundamental misunderstanding with the cycling community with regards to the "share the road" mentality. In my mind, the roads were created primarily for cars and they should have the right of way. I understand that it's very hard for bikers to find places they can ride for long distances at consistent speeds. The best choice for them is obviously the road. However, you cannot demand your piece of the pie from the motorists. There's got to be a level of common sense that tells people where and when they should ride their bikes on the roads.

There is an inherent level of risk you take every time you get out on your bike. Part of calculating that risk involves deciding where you ride. Cyclists who choose to ride on narrow shoulders or along busy roads take their lives into their own hands. I'm not trying to alleviate responsibility from motorists here by any means. The point is that we, as bikers/cyclists, cannot simply demand a piece of the road. For bikers and motorists to co-exist, there has to be a mutual level of respect given by each. For motorists, that means sharing the road and being understanding of our lifestyle. For cyclists, that means being smart about when/where we ride and respecting right-of-way on the roads. I won't jump into the fast-lane at the pool if it's full of 6 or 7 people who swim noticeably faster than I do, but I will if there's only a couple and all of the other lanes are more crowded. Common-sense and good judgment seem to rule a lot in this debate.

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The NCAA tournament has started. I couldn't care less for college basketball, but I'll gladly and enthusiastically fill out a bracket. It also signifies a good time of year. The weather is changing, the days are getting longer and it's less than a month until baseball season.

Pretty conservative picks, huh?

After the ride on Saturday morning, I think I'll get outside and do some grilling/relaxing. I just downloaded the soundtrack to the movie Babel and have found quite a few great, ethnically diverse songs. They'd work great as some relaxation background music.

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Back From Salt Lake City!

Workout data coming soon...

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Udderly Delicious: It Works!

Hello from Ogden, Utah!

I meant to make a couple of blog deposits last week but ran into a whole slew of excuses for why I should've (and did) do something else at that time. Here's a quick recap from last week to get me all caught up with my workout log, etc.

1. Udder Butter, or whatever the hell that udder cream is called - IT WORKS. Call me a cheap sell for hopping on the bandwagon so quickly, but I smeared a glob of that weird-smelling stuff all over my "shammy" (le chamois) and knocked out the longest trainer-ride OF MY LIFE. My Tuesday Trainer workout looked like this...

10 min. warm-up
10 min. hard effort (155-160 bpm)
10 min. recovery (130-140 bpm)
09 min. hard
09 min. recovery
08 min. hard
08 min. recovery
etc...
.....
...
05 min. hard
but then!,...
01 min. recovery
04 min. standing hill-climb (OUCH)
01 min. recovery
03 min. hill-climb
01 min. recovery
02 min. hill-climb
01 min. recovery
01 min. hill-climb
10-15 min. cool-down

I felt like an f-ing rockstar on the trainer and everything was burning/throbbing by the end... but not THERE!... (thank you udder butter!)

2. Swims

On Monday I threw together a 3,000m effort that was the traditional 300x8 repeat workout I've been doing for the last couple of months. The times were around 5:12 for each 300m, which is slower than usual, but I wasn't too disappointed. I made a serious effort at counting strokes on the last 3 intervals of 300m and it felt really good. My form, suddenly, gelled into something I dare-say felt almost rhythmic. I will definitely be incorporating more stroke-counting in an effort to make myself glide more and punch water less.

On Wednesday, I felt like crap. The trainer ride (Tuesday night) left me feeling a bit hot in the nose and that's usually the precursor for getting sick. Well, I got sick on Wednesday. I refused to think it would be lasting so I decided to play a game of chicken with my health by dragging my body to the pool. I got about 1500m into a workout consisting of various drills and had to pull the plug. It was ROUGH. I'm glad I gave a GO though. The reasoning, to be honest, was that I'd either force the sickness to hit me quicker than if I had gone home and rested, or I would have conquered the sickness right then. I had a feeling the first option was going to happen and, given that I had a ski trip to Utah lined up for Friday, I wanted to get that crap outta my system ASAP.

As we speak, I have a runny nose and find myself hawking colorful globs of spit onto random parts of the mountains. Not ideal, but definitely manageable. 

3. Cars

What kind of car does a triathlete drive? Elaine and I are about to buy a car (or two?) and are working on the master plan for what would be the best car scenario for us. Leading the list of appealing scenarios is the Volvo V50 because of THIS sweet little deal. NOT BAD. We're also madly interested in the new Ford Fiesta that comes out this summer. If you haven't caught the Top-Gear clip online where they review this car, well you should go and Google it right now.

But anyway, what kind of cars do you all drive and what do you think a great car would be to support the outdoor sports lifestyle without breaking the bank?

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Biking and Running (Gear) Season is Here! [UPDATED!!!]

[Scroll to bottom for update]

I'm quickly learning that the start of cycling season seems to coincide with the start of spend your money on cycling gear... season. This also goes for the other two triathlon-related disciplines: swimming + running. While the first victim of my credit card is not cycling related, it is the lesser of three purchases in either price or awkwardness. Behold, my less awkward and not-so-skin-tight swimsuit!

While great for a swim short, I'll make sure to avoid doing 

any deep knee-bends while wearing these bad boys.

Two years ago I wouldn't be caught dead in this thing. Today, it just seems comfortable and doesn't falsely advertise any potential swimming prowess in the same way that wearing a jammer does. I almost went with the royal blue (sooooo close), but decided on black at the last second for the sake of possible see-throughness or color fade.

The next item on the list was purchased this past Sunday from Hudson Trail Outfitters. Feast your eyes on the 2010 Giro Saros bike helmet!

I sorely wanted to upgrade from the watermelon I wore on my head all last year to something more stylish, less awkward and much lighter. It's bad when at the end of a 3-hour training ride you're not sure what's more tired - your legs or your neck (from holding up that damn helmet). It's supposed to cost a whopping $120, but I price-matched with an online ad to bring things down to $70. NOT BAD.

I know I did this out of order, but here's a snapshot of the old watermelon I wore at the Nation's Triathlon last September.

Not only does the thing look weird, 

but look at the rookie strap-adjustment job I did!

And last but not least, this purchase involves one of the more awkward experiences I can recall. You see, I had been using a specially marked stick of body-glide as my  lubricant for on the bike seat...

Not just great for feet!...

NOBODY TOLD ME ABOUT UDDER BUTTER, DAMNIT! I thought all cyclists just suffered through that AWFUL feeling of "shit, I've been on the bike for a long time and something is burning..." 

Not exactly.

I'm wincing as I recall times when I'd come home from a ride, hop in the shower and then SCREAM out the whiniest, girliest shriek ever heard.

Annnnnd that's the story about the first (::sigh:: but not last) time my d*ck got chaffed. And yes, that's a different story from the time when it, uhhh, fell asleep. Jesus, talk about an awkward "OH MY GOD I CAN'T FEEL ANYTHING" moment where people are wondering why you just jammed a hand down your pants while riding your bike.

Fast forward to today:

Sean is at the bike shop and asks the tall, slender woman at the desk for some help...

Her - "Hi, can I help you with something?"

Me - "Ummmm, how about these? ::points sheepishly at tubs marked "udder butter."

Her - "Oh sure - this is the one that I rub all over mine."

::awkward moment of eye contact::

Me - "UHHHHHHHHH... you, uhh, rub it on wha?.. I mean, aahh, why this one?!?"

Her - "Do you know how to use this stuff?..."  ::said with a mischievous smile::

::AWKWARD MOMENT OF EYE CONTACT::

::BLUSHING STUPIDLY::

Me - "UHHHHHH, i feel like i should buy you dinner first."

She went on to explain to me that, unlike my body glide, you rub this stuff all over your chamois. Shit, I was embarrassed. She even mentioned that the same cream is used to rub down the udders on a cow. HOT, BABY! Talk about an ice-breaker!... a more single man could've easily used that opportunity to get at least a sympathy date out of all of that awkwardness!!

Stay tuned for in-depth product review of the udder butter!... just kidding.

[UPDATE]

How could I forget... with my knee feeling like it has made glowing improvements, I've gone ahead and got fitted for a new running shoe. Note, this is a shoe that does not emulate running on goose-down pillows, much like my Nike Vomeros did. Ryan made a really good point in his blog that while some running shoes may be the picture of comfort, it often leads to bad foot-striking habits which is what I think is one of the reasons I hurt myself.With that in mind, I opted for a shoe that encourages more mid-to-forefoot striking and less use-your-heal-b/c-your-shoe-is-so-padded... striking.

The Brooks Ghost 2

Behold, the new shoe. It's comfortable and does this weird/interesting thing where it almost cups your heal, just ever-so-slightly. So far so good, but I've only owned them for <2 weeks. I'd like to wear them around to start breaking them in so that when I get back from my trip this weekend I can start to experiment with actually running again.

I think I still have about 2 more days to return the shoe so if you've got any whacky objections, let me know.

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First Outdoor Ride of the Year!

Saturday morning's ride is in the books, folks! It was the much anticipated First Outdoor Ride of the Year. I imagine more seasoned cyclists look forward to this joyous day every year, but alas, it is my first winter owning a road-bike so it's all new to me. Or wait, am I wrong b/c more seasoned cyclists don't anticipate this day because they are out year-round? Whatever. 

So with that, we're fast approaching my one-year cycling anniversary. Pretty exciting, huh? It was at the end of March last year that I purchased my very first road-bike (Fuji Roubaix Pro, 2008). It's been quite a ride so far (how painful was that pun?) and I'm looking forward to a great time on the bike this season.

Let's recap the ride, shall we?

Here was the prescribed route.

 

Map.

The loop started us at the fountain in Dupont Circle. The three of us went north until we hooked up with Beach Drive (shut down to cars on weekend daylight hours). From there we hung a left on East-West Hwy. until eventually catching MacArthur Blvd and riding that back into town. All told, we covered about 30 miles (including commuting distances to dupont) - not a bad distance to get us started.

I'm VERY new to group riding, by the way. I trained on my own for the most part last summer. As slowtwitch is my witness, I never drafted off of other riders doing the same training routes. A few times, however, I would see especially, ahem... fit women and try to jam down the pedals in order to keep up with them. They would, of course, drop me and that would be that.

So with my rookie group-riding status on the table, I chose to lay-off with any leading responsibilities and just let the other guys set the pace. The pace was definitely comfortable, but more on the slow side of comfortable as opposed to the healthy-sweat side. The perks were definitely the level of respect you got from cars merely because you were traveling in a group instead of on your own. Very cool!

I started to get a little antsy toward the end of the ride so I'd always "break out" and "attack" all of the hills, but then shut it down and wait for the others to catch up. 

You like my pseudo-cycling lingo?

I also don't own any cold-weather cycling gear, but was able to just mix and match various other athletic gear to protect all parts of my body save for my toes and fingers - which froze.

Good weather. Good people. Good ride.

annnnnnnd before I forget... light swim on Friday: only 2,000m which included various drill-work and nothing for time or speed.

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First Outdoor Ride of the Year

To all of those in the DC area who feel up to it... myself and two friends are going for a group ride tomorrow morning. We're doing the ever-popular Beach Dr. -> East-West Hwy. -> MacArthur Blvd. loop. It's only about 25 miles, but that seems about right to me for my first outdoor ride of the year. The starting point is the fountain in Dupont Circle at precisely 9:30am. Look for me, the guy wearing lots of black and red with THE MOST RIDICULOUS donkey of a beginner bike-helmet ever.

In case you forgot, here's what I look like...

This is a big day for me tomorrow. This will be my first outdoor ride since October 24, 2009. This was also the day that I succumbed to my knee injury while on the bike (resultant of the Detroit Marathon), and I was still 5-6 miles away from home when it happened. But I digress...

Ride tomorrow - 9:30am @ the fountain at Dupont Circle.

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10 Random Things and a Swim

Let us get the boring stuff out of the way, shall we? Wednesday's much anticipated swim ended up being quite bland. Not a disappointment, but disappointing. No records were broken and I just couldn't put together any respectable sets.

300 Repeats - 3000m
500m - warm-up
300m - 5:14 (1:45min/100m avg.) (<0:45 sec rest after each)
300m - 5:12 (1:44min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:11 (1:44min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:09 (1:43min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:12 (1:44min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:11 (1:44min/100m avg.)
300m - 5:23 (1:48min/100m avg.)(slow on purpose, focus on form) 300m - 5:31 (1:50min/100m avg.)(slow on purpose, focus on form)
100m - cool-down

Nasty, huh? The one positive thing I want to take away from this experience is that mentally I was much tougher/more-refreshed than in weeks past. I had a couple of rocky spots where I wanted to say "F*** THIS," but I quickly regrouped, focused and finished out the sets. I'm happy to be getting into the water tomorrow to work on some longer continuous distances and drills (all un-timed).

My post-workout, pre-made dinner of the week looks like this...

That's broccoli, lentil salad and andouille turkey-sausage (94% fat free). 

Oh yeah, and a HUGE glob of ketchup. Mmmm.

Triathlete and blogger Amanda Lindsey, known in many circles as a "F***ING ROCKSTAR," has shared ten cool/funny/weird/unknown things about herself in her latest blog post. Her blog, in addition to her list, is a very fun read so I'm going to do my best to return the favor and come up with ten somewhat-interesting, somewhat-defining things about myself...

[ONE] I have a ridiculous aversion to popsicle sticks and those small wooden spoons they used to give you in grade-school to eat your ice-cream sherbet with. I can't eat popsicles b/c of this, or watch others do so. And my god, I get the shivers just thinking about it...

[TWO] I deflected the thought of ever running a marathon for YEARS by using the excuse "If I train to run a marathon, then I'll turn into a twig... and I don't want to lose all of the muscle mass I've worked SO HARD to achieve/retain!" Sure enough, I eventually pulled my head out of my ass, found a huge spoon and ate my words last October (marathon race-report still in draft form.... i know!).

[THREE] I work as an architect in DC and am about two months away from quitting my job to go travel around Thailand and India for a month. After that, I am moving to New York. Nobody at my work knows yet.

[FOUR] For the last three years (since grad. school), I have been satisfying my passions for cooking and graphic design by designing + writing my own "cookbook." Think of it as the love-child between Alton Brown and the designers of Metropolis Magazine. I'm a huge science-behind-the-cooking nerd.

[FIVE] I can play five instruments: the clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe, piano and guitar. The piano is definitely my favorite (guitar comes in 2nd), even thoughI have been separated from my piano now for almost three years. Despite that, I have been amassing a collection of sheet music for our eventual reuniting, which consists mainly of music from Scott Joplin (ragtime) and Ruben Gonzalez (Cuban Jazz, late pianist for the Buena Vista Social Club).

[SIX] I also cannot stand the taste of coffee. I love coffee flavored ice-cream, beer and candy, but the taste of coffee itself has eluded the favor of my taste-buds. Worse than that, however, is the awful stench of coffee breath. I often wish I liked coffee so that my poor sleeping habits would have a remedy and my workouts a performance-enhancer, but then I recall friends' testimonials of pounding caffeine headaches.

[SEVEN] Speaking of headaches, I haven't had one in over 8 years.

[EIGHT] Four years ago, I went into the doctor for a routine procedure to remove a cyst but ended up having a tumor the size of a golf-ball removed from the right side of my abdomen... while I was awake... and watching. I then pulled out my phone and asked the nurse to take a picture of it before she sewed me up. She did. The tumor was benign.

[NINE] I love baseball. I also love listening to it on the radio. One of my favorite things to do in the summer is to sit outside in the evening by a fire, after a hard workout, with a beer in my hand (in a glass, ALWAYS) and listen to baseball on the radio.

[TEN] I am getting married in September and at that point will most likely take my fiancee's last name (West) over my own (Lemecha, pronounced Luh-Meck-Uh). There is a variety of professional/personal reasons I could offer up for why it'd make sense, but nothing really ground-breaking. I want to say it just makes sense and leave it at that. I've never known anyone or have any friends that know anyone who have taken the wife's last name. For what it's worth, I also have two brothers.


Well, hopefully that was worth the read. I'm not going to specifically tag anyone and subject them to the ENORMOUS pressure of coming up with a list of their own, but it would be cool to get to know some other people by way of a few interesting facts.

Looking forward to: A quality swim on Friday and my first outdoor bike-ride of the year on Saturday.

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Warning: Training Free Zone (aka Weekend Recap)

"Ohhhh...I hear that old piano... from down the Avenue...
I smell the pine trees... I look around for you...
Oh my sweeeeeet, sweet, sweet old someone... coming through the door...
It's Saturday... and the band is playing...
Honey, could we ask for moreeee...

Hello everybody, on a Saturday night and 

welcome to a live broadcast of a Prairie Home Companion!"

 Garrison Keillor from A Prairie Home Companion
aka The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes.

Yes, those are indeed the lyrics for Tishomingo Blues, the opening song from the radio variety-show A Prairie Home Companion on NPR. I was lucky enough to secure (6) tickets to go see PHC in Detroit, MI this past weekend with Elaine and our parents.We bought tickets back in November as a christmas gift but then proceeded to lose the tickets. That proved to be the start of a long drawn-out battle with ticketmaster with us eventually winning (albeit, only 15 minutes before the start of the show... sheesh).

The show took place at the Fox Theater in Detroit, MI

  

  

The Fox Theater is known for having one of the most amazing Wurlitzer organs in America. You can see organist John Lauter just off to the right in the corner there. 

The organ pipes are scattered throughout the theater.

The wholesome set of a PHC. You can almost see the blankets 

over the knees of the performers.

The concert was on Saturday night. It was pretty good, but nothing like the one I saw last summer at Wolf Trap here in DC. I would like to share my favorite line from the show, delivered, of course, by Garrison Keillor:

"God invented March so that people who don't drink know what a hangover feels like."

Friday wasn't quite as exciting. I ended up flying in early in the afternoon and proceeded to help Elaine write part of her dissertation. While those 5-6 hours weren't an ideal way to spend the early part of your Friday evening, I at least had myself a decent office.

 My workspace in one of the conference rooms at the University of Michigan 

School of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences.

My job consisted of editing, labeling and organizing hundreds of scanned images showing grain boundary failures of austenitic alloys from under an electron microscope. Nice, huh? The pictures look pretty cool though...

Pretty cool, huh?

This past weekend Elaine and I also annihilated our wedding registry, among other wedding-related tasks. Gone are the days when a couple registers at one or two places - we are registered at a WHOPPING 6... and maybe more. Thanks to the internet, and sites like theknot.com, picky bastards like us can choose exactly what we want from a plethora of sources. I've given it an honest effort, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to finagle nashbar.com or bestbuy.com into our registry plans. I did succeed with Home Depot though (yes!).

Friday night concluded with a trip our favorite Ann Arbor bar - Ashley's - where great beer was consumed by all.

Garrison Keillor and I last Fall at the Detroit Metro Airport. 

He was sitting there in the terminal devouring a strawberry 

Nutri-grain bar and reading Maxim. NICE.

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