Music City Triathlon ----- Again?

So this past week ended up yielding some good training.  The intensity seems to be picking up, TT efforts are getting longer, track work is getting longer, the weeks are in the low 20 hr window, and I LOVE IT.  So long as I can get recovered, I’d much rather train at an intense level than pure aerobic.  It really just keeps things interesting as I try to think about every aspect to get the most speed with the least effort:  Nutrition, hydration, form, breathing, cadence, everything is being constantly checked over and over and over and over and then again during training sessions to drill in what works best.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thinking “B2B” in my training.  In my mind, I’m doing all of these workouts on the race course and visualizing the entire atmosphere.  This leads me to my next thought…

Music City Triathlon

Well I guess you saw the results?  37:21 swim, 1:04:41 bike (~23mph), 43:52 run (~7:05 pace).   Did a 2:29:48 that got me 47/393 OA and 12/39 AG.  Not my best race.  I say I’ve never raced an Olympic before but that’s not entirely true.  I went to age group nationals in 2009 when I won my AG in a tiny little tri that barely even had a swim (my biggest weakness).  I had no idea what I was getting myself into and just suffered for well over 3 hrs… so, this really was my first Olympic distance to race.    

Keep on reading for Music City details….   

Last week in training - RECOVERY?

Last week makes the first recovery week that my coach has given me since we started up 5 weeks ago.  4 weeks on a 1 week “active rest”.  It’s a good thing I now have a coach because apparently, I didn’t understand what “active rest” meant.  Turns out, active rest is still a little rigorous (as in nearly 15 hrs of training).  Actually, it wasn’t that bad given the buildup we’d had over the 4 weeks leading up.  I could get used to the easier paces… hope I’m not getting soft!

It's a GIRL

No, I did we have a baby.  My sister, Catie, had her baby girl yesterday.  Paris Capri was born on Monday, 7/11/11, and weighed 7lb and 5oz.  My mom likes the photo below because she says “it’s Jonathan in training.”  While I do train a lot, I don’t think I'm ready for this endurance event.  I’ll stick to something easier for the time being.  Congratulations Catie and Jeremy.  Love you guys and proud to be your brother and brother-in-law.  I didn’t include any pics of my sister with her new baby because although she looked like she hadn’t just given birth, she might still not like it. 

Week of 6/27

Nothing too interesting from this past week of training.  It marks the 4^th week of training with a coach and now I only have 17 weeks (or about 119 days) from this past Saturday to get myself into shape for the race.  I spent the majority of my training in KY where it is a bit more flat but the humidity was like training underwater the entire time.  I really enjoy riding back home.  I get to see family and spend time out on the roads I grew up around.  Plus, there’s nothing like doing hard workouts around power plants emitting pollution in the air (seriously, they find it more economical to pay the fines than to install the appropriate equipment/scrubbers to reduce pollution).  The sulfuric air is sure to make my lungs stronger.  I also enjoy the compliments I receive, names I get called, and the horn honking I receive on KY roads.  I guess they’re not as used to a 30 yr old man with shaved legs who is wearing spandex as he rides his bike in what looks like a laying down/humping position as Nashville folks are huh?  LOL.   Anyway, I had a lot of fun being around family for the 5 days we spent there. 

Last Week's Training Update

Since it’s already Wednesday, I’m a little late updating on last week’s training.  Other than racing my first triathlon of the year, there really wasn’t anything spectacular going on.  My coach was making me train right thru the Old Hickory Lake Triathlon (race report posted somewhere below), so I was focused HARD on recovery after everything.  Even though I always focus on recovery, I was extra taking naps, taking ice/hot baths, massage, rolling, drinking/eating perfectly, etc. all to make myself as fresh as possible for Saturday’s race.  I’m hoping that some of that extra recovery attention trickles over into future weeks, too.

The Vanderbilt View

This is an article that was published in a Vanderbilt magazine called the Vanderbilt View.  I got a cover story (well, back cover).  Anyway, they wanted to write something about training for an Ironman and working at Vanderbilt.  The whole concept is to highlight things that people around campus do outside of work.  It is a monthly article called "The last word" since it's the last word of the publication (i.e. back cover).  I'd forgotten about it but stumbled upon it today so I thought I'd post it here. 

http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltview/articles/2010/10/01/jonathan-minton-has-the-last-word.124381