First true Olympic race in a while!  My last was the Nations Tri in DC, but the swim was cancelled, so that race became a Bike, Run—a theme for me and qualifying races, ha.

This past weekend, the XP Multisport Team and I went up to Madison, Florida (basically freaking Georgia) to do this race on Saturday.  It was about 3-4 hour drive, but the venue was nice and the town was countryyy—but those make for the best places to race—no cars!

Transition

The race began at 7:30 and the water was wetsuit legal—barely—by .01 degrees.  I opted to wear the wetsuit, and at 7:33, the age group men dove into the water.  This was my first opportunity to try and work on the swim work I’ve been in—anything better than previous races would be an improvement!  The swim was a simple enough “rectangle” and the water was perfect.  I also had a pair of new goggles that were amazing compared to my old ones!  They didn’t fog up at all and remained clear the entire race!  The swim went ok and I exited the water in a little over 32 minutes.  Not good, but improving.  I definitely pushed it more on this swim than I have in the past!

After a quick change it was on to the bike.  I was expecting a flatter course, but it was actually surprisingly hilly with some rollers, but nothing major by any means.  I really focused on pushing hard, knowing it was only a 40k and to work through the burn in my quads.  I realize this wasn’t my full potential though and will push even more next time.  It’s a race damnit!  Thinking back, though, I don’t recall being passed at any point..  Well one chick passed me after I passed her, but then I caught here and she never got close again.

My final time on the bike was a 1:09:00—which is possibly a PR for me, although I want to break 1:08 (and then 1:05, and then 1:00 haha).  That came out to an average of 21.5 miles per hour which I think is fairly solid.

The race director quoted the run, before the race, as being “fast and flat”.  He was a liar.  It was hilly.

I started the run in 11^th and knew I had a little work to do as I didn’t catch the fastest riders on the bike, and certainly had ground to gain on the swim.  My coach had me racing this run portion very specifically—“run till it hurts. Then run harder.  And then run even harder.”  I also wasn’t allowed to look at my Garmin to know my pace at all.  I put it on the HR screen, which wasn’t working, and never thought about it again.  And then ran hard.

“Chuck, run hard.” “Yes sir.”

I caught all the people in front of me that I could see pretty quickly, and moved up to 6^th by mile 4.  Unfortunately, the 6 ahead of me had a far enough lead that I couldn’t catch them, but only 2 of them ran faster than I did.  I definitely made this run hurt and finished the 10k in 39:09, resulting in a 6:18 min/mile pace.  I’m happy with this being that it was such a hilly course and I still broke 40 minutes easily.

My final finish time was 2:24:43.5.  6th OA, 1st Male 25-29

After the race we hung out for a while before getting our awards and heading back.  The XP Multisport racers took 2^nd overall male, and 3^rd overall woman which was awesome!  I was the only Wattie Ink Athlete at this race, as well, and took 6^th overall in first in my age group.  Props to all the Watties from north Florida who were in Texas for the Ironman!  DRC Sports put on a fun event and after awards there was a push up contest… which I was obligated to participate in, of course.  I got second here, but my push ups were damnnnnn good, but I can’t say what the winner’s looked like.

“4001, 4002…”

After the long drive back, it was good to have that feeling of being spent!  I was surprised on Sunday not being more sore in my legs as I was anticipating, however, my arms and back were feeling that swim!  I think that says good things about my form!  I’ve also been using Xteme Endurance supplements and have noticed a reduction in soreness from that.  I think using a drink during the bike that had protein and carbs, made by UR, prevented some of that muscle breakdown as well.

Overall I’m proud of the effort I gave in this race and can’t wait to go again!  Next Saturday I am doing a sprint, another race put on by DRC, called Crystal River and am stoked to absolutely obliterate the pain haha!  Then the week after that is Duathlon Nationals in Maryland!  Then another big training block will commence!

Rock the W

Rock the W and have an awesome week.

1. Any races coming up?
2. What’s your favorite type of course? Urban, trails, hilly, flat, beach?

That’s when it hit me—I workout hard and I know what it’s like to hurt… but I know how to hurt jusssst enough. I’ve said it before—you’ve got be comfortable with being uncomfortable.  If I want to get better, I’ve got to realize that there are going to be some workouts where I collapse at the end of my run or hang onto the side of pool gasping and panting thinking it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever breathed in Oxygen.

And the same goes for racing—at the end of that half Ironman, I need to be able to kick into black-out mode for that last 5k of the run—and not have been holding back for that leading up to it.  I always try to currently, but when I try to go fast, it’s maybe 1 or 2 seconds faster per mile.  Insignificant.

So what’s the point here?  If you want to get faster, you’ve got to embrace the hurt (and also the recovery!)  I’ve been adhering to my coaches plan and we have been swimming as a group a couple times a week

Swim squad! Me on the far right

It’s amazing what having your coach watching you and having competition will do to your effort levels.  I’ve set PRs each practice… and also almost drown.  Using paddles while having my ankles bound together with an old bike tube?  Not fun.  I enjoy breathing, actually.  Or 50m kickboard races against someone who is faster than you and seeing black as you try to catch them.

I love it.

Rest and repeat.  If you want to get better, hurt a lot, occasionally, go easy a bit, recover correctly, and know exactly what you are looking to achieve!

I’ve got a race next weekend so I’m stoked to see how it’s going to go!

1. Do you agree with me?
2. What do you want to get better in?

Well due to the heat of the Boston Marathon, maybe it’s a good think I couldn’t run it this year… although I still would have liked to!  But being smart and respecting that my knee is injured, not running was a good decision.  That being said, I went to the orthopedist last week and he looked at it and took X-Rays. Basically, what he said was that its more of a chronic thing from a physiological standpoint—that my hips rotate inward slightly putting more pressure on my knee joint.  Therefore, in his example, I could go run like 3 marathons and be fine, and then decided to do an easy 10k and have had this happen.  There’s no real predictor for it.

Got my MRI results back this morning and here is what the doctor told me: I have a slightly torn Meniscus and light arthritis in my left knee.  That gave me 2 options, surgery or cortisone shot and Physical Therapy.  The surgery was just a bad idea altogether because it would just be removing the Meniscus and making the arthritis more susceptible to worsening.

The Cortisone shot will take the pain and inflammation away and get me back to training,  Overall what this means is that someday my running had a stop sign.  Whether that’s 10 years or 50 years, we can’t say, but by doing the PT and the cortisone shot, I can preserve it as long as possible.

So that being said, I can pretty much go back to training tomorrow,  taking it easy the first day, but then pretty much good to go.  So I guess its not good news, but since there’s nothing I can really do about it, it’s not that big of a deal! And I figure hell, in 20 years we’ll have the technology to fix this anyway so I’ll be good for life!
So he gave me orthotic inserts for my shoes and I am using those when I run.  Also got all my new gear in from K-Swiss and the Wattie Ink Team and I’ve heard these Kwicky Blade Lights run really well.  Also, with the knee, I don’t think I am going to do Florida 70.3  This would be a half Ironman on May 20^th, but instead I think I am going to do an Olympic Triathlon in North Florida.  Honestly, it’s not really any easier, as my instructions from my coach are “to cross the finish line and fall over and die”.  Like, we’re talking ball out.  I also don’t know that I would be in quite the shape I want to be in for an Ironman race, plus they are expensive.

This was the first week I was finally able to pick training back up a bit.  I got to run some this weekend and it felt good, although I kept the pace moderate and didn’t do any kind of intervals, etc.  Also spent a fair amount of time on the bike…well, on the bike in my apartment—thank God the Capitals and NHL Playoffs are on!  Even though the Caps lost their first game!! (My playoff beard is coming along nicely as well, although I did get to trim since the Caps won their first series—and so I wouldn’t get fired lol).  However, they won Monday and are in OT right now but I can’t bare to watch

I really focused on my recovery this weekend as these sessions were a little more taxing and I bring back in quality work efforts.  I made awesome recovery shakes which I drank even though I knew dinner would be soon after.  The first was a mix of a chocolate CorePower drink, chocolate protein powder, and some MCT oil (medium-chain triglycerides—I’ll talk more about this in an upcoming post).  The second was whole coconut milk with protein and a banana.  There’s nothing better than flopping on the floor with an ice cold shake and just zoning out for a bit after a workout!

I also decided to try out a couple new “recipes” this weekend.  Well, that’s a lie, but I grilled a couple new things.  The first was some delicious grass-fed filet mignon steak!  I seared them in a skillet then finished them in the oven.

The second was some grilled chicken breast wrapped in bacon!  I finally went down to the pool and cranked up the grill—it was awesome!

Yup, I had bacon

Lastly, I roasted half a Kabocha squash in the oven covered in a mix of coconut butter and coconut oil–awesome!  Plenty of cinnamon of course too.

Pre-coconut

Great flavor

That’s all for now–I have a lot more updates, but those will come later this week!

1. Have you ever had a Cortisone shot?
2. Best new recipe or idea you want to share?

Two weeks ago I had my half Ironman. Felt good after the race, recovered well, and didn’t do any running until Friday, focusing fully on biking and swimming. Oddly, though, I woke up Friday with some weird pain in my knee. Strange I thought, but after a good trainer ride that evening, I had a great run off the bike. The next day, I had a long ride scheduled, so a friend and I headed out on the Suncoast Trail for 51 miles. The course was straight out and straight back basically. We had a moderate tailwind on the way out, but as we turned around, we could see a storm rolling in. The winds picked up and it was a hard ride into a headwind the whole way back! We got 50 miles rain free… and 1 were we got drenched. So much for my brick run outside. I got home and did the run on the treadmill instead and everything was good. Although, I could still notice my knee.

New Fresh Wattie Ink speedo suit!

Sunday came, I got up to do my long run, and realized it was already 10AM, so being that it’s pretty hot in Tampa, I put it off till the afternoon and set out that afternoon for the run instead. Guess what—it’s even freaking hotter at 4:00 than at 10:00. The heat didn’t bug me too much, but I knew the run would be hard from the get go. I was physically tired from the previous 2 days and felt that as I headed out. As I got onto Bayshore, a straight road than runs along the water, I found myself plowing into a headwind in the blazing sun. Every bit of me was just like, “dude, turn around and head back now”, but I was getting my 18 miles damnit. I finally hit the turnaround, but my pace was all over the place for the run. Haha, when my coach saw the pace chart he was just like wtf did you do??

Recovery shake- coconut milk, goat milk, banana, avocado protein powder! Sooo good

I made it back though and felt great about myself—longest run I’ve done since November. But back to my knee—when I woke up on Monday, it wasn’t feeling too hot and pretty swollen. 2 weeks before the Boston Marathon. Wonderful. 30+ miles in 3 days didn’t help probably.

So since Sunday, I haven’t run at all. Just bike, swimming, and water running. I got a new bike trainer which is awesome so it’s making riding a lot more bearable, but this knee needs to heal… and quick! I don’t want to go run Boston and F myself up for the rest of the year… or more. It’s Monday… ask me again on Friday! I’ve been trying to get my rest, icing, nutrition, and supplementation spot on and I’m sure it’s helping. But it’s one of those, “Really? Now?” kind of moments. I just damn sure want to run this!

But the more I’ve talked about with a lot of people—coach, family, friends, I don’t think it’s the best option for me right now. I’d rather be a damn good (and healthy) triathlete than a decent (and possible injured) marathoner. Plus, I can be a good marathoner by being a great triathlete. So who wants to run a marathon with me after triathlon season? I’m thinking about the Richmond marathon in November (where I BQ’d in 2010) and planning to smash my time there!

I hope everyone had a good Easter—mine was spent on my trainer lol, but I did go see the Hunger Games, made some BBQ Turkey in my slow cooker, and had a Cadbury Crème Egg!

So. Good.

Solid enough right? Plus, the day before was the Final game of the NCAA Frozen Four here in Tampa—the championship for men’s college hockey. I was able to snag a lower level ticket which was awesome, for a great deal! The key is just to show up a little after the game starts when the scalpers won’t be able to sell the tickets anyway!
So please, say a prayer for me and hope that these winds change and blow in my direction for being able to run healthy for a long long time.

Boston College vs. Ferris State

1. What would you do? Would you run the race? Or are you already?
2. Favorite Easter Candy or tradition?
3. Chocolate bunnies: ears first or no?

Fearless Nutrition Episode 3: Interview with pro Triathlete James Cotter:

James Cotter

Remember, if you have any training or nutrition questions you’d like us to address on the show, or guests you would like to see, let us know in the comments or by email at Fearlessnutrition@gmail.com!

Not my greatest race, but certainly a solid result and a confidence booster heading into this season!  This Sunday I raced the HITS Half Ironman in Ocala, about 2 hours from my house in Tampa.  While the race wasn’t huge, it still had a solid turnout and was very well run.  They actually had every distance possible—sprint and Olympic Saturday and a half and full Ironman on Sunday.

Leading up to the race, I was a little bit anxious—I’ve been training well, but no huge bike-run bricks to this point.  This was a great way to open the season, see how my body reacted, test my fitness and skills, and race my first triathlon as a member of the Wattie Ink Elite Team and an XPMultisport coached Athlete.

Rock the Wattie Ink W

The week prior to the race, volume was still the same until 3-days before, where I began the “Felipe no-taper taper” which isn’t really that “taper-ific” ha.  Saturday I did the AM workout, then ate, and headed up to Ocala where I got my packet, checked out the scene then headed to the hotel when I kicked it and tried to relax.  The damn people in the room next door were so loud—I have no idea what they were doing, but it was alternating between loud TV and loud music… or yelling at the kids.  Luckily, they went to bed early I guess.  It also rained pretty hard Saturday night, thus I was very glad I opted not to rack my bike the day before.

Sunday morning came fast and early.  I packed up everything and headed out the site which was about 30 minutes away and ate in the car.  I’ve been trying new pre-race meals, since a bagel is now out as carb source being that it’s not paleo by any means.  What I’ve been doing and really liking is white rice mixed with full fat coconut milk and some protein powder.  I guess that’s basically rice pudding, but seems to sit well in my stomach thus far.  Once at the race, I racked my bike and met up with 3 other Wattie Ink Athletes who were racing as well.  These guys are beasts—I think they finished overall 1^st, 4^th, and 7^th.  Not to mention Felipe, my coach, was racing too.  Honestly a pretty stacked field!

The swim venue

The water was wetsuit legal and gorgeous.  It was a straight out and back swim.  I’m pretty sure looking through the finishing times that it was longer than 1900m (1.2 miles).  It’s all relative though, and to not go into too much detail, let’s just say my swim sucked.  Lots of work to still do here.  When I finally exited the water, I grabbed all my stuff and headed out on the bike.

Out of T1... with a lot of ground to make up

The bike  was a big loop, mostly, so it was different the entire time.  If you remember, this is where I got lost about a month ago, so it was nice to see where I should have been riding lol.  I passed a fair number of people and finished the bike in 2:43:00, which came out to a little better than 20.5 miles per hour.  The course was mildly hilly and had some wind here and there so I was pretty happy with that split.  I also focused on eating more that I previously had in my races and focused more on the timing of the nutrition. Or one split I used some Chomps, which I like to break up the monotony of gels, but this cost me a little time trying to open those little packs and squeeze each one out.  The little Larabar that I had was crucial though—definitely a good call.  I also had UR in the water bottles which was a good calorie source and has some protein in it as well, which is really important as you get into longer distance races.

Felipe, not me, coming in on the bike

I rode back into transition, threw on my shoes and headed out of the run.  Felipe had given me very specific instructions- first 6 miles at 7:00 min/mile pace and then I was allowed to race.  I pretty much nailed this, but it felt so weird!  It was so hard to hold back in the beginning.  The first 3.1 miles were on trails, in the woods, basically running on sand which was not easy and not fast.  The rest of the run was on hot roads in the Florida sun and was basically rolling hills the entire time with heavy winds.

At mile 6 I was able to let go and began to average around 6:40s for the rest.  The fatigue of the sand and heat had me hurting but I kept repeating my mantras to myself and basically said “don’t be a bitch, run harder”.  I was able to pass a lot of people on the run…which is no surprise considering where I came out of the water haha.  I cranked out the last .8 miles at around 5:40 pace and flew across the finish line- pain looked as always.  Surprisingly, I finished a lot better than I was expecting relatively.  I didn’t realize how many people I had passed.  My final run time was a 1:28:00 flat—not bad for being forced to run 7:00’s for the first 6 miles.  Only about 1:20 slower than my half marathon 3 weeks ago.  Solid, solid.

Finish line hurt

I ended up finishing 16^th overall and first in my age group.  But my stress wasn’t over.  Not only was I to eat more during this race, Felipe made it very clear that when I crossed the finish line, I would have a Coke.  No questions asked.  Intuitively, this makes sense.  Your body is so F-ing trashed after an intense race like this, that those incredibly concentrated sugar sources are actually a GOOD thing to have.  Tell that to someone who hasn’t had a real soda in like 3 years.  Luckily, he gave me a couple days heads up to prepare mentally, and ya know what?  We sat in chairs at the finish line, smashed, and enjoyed a cold, glass bottle, of Coke (well, it was like Feipe’s 8^th.)  It was good—although I feel good in saying it didn’t make me at all want to sit and drink an entire 2-liter.  One was fine and then I moved on to real food.

Age division winner

Overall it was a good race.  I finished in 5:04:00 overall—I wanted to go sub 5 , but with that swim, that was going to be impossible.  Plus this race was a “feeler-outer” to see where I stood to start the season.  Congrats to the Wattie guys and Felipe who all freaking beasted this race.  I’m pretty happy with 16^th and can’t wait for Ironman 70.3 Florida in a couple months!

But I need to get through the Boston Marathon next month first…

ALSO- The newest Episode of Fearless Nutrition Radio is out!  Listen to it here on Itunes.  This week we had a listener Q&A and an interview with pro triathlete James Cotter!  Please check it out and let us know what you think and leave your questions for the show! http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fearless-nutrition-episode-3/id497895841?i=112194060

Thanks for reading guys!  Let me know if you have any questions about the race!

1. What’s your next race?
2. Ever enjoyed a coke after a race? Or what is your immediate psot-race go-to choice?

So beginning last week, I have been seriously trying to be better about my eating plan the my nutritionist has helped me design.  Yes, Chuck, embracing eating a little more and seeing what my performance does.  Now, granted, I’ve only been doing this for about a week, and my sleep hasn’t been on point, but I have felt good, especially amid a big training week.  I have been focusing on workout recovery, even when it comes to the times when I know dinner will be coming soon after the workout, I am still eating.  And it’s good, because it always turns out the dinner never actually occurs soon after the workout, ha!  Why does it take me so long to prepare it every night?  Damn squash fries…

The  biggest changes are just working on being more consistent, even on lower volume days, knowing that I’ve created a deficit during the big days.  I’ve been reading a lot from some of the top pro athletes who have experimented with optimizing recovery and eating more, better, quality foods.  We’re not talking Snickers bars that I’m shoving down, but sweet potatoes, coconut milk and oil, grass-fed meat, chicken, etc…. even all natural, organic bacon! (Yes, me!)

As Robb Wolf says, “try it for 30 days” and if I don’t like it better, I can go back to the way I was before… but we all know that wasn’t getting me anywhere.  I’m RACING this weekend!!

Will be the Rockin The W in my new kit and helmet

And I’m determined to focus on eating appropriate calories during this race so that I perform optimally.  I usually just try and eat “just enough to get me through” so that I can “save up” calories for my post-race dinner.  This is moronic.  If I want to be great, I need to fuel that, plus that deficit is going to be so big all of it will be used (including that dinner) to fuel me and help me recover.

Speaking of previous race, I’m realizing that I’m good, but I’m not great.  I’m stuck maintain habits that have kept me “good” as well.  I have a world champion coach with 16 years of experience who is asking me to change a few things.  If I want to be great, wouldn’t listening make sense? Clearly, my way is adequate, but not ideal.  So embracing this, I am ready to move forward.

Look at the new toy Felipe got me... thanks. Yay.

We had a great training day at Fort DeSoto this weekend and it was a lot of fun to just hang out and enjoy the beach afterward.  Can’t complain about having this in my backyard:

North Beach at Fort DeSoto

And speaking of good food—here were some delicious, however, not very appetizing (and I’ll admit to that) meals from the past weeks!

Coconut milk cheddar cheese sauce

Meatloaf topped with the cheese sauce! Like I said, not really appetizing from my iPhone camera, but so delicious

So I can’t wait for the half ironman Sunday!  Wish me luck!

1. Have you made any big changes in your life lately?
2. What’s your n=1 for 30 days?
3. Anyone racing this week??

Get it

Race time!

“…I’ll bail if you bail?”  We both gave a fake laugh, and both knew it. There was a shared feeling of “F that, it’s time to throw down.”

We were waiting at the start line of Gasparilla Half Marathon in the dark with a light mist and wild winds.  It was 5:50AM and had been mid 80s the day before, but about 45 minutes before the race started, a mini monsoon rolled through Tampa and let down a 10 minute torrential downpour bringing 60 degree temperatures and gusty winds.

I needed this race.  I needed to know where I stood in terms of my training, my readiness for my half ironman in 3 weeks and for the Boston Marathon in about 6 weeks. I needed to mentally know that I could still overcome feelings of not wanting to run and vicious cycle of sleeping all weekend.

The gun sounded and we were off.  It was very windy. The first 3 miles were good, running with a neutral wind onto Davis Island, my usual short bike ride route, but the back side of the Island was right into the wind until about mile 5.  From there, it was a straight, probably 4.5 miles, directly down Bayshore.  Then turnaround and straight shot to the finish. There was a lot more into the wind on the backside though, which I was not expecting.

I pushed this race pretty hard and could always tell when I hit wind when I looked at my watch and realized I was about 10 seconds off my goal pace.  I had been running with a guy for about 6 miles, but as we hit the backside, he started to drop off and I to commit to maintaining pace on my own.  When it came down to the final mile, I was kicking as hard as I could. Always fun when you realize you have farther to go than you think… which is probably good because it forced me to hold that pace for longer.  I didn’t gel during this race- didn’t need to- but nor did I have any water or Gatorade at any aid station… I was too focused on trying to break the goal time we had set for me.
This was my first race a Wattie Ink Athlete and was rocking my W tats- but they ended up being covered by the sleeves I ended up wearing lol. I got pictures afterward though.

Rock the Wattie Ink W

I would say the “Coach Felipe no-taper taper” worked pretty well.  I was pretty stiff on Saturday but I loosened up by Sunday morning.  Felipe has had me swimming a lot as I mentioned before and I’ve had to put my faith in him, and rightfully so, that his plan would still have me fit to run. It did.

The winners time was about 1:12:00 I think, so I ended up 48th overall of 4,747 and 9th of 282 in my age group. I did a 1:26:57 and was 13.19 miles by my Garmin.

Medal, Award, and Rock the W tat!

This was not a PR, about 20 seconds slower, but I was very happy with the result and more faith than ever in my coach and myself.  Overall it was a great race and it was fun to see a lot of people I know or seen on blogs, out there running.

So thanks for reading and thanks for inspiring me!

Remember to send any podcast questions soon as we are recording this week!

1. Do you have a race coming up?
2. What’s your go to pre-race meal?
3. Favorite post race meal?

Rock The W

God Bless

www.NEDA.org

———————

And it’s Race Week!  Gaspirilla Half Marathon on Sunday!

Felipe was in the car in front of me and I called him to discuss this and he really let me have it- brutal honesty in the most beneficial way it can come.  And it plays to so many factors in my life.  He basically said “I’m trying to help you, but you keep finding ways out of it and being sketch.” This was true.  He brought up the example of doing flipturns in the pool.  Right now, I don’t (didn’t) do them because while I can do it, I’m not great at it and don’t like it and stick with my comfortable “quick-touch and go” method.  But, he has told me many times to do exclusively flipturns.  If I don’t start, how will I ever learn to do them or really break my fear of them?  I never will.

Then he said something that sort of blew my mind—“it’s better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing wrong.”

How true!  This is so relevant to anything in my life—unless you buy in and bite off that piece of success, how do you expect to get better?  Instead of knowing there is a problem and then looking for excuses of how to get out of it, why not proactively face them and discuss them with someone who can help?  Instead of hiding my fear of flipturns, Felipe told me tell him!  Say, “Felipe, I’m not good at flipturns and they scare me—how can we work together to overcome this problem?”

Face your problems head on—don’t run from them—get comfortable with being uncomfortable.  That’s how you get better, in love, life, sport, or anything—it plays true everywhere.

And well, speaking of Ocala and our ride there… let’s say it was quite and adventure ; ) …

Ocala is the HITS half Ironman course that we will be racing in March.  The goal was to ride the course and do a time trial on the back end.  I ended up going ahead of the friends I was with and just thought, duh, I’ll right turns at every dead end and then make all the left turns coming home.  Problem with this logic is that you have to remember where those left turns are, since they aren’t dead ends on the way back!  So after 23 miles, knowing I had to be back for the hockey game, I turned around and began heading back to the car.  It’s funny how one wrong turn can ruin a ride…

Another 25 miles later and I was totally lost.  Turns out I had looped back and was almost back (unknowingly) to the place where I had turned around.  Since no one wanted to stop and help me on the road, I wound up at a gun range with a bunch of “country folk”… after some bargaining and figuring out where the F my car was (about 18 miles in the other direction) I finally convinced a “feller” there to drive me back for $15.

When I got back to the car I found Jess and Felipe waiting, very worried, and also learned that the police helicopter that had been circling the park was actually looking for me…  Ha, we then called the sheriff and let him know to call off the search and then he came and made sure I was in fact alright.  Well, my adventure wasn’t yet over as I had to go back to the gun range and get my bike. Then just head south and drive straight back to Tampa right? Wrong- try being on the long split of the highway and heading halfway to Orlando… LONGEST DAY EVER!

When I wasn’t being lost the ride felt great—I felt strong and fast and even though I haven’t been riding a ton, this was really promising!  My speed was good and my heart rate seemed like it was a solid spot. Just got to up the mileage a little bit now.

So take those lessons this week—it’s better to do the right thing wrong, than to do the wrong thing wrong. And then, what Felipe thought may possibly be my last words to him—“real men eat the banana peel.”

So do flipturns and eat the peel.  Words to live by.

1. How was your weekend?
2. Send any sports/training/nutrition questions you have–we are recording the next podcast this weekend with hopefully a pro triathlete!
3. Anything fun going on this week?