Those pro pics are pretty impressive.  I wonder who will show up this year.  I figure we always have a shot at Desiree Ficker because she's a hometown girl.  I hear great stories of how you can just walk up to the pros and start talking to them, but when they are there, you think to yourself, "what in the world am I going to say to Chris McCormack?"

I last did Columbia in 2006 and I haven't done Eagleman before.  I do have a video from Ironman Arizona though.  I am only in the last few seconds.  I am the guy coming across the finish line in the blue shirt, doing the awesome arm slam on the finish banner.

Ironman Arizona Finish Video

Sorry I didn't reply sooner.  I have a lot to be doing at work, but I did make time for the videos.  The Columbia one was AWESOME!  I love it.  So inspiring.   I know Eagleman was rough last year with the heat and you can see it in the death marches on the video.  Still exciting to watch though. 

I was really psyched to do my first outdoor ride of the season last night.  Some details are in my log, but there were some killer hills (see elevation chart below).  It was so fun though.  I can't wait for Columbia!

Columbia 2009 will be my first race (tri) ever, so no photos of me!!  :-)  Thanks for the links, Dave.  They really did up my excitement about 300%, and it was high already!

WOW.  I was wondering which one of us would be the first one outside on the bike.  Today is almost good enough for me, but it's a bit windy.  Maybe I should've taken off work.

Way to go!!

You don't want your 1st tri pics?  I wonder what mine look like.  I bet I have them somewhere.  The 1st of any meaningful race is always memorable.  I have frames for my 1st marathon, first IM and the last IM.  I must've had bad pictures for my 1st tri because I know I would've wanted them.

No, you just misunderstood what I meant.  I meant that there were no photos of me in the video because I've never done a tri.  I do have photos from a couple of my races, but they are expensive, so I stopped buying them after a race or two.  I got one from my first half marathon and my first full marathon.  For both my first marathon and J's, we made each of us a shadow box with the race bib, medal, 2 photos, and a race patch.  They don't look quite as awesome as the ones they try to sell you for like $250, but they look pretty darn good if I do say so myself! :-)  If they are remotely decent, I will probably want a photo from Eagleman.  Not sure about Columbia, which will be my first. 

Ah, yes shadow boxes work really well.  Awesome.

Did everyone get out for their big weekend workouts before the snow came?  I'm struggling to get my "bike rides" in with this cold.  I can only hang on the stationary bike for so long.

I paced a friend at the B&A Half Marathon over the weekend, coming in a couple of minutes under the goal, with a 1:57:48.  Go Jenn! :-)  Hard to get out of bed when you see snow on the ground but it's amazing how different things are once you get out there.  I'm glad I got out the door!

Great job on the pacing success!  I was able to get my run in outside yesterday, and did as close to an "all out" as I could muster with tired legs at the end of the week, on rolling hills.  My overall pace was a 9:55, but my 10k pace was a little slower at 10:00 even (gotta love the push at the end to bring down the average).   Using the online predictions, my 1/2 Marathon goal should be around a 2:20.  However, on flat ground with a little bit of rest, that won't stop me from going for a sub-2:13.  :-) 

Wow you really did speed up on that last lap!  Good job on your run.

Reading about your bike ride in your log, with dogs and speedy downhills, made my heart race a little bit. :-)  Oh I hate the dogs chasing the bike.  How close did he get to your feet?  I always wondered what would happen if they caught me.

Just checked the forums.. wow there are a lot of dog versus bike threads on here.

I'm feeling much better, thanks. But I've lost two weeks of training, so I won't be racing Black Bear in May. I AM still training for the Half Marathon (5/3), so that's why my log only shows running.

In fact, it looks like HIM is not going to happen this season. Instead, I have found a number of Olympic Tri's in the area that look good. And since they're later in the season (June-September), I can avoid getting a wetsuit. Also, the shorter biking distances can be accomplished with my beater-bike.

So, until May I'll concentrate on running with an occasional swim or bike workout. After the half marathon I'll focus more on swim/bike while maintaining my running. Maybe do some speedwork for a change.

Ok, we've got 8 weekends of training left before your race.  That's still decent time.  How did your 5.85 miler feel last weekend?    How are the aches and pains?  You're going to have to pay attention to injuries, with the setbacks that have occurred.  You might even want to consider a Galloway type method to avoid injuries.  The idea is to be able to go longer and avoid injuries by taking walking breaks.  Some people have claimed that you can actually go faster by taking walking breaks but I don't believe that for a second unless you have a long history of crashing hard in your races. 

The Galloway Method

I've done the walking break idea and it does make a big difference.  I haven't been nearly as structured as Galloway's method though.  I think a 8:2 ratio is fairly decent.  8 minutes of running, 2 walking, 8 minutes running, 2 walking, etc.  The idea is to get your body to recover, early on, and hold off the eventual crash and burn.  I have done it on some long runs that I didn't feel I was ready for.  I have also done it in marathons, though as a last resort late in the race.  I have done it in IM marathons in both of my IMs now, because I had to (the body just told me NO).  In many cases, if the aid stations are frequent (HIM and IM race frequently have aid stations every mile), I will run to the aid station and take my walk break there.  It's such a motivator, to be able to tell yourself that all you need to do is make it to the next aid station.  There is no "26 miles of horror up ahead."  It's a 1 mile run.

Bummer, were you dehydrated?  Cramps are a sign of dehydration.  Sounds like you are fine with the 2 days of 11.

Your long run this week is on Friday?  I haven't figured out where I am doing my long run for this week.  I'd like to get 14-15 somewhere.  It may get up to 60 degrees though, so that might be an opportunity to jump on the bike and head out to the NCR Trail in the melting snow.

Ah, ok I can see that happening.

My long runs are a bit scattered about.  My default place is the NCR Trail.  Sometimes I will run around Piney Orchard, or get in a combination of the BWI Trail and B&A Trail.  My club runs on the NCR Trail on many Saturdays if I can get myself out of bed early enough.  I might be up for running the BWI Trail on Friday night. 

Once it gets warm enough, I will start getting myself in shape enough to bike from Cockeysville to York on the rail trail.  I do that several times in the summer and it's a lot of fun.  When friends come long, we will stop in York and have lunch.

Sorry for being AWOL over the last month. Dave thanks fro sending me an e-mail wondering where I am.  

 In January I got a bit cocky and wanted to jump right into Olympic size training and realized almost right away that I was not quite there yet.  So, I hit the transition training program real hard between sprint to olympic for about 3 weeks.  In February, I started the Olympic training program as found on this site, I believe that may have been the last update I had given to the group.  I have been starting up a new office working 12 hour days and then training at night for about 4 hours.  Needless to say I have shut out EVERYTHING.  Friends, family, television, books, news, the only thing I have made time for is research on Triathlon training.  I have been reading Triathlete religiously and combing through the websites and absorbing anything I can get my hands on to train better, faster and harder.  If you knew me better, I am just built this way, focused and perhaps way over determined.  I could never wrap my head around doing any sort of sport or activity for fun, I hate to suck, I do take it way to seriously.  It is a personal character flaw.  

I have not been able to find anything definitive as far as diet is concerned. I have been training Dave, per your advice with Gatorade, I am still trying to figure out how to supplement during training for the Olympic.  I worked out hard on it for about 2 weeks and realized I was more and more fatigued and I was not able to keep up with my diet.  I started to ask the questions about nutrition and everyone seemed to say "what ever works for you".  So, I have been experimenting a lot with eating and managing my diet and rest.  I am now on the training schedule of training real hard on everything for a week then 2 weeks of building in which I will hit one discipline hard, and then one of recovery.  I have adjusted my workouts to mostly tempo workouts, with a couple of speed and endurance workouts in between.  On the tempo workouts I am trying with every workout to extend the amount of time I can sustain my HRM at about 80-85% of my max.  For me that is around 145.  Except on the runs, I am trying to run at about 7min. miles I try hard to sustain that pace as long as I can.  That puts me at about 160 HRM when I am running 7:03 min miles.  I usually brick every workout now too.  When I last updated you guys, I could do it for about .5 miles I am closing in on 2 miles as of yesterday.  I have been focusing more on rest than anything else.  IT IS THAT IMPORTANT.  I only eat grain carbs, peanut butter, some nuts, fruits and vegetables.  I try to consume about 3K-4K calories a day, even on rest days (I may even eat more on rest days)

 My weight training is limited to 2 days a week, I try to do CORE workouts everyday, some form of sit-ups, back and push-ups.

 I am starting to look into gear as my first race is in April.  I have signed up for the Chicago Triathlon in August and I think I will do at least 5 this year.  I too cannot stand being indoors, there has been one weekend since the New Year that has been nice enough to get outside.  I need to get outside and start pushing through longer training sessions on real terrain.  I am going stir crazy locked up in doors. This week it will be in the 40's and 50's finally, so I am getting outside this week, can't wait.

Hey Dave!

The best piece I've read on triathlete nutrition so far is in Going Long, which just came out with a new edition, nicely enough.  I have read often about daily nutrition, but since I don't make much of an effort to do it, I forget much of it.  I know what gets me through race day and that's almost it.  For a few days before the race I just try to increase the carbs, but try to stick with the longer lasting carbs with a low glycemic index.  I eat more pasta, and try to get whole wheat.  The day before the race I'll get one decent pasta meal and one meal with some sort of lean meat like fish, and rice.  I'll do pancakes frequently too. You also want to stay away from things with a high fiber content the day before.  You will be nervous enough as it is, and people frequently have "issues" even without the additional help of fiber from the day before.  So I stay away from veggies and such.  If the race is going to be a hot race, I will also increase my salt intake in the days leading up to the race.

The day of the race, I usually eat something light for breakfast, like just a Clif Bar.  I have read about folks who get up 3 hours before a race and eat a huge meal like a stack of pancakes.  But I am not waking up in the middle of the night, and I am not running on a full stomach.  Right before the race, and during the race, I use high glycemic foods like gels and gatorade.  Things that will get into your bloodstream quickly.

For a Sprint or an Olympic distance race, I don't think you have to do many things drastic in the nutrition category.

That's just what I do.  Like you've read, everyone is different.  Only doing races, and practicing in training, will lock in what works for you.

Are you still using the Olympic training schedule from this site, and sticking to the paces/HRs?  If you are overtraining, it doesn't matter what you eat, you will run yourself down.  Please keep in mind that most people approach the starting line overtrained than undertrained, and that is the death knell.  You are throwing a lot at your body right now.  How is your weight doing, with the nutrition plan you are using?

When you do your workouts, like the test triathlon you did, do you trail off at the end, or do they normally go ok with just Gatorade?

Are you still doing the Shamrock Shuffle 8k?  

Ugh, I ran out of time before talking about gear.  I have to get to the gym. :-)  Will do this tonight.

One of the things that you will definitely need is a race day checklist.  Beginner Triathlete has a nice customizable checklist.  But as a newbie, I wanted someone to just tell me what to bring, I didn't want to choose from a list of items.  So I have several checklists printed out, and I use them for ever race to make sure that I am not forgetting anything.  I will put one here, and then in another post talk about some of these things.

Race Gear Check-List

Swim Gear

1. Swimsuit

2. Goggles

3. Swim cap

4. Towel

5. Wetsuit

6. Body glide/Pam (for wetsuit)

7. Anti-fog solution

8. Ear/nose plugs

9. Water pan to wash your feet after the swim

Bike Gear

1. Bike

2. Helmet

3. Bike shoes

4. Bike shorts

5. Cycling gloves

6. Socks

7. Sunglasses

8. Water bottles

9. Spare tubes

10. Floor pump

11. CO2 cartridges

12. Bike tools including CO2 pump
    

Running Gear

1. Running shoes

2. Socks

3. Singlet

4. Sports bra

5. Running shorts

6. Number belt

7. Running hat

Extras

1. Watch

2. Heart rate monitor

3. Hotel confirmation

4. Race directions

5. Walkman

6. Extra safety pins

7. Black body marker

8. Aspirin

9. Energy bars and drinks

10. Sunscreen

11. Extra towel

12. Post race clothes and shoes

13. USAT membership card

14. Wallet/ID

15. Cash

16. Camera/film/batteries

17. Victory speech