Jackson is the black one and Stella is the white one. These 2 dogs are very smart and very talkative. I could go on for hours about my dogs.
From a triathlon standpoint, the season is getting off to a slower start. Much of that is due to the weather. The whole upper midwest has dealt with a longer than normal winter. We had snow all the way through the middle to end of April. It sort of put a damper on my biking riding but in all honesty, it may have been a blessing. Last year I got started early, I was working with a coach, and I was a bit over excited. I ended up doing too much too soon and getting myself a nasty ITB injury that ended up forcing me to DNF Lake Placid. So this year I am getting a slower start but I think that might be a good thing. I also had a bit of an injury this year already. I'm not sure if it's Plantar Faciitis or not but I have some pain in my arch that was pretty continuous. Not in the heel though, which from what I understand is a sign of PF. I did find that taping it allowed me to continue to run without much pain during or after. I had to take 2 weeks pretty easy and a few days off completely. My long run's are only back up to 90 minutes but I feel I can start extending that and considering IMLP is just over 9 weeks away, that's about the perfect amount of time to build up to the 2.5 hours that I need prior to the race. From a speed standpoint, I'm right where I want to be. My legs feel a little tight but I think some stretching and massage should get them moving well.
On the bike things are going quite well. My FTP is about 4.2w/kg which is right where I want to be for now. I am just now starting to get into doing real intervals on the road and with the amount of time between now and IMLP, I should be able to see some pretty decent gains. My weekly hours on the bike are around 7-10 depending on the week and it will closer to 13 by beginning of July. This year I was given an opportunity to ride for the Gear and Training racing team. Through that opportunity I was able to get a new bike. For 2011 I am riding a new Cervelo P2. The Felt B2 that I had is in need of some replacement components and the fork is old and I've heard of failures. So I decided to just get a whole new bike. I did change somethings like the crank and aerobars but the rest of the bike is stock. I'll throw my race wheels on it for race day and I should be good to go. It does seem like a bit faster than my Felt. Partly could be how much better it fits, and some of it from the frame. I had thought about a P3 or a P4 but I don't like the bottle configuration on the P4, nor do I think a proper position (NO SPACERS) would be very comfortable for me over 112 miles on either one. They share the same geometry.
Racing is right around the corner, FINALLY!!!! Everyone on the team keeps talking about all the racing there doing and I am so jealous!!! Last year I had the motto, quality not quantity. Well that didn't work so well. I need to race. If I don't I burn out and when race day comes around I'm burnt. The proof is in the results. Last year I skipped 2 races I planned on early in the season and by the 3rd race I was horribly burnt out. Then I went to Lake Placid injured and just skipped the run. 4 weeks later I did an Olympic, all healed up, and got 2nd overall. 3 weeks after that I went to Rev3 Cedar Point and did the half. I got off the bike with a 3 minute lead on the whole field. Thanks to my lack of run training because of my injury, I lost my lead on the 2nd or 3rd mile and held on barely for 7th overall. But point being, racing keeps me fresher and keeps me in the right state of mind. That said, May 27th I'm possibly doing an Olympic, the next week a half iron, then a 100 mile bike race the week after that, and then a run off the bike of course, and the weekend after that the Olympic I did so poorly at last year. Then one more really good build block before starting my taper 2 weeks out from LP. This is more of the plan of attack for racing I took in 2009 which was arguably my best year in triathlon ever except for the overall half ironman win in 2008. In 09 I did various length races including 2 IM's (IMLOU in 9:59 and IMFL 9:35) and performed overall much better. I am hoping to have similar success in 2011. Only time will tell...
