The software I use to track and log my training does a daily blog on some of their athletes and somehow I was chosen as one :) Check out the link below for the article and click on the logo above for the company homepage which features a great photo of our very own Julie Fiocca. If you click on her picture, you’ll find out how easy it is to upload your personal workouts into Training Peaks with the new Timex Race Trainer system. I’ve been using it myself and absolutely love it!

http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/2009/03/trainingpeaks-member-profile-erin-kummer-xterra-triathlete.html

Cleveland has been very good to me. It’s an amazing town, great cycling, wonderful people, yummy restaurants, and a spectacular park system. But for crying out loud, people, no one should be expected to live through a Cleveland winter. This is number 8 for me and I’m about to pull out my nose hairs one by one to distract from the pain of the endless cloudy days. However, it was SUNNY yesterday. Of course, it couldn’t come out until after my gloomy run, but I did get to feel that hint of maybe, just maybe some warmth yesterday evening. In celebration of the event I took out my bike and gave it a full spring cleaning (with new bar tape and everything!). Granted it was so cold that I was wearing my winter coat and knee-high Sorel boots. A clean and freshly lubed bike is really something to be admired. It pedaled so smoothly and shifted like butta…. when I did my trainer ride later that day. Grrrrrr…. Thankfully, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be headed somewhere significantly sunnier and with a much longer outdoor training season for the coming years. Not that I’ll have time for that…

Just a couple days into my self-made training camp and I’m already sore. I’m currently trying to arrange my day so as to avoid the water aerobics ladies at the gym. My gym’s pool, for my non-masters days, is just 3 lanes so a carefully planned workout is key. I had to share an end lane with Mr. can’t backstroke in a straight line one day and ended up with a very bruised right hand from hitting the wall and ladder over and over trying to avoid a concussion. On the topic of swimming, it’s remarkable how much easier it is to get the yardage in with the team compared to by myself. I get to about 3000 yards on my own and am completely and utterly bored out of my skull. I can swim with the team for 5000+ and it’s still bearable.

With cycling every day indoors I’m starting to run out of ideas for trainer workouts. I suppose I should put in a couple of steady zone 2 rides, but with no TV for entertainment that’s kind of like asking me to rearrange my closet alphabetically by color and store of origin. Sure it may seem like a good idea when you start, but by the time you get to the B’s you’re looking for a less painful thing to do… like maybe a self lobotomy.

OK, enough complaining for one day. I’ll be doing all my workouts outside under the hot sun in just over a week. Ahhhhhh….

And the gun goes off!

 I raced the next day by doing an indoor triathlon at Lifetime Fitness in Parker.  It was a 10 min swim/30 min bike/20 min run.  My very first multisport event ever was an indoor triathlon in Des Moines in 1994 so it brought back some good memories.  It was an all out effort and certainly made me sore!  I won the event with the highest combined points based on a total of swim lengths, bike distance and run distance.  The best part was that Nikki got to do a “boot camp” aerobic class while the boys were in the clubs top-of-the-line day care.  My Timex Bodylink (www.timextrainer.com) worked great as well as my Saucony Fastwitch (www.saucony.com) racing flats!  It was a fun day!

 I am eagerly looking forward to out team camp in a few weeks in Carlsbad.  It’s always so much fun to see all the new talented athletes that Tristan, Keith and Tom have compiled over the last few months! There are a few more of us on the team from Colorado which is great to see!

Thanks for reading,

Tim

There is nothing quite like prepping for the first race of the season – particularly when you are prepping in Calgary, Canada.  Woke up this morning to freezing rain along with sprinkles of snowflakes the size of my head – almost. Oooh, I guess it’s looking like that oceanside bike prep will be done indoors this weekend.  Yeeehaw!!!!!!  (I am sending excitement vibes electroncially to you – feel them??)

Actually, no, it’s all good.  Once you wrap your head around the fact that you will go through about 5 bottles, and double that amount of ‘mini towels’ (all which I swear to return to the YMCA!) to soak up the copious drips of sweat and saliva…yep it’s all good:)  May not be the most enjoyable way of spending a Saturday morning/early afternoon.  Heck…who needs cappuccinos while grazing over the morning newspaper at the local coffee shop playing your favorite mellow tunes?  Not I….bring on sweat fest!!  Besides…isn’t that cappuccino just THAT much better after you’ve fulfilled your goal of the day?  Truly. 

Besides, we Canadians (or Russians or whomever else faces winter bliss) must remember that races are won or lost in these sweat lodged basements of ours, watching the same old ‘Rocky’ or ‘American Flyers’  DVD over and over only to get that moment of inspiration from that ‘one scene’ – you all know the one – the one that makes you realize why you’re doing this in the first place.  Remember folks, “It ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can GET hit and keep moving forward, how much you can TAKE and KEEP MOVING FORWARD.”  The essence of basement training when spring is just around the corner….