I think it’s good to be creative with your training for any event.  If that means riding to work and using that as your  “training ride” or running with your kids in the stroller for your “long run” than go for it.  If the alternative is to miss the workout entirely then it’s always good to get something in.  I’m doing some creative training for Hawaii this year with a hard workout on Mt. Evans yesterday.  Sure, it’s not a typical long ride and run in preparation for an Ironman, but it definitely was unique.  I rode from my house, elev. 5660, to the top of Mt. Evans 14, 240 taking me 5:08.  I did some interval work on the way up and it was hard stuff.  I thought to myself, “Here I am doing bike intervals at 11,000 ft. – if this doesn’t help me for an Ironman, what will?”

 The highlight was meeting Nikki and the boys at the summit and getting in a brick run for 35 minutes – all at over 14,000 ft.    I can’t say I recommend this workout to everyone, but it sure was fun to do and I feel gets you very strong.  I used my Global Trainer for the entire workout and I have some screen shots below from Training Peaks.  Total time was 5:48.  Isn’t the best part about racing Ironman training for it??

Enjoy your training and be safe,

Tim

I was in Aspen working yesterday and who do I run into in-between sales calls?  Lance Armstrong.  He was at a park with his kids in a sweet Burley bike trailer.  I introduced myself and actually had a good conversation with him and gave him my business card.  He was very nice and I said if he ever wanted to be on the Timex team to just give me a call….who knows what the future holds?

Hanging out on a Tuesday evening in Aspen

If any of you frequently read my race reports, you know that it’s not unusual for me to do a hard race and follow it up with some sort of eating contest.  Boulder 70.3 followed by a chicken wing eating contest in downtown Boulder was with perfect match for me and I gave each competition with 100% effort as I always do.

 First the race:

 This was this inaugural Ironman Boulder 70.3 formerly the 5430 Long Course triathlon which was owned and run by my buddy and Timex teammate Barry Siff.  It was a great venue and knew that it would attract some good talent from across the country.  I was ready to race but was a little sad knowing that I only had one more race before Kona.  I drove up that morning and did my usual pre race routine and felt ready to go.  I used my Timex Race Trainer for the race, since I am getting an upgrade on my Global Trainer.  If you have not see them yet, I just recently completed 4 Timex Global Trainer instructional videos that you can see here.  They were fun to film and a huge thanks goes out to Todd and Paul who made the trip out to CO for filming! 

 At the swim start, I saw my friend and photographer Larry Rosa and again complimented him on his work – some of the pics in this blog are from him.  After some running warm ups, a Powerbar and gel, I got in my Aqua Sphere Icon and lathered up with plenty of Tri-Slide (this stuff is awesome by the way) and got in my corral for wave #10.  At 7:15 the gun went off I and I sprinted as hard as I could to the front.

Relaxing at the start

Without giving away too many secrets, I have been working on my stroke technique lately and have a few things that I always think about now when I swim, which has helped my stroke tremendously.  Even though I have been a swimmer since I was 7 there is always room for improvement.  I soon was out of the water in 25.46 – good enough for 7^th overall in the race. 

 Out on the bike, I found a rhythm right away and pushed pretty hard the first 5 miles, which are all uphill.  I was caught by a few other people in my wave at mile 25 but kept doing my thing and focused on my own race.  Before I knew it, I had completed the two loop course in 2:14, a new PR for me on this course.  The Orbea Ordu and Dura Ace wheels have really treated me well this year and after a few set up changes last week from my bike fitter, Jerry Fuhrman, all felt good coming off the bike in T2.

 For the most part, I was happy with my ride and before I knew it I was out of T2 onto the run.  It’s a two loop hot run, but right away I was feeling good.  All three of us in the age group went onto the run together.  One guy went ahead and at one point was about 1 minute or so in front of me.  I just stuck to my plan and went off feel as usual, which I think is best for the run.  After loop # 1, I was feeling as good as I could have.  After seeing Nikki and the boys on loop #2, I got a little more kick and before I knew it I was creeping up on the race leader.  At mile 11, I passed him and pushed hard to the end, finishing in 4:07 as the 2nd amateur, and 1st in my AG.  Right afterwards I did my Compex for recovery and my legs felt a ton better. 

Relaxed at the finish!

 
The Wing Challenge:
 
The West End Tavern is a place in downtown Boulder that has a wing challenge:  Eat 50 wings in under 30 minutes and your meal is free.  Also you get a t-shirt, a coupon for a dozen free wings, and your picture on the wall of fame.  Otherwise you pay $50- a dollar per wing!  If any of you watch Man Vs. Food on the Travel Channel you may have seen the host gobble down only 38 wings when he did this challenge in June.  With Nikki and the boys crammed in our booth, my waiver was signed and the clock started.

Signing my life away...

Connor and I in front of my lunch

Wing # 50!

After several napkins and glasses of water later, I finished them all in 24 minutes and 11 seconds and was crowned a Wing King here.  To be honest, I was still hungry – that’s what a burning 5,000 calories in a 1/2 Ironman will do!
 
Thanks for reading,
 
Tim

Is this the record for number of blog posts for one race?  Well it’s definitely for a reason – we all had such a fun time with each other as a team and I’ll venture to say that ideally it would be great if we could do this more often.  8 of us raced in Lubbock instead of the usual 1 or 2 and it was wonderful to see such great representation from the Timex team.  It was one of the more fun trips down there purely because of seeing my teammates whom I only see one or maybe two times a year.  After a quick TV spot that Barry arranged for the local news, it was dinner time and lights out soon after on Saturday night.  On race day, I felt excited to race as I always do.  I raced Boise 70.3 two weeks earlier but felt very fresh and ready to go.  This year in my age group, M35-39, it was myself and fellow teammates Chris Thomas and Denny Meeker giving it all we had. 
 
I won’t go into too many details about my race, but nothing broke, I went as fast as I could, and placed 2nd in my age group to champ Chris Thomas and just ahead of Denny.  We swept the age group and I couldn’t have been more proud!  There is something to be said about being on a team.  I am sure I speak for all of us when during the race we were always looking out for each other, and getting motivation every time we saw the red, white, and black jerseys.  All three of us had the opportunity to get a slot to Kona.  Chris took one and the 4th place finisher got one as well.  Not to mention Timex teammate Cindi Bannink got the top spot in W30-34 and a trip to Hawaii.  Well done Cindi!!!

My buddy Alex McDonald hitching a ride post race

 
Our whole group from Timex had a great time in Lubbock: Alex, Barry, Andrew, Laura, Denny, Cindi, Chris, and myself.  I got to learn a lot about everyone.  Most notably the Andrew has a killer Kitchen Aid Ice Cream maker, Denny hates seeing other peoples blisters, Alex is really going to be a great dad, and me and the famous “Lance Story” that some other teammates will have to fill you in on sometime. It was fun hangin’ by the pool with you guys and no better way to kill some time on a Sunday afternoon in Texas than over a few “Lone Star” Edition Budweiser’s. 

 
On my way home I camped in Clayton, New Mexico and got up early and went for a 1 1/2 hour recovery ride that went literally in the middle of nowhere (see picture below) that ended up in Clayton Lake State Park.  It was one of the most peaceful rides I’ve ever been on, just me thinking about my family.

A peaceful ride in the middle of nowhere...

 
Congrats to all of you out there who raced.  It truly is an honor to be on such a wonderful team with great athletes. 
 
Train hard and be safe,
 
Tim

I have been testing my speed lately with a few local sprint triathlons.  Although they aren’t my preferred distance they are easier to race in terms of recovery and time.  With that, I signed up for the Metro Brokers Triathlon Friday held June 4 at Cherry Creek Reservoir in Aurora.  It was so fun racing during the week and at night!  It was a sprint race and wanted a good warm up for Boise the following weekend.  I raced with my Global Trainer and HR strap, the first time I have ever raced a triathlon with my heart rate monitor!  As the gun went off I went my hardest only to find myself exiting the 880 yard swim about 1 minute back from the leader.  It took me a few miles on the bike, but I soon caught up to  who I found out later was a collegiate swimmer.  I got into T2 after the fast 12  mile bike and began the 5K run.  I pushed hard and kept the lead until the finish while getting a new course record in 59:18.  The Global Trainer worked well and new HR strap fit great.  This was the new strap you can find with the Global Trainers at REI. Here is the link! 

A couple days later I found myself on a plane headed to Boise, ID where I would go for a work meeting with Powerbar all week until the 70.3 race held that Saturday.  I felt good all week, but really scaled back my workouts to be rested for the race.  Since it was a 2PM start, we as athletes had the luxury of sleeping in a little Saturday morning.  All week we learned more about the benefits of Powerbar’s C2MAX, the carbohydrate blend that really sets itself apart from the rest of the sports nutritional players, hands down.  I was ready again to utilize all Powerbar products for the day!  After getting up I got in a 20 min swim in the hotel pool, did some last minute preparations, and headed down to reservoir.  The day was beautiful and I felt ready to go!  Just before my wave went off, I chatted with my friend, former Timex teammate and former Ironman Florida champion, Jamie Cleveland.  He now races age group, and has the best attitude out there! 

Myself and Global head of Performance Nutrition at Nestle, Phil Annett

Our wave went off and I lead the wave from start to finish in the 57 degree water.  Jamie and I exited T1 together and headed out down the hill facing some massive headwinds.  At about mile 20 I swallowed a bunch of Ironman Perform drink by Powerbar and kicked up my pace.  I soon passed all the previous waves and was riding by myself.  At miles 25 and 35 all participants were fortunate enough to ride right by the Nestle/Powerbar production facility, certainly a rare opportunity!   We toured the factory earlier in the week and it was certainly the highlight of the week.  There’s nothing like eating a Powerbar Apple Cinnamon Harvest right off the line!  Anyway, the winds were horrible for about 50% of the ride.  But my Orbea Ordu was great and the Dura Ace wheels worked flawlessly in the cross and head winds.  Honestly, it reminded me of Kona for a bit so I briefly imagined riding on the Queen K for a while which gave me some motivation!

I headed into T2 only seeing 1 age group bike on the racks.  I ran the best I could to see if I could catch him, but I just raced my own race as I always do and enjoyed it.  The finish line had more energy and people than I had ever experienced at a 70.3.  I was chatting with my friend Bill Potts who works for Ironman and we agreed that it was one of the best finish lines on the circuit!  I finished in 4:21, placing 2^nd amateur, 1^st in AG and 15^th overall.  It was a fantastic week and I felt proud to be there! 

The top men in 35-39

Thanks for reading!

Tim