Lungs Full - Belly Not So Much

Well I continue training in Afghana-land where the weather is hot and the food is not.




I will start by letting you all in the secret of why we could possibly be losing this war...the food. The food we are fed is crap. Plain and simple crap. Every meal is some new concoction our East Indian friends in the kitchen dream up. They call it something almost familiar or with a familiar sound or word in it. For example the always wonderful 'Chinese Chilli Dong'. Now I am pretty certain that the Chinese don't do a whole lot of chilli eating. I am even more certain that hot dogs do not belong in chilli. Maybe that's where the dong comes from. I may have gone too far in calling these things hot dogs, as they are Euro style wieners. Not glorious brats or sausage but wieners. Not Oskar Meyers. These things are about a foot long and have a casing with the consistency of plastic wrap. Disgusting.



So now that the food is out of the way lets move on to the atmosphere. Yes it is hot. Like 40 degrees Celsius by 8am kind of hot; but that is not so bad as you get accustomed to it.



Not sure how many have been to the Sand Box over here but there is very little here. A generally receptive if not reclusive peoples is often smiling at us...although sometimes that smile is the harbinger of death. But that's another tale. There is no industry here. No factories burning through the night. No water being pumped through a steel mill and back into the world. Mostly it is just people and livestock - and not much of that. With all this caveman style living you would think air quality would not be an issue. But it is. It is terrible. I breathe in dust, sand, bugs and literally crap. Their feces are often in the open and so are the soldiers that reside here temporarily. Sure we kid ourselves with some indoor plumbing depending where you are stationed, but even that is then pumped into a giant 'pond of poo' at the airbase. Running past it is like running through a sulphur mine.



When not in the gym riding the spin bike or lifting weights to offset the loss the swimming fitness (not to mention age), I will run around the airfield. A distance of anywhere from 5-15km. Jets screech by, helos blow even more dust in the air and the vehicles along the same dirt 'roads' I run along are kicking up even more dirt and crap for me to heave into my lungs.



It is tough, but I digress. I relatively healthy and getting my fitness back to where I can race again. I am here on two missions - Canada's and mine.



Cheers.



Follow me on twitter @slow_triathlete

Still Trying to Train With No Water, No Real Bike and a Treadmill....

Here I am still in Afghanistan with about one and half months to go. My running once again took a step back with a little patellfemoral tendonitis issues followed after recovery by a calf heart attack...I just cannot win, but I shall persevere.

An example of a workout for me over here is a decent spin bike workout on my own for about an hour. I usually do a warm up and follow with some tempo or intervals. Sometimes I will jack up the resistence so much I have to put all of my weight on the pedals just to move. it is a good sweat though. I follow the ride with some dynamic stretching and then it is off to the treadmill for a 5min walk at about 7km/hr and an incline at level 10. I then take off the incline to 1-1.5 and increase the speed to 10.5km/hr. It is a nice light pace to prevent further injury and setbacks. After a 30min run I streatch some more and head to the dumbells. Today was a shoulder day (hopefully keeping my swimming muscles working). Do lateral dumbell raises, front raises and another dumbell exercise that focuses on the stabilizers in the shoulder...don't know the name of it though. I go on to do shoulder presses and straight arm cable presses. It is a tough workout and the shoulders hurt (in that good way) for a day or so. I generally will work legs, back, bi/tri and chest on a day with at least an hour of cardio.

In all I am not displeased with my progress as I have almost fallen below the 200lb mark for the first time in a long time. Even when I did my last half iron I was still around 200 so this is good.

So I am certain to write that I will be posting more often, but we all know that is a probable lie.

Oh yeah. I am now in the process of trying to pick out two ro three races for the year. At the least an Olympic and a sprint, but I am hoping to get to the point where I can do a sprint, oly and a half. I was looking at the REV 3 half at Cedar Point and it looks pretty cool. I also plan on doing about three OWS races starting with the 'Bring on the Bay' 3k OWS to support Easter Seals. I will see how I feel and maybe do the two Meech Lake OWS put on by Technosport. Who knows how it goes.

Til next time.

Amazing Iroman NZ

I don't normally follow IMNZ as it is a world away and not too many big names are there.

Enter twitter.

For those that don't use twitter it is a great tool for learning how the pros and others train. Macca, Bozzone, Simon Whitfield, Kirsten Sweetland, Rapp and many more are on there giving their views and training synopsis amongst other things. Pro bikers have some of the more interesting posts, allowing us into the world of the peloton. Wiggins, Zabriskie, Hincapie, CVV and especially Armstrong offer insights not available from anywhere.

Now for the reason I paid attention to IMNZ live. Terrenzo Bozzone or 'T' as he is known to friends (I am not his friend through any means but social networking). T decided to feed updates on his race while in the race. A professional triathlete up for prize money - taking time out to give race feedback while the race is on. Now T unfortunately did not win on this day as Cam Brown took his record ninth IMNZ with a stellar performance. T ended off in second but provided many with a reason to get excited by allowing us within his domain.

Need Answers

New bike is coming....what about the seat mast??

Ok ...Maybe I Promise - But I don't Follow Through

So I said I would be posting semi-regularly but I haven't....oh well. My bad.

I am back to training about 2-3 hours a day on the bike, running and hitting the weights. Hopefully my strong swim will remain while I concentrate on the other stuff.

Reason for no swim, well it is because no pool, no lake, no ocean, sea or large fountain. I am currently in Afghanistan fighting the good fight (unless you're Taliban or an Insurgent) and there is no water to be had. Sure a rain storm or maybe the 'shit' pond (sewage outlet) but no real water.

So instead I am trying to build my weak ass - literally and figuratively - back from the brink of destruction. I got here and did a lot of running fast both in velocity and time and I paid for it. With all of the sporadic training I have done over the last little I tweaked my back which in turn tweaked my piroformis which in turn tweaked a knee and and hip which made me limp a bit which then tweaked my back again....you get the picture. So I have gotten a little acupuncture and conducted weight and core training and am getting stronger and feeling pretty good.

I can bike on a stationary and run on a treadmill so who knows what it will be like once home again but I am going to make it work.

THE Shot for Ironman Is Here!! Well 2011 anyways...

So the injection of excitement in Ironman coverage is coming in 2011.

As part of the contract with Radio Shack , or as the kids are calling it, 'the Shack' Lance Armstrong will an age group athlete at the Ironman World Championships in 2011. The story I read can be found here.

While Lance (cause we're sooo close and all) is not likely going to be a contender for the crown, he is an athlete and has a story. Not to belittle those other stories, but this one excites me and I hope that NBC doesn't fudge the coverage by making it a sappy piece, ripe with slow cumbersome music and dramatic pauses. Armstrong is an uber athlete and could possibly bust the Kona bike leg record.

NBC could make this a real event for once and show it live. Not only adding the excitement of the competition of the contenders, but also the story of Armstrong returning to his roots and showing everyone in the world what kind of athletes Ironmen truly are. Lance is a god in cycling and sport circles and will promote the athletes that compete in this event. This is the story we have been waiting for. Sport and emotion in one used to showcase the athletes in the event instead of just causes.

It better be live or some bleeding heart liberal arts student will edit it with footage of Lance's Mom crying and Sheryl Crow tunes and make it crap.

Ironman World Championships...It Needs a Shot!!

This weekend marks yet another installment of the beloved World Ironman Championships at Kona Hawaii. With it comes the inevitable debates over the favourites at the event and who will step up and who will fall. The NBC coverage every year is not live and is presented as a scrapbook. Images flashing the screen some time after the event are edited to to tell the director's story - as they see it. For them it is not about the sport, but instead the stories that will sell ad time. Is Ironman distance events a sport or a story or both? Is it about the event at all or the journey to get there?

Myself, I am far from a triathlon elitist or purist. I am a fan and a participant (when not limping or hunched with some ailment). As a participant it is about the hours, days, months, years spent training to get to where you want to be; or more correctly for most age groupers, of who want to be or become. I like my story. Smoker, drinker, a generally lazy man. I thought I was happy but I doubt I was. I enjoy this new journey so much more than the drunken excursions to the karaoke mic stand, belting out Guns n' Roses for the other tone deaf folks in the bar drowing their sorrows. Now don't get me wrong this is/was fun. But what was its ends? I had the means but no end. Was my goal in those days to feel like a dog that's been kicked in the head, combing whatever nonsense had taken over my teeth and tongue? There was no goal. Only living to live. Triathlon gave me a goal and story to get there and likely, hopefully, more stories to get there.

Granted my story is not that of the Blazeman (google it) or Sara Reainhartsen (I know I spelled it incorrectly) but I have story. NBC picks and chooses the stories it wants to tell. How are any of the stories better or more interesting than another? In my gentle opinion they are not. Some of the causes benefit greatly from their exposure on the network but is it sport?

The fan in me wants to see the race. I want to see Macca go down with a bum cable. Not a personal thing but the drama. The NBC editing makes it seem slow and unimportant or only a back drop to the motivational or touching tales of woe. Stadler's breakdown a few years back was shown edited to the point of not being able to see the total breakdown. These stories are important because they are attached to the athletes the fans want to see. NBC should focus on the athlete personalities at the race and in the prelude to the event.

Macca's mouth is a show in its self. I don't mean this in a bad way. I mean that Macca makes me want to see him more and hear him more. This is what brings the money into triathlon. I want to wear the jersey that Macca wears. The shoes of Crowie. The speedsuit of Potts. I want these guys and girls to have a personality and let it show. Let them have fun on camera. I have been following Macca and Bozzone's twitter pages and it brings the fan closer to the guys talking trash (limited as it is) and what it takes to get them there. Their training is incredible and this is who I want to see in my SPORTS coverage.

In short, triathlon is a strange sport in that the layman races alongside his or her heroes in the sport. It is akin to playing in your Thursday night beer league with Ovechkin on your wing. Sure he is faster and better but you both came to the same spot in the same race on the same day. However this is the same with everyone. My story is no better than or worse than anyone else'. The pros do their work to get there and so do I and everyone else. As a fan of the sport I want to see the pros race in drama and spirited camaraderie. If this is promoted more I will have more interest in the sport and the manufacturers will have more money available for R & D, training, development and sponsorship. Focus on the drama of the sport and not the drama of life.