Are you not entertained?

Trevor here.  I’m here to keep you entertained until Heather posts her next TTTT.  I don’t have much to say.  Deal with it.  Ha, jokes.

We were going to make a new website live this week.  But we’ve decided to just put it off until the new year.  It has nothing to do with the fact that making a new website is incredibly annoying and I want to throw pillows every time I try to make something work.  Or the fact that my wife is a bit of a perfectionist, finds things that I’ve missed every time she edits, and makes me want to cry when she decides that the thing I’ve worked on for the past 2 hours looks crappy.  Perfect or not, it will work on January 1st.  Complete with an integrated blog.  None of this blog in one place, website in another, business like we have now.  We’ve raised the bar. We’re going pro.  Don’t worry, there’s a bunny.

In other news, we’re now well into our 2013 training program.  Training week 7 starts tomorrow. Our stellar off-season, consisted of 4 weeks of messing around in Kona (post race), The Bahamas (with a fun race), and St. George.  Late November and most of December was spent in San Diego with The Triathlon Squad – version 2013.  My speedo tan is at an all time high thanks to some great outdoor swimming, but I will soon revert into my natural, full-body pasty white with the coming weeks of indoor pools and fully clothed outdoor activities.  Thanks Canada, you loveable, cold, expanse of greatness.

The Triathlon Squad group this year has been awesome.  As far as I’m concerned it’s the best group the Squad has had since our first camp back in January 2011.  There’s no complaining, no drama, just a great group who suck it up and train hard.  It’s great for Heather and I to train with these ITU guys.  Joe Maloy, Eric Lagerstrom, Jason Pederson, Kevin Ryan, and Anna Battiata.  Not forgetting Derek Garcia (long course) and Jen Spieldenner who had late season races so are still working back into the 2013 training plan on their own.  We all get along well, pushing each other on a daily basis.

December camp in San Diego had us living in a condo with 3 other guys.  I haven’t lived with other people (aside from Heather) for 13 years now, so thankfully it worked out great.  Heather was a trooper, living with 4 guys!!  Yay awesome wife!  Even Kevin’s foul mind, Eric’s morning cereal slurping, and Jason’s long phone calls with his girlfriend have grown on us.  Try to imagine 5 athletes, 4 weeks of training camp, 81 total workouts, 1 kitchen, 2 bedrooms.  Somehow we managed to avoid killing each other. Or even getting anything other than “hangry”. The other 3 guys all shared 1 bedroom.  Kevin, being the last to arrive was relegated to the closet, which he aptly named the Smush Room.  Sexual reference to ‘smush’ (e.x. lets smush our privates together), rather than cramped (I’m smushed) reference.  Though, I’m pretty sure no girls ever went in the Smush Room, they would not have enjoyed the slow deflation of Kevin’s air mattress had they fallen prey to his incredible charm.  I’m not sure why we didn’t all team up and offer to patch that mattress.  Meh.  Maybe next time.  He survived. Thanks to naps on the floor. 🙂

The first week or two of a training camp usually go really well.  Nailing every workout.  As time goes on however, the daily non-stop push starts to wear you down and you start to see a few really awful workouts.

I love it all though.  It’s truly amazing what you can do physically when you simply don’t think about NOT doing it.  You simply go and do it, no questions.  I think that’s the ticket with hard training that never really ends.  You wake up in the morning, and you just don’t let thoughts of not doing the workout enter your mind.  Yes, I often think about how I would rather just sleep longer, or maybe just skip the afternoon 50 minute run in favor of a nice relaxing dinner.  But never do I entertain thoughts of ACTUALLY doing that.  You have to go out and try.  It is unbelievable how things can change 5 minutes into a workout.  I’m sure you’ve all had those surprise workouts where you’re 5 sheets to the wind (tired, not drunk… What does that mean anyway? Sailing reference?), yet you pop off one of your better sessions.  If you haven’t experienced this, you’re missing out.  At the end of the day, when I look back to the morning and realize what’s been done despite the fatigue, this is what really makes me smile.  Most of the time anyway.  Sometimes I just think ‘thank gawd that’s over’.  Even before coach Paulo, as an age grouper, this was one of my strengths that saw me improve from year to year.  Doing workouts that I didn’t want to do.  Pouring rain, middle of the night after work (I used to work 3pm-11pm), 3rd workout of the day.  Time to run 15 km home.

In any case, right now, this is the start of our 3rd year with Paulo and the Squad.  Admittedly we miss some great camps, but I’m always reminded of how to get the most out of myself when I’m at the camps.  It would be tough for me to operate in a camp like setting year round, I really need my solo time when out training. I even found this to be the case at this past camp.  After the first week or so I was doing most of our ‘no coach in attendance’ runs by myself.  I really enjoy running by myself.  Not that I don’t like the guys I had to train with, they’re awesome.  I’m just not a ‘run and talk’ kind of guy for more than a couple runs per week.  Workouts also become a lot more variable near the end of a camp, whereas on my own I seem to be able to sustain a high workload for longer.  Anyway, 2, 3, and sometimes even 4 week training camps every two or three months have been great.

For three winters now, this is how the weekly training has progressed, with no crazy changes in weekly volume.  We’re very consistent year round, but definitely a bit higher load as we build into races:

Week #1. Wow, this feels really good.  I could do way more training than this no problem.  I’m amazing this year
Week #2. OK, fair enough, this is the right amount of work that’s sustainable leading up to race builds.
Week #3. Damn, I’m not sure this is very healthy.  Don’t I get a free day at some point?
Week #4. Oh MAN, I suck.  How am I supposed to win an Ironman when i suck this bad…followed by yelling at your wife when she tells you that you missed a 50 in the pool.
Week #5. OK, I got this. I can handle this.
Week #6 through Week #52. You stop thinking beyond the day or week at hand.  You just go out and get the training done, then race damn hard to express that work and turn it into a good result.  That’s what matters.  Getting the results.

~ by trevorandheather on December 23, 2012.