Becoming Timberman

I apologize again for the delay in getting the response from USA Triathlon. They’re working on it, and I get emails every day thanking me for my patience. I’m just happy they’re responding, as opposed to USADA and WTC who have decided I’m too small a fish. Thanks for being patient on this topic if it is indeed the one you’re interested in. 

Now onto more personal matters. Today i was scheduled for a run and a swim. I always do them in that order because I can run at the cemetery just near the house, but I need to travel a few miles to swim. (On a side note, i saw someone else exercising on the cemetery path the other day so I feel less creepy and inappropriate about it now). My work day schedule was packed today so I couldnt run until after 4, so I planned on a 4 PM run and a 7 PM swim. It was around 2:30 when Rach texted to tell me the pool was closing at 6, too late in the day for me to move my workouts up. So, at 4, I hurried out for my run, during which today I started extending my run intervals to 1:30 of running at a time. I was pretty tired when the 30 minutes was up but i was really happy with the results.

Then I dropped Stanley off at the house, got on my bike and busted my butt to get up to the pool in time to get my whole swim in, only to find out the pool wasn’t closing early until Thursday. I have an amazing, incredible wife, but she’s not very good with dates and I should have remembered that. So I stood there in the pool shower in my tri suit, eating energy chews to try and recover from my efforts before I got in the pool. The swim was less than my best but Im proud I gutted it out, and even fought off cramps in both feet for the last 100 yards to finish.

So today’s first place in the 2 mi run – 4 mile bike – 1400 yard swim was… me! My times need some work but just that I had the endurance to do this and then come home and rip up a rooms worth of carpet tells me the training is working.

I know I mentioned false bravado the other day, but I’m pushing that topic out a couple more days (and learned that the false is not needed, bravado is already false)

Finally, if you haven’t yet donated to my raffle, please consider doing so, with now just 7 days left before it ends, I’d sure like to get closer to the $500 mark. And if you have already donated, thank you and I’ll be reaching out at the end of the raffle to confirm which prizes you’d like your entries put towards.

I’ve been training and training, and while I’ve lost almost 10 pounds, sometimes the progress doesn’t come as fast as I’d like it to either on the scale or on the road. My training has been ramping up, I’m eating better, and I’m drinking a ton more water, but some days it feels like I’m gaining only seconds, and some days like today I’m losing minutes. If it weren’t for tools like Strava that let me see that I had my 2nd best effort yet on some really hard climbs today, I would have felt like todays workout was a major letdown. I’m shooting for 15 MPH average on a 15 mile ride with ~500 feet of climbing. I just have to keep pushing I guess, because I’ve seen the good stuff happening in the past 7 weeks, and I know it’s going to continue.

I guess what I need to remember is that it’s still just February and I’m already working harder on hills than I have in a lot of midseason rides.

On the raffle front just 8 more days for folks to contribute and be eligible for this months raffle prizes. So I’m adding yet another one. INFINIT Nutrition is a primary sponsor of the Eleonore Rocks Triathlon Team and they’re kind enough to provide us with some product to power our workouts. I ordered a custom mix for myself which I named “Orange you jealous you’re not as fast as me?” Yes, I know a little false bravado (more on false bravado tomorrow), but still funny because it’s orange flavored. And since I had enough goodies for me, I ordered some INFINIT for you guys too! I tried out one of the single serving pouches after todays ride and it was REALLY good. I hope my custom mix turned out as well as the standard mix. I went a little stronger on the flavor, and increased the sodium to balance for my high sweat rate.

INFINIT-LY good nutrition that tastes... INFINIT-LY good

The big bag is my custom mix of INFINIT, but everything else you see on the table is the newest addition to the raffle: 4 single serve packs of INFINIT Ride, 2 packs of INFINIT Run, and an INFINIT water bottle! I’m probably going to rearrange the prize groupings yet to get them organized in a way that makes more sense.

Well, recovery week has come and gone, and today I get back to work at building mileage, and hopefully building speed. I wasn’t exactly sitting still last week but with a couple extra days off and mostly shorter workouts, I definitely had an easier week. Of course that oasis of recreation has dried up, and today’s run/swim duo (I wont say brick because they’ll be a few hours apart) will get me going again quickly. While I enjoyed the rest, I was tempted Friday to pop on my mountain bike for a bit, but I decided I would take full advantage because who knows when Dr. Pain will see fit to give me another rest.

Last week was also a challenge on the motivational front, but not just on the bike. I have a lot going on with work, and some family stuff coming up that seems like everything is happening all at once, which is exactly the kind of situation that makes me want to shut down. I struggled to be effective at work, at home, and I really had to push myself to get in all my workouts. The take away from last week is that I need to make some further simplifications in my life if I’m going to be able to focus on the truly important things. There are places I’m devoting time and effort right now, and frankly my hearts just not in those things. I’ll have to make some tough decisions about where I’m spending time and/or money, but it’s going to be worth it in the long haul. The good news is that with everything going on, I managed to get some key learning done at work, a little cleaning done at home, and all of my workouts in. So I was able to persevere, but if I can make my life less complicated, the better off I’ll be.

My follow ups on my Lance Armstrong opinion blog from last week are still on their way. I’ve reached out to WTC, USADA, and USAT. USAT had hoped to provide answers by Friday, but with the holiday today, a few people took Friday off to make a long weekend of it, so they’re expecting to have responses to me tomorrow or Wednesday.

Finally, I’m adding another prize to the raffle. One of the things I’ve learned through countless rides, is that skincare for triathletes is important. Whether it’s just forgetting to put on sunscreen up to that 2 hour ride without any anti-chafing, hopefully you’re a faster learner than I am. Because I have often forgotten, it’s meant on more than one occasion I’ve stopped at the bike shop mid-ride to pick up various items. So much so, that we have a bit of a back stock when it comes to triathlete skin care. So, when I won an Everstride gift pack, I couldn’t decided whether to keep it or give it away. In the end I decided that I need to keep sharing my good fortune, so I’m including the Everstride gift pack in the raffle.  Instead of making it a standalone prize though, I’m going to include it with the 2 boxes of Peeled Snacks, and make it the “Care and feeding of a triathlete” prize pack. So in addition to 2 boxes of Peeled Snacks, you’ll now get the following Everstride products: Cooling Muscle Balm, Pro Therapy Foot Treatment, Skin Defense (SPF29) spray, and Facial Defense cream. I’m also adding in a Performance Bike water bottle with the energy gel prize pack. It was included in the box and I didn’t notice it right away. We’re now just 10 days from the end of the raffle, and I’m really hoping to make the $500 mark by then, so if you haven’t donated yet, please consider doing so. Thanks!

More good stuff for you to win

Finally, it basically rained the entire day yesterday, which made getting Stanley out for bathroom breaks into a bit of an adventure. He’s now mostly outgrown the sweaters we bought him a couple months ago, but fortunately there was a coat I ordered that was way too big at the time. It still doesn’t fit quite right, and you can almost make out the look of confusion on poor Stanleys face as to why it feels funny to walk in this big thing, but it kept him warm while he was out to do his business (and frankly he looked pretty funny trying to run in it, so I had to snap a pic).

The medium sized boy in the big boy coat

Note: For those here about the Armstrong opinion piece, it’s the post below this one. To everyone, thank you for taking the time to read yesterday in what was/is easily the biggest 24 hour period for this blog to date. USA Triathlon has agreed to answer some questions on the state of anti-doping in our sport for me, and that interview will run on Friday or Monday, depending on when they get it back to me.

With the rare exception (like yesterday), this blog is all about me (and my dog, and sometimes my wife, and often about food, or whining about how hard my workouts are, and occasionaly often Star Wars). I mean after all, someone needs to talk about the awesomeness I bring to the world just by waking up in the morning. So, though it is hard work, I do it. But in all the time I’ve been spouting my praises (someone has to) I’ve done my best to avoid Blog memes. Unfortunately, someone I respect and admire greatly (he is both a terrific person and a fast triathlete) gave into peer pressure from another one of our nice and fast friends and in responding to it, “tagged” me. Still, I would have avoided it if he didn’t ask such good questions. So, beware, below is my (hopefully) one and only ever trip into blog meme-ery.

1. Post these rules
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people

Random things about me:

1. I only have 3 salivary glands.
2. I am easily inspired by movies. (I took karate as a teen because of the Karate Kid, and I applied for a Naval ROTC scholarship because of Top Gun. )
3. I almost never read anymore. As a child I was fascinated with books and read whenever I wasn’t watching baseball, Star Wars, or playing outside. Either my ADD has gotten worse as an adult, or the amount I read for work has overtaken my love of the printed word. If it’s not on the internet or a magazine, I probably won’t read it.
4. I once wrote and illustrated a short story about aliens bringing jelly beans to President Ronald Reagan.
5. To me hockey, triathlon are the only sports that really get me going, and will watch no matter who is playing. I love baseball and football but only when my teams are on the field
6. I am a serious procrastinator.
7. I was in band in high school, and loved jazz band in particular. So much so that I was even a member of a select youth jazz ensemble for a year.
8. This will come as a shock to almost no one, but I am lazy. LAZY. I almost didn’t write this today.
9. The view out my window each day is of my side yard and a small school bus for the daycare the folks next door runs. Stanley hates that school bus, and barks/growls at it often but only when it pulls away.
10. I long dreamed of owning RC airplanes and now I own 2. The first one I crashed into a tree, and the second is waiting for me to put its replacement wing on. I have had 1 semi-successful flight and will pick it up again once spring gets here.
11. I just found out one of my best friends in high school lives only 2 hours from here in Charlotte and am now planning a visit.

Jordan’s Questions:

1. What book did you last read? As I mentioned above I don’t read books much anymore, but I did read a couple books my friend Bengi bought me for my birthday a couple years ago. Specifically a humorous one on how to be a superhero and the Dean Koontz novel Lightning.
2. What’s your best birthday memory? On the weekend of my 9th birthday, Return of the Jedi came out. My parents let me have 9 of my friends stay over and took us all to see the movie the next morning. I got a boat load of Return of the Jedi action figures, and we all stood in a line that went all the way around the building to see the movie. The greatest day of my life to that point for sure.
3. What’s your favorite race distance? Im split on this. The Half-Iron seems like just the right distance to test yourself in terms of endurance, and still have dinner at a reasonable time after, but sprints are just so much fun to go, race, really just go all out, saving nothing in the tank and being done, maybe having a beer after.
4. What’s your favorite race? I named the blog after Timberman, and it’s still my favorite race. So hard, and so much fun, and the first time I ever saw Chrissie Wellington in person.
5. What’s your worst injury ever? I hate to say this for fear of jinxing myself, but the worst thing I’ve ever done was taken a slow speed spill from my bike at the end of my parents driveway and got a 1/2 inch diameter rock stuck in my knee and some bloody palms. Had to interrupt the end of Rachelle’s wedding shower with my side of the family to have her look at it. Only other real injury from racing was a concussion I got crashing during Landmine Classic.
6. What’s your dream job? To be retired. Seriously, I’ve been working at least part time since I was 15 years old other than 1 summer in college and 3 months following 9/11, I’m ready to be done already. If I have to stay employed, it’s the job I’m currently doing now, working from home, but with a management role over a team of business analysts.
7. If you could change one event that happened in your life, what would it be? I attempted suicide in my senior year of high school, so the easy answer would be to say that. Not putting my parents through the stress and worry of it, something they truly didn’t deserve. But I learned so much from that, and many of my other mistakes (my first marriage, goofing off in college which led me to programming which started my career, etc.) that it’s hard to say I’d change much of what has happened in my life. I guess the one thing I can think of is I got a really big check one time and I mostly blew it on stuff, some of which I don’t even own anymore. If I could have that back, I would probably be significantly better off financially right now.
8. Chipotle or something else? Is it wrong to actually like Taco Bell?
9. Five Guys or In and Out Burger? I’ll say 5 Guys, but it really should be Jack n’ the box.
10. What is your favorite color? Blue
11. What teacher/class inspired you the most? I was lucky I had several (remember Im easily inspired) My 8th and 9th grade science teacher, my 7th and 9th grade english teachers, my 10th grade history teacher, my 6th grade band teacher and 7th grade geography teacher (who were the same guy), and my 10th-12th grade band teacher. All of them were wonderful, inspiring, kind and warm teachers who really made learning enjoyable and pushed me. At some point in both the 7th grade geography classes and 8th & 9th grade science classes, it was me against the rest of the class in either NewsQuiz, which was a weekly test on current events in the world or in science class, our reviews for tests. I was a natural test taker and enjoyed the positive reinforcement of knowing the right answer. I won often, even against the whole class, and was really disappointed when an entire classroom of kids would beat me by a point or two.

I’m breaking the rules though, and not sending this on any further.

Earlier today, Lance Armstrong debuted as a pro triathlete in the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC)  run Ironman Panama 70.3. He did very well for a first entry into the half-iron distance, which wasn’t unexpected considering his history as an endurance athlete. His training on Strava showed he was more than ready for the bike distance in a half, but as expected from his running history he was unable to hold off a top 70.3 distance specialist during the half-marathon, and finished 2nd overall. Finishing second against a fairly packed field is no mean feat. But just doing well isn’t doing enough. In this case, WTC has formed a major partnership with Lance and Livestrong, and I have hopes and fears in regards to what the partnership between Lance Armstrong and the WTC means for the sport.

Athlete testing: The current testing protocol in WTC events is to test the top 3 podium finishers in each of the men’s and women’s pro races for doping, and randomly testing from 4th place down. One would think that with the cloud of suspicion that has followed Lance for the past 10 years, WTC would be only prudent in making sure Lance was tested in every event, and would perhaps go so far as to put that into the partnership agreement.  I was dumbstruck to learn that not only was Lance not tested, none of the men’s podium finishers were tested at Panama today. This information came directly from Rasmus Henning, a celebrated pro who placed 4th:

I thought it was common practice to drug test Top3 and not just random from 4th and down? That was not the case at 70.3 Panama.

— Rasmus Henning (@rasmushenning) February 12, 2012

Triathlon is still a niche sport in the US, and having Lance could be a potential windfall for all triathletes and triathlon as a whole; increased interest brings new sponsors, new sponsors could mean more races to watch on TV, etc. All of that means nothing however, if those benefits come at the cost of the integrity of the sport. Seeing the first race Lance did essentially ignore doping protocols really has me concerned for exactly what kind of deal WTC struck to sign on with Lance. I earnestly believe that pro triathletes are some of the cleanest, hardworking athletes on the planet, but as Lance has proclaimed his innocence for so long, one would think he would welcome more stringent controls as he comes into the sport. This is a bad road for WTC to take, and it makes room for sponsors to put extra pressure on their athletes to do whatever it takes to beat Lance, which is exactly the wrong direction for this sport to go.

A USADA Ban: The US Anti-Doping Agency has said it is moving forward with an investigation into Lance’s alleged doping history in cycling, and is going to ask for the evidence from the recently closed federal investigation. NPR and several other credible news agencies have reported that the government believed it had the facts and testimony to prove Lance doped but the case was dropped, whether from political pressure as some would suggest, or perhaps because the case on the fraud charges were not strong enough to warrant an expensive trials in uncertain economic times. Should the USADA ban an athlete, WTC had previously indicated they would follow that ruling. Lance is racing as a WTC pro via his USA Triatlon elite standing which would certainly be stripped if USADA laid a ban on him. What would that mean to promoters and race organizers who put out additional expenses in the expectation that Lance would be participating or for fans and athletes attending an event he was involved in? Certainly WTC can’t cover the costs of those racing just because Lance was forced to withdraw, but it does lead one to think that as professional traithlete Jordan Rapp said recently on SlowTwitch.com, it is indeed curious that WTC would partner with an athlete having so recently been under federal investigation and with an ongoing USADA investigation into his doping history, and still see so many folks excited about his presence in the sport.

Preparation from event teams: The positives of any major celebrity, sports or otherwise, appearing at a race range from additional spectators cheering on the participants, additional tourism dollars for the host community, and potentially more interest in participation in the local community, helping to ensure the race is secure as an annual event. Not every side effect will necessarily be positive however. Many 70.3s are held in relatively small venues, with participants and their families already struggling to find parking, dealing with long lines for restaurants, and finding safe places on the course to observe the race as just a few examples of things I witnessed personally at Timberman a couple of years ago. Take all that and throw the armada of Lance’s entrourage, media coverage, and additional fan interest and you’ve got a recipe for challenges on and off the course. How long until the first time an overzealous spectator wanting a good view of Lance does something stupid that winds up impacting, or worse, injuring another competitor who just wanted to race their race? I hope WTC is pushing every race on Lance’s announced (and unannounced as he’s posted his schedule for the first half of the season) races that they need to do a lot of work to prepare for the differences they’ll be seeing on their race courses and at their venues.

Keep the pros and the amateurs together: One of the few things you can get nearly all amateur triathletes to agree on is that we love the idea that we get to line up and “race with” the pros in our sport. Seeing your favorite pro triathlete often just hanging around the venue or transition area is a real treat. At Timberman, my bike rack was less that 100 feet from where Chrissie Wellington, Andy Potts, and all the others were racking their bikes and getting ready for their race. I enjoyed this fact, even with a couple dozen lookie-loo’s coming over and crowding our transition area to say hi to the pros or try and learn from watching them prepare. Dropping Lance onto of that will lead to one of two things happening. Either A) The folks racked near the pros will be overrun with athletes trying to get a glimpse of Lance leading to all sorts of chaos, or B) It will lead to pros being racked further away from the amateurs building a divide between amateur and pro that the majority of participants will not be happy about. Pros are entitled to the same relatively calm pre-race prep time as the rest of us, so event teams will need to find creative ways to deal with this situation without making the rest of us feel left out.

Field Sizes: Livestrong is offering additional charity race slots above and beyond what WTC had already made available at each of the races Lance has advertised as participating in. While these events haven’t yet filled, it’s highly likely the Livestrong charity slots will fill quickly, and for folks registering normally with an expectation of the general field size will likely be in for a shock. Neither Livestrong or WTC has announced how many additional slots will be made available, and I think that’s a significant error. The growth of field sizes to maximize profit (and admittedly help meet demand) has in many cases led to overcrowded transitions, clogged swim and bike finishing chutes, and an increased risk of accident on the bike course. Add into that mix an unknown quantity of racers, with a large potentiality of those racers being Lance fans who are new to the sport, and you have a potential recipe for disaster.

Some might ask why I’m worried about this; I’m not currently planning on doing any WTC races this year, and even if I were they wouldn’t be ones on Lances calendar. My concern is one that I learned a long time ago as a computer consultant: perception is reality, at least to the general public. If Lance is at the races doing well, getting a lot of attention on the sport, then everything must be great, and all races are just like the one Lance raced. The average person off the street doesn’t know the difference between an Ironman distance race and the sprint tri happening around the corner. To them it’s “Ironman, you mean the race on TV in Hawaii?”. And if some of the concerns above occur, the public won’t know the difference between WTC, Rev3, or the race in the next town over put on by a good group of folks to help out a local charity. They’ll just know something bad happened in a triathlon Lance was doing and it was on SportsCenter. The first pro that dopes to try and beat him and gets caught or gets sick because they did it wrong, the first Lance fanatic who knocks some kid into the street in front of some guy on his bike because he was trying to get a better shot of Lance speeding by; or worst of all, Lance has just won the Ironman World Championships and receives a lifetime ban from the USADA. This would throw much of the triathlon world into the kind of chaos so prevalent in the cycling world in a way that the sport has never really experienced, besmirching the name of a sport that has not risen to the worldwide prominence cycling had long before it became synonymous with doping in the view of much of the sporting world.

• Thanks so much to everyone who entered my Jabra US giveaway. Now that I’m using Rafflecopter for these it’s pretty easy to administer, and the system does all the work in picking a random winner and such. The winner of the Jabra Bluetooth headphones is Heidi (aka @bananabuzzbomb on twitter). I’m waiting on the product to arrive from the PR folks, but it will shortly and then it’ll be on it’s way to Heidi! Congratulations!
• For those of you NOT named Heidi (or at least the specific Heidi who won the prize) you can still give yourself a chance to win a pair of Jabra Bluetooths by donating to Eleonore Rocks from my donate page!
• Also, I’ve been bribed into giving up another of my peanut butter sample GU to be added as part of the energy gel prize in exchange for a donation today (thanks Jen!) and I’ll be adding that prize to the raffle page this evening some time. I still expect to add a few more prizes over the next couple weeks
• The other big news is that we got the proofs of our team kit for this year that will arrive in about 2 months. A nice regal purple with understated pink highlights, so instead of looking like I robbed Barbie’s wardrobe It will look like I robbed Price’s, or maybe Grimaces.
  

  Tri kit on the left, Bike kit on the right. We get the tri, Im buying the bike

Note #1: PLEASE enter my giveaway for a set of Jabra SPORT bluetooth headphones. These are really nice, no strings (or wires) attached, and I get to give people something nice, SO HELP ME DO IT

Note #2: If you really want a pair of Jabras, you can bolster your odds at getting them or any of my other fabulous raffle prizes by donating to Eleonore Rocks. More prizes this week!

Yesterday I wasn’t very hungry when I woke up so I ate a small breakfast. For lunch I had a sandwich and a banana and felt full. I drank about 60 ounces of liquids throughout the day, including some gatorade.

Around 4 PM I took Stanley for my 30 minute run. An hour later I did my 1200 yard swim. By the time I got to the arena to watch Rachelle’s team play, I was starving. I ate not 1, not 2, but 3 sandwiches from the food counter, drank a powerade and a water, and was still starving. I took time between each sandwich to make sure I wasn’t just thirsty or craving. I drank another 20 ounces of water, and waited an hour before giving in and grabbing some fast food. I was deliberate, eating slowly again and thankfully I finally wasn’t hungry. I wound up only eating a few french fries and drinking about 4 – 6 ounces of soda, with exactly 1 small bite of the burger before I stopped eating. It was probably 3 extra points that I wish I hadn’t eaten but I was doing the right things and listening to my bodies needs. I think I need to increase my electrolyte intake during the earlier parts of the day and while I’m on my run to prevent this.

I’m really proud that knowing how to properly attack this kind of response from my body paid off in that I didn’t wind up devouring a cheeseburger, which as you all know is my weakness. While I’ve been mostly successful at avoiding food weaknesses and staying within points, I’m not happy with how my weight loss has been going. I have begun to notice small changes in my body, and I know this takes time. And I see from my training results I’m getting stronger/faster/better, I just need to stay with it.

Note #3: I’ve added a tracker that will display where I am in terms of fundraising. It’s off by $50 that will be coming via corporate matching, so I’m actually at $175 so far.

Note #1: PLEASE enter my giveaway for a set of Jabra SPORT bluetooth headphones. These are really nice, no strings (or wires) attached, and I get to give people something nice, SO HELP ME DO IT

Note #2: If you really want a pair of Jabras, you can bolster your odds at getting them or any of my other fabulous raffle prizes by donating to Eleonore Rocks.

It’s sad that as we watch sporting events these days that we can never be 100% sure that the result we saw was the right and just one.  A lot of sports have made changes to account for both human error (instant replay, coach challenges) and cheating (drug testing, improved rules regarding equipment and inspections, etc.) but sadly no system will every be perfect. The Super Bowl highlighted what’s working right (the instant replay on Manninghams amazing sideline catch), and the decisions made in the cycling world this weekend show what is still a long way from working right.

Late last week, the US Department of Justice dropped their case against Lance Armstrong. Wherever you believe about what Lance did or didn’t do, the DA in charge apparently felt that going to court on fraud charges against a rich popular athlete who is known as a cancer fighter over what will be portrayed as “did he or didn’t he dope 8 years ago, if he did who cares, shouldn’t we just let him go fight cancer?” by LiveStrong and their fans wasn’t a good idea especially in light of the failures of the recent doping cases. The information made available as part of the investigation certainly seemed that there was enough to go to court. Whether that case would have led to prosecution is hard to say but bringing to light the systemic doping and how it was/may still be supported by the teams themselves couldn’t have been a bad thing. The fact that the USADA believes there’s enough evidence to continue their case says it may not be the last we’ve heard of the Armstrong doping inquiry.

And just today, the Court of Arbitration in Sport handed down their decision on the Alberto Contador doping case from his 2010 Tour de France victory; and he’s been stripped of that victory and all since, and he’s been suspended retroactively from the date of his original suspension. You might be thinking, “well, they caught him and in the end, the rules UCI set were followed, what’s the problem?” The problem is that it took 566 days from the original date of testing to finally announce the findings. That means Contador has won multiple races, including a Grand Tour in that period, races where the results are now all inaccurate, confusing to fans, and it just doesn’t make sense to have these cases drag on this long. Maybe Contador didn’t dope, but the presence of plasticizers in his blood, even while that test is not fully established in the UCI rules tells me there’s a good chance he was. And the rule on Clenbuterol is a clear one, any finding is a positive test. I guess the win for Contador is that because it took so long for the suspension to occur, he only has to sit out 5 months from today and could race big races at the end of the season, considering he knew the CAS ruling would likely go against him all along. He’s clearly a passionate rider who loves the sport so hopefully he’ll ride clean going forward.

Speaking of winning, I won something myself on Friday, a facebook contest from Performance bike for a box each of (24) PowerBar gels and (12) PowerBar energy chews. I should get them quickly as Performance Bike is HQ’ed here in the Raleigh area. I’ll be adding one of the two boxes to the raffle and keeping the other for Rach and I to train with. I was pretty excited because there’s nothing like free stuff, whether you keep it or give it away.

And in the hard work catergory I had another good week of training capped off by a 25 mile ride on Saturday. The first 20 miles I averaged 15 MPH, the last 5 were a bit more of a struggle, but I still managed close to 15 and more importantly I felt pretty good throughout the ride. My training this week is very similar to last week, with just a little more time spent running.

Note #1: PLEASE enter my giveaway for a set of Jabra SPORT bluetooth headphones. These are really nice, no strings (or wires) attached, and I get to give people something nice, SO HELP ME DO IT

Note #2: If you really want a pair of Jabras, you can bolster your odds at getting them or any of my other fabulous raffle prizes by donating to Eleonore Rocks.

My coach Colleen “Dr. Pain” Kelley, PhD is a perfectly nice person. Except that I’m pretty sure she’s trying to kill me. I’m not sure why, either, especially considering I’m giving her money each month. I thought it was protection money, but I’m either not giving her enough, or maybe she thinks I’ve taken a hit out on myself.  Either way the results have been time consuming, often painful, and AWESOME! Between my Garmin, a couple indoor workouts on my road trip, and my Swimsense it looks like I did 185.5 miles of training last month. That’s maybe not my peak month ever, but it’s gotta be close, and the fact that it happened in January is really exciting!

A few folks have been asking about what I’m actually doing in training. I don’t feel comfortable in publishing my training plan as a whole, as that is Dr.Pain’s work product, and I’m already deathly afraid of her as it is, the last thing I want is an angry Dr. Pain (Fact: Dr. Pain never needs a heater, her blood is constantly boiling). What I am going to do is share a few workout details here and there, and through the magic of the internet link my Garmin and (hopefully I can figure it out) my Swimsense to the blog with widgets so you can keep tabs on my training.

An example of some of the inhumane treatment I’m getting from Dr. Pain was my swim workout from Wednesday, a progression of pain, suffering, and humiliation so grotesque (and Im not just talking about my back hair) that no photos were allowed. The set went 100 200 300 400 300 200 100 with each set being done on just 20 seconds rest. It’s now Friday, and my arms are still sore.  Seriously though, the workouts have been great and I’m really happy with the progress and I’m now down 8 pounds since the beginning of the year. I really felt like I let a bunch of people who donated, and most importantly myself, down last year with my lack of discipline when it came to my diet and my training last year. This year I’m happy to report that a lot of the enthusiasm, positive attitude and discipline I was able to muster in 2010 has resurfaced, and in fact redoubled. I still have days I have to drag myself out the door, especially on running days, but after missing only 1 workout in all of January (because the pool was closed) I’m definitely feeling like I’ve got a handle on this thing.

Not to mention, I’m feeling stronger (I’m down to 1:30 walk/1 run intervals, with 1/1 coming soon), faster (15 miles yesterday on hilly roads at 15+ MPH) and healthier (only fast food has been during travel).

PS. I won a raffle prize of some skincare stuff from one of my friends contests, and once I try it out, I’ll be telling you about it. And I have a new truly unique device designed to help relieve stress that Rach will be helping me review as well that I found at CES.

I have weird ears. Rachelle would say they don’t work half the time, whenever she’s asking me to clean something. But just between you and me (she says she reads all my blog posts, but I don’t buy it), I can hear just fine. In fact, I’ve been reviewing high end audio products for Gaming Nexus for years. I’ve reviewed more surround sound earphones for video games than I can count. That’s why whenever I get a chance to review an audio product for sports, I’m all over it.

I learned about Jabra SPORT headphones during my trip to CES this year. Even after meeting me,  the folks from Jabra were kind enough to send me out a review unit which I have been putting through its paces on all of my runs. I’ve broken my review down into a few key sections that I think are the important aspects of sport headphones:

• Fit: As I mentioned above, I have weird ears. Most earbuds will not stay properly in my left ear. The bottom rim of my Concha in my left ear is significantly larger than my right which paired with my less pronounced Tragus means that most earbuds don’t fit well unless they’re jammed in my ear pretty firmly which can get uncomfortable especially on longer runs. This means a lot of earbuds don’t work for me, because I’ll be running along and suddenly the left earphone will pop out. I found that 2 of the design features of the Jabra sport helped prevent that.

• First, they have an over-ear design. This is likely primarily due to the need to store electronics for the bluetooth functionality (which I’ll get to later), but gives the earphone additional purchase on the ear without adding much weight and no discomfort.
• Second, as with many modern high end headphones, the Jabra SPORTs come with 2 extra sets of “Ultimate Comfort Eargels” which are the rubber pads that go around the bud itself. Changing to the medium sized one in my left ear really gave it the additional staying power I needed on that side. Once I made that change. I found them to be very comfortable and they stayed in place as I ran, which as a big guy is quite a jarring experience

Left ear has size 2 eargel, while right shows size 1

• Bluetooth: In case you’ve been training for your races in a cave, bluetooth is a wireless technology designed to transmit data over short distances, using very little power. Those two components make it a good fit for wireless headphones. Now I see you raising an eyebrow and thinking “But Ben, I see wires in the bottom of the picture just above where you said wireless”. That’s true, you do. While bluetooth is relatively low power, having to send data to two receivers, and therefore two batteries is a far more challenging proposition from a cost and battery life perspective. Most bluetooth headphone makers (Jabra included) get around this by connecting the 2 earpieces together, allowing the system to run off  one receiver and one battery.
  

  The cord connecting the earpieces is plenty long for even my big head

• Pairing: With Bluetooth, you have to “pair” your receiver to whatever device is transmitting (in this case my HTC G2 smartphone), and with the Jabras it’s pretty simple. The instructions vary based on which device you’re using to transmit but from the earphones it’s just powering them on and holding down a button until your device recognizes it. There are audio cues from the headset to let you know when it’s connected.
• Data transfer: When they say Bluetooth is designed for short distances they mean it. With the receiver in the right earpiece, you’ll want to keep the transmitting device on the right side of your body and at minimum above your waist. I found putting it in my shorts pocket led to a lot of interrupted songs. When I used my H2OAudio Amphibx Fit armband, or when I put the phone in the breast pocket of my cool weather workout shirt, I had no problems.
• Battery life: So far this has been the only shortcoming I’ve experienced, if you can call it that. Right now, I’m getting about 2 1/2 hours of battery life out of what I think is a full charge, which is just slightly less than the package advertises. The Jabra SPORT uses a flashing vs. solid LED to indicate full charge, but it would be nice if it utilized they audio cue system to tell you relative charge other than at “low battery” which it will tell you. Most of my runs are plenty short as to not be effected for now, but as I up my distance as I get closer to my 140.6, the battery life issues may become more pressing.

Volume, power, and linking controls are all on the right earpiece

 

• Sound Quality: Here’s an area which is generally pretty subjective to most folks, but I think can be quantified pretty simply. The maximum volume is more than loud enough to keep your focus on the music while still allowing outside sounds in like the honk of a car horn. The bass is strong enough that you get a good thump from the upbeat tempo tracks without being overpowered. And I didn’t notice any tin-ny sound from the high end with volume maxed, which is generally an easy indicator of inexpensive drivers. That should me a decent lifespan for the audio portion of the electronics.

Overall, I have to say I’ve been pretty happy with the Jabra SPORT headphones. Not having to worry about the hassle of the cord from my phone to my earbuds or having it disconnect when I stop to tie a shoe I think more than compensates for the limits placed on listening time due to the battery life of the receiver. Especially when you consider what portion of your workouts in a given season are 3 hours or less, it certainly diminishes the battery life as a serious design defect. In closing, I give the Jabra SPORT Bluetooth pretty high marks (3.75 out of 4 trees) and that most users will be very happy with the Jabras as their primary training headphones.

Which is why I’m happy to be giving away a pair! Jabra is providing me with a pair to give away, as well as a pair to include in the raffle. You have several ways to enter below. This is my first go at using Rafflecopter, so I’m hoping it works! You have until Monday 2/6/12 at midnight to enter!

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