Dude swims Everest, ZenTri swims Lake Travis

How do you swim Everest?  No, you don't swim up the mountain; you swim across the lake just below the peak.  Lewis Pugh swam 1000 meters in water just above freezing at an altitude of 17,388 ft.  Holy crap, that's nuts.

Want to do something crazy but maybe just a tad warmer? Join the ZenTri gang at Lake Travis in Austin this weekend for a lot of open-water swimming!  We'll be at Windy Point park, swimming around both mornings, and also cruising way out on paddleboards for some bigger mileage and adventure.

If you want to join in, throw down some comments after this post and we'll make sure we meet up.

Also, there's bound to be some biking and running around Austin after the swimming.  I'll be there most of the weekend, so come hang out!

Rodgers Wins TOC, "Eric" Wins Tons of Hornet Juice

The contest to see who wins some of my ridiculous over-supply of HJ is over, and "Eric" wins.  Well, "Bob" actually won, but he cheated by breaking the ZenTri Rules of Entrytude, so "Eric" gets the dubious award of "First Loser".  

Whoever you are, "Eric", and if you're really real, I need your address so I can mail this powdered power to you.  Send it to texafornia at gmail.com with a subject line that looks interesting.  "Hi." is not as likely to get read as, "That $%&* HJ is MINE!" or even worse better, "Does this look infected to you?"

The contest was about guessing who would win the Tour of California.  Surprisingly under-represented was bids for a certain Mr. Armstrong, which is all the better because he's having some trouble staying upright.  Hey, it happens to all of us.  Still, maybe he could take some lessons from this guy:

Podcast - How to Get Faster with Pro John Hirsch

Hey there, Tri-studs and studdettes!  This episode of ZenTri has some great training info: How to get faster with pro triathlete John Hirsch.  Join in and listen to us talk about how to get the job done and then stick around for some news and Zen.

Shownotes:

• Turn your base into speed with tips from Pro Triathlete John Hirsch.
• Out on the bike; A four-hour Zone 2 ride.
• Performance of the week.
• News.
• Zen tips on "Wise Effort".

Click HERE to listen!

Hornet Juice Contest... Contest WINNER!

I think we should have a contest to guess the winning times of upcoming races and events. It's impartial and objective. Closest wins.

Cool idea, Patrick! You got yourself some free HJ.  Send me an email at Texafornia on gmail with your address and I'll send some your way.  

Ok, first race is the Tour of California.  I'm starting a thread in the forums where people can put their best guess HERE.  The winner has to pick the overall final tour winner and how much they beat the second place guy by the end of the day today.  Picking the right winner gets you in the running, then whoever gets the time difference the closest wins.

An example entry looks like this: "Zabriskie - 33 seconds."  The time doesn't win you anything unless you also get the person correct.

Winner gets 30 packets of HJ, delivered to their door.  And let's keep this U.S. and Canada only so I don't have to get a loan to ship this stuff out.

Runner's High Gone? Here's How to Get It Back!

I noticed I got a really good "runner's high" (endorphin rush) from a swim workout yesterday.  I was a little floaty/buzzy/satiated for a couple hours after leaving the pool.  I posted as such on Twitter, and got a comment back from somebody saying that he doesn't get the buzz from running like he used to, and he misses it.  Well, there's some tricks to it that can help you get it back.

First off, let's look at the science of runner's high for a minute.  It's a release of feel-good chemicals in your body, ones that closely resemble heroin, after working out hard for around 45 minutes.  I know it's hitting me on a run because that's the point where I comedically and falsely start believing that I'm actually a fantastic runner and also could fight a bear and win.  

So why did I get a buzz off of the swimming and why did our Twitter friend quit getting a buzz off of his running?  I seems the answer in this case is in the intensity of the workouts.  I've been including a lot of butterfly in my swimming lately, and this was my first swim where I did the 'fly on an interval.  I ended up pushing really hard on the 'fly for quite a long time.  Butterfly is an intrinsically difficult stroke, which everybody knows was invented by double-jointed aqua-clowns with a penchant for symmetry and oxygen deprivation.  There's the intensity that the science-dudes were talking about.

Now our Twitter friend said that he kept running longer and longer to chase that high, but he hasn't been able to recapture it for a long time.  This is where the science-dudes would say, "Longer isn't the answer.  You need to increase your intensity, my friend." As they stroke their long white Zen beards.

Of course there's lots more to the runner's story than just a 140 character answer on Twitter.  But generally speaking, if you are missing or never experienced a runner's high, you just need to up the intensity of your workouts for the first hour and you'll be in bliss again.  You can mix in some speed intervals in your run or just steal something from somebody that just a tad bigger and faster than you... and run for your life.  If you live, you'll feel great.