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.

The Other Half of Crashing

I can't seem to find a picture of Tom Boonen's road rash from yesterday's crash (please post a link in the comments if you find one), but the carnage from stage one of the Tour of California was spectacular.

Amazingly, nobody was seriously injured.  That is some real luck when you're racing in a tight pack and hit the pavement doing 35 mph wearing spandex and a styrofoam lid.

I assume the race directors forced the race to go around a tight circuit multiple times at the finish to make it more spectator friendly.  Some could view it as sacrificing the safety of the riders to get more eyeballs, but that's part of the spectacle of racing.  Nobody knows how awesome you are unless they see it.

From a training perspective, I wanted to point out the finish of stage 2.  Crash victims Boonen and Hincapie finished far behind where they should have, presumably because of the crash injuries, both physical and mental.  Boonen was back by 15 minutes, which is eons in pro cycling.

This serves as testimony as to the effect crashing has on your performance, even when you don't get injured.  It shakes you, it makes you second-guess, and it often makes you crash again.  Not only that, but the effects can last for days up to a lifetime.

Some crashing is good, if you take it in stride and as a learning experience.  Crashing teaches you the limits of you and your gear's performance, so you know how far you can push it before risking your neck.  Show me somebody who's never crashed and I'll show you somebody who's not aware of their full potential.

But back to the title of this post, the other half of crashing is that it can negatively impact your training/fitness/health for far longer than you think.  A safe ride without a crash today is another day of great training tomorrow.

HJ Contest Idea... Contest!

Our good friends at Hornet Juice sent me this huge box of HJ to have fun with.  It's contest time!  Leave your idea for an HJ contest idea in the comments and the one that gets picked will win 30 packets of HJ.

I'm looking for a contest idea where it's repeatable and we can give away around 30 packets a week until it is all gone.

Are your Friends holding you back?

One of the most common issues that keeps triathletes from "breaking through" and actually getting fast is their habit of working out too much with friends.

The problem is not so much the working out, but the not working out because of an over-dependence on friends and the lack of follow-through when others do not show up or are late.

For the sake of this converstation, let's call this type "CDTs", or "Co-Dependent Triathletes".

The most self-destructive kind of CDT is the one that will not workout alone. He or she has decided that there must be a second person around with which to exercise. Aligning of their schedules gets tough and workouts happen at a frequency far below the CDTs potential. This is simply psychological issue that the CDT must get over.

Far more common is when the CDT self-sabotages his workouts by delaying or cancelling the workout because of a friend's schedule. This can manifest in three ways: First, the CDT makes the workout later in the day to fit the friend's schedule. Second, the friend is late, and the CDT sits around waiting. Third, the friend can't make it and the CDT decides the whole workout is lost and does not work out at all.

The cold hard truth is that you can not be a decent triathlete when you behave like the above examples. There is simply too much time lost in a sport where good time management makes the difference between triathletes that have potential and fail and triathletes that are able to use their potential and succeed.

Here are a series of cures to help break free of these bad habits, varying from good to best:

Good - Get started working out without the tardy friends. Do not wait. Go ahead and put on those running shoes, hop in the pool, or mount that bike and get started. Your friends will soon realize that you actually want to succeed and will start showing up on time.

Better - If they are slower than you, go on ahead and keep doubling back to check on them. You get in your workout and they get in theirs.  

Best - Get your own gear that allows you to train when you have time. Instead of waiting for spin class on Tuesday, get your ride in on a trainer at your house today. Save the social workouts for when they happen to coincide with your already established workout schedule that benefits you, not everybody else.  It is you that you are training to get to the finish line, not all your buddies.

Waiting on other people is a huge "time suck" that causes a huge amount of undue stress in the rest of your life. Get the job done in the most streamlined manner possible and you will have more time to enjoy with your family and at your job.  

Have any tips for others on how to get people to show up on time or become more independent? Please share them in the comments.