Racing Tip - Racing Number Strategies

Speeding up your transition is considered "free time". It takes almost no training; just smarts. Let's look at a familiar culprit - the racing number.

• Use a race belt already. Safety pinning it to your shirt has NOOB written all over it.


• Put it on before the race, adjust it to where you like, then step out of it without undoing the buckle. When you come out of the water, you can slide it right on without fiddling with clips.


• Crumple the race number and then flatten it out. The wrinkles prevent it from flapping in the wind and irritating the hell out of you.


• I place mine in my helmet or across my shoes. Doing so keeps me from forgetting it. Placing things in your way is a strategy many people use to remember important things. For example, if you have something you don't want to forget on your way out the door in the morning, put in in the way of the door so that you have to move it to open the door. Also, don't put things on top of your car. Put them on the hood. They'll be right in your line of sight so you don't drive off without them.

Training Tip - Check your Tires for Glass Before Every Ride.

Flats suck. Everybody knows that. But what everybody doesn't know is that you can prevent most of them.

Here's why:

• Most flats are caused by little bits of glass.


• These little bits usually take plenty of miles to work themselves through the tires and into the tube.


• Checking your tires before you ride often finds these shards before they flat your tire.

Here's how:

• Turn off the lights and very slowly turn your tire with a flashlight pointed at it.


• Glass will glint in the light, showing you were it is.


• Pick out the glass, go riding!

It is important to remember that the second leading cause of flats is too low tire pressure. Check your tires for proper inflation before every ride. Also, I use a headlamp to check for glass and keep my hands free.

If you suspect that you just rode through glass, you can use your bike glove to "wipe" the tires while still moving. This is easy on the front, difficult on the back. Sometimes it's simply worth it to get off the bike, spin the tires, and knock the glass off. Compare 30 seconds of doing that vs. 10 minutes and money spent on a new tube and CO2 instead.

Training Tip - Chocolate Milk Recovery Drink is as Good as Steroids

There was a study done a few years ago that showed that runners given good old chocolate milk after a hard workout were able to go something like 20 to 30% farther before fatiguing the next day than the control group.

After much Zentri Science (patented), I concluded the following:

1. What benefit does steroids, EPO, and all that other crap give athletes? 5%? 10%. It's a lot, but is it 20 to 30%? Most certainly not.


2. Isn't this sh*t legal?


3. Isn't this sh*t sold in every convenience store on every street corner?

I've been using it for several years now and it flat out works. I slam a nice cold glass of homemade chocolate milk after every hard workout and the next day I'm able to push hard, yet again. Sure, I'm sore. But I'm not deep down sore and I can push through it no problem.

I save the Hornet Juice for special occasions, such as demolishing Jetpack in an Ironman or destroying Drew in our upcoming Cyclocross Dethmatch (details coming soon.)

The dudes in the lab coats say that chocolate milk works because it has the perfect sugar to protein ratio to get the right stuff to your muscles to repair them quickly. For best results, drink within 15 minutes of finishing your workout. To be honest, some of the timing stuff is still up in the air. This is all new and a pleasant surprise, so they're still trying to decide if it's best before, during, or after the workout.

Just the other day I ended a run at a friend's house and he asked if I wanted any ice water or gatorade. I asked if he had chocolate milk. He had hershey's syrup and lowfat milk. Perfect. That's exactly what I use at home. Like I said, it's everywhere.

Motivation

Sometimes you need something to pull yourself out of the same-old training routines and kick it into high gear. I use races.

I tell people all the time that staying fit is easy. Just sign up for a race a few times a year and train for them. There's nothing like almost doing your best to show you that you could train just a little harder.

And pushing yourself to race pace is a killer workout. You'll go back to training faster and stronger.

I stumbled across the picture of that cat going haywire on the bologna and immediately thought "Wow, he's motivated. He's almost got it in his mouth and isn't going to let go NO MATTER WHAT." How do you think of yourself during race day or your hard workouts? Like that cat?

In this podcast, I talk about how my recent races motivated me and much more. I take you with me on my run to work, motivated to get there before my boss get's pissed that I'm late. I also cover a bunch of other topics, so join in for the fun!

SHOWNOTES!

• Walking out the door, running to work on Bike to Work Day.


• Voicemail from Coach Adam.


• Confessions of a Runner is Listening to Zentri.


• How to organize your clothes for running to work.


• Urban Adventure Running rules.


• Soapbox Alert! People wasting water.


• The simplicity of running to work is Oh So Zen.


• Running times are getting much faster because of running to work.


• Crossfit is the sh*t!


• My new Prison Workout: Pullups, pushups, squats, situps, bucket lifts (with bricks in them). As many as you can do in 25 minutes.

• Been doing local bike time trials, crushing my Max HR.


• Current training schedule.


• Poison ivy making me look awesome. Mostly.


• Bike commuting audio from Drew.


• Cyclocross Deathmatch?


• Texafornia attacks a rabbit.


• Kai gets a Trail-a-bike.


• Weiner dog attacks Texafornia.


• Electric cars for kids are The Devil.


• Check out our new LED xmas light fireplace!

• Big thanks to Kembery for the donation, McNitt, Ken Seals, and Morgan for blog help.


• Voicemails!


• DethChatter announces reunion and world tour! DethChatter.blogspot.com.

Nutrition is for Slow People

I was taking a visual stroll through one of my favorite runner's blogs - Anton Krupicka - and was reminded again of our inferiority to such a running dynamo.  Take a gander at this:

"Wed-AM: 30 miles (4:00) Jones Park-7 Bridges Loop+Monument loops and barefoot ~4000' vertical
Rainy all day, so I didn't get out until almost noon. Slow at first, but then I felt good on the climb up 666 so I just went for it and decided to do the full loop because I was having so much fun. Above Capn Jacks there was new snow on the trail (that my NB 152s weren't so happy navigating) and there was rain coming down, but I had a blast. Kinda bonked the last 30 minutes or so because I didn't take any gels or water (did have a muffin for breakfast, though)."

Kinda bonked?  No water or gels for 30 miles? 4000 feet of vertical climbing near Boulder, CO?

The day I can go just 10 miles on a muffin, well...  I don't know.   Insane.