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.

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.