German Chocolate

Ever wonder what really goes on in an Ironman's training weekend in the peak of the summer? I take you through a typical training session of heat, miles, gatorade, and leaving hate-mails on competitors' phones. I've got audio from call-ins, biking in the Texas sun, and hanging out in the pool parking lot. It's the triathlete lifestyle, unveiled.Shownotes!

• Voicemail - Keith in Montana, 51, did 51 of all three sports. He loves german chocolate cake and used my podcast spread the love.

• Picture of BMC loaded up for a ride. Click on picture to get full diagram of how it's loaded (Drift mouse across pic on linked page.)

• I call Jetsack with some haterade.

4.	Haterade	160 up, 34 down
	noun; a fictional beverage, parodying the popular sports drink 'gatorade', purportedly consumed by individuals who are jealous of others, supposedly fueling their ability to be jelous of, or 'hate on', others. Damn, B, quit hittin' on dat haterade and let a playa' play.

• Out riding in the Tex-ass heat. Had to stop because of getting dizzy.


• Voicemail - Luke calling from Minnesota... did his first oly. Will be at IM MOO on a black BMW motorcycle.


• I roll over 112 miles on tape.


• Local coach is trying to get me to swim competitively next year. Long course, baby!


• Deep dish rims suck because of all the valve stem issues.


• Voicemail - Tri-Rob talks about my birthday, being nominated, calling from Eugene, post race depression...


• If your workout ends up a bust, at least try to learn something from it.


• Write your workout on paper and then wrap it in packing tape to keep it from getting sweaty.


• My Suunto rocks my face off. It's built to military specs, ya'll.


• The best sunglasses for biking are polarized driving lenses. You can get them cheap at a drugstore.


• I knock back a chocolate milk and a Pete's Wicked Ale.


• How to bike by using intervals and wattage.


• The run/walk method works!


• How to have a good run finish.


• I've gotten really fast at running.


• Hanging out at the pool, losing weight like crazy.


• Richardson Bike Mart knows about Zentri.


• Voicemail from Stean in Dallas

Triathlon, the Universe, and Everything

Join me for a nice long Birthday Bike Ride as I take you along with me for 34 miles of two-wheeled goodness. This is an old-skool Zentri throwback - I blab about everything from racing to religion. You get all this plus a cool new promo, a voicemail, and audio of what it sounds like training at the Ironman level. Check out the show and don't forget to vote for us in the Podcast Awards!

Shownotes!

• Promo for Zentriathlon!


• Voicemail about training with Nike+ to improve running.


• Out on the bike, checking tires for glass.


• I'm out on my Birthday Ride!


• Pearl Izumi ad about finding dead people while running.


• Story about how my mother found a dead body while running.


• Picking a riding route based on workout goals.


• My normal riding route has "the twistiest highway in Texas" (FM 3090).


• I'm covered in poison ivy and chigger bites from trail running.


• Went to a meditation class, hung out with the teacher-lady and talked about enlightenment.


• Comparing religions is fun. How many do you really understand? What is their purpose?


• Killed a black widow spider in garage.


• How to keep a pet scorpion.


• What is enlightenment, anyway? Americans think it is the ability to levitate and do magic.


• There is no sin in Buddhism, just skillful and unskillful.


• What is Jainism?


• Tich nat han says enlightenment is appropriate response.


• You can be enlightened right now by practicing giving the appropriate response all the time.


• Phedippidations podcast is a cool running show. Love the sounds.


• What are your favorite sounds on Zentri?


• Vulnerability is nature's way of making humans pass on knowledge.


• Jeff Galloway method of run/walking is great for long distance training (I called it Gallows on the podcast. Derp.)


• Mike Ricci has us doing twice the length between walking. Which should I do?


• Lost 7 lbs in sweat when riding 4.5 hours at maximum effort last week. Burned 3000+ calories on that ride.

Chillin’ at the Disco

The summer heat and Ironman training in full-swing is making people just about lose their minds! Whether it is Jetpack struggling with a workout, triathletes arguing with each other, or my cycling buddy hurling a bike tool at a car, these are all signs that the intensity is getting to some of us.

I have just what you all need. This podcast is cooler than a polar bear wearing a frozen jock strap. I take audio of Emily, Triboomer, Kai and I at the Disco Triathlon in Dallas and lace it with some laid back tunes to help you relax and take this summer training in stride. Don't let the tri-training get you worked up. Throw on some 'phones, lay back in your favorite chair, and tap your toes to some of the chillin' tracks I laid down. Check out the show here or hit the play button and follow the notes below.
Shownotes!

• One of my buddies freaks out and throws his bike tool at a passing car. This is too much!


• "Suburbio Soul" from DJ Dolores. You can find it for only 99 cents at Calabash Music.


• Triboomer freaks us out with creepy song lyrics as we drive to the Disco Triathlon.


• "Relaxation Spa Treatment" from Dan the A utomator.


• Flats suck! Get yourself some good flat-proof racing and training tires called Gatorskins Ultra.


• Brett, Emily, Triboomer, and Dinger in the tranny area.


• "Sister Saviour" by The Rapture.

• Hate your iPod Shuffle docking station? Try out the Encipio Bud.
  


• Race finish, interviews, drive home.


• "DC 3000" by Thievery Corporation


• Call and leave the show a voice mail at 512-CRY-DELI


• Train nice and enjoy the summer.


• "Fake French" by Le Tigre


• Voice mails!
  

Cyclocross and Workout Supremacy

Ah, the pleasure of getting muddy! Join me for a ride on my new cyclocross bike as I take you for a jaunt through the woods and sling some dirt. I go for a 2.5 hour recovery ride on this beast as I talk about what cyclocross is, play an interview with Faris Al Sultan, listen to voicemails, and then deal a major slam to my arch-nemisis Jetpack. I finish it all off with a killer workout tune by Moving Atlas. If you like your workouts a little dirty, you have your order filled.

Shownotes!

• Aboard my Nishiki hybrid with 700 cm wheels, cruising through the muddy woods and running through creek bottoms.


• What is cyclocross?


• Using the Suunto t6 with GPS Puck. (Flawless!)


• Triboomer interviews Faris Al Sultan.


• Voicemail from Scott in NY.


• Voicemail from Cav in W.V., sounding like he's hopped up on goofballs.


• Weeeeeeaaaaak voicemail from Jetpack.


• I make fun of Jetpack by replaying his show with my own sound effects.

• Jetpack gets mad and calls back.


• I go to San Diego, swim two miles in the open ocean, and interview Unleashed after we run 6 miles with hippies.


• We love Rockin' Baja Lobster. Mostly.


• I busted my laptop by dropping it. New one rocks my face off.


• People start shooting weapons in their backyards. This is Texas, y'all.


• I smoke Jetpack in a virtual workout.


• I play Timer by Moving Atlas. These guys are a great band. Check out their link.

I Have Witnessed the Future

I'm reading a book by Marcus Buckingham titled "Go. Put Your Strengths to Work." Unlike triathlon, you should be using your strengths to get things done at work and not worry about improving your weaknesses. Improving what you're bad at is a waste of time, the reasoning goes, because you will only be slightly less bad, but still bad at what you just spent a lot of time trying to improve.

Marcus encourages us to find out what we are good at and use it to our benefit. This made me ponder what I'm actually good at (not the run portion of a triathlon) and I finally came up with one certainty: One of my strengths is using technology to do things in a new way. We can go on and on with listing things like podcasting, using wattage for training, and geocaching, but my new favorite is collaborating with coworkers to get things done using Google Documents.

While my coworker, Kevin, and I attended a software conference in San Diego, we had a intuitive flash of brilliance. The whole building is stocked with WiFi and we are taking notes on the lectures to bring back to fellow employees in Texas, so why don't we write all of our notes in Google Documents and share them with each other?

For the rest of the week, Kevin and I had a blast writing our notes into documents on Google's servers. Everything was saved as we typed it, we could see each others' edits, and I would occasionally get a message from him that I was writing stuff that he had already written and to not bother. I even dropped my computer on it's power plug port at the end of the week, effectively taking the whole machine out of service. No worries - everything was saved online. I also can fine tune my notes at home and then publish them at work, without ever having to move them around via email or thumb drive.

This workflow performed so well, it was like something out of the future. Ubiquitous WiFi and server-based apps made my job much easier than ever before. Just this morning my wife was asking questions about what we will do without a computer while I get it fixed. I told her "This isn't like last time the laptop died (a few years ago). Our email, bill payment, all my work stuff, even the software I'm using to post to this blog, it's all online." Sure, there's a bunch of things loaded on that laptop, like my music, podcast production, and workout software that I can't use, but we will survive for a few days or weeks.

Back to the book I'm reading - Marcus says one of the identifiers of your strengths is that you enjoy doing it. You are so adept at it, it seems effortless. Remember when I said Kevin and I "had a blast" writing notes in Google Documents? That's how I know one of my strengths is adopting new technology to get work done.

What are some of your strengths?