ZenTri Podcast 535 - Rollin' Dirty

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On this episode of ZenTri, I take you with me mountain biking, open water swimming, cover some tri news, and answer a few important questions.  Namely, "How do I know when I'm a triathlete?"

On the mountain biking front, above is a picture of how dirty my legs got after three hours of riding on the trails at Lake Bryan.  Look closely and you'll also see a trickle of blood running down my right shin.  Nearly killing yourself is what makes you feel really alive.

Below is a photo of my Jamis Durango 29er.  It's slowly falling apart with the abuse.  The seat comes loose after 30 minutes and the shifting is more like a game of Russian roullette than choosing gears.

I mention on the show how much Kai is kicking ass on the bike.  I shot this while on our father-son ride.

I'm thinking that pretty soon these will be son-father rides where I'm shouting at him to slow down and reminding him how I changed his diapers so he better respect all I've done for him.  He probably will be so far ahead, he can't hear me and I'm really just mumbling to myself.  

My good buddy Marty Weiner dropped by on his cross-country motorcycle tour and stayed with us for a couple of days.  ZenTriNurse (A.K.A. Emily) got a ride on his Honda 1300.  That thing is quite a bike!  

As you can see, ZenTriNurse is easy pickins' for guys on motorcycles.  If Marty had lots of tattoos, she'd probably be gone forever.  

Marty mentioned on the show this NPR special about training response, genes, and environment. I enjoyed it a lot.  Give it a listen when you can.  Lots of good stuff in there.

I also went on a rant about how somebody (SUUNTO!) needs to make a single-side pedal power meter and charge half as much as Garmin does for the Vector.  You can check out the Vector power meter news here. 

To help explain my point about how you only need one side, here is DCRainmakers review of the Stages single crank-arm power meter that works just fine.

Lastly, here is the article about PowerTap dropping it's price by $500.

Enough with the gear and tech news!  Let's wrap this up with a nice jog with Kona, our black lab. 

Ahhh... happiness!

Stay safe out there.  

Your Inner Voice is the Teapot Whistle

When a teapot whistles, it is not the whistle that is the problem; it is the boiling water.  The whistle just serves as a reminder to take the pot off the stove.

The chatter in your head serves the same purpose.  The chatter isn't the problem; it's just the brain's way of telling you there are things going on that you need to pay attention to.

Unfortunately, we start to believe that inner voice is real.  It sounds real, right?  And what is even more comical is when your inner voices start arguing with each other.  "You forgot to pack lunch! Well, maybe I should skip lunch?  No, skipping lunch is a bad idea!" Seriously? Now there's three of you in there.

All that inner voice talk is your brain taking reality and putting words to it, so you can start to categorize and deal with problems now that they have names.  That's it, that's all.  Just like you don't argue with the teapot whistle, you don't need to argue with the voices.  Instead, simply use them as indicators that you have a problem to work on.  Figure out what the problem actually is (boiling water), then get to work.

Another way to look at is to see your inner voice as a slightly crazy roommate you have to share your head with.  You don't have to believe everything he says, but you should look for patterns of conversation to enlighten you to what's going on outside.

One path to inner peace is to pay attention to what that inner voice is saying, but don't take it as truth.  Its more primal and functions like an alarmist, a product of life-or-death evolution.  Instead, use it to tell you where you ought to pay more attention, like a guide telling you where to shine your flashlight.  This helps you find what is causing the stormy waters so you can either eliminate them or sail around.

Solved? Not Exactly.

I was reading a section of the most recent Triathlete Magazine, where they tell you how to fix common problems.  The problem is posed, followed by "SOLVED:" and a fix.  Nice.  But you can't solve all your problems.  New ones will just pop up in their place.

You are performing at your current level because of the problems keeping you there.  Solve them and move up a level, and then get different problems.  You could solve your racing nutrition problems and win an Ironman.  Ok, next new problem - Quit work and live on nearly nothing with terrible health insurance or keep working and provide for you and your entire family.  Another example - Lots of problems in triathlon can be solved with better equipment. New problem - how will you pay for that?  Oof.

The alternative? Embrace your problems and enjoy working through them.  They are your problems, after all. And learn that you can't make them go away without changing how you operate, and that change comes with its own new set of challenges.

There is no "solved" in triathlon (or life).  At best it's, "Welcome to the next level. Now run like Hell."

ZenTri Podcast 534 - Road Rash is Cool

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Kids can give us grown ups a lesson in how to be a bad ass.  They get knocked around and get right back up.  Here is Kai showing me how proud he is of his bloody elbow after a bike wreck.  I told him that he is able to look at it that way because of how he was raised.  I put him on a bike at age two.  When he fell down and started crying, I would put the bike back under him and say, "Big boys can cry all they want, but they cry on the bike.  Get right back on the bike."  Even though I got a lot of squinty-eyed looks from Emily for that, it's paid off.  He's as tough as nails.  Little nails, but still... nails.  Ok, maybe thumbtacks.

On this episode, we cover a lot of ground.  Nurse Emily tells us how to take care of road rash, I give you a Swimming Workout of the Week, and I detail how to get an epic amount of training volume with a busy family and full-time job.

Back to our regularly scheduled blog post, above is a pic I took of the cockroach races that happen in my pool's locker room.  I wish I could say this was a one-time event.  Unfortunately, not so much.

Out on the trails, I shot a pic of how a Suunto Ambit looks on a mountain bike -

The cool thing here is that you only need to buy one training computer, and then you can move it between bikes, runs, kayaks, airplanes, and probably even sex dungeons.  I don't know if the Ambit has "sex dungeon mode", but I tend to underestimate it's abilities.  I'm not sure what that mode would measure, but the graph would certainly be interesting to check out.

On with more graphs and measuring, below is a screen shot of the Sweet Beat app running on my iPhone.  It calculates HRV, or Heart Rate Variability.

I have been talking about this HRV stuff a lot on my recent shows.  This app measures HRV and graphs for you how well you are recovering and if you should keep training or not.  I love it.  What I don't love is having to additionally use a Wahoo HR strap, an ANT+ adapter, an additional Steve Jobsian "We changed the port shape so now you'll need another adapter for your ANT+ adapter" adapter, (Welcome to the Apple Ecosystem Sex Dungeon - you can't leave) and then the waiting-for-three-minutes-for-it-to-work-while-you-have-to-stand-still-and-breathe-all-weird part.  It's at that point where I'm thinking, "This is all a little too much."

Adapter.

Podcast Episode 533 - Bacon and Eggs

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(My bike taking a break on the long ride from the podcast.)

We cover a lot of ground on this episode. After a quick reintroduction for new listeners about who I am, I play a clip from This Week in Tech where Dan Benjamin talks about his failing health in spite of being vegetarian.

It was really unusual, but also familiar to me as a triathlete that eats tons of carbs.  I have no opinion about it, mostly because I am not sure of it myself.  Interesting listen for sure.

(Typical sunset on latest evening runs)

I also talk about how triathletes swim/bike/run versus how single-sporters swim/bike/run.  Here's the article that I mention that outlines the differences.

Beets?  Anybody say beeeeeeeeeets?  I just struck up a relationship with Beet It, who makes beet juice shots.  Here's why.

And finally, here's a video of the smoke ring I talked about on the podcast when a transformer blew up...

And as always, lots of other goodies inside.  Everybody stay safe out there and enjoy!