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Sunday, January 31, 2016 at 3:33PM 
Luke Tyburski comes back to talk about how he finished his 12 day triathlon; "The Ultimate Triathlon." Also, knucklelights, habit building, Guru bikes, Cannonade and Potts news, and much more.
Friday, October 23, 2015 at 8:15AM
Welcome to the self-supported Ultraman show, also known as "The Ultrababy!"
With the help of many friends and family, I went out and did a 6.2 mile swim, followed by a 93.6 mile bike ride, slept, then did a 176.5 mile bike ride, slept again, and then did a double marathon. All-in-all, I went 328.8 miles.
The second half of the double marathon is where the heat finally hit me hard, but my spirits were boosted when Kai pulled up next to me on the bike with this sign he made all by himself -
This show is co-hosted (attacked?) by none other than Spartan Ultra Beast Masters champion and pro triathlete John Hirsch. He adds lots of flair and insight, posing some really cool questions I wouldn't have thought of on my own. Thanks, man!
Back to the "race", below is the setup of my bike for the two bike rides. I was going through about 2 liters of water and fuel per hour to try to keep cool. It was crazy!
I picked the hilliest routes I could find here in College Station, but I couldn't quite match the part where they literally ride up a volcano. But let me tell you, the HEAT. Oh, the heat. Holy crap. Texas has that in spades. I went an extra 8.8 miles on the bike to try to make up for the elevation gain difference. (Keepin' it real out of respect.) And we had a high of 95 degrees, no clouds with full Sun, and powerful humidity during the double marathon. Also, I found out after the fact that my run route had nearly twice the elevation gain of Hawaii's. I didn't notice it too much because it was still relatively flattish, but I was just trying to keep moving forward at that point anyway.
Brian Brode and Kai both helped out a ton. I needed to get in a shot of them together at the lake before the swim started.
About a dozen parents and kids ran parts of the run with me, marking the aid station driveway with chalk as we did loops around the neighborhood. It's tradition!
There is LOTS more about what this was like inside the show, so tune in! And I will go over tips and tricks in Part 2 next episode so you can get some ideas on how to do your own epic event.
Thanks and stay safe!
Monday, November 17, 2014 at 3:13PM
For the 10th annual Ironbaby, Phil Smith and I headed out to do a full 140.6, totally self-supported. We ended up doing 141.1 miles in total. Do they make a sticker for that?
Above is the swim start at Lake Bryan. We had to swim beyond the fog on the far side and all the way back.
Water temps were great. I measured them the day before at arount 68 degerees F.
Being a good RD and measuring the water temps the day before Ironbaby...
After the swim, we changed into our biking gear in a parking lot. Air temperature was around 50 degrees.
Kai took an "art pic" of my bike while I was swimming and filtered it to black and white. Not bad for 10 years old!
The bike course was beautiful! I really enjoyed it, looking forward to hosting Ultrababy next year. The pic is a little blurry, but I'm still looking fast in my Amrita kit.
There is a bison ranch on the bike route. Pretty cool to see the buffalo out cruising around.
With the bike over, it was time to head out on the run. I changed into regular running clothes and added a bandana for extra sun protection. We had beer on tap for the fans and friends and lots of kids came by to hang out, too.
The run is nine laps of a three-mile loop. Another aid station is at the far end, making for water and food every 1.5 miles. Tradition is to mark the driveway with sidewalk chalk every time you make a lap.
I got a little sick and ended up doing the run/walk thing for a 13 hour finish. In the podcast there is audio of Kai and I running together across the finish line.
Phil finished a little while later. They dragged me out of bed (still feeling sick) and got this funny photo.
Big thanks to New Republic Brewery for helping out with being the aid station on the far end of the bike course this year! This is a pic of us stopping by the day before the race to "inspect" the course.
It was a great day and the course was fantastic. I still need to work on drinking more water with my fuel to keep from getting sick on the run. Lots of time to practice before Ultrababy next year.
A few days later, I tried to get on my bike for a short workout, but was still feeling a bit wiped out. :)
Last night's workout consisted of removing my bike wheel, staring at it, then falling asleep face-down in my work clothes. #AGtraining
— ZenTriathlon (@ZenTriathlon) November 14, 2014
Monday, September 16, 2013 at 9:15AM Click HERE to download or listen!
The above photo is a great reflection of both the fun I was having at the S.O.S. Triathlon and also being a little bit freaked out that a bear had just crossed the path a few seconds ago. The S.O.S. is eight stages of mountanside awesome, where you bike up a mountain then run-swim-run-swim-run-swim-run for a finish atop a mountain peak.
This podcast has lots of audio about the race, interviewing people involved, and a review of how I got it done. The S.O.S. is considered one of the most difficult half-ironmans around, especially since you have to carry your run gear on you through the three different lake swims. This event and the Escape from Alcatraz are one of the few that I know of that are so difficult, you have to qualify to get in.
You can see in the photo that I'm carrying a ziploc bag wedged in the front of my shorts (suppliments), my goggles and swim cap are hanging out just to the right of that, no jersey (took it off after the bike ride to reduce drag in the swims), a SPOT GPS tracker on my right thigh, and I'm running with socks on. With 18 miles of trail running in wet feet, I wear socks to reduce the chance of blisters. Even though those are soaking wet as well, it works great. I jam my running shoes into the fronts of my shorts at thigh level while swimming.
I was honored to be allowed to race the "open" category instead of age group, where I got 3rd out of the four guys. You can see how excited the wiry guy next to me is that he gets to race a lumbering Viking in an event that goes up a mountain twice.
I ate too many gels during the race and faded too much at the end, but that's mistakes you make in racing. It was still an incredible time. And I definitely wanted to share a pic of my swim training facility that helped me swim faster than last year -
This is a 25 meter pool that has no lifeguards, no lane ropes, and no time restrictions. If you want to swim sideways, backwards, at night, whatever, go for it. And the harder you go, the more chop it creates. I love the thing for OWS training. Sometimes I'll swim in circles and figure 8's to simulate going around bouys and no walls. I trained this way for the swims for about 2 months before the race and it paid off big time.
Lastly, I was honored to have pro triathlete John Hirsch and his giant dog Coraline as my crew for race day. You can check out the valuable strategies we used in the podcast, as well as how she got so excited that she actually bit me during the run. Shepards like to nip when things get going fast, so it was a love bite.
Coraline is an imposing beast, and very much involved with whatever is going on around her. I shot the above photo when I woke up to the sound of heavy breathing down my neck in the middle of the night at John's apartment. There she was, in total werewolf mode. I might have been better off facing the bear. At least it wasn't John.
I mix in a lot of talk about the Zen view on rebirth/reincarnation in the podcast. Check it out - it might not be at all what you think!
Lastly, here's links and news from the top of the show -
Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 3:47PM 
Hey! HEY! Check out the audio from IronBaby 2010 - ZenTri's annual self-supported Ironman!
Also in this show - An interview with Suunto's own Minister of Punishment - Bill Porter, and our first interview with our RAAM team. Yes, really! RAAM!
Grab your earbuds and jam them hard in your head, because this is gonna get awesome and you don't want them to blow out. :)
