Tag Archives: Endorphin Fitness

June '09

Reaching beyond myself

Leave a comment

This past weekend I attended a training camp with Endorphin Fitness coached by Sally Fraser and Michael Harlow. Michael and I set off to Wintergreen, Virginia on Friday morning. After driving the next day’s bike course, we met the rest of the camp participants at a lake at the bottom of the mountain for an afternoon swim.

My first excitement was with a floating trampoline near the shore of the lake. I asked Michael “How many minutes did you have on my training plan for jumping on the trampoline today?” After entertaining myself for a few minutes I got to the real reason I came here and began swimming. The water was glass smooth and REALLY cold. And I got a wicked wetsuit hickey.

A post swim ten mile run took it out of me. The guys kept making me laugh when I was running. Michael’s shorts were falling down, I had wicked gas, and the guys seemed to make everything funny. Running and laughing is not a good combination for me. So it was either run with them, laugh, and get dropped, or set the pace and either make it so they cannot talk or they’re too far behind to hear them. Dropping the pace down to 6:40 pace killed their motivation to crack jokes.

All the ten mile runners gathered for a post run ice bath in the lake. I have never seen such a vast body of water so glass smooth. I poked my finger in the water and watched the ripples ride along the surface for several meters. For the first time in the day, the sun shone out of a corner of a cloud just over a mountaintop, providing me with a little warmth. I felt at absolute peace standing in this lake at the bottom of the mountain with no stranger in sight and the sun breaking the bleakness that had preceded.

This feeling was soon destroyed by my hatred for the law of gravity. The waterfall I had admired while driving the bike course the day before turned from being amazingly beautiful to amazingly aggravating. My admiration for the winding falls beside me quickly turned into a plain focus on reaching the top of a mountain during the long bike the next day. I would watch every drop of the water ahead of me and realize that was how much farther I had to climb. The water seemed to fall forever and I seemed to be climbing forever.

Up on the Blue Ridge Parkway the sun shone, the climbs were short, and the view seemed infinite. A massive group of touring cyclists aggravated the crap out of us for mile upon mile up on the highway. They made for good jokes and good confidence boosters. Towards the end of the loop we rode down wintergreen mountain. I reached a personal speed record on a bike at 58 mph.

Michael had told me I was supposed to cut off at fifty miles, one loop, and jump into the sag but that fifty soon turned to 3.5 hours turned to seventy-five miles. I was cool with that. My body wasn’t too happy with having run out of water and nutrition ten miles ago but seeing the sag truck for the first time in hours was a pleasant enough sight to dampen the pain in my legs and the aching in my stomach. I almost destroyed an entire pan of cookie brownie sparking questions later in the evening about how that night’s desert disappeared. Whoops.

The next day’s lineup consisted of a thirty mile mountainous fast ride ending with a three mile run up wintergreen mountain to finish the weekend off. I felt good so I hammered the bike with no regard for the other guys and the run to follow. Tyler, one of the guys at the camp had his revenge on the run. He caught me before the top after starting minutes behind me. Oh yeah and he had to run twice the distance as me. And he had run twenty miles on Friday when I had only run ten.

The slowest three miles for me for four years. After a quick clean up we headed home. A solid weekend of training to solid week of recovery before the Xterra off-road triathlon. Looking at my calendar for this coming week is kind of daunting. Eight races in two weeks. Two tri’s and six cycling races. We’ll see how it goes.

June '09

I think the number 19 fits me

Leave a comment

The night before my my mom caught me rambling about all the reasons why I should have a great race the next day. I kept telling her “I know I always tell you I feel like I can win it but I REALLY feel good about this race in the morning”. I don’t know if she believed me but I was right.

Since I grew up from being young and chubby, I have not known what it was like to be really flat. The beginning of this season I was far from the triathlete that I, my parents, my coach, and all my competitors were used to seeing. I was mediocre in every discipline. And just to make the situation seem even worse, I was training really hard and not seeing any improvement. It was not as if I was sitting on the couch and expecting improvement.

The day of my birthday I finally felt different. For three months I was flat. But I was confident that the next day would show different results.

Immediately upon entering the transition area, I heard thunder. I turned around to see an enormous thunder cloud hanging nearby. Within minutes it seemed the whole sky fell on us. The race was immediately postponed thirty minutes.

Despite the change of plans, the goal was still the same. I wanted to end my reign of getting third in this race. Thanks to my mental coach, Dana Blackmer, I was trained to not lose my concentration with this distraction.

In the pool, I cruised. My flip turns were easy and I felt completely comfortable in the water.

On the road I was soon passed by a faster cyclist and I did not let him out of my sight for the rest of the ride.

In transition I struggled with putting on new flimsy racing flats and a cluster of riders on my same rack.

Expecting cramps and heavy legs like I had in my earlier season races, I was surprised to find my legs effortlessly flowing under me on the run. Startled, I picked up the pace and did not slow.

After making the last turn on the way back to the finish, my body decided to finally fight back. I unpleasantly dry heaved for the last quarter mile.

The fifty year old winner and I covered the two ends of the age spectrum.

Finally I could say it. I’m back. It was a personal record for me on this course by over a minute.

Later that afternoon, I raced a thirty mile local cycling race. At the start of the last 1.3 mile lap, I made a move but it did not stick. I was reeled in and finished the race at the back of the field. My teammate won the race.

A good celebration of the first day as a nineteen year old.

May '09

One

Leave a comment

In the morning I race. Seven hours from now I will be out on the course hammering the life out of me trying to make it swimming, biking, and running over a distance faster than anyone else that day. It should be fun.

Third. That is the place I came in the race the last two years. First. That is the place I hope to come in tomorrow. Physical training from Endorphin Fitness, mental training from coach Dana Blackmer with The Extra Gear, and nutrition may lead me to a win. Of course that all relies on the other factor, desire. Willingness to suffer immense amounts of pain and stress on the verge of my body literally shutting down.

The saying “leave it all on the course” becomes true for me. At the finish of most races I either literally spill “it all” on the course, or I have truthfully left all my energy and effort on the course. Sometimes I fall, sometimes I faint, sometimes I just know that I could not have physically gone any faster.

Tomorrow I race. I’m beginning to hate that number three. I could get used to the number one though.

May '09

The next chapter

Leave a comment

This coming August I will not be returning to Virginia Tech. I will be taking my first year in fourteen years away from classrooms. My intentions are to live life I have wanted to for the past few years.

In hindsight I appreciate the punishment of being sent to my room. I appreciate it for much more than the basic punishment. I appreciate it for learning that no man should be trapped inside four walls. I learned recently that walls were not meant to trap me. I want to be free. I want to be in the open, away from enclosures.

I will be setting out to attempt a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in either late February or early March of next year. For somewhere between four and five months I will be without any human companion. I hope to learn more in the woods than I would encased within walls.

Between now and then I have a full agenda. This summer I will be racing for Kazane Racing cycling team. Additionally i will train with Endorphin Fitness junior triathlon team in the mornings every weekday.

My season started off slow with a 16th place finish at Smithfield triathlon. And then I placed fourth at Junior duathlon nationals. I missed qualifying for worlds. However, training has been going exponentially better recently. I feel at the Rockett’s landing triathlon this coming weekend I have an opportunity to redeem myself. We’ll see how it goes. With 5000 dollars in prize money I dream of a taste. Mind you the dream may be horribly unrealistic. We’ll see.

Hopefully I will begin the winter with an extended trip in Honduras. I would like to work with an organization that helps street children get back to normal lives after being left to fend for themselves.

For now, I have till Wednesday in this dorm room. Study for my chemistry final, say goodbye to my friends who are leaving early, and then move out of a place I have called my home for the past nine months.