Progress continues

Today was another landmark day in the pool. I have made it my mission these past few weeks to continue to hit the pool often. My strategy is that come spring (officially next week!), I will be able to enjoy the nicer weather and longer daylight hours to go for long runs and bike rides. Over the past few weeks, I have made monumental strides in terms of my endurance and overall swim form. I'm proud to say that today I hit the 2000 yard mark in my workout. Could I have gone more? Sure, but I didn't want to push too hard too soon. So as I continue to expand my swim endurance and rack up the yards, I look forward to spring, which is right around the corner.

Yesterday, was a SLD day, running with my girlfriend. We did our usual loop outside, which takes us half the way on the W&OD run/bike trail, and half way through Ballston, which is more urban. Never a dull moment when running through a city. Since we go running after work, we pass by a lot of commuters coming off the metro, which can be a challenge trying to weave between everyone on the sidewalks. This time, we ran into a new challenge: skateboarders. Now normally, when you pass by a bunch of skateboards, you think nothing of it. Except that this time, right after we passed them, all we could hear was the sound of 6 skateboards clicking against each bump on the sidewalk. It sounded like rolling thunder coming down the street. Then, all of the sudden they start whizzing by us. Not really knowing what to do, we slowed down a bit and let them pass. Just goes to show, you never know who you may encounter while training.

Two-a-days

For those of you that played a sport competitively growing up, you know all about two-a-days. Most people who grew up swimming, had a session at the crack of dawn (don't forget to thank your parents for taking you to the pool all those years!) and a session after school. Personally, I grew up playing soccer for multiple teams at a time, in addition to running cross country/track for my high school. I would frequently have 2 and sometimes 3 practices a day. My after school schedule consisted of track practice, then off to 1 or 2 soccer practices. Weekends involved track meets and multiple soccer games. Honestly, I never considered it too much, because it was something I enjoyed, and having fun is a critical part of being able to do it all. It was just part of life and I accepted it.

So yesterday, as a triathlete, I began what will be the first of many two-a-days this season. Its amazing how much life repeats itself. Triathlons have become a part of my life, it is always fun (except getting hit in the face in open water swims) and I've accepted the daily demands of my workout schedule. Yesterday's workouts consisted of an early swim for about 30 minutes and a spin class later in the day for an hour. My body definitely was feeling the effects of the two workouts, but I got through it fine, and feel fully recovered today. So that's good news to my ears, since I'm planning to do a tempo run this evening.

My week in review - Week 3

Now at the conclusion of the week, I am starting to feel measurable progress over these past 3 weeks of training. My swim endurance is finally starting to come back, my pedal technique has improved greatly from spinning (still a little ways from riding outside), and my running shape is as good as it ever was. I'm already at a point this year that is miles away from where I started last season. Here's hoping the weather keeps cooperating like it did this week so I can continue to make progress. Oh wait, whats that? It snowed today?


Oh crap! Looks like its back to the gym for lots of indoor training this week. Anyways, where was I? Oh yea, numbers for the week:

• Swim: 3100 yards (goal: 2500)
  
• Bike: 1:15 hour (goal: 3 hours)
  
• Run: 12 miles (goal: 10 miles)
  
• Weight sessions: 2 (goal: 2 sessions)

Overall, I'm happy with the results. Goals for next week are to continue building my swim endurance, keep up the spinning, continue to log some running miles, and hit the gym twice.

• Swim: 3500 yards
• Bike: 2 hours
• Run: 10 miles
• Weight sessions: 2

Have a great week!

Rest and relaxation

It seems strange, because I'd work out every day if I knew it was good for me, but I am actually looking forward to my rest day tomorrow. Normally I dread those days. While training throughout the week, I seem to get used to the daily schedule of juggling work and training. But on a rest day, I typically feel like I am doing something wrong. Anyone else ever feel that way? You think to yourself, "I feel fine and I'm not even that sore". But the reality is that your body needs to rest. Reload and recover. That way, Monday will be full of energy ready to take on the world.

Why am I looking forward to the off day tomorrow you ask? Well, this week I definitely stepped up my training hours. My body feels sore, but in a good way. As you will see in my weekly recap tomorrow, I have surpassed all of my goals for the week, except for biking. However, I made the decision to reduce my riding time this week after I set my goals for the week, due to higher priorities of getting more time in the water, running outside, and making sure I get in some solid strength training.

So tomorrow, I am looking forward to sleeping in and doing NOTHING but resting. Hope you do the same!

I'm feelin it...finally!

I knew it wouldn't be long. After all, I put in a lot of work last year and I hate to see hard work go to waste. It was my decision not to continue swimming in the off season. I figured my technique and endurance couldn't fall that far off. My first try at swimming this year was a lesson learned. I should continue swimming in the off season and I will next year (or so I say now).

Anyways, back in the pool today I started getting that feeling. You know...the kind that makes all the training and hard work pay off. Most people refer to it as the breakthrough. Basically, the point at which you begin to realize that not only are you comfortable, but you could keep going for a very long time if you wanted. I was excited after my 750 yard warm up today, because I knew I could have continued for a mile. However, I didn't want my mind getting in the way of my training plan. As much as I wanted to see how long I could go, I knew it wouldn't serve as useful as my planned workout. So I stuck to the drills and a few intervals and managed to end up at 1700 yards total.

I'm a happy man today...except for the inevitable cold that is beginning to take over my body. Gotta keep fighting!

The Fun of Negotiations

After my ice running fiasco (btw - everything melted yesterday, so running outside is good to go), I needed some sort of recovery. Something about running 5 miles where your foot never lands flat has a way of making your body feel like it did something wrong....er, challenging. So my tri-trainee and I went for a run today. Since she was still recovering from her weekend cold, she took yesterday off, so today was her chance to get a solid run in at HER pace.

One of the "unique" aspects of working out with your significant other is the constant negotiations of the workout. For us, it revolves around pace, distance, and time. Before starting our run, the negotiations begin: "How much are we running?", she asks. I reply, "Oh not that far." I'm sure you can empathize with her on this one. However, as her coach, I know what she can and cannot do and I wouldn't put her in the situation to fail. Nor would I push her too hard. Its always and interesting negotiation. Take for example, near the halfway point of our run yesterday. "We're turning around at that next bridge", she demands. "No, we're going to the next exit, which is only .25 miles further and you can even see it right there. It's right there!", I reply. "No, I'm turning around now.", she says. Well, I guess that's not much of a negotiation, but since she is recovering from her cold, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

Regardless of our "negotiation", she made it the whole way without stopping, for a whopping 47:23, or 49:00 according to her watch. For her first run outside, she really proved to herself that she shouldn't be afraid to run longer distances. As we continue to workout together, I hope she continues to push herself to new distances and thresholds. You can follow her version of the story on her blog but hopefully its the same story ;)

Ok, back to me. Cuz, this blog IS about me, right? I was happy with my overall numbers for this recovery run. Overall, my avg hr = 131, and that was mostly due to a few of the steep climbs, as you can see in the graph below. This is my first posting of my precious' graphs, so I hope you enjoy!

Ice Running, Coming to a Trail Near You

Whether you are experiencing it now, or in a few weeks when spring is just around the corner, anyone living in a climate that receives some amount of snow/ice is going to deal with it. You think to yourself, its MUCH warmer today than it has been in nearly a month (35 days to be exact), maybe I should go for a run outside. I mean, 41 degrees feels like a sauna compared to the temperatures we've had in the 20s for the past few weeks. Seriously, who chooses to run on the treadmill once the weather warms up?

Because I am sick of running on the treadmill and starring at the clock as the seconds tick by, I decided that today would be the day to start running outside. The weather is warmer, the birds are chirping now that spring is just around the corner, and I CAN EVEN WEAR SHORTS OUTSIDE. One small detail missing....oh yea....forgot about the snow/ice/slush factor. Oops, guess I went outside a bit too early. Nothing like running some rolling hills covered in ice, huh? It felt as if I was clawing my way to the top of some of the hills. It was like the difference of swimming with your hands clenched in a fist versus keeping it open as a paddle. What a BIG difference a little traction makes! Once I finally found some pavement, my pace would increase significantly, too bad there wasn't much pavement to be found.

So, it was probably not the best day to take precious outside for her first run, but i was too far into my run before I encountered the snow/ice/slush factor on the running/biking trail. At first, precious was shocked by the cooler outside temperatures and told me my heart rate was way high, but after a minute or so, she understood that the weather will not always be perfectly warm like it is in the gym and she calmed down to my typical heart rate. In total, I got in a quick 5 miles in 40 minutes. Obsessed with the ability of precious to track pace, I decided to push myself for periods to see how my heart rate would be affected by bursts of higher intensity. Despite my feeling that I was working harder during the higher intensity intervals, my heart rate remained within 5-10 beats per minute when I would increase my pace. I learned an important lesson today, aside from not to run on ice. I have some flexibility to increase my intensity/pace without significantly increasing my heart rate. So I'll continue to use precious to teach me how far I can push my pace without affecting my heart rate. (Psst - Don't tell her that I am "using" her)

If at first you don't succeed...

So today was try #2 at my swim training again. After my first attempt last week, I was a little down on myself for not keeping up my swim fitness over the offseason. I kept my expectations low this time, hoping to swim at least equal to the 1200 yards I swam last time.

Today, I decided to focus on the drills I worked on all last year. My workout consisted of:

• 200 yard warm up
• 2 x 50 yards fist drill
• 2 x 50 yards catch up
• 2 x 50 yards 10/10 drill
• 2 x 50 yards recovery focus
  
• 2 x 50 yards strong pulls
• 2 x 50 yards perfect form
• 4 x 25 yards sprint
• 500 yard cool down
• Total distance: 1400 yards

I'm happy that I was able to moderately increase my yardage. Because our bodies quickly get back the fitness we can lose so easily, I think my body just needs a few weeks of "swim shock" to get it back into previous shape. While my yards are increasing, my swim endurance needs to increase significantly. So I shall continue to hit the pool often in the hope that my body remembers was it once like to easily swim a mile.

Glad to start off the week on a high note ;)

My week in review - Week 2

This week was certainly an improvement over last week, especially considering the weather issues I had to deal with. Although I am excited to log more hours that I currently am, I know that I need to take my training increases at moderate levels and not jump too far too quickly. Thankfully, precious says I am in excellent shape and am ready to take on more intense training.

This week, my goals were to swim 2000 yards, bike 3 hours, run 10 miles, and have 1 weight session. The results:

• Swim: 1200 yards - Not quite what I wanted, but the weather prevented my from being able to drive to the pool on one of my planned swim days/
• Bike: 5 hours - In place of my swim workout, I hit the bike for a few more hours than planned/
• Run: 5 miles - Again, the weather sucks and held me back from getting in another run.
• Weight sessions: 1 session
  

Goals for this week are to continue increasing my time in the pool and hopefully get outside for some runs. Unfortunately, they still haven't cleared the sidewalks of ice, which makes it difficult to run. I thought about running on the road as well, but the sides of the road are also snowbanks, so there is really no room to run. Can't wait till spring...and daylight savings time, so there are more hours in the day to train. Oh yea, goals for this week:

• Swim - 2500 yards
• Bike - 3 hours
• Run - 10 miles
• Weight sessions: 2

Most important to me this week are to hit my swim goals and to log some running miles outside. Just officially signed up for the GW Parkway Classic 10 miler yesterday, so I'd like to get some real mileage, instead of standing on the treadmill watching each tenth of a mile tick by. I'd also like to test out the foot pod component of precious. Fortunately, its supposed to warm up a bit this week, so hopefully all the ice will melt, so I can achieve most of these goals.

The search for the perfect heart rate monitor (continued)

I finally took the plunge and made a purchase. As you know, I was drooling over the prospect of a Polar s625x as my future heart rate monitor. That unit has just about any feature I could want and seems to be favorably reviewed. So, what did I get?

I was able to get the Polar s625x (my precious) at a cheaper rate than I had previously seen advertised. I figured I'd get it now, before the price goes back up. Having gone through a few HRMs before, I am pretty familiar with their operation and getting to the main features pretty quickly. The user interface seems pretty logical, although I am overwhelmed at this point by the number of features this thing has. I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface yet, so I know there will be more to come.

Since I didn't have enough time yesterday to play with it too much, I used the basic features this morning on my 2.5 hour spin session. Aside from being pleasantly surprised by my low avg heart rate (140 bpm), I am impressed with the wearlink chest strap. It is far more comfortable and leaves no marks on my chest after usage. I wasn't able to get to that avg heart rate until peak season last year, so hopefully this is a great sign of things to come.

At this point, I'm just looking forward to getting to know "my precious" a little better, since the two of us are going to be pretty close in the months ahead.

Ahhh...consistency, where have you been?

So I know this isn't news to anyone, but consistency is the key to improving year after year. Consistency in terms of proper form and technique, but also endurance. In the off season, I ran and biked quite a bit to maintain my endurance. However, I neglected my swim endurance, in favor of being outside. Now who out there during the off season says, "I'd rather go to the humid indoor pool and swim laps for the next hour" versus "It's nice out, I think I'll go for a long run/ride"? Anyone...? If you are normal like me, you'd choose to be outside and enjoy the weather and surroundings. Its not like I didn't know that my swim endurance was going to suffer as a result. Its just that since swimming is my least favorite, it gets neglected.

And that is why today was my first swim workout of the season. And it showed. I was never a great swimmer by anyone's standards, but at least I knew proper form.

You know when you were a kid and you used to swim for miles? I was one of those kids. I went to camp and used to do a pretty intense work EVERY day: swim a mile in a lake, do 100 push ups and 100 sit ups on the beach, and then run 2 miles. Not bad when you are only 14. What happened? I continued to play sports all my life, but I gave up swimming after I stopped going to camp. And that was the unofficial end to my illustrious swimming career...until now.

With a decent amount of swim endurance, I can get by just fine in the races I compete in now...especially with the help of a wetsuit ;) Well today I managed to crank out 1200 yards, which isn't bad (at least for my first workout of the season). However,
it was only a couple of years ago that I began swimming again. All I have to do is think back to then when I first started re-learning how to swim, and I can appreciate how far I've come.

So for the next month or so, I shall be re-re-learning how to swim and building up my endurance.

Rest Day for the Holiday

Happy Valentine's Day to all! Since the weather has once again forced the area facilities to shut down, today will be a rest day...in observance of the holiday, yea that's right, the holiday...I do need some excuse not to work out today, so that's about as good as its going to get. As part of my off day, I'll be joining my tri-trainee for a nice Valentine's Day dinner. I just hope the roads shapen up so we can make it there ;)

Scoreboard: Weather 1 Me 0

Since the bad weather decided to come this afternoon/evening, all evening activities have been canceled. This means that my pool will be closed and I'll have to bump my schedule around to get my swim in later this week. I guess I'll be going for a run tonight on the (gulp) treadmill...

A Race Against Time

As usual, the weathermen and women of the DC area missed the mark on forcasting "The Blizzard of 2007". According to their reports last night, we were supposed to wake up with a couple of inches of snow. I know...most of you are reading this thinking a couple of inches???? Who cares. Well, you haven't been to this area. EVERYTHING shuts down. It snowed .5 inches last week and schools were canceled! Don't yell at me for all the chaos, I lived in Syracuse, NY for 6 years and have never had a problem driving in nasty weather. Its the idiots who think they can go 60 mph on slick roads that cause all the problems. Oh yea, and they all have SUVs, so they "think" they are safe.

So what do I see when I wake up? Zip, zero, zilch, nada. Oh well I said, fine they missed it...guess I'll have to go to work after all and carry on with my day as normal. Well now it looks like the weather system is just delayed a few hours and the "heavy" stuff won't come until this afternoon.

Why am I making a big deal out of this, you ask? Today was supposed to be my first day in the pool in a while and I hate missing a planned workout, especially on account of the pools closing for 2 inches of snow. So I shall go to work and actively watch the weather, hoping the snow can hold off long enough to let me get in my first swim of the season.

Happy Birthday....to ME

The day is finally here. I am 27 today. Most importantly, I am healthy and happy. I honestly could not ask for anything more. When discussing my goals/hopes for the next year with my girlfriend last night, my answer was to do the same things as I did this year, only faster and more efficiently. Triathlon training not only makes you healthy, but it makes you feel good about yourself. Whether its the endorphins or the satisfaction of seeing yourself improve mentally and physically through each and every challenge, I am greatful that I have become a better person as a result of triathlons. Therefore, the only way I feel is appropriate to celebrate my brithday is to go to spinning with my favorite instructor.

Interesting fact that I bet nobody else knows about me - I share the same birthday and initials as Abraham Lincoln

My week in review

Well, I made it through everything yesterday. Needless to say, today is a recovery day. My body is sore from football and spinning and my head is sore from the birthday celebration ;)

Stats from my first official week of training:

• Miles run: 5.5 miles
• Hours on the bike: 2.5 hours of spinning
  
• Yards swam: zero yards
• Number of weight sessions: 1 session

Tomorrow its back to the daily grind, and a whole new week of training. I need to get some time in the pool and start logging some yards. Goals for next week:

• Run: 10 miles
• Bike: 3 hours
• Swim: 2000 yards
• Weight sessions: 1 session

One down, two to go...

Task 1 of my three things to do today is complete.

Task 1 - 1 hour spin class
Spin class was great. Unlike my previous experience on Tuesday with the bad spin instructor, Saturday mornings are a guaranteed good spin session. During the winter, the instructor extends his schedule to teach 3 classes back to back to back from 7:30 am till 11 am. I typically go for all of them, but since I have football at 10 this morning, I only went to one session.

Task 2 - 2 flag football games from 10 - 12
Part 2 will be more than a workout, so I'm not cheating myself from a big weekend workout. Each game is 1 hour with only a 10 minute break between games and I play every down. The term "flag" football is used very loosely in this case, since the league allows downfield blocking and full contact on the line. If you aren't sore from the running, you will be from the contact.

Task 3 - Celebrate my birthday (its actually on Monday though)
Lastly, part 3 is my reward and celebration of moving one step closer to 30. Per my usual birthday schedule, we will be going first to this hole in the wall bar, that I have grown to love. The best part about it is that you make your own drinks. For just over $10, depending on how much they feel like charging you at that moment (anywhere from $10 - $20), you get:

• One empty glass to mix drink into
  
• One can of soda/juice/tonic
• One giant bucket of ice
• One flask size glass of the liquor of your choice

And to add to the sketchiness the place, they ONLY take cash. Oh...its going to be fun tonight!

Morning Workouts

Yesterday was a rest day. After a tough interval workout on Wednesday, it made sense to give the body a break to recover. So we kicked back and helped our hearts by having a few glasses of red wine.

As a result of dinner obligations this evening, we had to move today's weight session to this morning. I am a morning person. I have no problem getting up early to hit the gym or do a workout. Personally, I prefer it, since you feel better about yourself at work and you can take the time to relax the rest of the day, instead of the usual rush after work before it gets to cold or dark. However, when going to the gym with my counterpart, who has made it clear to me that she is not a morning person, it makes it difficult to get everything accomplished. Don't get me wrong, I love working out with her and pushing her to realize the things the CAN do, as opposed to those she can't. Its the getting moving part in the morning that is the challenge sometimes.

So after quivering through the 5 degree wind chill, we finally made it to the gym. Since the quantity of aerobic and anaerobic training is picking up now, there isn't enough time to hit the gym for lifting sessions multiple times a week. Therefore, I typically do an all upper body workout for my main lifting sessions during the week and a legs workout somewhere in between. We got in a solid 45 minutes or so of lifting. I typically take about an hour to hit everything, but we were a bit rushed to get to work. In all, a good workout that should leave us feeling nice and sore tomorrow.

RUN Forest RUN!

Well today was the official begining of my running training. Not only myself, but also my girlfriend, who is training for her first triathlon. With all the cold weather we've been having, as opposed to the spring-like weather we had in December and January, we haven't had a chance to do much running in the past few weeks. So now that my training is picking back up to at least 5 days a week, I am trying to get my base training down on all events. As a natural runner, I tend to spend most of my time training for the bike and run. Also, I had 2 late season runs events at the end of last season, so my running should still be relatively ok. However, I have to log some base miles to make sure my fitness is there.

Our workout consisted of 50 minutes on the treadmill, including the cool down. The workout was 15 minutes of warm up followed by 5 sets of 4 minute race pace/1 minute recovery intervals and then a cool down. I felt really good on all of the sets and increased my pace each time. At one point, I really settled into the pace and felt like I could have kept it forever. I was glad to see my endurance from last season hasn't completely gone, as I have entered a lottery and plan to race in at least 1 early season 10 miler. As much as I wanted to push myself harder, I kept saying that this is base training and I need to save the tough stuff for the main part of the season when I am peaking.

The nice thing about running on the treadmill is that the two of us could work out together without having to compromise my workout to run at my girlfriend's pace. This allowed us to each run our own pace, but keep in time with the intervals.

Hopefully, Puxatawny Phil was correct and spring is right around the corner so I don't have to run on the treadmill much longer.

Spinning my wheels

I love me some spinning, especially in the winter months when its too cold in the morning and too dark to ride outside in the evening. However, there are several instances when I just HATE it.

1. Parking - For anyone who goes to the Gold's Gym in Ballston, you understand the problem. As the 2nd largest Golds Gym in the country (only smaller than the HQ in Venice Beach, CA), there are probably only enough spots for half the people who are there are on a regular basis. This means that in order to go to a spinning class, you have to get there WAY early, so you don't spend 20 minutes stalking people walking out of the gym for a parking spot.
2. Lines - If I am lucky enough to find a parking spot within a normal amount of time, this is not a problem. However, someone "smart" within the Golds Gym staff decided that it makes sense to keep the door locked until the instructor shows up. Now, in order to have a class at 6 pm and in order for people to get to the class ON TIME, one has to get there around 5:30. Since many of the instructors also lead normal lives that include regular jobs, they don't actually get to the class until a few minutes before. This means that a ridiculous line forms down the hallway. AND, because there are several classrooms, you can't always tell who is waiting in what line. Once the instructor finally does show up, it is a mad dash for the good spots and bikes. If they just left the doors open like they used to do, this would not be a problem.
3. Instructor - The instructor drives the class and should therefore have a good understanding of the format, the music, and the operation of the bikes. MOST of the instructors are ok and some are excellent. I always try to make it to classes with instructors that are excellent, because I know what kind of workout to expect. But sometimes, my workout schedule must be shuffled around to accomodate other situations. This has on occasion forced me to attend a spinning class with a crappy instructor.
   

So, when all three of the referenced instances go my way, I am a happy person. When numbers 1 and 2 are gone, but its still an excellent instructor, I can get by. But when a crappy instructor teaches a class, I truly have a hard time dealing with the class.

Last night, I went to a spinning class with an instructor that I have been with before and the last time he taught it, the class was fine. Well this time, it was not. Talk about a mess of a class. He was doing things on the bike that I know is bad for you. He used minimal cues with the music, had no organization of the class, and was very poor with verbal direction. As a result, I had no motivation to listen to anything he said. The only good thing he did, was play active music...too bad he would have to listen to the first 5 seconds of 3 tracks before settling on one to play in the class. So, I did my own workout with the music, based on classes I have taken before. The funny thing is that as I looked around the room to see what people were following his lead, I noticed two others doing things differently, in addition to myself. One was a person I would classify as a regular and the other was a woman who had an Ironman Finishers tshirt on. So I'm glad to see I'm not alone here in thinking that this class was aweful.

Note to self - Only go to spinning classes where you KNOW the instructor is going to provide an excellent class.

The search for the perfect heart rate monitor

Much the same way that triathletes love their bike porn, my latest fetish has been HRM porn. I've already gone through one Cardiosport Xtreme HRM that crapped out after 1 season. I got it cheap and it acted like it was cheap (no, not in a sexual way). Oh well...now I know better than to get a crappy unit. I got a Nike Triax C6 for my girlfriend/triathlon trainee and liked it, but I need more umph. I like the idea of graphs and charting out my progress. So, I'm in the search for a good HRM that I can use when I go on bike rides and runs.

Choices, choices, choices....People say you can't go wrong with Polar. Then there is also the Garmin Forerunner, Timex Bodylink, and Sunnto models. They all have their own bells and whistles, pros and cons, etc. Through lots of research, I think I've decided that GPS units have too many issues with tree coverage, so that basically leaves Polar. It seems like Polar has the best software and are a proven company in the business. They also offer ad ons like power that I might want to use in the future.

Ok. Now that I know which company, what model should I go with? Ideally, the Polar s625x is the best option, since it has all anyone could ever want in a HRM. The con - its so freakin expensive. As a chronic bargain shopper, I will continue to search for the best price. To be continued....

Online at Last!

Well, this is my first blog posting. I have been reading triathlon blogs for at least the past year or so and I have finally made the effort to start my own. As an obsessed triathlon blog reader, I can barely go a day without checking to see what people are up to. For me personally, it has been a source of motivation to follow others on their journey into the sport of triathlon. Because I train almost exclusively by myself, the community of triathlon bloggers has been my reference to what others are doing throughout the world in order to meet their triathlon goals. And now its my turn to hopefully reach others in the same way it affected me.