I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day Weekend. I sure did. My wife's best friend from high school was down with her future husband and some more friends. We all hung out on the lake and went skiing (very good cross-training). I used to laugh at my wife when she said she was sore, now I just empathize. It was really great considering the vast majority of the people there were endurance athletes so it was good to swap stories over some cold beer.

This morning was great: Here's the breadown:

5:00 Alarm rang wife says: "I'm so proud of you for waking up and training" I said "what are you crazy, I'm going back to bed (usual excuses, too early, didn't sleep well, I'll do it in the afternoon).
5:15 Training partner Kevin calls: "Hey man, I'm coming over are you ready to do some cycling" my reply: "of course, I'm waiting on you"
5:40 we hit the road. The weather was amazing, I'm guessing around 65 degrees no humidity, and we owned the road! The first 10 miles we were averaging over 21 mph. Then some hills came and some busy traffic (we were on a highway).
6:40 we had biked around 22 miles and now the fun starts: "the run"
It was funny passing this one guy running, we had passed him a couple of minutes ago on the bike. When we passed him on the bike (he was running) and gave us the classic "wussy" look you should man-up and run. When we passed him running (he was walking by then) he gave us the "you guy's are crazy look"
I got to work around 7:30ish so not too terribly bad, but definitely some major room for improvement on the run time. Hopefully, I can work in a swim today. Hope all is well.

I had another sore day and long day at work so I biked around 20 miles after work and called it quits. Hopefully today I can get in some good swimming. My legs are incredibly sore from all of this cycling.

It's official HUMIDITY is here!

I went on a nice 10k run after work and was really feeling it from the heat. I'm definitely not working out anymore when the tempature is above 80 degrees. This means I will be doing all my training in the morning which is better for you anyway. I also biked around 30 miles and swam. So I'm definitely feeling it in my thighs. I think I'm just going to swim today, and probably run/bike/swim tomorrow.

It is now official - I registered for the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon - so no backing out now that I paid the registration fee!

I had an exhausting weekend. Unfortunately, it was the result of not much sleep, a lot of work and no training. Hopefully, today though I'll gain some serious traction. (weather permitting). I got my bike bike and am enjoying it immensely. More later...

I swam a mile after work last night. Definitely not as fast as I should have but it felt great and it was the first time I have swam a mile for quite some time.

I ran into work again this morning, not a bad time <50 min for a 10K. Hopefully I will get my bike back and can get into cycling.

SCCHHHEWWWW!!!!

That's the sound you make after cycling for 1:45 minutes. I was a little late to the spin class so I hoped on a stationary bike, but still got around 1:20 in the spin class last night, very tought.

I ran 10K this morning, it felt great. I'm really starting to push myself in-terms of speed, so I'm pretty excited about everything.

Had a great long-run on Saturday! Although it took me 2.5 hours, I didn't feel so bad when I retraced my route and it was 15.65 miles. Still not great timing but it was a tough route and I was having fun. This week will be my first official week of training for my next triathlon so it will be interesting to see how it all goes. Cheers, Jimmy

I had a great day working out. I biked for an hour (over 20 miles) and did the elliptical for 30 minutes (~3 miles). I did start out pretty bad, as the other night I noticed in a favorite cycling magazine of mine that George Hincapie likes to keep his heart rate around 180. So when the bike asked me my target heart rate, I of course stated 180. I then noticed for someone my age this was the max heart rate for the cardio zone, so I thought: "perfect." Well, many embarrassing moments later I realized that I'm not the 180 type athlete "yet". Everytime I got to around 140 the machine started to make noises and was blinking: "resume workout". You see the pedals were making it harder to get my heart rate up, and my legs weren't exactly cooperating with the whole thing. O well, still I had a fun time. Hopefully, within the next couple of days I can get in a long run.

AGGGGHHHHH, the sound you make after a nice swim in the ocean. I have to tell you, this clear open water is spoiling me. I just went for a little swim today, I think it was a 500. I was planning on running afterwards but some windsurfing came up right when I was finishing and I wanted to check them out. It was two couples, that had seemingly just got off work. It definitely had some thoughts running through my head like: "wouldn't that be cool to do a little windsurfing after work." Dean Karnazes "the ultramarathon man" windsurfes to build up his thighs. It looks like a great sport. Tomorrow, I plan on a full scale workout, so we will see how that all works out. The weather down here is great and by the time I get done working, the humidity has calmed down. Had dinner tonight at the World Famous Fudpuckers. I had a nice grilled tuna steak with a baked potato. This was very tastey, and very healthy. Just as a told my training partner today, cutting out sweets and fried foods has made me feed exponentially better throughout the day.

Cheers, more tomorrow

Well, as I stated before I'm in Ft. Walton, FL on business. Man, what a world of difference there is in humidity down here. I went for a run last night. This was the first run since my marathon last Saturday. It was actually pathetic, I started out in the sand (mistake #1), then for ego purposes I had to at least run to the pier (mistake #2), and then I ran around the island I'm staying on where there is apparently a total disregard for runners, it was now dark (mistakes #3 & #4). So in summary it was a measly two miles that was very painful and dangerous. However, I woke up this morning at 7 and got a nice long run in and hopefully this afternoon, I'll get a nice ocean swim in. As you can see above the ocean is absolutely beautiful down here.

I'm off tomorrow for a week-long business trip, so just in-case I don't have access to a computer I thought I would post this week's training schedule.

Sunday - Rest Day
Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - Swim (15 minutes), bike 12 miles
Wednesday - Bike 25 miles
Thursday - Bike 12 miles
Friday - Rest Day
Saturday - 6 mile run on the beach (hopefully); swim in the ocean

Notice, I didn't run much this week b/c of the marathon on Saturday, but I should be on a pretty good schedule of running and swimming next week, we will see...

The business trip is in Florida, so hopefully I will be able to post some nice scenery pics.

This me definately not hiding the pain!


As they say: "The more pain, the more gain"

This is definately me "hiding" the pain in my legs. Notice how awesome that stride is!

It is fairly obvious why I'm blogging. I want to be an IRONMAN .

A couple of weeks ago my friend and workout buddy Kevin and I did the Hilton Head Triathlon. Now, this triathlon to most is "just a sprint." But to me it was a life changer. It was a different feeling than I have ever felt in any other sporting event (and yes I've done pretty much everything). My times weren't impressive, but hey it was my first one and I was determined just to have a good time. I talked to people throughout the whole thing - YES - even during the swim which really sucked. I met people from all over and wouldn't trade it for the world. After I finished, I told my buddy Kevin that I can do an Ironman, he politely responed: "Really, you just did a Sprint." It made me think of the famous quote by General Patton: "Accept the challenges, so you may feel the exhileration of Victory."

MALE AGE GROUP:  25 - 29
Place O'All No.   Name                    Age City              St Time    Rank Swim    Tran 1  Rank Bike    Tran 2  Rank Run    
===== ===== ===== ======================= === ================= == ======= ==== ======= ======= ==== ======= ======= ==== =======
   1    10    47 Andrew Babcock           29 Elgin             SC 1:03:45    1    7:15                                 1   21:36
   2    26    33 Joel Blaxland            27 Savannah          GA 1:09:56    2    8:17                                 7   23:22
   3    27    39 Shaun Watson             27 Parris Island     SC 1:10:04    8   10:35    2:09    4   34:51    0:38    3   21:53
   4    29    44 Kevin Mckenna            28 Chattanooga       TN 1:10:17    4    9:01    2:56    2   34:03    0:25   11   23:54
   5    32    35 Jeremy Lane              27 Fayetteville      NC 1:10:29    7   10:21    2:47    3   34:38    0:37    4   22:08
   6    40    19 Daniel Andrepont         25 Herndon           VA 1:11:49    3    8:24    3:23    5   36:13    0:20    8   23:31
   7    46    40 Michael Wise             27 Sanford           NC 1:12:41    5    9:13    2:58   12   37:59    0:54    2   21:38
   8    84    43 Thomas Kilbride          28 Savannah          GA 1:18:11   13   12:34    2:41   14   38:26    0:48    9   23:43
   9    96    36 Breamon Ledbetter        27 Keysville         GA 1:19:27   17   13:54    3:34    7   36:53    0:34   14   24:32
  10    97   247 Stephan Arnold           26 Bluffton          SC 1:19:30   16   13:39    2:48   16   38:52    0:26   10   23:47
  11   103    25 Jonathan Sowinski        25 Easley            SC 1:20:08   26   16:26    2:57    8   37:05    0:58    6   22:45
  12   111    48 Daniel Florin            29 Pooler            GA 1:21:13   12   12:14    3:57   18   39:41    1:14   12   24:08
  13   112    34 Brendan Camp             27 Decatur           GA 1:21:17   19   14:23    4:42   15   38:32    1:16    5   22:24
  14   114    37 Pete Pollak              27 Savannah          GA 1:21:21    9   10:52    4:00   11   37:59    0:58   21   27:34
  15   126    22 Jimmy Moncrief           25 Red Bank          TN 1:22:41   21   14:38    3:14   21   40:07    0:27   13   24:16
  16   133    45 Christopher Skorke       28 Charleston        SC 1:23:59   14   13:01    3:39   17   39:31    1:52   17   25:58
  17   134   237 Scott Mckay              25 Savannah          GA 1:24:03   22   14:54    4:10   10   37:57    1:43   16   25:20
  18   140    23 Steve Mullen             25 Atlanta           GA 1:24:29   10   12:01    3:26   24   42:16    0:39   18   26:09
  19   149    20 Jason Cain               25 Savannah          GA 1:25:07    6   10:18    4:39   13   38:01    0:34   26   31:36
  20   150   230 Mike Sutcliffe           25 Bluffton          SC 1:25:08                         1   34:00    2:11   22   28:33
  21   153    49 Skip Gilliam             29 Guyton            GA 1:25:55   24   15:04    3:07    6   36:25    1:49   24   29:32
  22   156   222 Erik Norman              28 Hilton Head Islan SC 1:26:05   15   13:20    4:36   19   39:57    1:44   19   26:30
  23   165    27 Jon Godwin               26 Richmond Hill     GU 1:27:30   23   14:58    4:08   22   41:41    1:34   15   25:10
  24   170    21 Shawn Glanville          25 Atlanta           GA 1:28:31   20   14:33    3:46   20   40:01    1:07   23   29:05
  25   178    24 Michel Sabbagh           25 Charleston        SC 1:30:17   11   12:07    4:35    9   37:42    2:44   27   33:11
  26   188   246 Paul Cooper              26 Savannah          GA 1:32:05   18   14:10    4:07   23   41:50    1:37   25   30:23
  27   195   212 Daniel Jones             28 Hilton Head Islan SC 1:34:07   25   15:07    4:47   25   46:20    0:56   20   26:59 

Last weekend I just completed the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, TN of-course and did pretty bad time wise, but hey I can check it off on my Life Accomplishment List, so who really cares. Especially, considering that less than 1% of the human race can even complete a marathon.

FName

LName

City

State

Age

Sex

ChipTime

ClockTime

Overall

SexPl

DivPl

pace

total_in_race

total_in_division

total_in_sex

split_1

split_2

split_3

division_name

age_grade

Jimmy

Moncrief

Red Bank

TN

25

M

4:39:05

4:54:09

1983

1304

183

There was around 22,000 runners so not very bad - all things considered!

Hopefully, I can pry the camera away from my wife and get some pics up. Please feel free to leave feedback on any questions or comments!