Sponsor News and Super Mom

Week 13 was a great one for me. My confidence continues to grow by the week. For the week I ran 55 miles, biked 200, and swam 17,100 yards. I also did all the regular sessions of weight lifting, jump rope, plyometrics, speed drills, strides, push-ups, and core work. My total training time was right at 25 hours. I weighed in this morning at 147.4 lbs. This is 4 lbs. lighter than the lowest I saw on the scale all of last year and I have to go all the way back to 1998 for the last time I saw a number that low. I continue to feel amazingly strong, especially on the bike. I have a new bike coming...I won't say what it is until it is finished being built which may be this week. I got the feeling this past week that my old Orbea was trying to tell me not to get rid of her. I am tremendously excited about where my cycling fitness currently is at. I race in 4 weeks and I can't wait! I love the off-season. If you take advantage of the weeks you really have a chance to transform the body without worrying about being rested for races. That's exactly what I have done over the past 13 weeks.
I have some really exciting news to pass along from a couple of my sponsors. GU Energy is back as the OFFICIAL NUTRITION SPONSOR OF IRONMAN!!!! This couldn't make me more excited. I've always known that it's important to train with the products you will be racing with. At Ironman 70.3 and full Ironman I have always had to pack large quantities of GU for the race. No more! All my favorite flavors of GU, Roctane, Chomps, and the new Roctane drink will be available at the aid stations of nearly every 70.3 and full Ironman. Last year in Ironman Arizona when I was beginning to really suffer in the last 10 miles of the run I was out of GU and forced to take a Powerbar Gel at an aid station. I nearly puked it back up. It was super runny and totally nothing like the GU I'm used to. Now, I know Powerbar makes good products so I'm not trying to sound like their nutrition is bad. My problem is that it was something I wasn't used to. I will not have that problem any more. You can read the details of the GU/Ironman partner ship by clicking here and you can also check out the promotions GU has right now.

In other exciting news from sponsors Xterra Wetsuits sent me a note this past week telling me they were increasing the discount available to customers who use my pro discount code of SA-JPAUL. After the holidays the discount dropped to 55% off but they have just increased it to 60% off. If you are looking for a wetsuit this year without mortgaging the house check out Xterra Wetsuits at www.xterrawetsuits.com and use discount code SA-JPAUL to save 60% off nearly every suit they have available. They are also running a promotion right now for free shipping on any wetsuit purchase. What draws me to Xterra is how customer friendly they are. They are the ONLY company out there that encourages you to swim in your suit to guarantee the correct fit. They will refund you 100% of the purchase price or swap for a different size at no charge AFTER you have swam in it. I researched over 15 other wetsuit companies and no one else even compares. The correct fit in a wetsuit is so important to getting the most out of it I don't know how you could take a chance on buying one without knowing you will get to swim in it risk-free.

This past weekend Supermom and I went to Chicago for the Shamrock Shuffle. We were fortunate that our good friends Zeb and Jasmine Gilliam had a place for us to stay. Staying at their place has been good luck for us in the past when I've raced in the Chicago Triathlon. We had a nice dinner where I managed to eat my entire calzone which put me well over my 3,000 calorie restriction on Saturday. Jen made it a priority to find some good competitive races this year. She wins nearly every local race she runs and most of them without anyone very close to her. She knows that her best races will come when she is pushed so she found this HUGE one in Chicago. About 40,000 runners toed the line on Sunday. What made it ultra competitive is that they had a large prize purse for elite club teams. This brought anywhere from 3-6 very fast ladies for each club. Jen tried to join the Iowa elite club (Runablaze) last year but they would not let her wear a Live Uncommon logo on their jersey so she passed up on the chance to join them (and the cool perks that come with being on the team) so that she could work to further the cause of Live Uncommon. Yesterday Jen ran the 8k in 28:32 and finished 13th place among all the female runners. She was awesome. I ran it with her as my weekly tempo. She ran extremely smart knowing the fast runners would pull the pack out fast. Jen's mile splits were 5:52, 5:43, 5:35, 5:40, and 5:42. After the mile mark we did not get passed by anyone. Jen passed 8 girls in mile 2, 6 in mile 3, and about 5 more the rest of the way in to the finish line. I was really excited for her. She continues to amaze me by what she's able to accomplish in running despite being busy with a demanding full-time job, being an awesome mother to two wonderful children, and putting up with me! I'm already looking forward to her next big race althoug we don't know where that should be. If anyone out there has any big race suggestions go ahead an post them here. She is looking for options including about every distance except for a marathon which she swears she will never do again.

Jen and I teamed up for the Live Uncommon race team this year. We did not do this because we were looking to do 7 more local races. I do enough triathlons and she already had enough races in the past. We teamed up because everyone on the race team has pledged to raise money for the charities the races on the series give back to. Jen and I pledged to raise $1,500.00 for these worthy causes. We are thrilled with the generosity we have seen so far. Special thanks to the following individuals for contributing to this cause: Phil Pancrazio, Jon and Aleta McGee, Tony Singh and Merrill Lynch, Michelle and Dave Juehring, Lisa Long, Jason and Amy Smith, Kelan and Jayme Moylan, Shanna Smith, Bill and Dierdra Moylan, Barb and Darrell Paul, Amber and Shaun Wishnevski, Edward Allen, Laurie and Scott Scafidi, and the 3 anonymous donors! If you would like to contribute a tax-deductible donation we will be thrilled with any amount you can give. We are over 1/2 way to our goal! You can click here to make a donation on our page or just to check out what charities we are trying to raise money for. If you would prefer to mail a check rather than donate online let me know and I would be happy to send you the address.

Things are going so well right now I decided to do my first pro race of the year one month sooner than I had planned. I will be going to Kansas 70.3 on June 10 and racing there. I'm at a point right now where I can hardly believe how good I'm feeling...I have this feeling that the only thing that could slow me down right now is an injury so I'm trying not to do anything dumb. I'm getting my body fat % tested again on Thursday. I plan to increase my calories from 3,000/day to 3,300 next week. I have had a couple days when I ate over 4,000 and I feel like Superman in the next day's workouts. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!!

It can't be this easy...Spring Break 2012

It can't be this easy...this is my reaction to counting calories for my first 11 days. I cannot believe how effective it has been and how good I have felt. I weighed in this morning at 150.4 lbs. which is the lowest I have seen on the scale in 10 years. I worked out 30 hours, 30 minutes last week on 3,000 calories and I felt awesome! How can this be? I totally imagined I would feel like crap but have found it to be just the opposite. I didn't put in any eye popping single days but every day was between 4 and 5 hours training. For the week I biked 315 miles, swam 20,200 yards, and ran 45 miles. I also lifted weights, jumped rope, and did lunges twice, performed speed drills, strides, and push-ups all three times, and did core work 10 times.
I have been eating so clean and healthy I think I'm getting more out of 3,000 calories than I used to out of 5,000. This is because I'm making the calories count. I'm loading up on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.
This past week was my spring break and what a week we had here in the midwest. We had record high temperatures in the 80's nearly all week. I got outdoors on my bike for the first time this year on Tuesday for hill repeats. Going into this workout I wasn't sure what to think of my bike fitness. I've had some great workouts on the trainer but until you get out on the roads I think you always wonder how the indoor fitness will translate outside. I had an awesome workout which was a huge motivator. I know right now my swimming is better than ever before and I'm running exceptionally well for this early in the year. Finding out my bike fitness is also high was really nice. We had our first group ride of the year on Wednesday night and it was awesome. The pace got going fast really early but I managed to hang on and stay up front sharing the workload until the end. I lose the Wednesday night group rides. I always try to make it my toughest bike workout of the week.
Saturday I did my tempo run with Jen as she raced the St. Paddy's Day 5k. The event was put on wonderfully. It is sponsored by Russell Construction and they have done such a good job investing in the race that the numbers have doubled from 2 years ago and with over 3,000 runners on Saturday they saw a new record. Jen won the women's race and the $300.00 prize that came with it. It was fun running with her. I'm excited to see what she can do with lots of good girls in the field this Sunday when we travel to Chicago for the Shamrock Shuffle. She ran 17:40 on Saturday and won by quite a bit. She continues to amaze me with her committment to running at a high level while balancing being Super Mom, and a very intense overtime-filled job at the arsenal. By the way, she still finds time to volunteer in our church nursery on the weekends. She is definitely a good example of what Live Uncommon seeks to achieve in our community and world.
I had my longest ride of the year on Thursday when I went outside with Adam Bohach for 65 miles. He is more nuts than I am putting in over 350 bike miles in 5 days. Sunday was my longest run of the year (14 miles). Monday was a great swim workout...10x200's on 3:00 and I did all of them in 2:39-2:41 until the last 2 when I finished in 2:32 asnd 2:33. I'm really excited about my swimming right now. I have invested in the swim and I'm waiting for the payout. This year I'm averaging 19,100 yards/week through 12 weeks of training. I compared this to last year's swim training. A year ago I was averaging 12,200 yards through week 12. I had done 17 swim workouts at 4,000 or more yards and 5 swim workouts at 5,000 or more yards through 12 weeks last year. This year I have done 35 swim workouts of 4,000 or more yards and 18 workouts at 5,000 or more yards. I have swam 15,000 yards or more all 12 weeks this year with 5 of those weeks exceeding 20,000 yards this year. Last year I had swam 3 weeks of 15,000 yards and only 1 at 20,000.
I don't think I would have wanted to be anywhere else in the world but Scott County over Spring Break 2012. The weather was perfect and the workouts were great. We were able to get the kids outdoors and do some fun things with them. All this hard work leaves me with a little recovery time to adapt. I had a much needed massage from Laurel Darren yesterday and that should help speed things along. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!

Counting on Success...

Near the conclusion of my 5 week break from any training following Ironman Arizona I had my body fat % tested at Kaminski Pain and Performance Care. Dr. Kaminski invested in some new high tech body composition machine and I was excited to see how fat I had gotten in my break from training. I weighed in at 172 lbs. and my body fat % was 18%. I was not surpised but was excited to get back to training to see how quickly I could diminish that number. About 10 days ago I went back to retest at Dr. Kaminiski's office. I weighed in at 162 lbs. before they put the electric pads on my body for the test. I was nearing the end of 10 weeks of training and felt very confident I would see a good result. I even made a "prediction" with a high level of confidence that I would be between 12 and 13%. My pride was checked when I heard the number "16" come out of Dr. Kaminski's mouth. Are you kidding me? I have worked my butt off for 10 weeks and all I have to show for it in terms of body fat % is a lousy 2%! I went home a bit frustrated to say the least. I kept thinking...I'm already trying to compete against a majority of guys who can train all day without having a full-time job outside of the sport. On top of that I'm trying to compete against a lot of guys who don't have a family of their own. Now I'm trying to do this at twice their body fat. I had a few ways to look at this number 16 in my head and all of these were things I thought about.

1. Maybe the machine is wrong. Maybe it's not very accurate...then again I know it's the most reliable body fat machine I've ever been hooked up to.

2. Maybe I'm genetically overmatched here and I'm not going to ever see much lower than 16.

3. If I'm at 16% now and feeling as fit as I do, I'm going to be better than I ever thought once I get that number down to 8

With scenarios 1 I was in denial. With scenario 2 I was just being pessimistic. I chose to go with scenario 3. I believe I've never been close to my ideal body fat % or race weight yet and when I get there the results will be better than I or anyone else could have ever predicted. With that decision I declared war on 16.

For the first time in my life I decided to count calories. I made myself a list of everything I eat around the house. The list is growing. (click on it to make it bigger) When I eat something that's not on the list I add it to the list. My list has a title spot for the food, what the serving size is, how many calories are in it, how much protein, carbohydrate, and fat are in the food, and how much the food weighs. The weight is important because if I'm going to restrict calories I want to make sure I'm eating foods that will keep me healthy without adding too many calories. On the pages that follow "the list" I write down every single thing I eat and how many calories are in it. I add them up and keep track. I've been amazed with my short term results on only 5 days of this test. Here are my early findings on a limit of 3,000 calories/day.

I can't believe how many carbohydrates I was consuming before keeping track of this! I was eating 1,000 calories of Wheaties Fuel for breakfast plus another 500 calories of other food. I was easily consuming 5,000 calories which is maybe where I'll be when I get to my ideal body fat % but way over what I needed to eat. I was eating 5 or more granola/protein/cereal bars a day. Those did next to nothing in terms of satisfying my hunger but they were packing on a tremendous amount of calories and carbohydrates. In my brief 5 days I have found that I can eat 3,000 calories and not feel hungry at all. I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. I use measuring cups and even a cool new food scale to measure out my servings so I'm accurate in keeping track. The food scale I bought has over 1,000 foods stored in it so I can type in "orange" and then put my orange on the scale and it will weigh it and tell my how many calories are in it. Doing this has forced me to think about what I'm eating and how I want to "spend" my calories. It has actually been very fun to do. I am making up my own rules as I go. For example if I eat less than 3,000 calories on a given day I get to "bank" them and carry over the remaining to the next day. I have decided that every Tuesday morning my bank will empty anything over 500 extra calories so Monday will be the day if I have lots of extra to give I can enjoy that stove top oil cooked popcorn that I crave and love (55 calories/cup and the last time I made it I ate 8 cups). What are some of the foods I'm really enjoying you may ask? Here is a list of a few...

1. 1 serving of Wheaties Fuel mixed with Fat Free Dannon yogurt. This is 290 calories but is very filling and has a good mix of carbohydrates and protein.

2. Chicken Breast- 4 ounces is a serving and has only 90 calories and 22 grams of protein with only 1/2 gram of fat.

3. Smoothie- 1 cub fat free Cookies and Creme Frozen yogurt, 1/2 cup skim milk, 1 fat free Dannon vanilla yogurt all blended and it has 320 calories

4. Strawberries- 1 cup only has 50 calories

5. Baby Carrots- 3 ounces only has 35 calories. I could spend my daily calories eating 18 lbs. of these things...all for only 3,000 calories.

6. Mr. Dells Hashbrowns with green peppers and onion- 60 calories a serving and I no longer cook it in oil.

7. Yogurt with Raisins- This is a very filling snack and I try to eat 1 snack between breakfast and lunch and another between lunch and dinner. This nets 210 calories with 1 6 ounce fat free yogurt and 1/4 cup of raisins.

I'm sure a lot of people will think I went off the deep end here...I'm actually having a lot of fun and it's incredible to see how much of a difference I can see and feel in only 5 days. As I get closer to my goal body fat percentage I will begin adding in calories because I know the quality of workouts will get even better when I'm allowing myself more of those. I still have lots of time before any big races so the count is on. I'm at war with 16 . I may find that I can race 10 lbs. lighter than I've ever been and I know from past experience what that will mean for my biking and running. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!

Week 10 Training Summary

Sorry for the delay with this week's post. Week 10 was a very solid one of training. For the week my total training time was 24.5 hours. I ran 60 miles, biked 170 miles, and swam 16,000 yards. Through 10 weeks of training I've been at or above 15,000 yards every week with an average of nearly 19,000 yards each week. I'm excited about that progress. With my increased devotion of swimming I've found it much tougher to put in the big bike weeks as I did in past years. I knew something would have to give if I was going to be spending 2-3 more hours a week in the water and it has been a few bike miles. I continue to put in 2-3 real quality rides each week to make sure I am still making progress with my cycling as well as my swimming and running. In addition to the swim, bike, and run totals this week I also lifted weights and did plyometrics twice, speed drills, strides, lunges, jump rope, and pushups all three times, and core work 12 times.
We had another great swim clinic at Augustana on Sunday. We had 14 people in attendance. All the attendees were entered in a raffle to win some awesome products donated by Xterra Wetsuits. At every clinic from now until June the attendees will be entered into the raffle. If you are thinking about ordering a wetsuit for the 2012 season you are welcome to use my pro discount code of SA-JPAUL to save 55% off the retail prices at http://www.xterrawetsuits.com/ We will give away all the prizes at the June clinic. Quad Cities Triathlon race director Eric Sarno threw in a free entry into the QC Triathlon that will also be drawn at the June raffle. The next clinic will be on Sunday, March 25th at 11:00 a.m. I hope to see another big crowd. It's really fun for me to watch how much the guys and gals at the clinic improve from one time to the next.
I had a few workouts I was really excited about last week. On Friday I did 2x3 miles of progressive tempo work. I ran my first on in 17:22. I ran 1 mile easy recovery and then did the 2nd one at 16:58. I couldn't believe how easy they felt. It felt like I was jogging until I got down to 5:40 mile pace. I like doing the tempo runs progressively where I get a little bit faster each mile. I had 2 very quality bike workouts where I did some hard intervals. I've been doing a lot of high watt/low cadence work where I pedal for 5 minutes at 290 watts with a cadence of no more than 55. These are great strength builders. By pedaling so slowly your legs recruit all the muscle groups to help with the effort. I repeat the 5 minute period 5 times in the workout. I also stepped up my long run this week. I'm now at 13 miles after beginning the year at 8.5. I'm pretty careful about how quickly I increase the long run. I typically add 5 minutes every 2 weeks. This year I don't plan on going above 15 miles until the summer because I'm not racing an Ironman until November when I'll be back at Ironman Arizona trying to break the 9 hour barrier that eluded my by 5 minutes last November.
I'm 95% confident I'll be on a new bike next year. I got the word this week from Healthy Habits about some really exciting options and I'll be trying to hammer out the finer details of this over the next week so I can begin training on it and getting my fit dialed in. Jen and I signed up for the Live Uncommon race team this week. If you are unfamiliar with it Live Uncommon has picked 7 races that give back to charitable organizations. Anyone who wants can sign up for the race team to be entered in all seven events for $150.00. Along with the entry each person also pledges to raise $700.00 that will go straight back to the charities these races support. I don't plan on actually racing many of them hard since the triathlon season is where I like to put most of my hard efforts but this is a cause I care deeply about and I wanted to be part of the "Revolution" of making health and fitness an important part of our community. I love the idea of giving back to worthy causes that make a difference in our community and the world we live in. Between the 2 of us we have pledged to raise $1,500.00 which kind of terrified me because I hate asking people for money. We decided to take this leap of faith in hopes that we can do this. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to our Live Uncommon campaign you can do so by clicking here. We would be honored and humbled.
The training will be a little less in week 11 as I prepare for a big week of training over our spring break next week. The weather is turning nicer and it's a great time to get outside for a bike ride, a run, maybe even a swim within the next couple months...If that's not your thing get outside with your kids and walk around the neighborhood, take them to the park...do whatever it is that you enjoy doing while being active. People will notice. YOU will feel great. You will inspire others. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!!

Swim Clinic Time Change

This month's swim clinic at Augustana College on Sunday, March 4th has been changed to 11:00 a.m. The clinic has grown so much we are expanding into extra lanes and need to do so when the entire pool is available which will be 11:00. The cost of the monthly clinic is $30.00. 2-3 coaches will be on hand to watch you swim, analyze your technique, give you immediate stroke feedback, show you drills, put you through a short hard set, and give you workouts to complete over the next month if you desire. I've been excited with the progress I've made swimming and even more exciting to me is watching the improvements these other guys and girls at the clinic have made. We have had over 25 different people attend the clinic. New attendees are certainly still welcome and the coaches review the old drills every month. We have all abilities at the clinic from people just learning to swim to people who swim very competitively. If you are worried...know you will fit in!! If you want more information e-mail me and if I can't answer your questions I'll get you coach Stacey Zapolski's e-mail address.

Speaking of excitement...beginning this Sunday all attendees at the swim clinic will be entered in a raffle sponsored by Xterra Wetsuits. From the March-June clinic every time someone attends they will be entered into the Xterra Sweepstakes. At the June clinic we will draw 1 lucky winner of an Xterra Wetsuit and 4 winners of triathlon gear bags. Check out those products and more at http://www.xterrawetsuits.com/ If you can't wait to purchase an Xterra Wetsuit feel free to use discount code SA-JPAUL to save 55%!! Hope to see you at the pool on Sunday! DREAM BIG!!

Week 9...Fight One More Round

Week 9 did not go quite as I planned. I had planned to back down the volume this week but focus more on quality workouts. I fill out weekly goals at the start of every week. For this week I put down a goal of 18,000 swim yards, 100 bike miles, and 40 running miles. I also have my checklist of weekly goals such as weight lifting, core work, running drills, strides, push-ups, lunges, and plymetrics. Most weeks I am able to check off every single goal. I take those goals seriously and try to accomplish them all every week. This week I swam 22,000 yards...check, I biked 120 miles...check, I ran 31 miles...crap! I also only lifted weights once and only got plyometrics in once. Everything else I hit. I struggled with motivation this week which I think is related to a lack of sleep. Owen was up sick twice in the middle of the night and that had an impact on my sleep. Wednesday I could not get myself to do my usual mid-week running interval workout. I missed 9 miles including the intervals and that was the difference on my running goals. I did have a great week of swimming once again. I'm realizing how much better I am than I was last year. On Thursday my swim workout called for 5,400 yards. I got to the pool tired and unmotivated. I did my warm up and drill set and my arms felt like logs. I had already logged two 5,000 yard workouts prior to this one. I had to decide what to do. Last summer when I felt tired like this I chose to get out of the pool. This happened nearly once a week. On Thursday I told myself to start the main set (the hard stuff) of the workout and stick with it as long as I could hit the times. If I ever missed my interval time I would switch to drill work or get out of the pool. I began with 10x50's on 50 and I was coming in at 41-42 seconds feeling terrible. This was slow swimming and I was just not feeling it. After the 50's I went right into 3x300's on 4:30. My first one I came in at 4:19 which would only give me 11 seconds rest. I knew things were not going well but I told myself to "fight one more round" to see if I could hit #2. It was especially hard knowing that I ended my main set with a 300 in 3:57 on Tuesday and I was swimming so much slower Thursday. I am very up and down in the pool. On #2 I came in at 4:18...still hanging in there but not great...live to fight one more round. #3 I came in at 4:16 so I got 14 seconds rest...a little better and I was now going to shorter stuff. From the 300's I went right into the next part of the set (3x200's on 3:00). I knew if I didn't pick it up I'd be getting less than 10 seconds rest. I came in my first one in 2:46 which was about 5 seconds faster than I expected...maybe I am going to make it through this set. #2 I came in at 2:44...one more round. #3 I came in at 2:43 and I was starting to get excited because 2:43 was a time that I rarely hit 4 weeks ago. From the 200's I went right into 3x100's on 1:30. #1 I hit in 1:19 and I realized I was going to make the set. #2 I hit 1:18...and #3 I finished off the main set with a 1:16. It was a great learning experience for me. Although I felt tired throughout the entire workout I realized with the technique improvements I've made I could stay in the water...fight one more round and make it through the workout. It was a great feeling to know I overcame the self doubt that I had going into the workout.
Friday was my first day off in 9 weeks of training. Once again I was tired. I did do something active at least by shoveling the driveway, doing lunges, and jump rope. I still will count it as a complete day of rest. I went to bed early knowing I would be working out with Adam Bohach on Saturday morning. I was in Clinton by 8:00 am and we rode 2 hours together on the trainer. After the ride we did a 1 hour run in which we covered over 9 miles. My hamstrings were not feeling well for the first time in 6 or 7 weeks. They were super tight much like they were late in the summer. I couldn't decide if it was from taking Friday off or switching to new shoes this week. Either way I was frustrated when I woke up Sunday with extremely tight hamstrings. I was supposed to race a 4 mile Chili Chase in Davenport to get one hard running workout in this week. I was undecided if I should race. I warmed up and they were tight but I noticed it didn't seem to effect my stride at all and I really don't notice them once I get going. It's just the first few steps and when I bend over to touch my toes that I feel the extreme tightness. I decided I would run the first mile pretty hard and then assess the situation. I went through mile 1 in 5:20. I was in 4th with 3 studs well ahead up the road. The hamstings were not an issue at all so I picked up the pace in mile 2 going through 2 in 5:05 for a time of 10:25. I started thinking I could maybe break 21:00 but knew I was at the lowest point in the course and would have to climb back up a big hill in the last mile running into the wind. I went through mile 3 in 15:45 but started slowing down when with the last 1/2 mile being uphill. I finished up in 21:15. I was really pleased with this effort. I did a swim workout before the run and 2 years ago I ran this hard when I was 7 lbs. lighter and I was 16 seconds slower that year than this one. I keep reminding myself it is still February and it's okay to rest when I feel like my body needs it. My big races do not get going until July so I have over 5 months still to get ready for them. I should not be in a hurry right now. It was great seeing over 350 people out at the Chili Chase. I really think fitness and health are a growing priority in the Quad Cities. I think Live Uncommon has been a big reason for this. My wife Jen won the women's race today running 24:20. She treated it as a workout run and opted not to wear her race flats. She had a great week running more miles than I did at 40. She is really excited to race the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago next month where she'll get plenty of great competition. My brother Justin continued to drop time as fast as he drops weight by running just over 32:00 for the 4 mile course today.
This week I'll be back to high volume and I will make it a priority not to miss any of my goals since the idea is to pour on the volume as opposed to letting my body adapt as was the goal this week. We have our monthly swim clinic at Augustana next Sunday at 1:00. The clinic has grown at a tremendous rate. The cost of the monthly clinic is $30.00. At the clinic the coaches give immediate technique feedback, review old drills, show new ones, and guide us through a short hard set. They also provide a list of workouts you can complete over the next month if you are looking for some swim workout guidance. I have some exciting news about the clinic. Xterra Wetsuits has agreed to send some awesome prizes including a wetsuit that will be raffled away at the June clinic. From now until June every time someone attends the clinic they will be entered in the raffle. The more times someone attends, the more chances they have to win. In June we will draw winners of all the awesome products donated by Xterra. Have an awesome week of workouts...when you don't feel the greatest fight one more round. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!

Week 8 Training Summary

8 weeks in...9 to go until my first triathlon of 2012. I'm really excited with the direction things are going right now. This was my biggest training week yet this year at 27 hours. I ran 60 miles, biked 170, and swam 21,800 yards. I also lifted weights and did plyometrics twice, speed drills, strides, push-ups, and lunges all three times, and core work 13 times. My weight has continued to drop and I'm inching closer to my race weight. I weighed in this week at 155 lbs. which is 4 lbs. more than the lowest number I saw throughout the entire 2011 season. I saw 179 on the scale on New Year's Eve so I've cut that down rather quickly. My younger brother Josh has organized a weight loss competition for 26 individuals that have lost a total of nearly 400 lbs. since the New Year began. It's pretty amazing. My older brother Justin has gone from 280 lbs. down to 246 and he looks awesome!
My biggest change in training this year has been more of a focus on swimming. I don't know if the additional yardage and workouts will leave me faster or not this summer but I'm trusting it will make a big difference. I learned in my first year of professional racing about the dynamics of the pro races. Typically after the swim the riders will stagger 10 meters behind one another and the weaker riders will get pulled along in this manner. It is impossible to take advantage of those dynamics if you are the last one out of the water...hence my increase in swimming. Through 8 weeks of training I have surpassed 15,000 yards every week. Last year I didn't get my 8th week at that yardage until the beginning of July. The days when I would show up to the pool and be in and out within an hour are gone. I'm now in the pool for anywhere between 90 minutes and 1 hr. 45 minutes. I swim 4 days every week and when I can get a bonus 5th swim in I do. This week I got my bonus today because we didn't have school and Monday isn't one of my scheduled swim days. I also think I'll be able to get in the water on Friday so I'll have 6 days of swimming this week. For most triathletes I would recommend spending the majority of the time on the bike and run because the swim is the shortest aspect of a triathlon. Due to what I learned about racing professionally last year however I'm making a committment to becoming a stronger swimmer. I've been fortunate to have help from Stacy Zapolski and Tara Christensen who lead another great swim clinic this week where we met 3 new members. It's been super fun for me to watch this clinic grow. We'll be back for another session at Augustana's pool in 2 weeks.
I've been contemplating my own training schedule lately. I like to increase the volume but when I do the quality of the workouts suffers a bit. My track workout at Augustana on Wednesday did not go well. My legs were too tired to get a 2nd bike interval workout on the weekend so I did more base mileage pace. I got in shape quickly the first 4 weeks when my volume wasn't high but my quality was. I'm going to start alternating quality weeks with quantity weeks as a bit of an experiment. This week I will eliminate all the "junk" miles as some would call them and focus on getting 3 really hard bike workouts and 2 really quality running ones. My overall volume will be down but I know I gain a lot from the quality. I don't consider any miles "junk" until I'm at my race weight. Until then every mile helps me get closer to that weight and I still believe firmly the #1 factor for me to race my best is to get my body lean. Dr. Kaminski from Kaminski Pain and Performance Care has a new high tech body composition machine that we will use to monitor where I'm at. Before I began training I had a baseline test and my body fat % was 18 which is incredibly high. If I would guess I would say I'm around 11% now but I'll let the machine tell me every few weeks from here on out. I'd like to get to about 8% before I really feel comfortable about my chances of racing my best.
The weather is starting to turn and within a couple months I will be on the open water swimming in my Xterra wetsuit. If you haven't gotten your wetsuit yet for 2012 you are welcome to use my pro discount code of SA-JPAUL and you will save about 63% off the retail price I believe. Xterra can offer the best prices in the industry because they sell directly...in other words you will not find the suit at a "middle man"...retail store. The Xterra website is at www.xterrawetsuits.com If you aren't sure what suit is best for you don't hesitate to contact me and I can help recommend one based on the races you plan to do this year. I hope you are working hard towards your fitness goals. Keep using every week and every day as a chance to get better. Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!