Jon's Jibber-jabber

In February of this year, Kim and I took a cruise for our 5th wedding anniversary.  We took the cruise as an early anniversary trip.  Our actual date was a week or so later but pricing did not line up.  We got married around Valentine's Day and this year that weekend is also President's Day weekend so prices go up with everything Disney around those days.  We decided to take a quick 3-night Bahamian cruise from Port Canaveral on the Disney Magic.   We have done two other cruises with DCL (a 4-night on the Dream and a 7-night on the Fantasy) and we wanted to experience the "little" ships. The first thought when arriving to port was how small the ship actually looked compared to the port.  Small is a relative term, as the Magic is 984 ft. long with a gross tonnage (measure of ship volume not weight or displacement) of nearly 84,000 tons.  For comparison, the RMS Titanic was 882 ft. long with a GT of 46,300.  So we aren't talking about a little dinghy.  B

Every year on Thanksgiving weekend, I participate in the Space Coast Marathon.  Now only 2 hours away from us on the "other side" of the state, this has become a popular race due to a series honoring the retired space shuttles.  This was year 4 into the 5 year series.  This would actually be my fifth time participating in the race.  It was also the race's 45th anniversary, making it one of the longest running marathons in the US.  I prepared this year for the marathon by actually quitting triathlon for the fall.  I chose to focus on one sport with the hope of performing well at the marathon.  Read on to see how that worked out.  Race Week Race week was terrible.  Since Thursday before the race (Thanksgiving and my birthday), I was sick with a chest cold that spread itself to my head as well.  Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat and everything that goes with it was present for most of Friday and Saturday.  I picked up multiple meds and prepared.  The iss

Hillwork. Does the sound of it make you cringe?   It is something that many runners neglect, either unintentionally or deliberately.  Excuses range from I don't have hills to why do I need to do it?  In the same vein as strength training, hillwork is one of those foreign concepts to runners.   People make faces.  People run away.  It is whatever you can muster up to get away from hillwork.  But first, I must present a disclaimer.  I never liked or did hillwork.  I was one of those people who discounted hills.  Most of my races were on flat courses so why in the world would I train for hills?  Hills are hard.  Hills are scary.  As I am maturing in the endurance world, I've learned that this is flat out wrong.  Hills have a place. It is important in cycling also but I will focus on running in this post.  I am not talking about running up Alpe D'Huez or ascending Pike's Peak.  Simple elevation changes will make a difference in your fitness.   Many coaches and bloggers have

Florida has a running race series called Best Damn Race.  It is an awkward title for a race that is really family friendly but this series does pride itself on being the Best Damn Race.   Colloquially known as BDR, there are varied distances and locations from Jacksonville to Orlando to Coral Gables.  My wife knows and has worked with the series race director.  This year they did a "leftover" 5k.  This race in Safety Harbor was to get rid of all of the extra shirts and medals from previous events.  You get to pick your shirt and you get to pick your medal.  First come, first serve.  BDR races are also remarkably inexpensive with their pricing tiers.  We ended up registering for this 5k for $13 each.  Fully supported with free beer, liquor, and food afterward, this really was the Best Damn Race. Being June, this is expected to be a hot race.  It has really become oppressive over the past few weeks and 0-dark thirty running season has commenced.  The 5k started at 7:15 for wa

I picked up Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Running because my wife had begun to delve into Fitzgerald's nutrition books.  The 80/20 running philosophy has been quoted by a number of coaches I know and has appeared in many places now in the literature. Over the course of my career, I have dabbled in several different methods and am never one to dismiss or support something without giving it a shot.  I began to read the book with an open mind as I typically try to do with all advice books.  This book is really no different than the plethora of already available running training books such as Hal Higdon, the Hansons, Jeff Galloway, and others who have developed "magic formulas" to help runners get better (or more precisely, faster).  Fitzgerald sets out from the beginning to prove to readers that the 80/20 method is the optimal method for improvement.  Period.  Science shows it and Fitzgerald will lead you to the promised land.  Where have I heard this before?  In very s

As I've said in earlier posts, I am retired from the ultra distance triathlon (also known as Ironman, full or 140.6).  Retiring truly means that I have no foreseeable plans to do another one in my lifetime.  This is not to say that it won't happen.  How many sports stars, actors, or others have "come out of retirement" to pick something up again?   But here I am not talking about retiring but instead focus on taking sabbaticals.  Athletes take off-seasons when racing is slow.  This is especially true of triathletes, where in most of the country, water temperatures are too cold to swim during the winter.  In Florida, there is not a true off season as south Florida remains warm year-round but summer is often this state's off-season with temperatures routinely in the high 90s.  It just gets too hot to really train or race.   This year, I decided not to take an off-season but to take a sabbatical.  I use that term to mean that for triathlon (three sport training), the

Last year, a friend of mine and I signed up to race IRONMAN 70.3 Florida (Haines City) together.  We nicknamed it "Swampman" since the swim has been known to have terrible water quality.  And it is middle Florida so no ocean or gulf waters but stagnant lake water.  This race has a reputation of being hot and humid as well.  But it is a local race for me and it is only 30 minutes from Walt Disney World so friends can travel and stay there if needed. The local clubs and athletes tend to do this race since it doesn't require travel, much like the Maryland athletes tended to always do Eagleman.  So this race wasn't too far for me.  I convinced a friend of mine from Massachusetts to come down and race with me.  She's a much better athlete than me so it wasn't so much a race with me as it was me chasing her down in futility.  But it would be a fun weekend for us without too much pressure or trouble, given the earliness of the race.   Race Week Last weekend,

Last year, my wife wanted to buy something where she did not have to reach down for her water bottle.  She is not the greatest bike handler and was uncomfortable reaching down for the bottle off of the down tube.  At that time, she did not have aerobars and vertical bottle mounts for the handlebars were not practical for triathlon.  You can use them on your beach cruiser but it is inconvenient on a road bike.  So we picked up a Speedfil.  The Speedfil standard model fits on your downtube where the water bottle goes but has a tube straw that goes up to your handlebars or your aerobats.   The Speedfil is meant to be used in aero like a between the arms (BTA) bottle but resides on your frame.  This way, it can hold a much larger capacity than anything that could be mounted to the bars.  The current model holds about 40 ounces of liquid.  It has a sliding groove for the screws allowing for adjustment of placement on the tube to account for varying geometry of bikes.  In reality, this w

Last year, we signed up for the First Watch Sarasota Half Marathon because of a very good promotional price they were running.   Sarasota is about an hour and ten minutes south of our house so it is a local race to us.   We had heard good things about it and several people we know were going to do it.  We discovered soon that this year the race fell around spring break and hotel prices were out of this world.  Being so close, we decided to stay at home and drive down.    Race Week  Since this was a training run, I did not taper.   In fact, this was an increased volume week for me.  I had increased my swimming this week but unfortunately had a long bike set up for Saturday afternoon.  Having no choice, I did the bike hoping my legs would be recovered enough to at least finish this race.  Race Day Ok so races that fall on the "spring forward" day are evil.  I recommend not doing this.  Ever.  Because we lost an hour, morning felt so soon.   I met a friend and her son at their h

Author Matt Fitzgerald is well known in the running circle.  He has served as a writer for Triathlete and has written numerous articles and books on the endurance sports world.  I have an interesting relationship with Mr. Fitzgerald's work, loving some and less-than-loving others.  This latest book in his collection, "How Bad Do You Want It?", deals with the mental aspect of the sport.  In particular, this book centers on several key challenges that athletes face and techniques to potentially overcome or avert them.   Fitzgerald has written on this before with Brain Training for Runners and through other articles.  This book, however, has a different feel.  It is not so focused on "brain training" but on talking through concepts of mental issues and using anecdotal examples.   Fitzgerald doesn't limit himself to his familiar genre of running.  Here he draws from other sports such as rowing, cycling, and even winter sports.  There is some focus on brain conne

This past weekend I ran the Gasparilla Distance Classic Half Marathon.  The GDC (or more formally the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic PGDC), consists of four races throughout the weekend.   There is a 15k and a 5k on Saturday followed by the Half Marathon and an 8k on Sunday.  The GDC has attracted some top talent in the past (Bill Rodgers won the 15k back in the days) and these are some of the largest road races in the Tampa Bay Area.  With all of the race options, there are a few challenges that mix up combinations of race distances, including the Ultra challenge that includes all four races.  Start times are staggered so that most participants can complete the early race and make the start of the later race.  This year 32,000 participants took part in the weekend.   I only did the half marathon, although friends of ours did the challenges.  This was a tune up race for 70.3 Florida and my training program had a 2 hour run for this weekend.  So the half marathon fit well into my tr

'I am a slow adopter of new things in most settings.  Until just a few months ago, I had an iPhone 4 (not 4s, just 4) and I would probably have my 3s if it still would work.  I also struggle with nutrition and fueling.  Specifically, I have a hard time getting a proper fueling plan.   This was the case when I was running and continued into triathlon.   I took advice from what people had done for a long time in the sport and stuck to my ways.   If I found something I liked (such as a particular brand of Gu), it would be pretty hard to get me to change.   A brief history of my fueling.  I started with sport beans, moved to Gu, moved to Honey Stinger gel and waffles, moved to Hammer gels and this is where I landed.   I actually have been working for about a year with Hammer gels and Salt Stick electrolyte tablets.   My problem came on the bike.  The amount to carry and the stickiness from trying to eat the gels was causing me frustration.  I would yell and scream when I'd open

Recently, I had the opportunity to try my wife's Polar M400 GPS watch.  We purchased this watch in November 2014 at the Walt Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon Expo.  We spoke with the Polar rep for a long time and since she was in the market for a new watch, we bought it.  After a few months, she could not get it to work the way she wanted and stopped using it.   The gadget swap began about a month ago when I bought her a new Garmin VivoActive to try.  Review on that to come later or over on her blog.  I began using the Polar M400 since she no longer needs it.   I will preface my review by saying I am not DC Rainmaker so if you want a thorough, technical and in depth review of feature, see this article . The M400 is a running watch.  I will state that up front.  It isn't created primarily for triathlon or other sports.  It also is not a "smart watch" in line with other recent additions such as the Apple Watch, VivoActive or TimexOne.   It can do other s