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 ...

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 p...

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...

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 sea...

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 be...

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 ...

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 We...