The Summer of Hope? & Best Training of 2008

Obama enjoying a nice bounce (Sun. 6-8 Rasmussen polling) after reaching the magic number Tuesday, and giving a great speech in St. Paul. Poll shows him with "Obama now attracts 48% of the vote while McCain earns 40%."



And later spoke to his staff and volunteers, with his new title "presumptive nominee."



Hillary certainly drew things out, effectively building the suspense to a crescendo, then nailed the peak with her speech yesterday.

Training!

6/2 – 6/8/08

Second consecutive very nice solid week of healthy activity. 13+ hrs training time this week and last. Nothing long, nothing very intense. Something every day, a little more on weekends. Key word: Healthy.

[timeout to watch the Hughes segment on 60 Minutes]

Bike odometer cracked 20,000mi somewhere along the way.

Mon. 6-2-08
Run 45mins, couple peppy 7:15-7:20miles, ~6mi.

Tue. 6-3
Bike QR trainer in eve, most all aero, with a nice fat ~45 mins stretch at tempo/threshold effort.
Duration: 1:13:12 (1:16:40)
Distance: 23.957 mi

Core – 15mins Lift 15mins - core, waddle, curls at home.

Wed. 6-4
Swim 50mins
Lift – 25mins core and quads

Thur. 6-5-08
Run-Bike in eve.
Run 42 mins steady, ~5.5mi, ~84F muggy, 7-8min trans to run.
Bike trainer QR steady+ after run
Duration: 1:00:26
Distance: 20.451 mi

Fri. 6-6-08
Swim 54mins at MAC in morn, ~2000m
Run 49mins eve, ~6.3mi, knees pretty good, no right knee
Core 15mins

Sat. 6-7-08
Swim 45mins, ~1900m (am)
Lift – 20mins Core & Quads (am after swim)
Bike (pm)
QR Rock Creek, ~90F, humid, Beach Dr nice and shady and few people out. Knees okay. No wind.
Duration: 2:06:15 (2:07:42)
Distance: 38.004 mi

Sun. 6-8 Ride-Run
Bike QR ride out to Seneca store (ice and water refill), back River Rd. Got out early to beat the worst heat. 90+F pretty humid, sunny, not bad when rolling along. 1 banana just before mounting up. During ride ~600-650cals: 2 bananas, 3 Egels, 3 endurolyte caps, most of a bottle of electrolyte, 4-5 bottles water. Drinking early and often. Felt pretty darn good. No heat issues, no cramping, etc. HR never out of whack, responsive, not sticky high or low. Not going hard, just trying to keep cadence up, manage hydration, nutrition; manage effort for run to follow.

Changed small ring from 44 to 40, no doubt helped to manage effort on the hills.
Duration: 2:49:43 (2:59:08)
Distance: 50.094 mi

Run 33mins, ~4mi, 8min trans from ride.
Post run – stretch, fluids, cold shower, HUGE smoothy with lots of LV blueberries – thanks Martha!

***
I've seen $4.2x for the cheap stuff.

Better racing through riser stem?

Recently altered my tri bike position. Jacked the front end up a gigantic 4cm, after already raising it 2cm a couple weeks prior. Seat to arm rest "drop" (ground height differential) is now 10cm, much less "aggressive" than 16cm. Not as aero, but hip angle is more open, and hopefully I'm more powerful while putting less aggravation on the lower back, pelvis and ITBand. I don't feel like a main sail, sitting high and catching wind resistance, but don't feel like a slippery bullet either.

So far so good. Better to be healthy and able to race than aerodynamic but never healthy at the start line, or not there at all. That last 4cm, and some other smaller tweaks came courtesy of Eric, the man behind Principle Fitness (FIST certified). We'll see. I may not be able to resist the temptation to nudge the bars down just a bit in the pursuit of free aero speed. For now, at least my tongue will stay out of the front spokes.

Eric's summary from my 2hrs with him.

General William Odom

My favorite voice on Iraq died. Lt. General William Odom. Unfortunate that he won't be around to throw his $.02 at the next administration.

NPR interview re Iraq from 2006 (7mins).

And a NYTimes obit.

Called a hawk by some, a scholar for sure. In my limited exposure seeing him on with Lehrer, Olberman, Chuckie Rose and the like , I was always riveted by his smarts, his refusal to mince words or suffer fools.
More links and clips .