Finally spring has arrived in Ohio. Though it's been really wet and not good training weather, the flowers are sprouting up everywhere and my grass is out of control. I started my spring training just as I have for the last 3-years by heading down to the North Georgia mountain region of Helen, GA for a week of training at what is now become an annual training camp for many of my HFP training buddies.
This camp for me is really about jump starting my training and shocking my system into shape. Going into the camp my longest outdoor bike ride for me was about 1:45 and included very few hills and certainly NO mountain passes. I count on my 20+ years of base training to keep me from struggling too much. However, this year was the added challenge of very warm weather for most of the workouts. When I left Ohio it was 38 degrees and when I saddled up for our first official ride it was 82 degrees with considerably humid. We start the camp off each year with the same workout - a bike ride to the highest point in Georgia, Brasstown Bald.
The ride started off with a pretty pedestrian pace (for about 3 miles), before everyone's fresh legs could no longer be held back and the pace was picked up before the base of the first mountain pace. I was shocked at how I was already at the end of my ribbon before the start of the climb. Not good. As we headed up the 4+ mile mountain pace I immediately unzipped my jersey and was begging for mercy. The temperature change was huge and my body was not liking it. Last year I wussed out and did not do the final climb to Brasstown as I labeled it "optional" in the training schedule so I took the "option" and waited for the hardcore campers to do their thing. This year I was not missing out on this epic climb regardless of how bad I felt. With the weather changing quickly to what looked like a rain storm, we quickly headed up this 3+ mile 8-20% grade climb. Here is a link to a great description of this climb. One of our campers bet me $10.00 bucks I could not sit the entire climb - he lost that bet. There are sections of this climb that even with a 28 rear cog I was forced to ride back in forth in the road just to keep from falling over.
The rest of the training camp featured one epic workout after another. It's amazing how training with a group one can push to another level that just not possible by yourself. One of the highlights for me was a 3+ hour 18 mile trail run with over 5000 feet of climbing. The longest run before that workout for me was about 45 minutes. This is what this training camp is all about - pushing yourself to another limit and as they say "Misery loves company" - thanks to all the campers that made this years camp such a great time.
Upon returning from the camp I was immediately thrown into my full on dress rehearsal that Monday night for my church's Passion Play - Bow the Knee. I have the privilege of being the Crucified Christ during the play and have had the fortunate opportunity to have done so the last 20 years. Dress rehearsal was Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with the actual play taking place Thursday through Sunday night.
To complicate matters a bit, this coincided with the first HFP race of the season - the sold out Miami University Student Foundation Triathlon. For the first time in the history of the event I would not be there for any of the pre-event setup. This would be handled by my very capable staff. I finished up the Friday night play around 9:00pm and was on the road heading to Oxford by 9:15pm. I arrived a little before midnight to find all of my staff still up and eating a late night snack at Skyline. More power to them - I headed for my hotel room. With just a short nap in before the alarm went off at 3:15am I was certainly not rested. By the time the race was over and we were cleaned up there was not a lot of wiggle room for me getting back to the church for the Saturday night show - I arrived 15 minutes late but still plenty of time to get my 60+ minutes of gruesome makeup on.
After a whirlwind start to my spring I was finally looking forward to having nothing to do on the weekend but get in some training. That Friday night I finished up the chapter of Lance Armstrong's book "It's not about the bike" (I know...I'm the last one to finally read the book) where he describes getting his cycling Mo Jo back with a week of hard training in the mountains of Boone, NC - all in the rain and with temperatures only in the 40's. His description of his final day of training was so epic I was determined the next morning to find my cycling Mo Jo too. I even was looking forward to predicted rainy dreary day. However, the rain held off and my epic 4+ hour ride was pure joy. No particular pace - just enjoying being on the bike and exploring new roads. About two hours into the ride I sent a text to my wife "Feeling really blessed today :)" - her reply made me fell even better - "Awesome - kids are having fun outside and I'm getting a lot done". Perfect - now it was a "guilt free" ride too!
Bring it!
HFP Man
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Years Day Epic Run
Happy New Year everyone!
It's always great to bring in a new year with much excitement and hope. For many of us the new year always starts off with a workout and for me that means gathering together with some of my best buddies and getting an EPIC workout in – usually a run.
For 2011 we decided to meet at my house and run the Lobdell Trail loop. This epic loop features more than 6 significant creek crossings and with a sudden warm-up in weather that meant “swollen” creek crossings. Of course that thrilled all of us as we assembled at my house ready for the 90+ minute run. It was already 48 degrees and warm enough for shorts (for some of us) and for my young neighbor Isaac, warm enough for shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.
It’s a short 2k road run to the park where most of us (except for Isaac) shed some clothes at the park PJ as we were already too warm. This particular park is mostly used by horseman and the trails are very beat up and offer pretty bad footing. Within the first 400 yards we came to our first knee deep creek crossing which was easy enough to cross but provided a serious cold shock to the legs. All of us agreed with little to no feeling in our feet it forced us to move along at a pretty good clip to warm back up. This was the scenario for the entire run – run till you feet warmed up, then another creek crossing to numb them back up.
Sadly no one did a face plant or slipped head over heels into the creek (which makes this blog much less interesting) but we did enjoy old stories and remembered some of our past epic workouts from long ago (when we were all much younger). We concluded our workout standing in my driveway sharing our racing goals for 2011. Mine was to run faster and have another PR at Miami Man, Mark wanted to just keep pace with 2010, Don thinks losing 20 pounds will surely make Ironman Louisville a lot easier and Isaac hoped he still had a job with HFP in 2011 – we’ll see about that one!
Bring it,
HFP Man
It's always great to bring in a new year with much excitement and hope. For many of us the new year always starts off with a workout and for me that means gathering together with some of my best buddies and getting an EPIC workout in – usually a run.
For 2011 we decided to meet at my house and run the Lobdell Trail loop. This epic loop features more than 6 significant creek crossings and with a sudden warm-up in weather that meant “swollen” creek crossings. Of course that thrilled all of us as we assembled at my house ready for the 90+ minute run. It was already 48 degrees and warm enough for shorts (for some of us) and for my young neighbor Isaac, warm enough for shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.
It’s a short 2k road run to the park where most of us (except for Isaac) shed some clothes at the park PJ as we were already too warm. This particular park is mostly used by horseman and the trails are very beat up and offer pretty bad footing. Within the first 400 yards we came to our first knee deep creek crossing which was easy enough to cross but provided a serious cold shock to the legs. All of us agreed with little to no feeling in our feet it forced us to move along at a pretty good clip to warm back up. This was the scenario for the entire run – run till you feet warmed up, then another creek crossing to numb them back up.
Sadly no one did a face plant or slipped head over heels into the creek (which makes this blog much less interesting) but we did enjoy old stories and remembered some of our past epic workouts from long ago (when we were all much younger). We concluded our workout standing in my driveway sharing our racing goals for 2011. Mine was to run faster and have another PR at Miami Man, Mark wanted to just keep pace with 2010, Don thinks losing 20 pounds will surely make Ironman Louisville a lot easier and Isaac hoped he still had a job with HFP in 2011 – we’ll see about that one!
Bring it,
HFP Man
Monday, December 6, 2010
Is Gluten Free the way to be?
Since becoming gluten-free in February 2010, I've had many requests for more information and my personal insight on the details of this healthy way of living. For many years I suffered from the "typical" gluten intolerance symptoms (bloating, gas, frequent BM's, afternoon fatigue and stomach pain after races or hard workouts). Within a week of going gluten-free most of my symptoms went away and I was feeling the best I've felt in years. Training was going better, I was sleeping fantastic, and my energy levels were at an all time high - best of all I was dropping pounds like crazy, eventually losing more than 15 pounds. I was sold!
What is gluten you might be asking? Gluten (from Latin gluten "glue") is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and related species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture. So...basically all my favorite foods and most of the foods making up my diet at the time. I was used to eating lots of pasta, pizza and other gluten enriched foods.
So how can I train for triathlons and have such a low carb diet? That's the question I asked and was actually having trouble adapting to. I had yet to learn much about carb rich gluten-free alternatives, so I basically was eating what looked to be an Adkins diet and any training over 60 minutes was very difficult. I found out later that it was more my body getting used to a new fuel rather than not eating enough carbs. Nonetheless, I (meaning my wife) needed to learn more about cooking gluten-free and I needed to learn a different carb source. I quickly found that fresh fruits and rice dishes with fresh veges and lean chicken provided me with plenty of energy for the longer workouts.
Since this now was a "family" issue, because you can't just cook(or shop)for one person, we embraced the gluten-free lifestyle to include the total elimination of gluten food from our pantry. This included all snacks, cereals, cookies and most importantly the flour we backed and cooked with. There are many great books out there on gluten-free cooking and plenty of great gluten-free areas in grocery stores. Our favorites include Raisin Rack, Trader Joes and even many of the big box stores now carry or have gluten-free areas in their stores.
Now almost a full year into our new lifestyle and it's no longer a chore to put together meals or find a gluten-free snack at the Kurek household. Jennifer recently made gluten-free Christmas cookies that are awesome and I even had Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving dinner.
With the recent surge in folks finding out they too are gluten intolerant (which I believe is a results of years of eating foods that are saturated with gluten) there is loads of great information online to help you get started. I encourage everyone to give it a try. Go online and learn more about it and you'll soon find out why eliminating gluten from your diet is the way to be!
Bring it!
HFP Man
What is gluten you might be asking? Gluten (from Latin gluten "glue") is a protein composite that appears in foods processed from wheat and related species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its shape, and often giving the final product a chewy texture. So...basically all my favorite foods and most of the foods making up my diet at the time. I was used to eating lots of pasta, pizza and other gluten enriched foods.
So how can I train for triathlons and have such a low carb diet? That's the question I asked and was actually having trouble adapting to. I had yet to learn much about carb rich gluten-free alternatives, so I basically was eating what looked to be an Adkins diet and any training over 60 minutes was very difficult. I found out later that it was more my body getting used to a new fuel rather than not eating enough carbs. Nonetheless, I (meaning my wife) needed to learn more about cooking gluten-free and I needed to learn a different carb source. I quickly found that fresh fruits and rice dishes with fresh veges and lean chicken provided me with plenty of energy for the longer workouts.
Since this now was a "family" issue, because you can't just cook(or shop)for one person, we embraced the gluten-free lifestyle to include the total elimination of gluten food from our pantry. This included all snacks, cereals, cookies and most importantly the flour we backed and cooked with. There are many great books out there on gluten-free cooking and plenty of great gluten-free areas in grocery stores. Our favorites include Raisin Rack, Trader Joes and even many of the big box stores now carry or have gluten-free areas in their stores.
Now almost a full year into our new lifestyle and it's no longer a chore to put together meals or find a gluten-free snack at the Kurek household. Jennifer recently made gluten-free Christmas cookies that are awesome and I even had Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving dinner.
With the recent surge in folks finding out they too are gluten intolerant (which I believe is a results of years of eating foods that are saturated with gluten) there is loads of great information online to help you get started. I encourage everyone to give it a try. Go online and learn more about it and you'll soon find out why eliminating gluten from your diet is the way to be!
Bring it!
HFP Man
Monday, October 18, 2010
MiamiMan Triathlon Build-up Blog
Once again in an effort to help keep me accountable to my buildup to the November 14h MiamiMan Half Ironman I will again share my training build-up on my blog. Since all my training buddies are calling it a season I'm counting on HFP's finest to keep me motivated and focused on the goal.
For daily updates go to:
MiamiMan Triathlon Training Blog
For daily updates go to:
MiamiMan Triathlon Training Blog
Monday, August 16, 2010
Behind the scenes of HFP Racing
It's been quite some time since I've had the time to update my blog. It's amazing how fast the season is going and how tremendously consuming the day-to-day race director grind can be this time of the year.
I often get the laughable question from race participants during race weekends "So...is there much to do during the week or do you just work weekends?" Funny stuff. I'm writing this blog during my "off" day (the Monday after a race weekend) and during my "off" day today I've been at the computer since 7:00am updating our website for the upcoming weeks race and getting the results pages updated. Next I'll spend several hours attempting to catch up on email and phone messages from last week and hopefully by Noon today and will start my "off" day by spending the remaining part of today unplugged and focused on my family.
Don't take this wrong - I LOVE MY JOB and the crazy schedule and hours I work are always worth it (most of time). However, this blog is not about me (for once) but about the person that holds it all together - the always fast moving red head you see at registration - my amazing wife and business partner Jennifer.
As they say "Behind every good man is an even greater woman" and wow does that hold true for me. Not only does Jennifer hold everything together with the business on race weekend she also balances keeping our family and household in top shape - all while being a Cancer survivor! She is the ONLY reason I feel comfortable enough on race day to jump into the race and because of that I still have a fiery passion for this sport as a business and as a triathlete.
This is truly a "family business" - Jennifer and I work side by side in our home office with nearly constant interruptions from our three children that include Henry's drum solos banging through the duct work and Madeline seeking approval on yet another family portrait she colored and Ezra just being Ezra. Of course we would not have it any other way.
Bring it!
HFP Man
I often get the laughable question from race participants during race weekends "So...is there much to do during the week or do you just work weekends?" Funny stuff. I'm writing this blog during my "off" day (the Monday after a race weekend) and during my "off" day today I've been at the computer since 7:00am updating our website for the upcoming weeks race and getting the results pages updated. Next I'll spend several hours attempting to catch up on email and phone messages from last week and hopefully by Noon today and will start my "off" day by spending the remaining part of today unplugged and focused on my family.
Don't take this wrong - I LOVE MY JOB and the crazy schedule and hours I work are always worth it (most of time). However, this blog is not about me (for once) but about the person that holds it all together - the always fast moving red head you see at registration - my amazing wife and business partner Jennifer.
As they say "Behind every good man is an even greater woman" and wow does that hold true for me. Not only does Jennifer hold everything together with the business on race weekend she also balances keeping our family and household in top shape - all while being a Cancer survivor! She is the ONLY reason I feel comfortable enough on race day to jump into the race and because of that I still have a fiery passion for this sport as a business and as a triathlete.
This is truly a "family business" - Jennifer and I work side by side in our home office with nearly constant interruptions from our three children that include Henry's drum solos banging through the duct work and Madeline seeking approval on yet another family portrait she colored and Ezra just being Ezra. Of course we would not have it any other way.
Bring it!
HFP Man
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
My life without wheat, television and S.E.X.
It's been quite awhile since I've been able to update my blog as we're heavy into the racing season and my time on the road away from my office is significant. I thought an update would be appropriate on some things in my life that I either recently got started or recently eliminated from my life. The first being Serious Extreme Xross training (S.E.X). Sure, I've been a triathlete for the last 20+ years and I've been Xross training - however, after 20+ years of swimming, biking and running this no longer is Xross training - it's just normal training that my body has totally adapted to. In an earlier blog I wrote about taking on the P90X challenge with my good buddy Randy Lehrer. I started the P90X challenge the first week of February and successfully got through the 90 days and I experience amazing results. I was blown away at 40 years old that I could do an exercise and see such significant results - from the obvious physical change my body went through to the psychological gains I made coming from getting stronger as I was getting older. I now implement P90X workouts in my weekly routine year round and am looking forward to S.E.X. to help me age more gracefully.
About the same time I started the P90X routine I found out I was gluten intolerant - well that explains a lot of things (constant gas, many trips to the bathroom daily, etc...). Gluten intolerance is an allergy from anything made with Wheat. This created a significant problem as most of my diet was wheat based (pasta, energy bars, pizza, cookies, beer, etc...). How in the world was I going to continue training, working and racing with little to no carbs? Well - I soon found out that there are many other options (healthier) that soon replaced the old wheat rich diet. White rice replaced pasta, more fresh fruit and veggies replaced cookies (obvious benefit), and some things I just could not eat which I soon realized another benefit - weight loss. I started the new diet in February at 172 lbs and this week I am a much fitter 158 lbs all by simply changing my diet NOT restricting my diet. The benefits from a wheat free diet are many even for endurance athletes. I encourage everyone to read up on this topic and see if maybe some of your "mystery" symptoms are just a simple wheat allergy gone undiagnosed.
And lastly I continue to live my life without T.V. and I (along with my family) continue to receive incredible benefits. This is also an update from an earlier blog which I stated my family gave up T.V. in September 2009. I now can happily update that even my children have acclimated to life without T.V. I no longer get the questions of when are we getting the T.V. back or why can't we have T.V. - it's just not part of our lives anymore. I'm now on my 5th book since last fall and I recently completed an incredible book that all endurance athletes MUST read "Born to Run". An inspiring book that will motivate you to run longer and take a totally different outlook on buying your next pair running shoes. My current book is the "Art of the Start" a great book for anyone starting any kind of new business, church, club, non-profit or organization.
Bring it!
HFP Man
About the same time I started the P90X routine I found out I was gluten intolerant - well that explains a lot of things (constant gas, many trips to the bathroom daily, etc...). Gluten intolerance is an allergy from anything made with Wheat. This created a significant problem as most of my diet was wheat based (pasta, energy bars, pizza, cookies, beer, etc...). How in the world was I going to continue training, working and racing with little to no carbs? Well - I soon found out that there are many other options (healthier) that soon replaced the old wheat rich diet. White rice replaced pasta, more fresh fruit and veggies replaced cookies (obvious benefit), and some things I just could not eat which I soon realized another benefit - weight loss. I started the new diet in February at 172 lbs and this week I am a much fitter 158 lbs all by simply changing my diet NOT restricting my diet. The benefits from a wheat free diet are many even for endurance athletes. I encourage everyone to read up on this topic and see if maybe some of your "mystery" symptoms are just a simple wheat allergy gone undiagnosed.
And lastly I continue to live my life without T.V. and I (along with my family) continue to receive incredible benefits. This is also an update from an earlier blog which I stated my family gave up T.V. in September 2009. I now can happily update that even my children have acclimated to life without T.V. I no longer get the questions of when are we getting the T.V. back or why can't we have T.V. - it's just not part of our lives anymore. I'm now on my 5th book since last fall and I recently completed an incredible book that all endurance athletes MUST read "Born to Run". An inspiring book that will motivate you to run longer and take a totally different outlook on buying your next pair running shoes. My current book is the "Art of the Start" a great book for anyone starting any kind of new business, church, club, non-profit or organization.
Bring it!
HFP Man
Monday, April 12, 2010
Helen Training Camp - Final Day and review
Got home late last night around 10:30pm and got very little sleep as I had a 5:00am workout scheduled this morning. That was bad planning but I got up anyway knowing two of my training buddies were counting on me being there. It ended up being a great workout but I'm quite tired now - looking forward to an easy day in the office.
The last workout for the Helen Training Camp was a fantastic 70 mile bike featuring 3 major climbs and a nice 30 mile "flat" section to close out the ride which we hammered. We started with 16 campers but only 8 started the ride and 6 finished the entire 70 miles. Another 5+ hour day in the saddle. We decided to start the ride later (11:00am) to get the warmest part of the day for the ride. Beautiful weather greeted us at the start and it quickly warmed up to over 70 degrees as we challenged each other up every climb. Winning the KOM jersey for the week was Kurt Molter who consistently road near the front all week on every major climb. He did not win every climb today but again was always near the front challenging. The now 50 year old Tom Lebuhn was strong all day and finished the day with a 3 mile pull to finish the 70 mile day that had everyone hanging on for dear life. Mark "the locomotive" Lemmon also showed all his ironman training over the last two decades paid off as he got stronger as the week progressed. After a nice barbecue dinner to celebrate the hard week of training there was one more competition left - putt putt golf. I was pleased to take the title in putt putt with Mark Lemmon second and Kurt Molter getting the final podium spot. First time putt putt golfer Curt Haywood put in a strong showing as well.
Already looking forward to next year. A big thanks to all the campers that hung in there and did all the workouts - you were a great inspiration for me.
Bring it!
HFP Man
The last workout for the Helen Training Camp was a fantastic 70 mile bike featuring 3 major climbs and a nice 30 mile "flat" section to close out the ride which we hammered. We started with 16 campers but only 8 started the ride and 6 finished the entire 70 miles. Another 5+ hour day in the saddle. We decided to start the ride later (11:00am) to get the warmest part of the day for the ride. Beautiful weather greeted us at the start and it quickly warmed up to over 70 degrees as we challenged each other up every climb. Winning the KOM jersey for the week was Kurt Molter who consistently road near the front all week on every major climb. He did not win every climb today but again was always near the front challenging. The now 50 year old Tom Lebuhn was strong all day and finished the day with a 3 mile pull to finish the 70 mile day that had everyone hanging on for dear life. Mark "the locomotive" Lemmon also showed all his ironman training over the last two decades paid off as he got stronger as the week progressed. After a nice barbecue dinner to celebrate the hard week of training there was one more competition left - putt putt golf. I was pleased to take the title in putt putt with Mark Lemmon second and Kurt Molter getting the final podium spot. First time putt putt golfer Curt Haywood put in a strong showing as well.
Already looking forward to next year. A big thanks to all the campers that hung in there and did all the workouts - you were a great inspiration for me.
Bring it!
HFP Man
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