Race Calendar 2010...

So I believe my race calendar for this season is finally complete...mostly. I might tweak it slightly as the season progresses, but as of now...it's good to go! I posted it to the right. I'm concentrating on developing run toughness early on with 3 road races this spring, leading up to what I hope is a fast race at Eugene for the Eugene 1/2 marathon. I've never run an open 1/2, just at the end of a tri so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with that. The other races prior are just for speed and again working on my "run toughness." Again, I've never run an open 10k, just at the end of a tri, so that should be fun too!

During the spring time I will continue to build my other disciplines and plan on peaking for my lone 1/2 Ironman of the season, Boise 70.3 in early June. I won't do a full taper for this race, but will take some rest and make the race a priority. It's an Ironman branded event so the competition will be good and appears to be a course that will play to my strengths. Plus it has an afternoon start which is awesome. Just a few weeks prior to this I plan on racing my first Olympic of the season in Eugene. After Boise I will take some time off to recover and get ready for my build for the big dance of the year...Ironman Canada!!

At this point my final push to Canada will include two Olympic distance triathlons that will help keep me sharp and continue to work on my speed and focus. For better or worse I didn't race enough this past season so this season I plan on incorporating racing into my training. I have Blue Lake targeted as my final race prior to taper for Ironman as it's a very fast course that I will race at the peak of my build and fitness...so basically it will be used as a big confidence booster heading into taper.

Ok, I guess that's it for now. Training is going pretty well although I haven't been hitting the pool at all. I've been riding frequently and getting in a few runs per week. The thought of getting out of bed this time of year and making it to the pool! But I made a commitment that I would after IMAZ so time to get it on! Thanks for reading,

-T

New Trevor...

Well not really...but kind of...sort of. I guess! I just read an interesting article regarding Ironman training. It was written 15 years ago by Greg Welch, a few weeks before his win at Ironman Hawaii. You know how in life sometimes things happen for a reason? As in, you knew you were supposed to do something, you finally do it, and something confirms that you in fact did the right thing? Maybe you helped an elderly lady with a door and later you are rewarded for your good deed by someone helping you with a door while you are juggling groceries...something like that? I think it happens to all of us, at least it happens to me somewhat regularly.

This past year, my "coach" kept harping on me about the importance of rest and recovery. I thought I did a decent job taking every Monday off and sometimes backing off a speed workout, etc. Well, ultimately I think I pushed the envelope a little to hard a few weeks out from the big dance in Arizona and got a little sickness as a result. If I would have listened to him, maybe I don't have to go on prednisone and fight through a miserable marathon because my airway is trashed. Maybe I would have gotten sick anyways? Probably some sort of combo, but point being...I should have listened to coach and rested...at least one day!

Just today, I meant to ride after work. I've been getting in minimum 100 miles per week on the bike the past few weeks as I get back into more structured training and so today I wanted to get a quick hour in. Yet I was so tired today that I decided not to ride tonight...even after changing into my clothes...first time I've ever done that. And then I came across Welchy's article. All about how he went about that season and his build up prior to Ironman differently...focused much more on rest. If he felt crappy when he woke up in the am, he went back to bed. Had two serious back to back days of training and woke up feeling crappy? Back to bed. He went into Hawaii more rested than anyone else around him and shocked the world. Does that mean all I do from now until Canada is sleep? I wish!! No, but it does mean I need to continue to work on the part about listening to my body. Tonight my body didn't want to workout and I, FINALLY, actually listened! Yeah me right? Coach has always told me, the hardest part about Ironman racing is resting. I believe him and my New Year's Resolution, and trust me I hate freaking New Year's Resolutions, is to listen to my coach and listen to my body this year.

Happy New Year everyone! I'm trying to get some pics posted from XX skiing, but my computer sucks so you get nothing but font for now instead :) Enjoy. Thanks for reading,

-T

2010...

Well the New Year is here. I had a nice New Year. Meg and I drove over to Brasada Ranch in Central Oregon to spend the weekend. Brasada is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to! It is also where we are getting married this summer! So we figured we would take advantage of a long weekend and head over to hang out and get some planning done. Our parents met us over there and the 6 of us had a very nice weekend.

I'm starting to get into slightly more structured training now so I made sure I got in some training while over there. I got in an awesome session of hill repeats on the treadmill January 1st am prior to the Rose Bowl which probably helped me absorb the tough loss a little easier. Saturday 4 of us headed up to the mountain for some cross country skiing. It was my second time trying cross country skiing and I can definitely say I'm hooked! I tried a hybrid type of cross ski that had metal edges and it made a ton of difference for me. I was able to stop and even turn a little as opposed to last time when I would simply just fall once I started going downhill!

Unfortunately we ended up going a little longer than expected and kind of wiped out part of the group. We ended up skiing for right about 4 hours. I felt great and in a perfect world would have kept skiing for another hour or two. After this weekend Meg and I are looking at buying skis for next year...however I want to try out skate skiing before I commit to cross country. We saw a ton of people skate skiing and it looked awesome...and hard, a perfect combination in my book!!

The drive back to Eugene today was filled with questions for me. Some of those questions related to Triathlon, and in particular, my schedule for 2010. I almost have this finalized, but every time I sit down to work on it I get distracted. Some day :) In the meantime I hope everyone had a very safe and happy New Years celebration!! Thanks for reading,

-T

2009...

Well, in a few days I will officially close the 2009 chapter to my book of life. 09 was a significant year in my life in many ways. I became engaged, ran my first marathon, completed my first Ironman, and battled through an extremely difficult time at work which saw some close friends and mentors leave via lay offs. One year ago I was not confident that 2009 was going to be quite this successful, or even managable, on many different levels. Was it easy, hell no. Not a single day of it. Well I take that back, the days immediately after the marathon and Ironman were amazingly easy (think lounging and beer!).

As I look to what 2010 will bring, I can't help but be optimistic! Why? Well, for starters, I'm getting married!! And to my "otter half!" I can't say enough about Meg. She has been amazing this past year. Not only putting up with my ridiculous amounts of training, but encouraging me all the way! On top of that, I'm racing Ironman Canada the week before our wedding! Totally awesome. Ironman Canada has such a special place in my heart that it's difficult to put into words. My Dad raced there five times. I was there for everyone of them. Canada is my A race this year. With his help, we plan to have a great race...we have set some lofty goals. I so cannot wait!! What a great week that is going to be! Ironman and then wedding. Awesome.

Beyond that, there are countless other adventures that we will undertake. My biggest undertaking will once again be to properly manage my time this year. Work is continually exhausting with high stress and long hours. Add wedding planning and the thought of cramming in 20 to 25 hour training weeks seems impossible. But as the commercial states....Impossible is nothing. I do believe this. Bring it on 2010! I took everything you could throw at me in 09 and came out smelling like a Rose...GO DUCKS!! Thanks for reading,

-T

First Ride...

Well, my first decent ride post IMAZ is complete. A buddy and I went out this past Saturday for a little over 2 hours. It was great, except it was pretty cold, and a fair amount of hills! I felt pretty good except my asthma was still an issue. My lungs were burning, especially on the climbs. It was somewhat miserable. Getting a sinus infection post IMAZ definitely put my lung recovery on hold. That being said, my legs felt great which is a very nice sign. I was happy to get out and happy to have such good company. Thanks Jer!

I'm running a few times per week, nothing over 45 minutes yet. I'm not swimming too much at this point, but will start to incorporate more swimming post New Years. As I was telling someone the other day, swimming is the hardest thing for me to get back into during the off season as I have a really difficult time getting up early enough to make practice. This time of year I'm all about getting caught up on sleep and not braving the morning cold to jump into a pool. Soon that will have to change. Until then...thanks for reading!

-T

Christmas Time...

Already?!? Crazy how quickly the year has gone. Just one week left until Christmas! I love this time of year. It's an interesting time of year for me as there is no formal training. The rest of the year I'm focused on working my training into my work and social life, or when Ironman training really kicks into gear, just into my work life because there is no social life for a while :) Instead this time of year is just about hanging out and I love it. Especially the holidays! Eventually I start to crave the structure of training schedules, intense work outs, etc...but not yet!


This Christmas should be great with some quality family time. It will be great to celebrate a wonderful year with family and friends. Hopefully we won't have a massive snow storm that derails the state for days like last year. I love snow, but that was too much last year! I remember last year was such a fiasco to even get to my family's house due to the large amount of snow that fell! Pops was shoveling the darn hill we live on for days just to make it out of the house.

Best part of Christmas? Ping Pong tournament baby! Yep, we get pretty darn competitive in the yates' household and this time of year that means hours of high quality table tennis!! Too much fun...can't wait! As always, thanks for reading,

-T

Post Ironman Thoughts...

No matter how much I try, I can't stop thinking about my race in Tempe last month. All the time the race is on my mind. At least once a day I catch myself recollecting about the race. Analyzing moves made, moves not made, nutrition, hydration, pace, heart rate, etc. All of this analysis has left me with some definite conclusions to my race.

I've read that the race doesn't really start until 2/3 of the way through the marathon...or mile 18 to 20. I would agree with this. If I hadn't had the airway issues I did early on in the run I feel I would have been able to keep shuffling between 8-9 minute miles...until about mile 18 to 19. I'll get to that moment in a minute. As far as the asthma issue goes, I think I did the right thing in trying to manage the problem as opposed to push through it and hope it got better. By proactively keeping my HR down, and thus my energy output, I was able to keep going...albeit at a walk at times.

In retrospect, I will push at this point next time. I know when to stop if things get serious, but they weren't serious yet. Would they have gotten serious? Possibly. Probably? Hard to tell. I believe I was acting extremely cautiously because it was my first Ironman and I had ended up in the medical tent a few too many times this year already! Chris McCormack said their are points during a race when you have to take a risk, and you have to be able to pay the ultimate price if that risk doesn't work. In hindsight I don't think I was completely ready to take that risk at that point. Although, because of what I did I was able to make it to mile 18 and my airway was ok enough that running was no longer an issue.

Mile 18, this was right after entering the third loop of the race. At this point my entire body was screaming at me. On top of that I was having issues staying focused. Well turns out I had devoted so much time to the asthma issue that I hadn't taken any calories in during the run. After 1.5 miles of walking or so I reloaded with calories and was running within .25 miles. I ran the rest of the way in...pretty much. There was a point when I was getting those few hundred calories that I thought maybe I would just walk the last 7 miles in. I was feeling sorry for myself. This is when I dug. I was prepared to dig deep, but my first Ironman taught me what it is really like to dig that deep. It is indescribable. Here is a great pic of Macca digging deep in Hawaii!!

So, short version? I feel like I was prepared to go about 45 minutes faster, maybe a little more. I lost it on the run. I left for the run at about 6hr 20min into the race...a 4:00 marathon still put me under 10:30, actually closer to 10:15. Yet, this is why we race. I learned a ton from this race and am confident that I will use the lessons learned to better prepare and execute in Canada! I have some ambitous goals set for 2010 and I can't wait to start reaching for them! Thanks for reading,

-T

First run...

Well, I got my first run in post Ironman tonight. On a treadmill...all 30 minutes of it! I felt really sluggish at first, but after about 10 minutes kind of got into it. I was just concentrating on working on my form so no intensity. It felt good to be sweating again and to be well...running! Hopefully if it starts to warm up soon I will get a run in outside this weekend. I have my first outdoor ride scheduled for this Sunday, can't wait!!

Still working out some race planning for this upcoming year. It's exciting to think about this upcoming season. Some of the things I'm going to concentrate on this winter are: my swim - I've never been good about getting to the pool in the winter; bike fitness, I want to keep up a certain bike mileage during the next 3 to 4 months of base while incorporating some speed to keep the legs solid; run toughness - I need to get tougher on the run with some road races this winter and early spring. Right now though it's all about planning...planning for the wedding and for the race season! The more planning done now...the easier life will be months from now! Thanks for reading,
-T

Brrr...

Well, I had everything packed to go to swim practice this morning. It would have been my first workout since Ironman, just over two weeks ago. I am getting over a sinus infection, but figured I had been lazy enough and wanted some exercise. Although I was still feeling pretty bad, the idea of getting some exercise in was too good to pass up. Then I saw the weather forecast. It got down to 12 degrees last night in Eugene. Well, 12 is pretty cold for us in Eugene. And to top it off...we swim outdoors year round!! This time of year at Echo Hollow pool.


As much as I was looking forward to working out again...the idea of staying in bed, and in turn staying healthy, was too good to pass up! My bed was warm, and hell, it was 12 degrees outside! Thanks, but no thanks. So, another day passes. No exercise. I'm starting to go kind of crazy! I will say the time off has been nice though! I'm getting really excited for next season. I have some big goals for this upcoming season and look forward to putting in the work necessary to achieve those goals. Hope everyone is well and staying warm. Thanks for reading,

-T

Rose Bowl...

So every football season, I dream of the Ducks over achieving. I hope that they will play tough every game and ultimately end up in a big time bowl game. Entering this season there were lots of questions about the Ducks team this year, but they did look good on paper. And then Boise State happened. We all know about "the punch" at Boise State. The better story is how the Ducks have rebounded since then and put themselves into position for the Rose Bowl entering Thursday night's Civil War game with our arch rival Oregon State!! It was winner take all, with all being a berth to the Rose Bowl.

We had a great time at the game. And what a game it was!! The Ducks pulled it out in the end and we all celebrated a return to the Rose Bowl, 15 years removed from our last appearance!! It was a fitting end to this season and this year. The past few weeks have been amazing with Ironman Arizona, Thanksgiving, and now the Ducks heading off to the Rose Bowl. I'm one happy guy right now! As far as triathlon goes? I'm into my 12th consecutive day off. I have done nothing. I'm fighting off a cold so that has actually helped to keep me inactive...which is good. I'm still trying to hammer out my race schedule for 2010 and will get that up once I have it established. Until then...GO DUCKS!!! Thanks for reading,

-T