This weekend was about FUN!!!!

What an AWESOME weekend. Talk about busy. Let me breakdown the weekend first then I'll go into detail. Friday was the first day in the freaky fast weekend. What was supposed to happen was easy, concert, bike in the morning, Louisville for laser seminar, watch JC climb in competition, dinner, drinks, morning run on sunday, finish seminar and home. Life at the Miller household has a way of becoming CHOAS. I used to stress it and just become an a-hole. Now I just kinda let it roll and see what God gives me. Seems to be working out A LOT better.

So Friday is here, my trail run got cancelled, once again worried about nothing. Had all this pent-up anxiety and nothing. So we are trying again this week. We'll see what happens. I can say currently that my heart rate training is going fair. With the form work some weaknesses in the body are being exposed and now worked on. So I created an on-the-fly route. For those of you that don't know me, I do not like to stray too far from home or normal training routes just in case something happens. I flat, I flat a lot. So my run ended up going out to my old neighborhood and our old home. So I got 9 miles in in 1:15 low zone 2 with a surge at the end.

Kris was doing a run clinic and asked for a bit of help packing our oldest for a church retreat that he was FORCED :-) to go to. While packing him, I noticed some COOL clothes that he NEVER wears. Kris does not buy, cheap poorly made clothing, we are hard on clothes so they have to hold up. So here I am looking at some sharp clothes that I wish I had his physique to wear and he never wears them. Since I am packing, it ALL he's getting. The boy is gonna look SHARP!!! I know he is my boy, but he IS a good looking kid. he is 14, hes 6'1" and 180 lean pounds. I don't wrestle with him anymore cause I am not sure I could whip him without hurting him AND me. I heard he freaked when he learned that I packed him :-)))

OK Aidan's packed. Time to chill and think about the concert, Cage the Elephant. If you don't know them, they have the opening song in Borderlands - Ain't No Rest for the Wicked. Great tune, great band. Kicking back with the dogs waiting on Kris to get ready. I am realizing how lucky I am right now. I can go on 9, 10, 11, or even do a Mini now and it doesn't destroy day or night. I have been heart rate training with coach and Polar now for over a year and I can feel the difference. Out walks Kris in full on concert gear. She is not over the top, and not dressed in grunge, she always just hits it right. She has great taste in EVERYTHING ;-) Now for those of you that don't know her, she is 30'ish, I want to remain married with manhood intact so I'm not tellin'.But she doesn't look her age at ALL! I am a lucky guy and it is time to eat. But first we stop at the Blue Mile to get Kris a new pair of run/sweat pants. We come out with compression running tights, shorts, tank top, and assorted other running clothes, no pants. Her comment "Why can't I EVER find what I want?" Off to Taste of Thai, our favorite place in Greenwood. Discovered a new beer Chang's, kinda like Tsing Toa, but with honey. Time to get to the Vogue.

Quiet the pleasant surprise, after finding a place to park, I went four-wheeling in Kris's car, not really meant for hopping curbs :-), finding a place to sit, a few pictures and several drinks, here comes a band we have never heard of, Sleeper Agent (@_sleeperagent on twitter). What a band, high energy, great chemistry, great songs. I even bought their downloads (I never do this). Next on Cage the Elephant. I really like this group, I REALLY like this group. We're dancing, enjoying ourselves and just having a great time. Concert over, check, great time, check, car not towed, check :-) Little after midnight time to boogie home, however, Kris wants to redo her belly button (I like her belly button pierced and she was her ear cartilage pierced too). Here comes chaos, I love my droid x telephone. Googled 5 piercing places, everyone closed at 1. Really, 1 on a friday? It'll have to wait, no problem anyway, my lovely bide is out....

Home by 2:30 am. In bed and lights out. What's that sound...my alarm...5:45am time to drive to Louisville for a laser seminar and to watch JC, Kris's brother, in a sport climbing competition. Everything is packed and meeting up with Dr. George in Seymour and on my way. Down to L'ville and in the seminar, oh I am feelin' it. I have a 2:30 bike ride to do, to stimulate the juices and hopefully wake myself up I leave the seminar at 10 to ride. I am a country boy in the city, riding a bike. Holy crap did I have several near death experiences. It is also FLIPPING cold. I slug out 36 mils in 2:10 and call it a day. I have ridden around L'ville and trough L'ville and know I am in Okalona at Hesters gym. Crazy fit climbers. I stay and watch the competition for about an hour and a half. Youtube videos available on my channel Indianabackdoc and they are posted to my Facebook profile - you guessed it - indianabackdoc. It was amazing. JC and his friend Isaac place 1 and 2 respectively. It was his first ever competition and he rolled some heads.

Time for lunch. So I got some splainin' to do. I am in full-on cold weather road gear. Spandex, bike shoes, looking rather cute. We goto an AUTHENTIC Mexican restaurant. The menu is in Spanish, subtitled in English. I have also donned a very big puffy down coat cause I was chilled from the ride. I am LOOKING reeeeeaaaalllll good. Luckily the restaurant was empty. The two waitresses had no idea what to think. As soon as we sit down, here comes the lunch rush. When I say AUTHENTIC, I mean AUTHENTIC. No anglo's in there. The crowd is really rough looking and no one speaks any english. I felt like I was back down in Cancun except they spoke more english in Cancun. Have you heard the song, I'm about to Whoop Someone's Ass? Youtube it, cause it's on. Kris is getting hardcore stares. I nod and smile and nothing. Spandex and bike shorts are are not intimidating. Kris is oblivious to the looks and stares and is laughing hysterically at me. "Dude you are in spandex and the last guy that walked in has his arms taped and face burned and he glared at you the ENTIRE way to his table.I think he likes you!" HEHEHEHEHE!
"Oh yeah, the two guys in the booth behind you are staring too. I am about to whoop and eventually get whooped. But I'll clip this shoe in someone's ace before I go down." We can't stop laughing. Trevor if you put the puffyman coat back on I am running for the door. We were crying we were laughing so hard, so that helped the macho intimidation factor. Oh yea I forgot, not one person in there was over 5'5" or weighed less than 200lbs. Even in bike cleat I probably could have out run them. (This passage is no where near as funny as in real life sorry but had to spill.) PS- I have to say we were in the booth so no one could see my spandex while eating. I still had on riding shoes. When I stood up to leave EVERYBODY turned and looked, and you could hear my shoes sounding like tap shoes. So here is a big guy, in spandex wearing tap shoes, I think Kris snotted she laughed so hard.

Back to the laser seminar. Wow GPS got us lost. Kris got into some gluten and was hurting. She laid down in the hotel room and crashed for about an hour. Then off to shopping. I laid down for 30 minutes then off to Simply Thia in Louisville. Dinner with family and friends then off to New Connections bar for drinks with Dr. George. Learned a new game called penis and I won! Introduced the country crowd to Cage the Elephant thought that was gonna be a whoopin' too, but I wasn't in the mood to care and I was not going to listen to Kansas on the jukebox, really who still has Kansas on the jukebox in a semi-contemporary bar?!?!?

Finally back to the hotel at 11, have a 5:45 run planned with Rob at Tom Sawyer park. Get caught up talking with Dr. George about plans, family and life in general. Afraid to look at the clock. Closed my eyes for 30 seconds and the alarm is ringing and I am out the door to meet Rob (@robbenefiel) for a group run. I am going 1:45 and he is going 2:45. Let me take a second and say a couple of things. A- I am still tipsy from the previous festivities, B- Currently I am nursing a bad habit of paw-back which is killing my hamstring. When my hamstring hurts, my Polar HRM starts a screaming because Zone 2 is pretty much a no go. I get in a great run with Rob. My hamstring doesn't start screaming until mile 9.

Runs done, back to the laser seminar with a slight noticeable limp. They ask for volunteers with issues and Dr. George sends me up.  Hamstring (left), Quad (right) interesting workup and laser treatment. Now teacher dude is some kind of roided up powerlifter. Wants to make an example of me, I think. First tries to show how unflexible I am. Thank you JC for the last two weeks of intense Yoga training working on form, flexibilty and concentration, cause when warmed up I can pretty much put my hands on the floor, head real close to the knees. So flexibility was a non-issue, then he starts checking the pelvis. Left oblique abdominal muscle is showing with some issues. He pulls out this little precussor device. All I can say is NOT fun and he layed on it, it actually burnt my skin as he torqued it down and the rubber head slipped against my skin. It is still read and still tender, but I am working on it because he is right there is an issue there.

Seminar done, going to eat. Decided it is time to take my nutrition to the next level and eliminate gluten from my diet. So I had a Whiskey River burger, no seasoning on the burger or fries, and I put it in a lettuce wrap. HIT the spot. Back to Seymour to drop off Dr. George and now off to Nashville, IN to pick up Aidan from Church camp. I am really feeling the lack of sleep. Get there, pick him up and the boy looked SHARP! He had several nice looking young women talking to him. He was beaming.

Homeward bound, finally! Mom (my mother calls) my sisters father-in-laws viewing is happening and I have to show up. Not a problem. Sis has always been there for me, so I will be there for her. SHould have gotten home at 5, it is now 7. I am ready for bed.

Chill with the family, watch History of the World Part 1. Can't wait to get back to work so I can have a break from all the driving. :-)

Snuggle up with Kris and good night.....

All pics and videos and be looked up on Facebook, Youtube, or Twitter. Happy viewing :-)

Persistence Pays Off

Persistence Pays Off

I might just be a closet romantic, but I love this post.

Another mental game (excuse the misspelling and grammatical errors)

I once told Kristine there are few people in life that will best me, (pompous I know, but hey it's kinda worked for me so far ;-)) but you are one of them. To that end she is now doing it again. It was a lot easier to have Coach in Colorado and me here. I could secretly moan, whine and bitch about what I was doing. That's all changed. Now Kristine (@coachKGIRLTRIS on twitter) is a coach. So when I complain, instead of oh Trevor poo poo blah blah blah... I get well let's work on form.

I thought that this was going to be easy. I thought my form was pretty good (no I actually thought it was REALLY good and I had some sort of physical limitation an excuse not to perform well.) So everything that Coach Jeff has been preaching and teaching, she can do and show. Oh my ego, now that it is throughly stomped into submission, I start the quest for form.

Now for all of you "Natural Runners" I hate you, I want to join your ranks, but until then I will vow to beat you, at least, on the bike. I know it is not always about winning, but this is part of my personality that I am trying to control and work with. If I squish it, there will be no drive, if I let it "Win" then everything is a competition and NOTHING is fun. Inner demons suck.

So here I am learning new/better form. since I am a Polar Ambassador I am watching my heart rates skyrocket as I try to implement better form. For those of you that follow me on twitter (@indianabackdoc) and facebook (indianabackdoc or Trevor Miller) this is the reason for my quote of the day about "We suck again!" Courtesy of The Waterboy. Learning new form requires a lot of different muscle groups for me. I walk, as coach pointed out, duck-footed. This externally rotates my hips and increases pressure at the insertion of the quadriceps muscle. I am afraid of speed work because that is when my form REALLY breaks down. So I am stuck slowing down again. Eagleman is only 16 weeks away. Can I learn better form and implement it in 16 short weeks? Can I get rid of the hip pain and heal up for a good showing in that amount of time? Oh my swim form has holes in it too, so it is not just run form. I am a little down on myself and beating myself up  I realize, but I feel the pressure. I WANT KONA! I am impatient so I want it now, that is part of the battle. *After thought, hitting that "PERFECT" form is like hitting a great golf shot, or pulling off a perfectly executed plan. It feels good, you use less energy and and for a moment there is ZEN, PEACE and just you being the best you can be at that moment. I think that is the form addiction. While swimming last night I had moments where I was floating, I had stroke counts in the 13 and 14 area. Things just fell in place. Now to get stronger to hold it all together.*

To help alleviate part of the pressures, I almost ALWAYS train alone, I am seeking out others to train with. My fear here is that I will hold them back or they will hold me back and i will not get the most out of my training. I don't have the luxury of having been to Kona already like Vince (@felog on twitter). So I read his blog about his long rides and his intentionally getting lost. I am ALL about the numbers and getting the most out of training. My thick skull says if you are not going "Balls Out" then I am not training and pushing myself to new heights. In this mindset I am also getting injured and augmenting old injuries.

I am starting to realize though that training alone, being alone during all of that is not fun. When I race I bug the crap outta people. As I pass them I strike up conversation (I laugh as I read this). If I see someone else on a Kuota I am always saying "Nice ride." That gets me a look. I have found out a lot of "Racers" don't like someone going "Hey" and zipping by. So to contain my fears of failure, of injury and self doubt I am starting to look for run groups. Funny thing is, my first run group, after scheduling, I got really negative. I was combative with the family. I thought that I was tired. I told Kris I was gonna take a nap and she basically said you NEED a nap. So I went and laid down. My chest was throbbing, my breathing was up, I was having an anxiety attack. I was afraid. I went back out and explained what was going on. What I was afraid of, I don't know if these phobia's are natural or normal, but I have them. The group that I am running with is ALL athletes. I think that a few have done Kona, I know one is trying to get there. So I assume that they are good runners. Talk to coach was the sage advice. Poor coach, if every athlete is like me, dayum! He eased my fears and gave me a workout so I don't MAKE it a race. That is my BIGGEST problem. I need to unleash at races. So I am going to depend on my heart rate monitor to baby sit me during this WORKOUT. Then I getta have a beer with buds afterwards, and isn't that why we really all do this anyway? Acceptance, friends, and camaraderie?

As I read the post over again I see my ADHD has kicked in again. I have jumped the ship a couple of times, but that is me. I am lucky to have family, friends, and most importantly for training coaches to tell me what to do, keep me safe, sane, and centered.

Thanks guys!!!

Oxidation and what it Means to you

"Oxidative stress, the amount of present free radicals or the inverse antioxidant level, measures the ability of cells to absorb or release electrons. This is important because of molecules commonly referred to as free radicals. Free radicals are a byproduct of oxidation - the process of burning oxygen as part of the body's normal function. Free radicals have an extra unpaired electron. Since electrons prefer to remain paired, free radicals literally scavenge other molecules and "steal" an electron to make themselves complete. This damages previously healthy molecules, and leaves them less able to perform their designated tasks.

The body produces natural antioxidants to minimize free radical damage. These important nutrients give up an electron so it can pair up with an unpaired electron before damage is done. The process of donating or accepting electrons is called oxidation and reduction, or "redox." Redox potential indicates the amount of electrons available in a fluid that is being tested, and represents overall electron activity. The more available electrons the better.

Our ability to produce antioxidants internally decreases as we age and is also hampered by unhealthy environmental factors and lifestyle choices. High oxidative stress weakens the immune system and makes the body more susceptible to illness and disease. It also causes premature aging if the body cannot keep up with the free radical activity, as the damage accumulates and hastens chronic degeneration.

It is widely accepted that free radical damage from oxidation is part of every disease process known to humankind. For this same reason, many degenerative diseases such as cancer, arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cataracts and etc. are linked to the effects of free radicals." - The Wellness Prescription: Dr. Ryan Bently

So what does this mean to the triathlete? A LOT, if you heart rate train I have found oxidation raises my resting heart rate and starts to erode my base. Meaning I can not run as far without feeling adverse affects. Also what athletes in general don't understand is that we use a tremendous amount of oxygen. That is all we work on, VO2 max, becoming efficient in the processing and burning of oxygen. We use the most oxygen, ergo we could be some of the most highly oxidized people on the planet. A large percent of marathoners that die from cardiovascular accidents actually have normal cholesterol. Studies now show that it is not cholesterol, but oxidized cholesterol that makes it sticky and causes us trouble.

Being oxidized also accelerates the aging process. So if you are vain like me:-), that means you get more winkles faster.;-) Seriously though who wants to look died up and out, who wants their cholesterol sticking together and causing atherosclerosis? Who wants there athletic performance hampered? 

In conclusion it is very important for athletes to know if they are oxidized, and if they are what to do. Oxidation will affect, energy production, stickiness of cells, free radical damage and risk of predisposition of aforementioned diseases. How do you get rid of oxidation? Antioxidants, dark leafy greens, avoiding sugar, and processed foods. The more processed a food is the less your body can use it.

Thanks for the gift Mitchel

Wow this is too cool. IM Louisville will be here before we know it. I can not wait! Thanks for the braclete.

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Mindset is Everything

While talking to my coach last night and reading his earlier email I was intrigued to add input on MOTIVATION. The question was basically how do you stay motivated?

This is a scary question. IT is also, I feel very unique to the individuals. As I was speaking to coach I started to see how different I really am. I talked about setting lofty goals (@felog - Vince called them Big Hairy Audacious Goals as termed by someone else). After I got through my eloquent speech on how to set long term goals, making a plan to get to them and then using tools ie coaches and equipment, to get to them. He then simply stated, that doesn't work.

HUH!?!? Then he proceeded to tell me about setting practical goal, not soft, but hard attainable goals. The analogy was to set a goal of a 4:40 1/2 IM. An obtainable goal, won't necessarily "Win", but if it is your goal and you can control and reach it, you can control and reach the variable around it most likely because it is up to you. You can not control the people who show up, ie I am gonna win this 100 miler and then a Lance Armstrong shows up. I see his point. I have felt that disappointment.

But my point is, and I believe it to be in the same vein, that you have to have dreams. Don't you? If you don't have dreams then you don't have purpose, do you?

I have always been told that the difference between a dream and a goal is one is written. The next step is a plan. How do you get a plan, through analysis. Then you work the plan and achieve the milestones. Is there going to be disappointment, sure. But don't we learn from our mistakes? Aren't we supposed to learn from our failures? Isn't that when we see our children grow? But the key is LEARNING from our failures. Also not being afraid of the failure.

Have we become such a feel good society that we are afraid to fail? Really a participation medal for EVERYONE?

When I started training, I had to slow way down because my heart rate would jump way up. Then through training, I can now manage some pretty long runs. Coach told me on average it takes 2 years to build base. So when I go out of Zone or can not maintain I can keep it in perspective. When I am not going as fast as i think I should....Blah Blah Blah.

I guess I have come to 2 realizations. First everybody is different and as such we can not all be treated the same. Second I like to dream, and when i dream I like to dream big. So what if I fail, learn from the failure and move on. I am still better off than if I had never tried at all.

MY RACE SEASON!!!!!!!!

Alright I just got off the phone with coach and we now have the 2011 race season and Kona attempt mapped out. That makes my stomach flip just thinking about it. So anyone interested in racing with me here is what I am "Allowed" to do. My coach sanctioned races:

4-2: Boiler Sprint Tri (Sprint)- http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~triclub/springracing.html - This is a new on for me. I have never done a pool swim for a race.

4-30: Kentucky Derby Marathon (Duh)- http://www.derbyfestivalmarathon.com/ - I really like this race. Kentucky is beautiful, and the race is not as crowded as Indy. At least in my humble opinion. It is however a lot more hilly.

5-14: 180 Triathlon (Olympic)- http://www.hfpracing.com/events/2011/one-eighty-tri-du - another new event for me. I like the event company. They are very good and always top notch.

6-12: Eagleman 70.3 - http://www.tricolumbia.org/Eagleman/ - Trying to decide if I am going to take my son on this trip or not. Probably not because he will be playing soccer. But I am going solo, there is a tweet-up planned. This'll let me know how I am fairing towards my Louisville race and ultimately Kona.

7-16: Evergreen Tri (Olympic) - http://tri-shark.org/web/EvergreenTri2/ - Wow I have a drive for this one. But it will be in a new state for tri's for me.

8-28: Ironman Louisville (Iron Dist) - http://www.ironmanlouisville.com/ - My finger tremble as I type this, excited and scared sh*tless. I hate not knowing. I do not want to fail and let my family down. I will not fail! I will not quit! I WILL SUCCEED!!!! I can not wait to see my family at the end of this race.

So there it is 6 short races on my road to Kona. I have to put my heart and head in the right place and it will happen. I have a wonderful family, great support, and faith in God that I am walking, no running and racing, in the right path.