Bike Season

It is officially bike season 2010. I’ve got nearly 500 miles under my belt, which is more than I’ve ever ridden in an entire year.

I’ve also got probably 15 rounds of gold, and tonight played in my first 2 softball games in many years.

Now this website is “Bike, Golf, Nordic Skiing, etc.”

We’ll see if I ever update it again. I might forge the PW again.

How Big Are Yours?

This is an email I sent to the boys in my dorm today.

“A Man Only Has His Balls and His Word”

Things are a little crazy right now with all the changes to the academic schedule, the race cancellations, and constantly changing weather and snow conditions. Throw in a bunch of final exams, co-ed girls running around, and some of the best-ever YouTube material to distract you ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm61weFrK4c), and it is a tough recipe to follow.

That said, you gotta act and behave up to a certain level. You are trying to become men in this world. You want to get the girls, the money, and the power. You want to ski fast. You want to bench press more than your roommate. You want to go to an Ivy-League college. You want to make the podium at Junior Nationals. You have goals. You know you do. I know you do. Coaches, teachers, and staff know you do.

How do you accomplish these things? I’ll be damned if I could tell each of you what you need specifically. But through all of the homework, and training, and video games, and chores, remember the title of this email: “a man only has his balls and his word.” Think about your behavior…do you really have balls, the way a man has balls? Do you really live up to your word, the way a man lives up to his word?

Lately, I’ve found myself having to ask people to do things 2-3-4 times in order for the results to happen. “Hey can you take the trash out?” ….”Sure”. Next day, trash is still sitting around, I tell the same person “Take the trash out” and they say, “I’ll get it done soon”. Next day, trash is still sitting there, and that student has shown the true value of his word: very little.

Your word is a bond; it is a well of honor. When you give someone your word, and you live up to it, you have filled your well a little more full. When you break the trust, you are emptying your well. Even if it is something small, like taking out the trash or moving your skis off the porch, people remember it. Life is made up of millions of little decisions. It is how you choose to face each and every one of those decisions, that determines the true value of your word, and the size of your balls. This isn’t a Hollywood movie. You won’t hear the music build to a crescendo during one major scene, and realize “this is the one time when it really counts.” It always counts. Even if nobody is around to know or see what you do — it still counts.

It matters, because your word is also a bond with yourself. If you decide that you are going to study, and 2 hours later you are still playing video games, you have lied and cheated yourself. If you are willing to do that to yourself, how will you treat other people in your life?

The title of this message was inspired by Tony Montana, from the movie Scarface. He was one tough sonuvabitch. One of his famous quotes from the movie is this:

“I never f*cked anybody over in my life didn’t have it coming to them. You got that? All I have in this world is my balls and my word and I don’t break them for no one. Do you understand?”

While Tony Montana was a murderer and a cocaine-addict, he had a code that he lived by — he would never double-cross someone, in business or in his personal life. He would rather have died, than broken his word. He never went around harming people, that didn’t have it coming to them. It was a ‘cleansing’ of sorts: if you are lazy, a liar, a cheat, a thief, then you are going to get what is coming to you. But if you are honest, hard-working, respectful — well then you have nothing to worry about.

The flip side of the “code of honor”, is when you feel like you are getting screwed.  Next time, when you feel like you are getting the shaft, stop and think — is somebody really screwing me, or do I deserve this? If you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar, you have 2 options. One, you can lie to yourself and others, and pretend like you were just there trying to clean the cookie jar, or because you are SO NICE that you were just getting a cookie for your good friend. Option 2, is a way of showing you have your balls and your honor: admit that you got caught doing something wrong, and accept the consequences. “Oh but Tim, I have been SO busy for the past 5 days, that I just couldn’t take the 30-seconds to move my trash out of the hallway.” BANG! You’re dead. Tony Montana just got you for trying to lie. You think any jury is going to believe that you have actually been studying and doing homework 24/7?

Pretty much everybody wants the same things in life: the girl, the money, and the power. Some want happiness, too, but that is another story. Some of you boys are working hard, and making sound-decisions, being fair, and honest. Your behavior may not earn you anything tangible, but it does earn you respect. That is the behavior that makes your balls bigger, and fills up your well of honor. Don’t ever be fooled by how loud somebody shouts, or how fast they ski, or how good they are at video games, or how much money they have, or their grades, or how much they can bench press. Those aren’t the true measures of a man. Those things come and go.

The true measures of a man, are the two things that he has his whole life — birth to death — his balls and his word.

How big are yours?

shoulder press

AM: classic ski intervals with the team @ Trapp’s. 6 x 2′ at L3/L4 intensity.

PM: shoulder press (+10 dead-hang pullups)…started with weight on the floor, so all SP’s were begun with a Power-Clean.

8 x 45
5 x 65
5 x 65
5 x 80
5 x 80
5 x 90
5 x 90
1 x 100
1 x 105
1 x 110 * ties PR

…pretty good for the first time in a month!

Back Squats

got a bit sore after yesterday…especially in my traps from the DL. Lower-back and hips feel a little stiff, too.

today:

row 500m = 2:03
20 OHS
10 pull-ups (dead-hang)

Back Squat:
10 x 45
5 x 95
5 x 95
5 x 115
5 x 115
5 x 135
5 x 135
10 x 115
10 x 115

finished with some “pistol” practice…rolling from back into 1-legged-squat. 5/side.

GHD situps / Back Extensions

PM Workout: 500m row = 2:03, a few GHD’s and back-exts, dips, situps, then:

30 / 25
30 / 25

1:22.5 / 1:11.0
1:50.9 / 1:03.6

== 5:28.0 (14″ faster than 11/17/09)

deadlift / bench press / overhead squat

Observations from my first time lifting real weights in almost a month:

1. grip strength is pretty weak — had a tough time holding the bar doing DL
2. overall strength is pretty good: I’ve done (5 x 185 DL) and I’ve done (15 x 155). Today I did (12 x 185) before my grip gave out.
3. chest/shoulder strength is very good — I did do a fair amount of pushups over the past several weeks

Row 500m = 1:58

Deadlift:
10 x 75 / 10 x 95 / 10 x 135 / 10 x 155
12 x 185 (grip fail)
6 x 185 (grip fail)

OHS:
10 x 45 / 10 x 65 / 10 x 65

Bench Press:
5 x 135 / 10 x 135 / 13 x 135

Pullups:
7-10

Knees-to-Elbows: 10

pushups

Easy ski @ Trapp’s this AM. It was soft and thin, but at least we have a bit of snow.

Pushups this PM:

145

30-15-10-15-15-15-15-15-15

Run / random other stuff

It snowed like 7″ today, so it took several laps around the soccer field before I had a decent path worn-in. By then it was dark!

after warmup:

Run 5km @ 80-85 %

203.2 / 152
151.7 / 155
147.4 / 160 = 5:42.3
141.6 / 169
136.2 / 173
135.0 / 173 = 4:52.8
133.7 / 173
134.9 / 173
131.0 / 176 = 4:39.6
131.7 / 178
129.8 / 180
130.4 / 180 = 4:31.9
130.1 / 181
131.1 / 181
132.4 / 180 = 4:33.6

== 24:20.2

10 KTE’s
10 strict pullups
60 situps
10 dips
20 GHD situps
15 back extensions

Back home. Past 4 days were off due to minor head-cold and travel. I got a little sick at the end of camp (doing a time-trial, and then staying up late == bad idea @ end of tough camp), then had a pretty good day of travel on Sunday. Mon/Tues I tried to stay on the sofa or in bed as much as possbile (which is difficult when you have a job, but my circumstances definitely make it possible, to some extent). Looks like we’ll be skiing tomorrow with the kiddies.

Skate Time-trial

THURSDAY AM: skate ski, mostly standing alongside the trail coaching. Kids did short pickups. COLD.

THURSDAY PM: coached the new girl for about 20-30′ classic drills.

FRIDAY AM: ~8km time-trial, skate.

……………..that is correct people, time-trial. Going back through my memory, I know I did one sprint race last December during this camp. The season before that (= ’07-’08), I didn’t do a single ski race (first winter of my life without a race). The year before that, I did 2 early-season sprint races (November/December 2006). So, the last time I did a distance ski race or time-trial, was around March 2006.

6:14 / 180 avg
6:19 / 186 avg
6:15 / 188 avg
6:03 / 191 avg

Beckwith got me by 1:02. Sinclair got me by approximately 2:17. My heart-rate was really high today, right from getting out of bed. Probably overtrained, to some extent. Since I hadn’t been doing more than a couple of hours of easy-distance training/week this fall, and then I packed in something like 25 hours in under 2 weeks, on-snow, at altitude. I think I need a few days off.

Run / Pushups

AM: off

PM:

1:05 run to Sovereign Lakes and back. HR avg = 133.

Then 50 pushups (25-25)