I’m not posting this for any other reason than I found it funny. I actually have a pretty dam good boss who I’m learning continually learning from… It’s about time! I’ve had a lot of Really Crappy ones. (No Pun intended)
Maybe we could generate a little comment action: Tell me your Worst boss story.
When I look back to my days as a bartender there are a lot of things I really liked about it; free alcohol, the community of people at the bar and the ability to make as many different drinks as I could think of as well as play around coming up with my own concoctions.
I suppose that’s why when I look at all of the drink supplements that I have Nutrition 53, FRS, Clif Shot, Accelerade, Base Amino and Base Water (holy crap! I have a lot of these) that any one of them on their own is very good and All serve a purpose. But after a while my bartender roots started coming out and I was mixing and matching different flavors. Beyond that I’d come up with what I thought was the best thing for my workout / hydration plan.
Here are a few of my favorites:
AcceleShot (pre and during workout):
20oz water
1/2 cap of Base Water
2 scoops of Clif Shot (I like lemonade)
1 scoop of Accelerade (again Lemonade)
FRShot
Same as above but I use FRS instead of Accelerade
*I love this one before a workout, totally wakes me up and gets me motivated!
Base-Ade (post workout)
20oz Water
1/2 cap of Base Water
1 scoop of Accelerade (lemonade)
2.5 scoops of Base Amino (Cherry)
*Add Base Amino last because it floats on the water until you mix it.
Nutrition 53 Smoothy
1 pack of Neuro 1 (Mocha Latte)
1 scoop of coffee frozen yogurt
A handful of ice
10 oz of skim milk (could substitute similar liquid – Soy Milk)
Blend
Nutrition 53 Smoothy (I cheat a little on this one)
1 pack of Neuro 1(Orange Cream in this case)
Head to your local Jamba Juice
Order a Citrus Squeeze and ask them to put the Nutrition 53 in it
That’s a few for now but if I come up with some others that I really like… I’ll post them. In the mean time test out your mixology skills.
On Sunday I headed up to Vineman and because I wasn’t racing I didn’t stay in some local hotel… So I had a 4:30am wake up to see everyone I know go off in the swim.
Here are a list of the people I was there to support:
Anyway… after waking up and making my way to Guerneville, struggling to find parking and a bathroom, I was on my way to the swim start. I got there just as Loren went off in the swim.
I mainly hung out at the swim exit (a.k.a. dizzy bat race) cheering for pretty much Everyone; mostly for the people who looked like they were struggling and needed a few words of encouragement or which side their wetsuit strap was on (I hate when it goes over my shoulder and I can’t find it). I also rallied the crowd of people who were there mainly supporting their own athlete to participate in rooting for others too. I always appreciate the words of encouragement when I’m racing.
After the final group of people came out of the swim I grabbed breakfast at a local cafe and headed to Windsor High.
Parking was easy there… I opted to pay some guy who lives across the street $5 to park in his yard.
I thought I might catch Loren on the way in on the bike but as it turns out I missed him by about 15 minutes. Anyway, I hung right at the corner where the bikes were coming in and the runners were going out. I saw everyone including Frank Keen (zTeamer) who I called Ian by accident and he gave me a funny look (made me laugh when I realized what I did).
First in was Loren (nice work 4:56)… who I tried to give some words of encouragement to “Come On Loren… Solid run. Let’s go, you can be in pain when you’re done”. He was already in pain.
A bit later I saw Sarah, Soda and Ian come in and go out… I think I actually threw them off by cheering for them because I’ve never met Soda or Ian and Sarah only once up at the Sac Intl. Tri (I suppose like the rest of you who will read this post, I guess I feel I know you a little because we read about each other’s lives/training lives). A funny moment was when Sarah was exiting the run (and finally recognized me) I was cheering her on “Lets go Sarah, positive thoughts out there you’re looking good” and as I turned around Soda was coming in on the bike so I yelled “Come on Soda nice work on the bike” and Sarah screams at the top of her lungs “WOOOHOOO… LETS GO SODA”. It’s one of the primary things I like about this sport is that we’re all in it together.
After I saw Ian come in on the bike and out on the run… I headed toward the finish shoot and to find Loren. I saw him almost immediately. He was sitting talking with Kelly and Courtenay. It was good to see them too, I’d only met them once before as well… Courtenay and I ate lunch together after “Ice Breaker” and I met Kelly at Sac Intl. Tri. We only chatted for a second before they took off to find some other folks they knew.
I hung with Loren for a while and then headed off to the shoot to see other come in and root for several more. Lot’s of great stories out there… a husband and wife raced together the entire way, a 65 yr. old guy finished by almost crawling over the line and lots of dads racing down the shoot with their kids.
I saw everyone finish and have been thinking about doing the race next year… we’ll see (I probably will).
CONGRATULATIONS to All of you! It’s a big accomplishment and I’m really happy for you.
There’s nothing like a Great Swim! Especially when you’re working on a few things; really exaggerating the motions to engrain it into your muscle memory. Then on that glorious morning at 5:45 am (ok, only glorious after you have the great swim) when all the hard work pays off… The lengthened stroke, great body rotation, a strong glide and the feeling of the water just rushing past you. All of this makes the hard work worth while.
And then there’s the run. I was out of town this past weekend doing some fly fishing with my buddies. I grew up in western central CT (Thomaston) and did a ton of fishing, camping and pretty much any other outdoor sport you can think of, so I really dig getting out in the middle of nowhere, standing in a river and catching beautiful trout and summer run steelhead. But knowing that I have a race in a couple of weeks, I didn’t have any beers on Friday night so I could get up early and go for a mountain run through the woods around Castle Crags. It wasn’t going to be a long run only 6 miles and I wanted to push it a little so that meant the run would be over quickly. I set out at a good pace and didn’t really notice that the entire way out was uphill until I was returning and was running downhill most of the way back. I had good strides, my breathing felt perfect and I just could have gone on forever. But I stopped at 6 miles as planned. I ended up running 6 miles at 7 minute miles.
Things are lining up for my race on 8/3
Castle Crags 
So lately I’ve been talking about Nutrition 53 but I want to give some love to another one of my favorites FRS. I’ve been drinking it every morning about 10am and I can tell the difference in my energy level. Sure it has a little caffeine but that’s not what I’m talking about… I have sustained energy that keeps me going way past lunch when I would normally go into a food coma. It’s made my afternoons much more productive, which is good (I have a Lot of stuff to do at work).
I also have to tell you that a few weeks ago a random FRS package arrived at my door. I had ordered the free samples which is how I originally got the product… but then out of no where I got a New Package with even more stuff! I Love You FRS (keep it coming :-)).
And I’m not just pimping them for some more free stuff, I have morals you know! I really do like their product. So does Lance by the way.
The only thing I’d request is that they have a non caffeinated version too. I really only like to use caffeinated products during my races.
So quite a few of the blogs I read have been talking about Nutrition 53 lately. And we’ve all posted:
Me: nutrition-53-give-it-try-free.html
Ben Collins: 53-reasons-why-independence-day-rocks
Courtenay Brown: neuro1-product-review-a-great-pre-race-drink/
Loren Pokorny: new-nutrition-nutrition53.html
There’s definitely a consensus on this and we all Really Like the products. A few people have mentioned to me that they’ll be buying based on our reviews.
And to top it off… I was told about a 50% off (YES I SAID 50% OFF!!!) coupon code: “Triathlete”
I think in a future post I’ll come up with the 53 reasons I like these products (Neuro 1, Lean 1 & Sleep 1) but until then start with this one… THEY WORK!
So, for the last couple of weeks I’ve had family in town, which has been amazing. My wife and I don’t really have any family in CA so when we get to see them we really take advantage of it. An example of the last 4 days goes like this:
Thurs:
SF Zoo (Mom & Kerry on their own)
Lunch (Park Chalet)
Botanical Garden (GG Park)
rest
Bar (Bourbon & Branch)
Dinner (Colibri)
Dueling Piano Bar (MicX - surprisingly fun)
Bed by 1am
Fri:
light breakfast
Marin County Fair
Eat at fair (Chicken on a Stick, 3 ears of corn, 2 corn dogs & ice cream cone) I know it’s bad but I had to do it!
home and rest
light dinner
Movie (Atonement)
Sat:
Breakfast
Fillmore St. Jazz Festival
Eat at festival (Chicken on a stick ~ so big it seemed like an entire chicken… I ate the whole thing!)
home and rest
Dinner (Salad & Pizza at Littlestar … Best Deep dish in SF)
home
Movie
Sun:
Breakfast
Alameda County Flea Market (So Big!)
Lunch (Indian Burrito ~ Chicken Tikka Masala & Rice in Naan) :-))
More walking at flea market (I can’t believe how big this is!)
home and rest
Dinner (shepards pie ~ mom’s recipe)
Olympic Trials
Mom & Kerry to Airport
Sleep, Sleep, Sleep
See what I mean! We did a Ton and that’s just the last 4 days and I’m sure there’s stuff missing.
We had an amazing time, I was super stoked to get to spend time with my mom and Kerry and I wish they lived closer!
Special Call Out for my wife Julie: She has been so GREAT for the last few weeks. First I had my cousin from Australia and family in town for 4 days and then my Mom and Kerry for the last 10 days. She is the consummate host and always worried about what we are doing next so our guests have a fun time. Beyond that she’s also making sure there’s plenty of food around (embedded into her Italian blood) and Overall that no one wants for anything.
I’m really lucky to have a wife like her… she puts up with a lot of my shit (trust me there’s a lot) and (mostly) only loses her cool when I’m being more of a shithead than one person should stand for.
Thanks Julie (you’re a rock star)
And now… it’s back to Normal eating (I loved every minute of the bad stuff), a Normal training schedule and still wishing my folks lived closer.
I have to say that I did get a free pack of Neuro 1 at one of my races and I just tried it last week. It wasn’t bad… but it did have a little bite to it (openly admitted by Bill Romanowski that it does… and their working on that). But most of these sort of drinks do have a little twang to them when you first try them and then it goes away after drinking it a few times.
Anyway… if you want to try it for FREE for 30 days (*you do have to pay for shipping) go to Nutrition53.com and type in the promotion code VIP. This will bring you to a page were you can select 1 of the 3 products. I don’t know if you can game the system or not and try to do it 3 times… but I suppose it’s worth a shot. I really want to try All 3 products.
oh… one thing to note. Like most of the products similar to this, it has some caffeine in it. For me, that's the one drawback, I know they use it as a delivery mechanism but I don't really have any caffeine in my diet other than what I use in my races (see previous post). Anyway... I wish they'd come up with 2 versions; one with and one without caffeine. I've sent this same feedback to FRS too (I really like their product too)
**** Correction: They do have a decaffeinated version.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
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