johnhirsch.org

“Mi gusta punk rock.” Sublime

I love being a coach. When my days of winning races are over I will coach. When my days of even doing races are over I will coach. I have coached soccer since I was 13, and tri since 2002. Its fun. Its rewarding. Its all the love you have for a sport and a person or people, combined. In many ways its more rewarding then ones own playing and racing.

I love “live” coaching. I don’t get to do it much. I don’t get it much as an athlete. In reality nearly all endurance sports athletes get coached remotely including me. Few times do coaches get to be there for swims, bikes and runs. And its understandable from a pratical and logistical point of view. You don’t need a coach on site to tell you to go 150 watts or to run 30 seconds faster on the second half of a work out. But what is great is when I can be on site to give something else, that emotional push. I love www.stronglikebulltraining.com for that. I love leading by example there, but I also love riding with people and encouraging them up a climb or through a swim or run.

I also love www.teamcontinuum.net for the same reason. Twice a week we get together to train. And being there when they finish a long run is fantastic. As is being there with them running for the last miles and helping to will them to the end.

This weekend I made a trip out to weschester to see www.phillavoie.org bc he has his “race simulators” aka death bricks. Final evil hard workouts. You feel awesome when they are over as they are almost full ironman days. Does it change anything for phil that I am here? No. The pace is the same. The fitness gains too. But for me, its the pay off, the reward. Seeing him lean and fast, its why I coach and why I spend my free time handing off bottles to guys on running paths in the middle of no-where. Because that’s when we need that the most. I don’t get to do it often right now, but I do it as much as I can, and each time it fills me up with pride and motivation.

(Pic: phil at mile 6 of 10 tempo getting a bottle before dropping the hammer for the last 4 miles. My man is gonna KILL rev3) Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

“Everytime I run… You cry… so I will be gone, till November.” Wyclef

It wasn’t even 30 minutes after crossing the finish line at IMLP that I was wondering, “who’s got next.” In fact the conversations, mind blenders, chats, feelings and such started at the start of July with the WTC announcing the new point series aimed and taking away pros from indepentant races while at the same time taking away the money from their pockets. Never the less, every pro was once an age-grouper and so its not so surprising to us that the WTC is going to leverage us too, the same way they do age-groupers: by hanging the Kona race out there for us to chase. Who hasn’t gone mad seeking a start on the famed Kona pier?

So I found myself at a cross roads: do I buy into the Ironman Madness? Pay 750 bucks to do WTC races, do the races they push us towards by offering points, racing not when its best for us, but when we “need to race” or do I walk away, and leave a decade of wtc racing behind? Ironman brand is really all I have have ever really known, and like an abusive relationship, there is comfort no matter how much things change for the worse.

Walking away isn’t ideal either. There is to date only fall ironman distance races outside the WTC. If I want to peak twice for ultras I currently can’t without doing a wtc event. There is a “one time” wtc cost for pros of 400. A minor discount but with decreased pro payout its really a double hit: lose 400, don’t earn anything. That’s a 1000+ dollar swing.

Oh and here is the kicker: the wtc point system is new, and likely will be a total mess. Who knows if chasing points will even give me a shot at kona. It might, but again, until we see how it plays out, I suspect like all wtc rule changes this year it will be a total failure. Everything they touch they ruin.

I was really torn between all of these imperfect opitions and needed the big picture stuff to get sorted out before I could plan the next 12-18 months as the season for kona 2011 really starts in 4 weeks.

When my brain is twisted I go to Jim Ortel. Dude is yoda. Sadly for me this meant getting up at 6 am to ride the day after the BI tri. Yoda keeps his own hours. As we road he mentioned that there is another factor that trumps all: I am on great form, my recovery is good, and I am a different athlete then in the passed. So I should line up for rev3 and race asap, because I am peaking and to quote the film The Hangover: “you don’t walk away from the table when your on a heater.” And I am hot right now. What i thought I couldn’t do, needs to be tested. And with the best year of my life already before the calander flipped past July why not venture into new grounds.

He also said that I should do a late fall ironman for the same reason. Maybe 3 ironman in a year is a bad idea, but again, we don’t know what I can do anymore. If it goes well I collect points. Its free this year as I already got robbed by the wtc and since I started the season late if I recover smart between events I might even race ok.

I love this because it allows me to race Rev3 (www.rev3tri.com)  and I want to support a race that puts athletes first. I want to race a race that invites us to come, not one that pushes us into it or holds the history of the sport hostage. I want to be reminded that ironman is a spirit, born from the athletes that push themselves and not a greedy transnation corperation out to squeeze a buck out of anyone regardless of the effect it has on the sport we love. See you in Ohio!

(Pic: me skating on Block Island. Did some nice active recovery of skating, hiking, surfing, ocean rock rodeo and mt biking.)

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Me and Christine along with the CREW were featured in an amazing pod cast now playing at www.ironmanbobby.com shot and all about ironman lake placid.

CHECK it out!!!! Its awesome. How awesome? Its in the top 50 non professional pod casts and top 100 sports ones. That includes professional productions.

HE BEAT FUEL TV!

(Pic: hiking out here on block island, awesome active recovery ans xtraining. Plus coraline LOVES it) Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

“locked and loaded, I don’t need a motive. The Body count is growing.” -Dope I had no idea how I was gonna pull this off. Defend a title 6 days after racing all out at ironman. As I got in line to reg, Christine pointed out I still had glue on my arm from the tape that held in the 5 IVs of fluid I needed less then 6 days prior. The Block Island tri isn’t your average sprint. A rough water ocean swim, a hilly windy 12 mile ride and a long evil beach run done all on sand that is closer to 5 miles then 5k though no one has ever measured it. In my warm up things felt, um “interesting” and I was sure I was lining up just to blow up.

I had been working hard all week to come around. Awesome nutrition from Christine www.liveandeatbetter.com plus she is a certified yoga instructor and she gave me some awesome yoga workouts to do to help aid in recovery. I also did a few light spins and a swim with Miss Murder the day after IMLP (thanks!). The post ironman work I did had me feeling a little hopeful though. I really want to come around as the www.rev3tri.com race is 7 weeks after IMLP and I so wanna do it, partly because I am going to be there anyways to support CREW.

The day was perfect, 70s and sunny. The race got started with 100 yard or so beach run and I felt my heart go into my chest. I quickly fell behind people in my wave. But my water running and dolphining once we hit the ocean got me to the front and I started the swim my wave leader. I was in wave 7 so there was a lot of people to pass. I came out of the water with the 2nd fastest swim split and only 5 men down the road who had a several minute advantage because their waves started prior to mine. I hammered the first lap and my body rebelled. My legs seized, my heart tried to leave my body first through my chest then through my throat. But by the midway of the bike I had taken control of the race. I knew this race is hard, and didn’t want to push too hard. I also knew to win I had to finish, and that was far from given.

Out of t2 I felt my legs turning over. It was like my Island had given me super powers. I have always believed this island is magical. Dogs and humans live extra long here. Cuts and injuries heal faster. I was clearly getting some of that voodoo today. Also the course is the beaches on a Saturday in the middle of the day of summer. That means you get huge crowds, many who didn’t know a race was about to happen, but start cheering because 500 people running hard in sand fires em up.

I set a nice tempo to the first turn around at the south end of the beach and saw I had a nice lead on everyone. Again, no need to risk too much, and my pace was strong. After some more running I was back at the race venue and saw my mom and dad cheering. This is my hometown race and I think I have won it 6 or more so times since 1999 and I know a fair amount of people out there. Also since its an out and back I got to see a lot of the other racers. Many of them are my friends. Some of them good friends. My coach was on his way to a top 10 and his team and family from the www.blockislandsport.com shop were on their way to cleaning up awards. I think we had most of the top 10 and tons of top 3 in the age groups.

At the second turn around I had a hammer espresso gel as this race is long and hard enough that you really need to fuel. Its way harder then the average sprint. I also got a spontaneous escort from life long friend James aka 1984. Now a punk rock singer he ran a 2:50 marathon back in the day and use to beat me here when we did it on mountain bikes and without goggles. He starting screaming and yelling and running next to me tour de france style. The crowd went wild as he was yelling and getting people to cheer. When the mind is busy the body hurts less and I just enjoyed the run crossing the line in 1 hour and six minutes. I wasn’t sure of my lead because of the wave starts but it turns out I won by 4 minutes this year which was surprising. Come to think of it everything about the day was surprising. In fact, its fair to say I am freakin shocked that I lined up, finished, and totally blown away that I felt so good and won. I am clearly a different athlete this year.

I have 5 wins already and a great showing at an ironman. Its not even August and its already been the best season of my life.

Photo: Me and Race Director, we have become good friends over the years.

My Ironman Lake Placid Race Report is up over on www.xtri.com Thanks to www.ironmanbobby.com and www.theytri.com for the photos and love.

The number 1 tri video pod caster www.ironmanbobby.com also does pretty awesome stuff with the stop action images.

Check out this slidshow of the weekend with some lovely and fetching pics :

He will also have a video pod cast of the weekend.

Huge thanks to him to him for all the shooting but also all the help race weekend.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48157819@N03/sets/72157624481340683/

(My pic: grant www.co2legs.com gave me this sticker during my coffee detox)

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My Texas homie Bret of the famed zen and the art of tri podcast rocked a nice post about my race.

You can check it here. http://ow.ly/2h8Aj

Foto: I made my satan cakes for everyone the day before the ironman in the CREW house. This one is a pentagram.

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Our dear friends from THE best tri supporters site posted some pics from IMLP. Check out the pics and check back with em for great tips for your friends, family and loved ones who come to tris with ya.

Here are the pics!

http://theytri.blogspot.com/2010/07/imlp-part-1.html

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A proper race report will be up soon-ish but here is the summary:

Had the best result of my life. 12th male pro against a stacked field of 32 hard men. Yes I went top 10 in Louisville but this result is better because of depth and strength of the field.

Knocked 10 minutes off my course record here.

Ran well enough to qualify for boston. IN AN IRONMAN.

Thanks to the CREW, my pops, christine, Jim Ortel my coach, the tons of friends and supporters I saw out there on the course, team continuum, my sponsors, my family, the volunteers (the ones in the med tent get and second hug), and all the people that tweeted at me and/or left comments or sent emails and fb wall postings.

I feel so stoked, so validated, so awesome.

(Foto: set a second PR in the med tent of 5 iv bags. )

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Go to www.ironmanlive.com for race coverage.

Also go to www.tweeter.com/j_hirsch for tweet updated from ironman bobby

Follow his tweets as well www.tweeter.com/ironmanbobby

And Christine: www.tweeter.com/holisticguru

See you on the otherside!

For all the people I love, I carry you with me today.

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