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“Its all I want to do, this is what lives inside me. ” -Slayer

Following up on the Zen Triathlon Base and Nutrition Camp co-found Christine Lynch launched a challenge of sorts: 1 week where you post on twitter whatcha ate, ideally with pics. The theory was simple: share good healthy food choices, be held accountable by bad choices (even only to yourself) and get ideas, inspiration and recipes from others.

After a 1 week more then 50 people joined in cooking up simple, healthy master-peaces.

Check it out at www.holisticguru.blogspot.com and www.liveandeatbetter.com OR on twitter by seaching for #i8this It will be going through Sunday.

Pic: Christine aka the holisticguru who’s brain child is #i8this. Here is her cooking up some tasty grub while wearing her new gear for the Spain training camp from Champion Systems (hat) and Hammer (gloves and arm warmers).

“They fight and die over earth over sky.” – Tool (more tool quotes from Austin, happy birthday man!)

Today was a talk by me on running and then some real running. I could tell you all about they talk but I won’t, juch come to Texas next year if you wanna know all my tricks. I hadn’t run long really so I wasn’t sure how much I could do. The camp went to an AMAZING near by park and we did my fav, a trail run. I LOVE trail running. Its my personal fav workout, off all of em. The park had some cool single track and some nice open trails too. I loved the mix. Some of the athletes did walk/run and found they could go really far. A 2 min 8 min walk/run will really extend your abilty to keep going. If Gordo Bryn can walk run to an ironman canada marathon best there is something to it for sure.

I did a version of that, as I took 2 walk breaks at 45 and 90 minutes to refuel. I think that’s what got me to the 1:50 mark, well that and great company, senary and motivation.

After that it was more cooking classes as we prepaired lunch, veggies, hummus, veganas were the main stables, well that and Recoverite.

The camp broke and I found myself giving hugs out like cups of water at an aid station. All of a sudden the house which was the center of a dozen peoples excitement was still. I didn’t know what to do, so I didn’t another run.

After eating some of the left overs Brett took me to an outdoor pool. Ourdoors, empty, and under the Texas sky we swam 3k. I made a promise under the Texas sky, to Brett and to lil-baby-jesus who I think is from Texas (see Taligaga Nights) that this year I am taking my swimming seriously. I swam nicely and felt awesome in the darkness of the water, it was surreal. It must have been more so for Brett who had on an mp3 so he could play metal.

(Pic: Athletes got free stuff from Hammer, Vega and cooking supplies from Adams.)

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

“Some say the end is near…freaks…learn to swim.” – Tool

Day 3 came with some driving rain first thing. Zen tri coach Brett (www.zentriathlon.com) said that if you complain you suck and he will beat you will a stick so I got out there and tried his Zen ideas out. Turns out he was right, if you don’t hate on the rain it is a nice experience. I took his advice and tried to enjoy the rain since it was out of my control. And after 5 minutes I was rockin’ out too music and running through those impromtu rivers that form down streets and jumping through puddles.

After that we did some Zen mediation, which I shockingly loved. I don’t have the quitest mind. In fact to say that is like saying Time Square isn’t the less busy intersention in America…on New Years Eve. But I loved the feeling of being calm, as it is so rare for me.

We hit the workouts all afternoon too and Rich Roll gave me some much needed advice about my head. If your head is right the body will follow: true of zen and swimming.

The highlight for me was the cooking class with Christine (www.liveandeatbetter.com) nothing fuels training that proper eating. Dinner was ginger tofu with an almond butter sauce and brown rice and a side of kale with seseam and garlic. Damn tasty. And a little reward, blueberry crisp. Shockingly good for you for a treat and yummy yummy (see pic below). Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

“Everyone wants to be the bomb, but once you are the bomb the innocence is gone.” –Mindless Self Indulgence

Everyone wants to rock November. Suckas who aren’t done yet like me are plotting along with the neverending season. But a lot of people have come off their end of the season break and are motivated and ready to slay it. While motivation is high, wisdom often is not, and for those wishing to peak next summer chillaxing not crushing training should weigh the balance. There are however a few things that those wishing to come correct in the summer can and should do nowish to set themselves up for a run at the mountain top next year.

1) If you’re a hustler, its time to hustle. Its sponsorship season. Go out and glad hand and baby kiss if you’re big pimping yourself.

2) Get your gear straight. Tri peoples are awful with this. Our stuff is always wacked, busted and worked. This is the time to get that sorted. Used stuff is clogging up ebay, and new stuff still smells like the girls from Interbike. GET A BIKE and GET A BIKE FIT. You want to have this sorted out way before training matters and you don’t wanna lose key days when it matters. When getting a bike and a bike fit don’t be a sucker. Bike shops often have their own agenda and bike fitters are not all the same. I got one dude I trust. Juancito. He has done each and every fit and is the only man who gets to touch me, er, my bike. Check him out at www.jctracing.com

3) Cross train. Seriously. The more fitness you gain now in non sbr sports the better. You get the fitness AND its pre-hab, that is you are making it so you won’t get injuries.

4) Get a coach if you don’t have one. NOW is the time to start working with someone. Using the winter productively will be how you make gains for next year, by the time next year is here its too late to address a single sport problem. I have spots for 2010 and I should coach you. At 975 for the year I offer the best coaching out there per dollar. That’s just fact, I could be humble but, whatever, there are too many lame ass coaches out there with half ass programs charging 3 times what I do for half of what I do (100% custom plans with unlimited access).

5) Eat right. An hour spent cooking and leaning new eating habits is worth more now then an hour on the bike. Check out www.liveandeatbetter.com for help on getting yourself set up for a healthy, fit, and fast 2010.

(Pic: Juancito of www.jctracing.com fitting Christine of www.liveandeatbetter.com so she can crush her ironman next year. Huge thanks to www.cannondale.com for putting 5 bikes in my apartment! click photo to make is wicked big)