3/26 - 4/1/2012

This was an interesting week. I was sick and out of commission at the beginning but forced some prep work because I had really been looking forward to racing Oceanside. I decided Wednesday that I would be ready by to race by Saturday so I made the trip. I was coughing up mucous right up until race morning but by the starting gun felt like I was at 90% I raced hard and there are some good indications that I am making progress. I am happy with the result and it was an amazing trip so I will do a proper race report later in the week. For now I am glad to have a solid race in my legs and a good place to go from for the season. :)

Swim 8,800 yds
Bike 8.25 hrs
Run 24 mi

3/19 - 3/25/2012

Somehow, with all the stuff I put my body through for the past several months, now I get sick. I have been anxious about Oceanside now that I am in the final preparation stages and I know I have not been eating or sleeping well but I am resting and I can't figure how now my body fails me. It is inside a week to go and I am really not happy about having to think about pulling the plug on this one. I have been feeling so strong and confident; I have put a lot into this and always being driven by the dream of getting on course and absolutely laying into the race. I know there will be other races but it has been a long winter without any real test of progress made and that is wearing on me a lot. I am not sure yet whether I will race next weekend or not but I will be spending the next couple of days reading about boosting your immune system.

Swim 10,700 yds
Bike 8.5 hrs
Run 14 mi

3/12 - 3/18/2012

This week I was working on targeting all my quality sessions and compensating with enough recovery work to make sure that I am absorbing the work without breaking down as Oceanside is less than two weeks away. One of my biggest fears was that when the rainy season arrived that I would not be able to keep up proper training because I would loose motivation, or get frustrated. Well this week the rain arrived and we didn't see the sun for five days. Every morning I just told myself that I had things to do and discomfort and inconvenience be damned. I did three huge sessions on the trainer and two long runs on treadmills this week and it wasn't half bad. I am relieved to get a week like this in and be able to let go of the worry that weather will completely disrupt my training.

Swim 20,500 yds
Bike   10.75 hrs
Run    42 mi

Dream-Sponsor List

One question that I get a lot when I talk to people about triathlon is how sponsorships work, which ones I have and what I get. I don't have a ton of sponsors as of yet, and I don't have any outright endorsements, but the support from the sponsors I do have is crucial. When I first started training full time I set some fitness and race result goals but I also set some dream sponsorship goals. I realized the other day that I never actually wrote those down and I thought it would be fun to do a little post on those.

 My biggest dream sponsor has always been Specialized Bicycles. I have been riding their bikes from the sart and I have a deep love for the machines they build. If you are not a cyclist you might not understand but a brand new boutique S-Works all sewn up is a breathtakingly beautiful thing and just melts me. I strongly regard a sponsorship by Specialized as the mark of an athlete that has earned the rank of elite-pro and of that I dream daily.

My other gear sponsorship desire was Brooks Running because I loved their shoes already and went through pairs of them with regularity. I have been blessed with a sponsorship by them and as my relationship with their company has developed I have grown to really appreciate the company on many levels. They take pride in connecting with their athletes and the atmosphere amongst their employees seems to be one of positive and energetic enthusiasm for their sport. This is a brand I am proud to represent.

As an insatiable lover of food and the culinary arts I have always dreamed of being supported by Whole Foods. As my training gets more demanding nutrition becomes a larger and larger part of my process and though I have a long way to go before I reach my potential, I depend heavily on my diet to keep my energy normalized, my body healthy and my performance razor sharp. I also love to cook and create recipes that are delicious and healthy. To have greater access to the quality nutritional and dietary products at Whole Foods would be a dream come true on so many levels.

One of the global issues that is most dear to my heart is environmental sustainability and ecological preservation. In my eye the greatest destructive influence in that arena is our dependance on fossil fuel extraction and consumption. There are a million and one things about this particular industry that are destroying this precious planet that we depend on which I won't get into now. Although the main reason I don't own a car is because I can not afford it, I am actually glad that I contribute a lot less to atmospheric pollution because of it. To me it would be a huge point of pride to be able to say I never owned an internal combustion vehicle and for that reason Tesla Motors is one of my dream sponsors. I feel that hybrid cars are a false compromise offered us by the companies that put us on the wrong path in the first place. I love the ideals the company was built around and I sincerely hope that they are a picture of the future of motor vehicle travel.

One of the hard parts about racing triathlon year round is that most of the best races are spread all over the globe, and while the sport does not pay all that well, it is expensive to enter and travel to the most important races. For me the most valuable sponsorship would be Virgin or by a philanthropist like Richard Bronson himself; as with the access to communication, travel and accommodation resources that such an entity possesses would greatly relieve many of the practical obstacles to racing as a professional internationally. 

So that is my list of dream-sponsorships and I am so proud to have already achieved one of these goals. I realize that some of them are pipe dreams, kind of like winning the lottery ($200 mill. this week), but sometimes the best part about playing the game is that with your chips in the game you get to dream. Should any you ever encounter an in with one of these companies though don't forget to drop my name ;-) 

3/5 - 3/11/2012

So this was a fairly mellow week...just focusing on recovery workouts and getting the mind into position for some quality and ramp up work for Oceanside at the end of the month. Thought I might share some of the other stuff that I was thinking about this week since there is not much training to report.

This is a sampling of the music I have listen to when I am working out or trying to get pumped up. It starts out with some 'dubstep' which I had never heard of until just recently...it is gritty, energetic, dynamic and the perfect blend of agression and rhythm to get the cylinders firing I think. Then comes a smattering of music I like for various types of exercise in no particular order. I was so stoked to find out about this sight that I aded a 'workout playlist' tab above to start gathering music that I like to train to.



I also had the time to get out and do some fun social stuff this week...meeting some friends for a birthday celebration, potluck dinner at another friend's and going out to see an awesome band on friday night. It is always really cool to see a great group of musicians up close and jamming. It was A.C. Myles at the fog bank...I had never heard of them before but these guys were good! They got the mid-life crisis crowd at the Fog Bank all whipped into a frenzy :)

Other than music, I also draw a lot of motivation from the inspiring stories of others that have conquered adversity in their own lives, set goals for themselves and put in the hard work to achieve those goals. This is a feature on USMS about one of the masters swimmers on my team Jeri Gintert, her solo Trans-Tahoe crossing and the very inspiring story behind her motivation to undertake such a challenge.

http://www.usms.org/features.php?id=280





My favorite part about having an easy week is that I can make some of my training rides fun and adventurous...spending time catching up with friends, the glue that gets us all hooked on endurance sports. This is a shot of my buddy Paul who took some time out from his busy schedule to go bouncing around on some single track with road bikes...one of my favorite ways to ride. This always gets me dreaming about a custom Rock Lobster and long off-road CX adventures :)

It is fun to have more time and energy to socialize and do fun things I wouldn't normally do, but with extra time my mind always falls back to all of the things that I could be doing with my life that would serve greater purpose. I was glad to read in an article about a friend of mine who is a long time professional athlete that this conflict is not just of my own creation and he put it well, saying "...every professional cyclist out there knows that they can do something better with their life, they could make more money, they could make a bigger difference in the grand social scheme of things by doing anything else..." I know I have a long time to make great contributions and in some ways I do feel like I am gaining the tools to go after those some day. For now though I added some links to local organizations that do vital work and could use any help that is available. If you are not local to Santa Cruz I am sure there are similar ones in your area but these kinds of places do the work our society desperately needs and if i could give each of them unlimited resources I would in a heartbeat.

Swim 12,000 yds
Bike   9.5 hrs
Run    22 mi

Eric Clarkson's Training Blog Home

2/27 - 3/4/2012

This was the last week of block training before my first big race of the year and I was focused on running a lot and running hard. I dropped an early week swim workout for a run because after how hard I swam last week my shoulders were questionable and I wanted to get a lot of run miles in this week. I was really tired by mid week and I realized that I have not felt that much constant fatigue since training camp in college. I hope that means I am going to be FIT after some rest.

I made the mistake of checking out the start list for Oceanside this week and there are some strong guys racing there this year. For some reason it is really hard to keep positive when I am going up against guys I know I can't beat. I know it would be unrealistic to expect to beat guys who are multiple ironman champions but I feel very strongly that a big win is what I need to validate all the work I am doing. This is a problematic desire because it is not in my nature to believe in my ability to do things that I have not done before. I know that I should be happy with the progress that I have made and be satisfied with any result that notes improvement but I have this nagging fear that despite my best efforts mediocrity might be my greatest achievement. I try hard to keep my goals and desires in perspective but to produce a performance that would establish me as a person of importance in the sport is what I dream of and fear I may never experience. 

None the less I am enjoying all the training and adventures, the people I meet and the things I am learning. I am coming to understand myself as well as people in general better and learning a lot about the world through my experiences, so I am greatly appreciative for that. Although I know I am never going to make a million dollars racing triathlons, the support that I have received from those around me has meant more than I could have imagined and will be the great wealth that I have drawn from this time of my life, no matter the outcome.

This shot is from upper Bear Creek Road looking over Loch Lomond back towards Santa Cruz, out over the ocean and to Monterey in the distance. Unfortunately the phone camera does not do it justice. It was such a beautiful day and the vista almost took my breath away. Although I try to make the most of my time out training, I make it a point to stop if there is something worth taking a pause for because I want to make sure I have moments that I have savored and appreciated. If I have nothing else of value when I hang up my racing gear I need for the journey to have been worth it.

Thanks to everyone that supports me, shares in the suffering toil, and shows me the beauty they are capable of...it makes all the difference.

Swim 12,300 yds

Bike   11.25 hrs
Run    54 mi

Eric Clarkson's Training Blog Home