The Coach Buzz ...

Well, I am now 10 days out from my next big "A" race and I am getting a little bored. I have taken care of almost everything that I needed to this week and am ready for race week already. Even though I think that body has no problem resting for a few extra days:) I gave my last seminar of the season lastnight at the Trek Bike Store , here in Madison. The topic was Ironman Wisconsin (of course) and I had about 20-25 turn up. I get a lot of reward out of doing this type of stuff. I really felt like a lot of people will have a little less stress in this last 10 days because of the questions I was able to answer. We had A LOT of left over food, so we need more to show next time. Today I had a track workout this morning and will be headed to the pool for a short swim in a little while. Hopefully the rain will clear for me ride this afternoon. I basically have 4 days of important training left after today. From then on in, it is time to watch a little more t.v., drink more

THIS is how I am viewing Sept 9th. The last build has gone MUCH better than I expected and I feel like I am finally going to be able to show that I can contend...ESPECIALLY in my own backyard. I have spent the summer on this course and doing my research over every inch of it. I know exactly how to "play the game" depending on the conditions. I have seen PR's across the board and feel that quiet confidence building as we get close to race day. Oh yeah and another small detail, I am finally HEALTHY ;) Now I rest...2 weeks with a few hard key sessions and a lot of down time. Luis Vargas , my coach has been great in dealing with me and getting me ready for this day. From now on, it is "worry about only the controllables." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I also want to pass along a HUGE congrat's to some of my friends that raced today. Chris McDonald won his first Ironman in Louisville today!! AWESOME job!! JD had a VERY solid day at Ironman Canada and so did Mar

The Becker Buzz August 19, 2007 "Pre Ironman Race Sandwich" My last race seemed like an eternity ago and since then a lot has happened, so I thought I would update everyone as to what I have been up to as Ironman Wisconsin approaches. I have put all of my 'eggs' in the Ironman basket this year. My training called for me to hold back for a huge portion of the year, this was something that was new to me and was also something that proved to be move difficult than I thought. But my coach, Luis Vargas , assured me that there would be a time to go hard and that it would pay off. Well that time came and we decided to insert two races into the schedule. The races were treated as HARD training sessions. They would follow a big training block and would be preceded by 3 easy days. Here is a results summary, with details below. Iron Abe Olympic July 29, 2007 Swim: 22:27 Bike: 56:58 Run: 36:46 Finish 1:57:22 2nd Overall http://www.onlineraceresults.com/pdf/5997.p

Just a short note tonight. Training has been rolling great over the last 6 weeks and I have really built a lot of fitness and have gotten lean, while still building a lot of strength. I am now past the majority of the hard training and feel ready to go. I am happy, healthy, fit and confident. I will now try to get quiet over the next month to really dial in. I will check in every week or so with a few updates and thoughts. I am racing this next Sunday at a competetive olympic distance race. Should be fun. Have a great week. Blake

The last month has brough a lot of great things on the training front. I will give you a brief rundown. After an ok race at Lake Stevens, I went right into a tough 2.5 week training block. It was mostly volume focused, but still had some top end work mixed in. This block a few great markers, one being a 20min TT where I was able to average 342 watts. I then decided to race an Olypic Distance event down in IL. I will post a race report soon, but the race went well. I finished second to a guy that will be known by all soon. I was able to swim with the pack and then almost closed the gap to the front on the bike and averaged 302 watts for a ride of 56:58. This included a stop for a car that made a U-turn in front of me. On the run, I didn't have my top end there(probably from the volume), but still came across in 1:57:22. This week I am back at it with 2 big days and 2 long runs. I have seen some real breakthroughs this week. Here are the details from two of my key days: Wed