My Coach

People often  tell me that I am very “disciplined”.  I’m not so sure if that is good or bad but one thing is certain and that is that I am not disciplined enough to tackle this race on my own. Obviously I will need the support of my family and friends but what I am talking about is some direction on the day to day aspects of training. This is where my coach ,  Tim Key , comes in to the picture. I must give credit to my friends, Rob and Beth  S.,  who introduced me to Tim. They had a great experience  working with him on their own fitness  program.  Tim has personally completed 10 Ironman distance races with a personal best time of 9:18 in 2001 at Ironman Florida. He has also had 5 appearances at the International Championship in Kona, Hawaii.

I became a client of TK ProFitness in 2008 when I challenged Tim to get me ready for my first Half Ironman race. He only had 6 weeks to get me ready , granted I had been  training for an Olympic distance tri the few  months prior. He was excellent and the result was one of my most  satisfying achievements, to actually beat my pre race goal. It was exhilarating during the run portion when I realized that I had an opportunity to finish better than I had expected.

Tim has a website that you can visit for yourself: www.tktri.com .  He has a special way of building trust with his athletes and then using that trust to get them where they want to be on a physical level. He uses heart rate training zones to gradually develop his client’s endurance and he has an amazing way of figuring out where your baseline is at the onset.

Training for Ironman Texas began November 1^st for me and as the journey goes forward I will share some of my training routines so that you will be able to experience the daily schedule.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you and your family have a great Christmas!

Bronchitis Hits

A friend told me that I had to be authentic and include the good with the bad so here comes some badness. You might have guessed by the title that I am sick. That's right, this week I went from being an ironman in training to being Mr. Sillypuddy. The chest cold that I am battling seems to be going around. It is no fun to cough so hard that one's eyes tear up. My patients say that I look more ill than they are. Who knows if it was my crazy training schedule last week, the first swim in the good ole ATC pool, or my trip to Vegas but one or all of them knocked down my immune system that had been firing on all cylinders for quite a while. It always makes me appreciate all those days that I feel generally healthy and maybe that is part of God's plan for illness. Not sure how much training I will get done this week but two things for sure , no swimming until I can breathe again and my abs are actually getting a great workout holding my lungs in place with all the coughing. If I am well enough to go to work then I can still get some weight lifting in and maybe some abbreviated endurance work too.

Hopefully you are staying healthy!

Thanks for checking in.
Sloan

Guest Blogger Susan Teeple

Guest Posting

By Susan Teeple (the wife)

The ARMY and NIKE:

Two of my favorite phrases the advertising geniuses ever created are:

BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE!

JUST DO IT!

Doesn’t that sum it all up?  Why else did I convince my darling husband to compete in an IRONMAN for his 40^th birthday?  Like most women, I selfishly want him around in his spare time to spend time with me or help out with our three hilarious but insanely energetic kids.  However, I believe that when we all challenge ourselves and leap out of our comfort zones we grow immensely as people and really open ourselves up to cool experiences.  We should all do something that scares us a little bit – I’m not talking about sky diving and jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet (we will save that for his 50^th!)   By attempting something that we could succeed or fail at – we enjoy new adventures in life and grow as people.  As Winston Churchill wisely said: “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

Yes, it is quite possibly insane to think that swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 and running a FREAKING MARATHON at the end of a one day race is a great and worthy achievement!!!!  But if you can attempt it – wow, wouldn’t that be cool if you could actually do it?  I know Sloan is counting on our three awesome children cheering for him along the race route – and guess what - they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

So go for it!  Be the best you can be & JUST DO IT.

First Schedule Challenge

Well I was planning to introduce my coach this time but after the weekly training schedule he gave me , that's not going to happen today.....haha. Training officially started November first and the schedule has been pretty easy to manage so far with "2 a days" on some days but no workouts longer than 90 minutes at any given time.

This week is different and I'm sure just a taste of more to come. I thought you might be curious so here it is:

Monday : Swim for 2600yds and 40 minutes of strength training with weights.
Tuesday : Bike for 43 minutes with 5 minutes of core workouts
Wednesday : Swim 2600 yds
Thursday : Swim 2500 yds and Bike 40 minutes
Friday : Run 40 minutes and strength training with weights for 40 min.
Saturday : Bike/Run combo for 2hours and 15 minutes
Sunday : Bike 2 hours

This isn't too bad really but throw in two days of 4 hour surgeries, two Christmas parties on Thursday night, and traveling to Las Vegas for a Testosterone Meeting this weekend and it gets a little tricky.

Here is how I plan to do it:
Monday : P90X stretch for 45 min - Surgery - Swim 2600yds - Office - Krav Maga (forgot to mention that)
Tuesday : Bike 2hrs - Office - Lunch Meeting - Swim 2600yds (No surgery today)
Wednesday : Bike 43min - 5min Core - Office - Surgery - Dentist appt. - Swim 2500yds
Thursday : Bike 40min - Surgery - Office - Christmas parties
Friday : Bike/Run Combo 2hrs 15min - Vasectomy at the Office -  Flight to Vegas at Noon.
Saturday : Run 40 min.- 40 min. of strength training - Medical Conference
Sunday :  40 min. of strength training - Fly Home

What was I thinking?!
Wish me luck and thanks for visiting!
Isaiah 40:28-31

Thanksgiving

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday. If you are like me then you are spending this week burning a few extra calories but it was well worth it.
We took the kids up to WolfCreek, CO for some early season snow skiing. It was a nice break from the Tri training. However, Susan and I did run in a 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day in Pagosa Springs. It was a beautiful bluebird day and a "balmy" 15 degrees. The elevation of  7700ft made it a little tough too. Susan really impressed me on this run because in all the chaos of packing for 3 kids, she brought two running shoes from her closet but they were both for the left foot. She ended up borrowing my Mom's "clod hopper" hiking shoes to do the run. She came in just a few minutes behind me during the race, proving once again how her determination can accomplish quite a lot. Something for me to remember and learn from over the next few months when I hit some "road blocks".
Next time I will introduce my coach , Tim Key.

Have a great day and thanks for the visit.

Proud of their Pops

You know I wasn't sure how my kids would feel about this adventure but here is a story that gave me an idea of what they think so far. We were flying home from Austin after my Horns lost another home game. My 9 year old, Hudson, is known for his very sweet demeanor and warm heart. He noticed a group of  U.S. Servicemen flying back home from Iraq. It wasn't long before he was asking us if he could go talk with them. He went up to the guys and said "Thank you for serving us". They were touched and one of them peeled off  his velcro American Flag from his uniform and handed it to Huddie. The next words out of my sons mouth were " you know my Dad is doing an Ironman". I wasn't ready for that one but I guess they are proud of me , so now the pressure is really on.

I'm glad you're with me on this journey.

Philippians 4:13

Introduction

Let me introduce myself and give you a little background on my life up to this point. It is my hope that this will help you understand why I would want to attempt such a “crazy” accomplishment. My wife, Susan, and I have been married for 16 years and are blessed with three children: Chase (11), Hudson(9), and Evie(5). Susan grew up in Houston and I was raised in Austin.  Amarillo, TX has been our home for the past 5 years and will be from here on out because we could not be happier  anywhere else. We feel that the good Lord brought us to Amarillo, and all the wonderful people we have met here confirm this belief in our hearts.

So, how did I get interested in Triathlons? Well , actually, my competitive nature was sparked by my wife.  Susan did her first sprint Tri in Shreveport,  LA , where we lived during  my residency training , after her friend, Kelly Gosslee, encouraged her to do one with her.  Susan was riding a borrowed mountain bike and we still laugh at the story of other cyclists passing her during the race shouting “ Go Mountain bike Girl !”. The next year she convinced me to make an attempt at my first Triathlon. The race went without incident , and it was a great experience, but my medical training and having a third baby  took over my free time for a few years.

Once we moved to Amarillo and got settled in with my new practice, I had more free time.  My family joined the Downtown Athletic Club (DAC) to continue pursuing fitness.  Exercise had always been my way of managing stress early in medical school ,and continued to be through residency, so I wasn’t about to stop once I reached private practice . The DAC is where I met  Spencer  who is a very good friend of mine today.  He and I share that dedication to being fit and pushing our bodies to their limits. He asked one day if I would be interested in training for a Triathlon down in Lubbock, TX and the competitive spirit was rekindled. We started the whole process of learning what Triathlons were all about . He is a gifted swimmer and running came pretty easy for me but cycling was a whole new experience for  the both of us. Eventually we flew to Dallas to purchase our first Cervelo Tri bikes and have been riding them into the ground ever since. We completed the Olympic distance Tri the Summer of 2008, and then my wife convinced me to shoot for the Half Ironman at Buffalo Springs a few months later. That is when I got in touch with Tim Key who is a world class Triathlete and coach. He helped me finish the 70.3 race ahead of my goal. Needless to say he was the first person I needed to contact after I signed up for Ironman Texas.

So what happened in the 2 years since my last Triathlon? Well, I am still devoted to keeping fit and my medical practice has thankfully grown and matured. I have also become surrounded by really exceptional people who share that same love of fitness and the outdoors. Mountain biking, cycling, and snow skiing with friends and family take up a lot of my free time. Good buds of mine, Pat and William, introduced me to Gary . Gary has finished 7 Ironman races and has not even reached the ripe old age of 30 yet!  William and Gary decided  that they were going to train for the Inaugural Ironman Texas in May 2011. I was reluctant at the beginning because the training weather in Amarillo during the winter and early Spring can be brutal.  On October 2^nd, Hudson’s 9^th Birthday, something came over me and I signed up for the big race in the Woodlands. I truly felt a calling that I believe was from God.  The Woodlands is just down the road from where my in laws live. Maybe the fact that Blanche , my mother in law, was in town visiting that day too was the final push for my decision.  Gary’s enthusiastic encouragement when I sent him a text about signing up sealed the deal.  So the story begins and Lord knows  where it takes us……….