Snow Day

And it kept snowing and snowing and snowing...

PHF

Patience, humility, fortitude...as stated by Gordo in a recent article on xtri these are a few virtues which endurance training & racing demands. Interestingly these same virtues may be applied to life which is perhaps the greatest race of all with its many twists, turns, surprises, challenges, etc. As a professional athlete I often find myself needing a subtle reminder (aka God slapping me upside my head) of the big picture with respect to training. Over the years I have become incredibly more patient with my progressions in sport and things in life. That is not to say I am so relaxed and simply kick back and just wait for some magical gains to be made. Like most athletes, I take pride in having a focused work ethic and being consistent with day-to-day training & living. Humility is certainly something I respect in others and strive to achieve in my own life. The past several days I have been at battle with a cold & sinus congestion which has not derailed me from my training, but at times slowed me down. Athletes don't like to go slow and I have eaten some humble pie in a couple of sessions the last two days. Just yesterday Matt & Kirk toyed with me during our bike intervals. These guys are exceptional athletes and I am glad to have them as friends and training partners. Fortunately God has given me the grace to be cool with these opportunities to grow in humility :) It seems athletes, or more importantly inviduals, who walk with humility possess a hearty dose of self-confidence which in turn allows them to display fortitude. While I am not a walking dictionary or thesaurus I reckon this is simply about persevering through all sport & life has to offer in a consistent fashion. As I scribble this entry we are getting dumped on with snow. While it would appear to be a great day to watch a movie and relax, I see it as even better opportunity from God to practice PHF.

As I often like to remind myself...God's gift to us is our potential, what we decide to do with it is our gift to God.

Thanks for reading!

Keep it smooth...

Brad

Random Team Sport Beans/NTTC Camp Pics

Thanks to Alexis for these candid shots...

Let the games begin at our essence tasting

Group pic before 1st winery tour - kudos to Stephanie (far right) for hooking us up

Greg, aka "wine guy", imparting his wine wisdom


Team Director, Mark Wendley, educates Jelly Belly marketing staffer Andrew on the finer points of triathlon

Leah testing her skills at essence tasting

Nice smile ladies!

Yours truly getting "bean boozeled" - note the smirk on Lauren's face

Ben & I sharing a few laughs between photo shoots

Jessica & Lauren in a heated sword fight

All smiles during team orientation

As one can tell the good peeps at Jelly Belly made sure we enjoyed our annual team camp! A big kudos to my teammate Daniel Brestcher who was selected as USAT's Male Professional Rookie of the Year...nice work Daniel!

Keep it smooth...

Brad

Team Sport Beans/NTTC Team Camp 2009

I returned this evening from our team camp hosted by Jelly Belly at their world headquarters in Fairfield, CA. It was a stellar weekend filled with team orientation, distribution of 2009 training/racing apparel, media stuff, swim/bike/run sessions, Napa winery tours, incredible meals, fun schwag and of course loads of laughter. My roommate for the weekend was Ben Hoffman (Durango, CO & about 15 years my junior) which was great since we both enjoyed the NCAA conference tourneys that were being played.

Tammie, Stephanie & Rob from Jelly Belly along with our team Director Mark once again rolled out the red carpet for us in serving up top shelf attention to detail, a shopping spree at the Jelly Belly store (I won't tell you which teammate's tally was close to $500), winery tours in Napa and gourmet meals! In addition to the administrative items and team orientation we were able to get in some fun group training sessions. The power of the Sport Bean was working it's magic in getting us unlimited, free access to the 24 Hour fitness center a stone's throw from our hotel.

The pictures are from the tour we did Saturday afternoon visiting two different wineries. It was a hoot and one of them included an essence tasting. Basically, the wine guy had several bottles for us to sample along with about 14 different items with varied scents ranging from fruits to spices. The trick was trying to dertermine which aroma one could smell in each wine sample. It was quite interesting and in the process I was "bean boozeled" by a few teammates. Ladies, just know that I can be quite sly with my paybacks! More pics to follow as others forward me their shots.

Keep it smooth...

Brad

Heading West

Tomorrow morning I depart for our annual Team Sport Beans/NTTC team camp being held in Fairfield, CA - home of Jelly Belly's World Headquarters. It promises to be a fun-filled weekend with team meetings, media jazz, training and most importantly some hearty team meals and a Napa winery tour. The timing is perfect as Coach Z structured this week as active recovery. It's always refreshing to have some time to get caught up on the more basic things in life (laundry, cleaning, mail, emails, etc.). Monday was a complete day off from the training scene. I took advantage of the opportunity and after completing a few of the more mundane tasks around the casa I've been neglecting, I hopped on the bus to Denver and spent a few hours downtown visiting a couple of coffe shops. Denver is a pretty sweet city and has a pleasant urban vibe to it.

At the moment I am staring at my new PowerTap Elite (training) and PowerTap SL+ (racing) power meters (gracias to Marky V for venturing to FedEx in south Denver & picking them up). As slick as they look in their boxes, I'm thinking they will look even better on some new wheels!

Hope you enjoy a healthy, safe & blessed weekend of training, family & friends!

Thanks for reading & keep it smooth...

Brad

Sponsor Highlight: Team Sport Beans/NTTC

While enjoying the 70 degree weather on a recent easy ride I did some brainstorming about my blog and decided to add a new feature of highlighting a sponsor each month. Note to reader - this is not meant to be a shameless marketing tool which my sponsors have requested. I simply wanted to share some info on the great people who are helping me be my best!

To kick things off for 2009 it made sense to start with Jelly Belly's Sport Beans since Jelly Belly is the title sponsor for my team, Team Sport Beans/NTTC. You may have read one of the recent press releases from our top shelf team director, Mark Wendley, about this year's squad. I am stoked to have Alexis Smith & Lauren Jensen return on the women's side as well as Jeff Piland on the men's. First-year team members Jessica Jacobs, Leah Daugherty, Daniel Bretscher & Ben Hoffman are certain to add some excitement to the mix!

Team Sport Beans/NTTC was originally founded in 1992 by current team director Mark Wendley who at the time was racing professionally. The early years saw the likes of Mike Pigg sporting the NTTC colors. After a 11 year hiatus, the team returned with a new title sponsor in Jelly Belly, makers of the Sport Bean. There has been some rumblings about the legitimacy of a candy company getting into the sports nutrition biz, and quite honestly the Sport Beans brand has exceeded initial expectations. With four original flavors of Berry Blue, Lime, Orange, Fruit Punch and two newer caffeinated flavors of Watermelon & Cherry, Jelly Belly is able to offer endurance athletes & active people some serious portable power! My favorite flavs are orange, lime and the watermelon when I want a little extra giddy-up. Each packet of Sport Beans contains 100 calories, 80mg sodium, 40mg potassium, 25g carbs and 19g sugar. The caffeinated packets are the same with 50mg caffeine. There is no HIGH fructose corn syrup in the beans.

Keep it smooth...
Brad