shows you can not miss

here are two upcoming shows you can not miss:

9/18 - The Social - Street Dogs - the Street Dogs are a punk rock band form Boston - their lead singer is the first lead singer of Dropkick Murphys - saw these guys at Vans and they were very good - top it off with an awesome venue - this show will not disappoint

11/1 - Rev Peyton's Big Damn Band - this is a hard trio to describe - it is made up of Rev Peyton on acoustic, Washboard Breezy on washboard (duh?)- she is Rev's wife and the Revs brother on drums - I will say when we saw them at Flogging Molly they rocked - this show is at Back Booth so it should be even louder than the Social.

Enjoy - you will not be disappointed either show - if you are as luck as me you might get a sweet picture with the Rev and a signed CD :-)

Happy Birthday Mayor Crotty

Happy 60th Birthday to Mayor Crotty (it was yesterday so he does not share it with Jacko).

Team Hendryx had the honor to attend the birthday party for Mayor Crotty last night - and man was that good cake. He had his birthday party at The Grand Bohemian in downtown Orlando. We were privileged enough to score an invitation because we are training Mayor Crotty to run the Disney Half Marathon.

The Mayor is part of Team Burnham - one of the teams were are training to run the Disney half or full marathon - we have 70 athletes with Team Burnham raising money for The Burnham Institute for Medical Research - among those 70 are Mayor Crotty and Mayor Dyer.

Instead of gifts, Mayor Crotty had invitees make donations to his fund raising.

BTW - he is a little nervous about the running but he willl do fine - he is in the hands of Team Hendryx!

Happy Training

Jacko turns 50 - oh my!

the top picture was computer generated in 2002 to let you what M Jackson would look like at 45 - the bottom picture is what he looks like at 50. The bottom picture is his real life - surgically enhance, skin lightened, nose falling off picture.

happy birthday MJ

List Friday - 5 cds you would take to a deserted island

here you are - stranded on a deserted island and you have a disc player that will work no matter (do not ask me to explain that) and some cd salesman comes along and offers you 5 free cds of your choice (he is not going to save you) - what do you chose?

Here is what I would chose?

1. AC/DC - back in black - would need something I could rock out to
2. Flogging Molly - swagger - just a great album that makes me smile
3. Jimmy Buffett - changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes - come on, everyone knows all the words
4. Warren Zevon - learning to flinch - all classic Warren (this guy should have been on my list of people I wanted to see in concert)
5. Talking Heads - stop making sense - again, all classics

I left all Grateful Dead off my list because the only decent cds they made were the One from the Vault series and I did not think it was fair to list a cd with a whole concert on it.

I will miss my Save Ferris, Cake, Bosstones and others - but I think this music cane get me through.


What are your thoughts

Check these Team Hendryx results out

Here are the results of the 15 athletes we took to the Moss Park Triathlon, Duathlon and Aquathon - these athletes raced in tough conditions but all did really well and many had PRs for their races - some PRs by many minutes. The team is getting super strong and is zeroing in on their goal of dominating the 1/2 Iron in Miami


Sprint Tri:

Beth W – 3rd place AG
Alison C – 3rd place AG
Dawn T - 5th place AG
Karen M - 6th AG

Olympic Tri:

Donna K – 1st AG
Matt C – 2nd AG – in his first race ever
Lauren B – 3rd AG
Erin K – 7th AG
Shawndell R – 4th AG – she is a marathon team member
Mike Ru. – 2nd AG
Mike Ra – 2nd AG
Mandy M - 1st female overall - 2nd overall
Darrell S - 3rd overall

Olympic Du (run/bike/run)

Debbie S – 2nd OA

Olympic Aquabike (swim/bike)

Whitney R – 1st OA

if you would like to race with a group of great athletes and would like to have results like these contact us and we will discuss getting you on a program

Congrats to all of Team Hendryx!!!

good news usually leads to bad news???

so I have some good news and bad news on my quest for Powerman Florida and maybe a chance at the Powerman World Championships

first the good - I did another tune up race this weekend at Moss Park - since it was the same course I raced on in July it would give me a decent overview of my training and how things are going. I had a couple set backs during the weeks leading up to the race - injured ribs lifting weights and stupid TS Fay rolling through - but I was pretty ready for the race. A little sore in the ribs but not too bad.

The plan for the race was to hit the first 2.75 mile run as fast as possible and then see how long it took to feel "normal" on the bike and to hit the bike (22.5 miles) as hard as possible too. The second run would be a throw in to see how I could survive after being redline for over 75 minutes.

race day arrived and TS Fay took a tool on the race course - the run course was at least 25% underwater with some spots as deep as the middle of my calf. kind of makes it tough to run through the grass and dirt when it is puddles and mud.

I decided to stick to the plan and see if I could improve on my run and bike from the first race and see where the last run would end up after that effort.

The first run of 2.75 miles was done in 16:16, 4 seconds faster than last time (5:54 pace) - I assume I would have been at least 30-40 seconds faster if not for all the standing water, T1 was a couple seconds faster and off on the bike. The bike took me about 2 miles to get my breathing back under control and my legs to feel half way decent - the bike ended up being 13 seconds faster and the seconds lap of the bike was 40 seconds faster than the first lap - I averaged 23.1 mph on the bike course. The best part about the bike - the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th place riders could not catch me even though they had a decent pace line rolling (can anyone say big time drafting).

The 2nd run of 5.5 was hard - I put my soaking wet shoes on and went off through the puddles and tried to maintain a decent pace (and hold off the chasers)- my second run ended up being 18 seconds slower than the first race, but I was happy with the fact that I held pretty steady and was able to keep anyone from catching me. Without the water the run would have been a tad faster. I still averaged 6:41 pace for the 5.5 miles. I think realistically I can get that run down to a 6:00 pace.

I was lucky enough to win the duathlon and be the first finisher of all duathletes and triathletes for the second race in a row so it was a good day overall.

Now for the bad news - my ribs are a tad sore but getting better and Powerman has moved the date of the race to December from October - I do not want more time to train - I am ready to peak in October and December interferes with other races we have planned - I am not sure if I will do the race or not. I also do not know why they moved the race date - I suspect it is because entries were low but who knows - my fear is I will enter and they will cancel it. We will see.

Cheers - happy training to all.

Rain Rain go away

My top 5 reasons I want the rain to go away:

1. Our cat, Homey, is going stir crazy because he can not head outside to play with his friends
2. I am tired of seeing news reporters standing up to their knees in water or on the beach taking about how crazy the surfers are.
3. Training inside sucks - and not being able to meet with my training groups sucks even more
4. My grass keeps growing
5. There is a race this weekend and I would selfishly like it to be semi dry

Seriously - my heart goes out to all those folks that have flood waters in their house and are suffering because of all this rain.

I am glad, however, that this rain might bring some of our lakes back to normal levels and that the rain will help some of the drought issues we have had this year.

Stay dry and happy training

wonder if this mean lance is training for IM

since Lance's foray into mountain bike racing was pretty successful (ok, lets be honest, very successful - since he probably did not train too much for the race) at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race (he should not feel bad - Floyd Landis lost to the same dude last year) maybe this article means he is training for IM now

Lance Armstrong is back in the non-cycling news again, this time for being the No. 1 residential water
user in Austin, Texas (pop. 710,000). The local paper broke the story and the New York Times made it
national. According to the city records, Armstrong's 1.1-acre Mediterranean-style villa consumed 222,900
gallons in June to generate a water bill of $1,630. The numbers rose with the temperature in July to
330,000 gallons and $2,460. Apparently, property bills are paid by a management company and Lance wasn't
in Austin during those months. When told about the water usage -- it's enough to supply 3 dozen normal
homes for a month -- he said, "I'm a little shocked. There's no justification for using that much water. I need
to fix this." An official for the Austin City Water Authority called this response "very encouraging." To see what
all this H2O is hydrating, click http://tinyurl.com/69ca6b

Olympic Question of the day?

Let's start off by saying I am a huge fan of the Olympics and the athletic accomplishments of all the athletes - not just the medal winners. Those athletes that even made it to the Olympics to represent their country, the ones that trained hard and dedicated their lives to being an Olympic athlete - I am a fan.

The ones I am not a fan of - many of the announcers. I am really sick of all the gymnastic announcers who are super partial toward the US gymnasts. I am tired of Bela Corrolli (sp?) who just needs to be quiet and except things the way they are. I can barely understand him any way.

Do I think the Chinese gymnasts are younger than the required age of 16 (or is it 15?)- YES - do I think gymnastics judging is way too complicated and rewards a person for trying something hard and doing poorly versus a person doing something easier and doing it well - YES. BUT, until the whole sport is changed and there is no judging it will also be this way - it is not like track where there is a clock and the clock tells the winner - whether they looked bad or good in doing it - no style points for being fast.

Speaking of the announcers - here is something that caught my ear last night - they were talking about the guy that won the 100 meters (faster than anyone else in the world) and how he disrespected his opponents by looking back at them and pumping his chest with a few meters left in the race. He smoked them - he ran a world record - he is the fastest 100 meter person alive - who cares. He looked back at them???

I seem to remember one guy who rides a bike looking back at another guy who rides a bike in a bike race in France and giving him "the look" (as some announcers called it) - was that disrespectful too? Or is it that if a person from the US does it there is not an issue but if someone from another country does it there is an issue?

My opinion here - GO ATHLETES - SHUT UP ANNOUNCERS!

BTW - go Brian Sell - kick some marathon a#$

Team Hendryx Race Results

here are some Team Hendryx race results from the last several weeks

Olympic Distance race in Tampa - end of July

Darrell - 1:51:31 - 1 st in age group
Dave - 2:13:52 - 9th in age group

Moss Park 5/10k - August
Debbie (10K) - 52:22 - 1st age group
Stacey (10k) - 43:55 - 2nd Overall

Jennifer (5k) - 22:41 - 3rd overall
Chuck (5k) - 25:47 - 6th age group

Track Sack 5k - August
Justin - 22:35
Matt - 20:58

Tigershark Tri - August
Alison - 1:45:29 - 1st age group

Congrats to all - great results!

If you are looking for improved results drop us a line - we can help!

Week in Review

Last week was a decent week for training - I am finally getting some miles on the bike and not hating it - my new set up is really comfortable and I seem to be getting used to it.

Early in the week I headed to Ft Lauderdale to train with a client - I was able to get some running done (in 95 degree temps), some mountain biking and went for a 42 miler with Jimi. When I got back I was able to do an aero incline workout on Friday, medium paced 10 miler on Saturday and 43/5 on Sunday.

Sunday was pretty encouraging - we rode from Windermere and mostly on Avalon Rd - we put in a Good pace for the 43 miles and then ran off the bike - ran the first 2.5 miles in 6:25 pace then backed it down to 7:25 for the last 2.5 miles - I felt decent running, not great but decent.

This weekend is prep race number 2 - same course as the race in July - the goal for this race is to improve my opening run which was a 5:56 pace last race - and then to see how long it takes me to feel decent on the bike. We are trying to get that opening run fast and recovery time short going in to Powerman.

I would also like to run slightly faster for the second run - about 6:30 pace last time - and see if i can get that to about 6:15 pace - that would make me happy.

Happy training - be careful this week with the rains coming it might be best to train inside for the next several days

RIP

on the 31st anniversary of The Kings death I say - Rest In Peace Elvis - you will always be the man

TCB!

List Friday - favorite comic strips

Let's add some humor to the List this week - let's list favorite comic strips (in circulation or not)- here is my opinion in no particular order:

1.Calvin and Hobbes - you know Calvin was born on my birthday
2.Frazz - gotta love a comic strip that has tri and run references
3.Get Fuzzy - when characters are named after baseball players I am good to go
4.Marmaduke - that crazy dog got in a lot of trouble
5.Peanuts - I always had a soft spot for Charlie Brown and that Schroeder sure could play

what is your opinion?

National Water Ski Championships

congratulations to my Dad (Bill Wenner) for his 5th place finish in the Men's Slalom (AG, 75 years and older) - there were 10 contestants in the Nationals in his age group this year.

I am very proud of my Dad for this great accomplishments - this is a National Competition that you must qualify for and my Dad worked hard and skied well.

On another note - I had a long talk with Steve Locke - he is the new boss of USA Water Ski - Steve used to be the boss at USAT - he is a good dude and I am looking forward to meeting with him some more.

Done for a few days

I am heading down to West Palm to see my Dad compete in the National Water Ski Championships. He is fresh off his Regional Championship victory, he skis today and is ranked 3rd in the Nation in his age group. At the ripe age of 76 he looks to add a National Water Ski Championship to his resume.

After that I will be heading down to Ft Lauderdale to train with a client for a couple days.

I will return to the office and the blog on Thursday - see you on the roads this weekend

New weekly column

Every Friday will be "List Friday" on this blog. Each Friday I will post a list on a given topic and want to hear your comments on them and your opinions.

We will start off with music and will break this first list down in two parts (with us and no longer with us)- the list can only be 5.

Top 5 bands/performers you would like to see in concert (alive)

Rage Against the Machine
Talking Heads
Stevie Wonder
Pink Floyd
The Smiths


Top 5 bands you would like to have seen in concert (dead)

Elvis
Sex Pistols
Ramones
Johnny Cash
Bob Marley

My initial list was probably about 10 long for each of these categories but I narrowed it down to 5 as best as I could. This could change tomorrow but this is how I feel today - they are in no particular order.

I would enjoy hearing your comments and seeing your lists.

Training groups and events

Here are some events and/or training groups you might interested in:

-Fall/Marathon Marathon and Half Marathon Training - kick off 8/19 and first training 8/25 - see www.fleetfeetorlando.com
-Human Race 10k - free fun event with plenty of Nike give aways and product testing, 8/31 - see www.fleetfeetorlando.com

-Disney Employees - join us for fall/winter marathon and half marathon training - week day group sessions at Wide World of Sports - leave me a comment if interested - we have about 50 people for this group and only a few spaces left

-Fund Raising opportunity - have you been shut out of the Disney Half or Full Marathon?? Join Team Burnham and raise money for medical research and get coaching from Team Hendryx, a mini vacation at Disney and entry into your race of choice - leave me a comment and I will get the info to you

We look forward to having you train with us and enjoy the success that hundreds of other athletes have enjoyed.

Happy Training - stay hydrated

You decide

Here is a Rick Reilly article that is very interesting. It is about Caleb Campbell who played football at the US Military Academy - West Point and then was drafted by the Detroit Lions to play in the NFL. One problem, when you serve in a military academy you are supposed to fulfill military service. Apparently the US Army told Caleb since he was an "exceptional" athlete he could waive his military commitment and join the Lions. The other military services balked at this and said it gave the US Army an unfair advantage in recruiting.

The crazy part is - I think the US Navy shortened David Robinson's military service by at least 3 years because he was too tall. He was able to join the Spurs 3 years early to play in the NBA. Now, if David Robinson was too tall shouldn't he have been declined entry in the Naval Academy in the first place? I also believe that the Navy let Napoleon McCalcum (sp?) serve in the reserves (not regular military) after he graduated, and then stationed him in CA where he could play football for the Raiders full time. It sure does seem like a double standard here.

Now, my personal opinion is that Caleb should have to serve in the military before he is "free" to play football or do whatever. Just because he is an exceptional athlete does not mean he should get special treatment. What if there was an exceptional cancer researcher in the academy - should we let him/her out of their military commitment to go to work in the real world? Also, who defines exceptional?

To Caleb's credit - he has taken this like a fine upstanding young man and graduate of West Point - he is ready to serve his country and ready to fulfill his obligation he agreed to.

I feel bad for Caleb who is caught in the middle - but it should not have ever come to this, the Army should never have tried to make that decision. I would bet that it is not over either - that there will be another decision shortly now that the press is involved.

You decide for yourself what is right and wrong in this case


http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3520706">

this is awesome

http://ironman.com/events/ironman/worldchampionship/dawn-henry-reports-on-the-marine-major-bill-conner-and-his-kona-training

Maj Conner is a person who I will be keeping a keen eye on during IM Kona. I absolutely love this story. The guy finally gets in through the lottery and he has to train while he is at war.

I am wishing Major Conner all the luck.

I am so glad there are stories like this and I will not have to listen to the stories of the "celebrity" entries that do not have to go through the lottery or qualifying. If I have to hear about Jeff Conine (really, is he a celebrity)getting his slot and how hard it is for him to train and get ready for IM I am going to puke - next time a reporter wants to talk to a celebrity about how hard it is for them - they should go talk to Major Conner

Good Luck Sir - you deserve to do well and have fun. Thanks for serving our wonderful country.

x-games are awesome

I spent the last few days watching recordings of the x-games 14 and I am a huge fan. I got the privilege to attend the x-games (I think it was number 2) when it was in Philly a number of years ago and have been hooked ever since.

The things that these athletes can do with a skateboard, bmx bike, or motorcycle is just awesome and the sportsmanship that they all show is incredible too. I enjoy watching athletes pushing the limits of danger (or insanity) to accomplish something that most of us would not dare to do.

The other thing I really enjoy is that the athletes really seem to be good friends. They cheer for each other, they train for each other and if something happens to a competitor they truly seem to care that they are ok. It is simply amazing that the support is there. Could you imagine Macca and Sadler enjoying a beer after Kona and enjoying each others company - instead of getting in a fist fight? Shoot, there are triathletes in Clermont that will not even talk to fellow competitors when on a training ride or run. I find it very comforting that athletes at the x-games can cheer for each other and help each through the competition - they truly look like they are having fun and enjoying everything special about competition.

Here are some pictures from my favorite events - Big Air, Step Up and Skate Half Pipe - being an ex boarder (I have graduated to the safer long board these days) seeing what people so on a skateboard these days is amazing.

Big Air is basically starting in the rafter of the Staples Center - heading straight down and ramp - jumping a 70 foot crevasse (while doing a trick), landing, going up the quarter pipe that is 40 feet high - hucking yourself another 20 feet in the air and doing a trick - then landing - ALIVE!



Step Up is cool - because it is the high jump on a motorcycle - the rider starts about 15 feet from a dirt ramp that kicks them straight up in the air - they go over a high jump over 30 feet in the air and land on the other side - ALIVE!


I think that athletes (myself included) can learn a lot from these x-gamers and how they treat each others and seem to really support each other.

Happy training - stay hydrated.

brick, hill, hot - repeat

since Powerman Florida is going to be relatively hilly i have been trying to get some bikes rides done in the hills of Clermont and surrounding areas. Today was a 40 and 4 brick so I went to Minneola with some of the Miamiman athletes.

I tried to get most of the good hills in to my workout - Cherry Lake, 19, Buck Hill, Grassy Lake and Hospital Hill - and ended up doing about 45 miles and at pretty good pace. I felt pretty strong on the bike and stayed aero as much as I could.

For the run - i left the lake and headed for the trail making sure to take the little neighborhood loop that adds a little climb. I ended up doing 5 miles because I was feeling pretty good. I ran at a very comfortable pace of 7:20 miles for the entire 5 miles.

Overall the workout was good and I felt great. It was a little hot out there but since my race is in early October it has a chance to be just as hot then too.

After the workout - went for a buffalo chicken sammy at Benchwarmers. Normally I would chose the Tiki Bar but we started the workout late and it was about 12:00p when we got done - we figured the wait would be too long. Benchwarmers was good - it was pretty empty so we were able to sit outside (not to offend anyone with our smell) and the food was good.

Looking forward to my next warm up race - Moss Park in August - to see if my biking is getting any stronger.

Happy training - stay hydrated.