I got a trophy and an NBA wrap

First off, the great news. I competed in a sprint-distance triathlon (1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run) a few weeks ago and placed 3rd in my age group, and so doing received the first trophy of my adult life. That was really cool and I enjoyed it more than I imagined I would. I really enjoy the smaller triathlons, but I came away from the big one that I did unfulfilled, so I'm doing another 1/2 ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run). Throughout the run of the 1/2 ironman I did in March, I was upset at myself for not training properly. I could have done better than I did. My training, nutrition, overall health, and aerobic fitness needed improvement. This time around, I'm building a solid cardiovascular base. I bought my first heart-rate monitor and I've been training with it, ala Dr. Maffetone. It's really quite interesting - to monitor progress, you run a specific distance (in my case 5 miles) at a predetermined heart rate (again, for me 148 BPM - you get this by subtracting your age from 180). You do this every three weeks. If you're training properly, your time should go down with each test as your body slowly starts to work more efficiently at a lower heart rate, thus allowing you to speed up a bit and still not break the 148 barrier from aerobic to anaerobic training. For the next two months, I've got to do a lot of running, cycling, and swimming, but I can't go over my threshold. The 148 BPM is run specific - take 10 off for the bike and another 10 for the swim. After the two month building phase, I can only break through to anaerobic levels for less than 10% of my total training time, allowing me to maintain my aerobic base but also allowing some race-specific work. My training is dramatically different than what it was before. I found out that I've been running too fast, but swimming and biking too slow. I've increased my mileage, but I feel much better. So far, I'm pleasantly surprised with my new regiment. Where I really struggle is my nutrition. I like eating fatty foods. I love red meat. I love ice cream. I really like soda. These are not ideal triathlon training food items. I try to avoid them, but sometimes I just need to go to Outback and enjoy a Bloomin' Onion, a Ribeye, a warm brownie, all washed down with an ice-cold Coke. My diet has improved immensely over the past few years, but I don't see myself ever giving up these things entirely. Plus, I'm not a professional triathlete, just some former swimmer who enjoys being in shape and participating in triathlons.

The NBA finals are over and like I predicted, the Spurs are world champions. See what I meant about knocking the Suns around? That's all you need to do to beat them. The Cavs? Please. They are horrible and wouldn't have gotten out of the first round in the west. My attention now jumps to this off-season where it is becoming more likely that Kobe Bryant will not be a Laker much longer. This is a tragedy. Mitch Kupchuck has run this organization into the ground since Jerry West stepped down and will soon be known as the idiot GM who traded away both Shaq and Kobe. It's no wonder Kobe is pissed. He's playing in the prime of his career at a level that rivals any NBA great and he's got no help. Magic had Kareem and Worthy. Jordan had Pippen. Shaq had Kobe. Bird had McHale, Parrish, and DJ. Kobe has Kwame Brown and Smush Parker. The best-case scenario here is the Lakers get a deal done that brings either KG or Jermaine O'Neal to LA to play with Kobe. I think if Mitch could get that done, Kobe would back off of his trade demands. Problem is, I don't trust Mitch to get it done. He's too incompetent. This means Kobe will be leaving and the Lakers will be stuck getting some some garbage from the Eastern conference like they got in the Shaq deal. And here's your starting lineup - Lamar Odom, Luke Walton, Smush Parker, Luol Deng, and Ben Wallace. In the west that roster equals about 30 wins. If the Lakers trade Kobe and retain Mitch, I may have to break up with the Lakers - and this would bring my father immense joy, as he considers the fact that I'm a Laker fan one of his greatest failures as a parent. Needless to say, this off-season looks like it will be much more interesting than the NBA finals were, and that's not a good thing.