3000yds, 6 pullups, 7 chinups, Texas Tri Series

This morning was the first time that I swam at Stacy in months, probably like 3 months. I don't miss it. The pool was really warm, like 85-90 degrees. It wasn't comfortable swimming at all. I was doing nice, long, slow intervals. Nothing special though. There was this cute girl, but I thought she was a lot less attractive once I saw her horrible swim stroke. That's just so wrong.

At the core workout tonight, I did 6 pullups at the beginning and then 7 chinups at the end. Both are new PR's for me.

Finally, Adam announced the Texas Tri Series. It's a series of tris similar to The Distance Challenge. There are 6 races starting with a short sprint capping out with the first that I know of half Ironman distance race in Austin in October. This is a new race as well as a new Oly race through downtown Austin on Labor Day Weekend. Hopefully, the course of this race will be different than CapTexTri just to mix things up a bit. We'll see, but I'm really looking forward to next year. Like The Distance Challenge, if you participate in all the races, there is a party and stuff at the end. However, if you volunteer for a race instead of participating, it still counts as participation. This is another awesome thing put on by Jack & Adam's.

Resting Heart Rate: 51bpm

I measured my resting heart rate this morning. I woke up naturally and I had my HRM beside my bed. I put it on and ran the stopwatch for about 6 minutes. The average rate during that time was 51bpm. I'll probably measure it again later this week to get another data point, but I was worried a few weeks ago that my resting heart rate had risen to 60bpm for some reason. Usually that's a sign of something not right. I wanted to get another baseline because right now I feel well rested and like there's nothing wrong.

Ok, time to go for a quick bike ride.

EDIT: I'm off the bike now. I did 75min easy spin so nothing special. The only was that I wanted to ride outside today since this is the first day in awhile where I could do that, but it was threatening rain this morning. Here's the catch, if I went and rode, it would've rained, but since I stayed inside and rode on the trainer, it didn't pour outside today.

My quads are slightly sore from the run yesterday. That's to be expected and I'm trying to get ready for a lot more soreness soon.

I ran today!

Woohoo, I ran today for the first time in like 6 weeks! I ran for 22 minutes around my neighborhood which was probably about 2.5 miles. I didn't stop the entire time and I took it nice and easy. It was a little hard at first but once I got warmed up, it was a lot easier. I felt like I could go and run about 6-8 miles at that pace. It wasn't fast at all, but I didn't need a fast run; I just need a slow but constant run. There weren't any problems with my 3rd metatarsal either after the first couple of minutes. The met pad was pressing into my foot at first but that went away. Also, the rest of my body had some little aches and pains but nothing major, even from the knees.

I'm so happy that I can run again. I'll do a 30min run on Thursday with Texas Iron and then I see my PT on Friday and we'll reasses how I'm doing and I'll get my new orthodics.

Shoe mileage: 31 miles

Core Temp & Aquajogging

After my dehydration episode yesterday, I've been hot and more sensitive to the heat. It felt like my core temp was higher than normal and almost like I had a fever. Very strange so I don't think you can recover from dehydration that quickly. This morning, I was suppose to do an aquajog. I was debating on doing it or not since I wasn't feeling that great, but I thought it would be a good idea since Barton Springs is so cold and I was so hot so I decided to go ahead and do an aquajog. I aquajogged for about an hour and 40 minutes and it was boring as hell as usual. I saw some Texas Iron chicas and they were correcting my form. After the jog, I came home. Now, usually after I get out of Barton Springs, I'm starving and I always thought that I got this way because my core temp is lowered due to the cold water. Today, I wasn't so hungry, but I wasn't cold afterwards. I think that since my core temp was high from yesterday that it was lowered to a normal temp from the cold water and therefore I wasn't starving afterwards.

Any thoughts on this?

Also, tonight I get to do my first run on the land in like 6 weeks. I'll post how that goes.

Dehydrated

I went for a swim and a ride with Charles, Tiffany, and Mike this morning. We went for a longish swim. Total time was about 45min which is about 2400yds with some rest in there as well. That swim was probably the most comfortable open water swim that I've had in awhile.

We got on the road at about 8:15. As we headed out, it was fine. We turned east and had some crosswinds. We turned south and we hit a wall. The wind was absolutely brutal and demoralizing. I was trying to push, but I just couldn't go. Our plan was to do a 56 mile loop, go back to the cars to do a special needs stop, and then do another 56 mile loop. We got back to the cars and I was beat. There were no convenience stores along the way. The problem is that this is a 3 hour ride and I need 6 bottles of fluid or 2/hr. I only had 4, 3 with InfinIT and 1 with water. I thought I was going to be in trouble when I finished the 2nd bottle at about 1:20 into the ride and I was getting thirstier. By the special needs stop, I was dying for some water. Charles filled up his bottles and gave me the rest and I got about just over a bottle of water and he also gave me some Gatorade Endurance.

We headed back out and I was debating on whether or not to go back out. I was sick earlier this week and I think I might have not recovered. the wind beat the shit out of me. It was also getting hot, but I headed back out. At about Mile 62, I was starting to feel bad. I dropped back to ride with Tiff and Charles went ahead. I was starting to fade fast and I finally cracked at Mile 65. We took a right and headed into the Wall of Wind again. I was just done. I turned around and headed back by myself and faded even faster. I finally had to pull over and stop. My heartrate was elevated, I was getting a headache, I couldn't push any harder, and I was slightly lightheaded.

I'm pretty sure that I was dehydrated. I don't think I was bonking because I was taking in at least 300 calories per hour, but it was hot, probably 96+ at this point, and I wasn't drinking fluids. After I stopped in the shade, I peed a bit which was the first time that I peed the entire ride which was 4 hours into the ride. Even now which is 4 hours later, I still haven't peed again. I kept going and I stopped at a church to get some water from a faucet. I had one bottle almost immediately and then filled up 2 more bottles. My resting heartrate there was 95 at rest. Not good. I got on the bike and kept going. I figured I had about 15 miles to go and it wasn't going to be fun. It was hot, it was windy, and I was by myself. Also, my right calf was wanting to cramp a couple of times, but it never siezed up hard.

The last 15 miles were painful. I couldn't generate any power. I was doing everything to keep my legs turning over. I eventually got back and I wasn't feeling good the entire time, but I got back. I got in my car really quickly and headed out. I needed food and fluids. I stopped at HEB and got a turkey sandwich and some Gatorade. Like I said before, I'm at home now and I finished my ride about 3 hours ago. I lost 4 pounds during the ride and I haven't peed since then. I'm about to get some more water and try to rehydrate.

The next time I go out for that long, I'll make sure that I bring enough fluids. Other than that, the InfinIT only seemed to work. Also, my Desoto tri shorts tend to chaffe on my ass and not my crotch. I need to put some Chamois Buttr there next time. The bike rode fine after the incident last weekend.

And that's about it.

100% RDA of Sodium

As I stated before, I'm sick. Well, what does one do when they are sick? I ate some chicken noodle soup. Then I looked at the nutritional facts. 39% of my RDA of sodium. Wow, that's a lot. Then I looked at the serving size which was 2.5 servings for the can. Wait, that gave me nearly 100% of my RDA of sodium from one can of soup. Shit, that's disgusting!

I got my bike back. The damage was a new derailleur hanger, 8 new spokes, 2 new sprockets for the derailleur, new chain (upgraded to DuraAce), and a new tire. $125 total so it wasn't that bad, but it still sucks.

Sick

Well, I'm home sick today. I have some head stuff and that isn't fun. Sucks. I took off yesterday and today from training. I may get a short swim or bike ride in tomorrow, but we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow.

Tuesday was a Tx Iron swim. I swam only 5 laps when I was suppose to do 6. I ran out of energy fairly quickly because at the time, I thought I just went out way too hard. I think I didn't have much energy because I was getting sick. Also, my back was getting sore that day and it was really sore the rest of Tuesday. Today, it's still sore. Tuesday evening was an aquajog for about 50 minutes. Since Jamie showed me the proper way to aquajog, it really, really wears me out. My hip flexors were toast and I was actually breathing pretty hard after each lap. Hopefully all of this really, really boring water running actually pays off.

Also, I get to start running on land again this weekend. I get to run 2 30min stints next week before I see my PT again. At that point, I can start ramping up the land running. Woohoo! Hopefully I'll start losing some weight as well since I think running is the key to me losing weight.

6 Pullups!

Yesterday, at the J&A core workout, I actually did 6 pullups on my own. Holy shit! When I first started doing this, I could do 2 and maybe struggle for 3. I'm actually making progress.

Also, for the record, I ride a 56cm 2004 Cervelo Dual with Ultegra components for a tri bike and then a 58cm 2003 (?) Fuji Roubaix with Shimano 105 components as my road bike. I'm very happy with both bikes, but I would be thrilled if I road a 55cm P3SL and a 56cm Litespeed instead, but that would be about $7K in bikes, and right now I only spent just over $2k for my bikes.

Thursday Swim & Sunday Aquajog

Oh, I never mentioned my swim last Thursday. We did a workout at Lake Austin again. Traffic was horrible and I was late, but I swam 1500yds and then 2x800yds. My arms were pretty sore the next day, too. It was a good swim.

Yesterday, I did about a 2hr aquajog at Barton Springs. I'm really starting to hate BS because of all the AJ that I'm doing. Later that day, I went and did a 30min swim. I was going to do another 30min of aquajogging, but I really hate my Sugoi tri shorts now. They caused me a couple of chaffed spots yesterday and I couldn't do my evening aquajog last night because of raw spots in my crotch. Not fun. Today, my hip flexors are toast after the AJ yesterday so that's a good sign.

Finally, I had some really, really good pluots today for lunch.

Mile 95, Mile 96, Mile 97, Kablammie

Ok, I'm having really shitty luck on the bike lately. 6 weeks ago, I sliced a tire. The weekend after that, my boot on the tire blew out, I bent my rim, and got another flat. Last weekend, I broke a pedal. Yesterday was another mechanical issue, but this one was major.

I went on a ride with Mike, Charles, and Tiffany. It was way the hell up in Plugerville, but at least I'm riding with others. I was suppose to do a 4.5 hour ride with a 30min run. Instead, we did a 30min swim to start and then headed out on the bike. The bike was nice with nice roads, smooth pavement most of the way, and wide shoulders. After about 65 miles, we had to make a decision. Head back to the cars for 75 miles or go out and do 30 more miles. We did 30 more and tried to get in a century. I quickly started falling apart. My crotch was sore from the saddle and my legs were dead. I was also losing mental focus. Hey, this sounds like a bonk. I started taking in a lot of calories and about 15 minutes later, I was feeling better. I was definitely tired, but I kept pushing myself and I felt like I could keep it up.

We finally got back to our cars and it was Mile 96. Since we were so close to a century, we decided to head out to log a century for the day. Since I didn't have to run afterwards, I headed out pretty hard, but not too hard. The odometer clicked over Mile 97 and I kept riding. I was approaching a hill so I shifted to an easier gear. Click, KACHINK, SCREEEEEEEECHHHH, stop. My wheel had stopped spinning and I was going about 22mph at the time. I quickly stopped and I'm surprised that I didn't fall over, but I did have time to get unclipped.

I looked down and my derailleur and it was above my chainstay and between my seatstays and my seat tube. The chain was completely twisted up as well. My riding buddies came by and saw what happened to me. Charles turned around to get his truck. Luckily, I was only 1 mile from the cars, but I was pissed that I was 3 miles away from logging my first century ride.

I took the bike to ATC. The derailleur went into the spokes, broke off the derailleur hanger, broke at least 2 spokes, scratched the paint on the bike as well. The derailleur might be salvageable, but I need a new hanger and at least 2 spokes. They are going to try to rebuild the wheel by replacing the spokes that were damaged when the chain got stuck between the cogs and the spokes.

Now, I'm trying to figure out how this happened. I was in the 5th cog and shifted to the 4th cog. Then the derailleur went into the spokes. I wasn't in the biggest cog, but somehow the derailleur went into the spokes. I might have dropped the chain in the front but I doubt it. Who knows what the hell happened exactly but it fucked up my bike.

Well, I had a good training ride. It was my longest ride ever but I was fine. I had some comfort issues from being in the saddle so long and I had some minor chaffing issues. I also had some nutritional issues, but it was from not taking in enough calories. Towards the end, my stomach wasn't feeling great but it was barely noticeable.

Triathlon Compound

I now official am the owner of a triathlon compound. I found a 2nd roommate who is also a triathlete so we now have 3 triathletes and at least 6 bikes under one roof. This new guy will only be here for 3 months, but that's better than not having anyone. I go from having 2 frat boys living with me to have 2 other triathletes. Much better!

Update

Man, I haven't posted in like 4 days. I'm starting to slack on this.

Monday was a rest day with the J&A core workout. Nothing special, except we did 2 sets of 10 pullups at the end. The first set, I did 5 on my own. The second set was quite impressive since I thought I would be dead after the first set. Well, I did 4 on my own. Also, I'm not getting so sore after these workouts anymore.

Tuesday was an aquajog in the morning. Jamie showed me how to aquajog properly. It freaking wore me the hell out! Basically, I have to exaggerate the high knees and the push off at the end. Very tough doing it that way. I went back to Barton Springs later that night and got in a swim in the dark. It was very womby. It was just dark, wet, peaceful, but not warm so it wasn't quite womby. A ton of people were there that were getting in the way though.

On Tuesday night, my roommate got me my new Shimano SPD-SL pedals. I put them on and rode a test ride on Wednesday morning at the spin bike at the work gym. I like them. They seem easier to get into, but kind of tough to get out of even with the release tension completely released. Maybe they'll loosen up after I use them more. One problem that I had is that I didn't tighten the screws down all the way. Therefore, when I clipped out, the cleats rotated on the shoes. When I clipped back in, it felt like my heels were kicked out and that was causing me knee pain. After about 30 minutes, I couldn't take the pain anymore, got off the bike, borrowed some tools, and relocated the cleats and really tightened down the screws. It worked. Then, I did a 20 minute brick on the elliptical machine since I can't run yet.

Right now, my weight is at 183.5. I'm up 4.5 pounds in like 3 weeks. This is what happens when I'm not super strict about my diet. The thing is that I'm eating more food, but it's mostly clean foods and not crap. My body just loves to gain weight and I doubt that I'll ever be able to get down to under 170 and maintain that. I'll keep trying though. I'll get strict about my diet again and cut out all remaining crap that I'm eating. I can't stand the fact that my body is like this. Any ideas on what I can do to change this besides picking up a cocaine habit?

Another broken bike thingy

This time, I broke the pedal. I did about a 55 mile ride with Texas Iron. The ride left before 7am so it was nice and coolish. We left and I was riding with Joe and Suzanne for a bit. I got whacked in the thigh by a branch. It hurt and left a welt. It felt like I was in Singapore and I got caught putting gum underneath the subway seat. At the turnoff point, I rode by myself since Joe and Suzanne were doing the 100 mile loop. I kept riding by myself and I was pushing pretty good. The route took us on Hwy 12 and man, that is a nice road to ride on. It is smooth and fast. Unfortunately, there isn't much of a shoulder and a decent amount of traffic. I stopped at the last stop with Robbie. I ate a cookie and kept riding. At some point, I couldn't get clipped into my pedal. I kept trying and trying and nothing was happened. After a few miles, I stopped and looked at my pedal. Well, I broke the damn thing. The back part of the pedal that clips into the rear of the cleat was loose. That assembly is held in place by two springs and the springs had came out of place. I rode the rest of the way, about 10-15 miles, without being clipped into the pedal. Basically, I had one clipped pedal and one platform pedal. That didn't stop me from hammering it for the rest of the ride. My calf was sore from slipping off the pedal.

Sunday was a 60min aquajog. Boring!

Wed & Thurs

Wednesday morning was an easy bike ride with some fast 1min intervals thrown in. Wednesday night was a core workout. First one in a few weeks. I'm a little sore in the abs today but not bad at all, but I met a cute chick. Thursday morning was an aquajog. I'm to a point where my body is used to aquajogging so I can really work hard at it. I was actually breathing hard today. Tonight was a great open water swim with Texas Iron. We did about 7 150yd intervals. We started from the shore so it was simulating a mass start. We took a right turn around Andrea in a kayak and headed towards Jamie in a kayak. Turned around him, headed towards Andrea again, and then went to the shore. Like I said, it was great mass swim start practice. I got hit, I hit people, and I ate some weeds. It was awesome.

I'm feeling pretty good after my rest the last week or so. I think it's exactly what I needed to recharge. Tomorrow is a rest day and then my training will ramp up again after this weekend. It'll be awesome.

Bad Luck & Rest

I swear I have the worst luck when it comes to my knees. At my sister's wedding this weekend, one of the groom's cousins is in a wheelchair. After the wedding, someone asked me to go and get it. I went and got it and I picked it up. Well, I picked it up by the wheels and the actual seat part swung down and clipped me in my left knee. This is the same knee that I've dislocated twice and it has bothered me for years. 3 days later, it has a nice bruise on it and I can't even aquajog with it because it hurts and then I start compensating for it. I'm just going to rest it until I can aquajog again.

This morning was the first workout that I've had since last Tuesday. I took a few days off to rest and I'm feeling better now. This is a recovery week so I'm just easing back into it before my IM training really ramps up over the next few months. We'll see if this really helped, but I'm feeling better mentally.

I'm up to 183.5. I feel fat and lazy. Ugh.

Wow

I found a video of Rick and Dick Hoyt. I don't need to say anything because the video says it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

And a little more about their story:

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/6/6_1/famed-fatherson-team-hoyt.shtml

This puts things into perspective.