Regrets

I have a regret today. I had this same regret at some point last year and I've been kicking myself all day long today about it. Why is that? Because I normally don't have a chance to do stuff like this. What do I regret so badly? I regret not putting on my swim cap and my goggles when I was soaked from the canceled triathlon this morning and then running and jumping into a mud puddle head first and started playing in the mud and the water. I mean, how often as a "responsible adult" do you get to play in the rain like you are 9 years old again? On one hand, my life must be pretty decent if this is one of my biggest regrets. On the other hand, these missed little moments are what defines life and I missed out on an opportunity for one.

CapTexTri Race Report: Rained Out

I paid $125 dollars to stand underneath a tent for an hour and a half this morning before they called off the race. I'm not that pissed about it but it does suck because I love racing. I was under the tent but my bag wasn't and everything in there is soaked and is now strewn across my garage floor drying. It was fun playing in the rain though. Even though I didn't race, I'm still going to sit on my ass all day long, eat pizza, and drink beer.

Prerace Update

Eh, not much to say here. After my last updated, I was suppose to swim on Thursday. That got rained out. I did a short 3.15 neighborhood run in 25:40. I have to admit that working out in the morning really changes my mood for the rest of the day. Since I didn't work out on Thursday, I was kind of pissy all day. Friday, I was in a great mood all day long for the most part. I even got out of work early at 4ish. I was suppose to do a short workout, but I went to Home Depot to pick up stuff to remodel my bathroom instead. Saturday was a rest day with some light yard work. Today, I did a 15 minute swim with some 50s at race pace. After that was a 20 minute spin with some 1 minute pickups. Finally, a 10 minute run with 3 strides. The weather has been horrible all weekend. Hot, humid, and rainy. Tomorrow should be the same so it could get interesting.

I almost didn't race this weekend. I think I almost broke my toe on Thursday. It was raining and I was walking around in my driveway in my flipflops. When I stepped from the driveway into the garage, my flipflops were wet and my left foot slipped out from under me. My left foot was forward and I was pushing off with my right foot which was in the back. When my left foot slipped, all of my weight came down on the top of my right big toe. It hurt like hell as I hopped around the garage for a few minutes. Even now, it still hurts to the touch. If I touched it the day after, it would hurt really, really badly again. It doesn't bother me when I run so I 'm good for the race tomorrow.

Oh, one last thing. Going to the race expo today reminded me once again one side benefit of doing triathlons: girls with great butts and hot legs. Damn!

New Balance mileage: 0 miles
Nike mileage: 19 miles
Weekly run mileage: 7.5 miles

Midweek Tapering Workouts

Since I'm doing CapTex on Monday, this week is a taper week. I was suppose to do a shorter swim workout yesterday, but I did a full 3300m workout with T3 in the morning. It was OK. I was making sure my new goggles were OK. Also, I hate swimming with paddles and fins. The fins were a problem because everyone else in my lane had these huge fins and I have these short Zoomers so they are way faster than me.

Last night's run was a 15 minute warmup. Then, it was 4x800ish meter repeats. They were around 800 meters because I was did the first one in about 3:08 and I know I can't do half a mile that fast. Second one was 3:13, third was 3:10, and 4th was 3:11 so I maintained my intervals pretty well. Each interval had about 200m active recovery. Then, about a mile cooldown. The intervals hurt, but they were good. I felt like I was getting slower but I was obviously maintaining my intervals. Also, each interval was about 165bpm average and I had one with a max HR of 177bpm. Not bad.

Today was an easy spin of 75min with 4x4min at race pace. Nothing special there.

Also, my weight was down to 185.5 today from 187 on Monday. I knew I was retaining water or whatever.

New Balance mileage: 0 miles
Nike mileage: 17.5 miles

5 pounds of shit in a 5 pound sack!

As I'm quite vocal about on my blog, I'm trying to lose weight. Somewhat for asthetic reasons and somewhat for athletic reasons. Also, I've always had love handles. Even in high school when I was 150 pounds, I had love handles. I guess I'll never have a nice toned six pack, but there are worse things in life. Since I'm a little sensitive about it, I was worried about wearing my new form fitting would accentuate my love handles and make it look like I have a muffin top, or that I'm trying to fit 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound sack. I first wore this new tri top at The Rookie tri last weekend and as these race pictures show, I don't have much flab hanging out. Luckily, I can now eat my dinner tonight without sticking my finger down my throat afterwards.

I totally changed around my workout schedule this weekend. Friday was suppose to be a rest day, Saturday a brick workout, and an easy spin on Sunday. Friday was my easy spin since I rode my bike to work and back. Saturday was a rest day because I woke up and started doing chores around the house. Usually, when I get into this mood, I don't want to stop so I keep going. Sunday was my brick workout and I did the entire thing plus some yard work as well. My brick workout was 30min warmup on the bike and 10min warmup easy run. Then, it was 2 intervals. Each interval was 5min run fast, 20min bike fast, 10min run fast with 5 min easy something in between. Those bricks hurt. Then, it was a 20min spin easy on the bike for a cool down. I tried my best to keep pushing but traffic and stoplights got in the way on the bike and the run wasn't as fast as I wanted to go because I suck at running. It was a good workout still and I felt somewhat fast on the run. It felt like I was actually moving my legs decently quickly and I was getting bigger strides instead of the foot shuffle that I do when I'm tired. With CapTex next weekend, I'm feeling pretty good about the race.

My weight this morning was 187. I had beer on Saturday night and went to a BBQ last night so no surprise there. I was 185 on Saturday and I'll be under 185 by Friday for my last weigh in before CapTex. I also put in Yankz in all my new shoes and broke 2 of the 4 plastic triangle pieces already. This blows.

Nike shoe mileage: 11.5 miles
New Balance shoe mileage: 0 miles
Weekly run mileage: 11.5 miles

Ride Your Bike To Work Day

Today was national Ride Your Bike To Work Day. So, I rode my bike to work. I got in about 31 miles. A lot of places around town had food for cyclists so I ended up eating breakfast 4 times today. Nice! I also had 4 near death experiences and 1 really, really near death experience. I got buzzed by a utility truck by less than a foot. It seemed like that fucker was trying to hit me. Pissed me off. On the way home, I rode with a coworker who regular rides his bike to work so I now have a route going to work and home that is off of most of the busy roads. It's about 15 miles or so.

Thursday evening was a 3250 meter, not yard, swim. I started off pretty crappy but once I was warmed up pretty well, I was feeling awesome and my workout showed. At the end of the workout, we had to do 10x50m repeats on a 0:60 interval. I was holding 0:40-0:45 for each of these 10 intervals. Everyone else in my lane was slowing down but I held them even after being fatigued from the rest of the workout. I also need to get new goggles because mine are pretty cloudy now.

I got my New Balance 1061 shoes in today. I got the silver/blue color, too. I'll start wearing them to break them in over the next few days. They feel pretty good for the 5 minutes that I've worn them.

My weight this morning was 185.5 so down is always good and I've lost 1.5 pounds in a week.

Long Update

Ok, I have a lot to write and not much time. Let's begin.

They reposted the results from The Rookie with the transition times split out. Here is how I did:

Swim - 5:20.6 - 1:47/100m pace - 5th in AG - 66th overall
T1 - 1:15.1 - NA - 3rd in AG - NA
Bike - 31:55.2 - 20.9mph - 2nd in AG - 25th overall
T2 - 1:13.1 - NA - 15th in AG - NA
Run - 14:28.2 - 7:14min/mile - 14th in AG - 82nd overall

It still holds true that once I get off the bike, I get in trouble. I was 4th in my AG, and 36th overall out of 701 people that finished so top 5% isn't bad.

Monday was a rest day. Tuesday was an hour long swim in the morning and then a run at night. After the warmup, I did 3 x 1 mile repeats. My times were 7:20, 7:08, and 7:14. I was really tired that 3rd one. After that, we did 2 x 900m repeats with times of 4:02 and 4:07 and once again, I was tired. Both of these loops were not flat and were actually quite hilly so I'm happy with these times. Also, this was my first run in my new Nike Air Pegasus and they felt fine. I also asked my coach to critique my run form and luckily, what I thought I was doing correctly and incorrectly is what he saw as well. I am a midfoot striker. It seems a lot easier in the Pegasus because I think they have a shorter heel than the 1060s. I'm also landing my feet underneath me and not out in front of me or behind me. These things are good. However, I am doing some things incorrectly. I think I'm leaning forward slightly but what is happening is that I'm bending forward at the waist instead of the ankles. I've been trying to correct this but running this way really feels awkward to me. Also, when I get tired, my head moves back and I need to move it forward and tuck my chin slightly. This will help move my center of gravity forward which will help the forward lean. I didn't do any barefoot running, but I did go soak in Barton Springs for 10 minutes and that felt great. Today's workout was 75min spin with 10x1min fast, 1 min easy. Yeah, those sucked. I'm getting tired so I think I'll sleep in tomorrow and go to the evening swim practice instead of the one at the butt crack of dawn. Also, I'm really dehydrated since the temp yesterday was about 92 degrees. I peed this morning after my workout and it was about the consistency of sand.

Ok, that wasn't so long.

Nike shoe mileage: 6.5 miles

Sunday Workouts & More Rookie Tri Analysis

Today, I had my long run. I did 2 laps around Town Lake for a total of 8.2 miles. The first lap felt pretty good which is odd considering I usually fee better the second lap. Once I started on the 2nd lap, I started feeling crappy. I took a HammerGel at a water stop and felt better after that. I saw Sophie & her boyfriend Dave, Cam, and Shelly so it was quite a social run. Total time was 1:07:32 for a pace of 8:14min/mile. Average HR was 151bpm. First lap was 33:42 at 145bpm with the second lap 33:49 with 158bpm. I didn't feel like I was going that much harder though. I know the second lap I was trying to concentrate on my form more and picking up my knees more. I noticed that whenever I concentrate on form, my heart rate tends to go up a bit, but I don't feel that bad. Afterwards, I decided to go to the Austin High track and try something. I keep hearing about how barefoot running will really help you fix your form because if you get lazy running barefoot, it'll hurt. So, my shoes and socks came off and I did 2 laps in the grass on the inside of the track. It was cool. I may try it some more in the future. My feet hurt a bit at first but I changed my stride a bit and it didn't feel as bad. I tried to land with more of a flat foot or more on the balls of my feet instead of my heel. Overall, I had a good run today. Oh, and my New Balance 1060s are officially retired after today.

Later today, I rode on the trainer for 90 minutes doing an easy ride watching a movie. Nothing special about it. Well, that was about it for today.

Now, a little more about The Rookie Tri. Average heart rate was 159bpm. Swim average was 155bpm. Bike average was 158bpm with a max of 174bpm. Run average was of 163bpm with a max of 168bpm. Here's the deal. The 174bpm on the bike was nothing. The 168bpm on the run was torturous. I can push harder on the bike than I can on the run and that isn't right. I'm still happy with the race though.

Shoe mileage: 361.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 22 miles (I actually got 20+ miles in this week!)

The Rookie Tri Race Report

Before I get into the race report, my workouts the last 2 days weren't anything special. I did a 40min run on Thursday morning with 4 strides. I didn't do the bike workout that I was suppose to do because I got hung up at work and I needed sleep more than I needed to work out. Friday was a short swim. I weighed in at 187 on Friday morning so I lost a pound last week.

I volunteered for the Shiner Ride last weekend and since I volunteered, there was a party at someone's house last night. I ate way too much very, very good food such as ceviche, toasted whole wheat tortilla chips, amazing tortillas, grilled chicken, and this cream sauce that was amazing and I have no clue what was in it. Oh, there was beer, sangria, cookies, and some Mexican style cinnamon pastry. Let's just say that I didn't exactly eat properly the night before a race, but man that food was good. And the best part was this very dumb but completely lovable yellow lab named Dude. He was so soft and he was just funny. He had one kinda bad habit though. When he wanted to play, he would put your hand or arm in his mouth and pull. He wasn't biting you, but he was just letting you know that he wanted to play. He was a very sweet doggie and makes me want to get one. At the party, I realized that I forgot to pick up my packet for the race. Luckily, one of the race coordinators was there and she told me that there was packet pick up in the morning.

I got up and gathered my stuff this morning. I was very, very tired and really didn't want to race. However, I got my butt out of bed and drove the 45 minutes to the race site at the Texas Ski Ranch. I didn't pack anything for this race until this morning. Got there and got into transition and got set up. I saw Rachel and it was her first triathlon and she was pretty nervous. I got my packet, chip, etc and went out to the water. The race is really short with a 300m swim, a 11.1 mile bike, and a 2 mile run. I swam the 300m swim course and that was my warmup. I was in the wave behind the open wave so we got an early start which is nice. The gun went off and we were in the water. There isn't much to say about a 300m swim but it was one of the most violent swims I've been in. I usually get into a groove and get away from people, but I was swimming within 3 feet of someone the entire swim. I got out and checked my time across the mat. It was 5:22. Not bad, but my official time was 6:35.7 because it included the T1 time as well.

I took my time running through T1 because the last time I was here, I ended up hurting my feet running on the asphalt. I set up near the bike out because I don't like running with my bike. I think it slows me down. I had a pretty minimal setup this time for T1. I just had my helmet and my bike. I had my shoes on my pedals already and I wasn't racing with sunglasses or gloves today. I crossed the mount line and I tried to get my bike. I was having problems wit the shoes on the pedals this morning. I screwed up 3 times before I got going on the 4th try. What would happen would be that my foot on the left pedal and push down to get rolling. Then the right pedal would come over the top, come down, and then the shoe would hit the ground and throw my moment completely off. I finally got it but it was annoying because I've done this before. I was passed at least twice while fucking around with my damn pedals. I got going and I started going pretty fast.

The bike wasn't much either. Wasn't much wind, but it was slightly hilly. One guy and myself kept playing leap frog with each other for awhile and he happened to be in my age group. At one point, he got in front and kept going. We passed Jeremy who trains with Texas Iron with me and he was in our age group as well. So, I gained a spot on the bike so far. My legs were hurting a lot during the bike but I just kept going. Jake from Texas Iron passed me on the bike but he's a much better cyclist than me. I passed a couple of girls from the open wave, too. I came into T2 hard and fast with my feet on top of my pedals. I swung my right leg over the top tube and took off running through T2. As usual, my legs were Jello and I almost stumbled over. My official time was 31:55 for a speed of 20.9mph.

T2 was slow for me. I put on socks and I had to tie my shoes. Other than that, I just had my hat and race belt. I really need to get some quick laces for my shoes but I just haven't done it yet for some reason. I also probably could've ran without socks but I just didn't do it. I ran out of T2 and I was on the run. I was hurting from the first step but I kept going. Not much to write about on a 2 mile run either. I wanted to puke the entire time though. I really can't stand sprints because they hurt just too much. I kept pushing though and ran through it. I dropped a spot on the run when Noah passed me about 1.5 miles into the run. I knew that was going to happen. I crossed the line and I was so happy to be done with this race. My total time was 54:13 so I did about a 14:27.9 for a pace of 7:14min/mile. Not bad.

I ended up finishing 4th in my age group of like 54 people. I came out of T2 in 2nd, dropped to 3rd and then passed Jeremy to pick up 2nd place again. I came out of T2 in 3rd and then dropped to 4th on the run as I expected. The guy that I was playing leapfrog with on the bike ended up winning my age group. I had the 2nd fastest swim, the 2nd fastest bike split, and then the 14th fastest run time in my age group. I really wish I could run faster because as usually, it's holding me back. I'm working on it though. I finished 36th overall with 800 people in the race. Overall, I'm quite happy with the race. I mean, 4th place in my age group isn't bad at all.

Shoe mileage: 353 miles

New Shoes

Well, I went out during lunch and got a pair of Nike Air Pegasus. They felt a bit better than the Asics Nimbus. Also, they were about $40 cheaper. I'm wearing them now to break them in and I should be ready to run in them on Tuesday or so.

My shoes are flat

Well, I went on a 7 mile run with Texas Iron last night. That would put my shoe mileage at 346.5 miles at the end of the run. In the middle of the run, my metatarsals started hurting. I also noticed that my shoes just felt flat like the cushioning had really broken down. My feet are a little sore today as well. Luckily, I ordered new shoes this past weekend. The problem is they won't be here until the end of next week at the earliest. I have 2 choices. I can either get a pair of Nike Air Pegasus and start running in them without breaking them in first (I usually break in a pair of shoes by wearing them as daily shoes for a week) or I can put up to 50 miles on my current shoes until I get the new ones. I think I'm going to go to RunTex today and get a pair of Nikes and start breaking them in. They should be go to go for running on Tuesday of next week then. Running in my current shoes is just too much risk for injury especially since my metatarsals are sore today and I have had 2 incidences of bruised mets last year. Also, from now on, once my shoes get down up to 250 miles, I'll go ahead and buy another pair and have them broken in and ready once the others hit 300-350 miles.

Our workout last night was a 15min warmup. Then, we did 3 loops that were about 1 mile long. About .8 miles were hard and then the last .2 was an easy jog. I did 4 of them. The times were 4:56, 5:20, 5:17, and 5:17 for the hard parts of the loop. Obviously, I went out too fast, but I kept my pace for the last 3. Then, it was another 15 minute cooldown back to the cars.

I swam yesterday morning. I was late and just started off on a bad foot and I couldn't get in a rhythm. Once I got warmed up, I owned my lane, but it wasn't fun swimming with 7 people in a 25m lane. I also swam this morning. I cut it early because I was just tired from swimming yesterday as well. My pace and my form were falling off pretty badly right before I cut it short. I really need to keep up with the swimming since I still feel pretty awkward in the water. I need to concentrate on one thing and when I get it perfected in 2-3 weeks, I'll find something else to concentrate on. I don't feel smooth at all and my form is pretty erratic as well. I'll get there though.

Also, my focus right now is to get better at running. Then, swimming is the next focus and cycling I'll just do since it's my strong sport.

I also had spaghetti for dinner last night. After successfully avoiding it for about 4 months now, I let it back into my house. Hopefully, I won't go back to my old habits of eating it 4 nights a week.

Shoe mileage: 346.5 miles

Laziness, Horrible Run & Healed Tattoo Pics

As I'm sitting here listening to Nine Inch Nail's new album, I'm wanting to recap the horrible day that I had today. Ok, it wasn't that horrible since I am listening to NIN, but I had a horrible workout day. I got up and did some things around my house this morning. You know, picking up the festering, still wet from sweat workout clothes from Thursday night. Throwing 6 pairs of dirty underwear in the dirty clothes pile in the closet instead of the dirty clothes pile which consists of my entire bedroom floor. Sweeping the kitchen. Surfing the net for 2 hours. Stuff like that. I really didn't want to work out today. I needed to, but I couldn't really get in a good mood for it. However, I finally forced myself out the door at around noon.

And let me tell you that I had a sucky run today. Maybe it was because I was running a new route today or something. Maybe I didn't have enough nutrition or hydration. Maybe it was too hot and humid today. Maybe I just wasn't there mentally. I stopped and walked about 8 times during a 60 minute run. I wouldn't stop for long, but I would walk for about 10 yards and then start running again. I just couldn't motivated myself to not stop. It was really, really humid today and that was bothering me a bit because I'm just not quite used to it yet. Ultimately, I still think that I could've had a much better run if I was just 5 pounds lighter, but I'm working on that. Long story short is that I had a crappy run and I can't do anything about it now. I was suppose to do an easy spin for 90 minutes today but that didn't happen. After my run, I went and got some gingerbread pancakes, saw my tattoo guy, and did some minor grocery shopping. When I got home, I crashed because I was just extremely exhausted. It'll be interesting seeing if I can go to sleep tonight. This was just one of those times that I felt like I needed rest so I did.

I showed my tattoo guy my healed ink job. It looks great. He took some pictures of it and I also took some pictures of it. And here they are.



Here is one where you can see the shading between the gray and the black a little better than the above one since the flash washed a bit of it out.


I'm very happy with it.

Shoe mileage: 339.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 17 miles (One of these weeks, I'll actually run more than 20 miles instead of having 20 scheduled and me only doing 17-18)

Impulse Buy

I will not go to REI to just "browse".
I will not go to REI to just "browse".
I will not go to REI to just "browse".

I went to REI today just to browse. I walked out with a North Face Cat's Meow +20 degree sleeping bag and an REI Half Dome 2 tent. My plan is when I go to spectate at CdA this year, I'm probably going to camp out instead of getting a hotel room. I found a campsite about 2 miles from the host hotel. While I'm out in Idaho, I plan on doing some camping on my own either before or after CdA. I'm also going to go out and visit a friend that lives in Montana. It should be fun.

Yesterday, I weighed in at 188. I dropped 2 pounds this week. Nice.

Today, I had a weird workout from my coach. Did 20 minute warmup on the bike and then 10 minute run. After that, I did 3 intervals of 10min strong on the bike and then 5 minute strong on the run without any rest. Then, 20 minute cooldown on the bike. It was fun.

Today, I ordered some new New Balance MR1061 shoes today. I got the silver and blue ones. I've had at least 4 pairs of orange shoes in a row now. I'm also thinking about getting a second pair of shoes in a different brand. I've heard that doing this will keep your feet changing and it will help strengthen them. I'm thinking about getting the Asics Gel Nimbus 9 or the Nike Air Pegasus. The Asics look cooler especially in the black color, but the Nike's are about $40 cheaper. I'll get another pair in about a month or so.

Shoe mileage: 332.5 miles

New Autobahn PR!

This morning I ran. I did 30 minutes with 3 strides which is about 3.5 miles or so. Nothing special there.

Then tonight was the autobahn time trial with Texas Iron. I love doing this time trial loop. It's about 8 miles long and it's pretty intense. It isn't flat and it's subject to wind so it isn't easy either. It's fun. The first time I did it was in 2005 and I had a time of around 20:18. It was really, really hot that day and I really pushed myself. I remember seeing my heart rate hit 188. After that, I got heat exhaustion or something like that and I ended up getting sick the next day. That started a string of me getting sick 4 times in 4 weeks and each one was different. The last time I did it was in August of last year. My time was 19:45 so it was an improvement. It was very windy so it was a tough day. Today, I was really, really looking forward it. I got out there and went as hard as I could go. I felt like I was going to puke about 3 times. The first time was when I burped and I tasted bacon, guacamole, and orange Gatorade. Yum. I kept going and I kept hurting. I didn't take the hills as hard as I used to but I still took them hard. At the turn around, I came in at around 10 minutes. Usually, I can do the back half of the loop in about a minute faster so I was looking to go under 19 if possible. I kept going and man I was hurting. I was pushing it and trying to use my momentum to work up the hills the best that I could. Oh, I passed a ton of people, too. I topped the last hill and looked at my watch. I wasn't going to break 19:00 but I couldn't give up. I crossed the line and found out that my time was 19:38 with an average speed of 24.4mph. I PR'ed by 7 seconds and was the 4th fastest person of the night. I'm happy with it. My max heart rate for the time trial was 174bpm and my avg HR was 165bpm. So, that's how I PR'ed this loop tonight and I'm looking forward to getting another PR the next time I do this loop.

And tomorrow is a well needed rest day.

Shoe mileage: 329.5 miles

Well, I'm trying to swim.

I'm trying to swim. I actually got in the water for the first time in a month on Monday. Man, the first 1000yds were rough. I just couldn't get it together at all. I started getting the hang of it again towards the end of the workout, but I still didn't feel like a fish in the water. It also started raining during the workout and that was a first for me. It was odd swimming in the rain. I only did 2600 yds just getting back into it. My shoulder was already hurting, too.

Today, I did another workout with T3. It got lightninged out, but I felt much, much better in the water. I was doing 25m in about 19s and I did 200m in 3:10. Not fast, but not bad for me.

I was suppose to do a fartlek run yesterday. Work got in the way. Boo. I did a quick neighborhood run this morning. I picked up the pace and did it in 24 minutes and change. That's good because I usually do it in 26-27 minutes or so. And I started pushing it about half way through. One of these days, I'm just going to go all out and see how quickly I can do the 5k neighborhood loop.

Also, I need to take responsibility for something. During the month of April, I just became a tubby bitch. I'm up to 190 when I was down to about 184 just before my last race. I just had no discipline or will power to not resist the candy dish at work or beers on the weekend. I've been doing good this week so we'll see how I weigh in on Friday. I just need to be more accountable. My goal is to get below 175 so I need to realize that when I want some Hershey's Kisses at work.

Shoe mileage: 325.5 miles

Need a place to stay for CdA

I'm going to spectate and volunteer at CdA this year, but I'm not racing. However, I would much rather stay with someone that I know or somewhat know instead of getting a hotel room by myself. So, anyone have a spare spot that I could use? I don't have to have a bed so a couch or a floor would be fine for me. My dates are flexible since I'm taking 2 weeks off of work and going to see some friends that live out West before and after CdA.

Thanks.