I've been busy lately. I've given up on my tile job in my bathroom and I'm paying someone to do it. I just don't want to do it anymore. I'm also trying to study more for the medical terminology class that I'm taking right now.
Ok, enough personal stuff. Wednesday was a 3500yd swim. Not much to write about there. Actually, when I'm in a lane, I usually lead on the swim sets. For paddle and fin sets, I'm at the end because I suck at them. However, Maurice let me borrow some other fins. Wow, I'm fast! I need to get some longer fins. I ended up leading the last few intervals of the fins.
Thursday was a brick workout with Texas Iron. It was a bunch of mini duathlons. After the warm up of a 3 mile loop on the bike and a 1 mile run, we did 3 intervals of 1/4 mile run, 3 mile bike, 1 mile run. These were suppose to be hard intervals and I really pushed myself. Of course the last one was the fastest for me. I held off Fast Freddy on the last one because he beat me the first two 1 mile runs. Woohoo! Oh, and I completely embarrassed Betsey because I told her that her shorts were worn out and I could see the crack of her ass. That was funny.
Friday was a crappy day. I skipped my swim workout because I just wasn't feeling it.
This morning was a 60 min run. I ended up getting 6.5 miles in today. I was also dehydrated because I got up, ate a Clif Bar, and pretty much without drinking any fluids. Once I hit about 35 minutes into the run, my heart rate started to skyrocket and I was going SLOW. It felt really slow even though I was going downhill. I came home and used MapMyRun and found out that the course I ran had an elevation gain of about 150 feet over the 3.25 miles. That's not much but it isn't insignificant either. Even going downhill on the way back, I was still slower with a higher heart rate. I came home and drink the first liter of water in 3 gulps and about 3 seconds and drank the second liter in about 3 minutes after that. Wow, that felt good. I also developed chaffed nipples again which are annoyingly painful.
After doing some yard work and studying (I got through another 1.5 chapters), I went on an easy bike ride. It was hot but started cooling off a bit. I took it nice and easy and it was a pretty good ride. Also, I had a courteous driver! I was riding along and there was an SUV that passed me and was turning right. Instead of cutting me off and turning right in front of me, they stopped until I passed. That made my entire ride!
Oh, I weighed 183.5 yesterday. And I finally got over 20 run miles in this week and this week was a recovery week, too.
New Balance mileage: 46.5 miles
Nike mileage: 55 miles
Weekly run mileage: 20.5 miles
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Bittersweet
I wanted this to be a great post. I try to be very positive, but I know that I tend to be negative sometimes and bitch a lot. I had a great morning this morning until I learned about a piece of bad news. I really needed a totally great day, but today wasn't it. However, I'm going to try to have the enthusiasm that I wanted to put in this morning before I found out the news.
First of all, congrats to Jodi who kicked ass on her first Ironman.
My weight check in yesterday was 184.5. Today was 186 but I'll get to that in a minute.
This morning, I went on a run. I thought I had a fairly short run, but my coach wanted me to a 15min warmup, then (6) 1 mile repeats with 2 minutes rest with increasing effort each interval, and then 10 min cooldown. I left my house at around 6:00 and was back by 7:30. The first mile repeat was 8:13 with 146bpm. Second was 8:42 with 154bpm. I noticed that this was a lot slower because this is uphill and the rest of the splits show it. 7:49 with 160bpm, 8:12 with 167bpm, 7:32 with 169bpm, and finally 7:54 with 173bpm. Now, here is what made me so happy. On that last interval, I really pushed it. I mean REALLY pushed it. I wanted to get my heart rate up as high as possible. Why? Why not? Towards the end of my interval, I kept pushing and pushing to see how high I could go. I saw 180. Then 183. I felt like I had more so I put my head down and kept going. I reached the end of my interval, stopped my watch, and saw 189bpm on my HRM. I yelled "Fuck yeah! Woohoo!". Man, I'm stoked about this. My previous max HRM since I left college on the run was 183. I've seen 184 on the bike in the last 3 months and 188 in the last 2 years. I've always wondered why the max HRM on the bike was higher than the run when it should be the other way around. Well, I found out that I kept pussing out. Now, I know that when I push myself, how much more that I can go. Even hitting 189 today, I felt like I could've gotten it higher to 190 or even 192. This was just a huge mental boost that I needed for my running. It felt great, too! I did my cool down and had a smoothie. I've been using OJ instead of chocolate milk and it's good.
Oh, one more thing. I weighed 186 this morning before my run. During the run, it felt more like a swim than a run; it was just damn humid. I didn't drink anything during the run so I got back and weighed myself. 182. I dropped 4 pounds of fluid during the run. And I was completely soaked in sweat and it was only 75 degrees outside.
Now, the bad news. I got to work and went to Slowtwitch. I found out that Doug Stern passed away yesterday. Talk about a total buzzkill since I was in such a good mood this morning. Doug posted on ST a few months ago about his battle with cancer. I didn't follow it that closely, unfortunately. He was oldish, around 62 or so, but he definitely didn't look that old. He didn't act that old either. He's been swimming for something like 40 years too. He's just a great guy with a lot of character. He was able to put complex techniques of swimming into simple terms that people could identify with. I owe him a lot of my swim stroke since I was a fan of his theories of swimming. I even met him at a clinic that he taught in November of 2005. I was also looking forward to going on one of his amazing training vacations that he puts on in Curacao. He used to have 1 per year, but it gained in such popularity that he was going to offer 2 of them. I was always waiting until I met him again. Like I said, he's a great guy, very wise, and someone that you could look up to. This is really important for me since I'm not close to my family and don't really have a strong father figure. Well, I didn't realize that our first meeting would also be the last. There's not much else I can say about this. I'm deeply saddened by it. Once I found out about his death, I close the window to ST because I just didn't want to mourn this today. Rest in peace, Doug.
Now, after something like that, I don't really want to write more, but I need to. I went to see my PT today for the first time in like 8 months. I had to get my PF, TFL, and IT band issues looked at. Well, I do have some PF going on. I also have some TFL and IT band issues like I thought. Found out that my hips are super duper weak. I have some exercises to get them strong again. I also took my running shoes in there as well. She pretty much confirmed what I thought. My New Balance shoes are better for my feet than my Nike shoes. I actually look better in the New Balance without my orthodcis than in my Nikes with orthodics. Also, nothing about me is simple. When I'm standing, she was more worried about my lef foot because it tends to pronate naturally and fall in more. Also, it isn't as stable on the ground as my right foot is. However, in my shoes, my right foot falls in more. It's more prevalant on the Nikes, too. They've been bothering my feet a bit, too. Once they are worn out, I won't buy that model again. So, I'm in my orthodics every day now. Also, the Nikes are limited to short runs now with orthodics. New Balance are short runs with orthodics and long runs without until I get used to them. I have to do some ball on the foot, rocking back on the heels stretches, and calf stretches for the PF. for the TFL and IT band, I need to do 2 different exercises for my hips. Other than that, I'm doing good. I needed to go in and have her yell at me a bit to get me back on track and it worked.
That's my story for this bittersweet day today. Like I said, I really wanted a great, upbeat day all day long, but that didn't happen.
New Balance mileage: 41.5 miles
Nike mileage: 48.5 miles
First of all, congrats to Jodi who kicked ass on her first Ironman.
My weight check in yesterday was 184.5. Today was 186 but I'll get to that in a minute.
This morning, I went on a run. I thought I had a fairly short run, but my coach wanted me to a 15min warmup, then (6) 1 mile repeats with 2 minutes rest with increasing effort each interval, and then 10 min cooldown. I left my house at around 6:00 and was back by 7:30. The first mile repeat was 8:13 with 146bpm. Second was 8:42 with 154bpm. I noticed that this was a lot slower because this is uphill and the rest of the splits show it. 7:49 with 160bpm, 8:12 with 167bpm, 7:32 with 169bpm, and finally 7:54 with 173bpm. Now, here is what made me so happy. On that last interval, I really pushed it. I mean REALLY pushed it. I wanted to get my heart rate up as high as possible. Why? Why not? Towards the end of my interval, I kept pushing and pushing to see how high I could go. I saw 180. Then 183. I felt like I had more so I put my head down and kept going. I reached the end of my interval, stopped my watch, and saw 189bpm on my HRM. I yelled "Fuck yeah! Woohoo!". Man, I'm stoked about this. My previous max HRM since I left college on the run was 183. I've seen 184 on the bike in the last 3 months and 188 in the last 2 years. I've always wondered why the max HRM on the bike was higher than the run when it should be the other way around. Well, I found out that I kept pussing out. Now, I know that when I push myself, how much more that I can go. Even hitting 189 today, I felt like I could've gotten it higher to 190 or even 192. This was just a huge mental boost that I needed for my running. It felt great, too! I did my cool down and had a smoothie. I've been using OJ instead of chocolate milk and it's good.
Oh, one more thing. I weighed 186 this morning before my run. During the run, it felt more like a swim than a run; it was just damn humid. I didn't drink anything during the run so I got back and weighed myself. 182. I dropped 4 pounds of fluid during the run. And I was completely soaked in sweat and it was only 75 degrees outside.
Now, the bad news. I got to work and went to Slowtwitch. I found out that Doug Stern passed away yesterday. Talk about a total buzzkill since I was in such a good mood this morning. Doug posted on ST a few months ago about his battle with cancer. I didn't follow it that closely, unfortunately. He was oldish, around 62 or so, but he definitely didn't look that old. He didn't act that old either. He's been swimming for something like 40 years too. He's just a great guy with a lot of character. He was able to put complex techniques of swimming into simple terms that people could identify with. I owe him a lot of my swim stroke since I was a fan of his theories of swimming. I even met him at a clinic that he taught in November of 2005. I was also looking forward to going on one of his amazing training vacations that he puts on in Curacao. He used to have 1 per year, but it gained in such popularity that he was going to offer 2 of them. I was always waiting until I met him again. Like I said, he's a great guy, very wise, and someone that you could look up to. This is really important for me since I'm not close to my family and don't really have a strong father figure. Well, I didn't realize that our first meeting would also be the last. There's not much else I can say about this. I'm deeply saddened by it. Once I found out about his death, I close the window to ST because I just didn't want to mourn this today. Rest in peace, Doug.
Now, after something like that, I don't really want to write more, but I need to. I went to see my PT today for the first time in like 8 months. I had to get my PF, TFL, and IT band issues looked at. Well, I do have some PF going on. I also have some TFL and IT band issues like I thought. Found out that my hips are super duper weak. I have some exercises to get them strong again. I also took my running shoes in there as well. She pretty much confirmed what I thought. My New Balance shoes are better for my feet than my Nike shoes. I actually look better in the New Balance without my orthodcis than in my Nikes with orthodics. Also, nothing about me is simple. When I'm standing, she was more worried about my lef foot because it tends to pronate naturally and fall in more. Also, it isn't as stable on the ground as my right foot is. However, in my shoes, my right foot falls in more. It's more prevalant on the Nikes, too. They've been bothering my feet a bit, too. Once they are worn out, I won't buy that model again. So, I'm in my orthodics every day now. Also, the Nikes are limited to short runs now with orthodics. New Balance are short runs with orthodics and long runs without until I get used to them. I have to do some ball on the foot, rocking back on the heels stretches, and calf stretches for the PF. for the TFL and IT band, I need to do 2 different exercises for my hips. Other than that, I'm doing good. I needed to go in and have her yell at me a bit to get me back on track and it worked.
That's my story for this bittersweet day today. Like I said, I really wanted a great, upbeat day all day long, but that didn't happen.
New Balance mileage: 41.5 miles
Nike mileage: 48.5 miles
Sunday, June 24, 2007
3 minutes
3 minutes is the time from when I left my house yesterday morning on the bike until the time I was almost taken out by a car. I was just riding through my neighborhood and some !%&$# in a car cut my off by turning right in front of me. It wasn't that close, but she still came within 6' of my front tire. When I'm going 16mph, 6' really isn't that much distance.
I continued on my ride and I was just going easy. I'm still feeling sick from last week. Not really sick, but I don't have my full strength back yet, I'm always tired, I have a bit of a sore throat still, and I've had a mild headache since Wednesday. I kept going and the skies started getting gray. I turned around since my bike was nice and pretty from getting the new aerobars put on. I kept riding towards home and felt something strange on my skin. Is that, is that cool air? What? This is Texas in June. It should be at least 90 degrees now. What is this feeling of coolness? Apparently, I just crossed over a cold front. And what happens around cold fronts? Rain. It started raining, not hard, but I still got wet. I kept riding and then I heard the PSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH! I flatted. I had a big piece of glass in my tire. I found it almost immediately. I pulled it and started changing my tire. About half way through changing the tire, it started raining. Really raining. I was about 3 miles from my house so I just rode home and dried off. That was my workout on Saturday: a 55 minute bike ride with a flat, some rain, and a near run in with a car.
Sunday was my long run. I started out and I just didn't feel good. I was tired and my headache was weird. I would get jabbing pains about every other heel strike on the right side of my head. It also felt like I had fluid sloshing around in my head. Just weird. I was suppose to do a 90min run with 30 easy, 40 tempo, 20 easy. Since I was sick last week and not feeling great, I was only going to do 4.5 miles. I stopped at that point and sat down for a few minutes. I realized that I actually felt a lot better than when I started running. So, I did another 4.5 miles. I'm actually pretty glad that I kept going. I had already quit running for the day after my first lap, but I decided to keep going. I'm glad that I did. Like I said, I was SLOW today. Usually, I can run 8.2 miles in 1:12 or something like that. Today, I ran 9 miles in 1:28. You could say that it took me 16 minutes to run that extra 0.8 miles or I was just a slug butt (for me) today. I vote for the slug butt. I went to run a mile barefoot around the track, but I just didn't have it in me today.
Also, my right IT band and TFL were acting up again. My PF was bothering me a bit as well. I think it's time to go in and see my PT just to get checked up a bit and get these lingering problems taken care of before they get worse.
New Balance mileage: 32.5 miles
Nike mileage: 48.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 14 miles
I continued on my ride and I was just going easy. I'm still feeling sick from last week. Not really sick, but I don't have my full strength back yet, I'm always tired, I have a bit of a sore throat still, and I've had a mild headache since Wednesday. I kept going and the skies started getting gray. I turned around since my bike was nice and pretty from getting the new aerobars put on. I kept riding towards home and felt something strange on my skin. Is that, is that cool air? What? This is Texas in June. It should be at least 90 degrees now. What is this feeling of coolness? Apparently, I just crossed over a cold front. And what happens around cold fronts? Rain. It started raining, not hard, but I still got wet. I kept riding and then I heard the PSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH! I flatted. I had a big piece of glass in my tire. I found it almost immediately. I pulled it and started changing my tire. About half way through changing the tire, it started raining. Really raining. I was about 3 miles from my house so I just rode home and dried off. That was my workout on Saturday: a 55 minute bike ride with a flat, some rain, and a near run in with a car.
Sunday was my long run. I started out and I just didn't feel good. I was tired and my headache was weird. I would get jabbing pains about every other heel strike on the right side of my head. It also felt like I had fluid sloshing around in my head. Just weird. I was suppose to do a 90min run with 30 easy, 40 tempo, 20 easy. Since I was sick last week and not feeling great, I was only going to do 4.5 miles. I stopped at that point and sat down for a few minutes. I realized that I actually felt a lot better than when I started running. So, I did another 4.5 miles. I'm actually pretty glad that I kept going. I had already quit running for the day after my first lap, but I decided to keep going. I'm glad that I did. Like I said, I was SLOW today. Usually, I can run 8.2 miles in 1:12 or something like that. Today, I ran 9 miles in 1:28. You could say that it took me 16 minutes to run that extra 0.8 miles or I was just a slug butt (for me) today. I vote for the slug butt. I went to run a mile barefoot around the track, but I just didn't have it in me today.
Also, my right IT band and TFL were acting up again. My PF was bothering me a bit as well. I think it's time to go in and see my PT just to get checked up a bit and get these lingering problems taken care of before they get worse.
New Balance mileage: 32.5 miles
Nike mileage: 48.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 14 miles
Friday, June 22, 2007
The flu weight loss plan!
Hey, having the flu is great for weight loss! I was down to 183.5 today. I took a sick day from work yesterday. Most of the time when I do, I feel like crap in the morning but get better throughout the day to the point where I can do stuff later in the day. Yesterday, I was on the couch all day long. I felt horrible. I had a fever and I had no strength at all. I'm much better today though and I'm back at work.
Getting sick happens, but I'm really pissed that it happened this week. I was on pace to run 25 miles this week and that isn't going to happen now. I did 5 Tuesday and on Thursday, I was suppose to run another 6-7 miles. A brick run on Saturday would have put me at 5 more and then I expected to do 10-11 on Sunday. That would have been 27 actually. Now, I didn't get the Thursday run in and Saturday's brick run probably won't be that long. Sunday I should be good enough to do 10 miles so I'll still get in 18 or so. Next week is a recovery week so maybe the week after I'll get 20+ miles in.
Getting sick happens, but I'm really pissed that it happened this week. I was on pace to run 25 miles this week and that isn't going to happen now. I did 5 Tuesday and on Thursday, I was suppose to run another 6-7 miles. A brick run on Saturday would have put me at 5 more and then I expected to do 10-11 on Sunday. That would have been 27 actually. Now, I didn't get the Thursday run in and Saturday's brick run probably won't be that long. Sunday I should be good enough to do 10 miles so I'll still get in 18 or so. Next week is a recovery week so maybe the week after I'll get 20+ miles in.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
By popular demand, the Sunday Smoothie
Well, here it is:
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
1 handful frozen raspberries or mixed berries
2 handfuls frozen strawberries
1/2 cup lowfat chocolate milk
1 dab of peanut butter
Throw it in a blender, mix it up, and enjoy. It's very delicious. I think the touches that make it great are the chocolate milk and the dab of PB. Yummy.
I skipped my workouts today. I'm feeling sick today so I skipped them and I'm trying to get a lot of sleep tonight. I don't know what caused this, though. It seems that I get a bit ill whenever the temp gets really high the first time each summer. It may have been because I'm a little worn out from the run on Sunday and the workouts on Tuesday and my body isn't happy. It also could have been all the crap that I breathed in last week working on my bathroom. Either way, I need some rest.
Also, I think I got a touch of poison ivy from my run on Sunday. I have a bit on the inside of my right arm. It's probably the smallest case I've ever had though. I have bandaids on it because it's kind of funny. If I don't see it, it doesn't itch as bad. If it's exposed, it itches like crazy. I'm pretty sure I got it on Sunday because there is all kinds of poison ivy around Town Lake trail. The next time I run, I just have to make sure to not touch anything green.
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
1 handful frozen raspberries or mixed berries
2 handfuls frozen strawberries
1/2 cup lowfat chocolate milk
1 dab of peanut butter
Throw it in a blender, mix it up, and enjoy. It's very delicious. I think the touches that make it great are the chocolate milk and the dab of PB. Yummy.
I skipped my workouts today. I'm feeling sick today so I skipped them and I'm trying to get a lot of sleep tonight. I don't know what caused this, though. It seems that I get a bit ill whenever the temp gets really high the first time each summer. It may have been because I'm a little worn out from the run on Sunday and the workouts on Tuesday and my body isn't happy. It also could have been all the crap that I breathed in last week working on my bathroom. Either way, I need some rest.
Also, I think I got a touch of poison ivy from my run on Sunday. I have a bit on the inside of my right arm. It's probably the smallest case I've ever had though. I have bandaids on it because it's kind of funny. If I don't see it, it doesn't itch as bad. If it's exposed, it itches like crazy. I'm pretty sure I got it on Sunday because there is all kinds of poison ivy around Town Lake trail. The next time I run, I just have to make sure to not touch anything green.
Sternocleidomastoid muscle!
That's the muscle that I learned when reading my medical terminology book the other day. I like it because it's a long word and I can remember it. BTW, this medical terminology stuff is cool to learn. I didn't know that the skull has 20 bones in it. Also, the human body has 206 bones in it. Now, let's take away the hands and feet which have over a 100 bones between them. Then, you have roughly 27 vertebrae (that's a rough estimate off the top of my head). Now, we are already up to 150 bones and that's not counting the pelvis, ribs, arms, or legs. Anyways, that's just cool.
Monday was a rest day, but I did weigh in at 185. I think work is causing me to gain weight because they day that I come back to work, I have a brownie, some cookies, a Snickers bar, a piece of lemon cake, and a Dr. Pepper. That's all crap. I know that it's my own will power and discipline (or lack of) that is making me eat these things but I still like to complain about the environment that I'm in here.
Tuesday was a 2700m swim. I cut it short because we had a fin set at the end and it was causing all kinds of issues with my calves and feet. Also, I hadn't swam in a week so I wanted to take it a bit easy. I was leading my lane as well. Maurice actually asked if I wanted to be in a quicker lane and I said no. If I'm in a quicker lane, all I want to do is to go faster. Right now, I'm trying to rebuild my stroke and I can't rebuild my stroke and go fast at the same time. As long as I lead my lane, I'll be fine because I usually get stuck behind others and I just can't swim in a smooth fashion because I'm delegated by as fast as the person in front of me. I'll be up in the next faster lane in a month or two, though.
Last night was a run. A hot run. The temp was around 98 degrees or so according to my car. After a 20 minute warmup, I did 4x1/2 mile repeats. I wasn't able to hold the intervals with times of 2:54, 2:48, 3:01, 3:11. I just fell apart at the end with my side cramping and I couldn't breathe. Maybe I ate too much before the workout. I didn't feel dehydrated though because I had at least 4 liters of water before the workout last night. Eh, oh well. I just need to get over this heat. I don't think it's a physical thing as much as it is a mental thing.
New Balance mileage: 32.5 miles
Nike mileage: 39.5 miles
Monday was a rest day, but I did weigh in at 185. I think work is causing me to gain weight because they day that I come back to work, I have a brownie, some cookies, a Snickers bar, a piece of lemon cake, and a Dr. Pepper. That's all crap. I know that it's my own will power and discipline (or lack of) that is making me eat these things but I still like to complain about the environment that I'm in here.
Tuesday was a 2700m swim. I cut it short because we had a fin set at the end and it was causing all kinds of issues with my calves and feet. Also, I hadn't swam in a week so I wanted to take it a bit easy. I was leading my lane as well. Maurice actually asked if I wanted to be in a quicker lane and I said no. If I'm in a quicker lane, all I want to do is to go faster. Right now, I'm trying to rebuild my stroke and I can't rebuild my stroke and go fast at the same time. As long as I lead my lane, I'll be fine because I usually get stuck behind others and I just can't swim in a smooth fashion because I'm delegated by as fast as the person in front of me. I'll be up in the next faster lane in a month or two, though.
Last night was a run. A hot run. The temp was around 98 degrees or so according to my car. After a 20 minute warmup, I did 4x1/2 mile repeats. I wasn't able to hold the intervals with times of 2:54, 2:48, 3:01, 3:11. I just fell apart at the end with my side cramping and I couldn't breathe. Maybe I ate too much before the workout. I didn't feel dehydrated though because I had at least 4 liters of water before the workout last night. Eh, oh well. I just need to get over this heat. I don't think it's a physical thing as much as it is a mental thing.
New Balance mileage: 32.5 miles
Nike mileage: 39.5 miles
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Another Sunday Run
Another Sunday run today followed by a Sunday smoothie. I did 8.75 miles around Town Lake Today. THen, I did 3 barefoot laps around the track so I did a total of about 9.5 miles today. It feels good to run fast because my form feels much more natural. It was very humid as well. I was getting stitches in my sides and I don't know why. No pain or blisters or blood from today's run. However, my lungs were acting up and it felt like I couldn't breathe. Not good. I have to be more consistent with taking my asthma medication.
Oh, I didn't do anything yesterday because it rained in the morning and I actually laid tile in my bathroom yesterday!
New Balance shoe mileage: 27.5 miles
Nike shoe mileage: 39.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 15 miles
Oh, I didn't do anything yesterday because it rained in the morning and I actually laid tile in my bathroom yesterday!
New Balance shoe mileage: 27.5 miles
Nike shoe mileage: 39.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 15 miles
Friday, June 15, 2007
Quick Update
I've been taking it pretty easy this week. I'm off of work and I've been working on my bathroom remodel all this week. Right now, that's more important than a regular training plan. The only workout this week that I've done is a run last night. I did 5.5 miles in 44 minutes around Town Lake. It was about to rain and Jamie sent us off on a fartlek run just to get something in. I was feeling slow and heavy like I have been feeling lately when I run. A part of it is that once I try pushing myself, my lungs seem to give out when I run. They are fine on the bike and the swim when I push myself, but they don't work on the run. I'll start taking my asthma medication more religiously. Oh, the run left me with a bloodied toe. I didn't even feel it during the run but I got home, took off my shoe, and my sock was red. Apparently, the pinky toenail was digging into the next toe which caused some bleeding. This weekend I plan on starting to do some longer rides to start building up for the half Ironman that I'm doing in October. Long boring rides in the Texas summer heat. Fun!
Weight update: 184.5 lbs this morning. Makes me happy because it's going down again.
New Balance mileage: 27.5 miles
Nike mileage: 30.5 miles
Weight update: 184.5 lbs this morning. Makes me happy because it's going down again.
New Balance mileage: 27.5 miles
Nike mileage: 30.5 miles
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Sunday Run
I did my Sunday long run today. Did 8.2 miles as usual and like the previous long runs lately, it was hot and humid. I was completely soaked by about 30 minutes into the run. I did see Betsie and Spencer so it was somewhat of a social run, too. I wore my TNT shirt and I had 10 people that I've never seen before in my life say hi to me. Kinda cool. I really need to get some sleeveless performance fabric shirts to run in. I really think that would help with the heat. The only sleeveless shirts that I have are cotton tshirts and the only performance fabric shirts I have are short or long sleeved. My body felt OK today on the run. Once again, it was just an easy run. My left knee was bothering me a bit but it's fine now. Lately, the biggest problems that I've been having are blisters. Last week, I got one on my second toe on my left foot from where my big toe was rubbing it or something. Got the same problem today with a different pair of shoes. I also got a blister a few weeks ago on my right foot on the 2nd toe as well. I think I need to cut off my 2nd toes on each foot. After the normal run, I did 2 laps around the track barefoot. Seriously, that was the easiest part of the run today were those 2 barefoot laps. That was when the run felt the most natural and effortless.
New Balance mileage: 22 miles
Nike mileage: 30.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 18 miles (Would've had over 20 if I ran on Thursday)
New Balance mileage: 22 miles
Nike mileage: 30.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 18 miles (Would've had over 20 if I ran on Thursday)
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Laziness Abounds!
Ok, not really, but I have been busy lately. Wednesday was a missed bike workout because I was working on the house. Thursday was a missed run and a missed bike workout because I had a friend in town and I wanted to hang out with them instead. Friday was a rest day. Today was a 2 hour bike ride and a 28 minute run. The bike should have been an hour longer and the run should have been 17 minutes longer. I had to cut them short because a plumber was suppose to come by at noon. Well, he was late so I'm a little miffed that I cut my workouts short because of it. I really need to do a full workout next Saturday since I tend to be slack on doing the full workouts on Saturdays. I'll call Colleen up and see if she wants to go on a ride with me. That'll be more motivation to not do an abbreviated workout.
Also, my bike is looking a little sexier now. I have been itching to do something to my bike just to keep it fresh and doing something to my bike is a lot cheaper than getting a new bike. Well, I bought new aerobars and here is a pic of them on my bike now.
They are the VisionTech TT Clip On aerobars. I got the flat black base bars from ATC and then the carbon aerobars used from Richard for about $40 which is one hell of a deal. I also dressed up Sophia in new red Fizik handlebar tape which is great stuff. I also got new cables because during the CapTexTri, my bike sat in the rain for about 12 hours and pretty much everything got crudded up.
New balance mileage: 13.5 miles
Nike mileage: 30.5 miles
Also, my bike is looking a little sexier now. I have been itching to do something to my bike just to keep it fresh and doing something to my bike is a lot cheaper than getting a new bike. Well, I bought new aerobars and here is a pic of them on my bike now.
They are the VisionTech TT Clip On aerobars. I got the flat black base bars from ATC and then the carbon aerobars used from Richard for about $40 which is one hell of a deal. I also dressed up Sophia in new red Fizik handlebar tape which is great stuff. I also got new cables because during the CapTexTri, my bike sat in the rain for about 12 hours and pretty much everything got crudded up.
New balance mileage: 13.5 miles
Nike mileage: 30.5 miles
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Tracky Hill Workout
Well, I had a tracky hill workout tonight. We did mile repeats around the mile loop at Barton Springs. The reason why I call it a hill workout is because there is a nasty hill on this mile loop. I felt like crap and I failed to maintain my intervals. Not much to say about it. Actually, I just had a crappy workout day overall since my swim this morning wasn't a great workout either. I didn't sleep well last night and I just wasn't there mentally today. I'm in kind of a funk the last few days and that has been affecting me.
New Balance mileage: 13.5 miles
Nike mileage: 27.5 miles
New Balance mileage: 13.5 miles
Nike mileage: 27.5 miles
Monday, June 4, 2007
Sunday Run
Nothing special but I did a long run yesterday. I went out with the mentality that it was going to be a slow, long run and it was. I wasn't pushing myself that much and my times reflected it with about 8:45/mile. It didn't hurt as bad as the run on Saturday, either. It was hot and humid as expected. I felt fine but I felt my metatarsals on my left foot a bit and that is starting to bother me. I guess it's time to start wearing my orthodics again and see if they help at all. Today, my ankles are a little sore and my right hip is pretty sore, specifically in the tensor fasciae latae. I guess I need to do more exercise this week. I really tried to work on my from with a slight forward lean from the ankles and not the hips. Oh, mango Powershots are nasty.
New Balance mileage: 7.5 miles
Nike mileage: 27.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 16 miles
New Balance mileage: 7.5 miles
Nike mileage: 27.5 miles
Weekly run mileage: 16 miles
Saturday, June 2, 2007
I hate my body
I'm about to sound like a 14 year old girl minus the extreme attraction towards Justin Timberlake. I have only a moderate attraction towards JT. I hate my body. Let me tell you why. Oh, and those people that maintain a constant weight pretty easily, screw you! Just kidding. Last Saturday, I was making progress towards losing weight. I weighed in at 184. Not bad. I was pretty happy with that. I was watching what I eat and everything last week and being pretty disciplined. I started doing mild carb loading on Sunday and I upped my calorie intake. Monday was the day of the race, but the race didn't happen. I still ate pizza and drank beer, but I didn't consider it that excessively. I weighed myself on Wednesday morning and I was at 192.5. Holy shit! That's a lot. I know that I retain water and my weight increases when I drink, but 8.5 pounds in 4 days is ridiculous. What the hell happened. I thought maybe it was a temporary weight gain or something like that. So, I weighed myself again on Friday. I still weighed 190. I gained 6 pounds in a week. That's why I hate my body.
Ok, workout update. Tuesday and Wednesday were rest days for me. Why? Because I was busy and lazy. Sometimes I just have weeks were working out is the last thing on my mind and this week was one of them. I was getting ready to start remodeling my bathroom and just had other errands as well. Thursday was a morning swim of 3300m with T3. That night was a track workout with Texas Iron. Man, this workout was killer. It was a fartlek/lactic threshold workout. We only ran 6000m but it was a constant run with fast intervals followed easy recovery. I would explain the workout, but it was somewhat complicated and I can't remember it anymore. I do believe that I was holding my intervals throughout the workout though. Oh, I hurt really badly after the workout as well. My legs are still fatigued. Oh, this was my first run with my New Balance 1061s. They felt fine.
Friday was a missed swim workout due to my bathroom remodel. I'm exhausted from demoing the bathroom. It really is a lot of work and physical exertion that I'm not used to. But it's fun except when I break a water line and flood my house for 45 minutes. Yeah, you read that right. You'll read about it soon on my other blog. This morning was suppose to be a 2.5 hour base ride and then a 40 minute brick run. I did about 1.5 hour base ride and then a 20 minute run. I left my house at 7am this morning to do this workout. I had only a limited amount of time this weekend since I still had a lot of stuff to do for demoing my bathroom and I had to be somewhere at 10am. The bike was fine, but the run was tough. Very tough. The Austin summers are starting. For those that don't live here, it sucks all the time during the summer in Austin. It is cooler during the morning, but it's humid. It gets dryer throughout the day, but I think the high temp today was around 94. It's like that until September. I think that was part of the reason why my run hurt today. And probably because I was still tired from the Thursday track workout.
New Balance mileage: 7.5 miles
Nike mileage: 19 miles
Ok, workout update. Tuesday and Wednesday were rest days for me. Why? Because I was busy and lazy. Sometimes I just have weeks were working out is the last thing on my mind and this week was one of them. I was getting ready to start remodeling my bathroom and just had other errands as well. Thursday was a morning swim of 3300m with T3. That night was a track workout with Texas Iron. Man, this workout was killer. It was a fartlek/lactic threshold workout. We only ran 6000m but it was a constant run with fast intervals followed easy recovery. I would explain the workout, but it was somewhat complicated and I can't remember it anymore. I do believe that I was holding my intervals throughout the workout though. Oh, I hurt really badly after the workout as well. My legs are still fatigued. Oh, this was my first run with my New Balance 1061s. They felt fine.
Friday was a missed swim workout due to my bathroom remodel. I'm exhausted from demoing the bathroom. It really is a lot of work and physical exertion that I'm not used to. But it's fun except when I break a water line and flood my house for 45 minutes. Yeah, you read that right. You'll read about it soon on my other blog. This morning was suppose to be a 2.5 hour base ride and then a 40 minute brick run. I did about 1.5 hour base ride and then a 20 minute run. I left my house at 7am this morning to do this workout. I had only a limited amount of time this weekend since I still had a lot of stuff to do for demoing my bathroom and I had to be somewhere at 10am. The bike was fine, but the run was tough. Very tough. The Austin summers are starting. For those that don't live here, it sucks all the time during the summer in Austin. It is cooler during the morning, but it's humid. It gets dryer throughout the day, but I think the high temp today was around 94. It's like that until September. I think that was part of the reason why my run hurt today. And probably because I was still tired from the Thursday track workout.
New Balance mileage: 7.5 miles
Nike mileage: 19 miles
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