LT Workout For Sure

I did the Tuesday Nighter and I actually was there on time. The B pack left and I was quite surprised. I was able to hold onto the pack for a full 2 laps. Most of the time I barely make 1/3 of a lap. I just have to say that it is really cool doing 25-30mph in a pack of 20 people about 1' from each other. It's fun as hell. My heart rate was 152 bpm or higher for about 55% of the time with a max of 178bpm. At one point it was a bit crazy because someone passed me on the left going around a left hand turn. Well, they brushed my shoulder and I ended up getting a bit squirrely. I thought I was going to completely bite it, but I didn't and was able to keep the rubber side down. Everyone else started yelling at this guy because he shouldn't have done that. It was fun and hopefully I'll have a good ride next week as well.

Taking a break from Texas Iron and falling off the wagon

I've fallen off the weight loss wagon lately. I was at 186 about two Fridays ago. This morning, I was 188 or so. This past weekend and the weekend before was a bit too much food, a bit too much beer, and not enough exercise. I'm getting back on it though. Well, I'm trying and I'll try to be around 180 by the end of May. I was on track to be 184 by the end of April but that isn't going to happen without some colon cleansing.

I'm taking a break from Texas Iron for awhile. The main reason why I'm doing Texas Iron is tie all the workouts together to get something more out of my workouts. I can do 3 swims, 3 bikes, and 3 runs a week. Doing the correct workouts is what I'm really trying to get out of it, but right now all that I'm doing is 2 swims and 3 bikes a week. If I'm not getting that much out of it, I can't justify the $75/month. I'll be back at some point once I'm running fully again. Hopefully it'll only be a month, but it could be as much as 6 months.

On the other hand, my PF is getting a bit better. Dr. Phil thinks I have some calcaneal eversion and wants to modify my orthodics to fix it a bit. I also have some tough ass exercises such as doing exercises for my posterior tibialis with 50lbs and my peroneals with 60lbs.

Other than that, not much else to add. I'm swimming twice a week because of my shoulder, but my biking is getting decent. I did the Taco Ride on Saturday and I did it under 1:30 which is the fastest time I've ever done that ride. My heart rate was 153bpm or above for 63% of the time. I was booking it.

Yep, that's about it. I just don't have much else to add at the moment.

Change in plans for exercising

Lately, I've been doubling up my workouts during the week. Monday will be off, Tuesday will be a swim and a bike, Wednesday will be off, Thursday will be a swim and a bike, and Friday will be off again. The weekend gets whatever I feel like but it is usually a swim and a 2 hour bike ride. Next week, I'm going to bike on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then swim on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday morning. I keep having days where I work out a lot and need to eat a lot followed by days where I don't do any exercise and therefore my caloric intake is down those days as well. I think it is causing a bit too much of a difference in my energy levels and I'm going to try to even it out a bit and see how I feel.

The reason for this is that my workouts on Thursday were crap because I felt like I had absolutely no energy that day. My sleep has been off a bit between work and school and the biggest change is my diet and I'm dropping weight pretty quickly now. I'm down to 186 as of this morning and that is about 14 pounds off of my high of around 200 over the winter, but I need to slow it down for a while. It's starting to affect my training and that isn't good.

Tuesday was a decent swim in the morning with a Tuesday Nighter later that day. The thing about the Tuesday Nighter was that it was my 3rd one that I've been to, but I've participated in only 1 of them. The last 2 times I've showed up late riding from work. Wednesday was off and Thursday was a lazy swim in the morning and then a Texas Iron bike ride after work. We did some hill repeats and this is where I really didn't have the energy to get up the hills quickly. I ascended pretty fast, but I still felt like crap.

I had my orthodics adjusted this week and my heel is feeling much, much better now. The incidences of pain that I had where I was walking around are about 80-90% gone, but the heel is still sensitive to touch. It is getting better and I really want to run again soon.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The good stuff is that I took it pretty light this past weekend. My weigh in on Friday was 186.5, Monday was 188.5, but today I was back down to 187. I had a decent swim on Sunday morning and this morning.

The bad stuff was that I went 19:36 at the time trial on Thursday night and the last 3 times were 19:37, 19:39, and 19:45. I can't get much faster no matter what the conditions. Other than that, I didn't ride my bike the rest of the weekend partly because of The Ugly.

The ugly stuff was that as I was warming up for the time trial, I came --> <-- this close to getting hit by a car. I've been buzzed before but I ended up on the ground this time. I was barreling down Mopac for the warmup and there is a part where cars cut across to get to the tennis club. Someone went in front of me and I thought it was a bit too close. The person behind them was a complete idiot. They started, saw me and stopped. Not a problem until they decided that they could make it in front of me and started going again when I was doing about 28mph. Luckily, they stopped the second time without running me over but it was very close. I had to turn to the right or I would've hit their front bumper. I was in this mess of trying to stop, turn, get out of my pedals, trying bailing and trying to not bail at the same time. I got past the car and hit the ground. I got up immediately just in time to see the car drive off without stopping to check to see if I was OK. I have some nice bruises, I was mentally rattled a bit, and I have some scratches on my bike. I was pissed but lucky as well and now I don't want to talk about this anymore except for the fact that by the end of this weekend, there will be a Please Be Kind To Cyclist sign at that intersection.

Whoa, doggie!

Did the Tuesday Nighter again last night. I don't know what was up with me, but it felt like I was doing a cyclocross race. I had absolutely no energy riding out there and because of that, I ended up being late and riding by myself. I started feeling better the last half of the ride, but I'm still perplexed at what happened. Maybe my nutrition was off for some reason. It was hot but not that hot. Anyways, on the way back in, I put my head down and just kept pedaling. At one point, I looked up and there was this dog sauntering out into the road. When I got closer, it started coming after me and I had to pedal really quickly to get past him. I didn't know if he wanted to run alongside me or tip me over and eat my face. Either way, I used the adrenaline rush to get the hell out of there.

I swam 2800 yds this morning. I took it pretty easy to see how my shoulder reacted and it wasn't bad at all. It was good to get a nice, easy swim in where I work on form a bit. That's it for the last 2 days.

188!

My weigh in this morning was 188. After my weigh in of 189 on Friday, that means I'm officially no longer above 190. And I've lost 10 pounds since about February 8th. I'm almost back to my race of 187 before I did the Longhorn half last year. I think I have it figured out again and I think sub-180 is pretty doable at this point. It's only 8 more pounds and I've lost 10 so far. Should be cake, right? The biggest thing that I've done is just watch my calorie intake. I've reduced the candy and other sweets that I munch on at work by about 80%. Another trick that I've learned is that if I come home from class and I'm going to be going to bed within an hour for whatever reason, I'll just have a cup of cottage cheese for dinner. Yes, I know, but I don't mind it and a cup of it is enough to fill me up. I could load up on a normal dinner, but I keep hearing that if you eat right before you go to bed, it isn't that good for you if you are trying to lose weight. I'm eating a lot more fruit as well. I'm finally seeing some progress and it feels rewarding. Finally, if your doc says to avoid the sun because the antibiotics you are taking will make you sensitive to the sun, they really mean it!

I was a dirty, dirty boy

I took a shower earlier today at about 5:30pm and it was my first shower since Friday morning. Yeah, I know it's gross. I didn't shower on Saturday because I was working in the yard all day long and I was going to go out with one of my friends later that day and I was going to shower before that. He bailed on me so I lazily sat on the couch until I nearly passed out. I went straight to bed and got up this morning to swim of about 2000m. My shoulder was acting up a bit which wasn't a good sign. After that was about a 1:45 bike ride. It was an absolutely gorgeous day today as well. Not a cloud in the sky and about 75 degrees. Nearly perfect except for the wind. After the bike ride was some more yard work and it was a perfect day for that as well. Then, it was time for a shower where I shaved my head, my legs, and my face of which all of them were badly in need of a shave. I'm exhausted at this point and I'm looking forward to 9 hours of sleep tonight and a rest day tomorrow.

Lazy on updates

I've been lazy about updates this week so let's do my usual quick recap. Monday was a rest day. Tuesday was a swim in the morning with T3. I only did about 2500m that morning. My upper body was feeling fatigued from the 3 tough swims last week. I had a great week of swimming last week, but I decided to make this a rest week a bit. On Tuesday night, I did the Tuesday Nighter unofficial bike race. I did the B pack and I was dropped after a lap. It was quite humbling. I rode out there from work and I got about 1:15 in the saddle. Wednesday was a weight session. Thursday was a workout at Steiner Ranch with Texas Iron. Everyone else did a brick workout but I did a pure bike workout and got about 55 minutes of riding in. It wasn't easy because we did a major hill climb on 620. Friday was suppose to be a swim in the morning but as I was driving out, I was seeing lightning. There's nothing worse than getting in the water, swimming 200m, and then getting out due to lightening. I decided to turn around and head into work. I arrived at about 5:30am. I also skipped a weight lifting sessions because work got in the way. What else? My Monday weigh in was 190 and my Friday weigh in was 189. I had an OK training week. I got some tough bike rides in but I slacked on swimming and weights a bit. I'll try to be more consistent next week.