"I love that stuff. You ever watch The Biggest Loser? I love that show. It's amazing to see how much weight these people lose on diet & exercise. It's amazing what a person can do with that combination!! I like things like this - although it was just a matter of time. I think like 60% of adults are overweight. That's just amazing to me."
60% of adults are considered overweight, but you have to take that number with a grain of salt. That is using BMI, and by the BMI, I'm overweight. Now, pretty much everyone will agree that I'm not overweight. How can someone with a muscular build with 14% body fat be overweight?
Moving on, I really don't think it's a matter of time. Yes, the obesity scare is getting bigger every day, but I don't know any larger people that are trying to lose weight and being successful at it. All I see at work is people just getting bigger. Faith and I were talking this past weekend and she said that pretty much everyone that she knows gained weight after college. Everyone! I was the lone person that has not gained weight. Well, I gained weight, but I lost it all and I'm back to my graduation weight of 184. Since I've been at my job, I've noticed that my boss has gained about 20 pounds. No one at work is healthy except the guys in my group. I sit around in meetings and there are only maybe 1 or 2 other people that I would consider of normal body weight. Everyone is getting fat and it isn't going to change. You know why it isn't going to change? It's because of Corporate America. There is such a push in some many businesses to to stay late and get that presentation for the board ready for tomorrow morning. Put in some extra hours to get ahead at work. Go smoozing with the boss after work and have a few drinks.
People end up working 60+ hours a week. If you're single, it isn't bad. Actually, who am I kidding. It's fucking horrible. You are your job. You have no hobbies outside of your job because all you do is get up, drive to work and grab a 500 calorie muffin and grande mocha, eat out lunch at the local Mexican place for lunch, and then go home and grab a burger and fries for dinner. Oh, throw in a couple of sodas at work, a trip to the vending machine for some mid afternoon sugar, and some beers after work while relaxing on the couch watching TV because you earned it after your hard day of work. I know so many people like this. They do this because their jobs tire them out so much that they have no energy to actually exercise. Also, they are bogged down with doing life stuff like paying bills, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, etc. Our jobs are demanding so much from us that even a single person can't fit in enough time in a day to exercise. And what about the people with families? It's ridiculous.
I'm all about balance. Balance of work, of life, of my friends, of my family, of my health. I will never being middle to upper management. I'll never have a job that requires me to travel a lot. I don't mind putting in extra hours today, but don't expect me in on time tomorrow. I'm almost to the point that I try not to do too good at work because if I do too good at work, I'll get promoted with more responsibility and usually with more responsibility comes more hours. If I work more hours, I'll have to cut something out of my life and I don't want to do that. I love competing in triathlons because it gives me a social outlet to actually hang out with like minded people. It's also a great stress relief for me, and guess what, I'm in shape and I think I can look pretty damn hot!
Ok, I've gone way off topic. I'm glad shows like The Biggest Loser and Honey, We're Killing the Kids exist. Hopefully, it'll inspire people to change their ways, but it's hard to change their ways. I think TBL will change more peoples' attitudes than HWKK will. HWKK is preaching to the choir, but I think TBL will inspire more people. Problem is that the weight lose techniques on TBL I don't agree with. To me, I'm no professional physician or dietician, but it seems like the weight loss that is being promoted on that show is the type that's similar to crash diets and will likely cause rebound weight gain. How is this healthy? People can't lose weight by dramatically changing their lifestyle and then go back to their old ways. I don't think the show ever follows up with people a year or two after they go on the show. The best way to get to a healthy weight is to not diet, but do a permanent lifestyle change. Luckily, I found this out in my 20's instead of my 40's.
Fuck, Mike, now you've gotten me all worked up and I need to go to bed soon.
Point is, people aren't going to change because it's hard to change and most people don't have the will power to make sacrifices to change. It's only going to get worse and it's mostly because of American culture and working hard to get things that you want. Was it worth the high stress job and $150k a year if you drop dead at 55 from a heart attack? I'm now in the minority because I can run 3 miles and do 50 pushups.
Monday, May 8, 2006
Honey, We're Killing the Kids
As I was typing up previous post about Morgan Spurlock's "Don't Eat This Book", I was watching the TLC show "Honey, We're Killing the Kids" that I've recorded on DVR. It is in a similar vein as the other books and movies that I like. The show takes some parents and children and analyzes their diets. The show uses age progression simulation to show the parents what their kids could look like at age 40 if they continue on their current course. It's mostly a scare tactic, but it looks to be very true. Of the age progressions that I've seen so far, I know people that look exactly like that or worse.
The one episode that I watched, the parents looked to be fairly healthy, but there were tons of crap in the house. Nothing but sugar, candy, treats, soda, etc. The kids didn't listen to the parents, TVs in the bedrooms, healthy foods for dinner didn't exist often, and things like that. Grandparents were earning the love of the grandkids by bribing them with sweets. Sounds very familiar to how I grew up.
There is very attractive older female doctor that sits with the parents and develops a plan for the parents. The kids resist at first, but they soon learn to like the healthier options. It's almost immediate when the kids stop taking in so much sugar. They are much more well behaved. TV was cut to about 2 hours per day, exercise was encouraged, eating together and doing things as a family were encouraged. You know, things that actually promote relationships within the family.
I liked the show. I think a major problem in America is that parents use the boob tube to babysit their kids. This is easy for the parents and the parents get into the habit of taking the easy way out to get their kids to behave. This actually makes the situation worse for the parents. I always had a TV in my room and I could eat whatever I wanted. Therefore, I ate a lot of junk and I never listened to my parents. Luckily, I just had enough smarts to grow up well behaved and not get into trouble. Also, I figured out that a diet of burgers, pizza, fries, and shakes was going to make me a fat ass. I changed my ways, started exercising more, eat more healthful foods and less junk, and cutting out alcohol. I couldn't do this overnight, though. I've probably been on a health kick for years now. I'm getting better and better and hopfully, one day I'll feel like everything that goes into my body will be healthy and nutritious. I'll develop these habits and hopefully, I'll pass on these valuable lessons on to my kids.
What will make me succeed at this? Everyone tells me that raising kids isn't easy. I know it's not. It's about choices and sacrifices and I believe that I can make the choices and sacrifices to be the best parent that I can be.
The one episode that I watched, the parents looked to be fairly healthy, but there were tons of crap in the house. Nothing but sugar, candy, treats, soda, etc. The kids didn't listen to the parents, TVs in the bedrooms, healthy foods for dinner didn't exist often, and things like that. Grandparents were earning the love of the grandkids by bribing them with sweets. Sounds very familiar to how I grew up.
There is very attractive older female doctor that sits with the parents and develops a plan for the parents. The kids resist at first, but they soon learn to like the healthier options. It's almost immediate when the kids stop taking in so much sugar. They are much more well behaved. TV was cut to about 2 hours per day, exercise was encouraged, eating together and doing things as a family were encouraged. You know, things that actually promote relationships within the family.
I liked the show. I think a major problem in America is that parents use the boob tube to babysit their kids. This is easy for the parents and the parents get into the habit of taking the easy way out to get their kids to behave. This actually makes the situation worse for the parents. I always had a TV in my room and I could eat whatever I wanted. Therefore, I ate a lot of junk and I never listened to my parents. Luckily, I just had enough smarts to grow up well behaved and not get into trouble. Also, I figured out that a diet of burgers, pizza, fries, and shakes was going to make me a fat ass. I changed my ways, started exercising more, eat more healthful foods and less junk, and cutting out alcohol. I couldn't do this overnight, though. I've probably been on a health kick for years now. I'm getting better and better and hopfully, one day I'll feel like everything that goes into my body will be healthy and nutritious. I'll develop these habits and hopefully, I'll pass on these valuable lessons on to my kids.
What will make me succeed at this? Everyone tells me that raising kids isn't easy. I know it's not. It's about choices and sacrifices and I believe that I can make the choices and sacrifices to be the best parent that I can be.
Don't Eat This Book
Since I'm a health nut, I eat well. I like eating well and I love learning about the foods that I eat and how they affect my body. I'm pretty much an amateur dietician by now. I just can't get enough of it. Also, since I'm a triathlete, I like exercise and being not thin, but healthy. Overall, I just like being healthy. I'm seeing how obesity is affecting America and I don't want to be part of it. This is a whole different discussion, but I'll get to the point.
With the craze of "Super Size Me" by Morgan Spurlock, I watched it and loved it. This is also about the same time that "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlossler came out. The obesity scare in America has been increasing in the media over the last few years, but with "Fast Food Nation" and "Super Size Me" out in bookstores and movie theaters respectively, it was a lot easier for normal people to get a more indepth perspective of the fast food industry and other related industries.
Morgan Spurlock was the guy behind "Super Size Me" and he is the author of "Don't Eat This Book". Man, this guy has made it big. His movie was the 3rd highest grossing documentary. He decided to write this book, but I'm pretty sure that it was to cash in on the SSM bandwagon. It isn't bad, but it's obvious that he did this. This is evident in the book because about 50% of the content in this book is very, very similar to SSM. Well, he refers to it a lot, but it's also good because he expands upon a lot of stuff. What I think he did was wait a few years, take some ideas from the fallout of the movie, and use this book to expand upon some things.
Overall, I liked the book. It was preaching to the choir, but I liked it. There are some things that I disagree with in the book, but overall I think he's spot on about 95% of the time. It is definitely through the Morgan Spurlock style so it is fairly funny. He also uses a lot more facts in this book. Well, he used facts in SSM, but actually quoted them in DETB so I could easily believe whether or not they are from a source that I would consider reputable.
So, I recommend the book, but like everything, this is only one source and one opinion.
With the craze of "Super Size Me" by Morgan Spurlock, I watched it and loved it. This is also about the same time that "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlossler came out. The obesity scare in America has been increasing in the media over the last few years, but with "Fast Food Nation" and "Super Size Me" out in bookstores and movie theaters respectively, it was a lot easier for normal people to get a more indepth perspective of the fast food industry and other related industries.
Morgan Spurlock was the guy behind "Super Size Me" and he is the author of "Don't Eat This Book". Man, this guy has made it big. His movie was the 3rd highest grossing documentary. He decided to write this book, but I'm pretty sure that it was to cash in on the SSM bandwagon. It isn't bad, but it's obvious that he did this. This is evident in the book because about 50% of the content in this book is very, very similar to SSM. Well, he refers to it a lot, but it's also good because he expands upon a lot of stuff. What I think he did was wait a few years, take some ideas from the fallout of the movie, and use this book to expand upon some things.
Overall, I liked the book. It was preaching to the choir, but I liked it. There are some things that I disagree with in the book, but overall I think he's spot on about 95% of the time. It is definitely through the Morgan Spurlock style so it is fairly funny. He also uses a lot more facts in this book. Well, he used facts in SSM, but actually quoted them in DETB so I could easily believe whether or not they are from a source that I would consider reputable.
So, I recommend the book, but like everything, this is only one source and one opinion.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
Vacation Training
I'm in Atlanta for the weekend and normally when I'm on vacation, I don't train much. Yesterday, I actually went to the gym and then ran 5k. I went with my buddy Sloan. I totally dropped his ass on the run though. He's been injured for a year so he isn't in the best of shape, but I totally kicked his ass on the run. That was fun. I got some intervals/fartleks the last mile and that felt awesome. I don't think I'll have time to swim before I leave, but I'm pretty sure I can get another 3 mile run in at least. My next run will be intervals for the last part of the run after I do 10 minutes warmup.
Also, I'mt trying to eat fairly healthily this weekend. Not too much junk, but pretty much each junk only when I'm drinking. Speaking of, I haven't been drunk the entire weekend. I was tipsy a couple of times, but not drunk.
Also, I'mt trying to eat fairly healthily this weekend. Not too much junk, but pretty much each junk only when I'm drinking. Speaking of, I haven't been drunk the entire weekend. I was tipsy a couple of times, but not drunk.
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
6.25 Miles
Tonight, I ran about 6.25 miles. Took me about 52 minutes to run that far, so that puts me at about an 8:20/mile pace. That's not bad considering I haven't been running much. I felt like I was running a lot slower though because it seemed like I was working so much harder. My knee was feeling pretty good and right now I'm icing it up. It'll be sore tomorrow, but shouldn't be that bad hopefully since it wasn't hurting much tonight while running. At the end of the run, I did 4 strides and it was good to run fast again. My legs just aren't used to moving that fast since I got injured.
Ouchie!
Damnit, I'm completely sore today. My upper body is sore from the Jack & Adam's core workout on Monday. I can't even stretch well because my delts and lats are so sore that I can't scratch my back. My hamstrings are sore because I didn't stretch after riding the bike last night. Hey, it was 9:45 when I got off the bike and I still needed to go home, eat dinner, do laundry, make fun of my roommates, etc. I'm running today and that'll hurt. I'll ride the bike tomorrow. I'll just spin easy and then throw in some fast intervals. Friday will be a rest day for me so that I can recover from this. Man, I hurt, but it feels good to hurt again.
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Resting Heart Rate: High 40's
Holy shit, I've crossed a pretty big barrier. It isn't official yet, but I'm pretty sure that my resting heart rate is now in the mid to high 40's. I was at the gym tonight after work and I noticed that my heart rate was fairly low. Well, I've noticed this because I've stopped paying attention to my RHR over the last 2 months. I've been doing my training, but never measured my RHR. Well, I laid down on the floor and watched my heart rate before I got on the bike. It was pretty consistently at 48bpm for about a minute. Crap, that's pretty good! My goal is to get it in the 40-45 range so I'm almost there. I think it's a pretty cool bar trick to have someone measure your pulse and then compare it to there's.
After that, I rode about 75 minutes on the spin bike. I got some speed work in there and that hurt like hell at first, but felt good later. My knee was fairly OK. I'm so freaking tired that I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.
After that, I rode about 75 minutes on the spin bike. I got some speed work in there and that hurt like hell at first, but felt good later. My knee was fairly OK. I'm so freaking tired that I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.
Fucking Ants!
I want swimming this morning. Woke up on time, but of course I was moving really slow. I need to get Lauren to swim with me because if I'm meeting someone to swim, I'm on time. Anyways, I was standing on the deck dreading getting into the water and then I start feeling all of these burning pin pricks on my feet. I look down and there are ants all over my feet. And they are biting me. On a side note, do any ants because fucking fire ants exist in Texas anymore? I keep brushing them off of my feet, but I get a total of about 10 bites. My feet will not be looking good tomorrow.
I get in and swim about 2150yds in an hour. I just wasn't motivated this morning. Tired from sleeping only 6.5 hours and I did Jack & Adam's core workout last night. It was the first time that I did their workout in a month and we actually did a PFT. I did 52 situps, 43 pushups, 70 dips, and 5 pullups. Not bad since I haven't been in a month. I was surprised that I was able to get 5 pullups. Because of that, I was sore this morning swimming. Plus I just wasn't moving fast.
I ran for 23 minutes last night after the workout. I really need to work on speed since I can't run for more than 30-45 minutes at a time. It's the best way for me to keep in shape. Also, biking seems to not bother my knee nearly as badly as running.
Oh, I took a fitness progress picture on Sunday since Mike Coker did one on his blog. I'll post mine later. I don't know if I have a bad mental self image, but I feel I look like a complete fatass even though I'm only about 13% body fat @ 185lbs. Well, I'll post the pic soon so you can judge it as well.
I get in and swim about 2150yds in an hour. I just wasn't motivated this morning. Tired from sleeping only 6.5 hours and I did Jack & Adam's core workout last night. It was the first time that I did their workout in a month and we actually did a PFT. I did 52 situps, 43 pushups, 70 dips, and 5 pullups. Not bad since I haven't been in a month. I was surprised that I was able to get 5 pullups. Because of that, I was sore this morning swimming. Plus I just wasn't moving fast.
I ran for 23 minutes last night after the workout. I really need to work on speed since I can't run for more than 30-45 minutes at a time. It's the best way for me to keep in shape. Also, biking seems to not bother my knee nearly as badly as running.
Oh, I took a fitness progress picture on Sunday since Mike Coker did one on his blog. I'll post mine later. I don't know if I have a bad mental self image, but I feel I look like a complete fatass even though I'm only about 13% body fat @ 185lbs. Well, I'll post the pic soon so you can judge it as well.
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Tough Ride
Just got back from my ride. I rode about 26 miles in 1:12. I averaged just over 21mph. I was bombing it the entire way. For some reason, I just didn't feel like going slow today. Also, the ride wasn't flat and the wind wasn't calm. When I got back, the temp was 88 degrees so it was probably 90 when I started the ride. I took 2 water bottles out and drained the first one in 20 minutes. The other one lasted me the rest of the ride. I was thirsty, but the mix that I was using wasn't quenching my thirst. Maybe I need something that is a lot thinner. I used a mix of Isopure protein powder, Carbo Pro, and Gatorade. I think the protein powder is making the mix chalky. I'll just leave it out next time or I could have my InfinIT by then as well.
I wanted to go out hard today because I haven't done much speedwork lately. I really like speedwork because I think that gets you faster over longer distances. Since putting in a ton of miles will likely kill my left knee, the miles that I do put in need to be fast ones so that my fitness level doesn't backtrack. Problem is that it has already.
I wanted to go out hard today because I haven't done much speedwork lately. I really like speedwork because I think that gets you faster over longer distances. Since putting in a ton of miles will likely kill my left knee, the miles that I do put in need to be fast ones so that my fitness level doesn't backtrack. Problem is that it has already.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
Thursday: I rode with Texas Iron for the usual Thursday workout. I did some hill repeats. I did 2 in the warmup and then 3 more for the workout at a harder pace. Eventhough I haven't been on the bike in a month I was powering up the hills pretty well and pushing a lot of other people. I finished the hill repeats and went back to the car. I only did 3 repeats because I didn't want to push my knee too hard too soon. Afterwards, I was almost home, but I really wanted some beer so I turned around and ate dinner with the rest of the group. I came home and crashed immediately.
Friday: I ran 30 minutes in the morning. It was humid outside and I got really sweaty really quickly. My knee was bothering me the entire time so I cut it short. I was going to go for 40-45 minutes, but only got 30 in because of the knee. I lifted weights after work and I'm glad it. Fridays are lazy days for me so it's tough for me to get any workouts in.
Saturday: No workouts. Instead, I was up really, really early to volunteer for the collegiate conference championship. There was a road race in the morning and a team time trial in the afternoon. I volunteered to be a corner marschal and it was pretty cool. I was really tired unfortunately. Besides watching cycling, I didn't do much at all.
Sunday: I finished watching the races this morning. There was a crit around the stadium at UT. After that, I came home and doing errands now. Later today, I'll ride my bike for about 60 minutes. I'm upping my time on the bike because it doesn't bother my knee as bad. Running definitely tweaks it. I'll try to get more miles on the ground tomorrow though. I need to pick up my exercises more, though. I really need to do more work with the TP ball to work out my hamstrings and knee.
Friday: I ran 30 minutes in the morning. It was humid outside and I got really sweaty really quickly. My knee was bothering me the entire time so I cut it short. I was going to go for 40-45 minutes, but only got 30 in because of the knee. I lifted weights after work and I'm glad it. Fridays are lazy days for me so it's tough for me to get any workouts in.
Saturday: No workouts. Instead, I was up really, really early to volunteer for the collegiate conference championship. There was a road race in the morning and a team time trial in the afternoon. I volunteered to be a corner marschal and it was pretty cool. I was really tired unfortunately. Besides watching cycling, I didn't do much at all.
Sunday: I finished watching the races this morning. There was a crit around the stadium at UT. After that, I came home and doing errands now. Later today, I'll ride my bike for about 60 minutes. I'm upping my time on the bike because it doesn't bother my knee as bad. Running definitely tweaks it. I'll try to get more miles on the ground tomorrow though. I need to pick up my exercises more, though. I really need to do more work with the TP ball to work out my hamstrings and knee.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Cycling and being cold
On Tuesday, I cycling on the spin bikes at the gym for about 45 minutes. My knee felt fine. I even got my heart rate up there a bit as well. That felt really good.
Today, I swam at Deep Eddy. It was really freaking cold. The first 100 felt like I was swimming at a 1:00 pace because I was going hard just to stay warm. After that, I adjusted to the water by going numb. I did about 3000yds in 60 minutes. Mostly drills and lots of rest so I could've done about 3400yds in an hour if I'm swimming continuously.
I lifted weights again tonight. I'll see if lifting helps me to drop the lbs and get me down to 170. I've been meaning to use my fitness program on my PalmPilot to track my calories, but I'm lazy.
I been on the reduced supplements since Sunday and I'm feeling a lot better. I don't know if it's coincidence or not.
Today, I swam at Deep Eddy. It was really freaking cold. The first 100 felt like I was swimming at a 1:00 pace because I was going hard just to stay warm. After that, I adjusted to the water by going numb. I did about 3000yds in 60 minutes. Mostly drills and lots of rest so I could've done about 3400yds in an hour if I'm swimming continuously.
I lifted weights again tonight. I'll see if lifting helps me to drop the lbs and get me down to 170. I've been meaning to use my fitness program on my PalmPilot to track my calories, but I'm lazy.
I been on the reduced supplements since Sunday and I'm feeling a lot better. I don't know if it's coincidence or not.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Replying to comments
So, I actually do get some comments on my blog (thanks, mcoker). When people ask questions in the comments, should I create a new post replying to it or reply to the comment with another comment? Or should I just feel special that someone is actually reading this, smile, and be on my way?
Itchy, itchy, itchy!
My crotch is itchy. I don't know what happened, but I developed a rash in my crotch. I'm pretty sure that it's from something workout related though. At first, it just looked like an ingrown hair, but it has grown and spread to the point that it is definitely a rash. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of this, let me know.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Supplements are bad, mmkay?
I've decided something. I'm stopping all of my supplements. About a month ago, I started on about 3 brand new supplements. I started on a new pharmeceutical grade multivitamin, a B complex vitamin, and some ZMA (zinc magnesium aspartate). For the last 2 weeks, I've been feeling slightly sick. I have no energy and I'm always tired. I'm stopping all supplements and pills except for Lexapro (I'll be off of that in a month anyways), fish oil, and glucosamine. I'll see if I'm feeling any better and if I am, I'll add in the other supplements every 2 weeks to see which one is causing me to feel like crap. I think it might be the multivitamin. The nutritionist that I saw about 2 months ago said that I need to switch from a generic multivitamin to something that is of better quality. I think the multivitamin might be the culprit, though. We'll see.
Weekend Update
Let's see what I've done recently. On Friday morning, I ran with Lauren for about 30 minutes. I felt fine, but running is still very tough for me. I just don't feel comfortable. I don't know whether it's because I'm not used to running on hard ground because of my knee or it's the hot and humid weather lately. Friday evening, I did some yoga. My knee was feeling better than the last time that I did yoga so that's a good sign. I'm feeling really inflexible, though.
Saturday was pretty lazy. Another 30 minute run with Lauren and Jeff. Once again, I just didn't feel comfortable running. Not easy at all. The knee hurts for about 5 minutes, but then it goes away. Other than that, I didn't do jack on Saturday. I did some PT exercises, but I was very lazy. This is just really frustrating since this knee injury is holding me back in almost everything.
This morning, I swam for 30 minutes with Lauren. Even swimming I can still feel pain in the back of my knee. It's less centralized, though. Sometimes it's the medial side of the back of the knee, sometimes it's the lateral side, sometimes it's more in the hamstrings, and sometimes it's more in the gastroc muscle. It's all over the place. Not cool. After swimming, Lauren had to go meet her brother to ride their bikes so I stayed and aquajogged for an hour. Once again, my knee was hurting. I saw Aquajogging Lady there and I haven't seen her at Barton Springs in months. She's kinda cute, too.
Saturday was pretty lazy. Another 30 minute run with Lauren and Jeff. Once again, I just didn't feel comfortable running. Not easy at all. The knee hurts for about 5 minutes, but then it goes away. Other than that, I didn't do jack on Saturday. I did some PT exercises, but I was very lazy. This is just really frustrating since this knee injury is holding me back in almost everything.
This morning, I swam for 30 minutes with Lauren. Even swimming I can still feel pain in the back of my knee. It's less centralized, though. Sometimes it's the medial side of the back of the knee, sometimes it's the lateral side, sometimes it's more in the hamstrings, and sometimes it's more in the gastroc muscle. It's all over the place. Not cool. After swimming, Lauren had to go meet her brother to ride their bikes so I stayed and aquajogged for an hour. Once again, my knee was hurting. I saw Aquajogging Lady there and I haven't seen her at Barton Springs in months. She's kinda cute, too.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Ran Today
I ran today. My knee hurt afterwards. It is feeling better now, but it still hurt. No limping though. I ran 26 minutes which is about 3 miles around the campus at work. My heart rate was elevated because I haven't ran much and it was really hot and humid even for 7:30 in the morning.
I got my BF checked and it came in at 13.1%. When I look in the mirror, I don't see 13.1%, but maybe I have a not good mental image of myself. My weight was at 185.5 with a lean mass of 162.
I lifted weights for the first time in over a month. I was really, really pissy from work so I went to the gym. I feel better now so that's good. Lifting normally isn't a good stress relief for me. It worked today. I need to start lifting more because I think it might be the key to getting me down to 170. It's the only other thing that I can think of to do.
I got my BF checked and it came in at 13.1%. When I look in the mirror, I don't see 13.1%, but maybe I have a not good mental image of myself. My weight was at 185.5 with a lean mass of 162.
I lifted weights for the first time in over a month. I was really, really pissy from work so I went to the gym. I feel better now so that's good. Lifting normally isn't a good stress relief for me. It worked today. I need to start lifting more because I think it might be the key to getting me down to 170. It's the only other thing that I can think of to do.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Crabby
I'm feeling really crabby right now. I didn't work out today because I was busy with doctor appointments and work. Work just drained me. Not fun. My PT said today to start trying to alternate cycling and running for 30 minutes each day to see how the back of my knee feels. I'm going to run tomorrow morning and see what it's like after that.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Would you like a salad with your swimming?
Lauren and I swam at Barton Springs tonight for about 25 minutes. It was disgusting. It was crowded with people and there was all kinds of moss floating in the water. I got at least one good mouthful and the water smelled really bad. Not fun at all. I don't really like swimming at BS, but it's decent open water swimming in town. It was just nasty tonight though. I was suppose to swim for 45 minutes, but after Lauren was done I got out as well.
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Ouch
After being in my house all day long, my knee is really tight. It only hurts when I first start to move, but after that, it feels better. So, running and cycling both hurt it. Not fun. Man, why can't I stay injury free for even 3 fucking months.
Death March
After yesterday's run, I decided to go ahead and try a 60 minute run. Well, it's not 60 min, but it is 8.2 miles, roughly, which is 2 laps around Town Lake using the S 1st St bridge. I went out drinking last night and I wanted to see how much I weighed today from 1 night of drinking. I weighed in at 184.5 yesterday and 187.5 this morning. After my run today, I came back and weighed in at 183.5. Shit, I lost a lot of weight and that's a great indication of how freaking hot it was out there. When I got back, it was around 88 degrees. This is good because after IMAZ, I meant to do some heat acclimation running and this was a perfect day for it, but because this is the 2nd run in 3 weeks and I went out drinking last night, I didn't have a great run.
My legs were dead and heavy. I wasn't going that fast either. I kept wanting to stop but I kept moving. I have to do this and "run the run" when I do IMFL so I need to start practicing now. Well, I was practicing today for sure. I didn't feel like I could push that much harder, either. I tend to take awhile to get back up to speed after I'm off for awhile so this is typical. I just need to keep running.
Also, the back of my knee is still hurting. The front of my knee was about a 1 on the pain scale, but I could feel it. The back of the knee was a 4 or so. It caused me to limp afterwards. I'll work on doing some PT exercises today and tomorrow and then see Nicole again on Tuesday.
My legs were dead and heavy. I wasn't going that fast either. I kept wanting to stop but I kept moving. I have to do this and "run the run" when I do IMFL so I need to start practicing now. Well, I was practicing today for sure. I didn't feel like I could push that much harder, either. I tend to take awhile to get back up to speed after I'm off for awhile so this is typical. I just need to keep running.
Also, the back of my knee is still hurting. The front of my knee was about a 1 on the pain scale, but I could feel it. The back of the knee was a 4 or so. It caused me to limp afterwards. I'll work on doing some PT exercises today and tomorrow and then see Nicole again on Tuesday.
Saturday, April 15, 2006
I ran today!
I ran today for about 30 minutes. I did about 3.5 miles or so around Town Lake. My knee was achy at first, but once I got warmed up, it was ready to go. I was still feeling some pain in the front of my knee though. It was only a 1, maybe a 2, on a scale of 1 to 10, but still noticeable. The back of the knee felt weird as well. I was trying to go slow and I felt like I was going slow for me. I almost stopped once because it felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest. I attribute this to not running in 3 weeks.
Afterwards, I went and aquajogged for about 20 minutes and then swam 2 lengths of Barton Springs. Swimming after running is miserable and I don't know why my coach does this torture to us.
After that, I went to the friendly folks at Austin Tricyclist and I think I alone finished off their breakfast tacos. Breakfast tacos are more addicting than crack, especially if they are free. I ran into Lauren and Matt and I ended up talking to Lauren for about 30 to 45 minutes or so about races, horrible IM's, and running shoes.
Tomorrow, I plan on doing a 60 minute run and some yoga, maybe. We'll see how my knee feels.
Afterwards, I went and aquajogged for about 20 minutes and then swam 2 lengths of Barton Springs. Swimming after running is miserable and I don't know why my coach does this torture to us.
After that, I went to the friendly folks at Austin Tricyclist and I think I alone finished off their breakfast tacos. Breakfast tacos are more addicting than crack, especially if they are free. I ran into Lauren and Matt and I ended up talking to Lauren for about 30 to 45 minutes or so about races, horrible IM's, and running shoes.
Tomorrow, I plan on doing a 60 minute run and some yoga, maybe. We'll see how my knee feels.
Aquajog and Yoga
I aquajogged for about 50 minutes on Thursday. I'm getting really used to the temp at Barton Springs now which is scary. I used to be freezing whenever I got in the water the entire time, but now I'm fine after about 60 seconds.
Friday included some yoga.
My weight is down to about 184-185. I'm drinking tonight so it'll be interesting to see how much it goes up because of tonight. Maybe I can get by with having only 3 drinks or so tonight. The medication that I'm on will hopefully be reduced starting next week and I'm interested in seeing how my weight changes.
The back of my left knee is still bothering my quite a bit. It was hurting in yoga. I need to really get in and work on my gastroc to ease it up a bit.
Now, I'm off for my first run in about 3 weeks!
Friday included some yoga.
My weight is down to about 184-185. I'm drinking tonight so it'll be interesting to see how much it goes up because of tonight. Maybe I can get by with having only 3 drinks or so tonight. The medication that I'm on will hopefully be reduced starting next week and I'm interested in seeing how my weight changes.
The back of my left knee is still bothering my quite a bit. It was hurting in yoga. I need to really get in and work on my gastroc to ease it up a bit.
Now, I'm off for my first run in about 3 weeks!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Experimenting with Athletic Performance and Antidepressants
I posted this on Slowtwitch awhile ago and I wanted to post it here as well:
"Now, there have been some recent threads about how being on antidepressants affect athletic performance. I'm currently on antidepressants and I'm pretty open about discussing my situation with anyone that asks and I'm willing to share my thoughts & inputs on the subject. Now, some people feel like AD's affect your performance and others do not. Well, let's try an experiment.
I'm willing to use myself as a guinea pig to test my hypothesis that AD's do affect athletic performance. This is prompted by me getting the results from my VO2max and LT tests and feeling that they are fairly under what I'm capable of. My LT on the bike was measured at 149bpm and that is well below what I'm capable of before I was on this medication.
So, here is what I'm going to measure over the next week to get a baseline:
Resting heart rate
VO2max (done)
LT (done)
Weight, lean mass, and body fat %
RMR (calculated in calories per lb lean body mass)
The plan is that once i establish a baseline, I'll get tested again in August. That'll be about 6 months from now. My doctor, my therapist, and myself are going to start weening myself off of the medication in April. That should give my system about 3 months to completely rid itself of the medication.
Now, I believe that since I've been on the medication, it is more difficult to lose weight, my LT and VO2max are lower, and I'm unable to push myself harder to my limits. The huge variable will be that I'm doing about 12-15 hours of base training a week, but I'm ramping up for IMFL in November. I'm going to keep track of my calories which will show the calorie deficit that I have.
I'm opening this up to the ST community. What else should I measure? What am I forgetting about this? I know that IM training will likely skew the results, but hopefully this will be to show something about my hypothesis."
With that thread, here are the results that I expect to see:
RMR - I expect this to be increased once I'm off the meds. It is a known side effect of weight gain from AD's because your metabolism slows down. This should go up.
Weight - This will go down because metabolism has gone up
Lean mass - No clue, but I want to track this and see what my RMR/lb lean mass is and use that as a better comparison than RMR(on AD) vs RMR(off AD).
Body fat % - If I'm tracking Weight and lean mass, getting body fat % is pretty easy. This should go down.
Resting heart rate - It'll probably go down as I become more endurant, but I don't think it is affected by the drugs
Max heart rate - No change either, but I believe that when I'm not on drugs that it's easier for me to get near my MHR though
LT - No change due to SSRI's.
VO2max - This should increase because my weight will go down, hopefully.
I'm posting this so people can follow along with my "experiment".
"Now, there have been some recent threads about how being on antidepressants affect athletic performance. I'm currently on antidepressants and I'm pretty open about discussing my situation with anyone that asks and I'm willing to share my thoughts & inputs on the subject. Now, some people feel like AD's affect your performance and others do not. Well, let's try an experiment.
I'm willing to use myself as a guinea pig to test my hypothesis that AD's do affect athletic performance. This is prompted by me getting the results from my VO2max and LT tests and feeling that they are fairly under what I'm capable of. My LT on the bike was measured at 149bpm and that is well below what I'm capable of before I was on this medication.
So, here is what I'm going to measure over the next week to get a baseline:
Resting heart rate
VO2max (done)
LT (done)
Weight, lean mass, and body fat %
RMR (calculated in calories per lb lean body mass)
The plan is that once i establish a baseline, I'll get tested again in August. That'll be about 6 months from now. My doctor, my therapist, and myself are going to start weening myself off of the medication in April. That should give my system about 3 months to completely rid itself of the medication.
Now, I believe that since I've been on the medication, it is more difficult to lose weight, my LT and VO2max are lower, and I'm unable to push myself harder to my limits. The huge variable will be that I'm doing about 12-15 hours of base training a week, but I'm ramping up for IMFL in November. I'm going to keep track of my calories which will show the calorie deficit that I have.
I'm opening this up to the ST community. What else should I measure? What am I forgetting about this? I know that IM training will likely skew the results, but hopefully this will be to show something about my hypothesis."
With that thread, here are the results that I expect to see:
RMR - I expect this to be increased once I'm off the meds. It is a known side effect of weight gain from AD's because your metabolism slows down. This should go up.
Weight - This will go down because metabolism has gone up
Lean mass - No clue, but I want to track this and see what my RMR/lb lean mass is and use that as a better comparison than RMR(on AD) vs RMR(off AD).
Body fat % - If I'm tracking Weight and lean mass, getting body fat % is pretty easy. This should go down.
Resting heart rate - It'll probably go down as I become more endurant, but I don't think it is affected by the drugs
Max heart rate - No change either, but I believe that when I'm not on drugs that it's easier for me to get near my MHR though
LT - No change due to SSRI's.
VO2max - This should increase because my weight will go down, hopefully.
I'm posting this so people can follow along with my "experiment".
PT Updates
Man, I'm really injury prone. I had Achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis forever. It finally went away when I developed knee pain in my left knee on a long run one day. It was a radiating pain up my vastus medialis and then a sharp stabbing pain on the inside of my knee on the lower medial side of my kneecap. Not fun. I had the same pain in my right knee when I hurt it hiking about 2 years ago. I tried running on it and it wasn't getting better. Well, it was getting better, but only to a point. My physical therapist, Kathryn, is great, but I wanted to try something different. My friend Lauren has been seeing a guy named AJ Zelinski that specializes in in ART or Active Release Therapy. It worked for me. The knee pain was going away and I found out a lot problems with my legs. What they found wrong with me is similar to what Kathryn and my chiropractor said were wrong with me. The knee pain started to get better and I started to loosen up some tigh muscles. I went on a 75 mile bike ride on April 1st and the back of my knee started hurting. It hurt Saturday and Sunday, a little on Monday, but was fine on Tuesday. I saw AJ and then went for a ride after that. Knee pain again. I had Laurie work on my while I was in Arizona. She told me that my pelvis was twisted. I learned that this is probably from the fact that I keep my wallet in my back left pocket all the time. It's now in my front pocket forever. I also got a ton more exercises to do, but I think things are working. I start running again this weekend as well. I'm out of biking because of the back of the knee pain that is directly linked to biking. Kathryn called me to check up on me. I feel bad for using another PT, but they are working. It isn't like Kathryn is a bad PT. She is wonderful, but this place offers a different approach that is working for me.
Post IMAZ Aquajog & Swim
I got back from IMAZ (spectating report is coming soon) on Monday night. I got sick while on vacation and my training was shot. Last night, I got in an aquajog for about 30 minutes since I had barely worked out since Wednesday the week before. I felt good. I hate aquajogging, but hopefully I'm almost done. One of my PT's told me to start running again this weekend. Tonight, I was suppose to have a 45 minute swim and a core workout. I had every intention of doing that today, but when I woke up at 8:35 and I had a meeting at 9 at work, I forgot some stuff at home. I swam about 1500 yds tonight. I felt tired and out of breath, but I think I'm just recovering from being sick. Right now, I have a slight headache and I think it is from an oxygen debt during swimming.
Sunday, April 2, 2006
Hill Country Hundred (Plus)
Yesterday, I participated in the Hill Country Hundred. It was a charity ride benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society aka TNT. My friend Christina was one of the main people organizing the ride. Since I consider myself "a friend of The Society", I wanted to do the ride because I believe in the cause. I signed up over a month ago.
I got up on Saturday morning at about 6 to leave at 7 because the ride started at 8. It was an hour away or so. The weather was crappy that morning. It was rainy, but the forecast was suppose to be nice that day. The Cervelo needed to be ridden because I put on the saddle that Lauren gave me about a month ago. I hadn't ridden it more than 25 miles and I needed to test it out on a longer ride to see how comfortable it was. Well, the rain prevented that and I took out my Fuji beater bike, Fiona, instead.
I got there and the weather was starting to look better. It was wet, but it was clearing up. I got ready for the ride and was talking to some of the TNT people. I was messing around with my bike and my foot slipped off the pedal. It scraped the pedal on my shin and left a nice mark.
The ride started on time and there were routes for 62 miles, 31 miles, and 16 miles. I was doing the 62 mile route, of course. It was well supported with signs at every turn, 5 rest stops throughout the ride. It was fairly windy but we were able to catch a tailwind going out. About 12 miles into the ride, we hit the biggest hill of the entire ride. I climbed up the hill and I had one guy actually pass me. I stuck on his wheel, though. I'm not that great of a climber, but I try and this guy was definitely more experienced than me. We got up to the top of the hill and I looked back. We had dropped the entire group by a longshot. We took turns pulling and we were cruising pretty well. Problem was that I had no clue how well we were cruising. My heart rate monitor was broke and I forgot my bike computer on the Cervelo.
We let the rest of the group catch up and my new buddy, John, and his friend, Kurt, were leading the group. We took a turn at Florence that was on the map. We kept going and looking for the next turn. After a little while, we realized that we weren't finding the turning point. We were looking for CR 230. We found 232, 233, 234, and then 235. At 235, the three of us stopped. After a few more minutes, a lot of the other riders showed up. I called Christina and found out the problem. The sign had blown away and the road was mismarked. Well, it was marked correctly, but not until 200yds into the road.
We turned around and just headed back the way that we came. We got back to Florence and I was about dead. I was on the verge on bonking and it was difficult to get my legs to go. I hadn't eaten much breakfast and at this point we were over 35 miles into the ride. John, Kurt, and myself stopped at a Citgo to get refueled. I really needed it since I ate a very small breakfast. Rice Krispy Treats are my snack of choice on the road. I may need to train more with them because they work for me.
We got fueled up and kept going. The next rest stop was about 7 miles up the road and I stopped there again. The road leading up to the rest stop was downhill, but with a strong headwind. I'm usually a pussy when it comes to the wind. I bitch and complain about it and I let it slow me down. I needed to learn how to not let the wind get to me and to use it as a training tool. Powering through the wind is what I needed to do. I used this day as a great day for this and powered through the wind to the rest stop. I stopped and ate way too much food, especially after the food that I got at the gas station. Next time, lay off so much food at the aid stations.
I kept going because there were maybe 8 miles to the next rest stop. I filled up with water and kept going. The next rest stop was fairly uneventful. I stopped for a total of 2 minutes, got some fluids, and kept going. I was getting worried about hydration at this point. It was getting hot and I hadn't had to pee since the turnaround when we got lost. I tried to force fluids into me and I was thirsty, but I didn't want to drink. It was weird.
I kept going by myself. John and Kurt passed me at the last rest stop because they didn't stop, but I caught up with them and kept going. There was still a pretty good wind and I kept powering through it. My legs were getting tired, but after getting some food in my belly, I was feeling fueled up. At the last rest stop, I stopped at very briefly. I chatted with Misty and told me that Christina was wondering where I was at. At that point, there were only 5 miles left, and I was going to push myself. Well, I had to push myself. The wind the last 5 miles was the worst. I was struggling eventhough I had very smooth pavement and no hills. I was doing about 75rpm and about 14mph. It hurt, but I made it through to the finish line.
It was a great ride overall. The course was well marked except for the single blown away sign. The rest stops were well stocked as well and the volunteers were helpful. At the end, I rode a total of 74 miles when I started out doing 62. The entire time I felt like I could finish the ride and I did pretty good considering the strong winds. THe problem though is that after the ride, the back of my left knee was hurting. Today (Sunday), it is still hurting and hopefully I can slip in a PT appointment tomorrow to take a look at it.
Overall, it was a great ride and an awesome training day for me.
I got up on Saturday morning at about 6 to leave at 7 because the ride started at 8. It was an hour away or so. The weather was crappy that morning. It was rainy, but the forecast was suppose to be nice that day. The Cervelo needed to be ridden because I put on the saddle that Lauren gave me about a month ago. I hadn't ridden it more than 25 miles and I needed to test it out on a longer ride to see how comfortable it was. Well, the rain prevented that and I took out my Fuji beater bike, Fiona, instead.
I got there and the weather was starting to look better. It was wet, but it was clearing up. I got ready for the ride and was talking to some of the TNT people. I was messing around with my bike and my foot slipped off the pedal. It scraped the pedal on my shin and left a nice mark.
The ride started on time and there were routes for 62 miles, 31 miles, and 16 miles. I was doing the 62 mile route, of course. It was well supported with signs at every turn, 5 rest stops throughout the ride. It was fairly windy but we were able to catch a tailwind going out. About 12 miles into the ride, we hit the biggest hill of the entire ride. I climbed up the hill and I had one guy actually pass me. I stuck on his wheel, though. I'm not that great of a climber, but I try and this guy was definitely more experienced than me. We got up to the top of the hill and I looked back. We had dropped the entire group by a longshot. We took turns pulling and we were cruising pretty well. Problem was that I had no clue how well we were cruising. My heart rate monitor was broke and I forgot my bike computer on the Cervelo.
We let the rest of the group catch up and my new buddy, John, and his friend, Kurt, were leading the group. We took a turn at Florence that was on the map. We kept going and looking for the next turn. After a little while, we realized that we weren't finding the turning point. We were looking for CR 230. We found 232, 233, 234, and then 235. At 235, the three of us stopped. After a few more minutes, a lot of the other riders showed up. I called Christina and found out the problem. The sign had blown away and the road was mismarked. Well, it was marked correctly, but not until 200yds into the road.
We turned around and just headed back the way that we came. We got back to Florence and I was about dead. I was on the verge on bonking and it was difficult to get my legs to go. I hadn't eaten much breakfast and at this point we were over 35 miles into the ride. John, Kurt, and myself stopped at a Citgo to get refueled. I really needed it since I ate a very small breakfast. Rice Krispy Treats are my snack of choice on the road. I may need to train more with them because they work for me.
We got fueled up and kept going. The next rest stop was about 7 miles up the road and I stopped there again. The road leading up to the rest stop was downhill, but with a strong headwind. I'm usually a pussy when it comes to the wind. I bitch and complain about it and I let it slow me down. I needed to learn how to not let the wind get to me and to use it as a training tool. Powering through the wind is what I needed to do. I used this day as a great day for this and powered through the wind to the rest stop. I stopped and ate way too much food, especially after the food that I got at the gas station. Next time, lay off so much food at the aid stations.
I kept going because there were maybe 8 miles to the next rest stop. I filled up with water and kept going. The next rest stop was fairly uneventful. I stopped for a total of 2 minutes, got some fluids, and kept going. I was getting worried about hydration at this point. It was getting hot and I hadn't had to pee since the turnaround when we got lost. I tried to force fluids into me and I was thirsty, but I didn't want to drink. It was weird.
I kept going by myself. John and Kurt passed me at the last rest stop because they didn't stop, but I caught up with them and kept going. There was still a pretty good wind and I kept powering through it. My legs were getting tired, but after getting some food in my belly, I was feeling fueled up. At the last rest stop, I stopped at very briefly. I chatted with Misty and told me that Christina was wondering where I was at. At that point, there were only 5 miles left, and I was going to push myself. Well, I had to push myself. The wind the last 5 miles was the worst. I was struggling eventhough I had very smooth pavement and no hills. I was doing about 75rpm and about 14mph. It hurt, but I made it through to the finish line.
It was a great ride overall. The course was well marked except for the single blown away sign. The rest stops were well stocked as well and the volunteers were helpful. At the end, I rode a total of 74 miles when I started out doing 62. The entire time I felt like I could finish the ride and I did pretty good considering the strong winds. THe problem though is that after the ride, the back of my left knee was hurting. Today (Sunday), it is still hurting and hopefully I can slip in a PT appointment tomorrow to take a look at it.
Overall, it was a great ride and an awesome training day for me.
Texas Triathlon Race Report
Well, since I've found out that actually more than myself reads my training blog, so I might as well keep it updated more often. So, I'm going to shoot for updating it once a week, but we'll see how that goes.
Well, the Texas Tri in Canyon Lake, TX was last Saturday. This was the first race of the season and was a C race. Hell, I didn't even know what time the race started until the night before. I did some carb loading for this race, but I've decided that carb loading for races Oly and below isn't worth it to me. It upsets my stomach which causes interesting problems. My coaches had me do some tapering this week, but not much. I've been doing base riding for IM training so I haven't been training for speed at all.
I didn't get all my gear together for the race until around 10pm the night before. I went to bed at around 11:30ish and got up the next day at 5. I left the house at 6 and showed up at the race site at around 7. I didn't eat that much that morning. Well, I had a decent amount. Like I said, I'm can't take carb loading well, so I didn't eat what Monique Ryan's book recommends. I got to the race site and it was freaking cold. I think the low that morning was around 35 or so. I also had a new record low for RP's. I only had 3 of them. I wasn't that nervous that morning because I wasn't stressed about the race at all, so that's why I didn't have many RP's.
Everyone was worried about the water at the race. Since it was the first race of the year, the water hadn't warmed up much. The water temp was about 62 degrees. Once I got everything set up, it was announced that the race would start about 30 minutes late to let the weather warm up a bit. That wouldn't matter much because the water was still freaking cold.
I was in the first wave with the under 30 men. I got in the water a few minutes before the start to warm up for the swim. I got in and the water wasn't too bad. Of course, I never put my arms in, either. I was wearing a sleeveless wetsuit and I thought I would be fine. After the race started, the water was cold. I couldn't feel my pinky on my left hand after about 2 minutes. I thought I was a great swimmer, but I quickly got left behind by the lead group. Water was cold, I was trying to push myself but it wasn't working, and I wasn't that use to open water swimming. I mean, I have done some swimming in Barton Springs, and I can usually swim about 1:30/100yds in the pool as my forever pace. I didn't feel like I was swimming that fast. I kept pushing, but I just wasn't going that fast. I turned the first buoy and Andrea Fisher passed me at that point. She's fast. I kept swimming and nothing else interesting happened. I turned the second buoy and picked up the pace a bit as I headed to the end of the swim.
I came out of the water and I had the normal dizziness. The transition area was in an asphalt parking lot and I had nothing on my feet. That hurt going through T1. I got to my spot in the T area and I had a plan. I was going to put on my sleeveless bike jersey and a cycling jacket, but putting on a jersey while wet wasn't exactly quick. I got my jacket on, but I didn't zip it up. I planned on doing that on the bike. I got everything else together, grabbed my bike, and headed out of T1. My coaches taught me how to come out of T1 with my shoes clipped into my pedals. I tried doing that, but as I came out of T1, some lady crashed right in front of me. I had to swerve to avoid her and I managed to somehow lose my shoe. Damnit. I had to stop and put my shoe back on.
Ok, I'm on the bike. I'm still not in my shoes though. I'm just trying to get to somewhere that is downhill and get into my shoes. I see Dave who is taking pictures and he snaps a ton of pictures of me. The part of the course in the park is fairly smooth and downhill so I got my feet into my shoes. I tried zipping up jacket because it was still pretty cold. After almost wrecking 6 times trying to zip up my jacket while riding without my hands, I gave that up. I got out of the park and onto the main roads. That sucked. The roads were chip seal and I hate riding on chip seal. Also, the course was pretty damn hilly, too. At one point, I was riding up a hill and my wheel sounded funny. I stopped because by back brake was rubbing on my rim. I got going again and kept going up the hills. I stopped again to zip up my jacket because it was bothering me. At that point, I saw someone that passed me that caught my eye. Some redheaded girl that was really cute passed me. I started riding again after I zipped up my jacket. I enjoyed the view riding behind her because she was hot and had a nice body, but I was here to race and I could attempt to hit on her after the race. The bike course was miserable for me. I only had 1 bottle of water and I don't think I managed my nutrition properly. The chip seal wore we down and there was some massive wind as well that took it's toll on me. By the end of the bike ride, I was doing everything that I could to do to get the pedals to turn over. I really wanted to be off the bike.
I came into the park again and it was a mile before the T2. I got out of my shoes and cruised into T2. I had practiced dismounting with my shoes on the pedals before and never had a problem. I did it again this time. However, somehow I dropped another shoe. I think I need new pedals or something because they've been very problematic for me lately. I put my bike up and I had to go back and get my shoes because of the equipment abandonment rule. I felt like crap, but I still had to run. I did my T2 and got out on the run course. My legs felt like they were made out of lead. The weather had warmed up quite a bit by now, though and I was feeling good. The cute chick on the bike (damn, she was hot), actually passed me in T2 and was just ahead of me on the run. I tried to run her down and maybe get her digits while on the course, but that was one race that I lost. She is one hell of an athlete and I lost site of her quickly. Mile 1 felt bad. Mile 2 was even worse because of The Hill. I had a Gu right after The Hill and get going. Mile 3 was a little easier because it was mostly downhill. By the end of Mile 3, I was getting by running legs back and picked up the pace. By this time, there were a lot more people on the course and I run much faster because I run people down one by one. This pushed me on Mile 4 and Mile 5. I saw Kelly on The Hill on Mile 5 and left her. Mile 6 was great because I opened it up a bit and picked up a decent amount of time. The one thing that I noticed on this run was that my heart rate wasn't above 160. I could have pushed myself more, but my legs just weren't there. After the race, I found out that I was running about the same pace that I was at St. Anthony's almost a year ago, but at St. A's my heart rate was in the 180+ range. Also, this course was a lot of up and down and St. A's was flat. By this, it would seem that I'm a much faster runner than I was a year ago.
I crossed the finish line and I was done. I had finished in around 2:38something. I was faster in the water than St. A's, about the same on the run, but the bike was much slower. It was a very different course, though. After the race, my official time was 2:38:45. I finished 4th in my age group, but there were only 6 people in it, too. I had a swim split of 26:23 with a pace of 1:46. I'm somewhat disappointed at that. My bike split was 1:23:38 with an average pace of 18.7mph. Once again, a very hilly course compared to St. A's where I averaged 23mph. I had a T1 of 1:39 which I thought was pretty bad because I had problems, but it wasn't so bad compared to everyone else. I had no T2 time because my chip did register on that mat. My run time was 47:04, but that included T2. Oh, the really cute girl finished with a time of around 2:28 and was the 3rd woman overall. Damn, that's sexy.
Not bad considering the course, but it was very humbling. I thought that I was advancing up in the triathlon ranks fairly well, but I wished I had done better at this race. My training is completely different now than it was a year ago for St. A's so that is part of it. Also, I believe the medication that I'm on is holding me back a bit. I need to work on my nutrition on the bike and I also need to hold back on the bike a bit so my legs are better on the run. I also need to do more bike-run bricks and to do them quickly. When I do them now, I have about 5 minutes between the bike and the run, but I need to practice them to get them down to 2 minutes or less, preferably 1 minute. Open water swim work is also something that needs practice.
It was the first race of the year, and it hurt pretty badly. I finished though and I wasn't nervous for this. It put me into a mindset that I have a lot to work on if I want to do better this season. Everything leads up to IMFL this year and I have a lot to learn and to work on before then.
Well, the Texas Tri in Canyon Lake, TX was last Saturday. This was the first race of the season and was a C race. Hell, I didn't even know what time the race started until the night before. I did some carb loading for this race, but I've decided that carb loading for races Oly and below isn't worth it to me. It upsets my stomach which causes interesting problems. My coaches had me do some tapering this week, but not much. I've been doing base riding for IM training so I haven't been training for speed at all.
I didn't get all my gear together for the race until around 10pm the night before. I went to bed at around 11:30ish and got up the next day at 5. I left the house at 6 and showed up at the race site at around 7. I didn't eat that much that morning. Well, I had a decent amount. Like I said, I'm can't take carb loading well, so I didn't eat what Monique Ryan's book recommends. I got to the race site and it was freaking cold. I think the low that morning was around 35 or so. I also had a new record low for RP's. I only had 3 of them. I wasn't that nervous that morning because I wasn't stressed about the race at all, so that's why I didn't have many RP's.
Everyone was worried about the water at the race. Since it was the first race of the year, the water hadn't warmed up much. The water temp was about 62 degrees. Once I got everything set up, it was announced that the race would start about 30 minutes late to let the weather warm up a bit. That wouldn't matter much because the water was still freaking cold.
I was in the first wave with the under 30 men. I got in the water a few minutes before the start to warm up for the swim. I got in and the water wasn't too bad. Of course, I never put my arms in, either. I was wearing a sleeveless wetsuit and I thought I would be fine. After the race started, the water was cold. I couldn't feel my pinky on my left hand after about 2 minutes. I thought I was a great swimmer, but I quickly got left behind by the lead group. Water was cold, I was trying to push myself but it wasn't working, and I wasn't that use to open water swimming. I mean, I have done some swimming in Barton Springs, and I can usually swim about 1:30/100yds in the pool as my forever pace. I didn't feel like I was swimming that fast. I kept pushing, but I just wasn't going that fast. I turned the first buoy and Andrea Fisher passed me at that point. She's fast. I kept swimming and nothing else interesting happened. I turned the second buoy and picked up the pace a bit as I headed to the end of the swim.
I came out of the water and I had the normal dizziness. The transition area was in an asphalt parking lot and I had nothing on my feet. That hurt going through T1. I got to my spot in the T area and I had a plan. I was going to put on my sleeveless bike jersey and a cycling jacket, but putting on a jersey while wet wasn't exactly quick. I got my jacket on, but I didn't zip it up. I planned on doing that on the bike. I got everything else together, grabbed my bike, and headed out of T1. My coaches taught me how to come out of T1 with my shoes clipped into my pedals. I tried doing that, but as I came out of T1, some lady crashed right in front of me. I had to swerve to avoid her and I managed to somehow lose my shoe. Damnit. I had to stop and put my shoe back on.
Ok, I'm on the bike. I'm still not in my shoes though. I'm just trying to get to somewhere that is downhill and get into my shoes. I see Dave who is taking pictures and he snaps a ton of pictures of me. The part of the course in the park is fairly smooth and downhill so I got my feet into my shoes. I tried zipping up jacket because it was still pretty cold. After almost wrecking 6 times trying to zip up my jacket while riding without my hands, I gave that up. I got out of the park and onto the main roads. That sucked. The roads were chip seal and I hate riding on chip seal. Also, the course was pretty damn hilly, too. At one point, I was riding up a hill and my wheel sounded funny. I stopped because by back brake was rubbing on my rim. I got going again and kept going up the hills. I stopped again to zip up my jacket because it was bothering me. At that point, I saw someone that passed me that caught my eye. Some redheaded girl that was really cute passed me. I started riding again after I zipped up my jacket. I enjoyed the view riding behind her because she was hot and had a nice body, but I was here to race and I could attempt to hit on her after the race. The bike course was miserable for me. I only had 1 bottle of water and I don't think I managed my nutrition properly. The chip seal wore we down and there was some massive wind as well that took it's toll on me. By the end of the bike ride, I was doing everything that I could to do to get the pedals to turn over. I really wanted to be off the bike.
I came into the park again and it was a mile before the T2. I got out of my shoes and cruised into T2. I had practiced dismounting with my shoes on the pedals before and never had a problem. I did it again this time. However, somehow I dropped another shoe. I think I need new pedals or something because they've been very problematic for me lately. I put my bike up and I had to go back and get my shoes because of the equipment abandonment rule. I felt like crap, but I still had to run. I did my T2 and got out on the run course. My legs felt like they were made out of lead. The weather had warmed up quite a bit by now, though and I was feeling good. The cute chick on the bike (damn, she was hot), actually passed me in T2 and was just ahead of me on the run. I tried to run her down and maybe get her digits while on the course, but that was one race that I lost. She is one hell of an athlete and I lost site of her quickly. Mile 1 felt bad. Mile 2 was even worse because of The Hill. I had a Gu right after The Hill and get going. Mile 3 was a little easier because it was mostly downhill. By the end of Mile 3, I was getting by running legs back and picked up the pace. By this time, there were a lot more people on the course and I run much faster because I run people down one by one. This pushed me on Mile 4 and Mile 5. I saw Kelly on The Hill on Mile 5 and left her. Mile 6 was great because I opened it up a bit and picked up a decent amount of time. The one thing that I noticed on this run was that my heart rate wasn't above 160. I could have pushed myself more, but my legs just weren't there. After the race, I found out that I was running about the same pace that I was at St. Anthony's almost a year ago, but at St. A's my heart rate was in the 180+ range. Also, this course was a lot of up and down and St. A's was flat. By this, it would seem that I'm a much faster runner than I was a year ago.
I crossed the finish line and I was done. I had finished in around 2:38something. I was faster in the water than St. A's, about the same on the run, but the bike was much slower. It was a very different course, though. After the race, my official time was 2:38:45. I finished 4th in my age group, but there were only 6 people in it, too. I had a swim split of 26:23 with a pace of 1:46. I'm somewhat disappointed at that. My bike split was 1:23:38 with an average pace of 18.7mph. Once again, a very hilly course compared to St. A's where I averaged 23mph. I had a T1 of 1:39 which I thought was pretty bad because I had problems, but it wasn't so bad compared to everyone else. I had no T2 time because my chip did register on that mat. My run time was 47:04, but that included T2. Oh, the really cute girl finished with a time of around 2:28 and was the 3rd woman overall. Damn, that's sexy.
Not bad considering the course, but it was very humbling. I thought that I was advancing up in the triathlon ranks fairly well, but I wished I had done better at this race. My training is completely different now than it was a year ago for St. A's so that is part of it. Also, I believe the medication that I'm on is holding me back a bit. I need to work on my nutrition on the bike and I also need to hold back on the bike a bit so my legs are better on the run. I also need to do more bike-run bricks and to do them quickly. When I do them now, I have about 5 minutes between the bike and the run, but I need to practice them to get them down to 2 minutes or less, preferably 1 minute. Open water swim work is also something that needs practice.
It was the first race of the year, and it hurt pretty badly. I finished though and I wasn't nervous for this. It put me into a mindset that I have a lot to work on if I want to do better this season. Everything leads up to IMFL this year and I have a lot to learn and to work on before then.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Update
Training is going well. I had a long bike ride indoors on the trainer on Saturday and then a ride after that. I can't believe I did 3.5 hours on the trainer. I hate it, but it was either that or ride outside in the rain for 3.5 hours.
My knee is still jacked up. My patella is drifting which is causing loading issues. Taping works, but it still hurts a bit and is sore and swollen the next day. Other than that, my running is going well. After my race next weekend, I'm going to take 2 weeks off of running to let my knee heel.
My knee is still jacked up. My patella is drifting which is causing loading issues. Taping works, but it still hurts a bit and is sore and swollen the next day. Other than that, my running is going well. After my race next weekend, I'm going to take 2 weeks off of running to let my knee heel.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Another running TT
On the Thursday run practice for TexasIron, we had another 3km track time trial. I ran it in 12:25 which is about 6:40/mile. When I ran this time trial the last time, I ran it in 12:48 so I cut off about 25 seconds in about 2 months. Not bad considering I'm not that good of a runner and I've just been doing base stuff instead of speed work. I will eventually become a decent runner!
10,000 yds last week & new bike
In the theme of recent swimming related posts, I swam about 10,000 yds last week. Nice! My swimming has come a long way recently and I've gotten a lot faster and I feel like my stroke is really good. Very smooth and relaxed. My shoulder was hurting at one point from too much swimming, but it's doing better now.
I bought a new bike. It's a 2004 Fuji Roubaix. One of the guys at work decided he was going to buy a decent road bike and start riding. Well, this guy is 6'2" and about 270 lbs. He rode it about 3 times and it has been sitting in his garage for a long time. I decided that it would be a good idea to get a beater bike because I didn't want to ride my Cervelo Dual in the rain and stuff like that. I asked him about selling his bike and he was all for it. We worked out a price and I now have a decent beater bike. I can ride it in the rain and take it traveling and not worry about screwing up my good bike. It's a Shimano 105 drivetrain and a 58cm aluminum frame. It's a little big for me, but I can change out the stem and move the saddle forward a bit and I should then be fine.
I took it out on my long rides the past 2 Saturdays. When I took it out the first weekend, I freaking wrecked it. Damnit. It wasn't bad. I scratched up the STI shifter caps slightly as well as the rear derailleur a little. It was very minor. I was just going along and I wasn't paying attention. I looked up and I was maybe 2" from the curb. I skidded along the curb for awhile and finally fell over. I have some minor road rash on my shin, but it wasn't bad at all.
This past weekend, I rode the bike for another 60 miles. I liked it and Lauren said that she thinks I'm faster on the Fuji than I am on the Cervelo. I think it is because I have the STI shifters that I can control my cadence much better. On the Cervelo, I just tend to keep it in the gear that I'm in and just hammer through tougher spots. On the Fuji, it's so much easier to shift to a different gear. I did notice that the top end of the Fuji is a lot lower than my Cervelo. I can spin out of gears much, much easier on the Fuji. That can be fixed though, but I'm happy with the bike.
Finally, my knee is jacked up again. I'm having the same pain that I was when I hurt my right knee over 2 years ago hiking. Not fun. I'm going to go to the doctor this week and get it checked out. I didn't have any catastrophic injuries, but this is keeping me from running distances. Since running is my weakest sport, I can't not run.
I bought a new bike. It's a 2004 Fuji Roubaix. One of the guys at work decided he was going to buy a decent road bike and start riding. Well, this guy is 6'2" and about 270 lbs. He rode it about 3 times and it has been sitting in his garage for a long time. I decided that it would be a good idea to get a beater bike because I didn't want to ride my Cervelo Dual in the rain and stuff like that. I asked him about selling his bike and he was all for it. We worked out a price and I now have a decent beater bike. I can ride it in the rain and take it traveling and not worry about screwing up my good bike. It's a Shimano 105 drivetrain and a 58cm aluminum frame. It's a little big for me, but I can change out the stem and move the saddle forward a bit and I should then be fine.
I took it out on my long rides the past 2 Saturdays. When I took it out the first weekend, I freaking wrecked it. Damnit. It wasn't bad. I scratched up the STI shifter caps slightly as well as the rear derailleur a little. It was very minor. I was just going along and I wasn't paying attention. I looked up and I was maybe 2" from the curb. I skidded along the curb for awhile and finally fell over. I have some minor road rash on my shin, but it wasn't bad at all.
This past weekend, I rode the bike for another 60 miles. I liked it and Lauren said that she thinks I'm faster on the Fuji than I am on the Cervelo. I think it is because I have the STI shifters that I can control my cadence much better. On the Cervelo, I just tend to keep it in the gear that I'm in and just hammer through tougher spots. On the Fuji, it's so much easier to shift to a different gear. I did notice that the top end of the Fuji is a lot lower than my Cervelo. I can spin out of gears much, much easier on the Fuji. That can be fixed though, but I'm happy with the bike.
Finally, my knee is jacked up again. I'm having the same pain that I was when I hurt my right knee over 2 years ago hiking. Not fun. I'm going to go to the doctor this week and get it checked out. I didn't have any catastrophic injuries, but this is keeping me from running distances. Since running is my weakest sport, I can't not run.
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
6500yds in 2 days
I did 3000yds yesterday and then I did about 3400 yds today. My left shoulder is bothering me slightly, but I feel pretty good overall.
My left knee has been bothering me lately. After taping it up, and some PT exercises, it seems to be doing a lot better. I have a run practice tomorrow night so I'll see how it feels after tomorrow.
My left knee has been bothering me lately. After taping it up, and some PT exercises, it seems to be doing a lot better. I have a run practice tomorrow night so I'll see how it feels after tomorrow.
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
3400yds
I swam 3400 yds this morning. Not bad. Recently, I found out that I'm capable of swimming 100yds in the 1:16 to 1:18 range. I don't know how I got so fast so quickly, but I'm not complaining. My training has been going well. I'm making most of my workouts so that's good. However, I'm not losing weight like I want to. I'll post about that shortly, though.
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
182.5!
I weighed in at 182.5 today! Yesterday I was at 184. I know there can be a lot of variation in daily weight. However, when I was at 184 yesterday, I had my body fat measured. I came in at 14.8% with a lean body mass of 156.8lbs. My trainer said I was 1mm out of 50 from going down a notch to 13.9% body fat, so I'm right on the edge. I've noticed that I have been getting skinnier lately. Also, that lean mass weight is the highest it's been in awhile. My body loves to put on muscle even though I'm having a 500+ calorie deficit per day and I'm doing a ton of cardio. I don't have the lean gene I guess, but I'm making progress towards getting down to 170lbs.
Monday, February 6, 2006
13.1 in 1:48:28
On January 29th, I ran in the 3M Half Marathon. It was my first half marathon. My coaches said it was OK to run in it if I felt fine. I've been having some PF and Achilles tendonitis problems recently. I ran the race with Lauren so after I got up at 4:30 that morning, I went to pick her up and then went to the race site. It was kind of cold and there was a long line for the bathrooms. We never warmed up and just got in the back of the pack. We never heard the gun go off but the crowd just started moving. The first mile was about 8:45, but that was to be expected because we had to run around all of the slow people and I was just trying to get into my stride. About mile 2.5, Lauren and I took a detour off the course to go pee, but quickly got back on course. We were running pretty well and after Mile 2, we were holding a pretty good pace. I felt fine and I had minor pains through my legs, but nothing major. At around Mile 10, I left Lauren. I had been going at about a 155bpm pace, while Lauren was much higher at around 178. I had more energy left in me, so I pushed myself the rest of the way. I finished really strong with a time of 1:40:28. Not bad for my first half mary. I averaged 7:40/mile. I'm pretty happy with my race and I'll see if I can improve at the Freescale Half Marathon in 2 weeks.
Monday, January 23, 2006
184.5!
I'm losing weight! It feels good. I'm down to 184.5 as of this morning so I should be under 184 by the end of the week. I've just really hammered down on eating crap and drinking alcohol.
Last week was a recovery week and it was needed. Today, I went out and ran an easy 40 minutes and I was much, much faster. I probably averaged 8:10min/mile instead of my usual 8:40min/mile.
It looks like I'll be swimming with Lauren a lot. We are both at about the same pace so it great pushing each other. It'll make both of us faster.
Last week was a recovery week and it was needed. Today, I went out and ran an easy 40 minutes and I was much, much faster. I probably averaged 8:10min/mile instead of my usual 8:40min/mile.
It looks like I'll be swimming with Lauren a lot. We are both at about the same pace so it great pushing each other. It'll make both of us faster.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
33 & 1/3yds
Well, I figured out how to take improve my swim times by 25%. Find out that the pool that you are swimming in is 33&1/3 yds, *NOT* 25yds like you thought.
On a side note, I swam a "real" 100yds in about 1:27, so I've gotten a lot faster when I thought I was way, way, way slower.
On a side note, I swam a "real" 100yds in about 1:27, so I've gotten a lot faster when I thought I was way, way, way slower.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Do you need more fiber in your diet?
Man, this will probably be way TMI, but I gotta post this. I usually eat a high fiber diet. My usual morning breakfast is the grandpa cereal, aka Kellogg's All-bran. Well, I've been feeling a little stopped up lately because I switched my breakfast cereal to something that is a little more appetizing, but contains a lot less fiber. I need to go back to All-bran for about a week to get the sewer system cleared out again.
PF Sucks
I think I'm starting to develop plantar fascitiis. If this is true, it really, really sucks. I'm seeing a PT later this week so we'll say what they say.
Weekend Workouts
This week, I only missed one workout not counting the weightlifting workouts. I missed a spin sesion on Tuesday. Everything else I did almost to completion. I'm proud! I don't lift weights because I hate it, but I need to start doing it again. I do get benefit from it.
This weekend, I biked 50 miles with the accompanied crotch soreness, and then ran about 5 miles off of the bike. Running off of the bike is very, very difficult right now, but I was still able to run 4.1 miles in about 34:00. Not too bad.
Today, I ran 9 miles and swam 1/2 miles. Nothing special, but the weather was great.
This weekend, I biked 50 miles with the accompanied crotch soreness, and then ran about 5 miles off of the bike. Running off of the bike is very, very difficult right now, but I was still able to run 4.1 miles in about 34:00. Not too bad.
Today, I ran 9 miles and swam 1/2 miles. Nothing special, but the weather was great.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Ugh
Not much is new. I've only missed one workout this week, but it's only 2 days into the week. I'm seriously going to try to make every workout this week. I don't see any problems why I can't do it with the exception of last night's bike trainer workout. Hell, I even got up and swam when it was just under 40 degrees this morning. Man, I love heated pools.
Biking is biking. Running is running. My swimming is sucking right now. On my swim this morning I was doing 50's in 60s and 100's in 2:05. Pitiful when I used to do them in 0:40 and 1:35 respectively. I'm getting massages every 3 weeks which is helping out with tight calves and muscle soreness greatly. It's completely worth it.
Biking is biking. Running is running. My swimming is sucking right now. On my swim this morning I was doing 50's in 60s and 100's in 2:05. Pitiful when I used to do them in 0:40 and 1:35 respectively. I'm getting massages every 3 weeks which is helping out with tight calves and muscle soreness greatly. It's completely worth it.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Weekend Update
This weekend, I biked about 35 miles and ran about 16.5 miles. I was also going to swim, but after my 11 mile, 90 minute run today, I was on the verge of bonking and it was freaking cold outside so I just went home. Now, I feel like total crap. Headache, I can't warm up, really, really tired. I feel like crap.
I'm getting hardcore about training again. On Friday, I swam when it was about 50 degrees outside. Saturady, I cycled when it was 39ish. I hate the cold so when I train in the cold, it's a big deal.
Things are coming along well with my training. I'm not getting that much faster, but I'm able to go longer and keep up my pace.
Man, this is going to be short because I feel like crap.
I'm getting hardcore about training again. On Friday, I swam when it was about 50 degrees outside. Saturady, I cycled when it was 39ish. I hate the cold so when I train in the cold, it's a big deal.
Things are coming along well with my training. I'm not getting that much faster, but I'm able to go longer and keep up my pace.
Man, this is going to be short because I feel like crap.
Monday, December 5, 2005
187!
My weight is down to 187! After battling the holidays, drinking, medications, and other negative outside influences, I've lost 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks. Hopefully, I can keep this up and be well under 185 by New Year's.
I've been sick the last few days. I'm still training, but not as much as I want to be training. I'm feeling better now and I did do 8.5 miles on the trails yesterday and 30 miles on the roads on Saturday. Tomorrow, I should be back to normal.
I've been sick the last few days. I'm still training, but not as much as I want to be training. I'm feeling better now and I did do 8.5 miles on the trails yesterday and 30 miles on the roads on Saturday. Tomorrow, I should be back to normal.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Over the hump!
I know my body decently well. Whenever I'm out of shape and I'm trying to get back into shape, the first month or so is difficult and painful. I'm not motivated and when I work out, it just hurts. It takes me awhile to get over the hump. Usually, to get over the hump, I have to just hammer it out, wear myself out, and make myself hurt. This past week, my friend Lauren came into town from Miami. On Wednesday, we rode 42 miles. Thursday, we got in 45 miles. Friday was a day of running 8.2 miles. I felt great and I needed it. It's a great feeling once you know that you can do anything physically. It feels good to be over the hump.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Monday (yes!) & Tuesday (no!)
Monday, I ran during lunch. 15min easy, 15min strong, 15min easy again. I also slightly dislocated my left patella again. I stepped on an acorn or something wrong and I felt my knee cap slide out of socket ever so slightly. This is the same knee where I've had two major dislocations before. Not fun. I also swam about 1200yds that night when I was completely lacking motivation.
Tuesday, I didn't do shit. I was tired from this past weekend so I went out, had a beer, came home and slept 9.5 hours. It was well needed.
I'm also not doing any weight lifting or physical therapy exercise per my coach and my physical therapist. I'm lazy. Not really, but I'm busy. I'm trying to get back into the total training mindset, but the house stuff is keeping me busy.
Tuesday, I didn't do shit. I was tired from this past weekend so I went out, had a beer, came home and slept 9.5 hours. It was well needed.
I'm also not doing any weight lifting or physical therapy exercise per my coach and my physical therapist. I'm lazy. Not really, but I'm busy. I'm trying to get back into the total training mindset, but the house stuff is keeping me busy.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
1600 yds
Swam 1600 yds today on a 8x200 interval with 30s rest. I was pushing myself a bit, but not too hard. Once again, I felt like I'm way out of shape. I may be hurting a little bit tomorrow, but that's a good thing.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Legs hurt!
Today's workout consisted of 90min on the spin bike and then a 20 minute run after that. I'm getting old because it seems to take me forever to get warmed up and willing to work out. My legs felt heavy. Today's bike workout had 3x10min intervals of a big gear followed by 5min spin between each interval. Man, those intervals were tough. I didn't even turn up the resistance that much and it felt like a lot. I ran afterwards and I kept having to stop because I felt exhausted. I checked my heart rate and it was under 160. I guess it's because I'm still not in that great of shape but I'm improving. It hurts though.
And my tendonitis in my foot is acting up again as well. Fun!
And my tendonitis in my foot is acting up again as well. Fun!
Monday, November 7, 2005
Core
I really need to work on core strength. I went for a run this morning and my body felt all wobbly. My back was hurting a bit as well. All of these are signs of a weakened core. I haven't been going to yoga or any core or PT exercises so this isn't a surprise. Starting today, more core exercises are in my routine from now on.
Sunday, November 6, 2005
It's official, I'm crazy (IMFL 2006)
I'm in for Ironman Florida in 2006. I have roughly 364 days to get ready for this. It's going to kick my ass, but it is going to be awesome.
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Stranded (or how I'm a dumbass)
I went for my usual Saturday taco ride with the ATC guys. I ended up riding with my friend Mark instead of the usual Dam Loop so we split off from the main group. We went riding for a bit and it was time for me to turn around. I wasn't going to ride with Mark the entire time because he was going for a 5 hour ride and all I needed was a 90 minute ride. I split off from Mark and went riding by myself.
After a few minutes, I realized that once again I've forgotten my blowout bag (this is an example of foreshadowing). I keep riding and I venture onto Manchaca. I'm flying because I'm catching a good tailwind. I take a left onto Slaughter because I want to head back to the ATC shop to get my car. I'm riding along and I see some glass in the road. I try to miss it but I can't. Immediately, I hear some hissing. I pull over and my back tire is going flat. No biggie. I forgot my blowout bag, but I'll just pull out my cell phone and call someone. Shit! No cell phone! Damnit! Well, I'm screwed now.
Well, the only thing that I can do now is to start walking and believe in the kindness of strangers. Luckily, I didn't have to wait for long. I started walking towards a gas station to try to bum a ride off of someone in a truck. I got to the gas station and fortunately I didn't have to wait long, but it wasn't a truck. A couple in an Acura came by and asked me for directions to some park. I told them that I didn't know where the park was, but I told them my story. They offered to take me to my house so that I could change my tire. I loaded up my bike in their trunk. I finally got home and changed my tire. Then, another dumbass thing happened. I was ready to head back to the ATC shop and I was getting on the bike. I fell over. I put my right cleat in first instead left as usual. I completely fell over. The second time that I've ever fallen over on my bike. Embarrassing.
I learned my lesson. Don't forget both my blowout bag and my cell phone when I go on bike rides.
After a few minutes, I realized that once again I've forgotten my blowout bag (this is an example of foreshadowing). I keep riding and I venture onto Manchaca. I'm flying because I'm catching a good tailwind. I take a left onto Slaughter because I want to head back to the ATC shop to get my car. I'm riding along and I see some glass in the road. I try to miss it but I can't. Immediately, I hear some hissing. I pull over and my back tire is going flat. No biggie. I forgot my blowout bag, but I'll just pull out my cell phone and call someone. Shit! No cell phone! Damnit! Well, I'm screwed now.
Well, the only thing that I can do now is to start walking and believe in the kindness of strangers. Luckily, I didn't have to wait for long. I started walking towards a gas station to try to bum a ride off of someone in a truck. I got to the gas station and fortunately I didn't have to wait long, but it wasn't a truck. A couple in an Acura came by and asked me for directions to some park. I told them that I didn't know where the park was, but I told them my story. They offered to take me to my house so that I could change my tire. I loaded up my bike in their trunk. I finally got home and changed my tire. Then, another dumbass thing happened. I was ready to head back to the ATC shop and I was getting on the bike. I fell over. I put my right cleat in first instead left as usual. I completely fell over. The second time that I've ever fallen over on my bike. Embarrassing.
I learned my lesson. Don't forget both my blowout bag and my cell phone when I go on bike rides.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
188.5
So, that's my weight as of 3 minutes ago: 188.5. I want to be under 180 by Thanksgiving (impossible) and I want a permanent weight of about 170. I think the best case scenario is that I get below 180 by Christmas. I'll keep trying though. I'm about to drastically cut back no my alcohol even more than I've done right now and that should help.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
IronStar Race Report: DNF
My first triathlon was the St. Anthony's Triathlon back in April. During my training, my coach, Matt, thought that I had made enough progress and that I could be ready for a half Ironman with the right training by the end of the year. Well, this got my thinking that I could actually do this. Matt has a coaching program on the side so after St. Anthony's, I decided to join Matt's coaching program for the half Ironman.
Then, there was a problem. After St. A's, I developed peroneal tendonitis in my right leg. Not fun. Because of the tendonitis, I had my first DNF at the CapTexTri in Austin in May. I did the swim, did the bike, came out of T2, and turned in my chip. It wasn't worth trying to run on it since every time I ran, it started to hurt. I started physical therapy in June for my tendonitis and kept at it until last week.
I started running again and I did the Dilloman sprint tri here in Austin and I actually won my age group with minimal running. My PT had correct a lot of stuff in my running form and I was much more efficient and faster with little training.
About the time that I started my PT was also about the time that I started my HIM training. It was going well, except for the fact that I couldn't run. If I'm healthy, I follow a training regiment pretty strictly, but since I was hurt, I half assed a lot of the training. I also had other things come up in my life. Work picked up and I was working 60 hours a week for a few weeks. I bought a house and moved into it. I got sick 4 times in 4 weeks. I travelled a lot and had people visit me in Austin. All of this happened between June when I started training and October when my race was going to happen. Between all of this, I had minimal training. I averaged working out 3 times a week over the last 4 months. Pathetic. Towards the last 3-4 weeks before the race, I got serious about training again and just did some LSD to keep my aerobic base up. Training had gone out the window, so I was in a mode to just do anything to get ready for the race. The longest that I had run since I was injured was 6 miles and the longest bike ride was about 30. Swimming was at most 2000 yards.
Right before the race, I wasn't worried about the swim or the bike. I've done that kind of mileage before and it wasn't an issue. However, I had never run 13.1 miles before, especially after being injured for so long. I had enough of an aerobic base to attempt the race without any problems, except for the run.
I went to the race with a bunch of my friends who've started a small training group called the Austin Tri Chicks. They are basically a bunch of TNT alumna that still are friends and compete in triathlons together. Most of them were doing relays this weekend, but I was going to attempt the full race and so was an ATC chick. All weekend, it was me and 7 girls. It was interesting. They were getting worried about saying stuff that would embarrass me because I know these girls pretty well and they can get pretty vulgar. Most guys would be freaked out and looking for a manly place like a sports bar when they hear comments like "How come my period always knows when I'm about to race","These shorts chafe my cooter", and "Hey, I can see your areola through your tri top!" For some reason, I prefer being around outspoken and vulgar chicks so this stuff didn't phase me at all.
I was really relaxed for this race. I hadn't been training for it well and I had no expectations for it. I was just going to do it and see what happened. I still carb loaded like a mofo though. I hate carb loading. I like to eat, but eating 5000 calories a day of healthy good is just ridiculous. I was sick of eating. And carb loading upsets my stomach a bit since my body has to process so much food. I was hydrating well except for the night before the race. We went to a friend's parents house to have pasta dinner and I ended up having almost an entire bottle of wine by myself. Yep, that is how seriously I was taking this race.
The morning of the race I wasn't that nervous, but my stomach was. I had 4 RP's that morning which is typical. I could never been without line of sight of a portapotty because of my stomach. It would just hit me and then I would have to run over uncomfortably and do my business. The problem with race morning was that it was cold. Freaking cold. I wore my race shoes that morning to the transition area and once the T-area closed, I had about 30 minutes before my wave went off. It was cold, the grass was wet, and I didn't bring a wetsuit; I was kinda freezing.
I was in the last wave of 4 that morning. I watched the first 2 waves go off and then I went into the water. It was warmer than the air outside and I didn't want to get out. I peed and then reluctantly got out to get ready for my wave. I saw some of the Austin Tri Chicks and they were loud and obnoxious cheering on everyone they knew. Those girls are awesome. I got in the back of my wave because I was just going to go slow and pace myself. The gun went off and I was so glad to be back into the warm water. I just swam my race. Nothing special. I swallowed a lot of water, but I just took it nice and easy. The swim wasn't that rough and I've come a long way since the near panic attack that I had at St. Anthony's. I averaged about 1:50/100m which isn't bad since I didn't have a wetsuit and and it was slightly faster than my pace at St. Anthony's. I'm capable of a lot better (only a 35:38 on race day), but training sucked. The only funny thing was the water level was really low and at one point in the middle of the lake, you could get up, stand, and actually run through the water. I did that for a needed rest.
Came out of the water and sprinted to T1. A lot of other people take a leisurely pace through the transition areas. Not me. I passed several people on the run from the beach to the T-area. Since I didn't have a wetsuit, no need in taking one off so my T1 time was really fast. About 1:23. My goal this weekend was to have some really fast transition times. For T1, I had the second fastest time out of 35 in my age group. I'm happy. I could shave even more time off if I could do the rubber band pedal trick and if I didn't have to shove a water bottle and Gu's into my tritop pockets. Also, if I race, I always wear my tritop with or without a wetsuit. That way, I don't have to worry about putting on a jersey on a wet body which saves a ton of time. Came out of T1 with my bike and once again, I passed a couple of people.
I got on the bike and this was my favorite part of the event: the bike. I love the bike. Running is a bigger stress relief for me, but cycling is much, much more fun. Mainly because I'm better at it and I like going fast. Problem this time was that I was wet and the air temp was maybe 60 degrees. I froze for the first 45 minutes of the bike. At one point, I offered a girl to trade a Gu for her arm warmers. She said no. I got on the bike and was going pretty fast. Most of the pavement on the first half of the bike was nice, smooth, and fast. I was moving at a pretty good pace. My heart rate was really high, but once I settled in, it lowered after about 15 minutes. My goal was to keep my heart rate on the flats in the 145-150 range which is Zone 1 for me. I did it most of the way, too. The scenery was great. We went through a national forest so it was shaded, not windy, and very pretty. I saw Kerri first and talked to her a bit and then kept going. I was pushing a cadence of around 95 at first which was using some muscles from my legs, but I felt good. I really tried to not push myself so hard since I knew and still had 50ish miles to go and an attempt at a 13.1 mile run.
The bike ride was fun. I was talking to people. I was thanking the volunteers. The scenery was awesome. A great ride. I was tucked away in my aero position. Gu eating and Gatorade drinking were going as roughly planned. I was feeling good except for my hip flexors and my left back muscles. I had to stretch out my hip flexors and my back every 20-30 minutes because they were hurting. I have never had my hip flexors hurt that much before. Weird. About 1:20 into my ride, I caught up to Christina. We chatted a bit and then we went through the first bottle exchange together. Now, here is one thing I wish this race and all races would do. They give you about 200 yard warning for the bottle exchange. I really, really wish they gave about a 1 mile warning so that you had time to finish up what's left in your aero bottle, empty your normal water bottle into your aero bottle, and do all that other stuff and be ready to toss the empties and collect new bottles. Just a note to all the race directors out there.
I left Christina once I got her singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Lepperd and continued my race. About 10 minutes later, I ran into Helen and talked to her for a bit as well. Both of her computers weren't working so she had no clue as to how far she had gone or how fast her pace was. I left her and kept going. At this point, I was starting to get tired. The course was a bunch of rolling hills and I like rollers. I like flats and rollers with short hills. This course was the latter. I usually attack hills, but since I'm a bigger guy, if I attack a long hill, it can destroy me. These hills were long enough so that I could feel satisfied by attacking hills, but they wouldn't wipe me out. There were a few hills that wiped me out, but not many. I was keeping an eye on my cadence and my heart rate very closely and I was regulating them well. I would actually rest my legs by going faster on the downhills by putting my bike in a very large gear and drop my cadence to about 80. I would be going faster, but resting my legs since I didn't have such a high cadence. It came to a point though that my legs were getting tired, though. To account for this, I had to up my cadence and not hammer on the pedals so much. I upped my cadence to over 100 and I was in the small chainring a lot of times. I still would attack on the hills, mainly to stretch out my hip flexors and to get out of the saddle, but I would do it in the small chainring. Even doing this, I was still flying by people. I finally caught up to Michael and Chris and I chatted with both of them for a bit.
I was nearing the end of the bike course and I had to take an assessment of how I felt. I felt fine. Well, mostly fine. Maybe I pushed myself a little too hard on the bike (2:48:16), but I knew my run was shot whether I took the bike slow or fast so I took it fast. My left hamstring, both my hip flexors, my left back, and my right knee were bothering me at this point. My knee concerned me the most because I've had a minor, but nagging injury in that knee for over 1.5 years now. I came into the resort and got my feet out of my shoes. I cruised into T2 and had another quick transition. This time, I was 3rd fastest, but I don't think I could have done much better. The most amount of time was spent putting my socks and shoes on. Not much I could change there. I was out of T2 in 1:13 and on the run course.
I felt fine, but I decided to walk a bit to calm down and really assess how I felt. Walking was fine and none of the problems on the bike were hurting now. However, my right calf was hurting. Guess what, it was my peroneal muscles. I walked a bit and tried running. As I ran, my calf got tighter and tighter. I stopped and stretched. Walked. Stretched. Ran. Calf tightens. Walked. Stretched. You get the picture. I was debating on what I should do. I wanted to run next week and this was going to be really, really tough for me to attempt 13.1 with so little run training. I made it about a mile and a half doing the stretch/walk/run/tighten thing over and over before I decided to end my race. I turned around and walked the 20 minutes back to the transition area. I saw Tiffany, Michael, Alexis, and Helen running out as I was walking in and I wished each of them good luck and to run for me since I couldn't run. I'll usually cheer people on, but I didn't say much to anyone walking back. I was extremely disappointed that I had to drop out. I knew it was the right decision considering my peroneals were hurting and I knew how much trouble I went through not being able to run before, but I wanted to run today. Luckily, I could look further than today, but it doesn't make it any easier.
I went back and hung out with a bunch of the Austin Tri Chicks and told them my story. I was really grumpy and didn't say much. It took me a couple of hours (and a few beers) before I was feeling chipper again. Then, I started looking on the bright side. Everyone else had a great race and Helen actually completed the entire thing. Christina, my semi-regular training partner, had an awesome bike and I knew she would do great, but she was really concerned about it. She was afraid Tiffany was going to kill her after Christina pulls in with a 4+ hour bike ride, but that team actually got 3rd place for the women's relay. Christina and I have been training together for a few months now and I've noticed that she has gotten a lot stronger on the bike during those months. She did great. Tiffany had a great run. Chris and Michael both said they had bad days, but they actually got to finish the race. My highlights were pretty good. I had a comfortable swim and a great bike considering how little that I trained for this. I kicked ass at transitions, 2nd and 3rd for T1 and T2 respectively, and I've come a long way on my transitions lately. I had fun all weekend and I enjoyed being out in the sun all day long.
Now that I'm writing this the next day, I'm not feeling that sore. I had some new and interesting and painful chafing in my crotch area, but that is expected. My peroneal tendonitis was throbbing this morning, but not bad. I think it should be fine. I'm still disappointed that I had to DNF my first half Ironman-distance race, but it was the smart decision. This just makes me that much more focused for Ironman Florida in 2006. I have 1 year and 2 weeks to get ready. In that time, I have to manange work, a new house, PT prereqs, and hopefully dating while starting a new training program that will probably take up 20+ hours of my time per week. It's crazy, but not everyone is willing to do crazy things and expects to succeed.
Then, there was a problem. After St. A's, I developed peroneal tendonitis in my right leg. Not fun. Because of the tendonitis, I had my first DNF at the CapTexTri in Austin in May. I did the swim, did the bike, came out of T2, and turned in my chip. It wasn't worth trying to run on it since every time I ran, it started to hurt. I started physical therapy in June for my tendonitis and kept at it until last week.
I started running again and I did the Dilloman sprint tri here in Austin and I actually won my age group with minimal running. My PT had correct a lot of stuff in my running form and I was much more efficient and faster with little training.
About the time that I started my PT was also about the time that I started my HIM training. It was going well, except for the fact that I couldn't run. If I'm healthy, I follow a training regiment pretty strictly, but since I was hurt, I half assed a lot of the training. I also had other things come up in my life. Work picked up and I was working 60 hours a week for a few weeks. I bought a house and moved into it. I got sick 4 times in 4 weeks. I travelled a lot and had people visit me in Austin. All of this happened between June when I started training and October when my race was going to happen. Between all of this, I had minimal training. I averaged working out 3 times a week over the last 4 months. Pathetic. Towards the last 3-4 weeks before the race, I got serious about training again and just did some LSD to keep my aerobic base up. Training had gone out the window, so I was in a mode to just do anything to get ready for the race. The longest that I had run since I was injured was 6 miles and the longest bike ride was about 30. Swimming was at most 2000 yards.
Right before the race, I wasn't worried about the swim or the bike. I've done that kind of mileage before and it wasn't an issue. However, I had never run 13.1 miles before, especially after being injured for so long. I had enough of an aerobic base to attempt the race without any problems, except for the run.
I went to the race with a bunch of my friends who've started a small training group called the Austin Tri Chicks. They are basically a bunch of TNT alumna that still are friends and compete in triathlons together. Most of them were doing relays this weekend, but I was going to attempt the full race and so was an ATC chick. All weekend, it was me and 7 girls. It was interesting. They were getting worried about saying stuff that would embarrass me because I know these girls pretty well and they can get pretty vulgar. Most guys would be freaked out and looking for a manly place like a sports bar when they hear comments like "How come my period always knows when I'm about to race","These shorts chafe my cooter", and "Hey, I can see your areola through your tri top!" For some reason, I prefer being around outspoken and vulgar chicks so this stuff didn't phase me at all.
I was really relaxed for this race. I hadn't been training for it well and I had no expectations for it. I was just going to do it and see what happened. I still carb loaded like a mofo though. I hate carb loading. I like to eat, but eating 5000 calories a day of healthy good is just ridiculous. I was sick of eating. And carb loading upsets my stomach a bit since my body has to process so much food. I was hydrating well except for the night before the race. We went to a friend's parents house to have pasta dinner and I ended up having almost an entire bottle of wine by myself. Yep, that is how seriously I was taking this race.
The morning of the race I wasn't that nervous, but my stomach was. I had 4 RP's that morning which is typical. I could never been without line of sight of a portapotty because of my stomach. It would just hit me and then I would have to run over uncomfortably and do my business. The problem with race morning was that it was cold. Freaking cold. I wore my race shoes that morning to the transition area and once the T-area closed, I had about 30 minutes before my wave went off. It was cold, the grass was wet, and I didn't bring a wetsuit; I was kinda freezing.
I was in the last wave of 4 that morning. I watched the first 2 waves go off and then I went into the water. It was warmer than the air outside and I didn't want to get out. I peed and then reluctantly got out to get ready for my wave. I saw some of the Austin Tri Chicks and they were loud and obnoxious cheering on everyone they knew. Those girls are awesome. I got in the back of my wave because I was just going to go slow and pace myself. The gun went off and I was so glad to be back into the warm water. I just swam my race. Nothing special. I swallowed a lot of water, but I just took it nice and easy. The swim wasn't that rough and I've come a long way since the near panic attack that I had at St. Anthony's. I averaged about 1:50/100m which isn't bad since I didn't have a wetsuit and and it was slightly faster than my pace at St. Anthony's. I'm capable of a lot better (only a 35:38 on race day), but training sucked. The only funny thing was the water level was really low and at one point in the middle of the lake, you could get up, stand, and actually run through the water. I did that for a needed rest.
Came out of the water and sprinted to T1. A lot of other people take a leisurely pace through the transition areas. Not me. I passed several people on the run from the beach to the T-area. Since I didn't have a wetsuit, no need in taking one off so my T1 time was really fast. About 1:23. My goal this weekend was to have some really fast transition times. For T1, I had the second fastest time out of 35 in my age group. I'm happy. I could shave even more time off if I could do the rubber band pedal trick and if I didn't have to shove a water bottle and Gu's into my tritop pockets. Also, if I race, I always wear my tritop with or without a wetsuit. That way, I don't have to worry about putting on a jersey on a wet body which saves a ton of time. Came out of T1 with my bike and once again, I passed a couple of people.
I got on the bike and this was my favorite part of the event: the bike. I love the bike. Running is a bigger stress relief for me, but cycling is much, much more fun. Mainly because I'm better at it and I like going fast. Problem this time was that I was wet and the air temp was maybe 60 degrees. I froze for the first 45 minutes of the bike. At one point, I offered a girl to trade a Gu for her arm warmers. She said no. I got on the bike and was going pretty fast. Most of the pavement on the first half of the bike was nice, smooth, and fast. I was moving at a pretty good pace. My heart rate was really high, but once I settled in, it lowered after about 15 minutes. My goal was to keep my heart rate on the flats in the 145-150 range which is Zone 1 for me. I did it most of the way, too. The scenery was great. We went through a national forest so it was shaded, not windy, and very pretty. I saw Kerri first and talked to her a bit and then kept going. I was pushing a cadence of around 95 at first which was using some muscles from my legs, but I felt good. I really tried to not push myself so hard since I knew and still had 50ish miles to go and an attempt at a 13.1 mile run.
The bike ride was fun. I was talking to people. I was thanking the volunteers. The scenery was awesome. A great ride. I was tucked away in my aero position. Gu eating and Gatorade drinking were going as roughly planned. I was feeling good except for my hip flexors and my left back muscles. I had to stretch out my hip flexors and my back every 20-30 minutes because they were hurting. I have never had my hip flexors hurt that much before. Weird. About 1:20 into my ride, I caught up to Christina. We chatted a bit and then we went through the first bottle exchange together. Now, here is one thing I wish this race and all races would do. They give you about 200 yard warning for the bottle exchange. I really, really wish they gave about a 1 mile warning so that you had time to finish up what's left in your aero bottle, empty your normal water bottle into your aero bottle, and do all that other stuff and be ready to toss the empties and collect new bottles. Just a note to all the race directors out there.
I left Christina once I got her singing "Pour Some Sugar On Me" by Def Lepperd and continued my race. About 10 minutes later, I ran into Helen and talked to her for a bit as well. Both of her computers weren't working so she had no clue as to how far she had gone or how fast her pace was. I left her and kept going. At this point, I was starting to get tired. The course was a bunch of rolling hills and I like rollers. I like flats and rollers with short hills. This course was the latter. I usually attack hills, but since I'm a bigger guy, if I attack a long hill, it can destroy me. These hills were long enough so that I could feel satisfied by attacking hills, but they wouldn't wipe me out. There were a few hills that wiped me out, but not many. I was keeping an eye on my cadence and my heart rate very closely and I was regulating them well. I would actually rest my legs by going faster on the downhills by putting my bike in a very large gear and drop my cadence to about 80. I would be going faster, but resting my legs since I didn't have such a high cadence. It came to a point though that my legs were getting tired, though. To account for this, I had to up my cadence and not hammer on the pedals so much. I upped my cadence to over 100 and I was in the small chainring a lot of times. I still would attack on the hills, mainly to stretch out my hip flexors and to get out of the saddle, but I would do it in the small chainring. Even doing this, I was still flying by people. I finally caught up to Michael and Chris and I chatted with both of them for a bit.
I was nearing the end of the bike course and I had to take an assessment of how I felt. I felt fine. Well, mostly fine. Maybe I pushed myself a little too hard on the bike (2:48:16), but I knew my run was shot whether I took the bike slow or fast so I took it fast. My left hamstring, both my hip flexors, my left back, and my right knee were bothering me at this point. My knee concerned me the most because I've had a minor, but nagging injury in that knee for over 1.5 years now. I came into the resort and got my feet out of my shoes. I cruised into T2 and had another quick transition. This time, I was 3rd fastest, but I don't think I could have done much better. The most amount of time was spent putting my socks and shoes on. Not much I could change there. I was out of T2 in 1:13 and on the run course.
I felt fine, but I decided to walk a bit to calm down and really assess how I felt. Walking was fine and none of the problems on the bike were hurting now. However, my right calf was hurting. Guess what, it was my peroneal muscles. I walked a bit and tried running. As I ran, my calf got tighter and tighter. I stopped and stretched. Walked. Stretched. Ran. Calf tightens. Walked. Stretched. You get the picture. I was debating on what I should do. I wanted to run next week and this was going to be really, really tough for me to attempt 13.1 with so little run training. I made it about a mile and a half doing the stretch/walk/run/tighten thing over and over before I decided to end my race. I turned around and walked the 20 minutes back to the transition area. I saw Tiffany, Michael, Alexis, and Helen running out as I was walking in and I wished each of them good luck and to run for me since I couldn't run. I'll usually cheer people on, but I didn't say much to anyone walking back. I was extremely disappointed that I had to drop out. I knew it was the right decision considering my peroneals were hurting and I knew how much trouble I went through not being able to run before, but I wanted to run today. Luckily, I could look further than today, but it doesn't make it any easier.
I went back and hung out with a bunch of the Austin Tri Chicks and told them my story. I was really grumpy and didn't say much. It took me a couple of hours (and a few beers) before I was feeling chipper again. Then, I started looking on the bright side. Everyone else had a great race and Helen actually completed the entire thing. Christina, my semi-regular training partner, had an awesome bike and I knew she would do great, but she was really concerned about it. She was afraid Tiffany was going to kill her after Christina pulls in with a 4+ hour bike ride, but that team actually got 3rd place for the women's relay. Christina and I have been training together for a few months now and I've noticed that she has gotten a lot stronger on the bike during those months. She did great. Tiffany had a great run. Chris and Michael both said they had bad days, but they actually got to finish the race. My highlights were pretty good. I had a comfortable swim and a great bike considering how little that I trained for this. I kicked ass at transitions, 2nd and 3rd for T1 and T2 respectively, and I've come a long way on my transitions lately. I had fun all weekend and I enjoyed being out in the sun all day long.
Now that I'm writing this the next day, I'm not feeling that sore. I had some new and interesting and painful chafing in my crotch area, but that is expected. My peroneal tendonitis was throbbing this morning, but not bad. I think it should be fine. I'm still disappointed that I had to DNF my first half Ironman-distance race, but it was the smart decision. This just makes me that much more focused for Ironman Florida in 2006. I have 1 year and 2 weeks to get ready. In that time, I have to manange work, a new house, PT prereqs, and hopefully dating while starting a new training program that will probably take up 20+ hours of my time per week. It's crazy, but not everyone is willing to do crazy things and expects to succeed.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
My bike is 1 year old!
One year ago, I bought my beautiful 2004 Cervelo Dual. This bke has done me well. I've put only 2000 miles on it in a year, but I like it. I do a lot of my training on spin bikes which makes the logistics of a bike workout much, much easier to deal with. Now that I'm in shape and I have a decent base, hopefully I can put in some longer rides on the weekends to rack up that mileage even more.
Also, I ran for about 49 minutes yesterday. At the pace I was going at, I was somewhere in the 5.5-6 mile range. That is the longest that I've run since I did St. Anthony's. Wow. I felt good though. It was at an easy pace and I wasn't pushing myself too hard. Hopefully this half Ironman in 13 days won't kill me.
Also, I ran for about 49 minutes yesterday. At the pace I was going at, I was somewhere in the 5.5-6 mile range. That is the longest that I've run since I did St. Anthony's. Wow. I felt good though. It was at an easy pace and I wasn't pushing myself too hard. Hopefully this half Ironman in 13 days won't kill me.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
4 RP's and 1st Place!
I have this thing before a race where I get really nervous. I mean, I eat a lot of fiber so I'm used to going #2 a lot, but race mornings are out of control. My stomach gets nervous and I have to empty the gas tank often. This morning for the Dilloman triathlon, I have 4 RP's (race poos). My record is 5 before the Cap Tex triathlon, but 4 is a usual number.
So, today's race was interesting. I was expecting to finish in 5th-10th place compared to last year's results. I had a lot of stuff going against me. I didn't get much sleep the night before the race or even the entire week before the race since I was moving. I've been drinking beer and eating like crap all week. I was tired from moving and I hadn't worked out in a week. I've been injured and I'm currently running only 4 miles at a Zone 1 pace since I got hurt in April. I was out drinking the night before the race and I loaded up on fish and chips.
I won my age group.
It was awesome. I had a decent swim and I passed a lot of people. Whenever I sighted, I didn't see many people in front of me. I came out of the water and went into T1 at a fairly leisurely pace. I got on the bike and it wasn't pretty. It started sprinkling all morning and by the time I was 5 minutes into the bike, it was hard to see. I kept going and I was actually very kamikaze. I figured that the chances of me crashing riding cautiously were still pretty high, so I just went nuts. I was going fast but still staying careful. I kept my heart rate up as well. The roads were really wet, but they weren't that slick. The first lap had few people on the course, but the second lap had a lot more people. I was getting tired so I was slower plus I was slower with people in the way as well. I went into T2 feeling like I had a good bike. I went through T2 and I heard that there were only 8 men and 1 woman on the run leg already. I was the 9th man. I went out on the run and I felt like crap. The usual post bike feeling. It took me about 6-7 minutes before I started feeling better. I passed the 1 Mile marker and checked my time. I was on a 7:45 pace! I was shocked. Considering my fitness levels and my injury status, I was flying! I kept going and at Mile 2, I was still on the same pace. At one water station, the people said there were only 6 guys ahead of us. I was running with this one guy and we were going back and forth a bit, but he finally pulled ahead. That put me in 8th place. I walked a few times during the race. I just had to stop and get my heart rate down. At one point, I had to pee, but I didn't want to stop. There was no one around so I just whipped it out, kept walking, and peed. At Mile 3, I was still on pace for 7:45 miles. There was no one behind me and the people in front were too far away so I didn't have to battle for any spots at the moment. I went ahead and sprinted to the end. I crossed the line with a time of 1:19:06.
After that, I was pretty sure that I was the 8th person to finish. I kept looking around and all I kept seeing were guys in other age groups. There was no one else in my age group. That was when I realized that I might have won my age group. I grabbed a few beers and some food and talked to people. About 60 minutes later, the unofficial results were posted and I had come in first in my age group! I couldn't believe it. I stuck around to get my award which was a stuffed armadillo. The weather was nasty since it was at least sprinkling pretty much all day and it was almost an outright downpour a couple of times.
Now, I'm back at home and eating pizza as my reward. I'm tired and I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed.
So, today's race was interesting. I was expecting to finish in 5th-10th place compared to last year's results. I had a lot of stuff going against me. I didn't get much sleep the night before the race or even the entire week before the race since I was moving. I've been drinking beer and eating like crap all week. I was tired from moving and I hadn't worked out in a week. I've been injured and I'm currently running only 4 miles at a Zone 1 pace since I got hurt in April. I was out drinking the night before the race and I loaded up on fish and chips.
I won my age group.
It was awesome. I had a decent swim and I passed a lot of people. Whenever I sighted, I didn't see many people in front of me. I came out of the water and went into T1 at a fairly leisurely pace. I got on the bike and it wasn't pretty. It started sprinkling all morning and by the time I was 5 minutes into the bike, it was hard to see. I kept going and I was actually very kamikaze. I figured that the chances of me crashing riding cautiously were still pretty high, so I just went nuts. I was going fast but still staying careful. I kept my heart rate up as well. The roads were really wet, but they weren't that slick. The first lap had few people on the course, but the second lap had a lot more people. I was getting tired so I was slower plus I was slower with people in the way as well. I went into T2 feeling like I had a good bike. I went through T2 and I heard that there were only 8 men and 1 woman on the run leg already. I was the 9th man. I went out on the run and I felt like crap. The usual post bike feeling. It took me about 6-7 minutes before I started feeling better. I passed the 1 Mile marker and checked my time. I was on a 7:45 pace! I was shocked. Considering my fitness levels and my injury status, I was flying! I kept going and at Mile 2, I was still on the same pace. At one water station, the people said there were only 6 guys ahead of us. I was running with this one guy and we were going back and forth a bit, but he finally pulled ahead. That put me in 8th place. I walked a few times during the race. I just had to stop and get my heart rate down. At one point, I had to pee, but I didn't want to stop. There was no one around so I just whipped it out, kept walking, and peed. At Mile 3, I was still on pace for 7:45 miles. There was no one behind me and the people in front were too far away so I didn't have to battle for any spots at the moment. I went ahead and sprinted to the end. I crossed the line with a time of 1:19:06.
After that, I was pretty sure that I was the 8th person to finish. I kept looking around and all I kept seeing were guys in other age groups. There was no one else in my age group. That was when I realized that I might have won my age group. I grabbed a few beers and some food and talked to people. About 60 minutes later, the unofficial results were posted and I had come in first in my age group! I couldn't believe it. I stuck around to get my award which was a stuffed armadillo. The weather was nasty since it was at least sprinkling pretty much all day and it was almost an outright downpour a couple of times.
Now, I'm back at home and eating pizza as my reward. I'm tired and I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed.
Sunday, September 4, 2005
Recent Update
Well, here is an update over the last few weeks. I'm not training nearly as much as I should. Life is getting in the way. Work is up and down. I just bought a house which is taking up a lot of time. I went to Atlanta this past weekend and travelling always throws off my schedule for a few days.
I rode yesterday and today. Yesterday was the first day that I rode in almost 2 weeks. I just got my bike back from my LBS and had a tuneup done on it. It was shifting like butter. It was great. Today, I dropped from my group to go water the bushes. After I finished, I got on my horse to catch up with my riding group. I was hammering with my head down when I hit something in the road. Nothing happened, but after about a minute, I heard a hiss. Damnit, I flatted. I pulled over and changed the flat. I had my bike upright resting on the end of the fork. Some cars drove by and blew my bike over. After I got the flat changed, I started riding and my derailleur was fucked up. Goddamnit. I've had a freshly tuned up bike for less than 2 days and now my derailleur is out of whack. Fuck.
I also jacked up my shoulder in my sleep the other night. We'll see how that is swimming tomorrow.
I rode yesterday and today. Yesterday was the first day that I rode in almost 2 weeks. I just got my bike back from my LBS and had a tuneup done on it. It was shifting like butter. It was great. Today, I dropped from my group to go water the bushes. After I finished, I got on my horse to catch up with my riding group. I was hammering with my head down when I hit something in the road. Nothing happened, but after about a minute, I heard a hiss. Damnit, I flatted. I pulled over and changed the flat. I had my bike upright resting on the end of the fork. Some cars drove by and blew my bike over. After I got the flat changed, I started riding and my derailleur was fucked up. Goddamnit. I've had a freshly tuned up bike for less than 2 days and now my derailleur is out of whack. Fuck.
I also jacked up my shoulder in my sleep the other night. We'll see how that is swimming tomorrow.
Monday, August 8, 2005
Swimming, peeing, and flatting
So, recently I perfected the art of peeing while swimming. Note, I didn't say peeing in the water, but actually peeing while taking strokes to propel myself through the water. It was weird because you have to relax and let go while still concentrating on not sinking. Difficult, but doable.
I went riding yesterday and towards the end of the ride, I had my first flat ever on a ride. Took me 10 months, but I had my first one. Luckily, it was a very, very slow leak and I was less than half a mile from the car so I just gingerly rode to the car. I still had some air left when I got to the car, but not much.
I went riding yesterday and towards the end of the ride, I had my first flat ever on a ride. Took me 10 months, but I had my first one. Luckily, it was a very, very slow leak and I was less than half a mile from the car so I just gingerly rode to the car. I still had some air left when I got to the car, but not much.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
I'm back, kinda!
Last Thursday: My first day training again. I went on a slower ride that lasted about an hour. I got rained on towards the end, but it wasn't a bad ride. Slow and easy to ease back into training.
Last Friday: Swam about 2000 yds at Deep Eddy. The water was green and nasty and I was having major goggle malfunctions. I felt tired.
Saturday: I was still trying to ease back into training so I went out and did a 60 mile ride. Total time was about 3:25 which isn't bad. I wasn't trying to push myself, but I did spike my heart rate quite a few times because I was fairly out of shape. It was a good ride though. I went home and had Chinese food and ice cream.
Sunday: Did a 40min ride followed by 28min of aquajogging.
Monday: Did an early morning swim workout of about 2500 yds at Stacy Pool. It was my first time at Stacy and it is a decent pool. I started having sinus problems later in the day, though. I think I might have got something from either Barton Springs on Sunday or Stacy on Monday.
Tuesday: I did some intervals and hill stuff on the spin bike at the gym. It's such a good feeling to have ridden over 15 miles on the bike by 8am. It was about 45min total and it hurt. I'm having worse sinus problems today, but as long as it stays above my neck, I should be fine. Tomorrow is a rest day so I will try to get 9 hours of sleep tonight. I may do yoga today and do some more aquajogging, but we'll see how my schedule works out today.
Last Friday: Swam about 2000 yds at Deep Eddy. The water was green and nasty and I was having major goggle malfunctions. I felt tired.
Saturday: I was still trying to ease back into training so I went out and did a 60 mile ride. Total time was about 3:25 which isn't bad. I wasn't trying to push myself, but I did spike my heart rate quite a few times because I was fairly out of shape. It was a good ride though. I went home and had Chinese food and ice cream.
Sunday: Did a 40min ride followed by 28min of aquajogging.
Monday: Did an early morning swim workout of about 2500 yds at Stacy Pool. It was my first time at Stacy and it is a decent pool. I started having sinus problems later in the day, though. I think I might have got something from either Barton Springs on Sunday or Stacy on Monday.
Tuesday: I did some intervals and hill stuff on the spin bike at the gym. It's such a good feeling to have ridden over 15 miles on the bike by 8am. It was about 45min total and it hurt. I'm having worse sinus problems today, but as long as it stays above my neck, I should be fine. Tomorrow is a rest day so I will try to get 9 hours of sleep tonight. I may do yoga today and do some more aquajogging, but we'll see how my schedule works out today.
Thursday, July 7, 2005
I'm sick
I've been sick for awhile now. I've actually been resting on doctor's orders and I'm going for my first exercise session in over 2 weeks tonight. We'll see how I feel. I'm pissed that I have had to be off this long. I don't like taking time off from working out because I get fat and lazy. Well not anymore!
Monday, June 20, 2005
That's crap!
So, this weekend was crap for me. I did a great hard ride with Texas Iron on Thursday. After Thursday, I didn't do crap all weekend long and now I feel fat and lazy. This weekend was really, really hot and I had a lot of other stuff going on as well. I was suppose to get a couple of long workouts in and I didn't get anything done more than physical therapy. I volunteered for the Subaru Urban Assault Race which was fun, but it was hot as well.
I had a crappy training weekend so I thought that I would get a good swim in before work today. That didn't happen. I just couldn't get comfortable during the swim. My googles kept sucking in water and fogging up. It just wasn't fun so my 1.5 mile workout was cut down to 5/8 of a mile because I was having a crappy swim.
This is a good way to start off the week.
I had a crappy training weekend so I thought that I would get a good swim in before work today. That didn't happen. I just couldn't get comfortable during the swim. My googles kept sucking in water and fogging up. It just wasn't fun so my 1.5 mile workout was cut down to 5/8 of a mile because I was having a crappy swim.
This is a good way to start off the week.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
I'm an angel!
Today, I volunteered for the Danskin Triathlon which is an all-female triathlon series across the nation. I volunteered to be a "swim angel" which is someone who is out in the water with a noodle or two. If a race participant is having problems, I give them the noodle so they can rest or they can swim with it if they want to. I would much, much rather be doing this than being on the bike course or guarding the transition area. So, I was a swim angle.
Man, it was a blast, but it kicked my ass. The course was only 750m, but I ended up swimming it 3 times. The first time, I was beat. I had 4 people that I was watching and I kept swimming between them making sure that they were OK. Back and forth. Back and forth. After that lap, I went back to the start and did another lap. This time, it went much quicker and I wasn't as tired. One problem was that one of the turn buoys started to wander off so it made that leg of the swim a little longer before they captured the buoy again. The third leg was really tiring as well, but it was good. I enjoyed it.
Chris who is the husband of one of my TNT teammates was out there with me. Both of us didn't expend how hard this would be. We are both decent swimmers and are used to swimming fairly fast. We are not used to treading water for 2 and a half hours. Luckily, I wore my wetsuit so I had some buoyancy. If I got tired, I flipped on my back and stayed there for a bit. One thing I noticed though was how strong my kick is getting. It was good practicing Tarzan swimming and doing some sighting as well. It was really different being out there and not participating and encouraging others to do well. I should be much, much more calm when I race again.
So, I had a really good time today.
Also, my toenail is coming off so I will get some pictures of it soon and post those. They should be yummy.
Man, it was a blast, but it kicked my ass. The course was only 750m, but I ended up swimming it 3 times. The first time, I was beat. I had 4 people that I was watching and I kept swimming between them making sure that they were OK. Back and forth. Back and forth. After that lap, I went back to the start and did another lap. This time, it went much quicker and I wasn't as tired. One problem was that one of the turn buoys started to wander off so it made that leg of the swim a little longer before they captured the buoy again. The third leg was really tiring as well, but it was good. I enjoyed it.
Chris who is the husband of one of my TNT teammates was out there with me. Both of us didn't expend how hard this would be. We are both decent swimmers and are used to swimming fairly fast. We are not used to treading water for 2 and a half hours. Luckily, I wore my wetsuit so I had some buoyancy. If I got tired, I flipped on my back and stayed there for a bit. One thing I noticed though was how strong my kick is getting. It was good practicing Tarzan swimming and doing some sighting as well. It was really different being out there and not participating and encouraging others to do well. I should be much, much more calm when I race again.
So, I had a really good time today.
Also, my toenail is coming off so I will get some pictures of it soon and post those. They should be yummy.
Thursday, June 9, 2005
That hurt and was a first!
I was swimming with my TNT team yesterday in the pool. I was in a lane by myself minding my own business. I felt something on the back of my head (I wasn't wearing a swim cap). It hurt worse. It got worse and worse. Now, it really freaking hurt. What the hell! I actually had to get out of the pool because it bothered me that much. Apparently, I was stung by a bee or wasp on the back of my freaking head while swimming. That sucked. Now, I have a small, itchy spot on the back of my head. Well, that's a first for me.
Monday, June 6, 2005
Shiner Bash Race Report Posted
I finally posted my race report from the Shiner Bash. Here it is:
http://erichollins.net/2005shiner_bash.php
It was a good ride and I felt good when I really pushed myself the last 20 miles or so. I will have my race report from the CapTexTri soon.
http://erichollins.net/2005shiner_bash.php
It was a good ride and I felt good when I really pushed myself the last 20 miles or so. I will have my race report from the CapTexTri soon.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Today's ride
Well, I rode today. Not really. I got on a spin bike and went at it for about 70 minutes. It was shorter than my planned workout because I went out drinking last night, went to bed late, and got up late this morning. Oh well. I feel so much better throughout the day when I work out in the mornings. I have to start doing it more ofter. Screw coming into work early!
Sunday, May 8, 2005
Race report
BTW, here is my race report from St. Anthony's.
Thanks.
St. Anthony's Race Report
I still can't describe how this event was for me.
Thanks.
St. Anthony's Race Report
I still can't describe how this event was for me.
Another 50+ mile ride & foot problems
Yesterday, I rode another 50+ mile ride. I was chaffed at the end. It sucked. I need to find some better cycling shorts because my tri shorts with the thin little pad are much more comfortable than my cycling shorts.
For my ride, I was hungover, sleepy, dehydrated, and malnurished. I still rode 52 miles. I was feeling pretty crappy at one point and Matt and I stopped at a gas station. We got some fluid and I got some calories in the form of a rice crispy treat and I felt a lot better afterwards. So, I need to bring more calories on longer rides and not drink the night before. The ride was fine. For the 3 hours that we rode, my heart rate averaged 129bpm. It wasn't a hard workout by any means; I just wanted to get some distance in.
I am having foot problems. I have an inflammed peroneus tendon in my foot and I can't run and I have to walk with a boot. This sucks since I have a race in 3 weeks. I have been trying to keep up with my training since St. Anthony's, but it's been tough. I have been pretty good with the swim and the bike, but on days when I'm suppose to run, I don't. I need to fix that and hopefully I will do that this week.
For my ride, I was hungover, sleepy, dehydrated, and malnurished. I still rode 52 miles. I was feeling pretty crappy at one point and Matt and I stopped at a gas station. We got some fluid and I got some calories in the form of a rice crispy treat and I felt a lot better afterwards. So, I need to bring more calories on longer rides and not drink the night before. The ride was fine. For the 3 hours that we rode, my heart rate averaged 129bpm. It wasn't a hard workout by any means; I just wanted to get some distance in.
I am having foot problems. I have an inflammed peroneus tendon in my foot and I can't run and I have to walk with a boot. This sucks since I have a race in 3 weeks. I have been trying to keep up with my training since St. Anthony's, but it's been tough. I have been pretty good with the swim and the bike, but on days when I'm suppose to run, I don't. I need to fix that and hopefully I will do that this week.
Sunday, May 1, 2005
50+ miles and 50+ mph
Today was a good day. I rode for the first time since my triathlon last Sunday. There were two memorable things today. I rode over 50 miles. My cycling computer was acting funny and it didn't start working until we were about 50 minutes into the ride. After that, we had ridden about 40 miles. So, overall, we rode over 50 miles. Also, I send a new personal speed record. I hit 50.5mph going down a hill today. It was freaking scary as hell yet exhilarating at the same time. My last speed record was 43.2mph so this is quite a jump. I don't know if I ever want to do it again.
On a side note, I hurt my foot. I don't know whether it was from my triathlon with a time of 2:24:56 or the fact that I went drunken dancing for 7 hours that night, I hurt my foot. It appears that I have an inflamed peroneus tendon in my foot. I'm in a boot which won't be off for about 2 weeks. We will see if I can run for America's triathlon in 4 weeks.
On a side note, I hurt my foot. I don't know whether it was from my triathlon with a time of 2:24:56 or the fact that I went drunken dancing for 7 hours that night, I hurt my foot. It appears that I have an inflamed peroneus tendon in my foot. I'm in a boot which won't be off for about 2 weeks. We will see if I can run for America's triathlon in 4 weeks.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
2:24:56
My goal: 2:30:00
My official time: 2:24:56
Results:
Swim: 28:32 (42nd, 1:54min/100m pace)
T1: 1:54
Bike: 1:04:50 (17th, 23mph pace)
T2: 1:29
Run: 48:13 (55th, 7:47min/mile pace)
I finished 27th out of 134 in my age group and 346th overall out of about 3500 participants.
Overall, I had a great race. I freaked out during the swim, but I ended up not having that bad of a swim. I kicked ass on the bike and I did better than expected on the run. A full race report will be on my website shortly.
My official time: 2:24:56
Results:
Swim: 28:32 (42nd, 1:54min/100m pace)
T1: 1:54
Bike: 1:04:50 (17th, 23mph pace)
T2: 1:29
Run: 48:13 (55th, 7:47min/mile pace)
I finished 27th out of 134 in my age group and 346th overall out of about 3500 participants.
Overall, I had a great race. I freaked out during the swim, but I ended up not having that bad of a swim. I kicked ass on the bike and I did better than expected on the run. A full race report will be on my website shortly.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
2 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes
I have that much time until my swim wave starts for my race, St. Anthony's Triathlon. I can't wait, except for the fact that I have had major sleep problems all week long. That's fun!
Sunday, April 17, 2005
7 More Days
I have 7 days until my race. Actually, I have roughly 6 days, 12 hours, and 50 minutes from this posting before my swim wave starts. I'll just round up to 7.
I swam this morning at Barton Springs in my tri suit and wetsuit. It was my final wetsuit test before St. Anthony's. Man, my swimming has improved a lot recently. I was able to swim a mile in 28:27 today. My previous best was about 31:25. A 28:27 swim time will put in at about 26:30 for a 1500m swim, but we will see if I'm capable of going that fast in the ocean in a pack of people.
I went riding yesterday. My bike skills when cornering improved dramatically yesterday. I kept getting coaching about how to take my turns more aggressively. I was told to keep my inside arm straight and my outside arm bent and that my bike will be at a steep angle. Also, to keep pedaling through the turn. Well, I did all of this and I kept finding the cornering clearance of either my shoes or my pedals. So, I guess I was doing it right. On the ride, I averaged about 21mph for almost an hour. I was really slowed down because I had to slow and stop for traffic lights and stop signs. I also had a couple of hills which Florida doesn't have. I keep hearing that the race course at St. Anthony's is flat and fast, but has some turns. I am hoping to keep an average speed of 22-23mph. I like going fast, but let's see if I have legs to run afterwards.
I swam this morning at Barton Springs in my tri suit and wetsuit. It was my final wetsuit test before St. Anthony's. Man, my swimming has improved a lot recently. I was able to swim a mile in 28:27 today. My previous best was about 31:25. A 28:27 swim time will put in at about 26:30 for a 1500m swim, but we will see if I'm capable of going that fast in the ocean in a pack of people.
I went riding yesterday. My bike skills when cornering improved dramatically yesterday. I kept getting coaching about how to take my turns more aggressively. I was told to keep my inside arm straight and my outside arm bent and that my bike will be at a steep angle. Also, to keep pedaling through the turn. Well, I did all of this and I kept finding the cornering clearance of either my shoes or my pedals. So, I guess I was doing it right. On the ride, I averaged about 21mph for almost an hour. I was really slowed down because I had to slow and stop for traffic lights and stop signs. I also had a couple of hills which Florida doesn't have. I keep hearing that the race course at St. Anthony's is flat and fast, but has some turns. I am hoping to keep an average speed of 22-23mph. I like going fast, but let's see if I have legs to run afterwards.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
I Will Post One Of These Someday
Now, this is an awesome race report. I hope to post one of these from an IM
distance event someday. Hopefully, more than one of them. I will be
posting my race report for St. Anthony's shortly after my race in 11 days.
distance event someday. Hopefully, more than one of them. I will be
posting my race report for St. Anthony's shortly after my race in 11 days.
Sunday, April 10, 2005
7:40 & Yoga
My workout today was suppose to be 10M Z1, 45M race pace, and 5M Z1. I stuck to it pretty closely, except that I had an 8M cooldown instead of 5M. Well, I ended up pushing myself really hard. Over the course of 1:02:57, I ran 8.2 miles which is two loops around Town Lake. Over the entire distance, I averaged 7:40min/mile. For the first 4.1 miles, I averaged 7:25min/mile which is faster than my college best pace of 7:31min/mile. In college, my heart rate for that run was 180+ for the last 5 minutes. Now, my heart rate didn't get over 170 except for the hills. I am now running faster than I did in college and my heart rate is lower. I'm not fast compared to fast runners, but this is freaking fast for me. Hopefully I can pull out sub-8:00min/mile times for St. Anthony's.
After running today, I went to yoga. As usual, yoga rocked and I feel much, much more relaxed and loose now. But it had it's price. Doing yoga after running today was especially painful since I hurt from running. My knees were sore, but I feel better now.
Overall, I considered that I had a freaking great workout today.
After running today, I went to yoga. As usual, yoga rocked and I feel much, much more relaxed and loose now. But it had it's price. Doing yoga after running today was especially painful since I hurt from running. My knees were sore, but I feel better now.
Overall, I considered that I had a freaking great workout today.
Saturday, April 9, 2005
Bricks hurt!
Went out for a 90min ride today with my TNT group. Then we did about a 20 minute brick (a brick is a workout where you ride a bike and then immediately start running) after that. It was fun, but it hurt. We did some good hills and I rode on virgin (to me) roads which is always cool. Great scenery. Great hills. I feel so freaking good after working out. Makes the rest of my day. I can't wait until after my triathlon so that I can start doing some 50+ mile bike rides.
Thursday, April 7, 2005
Swimming in the abyss
So, yesterday I got up at 5am to be swimming in Barton Springs at 5:30am. It was totally dark at that time of the morning. I started swimming. It was weird swimming when it was dark. I would look up to site where I was going and I couldn't see anything. I would swim and look down and I couldn't see anything. It felt like I was swimming in the abyss of outer space. Really weird.
I rode on the spin bikes at the gym for a bit on Tuesday. My quads are always on fire when I start biking. I hate that feeling.
I went for a good run today. I thought I was running really fast, but I don't know for sure because I lost track of the laps. If I ran 5 laps, I ran an average of 7:05min/mile. If I ran 4 laps, I ran an average of 8:35min/mile. I think 7:05 might have been a little fast.
I rode on the spin bikes at the gym for a bit on Tuesday. My quads are always on fire when I start biking. I hate that feeling.
I went for a good run today. I thought I was running really fast, but I don't know for sure because I lost track of the laps. If I ran 5 laps, I ran an average of 7:05min/mile. If I ran 4 laps, I ran an average of 8:35min/mile. I think 7:05 might have been a little fast.
Sunday, April 3, 2005
How to spend $2000: new bike or Doug Stern
So, I am now saving up for a house among paying down credit card bills and the such. Now, I am interesting in putting my money towards something else that I don't really need, but is a good thing for me as an athlete. A want either a new road bike such as a Felt F2C or a training vacation to Curacao, Netherland Antilles in January 2006 with Doug Stern. I want the road bike so that I can race in road cycling races and go on longer rides, but I just bought a 2004 Cervelo Dual 6 months ago which isn't exactly cheap. I could also get a used high end road bike and be perfectly happy with it.
However, if I go on the training vacation, I have the potential to greatly improve my performance as an athlete. This would be great since I am preparing to complete my first Ironman at the end of 2006. It would also make me insane. Most people's idea of an ideal vacation is sitting on the beach sitting mai tais for a week doing nothing. My idea of an ideal vacation is going to the beach and not sipping mai tais, but instead going on a 2-mile open water swim in the ocean and 60-mile bike rides in the same day.
Am I crazy?
However, if I go on the training vacation, I have the potential to greatly improve my performance as an athlete. This would be great since I am preparing to complete my first Ironman at the end of 2006. It would also make me insane. Most people's idea of an ideal vacation is sitting on the beach sitting mai tais for a week doing nothing. My idea of an ideal vacation is going to the beach and not sipping mai tais, but instead going on a 2-mile open water swim in the ocean and 60-mile bike rides in the same day.
Am I crazy?
Practice Tri
For my Team In Training practice yesterday, we had a practice triathlon. It was even shorter than a sprint distance, but it was just practice to get us used to transitions and stuff like that. It was freaking awesome. I feel really comfortable in open water now. My mom has a fear of water when she can't touch the bottom and I developed that fear slightly when I found out that Mommy is also afraid of it when I was 5 years old. Now, I have no problems with open water swimming.
My T1 transition went pretty smoothly, I felt. I could get better at getting the wetsuit off, but I am not bad at it. I don't do the cool thing of having my cycling shoes attached to the pedals, but I may try it out next weekend. I also think I hurt my shoulder when I tried to get out of my wetsuit. I'm a dumbass. My T2 completely sucked, though. When I went to dismount from the bike, I took my shoes off instead of taking my feet out of the shoes. Then, I had trouble getting my socks on my wet feet. The bunched up and if I tried to run with them like that, it was going to cause major problems. So, I decided to take a few extra seconds to fix my socks by sitting on the ground. Well, my calf cramped up. Twice. That really blew. I started the run with a cramping calf, but it finally worked itself out. My calf is sore today. Also, I had cramps in other places. Sometimes I get a stitch in my right side when I run really fast. Yesterday, I had cramps in my lower right side, my left side, as well as my calf. I was in bad shape.
Overall, it went well. I felt like I was going to puke afterwards, but I was fine 30 seconds later.
Today, I rode for about 90 minutes with Helen and Spencer. It was a great day outside. I didn't get to ride as fast as I wanted to, but I tried to get sprints in whenever I could. It's difficult being at a level completely above your training group.
My T1 transition went pretty smoothly, I felt. I could get better at getting the wetsuit off, but I am not bad at it. I don't do the cool thing of having my cycling shoes attached to the pedals, but I may try it out next weekend. I also think I hurt my shoulder when I tried to get out of my wetsuit. I'm a dumbass. My T2 completely sucked, though. When I went to dismount from the bike, I took my shoes off instead of taking my feet out of the shoes. Then, I had trouble getting my socks on my wet feet. The bunched up and if I tried to run with them like that, it was going to cause major problems. So, I decided to take a few extra seconds to fix my socks by sitting on the ground. Well, my calf cramped up. Twice. That really blew. I started the run with a cramping calf, but it finally worked itself out. My calf is sore today. Also, I had cramps in other places. Sometimes I get a stitch in my right side when I run really fast. Yesterday, I had cramps in my lower right side, my left side, as well as my calf. I was in bad shape.
Overall, it went well. I felt like I was going to puke afterwards, but I was fine 30 seconds later.
Today, I rode for about 90 minutes with Helen and Spencer. It was a great day outside. I didn't get to ride as fast as I wanted to, but I tried to get sprints in whenever I could. It's difficult being at a level completely above your training group.
Friday, April 1, 2005
Weekly Update
On Tuesday, I went for a short ride. I organized a weekly riding group at work and this was our maiden ride. I set a new personal land speed record of 42.3mph on my bike. That was fun, but my workout wasn't long enough.
Swam on Wednesday. Nothing special.
I was suppose to run on Thursday, but work has been getting in the way of fun stuff like biking on Tuesday and running on Thursday. It was a nice long, fast workout and I missed it. Damnit.
Today, I weighed in at 177.5lbs. I am dropping, but slowly. On 16 APR, that will be the day that I weigh in before my race and see how much weight that I have dropped since I began triathlon training. I want to see if I am still losing fat while putting on muscle.
I am a little over 3 weeks away from my race. I think I am prepared, but I am not sure. Work has become really stressful lately and because of that, I am putting in longer hours and getting less sleep. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be the case so I am trying to adapt. We will see how I do in 3 weeks.
Swam on Wednesday. Nothing special.
I was suppose to run on Thursday, but work has been getting in the way of fun stuff like biking on Tuesday and running on Thursday. It was a nice long, fast workout and I missed it. Damnit.
Today, I weighed in at 177.5lbs. I am dropping, but slowly. On 16 APR, that will be the day that I weigh in before my race and see how much weight that I have dropped since I began triathlon training. I want to see if I am still losing fat while putting on muscle.
I am a little over 3 weeks away from my race. I think I am prepared, but I am not sure. Work has become really stressful lately and because of that, I am putting in longer hours and getting less sleep. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be the case so I am trying to adapt. We will see how I do in 3 weeks.
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