CapTexTri

This morning I raced in the CapTexTri here in Austin. I'm still feeling really, really good from my performance at the race so I'll just get into it.

Pre Race

I got up this morning and got ready. This was a B race, actually more like a C race for me. I wasn't focusing on it at all. Hell, I rode 50 miles and swam for 2 hours 2 days before the race. I should've been resting. I wasn't too worried about doing well in this race. Over the last few days, I've been eating crap. Not crap, but not well since there were so many Slowtwitchers in town. I had a lot of ice cream, Salt Lick BBQ on Saturday night, and even beer on Saturday. Sleep was also lacking as well.

On the morning of the race, I got up at about 4:30am. I just like taking my time to get ready. For breakfast, I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, yogurt, a granola bar, and an apple. For the rest of the morning, I drank 32oz of Gatorade. I ate about half a Clif Bar and half of 20oz of Gatorade right before the race. My stomach was full this morning. Also, I didn't carb load because I find it more painful than what it's worth. So, no more carb loading for races Oly and below.

As usual, my stomach was a little upset and I had 5 RP's this morning. I tied a record. I doubt I will ever beat my record of 5 RP's because this morning my entire GI tract was empty by the time I got into the water. I had two problems this morning. The first one started a few days ago. I lost my HRM strap so this race was going to be based on effort and not heart rate. Then, I left my HRM watch at Lauren's place yesterday and this race was going to be interested. I had no HR to go off of and then I had no clue what my time was either. This was the first race without any feedback on how I'm doing during the race so we'll see how I do. The second thing was that I had put my Gatorade bottles in my gym bag. Well, they leaked. Everything in my bag was sticky with diluted Gatorade. Messy.

The race started at 7 but my wave didn't go off until 8:20. It was a pain in the ass waiting around the entire time. The waves were messed up this year. Last year, my age group was near the end and it was the same thing this year. The first few waves were males under 19 and over 40. The ladies were next and then it was men 35-39, men 30-34, and then males 20-29. Everyone wasn't happy with that. I didn't get my wetsuit on until 8. I had my knee taped up so I was good to go. Like I said, I couldn't finish eating and drinking all of my stuff.

It was about 15 minutes before my wave started staging up for the swim. It seemed like we were waiting to get into the water forever. Just a bunch of guys standing around. I started getting nervous about 30 minutes before the start of the race. I usually get nervous, so it was good that I only got nervous that close to the start of my wave. We were staging up, and then they gave us the signal to get into the water.

The Swim

We got into the water and it was about 73 degrees. It was cool enough to feel good. I had my sleeveless wetsuit on and it was perfect for the race. I lined up in the front, where I should've been, but in the middle. We were in the water for about 3 minutes before the gun went off. I was talking to people about how fast everyone was going to go. No one answered about their intended pace so I decided to make people try to swim over me. And if they tried to do that, then they would get kicked a lot. The gun went off and the race was on. There wasn't much bumping and grinding at first. There was a bit, but not much. I noticed that there seemed to be 2 packs that formed up on the first stretch. Of course, the fast A pack was on the inside of the buoys. There seemed to be a B backed that formed up on the far left of the course. As I swam, I moved closer to the buoys to get a better line. I tried to find some feet, but I couldn't find too many. I found one pair of feet and they seemed slightly slow for me, but I stayed behind them. I think I went out a little fast and I couldn't get my breath, but staying behind the feet allowed me to slow a bit and rest a bit. The first turn came up pretty fast and I took it pretty well. I veered to the outside and added a few yards on while making the second turn.

I then found a pair of feet and I stayed on them for awhile. At this point, I felt really good in the swim. I was taking good strokes, not dropping my elbows much, but breathing was a problem. I developed a breathing pattern. Right, right, left, left. Basically, I was taking two breaths on a side, taking 3 strokes, then two breaths on the other side, 3 more strokes, etc. That worked for me much better than breathing only on my right side. I have no problems on my left side, but I just needed air. I was pushing myself on the swim.

I stayed with my feet for awhile and then I wanted to push myself more. So, I left my feet and passed that guy. I got in front of him and I was looking forward sighting for buoys. I couldn't see anyone. Well, I ran into a few people, but they were other waves that I was passing and getting in the way. At this point, it seemed like I was in the lead of the B pack of swimmers. I felt like I had people behind me, no one drafting off of me because I couldn't feel hands on my feet, but I just had that feeling that there were others behind me. I just kept putting one arm in front of the other and trying to get nice, long strokes. I had problems sighting because my goggles fogged up a bit. Not bad, but enough to be annoying. The swim was overcast so I should've had my clear goggles on, but I opted for the tinted ones in case the sun came out. This was important because I almost missed a buoy. It was underneath a bridge in the shadows and luckily I was swimming straight enough that I didn't completely get off course. I was zig zagging a lot today, but not that badly. Ok, ok, I need to work on swimming in a straight line. I got the buoy under the bridge and kept going. After that buoy, I lost all sense of direction. I overshot the buoy for the last turn around because it wasn't a normal turning buoy and I had no one to follow. I was about 25yds further than I should've and I turned and swam to the other buoy. The rest of the B pack caught up with me and I turned it up a notch to beat them to the buoy. I got turned and I was now in the home stretch.

I was still having problems. I almost hit a canoe. I was wondering what the fuck the canoe was doing so far in the path of the swimmers. Well, the question was why was a dumbass swimmer so far in the path of the canoe. On the far right there was a bridge support. To the left of it was a buoy and to the left of that was another bridge support. There was maybe 25 yds between the buoy and the left bridge support. Well, I swam to the left of the farthest left bridge support. Yeah, I was a dumbass. My 1500m swim was more like 1600m between the missed turn around and then the missed bridge support. The zigzagging helped as well.

I kept going and I finally had the last turn buoy in sight. Since I wasn't going to use my arms anymore and I was pissed about being so far off course, I picked it up a bit. I turned the buoy and sprinted to the ramp. I swam up pretty far to the ramp and when I tried to stand up, the water was up to my mid thighs. Some volunteers pulled my left arm but I was still extremely dizzy. I reached out my right arm and it took a few seconds before someone grabbed it and helped me up. I was out of the water. I was looking for a clock and there was none there to check my time. Since I had no watch, I had no clue how I did. I felt like I did really well though so I felt happy. I went up the steps and I was in the grassy chute to the T area. I was in almost a fullout sprint. Why jog through the T area because it's still a race? I passed like 8 people but I was really winded when I got to my spot on the rack. I need to perfect getting my wetsuit off. I had to sit down and take it off which costs a lot of time, but I was winded and still dizzy. I threw my cap and goggles down and had my wetsuit off. To get ready for the bike, I had only 2 things to do: sunglasses and helmet. I unracked my bike and started running out. A shoe fell out the pedal immediately so I took the other out shoe and I was off. I ran through the T area pretty quickly with my bike. There were some sandy areas that were a PITA to run through. I took a right out of the T area and passed like 5 more people who were either walking or just doing a light jog with their bike. I almost hiked my bike over my should and ran it through the area that way. I would've spilt my aero bottle though. I crossed the mount line and got off to the side. I had to put my shoes on and then clip in. I didn't seem to take me too long to get in the shoes and I was then on the bike.

The Bike

Geoff, the new assistant coach for Texas Iron, told me about 2 days before to take the 1st loop slow, go harder on the 2nd and 3rd loops, and then slow again on the 4th. I was worried about my running off the bike since all of my bricks are very painful and I'm always running at about an 8:30-9:00 pace for the first couple of miles. Well, I threw that advice out the window when I got on the bike. When I was on the main course, the first half loop I absolutely hammered it. I needed to get my legs going and I was pushing myself. I knew I was pushing but it felt good. After doing the hairy part with all of the turns around Congress, I took a left onto Congress (more to come about that later) and it was a slight downhill. I got up some speed, kept my cadence around 95-100 and got into a groove. I took the right onto Cesar Chavez and kept my rhythm going. I felt really good at that point. I was in a groove and kept it up while settling down. I was heading out on Cesar Chavez and saw Lauren heading back in. That was the only time that I saw her.

The first couple of loops were fairly uneventful. The course was really, really crowded and it seemed like corners were more scary this year than they were this year. I lost a water bottle when it was ejected from my rear bottle cage. I felt bad about it, but I avoided that bump after that. Also, I took my other water bottle and put it in my jersey pocket. I felt good on the bike. I knew I was pushing myself, but I didn't know how hard since I had no HRM. After the second loop, I checked my time and I was done in about 33 minutes. Not too bad. I was out for my 3rd loop now. My legs were feeling it a bit, mostly in my quads. I was worried that I pushed too hard and my run would blow up, but I still had 2 loops to think about that. On my 3rd loop, I was heading south on San Jacinto, took the right onto 11th, and I was building up speed to make the fast left onto Congress. I noticed an older guy on the right where I was lining up to take a hard line through the turn. He was only going 14ish while I like taking that turn at 20+ because I can. He cut across me so I decided to go on his outside. Well, he was taking a pussy line through the turn and started to drift way to the outside. I yelled, "On the outside, on the outside!" and he heard me and reacted accordingly. But it was almost too late. His handling skills weren't that great so he still tried pretty hard to run me into the curb. At this point I'm fucking freaked out. I'm doing 20+ mph. On the left, I have some old guy pushing me to the right. On the right, I see a curb that is quickly approaching. Before I hit the curb, I see a major crack in the concrete that is much bigger than the width of a bike tire. Seriously, I'm expecting to crash, but I'm looking for ways to get out of it. The old guy is backing off a bit, but is still leaving me very, very little room. Enough to get through, but not without some magic. At this point, I'm out of my saddle and I hit my brakes. This causes my back tire to lock up and fishtail to the right to the curb. Luckily, my right pedal is coming up to top dead center and I push my weight forward. By pushing down on the right with my weight forward caused the back of my bike to kick out to the left and clear the curb. I hit the crack in the concrete at an angle so my tire didn't get stuck. Through all of this, I remember hearing some either gasp or say "Oh my God!" while watching all of this. I put you it looked like a high speed wreck was about happen, but due to my bike handling skills and fucking lightning fast reflexes, I missed it. Once I passed the old, slow, dangerous guy, I yelled because my heart rate jumped up about 30 bpm because of the adrenaline rush. I yelled "Woooooooooo!" in excitement from saving my ass from that close call. I got out of the saddle, hammered it some more and kept going totally pumped up now.

Another event on the 3rd lap was that I was passed on the bike. I only was passed maybe 5 or 6 times and most of them were at the beginning, but this was the first time that I got passed on the bike by somebody in my age group. Some guy in a yellow jersey. I'll remember him later and get my revenge. He passed me and I kept going. 4th loop wasn't eventful either and I was taking the turns much more conservatively. Going out on Cesar Chavez was still a hammering point, but coming back I upped the cadence and as prep for the run. I had downed 2 Gu's and 2 bottles of diluted Gatorade and Nuun. I felt well hydrated. It was still overcast, but not cool. My quads were feeling it and I was getting worried on how the run was going to turn out. My speed on the bike was fast and I don't even want to know what my heart rate was for the ride. One thing that I was practicing on the 4th loop was drafting. Not blatant drafting but I would ride up behind someone in their draft zone and when I got about 2 feet from their wheel, I would wip over. I should've stayed on a wheel for a few seconds to get rest, but everyone was going so slow. I did this on the 4th loop because the headwind picked up a bit. There were some good things to this. I benefitted from a draft for a second or two, but it was scary. I was doing this to a lot of people that weren't great cyclist and they seemed to weave a lot. I was also in areobars making quick motions. The good thing was a lot of time I would yell "On your left" and the person would move to the right without my jerking around them.

Ok, I was coming into T2 now and I was spinning to get my legs ready. I made the turn into the last chute and got out of my shoes. I rushed the dismount line and passed 2 people right there. I didn't run as quickly through T2 as I did in T1. I racked my bike and took off my helmet. Socks and shoes went on and I grabbed my hat, my race belt, my water bottle, and my Gu's. Having that much crap was a problem. I couldn't run that fast because I felt like I had too much crap. I was running through the T2 area, but not fast. My sunglasses were bouncing, but I was having fun. I crossed the mat, heard the beep, and I was on the run course.

The Run

I passed up the first aid station right away. I didn't have any free hands anyways. After the aid station, I stopped and got everything situated. I put my Gu's in my jersey pockets, put my hat on, put my race belt on, and kept going. I was expecting to be trashed on the run, but I really wasn't. I was somewhat tired, but I usually feel that way on bricks. I kept going and putting one foot in front of the other. Man, I was happy too. Last year, I DNF'ed after I got out of T2 because of my peroneal tendonitis. This year, I was so happy to actually be running. I was feeling better and kept going. Since I had no heart rate monitor or anything, I kept running off of perceived effort. I felt fine, like I was pushing, but not too much. I felt like I was at a pace that I could run for the rest of the race. At a turnaround point, I saw Eric Gilmore behind me. I knew I would beat him out of the water and I thought he might catch me on the bike, but I knew I had no chance on beating him on the run. Well, this confirmed that I got him off the bike. But that didn't last long.

The first water stop was at about Mile 1 and it was sponsored by Jack and Adam's. My plan for this race was something that I learned from Lauren's race at Ironman Arizona. Every water stop, I walked, I had at least one cup of water on my head, at least one down my shorts, and then I drank at least 2 more. This stop had some ice water so it helped out quite a bit. I was feeling really goofy so Jack gave me a cup of water and I threw it right back at him. He looked like he needed to cool off a bit. That cheered me up a bit. And I kept running. I had no clue the pace that I was running at, but I wasn't getting passed much. Just kept plodding along. I was Lauren turn in to finish her race after I stopped at the J&A's water stop. She looked strong.

I turned left on Congress to go up pretty much the biggest hill on the course up the Congress Ave bridge. At that point, someone else in my age group passed me. I was down 1 spot from the bike and 1 spot from the run. Not much else happened. I saw Leary and Suzanne at the turn left onto Congress and they cheered me on. Eric Gilmore passed me at that point so I guess I held my ground pretty well to that point. I high fived some TNT people and kept it up. Barb and Ron cheered me on near RunTex. After that, I finished my first loop. Only 1 more to go.

I got water and did my usual routine. I think I took my last Gu at that point as well. I think I threw a couple of Gu's away at some point as well. They were in my jersey pocket and I had too many back there. They kept bouncing and annoying the shit out of me. I was feeling pretty good when I hit the J&A water stop the second time, but I was starting to get slightly fatigued. I walked about 10yds after the water stop just because I like walking a bit. I think my form was good, but I would notice that I quickly lost it and then I would have to think to get it back again.

I kept trash talking people kinda. Someone would pass me, I would check out their age group, and yell stuff like "The only reason I'm letting you pass me is because you aren't in my age group." I was just joking around, but I was having a great time. I absolutely love racing. I didn't have fun at the Texas Tri, but pretty much every other race has been absolutely enjoyable. I was thanking volunteers and high fiving people from time to time as well. I felt great and I was enjoying the race. Having a spectator friendly course is great. Once again I turned left on Congress up the hill, the race got really interesting for me. I found someone in my age group. I think it's the guy that passed me on the run earlier. I was thinking on how I should pass him. If I caught up with him, I should be fine for the rest of the race. He was looking somewhat tired. I tried passing him once up the hill, but I was pushing myself too hard. I backed off and held on. We turned right onto some other street and there was another surprise for me. The guy in the yellow jersey that passed me on the bike wasn't doing so well on the run. Shit, I caught up with him! I'm about to pass 2 people in my age group. I never do this. I was running my pace and I think I was slightly faster than them. I picked up a burst of speed and left both of them. Once I settled back into my pace, I just get going. I kept giving them "The Look". I was looking back at the guy in the blue that was actually keeping up with me fairly well. I kept checking to see how he was hanging on. A water stop came up and I walked it. Blue Jersey Guy passed me and I was pissed. I wanted to drop him, but I've been feeling sluggish since the turn onto Congress. I just sat back, kept an eye on him, and bided my time. We took another left onto Congress and I saw Leary and Suzanne again. I said to Leary "That guy is in my age group and I'm going to run him down!". Suzanne said something like "Pick someone out and run them down!" Hell, yeah, I was about to do this. Well, that turn onto Congress has a slight downhill. I've been practicing my downhill running where I pick up my pace quite a bit and then recovery. Well, time to pass this guy who was at this point about 5 yards in front of me. I hit the downhill and put almost 15yds on this guy in no time. Seriously, over the course of maybe 20 seconds I had passed this guy and put a decent amount of time on him. There was still a slight downhill so I put my head down, concentrated on form, and kept up my speed on this downhill.

On the Congress bridge, I passed two more people in my age group. Well, they had numbers on their calves that were in my age group, but I have no clue if they were on their first or second lap. Either way, I kept up the pace and was picking people off left and right. This was feeling good because I felt like my pace was fairly constant the entire race. I picked it up at the end, but instead of the last 100yd dash, I had picked up the pace for the last 1.5 miles. And I kept it up. I had to keep it up to make sure no one decided to try to run me down. If they were going to pass me, they were going to freaking work for it. I turn onto Barton Spring and passed that water stop. I was less than 1/2 mile away and I didn't need water. I saw Adam and told him that I had just run down 4 age groupers in the last mile. I high fived Ron and Barbara and I kept going. I was hurting now, but I kept it up. I saw the finish line ahead of me. I couldn't sprint the last part, but I could keep up my pace up. That's a good sign that I paced myself well and that is really good because I have no feedback this entire race. I was about to take the turn to the finishing chute. I turned my race number around to make it look good. As I crossed the finish line, I took of my hat and sunglasses with my hands in the air.

The Results

I checked the time and it said 3:42:ish. Taking into account I started 1:20 late, I had an unofficial time of 2:22 and change. Holy fucking shit, man. Before this race, I had no expectations. I didn't feel like I was in great shape because I've had an elevated heart rate lately and my running has suffered due to injuries. My swim has improved, but I haven't been training for hard fast stuff like an Oly distance race. Everything has been HIM and IM focused. Crossing the line that quickly shocked me. I would have been happy with something under 2:30, but I can't believe I beat it by that much. I finished and I felt great. Ok, a little tired, but not to the point where I had trouble walking or anything hurt, including my knee. I taped up my knee for the race and it was fine the entire time. Now, it sounds like a bowl of Rice Crispies, but during the race it was great.

Once I got the official results, I PR'ed St. Anthony's by 2:43. This is great for many reasons. 1) St. A is a salt water swim 2) The transition areas were much, much smaller and therefore much quicker 3) The bike is a single loop course with fewer turns, fewer people, and much flatter and 4) The run was flatter as well. Today was hotter than St. Anthony's and more humid, but wind wasn't bad and it was overcast. Either way, I just totalled rocked the house today. Compared to last year at CapTex, I was 2 seconds slower on the swim, but the swim was about 100-150yds short. On the bike, I was only 36 seconds slower. That's big because last year I was maxing out my heart rate since I knew I didn't have a run afterwards. Average heart rate was maybe 165-170 range so I was moving. My transitions were also much quicker this year as well. I had no comparision on the run since I DNF'ed, but compared to St. Anthony's, I felt much more comfortable and I didn't walk at all except for the aid stations.

I learned a lot today. I think I'm not going to race with a HRM anymore unless I'm doing an IM. I went totally off of perceived effort today and it showed that I did better. I normally keep my pace throttled back because I look at my HRM and my heart rate is too high. I *KNOW* I was pushing it on the bike. I could just feel it in my chest and legs. I was worried that I would suck ass on the run. Nope. I can hammer it on the bike and be OK on the run. I also just ran my race instead of looking at my watch every 60 seconds to check my time and my pulse. Lauren's method of water station worked well. I was soaked after every water stop and I came out feeling great. My shoes were soaked though and that felt weird, but I didn't develop any blisters. I ran with my white hat and I think that helped. I need to work on my open water swimming and sighting. Having the shoes on my Bebop pedals isn't such a good idea. I need to chill out on the turns at CapTex next year to avoid wrecks and stupid people. I only need to take as many Gu's as I need and not carry any extra. Well, one extra so for the run I should've had 3 instead of 4.

Finally, I feel like I'm almost there. You know the point where you think you are fast. I'm not quite there, but I'll be there some day. I finished 10th in my age group so it's a big deal to break into the top 10. There were 76 people in my age group so I did very well. I have room to improve as well. My swimming is progressing well and my bike gains are slower, but I'm still improving. I have a lot of work on the run, but that'll come with weight loss and time. I'm really looking forward to Buffalo Springs now to see how I do at completing my first Half Ironman event. I should do pretty well since I feel like I'm better at longer distances. I have a mental edge to keep my body going. Most importantly, I had a blast today. I tried to have a smile on my face the entire day and I was chatting with people and having a good time. I still feel high at 3am from my race today. And speaking of, I need to go to bed now. I just feel so good.

Let me tell you about my "rest day"

According to Jamie & Andrea's schedule, I was suppose to have a rest day and walk the CapTex course. That didn't happen. Paulo Sousa is in town this weekend to hold some run and swim clinics and then to get his butt kicked in the CapTexTri sprint on Monday. Lauren had to do a 3 hour ride and invited me to go along. I love riding so I figured I would take my road bike out since I had better gearing for climbing and I'll just go easy. It was a good ride. I just took my time and spun up the hills without pushing myself too hard. We did the Dam Loop with the ATC ride starting at 8:30. It was a good ride. Of course Lauren and I got dropped almost immediately on Southwest Parkway because we weren't hammering. That was fine though and I was trying to have a nice easy ride and I did. I accomplished my goal of just spinning up the hills and not pushing too hard. There were a couple of points that I picked up the pace or powered over the top of a hill, but it just feels good to do that from time to time. At the end of my easy ride, I checked my avg speed and it was 17.8mph. Last week, I average 17.9 and I was pushing hard too. The difference was that today I was on my road bike and last weekend I was on my tri bike. Yeah, I'm definitely faster in the hills on my road bike. After the ride, I had about 3 breakfast tacos and my legs didn't feel tired at all. It felt like I had gone on a nice easy ride and I was ready to run a half marathon afterwards.

After the ride, we went back to Lauren's place to hang out until 2pm for Paulo's swim clinic. Then, we went to the swim clinic. It was good. I learned some things and some new drills. I'll just take all of that information and incorporate it into my repertoire of swimming knowledge, pick it apart, and apply the things that I think I work for me. I asked him by Big Question when it comes to swimming and I think asking this question is very beneficial for me. I asked him "What is the single biggest problem that I have that I can work on to improve my swimming." His answer was "Just swim more." I've felt for awhile now that my stroke is pretty good. I admit that it isn't perfect, but for someone that's been swimming for just over a year, I think it's pretty good and my times reflect that. I don't think it's worth it for me anymore to work on drills are changing my technique that much because I'm not going to get that much benefit from it. For me to get faster, I just need to swim more and swim faster. His answer just confirms what I've been feeling about my swimming for awhile now and I now have a firm plan on how I can get faster in the future.

Also, to anyone what my key to swimming is, I'll tell you. It's mental discipline. When I'm in the water, I'm thinking way too much. I'm thinking the entire time about good catch, strong pull using my lats with elbow up, end the stroke short, rotate with high elbow recovery, enter, and extend. I'm always thinking about everything, but I'm not stressing about it so it appears that I'm really relaxed. Also, when a coach says something like "Try to not drop your elbow when you pull.", I don't try to do it, I do it. I have to use a lot of mental concentration to do it, but I start swimming that way really quickly. What I liked to do is when I was with TNT, we started out with 500yds warmup and 100yds cooldown usually. For each of these 100's, I would break it down into first 25 I would work on body roll, second 25 would be a good catch, next 25 would be high elbow recovery, and last 25 would be strong pull. By doing this, I practiced with awareness how each of these small steps feel and muscle memory started to kick in to make it easier to swim.

Friday

Friday's update is a little late. I just want to apologize to all of my fans out there for the delay. I know how much you need to here about my workout to make yourself feel complete. That day wasn't much to say. I was suppose to do a short swim that day, but I didn't get a chance to do it until after work. Of course I was an idiot and I thought Stacy might be OX to swim in, but there were already 3-4 people circling in each lane and about 6000 kids in the pool. No way. That day, my leg hurt really badly. I didn't have any kinesio tape so that's what I'm thinking it was. My ankle wa hurting as well which was surprising. I was limping a few times while walking around. There is no big surprise that that running tears up your body, but it feels like running really tears me up. All of my issues are in my left leg, damnit.

Today's Events

This morning was a bike ride on the trainer. 60min ride with 3x4 min fast and 2 min RI. It was fine. I felt like I was getting sick this morning, but after the bike ride I felt fine. I tried to get about 8.5 hours of sleep last night, but I kept waking up off and on about an hour before my alarm went off.

Tonight's workout was a run workout with Texas Iron. 15min warmup followed 4x800m at Barton Springs. This is known as the "gate to gate" workout. I only did 4 of them because I'm racing on Monday. My times were 2:32, 2:30, 2:45, and 2:38. Yeah, I went a little too hard the first couple and I was feeling it. After I finished the last interval, I felt like I couldn't even talk for about 3-4 minutes. The next part was 4-8 hill repeats but I skipped out on them. I was done after the intervals. Maybe I am getting sick. I did my cool down run of 10 minutes and then soaked in the water.

Now, I keep having this gastrointestinal problems. Basically, every afternoon I get some pretty bad gas. It starts at around 3pm and lasts until 6pm or so. It's almost every single day and I was feeling it on my run today. My stomach is all sloshy and I just have to fart constantly. Does anyone have any ideas on what to do about this? I've tried not eating and I get gas. I've tried eating and I get gas. Maybe it's because of my high fiber diet that is causing it or maybe I'm slightly lactose intolerant and all of the yogurt and milk and cereal I eat causes problems.

Any ideas?

30min Swim

The only workout today was a 30min swim with some fast 25's in there. Well, since I swim in a 33yd pool, I had to do some fast 33's instead. My 600yd warmup swim is getting awesome. Yesterday was a 9:06 time and today was a 8:54. I averaged under 1:30, 1:29 to be exact, for a warmup swim and it definitely felt like a warmup swim. Ok, it was a little fast, but I felt like I wasn't overexerting myself. After that was a couple of 100's and then I did 3x33 fast, 66 active rest, 3x33 fast, 66 active rest, 4x33 active rest, and then 200yds cooldown (at a 1:34 pace). Overall it was almost 1500yds.

Also, I checked in today at 185lbs.

Bike felt good

Tonight's bike workout was 60min with 5x1min fast thrown in there. This is a rest week so Jamie & Andrea have me doing shorter workouts with a little bit of intensity thrown in there as well. On the 1min intervals, I got my heart rate up to about 160 which felt good. During the easy parts, I kept my heart rate at about 145 whichi is excellent because that felt comfortably hard but easy if that makes sense. Before, I felt like I was going to die if my heart rate got above 135. Hopefully my biking pain threshold is up. I'm wanting to do more fast stuff because I have some stressful stuff going on right now and doing painful intervals makes me feel good. Yeah, I'm a masochist, but it makes me smile.

If you see me today, remember that I'm not wearing any underwear ;-)

So, this morning after my swim at Stacy, I forgot underwear to change into. I do this about once every 3 months. It doesn't bother me because I'm usually free balling around the house in athletic shorts, but its, uh, a little disconcerting being in public all day like this. Remember if you see me today, we are a little bit closer than you probably would like.

I had a great swim this morning. I got in the pool and split a lane with some guy that was doing the backstroke all over the freaking lane, but I hopped in and did a 600yd warmup. I busted it out in 9:06 which is about 1:31/100yds. That's just my warmup. I felt like I was effortlessly flying through the water. It just felt gooooooooood. After that, I did 10x100 and I averaged about 1:27 and 0:20 rest. Not too bad. Then, my cooldown was 400yds and that was done in 6:16 which is another 1:34 time. Yeah, that was my easy "forever" pace as well. It felt like I couldn't swim any slower without modifying my form to be very bad. There are some good things and some bad things about this. One good thing is that my form and fitness has improved so much that my effortless swims have gotten really, really fast compared to where I started. The bad thing is that I'm not going that much faster when I try to push myself and I'm using a lot of energy when I try to push myself. I can only still get out about a 1:15 at my fastest 100yd time. The range between my bottom end swim and my top end swim has narrowed greatly. But overall, the bottom end has increased substantially which is probably more important.

After that, I went back to Kathryn for PT. She rocks. We got a new PT routine established and I'll work on it. She gave me more kinesio tape which I love. That stuff works wonders. Kathryn also has fingers of steel and really finds all the spots that are sore and tender and she thinks she's not digging into them, but I'm about to jump off the table because of the fingers of steel.

184.5?!?!?!?

Today's weigh in was 184.5. what the fuck? I mean, I usually drop a pound or so over the weekends. I rode for 2.5 hours on Saturday (2000 calories), did a 20 minute brick (300 calories), ran 11 miles on Sunday (1800 calories) followed by a 30 minute swim (300 calories). I've burned a total of 4400 calories this weekend and I gained weight. My food consumption was slighly higher, but nothing was that bad except for 3 breakfast tacos (I usually have 4) after the ATC ride and then a mocha milk shake later that day. I have one milkshake or bowl of ice cream per week and that's my treat. Damnit, this can be frustrating sometimes.

RHR: 57bpm

I tested my resting heart rate this morning using the same methodology I did yesterday morning. It came in at 57bpm. Still higher thand my expected of 50bpm.

Oz?

How many ounces are in a large bicycling water bottle? 28?

Nips

Man, running lately has really caused my nipples to chafe. It isn't fun because after a long run like today's, my nips have this slight tingly sensation in them the rest of the day.

And I think this is a record 4th post in a single day.

Trashed

Well, I ran 11.1 miles today. I didn't run it very fast, 1:37:12 which is an 8:45/mile pace, but it's the fact THAT I ACTUALLY RAN 11 MILES TODAY! Since I've been injured, I haven't been able to work out much at all. At first, it was just 30 minute runs and 45 minute bike trips here and there. During this time, I lost a lot of speed and intensity. With today's run, it shows that I didn't lose much endurance, though. It's still there, but I just got to make sure that I don't push myself and get injured again. Speaking of, I had some kinesio tape for my Achilles and calf and I have some regular athletic tape on my knee to pull my knee cap in more medially. With both of these things on there today, my legs barely hurt at all. My calf was a little sore at first and is a little sore now, and my knee was feeling funny at first, but once I got warmed up I felt like I was 100% again. Damn, this stuff is really working. My calves weren't tight and I had very little knee pain at all. I hate taping but if it works for me and keeps me running, I'll do it. I also see Kathryn, my old PT, again on Tuesday and I can't wait to start seeing her again.

After the run, I went to Barton Springs and did a 30min recovery swim. Well, I soaked my legs first for about 10 minutes because they really needed it. The first two 4.1 mile loops were good. The last 2.9 mile loop was pretty hard. I was running somewhat slow, but because of this weird elevated heart rate thing, my heart rate was around 160 whereas it felt like it should have been in the 150-155 range. My form stayed fairly good, well good for me. I know I have crappy form, but I maintained the best form that I could maintain. So, I soaked in BS and then swam a mile in 31:15. After that, I'm completely trashed. My ankles are so sore right now. I still need to mow my yard today, though, so that's not going to allow me to rest. I have one of those ol' timey reel mowers. I got it because I need more exercise and mowing with that once a week should be good exercise. I also need to clean out my garage and get Couch Boy a desk or something to put in his room so he can then get all of his crap out of the rest of the house.

Oh, one funny thing. I parked at Jack & Adams and started my run from there. I do this because I hate paying for parking, especially on the weekends where it'll cost me $6 to swim at BS. Well, that's a bunch of B.S.! I did my run, went to my car, got some money, and walked over to BS. Got there, and then I realized that I forgot my goggles. Damnit! I walked back to my car and back to BS to do my swim. If I was lazy, I would've just gone back to my car and gone home, but I'm trying to be more disciplined so I finished my workout.

For the rest of the day, I'm going to be as productively lazy as possible.

Supplements

Well, starting on Monday, I'll be starting back on supplements. I'm going to phase them in, though. Last time I started on supplements, I started a bunch of stuff at once. A few weeks later, I started feeling very weird like I was always fatigued. I stopped all supplements and I felt better. This time, I'm going to start a multivitamin called Total Formula 3 made by Vitaline Formulas. Once I'm on that for 2 weeks, I'll start on the ZMA. Two weeks after that, I'll start up again on the B-complex vitamins. Hopefully this will help me pinpoint which supplement is causing me issues.

Elevated Resting Heartrate: 59bpm

I measured my resting heart rate this morning since today was my day to sleep in and didn't have to wake up by an alarm. I've suspected that my resting heart rate has been elevated for some reason the last few weeks. At one point over a month ago, I was just sitting in the gym and I measured a heart rate of about 48bpm for a minute. I don't think I was even laying down, either; I was just sitting up. I mean, I've been training more and at harder intensities so it should go down.

Well, the last few weeks, that hasn't been the case. It seems like my resting heart rate has increased. The test this morning has confirmed it. I had a resting heart rate of 59bpm. I used to be around 52bpm about 6 months ago and I thought I had gotten down to around 48bpm about a month ago. So, what caused the 10bpm increase in about a month?

Sleeping With The Enemy

Everyone knows this movie. Julie Roberts is married to some crazy anal guy and she wants out. She actually escapes by falling off a sailboat in a storm and is presumed dead. Her husband freaks out because she can't swim and has a fear of the water. Well, unbeknownst to him, she had been taking swimming lessons. She has crappy swim form.

I don't like peeing indoors

I'm so used to peeing outside, that I would much rather go behind a building or a bush to go pee than to go inside and use a toilet. Also, it saves water. Maybe I like marking my territory or maybe I just like having my penis outside in public.

I did the ATC taco ride today which was a total of about 47 miles. I averaged 18.8mph for a total ride time of about 2:30. Average heart rate was 146bpm. I got dropped almost immediately once the group turned rigth on Southwest Pkwy. Once my heart rate hit about 165bpm, I said that this is too much for me so I dropped off the ride and did my base ride. Problem was that my heart rate stayed elevated throughout the entire ride. My heart and lungs felt fine, but my heart rate was really high comparatively. I've been noticing a higher than usual heart rate recently. My resting heart rate and my working out heart rate seems higher than usual. I don't know what's going on, but it seems like something is off. Well, I kept riding and the hills hurt. I really feel slower on my tri bike than my road bike.

It was hot today so I was drinking a lot. At the beginning of the ride, I had 3 bottles. One was full of water, and the other 2 bottles had about 500 calories each made with 2 scoops of Carbo Pro, 2 scoops of powdered Gatorade, and then a packet of Clif Shots electrolyte thingy. I started off feeling full from breakfast, but by draining the first bottle in 45 minutes, I was feeling really full. I need to one of two things: 1) have a less concentrated mix and have all of my bottles with about 200 calories or 2) drink one bottle of about 350 calories and then a bottle of water with Nuun in it.

It wasn't that hot, but it was hot. As usual, towards the end of the ride, I felt a lot better than I did at the beginning of the ride. The hills on 360 were tough, but not that bad looking back at it. I did a 20 minute run off the bike. Once again, I had an elevated heart rate for my perceived effort, but not too badly. Towards the end of the 20 minute run, I was actually feeling pretty good.

I hung out at ATC for a bit, chatted with Mike, ate some breakfast tacos, and headed home. Now, I'm sitting on my couch after been home for nearly 3 hours and I'm still in my sweaty workout clothes. I'm also trying really, really hard to not fall asleep right now. I should get about 10 hours of sleep tonight which is well needed before a long run tomorrow.

Also, the kinesiotape on my calf is the best thing for my injuries than anything else that I've tried.

Swimming: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

The Good: I swam 3800yds and some guy I was splitting a line with said "How far do you swim usually? You're fast!"

The Bad: When you want to circle with people, try to pick a lane to circle with people that don't lap you after 133yds.

The Ugly: Fat naked man in the lockroom. Blegh!

I'm so amped up right now. A sign that the normal me is back and not the depressed me or the medicated me. My testosterone levels are high and I just want to go out and run a lung burst 5k pace for about a half marathon right now.

When cans of shaving cream explode in your gym bag. . .

. . . it makes a mess.

I woke up this morning and weighed in at 183.5. So, I've lost about 5 pounds in a week. Ok, last week I was a little high from coming back from vacation in ATL, but I'm down to 183.5 which is huge. I've been off the drugs for a weekish now and since they affected me so quickly before that I should start to lose weight very quickly now that I'm drug free. I want to be down to 182 by next Friday and hopefully I'll eat clean and healthy between now and then, keep up my exercise, and I'll drop the weight.

My leg sucks

My leg still sucks. I now have plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendonitis, gastroc and popliteal inflammation, and anterior knee pain on the medial side of my knee cap. Yep, 4 different things wrong at once. I'm still working out though because resting really doesn't do much to helping it heal. As Geoff from TexasIron said, keep working out as long as it doesn't get worse.

So, my ill advised workouts today included a swim and a run. The swim was an easy 30 min recovery swim. I got in about 1600m in around 30 minutes so that's pretty good.

The Texas Iron workout tonight was a run workout. The goal of this was a lactic threshold workout. The first 15 minutes was a warmup and my knee was hurting pretty badly at first. Once I got more warmed up, it started feeling better. The second 15 minutes was a tempo run. I left in the 3rd group, but I ended up dropping them fairly quickly though. The run hurt and I kept my heart rate at about 175bpm. My legs felt fine, but the problem with me running that hard is that my lungs don't have it in them. Even though I ran harder, it didn't feel like I went that much faster. After that was a 1/3 mile loop that we ran 3 times. We were suppose to run it at 5k pace or faster. I ran it fairly fast and I was pushing myself, but once again, I didn't really feel like I was going faster. My heart rate was in the 175-180 range. I consistently ran these at 2:18 so that's good. By the end, I felt really good after the harder intervals. The first one hurt but the 3rd one felt pretty good. My knee also wasn't hurting as bad, but just slightly.

The entire run my stomach was bothering me. I just felt really gassy. I found a bathroom and expelled the excess gas which helped a lot, but about 5 minutes later my stomach wasn't feeling good again. It has been bothering me for a few days now.

Spin Bike Today

Nothing special. I was on the spin bike for about 1:35 this morning. I was suppose to spin for 2 hours, but I got up late this morning. Most of the time, I get up after one snooze, but this morning, I had absolutely no clue what was going on until 22 minutes after my first alarm went off. This was the first day that I got up and turned off the alarm without ever realizing it. Well, I vaguely remember it. I was also very tired at work today so I'm going to try to get 9 hours of sleep tonight. Because I was so exhausted, my workout sucked today. I felt like I was really working hard when I was doing my intervals, but my heart rate was low.

So, sleep tonight and I should be fine. My stomach was doing good today, too. I ate too much candy today for some reason. Some days I have great will power and other days I have none. I'm eating less and less candy though so that's good. I'm also tracking my calories again and that's a pain in the ass, but it's worth it.

Dinner Sucked

I don't know what I did, but my stomach is bothering me after dinner tonight. I think I ate too much food, but it didn't seem like that much. I had some of Lauren's World Famous Black Bean Lasagna and then a chicken breast with spaghetti sauce. For dessert, I had 2 Fig Newtons. Ok, maybe that is too much food, but my stomach isn't feeling so great right now. Nothing like I'm going to hurl or have diarrhea in the morning, but it isn't feeling well now. I'll sleep it off.

Track Workout

Tonight I had a track workout. I ran for about 16 minutes first to warm up and then I headed to the SFAHS track. The workout was 8-10 1km repeats with 200m rest in between. Each km was suppose to be strong. The first one was about 4:15 and the slowest one was about 4:40. They really hurt tonight. I also swallowed 2 bugs and inhaled another one. I only did 6 kms though because that was all that I had in me. Being injured really took out a lot of my speed and since I have to work so hard to gain speed, this has been frustrating.

Off the meds

Well, today is the first day that I'm off the antidepressants. Let's see if I start losing weight soon. I expect it to be about a month before my metabolism returns to normal and I start losing weight. Speaking of, I weighed in at 185 this morning. I weighed in at 188.5 last Wednesday after going to Atlanta, but that's to be expected from my body and vacation and the subsequent crappy eating and drinking alcohol.

Ritz

Oh, and the Ritz crackers that I'm eating right now totally suck ass.

9 Miles

I ran about 9 miles today. Well, I ran for a total of 1:18. I started out at Jack and Adam's because I hate paying to park in Zilker Park for Barton Springs. I started out and about 3 minutes into the run, I ran into Meggers. I turned around and ran with her the entire way which was cool. Just shooting the shit. I wasn't feeling that hot today. It was really humid and my knee was bothering me. I think the brick yesterday was a little too much. We'll see how I feel tomorrow because 7 hours later, my knee is feeling OK. After I ran with Meggers, I went and did about 20 minutes of aquajogging. My legs felt dead in the water, but they soon loosened up. I got out, got my goggles and then and did a recovery swim. I was suppose to to do 30 minutes. I think I did 2.5 laps of Barton Springs before I got kicked out because of thunder in the area. I got out and called it a day.

I've been exhausted all day. I got 10 hours of sleep last night which felt great. I think I'm about to go to bed now because I could use another 9 hours of sleep. We'll see if that happens. Right now, the back of my knee is feeling pretty good, but the front of my knee has some funny pains in it. I'm going to start seeing my old PT, Kathryn, again (for those that read this and go to see AJ and/or Nicole, please don't say anything). I will see her again next week unless there is a cancellation next week. I just feel like I get more personalized attention with Kathryn than Nicole. And it's cheaper.

Exercising More

What is it about exercising that when I'm done, about an hour later I feel awesome and I want to exercise again? I'm in that post workout high right now and I pushed myself today, and I want to go out and push myself hard again.

First brick in 6 weeks

Today was my first brick in 6 weeks. I started out with the ATC Taco Ride. I did the 30 mile loop. I averaged about 19.6mph with an average heart rate of 147bpm. That isn't that, but I felt like my heart rate was higher than that the entire time. I went out strong and I was in the front of the group, but once we got on Southwest Parkway, I couldn't keep up because my heart rate was in the 165 range and this was suppose to be a base ride for me. I kept riding and I was definitely the last guy in the pack. I thought I'm a decent biker, but I just got my ass handed to me. My workload was 1836 which is roughly the number of calories that I burned.

Once I got back to the shop, I took about a 10 minute transition and then went on my run. I had an average heart rate of 162 which is well above what I'm used to running at that speed. I ran a total of 36:48. I don't know the exact distance, but it was from the ATC shop, up Lamar, then west on the Town Lake Trail to the RunTex water stop underneath the Mopac bridge and back. I'm guessing that I ran maybe 4-4.5 miles.

My knee was acting up at first, but right now it feels fine. I have an hour+ run tomorrow so we'll see how I feel then.

6 Miles & Open Water Swim

I ran 6 miles this morning around the trail at work. Nothing special except that this run was suppose to be at a moderate pace. However, I was expecting to cut some time off of my run, but it really didn't. I still ran it in about 51 minutes though.

Also, my Texas Iron workout was an open water swim. Nothing special except I was cold because I was in the water and not swimming without a wetsuit.

1:45 cycling today

My workout called for a 2 hour bike ride. I did it on the spin bike at work. My knee felt fine during the workout, but I would tweak it from time to time. Because of that, my knee was fairly sore afterwards. I went to PT and they fixed it up a bit. The ride was fine because I got some speed work in as well. Nice!

Atlanta Workout Update

I'll keep this short. I ran a 5k on Saturday in Atlanta. My time was 23:15, but the first mile was 8:15 which included a bathroom break and running with Sloan. The 2nd mile was a bit faster because I had to catch up with Sloan and Sloan was trying to pick up the pace a bit. After he died going up a small hill, I did intervals for the last mile. I probably did a 7 minute mile that last mile. I turned around, went back to Sloan, and then he and I picked it up the rest of his run. I got my heart rate up to 182 which is good.

In response to mcoker. . .

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.