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.