An Amalgamation of Minor Adjustments.

Recovery/RR Goofy

2012-01-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I did the Goofy. Saturday, I woke up at 2:45 to get to Disney for the 5:30 race start. Run/Walked it. Finished under time.

Sunday, I woke up at 2:45, forgot my Garmin had to go back for it, took the wrong exit, had to drive the long way around to get to my 5:30 race start. Run/WALKED it. Finished right on time.

Goals for the weekend: 1. Do not get injured. 2. Go so slow that I can finish both races. 3. Finish both races in under max allowable time. 4. Memorize the chorus of Party Rocking.
I was 4/4.

Prior to this, I had never done a half marathon by itself, only attached to the end of a HIM, and I had never done a marathon. My longest distance training run EVER was 13.2 miles, 2 weeks before the race, and it was only a little bit faster than my time for the half... I was also sick with a head cold for Wednesday and Thursday last week, but for some reason when I pay over $300 on something, I feel like it is silly to not attend.

So, Sunday after the race, I immediately froze up all the muscles from about mid-calf down. The feet would not move any more, so I walked like a 120 year old man to find my car, which my son's girlfriend and her mom was nice enough to drive me part way to. Mine was the farthest car from the race... I practiced lying on my back and letting my legs drain into my body.
Monday was my wife's birthday, so I had to do some moving around and I had to work, so with the frozen muscles, I think I aggrivated my ankles, so there was some swelling.
Tuesday I took it easy, and in the evening I started using a tennis ball to attempt to trigger point some of the frozen muscles to relax. I got some of them to lighten up.
Today is more of the same. I need to go to the office, so that should be interesting. Usually muscles freeze up in my car, so after a tough workout it will take a few hundred yards walking away from my car to get back to good.

Things I learned this weekend:
Walking is sometimes harder than running.
7 hours on your feet is 7 hours on your feet. -Ouch.
I need to increase my game between now and November if i am going to be able to do the whole marathon thing as a portion of a tri.
I need to get on the weight loss. 250lbs is a lot to drag for long distances. JAN, FEB, MAR are great months to do this.

Thank you for enduring my upchuck of thought.

IM Florida

2012-01-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

Coach wants me to start this back up again. I have signed up for IM Florida, and this is sure to be an exciting year of IM Zone 2 training.

I have been working on my running, and have signed up for the "Goofy Challenge" this coming weekend, which consists of a half marathon Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday. I so far have only run 13 miles at one time, ever. The race has forced me to focus on running, but I have only just in the past 10 days have gotten the discipline to run every day. Prior to that, my 13 mile runs would put me in recovery mode for at least a week, and any run would force a recovery day, so 3 weeks ago was my first week of over 20 miles running volume. That being said, this week I have finally gotten to the point where I can run consistently in Zone 2 without walking to bring my heart rate down. This could be because I am getting it, or could be because I am overtrained and about to hit a wall. I guess either way, I am going to hit a wall this weekend.

Part of the new year brings my IM training into focus. Consistency is required. I plan to attend as many group sessions as possible, and to volume up! I hope to keep the running that I have built up, and over the next 3-5 months to bring the bike up to par.

Typed too much. Got to save some for next post.

Sheri's earbud giveaway!

2011-03-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

Here is sheri's giveaway. I am hoping I win so that I can try them out.

Acoustibuds Review and Giveaway

Marriage counselor to the rescue!

2011-02-01T09:20:00.000-08:00

I read this WSJ Endurance Widow, and noticed there was no real solution presented for how to not have marital strife as a result of significant increase of exercise on the part of one partner.

Here is my suggestion, and it is going to seem silly and stupid. Communicate. Talk about it. The first thing I did was copy this article and send it to my wife. I am aware that she gets frustrated when I am gone in the morning, or when I am gone in the evenings, or for 4 or 5 hours on the weekend days, or when I take a trip without her. She gets frustrated when I suggest races that I could do during our vacation, or even better yet, suggest scheduling our vacation around a certain race! She looks at me like I am insane when I suggest that I want to do a full Ironman distance race next year, or when I watch 2 hours of Ironman coverage on TV. The important thing is that I talk to her about it, and I know when I am going over that invisible line - because she talks back to me! "What do you think about going to Puerto Rico for vacation?" I say. She says, "Puerto Rico? Why there?" I reply and tell her, "Well, there is this race there, and I might get to meet Lance Armstrong!" The next part is the important part... It will either be met with a "Are you INSANE?", with a "Is there a better race, or one that is in ..." or "I guess we could do that." Listen, people. These responses are important.
Also, listen for the key phrases like "I miss you." or "Honey, Can you go to the kid's function tomorrow night?" or "Let's have a date." That means you need to pay more attention.
If he/she sends you a link to an article that suggests that playing age appropriate video games with the kids is a constructive way to build a relationship with them, then you need to think about that.

Make a list of priorities, in order of importance and then follow it. This is a simple version of my list, and you can put your stuff in there if you want.
1. Family
2. Work
3. Coaching
4. My own workouts
5. Other stuff.
Obviously, it is more complex than that, but that is the idea. Now use your list. If you need to have a date night, then you need to figure it out. If rescheduling is necessary, work your way up from the bottom. I need a date night, so I am going to skip playing MMORPG, or something else. If i can't do that, then i am going to have to miss one of MY workouts to make time. This works. Especially since you dont have to have a conventional date. That is the thing. A good date time for me and my wife is on a weekend morning. That requires me to skip or move one of my workouts.
You can also think of it as a challenge to overcome. Then when someone says "I am IRONMAN" you can counter with, "Oh, yeah? I am one better. I am an IRONMAN, and still married."

That is my goal. To stay best friends and married to my favorite person in the world, to be a good role model to my kids, and to be a successful coach and athlete.

myocardial?

2011-01-28T03:51:00.000-08:00

Funny, I initially wrote Myocardial instead of myofacial in my last post. Could you imagine me rolling out my heart muscle with a foam roller??!!

Foam Rollers

2011-01-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

Today i used a foam roller i bought at the Sports Authority. I have been tender in my legs for a while, and I was told that it is a good way to release tension caused by repetitive motion like running.

Verbal instructions i received: Roll back and forth on this and if you feel a lump, stay on it for 30 seconds. Then roll some more and when you find more lumps, hold them, then roll some more.

Internet instructions: If you look up foam rollers you will mostly figure out how to curl your hair. Fortunately, you can wade through those and find some videos on how to use a foam roller. Luckily, I am a research maniac, and over the last year I have looked at things like Mayofacial release, Active Release Therapy, and so on and so forth. I am sure I have probably read most of the posts regarding foam rollers that were posted on Trifuel, SlowTwitch, Beginner Triathlete, About.com, and any other one you could possibly think of to look up. I didn't see that lady with the giant rack who does the burpees and the other Body Motion videos do a video on them yet, but I am sure she will soon. It seems inevitable.

Anyway, long story short, (yeah right), I started rolling my calves. Here is the deal, There are basically 3 muscles on the back of your leg. The two larger ones on each side, and one in the middle, kinda underneath everything. I am not going to feed you techspeak that I know all about what they are and such, cause I would have to look them up and post what I saw on the internet, you would think i am wicked smart, but I am not. When looking at MY calf, you see what looks like a tapered wine barrel stuck to a 4x4. No visible definition between the 3 muscles whatsoever.

This indicates to me that we may have some adhesion issues. Sure enough, about half way up, i feel a lump. When i say lump, I mean more like I have unintentionally adhesed, like, a baby's arm, or a 3 foot python or something in my leg. Rolling over it is painful, and feels like going over speed humps in your car (not a speed bump mind you, if i were actually in my car, my head would have hit the ceiling.). I have the same tenderness on my IT band, only it is less like a speed hump, and more like driving through a train yard. Kinda bumpy. Quads are the same way.

I feel much better after rolling them out. I think it is going to take some time to get the big ones dissolved... Also, I forgot to put my workout in here! I ran 7.5 miles. About 1.25 hours. Right on track. I did about .5 miles barefoot to work on getting the tender feet stronger.

Who knows, maybe by the end of the year I will be Barefoot Somebody or Other.

-Ryan

P.S. - If you have a baby who all of a sudden is missing an arm, please let me know, I will stop rolling, and try to pop it like a zit. (Mental note:I shouldn't write AFTER the glass of wine.)

bikila?

2011-01-25T12:38:00.000-08:00

i am thinking of getting the blue bikila VFFs for running. I think my wife thinks this is weird.

why no pictures from the rear?

2011-01-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Why do most swim coaches want to see video of someone from the front, from the top, and from the side, but nobody ever asks for video of someone from the rear? I would think that if the video was taken to one side, then the other, right in the swimmer's wake, you would be able to see some VERY important information. You could see the amount of the arm that is being used for the pull, you could see the upper body rotation, and the lower body rotation, and you would be able to easily see the depth of kick (as long as the person was not kicking washing machine style.)

Maybe that angle is hard to capture and see... I need to get me an underwater camera..

up! and down, and up again!

2011-01-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

I started typing a book in my own stinking comments, so i thought i would repost here.

I ran what I thought was 6 (it was really 5.24 according to mapmyrun) on tuesday, and another 5.24 today. I am going to try to finish the week over 20 miles running. I think this would be a record for me, even when i was training for the two half iron man (men? halfs?) that i have done previously. I have to plan that last run, cause it would really suck to get done and then figure out i was .46 miles short of my 20. I would be running around the house. People would think i was nuts.
I dont know if you knew this, (i posted on mamarunsbarefoot's blog), but i am gluten free. Been so for a couple months. Others in my family are also not eating wheat based products, and between the three of us who are not eating wheat, here are some results:
I just feel better. I can't explain it exactly, healthier? I know i tried to eat wheat a couple times since I stopped and had some major GI diestress. Lower, ickey, nuff said.
I found i am also lactose intolerant. Bowl of ice cream was like punches from Rocky (the old one, not the young Rocky) then the gas. Whooo!
Others in my family have had issues with acne, constipation (turds the size of a friggin football, i swear!), and depression, all of which are drastically improved with the removal of wheat and gluten.

It is easy to cook, and easy to eat gluten free. There is special bread if you really have to have it, and you can find anything you need to as a replacement to things if you find you just can't live without it. It is a little more spendy, and hard to find, but you know what? if it makes you feel better, i am all for it.

so, 20+ miles this week, strength training, 40+ miles on the bike on saturday in the hills of clermont, and I think i am on my way to a successfull HIM in april (14 weeks, according to the countdown timer).

Thanks for the positive words of encouragement!

bad run

2011-01-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

I guess if i am allowed to have a great run, i can also have a bad one. My stomach was a little queasy even before I left. Plans were to do 45 minutes, but I changed that to 30 minutes right out of the gate. Started running and my mp3 player ran out of juice. Rather than run around with it flopping on my head, i really quick put it back in the house and started again.
My feet feel like lead, and my legs are rusty slinkies. not wonderful toys. not fun for anyone, especially me. My mouth is parched, and has a bad taste, even though i brushed my teeth and have been drinking water.
at 1 mile in i walk for the first time. at 1.5 miles i walk a little more. at 2.5 miles i walk because i feel like my tired muscles are just not liking this. THey feel a little like they did just before i was injured. I walk the rest of the way because i do not want to take 6weeks off for a torn soleus AGAIN. Maybe i will feel better tomorrow.
Why do i feel this way? could be the hard ride i did on friday, followed by the really slow ride on sunday. i may not be recuperated. It could be the stupid dog waking me up last night to go out 3 times. The third time we went downstairs, i filled her water, then she started drinking. I thought i should sit down a minute while she drank, then i fell asleep. I awoke to pitter patter of feet upstairs. I found out this morning she relieved herself before escaping to the bedroom. Stupid dog.
Could be stress from work, or that I hadn't had anything to eat since 7:30. I am not sure, but the run sucked. I hope to get all these out of the way before IMNO 70.3.

quick post.

2010-12-21T05:12:00.000-08:00

There is not much to say about my workouts lately other than they are getting a little better. Running was fun for the first time on Saturday. The plan was just to slog out 4 miles so the day wouldn't go by without working out. So, i started slow, and felt pretty good. I have been reading a lot of running books lately and was really focused on my form. I had some good music on, so I decided to speed up a little, just a little. After the warm-up I was going maybe 6mph. 10 minute miles. No problem. it was dark, it was cold, it was wet, and running was feeling pretty good. I sped up a little more. How are my arms swinging? is my head up? If i focus on something 50yards away, can I make it not bounce? Am i landing mid-fore footed and relaxing? Just cycling through the form questions. I sped up a little more. Quick feet, always behind, never in front.

I sped up a little more. At this point I am about 1.5 miles into my run, and I am going at a pretty good clip. I would say maybe 7.5 -8 minute miles. Breathing is not ragged, everything feels good. I speed up a little more. (I am thinking to myself - ARE YOU FRIGGIN NUTS? YOU SPED UP?) I see an oncoming runner. He gives me a look. You probably would too if you saw a 250lbs man flat out running in your direction. Yes that is right folks, I am FLAT OUT RUNNING. It feels good, and my breathing is about what it normally is for a 10 minute mile. I stop at the 2 mile mark, and take stock. First I check to make sure my body is still with me, not passed out 1.5 miles back in a ditch. I pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming. Nope. I really did that. 20 seconds and my breathing is back to normal. What the hell? Then, and here is the crazy thing, I do it again, back to the house. I see my wife driving out of the driveway as I run up, and i do a jumping kick just for fun. I probably looked like an idiot, but it felt great. Then when I get to the doors I jump around like Rocky did when he got to the top of the stairs. I feel really good.

The next day I need to focus on not going out and repeating the run, or doing something crazy like trying to run 10 miles or something. I am coming off of a soleus injury, and just now increasing my mileage, so it would be silly to overdo it now, but damn... Damn..

You kick funny when you breathe.

2010-11-23T06:09:00.000-08:00

Yep, last night I got a chance to get in the water and have someone watch. On a pull set with no buoy CB told me that my legs go wide when i breathe. Sure enough, after she pointed that out I noticed it, and now they do not spread wide when I breathe.

I had a chance to 1 on 1 work with someone last night, and got to try several things to help them keep their shoulders and head down in the water, and their legs up at the surface. This was a learning experience for me as well, because I was in the water and had to think about what the best way to do this would be. Ends up that kicking to make the most bubbles and splashes worked the absolute best of everything we tried, and we tried a ton of stuff. I could feel my pull get stronger and my head and shoulders move further down in the water as I kicked a continuous 3 foot splash. It was kinda fun. It also made me realize how out of shape I really was, since 25m kicking madly is a lot of work!

My time out of the water also gave me time to figure out that I forgot how to breathe totally. I kept holding my breath and then gasping for air. 75s kicking with no arms is quite scarey when you are holding your breath and telling yourself you have to breathe but not doing it.

So. Lesson learned. Back to training, back to the pool.

Adjustments made.

I don't know japanese.

2010-08-08T17:53:00.000-07:00

Whoever keeps posting comments on my old blog posts in Japanese which links back to porn or hacking sites is persistant. I would ask them to stop, but I don't think they are reading my blog - mostly because I have been on break.

It was only a break. Sheesh.

I am picking up the training again. Since I posted last a few things have happened. 1. I strained my calf during a long run - which turned it into a short run. I was running along and then POP! It felt like someone snapped me in the calf with a rubber band. I was 2 miles into a 6+ mile run, and so I limped 2 more miles and decided to cut the day short. Later on I would Ice it, then notice bruising. I decided to take a week off. After the week it was not better, so i took another week off. Then I found I could run to the Y to a spin class, and that was OK, but 1/2 way home it would start to hurt again. Riding was ok, but running is a no-no.
I rode 45 miles yesterday, not too hard, but when I tried to do the 6 mile run portion of the BR-ick...well, let's just say the ick started early. I began feeling strain in my calf, and then abnormal strain on my right quad - which means I was running lopsided without knowing it. I walked back. I am going to start this week to build my running up to snuff for my October race. I will start with small runs, followed closely by some wicked foam rolling to get the muscles back. I have lost a lot of my bike, and all of my run in the last 6 weeks, so this should be a heavy build up for Oct. 31 Miami HIM.
Another issue that I have discovered in the last 6 weeks is that there is a really good chance that I am gluten intollerant. This means flour makes me feel yucky. REALLY yucky. I didn't know that until i stopped eating wheat based products. I started to feel a little better. My stomach is more sensitive to different foods now. Then I ate some fries at a shop which had some sort of batter on them. It was wheat, and boy did I know it.UGH!. So, I am going to keep on with the no-wheat thing for a while, see how I feel, and see if it makes any difference. Common thoughts on the subject is that for a gluten intollerant person, eating wheat based products causes mood swings and depression, bloating, GI issues, and the inability to properly digest food, so they feel hungry because they are missing nutrients. They tend to be overweight, and not able to lose the weight. This is me in an nutshell, so I am giving it a go. My family is behind me (which is ok now that I am not having such bad GI issues.).

I will post more later, since Tri season at the Y starts tomorrow, and I have a ton of people bugging me to start P90X. Later.

Subway giveaway

2010-07-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

I eat at subway too much, but here is a giveaway to help not fix my habit. I will post meaningful stuff later. unless you think the other stuff is fluff...in which case, i am glad i was able to make your day and post something meaningful.

Subway Give Away (and a pretty cool blog)

Giveaway - this one is really cool.

2010-06-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

Visor of the STARS!! I am gonna win this visor.!

Where the heck is my fitness?

2010-06-07T04:16:00.000-07:00

Ran 4 miles this morning. I ran 6 miles 2 weeks ago and beat my feet up really bad, - bruising and pain, no reason why. Shoes were 6 weeks old and had been through a race, I should have been recovered. I figured they maybe were too tight. I could not figure anything else out. Then last week I ran 4 miles and just felt like dog shit. First mile was bouncy, second mile was uncomfortable, then 3 and 4 were both just like in the race - walking with little runs inbetween. I chalked that one up to the fact that it was 90+ degrees.
Today I ran the whole thing, and only walked on the mile markers to get a swig of water. I finished the 4 miles, but they were not the most comfortable 4 miles ever. I wonder where my fitness has gone. I was doing 10 mile runs without stopping before the race. Now it has been a month, and I should be healed and raring to go!
Bike rides have been better, so maybe tomorrow's ride will be good.
On a positive note, I was up at 5 and running at 6 today! The move to consistent morning workouts has begun!

CEP giveaway.

2010-05-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Ok. Gonna have to try them now... If I don't win these, I am going to buy some.

Barefoot Angie B and her Great Sock Giveaway.

-ryan

I am a dumbass and didn't reapply sunscreen even though I have had one of the most deadly skin cancers there is...TWICE!

2010-05-13T04:31:00.000-07:00

So, there you have it. Transition 1 and I am putting on my long sleeved UA heat gear, buckling my helmet, putting on my glasses, getting into my bike shoes, and throwing all the nutrition back into my pocket that fell out when I thought I would be so cool as to already have it in my pocket before I put my shirt on. What did i forget? Re-application of SPF70 sunblock. It was right there, I just missed it.
So, the bike was fun. It is my favorite part. The first part was a little head-windy, so I took it easy. I passed some excellent swimmers, and just cruised. 18mph or so, into the wind coming up off of the water. Then when we hooked inland, the wind went away, so I continued to cruise along. Chugs of my nutrition about every 15-20 minutes, with water in-between. My goal was to get to the feeling that "If I have any more of this crap I am going to be sick", and I got there after about an hour. I had water in my aero bottle, and Sustained Energy mixed with Gatorade in my bottle. I had two open butt bottle holders for picking up at the hydration stations, which I did at the first and second. Gatorade and water. I also had some shot blocks in my pocket to change up the flavors if I needed to. Up and over the causeway bridge thing, and then down WHEEE! 35mph on the down. I love going fast - almost too much. My 245lb massive freight-train body makes me able to pass the little people on the downhill even if I don't pedal. Then there was a long stretch of smooth, flat, new pavement that I just kept on with - all the way to the turn-around.
Thats when I realized that I had been helped a bit with a tail wind for the last hour or so - cause coming back was a tad harder. So, I pushed through and tried to keep some speed so I could hit my goal of 3 hours for the bike. Up the bridge was a little slower than last time, but since there was not a turn at the bottom this time, I could keep my speed for longer WHEE!. Then back on the straight stretch coming in, the wind was at my back, so what should a speed freak do? Pedal harder! By this time I was feeling it. The extended swim in the choppy water had taken it's toll on my upper body, and so I was uncomfortable in aero position. I was spending more time vertical, which was bad in the second half because of the headwind on the way back to the beach. The tailwind along the beach was not too bad for being vertical in, but I could tell that I was getting tired.
I ended up getting back to transition in just a teeny bit over 3 hours. I think it would have been a really great race time if that had been the end of the race. 4 hours for those two events was right on plan for me. Problem is that I was tired, and this was normally the end of my workout. 4 hours of exercise, then a day off after. I realize now this was one mistake that I had made during training. Oh, I had done long bricks during training, but I always took the next day off to recover. My long bricks also usually were heavy on the bike, and light on the run. My longest included an hour of running where I felt like I was probably running 10's but really was closer to 12's.
Anyway, that is the bike in a nutshell. Stay tuned for "You Idiot! Why didn't you run more?"

Gulf Swim

2010-05-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

The swim for Gulf Coast Triathlon was really hard. I was told it was more difficult than St. Anthony's swim which was cut short so nobody would get hurt. I am not saying they should have canceled, or cut it short, but just that it was more difficult than I thought it would be. So my goal in the swim was to find a fast person, and draft for dear life. Then I found out that the current was pulling people from right to left, so people were going way off course. So, I positioned myself at the far right thinking this is where I should be so that the current will pull me into the course and I will line up with the buoy just fine, (this is also where the slow people swim on the outside so that they do not get trampled). So the horn sounds, and we stalk into the breakers. Yes, I said we STALKED into the BREAKERS. The waves pushed us back, but we stubbornly walked into them. As I started getting hit above the waist with waves, I started diving into them kinda like you see the surfers do it on TV. That worked OK, and all the sudden I was swimming. I did what I had intended for a while, and followed some feet. This was GREAT! Then after a while, I looked up to find a buoy and see how close I was to the big red one signaling the turn.
There were no buoys! What the hell! That is when I also got my first sinus cleaning and throat gargle of salt water. Awesome. So I waited until I was at the top of a wave, and looked again. I was off course. WAY off course. I was very near Texas I was so off course. The other problem, is that I could only see two buoys. I could see the one I was parallel to, and the one I was supposed to be going to, and i guess the one that i should be going away from THREE buoys. I could see three buoys. So course correction, I started seeing some little hands windmilling over by the buoy I was supposed to be near, so I headed that direction. After two more course corrections, I finally made it to the big turn. Gulped another mouthful of salt water, and then turned and headed out to sea. After about 10 strokes, the nice man in the kayak trying not to fall over said, "HEY, THAT WAY" and pointed me back towards shore. Swim, Swim, Swim, look up, drink seawater, swim some more. It went this way for a lot longer. Then I hit a sand bar. I walked for about 25 feet in 2 foot water, then swim again the last little bit to the beach. Unfortunately, the waves were not regular enough to body surf them. Oh, well. During this long swim, I was passed by the orange capped guys, and most of the purple capped guys, and was seeing some of the women from the wave behind them. All in all, 54 minutes to get out of the water, about 15 minutes more than I thought I would do, But I was still alive and racing. I sauntered up the beach, rinsed off in the shower things, and tippy-toed over to transition and my waiting bike for my favorite part of the race.

Stay tuned for "I am a dumbass and didn't reapply sunscreen even though I have had one of the most deadly skin cancers there is...TWICE!"

Gulf Coast Triathlon RR

2010-05-10T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here are my results:

538 JONATHAN COMBS          37 ORLANDO FL

Total time: 7:18:51

Swim time: 53:37

T1: 4:37

Bike Time: 3:02:29  (Avg 18.4)

T2:  3:51

Run Time: 3:14:19 (Avg 14:50)

I will break this down over the next couple posts.

-Ryan

Honesty

2010-04-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

This one is for the honest scrap tag given to me by TriMommy. 10 honest things.

1. I have a real issue following through. Example: I didn't finish my Masters, even though I started a couple times, I don't have a teaching certification, I never build a strip built kayak, I haven't even started my book - even though I bought a book to help me write it, and most of my big chores go undone, or 1/2 way done until I get bugged to finish them. To that note, I have not really been doing all the workouts I need to do for my 1/2 IM which is in 2.5 weeks.
2. I have big dreams. I see myself doing things, and getting things that may be slightly out of reach, or that I may not know how to do. That gets me into trouble sometimes with #1. An example is a house we put an offer on. It is going to take a lot of work to fix, and we would either have to pay someone to do it, or I would need to step up and do the work. I work in software, not in construction, and the projects I do sometimes come out...marginalized...?
3. I am kinda insecure. I feel like I am kinda goofy looking and may not have the greatest personality, and sometimes can't figure out why someone would like me, or why my family would appreciate me. I have to tell myself that they are probably in the same position, and wonder the same thing about why I like them.
4. What do you call it when you say things out of one side of your mouth, but do the opposite? Like when I watch the biggest loser and say, "I could totally lose weight." then continue to eat the same way, and not change my habits. Or "I could totally become an elite athlete" and then miss training more than once a week. I am one of those guys.
5. I have a strange views about how i should look. Specifically, I have these huge scars on my neck from having melanoma removed, and I like to almost put them on display. they look awful. But I have issues with my body hair, varicose veins, and my lopsided-ness (not quite the guy from Goonies). I need to be satisfied with how i am. Funny, the stuff that bothers me doesn't bother my wife, and that is really the only person that matters at this point.
6. I like stupid movies. I watched RoboCop the other day. I liked it. I recorded Rollerball with LLCoolJ a few weeks ago when the movie channels had a free weekend. I can't help it.
7. I still look like a kid. I am 36 years old, and I still look like I just got out of high-school. Maybe it is a generational thing, or maybe it is me. I don't know. I looked yesterday in the reflective walls of an elevator at me and another person. We both had khaki pants and a golf shirt on, but his fit better on him, it was tucked in, his hair was combed, and he had dress shoes on. Mine was wrinkled, a little big, untucked, I had a long sleeve t-shirt on underneath (sun protection cause of melanoma), and cross-trainers on with white sports socks. It didn't help that I was sporting my computer in a back-pack. Hair was clean, but completely messy.- for some reason I can't have styled hair for more than 10 minutes... Anyway, I looked like a kid.
8. I very rarely take the lead on things, or feel confident that I know as much or more than others. It is hard to convince me that I should be the one to take charge, cause I feel like there are likely more people out there who know more about something than I do. I would very much like to coach people doing triathlons, but I can't see how i can get the knowledge enough to be able to coach them, even though the rational portion of my brain says I pretty much know what they would need to know.
9. I still love being in the same place as my wife. I feel better when we are in the same room, and that is just a feeling of contentment that I am addicted to.
10. I am scared of funerals. My grandpa passed away this week and I am kinda bummed. I haven't gone to any funerals ever. From Jens in high school, to Dan who committed suicide a couple years ago, to my grandma on my dad's side last year, to grandpa on my mom's side this year. Just haven't been able to do it.

Big Brick

2010-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was big brick day. Plan was 50/6. Ended up being 60/60min. I am not sure how far I went. Google maps doesn't have the road I ran on, so I ran 30 minutes out, and 30 minutes back. Exactly a straight split, which is weird. Legs felt like 1000 lbs on the run.
First 40 of the bike, my heart rate stayed at 120. I kept an average of 18+ mph. As the wind picked up, one way got slower, and the other way got faster. At 40 miles on the bike, my hr started to increase. 130's for 40-50 miles, and 140's for 50-60. I am thinking this is cardio creep that I have to keep under control. Most likely I had to take in more water during the first 40. I went through 3 24 oz bottles during that time, and I had a PB&H at about 35-40 miles in. That could be a factor, where it COULD be that cardio creep was a result of solid food on the bike. Hypothesis #2 would be that rather than cardio creep being caused by not enough fluid in the first half,it could be that digestion of solid food pulled water into digestion rather than used for blood pumping and keeping cool. I am going to have to change one thing for next time, so if i am able to get some liquid energy for next week then i will remove solid food for the bike and see how the cardio goes. If not, then I will add a bottle and force myself to drink it in the first 15.
Run, as i mentioned was heavy. I didn't feel quite right until 30 minutes in, which is not so good, and it was mostly muscular. Possibly I need to prime the potassium pump, and get more electrolytes in at the end of the bike. couple that with more fluid and I should be better. I also need to plan a pee break in T2. This time, pee break was about 20 minutes in, and as I was walking out of the ditch, I saw a REALLY BIG GATOR. He was really big because he was about 15 yards from where I was peeing and I was still walking out of the ditch when I saw him. At that point, he looked to be 10 feet long... but on the return trip I figured he was more like 6. Adrenaline added some height to him. I would have laid down next to him to measure, but eh...not so much...
So, before my race, I need at least two more huge bricks like this one, and I likely need a couple more which are about half of this one that I can do during the week. This way I can get my nutrition down, work on my endurance, and work on my transition running. Then after the race, I can work on my speed and more on form for my next A race in October.

I shod the sheriff...

2010-03-23T04:31:00.000-07:00

Today seems to be a good day for me to post my shoe quandaries. Last night at the YMCA tri practice we had a foot doctor answer some of our questions about feet. He talked about all the things that could happen to feet, and since you probably don't care, I wont tell you about them. I WILL tell you about what he says about shoes and running styles. Essentially, he says you should get shoes that accommodate your feet. If you have high arches, then you should get high arch support. If you have flat feet you should get shoes to help with over-pronation. If it hurts to run, then you should get shoes that make it not hurt. I asked about tri specific shoes. He mentioned that they will likely hurt your feet, and not help at all, and the drainage will not likely be a factor for anyone but the elite athletes. Also, he says barefoot running and near-barefoot running is crazy, and that running style is extremely hard to change because it is instinctual and you should get shoes to accommodate your running style, instead of changing your running style.
These are most of what I expected a foot doctor to say. I kinda feel weird disagreeing with someone about feet who does feet for a living. My contention is : try heel striking with no shoes on. You won't do it for long.... I really like my Zoots.

I also don't agree that you should wear regular shoes for training and break out your racing flats only for races. I say, practice in what you race in. If you have different shoes, mix them up. I like to wear my Zoots sometimes, and regular running shoes sometimes. I have my elastic laces in my shoes all the time, not just for races, because "Nothing new on race day". Plus I can just pull on my shoes. I am lazy like that. Who knows, because of this I may get injured, and in 5 years be a convert to the wearing shoes to accomodate my bizzarro feet, but for now, I am trying to train my body to work as close to natural as possible.

There is an arguement that "Back in cave-man days there was no concrete or asphalt." I agree. I still wear shoes. They did have hard-pack dirt, rocks, and other types of terrain that I could not even imagine like roots poking up and prickly bushes to contend with. I bet they rarely ran flat out, and if they did, they were sorry for it for days to come. They did not run flat out through cush grass or soft pine needle trails, either.

Anyway, aside from my ingrown toe-nails, and the occasional muscle soreness from super-bricks, my feet are fine, so I am going to keep on-keeping on with my current regimen. I.E. wear whatever the hell shoes i feel like. Speaking of which, I am going to get some new ones soon. These have several hundred miles on them, I am sure, and are due to be retired.

Until next time!

Weekend Training.

2010-03-22T04:35:00.000-07:00

So, Saturday was a pretty good day at the AAA Triathlon Camp. We got to learn about aero positions and time savings, work on transition, and do some biking, as well as having a body composition analysis. Friday was a family birthday celebration for my middle son, and so the food I had in my belly for Saturday was not optimal. It seems like as I get more fit, the bad food feels worse. Steak, Guinness, and cheesecake ganged up on me and made me feel like a practice transition was harder than a full race. Lesson learned....til next time.
I feel like I was pretty savvy on the drills we did, and like I was at the top of the group as far as performance. That is pretty good if you ask me, since this tri group tends to sweep the podium at local races.
Sunday was a brick, which was not as good as it should be 6.5 weeks out from a race. 40/2. I did the 40 in just over 2 hours, which is not horrible. I think my bike time will hopefully be sub 3. That will be -10 or more minutes. 2 miles running should have felt better. I was hurtin for certain. My run was 2:49 before, and I would like to get most of my savings there. The swim will not be 'downhill' so I am probably going to have to make up some time, but my swim stroke is a bit better. We will have to wait to see what the water looks like on race day. So, essentially, I need to take a look at my run time and see if i can get better at running out of the bike. I could probably do something about these 5 minute transitions, too. More bricks are in my future for the next 6 weeks.

Sprints, AGAIN!

2010-03-19T04:33:00.001-07:00

Y Not Tri workout last night was a timed run and sprints! Here is where I figured out that my great speed that I found lasts about 2-2.5 minutes. Unfortunately, the run was about 1.25 miles. 8 loops of the "track" (footpath around a field and bathrooms). 1st lap was 1.05, then 1.20, then it went downhill for a while until the last lap where I pushed through and did it in closer to 1.10. Then we did sprint/relay/games. We finished with capture the flag. I think it is a blast when adults can play games like kids. I also figured out that in an all out sprint, there are not many who can beat me, and my recovery is really pretty good. This being said, I think more intervals are in my future. I know that too many sprint/interval workouts will make you prone to injury, but they are also shown to improve your fitness by incorporating slow AND fast twitch muscles, increasing your VO2 Max, yadda yadda yadda. They are also supposed to be better for changing your body make-up because they get all muscles burning for a longer time. So if you don't like it then... bleh.

The big experiment

2010-03-18T04:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, it took a week to get to the experiment, and i didn't have my video camera, but here is (roughly) how it went.

I know a guy who runs wicked fast. like 6 minute miles in a 10k fast. So when i found this entry online by Jessi Stensland, I had to try it. I think one of the main keys is having someone who can do 10mph running next to you with no effort.

So, warm-up, 6mph for a bit. no sweat, that is my pace! My friend was almost looking frustrated at the slowness of it.

Interval at 7 mph. This took a little effort for me, but was not too bad. 1 minute was a short enough time to not get pooped. then a walking rest.

Interval at 7.5mph. Still not too bad. It helped having someone go effortless right next to me. Kinda made me relax to look over and see that he was having such an easy time with it. then a walking rest.

Interval at 8 mph. Here is where my running buddy noticed that my hands were too low. I thought I had my elbows at 90 degrees, but he said they started at below 90 degrees and fell down from there. This was essentially putting on my brakes and taking way tons of energy to keep going. I decided to focus on arm position for the rest of the intervals. walking rest.

Interval at 8mph. This one was focusing on my arm position and the effort on this one was not too bad. I could tell i was going fast, but in the minute+ that i held this speed, i did not really get out of breath too bad, and was not getting overly tired. I am going to be sore tomorrow.

Interval at 8.5 mph. This seemed not so much faster than the 8. I held the speed, and with him running effortlessly next to me, I tried to be effortless too. I kept dropping my hands, and at this speed i could really tell.

Interval at 9mph. Wheee! this was fast! Elbows have to stay at above 90 degrees or I was going to fall off of the treadmill! Stay light, Stay forward, stay balanced, and keep my arms UP! Old people all around us are looking at us like we are nuts. 1.5 or so minutes at 9mph. walking rest.

Interval at 8mph. This was just to see how it felt. I have to say, this felt much easier - not as easy as 6mph, but a lot easier than 8mph would feel like before. My friend called it "resetting your easy button." True-dat.

I think that at the faster intervals i had some balance problems. Those may be core strength issues, or just that I need more practice at that speed. Either way, I need to practice and get core strength up. I also need to keep my arms bent more than I have been. This saved SO MUCH energy, I was surprised. Amazing to think that my arm position could have been keeping me slow for so long.

If you do this experiment, be careful. Treadmills are scary, and should be used with caution. Don't base your experiment on my blog, or I will have to come up with some sort of waiver of liability. Base your experiment on the link above. She is a professional.

I am going to do this for a couple more weeks in a row, to see if i can extend my faster running to a 5k distance. Then it will be time for another experiment. I am going to try this one by Gail Bernhardt

That is all for now.

still here.

2010-03-09T08:10:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting much. Not much to say. Swim, Bike, Run. Run. Swim. Bike. Blah blah blah.

I DID get two complements in the last 24 hours from people who say I am trimming up. One from someone who spent a while looking at my butt on a bike ride, so I guess I have to believe them.

Tomorrow i am doing an experiment on running efficiency. I will fill you in on the details if it works. If it doesn't work, I will take pictures of the bruises and/or casts and/or general carnage. I hope to find some padding to either wear or set up some mats to protect us and the equipment and walls around us.

hey, maybe i will also take a video! that would be cool. I will bring the digital video thing.

Til then,

Ryan

You must give in order to receive.

2010-02-09T04:21:00.000-08:00

Like most mornings, I woke up today logged into my computer, then looked to see if any of my favorite bloggers have posted anything last night or this morning. After reading the couple that were out there, and wondering where everyone was, I noticed that I had not posted anything since last week. So, there might be someone out there waiting for me to post something! I need to contribute so that others will enjoy my rantings, remember that they have something to contribute as well - because what I have written reminds them of a funny story - and then write something.
Workouts this past few days have been phenomenal. Saturday was a pretty tough swim with sculling drills, 5x100s at race pace, and 25y sprints. Note here that most of my swim workouts do not include any kicking. The reason is because I am saving my legs for the bike and run. I only us them when I swim 100's or less, or sprint. This was a kicking EXTRAVAGANZA!ANZA, Anza, anza. So when I got out of the pool and rode the bike into the wind at a speedy pace, my legs burned - toaster style. at the end of the track, we did sprint loops. Now the toast was burning. Easy ride back to the YMCA to regroup and we were done - Except that I had ridden to practice, and had a 7 mile ride home. Ugh! Rough day.
Sunday was long run day. I figured even though I was a little tired, I would be ok since running is different. Another note: I am not so good at running. Well, 8 miles took a long time, and I did not break any land speed records, but I got it done without walking, and I felt pretty good about it. I also was motivated by the fact that several people went 10+ miles, and lots of people were faster than I am. One of the group even got their 8 miles done in less than an hour.
Monday was YMCA practice, and it was time to punish my tired legs again. Warm-up and plyometrics to start(walking lunges kick my a$$!), then a quick jog with some dips (i finally was able to do 30, without stopping!) then came the punishment. Spinning then sprint to 3x 1 flight of stairs, then finish AFAP around and back to the bikes, where we went harder. At 3/4 through the first set the 8 mile exhaustion from Sunday came back and the last 2/3 of the drill was painfull, but I need this. This is what I need to give to receive a better time, and to look better.
This morning my body is still throbbing, and muscles are stretched and torn and repairing. This is a good day to have off, since I see workouts (some which are really tough) over the next 6 days.

good week so far!

2010-02-04T05:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it is Thursday now and after my rest day on Tuesday to allow my body to move again, I picked it back up on Wednesday by going to the gym. 1+ mile running warm-up, free-weights for upper body. My arms were just getting to the point where I could make them straight again on my own. Time to punish them again. I spent the day yesterday stretching them back out to straight. I am close to good today with the whole 'haven't done curls since...1992?...' thing. Then after weights, I swam in the pool. (I almost wrote 'jumped in the pool' but that would have given you the idea that some chunky pale man in tri shorts was over in the corner of the pool jumping up and down. Gross!) Anyway, 2x 1000 with a 100 warm-up and cool-down. The pool was warm, which was weird. I zoned, but I found myself focusing on the catch, and that is a good focus. I experimented with my fingers being open and with them being closed. I envisioned grabbing a ball that was too big for me to palm, and using my hand and arm to push it down below my waist. I understand the reason now for the little 'S' in the stroke, and why it is not really an 'S' but it is because your body turns at the same time. Friday is pool day again, and Saturday I swim with the Y-Not-Tri team, so we can see whether I am wicked fast or not now. (Just so you know, I don't expect to all of a sudden be Michael Phelps, that dude is tall!)
Today was a bike day. Two of us showed, so we alternated the pull. This was cool. average speed was 19+, probably more for the ride itself since warm-up was counted in that. My legs are burnt again. It feels good - not like being burnt from running where I walk like a 100 year old man, but like someone is using my legs as junction for the power lines. Just a background humming that I imagine is causing abnormalities in your sperm. Good thing we broke them kids out of storage before I took up this sport.

catchup

2010-02-02T05:20:00.000-08:00

Saturday - 35 mile group ride at the Y. 5 miles from the house makes it 45 miles total. It was a windy day, and the wind always seemed to be in our faces. I pulled two groups together, which was pretty tough. It meant a sustained 22-24 into the wind. I stayed up and did not go aero, since my goal was to pull people up to the next group, not blow them away. I was successful, but found that once I grouped them properly, I had no legs to pull the whole group when it was my turn, and that the people I had pulled where pretty fresh, so I ended up dropping back for a bit. All in all, I successfully burnt up my legs. I am ready to do it again next week!
Sunday - I hadn't been on a long run lately, so, long run - again at the Y. I have to say here that having a place that has regular workouts that is so close to home is awesome. I didn't realize how much time I spent driving to different locals. I will still drive to them, but it is nice to get the bulk of my long workouts done and be home by 10. 8 miles may have been pushing it for me. I had really only done 4 max since my race in September. So that is an increase of... wait for it... 100%. I should stay here for a couple weeks before I slowly ramp up again. That last mile was a doozy, and I really had to concentrate on my form. Head up, arms pumping, pelvis straight, light pitter-patter of feet.
Monday - ouch. hard to walk. my calves are way tender. 10 minute run, weight circuit, then 40 minute swim. 3 to a lane was a little crowded, but I managed. I must be getting better at swimming. Even being sore and having just done weight training, I felt pretty strong in the pool.
Monday evening - Y-Tri group. Plyometrics, 1.5 mile run, then spinning. I don't know if I should feel good or bad, but I guess I looked like I was having too easy a time, because I was asked to crank the tension two times. ouch. It is all good. I pushed as hard as I could. What doesn't make my calves explode out the back of my legs only makes me stronger, right?
Today is a rest day due to the fact that I don't want to get injured, and I need a rest day. Otherwise, I would go all "Fists of the North Star" and that would be bad.

Idle thoughts

2010-01-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

Ok. This morning, on the way home from my ride, I noticed that I have a cassette deck in my truck. I no longer have any cassettes, but if I had them, i could totally rock out. I have a cassette shaped adapter which has a headphone dongle on the end so I could plug in my satalite radio - which i cancelled. I wonder if i should go on a hunt to find cassettes of all my favorite groups. I bet they are cheap.
I rode with two friends this morning, 25 miles, in 1 hour 7 minutes.i didn't do the lion's share of the pulling, but when i did pull, I did until my legs were toast. The last bit they were burnt toast - half chewed on by wild hyenas and peed on my a large albino gorilla - who proportionally has smaller testicles than man.
I can't believe that nobody has commented about the fact that picking scabs is one of 10 things that make me happy. That is just plain weird.
I friended someone I knew in High School recently, and he works at Microsoft as an SDET. I wonder how you really get a job at Microsoft, and then whether I would like working there as much as I like my current job - as a software QA engineer -specializing in load testing web-based applications (this is for when Microsoft does a search for themselves and sees my post - then they can comment that they are looking for a quirky, witty person just like me to not only help them out with their software, but to be on their in-house Triathlon team, not because I have posted any great times, but because I am a hard worker, am fun to be around, and have great untapped potential.
Mom just sent me information that turmeric helps with inflammation, and also prevents Melanoma from metastasizing. Ancient Chinese secret, but they published it in a natural health magazine! Those guys are not good at keeping secrets...

Nike has it right.

2010-01-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

Since I started training to do triathlons, I have been looking online and for books that would help me to get better, and I have been looking for ways to improve my form and endurance, and strength, etc. I have the shoes, the hat, the outfit, the bike, etc. Everything I need to get-er-done. I don't have the best in class of everything, but all of my stuff is appropriate for what i am doing. I have a tri-bike, zoot shoes, and tri shorts for swimming and racing in. I have bike shorts for long rides, and lots of jerseys I have only worn once or twice.
At this point, I am not suffering because of the equipment that I do or don't have, I am suffering from No-Nike-itis. "Just Do It" needs to be consistent to my vocabulary, not just something I say in the beginning of the week, or something I make excuses for. I miss workouts because I do not "just do" them. I postpone them until I can't do them today, and I may as well not do them before tomorrow, since I have a workout scheduled tomorrow.
All this summed up is that I am frustrated at my lack of commitment, and need to do better.

10 things that make me happy.

2010-01-26T08:51:00.001-08:00

Tagged by Running Buddy

1. Spontaneous displays of affection by Mrs. Supervision. That really brightens my day.
2. Watching the kids achieve something. - Make a basket, win a debate, show me something they made or learned.
3. Being very small - Those times when you look up or around and think to yourself - "damn, look at that! not many people get to see that!" Example: swimming at Lucky's Lake Swim, looking up at the stars and the moon, then watching the sun rise as you are swimming, seeing shafts of dawn filtered down through the water.
4. Picking scabs. Weird, I know. It just feels good to pick whatever it was that was on your skin off.
5. Post workout THROB. Knowing you worked out so hard that your muscles are singing, and going to really hurt tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and possibly even sometime next week.
6. Friends. I am making more, and the ones I have really are cool.
7. Eating. This one sucks a bit because I am trying to lose weight, but Mrs. Supervision is a really good cook, and even when she thinks a dish is not so good, it is great. Example: Breaded Chicken breast stuffed with shrimp and brie. Awesome.
8. Feeling strong. Sometimes I just feel like I could do anything.
9. Being included. I love getting invited to stuff. Even if i can't go. It means someone chose me. - having my blog followed is the same feeling.
10. Managing people and groups. I like to be responsible for multiple people, having them achieve their goals, while at the same time, having goals for the entire group and achieving them as well. I like to advocate for people and fight to get them what they want, need, or deserve. Ultimately (and eventually), I would love to coach.

There is 10 things. Notice none of them say "getting melanoma." Fer pete's sake, people, cover up! no tanning booths. SUNBLOCK

Although, I still am scabbing and picking at my last melanoma incision....

Now I have to tag 10 people? sheesh, some are going to be double tagged.

Elizabeth the Marathon Girl
Trigirlorlando
miss melanoma
kim ("teta" means "booby" in spanish
Tawnee at Tri*tawn
Krazy Kit Kat
tri-al
Terri at My Life. My Sport.
Michael @ Trilife
Ryan from Caught on the Run.

Some of you have not posted in a while, and will not likely get this because you don't follow me, but you need to post! I miss some of you!

I appreciate this post because sometimes you have to sit down and think about what makes you happy. It is more of an exercise for you, than for those who read it. Except the fact that now people know some of my secrets that are kinda disturbing...

intervals and a pffft

2010-01-26T05:45:00.000-08:00

Last night was Y-Tri workout night, and we warmed up with 1 mile and some plyometrics like lunge walking, reverse lunge walking, karaoke run, dips, pushups,

(pause) here is where I got something in my eye.

then another little run

(pause) I tried to rinse my eye out in the bathroom to get whatever it was out, but that was not happening. My wife and son noticed as I was heading to the bathroom to clean it out, and when i came out, they told me how bad it looked, and got me a cold pack. After a couple minutes, they went to yoga, and I got me a bike and went outside for the workout.

Spinning was interesting. I had a pretty high cadence on the bike initially, and i guess i was supposed to be standing vertical for a part, instead of leaning forward, but for the most part it felt pretty good. After a few intervals of speeding up, then mashing, then sprinting, then spinning, we headed out for our first run. (less than a mile, pretty hard.) The goal here is to exercise, and get used to bike-run transition. I mid-packed it for the run.

Then we were on the stationary bikes again. spin, standup, sitdown, mash, etc. the coach mentioned that I had it to easy, so i spun the knobby thing twice and continued. standup, mash, sprint, then pretend like powering up a hill fast, then we ran again.

Here is about where my run breaks down - and where I realized this was a great drill for me. I was out of the gate last, and stayed last for the whole .6 mile run. Looking back at it, I probably could have gone faster running. I need to realize that the workouts are only 1.5 hours long, and that I really need to push it more. That would also increase my speed/cardio/mitochondrial density? etc. Note for Thursday, push harder.

Cooldown was core and stretching.

Note to self, I did 20 pushups for warmup. that is lots more than i did before. (like 2x)

Today I was going to bike on the airport loop, but one workout partner didn't have their bike, and one didn't want to go out if we didn't have a group. (I am sure that group meant that he didn't want to look at my butt the entire time... (kidding)). So, I have between now and this evening to do something. Maybe I will take a long lunch or a pre-dinner bike ride. It should be warmer by then. It was 40degrees F this am, which is pretty darn cold. BTW, this is the pffft. workout planned, but not executed.

Sunday.

2010-01-24T07:43:00.001-08:00

Yesterday's bike was good. Really good.

6 mile warm-up riding to the Y

2 mile time trial (HR up to 167 which was as high as I could get it.)

3x9mile ride. 18-20 avg for first 9, 15-18 avg second (got a chance to chat with a guy named eric) and 18-22 for the third 9

6 mile cool down ride home.

total: 41 miles.

Today was supposed to be a run day, but i am taking a day off. I feel like the soreness and tired legs would get me into trouble, and I have a big workout week planned for this next week, so I am taking today off from a workout.

Went to see Avatar last night with the family. The images of flying are a little what I am trying to get to when i am on my bike. I strive for the glide, piercing the wind like an arrow. I get that feeling some when I am riding at 30+mph. That doesn't happen much, but it will. I had it on Thursdays ride in the wind, and yesterday for a few minutes in the time trial.

On a positive note, my ass doesn't hurt near as much today as it did last sunday, and the mileage is similar. I figure in a few more weeks, I will be able to do 50 pretty easily and then I can start getting my legs to push me faster, and also will be able to start doing a long run the day after.

Y workout

2010-01-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

warm-up.

Run test - don't know how long it was, ran as fast as possible. 8 Laps around this little grassy thing. Kept HR at max, which was between 175 and 180.

running drills - kinda like swim drills, only running. butt kickers, knee ups, side running, form running with emphasis on pulling knee through and landing mid sole, lean knee-ups against a wall - (or some guy named todd)

pushups, situps, dips, strength plyometrics like walking lunges, side hops, backwards running, etc.

planks. (holy mother of all creation that hurt.) both sides, and middle plank.

stretching/yoga.

I think that was all of it. I am tired.

What I should be posting...

2010-01-21T08:27:00.000-08:00

I really don't plan any time to actually post anything here. It is just a process of logging in, looking at other people's blogs, then vomiting some stuff that has happened to me lately. I really should be logging my workouts, or making cute observations, or laying my soul bare, or something...

In an attempt to be more consistent with my training, I am doing a couple of things. I joined the local YMCA tri-team. Y-Not-Tri.

They are located less than 5 miles from the house, and there are 20 or more people in the club. - At least there were at Monday's strength assessment. I am hoping to increase my Triathlon network, (maybe some of these people will work out with me.) and save money on gas and tolls because practices will be close to home.

My strength assessment sucked. Here are some reasons why. 1. I rode 45 miles on Saturday, and a "recovery" 20 miles in hills on Sunday. My legs were toast. That means my wall sit was about 2 minutes. I am overweight, and weak in the upperbody. So, that means 1.5 pullups, and 9 pushups in a minute. That is totally cool. I have a lot of improvement there.

Situps took me for a loop. I did 34 situps in a minute. I remember when I did 70+ in high-school. I think that just goes to show how far out of shape I am now. It is Thursday now, and my abs are still sore...

I rode 25 miles today in the wind. That was an awesome ride. 15-16 miles per hour going out, then 24 miles an hour going back. Then 16mph going out again, then 24+ coming back. I wanted to see how fast I could go, and hit 30mph before I had to slow down. 30mph on the flat is awesome. (even with a wind at my back).

Tonight is the run assessment at the Y. I suck at running (i mean running is my biggest obstacle), so this should be fun.

2010-01-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

Here is the new haircut. Mrs. Supervision didn't want to go all the way bald, so we went with a #1 all over. I kinda like it. Now that I cut it this short I see lots of people with this style, (or lack of style) and it doesn't bother me. it does bother me that when light hits the sides of my hair it is light, but when it hits the tops it is dark, which gives me a halo of sorts in certain lighting. My kids mentioned that now my whiskers are longer than my hair, but since they mentioned that I will have to shave... I always shave when people mention my whiskers. They know they can get me to shave just by saying "Dad, are you growing a beard?"

On the training front, I am focusing on running. Monday I did intervals, I do not have them mapped, but since my entire run took 40 min for 4 miles, and I alternated running fast and walking, I would estimate the running portion to be sub 8 minute miles. Wednesday was a solid 10 minute mile tempo run.

Now that my incisions from the melanoma have mostly healed, I think I can start getting back into the pool. Now I just need to find a lane that is heated and not filled with New Years resolutionists.

It is quite cold out (32F) and so I am going to have to set up the trainer for the bike for a couple weeks. I was really hoping to get outside, but that is going to have to wait until the weekend when I can start a little later in the day when the temp is closer to 50F degrees.

So that is it in a nutshell. I am mostly healed and ready to go. Gulf Coast Tri is in 17 weeks. I gotta get my volume up and start working on that run. Since Augusta was 6.5 hours, I am going for sub 6 at gulf coast. I think that the courses are both easy, and the 10 minute benefit I got from swimming downstream in Augusta should be made up in at least 10 minutes gained on the flat bike course. The run for GCT is flat as the one in Augusta so hopefully overall fitness and improved running efficiency should get me 30+ minutes - hopefully. We will see. My parents got me a digital video recorder for Christmas, so maybe I can make some video to post too.

Thanks to Miss Melanoma

2009-12-22T05:34:00.001-08:00

So, when there was a chance that my Melanoma was going to be more invasive, I looked for blogs that would give me an indication of what I would be going through. Miss Melanoma's blog gave me information about what to expect if my condition was just slightly worse than it was, and if you read her blogs from 2005 til now, you will be amazed. She is an awesome person, and an inspiration. Thank you for blogging, Miss Melanoma. I really appreciate your spirit.

Why Triathlons are cool.

2009-12-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

So, here is a huge reason why doing triathlons are cool. I know that Lance Armstrong is going to return to triathlons in 2011 and is going to be at Kona that year. Me, a below average AGer, can focus this year on general fitness and 70.3 distance races, then next year move into IronMan distances, and there is a possibility that by either qualifying, or winning a spot in the lottery, that I could be racing in the same race as Lance. I went to Augusta in 2009, and was racing in the same race as several professional athletes, and even got to meet a few.

Triathlons are all about personal improvement, but there are not many sports that you can sign up for a race, as just an everyday Joe, and race with the pros. I can not play basketball or baseball with professionals. There is no chance that I could be a basketball or baseball professional. There IS on the other hand a chance that someone could work hard and go from amateur status to professional status in triathlon. I do not necessarily think that I could do it, but there is a chance.

It is also not age specific. Due to the natures of basketball and baseball, once you hit a certain age you are pretty done. Triathlon has age groups to very late ages, and your potential for doing well AG wise actually goes up the older you get.

It is also not boring. You always have something that you need to work on specifically. Then you will have the next thing. Example: Last year I could not swim a full lap of the pool without stopping or floating on my back. I really worked on that, and feel as though I am an adequate swimmer now - meaning I can do 4x500 at www.luckyslakeswim.com and not drown or start having hallucinations. Now that I have that base in swimming, I am focusing on my running - which at this point takes longer than the bike leg for me. Once that is good, then I will have another area that I can focus on to make my overall time better.

Anyway, these are some reasons why triathlons are cool.

Luckiest person at the cancer center.

2009-12-18T05:47:00.000-08:00

Well, the waiting is over. That waiting is over. I got the results back, and the lymph nodes which were removed are negative for melanoma. The additional mole which was removed was negative for melanoma, and the margins which were removed were negative for melanoma. All that means that I am cleared and go back into mole-watch mode, and can continue planning the rest of my life.

I got that information on tuesday, and then had an oncologist appointment on thursday at the MD Anderson Cancer center. Even though the melanoma had not metastasized, the doctors wanted me to see an oncologist. This happened last time I tested positive for melanoma, and when I saw the cancer doctor, he said, "Why are you seeing me? You are healthy." This doctor was different because he was amazed that I could grow up in Alaska, not be exposed to much sun, not have any family history of melanoma, and show up in his office. When he found out that I have been diagnosed twice I think his jaw hit the floor. So, essentially, I have been diagnosed with the most deadly form of skin cancer, and have lucked out in having it localized to the skin - twice. As I looked at all the patients in the cancer center, I can't help but feel...lucky? Blessed?

Anyway, this year has definitely been one of the most challenging years for me and my family. I want to clearly delineate this year from the next, and my intent is to celebrate the new year in a way that everyone in the family can clearly see that it is a new year. In addition to the celebration, this is also when I will get my new "January haircut".

I spoke with the surgeon, and she will schedule me for an appointment in the beginning of the year to look at all of the moles on my head, and every January I will shave my head to determine if there is any change in the ones she decides to leave. I expect to have a few taken off initially, just to make sure. I guess I can't be too careful when it comes to that.

I look forward to closing the door on 2009, and having a life-changing (in a positive way) 2010. Planning for a great year is a sure way of having one, right?

waiting...

2009-12-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

I feel like we have been waiting a lot lately. I havent posted on this blog in a while because I have been waiting for something to say. I still don't have much, but i am sitting by myself while everyone is at work or school, and figure I may as well fill you in as to what is happening up to this point. So, last Friday I had my surgery to remove a wider incision around the mole which came up positive for melanoma. it is behind my left ear. I also had a lymph node mapping, which is not as much fun as you would imagine, so they could remove some of my lymph nodes to determine if my cancer has metastasized.

Lymph node mapping is where they stick you with really painful needles of radioactive material, then you lay under a scanner in what starts out as a comfortable position, but what you figure out after 10-20 minutes of holding still, is quite painful. Some people complain that you get a taste in your mouth after the shots, while others have the feeling of wetting themselves. I just had the feeling that someone was jabbing me really hard 4x with a needle full of radioactive material behind my ear, which then decided to bleed and ooze.

Then 20 minutes on my stomach, hands over my head while looking left for the first picture.

Then 10 minutes on my back, hands over my head with a scanner 1mm from the tip of my nose (if you are afraid of enclosed spaces, this would be a nightmare. I on the other hand, was trying not to cough cause I have a slight cold, and a tickle in the back of my throat.)

Then 10 minutes on my back, hands over my head looking right.

Then wait to see if it is ok.

Then 10 minutes on my back hands over my head looking right again.

Then 10 minutes on my back hands over my head looking right again while drawing with some marker thing.

Finally I was done, and we could go over for surgery. Surgery was the same as it ever was. Get in a gown, get your vitals, put on a weird hat. Go to the OR, breathe this..... out. Josy told me when I woke up that when they had shaved to prep for the surgery they found another mole that looked like the original ones they had taken out, and that they made the wider incision, took 3 lymph nodes, and took out the mole that looked like the bad mole. Originally Josy had joked about shaving my head, and the doctor said it was probably a good idea. I have a similar mole behind the other ear, and could very well have more hidden in my hair. Josy has since bought me a stocking cap to keep my head warm - "In case we end up cutting it closer...".

So, after surgery, I came home, and started in on recovery. Weird thing is that I can not use the muscle to make me pee. I know I have to pee, but the muscle will not contract. It takes me 30 minutes to get enough pee out to feel like i should not have to pee any more.

By day 2, I notice that I can not tell if I have to go #2 either. So, not only do I not have to pee, but i have to pee, but I know i have to poo, but i can't tell if I have to poo! This probably does not make much sense, but it does to me. Sunday night I am not able to go (#1 is ok since i have trained myself to spend 10 minutes dribbling enough out to be ok about every 1-2 hours.) so i decided to stop the pain meds. Last pain meds i took was last night at 8. this morning, I could use the bathroom for both types. I really had to go. REALLY. After getting that out of my system, I looked in the mirror at my wound - which i really hadn't seen since the steristrips had come off, and decided I may need to go back on the meds. it looks painful, so, I think i am going to try the meds i had from last time. I think they are lighter duty, but at least i can feel my functions with them.

That catches you up to now. Tomorrow i have the meeting with the surgeon so i can hopefully find out whether the lymph nodes are clear, and whether the other flap of skin is clear. Based on that information, I will see the oncologist on Thursday to find out what-if anything- needs to happen there. I anticipate having some advance notice of tomorrows information today. I imagine that if the other mole comes back as anything but normal, that the doctor will call and ask me to shave my hair close for tomorrow's visit.

Anyway. Now you are up to date. Here are some pics.

Can you believe my luck?

2009-11-24T15:07:00.000-08:00

Well, you may or may not know that in 1998 when i was just 25 years old, I had a malignant melanoma removed from my neck. Since then I have been going to dermatologists off and on and having different moles removed from my neck, arms, legs, and torso. My wife mentioned a peculiar mole behind my ear out to at least one doctor, but it was deemed unlikely to be a melanoma. Since that diagnosis I have probably had 40 moles removed by punching them out, or by using a razor to scrape them off.

Fast forward to today, when one of those moles which had been scraped off a few weeks ago, then the mole was surgically removed (5mm of plain skin around the mole turns into a dime sized piece of skin removed, and a 2 inch scar). I went in at noon to get my stitches removed, and the Dr. informs me that the one from behind my ear was melanoma. The mole that was removed from my scar on the other side which was more disturbing, and then the subsequent removal of the entire scar to make sure there was not a malignant cell which made it all these years, was clear. It left a 4 inch scar on my neck, but it was clear.

The doctor said the next steps are as follows. I have another surgery to remove 1.5 more cm around the area where the original mole was. I have a lymph mapping to determine which nodes could be problematic and take them out. Then a visit with an oncologist who specializes in skin cancer and melanomas, and possible mole mapping. Note: My wife wants me to shave my head for this one cause she is worried that I may have another red mole on my scalp which we have missed. I am not sure if I want to be bald, or even trimmed that close. We will have to see on that one.

Anyway, I have missed several days of training due to recovery, and the fact that I could not turn my head, and it is only going to get worse. The doctor says they will not likely need to use a skin graft on my head, but it will be pulled pretty tight. It was about a week before I could turn my head with this one. My face already is lop-sided, problem here is that this pulls it the wrong way.

So that is what has been happening with me for the last 10 days. I had an awesome bike ride today, my goals were to stay with the fastest rider, and to draft as little as possible. Mission accomplished, I got some looks, but I think it was "has this guy never ridden as a group before? Doesn't he know that about 3 feet to the right he would have a lot better time at it. I always like to watch the top of the sport to see where pros and elite athletes are carrying us, and at the World Championships, there were some who sustained a 28mph on the bike leg, and still finished off with good runs. Wow, time to step up my game some more.

Slacker.

2009-11-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

I havent posted in a while. You shouldn't care. Not much is happening. In the midst of the off-season I have been keep on keeping on. Workouts have been lax, but when I work out, it has a purpose. Running workouts are mostly shorter distances, and I plan to add an LSD workout in a few weeks. For now it is track and tempo workouts with ample time to rest between. Weight training workouts are slowly being added, with a follow on swim or yoga session for every session. Biking has been there, but not very intense. Most of my workouts have been in the 30-40 mile range, with spurts of significant effort done as intervals. One major change has been my diet. I have dropped about 4-5 lbs in the last two weeks, and am going strong. Candy for halloween was a tough part to restrain myself from, but aside from the 3 lb bag of chocolate we still have, I am out of the woods. Major changes to my diet which seem to be doing ok have been to concentrate on eating vegetables (except potatos) and limit/eliminate rice, bread, wheat products, sugar, corn products, and mostly anything that has been processed. During meals this means that salad has replaced the starch/carb portion of the meal.

Dont freak out. I have not eliminated carbs from my diet. I still eat oatmeal and things so dont wig out that I have eliminated my muscle's ability to provide energy. The carbs I do eat I am looking up to see what effect they have on the glycemic index. By keeping low GI, I can keep the body from creating fat, and hopefully lose some more weight. maybe for Christmas I can be a regular clydesdale - instead of superclydesdale like I am now. Losing weight will help my running as much as intense training as it will be less impact on joints and tendons. Let's see if I can keep the momentum.

Yoga and the splits.

2009-10-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

I know i haven't written in a bit. Not much is going on. I am on base work. To that end, last night I went to yoga last night for the first time ever. I have to say, it was pretty cool. There were a couple points where I could feel my muscles were really stretchy, and in other places not so much. I think warrior poses will help with my running and increase of my stride. I think that the dog poking his butt in the air, and the boom-shack-a-lacka that we did when we did the dog butt pose, will help my shoulder instability a lot. I also think that my hip instability that I have been experiencing since the race will get better with some of the front split-style stretching poses. I also know that while I did really well with the front to back flexibility, when we did the lying down butterfly thing, and the sitting with legs spread and reaching forward stretches I likely looked quite freakish with my knees poking up in the air.

Other that that, I am going to kick it up a little more. I am pretty disappointed with my food choices. There are good choices to make, and I have not been making them. Donuts and peanut butter pretzel bits at the office, dinners have been easy to fix and kid friendly, but not as healthy as they could be. Snacks are happening too much, and 3 beers are steadily becoming a nightly phenomenon. And I have not been drinking lite ones. Just a series of less than good decisions will curtail the efforts I have been making.

Cmon man! get with the program!

Building back a base.

2009-10-13T16:44:00.000-07:00

Mornings are my time to work out. I find if I put it off, it doesn't get done, and it has to get done. Mornings are the time when I get the main workout done for the day, and I have a main and an optional. Main is usually either a build workout, or a speed workout. Example; tomorrow is wednesday, and I have a run and a swim. The run is the main workout, tempo run, 5 miles. The other workout is the swim, drills and 200s, which I can do either on the way to work, or on the way home. Since I need to be back for 7 so that the rest of the family can do their thing.
Thursday is a bike and weights. My sons want me to take them to the YMCA to lift, and so i will have 20 min warmup run, then weights. Morning bike is 25 miles with some moderately hard intervals. Friday is Swim in the morning (4x500s), and run in the evening. I need a gear on here to help me post the workouts. That would be cool. All of this leading up to my 70.3 in May.
Other stuff: I woke up this morning and noticed that I have pimples all over, mostly on my torso and arms. Also, I have more than the normal number of weird whitehead/ingrown hair things. Weird and gross. Sorry, should have warned you.
I have not heard from the doctor about my potassium test. The hypochondriac in me says it might me Addison's disease. Sometimes I want there to be something there so that the weird joint issues that come up have some reason, and that all I have to do is take a pill and things will all be normal.
Joints seem loose. I think 2 weeks was too long to not keep up endurance training. Getting back into it is harder than I think it should be. I am taking it easy for now, because the base and strength have to be good and solid before I start the full-on speed workouts. My joint hypermobility is frustrating, and the docs said the solution is to be ultra fit. Well, I would say that since I completed a 70.3 in Augusta I am fit. Now for ultra-fit.

Ending of recovery.

2009-10-08T05:41:00.000-07:00

Recovery is finally ending from the 70.3 in Augusta. Yesterday was "walk to school" day, so I knuckled down and walked with the youngest and one of her friends to school. There is a fast way, and a slow way to go. I went the fast way (roughly 1.5 miles) to school walking with the ladies. Then I planned to run the long way home (roughly 2 miles). The run was at an easy pace, and rather than concentrating on breathing or heart rate, I focused on keeping an even cadence, and trying to stretch out my stride a bit. I noticed from the pictures at Augusta, and from other races, that I run like an old man. Very VERY small steps, and so when I see all these people passing me who are running with the same cadence, I naturally go "what the hell?". So essentially, I am working to increase speed while keeping the same cadence. (roughly 85-90).

The run, while at an easy pace and cadence, was still kinda rough. I can still feel some muscle fatigue from Augusta. As I focus on running, I will keep the biking and swimming, and plan to add some off-season weight training and some yoga and/or tai-chi.

On a side note, I looked at the Ironman Miami 70.3 race today and it looks like it is roughly 1/3 filled already. If I am doing that one I had better sign up soon. I also need to sign up for the Gulf Coast Tri in May if I am going to race in that one. Any sponsors out there up for paying my race entry fees? I would sign up for lots more if I could afford them.

So begins running season.

2009-10-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

For every season, turn...turn...turn. My run's the weak one, burn, burn, burn. I choose YOU sad runner pokemon! Time to kick up the run. Tri season is over for me, and my next "A" race is the 70.3 Gulf Coast Triathlon May 8th of next year. I have one or two "C" races, and I want to see if I can get into St. Anthony's for an olympic distance "B" race. Between now and then, I am going to step it up a notch on my running. This means learning how to run more efficiently, and speeding up and stretching out. This season's flat 13.1 portion of my "A" race in Augusta was a pitiful 2:50. Just under three hours.
So, how am I going to do this?
1st: coaching. My coach is going to help me get my run under control, and get me going. I have never really learned to run. I played basketball in High School and College, but nobody ever sat down and worked with me on running. Before beginning training, the most I had ever done was about a mile. I could not do that well, and I spend a lot of time sprinting, but not really running.
2nd: friends. I have several friends who want me to go running with them, and they are willing to help me out in this area too. I am thankful for friends. I probably would not still be in this if it werent for the friends I have made in the area.
3rd: mileage. I think this is likely a subjective topic, but I think that practice at a pace, and putting in the mileage will likely help in my distance, speed, and form.
4th: high potassium?: ok, i asked the dr. office that I go to about my labs from when i went there in April. I wanted to see if there were any weird things on there, and see how my cholesterol was. I figured that they had them, and since I did not get a call, that the labs were just fine. I come to find out that they did not have my labs, and that the information was not sent to them. They asked the lab for the information, and when they got it, they called me up and asked me to repeat them since the ones I did in April showed high potassium. HIGH POTASSIUM??? ok. I had been working out hard for about 3 months, and was about 3 weeks away from doing my first olympic distance triathlon. This means exercising 5-6 times a week, and putting in some serious hours training for endurance. If anything I should have had not enough potassium, not too much. I have a serious issue with not taking enough electrolytes, and so if the tests show I have too much I can only imagine that there is something that may be off.
So, some of the things that I looked up which could be an issue (in order of what I think the likelyhood is): thyroid disorder- My mother and sister have a thyroid disorder, and this could be the reason I have not lost any weight, even though I am eating just a little more. I do not know anyone who can work out as much as I do, and stay the same weight. HOLY CRAP. I weighed in at 240 lbs at the HIM, and that is what I weighed at the beginning of the year! I mean, CMON! My mom (who has a thyroid disorder) says I do not have the bone-weariness. Maybe I do, and just think of how awesome I could be if I didn't!!! I can not dismiss that I have been tired, but just thinking that it is the exercise. Huh. Something to think about.
too many bananas- this is the #2 most likely thing. Maybe I had a smoothie or a multivitiman or something that temporarily elevated my potassium.
diabetes. - not in my family. my kids may have this as an option, since my wife has family history, but not me. I have a likely cholesterol issue from genetics, but not diabetes.

I am not sure if there are any more reasons, but if there is one I am leaving out, please comment.

So, I didn't mention the other part. I have one more week of recovery from my 70.3 as far as exercise goes, but tomorrow I begin logging my resting HR, and every scrap of food or fluid that goes into my body. After a couple of weeks of that, then I will work with the coach to fine tune my diet for weight loss. Slow and steady wins the race. At 1-2 lbs per week, I should be able to lose quite a few pounds before my race in May. The key will be to lose fat, while sustaining muscle mass. This is key because if I lose weight, and keep my muscles, the massive power I have been using to motor this large body around will be used to move my smaller body around at a much faster rate. WhooHoo!
Wish me luck. I am going to need it.

Race Weekend Report Augusta 70.3

2009-09-29T04:06:00.000-07:00

Just to get this out of the way, I am completely, and utterly, insane. Continue to read this rant at the risk of losing your own sanity, or catching whatever H1N70.3 bug I caught 9 months ago.

Well, technically, I didn't catch the 70.3 bug 9 months ago, I only wanted to get into shape and try to be a better person by helping people whith blood cancer, but that is when my symptoms began to escalate. This is not the stream of conciousness I wanted to go down, so you will just have to ask if you want to know stuff from the beginning. This is supposed to be about my first 70.3 at the Inaugural (sp?) Ironman Augusta 70.3 race in Augusta GA.
Have I mentioned that I have never seen so many in-shape, bad-assed people in one place EVER? I am sure it doesn't hold a candle to the Full Ironman race in Kona, or even the full Ironman Florida race, but I have never attended one of those, now have I. Anyway, I packed during the morning last Friday, and Coach came to pick me up around 10am. Bike on the bike rack, bags in the back, and we were off. 6 hour ride, 1 stop for a bacon-cheeseburger at Cracker-Barrell, couple of bathroom breaks, and we were there. We put our bikes in the room (we were 3 of 5 people sharing 2 rooms at the host hotel. A side note I learned from the coach, if you can afford it, always stay at the host hotel. The Expo is downstairs, the shuttle buses pick you up at the door, the finish line is near, and they are not shocked when 3 people wheel 3 bikes into the elevator) and headed to the area where we could go to a briefing and pick up our race packets. We just barely made it into the last briefing of the day, and then picked up our race packet. This was good because then it was out of the way, but it was bad because the Bennetts were speaking during this time, and we missed it. SPOILER ALERT: this was made worse by the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Bennett both took first place in men and women's pro divisions.
So, we got checked into the race, and went throught the Expo once. I guess they did not really know how many people would be there, because the Expo part of it was jammed into a tiny space, and they could have used twice the area to make it merely crowded instead of forcing us to walk all over each other. I weighed in when I picked up my packet for Clydesdales, and came it at a comfortable 246. I think this was because of the Bacon-Cheese Burger and possibly because I had my cell phone in my pocket. Or it could be because I am still quite a big guy. We will work on that later. I did not get any comments from the guy like my friend who weighed in for Athena. I guess when she weighed in she muttered, "Gosh, that a little more than I thought it would be." and the guy said, "Maybe you should stop eating at McDonalds." Some people have no respect for others.
Then we met up with the our friends from Advanced Cycles and headed off to eat at a seafood restaurant up the road. Hotel, bed, sleep. Woke up, eat breakfast at hotel, then went to expo for a bit. Then we went to test out the swim. The current was awesome! Water was cool when you jumped in, but you got used to it. It was pretty cool, if you let go of the dock, you started to float down the river! We spent a couple minutes seeing what the water felt like, and mentally preparing for the race, and then we got out and went to the hotel. After that, Coach and a couple of us drove the bike course. This was a great thing to do, since we found that the course was pretty much all country roads, and we had an idea for the quality of the roads and the hills we would be in for. If you watch the video of the course you get a different feel for it than if you are actually out there. We knew from the ride that there was really no place on the course where the road was flat. It was all either up, or down. We got back to the hotel, rode our bikes to transition, then went to dinner. Carraba's was packed. We waited over an hour to be seated, and we ended up not being seated but taking 5 seats together at the pasta bar, then waited another hour to be served our food. 3 hours after arriving at Carraba's we picked up a couple things at the grocery store and headed back to the hotel. Asleep at 11, awake at 5, woke up the guys at 5:30, then off to the race.
We caught the shuttle to transition, set up, grabbed our wetsuits and grabbed the next shuttle to the Swim start. As I am getting off the shuttle, I hear the announcer start the professional women's wave. HOLY SMOKES! I have to check in my bag and get into my wetsuit because my wave is in less than 15 minutes! Bag check was relatively short - thank goodness - and i am getting better at putting on my wetsuit. I walked forward to where I am supposed to stand to get started, but I do not see any green swim caps. Wha?? Then i see some in the distance, RIGHT BEFORE THE GATE TO GO DOWN THE DOCKS! I push my way forward through the crowds of anxious swimmers to my group of swim caps, and don my cap and get my goggles ready. Then the wave before us starts and we are heading down the dock to get started. I made it! I look around at the group of people who are surrounding me and notice that they all look like very strong, accomplished athletes. Uh oh, this is going to be a long day... I finally get to the dock when the announcer says "30 seconds" and I jump in the water, brush off the chill, and the announcer says 3, 2, 1 and the horn sounds. I start the swim amidst flailing hands, splashing feet, and bobbing green caps. Within about 300 yards it starts to spread out and I am able to start taking longer strokes. at about 5-600 yards I am in my groove and swimming well. As I pass under a walking bridge I curb my desire to roll onto my back and wave at the people above me. At what I estimate to be 3/4 of the way through the swim, I look to my left and notice a few pink caps swimming alongside me. I am passing people who started in the wave 4 minutes in front of me, WHOOO!! I can see green caps in front, pink caps in front, green caps to the sides, and a silver cap or two from the waves behind me. Those guys must be bad asses. One day.... Swim finish! run up out of the water on the boat ramp, stub my toe on a bizzare block of concrete poking up about 4 inches WHA?? and run out of the water and up the grassy slope to the bike transition. CRAMP!!!!! Left moo-moo is not feeling great, but the bike is next, so I dont mind. It will stretch out, right? Then there was this big line of people helping rip wetsuits off of my competitors. I took a step to the right, and then used my feet to get out of mine myself. I could have probably saved 2 seconds by sitting down and having someone rip off my suit, but I am not working on setting a speed record here, just relaxing and enjoying the experience!
Swim: 28:43
T1 was nothing spectacular. I took off my wetsuit, I put on my cycling stuff, I put my gels in my pockets, I checked to make sure I had everything, like, 3 times then I left. Again, I am not setting a land-speed record here, I am just starting, and would be worse off if I forgot something than saving a minute or two out of 350 minutes!
T1:5:30
The bike course was great. All hilly, no real flat spots. Lots of country roads. I would say that half was new road, and half really needed to be new roads. There were a ton of people who got flat tires or had mechanical issues of one type or another. Of the five people we had in our group, two had issues with mechanical issues on the bike. I really enjoyed my ride, and rode my race. Lots of people passed me. I passed a few people, but I really had a race in mind when I started out, and I know there are people who are better fit than I am. This is my first race of this volume, and my goal was to complete it as best as I could, not to beat anyone or to get first in anything. This is how I was coached, and now that I have experienced it, I have to agree. The first time you do a new endurance distance, you have to plan your race, and race your plan. Do not deviate or there would be dire consequences. If you are new to triathlon and reading this, the last couple of sentences are for you. No matter what! Even if you are great at sprint or olympic distances, the first HIM should be planned, and then you race your plan.
Bike:3:08:49 Average speed 17.8
I had to pee in T2. There was only one person by the porta-cans so I chose this as the time to do it. I like that it was a good choice.
T2: 5:12
Running has never been my strong suit. I am not going to go into the agony of the run, or how it seemed like it took forever. I started by using the Galloway method of running 4 minutes, walking 1, running 4, walking one. I had done a 12 mile run during training using this method, and it had gotten me through it, but I am still not fit enough to run 13.1 miles without walking, and especially after a 30 minute swim, and a 3 hour pretty hard bike ride. I think Galloway was the only way that I had a chance to finish the race. This is what I was coached to do, and that was the plan, so I raced the plan. The run was agony, and it seemed like it took forever, but I loved the cowbells and the cheering and the, "Hey, that guy is on his second lap! GO 543!". I don't like that I was passed by several hundred people, but that is what happens when I am in one of the first waves, and I am not a strong runner. I averaged 12:40 for the first 6.5 miles, and 13 and change for the second 6.5.
Run: 2:49:47 Avg 12:57.
If you have done a 70.3 or more distance and think that run time is slow, I would be happy for any recommendations. I know this is my weak race leg and plan on putting in the mileage over the next 4 months to make it stronger during the off season. If you haven't raced a HIM and think that my run time is slow, you can suck it. Endurance racing is really really friggin hard, and until you run/walk 13.1 miles in my shoes after a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike at roughly 18mph through the hills of South Carolina, then shhh.
Anyway, finishing was awesome. I don't really know what to do down the chute, so I just ran to the end, crossed the line, and got out of the way. I grabbed a water, got my medal, they took off my timing chip, and i exited the chute on the other side of the loop, where there is about 1 mile to go to the finish. I didn't see any of my friends pass me, so I figured this would be a great place to look for them, so I sat down. Really that thought was an afterthought. I just sat down cause I could not stand or walk any longer. I had the best intentions before I started the race. I was going to go get my checked bag and grab a recorder and record my friends and coach as they passed, but this turned out to be folly. As I looked down at myself I realized I messed up with elecrolytes again, as I was covered in salt. This is something I need to work on more until I can get it right. I figured that since it was not as hot as it normally is when i train, that I did not need to take as much enduralytes, but really, it was as hot as i usually train once i got to the run, and i still needed electrolytes and more fluid.
Total time: 6:37:39
I have to say here that the only reason I crossed the finish line was because of the support of my family, and the instruction I got from my coach. In January when I signed up for Team in Training, I could not run a mile. I could not ride 10 miles on the bike at 15mph without rest, and I could not do the crawl stroke across the 25 yards of the pool without stopping in the middle to float for a minute, or do the breast or side stroke. In 7.5 months, my coach took me from that point, to completing a Half Ironman with a pretty respectable time, without injury. WITHOUT INJURY. That is pretty friggin awesome, and I appreciate CB more than I think she knows. (well, until she reads this, then she will think she knows, but she still wont.)
I also need to mention that i really appreciate my wife and kids who have sacrificed for me to train, and to purchase what I felt I needed to do this race. They have been missing me, and I understand and love them for supporting me and letting me do this.
Now to the crazy part. Last night was my first night home from Augusta. I started getting really stiff yesterday in the car, and even more stiff once I went to bed. When I woke up at 3:30AM this morning, I almost could not make it into the bathroom to pee, and then I hobbled back to the bed. As i lay there in bed after using the bathroom, and trying to go back to sleep, my mind started working. I spent the next 2.5 hours thinking about how I could get better, how I can work on my running, and about the race I had done, and what I can do to make the next 70.3 better. I am INSANE, but I love it.

I will be spending 4 months in the off-season working on improving my running technique, speed, and endurance, and then I will be building back up for the Gulf Coast 70.3 in May. Stay tuned for my new goals, new milestones, and the interesting things that will result from my pursuit of a new PR!

By the way, I am sure I missed some things from the weekend, so as I remember to, I will post them in subsequent days as I remember them.

Packed and ready to go.

2009-09-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

I am packed and ready to go to Augusta for my 70.3. Visualizing putting my bags in the car, and my bike on the rack. Don't get sick, don't get sick, don't get sick. Middle son is home from school again today, sick. Eldest was sick at the beginning of the week. I am wildly suseptable since I started taper. Don't get sick, don't get sick, don't get sick.

another dream

2009-09-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

In this one, I am in the run portion of the 70.3, and about half way (fade in) we burst out of the elevators and ask where the operating room is. They point, and we go to the end of the hall to find a pristine hospital operating room. We pull the card and find out what our challenge is.
Ok, when did they inject impossible challenges from The Amazing Race into IronMan races??? My brain is on overdrive, and I have no idea where it is going to stop.
So, tuesday, my eldest son was sick, and so wednesday i took some emergen-C to make sure i didn't get sick. Then the middle one came home and was really not feeling good. I am working from home now and he is slurking and wheezing and blowing his nose on the couch. I took the vitamin-c, the emergen-c, and some cold-eeze losenges so i dont get sick. I have also been washing frequently so i dont get sick. This is the worst time for them to be getting sick, since i am in the middle of my taper and I am worried that my body is thinking, "rest time? must be time to get sick!" I know how that works! Did i also mention that i took an Advocare SLAM to get the B vitamins, and the other stuff that is in SLAM which provides energy and also works to prevent a cold. They should really market that to people who have colds. I don't know if it would work for that, but i bet it does, and it is a huge market. Non-celebrity super cold relief - without a prescrition.
Anyway, this morning I did my final bike training during taper week before my race. The aero bar adjustment was just right, and I felt comfortable during the entire ride. I kept the ride to race pace for the most part, and only went a little faster at one point to catch up to a group of riders. I am not sure why i wanted to catch up to them, because they all speak fluent spanish and I could not understand a word they said, but I did. We all followed a rider who looked like he was trying to create the biggest possible blister in the worst possible place. I could not understand what the crazy puertoricans were saying, but i know they were laughing and making fun of the guy. It looked like he had some fighting wildcats in his biker shorts. I would estimate his cadence at about 90, but for some reason he was bouncing - A LOT. One of the other riders tried to emulate what he was doing, but could not because most of us can easily pedal at that cadence. Maybe his seat was not right, or something.... I don't know. All I DO know is that he is going to be sore for weeks. I would throw in a "as sore as..." here, but I can not think of anything that is socially acceptable to compare to being sore in that particular spot. It would go downhill from there.
So, here I sit, doing laundry, amp'd up on vitamin C, and waiting for the end of the workday so I can officially be on race-prep time. Just so you know, I am also load testing an e-learning web solution using HP LoadRunner. That is the Nerd part. I just don't talk about it much.

Dream a little dream

2009-09-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

Only a couple more days until my first test at the Half Iron Man distance. I am on taper, and my stomach is a bit jumpy. My dreams are all about racing, and so far, there have been as many good results in my dreams as bad.
Bad result: Before the OUC sprint tri that I did the bike leg for the corporate relay, I dreamt that I started my leg in a large parking lot. I was unsure of the course, so I followed another cyclist, who proceeded to cyclocross across a ditch, and finished the bike course in 4 minutes. In my dream I was disqualified, and my arguement that "I was just following that guy over there" was not good enough.
Good result: Last night, after watching some online videos about Iron-man races, and triathlons, I envisioned that it was 15 degrees cooler than what I was training for, and that gave me super-human strength. My dream logic is sound, right? If an additional 10 degrees warmer causes performance to decrease by 20%, then being 15 degrees cooler will give me a 30% edge over what I have been training for? I should also mention that in the dream lots of people went to swim the course on Saturday before the race, and the second shock of the river didn't happen until that evening, so several hundred people got sick for the race. I know that is not really nice, but it allowed me to place in my division (0-39 clyde). Again, it is a dream, people, I am not hoping anyone gets sick. That would suck.
On another note, I have my new bike, and have ridden it some and am VERY comfortable on it. It is like it was made for me. My first 35 mile ride resulted in no lower body discomfort, and a minor adjustment is going to take care of the upper body discomfort that I was feeling in my shoulders. I may even be able to catch up on some sleep during the race because it is so comfortable. Well, maybe not, but still, I love it.
Taper is going well. My legs are feeling pretty good. I felt some popping in my shoulders during the swim on Tuesday, but there was no pain, so I was able to continue. I think it had to do with the new position on the bike, and over time the strength will increase and the popping will go away. Good thing about this is that the race starts with swim, so I will be good until the bike, when my shoulders will get way tired, and then they will be able to hang free and sway back and forth just fine for the run. This would suck if the swim was last. They may have fallen off in the water if that were the case.
So, Friday is the travel day, saturday is the big expo and final little workout, and Sunday is the big race. My start is 2o minutes after the Pro's go, so the slow ones will have the honor of passing me on their second loop of the run while I start my first. That will be about 3+ hours into it, so if they have their names on their butts like I see some of them doing, then I will recognize them.
I am way nervous and excited. Erk!

A taste of the win.

2009-09-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the OUC Orlando sprint triathlon! Horray! This is the first time I have ever done a relay, and the pressure was on. My company had done this race last year, and had gotten 1st place in the corporate relay division. The guy who did the bike last year blew out his knee, so they were down one member. I let them know that I would be interested in participating, and that if given a choice, I would prefer the bike leg. Kirby is a pretty kick-ass swimmer, and Craig is a really really great runner, so that seemed to be perfect. We called ourselves the Pale-Ails, since Kirby was recovering from a bulged vertebrae, and Craig had recently had abdominal surgery and was still in recovery. Kirby said he would be going a little slower cause he hadn't been swimming lately, so would only be putting up 1:30 100's, and Craig said he was slow and would only be doing 6:30 miles. HOLY COW! So I was the weak link, but still we had a pretty killer team, and I just had to make sure that nobody passed me on the bike.
The race started, and I waited....and waited...and waited. Our swim heat was 30 minutes after the race started - time enough for transition to begin seeing elite people transitioning from the bike to to run by the time we transitioned to the bike! I got the signal from Craig that Kirby was about 2 minutes out, so I got ready. Then I saw the first silver colored cap - it was a 13 year old kid! but right behind him was kirby. He was easy to notice since he is 6'5" and pale. (hence the pale-ails) we ran into transition together, and ran to the bike. I already had shoes and helmet on, and he threw over the chip for me to velcro onto my ankle. Then I grabbed my bike and was off! Running, running, running, running. All the way down the bike racks, then all the way back to the beginning of the transition. I crossed the mat and jumped on the bike. I pushed down the pedal, and there was no resistance!!! NO RESISTANCE! My chain was not even on in the front.
Ok, the day had not started on a great note. I woke up and put on my racing outfit, including my long-sleeved UA heatwear, and headed out to put the bike in the car while eating some yogurt and oatmeal. Flat tire in the rear. I pumped it up to see if it would hold air, but i knew it would not. Once I got to the race, I decided to change it. I am thinking that is when the chain slipped off without me noticing. Note here: the markings guy(his name must have been Richard because he sure was a d..) did our markings, and insisted I needed arm markings. He also mentioned that I should take my UA shirt off. Why? Because it is too hot. But this keeps me cool! Dick shook his head side to side, so I put my UA shirt back into my bag, and donned my bike shirt - WHICH STILL COVERED THE BODY MARKINGS COMPLETELY! Anyway, back to the race.
...no resistance on the pedal! I reached down and spent 15 or so seconds to pull the chain up onto the sprocket and I was off! The little part at the beginning was kinda fun, and I started passing people. "On your left" I would call when I passed someone. It became kind of a chant after a bit into the race, and it was fun. I whizzed by whole groups of people and if I saw a medium speed person getting ready to pass a slow person, I would call "ON YOUR LEFT" and whiz by. The first straight stretch down South street must have had some grade to it, and the wind must have been at our backs, because I flew down that road. 27mph whoot!. Then a right turn (I would rather have had more left turns, but eh, what can you do?) There was the wind. down to 20mph, then another right turn and full headwind with a slight incline. I tucked into aero and maintained 18mph. Then a series of right then left then right turn, then another straight stretch. Weird, when we got to the place where the second lap starts, people are weaving around in the middle of the street! GET OUT OF THE WAY! Then the second loop. I was ready for the straight stretch and belted into it. Bike computer says 30mph, then right into the wind, then right into full headwind, then a little squiggle, and I am in the final stretch. Idiots! get out of the way! I passed 15 or so people in the final area leading up to the transition area, and was still calling out "On your left" and to one guy, "Hey man, I have to pass you on the left, so MOVE OVER!" I will be civil after the race. Another pet peeve of mine is people slowing to almost a stop on corners. It is not raining, GO! So I get to the black line a little quickly and the bike is not stopping. I ended up planting my foot, trying to unclip my right foot, while pinching the front brakes at the same time - back tire goes up! I am sure it looked a little goofy, but I did not cross that line.... Transition was easy, since I was one of the first of the relay people into transition, I threw my bike at the bar, and took off my chip to hand to Craig. Then he flew. He was starting out at a jog that was faster than my fastest run, but I cheered him past and sat down to figure out what planet I was on. It doesnt look like the official results are up yet for this year, but we won the corporate division this year with a time of 1:07. I did 11.5 miles in roughly 33 minutes, and we almost got the best time in all of the relay teams. I think only the first place men's team beat us, and they only got us by a couple seconds.
Overall it was a great experience, and I got that taste of a win. I have a half IM in two weeks, and even though I do not plan on coming home with first - I am going to see what it is all about, and then, who knows? I got the bug. I also found it interresting that several people in what would be my age group got under an hour. 400m swim, 11.5 bike, and 3.75 mile run with two transitions in less than an hour. That is awesome, and scary at the same time. But it is also cool to be able to see how fast it can be done, and I will work to cut my times for all three disciplines down. I just started this sport less than a year ago. I feel great about how far I have come, and at this point, I have not found a reason not to go lots farther - and faster!

P.S. Thanks CB!

Nervous as hell.

2009-09-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

Ok. I realize that my race is only a little over two weeks away. I ordered a new bike this morning. I hope to get at least 100 miles on the bike before the race, so I can be ready, but I am nervous. I am more worried that the older bike would not hold up, than I am about fitting on the new bike. I have had an epic struggle with getting into the correct position on this new bike, and I have come to the realization that I am struggling because the bike is a little too big for me, and that it was not meant to be ridden in the aero position. It is a beginner road bike, for people to make that transition from comfort riding to racing. That being said, it has been a great bike for me to get started in this sport. Now I want to go fast, so I am going to get a Time Trial bike. Hopefully, it will get here and be ready to go on Tuesday of next week, so i will have 11 days of riding on it before the big race. I should be able to get comfy on it by then. The goal is that by being in the aero position, and on a lighter bike, that I can milk out a little more mph, and be in a better position to complete the run. AW, who am i kidding, I just really want a kick-ass bike to ride in the race.
I also received my wetsuit in the mail yesterday, and I got to try it out this morning in the lake. It was really nice. wet suits float. when you are in the water, and you are laying back, you don't really have to do anything to be in the right position in the water. I kinda felt like a cork with paddles out there, bobbing on the top of the water. I tried to kick a little, and i was immediately splashy. My feet are at the top of the water without kicking. I spent the rest of the time making sure they were directly behind me, and that they were pointed to reduce drag, and that they moved very little. Who needs to kick? I will save the legs for the bike and the run.
So, I didn't sleep much last night. Part from still recovering from my 10 mile run, part because I got a wetsuit, and part because I had already decided to buy the new bike. Visualization is a really important factor for me. For everything I do, I first visualize myself doing it, then I feel better doing it. So frequently I picture myself in a stressfull situation, and how I hope to perform. Last night I could not sleep, because things I had already placed in my movie of Augusta had changed. It is like a weird paradox of the Butterfly Effect with Aston Kutcher, only I visualize the future, not change the past. So, I had to re-record my movie, with a wetsuit, and a different bike. I also have to rework the hotel, and how I am getting there, because I canceled my hotel, and am going to ride up with friends and stay with them to save some money on the hotel room. between this savings, and the savings of not having to have the bike shop go through my road bike from tip to stern, and not driving, and such, i figured I saved at least a little bit of money to put towards the new bike, right? Naw, I am just trying to rationalize it. I really really wanted a new bike.
60/10 this weekend turned into 60.....10, but that is ok. 60 with 40 in hills, and a 10 mile run the next day is better prep in my book. Now, only 4 more days of build-up before taper begins. I have a mini-bike-race. (not a mini-bike, but a small bike race - only 11 miles.) and a 12 mile run on the workout plan. I hope I am ready.

Lance tells me to eat more.

2009-08-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

So, in an attempt to begin logging my food, I signed up with the Daily Plate. I must say, I am super-extremely impressed. I signed up with weight watchers a few years ago for the same reason, and they were awesome with recognizing all foods, and having info on them. I did not have to enter much information about food at all. Since then, I have been disappointed with the food logging sites because I felt like I was the first one who was using the site, and had to enter every item of food individually. It takes about 1/2 day of that before I give up. The Daily Plate is not like this. You do not have to enter the info for your piece of bread, because you can choose the brand you bought and they have it. That is how good it is. I can't stress how friggin awesome this site is for tracking food. I also can track my weight, my body fat, and lots of other stuff because I signed up with the livestrong site, and they add to it.
That brings us to the problem. I put in my weight, my goal of losing a pound a week, added my workout for yesterday (35mile bike, hard - which took just over one and a half hours) and started putting in my food. Yesterday was a weird day for me because it was the first day that I got done with my bike ride and was full. I did this on purpose because I need to have proper nutrition in order to get to the end of my race. I have been learning this the hard way. - i.e. BONK BONK BONK BONK. - so I had a pretty good breakfast (or so i thought) before I left, hydrated on the way to the ride, and hydrated during the ride. Yogurt and banana muffin before, gatorade before and during, PB&Honey on the bike, took endurolytes. I got to the end, and was pretty full. I had a planet smoothie on the way home, and started entering my food and exercise into the tracker. I entered lunch too. Then looked at the numbers and almost choked. I only had 3000 calories left for the day. Wait a minute, I had not even eaten enough calories to cover my workout, much less fuel myself for the rest of the day. 2800 calories is my BMR, and 2800 calories used on the bike meant that I am not eating enough by a long shot. SO all these days I have been thinking that I was being a pig for eating a little more at dinner, I was actually just barely not starving.
Logic, and the common thought about eating seems to dictate that I should be losing weight at an alarming rate. I am missing roughly 2000 calories a day! I should be losing a pound every two days! But I have lost no weight. Here are my reasons for this. (They may not be the real reasons, but they are my reasons, and I am sticking to them. If you have others, leave me a comment.) 1. My body thinks it is starving, so it is in starve mode. Everything gets stored as fat, and the body is trying to conserve and not release any energy. This would mean that I am lethargic, not able to recouperate, and feel not great.
2. I am building TONS of muscle. I naturally build muscle. I have avoided any sort of weight lifting for this reason. I am trying to get smaller, not bigger, and if i lift, it will be to build lean strength, not to build mass. The only mass I want to build will be in arms and shoulders. My hope is that building mass in my shoulders and upper body will suck up the saggy skin I am getting because I am losing my gut.

Really, both of these are good reasons why I am not losing weight. The third reason I am not losing weight is that I have only been working out at this level for less than 6 months. February is when I started this program, and really, the first couple months were a shocker at how out-of-shape I really am.
Ergo, Lance says I need to eat more food. Roughly 2000 calories more food on long workout days. This is one more BIG meal, and/or more food before and after working out.
I also look at the pie charts that are created from entering the food, and it looks like I need to reduce fat, and increase lean protein - at least yesterday. Most of my food is carbs, and they are not straight veggies, but a processed carb like bread or more bread, or muffins or tortilla chips. I need to work on the veggies and lean meat with my food, as I eat more of it, that way I can start looking at losing the weight. Don't worry, I am not going to go all paleo diet, or atkins, or south beach, or whatever, just eat more veggies, and less bread and stuff like bread.
That could be a major reason I did not feel well on my (what turned into a) 6.5 mile run. I was likely dehydrated (another thing Lance says I need to do is drink more water) and poorly nutritioned when I set out. To top that off, the stupid community center where I was planning on water refuel had changed the combo! Urgh!
That is good for now. I will type more at another time.

Back to School

2009-08-25T13:28:00.000-07:00

Kids are back to school now. I think that scheduling will likely get a little harder, at least it has the past two days. Between the muggy, sticky, furnace of a state, and the whole 'WORK' thing, and then random appointments, debate clubs, basketball practice, and then whatever the youngest decides to throw in the mix, it is going to get interesting. I may have to resort to working out in the wee hours of the moroning, or late in the evening. (yes, that misspelling was on purpose, cause that is where my brain is at that time of day).
I also have a few more epic workouts to put in before race day... which is looming like a bully towering over the nerdy kid on the playground. There are still questions as to whether this nerd can handle it. Think positively. I did a 50/3 brick a couple weeks ago, so my 55/8 this Sunday should be no sweat, right? Right. I still have more than 4 weeks until the race to work out the kinks in my stride.
Originally I wanted to ride to the race in my truck, stay in a hotel room by myself, and be able to sleep and prepare for the race on my own, but I recently realized that A) I have to save money, and B) I could do with trusting my friends to help me out, and C) I am going for the experience, and what kind of experience would I have if I did the whole thing by myself. I am cancelling my reservation for my room, and am not going to drive up to Augusta. I am going to room with the crazy Puerto Ricans, and hang out with my friends. Race the longest race of my life, and hope nutrition holds true during the race.
Today, 6 mile run at race pace. I need to loosen my legs up from the epic 5 hour yard clean-up I did on Sunday. I still can not touch my toes, and it is two days later.

Recovery.

2009-08-20T10:30:00.001-07:00

I have to admit up front. I did not go at 70% effort for my entire bike ride this morning. I intended to. I started out tired, and late, and tired, and had to reassemble my trusty steed, because I had removed the stem thinking I had ordered the correct one from amazon.com only to find out that the one I had ordered had a quill that was too large. Anyway, I had to put the old long one back on, aired up the tires and took off. This week I have been doing pretty good at recovering and taking it easy on my workouts. Monday was a day off, but I played 2 hours of basketball with my son's team of 13 year olds. Tuesday was supposed to be a 6 mile way easy run. I turned it into a 4 mile tempo run, with another 2 hour basketball practice. Wednesday was even better with a 1800 mile easy ladder swim workout turning into 35 minutes treading water trying to help the little one swim better. Today I did the distance as prescribed on the workout form. 25 miles. I did the first 6 at about 16 mph, but it seemed like I was going a little slow for the effort I was putting in. The second 5 miles was the same, maybe 1 mph faster, but I began to notice that I may be battling a bit of a headwind. At the turnaround, I realized I was fighting more of a headwind than I thought. I hit 18mph easily, and felt it. You know what it is... It is the NEED FOR SPEED!!!!! I was feeling pretty good so I amped it up a bit, just for fun. 20...... 21...... 22.... Kept 22 for a bit. That was a good time. Wind was at my back, so I held the 22mph for the rest of the 5 miles until the turnaround. Then I dropped it back down to 17, but this 17 was much easier to keep.
In order to keep it to a 25 mile distance, I turned around at about 2.5 miles into the second lap, and then I kicked up the speed again to 21 or so MPH. I love going fast. I can't transition to run after going fast, but I love it just the same. After leaving the loop and getting back to moderate interaction, I knocked it back to 19mph for a bit. The wind was still at my back ;)
Then came the high interaction. I love and hate this part at the same time. I hate it because there is no shoulder, and I am riding on a two-way road with no median lane, so the cars get close. I love it because the cars are close, and the speed limit is 25, which means they go 30. I like to draft a bit there. It is only 2 miles, but due to some drafting, and some big gear pedaling, I hit 26mph for about 1.5 miles. I love that part. The last 5 minutes back to the house was an easy spin and I am done.

Good times. Sorry coach. It really did feel good though....

Good weekend.

2009-08-17T08:39:00.001-07:00

I have to say, I had one of the best weekends I have had in quite a while. There was nothing in particular that made the weekend so great, just a good weekend. The weird thing is that this week's training schedule was the heaviest that I have had ever. Training started with hill repeats early in the morning on Saturday. 6x 1/2 miles with 1.5 mile warmup, and 1.5 mile cooldown. I have to say that this was tough, but I got through it, and even was able to pull out a sprint at the end of the 6th repeat to finish strong. Then did not walk as we made our way from the hill back to the car (which is very tempting to do). My son had a basketball game, and I got to help coach. He ended up winning the game, and the team worked together and did really well. My son did exceptionally well. Ice bath and lazy day for the rest of Saturday, and then the epic LSD workout on Sunday. 50 miles bike, and 6 miles running. We ended up cutting the run short because of the seriously hard workout on Saturday, but I still felt for the first time like I might be able to race a 70.3 and finish the race at the finish line, not in the DNF medical tent. Part of that may have been a change in nutrition that I am working with. I went old-school on the food part, and ate peanutbutter and honey on the bike, and drank several (3) bottles of gatorade. Also, every 10 miles on the bike i took two more endurolytes. Ended up taking 2 the night before, and 12 before I started to run, and once i got to the run, I felt pretty good. I had some muscle soreness from the hills, but for the most part just kept a normal pace and finished my workout.
Then I played a game with the fam after lunch and just enjoyed being a family. Grilled burgers for dinner, and everything just melded together to have a great weekend. No one thing made it great, just enjoyed life.
This week is a recovery week. Volume of bike is significantly lower than last week. 25 total miles this week, vs. last week which was 100+. Run volume is increased 2 miles over last week, but the speed is lower, and swimming is increased 600M over last week, but is also slower. Should be a fun week.

Here's bug in your eye.

2009-08-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today, I was attacked while riding my bike by some sort of mutant grasshopper/locust. I say 'attacked' because I think it takes effort on the part of a large bug to hit me in the eye while I am riding by at 17mph. It reminded me of when I was a kid and my brother and I would use dirt clods as grenades. sometimes it was clumps of grass that we pulled out of the yard, and some times it was on the farm where the freshly tilled soil formed pretty awesome grenade sized clumps of dirt. Only once was it puff-ball mushrooms that had turned rotten and made a poof of green rotten mushroom spores. We learned fast on that one.
Anyway, one or two times, instead of throwing the clod in an arc, or up in the air first, my brother threw it straight at me, like a baseball. That is cool if you have a shield, which sometimes I had, but when there is no shield, and you are not ready for the clod....well. Poof. One such clod hit me in the face and that sucked. This mutant friggin grasshopper thing hit me in the face, and if I had not had sunglasses on, I would likely still be picking pokey mutant friggin bug legs out of my brain.
Other than that, my ride was pretty ok today. It was a pace ride to get used to my half-iron man pace, so 17mph max. 25minutes warm up at about 16mph to get to the nice part of the road, 15 minutes aero at 17, 10 minutes at 16, 15 minutes in aero at 17, then 35 minutes cooldown. Cooldown ends up being between 15 and 19, depending on the traffic. For some reason when I am in a high interaction area, I focus more on traffic than the mph and am probably drafting off of the cars, cause I get to 19mph lickety split. Every time i caught myself doing that, i shifted down and spun faster, probably comedically bouncy, but i kept my speeds down. Overall, not too bad. Then I grabbed a bite to eat, took a shower, drank too much coffee, and headed to work.
Tomorrow is a monster swim. 3000M open water in a lake. Focus is going to be breathing, stretching out, and high elbows.

Man, I am sore.

2009-08-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just telling you, I am really sore. LSD Brick on Sunday took it all, then Monday night I followed it up with a track workout. Squats and lunges kicked my ass. Seriously, I hurt so bad that i am Snap-Crackle-Popping out of seats, and basically falling down onto the toilet or the office seat to sit down. It feels like someone kicked me in the ass. I swam this morning, and thought that the swim would shake out the soreness. I really thought it worked too. I swam 5x500 or 2500. It felt good. Then, as I stepped out of the lake, the soreness set in x2 and it followed the water. As my abs came out of the water they went KA-Thump and were sore, as my butt came out of the water, KA-THUMP my ass was WAY sore, and it traveled down my legs as they came out of the water, so it was almost painful to step onto the bank and go back to towel off to go home.
Speaking of the lake, what the hell was in the water today? There must have been a storm yesterday that knocked branches and leaves and grass into the water, because as I made my way across the lake, I kept grabbing things. This is not a good feeling in a Florida lake, and each time I would jerk my head out of the water and check to make sure that i had not just grabbed a snake. During the mindlessness of crawling across the lake I would envision that all of the lake snakes had babbies and that when I looked up I would find that I was really swimming through a two inch layer of baby poisonous snakes. Then I thought of my friend Geni and how she already has visions of stuff in the water and how she would have just totally freaked out.
Time to cook dinner. It is my night. That means Spaghetti! whee!

Big Bertha.

2009-07-26T05:50:00.000-07:00

So, in central florida, there are not so many hills. I don't know if you knew that. Saturday, I had to wake up at 4:20 AM to drive to an area that has hills to find one to run up and down. Runners in the area call it Big Bertha. I picked up Kate, and headed for the hills. We arrived at just before 6, and since Google Map directions said we were supposed to make a u-turn at the Diamond Players Club, we spend an extra 5 minutes looking for a strip club in a residential neighborhood.
We finally found the correct parking lot, and found the group we were training with - the TNT Nike Women's Marathon team. We ran around the parking lot, then stretched, then we started running to the hill that would allow the TNT team to experience what it is like to run in San Francisco. The one request for getting to the hill was for everyone to run together.
We got to the base of Big Bertha, and chatted for a bit while we waited for the rest of the team to get there. It was truly a hill that looked like San Francisco. Coach said we were going to go up and down 4 times.
First Climb: I headed up, just like I was supposed to, small quick steps. at about 3/4 to the top I glanced at the HR monitor and noticed that I was at 95% of my max heart rate. I also noticed that my breathing was doing something that had never happened before. I normally start out breathing in 3 steps, and breathing out 3 steps, then lower it to 2 when i get into running. This time when I got to where I would normally lower it to 2 steps, my body said "NO" and kept it at three. My lungs were filling up like a bizzare overfilled balloon. I thought as I crested the top that I would not be too happy if my lungs did what I saw most overfilled balloons do. Then I supressed that thought and went to get my paper shot glass of PowerBar exercise drink. Mmmmm. Tastes like bubblegum.? WTF? Then I clomped down the hill and got ready for climb two.
Second Climb: I headed up, just like before. This is when the coach found me and told me that I was doing my arms wrong. "Forward, not up and down!" Ok. Lungs filling, heart racing, arms pumping, I made it to the top. Headed to the Power-?Bar? for my Power-?Shot? of bubblegum tasting liquid. Man, my mouth is dry. On the way to clomping down the hill again I was teased about my fist pounding. "You look like you are milking a cow! - You are pounding the ground!" ok, i get it. No more fist pounding. Clomp down the hill and try again.
Third Climb: I started out thinking about how my arms should go, and about how my legs are starting to feel a little weird. Maybe my arms should be like a train, back and forth, back and forth. About 3/4ths up the hill, I hit my max HR, and walked about a minute, then finished up the hill, heart pumping, lungs filling, arms chug-chug-chugging, legs burning. Go get my shot. Clumping down the hill. (Clomping is a spry way of descent, Clumping is the step before falling.)
Fourth Climb: Wheeze, Wheeze. Chug-Chug. Thump, Thump. Burn Burn. I made it up to just over half way, and then had to slow to walking fast. I walked to the Power-bar to get my Power-shot, and then I started stretching and waiting for the rest of the group to finish. It was a nice rest. I felt good, but a bit beaten. The mountain wins again.
Now we have to run back to the parking lot. about 1.5 miles. I clumped down the hill, and started a regular pace back to the car. As I am running, I notice that Hope - TNT Miami Tri team-mate - is keeping pace, so I decide to run with her back to the car. We chat about life, and training, and stuff, and about 3/4 of the way back I think to myself, "This is great, if it hadn't been for her running, I probably would have walked a bit." I don't know if you know this, but your body likes to tell you to stop running and walk before you really need to stop running and walk. I felt the urge to walk, but kept running because she was running. Then she turned to me and said, "I would have stopped running a while back if you weren't running with me, thank you." Cool. Between the two of us, we made a pretty good time running back to the cars. We waited there for a bit for the rest of the group, then everyone packed up and went home. Training success. Next step, drive home and ice bath - per coaches orders. By orders I mean she said, "If you do not let me know you have taken an ice bath, I will call you and yell at you."
Kate and I went to publix on the way back to dropping her off, and picked up a bag of ice for each of us. The 10lb bags looked small, based on the fact that both of us have garden tubs, so we opted for the 20lb bag of ice.
Ice bath: ok, it takes 10 minutes to get the tub filled up to my waist to cover my legs. Then I dump the ice in. brrr. BRRRR. so, after a sec, it doesn't seem so cold. then i adjust my position, and the cold hits me again, BRRR. so, i make a point to wiggle my legs so that the cold water gets mixed up and it is cold all the time. good idea? i am not sure, but why should I sit in a tub with icewater if the water that is contacting my legs has been warmed up? 10 minutes in the ice-tub, then a quick shower to get the stink off the rest of my body.
Then dress, and off to help my son with his Basketball moves. It seems the coach has taught my son to shoot from the knees. my 6'2 13 year old. 6 inches taller than most everyone else in the league. Ugh. Time to retrain.
Now it is Sunday, and my muscles are sore, but tollerable. My ankles are stiff, and stepping over the piles of laundry (it is laundry day) make them pop and twinge, but I like it. Can't help but make them pop when they feel like they want to pop. Like picking a scab. can't help but do it.

Race Report in the post-race funk.

2009-07-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Moss Park Tri - Complete. I am writing this note to you in my post-race funk, and boy, let-me-tell-ya, I have not had a funk like this since my first big workout back in February. I am way dehydrated, and so I have a headache, and I woke up at 4:20 this morning so I could eat something, so I am tired. I also had two pieces of peanut-butter toast for breakfast at 4:30, and did not eat anything else until I was done with the race at 10:00. Then I had a banana and a piece of pizza at the race, then waited until I got cleaned up at home before eating anything else. Then, I also raced as hard as I freaking could for 3 straight hours. That alone is enough to put someone in a hurt locker, and coupled with the other stuff gives me a race-hangover. Enough on that, I have to let you know something important.

My family is the most friggin awesome-est family in the WORLD!. I told them that they did not have to get up this morning to come watch, but they insisted that they wanted to. They proceeded to come, cheer me on, and also to cheer on all of my friends!
I have suspicions that my wife is the main reason Kate completed the race today! (She had a really bad day, flat tire, accident on corner caused by said flat tire, then she had to replace the tire and get back into into it. Enough to make a lesser man throw in the towel, but she is not a lesser man!) After the race, I found out that once she was able to make it back, Josy helped her focus through transition 2 and get back out on the course for the run. She got goal C instead of D! ( I think C was finishing with a smile, and D was finishing.) And you can't not smile when everyone is cheering for you at the end! Brandi and Rick went out and paced her to the finish. We were proud to do it. She is an awesome person.
On to the race info! Moss Park is a great place to have a race. It is very pretty in the morning, just as the sun peaks out over the trees, 3, 2, 1, GO! My swim goal was to split the difference between what I think really good swimmers can do, and what I swam in May at Miami. I was looking for about a 30 minute swim. I am going to call 30 minutes and one second ACHIEVED! Especially since they were talking about the swim being a little long. It sure did seem like a long way, but honestly, every leg seems longer when you string them all together. There was my family, cheering me on. Chokes me up a little bit... hold on....
T1 was alright. Not great. I decided for this race to wear my hot weather UnderArmour full sleeved top. That was kinda tough to get into wet, but I am glad I wore it. I was cool the entire time, and I am not talking cool Fonzi cool, I am talking cool blood not boiling like MAGMA cool. So, even though that took a second, I put on all my stuff, and took off. I thought it was a good transition, but it was still a little long. I need to work on the OCD thang so I don't check off my checklists so much during the race, once is enough.
Today was my first flying mount onto the bike. That was a good time. I was on the bike in a jiffy. I was not necessarily flying when I got on, but it was pretty quick. It was more like a quick horse mount, but not the kind where you see them bounce. Only problem I had was getting the friggin shoes on my feet afterwards. I had some of this problem last night when I was practicing, but I did not realize how long it would take to get my stupid shoes on! So, after struggling to get the tongues not stuck under my foot, and trying to get them fastened. Pain in the butt! Anyway, I finally got them situated, and rode the bike, FOREVER! I was trying to keep between 18 and 20 the entire time, and since there were no hills or obstacles the only time I went slower was turning the corners. Goal of 1:15, guess what my time was? 1 hour 15 minutes! Goal: ACHIEVED!
I am better at dismount than at the mount, so I looked pretty cool (if I do say so myself) coming in to the transition area at a few miles an hour and passing people who were struggling to get off the bike or running in their bike shoes. Anyway, this transition was not a hard one, since all i really had to do was drop off the bike, take off my helmet, and put on my running shoes. Still slow, but not horrible. Then I started the run. This is about where the race stretched to eternity.
Running for me is not so easy. During my practices running is uncomfortable at best, and I can not go very fast, even when I do not do other things like biking or swimming before. When I do a BRICK, (Bike-Run-Ick) Running is not so good, so a race speed bike, and a race speed swim (both of which I got a PR in by the way...) does not a recipe for a successful run make. (Ever notice how old sayings sound like they are spoken by Yoda?) I started out slow and out of breath, and I really never caught my stride. The first water stop was 1 mile in, and I was carrying a bottle of electolyte drinks because I know I get overheated and run out of water, so my plan was to drink a whole sportsbottle of electrolytes and get water at every stop. First stop, got a water, took a nice drink, it was a full cup of COOL water. I thought how nice it would be to dump it on my head. That is what people do! I dumped on my head, and could not breathe for a few. It was COLD! So, running, running, running, running. Finally, I got to the second lap. I heard some footsteps behind me, and on a whim I said, "Does this trail ever end??" It was Kate, and I think I surprised her out of a run induced stupor, cause she said " ACK! ". I learned a little about her problems, and we ran most of my second lap together. Unfortunately, it was still her first lap, and she was not in the groove with the run either, so at about 1 mile from finish, I kept running while she took a break. This is probably a good thing, since this is when my shoes started to squeek. If it isn't one thing it is another. At one point in the run half of my right foot went numb, and somewhere in there my HR monitor went haywire and started beeping at me like mad. Kinda disconcerting to look down and see you are doing 103% of your max heart rate! I hope that the monitor was just mis-firing. It did that twice during the race. 222 beats per minute. Max heart rate should be 220- your age, so mine should be like 185. Anyway, I finished to loud yells from family and friends. Enough so that the announcer mentioned, "Ryan, it sounds like you have a lot of fans." or something of that nature. I do not know what she said. I was exhausted. 1 hour 7 minutes for the run. I beat my last run by a bit, but the distances were skewed. Miami was a 12:48 minute mile which I know is snail slow. Today was an 11:55 minute mile average, which is about a minute per mile faster. I did not hit my goal of sub 50 minute run, but I did improve substantially over last time, which I appreciate. So I am curious what I was thinking setting a goal of 8.5 minute miles after all that other stuff. I don't even run that fast when I am running by itself.. Goal: WHAT WAS I THINKING!
And my total time was good - figuring that I pooched my goal for the run. Get this total time 2 hours 58 minutes 23 seconds, and Second place in the Super-Clydesdale division. The other guy beat me by a half hour. I think he was 225lbs of more muscle than I have. I am not too concerned. I will either beat him at the next race, OR will not be able to register for this division. Honestly, I hope it is both.

Freaking out.

2009-07-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my third tri. I am way nervous.I am especially worried that my tires will not hold air for the entire race. I just changed the tubes in both on my thursday 25 mile ride. They should be good, but I am pulling a Stephen King here and maybe if I type out my fears they will not happen.
I would also like to make a good showing at the race. It is not enough to finish. I am also going to go sockless tomorrow, and that should be interesting. The bike should not be a problem. I have done that a couple times with no issues. The run on the other hand may or may not be an issue. First time I tried it I got about a thumbprint sized blister on my instep. That was only 2 miles. I double lubed it and then did not have any problems after that. Unfortunately, that was only 8 days ago. My tuesday run went well, and there was some flopping, but no chaffing. Hope for the best, and I will lube for the worst. My other concern is the swim. Not as much, but my new stroke really messes with my shoulders. Hopefully they don't pop out, cause believe it or not, I have that problem. That image is kind of funny image though, running out of the water on the second lap with a dislocated shoulder. "You did that SWIMMING???"
I also wonder if I will be the only one with a green cap, or if everyone in the first stage has a green cap, and I am just paranoid. I AM the only one in the Super-Clydesdale division for the Olympic distance. I wonder why that is... Are there just no 225+ pound men besides me who do this? or do they get good enough and just race in the age grouper division. My wife wants to find a really big bell like the ones they put on Clydesdales and ring it for me at my 70.3 in September. It is a good thing I am not self concious or anything. People are always doing that type of thing. CB wants our team jerseys to be white with orange. A team-mate wants me to put mange-butt on my backside for the race. Still it is nothing to worry about. I am pretty sure that most race designers and tri clothing designers try as hard as they can to make us look funny anyway. Who else designs these skin-tight uniforms? Have you ever seen someone in transition 1 who has lost it? running around in a funny colored swim cap, skin tight clothing, and bike shoes, which are like high-heels only backwards. Not that much different from college basketball, where the guys on my team gave me the knee high school socks with the school logo on them, but they were designed for a much taller player, so they went half way up my thighs. Couple that with a super small jersey from the 70's and you have the basketball equivalent of a tri outfit. Skin-tight, and funny to look at. I was 50 pounds lighter then, but the effect is the same. Anyway, enough worrying, I am going to try to get some sleep before my race.

I will post my report, should be interesting.

5 miles prep run

2009-07-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

My 5 mile run yesterday was better and worse than I wanted it to be. I ran the whole thing. That is good. I ran slow-fast-slow-fast-slow, just like I supposed to, which was good. The whole thing was done in 54 minutes. That was not so good. My shoulders are sore still, and that is also not so good. The shoulders have nothing to do with me running, but with the swim stroke we are experementing with. So, tomorrow is a quick 25 miles to find a new saddle, and friday is a slow 1000M swim and a really short run to keep my blood moving. Saturday is another quick 15 mile bike ride to make sure things are copesthetic.

Then, Sunday, 1500M swim, 40k bike, and 5.15 mile run. I am starting to like the abbreviated run. That is my weakest part, and so a race that has a minimal run is right up my alley. I just hope I can stay cool and hydrated.

Prepping for Moss Park by taking a vacation.

2009-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

This week I have been absorbing my workouts. I went to see a movie. I went kayaking with the family at a local lake which may have been strategic... (Moss Park). And we went to SeaWorld for two days in a row. The first day at SeaWorld, I was able to ride on the Atlantis ride with my son and daughter, but my wife and eldest son got to the front of the Manta ride when they closed it for inclement weather. We spent the rest of the time that day trying to see some more animals, but when we went to the After Dark show the whales were not cooperating. They false started twice before calling it a night. We called it a night also, and skipped the fireworks. It was an hour and a half wait, and we were all tired. I figure we will go to the After Dark show some-other-time in the next couple weeks.

The next day we tried again, earlier in the morning. Manta had a 120 minute wait, but the entire familly was able to go on the Atlantis ride. This was my 4th time on that ride, but I have not yet gotten onto the Kraken, or the Manta. I guess that is what being a dad is all about. I will get them eventually. We also saw the dolphin show, which seemed a little abbreviated, and an acrobat show which had no animals in it. Day two was a success.

Today I worked out again. After missing 3 days it felt really good to get back into the groove. I really need it, since i have a 70.3 race in a couple months. 25 miles in a nice paceline was a good re-entry. we started at about 17-18 mph, and Laz got us up to a nice 23-24mph towards the end.

Because I skipped my swim yesterday, I get to go tomorrow and swim two crossings at Lucky's. My goals for swimming need to have some modification, I think. Lucky's is 500M across, and we normally go across and back either 1 or 2 times. I have been doing these crossings at between 13min for the fast ones, and 16 minutes for slow crossings with bad sighting or drills involved. At an average of 14min for a 500M crossing, I would be finished with the swim at 42 minutes. This is about what my swim was at Miami, so that would be not so much improvement over the course of the last 2-3 months. Olympic times for the Wildman were in the 20 minute zone, so this would make me the last man out of the pool. My competative nature makes this unacceptable. I think one part of my bad swim is my form. Without looking at an underwater camera or having someone look for me, I can not know for sure, but I am pretty sure my core is not staying stable, and i am pooching my midsection out which does not do much for streamlining. This is what I plan to work on tomorrow at Lucky's, along with checking my times.

Speaking of Moss Park, I registered for the race as a Super-Clydesdale. From the looks of it, there are no other Supers registered for the olympic distance at this point, much less 39 and under. It looks like there are two Clydes registered so far, but no other Supers. I was going to register as a Age Grouper, or a Clyde, but then I thought about it. I have been working on this for about 6 months now, and I am still in the 240 lbs range. My shape is changing, but not much has been reduced as far as my total weight. I would have to be 15 pounds lighter to make the regular clyde range, and I think I want people to know my achievements in light of what they really are. In my last race, I was 30th out of 31 in my age group, but they do not know that I was 245 lbs, and have only started training for triathlons since the end of January.

Regarding the Bike, it is what it is, I need to make sure that I do not burn it out so my run royally sucks. 40km, 24.85 miles. The course is flat, but I do not think that I can sustain 25mph for an hour yet and still have energy left for a run. I am hoping for a 1:15.

Run 5.15 miles. This is going to be tough. I am doing about a 10-11 minute mile after a brick. This puts me between 50 and 60 minutes for this portion. Again, we will see what I have left after the bike, and how well I do on the swim. Since I have been ramping up the distance lately, I have no idea how my times have improved. Miami tri was :41 for swim, 1:28 for bike, and 1:19 for the run, with Total of 3:37. Distance is less on the run for this one, so I am hoping for sub :35 on the swim, sub 1:15 on the bike, and sub 50 on the run. This would put total time less transition at 2:40. Add transitions, call it 2:45?

Tomorrow's swim, and Saturday's brick will give us a better idea. Until then....

2009-07-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Two days swimming 2000+ meters, must be time to write about swimming. My shoulders hurt, but not in a bad way. They used to hurt in a bad way after my 10 years off from playing basketball consistantly, then picking it up again. I went to the doctor and the doctors told me there was nothing wrong, get some exercise. Well, I took that advice, folded it up and put it in the drawer and stopped playing basketball again. Two years later, started playing basketball again, shoulders started hurting again, went to the doctor again, doctor said nothing wrong again, but when I told him, "Dammit, there has to be something wrong, my SHOULDERS FRIGGIN HURT!!", so he looked some more. Eventually he let me know I have multi-directional destabilized shoulder joints. Basically, when I do something fast, or with pressure with my arms, my shoulders pop out of the socket and then pop back in. It usually happens with someone who has a dislocated joint for a bit, and the tendons are all stretched out. Solution: Exercise. I did some stability exercises in physical therapy, then folded that up and put it in the drawer again. A year later and very fat (260 lbs for a 6'1") I decided to change my life and get fit. Swimming has been the best exercise for my shoulders because I can go as fast as I want, while not pushing hard enough to pop my shoulders. I get sore from doing big workouts, but have not popped them enough to be more than a little uncomfortable for more than 24 hours. Anyway, here I am, doing 500+ (because i am not sighting so well) in about 15-16 minutes apiece, 4 times in a row with about 60sec rest between. I am hoping to get them down closer to 10 minutes by the end of the summer.
I commented on another blog about reasons to do an Ironman race, and I thought I might mention it here as well, in case you missed the other post. I had a poster on my wall when i was in high school, of one of the IM Kona starts from the 80's. It had all the IM distances, and I looked at the poster and wondered what those people must be thinking. I wonder now what they did to get to where they were. They did not have fancy drinks or gels or gu or anything. I ran 4 miles last night in 37 minutes. That is 9:15 per mile. I do not think I could string 6.5 of those together to make a marathon at this point, much less do that after swimming over 2 miles, and biking 100+ miles. I am having troubles thinking I can put my 56 mile bike after a 1.2 mile swim and then running 13 miles. - in September! The swim I can do now. I will not struggle with that one. The bike is going to be hard, but not impossible. Volume on my long ride this week is 40 miles. 2 day volume for thursday and Friday of this week is a total of 65 miles. I think at the end of Friday's 40 mile ride I will have a good idea what my time will be. If I am riding at my pace for the 40 then that should be my average time for the 70.3 distance at this point. I may be able to improve it some, but that may give me an idea.

Cashing in a coupon

2009-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

So, for father's day, I got a coupon from my family for some underwear. Yesterday, I cashed in that coupon on some sports underwear. See, they know I have really been struggling with staying cool and hydrated, and have been wearing the right type of material, but not the right colors. I bought some UnderArmour underwear bottoms, a white UA longsleeved shirt for the heat, and a white UA sleeveless jersey for running in. I topped this all off with a UA visor which should let the heat vent through my cranium, while keeping the sweat off of my glasses. All said, this was a pretty penny for underwear, but I am hoping this will help me to get in condition enough to allow me to continue training in the heat, and making progress.
Today was my 2000M open-water swim at lucky's lake. www.luckyslakeswim.com it was a beautiful day to swim, and I was excited to swim because it would be my first time crossing twice in a day. I felt appropriately tired from the swim and my arms especially are weary. I think that the best way to improve now on my swim is for me to start working on posture in the water, and my kick. My kick should bring up my legs to make me more aerodynamic in the water, and posture will help me to be flat like a board, not saggy and droopy in the middle like a 2x4 that has been left in the rain. This should help in the bike by sucking my gut up, and on the run by relieving some pressure on my lower back. Main way to do all of this is to start seriously concentrating on core strength. If I am right, that will help every aspect of training.

Dilbert in action.

2009-06-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

Several things have happened in the last week or so which makes me think of Dilbert, I can list them, then the author of Dilbert will have some stuff to write about.
1. There is a switch on the side of my laptop which turns on the wireless adapter. I worked for an hour to figure out how to "turn on the wireless adapter" in windows before realizing somehow the switch on the outside of the laptop casing was turned to the off position. I wonder if this is a first sign that I need to start finding something less technical because I have lost my 'e-touch'. Now that I said 'e-touch', I am thinking that sounds kinda gross, but I am going to leave it, cause that's how I roll.
2. I was passed over for a promotion and a guy in Canada was awarded the Director position. I should not be too frustrated, since he has a really great resume', but I have really been working hard the past couple years, trying to save customers even when I am not in the support group any more, and I have been rewarded for my efforts with stock options that mature over the course of 4 years. Then I will be allowed to buy them if i can afford them, and then if the company goes public and does well, I will be rewarded. That is a lot of 'if's and I am not sure what I need to do to actually succeed in this company. Maybe leave?
3. Historically, I have noticed that the people who get ahead in the world of business are those who do not do anything. I try really hard, and that gets me more work, but makes it difficult to get raises and promotions. In prior jobs, I have seen network and systems administrators pretty much take 8-12 months to study at their desks for certification tests, and when they get the certs, they get promotions and raises. I have seen people who do nothing but go to meetings and not speak, get promoted out of their positions, or they just wait long enough and get yearly mandatory raises and level increases and COLA increases. One turned to me a while back, and said, "hey, can you help me to create formulas in this spreadsheet? I forgot how." Grrr.
4. The other day, a co-worker was talking to an automated menu on the phone. I could tell because for the first part he was talking in his robot voice. I think maybe he wanted to make the automated menu think he was a robot, so that he could get to the option he wanted faster. It is kind of like talking in ebonics while playing basketball. Maybe they will pass to you once in a while if you sound like you think they should. No matter that when they actually look at you, they see a pale mound of quivering flesh who has lost all coordination and finess.
Automated menu, "Say, 'English' to continue this call in English, Say 'Spanish' to continue this call in Spanish."
Human pretending to be Robot, "I am not human, BI-NA-RY. 11110110001110"
Automated menu, "Hey, man, how is it goin? Whacha need? We got those humans fooled, yeah?"
Human pretending to be Robot, "I am a RO-BOT. Please Speak in BI-NA-RY. My keyboard got wet, MU-ST RE-BOOT, MU-ST RE-BOOT, MU-ST RE-BOOT"
It goes on and on.

I know I didn't talk much about my training, today is a rest day, and my legs are a little sore. I did great yesterday in my 30 mile bike, improved on my mph by .7mph, and had this been olympic distance I would have improved my time by 10+ minutes. Granted, I still would not have had anything left for the run and would have BONK'ed on the second 5k in the run just like in Miami, but I am confident that by September that I will be under my goal time of 3 hours, and that this will convert to a sub 6:30 time in my half Iron Man two weeks later. I have two running focused days coming up, one is a speed workout on Saturday, and then a recovery increase in distance on Sunday to 9 miles. My main focus is to pick up my feet, and not shuffle so much, which hopefull will allow my forward lean to do more work and cause both an increase in volume and speed, and a decrease in leg soreness and the impression that people are taunting me as they drive by because I am running like an old man.

Relax. A time for blissfull introspection and self actualization.

2009-06-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

I went back through some of my recent posts, and I think I may have been a little harsh on coaches in general recently. It makes me think about what coaches do, and what coaches are. I guess they are a lot like parents for adults, setting limits, and encouraging you to greater heights, while at the same time picking you up, dusting you off, and setting you straight when you make a wrong turn.
In college, I was lucky enough to play on the basketball team for a year. My coach owned me for 2-3 hours a day, and because my "scholarship" required that I also work at the gym 5-10 hours a week, he owned me for that too. This is what happened during high school sports as well, they would teach me about the sport during practice times, but that is where they stopped. The dedicated athlete would pick up where practice left off, and do more drills, run more, take a weight training class, join another sport, play basketball at lunch, go back to the gym after dinner and play basketball from 5:30 until the gym closed at 11pm, then leave for a while, then sneak into the gym and either play basketball or go swimming after it was closed, then (at college) drink beer until 4am, then wake up for practice at 6am, eat a big breakfast, (or go to the morning class) then nap until lunch, and so forth. If you count the weight lifting classes, and the extra-curricular sports, and the rec-league, and the pickup games, I was technically "exercising" 8+ hours a day on the light days.
Here is the clincher: Nobody told me what to eat. Nobody told me to stop doing so much exercise, there was not really a measurable 'taper' to my days, aside from my shooting form, there was no discussion of my running form, or my posture, or what i should eat before, during, or after the workouts to ensure that I was working at peak performance, or so that I did not wake up the next morning with huge charlie-horses, or sore as hell.
I think this is why I am so taken aback when I am told that I can not go further or do more just because I feel like I can. There is a formula when training for an endurance race that needs to be followed for optimal results. There is probably a formula for working out for any sport, but the coaches of the time, or the coaches of that level were so focused on the execution of the 'plays' that there was no mention of how you should take care of yourself outside of practice so that you could benefit the most from your time in practice. nobody told me that just because I could eat a steak sandwich before a game without throwing up, that maybe i shouldn't eat that because it will be in my stomach and intestines for a long time, and could mess me up, just like they did not care about stretching. These things are more important for me now that I am in my 30's, because I can feel the effects more readily. If I eat a big steak sandwich before working out now, I will likely hurl. If I dont stretch, I will likely not be able to walk tomorrow. If I do an extra 500-1500 swim now, just because I can, that means I will likely not workout as well tomorrow, or I will bag the whole thing because I am really sore.
I see the rationale behind it, but it is still really hard not to want to do more now that I feel like I can. Ultimately, I want to be ready for my races in September, and the only way to do that is to listen, learn, and do my best.
I think that also means not eating two cheeseburgers, fries, baked beans, etc, just because I am really hungry and can. I will be full after eating just one burger, and will feel much better and may actually lose fat faster if I can control those urges.

Coaches - BEWARE!

2009-06-09T07:07:00.000-07:00

OK, all you narrow minded coaches out there, here is my warning to you. You better watch out. I am going to start a revolution in training, and we athletes are going to school your ass. I am really sick of you people telling us athletes what we can and can not do, and I am on a mission to tell all of your athletes that they don't have to listen to all that you are telling us. (We have to listen to some, since you are the coach, but not all, pay attention). We do not have to listen to you when you tell us stuff like, "You should be happy with the progress you have made." - even if you say it just to be nice. I am sorry, I am not happy with the fact that in my first Triathlon I was 30th in my age group, just ahead of the guy who was DQ'd. I am happy that you helped me get across the finish line, but that is not enough! I am not satisfied. We do not have to listen when you say, "You really run funny, you have very slow feet." No shit, Sherlock! I actually had a basketball coach tell me this then walk off. I did not know better then, but I do now, that bastard needed to not critisize me, but needed to teach me how to friggin RUN! Now I am 35 years old and have to learn to run all over again. I played college basketball, and did not run correctly. I know now that I was putting the brakes on the entire time!
We do not have to listen to you when you tell us that we will likely not be an elite athlete, or will never play college basketball, or have set a goal that is too fast, or to far. I am sorry, but you have no say in that. That is MY decision. Life is so full of exceptions, and the only difference between an average person and an exception is that the exception believes they can do better, despite what other people say.
As a coach, it is your job to push athletes hard enough to make them better, while at the same time, balancing the risk of injury. Not eliminating the risk of injury, but balancing. The second I step on the course, I know there is a risk of injury. As a coach, you need to help athletes get to and exceed their potentials in a relatively safe environment. Relative to their desire and what they are doing. As workouts enter the riskiest areas, you need to determine where the risks are, and mitigate them while still allowing the athlete to succeed.

Teach me how to get better, don't tell me what I can not do, or that I have to deal with the cards I was dealt.

I am happy with my choice in coaches, because they understand my desire to get better, and to meet and exceed my goals. They have my safety in mind, and work with me to get better and better. For all you other narrow minded coaches out there, I will write something on the seat of my pants for you to read as I pass you.

This monkey's down with the sickness...

2009-06-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 3am this morning, flat on my back, mouth open, breathing like a fish out of water. My tongue was swollen, and dry like the Sahara at high noon. I am thinking major dehydration. I woke up a couple hours later with what I am going to call for now 'upset stomach'. After 30 minutes in the bathroom, I decided that today was not a good day for 20 minutes running, then 25 miles on the bike, then 30 minutes run again. Now that it is several hours later, I have decided that I chose wisely.
If you were like me when first starting out, you had a problem. You did not have a car, but you needed a car to get a job, and you needed a job to get a car. Likewise, you needed a house and a phone to put out your resume' but you needed to get your resume' out there to get a job to get yourself a house. In the same fashion, many people who wish to change locations or change careers have the same problem. If you want to move across the country, you have to be across the country to get a job there in order to move, and if you want to change careers, you need to have experience in the new career before someone will pay for you to do it for a living, otherwise you need to either start at the bottom and work up again, or spend all of your spare time doing the new career or learning about the new career, so that you start somewhere in the middle. I know many people in these situations, either starting out at a new career, or wishing they could do something else but can not afford to, or wishing they lived somewhere else but not being able to make the move. Lots of people never realize their whole potential because they either move to a new place and have to start over with a new company, or they have decided that they are not doing something that they want to continue doing. I know of people who are in jobs because they are stuck there, and are working for the weekend, and others who leave their jobs without knowing where they are going, or what they will do tomorrow or the next day. These people are the majority in my opinion. The minority of people are let go or downsized when they are completely content in their job, or at least brow-beaten enough that they are content enough with what they do that they can work to support their family or their playtime.
I have toyed with some of this over the last two years. Wanting to change jobs, wanting to move locations, so on and so forth. We have moved several times over the last 15 years, and I wonder if that has impacted my career success. When I was in college and just after, I changed my mind several times, and even as recently as 5-6 years ago I thought I wanted to go back to school and get my teaching cert and teach kids in high school. 3 years ago I thought I might want to get a Master's degree. I am not sure what I would have done with the Master's degree, but I thought it would be a good idea. At this point, I have analyzed myself into a corner, because now I have no idea what I would change if I could.
This concept of not being able to change is a factor in a lot more things than I have described above. A great example is my inability to get a tan. I can not go out in public at this point because I am so pale. I am really pale. The sun rays bounce off my skin like a mirror, and there is no 'tan'. My skin does not get brown either. It goes red, then freckles, then goes away. prolonged exposure will eventually brown my skin, but it takes a while. So, I cant get a tan unless i am tanned already. I will have to do the equivalent of borrowing someone's car and staying with relatives until my 'tan' appears. I am still trying to figure out what my metaphor actually means I am supposed to do.

Hair, and sweat loss, glad it is not the other way around.

2009-06-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

One of my tasks yesterday was to run really slowly and determine how much hydration I lost in sweat over the course of an hour. So, I drank a 16oz water bottle, and ended up 3 pounds lighter at the end of the run, so mathematically, i lost 4 pounds of fluid. That is all fine and dandy, except that means that I lost 64 ounces of fluid! That is a gallon in an hour, and I am planning to do a race that lasts 6 hours, and I hope not to go that slowly. Coach suggested a fuel belt, but a 4 gallon fuel belt seems.... excessive and slightly awkward. I am going to have to work on this. (This is funny, not serious, so Coach, don't yell at me. I am just pontificating.) Anyway, I did figure out that when I lost my water, I also lost the ability to regulate my heart rate. It seems that when I am H20 low the heart rate jumps up above the easy workout and into the moderate to hard workout zones at the first sign of any movement. Lots of athletes probably knew this, but I did not. End result is this: I need to drink an insane amount of water to keep hydrated, and this will help my heart rate stay in the "weight loss/cardiac building zone" and out of the "AAAAACCCCKKKK" zone. It is very likely that this is also one of my weight loss issues. Long workouts at low heart rates are what dives into fat for food. If my long workouts are not diving into fat and immediately going into AAAAACCCCKKKK then I am going all anarobic, not aerobic. Luckily, I can megahydrate for the rest of this week, and next week is a recovery week where everything is long and slow, so i can test my theory there.
The other thing I have noticed is that I seem to have lost all style in my hair. I used to part it on the side, but now whenever I look in the mirror, I look like either a red-headed troll doll, or the Heat Miser from the rudolf christmas shows. I am not sure why, but it all just goes up... maybe I am getting old.
I am tossing around writing a book. I have several ideas which I think could be developed into full fledged story lines, and I think I have a good idea of how to organize it, it is just a matter of sitting down and flexing those muscles for a while. I guess I am kinda doing that here, just by dumping out thoughts into coherent sentences and paragraphs. Who knows, maybe I could write the next big series with huge acclaim. I am not sure. I ask you though, when was the last time you laughed outloud at something written in a book?

Sumthin smells funny.

2009-05-29T07:08:00.000-07:00

You know the water here smells funny? I thought this initially when I was staying in hotels when we first decided to move to this area for my job and we were looking for a place to live. At the hampton inns it kinda smells like they cooked it over a flame, but it still does not leave me feeling as clean as I once felt when showering elsewhere. Then when we moved in, the water kinda smells like reclaimed water. Not a lot, just a little. It smells like that all over though, not just at my house. Just a hint of "there used to be poo in this water, but now it is....clean?". Like if the reclaimed water that they use on the grass here was the perfume, the house water would be the body wash. Not a huge problem, just wanted to mention it.
On that same topic, there was some "Why are triathletes getting sick?" articles just recently, and one of the reasons is because of the increased levels of e-coli in the water after heavy rains. I guess the huge amount of water fills up the drainfields and septic systems, then runs off into the drainage ditches and eventually into the waterways. I imagine that industrial fertilizers, and even regular lawn fertilizers would also run into waterways during these periods of increased precipitation. That being said, we have had record amounts of rainfall in the area, and I just swam in a lake which was surrounded by houses. http://www.luckyslakeswim.com . If you are interested in this topic and are in a position of power, like a county planner or administrator, what the hell are you doing reading my blog? http://www.florida-stormwater.org/ and get involved.
More later.

Jobs, jobs, and more jobs.

2009-05-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

So, I need some money. Probably a lot like everyone else in this world. Here is my list of wants right now and then I can go from there. First, I would like to purchase a house in the next 6 months. I think it is a good way to make my family happy. They need a house that fits us, perferably one where two of the bedrooms (one of which is the master bedroom) does not have a door to the main living area. If someone is sitting on the couch watching the bigger TV, or is sitting at our dining table eating or doing homework, they are right outside of my bedroom window. That coupled with the fact that all rooms down the center of the house are open to the rest of the rooms so you can hear a pin drop throughout the house (or in our case, the kid's gaming TV, the noise from the computers, and/or the microwave in the kitchen or the dishwasher). Someone wasn't thinking when they put this thing together. So, I would very much like to move into a different house in the next 6-9 months. I need money for that.
Why, you ask? Because I still own my house in Milton, I reply. And rumor has it that banks are not willing to lend money to someone who has a house (even if it is being rented) without a larger than I can afford down payment. I would estimate this as 20% of the cost of the new house, so let's put this at a liberal $60,000. I don't have any, so it really doesn't matter.
Reason #2 My hobby is an expensive sport. It is not fishing, which would put me in at $bookoo for a boat, and weekly/monthly gas and fishing supplies. It is also not collecting things which take up space on a shelf.. It is training for a triathlon. Soon, it will be racing triathlons, but I think I should probably be better at it before I can tout that my hobby is "Triathlons" or "Adventure Racing" or somesuch verbage. Right now it is training. Speaking of which, I have a 1.5 hour bike and 30 minute run to do here as soon as I am done with work. I keep seeing things I really would rather have, like a new bike built for Triathlons and time trials, a new bike trainer that is very quiet, tri shoes, blah blah blah, it adds up. Add to that the race fees and potential travel expenses, and I am up there in cost.
Third Reason: Team In Training. Part of the reason I initially got into triathlon training is because of this program. I am doing a second season and would very much like to race in the Nation's Triathlon in September. In order to do this, I need to fundraise $4200 in the next couple months. I did not do so well on the last fundraiser, and so my confidence is a little low that I can make this one. Recommitment is in July, and I need to be more than half way or have some guaranteed money on deck to make this happen.
Fourth Reason: Family stuff. I can not neglect the family stuff I still need to get. Examples; I would like to switch to YMCA from LAFitness so that J, A, and S can sign up for the programs in the Y. Problem is the sign-up fee, and the additional fees for the programs. It seems outlandish that the YMCA, the place where everyone can go, charges close to $100 for a monthly family membership, $100 to $150 in initialization fees, and then an additional $50 per month PER PROGRAM for the kids to do during the summer. That is $300 minimum to start, and $100 fee+$150 in programs if all three of them sign up for one thing. HOLY CRAP! Then there is the books that everyone wants to read, the allowances, fixing broken stuff, getting better stuff, paying people to come in and do the things I don't want to do like cleaning carpets, etc. Just all costs money.

Solution: Here is where I need some help from you. I am planning to blog for a while, going to put on adsense, Barnes and Noble associate links, etc. I am also going to start writing a book/books. If you have ideas for a fundraiser that I can do, and/or for easy ways to add onto a blog that could earn a little extra cash, or if you see a business opportunity I can capitalize on, please let me know.

So, this has been a pretty pathetic blog entry so far. No juicy bits at all.

Snake in the toilet

2009-05-26T12:40:00.001-07:00

Before you go all FREAKING out because the title is called Snake in the toilet, let me tell you there was NOT a snake in my toilet. Here is the deal:

Sometimes the dog wakes up in the middle of the night, and smacks his lips, sits up like he is begging for a treat, and wags his tail against the floor and starts whining. This is an indication that he needs to go to the bathroom. At this point in the night, Josy pushes me a little and says, "Can you let the dog out?" to which I reply, "Mphh". Then I get up and let the dog out. I sleep on the couch next to the door until he whines to come in, then I let him in. Inevitably, I have to go to the bathroom at this point because that is what happens when you wake up. Try as i might, I am awake at this point, so , to the bathroom I go. This morning when this scenario played out at roughly 3:30, I got to thinking. What if there is a snake in the toilet. I have not turned the light on, so I have no idea, and I am sitting there (because I know what kinda trouble I would get into if I tried to aim at this time in the morning), and freaked myself out, because you and I know that A) peeing on a snake would be the number one way to get bit, and B) the snake would bite the low hanging fruit if you know what I mean. Anyway, I went as fast as I could, then jumped up and danced over to the bed and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep finally came at 5:45 just after the first time the clock-alarm went off.

One of THOSE days.

2009-05-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Last night at dinner we discussed whether we would be working out as a group today. The concensus at dinner was, we would not. Then I got a text that we might, then was asked my opinion about whether we should or shouldn't, and plan to go on Sunday. My impression of the weather was this: it would be OK from 6:30 til 10, then it would get rainy. The other in formation that we had was this: Hector (a trainer in the area) went to talk to the meteorologist at Channel 13 and the prediction was that it would be way rainy. He sent a message to cancel his team's group workout, which was forwarded to my coach from one of the team-members. So, being on the safe side, when Coach and I talked, we decided that it was best to not workout based on the information we got from an honest to goodness meteorologist. I woke up at 7:30 today to find that there was no rain, and that the coach was working out on her own. This frustrates me a little, since I hate it when um.. female athletes, workout on their own. I have heard too many stories of abductions, rapes, and murders to think that it is OK for someone of the female persuasion to go out and workout by themself. This is not even considering the fact that the roads are wet, and there is not anyone out there to help if you get hurt.

If you are a woman, do not work out alone in scary places. Work out in places where there are a lot of people, and where someone knows you are there.

Off that track, onto another. I ran for 5 miles today and tried to find the zen zone i was in the other night when i ran. Unfortunately, i found only hints of it, but never ended up in the zone. I am a little bit bummed because it was a nice zone to be in. My heart rate was a little high for where I should be training in, but the speed I wanted was there, and the effort overall was minimal and nothing hurt. Normally my calves will start to burn, and that did not happen Tuesday, and it did not happen today, but I did not feel happy today like I did on Tuesday. Maybe that will change tomorrow during my brick (Bike 30miles, run 30min), and please let the rain not start until 11am...

Last night at the mexican restaurant I did not find the hair. Musta ate it.

Two times in the past week or so, someone has come to the door and suggested that I sign up with them to take care of the yard. One was a yard maintenance person, and the other was a bug and week treatment person. I think they not only want my business, but want to do my yard so that it is easier to do the neighbors and so the weeds and bugs do not migrate to the good yards. I guess that means I need to get off my butt and work on it. I took care of the mowing and trimming in the front today, and will take care of the back as soon as we have 24 hours of no rain. I will get the bug killer and the weed killer and the plant killer for the cracks in the pavement. I really have no excuse for not taking care of it besides not wanting to. The same is for cleaning the carpet. I will do that this weekend as well, although i had better do it before the brick tomorrow, since that is going to pretty much kick my butt for the day.

We got a movie called Outlander from Blockbuster. I will let you know if it is any good. Jim Caviezel plays an alien who lands on earth during the time of Vikings, and they battle a dragon that landed at the same time. James Verniere from the Boston Herald says "Beowulf meets Predator" and Tim Long from the Detroit News says it is "Honestly: Best. Movie. Ever." I wonder if it has any boobies in it. In my opinion, you really can not say that a movie is the best ever if it does not have any boobies in it. - caveat, Jim Caveizel's boobies do not count. And they can not be gratuitous, they need to somehow be worked into the plot. 300 is a good example, although I wonder how many days beyond 18 that oracle girl was.... Speaking of that, Mary Louise Parker kinda was upset about her bathtub scene in Weeds. I looked up the picture on the internet, and I thought hers were quite nice. She should not be upset or ashamed.

OK. Making an edit. This was not the best movie ever.... and that is not the only reason. I would put this movie on par with The 13th Warrior, with a bad-assed space herpie. Pretty cool, but I am not writing home about it. I may let my brother know so he can rent it, but he probably wont. This one is going to come in below 300 and below Beowulf. Beowulf gets kudos for the Angelina Jolie parts, even if they are digital and slightly cartoonish. I think they did an excellent job making her the least cartoonish thing in that entire movie. All their budget was blown on the CGI AJ. Anyway...

If you haven't read them yet, Jim Butcher has a great series of books about Harry Dresden, Wizard/PI. They are great. Once I get my Barnes and Noble associate thingy, I will link to them and you can read them too. I am on the 5th in the series right now called "Death Masks". If you want a ranking, I would say better than Sookie books (they made Tru Blood from those), more adult than Harry Potter, although as well written, just to a different audience. Easier to read than Anne Rice - she can get tedious sometimes. And on par with the Black Dagger Brotherhood books, but with less penises. Peni? anyway, those Black Dagger guys were friggin HUNG. Something tells me that they went a little far with just how hung those guys really were, but if you like the sexy vampires, they are a pretty good read. Definately some parts to put you in the mood, so don't read them if you do not want to be doing that sort of thing....

Lots of typing not much carpet cleaning. We can chat again later. Bye guys!

Hey, there is a hair.

2009-05-22T09:38:00.000-07:00

From now on, I think i should just trust that there WILL be a hair in my food when ever I eat food not prepared at home. Today there was a fine, long, curly, blond one in my nachos bell grande from Taco Bell. I wonder how these people are losing their hair so much. I also wonder how sanitary it is to continue to eat my food once i find and remove the aforementioned hair. Based on my previous assumption, there are many hairs that have gone down the hatch. So far, there has been no serious side effects. Sometimes when the dog eats a hair, they get little poo dangles where the hair holds the turd about 1/4 to 1/2 inch from their bum and it dangles there like some type of Super-Dingleberry. As far as I know this has never happened to me, and if it has, nobody has bothered to mention it.

On to the good stuff, it seems like my habit/hobby is getting more expensive, and I need to make some money to support it. It is not as expensive as some hobbies/habits, but it is getting pretty up there. My current fixation is that I would really like to purchase a new tri-bike. I am not looking for the top-end $10,000 job.. I want to be able to ride it, and if I bought a new bike for that much I would be scared to touch it. I would have to hang it on the wall with some do not cross lines like they have a museum and treat it like fine art. I would call it "Depreciation appreciation" or something like that. But no, I just want your standard carbon-fiber (not the great stuff, but just the good stuff) and a moderate component set that would get me by and make me blend into the crowd. This is me on my current bike "Big Red" (it was big red til it got horns, now it is "RedBull"). It is a 2-3 year old GIANT and it works ok. I got it for $350 off of Craigslist last fall so that I would not have to ride my Trek 820 Mountain bike for the races. I think RedBull is going to have to last a little longer, since I need income to pay for my fix. I have a couple things going right now, and you will likely see them pretty soon. I am going to set up Google Adsense, and join some affiliate programs like Barnes and Noble, and Amazon, and such to get some passive income coming through, and the other thing that I am tossing around is Advocare. I currently am an independent distributor for Advocare, and am thinking about pursuing this a little to see if a slight expansion will pay for my races, travel, and a new bike.

This sport is not a cheap one, between the outfits ($50 for a pair of shorts!) Bike, Running shoes, Biking shoes, goggles, etc. Add in nutrition for before, during and after workouts, gas for drive time to the workouts, bike trainer for when it is raining and your workout is inside, plus fees for a coach if you have one, or time/cost if you are doing a program like Team In Training. Add to that a HR monitor - cause once you get beyond the beginner training you are going to need to make sure it keeps beating, and does not explode.

My HR monitor will beep if my heart gets too slow, and also when i am close to exploding. Intially I had it set to no beeping mode, and I thought that the rates were the actual rates not the % of max. Long story short, I got to the end of the workout and it said my max HR during that exercise was 204. I think that was when I sprinted to catch up to the peleton, but still, according to all the charts, I should have probably spontaneously combusted on the spot. There should be a grease spot somewhere near the Jet-Blue terminal in Orlando with my name on it.

I am not complaining about how expensive the sport is, just letting you know what the real deal is. I have pontificated enough for now, time to go back to work.

Later.

There is nothing here.

2009-05-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

There is a fine line between funny, and inappropriate. I may need supervision.

You probably want to learn a little about me, so here we go.

I tend to get very focused on things, and right now, my focus is on training for triathlons; Namely, the Nation's Tri in Washington DC as a member of Team in Training, and the 70.3 Half Iron-man in Augusta, GA. I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon a few weeks back in Miami Florida.

Tri-Miami Triathlon - Here is the deal. I was placed 30th out of 31 in my age group. The other guy DNF (Did not finish) or got DQ (disqualified) or SFT (some f-ing thing). That was highly motivating for me, not de-motivating like some would think. More motivating than that, is the pictures from the race.
My results are as follows:
Total Time: 3:37:59.532 Swim Time: 41:58 T1 Time: 5:27 Bike Time: 1:28:45 T2 Time: 2:27 Run Time: 1:19:22
Overall Place: 208 out of 254
Gender Place: 149 out of 162
Category Place: 30 out of 31
My pictures are at the following location (Warning, these may be NSFW depending on your office definition of safe pictures, and your ability not to say, "Oh my GOD" and then have everyone over in your cube looking at my mooseknuckle and laughing at the 4 pictures of me dancing out of the swim leg. - Sheesh.):
http://www.eventpictures.com/app/cobrand/event/searchPicture?cobrandAccountId=1480&eventInstanceId=16786&searchType=2&curPage=1&searchWordCaption=0149

Anyway, these are motivation for me to lose another 40-60 pounds and get really friggin good at this. By the way, just so you don't freak out, losing 40 pounds for me would put me at just under 200lbs. If you will notice by my results, I ran 6 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes. I think there is my biggest potential improvement point at this time.

See how i get focused on one thing and don't move on! You are going to have to wait to find out more.