quick post.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Where the heck is my fitness?

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.

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!

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

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

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