Babe I'm Leavin' (not really)

After a rest day which everything except babysitting my kids, went wrong, I woke up today and felt somehow energized. No idea why, makes no sense, I went to bed at 3AM and for some reason felt great. I guess today was a bootstrapping day where everything fell apart yesterday so there was no other choice today but to start from scratch and move on.

Okay the entire previous paragraph needed to be expressed. I realize it makes no sense to anyone but, hey, no one is reading this anyway. I know.

Today was a longer swim day than I had done in the previous two weeks. After a 300 warmup, I did 500 nonstop with flipturns, followed by 5 sets of 300 (150 moderate, 50 kick, 50 backstroke, and 50 hard). The 500 nonstop was easy, but as I got to the end of my 5 sets I noticed I was very much out of gas. I blame my nutrition.

A good breakfast for me is a bowl of Cheerios or Oatmeal and maybe a banana with a good dose of water with coffee. I only had coffee and almonds because I was distracted all morning. I didn't bring any Gatorade or anything to the gym either. I also didn't eat well last night and went to bed hungry so my tank was empty. This has happened before and I suffered in the workout today. I still finished and did fine, but I learned the important lesson of sticking to good nutrition before and after training.

Song in My Head - Best...Song...Ever. I was in the supermarket after the gym and heard Desert Moon by Dennis DeYoung, former lead singer of Styx. I swear to God I had to stop myself from turning to the guy next to me and talking to him about this song. We had just got MTV when this came out in 1984/85 and they played this song ALL THE TIME. Awesome video as well I think I have heard this song three times since it was on the radio. Watching it again rules. Thank goodness for Youtube. Today is looking much better than yesterday.

When Will The Pain End?

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This a pre-workout posting because I am having a difficult time getting into the pool today. Very sore from yesterday. The muscles around my hips, and quads and everything are killing me. I am beginning to wonder if this is what my training experience will be like forever.

In my younger days when I trained for hockey or boxing, I would have a few weeks of soreness while getting fit for the sport, but then I would reach a plateau of feeling pretty good. That plateau has not come yet. I keep telling myself that I was in horrible shape last year and this base-building period is necessary to acclimate my body for the new level of fitness I am pursuing. If so, I apparently was very very far away from Half-Ironman fitness.

Today I swim. I wish my lifestyle would accommodate midnight workouts because that seems to be the time of day that I am most ready to embrace a workout. When I wake up again, my first thought is usually related to skipping or how I will fit the workout in around family, or whether I can hit the snooze again. It's now 9:30 and I am gradually getting around to embracing the idea of fighting with obnoxious kids in the pool's locker room, the frigid temperature of the pool the first 5 minutes after you jump in, 2 500s with flipturns which sap my oxygen, and the sleepy feeling I have for the rest of the day. And swim days are my easiest days.

I've been trying to get my head into a different space...more of a winner's headspace I guess. To paraphrase Lawrence of Arabia, the key is not so much the pain it's "not minding" the pain. Either that or I could tell myself its just a f*cking movie. I read a cool article by Mark Allen talking about the mental aspects of the race and how to think like a champion. So maybe I just have to spend a little more time on this in my own head.

Song(s) in my head - To change pace a bit I'm choosing a couple songs from 70's Hawaii band Kalapana. If you ever go to Oahu, you will most likely hear some really cheesy Hawaiian easy listening music kinda like Somwhere Over the Rainbow by Iz. A really good band in that genre is Kalapana, whose great songs include The Hurt, Nightbird, and the Hall and Oates cover When the Morning Comes. Check out KINE. At least once an hour is a Kalapana song. Puts you in that relaxed, Hawaiian state of mind. I certainly need it today. Well if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get some Hawaiian Sun Lilikoi and a bowl of Saimin and go swimming.

Riding Alone Where the Buffalo Roam

I took yesterday off and rested and worked. Trying to squeeze as much rest into the base building phase without killing my fitness. So I have been resting outright on mild days while I am still pretty much constantly sore.

Today was a bike run brick which I was by no means skipping. I had been dying to get outside but hadn't been able to for one reason or the other. Once I get my bike on my car I am set, it is just a matter of getting from couch to car that is the problem.

Today was damn cold and nearly turned around about 10 times in the first 15 minutes during the ride. But I gutted the warmup out and was left with the final 45 minutes back to the start. The trail I used was really cool. It had been damaged in the flooding we had last week but the sights and sounds were awesome especially near the trailhead. I saw buffalo, rode through ice and moss and mud, and had a blast. One day I will write about how much more fun it is to ride outside.

I followed that up with the run, which, as well, was damn cold. I ran four miles. The first was basically me dragging myself at a pace not much faster than walking. I finally got fed up with myself and started moving out of sheer boredom and an urge to finish the run. I am pretty sure I was running in the 8:30-9:30 range when all was said and done. That's a good pace for me and I am going to use that as a guideline.

I go outside on Saturday as well and am very much looking forward to it. The roads are still dodgy and it is freaking freezing but well worth it in the end.

Song in my head: None, it is just ice. I'll think of one later.

Model Numbers

Back at it after some scheduling conflicts that made it difficult to shoehorn in my workout this weekend. Briefly, I skipped Thursday because I was tired but did it on Friday because Friday I could not cycle outside and was sick of cycling inside. Saturday I had to furniture shop all day and all night in Hell among other places because my daughter's crib has been recalled. All you childless readers prepare yourself for recalls, refunds, and store credits by saving your model numbers. Something I own apparently kills someone like once a month.

Hey that's a great idea for a website. A place to register your product so you are notified when they inevitably gets re-called.

Today was a 60 minute run of a little over 6 miles. I finished it pretty strongly. Last two miles were tough, other four were simple. Legs are getting there. I am actually starting to look forward to the 13 mile run now. I am doing a run focused routine now, which is exactly what I needed.

Tomorrow I swim. I'm looking forward to it.

Song in my head - It's About Time by my hero Evan Dando and Lemonheads. Be sure to check out a very young Angelina Jolie at the beginning of the video. I've been leaning it on guitar. It's easy. Buy their 2006 self-titled album, it's awesome.

Only The Lonely Can Play

I read somewhere that Tuesdays are the most productive day of the week. See on Mondays, you are just getting into the swing of things, and all the other days everybody's workin' for the weekend. My training schedule is no different, so it seems. My biggest area of improvement is the run, and thus have my long runs scheduled for Tuesdays.

Today was 90 minutes of going around in circles at a "conversational" pace (i.e. 10 minute miles). Today I had the added pleasure of watching my daughter's gymnastics class as the track had a window into the gym where she trained.

I am gradually getting my legs back. I am sure experienced triathletes and anyone else reading this would be thinking "enough already". I am seeing slight improvement week after week, but my "in-shapedness" is coming slower than expected. I guess I have to think of the winter as a sloooooooowwwwwww build of strength and endurance. I will see improvement eventually but it will take time, perserverence, and patience.

Good news is, I am really happy with my swim progress from yesterday. I don't get winded in the water whatsoever anymore on long sets and my flipturns are just something I do now. They are no longer extremely difficult. I think have the opportunity to be really strong in training and in the water this summer. Looking forward to the journey.

Song in My Head - Harden My Heart by the Pacific Northwest's own Quarterflash. Do you think the guy on the far right is mad at the cameraman or te person that made him wear that outfit? For the life of me I will never know whether they were a ripoff of The Motels or vice versa.

Long swim and Chris Daughtry

I took it easy this weekend. Friday was a skip day. Saturday was an easy ride and Sunday was another skip. I think I was pretty stressed out physically last week. I'd like to think I recovered nicely this weekend and am ready for the week. Today's swim was nice and long. I hit the pool warmed up nicely and did a bunch of long sets of 400s and 300s with a pull buoy and without. I used flipturns on my sets and felt great doing so. One of the sets ran into the other so I did it as a long set with flipturns. Therefore I did a 400 into a 300 with all flipturns. Normally that would leave me winded, but I did it with little problems.

My swim is coming along great. My shoulder is a little bit of a concern. All you long time fans of this blog will recall I had lots of shoulder pain last year and skipped a few months because of the soft tissue pain. I am trying to avoid that problem this year by focusing on proper form, and stretching out the muscle.

Song in my head - Right Now by SR-71 for for some unbelievable reason couldn't find a good youtube clip for learning this on guitar NOR a good photo of the band. But lead singer Mitch Allan wrote songs for Chris Daughtry who has plenty of awful pictures of him.

Spazzing Out on the Swim

I'm not doing my scheduled run tomorrow. There I said it. My coach has been looking at my workout log and suggested that I might not be recovering from my workouts as quickly as I should be, since I am complaining of my legs being "mushy" etc. I think I am walking the line between "pushing myself to get in better shape" and "overdoing it." Yesterday was really tough, and followed another really tough day. Today was a tough swim and easy bike ride. But tomorrow is a skip (it should be a 30 minute run). I got a busy work day anyway so I am going to back of, rest, do some pushups and core and get ready for Saturday.

Today was a 2500 yd swim consisting of a 400 yd warm up, followed by a pyramid of sorts. I started with 3 50s, 3 100s, then 2 150s, 2 200s, and 2 150s followed by 3 100s, and 3 50s. All at a hard pace and with flipturns. The swim for me is my strength, but the workouts leave me very sleepy. I am proud of myself for pushing through the workout. Although my muscles were staring to spaz out in the water. It was weird. I felt my left foot seize, the my right, and then some kid came in my lane causing me to stop short and both my legs tightened up like crazy. Regardless, it made me very fulfilled at the end to finish.

I think with a little rest tomorrow, I will be able to head into Saturday fresh and tackle next week with a good level of commitment.

Song in my head - "You Are My Sunshine" and More Than Words because I am learning them on guitar. I am "EXTREMEly envious of Nuno Nettencourt's hair I will accept all suggestions of songs to learn.

The Old Man is Snoring

Long day today. My daughteralarmlclock went off at 5:30. So I got up, changed diaper, made bottle, stared at the TV which was off, made coffee (or maybe I didn't) I forget, and headed into the office. I am taking of a few new projects at work that are really exciting but scary at the same time so my mind races like crazy at night. Today was a 30 minute run in the pouring rain, and an hour long bike ride that I did inside.

I was able to get hooked up with Google Chrome and Netvibes today. It's like a whole new world has opened up for me.

Yesterday's long run was great on one level. I finished it. But my routine is really challenging so nothing is coming easy. The good news is, I am training for the run harder than I have before, I am getting great swims in with little stress, and I am learning a lot more on the bike. Bad news is really just the constant level of fatigue in my legs. I am pretty certain that this is all just contributing to a greater base of fitness. As long as I stay injury-free I should see the other side of this fairly soon. If this works, I see nothing preventing me from working on my speed this spring and being ready to race this summer.

I read a great article on my favorite triathlon-related site today Slowtwitch regarding preparing for the winter months. It really focused me on what I need to accomplish this winter. Today I put that to good use and worked on my cadence for the bike. I made the gear really low (or is it high? basically I made the gear easy) and tried to sustain a high cadence throughout. It felt awesome, I went much faster than I was used to with less effort. I am going to start focusing on cadence, form, and my revolutions on the indoor trainer from now on and use my stopwatch to keep time. A really eye-opening experience.

This blog is starting to get good so stick around and feel free to leave comments. If you have a blog let me know and I'll go to it and do the same.

Song in my head - Just Got Lucky by JoBoxers. I saw the video on an old MTV clip of a Motley Crue interview and had completely blocked any memory of this song out of my head. I can vaguely recall this from MTV though. I remember when we first got MTV, I used to watch it morning, noon, and night and they played a lot of great obscure stuff like this. How this is never on one of those One Hit Wonder compilations? I love the "Come On Eileen" wannabee video. What was up with the video directors back then?