After promising to bike every day, I stopped after only 3 days. My requirement was only 15 min a day, and I couldn't stick to it. 15 min a day isn't going to improve my fitness drastically, but it would help a lot with my following through on commitments and creating a good new habit.
The excuse I had for skipping yesterday's 15 min easy bike ride was so I could sleep earlier and get a better quality workout this morning. Quality did NOT happen.
Woke up 30 min before the alarm to the sound of my sprinklers spraying through the window and into the bedroom. Instead of shutting the window, I immediately headed for the garage to turn off the sprinklers. Only problem was the bedroom door was shut. I hit it at full speed. Now I was awake.
Being wide awake, did I use the extra 30 min to workout? Nope, I debated on what route to take. When I finally left, I did not have enough time to finish my 28 mile route. After 1/2 a mile, I concluded it was way too foggy to be out on the road, so I went back home, took time to setup a computer so I could watch 24 while on the trainer. Maybe I need to sign up for a race that's before fall in order to get motivated.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Last 3 Weeks
The 3 weeks following my marathon have been picture perfect. If I can train for 12 hours this week, it's going to be a really good start to my IM training.
30 Days of Biking
Feeling good about my 75 mile ride and 9 mile run over the weekend, today I updated the log and realized that the weekend ride is all I did. The only other ride was cut short (3 miles total) because I wasn't dressed warm enough, and I was too lazy to get on the trainer.
I am now committing to 30 days of biking. For the next month, I won't need to figure out if I should bike today, or rest then go longer on the weekend... I'll know that I can count on a bide ride every single day.
I am now committing to 30 days of biking. For the next month, I won't need to figure out if I should bike today, or rest then go longer on the weekend... I'll know that I can count on a bide ride every single day.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Mullet Man Triathlon
Woke up at 4:20 with intentions of being out the door by 4:45. This would give me 2:15 to ride 40 miles. Left a 5:00am and found out it's hard to look down to read directions when it's pitch black. Only got lost once, which added 2 miles to the trip.
When I arrived at Flora-Bama's Mullet Man Triathlon, the race was supposed to start in 10 min. Someone asked me if I needed body markings, and it felt nice to say "no, I'm just here to watch." The race was delayed while the lifeguards corrected the buoys, but I still didn't have enough time to pick out anyone I knew in the race.
The swim looked like a blast! Waves were crashing over peoples heads. Lifeguards were rounding groups of people up that had been pushed almost back to the beach. If I was the RD, everyone would swim out for 200m, then straight back in. I can see the head-on collisions now. Nevermind, bad idea. Still, it sucked to see so many people walking because it was hard to swim parallel to the beach.
Off to T1 to watch the action. I saw Johnny Harrison, someone I share the same zip code with and recently met. I'm excited to get some training days in with him in hopes to absorb some of his knowledge. I heard he did the 70.3 championship, so I checked the results and saw he went 4:33 in 2006. Good enough for 11/112 in the M45-49 AG. Half the bikes were gone, and I still didn't see Mark. Assume I missed him, so I hopped on my bike with flip-flops and "coasted" 2 miles away to the only hill (a bridge). Pretty soon Johnny came by, then Mark followed 2 min or so behind. After giving my support at the 1 and 3 mile mark, I headed in to chat, then leave for home.
Around 10 miles after I left the race, a PT Cruiser woody turned right when I was on his right shoulder. He sounded really sorry, my bike was working, and I only had a little rode rash on my butt. I did my best to stay cool, asked him to be extra careful in the future. He said he saw me, but he thought I was going slow enough that he would clear the turn before I got there. If I hadn't hit my breaks, I'm sure I could of been hit by the front of his car instead of the back door. And if I wasn't on my aero bars, I may of been able to break faster and avoid the collision. Oh well, life goes on.
Rest of the ride went pretty well. 75 miles for the day. Nutrition was 4 small packs of honey from Whataburger and a PBJ sandwich. No sports drinks since I still can't find my water bottles.
When I arrived at Flora-Bama's Mullet Man Triathlon, the race was supposed to start in 10 min. Someone asked me if I needed body markings, and it felt nice to say "no, I'm just here to watch." The race was delayed while the lifeguards corrected the buoys, but I still didn't have enough time to pick out anyone I knew in the race.
The swim looked like a blast! Waves were crashing over peoples heads. Lifeguards were rounding groups of people up that had been pushed almost back to the beach. If I was the RD, everyone would swim out for 200m, then straight back in. I can see the head-on collisions now. Nevermind, bad idea. Still, it sucked to see so many people walking because it was hard to swim parallel to the beach.
Off to T1 to watch the action. I saw Johnny Harrison, someone I share the same zip code with and recently met. I'm excited to get some training days in with him in hopes to absorb some of his knowledge. I heard he did the 70.3 championship, so I checked the results and saw he went 4:33 in 2006. Good enough for 11/112 in the M45-49 AG. Half the bikes were gone, and I still didn't see Mark. Assume I missed him, so I hopped on my bike with flip-flops and "coasted" 2 miles away to the only hill (a bridge). Pretty soon Johnny came by, then Mark followed 2 min or so behind. After giving my support at the 1 and 3 mile mark, I headed in to chat, then leave for home.
Around 10 miles after I left the race, a PT Cruiser woody turned right when I was on his right shoulder. He sounded really sorry, my bike was working, and I only had a little rode rash on my butt. I did my best to stay cool, asked him to be extra careful in the future. He said he saw me, but he thought I was going slow enough that he would clear the turn before I got there. If I hadn't hit my breaks, I'm sure I could of been hit by the front of his car instead of the back door. And if I wasn't on my aero bars, I may of been able to break faster and avoid the collision. Oh well, life goes on.
Rest of the ride went pretty well. 75 miles for the day. Nutrition was 4 small packs of honey from Whataburger and a PBJ sandwich. No sports drinks since I still can't find my water bottles.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Blood Pressure
On Monday I bought new tires at Sam's Club. While waiting for them to be installed, I saw the machine that measures blood pressure. 119/76. That's the first time that my BP has been below the standard 120/80 that I can remember. Even in high school (I was not overweight or out of shape then) it was consistently slightly higher than 120/80. It was so exciting that I sent a text to my wife, and now I'm recording the event in a blog. My life is full of thrills...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Disney
Riding in Disney proved to be a difficult task. The shoulders of the roads are ... not there, and if normal vans, trucks, and SUV's aren't enough, they have big Disney buses everywhere. My plan was to get up at 6:00 when there was less traffic, but most nights it was after midnight when we returned from the parks.
In the end, I didn't eat healthy all week, but I did run and bike enough. I was lucky we could drive there with my bike instead of flying, and we didn't rush to the parks at opening time, so I was free in the mornings.
On top of that, I needed the break, and it was fun. It's nice that my daughter is so excited about talking to a woman dressed as Cinderella. Someday that won't be the case.
In the end, I didn't eat healthy all week, but I did run and bike enough. I was lucky we could drive there with my bike instead of flying, and we didn't rush to the parks at opening time, so I was free in the mornings.
On top of that, I needed the break, and it was fun. It's nice that my daughter is so excited about talking to a woman dressed as Cinderella. Someday that won't be the case.
Georgia ING Marathon Report
Even though I followed a good training plan from Paul, I had my doubts that I'd be able to qualify for Boston. There were 2 things that worried me about the race; race nutrition and going out too hard.
Nutrition - Each long run I tested my nutrition, and I was always good on the LSD runs, but as soon as I did some miles at race pace, I felt horrible. 4 days before the race I checked out GU Roctane gels, and decided to gamble. I've never used them before, and there were no more chances to test them. Trying something new on race day is a really bad idea, but I felt I had nothing to lose. Everything else wasn't working. The next problem was carrying the gels and endurolytes. Both of my belts turn sideways on me. At the expo I found another belt. If it didn't work, the fallback plan was to carry everything in my hands. I went on a run at 8:45 Saturday night and the belt worked.
Pace - Not only do I go out too fast on races, but I do it in training. To make matters worse, the beginning of this race was loaded with downhills. Each time I went down a hill, I got worried that I'd have to go up it at the end of the race. Plus, my GPS was showing the mile markers well before the course markers. My goal was to stay between 7:10 and 7:15 per mile, but since my GPS was off, I estimated it should say 7:00 to 7:05 to be safe. Plus with all the downhills at the start of the race, if I was a little under 7:00 for the first half, that might be a good thing. I was not trying to "bank" time, but I didn't want to run up hills at 7:00 min/mi for the last 10 miles to reach my goal time.
The first 18 miles were uneventful. At mile 18 I got a small stitch in my side, but it didn't worry me at all. If there was a big nutrition problem, it would of showed up long before. The gels did their job. Anything uncomfortable that came up I could run through.
Mile 22 is when I decided to do some math instead of guessing from the GPS. I crossed the mile marker at 2:37. So, I had 32 min to run 4.2 miles... I couldn't figure what pace I needed. Since I was feeling good, I thought if I just run 7 min miles, I'll be at mile 26 by 3:05. Then I have 5 min to go the last .2 miles. Sounded like a good plan at the time.
Somewhere after the mile 24 marker is the first time I felt like I was no longer holding back. The next mile was mostly downhill, and I did it in 7:29. The mile after that took 7:50. If there was a mile 25 or 26 marker, I didn't see either one. I couldn't see the finish, but I could hear the crowd and the announcer. When he said "these runners are coming in at just under 3 hours and 9 minutes..." I about freaked. If the finish line was 1/4 mile away, I was screwed. I thought about that for about 15 seconds, then turned a corner. The finish line was about 50m away, and the time was just past 3:09.
Motionbased info
Elevation change 3,000 ft
Official time 3:09:18
Overall - 54 of 2105
Male 31-40 - 23rd of 475
Saturday nutrition (stuff i remember)
Ensure, Banana, 3 pancakes from Cracker Barrel, 32oz Gatorade, clif bar, mean bar and snack bar samples at expo (330 cal total), 24 oz milk, spaghetti, minestrone soup and rolls from Spaghetti Factory.
race nutrition:
1 ensure, 8 oz Gatorade, and half banana 60 min before start. 1 ensure 15 min before start, 4 GU Roctane gels (miles 6, 11, 16, 21), Gatorade at first and last station, water at each other station, 8 - 10 Hammer Endurolytes.
Nutrition - Each long run I tested my nutrition, and I was always good on the LSD runs, but as soon as I did some miles at race pace, I felt horrible. 4 days before the race I checked out GU Roctane gels, and decided to gamble. I've never used them before, and there were no more chances to test them. Trying something new on race day is a really bad idea, but I felt I had nothing to lose. Everything else wasn't working. The next problem was carrying the gels and endurolytes. Both of my belts turn sideways on me. At the expo I found another belt. If it didn't work, the fallback plan was to carry everything in my hands. I went on a run at 8:45 Saturday night and the belt worked.
Pace - Not only do I go out too fast on races, but I do it in training. To make matters worse, the beginning of this race was loaded with downhills. Each time I went down a hill, I got worried that I'd have to go up it at the end of the race. Plus, my GPS was showing the mile markers well before the course markers. My goal was to stay between 7:10 and 7:15 per mile, but since my GPS was off, I estimated it should say 7:00 to 7:05 to be safe. Plus with all the downhills at the start of the race, if I was a little under 7:00 for the first half, that might be a good thing. I was not trying to "bank" time, but I didn't want to run up hills at 7:00 min/mi for the last 10 miles to reach my goal time.
The first 18 miles were uneventful. At mile 18 I got a small stitch in my side, but it didn't worry me at all. If there was a big nutrition problem, it would of showed up long before. The gels did their job. Anything uncomfortable that came up I could run through.
Mile 22 is when I decided to do some math instead of guessing from the GPS. I crossed the mile marker at 2:37. So, I had 32 min to run 4.2 miles... I couldn't figure what pace I needed. Since I was feeling good, I thought if I just run 7 min miles, I'll be at mile 26 by 3:05. Then I have 5 min to go the last .2 miles. Sounded like a good plan at the time.
Somewhere after the mile 24 marker is the first time I felt like I was no longer holding back. The next mile was mostly downhill, and I did it in 7:29. The mile after that took 7:50. If there was a mile 25 or 26 marker, I didn't see either one. I couldn't see the finish, but I could hear the crowd and the announcer. When he said "these runners are coming in at just under 3 hours and 9 minutes..." I about freaked. If the finish line was 1/4 mile away, I was screwed. I thought about that for about 15 seconds, then turned a corner. The finish line was about 50m away, and the time was just past 3:09.
Motionbased info
Elevation change 3,000 ft
Official time 3:09:18
Overall - 54 of 2105
Male 31-40 - 23rd of 475
Saturday nutrition (stuff i remember)
Ensure, Banana, 3 pancakes from Cracker Barrel, 32oz Gatorade, clif bar, mean bar and snack bar samples at expo (330 cal total), 24 oz milk, spaghetti, minestrone soup and rolls from Spaghetti Factory.
race nutrition:
1 ensure, 8 oz Gatorade, and half banana 60 min before start. 1 ensure 15 min before start, 4 GU Roctane gels (miles 6, 11, 16, 21), Gatorade at first and last station, water at each other station, 8 - 10 Hammer Endurolytes.
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