Soreness, my old friend

Its a new month and I am finally starting off on the correct foot.

You can see where I am so far on my goals at the bottom of the site. I am considerably further thus far as compared to this time in previous months. I have taken off almost as many days as I have trained, but I am finally starting to put in more honest and complete training sessions.

Yesterday was my long run day. I was aiming for 9+ miles on the treadmill since it was so so so windy outside, I only managed 6.4 miles. I learned that those technical "dri-fit" shirts that sell for way too much money or you get from races are actually very important.

I ran in an old softball shirt yesterday and I could tell a difference by mile 2. The shirt was so heavy and compressive due to the sweat. I felt as though I was wearing a weight vest. Also, wet cotton does not perform heat transfer efficiently... aka. I was hotter than hell. I definately ws overheated by mile 5 and by the end of my 60min on the treadmill I thought I was actually going to hurl. I was lightheaded, felt major pressure in my head and couldn't walk very well.

Lesson learned.

Thankfully I was fine. Im sure if I would have tried to restart the treadmill for another 3-4 miles I would've been sick or passed out. I probably need to pay more attention to my clothing choices when I run at the Y. There are only a couple fans for the entire gym there and it gets very hot. I should also try and focus on eating something full of carbs an hour before I leave work now that I am pushing my distance up.

I cooled myself down in the pool with 750yds before they shut down for a safety break at 6pm. I could feel the soreness as soon as I got off the treadmill in my lower calves. This pain has only become worse as the day went on. Im currently wearing my CEP compression sleeves to work for the day. It is truly amazing what these sleeves will do for my legs, I love science!

Today I am going to work on making some adjustements to my bike trainer and re-aligning my aero bars on my bike, then its a bike session since it is so nasty cold and rainy outside. I found a good interval workout for the trainer that I downloaded into my Garmin watch last week that I will try out. I'm sure Gracie will be glad that I am coming home instead of going to the gym today as well.

Heres my bike set up on the new trainer. I still need to finish adding shelves and setting up the workout room but it is finally getting there. Just added some OSU orange curtains that really spice up the room.

OH the weather outside is... weather

Welp, I didn't make my enhanced goals for February, (50 mile run, 6 hour bike, 8 mile swim). I could have gotten there if I did not take a week off when we adopted our new dog/hopeful-training partner Gracie.

 

She says hi.

I am going to try and meet the same goals again. The weather is finally starting to get nice outside and the days are getting longer. I am finding myself running out of excuses not to go outside and run or bike. I was actually able to get the bike outside and ride around Lake Draper last week. It felt great and reminded me how much I hate the Oklahoma wind.

Just in time for all this nice weather I have finally purchased a bike trainer. I know, Im dumb, but it was on sale... and I am a sucker for sale ads that list anything over 60% off in my email. It will be nice going into next fall, and for the days when its too windy or I just do not want to try and fight traffic to get to a lake. I can tell a huge difference though in my percieved efforts though, it feels like I am biking through wet sand.

As for my runs, I have increased my long run day to 9 miles. I am a little shocked to see how well my legs are coping with the longer distance, but I am not upset at all. I can tell a large difference though in how my feet feel in my new race shoes compared to my older sets of shoes. It seems like upgrading in January was the right time.

Lastly, I have finally increased my swimming days to over 1 mile in the pool. I have found that when I focus on intervals of 250m or more, I can find a balance between boredom and soreness and spend more time in the pool. I have been trying to focus on my form alot more in the recent weeks, instead of my speed. I know its all in my head at this point, but I feel like I can lay down some speed in the pool already, I just need to be more efficient at doing so.

Just a couple more weeks before my season begins with the March in Okarche Duathlon. I am extremely nervous as this is my first race with the TriOKC group, and my first Du. I just need to keep my head down, focus on expanding my workouts on the bike and getting outside more, and I will be fine. Hopefully I can train some confidence into myself over the next couple weeks.

I will get the graphs updated at the bottom to March's tomorrow, and  be sure to watch the sidebar for my current races that I am signed up for. I will be posting more often now, and plan to start writing about some of the equipment that I use and have used, as well as posting more pictures from training and races. 

Its going to be a fun ride this year.

Chirp...Chirp...

It has been a little quite around here.

I did not intend to take such an extended abscence from the blog, but I did. So there.

I do intend to start posting more frequently. Race season is nigh, I have lots of new gear to get broken in (along with those back muscles I seemingly forgot to workout over the winter) and the weather is finally starting to cooperate (albeit a tad bit windy).

I have still been updating my monthly training as seen in the graphs as the bottom of the page. My February goals were to run 50 miles, cycle for 6 hours and swim 8 miles. I feel as though I will complete the swim, and possibly the run. The bike is probably a no go.

I developed some knee pain from the bikes at the Y so I stop riding them as much and the lack of warm weather has kept me inside. I did finally invest in a cheap trainer so I no longer have any excuses not to be hitting my cycling marks.

My swimming has improved dramatically to the point where I usually do a 1500 meter session everytime I go. Except for tuesday. I had a pretty significant pop in my right shoulder cuff every time I stroked on that side, regardless of how much pressure (or pull) I applied, so I cut Tuesday short. I will get back in on Saturday and see how things go.

Running has improved as well, as long as I wear my compression sleeves. I have no clue if it has become a mental issue at this point or not, but I seems to have lots of shin and ankle pain whenever I do not wear them. I finally retired my Zoot Ali'i 3.0 race shoes and invested in some new Zoot Ultra TT 5.0's. They feel amazing and my trainer set of Zoot are still clicking off the miles. I am trying to start pushing my long runs up towards the half-marathon point, but seem to be moving slowly.

I have my first major even at the end of March, the March in Okarche Du. 5k run, 18mi bike, 5k run. That will be loads of fun and great experience to run and meet all the people in the local tri club I have joined.

I will post more soon, as I have tons I can talk about. See everyone around.

Moving time

Just to let everyone know, or just those annoying spam bots that seem to frequent this site, I will not be posting for the next week or so. Ive been busy trying to get everything set up for moving to a new house this weekend.

Ill keep my training totals up to date, but that's about it. See everyone in a while!

New Year

Man, its been a nice couple of weeks off from work and this blog. I tried to get out and run a little bit and get in a few weight workouts, but nothing to intense. I'd like for the weather to start heating up again so I can start putting in some miles on the bike, but we will see what Oklahoma have in store.

I am so excited about 2012, and its only just begun. I cannot wait to attempt a International distance Tri and half marathon this summer. I am more than pumped to start working towards placing at a sprint tri and further increasing my 5k speed into the 6 min mile range. Pretty advantageous goals for me, in my mind, but I believe I can do it.

This time last year, I was an overweight (230lbs on a 5'10" frame), sedimentary engineer, who wouldn't run a quarter mile to save my life and didn't even know if I could still swim. I've now completed several 5k's, setting PR's at each attempt and breaking the 8 min/mile mark, completed my first sprint tri, become completely obsessed with triathlons and endurance racing, spent a ton of money on said obsession (ugh), and lost about 30 lbs.

2011 was a good start, a gentle kick compared to the beating that 2012 is going to be regarding my personal weight and goals.

I came close to hitting the 50% mark on my December goals, which is super shitty, but I was sick for a large portion of the month. I have set January's just south of December's goals (50 mile ran, 5 hours biked, 4 miles swam), and I feel confident I can achieve them. I will be moving into a new house later this month, but hopefully that will not interfere too much with this months training.Its only 4 months till the OKC Memorial Half Marathon (Might change this race) and 5 months till my International distance tri in Irving, Texas.

I have several books (4 total) I need to read through and I am very excited to add a set of aero bars to my bike in the next few weeks. I will be posting more once I have more dense, or useful, information to share, but everyone should be excited for this new year. Its a fresh start and a great time to break down personal barriers that are holding you back from what you want.

Vacation days

Oh, its great to be on vacation for the rest of the year.

It is nice being able to do 2 workouts in a day now that I have some time. I started with a 2.5 mile run that I never really got into the groove of or I would have pushed further. Tonight I just finished a .5 mile swim. I'm a little sore from my weights yesterday, but I plan on pushing through tomorrow and doing 2 more workouts. No idea what ones thought yet.

I probably need to buckle down and get more consistent on my running. I have a lot of miles to make up if I plan on making my December goals. I am at 20% for my running, 25% for my swim, and have yet to get on the bike.

Tomorrow looks like the rain will clear up and I may go get some decent miles and time in the seat. Im getting really anxious to get back on the bike, I hate not being able to ride.

I also picked up a couple new books. "The Triathletes Training Bible" by Joe Friel and "Trizophrenia" by Jef Mallett. I'm working on Friel's book right now, but man is it technical. Its all about heart rate zones and lactic acid thresholds. Its awesome. It is hard to make use of all his workout knowledge without a heart rate monitor... so I guess that is next on the list. Im looking at a Garmin Forerunner 410xt or 310xt. A Forerunner 910xt would be baller, but I do not think I can afford the 500-600 price tag.

Well, Im off to go read some more of my book. Ill make sure to talk about anything that I find interesting.

P.S. Make sure to check out the latest issue "Outside" magazine. They have a great breakdown of some of the Kona athletes from this year and has a good story about the Kona Ironman. They also have a good section on debunking workout myths. Such as, static stretching is not really good for you, work on dynamic stretching. Also, a core workout is not as esssential as everyone makes it out to be. If you are practicing for any specific sport, the abs will come.

Getting wet

I'm still feeling a bit sore from my weights on tuesday. I plan on getting back to the gym on Monday and then probably wednesday or thursday. I obviously need to be focusing on weights since I am soo sore. 

I took yesterday off. Had some depressing news yesterday and decided not to workout and spend time with a loved one. I got back at it today. I knocked out a short 1.5mi warmup run and a 600m swim. Im feeling better and more relaxed in the pool finally, I just start to get nervous and overthink everything after the 500m mark. That will get better with time. I am well on my way to meet my december swimming goal though, so yippie!

I've had a seriously upsetting revelation this week. Im back to being a fatty. My new 32 waist pants are starting to feel tight, I've crept back up to 205 lbs, and I look horrible. Nothing like a triathlete.

I've written about a diet and starting to get healthy. This was the kick I needed to really focus up. It also didn't hurt that I realized I would need to buy a XXL wetsuit at my size. Anything with an X in it is unacceptable in my mind. I've never had to buy anything in an X size, and I really do not want to. I still feel fat buying larges. So yea. Goodbye awesome food and eating out at lunch. Also, goodbye soda during the work day. 

I am hoping that by starting with making healthier lunches, taking healthy snacks like carrots, eating small breakfasts in the morning instead of skipping and eating junk from the vending machine and cutting out soda (at least at work for starters) will help. 

I also have great help from my friend on facebook. I mentioned my wetsuit dilemma and they all pitched in with their thoughts (both literally and not-so-literally calling me a fatass). That always helps...

I'm gonna try and get a long run in tommorrow of about 6 miles.