Fat for the Holidays!

Fat for the holidays! Oh I mean back for the Holidays...but I guess both work.

I have not blogged in forever, mostly due to laziness on both blogging and training, but I ordered a Brydge back in November and I said when it comes in I will blog more. So it came in on Christmas Eve and here I am. I have to hold to it or my wife will give me a hard time, and this Brydge makes it so easy to type on the go on the iPad.

The last time I did anything race/training related was for the Duathlon back in October. Needless to say this Holiday season hasnt been the best for my fitness or waist line. There has been really no motivation, except for a day here or there. After the duathlon I looked for races to plan out my 2013 schedule, but most places don't schedule or have information on races until january... I was hoping for some continued motivation from that but I guess not.

Here it is almost January though, and it is time for a new year. It is time for this year to be the year I become a triathlete. As I read through my old posts I become motivated and as I look at the achievements I set for myself after the duathlon I am ready to start.

After the Duathlon I knew that I was entering the offseason. I knew there would probably not be much more except for maybe a 5k, and so I jotted down a list on my phone of things I wanted to accomplish with my training in 2013.

Here they are. When I see that list I see the makings of a good year. I see myself looking back on 2013 and saying that I did something to reach my dreams, but then again only 8% of people actually accomplish their New Years resolutions. That is exactly why this is not a list of resolutions, this is a list of races for me this year. I already know the 10k is in August, the Duathlon is in October, with a 15k in late October leading up to my "A race" of the year, the Half Marathon in November. I will mix in some 5k's throughout the year, and then I just need to find 2 sprint Triathlons and a stand alone bike race. That is my goal for these next couple weeks.

Some may look at this list and see a lofty goal, I see motivation. I see fun and exactly who I want to be in this area of my life. I believe it is time for a great new year!

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I'm Back

I am bike at training...oh I mean back. Well both actually. I have been waiting to get a bike so I could go ahead and keep training for this duathlon coming up on Oct 6th, and between no bike, being sick, vacation and super busy couple weeks at work I didn't quite stay with what I wanted. My biggest thing for me was getting a bike. I wanted to ride, and train on it. I know I can go out and run a 27 minute-ish 5k, which still needs to improve, but I am happy with for the race. The thing I haven't really known is how well I can do on a bike.

Last Monday I finally sold my guitar, which gave me enough money to go ahead and  purchase my bike. I knew what I wanted, and I had ridden it one other time at the bike shop. It was an Orbea Aqua TTG with Shimano Tiagra/105 components. When I hopped on that bike I knew. It was smooth, it road like a dream and picked up speed effortlessly. The shifting was a fine as I could ever want. Black and Charcoal grey mixed in design. It was perfect!

So I called the bike shop again to make sure they still had it in my size . . . well no go. They didn't have it anymore, and the only thing they did have in my size and price range was an Orbea Aqua TPX with SRAM Apex components. When the person on the phone told me that I said, "with what?" He explained it and told me that is what he rides with and loves them, but I still got off the phone a little discouraged. I wanted to go to this bike shop because it offered lifetime free tuneups and a couple other things that I really liked, and I really wanted my bike now....not really later, but I knew I wasn't going to settle.

I had done research and research after riding my dream bike on Orbea's and Shimano components, but had only seen stuff on SRAM and never really looked into it. As soon as I got off the phone I started researching. I knew I liked the Orbea Aqua frame, no problem there, but what about this SRAM? Everything I read said they were very good, same type of quality as Shimano, but not as smooth!!, felt different!!, and used something called a double tap system!!??? I did not like the sound of that, but I knew the only way to know was to go up and ride it.

It was cloudy, gloomy and rainy, but my wife and I took the little longer than usual hour drive to the bike shop.I walked in, and told the guy what I was looking at, and he hooked me right up, and let me take it out for a spin in the rain. I hopped on and road around that parking lot probably 20 times. Back and forth, back and forth. I like the feel, I loved the red and white color, but I was still not sold on the SRAM shifting, and so I kept riding. Eventually I came in and said, yep this is what I want!

It was only a couple minutes later and I was on the bike again, only inside this time, out of the rain and on a trainer. The guy was sizing me and the bike up to make sure the fit was perfect. A little later I was grabbing a spare tube, a hand pump, and a case for my iPhone. The rain had finally let up, but I still wasn't using the bike rack. We removed the front tire and laid the seats down in my back seat and the bike fit perfectly.  I was a very happy man.

Since then it has been a few days and I have been itching to get on the bike. My family and I took a leisure ride where I hooked up the kid trailer to the back of it, and we had a nice family ride. The next morning I woke up at 6 to go out and ride, and it was pitch black outside. I turned on my little lights, but knowing the roads out by my house i couldn't go that fast or I would wind up in a major pothole with a bent wheel. Finally Tuesday morning after all my meetings I went for an 11.2 mile ride. It was amazing!! Beautiful morning, great roads and actually got to get out on my new bike and log a few miles, even if I did realize how out of shape I have gotten. I also fell in love with the ultra quick shifting of the SRAM double tap system.

In the end, it is bike on. Training is back and I couldn't be happier. I am eating better, working out better and overall my motivation is through the roof.

Training Notes:
Sept 17th - 6.3 mile ride, 25:43, 14.7mph
Sept 18th - 11.2 mile ride, 44:46, 15 mph

The difference a day makes

Lately I've been having a hard time "finding my stride", if you will. After the 10k run I was feeling great. I felt like I could keep going strong and conquer anything, but lately I have been feeling like I haven't been able to do a darn thing.

 Right after the race I got a sinus infection. Usually this is a very frequent occurrence, but since having sinus surgery last december this is only my second. Sinus infections usually wipe me out for one or two days, and then I can start getting rid of all the junk that it produces, which has been the norm here as well. The only problem is after running a 10k and feeling like you can do anything, well you usually try. The Monday after my race I decided I was going to go for a good run (running usually clears up the sinuses anyway), and so I set out. My wife told me, "don't go far", because she knew I still needed to recover from my 10k, so I decided to set my personal best for the 5k.

It wasn't the recovery she thought I needed, but I again felt like I could do anything. I started running, mile one is just getting real good and warmed up and I hit a PR of 7'43". I kept going hard, at mile 2 I was at a 8'21", a significant loss, but I was struggling now. I found it really hard to breathe. All of the junk in my throat and nose wouldn't let me get deep breathes. It was painful, I wasn't very happy but I knew my limits and I had to walk. It was only about a 20 second walk but it gave me enough energy to finish the 5k. The last mile was at a 9'07". Those weren't exactly the splits I was going for, and not exactly the nice run I wanted, but I finished with a time of 25:59.....beating my PR by more than 2 minutes. Needless to say I was in pain, but very happy.


 I knew the rest of the week I needed to really take it easy, especially if I couldn't breathe, but on friday I felt great and decided that I should go for a nice run. No expectations or anything. This is when my attitude went from "I can do anything" to "I can do nothing." I set out for the run, half a mile in I was great. At .75 miles here it was again, I still couldn't breathe. I ran until I finished mile 1 with a decent pace of 8'38", but I had to stop, I had to walk, I had to breath. My next mile was a mixture of very short runs with long walks in between. I just couldn't do it. That day I ran 2.52 miles at a 26:12, slower than my 5k. Now I am not saying those paces are necessarily bad, I mean I would have loved that pace when I was running 2 years ago, but I know what I can do now, and it was way more than this.

 So ever since that run I haven't felt like doing anything, or let me rephrase that, I haven't felt like I am able to do anything. There has been no drive, no passion, no want. But even with all of that you have to find your motivation somewhere, and I did, in my wife. My wife is not a morning person in the slightest, but for the past couple weeks she has been waking up at 4:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to work out with a group of girls. Not only that but during our girls nap times she has been doing another hour long workout. I came home from work on Monday and she was finishing up her afternoon workout and I thought to myself, "what have I done today?" At that point her actions motivated me. I am training, I have a goal and if I ever want to get there I have to take the next steps.

So this morning I woke up early and did an insanity workout, and it just about killed me. I will be doing insanity until I feel I can run again (really soon) and until I get a new bike (I'll blog about this soon too). I have to do something, and this is definitely a good something for me to do. Today I find myself motivated again. I am ready to train, ready to take the next step towards my goal, so here we go, Ironman Me!.