Ottoman Massager

Never made it up for the morning workout. The 4 hours of sleep from Tuesday night caught up to me and I "slept in" - until 6:30 AM.

My legs are still sore and I've been in non-stop meetings today. Thinking: "There's No Place Like Home, There's No Place Like Home." Flying back this afternoon ...

If I were at home, I would be using my Health-O-Meter shiatsu leg massager. My calves could really use it!

(By the way, looks like Amazon.com is selling this massage ottoman for less than $50 now!)

On The Road Again

Well, I'm on business travel again. This time I'm in New Jersey staying at the Morristown Hyatt - which has a partnership with the Headquarters Plaza Fitness Club. Their pool isn't quite as nice as what is shown on their web site, but it is better than no pool at all!

After a nice dinner with my boss at the Italian restaurant across the street (Pazzo Pazzo), I attempted to do a little work out. Unfortunately, with $35 of seafood, Ceasar salad and crusty bread weighing me down - and exhaustion resulting from having only 4 hours of sleep the night before (7:00 AM flights out of Dallas are too early!) - I only managed to swim about 500 meters in 15 minutes before feeling queasy.

I did do some weights and stretching (my calves are very sore from running yesterday). If I am ambitious, I'll try to do some more tomorrow morning.

Brick Workout

Was planning on going to Grapevine Lake after work to swim (and possibly run afterward) but the weather looked like it was going to get worse all afternoon.

So Jarrod and I swam at North Lake College at lunch. We did 1,000 meters in about 27 minutes and then laced up our running shoes and did a lap around the campus (which is small) - I'd guess about 2 miles in about 18 minutes. A pretty decent workout.

Happy Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day! Hope you had a safe and fun holiday weekend.

No workout today. Just ate hot dogs and corn off the
(indoor electric) grill (because it was raining :-P)

In other news, I got my Metroplex Sprint Tri confirmation email/letter today. And I did another weight check earlier this evening. Despite the suboptimal diet the last few days, I am still down 13 pounds from my starting point. Not bad!

Elliptical Trainer

Decided to do 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer this evening for a couple of reasons:

1. Went to the new Chinese buffet that opened up in Roanoke (TX) for lunch. I was starving after the morning workout. Having no self-control at a buffet, I, of course ate way too much. Still feeling too stuffed for a full dinner, I decided to skip eating and work out instead. (Later, I did have a glass of Bolthouse Farms "Green Goodness" juice - very nasty-looking, but so delicious - and a turkey and cheese sandwich. Don't want to wake up starving in the middle of the night!)

2. My 4 year-old was playing around on it this afternoon while I was cleaning out the guest room (where it sits). I figured it was a sign that I should use it.

Am I becoming a compulsive workout junkie? Possible ... but I am willing to risk it. :-)

So, today, I did 20 minutes on a Stairmaster, swam 1,000 meters, and then did 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer. That seems like something almost equivalent to a sprint tri - but now I just need to be able to do it all at once!

Less than 2 weeks to go until my first triathlon ...

Stairs and Swim

Sigh, I never did the elliptical yesterday. Got home after the drive back from Burleson and got caught up with grocery shopping, watching the kids, and helping clean up the house.

So to make up for yesterday's double loss (no bike ride AND no home workout) - and to start simulating the tri's multiple events - I did a double workout today. I planned to do 30 minutes of the Stairmaster (thinking that it's a reasonable facsimile to biking in terms of a leg workout) and then swim 1,000 meters. Ideally, the order should have been reversed, but by swimming second I wouldn't have the hassles and/or stares to taking a quick shower or insufficiently toweling off and smelling like chlorine while on the Stairmaster.

Anyway, it didn't start off very well. I think I may have been too ambitious and set the Stairmaster at too high of a level because 15 minutes into it I was really dying, and at 19 minutes or so, I just had to stop. So, disgusted, I switched it off, grabbed my water bottle and other gear and headed to the pool.

Here, although I didn't know it at first, things got better. I started my swim at (what I thought was) a slow pace, but kept it up and by my fifth lap I was really cruising along. Even though I had my stopwatch running, I wasn't paying much attention to it since I assumed that my time was not going to be good - having already done almost 20 minutes (and had planned to do 30) of stairs. But as I came in from lap 22 (500 meters), I decided to do a quick check. 12:43 - my fastest time yet! Fired up, I made a conscious effort to finish up the rest of the 44 laps strongly. And, lo and behold, I did the entire 1,000 meters in 25:18. Since I took about a 10 second break between the first set of 22 laps and the second, I actually swam the second 500 meters in 12:25 - even FASTER than the first 500 m.

Take-away thoughts:

1. I hate the StairMaster (but it is doing its job). I hope that the actual biking (12.4 miles) and running (5 km) will use a lot less leg strength/endurance than an equivalent time on that machine (at the setting that I was using).


2. Swimming with tri-shorts (this was the first time I used them in a pool - my only previous use was at Grapevine Lake) versus regular baggy swim trunks must really make a difference in speed. (Everyone already told me this, but now I have experienced it first-hand)


3. I learned that it takes me about 30 "hand strokes" (actually, I counted 15 strokes of my right arm) to do a 25-yard lap in the pool. This is good knowledge for me know in terms of approximating how much swimming I will need to do to hit the various distance buoys in the upcoming tri (while realizing that current and other deleterious conditions in the lake will slow my pace and increase the number of strokes required)

In other news, I am looking at doing the Mesquite Rodeo Bike Tour next weekend to make up for the rained-out Burleson Honey Tour. Looks like a really nice ride and a well-organized event.

Rained Out

Honey Tour bike race rained out. Don and I are bummed. Sad thing is that it is barely raining here at my house, but 35 miles south in Burleson was a different story - i.e., it was POURING with possible flash-flooding.

Considered going to the gym, but was too bitter. Will just try to do the elliptical trainer in our spare bedroom after some lunch.

[UPDATE: Race has been rescheduled for September 1]

Speed Swimming

I probably should have taken off today since I plan to do a 62-mile bike tomorrow, but I figured swimming should be okay since it is mostly upper body and with the lousy weather (the skies over Dallas-Fort Worth have been grey/raining for 90% of the past month) it is getting sketchy on whether the ride will actually happen.

Anyway, I really thought swimming would be slow and difficult today after working out almost every day this week and also doing upper body weight work yesterday after the Stairmaster, but I actually ended up having my fastest times yet for the swim.

The first 500 meters was completed in 13:12 - almost 40 seconds faster than what I did on Tuesday. I thought "nah, I must have miscounted the laps." So after a 48-second break - I wanted the watch to get back to ":00" - I did another 500 meters and completed them in 13:28. Wow, I really hope those times are correct. I'm looking forward to getting back to my regular pool at North Lake College next week to see if they hold.

In other news, Jarrod and I are officially registered for the 12th Annual Metroplex Sprint Tri on June 10. So nervous, yet so excited ...

Slave to the Stairmaster

Continuing the theme of "gotta build up my legs, pronto," I did the Stairmaster today at the gym. I was able to do a full 30 minutes for 120 "floors" (if the machine is to be believed) but it definitely was not easy. Jarrod says that he hates this machine - I don't blame him.

The model I used is the really good one where the stairs look like real stairs (see picture). You really can't cheat ... unless you hang on the rails - which I did not!

No more legs this week. Resting them up for the Honey Tour bike ride on Saturday.

Serious Swimming

Since I've all but signed up for the Metroplex Sprint Triathlon to be held June 10, I really gotta kick the training into high gear. My biking will be helped along since Don and I are going to ride the 62-mile Honey Tour in Burleson this Saturday (weather permitting). And I can (at least I tell myself this) always squeeze in a run here or there. So today I focused on my swimming.

Noting that the upcoming Metroplex Sprint has an 800m lake swim, I wanted to see how quickly I could do a "pool" distance that is even greater than that. So I did 44 laps of 25 yards (stupid non-metric pool at the gym), which is 1,100 yards or 1,000 meters (I think that math is correct), in 28 minutes, 20 seconds. The first 500m was in 13:50, which is the first time I've cracked under 14 minutes for that distance; the second half was in 14:30 - which included a 10 second break/delay due to a goggle malfunction. :-P

Cross Timbers Classic

I finished my first bike race today. Technically I guess the Cross Timbers Classic is a "tour", not a "race", but it still doesn't change the fact that I finished a 50+ mile bike ride!

The first 1.5-miles of the tour was a lap around Texas Motor Speedway. Even though I am not a NASCAR fan by any stretch of the imagination, it was still a really cool experience (and wow, are some of those turns really steeply banked - I guess they have to be when cars are circling them at 150+ mph!)

It took me about 4 hours and 20 minutes (including two rest stops) to complete approximately 50 miles (52.5 according to my bike computer). That works out to 5.2 minutes per mile or just over 11.5 miles per hour. Not counting the stops, I was at about 12.5 mph - which jives with what my bike computer often displayed as my current speed. I'm definitely not (and perhaps will never be) a speedster, but for a first time ride of that distance, I am very happy with my performance.

Actually, I did the first 24 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes (or 13.7 mph) and then hit the (second) rest stop (skipped the first one). The pace definitely slowed after that. At that rest stop, I (thought I) was glad I had chosen to persevere with the 50-mile route. (At the 14.5-mile mark, I could have made a left turn and cut it down to a 30-mile ride). However, at the 32-mile mark, I started hitting some nasty hills and definitely had second thoughts about whether I had made a wise decision. Good thing there were no other opportunities to cut the route short - I might have taken them!

Again, I noticed that, overall, my cardio fitness was not the limiting factor for my biking performance. Except for some of the hills, I can honestly say that I barely breathed hard at all during the entire ride. But I still need to strengthen my legs BIG TIME. And the really funny thing is that after the bike ride, any soreness that might have lingered from Wednesday's run was gone!

Ride Highs:

1. The opening lap around TMS
2. Finishing all 50 miles!
3. Racing by myself (solitude - just me and my thoughts)

Ride Lows:

1. Scraping my arm against a farmer barbed wire fence while turning into a rest stop - stings more than it hurt or bled
2. Going 6 mph (or slower) up steep hills
3. Hitting a really nasty hill at 38 miles and having to stop ... and then having to resume from a standing start
4. Falling over at 43 miles (couldn't unclip at a stop sign) - luckily, the only thing hurt was my pride
5. Leg cramps in my right quad at 47 miles - the last 5.5 miles were slow and painful
6. Racing by myself (when with other riders, they pushed me to go faster)

Now that I've experienced a 50-mile ride, I am very confident that I can do the 12.4 - 25 miles that are needed for a Sprint or Olympic tri. I am also fairly certain that I am NOT interested in doing rides/races that are much longer than 50 miles (at least in the immediate future).

Don and Jarrod are seriously considering doing the Hotter'N Hell Hundred in Wichita Falls this summer, but if I go with them, I will be doing the "Hotter'N Hell Fifty" (or possibly the 100K - 62 miles). If it takes me 4+ hours to do 50 miles, there is no way I want to be riding for 9 hours to do 100 - and thus spending 4-5 hours in the August afternoon Texas sun!

Ride Review:

• Course: 2/5 - this course is unsafe! terrible traffic (18-wheelers!) on Hwy 156; non-existent traffic control in the afternoon (have to make a unpatrolled left-turn onto a busy highway); several sections of two lane roads with no shoulder; the only reason this is not a 1/5 is because of the opening lap at TMS
• Rest Stops: 2/5 - the stops didn't offer anything great - just some fruit, water, and Gatorade; they were also too far apart (only 3 stops for a 50+ mile ride!) and placed in terrible spots (just barely off the road so bikers were congregating right on the course)
• Logistics: 3/5 - early online registration didn't allow discounted fee via credit card; decent parking; easy same-day registration; lots of cold bottled water, soda and energy drinks at registration site; not much going on at the finish line :-(
• Overall: 2/5 - I may do it again because it is close to my house; then again, I may just do the 10 mile fun-ride with my family - get the goodies without the danger!

Swimming in the Sun

My buddy Jonathan is getting married this weekend (so Jarrod and Mike are in San Fran with him). I couldn't go - it's tough to travel with our new baby. And Derek is off at a conference in DC.

So it was just me and Matt at the (newly "uncovered") pool today. Wow, is the pool bright when the top is off?!?

Started off with 500 meters in 14:03 ... then did another 500 meters right before leaving in about 15:30. Probably did about 1,200 to 1,300 total. For reference, I did 500 meters in 14:50 or so two weeks ago - so while still not a speedster, I am definitely improving! :-)

Surprisingly, right after the swim my legs felt a lot better. They still felt tired, but walking and stairs was much more comfortable. However, now, after dinner, they are stiffening up again. Trying to massage them while watching TiVoed CNBC "Closing Bell".

About 36 hours until bike race. Will be taking tomorrow off to rest up.

Legs = REALLY Sore

Wow, tough to (physically) get out of bed. Stairs are painful. Running six miles for first run was definitely a mistake.

Compounding the problem is that I signed up my first bike race, the Cross Timbers Classic (I registered for the 50-mile route), earlier this week. The race is Saturday morning so I have about 48 hours for my legs to recover - or it's gonna be a "long day" during the race.

One good/bad thing about the Cross Timbers Classic 50-mile race route is that there is a "fork" point about 15-miles into it which lets the tired rider "turn left" and cut the route down to 30 miles. Good for my legs if they cramp up during the ride. But bad for my willpower ...

Legs = Sore

My legs are starting to get sore from the run. Walking down stairs is not fun.

Mild shin splints, but the real killer are my quads. I guess they took more of pounding than I realized.

Running Man

Even though I did quite a bit of "recreational" running ("Run for fun? ... What's the fun in that?") in college and even did some 5Ks and 10Ks after graduation, the running part of the tri worries me the most. Partly because I am going to have to do it at the end (after swimming and biking) and partly because even though I have run in the past, it has never come easily to me.

So this morning, I ran six miles. Okay, to be more exact, I ran/jogged/walked/lumbered for 6 miles. It took about an hour, which is a pretty slow pace, but hey, this is the first time I've run more than 4 miles in OVER FIVE YEARS.

Derek, who ran a marathon in Alaska last year, recommended that I try "5-1"s, which is running for 5 minutes and then walking for 1 minute. The theory behind this technique is that running and walking use different sets of muscles ... so instead of "running until you drop" and then walking the rest of the way, if you start interjecting some walking earlier in the "race" you will actually be able to run longer and faster.

Anyway, being as out of running shape as I am, I modified this to 4-1's ... which I did for about the first mile and a half ... and then it became 3-1's and then 2-1's and then 1-1's by the end. What surprised me what that my heart/lung capacity was NOT the limiting factor for the run distance/speed; it was my legs that were getting tired. This was definitely not the case when I ran in college. (All that swimming is really helping my cardio!) But I really never out-and-out stopped at all the whole time, so I am happy!

The first run of my triathlon training is behind me. :-)

Open-Water Swimming

Since we need practice doing open-water swimming, Derek, Jarrod, and I headed to Grapevine Lake after work to do a route that we found on the Team In Training Yahoo! Group.



The route is about 573 meters each way, but we swam out a little "to the left" of where we were supposed to go so the round trip was probably almost 1,200 meters for us.


Swimming in a lake is a lot different from a pool! The water is murky - no line on the floor to follow - and the current pushes you off course. I had to look up frequently to course-correct, and did breaststroke about 30% to switch it up, but I didn't drown. Bonus!

Next time one of us needs to bring along a watch so we know how fast/slow we are! :-P

On To Road Biking

It had to happen sooner or later, I'm actually riding a road bike. I probably haven't been on a road bike since riding a ten-speed when I was 14 or 15. Everything since then has been on a mountain bike - off-road or not.

My friend Jarrod was nice enough to give me his old road bike (which he got from his friend about six months ago). If and when I decide to get a new road bike, this bike will definitely be passed on again - continuing its excellent legacy of introducing new riders to the sport.

Road biking in the DFW metroplex is tough. Dallasites drive fast and crazy (I'm somewhat guilty of this myself) and many roads don't have shoulders. Definitely not a bike-friendly place.

So I just biked around my neighborhood, which is not as bad/small as it sounds - my community has nearly 4,000 houses and spans an area that is about 1.25 miles "high" by nearly 6 miles "wide." So in about 70 minutes, I actually covered about 16 miles without retracing very many of the roads.

It took a little getting used the road bike. First, the low position of the handle bars. Second, shifting gears - this old bike has the shifters way down on the lower cross bar of the frame. Third, being clipped into the pedals. I only crashed once during my inagural road bike ride: in a driveway, while stopping for water - couldn't get unclipped in time. I felt like I was falling in slow motion. Luckily, no damage - not even a skinned knee. Greatness ... the biking gods like me.

Jarrod told me that the best way to build up your biking legs is to find a hill and just bike up and down it. So I did the moderate grade hill right in front of my house about 5 times in succession. It wasn't too bad and I never even had to go down from the "big ring" of the front sprocket.

I guess after doing 10+23 miles of mountain biking last week, I was expecting 16 miles of road biking to be no problem. I am happy to say that my expectations were met.

Weigh-in #2

Did the scale thing again this morning. Down 11 pounds from starting weight and another percent body-fat.

I love the little "advisory" sticker on the scale that says "body fat measurement may be inaccurate for extremely overweight or highly athletic body types". I hope that someday that message will apply to me (for the latter reason NOT the former).

More Mountain Biking

A glutton for punishment, I decided to bike a second day in a row. Went with Jarrod and Mike to Greenbelt Corridor. Did the 10-mile trail, biked up the road to a Sam Garrett Memorial Overlook Park, and then back to our vehicles. About 3 1/2 hours for the 23-mile trek.

The trail was nice and flat and mostly gravel although we did get a little wet and muddy. Part of the fun I suppose.

Pool Closed - Biking in Grapevine

The pool at North Lake College is closed this week. They are removing the roof of the natatorium to turn the winter indoor pool into a summer outdoor pool.

Since the pool is closed, and since I have to come to grips that there are THREE parts to a TRIathlon, I decided to do some mountain biking this week. (Yeah, yeah, I know there aren't any mountains in Texas, but off-road biking doesn't flow as easily off the tongue).

Don and I did (part of) the Northshore Trail around Grapevine Lake between Rockledge Park and Murrell Park. About 10 miles total. Not a real long distance, but it is a good start. Been almost 5 years since I last rode those trails.

Afterword: My rear is little sore, but not too bad. Between my bike shorts, padded seat, and an extra 1-inch gel pad that wrapped on my seat, I had quite a bit of protection down there!