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]