dark cold snow ice run, with the dog

I pulled it together this morning, layered up, and went running outside.  5:45am.  Zeke, the dog, was looking at me breathing heavily twisting his head from side-to-side the way he does when he knows something fun could be about to occur so I took him with me.  He's getting better.  Perhaps the 'no-squirrel' environment helped.  He ran pretty steady by my side - just occasionally stopping abruptly to smell certain spots in the snow. 

Yesterday, Wednesday I got up at 4:55am and went to the Y.  Swam 2 grand then went upstairs to run on a little tiny indoor track with high banking in the corners.  14 laps = 1 mile.  The engineers shouldn't have built this 'opportunity' to run indoors.  I was good for 14 laps, I think  - I couldn't even keep track of how many times I ran around in a circle.  I kept thinking of Zeke chasing his tail the whole time for some reason.  After that I hit the weight room for just a minute or so.  One of the usuals from the pool that bobs up-and-down for an hour everyday was up there and asked me if I'd swam that morning.  You just can't beat the downtown central branch YMCA camaraderie.  We're like a team.   

Weights - Cycling

I put in a nice weight workout tonight full of dips and pull-ups, squats, curls, up-right rows, shoulder press and bench press.  Topped it off with a few planks.  Planks are the most miserable exercise ever imagined.  Holding the plank position is a real quick indicator of your core fitness.  My core it a little flabby and pliable right now. 

After weights I packed up my bike and hit the Tuesday night spin session at Summit.  It was a grueling ordeal.  We did ten 4-minute strength sets with 2-minutes rest between each.  Strength on a trainer means pushing nearly your highest gear....big ring in the front and little guy in the back.  It burns, and then burns more.  Like doing a wall sit for 40 minutes.  I think I may have enlarged sweat glands. Seriously.  I was like a running faucet, slammed two big water bottles during the workout, looked like I'd been standing outside in the rain and everyone else just had a little perspiration on their brow.  To be fair, I was trying to hurt myself tonight on that bike; really break the tissues down and burn some carbon. It worked, I still feel a little sick.

Yesterday I swam 2,000 yards in the morning.  I can't even remember all the details, but it was a good workout.  Put in a good kicking set.  Kicking is something I skip normally, but I shouldn't.  The flutter kick works magic on your hip flexors.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to rise early, scrape the windows of the car, and drive to the treadmill waiting patiently for my arrival.

What about running?

I was in Florida last week on a business trip and I didn't even run.  Lifted weight one morning and put in about 1,000 yards total in the pool.  I hit the spin session this morning at Summit.  I need to get back to running.  Cold snowy weather is not much of a motivator.  Nor is a treadmill. 

Sold my wheel set!  And the aero helmet.  I thought eBay would be a pain and hastle, but so far everything sells. I'm thinking of putting my Bridgestone MB-2 up for sale.  I never ride the thing.  It's in mint condition.  It should be ridden. It's hard not to covet that bike though.  They just don't make them like that anymore. I'll surely regret it, just as I still regret selling my Basso roadbike in college for money to buy a bass guitar.  That was dumb.  But of all the possible regrets that one could acquire in life that one is fairly harmless. 

I'm hoping to find my motivation soon and start dedicating myself to fitness.  I have been fairly consistent with weights, but not much else. 

Free Willy

I've been successfully acquiring cash by selling various triathlon/cycling items on eBay.  I need to come up with some money to buy a long sleeve wetsuit for Alcatraz.  One of the leading brands of wetsuits is called Orca.  I own a sleeveless Blue-Seventy that worked OK other the 'burn' it would leave on my neck every time I used it (soon to be sold to the highest bidder).  I think it was a bit small, but wetsuits rub your skin off after an hour of swimming.  So, Orca.  Seems appropriate.  I hope to God I don't run into an Orca Killer Whale drifting along in the San Francisco bay somewhere.  I don't even want to see a minnow.  Actually the sight of anything when swimming in the ocean makes my heart about burst.  A plastic bottle or something can touch your hand and lead to a panic attack.  I did an open water swim in college once from Fort Lauderdale with a few hundred swimmers and we were engulfed in a sea of jelly fish.  What have I done? I'm not cut out for this.  We shall see.  Come June 5th I'm actually hoping to push that swim pretty hard and be in the top of the guys out of the water. 

If you need a nice pair of gently used Rolf Prima Vigor wheels feel free to throw out your bid on eBay!  Good luck!  Or, maybe you need one of those goofy looking aero helmets?  The ones that save you 40 seconds over a 40km time trial?  Huh?  My Giro is going up for sale soon.

exercising and art

When I'm not in the mood to run I paint.  I haven't been running much.  I hit my trainer in the basement and pushed it super hard for 5 x 3 min sustained max effort with 2 min rest in between on the bike.  Short and sweet.    I hit the pool today also and did a sprint set, 2 x100, 4 x 50, 4 x 25 all out free style after my warm-up.  Staggered out of the place dizzy with noodle arms. 

One of my latest distractions above.  Looks kind of like Van Gogh huh? 

I've changed this one a little - this was a few weeks ago and I'm still working on the flowers, the stem, and the vase.  Yes, there is a vase down there somewhere in the blue.  This is a Uglow take off.  I went to Hyde Brothers books today and bought two nice books about Cezanne.  I'm digging still life's lately. 

I did this one a couple months ago, not such a great picture - kind of far away - but a pear none the less:

More to come.  I tend to paint it up during the winter months, and then completely stop once spring and good weather returns.  So, I have to get it in while my creativity is present.

Group Spin and Swim

I drove to Summit City Bikes, local shop, in the biggest snow storm of the year last night.

There I  hooked my bike up to a stationary trainer along with about ten other guys,  and we pedalled in front of a TV playing a DVD of other people pedalling and grimacing on their bikes.  After sixty minutes or so the pain finally ended.  The  title of the DVD was Maximum Threshold Training.  You know that's going to hurt, and it did. 

I swam today, briefly...1,750, so one mile.  Two strange things happened.  First, during a backstroke set I was having very lucid visions while under water dolphin kicking off the wall (this is when you are underwater, looking through the water to the ceiling).  My new goggles have really opened things up for me.  I felt more comfortable in the underwater world, seeing clearly all the bubbles blast past me near the surface of the water, than the world outside of the water. The water was calm, there was no one in the pool, so as I rose to the surface I could see, geometrically,  the plane of the waters surface.  It was so smooth I didn't want to break it for a breath.   Creepy huh?  I was exaggerating this experience by kicking like a dolphin nearly the length of the pool upside down, underwater.  Endorphins maybe?  Possibly, because the other strange thing that happened on the next set was that I got a cramp. I can't remember a time when I've gotten a cramp swimming.  It was bad enough that I decided to get out and call it a day.  One bad cramp spoiled my swimming 'trip'. 

new goggles

Bought new swimming equipment yesterday. $84 on new goggles, and two swimming suits (? Geez, I know, crazy).   It's amazing what a new pair of scratch free goggles does for you in the water.  Especially as blind as I am.   Everything still looked totally fuzzy and indescribable, but goodness, so much brighter. 

AM workout  = 800 warm up (200 free, 100 free kick, 100 fly kick, 200 back, 100 back kick, 100 breast kick), then 4 x 200 each stroke of 50 swim, kick, drill, swim - then Free ladder set of 50-100-150-100-50.  For a nice pretty 2,050 yards. 

Ran 5.5 miles yesterday.  Beautiful snowy, bright sun run.  Had some pain in my right knee so I switched things up a few times.  Ran high knees backwards, ran side-stepping like a soccer player, etc.  It actually worked...broke the monotony I guess. 

Last week my wife was out of town on business.  I was 'on' with the boys for everything required of two kids ages 9 and 7.   Didn't get too many workouts in needless to say.  Lifted weights in the basement a few times.  Got a babysitter one night so I could hit the Y to lift.  I don't mean to brag but I'm starting to look a little like Lou Ferrigno.   I think I'm to the point where I  may name my biceps - something modest,  like "Lighting" and "Thunder" (as I saw in some movie once).   Mine are really more along the lines of "Light" and "Drizzle" playing off the weather theme.  But I'm working on it.  My quads are going to be "Oak" and "Sequoia" before it's all over...I did squats tonight until I felt faint right after work at the YMCA.  Bring it!

Day 1. 37 week program

Consistancy is the key to Ironman.  Workout 6 days per week. Balance your efforts between the three disciplines, hang out with swimmers and cyclyist and runners.  Today I socialized with the cycling crowd.  Always an interesting group.  All about performance.  I do find it interesting, adults that form into teams....they wear team colors, talk team tactics, don't really like the guys on the other team.   I've never been one for team sports.  I'm still mostly unattached when it comes to the cycling thing - but it's nice to train with 'em.   About 15 people showed for a New Years day ride....cold.  25 miles.  We did a sprint down a gravel road for some reason I'm not sure.  Riding on gravel does develop your handling skills I suppose.  I got dropped from the leaders near the end and spent several miles solo between a group farther back trying to catch me, and the guys leading which I was putting all my heart and soul into chasing down...but couldn't do it today.  I haven't been on my bike in weeks and I could feel the burn.  My legs were like cold wind burned noodles when we finally reached the car.  I had the bright idea of cutting the index finger of my gloves off, just a little tiny bit, because they're too small.  That extra room felt great in the kitchen before I left, but not so good in 30 degree weather traveling on a bike at 25 miles per hour.  I needed a balaclava also - my face was frozen in no time.  Oh the perils of winter cycling.  It's not for the timid.   

So today marks the beginning of a dedicated training program.  I don't even really have a program to follow yet.  I found a few online that cost several hundred dollars which I don't want to afford.  I need to buy a new wet-suit, get tickets to San Francisco and figure out how to ship my bike there for Alcatraz.  That stuff cost some good money. 

One bit of advice should you ever choice to do Ironman/triathlon....write all your workouts down.  Keep cumulative track of the effort. Build on each week.  Writing it down doesn't let you cheat.  Or, better said it's clear when your cheating.  I cheat on running all the time - but not to my training log.  Write it down.