Sinking like a rock

This past Saturday we worked a bit on our bike trainers... that's where you put your bike on a stand (a trainer) and work on spin revolutions (cadence). It had been the first time that I was on a bike since Vineman 2004 (see www.IronMel.com for the Vineman story). Needless to say, I was pretty sore. I got a chance to see my butt in the mirror and noticed two bruises where my butt bones meet the bike seat.

Yes, I was talking about my butt, and sorry... you talk about things like this during endurance race training. Wait until I start talking about urine and the color that it should be!

Anyhow, getting back to the subject of this post. The coaches said that if you are a good marathoner, then you will run well. Same goes for the bike and the swim. When you start to combine them in training, then your next run might only be 5 miles, and you may get more tired than you normally feel.

Last night I had a swim workout. In recent weeks, I had been doing really well in the swim. Last night, my legs were sore, I felt like I was sinking, and I was having a hard time breathing. It felt like I didn't know how to swim... like I was drowning. My breathing sounded terrible too. I was weezing, as if I was having an asthma attack, without the attack (I probably took in too much water). I cut my workout short because I felt like dog poo.

Anyhow, I want to get back in the pool and work through this hurdle. I guess one thing I have to look forward to for my next swim is the post-swim massage! It'll be my first massage of the season.

Tired, fatigued, sore...

I did part of my swim workout yesterday with my Master's group. It wasn't a hard workout, but I found it to be quite difficult. My triceps still hurt (though they are better today). I cut my yardage to just 2000 yards instead of 3000 yards. I thought rest might benefit me more.

On the plus side, I weighed in at 177 lb. today. That's a total of 38 lb. loss since January 2004.

My triceps hurt

The strength training from Sunday sure focused alot on triceps, and very little on biceps. Today, I can barely bend my arms. I have to consciously will my arms to bend. I look goofy when I have to contort my arms and neck just so that I can drink a cup of water.

The take home message, work opposing muscle groups at the same time to avoid looking goofy.

Hockey... until next year

Well, I played my last game of hockey for a while. I've been playing beginner coed rollerhockey on Fridays at the Bladium (Alameda, CA) for the past 3 months, and the season came to a close with a 2-1 loss in the playoffs. I went out in style by scoring our team's lone goal, but it just wasn't enough. It was a sweet wrister on a breakaway. I had another opportunity to tie it up on yet another breakaway, but I was hauled down in front of the net with 3 minutes to go.

I won't be playing simply because the rigors of IronMan training AND hockey will be a bit too much to handle.

Sunday was Iron University #2 with TNT. We covered dynamic run drills, weight training, injury prevention, and swimming. My triceps are killing me right now (must be from the diamond push-ups and the reverse bench tricep press). It hurts so good!

I followed it up with what I can only assume is an MSG induced coma (from a new Thai restaurant that I tried). My head hadn't hurt this bad since the last time I had MSG... which caused me to swear off of it.

New Link to my Workout Log!!!

I added a link to my online workout log. Now you can see what I'm doing (as far as training goes that is).

See the log or click on the link at the right.

I did a run workout last night to see how far we could go in 10 minutes at 50% effort. I'm just over 8 min/mi. That's way better than I was last year which was 9.5 min/mi.

A few more thoughts and stats

Something important to start the season is to know where I am starting from.

• I am 32 years old... will be 33 years old when the race starts.
• Currently I weigh 182 ± 3 lb and stand at 5'6". My ideal weight is about 165 lb. If you believe the charts, I should be 140lb. I'm pretty sure I would be dead at that weight.
• Last time I checked, my resting heart rate was 43 beats/min.
• My fastest marathon (26.2 mi... and yes all marathons are that distance) is 5:22.
• I'm currently taking a master's swim course 2-3 days a week.

Earlier this year, I was about 210 lb. Then I watched the film, "Super Size Me," where I guy ate nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days (highly recommended viewing). Since the film, I haven't eaten any fast food.

In fact, during a 3 week period in February 2005, in which I cooked my own food (including more butter than is necessary), while not exercising, I dropped 10 lb. I then enhanced that with exercise and dropped an additional 20 lb. It wasn't low-carb or any stupid stuff like that. I just simply ate better food, lowered my intake, and increased my exercise. And for those of you thinking that's too hard, try parking really far away from the entrance to CostCo instead of waiting 10 minutes for that one spot that is about to open.

Last thing... Obesity is on the rise in America and around the world. We should walk more.

The Road to IronMan: the beginning

Today was the official IronTeam kickoff with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training (TNT). Unfortunately I couldn't be there because I was at home tending to some remodeling. My wife went for me to hand them some papers and pick up some papers...

I'm pretty excited about the upcoming season. I've been quietly thinking about it since my DNF (Did Not Finish) at Full Vineman 2004 (the race report is at www.IronMel.com). I don't plan on not finishing this time.

The race I will be doing is IronMan USA (Lake Placid, NY) in July 2006. I've been thinking about it for a year. In that time I've lost about 35 lb., decreased my marathon time from 6:06 hours to 5:22 hours. I have also been taking a master's swim class. Haven't been biking much... the race number from Vineman are still on my bike. Is hockey a good replacement? I've been playing a lot of that.

Sadly, I will have to give up playing hockey for the duration of the IronTeam season. Training 6 days a week and then a hockey game? I think I can do it, but then there wouldn't be any balance in my life. I guess I just have to settle for watching Sharks games. GO SHARKS!