How to reduce your water bill

How am I reducing my water bill? By taking a shower at work!

Actually, it's not what this post is about, but it is an added benefit of squeezing in an early morning run before work. I take the bus into work and get there around 7am. I was already in my running gear, so I just took off for a 30 minute jog (it was ~40F). Then I took a shower at work... I just wish they had hot water!

Sympathy weight gain

What is up with sympathy weight gain? When my wife was pregnant, I was working out quite a bit, ate reasonably well, and gained about 10 pounds. I got up to 173 lb.

In the past two weeks since Sam's birth, I've worked out once (a hockey game last Monday) have eaten reasonably well, and have dropped down to 168 lb. Come on, Body, make sense!

Check out my food and workout log. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pFBVRDqo95n7VDo-FyZXrcw

Training Day #1

I'm trying to emulate Sylvester Stalone as Rocky Balboa in Rocky IV.  How?  By incorporating my every day activites as workouts.  If you have never seen the movie (and really, what's wrong with you), then just picture a guy chopping trees instead of doing a tricep press in the gym.  Another good comparison is Daniel-san in Karate Kid.

Today I started off the season with some strength training.  I warmed up with some light gardening which consisted of pruning.  I then followed that up with mowing the lawn; but not just any lawn mowing.  That's right, I used a non-gas, non-electric, good ol' fashioned push mower.  It was very Zen.   I can't remember the last time before today when I saw a push mower.  It's like a tricycle... it's fun to ride until your friends see you on one. 

Okay, I'm actually pretty jazzed about using it.

The big part of my strength training had to deal with concrete pavers and a gigantic tree root.  We have these 1 sq ft concrete pavers in the back yard that were coming up.  I decided to take a peek to see what was going on, and sure enough I found a root from my neighbor's tree.  To make a long story short, I lifted about 20 pavers and cut out about 15 feet of root.  There was sawing, and shoveling, and cutting, and sweating, and... you get the idea.

I'm very sore.  I used too much of my back and not enough of my legs.

Now I just have to figure out how to incorporate swimming, biking, and running into my everyday routines.  I can bike and run to my bus stop.  There is no way that I'm swimming to and from work.  Any ideas?

P.S.  I started a workout log that you can access here http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pFBVRDqo95n7VDo-FyZXrcw

Time to train... AGAIN! Vineman 2009

Yes I'm back, training for another Iron-distance event.  Vineman 2004 kicked my butt, and there was a lot of my butt to kick back in the day.  I'm leaner and meaner and ready to take my revenge on the course.

I've been out of the endurance loop for a while.  There was the house remodel (still working on it).  And OH YEAH... I have a new son, Samuel Robert Fernandez Suratos!  Sam was born on Nov. 19, 2008.  Here are some pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/rqsuratos/MeetSam#

This year I won't be training with TNT.  I love TNT, but travelling to all of the training sites stretches me a bit thin.  I'm going to try and fit my training into my current schedule with the goal of not disturbing my family life.  I admit that it will be a challenge, especially having no coach (I actually have to hold myself accountable).  I just cancelled my gym membership which was also the place where I was swimming.  

I think this blog is going to be important in finding a training program that works with a busy type such as myself.  Hopefully you will find something good from it too.

Here are my beginning stats.  I'm currently 5'6" tall at 171 lb (I raced Lake Placid at ~155lb).  My waist is holding steady at 32".  My resting heart rate is 43 bpm.  My main exercise is my weekly league roller hockey game.  Obviously I'm going to have to get on a bike pretty soon.

My plan for this blog is to:

1. Chronical my training (I plan to have a link to a tracking spreadsheet).
2. Note things that work and don't work.
3. Talk nutrition and weight loss (for those of you who know, I went from 220lb to as low as 155lb). 
4. Random stuff

I haven't been good about including strength training in the past, and I believe that this will be key to doing well in this race.  

Thanks for reading.  Please leave me comments! 

Hello Random Thoughts

That's supposed to read, "Hello " as in "Gee it's been a while since I've been here," followed by a bunch of random thoughts.

True it has been a while. Where have I been? What is the progress of my pursuit of endurance excellence? So many questions and way too much time to answer them. I have put any major triathlons on hold for now since we are expecting another baby this year! Yay! I truly am excited by the prospect of having yet another baby... well my wife is having the baby, but I'm very supportive of her! I guess you can say that I am in the middle of another kind of endurance event.

I have been doing whatever it is I can to stay in shape. I still swim and run. On most Monday nights I play league roller hockey. When I can, I work on the house. Vickee has been very nauseous with the pregnancy. Taking care of a very energetic 3 year old is a lot for her to take on while trying not to throw up.

I've changed my daily routine a bit so that I can be there to take care of Jesse and Vickee. That means that I have limited my evening workouts. Most days I wake up at 4:30am so that I can be in the gym by 5:00am. I workout for about 1 hour, get cleaned up and dressed so that I can catch the bus to work at 7:15am. Traffic is pretty heavy at this time, which is fine with me... the 1 hour ride to work allows me to catch some Z's. Then I work (yawn). Then at 4:15pm I'm back on the bus... sleeping... I'm home by 6:00pm. Then I water the plants, cook dinner, let Vickee sleep, clean up after Jesse, clean Jesse, and then off to bed by midnight.

Somewhere in there I trade stock options...

The only upcoming race I have is San Jose Rock n Roll Half Marathon in October. I've been invited by some friends to do the 2.4 mi Catfish swim in Stevens Creek Reservoir. The biggest race on my mind is Silverman 2009 (it kicked my butt last time).

Here's where it gets random...

I'm working on getting my personal trainer certification. Why? I think people need help. I lost weight and got stronger... I've been there. I know there are people struggling with the exact same thing that I did. And I enjoy helping people. I really started to think about this week...

My god-brother died last week. He was 37 years old. I wouldn't say that he was overly obese. I have seen heavier people who were older than him. I understand that one of his arteries was 90% clogged. Clogged arteries is the current cause of death.

How often have we heard about clogged arteries? We have heard it so much that the thought has become ubiquitous. I don't think we even think about it that much... that is until it hits close to home. It's there. It's real. And way too many people are closer to being just another statistic amongst all the noise. This is where I would like to help.

I knew a guy who said, "You know what God does all day? He vomits! Every time he looks at his creations and realizes all the potential that they throw away." I don't mean any disrespect here, but it does create a nice visual. The thing is... are we living up to our potential? In everything that we do, who we are, and what we are? Does God vomit when he thinks of me? If he does, then I would like to change that.

I should end the randomness right here. Welcome back!
Rommel