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!