Goals for 2011: Swim, Bike, Run, Strength
489 hours total
Swim: 200000 yards
Bike: 2750 miles
Run: 600 miles
Strength: 49 hours
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
2010 Training Totals
2010 Training Totals
Bike Totals: 1790.7 miles 135.74 hours 13.19 avg mph 119 bikes total 15 miles avg per bike ride
Run Totals: 462.35 miles 114.27 hours 4.04 avg mph 141 runs total 3.2 mi avg per run
Swim Totals: 96773 yards 33.69 hours 2872 yards per hour 53 swims
Strength: 19.7 hours
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Cant Sleep, ramblings
I'm bumming. I wanted to go swim in a lake tomorrow morning but my sudden insomnia seems to be taking over. Plus it'll be around 44 degrees in the morning so yeah it is probably not going to happen.
My 10 miler will though. I'm fighting through some issues that are common I think for first timers completing a half marathon program. ITB irritation, lower back pain. Shin splints. In other words I need to strengthen my core and butt. I used to lift all the time but now not so much. Need to get lifting again. Movement prep and prehab too.
Good news if the rest of the year goes as planned, I'll have completed close to 300 hours of exercise. Thanks to Trainingpeaks.com (free plug) I can track quite easy. My ATP had 377 for the year but Appendicitis, food poisoning, and living with three little germ breeding monkeys made me come up a little short. However! That is more then I've exercised in more then 7 years combined! So positivity here is welcome and appreciated!
My diet leaves somethings to be desired but I've lost 30 lbs this year and have kept it off. I feel better then I ever have really since I married Summer. At that time I was in the best shape of my life.
So progress. It's a good thing. I recognize it, I appreciate it, and I'm grateful for it.
We're going to be welcoming a new little spirit into our home soon. I pray the birth of our daughter goes off without a hitch. We'll have four now. A lot of responsibility but a lot of fun too. Sometime after the New Year we should meet her!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Posterous iPhone App? Awesome!
Just downloaded the new Posterous app for iPhone. It works great!
My Tri season is winding down. Summer is pregnant with our fourth child and is due in late January 2011. I'm training with a run focus to complete a half marathon on Jan 1st or so.
I ran my numbers for the year and also all my numbers since I started to train for endurance events in September 2009. The stats were very illuminating! More to come.
Friday, October 08, 2010
Check out what Ray is up to in DC! DCrainmaker.com....Want a free Timex Global Trainer GPS sports watch? Enter the giveaway! http://ow.ly/2PRIY
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Florida Challenge Olympic Triathlon-September 12, 2010
Florida Challenge Olympic Triathlon
September 12, 2010
It’s been a few weeks since I raced my first Olympic Distance Triathlon. 2010 has been a great year for me with my weight loss and my health in general. But the Florida Challenge would definitely live up to its name.
I picked this race because it was in my neck of the woods and it was during the right time for me with my training. I gave myself a good year to get into the kind of shape where I could complete the race and not die or pass out.
I planned to complete around 350 hours for the year. This is low for an Olympic and mid range for a Sprint distance season from what I have found on the interwebs.
Two weeks before the race, my family and I went to Washington D.C. to visit the sights and the awesome Smithsonian Museumsdf. The trip was great but on the way back we all caught a serious case of food poisoning. It was horrible. I have never been so sick. Eight hours of constant vomiting and diarrhea. Not fun. I don’t think I ever really recovered from that food poisoning when race day came. I realize now I was dehydrated and sick.
I picked up my packet early so I didn’t need to be there super early for transition. I set up my stuff and went to the swim start. Summers brought the kids with her and bless her she is 5 months pregnant and they weren’t great for her at all. The swim start was delayed because the Half-iron race started first and they needed to move the buoys in from 1.2 miles to the .93 miles. A lot of the spectators were saying that the half-iron swim was long. The best female was at 35 minutes or so. They brought the buoys in but it seemed it was still longer than normal. The swim started, we were to swim in a weird square counter-clockwise. I positioned myself to the far right of the start to stay clear of the fast swimmers. We started and it was alright at first, the water was warm and the visibility wasn’t great but it was a lake so I expected that. I got a little panicky after 5 minutes or so. The swim seemed so slow. I was swimming at my race pace I thought, 2:15 per 100 or so but it took forever to get to the first buoy. I settled in and didn’t really have a problem sighting since the buoys were nice and large. For some reason Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody came into my mind so that helped me get through the swim. Turns out I was like 4 or 5 to last. At the end a black guy in a TYR speed suit passed me doing a breast stroke which was disheartening. The swim took 53:25 or so. Now if do the math that means 3:14 per 100 pace for the 1500 meter swim. I don’t think I can swim that slow freestyle if I tried, maybe breast stroke or back stroke but not that slow. I think the swim was .25 mile long. Which meant the swim the half-iron was long too, I was proud of myself I finished it. The swim always makes me apprehensive before the race.
Transition 1 went fine. Ran in got my bike shoes, helmet, socks on and headed out. 24.85 miles awaited me. A really big hill was immediately after the exit and I was in a big gear so that sucked. Not a great start to the bike. And it would get worse. I had a bagel with peanut butter and oatmeal for breakfast on race day. Pretty soon on the bike I started to burp up the peanut butter and bagel. Not good. I started to drink to try and hydrate, but the drinks were orange Accelerade with Crystal light extra flavoring. I usually do fine with that mixture but that day it was undrinkable. I drank about half a bottle on the bike but couldn’t drink anymore it was too sweet. All I had besides the drinks was GU gels which were gross too. So I was unable to feed or hydrate and my stomach was not cooperating with severe stomach cramps. My head got super heavy and I almost passed out on the bike a couple of times. I got to the last turn around and got a fresh bottle of water. I dumped most of it on my head and it felt so good! That helped, but only temporarily. About five miles from the Transition I started having worse cramps and I knew I needed a porta potty ASAP. Of course none were found on the bike. So I had to settle for a big oak tree off the road. Hopefully no one saw me but I couldn’t help myself, I was very sick. I got back on the bike and tried to make it to the bike finish. The hills of Clermont were no joke. It was 95 degrees and the heat index was 121 degrees. I almost quit on the bike. My head was hard to keep up and I felt nauseous and gross after the side of the road incident. But I made it in. I went to transition and thought about quitting so more. I was really close to calling it a day but I noticed that my heart rate wasn’t skyrocketing or super high. It was high but not so much that I needed to quit. So I decided to coat myself in some more sun screen and head out on the run which would be walk.
For the run/walk, I decided I would walk for at least the first two miles. Maybe for the last four I would feel better. But the first two miles had me contemplating quitting still even after the T1 revelation. But I made it to the first aid station and dunked my head in cold water, drank a little coke, drank a lot of water, and starting taking Endurolytes, which are electrolytes in pill form. Those I think would save my day. I started this routine with each aid station. It got me through. I finished in 5:15 or so dead last for the Olympic distance. In fact on the results they didn’t have my run time so maybe they closed the race and didn’t realize? I don’t care really I finished it and met one of my goals for the year.
Things I learned…
-do more bricks! I don’t think I was ready for the Oly distance switchover from swim to bike and bike to run. I did some bricks but with short bikes after swims or short runs after bikes.
-ride the race course earlier or close to the race course. Clermont is not Florida. Florida is flat and Clermont is NOT! Over 3k of climbing on a 25 mile course, I was not prepared for that.
-food poisoning is serious business and it kicked my butt and altered my race. Don’t know what I could have done with that.
-change my nutrition for Oly or longer races. My nutrition sucked and didn’t help my weakened condition on race day.
But overall I’m happy with it in perspective. It didn’t go my way or anywhere near where I’d hoped. Especially since I hoped to finish in 3:30 or so and I ended up at 5:15.
I didn’t quit and I finished so I’m satisfied. Two weeks later I’m thinking that although I finished I hurt myself more by keeping going. I lost a lot of fitness. My bike and run splits are down, down to what they used to be. I guess I am recovering but man it sucks.
Next year, a half-ironman distance race!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Heartland Sprint Triathlon-Sebring FL June 20, 2010
I didn’t realize at first that this was father’s day! For many months I had planned for this race and didn’t realize that it would fall not only on father’s day but my second son Jacob’s 7th birthday. We celebrated Jakey’s birthday on Friday. And I celebrated father’s day way early with a new iPad several weeks before. So I had that going for me which was nice.
I made a reservation for the Residence Inn in Sebring. We drove down in the early evening. I was originally going to go by myself but I convinced Summer into bringing the kids since it was Father’s day and all. So we set off and got there around 8:30 pm. Luckily, the race allowed race morning packet pick up so we didn’t have to rush. I took a couple of Advil PMs and went to bed early to get up at 6 am for the race!
I got up and hit snooze on my iPhone several times, making me late. The hotel was only a couple of miles from transition. So I decided to go get signed in, set up transition and then come back and pick up the kids and Summy. Well that didn’t work out. I got there got my chip, and transition set up, and had a whooping 15 minutes to spare before the first swim wave took off. I called Summer and explained the situation and she wasn’t too disappointed. Since we find out we’re expecting our 4th child, she has had serious problems with morning sickness and nausea. So running around downtown Sebring stuck for the whole 2 hour race was probably not her most exciting idea. So I was on my own. Ironic I thought since I was expecting to do rice by myself anyway!
I made my way to the swim down the hill. The swim was in Lake Jackson, once out of the lake we had to run up a hill through sand to the transition area. I waded out to the swim start. It was very shallow for awhile and I had a chance to swim a little bit to warm up. I had a yellow cap so that meant I was the in the fourth wave. Each wave started four minutes apart with the start at 7:30 am. So I meandered over to the swim start. It was .25 mile square, that started and finished about 50 yards out in the water so I would have a little jog up the hill to the bike portion.
I went to the far right of the start since I didn’t want a mash up for the start. I knew I would swim a little bit farther but I didn’t want to get hit too much. The swim went great except I didn’t start my watch at the beginning so I don’t know what my true swim was since the race time is off due to all the running in from the water and beach to the timing mat. I didn’t go really fast, the race said 2:45 every 100 yards so it was 440 yards so the race way 12 minutes or so.
The T1 time was five minutes and most of that was getting sand off my feet. I hate the sand. I would go to the beach more often if it wasn’t for the sand! T1 took almost 6 minutes but again most of that was running to T1. I took off on the bike without much trouble and headed out.
The bike was a lap around Lake Jackson with some machinations at the end into some orange groves and then back into transition. I was ready to hammer and pound away in the big ring since it was race day and I had done SO much zone 2 little ring training sessions. My bike was tuned up and ready and no longer had the annoying click from a loose bottom bracket. I felt great on the bike. Things were coming smoothly and I was passing people. Pretty soon I realized I was over 21 mph for the first few miles. I didn’t stay in aero as much as I wanted. My HR was around 160 bpm for the whole bike ride and my mph was 18.4! A new PR for sure; one of my goals for this season was to average 17 mph for the whole bike leg in a race. I didn’t care if it was a super sprint, or the Olympic. But I did it! Feels great.
T2 went by in just a couple of minutes. Ran in dumped the bike switched shoes, put on my hat, ditched the iPhone and took off. The first mile was absolute torture! I was with some middle aged women who were complaining the whole time. One lady kept saying, “see you at the finish” as you passed her walking then she would start to run and pass you! And on it went over and over with several different people. She was annoying. Eventually she stopped running and started walking I guess since I never saw her again. The run was around downtown Sebring and then they ran us right by the finish, and back around to the finish line. I walked the aid stations at every mile. I ran the rest of the way except for a minute or two in a grass section after mile 1. It was really a gulch by the railroad tracks. I hate grass! I ran the rest of the way in and passed some more walkers, but more runners passed me. I even saw one girl who was doing the race as a relay walking! She was so skinny and walking a 5k. Here I am 300+ and running most of the way after doing the whole race. She still beat me. I made the final turn and sprinted through the finish. The 5k was done in 40:25. The time at the finish line was 1:59:30, but I knew since I was in the 4th wave it was quicker than that.
My goal for the race was 1:55 or faster, and I ended doing the race in 1:48 or so and with a new PR in the bike leg and run leg. The bike leg was 2 mph faster than ever before and the 5k was 15 seconds faster. The swim sucks at this point. I haven’t put as much time into as I’d like simply because it’s a hassle to get to the pool and work around pool schedules. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting slower with my swimming.
The rest though is going great. I am definitely in favor of zone 2 training for a base.
Next up is the Florida Challenge Olympic Distance in September which will be hilly and hot. But it’s my A race and I hope to be under 300 lbs for that race. That would be awesome!
I didn’t realize at first that this was father’s day! For many months I had planned for this race and didn’t realize that it would fall not only on father’s day but my second son Jacob’s 7th birthday. We celebrated Jakey’s birthday on Friday. And I celebrated father’s day way early with a new iPad several weeks before. So I had that going for me which was nice.
I made a reservation for the Residence Inn in Sebring. We drove down in the early evening. I was originally going to go by myself but I convinced Summer into bringing the kids since it was Father’s day and all. So we set off and got there around 8:30 pm. Luckily, the race allowed race morning packet pick up so we didn’t have to rush. I took a couple of Advil PMs and went to bed early to get up at 6 am for the race!
I got up and hit snooze on my iPhone several times, making me late. The hotel was only a couple of miles from transition. So I decided to go get signed in, set up transition and then come back and pick up the kids and Summy. Well that didn’t work out. I got there got my chip, and transition set up, and had a whooping 15 minutes to spare before the first swim wave took off. I called Summer and explained the situation and she wasn’t too disappointed. Since we find out we’re expecting our 4th child, she has had serious problems with morning sickness and nausea. So running around downtown Sebring stuck for the whole 2 hour race was probably not her most exciting idea. So I was on my own. Ironic I thought since I was expecting to do rice by myself anyway!
I made my way to the swim down the hill. The swim was in Lake Jackson, once out of the lake we had to run up a hill through sand to the transition area. I waded out to the swim start. It was very shallow for awhile and I had a chance to swim a little bit to warm up. I had a yellow cap so that meant I was the in the fourth wave. Each wave started four minutes apart with the start at 7:30 am. So I meandered over to the swim start. It was .25 mile square, that started and finished about 50 yards out in the water so I would have a little jog up the hill to the bike portion.
I went to the far right of the start since I didn’t want a mash up for the start. I knew I would swim a little bit farther but I didn’t want to get hit too much. The swim went great except I didn’t start my watch at the beginning so I don’t know what my true swim was since the race time is off due to all the running in from the water and beach to the timing mat. I didn’t go really fast, the race said 2:45 every 100 yards so it was 440 yards so the race way 12 minutes or so.
The T1 time was five minutes and most of that was getting sand off my feet. I hate the sand. I would go to the beach more often if it wasn’t for the sand! T1 took almost 6 minutes but again most of that was running to T1. I took off on the bike without much trouble and headed out.
The bike was a lap around Lake Jackson with some machinations at the end into some orange groves and then back into transition. I was ready to hammer and pound away in the big ring since it was race day and I had done SO much zone 2 little ring training sessions. My bike was tuned up and ready and no longer had the annoying click from a loose bottom bracket. I felt great on the bike. Things were coming smoothly and I was passing people. Pretty soon I realized I was over 21 mph for the first few miles. I didn’t stay in aero as much as I wanted. My HR was around 160 bpm for the whole bike ride and my mph was 18.4! A new PR for sure; one of my goals for this season was to average 17 mph for the whole bike leg in a race. I didn’t care if it was a super sprint, or the Olympic. But I did it! Feels great.
My goal for the race was 1:55 or faster, and I ended doing the race in 1:48 or so and with a new PR in the bike leg and run leg. The bike leg was 2 mph faster than ever before and the 5k was 15 seconds faster. The swim sucks at this point. I haven’t put as much time into as I’d like simply because it’s a hassle to get to the pool and work around pool schedules. Sometimes I feel like I’m getting slower with my swimming.
The rest though is going great. I am definitely in favor of zone 2 training for a base.
Next up is the Florida Challenge Olympic Distance in September which will be hilly and hot. But it’s my A race and I hope to be under 300 lbs for that race. That would be awesome!
Monday, March 08, 2010
Waldo Tri Race Report
Waldo Sprint Triathlon 3/7/10 Race Report
I was a little depressed at first going to this event because my family wouldn’t be there to cheer for me. My wife Summer and I just received a new calling in our church which requires one of us to teach every Sunday so she stayed in Apopka with the kids. I hadn’t been getting very good sleep the past two days since I was debating on whether or not to attend the Biggest Loser Casting call in Tampa. Eventually I decided to not attend the casting call since I had already sent a tape in and it would screw up my timing with my race. My weight loss and health is a marathon, a process, which might take years, and pipe dreams of a cool weight loss reality show may not help that.
So I drove up to Gainesville. Made a stop to pick up some GU Tri-berry like I like and also picked up a running hat and something to wear before the race since there was a FREEZE alert for all of Alachua County. That made for wonderful thoughts about the upcoming swim! I got dinner at Texas Roadhouse to go, ate light, and took 3 Advil PM to make sure I got my sleep. I feel asleep at like 8:30 pm watching a really cool HBO sports documentary about Magic and Bird. I woke up at 4:45 am. I was disoriented at first but I realized where I was. I dreamt about playing High School football again and my coach was Bill Clinton, go figure. It was a long vivid dream too. I felt like I was sleeping in when I got out of bed at 7:00 am. That meant 11 hours of sleep which made up for past two nights of 5 hours of sleep.
I was greeted at my car to a completely frosted windshield. The temp said 34 degrees on instrument panel. Took a minute to defrost and I drove the 30 minutes to Waldo. On my arrival, there were a lot of people riding their tri-bikes, getting warmed up. Thankfully, the start time was 9:00 am. Good thing or we all would have frozen to death! I checked in and asked what the water temp was…. The answer I got was a balmy 60 degrees! Wonderful! My previous lake swim at Lucky’s was at 64 degrees so I knew what I was up against. I had a secret weapon though, my Blue Seventy neoprene swim cap! I loaded the transition area with all of my crap, and started to put my wetsuit on. I couldn’t get it zipped! I had to ask my neighbor in the Transition area to help me out and she did. Triathletes are so nice! I put my caps on and made my way down to the water. I got in immediately; I knew that if I didn’t get in right away I would get the shock of the cold water and start to freak out slowing me down. I did a few little laps and put my face in and blew bubbles. I wasn’t that bad! My arms and feet went numb but my head was warm. I stayed in the water until the start. It was a waist deep start.
The Swim 750M
The countdown ended and off we went! I had positioned myself on the left hand side towards the back and I let a lot of people go in front of me since I knew that most were going to swim faster then I. I was surprised at how easy and calm I was during the swim. There was some bumping and kicking going on too. It was kind of fun! This was the first real mass swim start in my short racing career. I stopped at each one and in retrospect should have just kept going at each one. They kept occurring until the third buoy. The course was a large triangle with three buoys in the straight away. My time in the water was 18:16 which meant about 2:03/per 100 swam. A new PR, pretty fast, the time seemed like it took forever. Since I had my wetsuit I was able to use my HR monitor belt so I was able to see for once what my HR is on my swim. The average HR was around 148 bpm and 154 was the max. Not bad I guess. Don’t really have a benchmark but when I count my HR at the pool it is around 132 or so. This swim really makes me excited to go back to the Lucky’s Lake Swim and get better at the Open water thing. I really enjoyed it even though it was freezing!
T1
Once out of the water you had to run out and into transition which was a little run. They did the timing all by hand by giving your number to volunteers as you entered and exited transition. Hardly scientific. I should have stripped the wetsuit while I was doing the run up but I didn’t think of that. It took me about 5 minutes get the suit off and to do the sock, sock, shoe, shoe, glasses, helmet, go! Got on the bike and headed out.
The Bike 20K
The bike was an out and back on the rural roads of Waldo Florida. The terrain was mostly rough black top with gentle rolling hills that were deceiving as I drove them the day before the race. I envisioned myself challenging one of my goals for the season which was to stay at 17 mph for the bike leg of a race. I ended up at 16.2 mph which is a new PR for that distance. I stayed in the big ring and switched between the middle three gears in the back ring for most of the ride. I tried to get Aero for as much as I could but I worried about hydration for the run so I sat more then I wanted to. Plus my HR was spiking after T1 and I wanted to calm it down. It came down but stayed around 158 or so for the duration of the bike. Which reminds me, I’m going to change my limits on my Polar HR monitor for race day, and it drove me nuts all day since I kept it from my base training. Going to put it up to 170 or so for races from now on; other than that the ride was uneventful. I saw a girl cheat at the turn around and cut the bike short by a quarter mile. I didn’t see her number or I would have reported her. I don’t generally mind cutting corners but not in a race. What’s the point? Why race? I motored in on the bike and thought that I had beat my goal of 45 minutes. I was actually short by about a minute. Bike leg was 46:09.
T2
T2 was inconsequential. I dumped the bike put the running shoes and hat on and headed out. You had to run back to the lake and then back to transition then head out to the course for the 5k run.
The Run 5K
My plan was run 8 min take 2 min off for the run leg. But I thought in the back of my head, if I felt good I would keep running tackling another goal I set for this season which was to run the whole run leg of one race. Out of transition the HR was spiking again. I couldn’t do more than 5 minutes before walking for two. I never walked for more than two minutes the whole run. I think I walked 4 times. After you passed transition you ran a square in a park which was cross country type running. I didn’t like that at all. I hadn’t trained for it and wasn’t prepared for it. I was going fast but my HR spiked again. I lasted 6 min before walking. Finally I got out into the roads where you would run into a neighborhood and then back to the finish. The run in the neighborhood was great. I got some water took a GU gel and made up some time I think. I made my way back to the park almost done. For some reason I thought I had to run to the lake again to get to the finish so I stopped and walked again like 200 yards from the finish! Stupid! I ran in and finished 1:53:46. My goal was to beat 2:00 and I demolished it! I just wished I had run the rest of the way! My run time was 40:43 and I would have beat 40 minutes easy if I hadn’t had stopped. I didn’t even sprint the finish. A little disappointing but not really, I’m proud of myself.
I improved so much. My swim time was a revelation. Slow but better and the cold water really had me worried. People drown in lakes you know. The bike was good. I look back at my rides and none of them are in the 16 mph range. So that’s better too! And the run was awesome! Ran harder than I thought I could, and I know I could have run harder. Today the day after, my quads are killing me and my calves are shredded too. Need to do some more movement prep and hit the not foam roller. Next race up is the Super Sprint tri in Clermont at Lake Louisa in April. Should be super-fast.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Lucky's Lake Swim
So I've been trying to convince myself to go down to the Lake Swim that is available to people in the Orlando area on early morning weekdays and Saturdays. A 500 meter swim both ways equal 1k. I have told myself several friday nights that I would head down and complete the swim as I went to bed only to talk myself out of it by being saying the weather was too cold and that I didn't want to drown! My brother bought me an Xterra Wetsuit for my birthday and it arrived early this week. Now my excuses were evaporating quickly..... I still almost talked myself out of it. I couldn't sleep didn't get to bed until 1:30 am. I kept reading Ironman Ambition by John Callos and The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley, both readings made me more stressed by my impending challenge. It was one of those few moments in my life when I knew I shouldn't be doing something because I wasn't adequately prepared but I was going to do it anyway. Summer wasn't going to come with me and I really wanted her to be there. We struck a deal and she said she would come. I woke up really early for a Saturday... 6 am. And we picked up two stragglers, Jacob and his friend Ethan whose family staying with us temporarily. Off we went for a quick 20 minute drive. Once you get there, it is a huge house on a huge lot with the word's Aquatica on the gate with little iron swimmers on the fence. You drive down to the front of the house and then walk to the back yard to the dock where the swim starts..... We got there too early and we waited for nearly 25 minutes with kids. Summer is a saint for dealing with them. I was useless cause I was nervous! Eventually a few men came to the dock there was one woman. They seemed very familiar with each other, some had swum there many times before it seemed. It was a little surreal because I had watched this many times on YouTube and on the website. I got ready zipped up the wetsuit and got in the water.... FREEZING! The thermometer at dockside said 64.2 degrees Fahrenheit. I waited for everyone to go ahead of me which I think was a mistake. I had a pool noodle attached to my foot for safety. First thing I noticed, after doing the breaststroke for awhile to get used to the water, was that I couldn't put my head in the water without losing my breath. I tried several times and I couldn't do it! I tried to do the Freestyle without putting my head under the water and I got tired really quickly. My wetsuit was so tight and I was very uncomfortable, and cold. I looked at my watch and a whopping 4 minutes had gone by. Plus my pool noodle was annoying me. I had run a string through the noodle and then tied that off to a ankle strap that surfer's use to attach themselves to their boards. The string kept getting caught on my toes and getting caught dragging the noodle. I got so caught up an panicked I actually used the noodle to float. And I went to my back and did backstroke for a little while too. This was my first time swimming with a wetsuit, so my hips, legs, and feet kept drifting up try to get me horizontal in the water. Which would have been a good thing if I could keep my head in the water! Eventually I made my way up to the beach on the other side. It took me 20:49 to get across the lake. I got to the small little beach sat down and rested for a minute, and then I tried to fix the noodle set up. I moved the string down so it would be more of a longer setup and hopefully not get in my way. By this time, I was sweating pretty good and I was starting to adjust to the temp of the water. Towards the end of first lap, I was able to swim normally, so after a small prayer at the beach to keep me safe, I set out on my way back to my wifey and kids! I decided I would swim 25 to 30 strokes then stop and get my bearings... I kept losing my bearings in the water since there were no bouys just houses on the lake. The dock was tiny and not easy to discern. Each time I stopped to site I kept having to readjust. Apparently Summer said that I was zig zagging the whole way back. It took me 25 minutes to get back. I had the wind against me and a little chop plus the zig zagging. But I was able to seim normally the whole way back so that was encouraging... I made it back and finished. A couple of guys were finishing their second laps! It was exhilarating and quite a sense of accomplishment. I got cleaned up and went and signed the wall as a first time swimmer and got my patch! They gave me a log sheet for the next time. At 25 crossings, they give you a swim cap. Cheesy but cool. I definitely want to get back there and do the swim again. I need to learn how to swim straight! I think I'll wear some earplugs, and maybe a neoprene cap if the water is cold still. It was at 64 but it'll keep getting warmer. Who knows how many strokes and far I really swam. I certainly didn't swim in a straight line! But this was another example of how triathlon training is pushing me to my limits and I'm responding. I had ridden my bike farther then ever before, and now open water swim farther then ever before. Next is a nice long run. But I'm proud of myself. More to come.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
I'm on the verge.... On the cusp... About to start something great! Its my birthday today. I'm 31.
We had some cake and I've been watching football all day. All the playoff games have been duds, but its fun to do nothing sometimes. I've been doing nothing for two weeks now though. After the surgery I had to stop and then the doctor said no lifting till Monday, which is tomorrow. So tomorrow I have some p90x, and some swimming to do. I want to wake up early around 6ish am and head out. And do some work too! I've been not working for almost a month now.
Which reminds me I need to plan my workout week! More to come.
We had some cake and I've been watching football all day. All the playoff games have been duds, but its fun to do nothing sometimes. I've been doing nothing for two weeks now though. After the surgery I had to stop and then the doctor said no lifting till Monday, which is tomorrow. So tomorrow I have some p90x, and some swimming to do. I want to wake up early around 6ish am and head out. And do some work too! I've been not working for almost a month now.
Which reminds me I need to plan my workout week! More to come.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
So I made some changes, I'm going to be posting more, I've added some widgets after an afternoon of tinkering with some html. I have no prowess whatsoever with Computers but I figured it out! I updated some really old links and will be adding more stuff on here as I move forward.
I completed 2 Sprint Tris in 2009. Now I'm off to a slow start in 2010. I was running on December 31st doing a three mile run. I recently was able to average 12:26 again for my mile pace for the first time in several years. So I was excited to get back out there. I felt some pains in my left calf muscle, pretty high up right in the meat of the calf. I ignored it as I usually do since I always have calf pain on my runs. I've been trying to incorporate more fore foot running in my runs landing on my midfoot instead of heel striking. I think I over did it. Kept going and the annoyance turned into red hot pain. I couldn't even walk without pain. So I was on the shelf. Hobbling around like a cripple. But more fun awaited me!
Two days later I notice a twinge in my right upper abdomen. It felt like an oblique at first, I've had that before and it was another annoyance with the calf but it keep going and was worse when I ate. Keep getting progressively worse until Sunday night, Summer was begging me to go to the doctor, but I didn't since I knew I had my physical on Monday morning. I woke with the pain worse then ever before, and went to the doctor. I got checked out and sent STAT to get a CT scan.
I had to drink this horrendous liquid called Barium Sulfate. I said on Facebook that it is white liquid creamsicled death or something like that. I choked it down and got the scan. I asked the tech if I could eat since I had been fasting for over 12 hours. She said sure. So I went to Five Guys for a burger and fries (I was rewarding myself for my pain.... pathetic) After the Bacon Double Cheeseburger, my doctor calls me and tells that I have acute appendicitis and need to go to the ER ASAP so my appendix doesn't burst and I die with a double cheeseburger in my mouth! I make all the calls, and I fight with the ER admins to get me admitted. I had to put my foot down and tell them that I didn't want my appendix to burst in the waiting room but they sent me up. My friend Dave from the Apopka Ward gave me a blessing and before I knew it they were prepping me for Surgery! It all happened very fast. I was telling Summer about money info and life insurance stuff cause I was worried!
They took me back to operating room, put my arms out straight on a skinny table and then made me tilt my head back so I wouldn't throw up my food I had just ate and kill myself. They gave me the gas and instantly (it felt like an instant! Actually 2:30 in real time) awoke in recovery with a lot of pain in my abdomen. The rest is a blur till I woke in my room 8 hours later. I talked to Dennis and Suzanne (Summer's parents) The nurse made me get up and walk. I was discharged later in the following afternoon, Tuesday. I've been home off of work and taking Percosets ever since. The one good thing is this break has given me a chance to rest my calf but the doc said no activities for 7 to 10 days from the surgery. So that would two whole weeks off for my calf and a week and a half for the appendix.
Crazy stuff, I can't wait to see the bill! We have insurance but I'm not looking forward to the deductible! Be using the FSA after all!
This week I'll probably go back to work in the middle of the week if everything heals ok then start walking until the two weeks is up. See the doc get the ok and then back on the training train. Finish P90X, and start base training.
I completed 2 Sprint Tris in 2009. Now I'm off to a slow start in 2010. I was running on December 31st doing a three mile run. I recently was able to average 12:26 again for my mile pace for the first time in several years. So I was excited to get back out there. I felt some pains in my left calf muscle, pretty high up right in the meat of the calf. I ignored it as I usually do since I always have calf pain on my runs. I've been trying to incorporate more fore foot running in my runs landing on my midfoot instead of heel striking. I think I over did it. Kept going and the annoyance turned into red hot pain. I couldn't even walk without pain. So I was on the shelf. Hobbling around like a cripple. But more fun awaited me!
Two days later I notice a twinge in my right upper abdomen. It felt like an oblique at first, I've had that before and it was another annoyance with the calf but it keep going and was worse when I ate. Keep getting progressively worse until Sunday night, Summer was begging me to go to the doctor, but I didn't since I knew I had my physical on Monday morning. I woke with the pain worse then ever before, and went to the doctor. I got checked out and sent STAT to get a CT scan.
I had to drink this horrendous liquid called Barium Sulfate. I said on Facebook that it is white liquid creamsicled death or something like that. I choked it down and got the scan. I asked the tech if I could eat since I had been fasting for over 12 hours. She said sure. So I went to Five Guys for a burger and fries (I was rewarding myself for my pain.... pathetic) After the Bacon Double Cheeseburger, my doctor calls me and tells that I have acute appendicitis and need to go to the ER ASAP so my appendix doesn't burst and I die with a double cheeseburger in my mouth! I make all the calls, and I fight with the ER admins to get me admitted. I had to put my foot down and tell them that I didn't want my appendix to burst in the waiting room but they sent me up. My friend Dave from the Apopka Ward gave me a blessing and before I knew it they were prepping me for Surgery! It all happened very fast. I was telling Summer about money info and life insurance stuff cause I was worried!
They took me back to operating room, put my arms out straight on a skinny table and then made me tilt my head back so I wouldn't throw up my food I had just ate and kill myself. They gave me the gas and instantly (it felt like an instant! Actually 2:30 in real time) awoke in recovery with a lot of pain in my abdomen. The rest is a blur till I woke in my room 8 hours later. I talked to Dennis and Suzanne (Summer's parents) The nurse made me get up and walk. I was discharged later in the following afternoon, Tuesday. I've been home off of work and taking Percosets ever since. The one good thing is this break has given me a chance to rest my calf but the doc said no activities for 7 to 10 days from the surgery. So that would two whole weeks off for my calf and a week and a half for the appendix.
Crazy stuff, I can't wait to see the bill! We have insurance but I'm not looking forward to the deductible! Be using the FSA after all!
This week I'll probably go back to work in the middle of the week if everything heals ok then start walking until the two weeks is up. See the doc get the ok and then back on the training train. Finish P90X, and start base training.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Boys Ranch Sprint Triathlon
This is my second Triathlon so far in my Triathlon comeback. It is a very small race at the Florida Sheriff's Boys Ranch in the Panhandle of Florida not far from Lake City where I-75 and I-10 intersect. The distances are a 750 meter swim, 16km bike, and 5k run.
The swim is in the Suwanee River which is on the north border of the Ranch. This part was daunting for me. First off I didn't know if there would be a current which could whisk me away! Plus it was really cold on race morning. 45 degrees according to the car's temperature on the dashboard. So as I got down to the water, I noticed that all the Triathletes had wetsuits on! I was going to freeze! Plus the water was pitch black. We had an impromptu National Anthem by one of the racers and we were off in a wave start. Once in the water I couldn't breath! I was two seconds from getting out of the water and taking off for home when I remembered my contingency plan. Breast Stroke! I couldn't put my head in the water it was so cold! So I just treaded water until I saw the other racers in front of me walking? Turns out the river is down way down from previous levels so their are sandbars and the depth varies a ton from place to place. Soon we all were running or wading through the water. That was a relief. So I waded through the turn around and my thighs were burning bad not good for the bike. The swim is supposed to save your legs. On the other side of the river, it was deeper so I was able to swim a little bit. I put my head down and tried to get into a rhythm. I swam about 15 strokes and I ran into a log. It scratched me up pretty good, the cuts are still healing. Also the current was there on the return trip a lot faster. I wasn't able to exhale in the water though way too cold still. I made it through and ran up to transition. The kids and Summer were there to see the bizarre surreal scene and were cheering me on. Little Addy was jumping up and down screaming "My Daddy, My Daddy!". The swim was 12:06
Transition was quick, Shoe, shoe, Heart rate monitor, watch, Shirt, Glasses, helmet, GO!
The bike at first was hard. I was wet and cold and couldn't feel my lower extremities. The bike felt weird like I had broke a spoke or had a flat tire. I figured out that since my legs were numb I had no feel for the bike either. But the good thing with that was I didn't have to worry about going hard, I made my way out the ranch to the roads and the loop that waited for me. I hadn't previewed the course on the bike, but I had driven it and knew that there weren't many hills that I couldn't handle. I did well averaging over 15 mph for the ride an improvment of 1 mph from the previous race in Clermont. Stayed the in the big ring for most of it after I could feel my legs. The kids cheered me on into T2.
T2 was even quicker, sock, shoe, sock, shoe, GO! I ran out the T2 less then 2 minutes. I grabbed my Iphone to track the run. I tried to track it on the bike, but I couldn't make it work since it was so cold.
The run was a two lap course that finished in a different place then Transition. The kids ran with me for a little bit and that was cool. Again Addy was great with the "My Daddy, My Daddy!" I continued on no problems. No tendonitis in the left knee. I was able to run most of the way in periods until my Heart Rate got too high so I wouldn't go Anaerobic. I ended up running about a 14:40 pace. Which is ten seconds faster then my previous race.
All in all a great race I accomplished my goals, introduced my kids to Triathlon, and I won my Division!
Not sure about the next race but I'm going to work on strength and building a good base for the next race where ever that may be.
This is my second Triathlon so far in my Triathlon comeback. It is a very small race at the Florida Sheriff's Boys Ranch in the Panhandle of Florida not far from Lake City where I-75 and I-10 intersect. The distances are a 750 meter swim, 16km bike, and 5k run.
The swim is in the Suwanee River which is on the north border of the Ranch. This part was daunting for me. First off I didn't know if there would be a current which could whisk me away! Plus it was really cold on race morning. 45 degrees according to the car's temperature on the dashboard. So as I got down to the water, I noticed that all the Triathletes had wetsuits on! I was going to freeze! Plus the water was pitch black. We had an impromptu National Anthem by one of the racers and we were off in a wave start. Once in the water I couldn't breath! I was two seconds from getting out of the water and taking off for home when I remembered my contingency plan. Breast Stroke! I couldn't put my head in the water it was so cold! So I just treaded water until I saw the other racers in front of me walking? Turns out the river is down way down from previous levels so their are sandbars and the depth varies a ton from place to place. Soon we all were running or wading through the water. That was a relief. So I waded through the turn around and my thighs were burning bad not good for the bike. The swim is supposed to save your legs. On the other side of the river, it was deeper so I was able to swim a little bit. I put my head down and tried to get into a rhythm. I swam about 15 strokes and I ran into a log. It scratched me up pretty good, the cuts are still healing. Also the current was there on the return trip a lot faster. I wasn't able to exhale in the water though way too cold still. I made it through and ran up to transition. The kids and Summer were there to see the bizarre surreal scene and were cheering me on. Little Addy was jumping up and down screaming "My Daddy, My Daddy!". The swim was 12:06
Transition was quick, Shoe, shoe, Heart rate monitor, watch, Shirt, Glasses, helmet, GO!
The bike at first was hard. I was wet and cold and couldn't feel my lower extremities. The bike felt weird like I had broke a spoke or had a flat tire. I figured out that since my legs were numb I had no feel for the bike either. But the good thing with that was I didn't have to worry about going hard, I made my way out the ranch to the roads and the loop that waited for me. I hadn't previewed the course on the bike, but I had driven it and knew that there weren't many hills that I couldn't handle. I did well averaging over 15 mph for the ride an improvment of 1 mph from the previous race in Clermont. Stayed the in the big ring for most of it after I could feel my legs. The kids cheered me on into T2.
T2 was even quicker, sock, shoe, sock, shoe, GO! I ran out the T2 less then 2 minutes. I grabbed my Iphone to track the run. I tried to track it on the bike, but I couldn't make it work since it was so cold.
The run was a two lap course that finished in a different place then Transition. The kids ran with me for a little bit and that was cool. Again Addy was great with the "My Daddy, My Daddy!" I continued on no problems. No tendonitis in the left knee. I was able to run most of the way in periods until my Heart Rate got too high so I wouldn't go Anaerobic. I ended up running about a 14:40 pace. Which is ten seconds faster then my previous race.
All in all a great race I accomplished my goals, introduced my kids to Triathlon, and I won my Division!
Not sure about the next race but I'm going to work on strength and building a good base for the next race where ever that may be.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Florida Challenge Super Sprint Tri-Race Report
My name is Matt. I am 347 lbs and I competed in the above mentioned Triathlon a few weeks ago. I ran my first triathlon back in 2004 in Missouri before my family and I moved to Florida. At that time I was at 295 lbs. And it was hard.... but not as hard as I thought.
I've always heard that it is important to write race reports as you progress in Triathlon. Well here it is.
I recently decided to get back into exercise as an everyday habit. I have been off and on for the past few years. And my weight has fluctuated. I have been up to 375 and down to 318 since 2004. I seem to stay focused for about 6 months and then I get bored and "reward" myself by not working out and eating poorly.
So with that in mind, I decided to sign up for this Tri as a good warm up for progressing into longer races. It is very short 1/8 mile swim, 8 mile bike, 2 mile run. Certainly a nice little brick workout for most inshape athletes, but not for me I was determined to just finish. Oh and my wife Summer decided to do the race with me. She has finished a marathon before in 2008 and is in pretty good shape. She said she would smoke me. She was right!
We arranged baby-sitting for our three kids. We live about 30 minutes from the race so we didn't want to drag them out of bed to watch us. In retrospect, I wish we included them since they are 7,6, and 2 and would have had a good time. Anyway we got there at dark before the sunrise and struggled to find the start and registration and packet pick-up but followed the stragglers. We got our schwag and headed to the transition after being body marked. First thing I noticed was we got nice stuff! A water bottle, t-shirt, and other goodies. A nice unexpecteed perk. We took our bikes to the Transition area and picked out a spot. Not a lot of people at the race probably around 75 or so. As were getting ready, a huge buff, in-shape guy in a tri-suit asks me if I could show him how to shift the gears on his bike?! I'm thinking what? You don't how to shift your bike and thought that you'd wait and then ask the fat guy at Transition? Plus this guy looked like he was doing an Ironman. Not an ounce of body fat on him, all brand name Tri gear,and he hasn't a clue. Luckily I was familiar with his shifters, shimano type with the big lever and the small lever on the side. I showed him and he seemed satisfied.
Pretty soon the race announcer (they were playing Sirius before that on the loudspeakers) let us know to make our way to the swim. The swim was to be a 200 yard square around two buoys in Lake Minneola. At the start there is a nice little beach with restrooms and benches. Summer and I went in the water and checked it out. It was really warm! I think, Amoebas! Now the chances of getting a fresh water Amoeba go up your nose into your brain is similar to being struck by lightning if not higher, but hey you still worry about it right? A few people around Orlando died recently from them. Well I was worried. I swam in the water to warm up going halfway out to the buoy. There was no visibility at all just gross lake/pond water. I had not done an open water swim before. Honestly this was not a real open water swim in my opinion. No chop no harsh weather conditions (except for Amoebas!) and not a huge crowd. Just grossness. Plus they wanted us to line up and swim time trial style. The race staff forgot the mat to time us so that hindered things. We had the national anthem (recording of Whitney at the Super Bowl) and the first competitor took off. Summer and I went to the back of the line and discovered more people behind us! No one wanted to go! We got a kick out of that. But eventually we got to the start as we watched more experienced swimmers plow through the grossness. Summer went first since we erroneously thought she was a slower swimmer then me. She went first and that was the last I saw of her until the finish. I ran out until green stuff hit my waist and then dived in and took off. Of course I was going too hard. Adrenaline took over. After a few strokes I realized there was no one around me. I had to forgot to sight the buoy every few strokes I was 25 yards going right when I should've gone straight. That sucked. I figured it out and made my way past the buoys, thiniking about Amoebas and focusing on exhaling with my nose, while people were passing me. Then came the run to T1. Well that run part didn't work out to well. I was exhausted! I couldn't move! I walked all the way to T1 which is up the beach and 50 yards to the bikes. I felt like a schmuck and when I saw the race photos later I saw that I looked like a tired blob of humanity. My swim time? 5:17 for 200 yards. My time in the pool had me at 4:55 or so. So yeah I lost little bit there.
My arrival at T1 invigorated me though. I put my HR monitor belt on, and forgot the watch. I had to sit down to brush off my feet full of sand and rocks. My socks stuck to my feet and were not cooperating. My shirt stuck to me as I tried to put it on. I got halfway out of T1 when I realized I forgot my watch. Back to go get it. My T1 time? A blistering fast 6 minutes. It took me longer to transition then to swim! Wow.
Out on the bike and my dead legs made another arrival. There was a small climb to get out of the Waterfront park and I almost thought I wasn't going to make it. I geared to the easiest setting and pedaled hard. Thankfully for every ascent there is a descent so I was able to recover a bit. I was getting passed by everyone though. An 8 mile bike around Lake Minneola awaited me. A long eight miles for sure. I didn't preview the course like I wanted to because that part of the race website was down two weeks leading up to race day. Most people who passed were encouraging and I wanted to scream at them to stop talking but I smiled and encouraged back. I didn't use Aero bars due to me switching hand positions all the time. I also changed my stem the night before. I know all the "experts" say to not change anything unless you've trained with it. But I was too spread out with the old stem and this let me be more comfortable in my so-called cockpit. Except for the hand thing. Well it got me to a pace of 14.6 mph which was a full 2 mph faster then I had trained. How much of that was raceday adrenaline and the equipment change? Since then I've maintained the speed in my workouts while not coming close to the HR at taht pace. But the catch was I didn't tighten the stem enough! Can you say vibration! My hands hurt the rest of the day bad. I kept thinking I might catch up to Summer since she had ridden her bike ONCE in preparation for the race and didn't have bike cleats and pedals. She did 15.6 mph and smoked me again on the bike. My HR was around 155 for most of the bike except for the beginning and the end as I hit the same hill to get back to T2. Same hill as in the beginning but from a different point so we had to go up it to go back down to T2.
I pulled in to T2 excited for the run and proud of my comeback on the bike. I was doing better then expected on the bike and I was having fun! My T2 time was a lot quicker at 2:48 but still slowest out of the men. I was just glad it wasn't six minutes! Put on my running/tennis hat, running shoes, and off I went. I tried to jog at first, but I was redlining from T2.
The run was going to be challenging for sure and is my worst limiter out of three. I taught myself how to swim for my first tri in 2004 and I still can swim better then I can run. My weight just catches up with me I guess. After about three minutes I'm at 95% of Max HR, so I walk to bring it down. I did this for most of the first half of the 2 mile loop. People were passing me and offering me their polite encouragements with my same response as before. I can feel my weight on my chest and stomach and I wonder why on earth did I ever let it get this bad. So towards the end of the turnaround I start to run again. My left knee, which gives me occasional tendinitis, is starting to hurt but I decide to got with 2 minute on 1 minute off intervals until the finish. Then I actually pass a couple of people! A 50 yr old woman who looks like she is about to die and a mother and son who look like they had a rough bike portion, with grease all over their hands and legs. Hey its the small victories right! Summer finished by now and is walking back to bring me in. I am happy for her and envious at the same time. She is such a good endurance athlete. Hardly trains and competes no problem. She picks my spirits up and I tell her about my day's events. She encourages me to run the rest of the way and I try my best. I walk a couple of more times but I see finish and I sprint the last 200 yards. I cross the finish line at 1:16:59 and about collapse. I didn't realize how tired I was! I can't calm my breathe and I walk around in a daze for a few minutes... My run time was 14:58 pace for the 2 miles. In my training I did o better then 16:30. Summer? 10:16 for the 2 miles. Summer's overall time was 58:08:00. She finished 10th overall in the women. Not bad for an occasional triathlete. Me? I finished 46th out of 48 o f the men. My HR for the entire bike and run was 160 Avg so for most of the race I raced at 87% of Max HR. Not bad for me either since I was at least 100 lbs heavier then anyone else at the race.
Looking back I can think of a number of things to improve on for next time. Practice and focus on T1 and T2. Swim straight! Make sure the bike is good to go and use some Aero bars for better aerodynamics and speed. And drop as much weight as possible to get a better run in. My next race is the "Best of Boys Ranch Tri in Live Oak which takes place at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch in Panhandle on November 15th. It's a longer sprint. 750 meter swim in the Suwannee River, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Mostly flat so I hope to improve my splits, and keep working towards completing a Olympic Tri by this time 2010. And maybe I'll drop some more pounds by then too!
These triathlons are interesting. A lot like life I guess. Some parts are hard, some parts are fun, some parts you can't believe you accomplished, and some parts you find disappointing. But the fun part is getting ready for the next one, I think and getting better.
Hopefully more to come.
M
My name is Matt. I am 347 lbs and I competed in the above mentioned Triathlon a few weeks ago. I ran my first triathlon back in 2004 in Missouri before my family and I moved to Florida. At that time I was at 295 lbs. And it was hard.... but not as hard as I thought.
I've always heard that it is important to write race reports as you progress in Triathlon. Well here it is.
I recently decided to get back into exercise as an everyday habit. I have been off and on for the past few years. And my weight has fluctuated. I have been up to 375 and down to 318 since 2004. I seem to stay focused for about 6 months and then I get bored and "reward" myself by not working out and eating poorly.
So with that in mind, I decided to sign up for this Tri as a good warm up for progressing into longer races. It is very short 1/8 mile swim, 8 mile bike, 2 mile run. Certainly a nice little brick workout for most inshape athletes, but not for me I was determined to just finish. Oh and my wife Summer decided to do the race with me. She has finished a marathon before in 2008 and is in pretty good shape. She said she would smoke me. She was right!
We arranged baby-sitting for our three kids. We live about 30 minutes from the race so we didn't want to drag them out of bed to watch us. In retrospect, I wish we included them since they are 7,6, and 2 and would have had a good time. Anyway we got there at dark before the sunrise and struggled to find the start and registration and packet pick-up but followed the stragglers. We got our schwag and headed to the transition after being body marked. First thing I noticed was we got nice stuff! A water bottle, t-shirt, and other goodies. A nice unexpecteed perk. We took our bikes to the Transition area and picked out a spot. Not a lot of people at the race probably around 75 or so. As were getting ready, a huge buff, in-shape guy in a tri-suit asks me if I could show him how to shift the gears on his bike?! I'm thinking what? You don't how to shift your bike and thought that you'd wait and then ask the fat guy at Transition? Plus this guy looked like he was doing an Ironman. Not an ounce of body fat on him, all brand name Tri gear,and he hasn't a clue. Luckily I was familiar with his shifters, shimano type with the big lever and the small lever on the side. I showed him and he seemed satisfied.
Pretty soon the race announcer (they were playing Sirius before that on the loudspeakers) let us know to make our way to the swim. The swim was to be a 200 yard square around two buoys in Lake Minneola. At the start there is a nice little beach with restrooms and benches. Summer and I went in the water and checked it out. It was really warm! I think, Amoebas! Now the chances of getting a fresh water Amoeba go up your nose into your brain is similar to being struck by lightning if not higher, but hey you still worry about it right? A few people around Orlando died recently from them. Well I was worried. I swam in the water to warm up going halfway out to the buoy. There was no visibility at all just gross lake/pond water. I had not done an open water swim before. Honestly this was not a real open water swim in my opinion. No chop no harsh weather conditions (except for Amoebas!) and not a huge crowd. Just grossness. Plus they wanted us to line up and swim time trial style. The race staff forgot the mat to time us so that hindered things. We had the national anthem (recording of Whitney at the Super Bowl) and the first competitor took off. Summer and I went to the back of the line and discovered more people behind us! No one wanted to go! We got a kick out of that. But eventually we got to the start as we watched more experienced swimmers plow through the grossness. Summer went first since we erroneously thought she was a slower swimmer then me. She went first and that was the last I saw of her until the finish. I ran out until green stuff hit my waist and then dived in and took off. Of course I was going too hard. Adrenaline took over. After a few strokes I realized there was no one around me. I had to forgot to sight the buoy every few strokes I was 25 yards going right when I should've gone straight. That sucked. I figured it out and made my way past the buoys, thiniking about Amoebas and focusing on exhaling with my nose, while people were passing me. Then came the run to T1. Well that run part didn't work out to well. I was exhausted! I couldn't move! I walked all the way to T1 which is up the beach and 50 yards to the bikes. I felt like a schmuck and when I saw the race photos later I saw that I looked like a tired blob of humanity. My swim time? 5:17 for 200 yards. My time in the pool had me at 4:55 or so. So yeah I lost little bit there.
My arrival at T1 invigorated me though. I put my HR monitor belt on, and forgot the watch. I had to sit down to brush off my feet full of sand and rocks. My socks stuck to my feet and were not cooperating. My shirt stuck to me as I tried to put it on. I got halfway out of T1 when I realized I forgot my watch. Back to go get it. My T1 time? A blistering fast 6 minutes. It took me longer to transition then to swim! Wow.
Out on the bike and my dead legs made another arrival. There was a small climb to get out of the Waterfront park and I almost thought I wasn't going to make it. I geared to the easiest setting and pedaled hard. Thankfully for every ascent there is a descent so I was able to recover a bit. I was getting passed by everyone though. An 8 mile bike around Lake Minneola awaited me. A long eight miles for sure. I didn't preview the course like I wanted to because that part of the race website was down two weeks leading up to race day. Most people who passed were encouraging and I wanted to scream at them to stop talking but I smiled and encouraged back. I didn't use Aero bars due to me switching hand positions all the time. I also changed my stem the night before. I know all the "experts" say to not change anything unless you've trained with it. But I was too spread out with the old stem and this let me be more comfortable in my so-called cockpit. Except for the hand thing. Well it got me to a pace of 14.6 mph which was a full 2 mph faster then I had trained. How much of that was raceday adrenaline and the equipment change? Since then I've maintained the speed in my workouts while not coming close to the HR at taht pace. But the catch was I didn't tighten the stem enough! Can you say vibration! My hands hurt the rest of the day bad. I kept thinking I might catch up to Summer since she had ridden her bike ONCE in preparation for the race and didn't have bike cleats and pedals. She did 15.6 mph and smoked me again on the bike. My HR was around 155 for most of the bike except for the beginning and the end as I hit the same hill to get back to T2. Same hill as in the beginning but from a different point so we had to go up it to go back down to T2.
I pulled in to T2 excited for the run and proud of my comeback on the bike. I was doing better then expected on the bike and I was having fun! My T2 time was a lot quicker at 2:48 but still slowest out of the men. I was just glad it wasn't six minutes! Put on my running/tennis hat, running shoes, and off I went. I tried to jog at first, but I was redlining from T2.
The run was going to be challenging for sure and is my worst limiter out of three. I taught myself how to swim for my first tri in 2004 and I still can swim better then I can run. My weight just catches up with me I guess. After about three minutes I'm at 95% of Max HR, so I walk to bring it down. I did this for most of the first half of the 2 mile loop. People were passing me and offering me their polite encouragements with my same response as before. I can feel my weight on my chest and stomach and I wonder why on earth did I ever let it get this bad. So towards the end of the turnaround I start to run again. My left knee, which gives me occasional tendinitis, is starting to hurt but I decide to got with 2 minute on 1 minute off intervals until the finish. Then I actually pass a couple of people! A 50 yr old woman who looks like she is about to die and a mother and son who look like they had a rough bike portion, with grease all over their hands and legs. Hey its the small victories right! Summer finished by now and is walking back to bring me in. I am happy for her and envious at the same time. She is such a good endurance athlete. Hardly trains and competes no problem. She picks my spirits up and I tell her about my day's events. She encourages me to run the rest of the way and I try my best. I walk a couple of more times but I see finish and I sprint the last 200 yards. I cross the finish line at 1:16:59 and about collapse. I didn't realize how tired I was! I can't calm my breathe and I walk around in a daze for a few minutes... My run time was 14:58 pace for the 2 miles. In my training I did o better then 16:30. Summer? 10:16 for the 2 miles. Summer's overall time was 58:08:00. She finished 10th overall in the women. Not bad for an occasional triathlete. Me? I finished 46th out of 48 o f the men. My HR for the entire bike and run was 160 Avg so for most of the race I raced at 87% of Max HR. Not bad for me either since I was at least 100 lbs heavier then anyone else at the race.
Looking back I can think of a number of things to improve on for next time. Practice and focus on T1 and T2. Swim straight! Make sure the bike is good to go and use some Aero bars for better aerodynamics and speed. And drop as much weight as possible to get a better run in. My next race is the "Best of Boys Ranch Tri in Live Oak which takes place at the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch in Panhandle on November 15th. It's a longer sprint. 750 meter swim in the Suwannee River, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile run. Mostly flat so I hope to improve my splits, and keep working towards completing a Olympic Tri by this time 2010. And maybe I'll drop some more pounds by then too!
These triathlons are interesting. A lot like life I guess. Some parts are hard, some parts are fun, some parts you can't believe you accomplished, and some parts you find disappointing. But the fun part is getting ready for the next one, I think and getting better.
Hopefully more to come.
M
Thursday, July 23, 2009
I have so many things to say. I hesitate to write them all down because this goes on the net and and I like to keep things private. I don't know. I wish I had something clever to say like they have on TV.....
I was reading some of my older posts and it is interesting to remember moments from what seems so long ago..... It amazes me that I have closed a few houses in the past year. Got my brother paid back which feels good. The market is so up and down that we have to keep the status quo, and get Summer through school.
I miss my Dad...... he could be a real son of a bitch but I loved him and I miss him. I miss my Mom too but the loss of my Dad is more recent I've learned to deal with not having Mom around....
I lost some weight last year. Around 50 pounds but now I am stuck around 335 345 or so. I can't get the motivation to increase my exercise and make my eating better. Everyday my life seems to get in the way.
I wish we could win the lottery, or go on Biggest Loser, or someone will sweep in and save me from this existence. But I'm a fool....I love my kids and my family but I wonder if I am absent too much. I feel like this all could be too much for me.......
Can you tell I've been off my prozac for a couple of days?
Feels good to write something down...... I worry about my brother. He's in a loveless marriage and is risking his freedom to keep the money flowing to pay for his wife and her habits.... To his credit he is also trying to pay for his step-daughter's education but I worry that is all for naught....
I don't know I'm pretty down right now. I'm going to go to bed.....
I was reading some of my older posts and it is interesting to remember moments from what seems so long ago..... It amazes me that I have closed a few houses in the past year. Got my brother paid back which feels good. The market is so up and down that we have to keep the status quo, and get Summer through school.
I miss my Dad...... he could be a real son of a bitch but I loved him and I miss him. I miss my Mom too but the loss of my Dad is more recent I've learned to deal with not having Mom around....
I lost some weight last year. Around 50 pounds but now I am stuck around 335 345 or so. I can't get the motivation to increase my exercise and make my eating better. Everyday my life seems to get in the way.
I wish we could win the lottery, or go on Biggest Loser, or someone will sweep in and save me from this existence. But I'm a fool....I love my kids and my family but I wonder if I am absent too much. I feel like this all could be too much for me.......
Can you tell I've been off my prozac for a couple of days?
Feels good to write something down...... I worry about my brother. He's in a loveless marriage and is risking his freedom to keep the money flowing to pay for his wife and her habits.... To his credit he is also trying to pay for his step-daughter's education but I worry that is all for naught....
I don't know I'm pretty down right now. I'm going to go to bed.....
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Wow its been a long time again, and again..... Summer has lost all of her weight pretty much and is looking really great. She cut her hair and I'm loving it even though I thought I would like the longer hair better. We have moved into a house in Orlando that is really nice. It's big and spacious and free rent can't be beat. But it won't last. Sam and Jakey are doing great in kindergarten and 1st grade. Addison has been attending Kindercare day-care when Summer has been going to UCF. Speaking of UCF Summer is almost done and ready to graduate after just one more semester. I am trying to decide what I want to do for a graduate degree. MBA? Law Degree? Digital Forensics? Lots of questions. Not sure what I am supposed to do, really.
My Dad died at the end of January this year. His lifelong battle with Diabetes, and a nasty case of MRSA from a nursing home got him in a weeks time. I had to pull the plug and I watched his life expire. It still haunts me at times....
When we moved we switched wards and are now in a different stake as well. The new ward is very affluent and we are having a difficult time adjusting really. We miss our old ward and our old friends.
The house business is picking up we've closed five houses in the past few months. Best part time job I've ever had! We're reopening our company for tax purposes too which is great progress.
My 9-5 job has done well too. I am signing up accounts left and right and getting recognized for it. But I am one rep of three in a small geographical area and I am afraid that in this economic climate it may mean that I get laid off or "down sized". If it does I won't be surprised but I'm trying to do my best to make me too valuable.
My Dad died at the end of January this year. His lifelong battle with Diabetes, and a nasty case of MRSA from a nursing home got him in a weeks time. I had to pull the plug and I watched his life expire. It still haunts me at times....
When we moved we switched wards and are now in a different stake as well. The new ward is very affluent and we are having a difficult time adjusting really. We miss our old ward and our old friends.
The house business is picking up we've closed five houses in the past few months. Best part time job I've ever had! We're reopening our company for tax purposes too which is great progress.
My 9-5 job has done well too. I am signing up accounts left and right and getting recognized for it. But I am one rep of three in a small geographical area and I am afraid that in this economic climate it may mean that I get laid off or "down sized". If it does I won't be surprised but I'm trying to do my best to make me too valuable.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
I am writing to update everyone on this blog. I am now a Sales Rep with my company that I started with soon after the foreclosure market went bust. I'm thinking about getting back into the market though since my brother has perfected some really good techniques for getting discounts.
Recently, I was extended a calling as First Counselor of the Elders Quorum in my ward. Its been really interesting learning and getting used and comfortable with this calling. Not to mention it has strengthened my testimony.
I have worked out two days in a row and I have watched my eating as well. I want to journal all of my meals and I am starting Nutrisystem again, it has been ordered and will arrive soon. I'm excited. Right now I weigh 373 give or take.
Sam is doing well in Kindergarten, even though sometimes he hits the other kids when they do stuff he doesn't like but we're working on that.... he is learning to read and do math. Jacob is doing the same but is only in VPK. Addison is cruising constantly and should be walking anytime. She is just adorable and a perfect baby girl.
Summer is finishing up school and going to get her Physician's Assistant Degree from UCF and a Post Graduate school to be named later.
Recently, I was extended a calling as First Counselor of the Elders Quorum in my ward. Its been really interesting learning and getting used and comfortable with this calling. Not to mention it has strengthened my testimony.
I have worked out two days in a row and I have watched my eating as well. I want to journal all of my meals and I am starting Nutrisystem again, it has been ordered and will arrive soon. I'm excited. Right now I weigh 373 give or take.
Sam is doing well in Kindergarten, even though sometimes he hits the other kids when they do stuff he doesn't like but we're working on that.... he is learning to read and do math. Jacob is doing the same but is only in VPK. Addison is cruising constantly and should be walking anytime. She is just adorable and a perfect baby girl.
Summer is finishing up school and going to get her Physician's Assistant Degree from UCF and a Post Graduate school to be named later.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
I just had a few minutes of rain so I decided to go ahead and post real quick since it's been like ten months since I posted last.
So many things to cover. Well we live in Orlando area now. I have been promoted three times since I started working a normal job. Its been a fun time. I am now a Sales Rep, I get a company car that I switch out every week and I get free gas.
Summer had our baby, we named her Addison Reese and she is absolutely perfect. She is almost seven months now. Sam starts school in August...Kindergarten! Jacob starts VPK soon too and Summer is going back to school and getting her B.S. in Molecular Biology at UCF. She is excited about that as well. Anyway that is all for now more to come if I get time!
So many things to cover. Well we live in Orlando area now. I have been promoted three times since I started working a normal job. Its been a fun time. I am now a Sales Rep, I get a company car that I switch out every week and I get free gas.
Summer had our baby, we named her Addison Reese and she is absolutely perfect. She is almost seven months now. Sam starts school in August...Kindergarten! Jacob starts VPK soon too and Summer is going back to school and getting her B.S. in Molecular Biology at UCF. She is excited about that as well. Anyway that is all for now more to come if I get time!
Saturday, September 02, 2006
So yeah things have changed, so we had to adapt. I have been working a normal 9 to 5 now for almost two months. Well actually it's really a 7 to 6 job with work on Saturdays every other week but you know what I mean.
I like the job though. Everyday you do something different and it always involves cars. So I got that going for me...which is nice. The days go by quick and I can totally stand the people that I work with so thats good too. The only thing I have to get used to is having a boss over me. I mean always sort of did with my brother but that was more of a partner thing then a boss deal.
But I think that I am picking things up rather quickly and I want to get promoted quickly which I hope can happen in a few months or so. So anyways gotta go. Oh by the way Summer is pregnant again! She is almost 5 months and we find out the sex of the baby on September 6th! So we're excited about that. Dad is living with us now as well but he is probably going to move to Nashville in an Asssited Living center up there in the winter sometime. So laters.
I like the job though. Everyday you do something different and it always involves cars. So I got that going for me...which is nice. The days go by quick and I can totally stand the people that I work with so thats good too. The only thing I have to get used to is having a boss over me. I mean always sort of did with my brother but that was more of a partner thing then a boss deal.
But I think that I am picking things up rather quickly and I want to get promoted quickly which I hope can happen in a few months or so. So anyways gotta go. Oh by the way Summer is pregnant again! She is almost 5 months and we find out the sex of the baby on September 6th! So we're excited about that. Dad is living with us now as well but he is probably going to move to Nashville in an Asssited Living center up there in the winter sometime. So laters.
Friday, March 03, 2006
A few days ago I was knocking on doors on Space Coast and I stopped in a predominantly black community, well pretty soon a very large black man with corn rows, pants halfway down his thighs and oversized white shirt, approached me with a shotgun. He was coming to "talk" to me or maybe shoot at me who knows? Needless to say I put my car in drive and took off. That door didn't get knocked on that day.
We got a homeowner out today. She actually left it somewhat clean so it won't take too long to clean and paint. Hopefully we'll make some money on the deal.
On the way home I got behind a biker on a sweet Harley Davidson motorcycle. Guess what his license plate said? "Hogasm" Need I say any more. Yeah. Nice.
We got a homeowner out today. She actually left it somewhat clean so it won't take too long to clean and paint. Hopefully we'll make some money on the deal.
On the way home I got behind a biker on a sweet Harley Davidson motorcycle. Guess what his license plate said? "Hogasm" Need I say any more. Yeah. Nice.
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