Still Triing

Obviously I am not very good an keeping this updated but does it really matter since i am the only one reading it?

Life is completely "off the charts" right now with both my personal and professional life. I have still been training hard for my first tri which is THIS SATURDAY! All 3 disciplines are feeling pretty good. Running is still my weakness but that is just going to take time and I can see a HUGE difference from when i started a few months ago. My first run around our neighborhood took me around 24 minutes to run 1.5 miles and last night I ran very easy and had to even stop twice with Paige riding her bike next to me and we finished in 18 minutes so obviously it's getting better. I am still trying to find a new gym to belong to. Now it's between the UofI rec center or the YMCA. Both have their pros and cons and i have to make a decision this week.

I volunteered at the Evergreen triathlon 2 weekends ago and it was very inspiring. I was placed at the bike exit/entrance from the park to the country roads and got to watch everyone go out and back on their bikes in the pouring rain! The weather was horrible that morning with rain coming down in buckets but at least the air was somewhat cooler. I felt really bad for the athletes as they came back in from their 24 mile ride. Between the high winds and pouring rain, it had to be a very challenging race.

On the personal side of life....we are getting ready to go to Disneyworld for the first time with the kids this Sunday (the day after my first tri..what was I thinking?). I have been busy planning the trip along with getting some goodies like custom tshirts and other stuff to have at the parks. Paige and JD are so excited to get going and I know they have NO IDEA what they are about to see.

We took them to Six Flags in Louisville a few weeks ago and met our friends Shaun, Jeanne, Jarrod and Nathan from Tennessee and spent a couple days at the waterpark and riding the rides. We had such a fun time hanging out with the Hepborns and the kids were great. Paige and JD couldnt believe how cool the rides were and loved riding the kids rides. They even rode their first roller coaster. IF they thought Six Flags was great, I can't wait to see their faces at Disneyworld.

On the professional side of life....I don't usually post much about my business here but things have been crazy lately. One of my client's day-to-day operations is going out to bid with an RFP process and my company is one of the companies that is vying after the business. This process has been a long, drawn out process that has been in the works for almost a year. I am supposed to get the RFP around August 4th (while I am at Disney). My business partner and I have been working on some of our arrangments lately and will be getting together in August to respond to the the RFP. I hope we have a very good shot at getting this business. I know that we will do a great job in managing this client for many years to come and look forward to setting up the business back in Tennessee.

Still Going

Hey everyone (anyone?),

I havent been very good at keeping this updated but my training is going well right now. The swimming in getting better each time and the biking and running are coming along. The race is only a couple weeks away and I am starting to get excited and nervous. It's been hot lately making the running harder for me since I am such a fair weather runner. I had my triathlon training class today with a timed 1 mile after warming up and did the mile in 9:10 which is pretty fast for me and we immediately went to the pool afterward to work on swimming drills.

I used a kickboard today and realized my legs do not know how to kick while swimming so that gives me something more to work on before and after the race.

Speaking of after the race, i have to find a new place to workout. Last week i went at worked out at my gym and had a good workout and the place was busy. On Tuesday, i pulled into the parking lot and my gym had closed and the windows were covered up. It seems that they weren't paying their landlord and were evicted after racking up $31k in back rent. I can't say i am surprise since the membership was only $10/month or if you agreed to pay for a full year the fee was only $75. I definitely got my $75 dollars worth out of my membership and I will miss the gym since the equipment was nice, parking was easy and it was never "packed" when i was there in the morning. I also have a membership at the UofI rec center but parking around there just sucks most of the time and costs about $.75 at the meter each time. Since I will need a swimming pool though, it's pretty much UofI or the YMCA. I am not sure which i will choose yet. UofI is $10/month cheaper before the parking fiasco and fees but has much nice facilities while the Y is closer to home and no parking problems making it easier to get in and out faster.

Also, we only have a couple weeks until our Disneyworld trip. We recently upgraded to the Yacht Club resort and it looks great and has a great pool/beach area to relax at each afternoon.
I am getting just as excited as the kids and the event planner in me has already laid out our itinerary for each day and the exact routes we will take at each park.

Until next posting....

Swimming Problem Identified (Maybe)

So i started my group triathlon training this week and i am the only male in the class with 8 other ladies. It's a good group though since it seems most of us are in the same class fitness wise with running and swimming. Biking is definitely my strongest leg and the first ride with the group was a little too slow for me but i don't mind that since at least i have other people to work out with and I can make up the speed times on my own bike workouts.

Today was our first swim session and our coach watched me swim to help tell me what i am doing wrong. She said my form looked really good so it must be my cardio or breathing. So i concentrated on my breathing for the next couple laps and realized I have NO BREATHING PATTERN!! No wonder i am getting out of breath. I was breathing at just random intervals and NOT breathing out enough underwater. I am going to do some swimming this weekend and concentrate on breathing out hard underwater and breathing in every 2 strokes. Our coach seems to think that may help me a lot. I hope so!

I also found out that the swim for our tri is very weird. We are swimming the lazy river of our pool first (200 yards) and then have to get out, run over to the lap pool and swim 4 laps (200 yards) before running to the bike transition. Should be interesting...

WOW its been a while

Well, its been a while since i posted here. Sorry to all of you that aren't reading this, LMAO. Tri training has been going well even with all of my traveling. Since my last post, I have traveled to Vancouver, Bellingham WA and Seattle. All three cities were amazing but Vancouver is still my favorite city i have ever traveled to. Business has been going pretty good but the stress level of the next step with my company has started to take its toll on my mental clarity so thank god i have this triathlon training to help me blow off the steam and release some of the stress of dealing with situations that are WAY beyond my control.

As for the training....

Swimming - I have slowly gotten better with this and even have leapt up to 100 yards without stopping. I still have a long way to go but i just found out that my first tri is 200 yards in the lazy river, get out of the water, run to the pool, jump in and then swim 200 yards in the lap pool. THAT should be interesting. But hey, at least I only have to go 200 yards at a time, right? right? anyone there?

Biking - This is where I should be able to make up some time during the race. I have been getting stronger on the bike averaging around 16 mph lately for 30 minutes. The race is only 6 miles so I should be able to finish strong on this leg.

Running - Running has gotten stronger as well. I can go a mile without walking now which is a big improvement from 5 weeks ago. The only problem i have right now is after walking the hilly streets of Seattle, my shinsplints are hurting and during my tri training run this morning, i had a hitch in my knee. Hopefully that was just a fluke situation.

All in all, i am really enjoying my training and don't "dread" any of the training at this point. I am getting excited for my race in 6 weeks and I only have limited travel until the race so I can focus on my training a little more. Also, I officially joined WeightWatchers online to try and drop around 50 pounds. I know I am working out enough but my diet wasn't good still so hopefully WW will help me correct that part. Jeanne had a lot of success with it and has kept the weight off for a few years now so i hope I can become the 2nd WW success story in our family.

On the family front....I love summer!!! I love being outside with my family, having the kids playing in the sprinklers and slipnslide. Heck I even joined them on the slipnslide last week and we convinced mommy to do it as well. Jeanne is enjoying her summer off from school which is great because THATS why we moved back here.

Until next time (which i promise will be sooner)......

Feeling good SLOWLY

It's been a good weekend. Rode the stationary bike on Friday due to 35mph sustained winds. The ride felt good but I wish I would have pushed a little harder. Jeanne got home from MN on Friday night so Saturday I was finally able to get back in the pool. The swimming has me a little concerned. I still can't go over 50meters without stopping. I am going to try and put in some extra time in the pool this week since there were a couple of moments in the pool where i felt like I was finally gliding through the water without as much resistance. It was HOT and sunny on Sunday so we broke out the new slip and slide for the kids. They were having so much fun with it that I got my suit on and joined them in a few slides. I will have to put some pictures up of it because I would slide so fast that at the end of the slide I would hit the inflated part and then flip over onto the grass. The kids and I convinced mommy to give it a try too and she looked like a natural on a couple of the slides and really "bit it" on one of the slides.

After going out to eat and not eating very healthy, the weather cooled down that I decided to go for a short run at 8pm. It was a fairly hard and slow run for me due to the bad meal and heat but i felt good that I at least got out and did it since I REALLY had to convince myself to get up off my butt and do it.

Run today

With the wind about 25-30mph today I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill (wussy, I know, I am a fairweather runner). I knew I only had about 20-25 minutes to run today so i thought I would kick it up again. I started out fast at a 8:30mpm pace for the first 3 minutes and it felt good but i knew i would pay for it later if i didnt slow down so i went back down to a 10mpm pace and just kept going. I love days when it feels good to run. Usually i have to stop and walk after 4 or 5 minutes but today I went 12 minutes before walking for 2 and then running for 4 more minutes. Overall was under a 10mpm pace which i havent done for a couple years WHOHOO!! Eating a little cleaner and staying hydrated makes such a difference!

Newly Modified Mountain Bike

Yesterday I finally had the chance to take my newly remodeled mountain bike out for real bike training for the triathlon. I added new slicks to the bike as well as a cateye computer and bottle cage. It's amazing out much different the bike is now. It glided smoothly along the pavement and made me actually believe i would enjoy the bike part of the tri now since i was dreading it with the old knobby tires on the bike. I rode out on the country road north of my house and kept a pretty good pace of 21mph for the first 3 miles. Turned around at the 3 mile marker and realized a few things...

1. I had forgotten my helmet (DUMB rookie move)
2. I had the wind at my back for the first 3 miles
3. I haven't been drinking enough water

The ride back home was HARD. I had partially bonked because i havent been drinking enough water and i was now riding directly into a 10-15 mph wind. I was determined not to stop pedaling though so I played with the gears to keep my cadence going and my legs were burning when i finally got home. My average speed on the way back was probably 10-12mph so my overall average for the ride was just over 14mph. I need to get better at that and really adjust my water intake. Still if felt great to get out and ride rather than being stuck on a trainer.

As the summer is here, i am getting more and more excited for the tri in August. Also, I joined up with a weightloss challenge on beginnertriathlete.com and working hard on my diet so i dont let my team down. my goal is a loss of 10 pounds in June.

Until next time...