Bad week all round.

Since my last post on Tuesday I managed a 5 mile run at 5.5 for 4 and 5 for 1 followed by a half mile walk uphill on Wednesday. No swim.

The bike on Thursday well I made it one mile into another friggin heavy headwind on another shitty day and gave up. Whats the deal here? Do I live in Denver or was I transport ted somewhere else?

To much stress at work and home.

Friday was my day off as we are on a road trip. I have mixed feelings about tomorrows 6 mile run. It will be outside in Hot Springs SD. Which a year ago I ran and may have been my last run outside.

Fuel your body

Great day today. I lost 5 pounds last week and the BP is the same. This morning I ate a little more than normal and didn't track it. Then K brought home cup cakes so I had one of those too.

The bike ride today was great, I was 2mph faster today than any other week. Fuelling the body makes a huge difference. I was able to get in 20 miles today and it didn't kill me. Garmin worked well too.

I decided the swim was out as I have been overdoing it. Ill get back on schedule tomorrow.

Off to football. It should be interesting.

5 miles!

Work was busy today. I ran 4 miles at 5.5 and one at 5. Then it was straight out the door to Davids swimming. It was a practice transition. I ran into the car with just my shorts on, a burrito and some Gatorade. It all worked out. However after yesterdays exercise and today's late run I cant do a swim tonight. I'm over doing it. Usually today would be my day off but I have a long drive on Friday. I'm flat out dead on my feet.

I'm dying to start a couple of sponsorship sites. One for the UK and one for here. I have already decided on charities. Its a no brainer for the UK. The Roy Castle foundation in the UK. The man got Lung Cancer and was told hell mend him for smoking. Only problem was he didn't smoke! Some people are just so high and mighty hypocrites. These guys helped my Dad. Here is going to either be Livestrong or American Lung association. Ill make my mind up by the end of May.

I also found a new tasty meal! A turkey pesto bullet from Quiznos. Food is so limited just now that any new food is exciting.

My wee triathlon and the Garmin!

Today was whole day of exercise. I started the day with a cycle, I was tight on time so only got in 18 miles. I was trying to use the iPhone to track but then I remembered my trusty Garmin forerunner. More on that later. The cycle went well. If it was short as I had aimed at 25 miles this week.

So straight in from the cycle and a quick change and off to soccer. We got beat again but it was a good game and the team we were playing play competitive. We don't. Then off out for Bagels.

Later on in the after I got my mile swim in too. That wasn't fun but its done.

Now back to gadgets. I installed the forerunner software and then clicked on the link to upload, I had some odd data in there. Anyway I wanted to try the advertised web site. However its gone now replaced with http://connect.garmin.com. There was more software downloads however this site is fantastic. All the data is covered and I can see maps using google maps. Everything I ever wanted. Now just to get it formatted in here.



Now the cool thing about this is if you click on details you do not have to be a member to see all the details. I love it.

6 miles!

6 miles in on the long run. Ill be holding that for the rest of this phase. Lots of pain and a high Heart Rate for the first 2 miles. I'm still not sleeping well and this is now showing on the training.

I discovered my breathing thing isn't working right and hasn't been doing me any favours. Without it K doesn't get much sleep either as I'm back to snoring and kicking. I have cleaned everything and hopefully it will work better tomorrow.

Movie: The one. Entertaining and some action.

The swim has been moved till tomorrow due to tiredness and I want to spend some time with K. Tomorrow is Cycle, Soccer and swim. Holy Moly!

LOL! Google is on the ball, as soon as I published this I got adverts for sleep studies and C-PAPs!

Feeling rubbish

Well the weather is aweful. It did clear up for a window of an hour or so and I could have gone out but I feel rubbish. Early to bed and at it tomorrow. I hope.

I looked at the old 5430 series as a possible warm up, now called the boulder triathlon series. As its now sponsored by "Ironman" its a bit pricey. I think the rattlesnake triathlon weekend is looking good. Maybe Sprint and Olympic back to back.

Earth Day!

Well D thought this was a huge deal!

Its a run and swim day plus coaching kids soccer. Unfortunately K is off oot fur a ruby murray. So I wont be able to fit my swim in. So I decided to kick ass on the run.

The run went well, lack of sleep isn't helping but I ran 3.5 miles at 5.5. 1 mile at 5. and half a mile at uphill walking. That was 5 miles in 60 minutes, that was my long run on Saturday! I felt like hell during the run but the accomplishment outweighs the pain. Things are progressing.

Movie: Bourne Ultimatum. great for running as it runs at a good energy level.

K bought me Avatar for tonight in Blue Ray. I'm well chuffed.

Whats the deal with Colorado weather!

It was a bit of a mixed bag day. The cycle ended up being quite late in the day. I'm pissed off with always having the same low average speed so I kicked it up a notch to see if I could. Low and behold the bloody wind is back. I cant remember a year in the last 10 when I have seen so much crappy weather.

As the rush hour had started I didn't feel like going up Indiana so I went up a side road to add an extra 2 miles. Another thing that's been annoying me is my lack of climbing out of the saddle. I sorted that out. I'm not sure my knee will take the added pressure but Ill give it a go.

On my down hill every light was red and the stupid cars wouldn't move. Some A hole thought that pulling out on me would be a good idea I think I could have touched the front corner of his car as he turned parallel with me.

So 18 miles in today and my average went up, much more satisfying.

Still not sleeping well. My at rest heart rate isn't going up so I'm not pushing too hard (I think).

Im on fire!

3 pounds down! I was surprised but happy as weight loss has been a challenge and yesterdays visit to mcdonalds where I ate a few chicken nuggets didnt help.

Weekly check on health signs. At rest 45. Bp still up there.

The run was (In my sons words) Awesome! I ran a full 3 miles at 5.5 and a further 1 at 5. Followed by a half mile up hill walk. I can feel my performance getting back to its old self. The heart rate on the run was about 145 to 139 which is far better than the past.

Off to the swim. 1700 yards. I took the kids and put them in day care at 5:30pm. When I entered the pool there were some hard core guys there. When I asked to share they did the usual "OK if you must fat boy". This attitude I usually find at indoor pool triathlon events. I love to meet triathlete like that. Anyway I got the distance in. It was impressive to see the pull full of people doing lengths. The posers at the side were a bit put out though. Ill try and avoid 5:30 in the future.

On the indoor snobbery my best moment was a few years ago when I put serious time into strength on my triceps and shoulders my time for the swim was 11 minutes but no one would let me in their wave, I quote "I think you need a different wave I plan on making 11 minutes". I ended up in a 13 minute wave with some fun people. I was out of the pool in 10 minutes. I gubbed them all.

I felt good after it all and sat down to watch house with the wife. On checking my soccer schedule I had 5 minute to get ready and get to the game. I was 15 minutes late but we won anyway and I didn't have to work too hard.

My new day off, Stirling and Trek

I didn't sleep well last night as I really pushed it on the bike. I was freaking about how I was going to run today. However my wife took care of that. She took sick. I had to take the day off and watch the kids. Turned out to be a genius move. I can push it hard on the weekend and then take a day off. Mondays were always hell. I took the kids out for the day and took it easy. This is my official day off from now on.

As it was my day off and I wasn't at work I started a bit of surfing. I have a friend who works at trek and had been talking about a professional triathlete named Fraser Cartmell from Scotland. So I go to his website and am greeted by a great picture of him and Stirling Castle in the back ground. I went to University there! I had a look around and it brought back some memories. Very cool.

On another note the kids are keeping me grounded. Im sitting in the cinema with D beside me and I on my lap cuddled in. I had a moment of "this is the life" followed closely by a damp feeling on my leg. I's nappy had burst and she pee'd on me. Nice one!

Holy Moly! Tough bike ride.

The day started with a debate on whether to cycle and then play soccer or Vice-versa. Soccer then cycle won out (I got a long lie too). D had his own soccer so I had a conflict, thankfully coach Tom took them today. I missed D give everyone a heart attack when he ran down the line, flicked the ball behind him and turned and passed to another player. Two new things in one move! Wow, this training is actually working!

The soccer resulted in a loss again. We have a good team but we cant score in a Brothel and their goal keeper is getting old. Cat like reflexes are becoming tortoise like.

So I gave it a few hours to eat and play with the kids. There was a pool trip today. I went out on the bike ride at around 5. Cycled 23.25 miles which is a new record. However this involved adding another hill. My ham strings are toast and a bit of Bengay was required as one had a knot. I'm totally shot. I thought that going 45 at one point and around 30 for a bit would push my average up but going up a hill at 5mph and down at 45 doesn't equal an average of 25. Sigh. Still I'm on the morgul-bizmark course now. When I'm finally up to about 33 miles I can do the full circuit. Marvelous.

Big day! 5 mile run and upset stomach.

5 miles in! I ran 5 miles today it was a bit tough at the end but I'm well happy. I did my usual half mile up hill afterwards too.

We were almost late for D's soccer afterwards but we made it and another 30 minutes running around with a bunch of kids.

Movie: Bourne Identity. Great movie, running at a slightly slower pace and kept me interested. I don't think it helped or hindered just entertained. So even better.

The swim was a bit up and down. I'm following the training plan now but had an upset stomach. There is nothing better than standing in the deep in trying to figure out if I should run to the bathroom. The answer was yes. Awesome! Soaking wet, goggle and ear plugs in. Oh yeah and always make sure your shorts are on tight. I kicked off from the side and mooned an empty room (phew)

Still I got the workout in and it was definitely better than just swimming 70 lengths.

Another Sad day off.

Work was a mess and I didn't sleep well due to an incident as Coach of Davids Soccer. In the end I just reset. Making this my day off as it should be and hoping to feel better for my run tomorrow. Some people are just born asses and grow up to be even bigger ones.

I think this week has taught me that late games are bad.

No energy day

In class today so I had to run first thing. No energy was a big problem (maybe I didn't eat enough last night) and I was mentally down too. I got in the 3 miles at 5.5 then half at 5 and the half of walk pace. However this left me knackered. Lunch was a blowout. Didn't eat it. By 5 I was all over the place. No swim tonight as I felt over training may have been creeping up on me.

Movie: Bourne Identity. Not 100% adrenalin but it did keep me going for the most part.

American Flyers

Its a day off due to the late game. So lets talk about American Flyers. This is one of my all time favourite movies. I recently changed my cycling route and was at the top of McCaslin and realized this is "the wall" as talked about in American flyers. I'm hoping that as the mile get up there Ill do stage 1 of American Flyers - the "Morgul-Bismark". I checked it out on google maps and it is really built up now and was all grass when it was filmed. The story is loosely based on the Coors classic when the US boycotted the Olympics and the Russian champions came over to compete.

I don't think Ill be doing stage 2 or 3 soon. Stage 2 was Golden to echo lake on Mount Evans and Stage 3 was the Colorado National Monument area (Also called the tour of the moon) at Grand Junction. Both of which I have driven. Maybe next year for stage 3!

The Morgul-bizmark trail can be found here

More wind and late soccer

Bike isn't fixed yet. I got all the bits at the bike store off of some majorly strange dude. So I went out on the old bike. It was smoother as there is no carbon but heavier. Straight into another bloody headwind. I swear when I grew up there was either no wind or I was a hell of a lot slimmer and better at riding then. Got it in and then out for 1 beer.

11:20pm soccer match. Well that's the last of those I think. Its not fun staying up late and getting there and some of your fellow players are a bit tipsy. Sliced up my leg again and got beat. Ill have to make tomorrow a day off to recover.

Mind you I got home around 1 and tucked D in and he wanted a big hug. That made life grand again.

Day 1 of training

I am finally starting a proper training regime. As a plan base I'm using "Essential week by week training guide" by Matt Fitzgerald. I have used this in the past for an Olympic I did. The best part is the swim workouts. I am concerned about using time instead of miles for the run and cycle. I'm not very fast and so cant get the miles in. So I might change that out a bit. For now though miles and times are matching up.

I had to take the morning off work as I couldn't run, docs and work!

Run today was a nightmare. I was all over the shop. 2.5 miles at 11 and 1 mile at 12 followed by half a mile walk uphill.

Movie: AVP - marvellous movie. Not much in depth character exploration just straight into some adrenalin. Excellent.

Swim. Went well. It was great using the book as it broke the monotony up. I got home and figured out I had just done 200 m less than I should have. Sigh oh well must make sure to do the right plan in the future.

Shutout at soccer!

Soccer was first up today and as it was early I got to have a bagel. Hooray. We won! This doesnt happen a lot. We had a shutout! This doesnt happen a lot. It was a lot of fun and the biggest workout I got was playing with D and I at halftime. Marvelous. It was good to see the 2 of them playing together too. D and I both got tied up in the nets and D was stuck until I wandered over and got me.

My friend was in town who signed me up for this event. It was good talking to him. It looks like he will do the IM too!

Puncture! So the actual training didnt go so well. 4 miles into my long ride I blew a tire. It was the tire that came with the bike so needed replaced and I had been risking it for a bit. So I had to call the rescue services in. Im off to the bike shop today or tomorrow to get some supplies, including a spare inner tube.

Busy training and busy family day.

Great day. I got to bed earlier last night. K thought I was mad. A day off and an early night. Smashing.

So the run was 4 miles at an easy pace. This is the first week my easy pace is actually easier than my weeks run. The heart rate run at about 140 down to 130 so I think I could have gone another mile.

Now its off to run around a field with the kids at soccer and then swimming party.

Part II. The swim: I think the summary here is Bollox to this. I was tired and it was hard. My nose is running and I cant hear a blinking thing. I might have a small allergy. The gym was empty as it turns out people don't generally exercise on a Saturday night.

The family commitments led to me not swimming till late so I didn't spend as much time as I would have liked with the wife. Still overall a good day. Soccer went well (no clue on the score) the kids went swimming for 2 hours and then they had dinner and a bath.

Looking for inspiration

Now I have started doing the calculations on how much I have to increase every 4 weeks in order to do this IM. The figure is staggering to me right now. So I thought I was going to have to crack out "breaking away" or "American flyers" (More on American flyers" in another blog) for some inspiration but then the channel "US" had the 2007 World Championship Ironman on. This gave me a ton of inspiration.

The race that year was the year Macca finally won and Chrissie Wellington appeared on the scene completely out of the blue. In fact so out of the blue that there is hardly any footage of her as she was a virtual nobody then. Its always great to see people complete the event and it was kind of a shock how harsh they are with the cut offs.

There were the other competitors they always follow too who have come back from major adversity and a great remembrance of Jonathan S. Blais who completed the 2006 Ironman and who has since lost his fight with ALS.

At the start of the event the showed an over weight gentleman climbing out of the water and asked "Could he finish?". Well the answer was yes he could! I looked him up online after the race and his name is Murray Frank. He was around 250 lbs at the time and he had been doing a few Ironman up to that. It was great he finished and his family came over the line too. Nice one.

These people have all given me hope that I can pull this off.

I'm looking forward to my 4 mile run tomorrow now!

School Zone!

After the hellish cycle on Tuesday I was off out again today. I forgot about a group lunch which threw the whole day off so I was out while school was getting out. Due to the heavy cycle on Tuesday I was off like a bullet and thought I might beat my best time. Most of the cycle was great however on my downhill I hit the odd thing of being able to break the speed limit and having to keep my speed at 20mph with all the other traffic. Weird and it slowed me down!

Today was 75 degrees and perfect!

I had hoped to run with D but settled for coaching the soccer in the evening. I'm looking forward to my day off as my Hamstrings are shot.

Oh yeah I did beat my personal best too.

good run

The run went well again. Im up to 2.5 miles at 5.5 and .5 at 5. So a 3 mile run! I had to cut it short as I had to look after I. She was in for a checkup.

Swim was its usual self. I am getting used to the audience at the side of the pool.

Miscalculated the ride

The weather said there would be 25 to 35mph winds today and 45mph gusts in the foothills. Now I could have trained in the basement but the sun was out and it was cold. So I threw on 3 layers of T-Shirts and my Jacket and headed out. Holy Moly! The first mile sent of alarms as it was hard to peddle forwards into the wind.

I decided to take a different route to get the 16 miles in. Stay on the trails as much as I can as I didn't want a gust blowing me in front of a car. By the time I was at the top of the hill on the south side of Stadley Lake I could hardly peddle at all.

At this point I turned round. 37 mph down hill and feeling like I would get pushed over the handle bars. I was very windy.

I eventually got home and my legs were Jelly and my average speed was only 12mph. I did get the cycle in though!

I let a goal in as I couldn't make my legs work correctly at soccer.

Oh yeah I lost a pound of weight.

The start of a new 4 week cycle.

The run went awesome! 2 miles at 5.5 and half a mile at 5. Then a half mile up hill with high cardio walking.

Movie: MI3 A lot of setup and theory in the first half. So it wasnt the greatest. Hopefully the second half will be better.

66 lengths in the pool it was a tad boring. Ill have to get the plan written up.

Run, Swim, Cycle

Well not much to say about the weekend the run was light, Didnt manage the swim as a ran out of time on the Saturday. We had a full day of events and were going out for Dinner. I did make it to the pool but forgot my stuff and didnt have time to get it.

II ate a tonne of steak at a friends house on Saturday night and had 2 beers. I had a hangover on Sunday! I got the cycle in and did 22 miles a new longest cycle.

Cheese and Crackers and chocolate eggs on Sunday, hooray!

Now eat this, Book review.

So no training today. This week I bought a book based on what I seen on a TV show. The Book is "Now eat this" by Rocco Dispirito. I was interested as he boasted about baking a 52 calorie Brownie with the main ingredient being Black Beans.
Well they pulled it off. The brownie wasn't too bad! I'm not a fan off coffee and there was a bit too much espresso powder in it but I still ate 3 today. The brownie was approximately 2" x 1.5", so not a bad size.
The book boast 150 recipes all under 350 calories and the great thing is they are foods that I would eat. I'm looking forward to trying some of the other recipes over the week. Yes K I will try some of these on my own. Hopefully.
Now here is the kicker. I bought the book due to what the author said he could do only to find out in the preface that he had done a few triathlons! Very cool. That made my day.
I went to cheer my team on at Soccer and found that they were short so I volunteered to play goal. There was no twisted knee and then out for a beer and food. I resisted most of the fatty food and had a turkey wrap. I did have fries but its at least a step in the right direction!

The space time continuim and Brad cooper

I got in 10 hours of sleep last night. I'm still a bit groggy but time to get moving. I had lunch with the family today and then headed out for ride. The reverse usually means missing lunch with the family.
Well the ride, crikey. It was hard cycle out as its always up hill but this time I had the added bonus of a head wind. So I wasn't thinking of much on the way out except pedalling and breathing. The way back was a whole other deal. I think this is the first time in 20 years I took a corner at just off 30mph. That was a bit of an adrenalin rush. Then the wind pushed me a long at hefty speed. I maxed out at 35.4. Sigh not quite 40 but still cool. I had a train of cars following me, not because they couldn't get passed but I was going fast enough.
On the way back I was in full thinking mode. Now if I go up hill with a head wind slow and its Distance and Time is far and then I bang back down in like 10 seconds how to I calculate the average and do I get screwed by the lower number? I think about these numbers a lot while I'm out. It also reminded me of a post a friend made. "If I pause 'Lost' am I threatening the space time continuim?". These are things I pass the ride with.
Now to Brad Cooper. I picked up a magazine and it had an article in it with a picture of Brad Cooper, CEO of Corporate Wellness (2:45 Marathon Time). I never read the article as my daughter ripped it up however she pointed at the picture and said "Daddy". Now sorry Brad I'm a 276 pound man however it made me feel good that my kids see Daddy as an active guy and maybe Ill look like that in 6 months or so. Maybe it was just the shades she recognised I don't know. I have attached the photo.

I had kids soccer today. This was a bit hands on with me being dead by the end of it. Tag is tiring!

I sneaked in my missed swim today. I stopped at 60 lengths as I was knackered. So I get home and discover I haven't eaten enough for Dinner. Another example of why eating right is important. 24 hour fitness seems to have new clientele, the guys with the ripped T-Shirts that say "I'm really wearing a T-Shirt but not really". Good to see the Gym is full of more posers. Makes me want to use the weights there.