Late night nightmare!

I went back to football (Soccer) for the first time last night. The game was at 11pm and I thought as I was off today it would be fine. I was wrong. Bed at 2:30am, up at 6am with David and back to bed from 7:30 till 10:30. The family was out so I decided to run at 11am. As I was knackered I thought instead of not running at all I would do an easy 3 miles. Heart Rate wasn't a problem 123-130 for the first 2 miles then 135 for the last mile.

The problem was I was knackered! I felt like falling asleep while running and the sweat was poring off me. I didn't swim tonight either, just too tired. I went to see the A-Team instead. Great movie and now off to bed.

We also treated ourselves tonight to the chippy! Fish and Chips and Bangers British style and a bit of cadbury's chocolate afterwards at GB Fish and Chips. Chances of losing weight this week? Nil Point!

New plan for tomorrow a cycle and a swim. If I can fit the swim in on the fly! This would work out well as the 4th of July is Sunday and I wont be able to fit a swim in that day to I can get 2 swims in if I go tomorrow and Saturday.

No more 11pm games!

Week 7. "Fast ride"

I had plans of a nice relaxed bike ride but I got on the bike and decided to go for it as its a breakout week. 30 miles with an average touching 17mph. That's the best yet. I feel like I am making progress on the bike. I probably wont go that fast again for a while but I knows its on the horizon. The other ironic thing was, today, I'm on fire going all out and a guy just cruises past me with a smile and a "good morning". I still have some work.

Weigh in today was good. 254.4, That's a bit better, It means I'm getting close to the 17 stone category. I'm aiming to see a 249 in the next week or so. My patience on the weight loss is running out. Discipline is very hard at this time of year. I have given up on checking the BP as its always bad news. Ill get back on that soon.

Whats an Ironman?

I was speaking to a friend of mine the other day who lives in Australia. An Ironman doesn't necessary mean what it does in Colorado. What I'm doing is a 2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run. I think this is what most people know as an Ironman however that's now a corporation and can only be used by that corporation. A half Ironman is also called a long course triathlon to avoid being sued.

Now while I was out cycling I remembered living in Australia and how cool it was to get a pair of Red Speedos, I was 8 years old so don't freak out. The red speedos were worn by the lifeguards who also competed in Ironman events. My Dads apprentice was also an Ironman. It involves the four main disciplines of surf life saving. Ski Surfing, Swimming, board paddling and running.

I looked it up and it isn't as popular as it once was here is the link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_(surf_lifesaving)
and the triathlon I'm doing...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_triathlon

My favourite bit of the inaugural Ironman triathlon was the guy who was leading had a support crew which ran out of water so plied him with beer instead. He finished second. He was a Navy Seal. I guess you have to have fun while competing!

Who took my towel!

Now I know I must have mentioned in the past that some of the people in the pool area of the 24hr fitness gym have been a bit dodgy. The guys trying to find a date, the guys in full (Fashionable) basketball shorts, complete with shorts below underpants. The guys who didn't bring shorts so just go into the Sauna in their boxers... Well I could go on. However who the hell stole my Towel? I got out the pull and my towel had disappeared. Now its summer so its not a big deal but really?

So the day started with a 5 hour sleep so I wasn't looking forward to anything. I delayed my run to watch the England vs Germany game. I wish I hadn't, it was a blow out. I managed 11 of the 12 miles I had targeted so I'm happy with that. I'm debating running a half marathon next weekend outside. However I'm not sure about my knees though.

Movie: The mummy returns, it worked out OK. I was mostly zoning anyway and felt like I might fall asleep on the treadmill.

I screwed up my training a bit as the swim was a Time Trial, full out for just under a mile. I gave it a go and did 66 lengths in 38 minutes which is 5 minutes of the pace I was targeting. So there is some work to do there. A guy at the gym asked me about the swim, he has the same challenge as me with going to far leads to shoulder pain.

Overall a great day. My goal was to get fit enough to play with the kids. This training is making that hard. D wanted to go to the shop on the bike, we went by car.

Shorter and Faster and Bike Etique

A lot happened on the bike today. The best part was that my average speed for 40 miles was 17.2mph. I did the Platte River trail again, its a really nice trail. From where I start it has a slight incline all the way until I turn round and then its Downhill all the way. Today I had a head wind for my outward bound trip, by mile 19 I was at a point where I just wanted to turn around.

The cool piece was I managed to average 16.2 on the way out and when I turned around I was doing about 22 for a bit and finished at about 19. I didn't get out as early as I would have liked so that's when I made the decision to go harder with a shorter distance. Speed is an issue that I need to address, I have been hoping the weight loss would make me faster. It will but I have hit maximum times I can dedicate to training, now to longer I need to go faster. What I did like about the summaries on my Garmin was last week I went and extra 7 miles and burned only an extra 400 calories. What I took from this was as effort goes they were very similar.

What I learned was that you really need to cycle in the conditions your race will be in. Up until now I have been cycling in the foothills which is climb, recover, climb, recover and is a bit gruelling after a while. I think that is why I was slower last week I just didn't know I could go faster.

Now here's a question. What do you do when people overtake you and then slow down to below your speed? This happened twice today the first one was just outright rude. The second one a couple of guys got lost and then cut in front of me to get back on the trail. They looked faster than me so I sat behind them to see once we were out of traffic if they would take off. What happened though was their two friends caught up and crowded me out. I had to force my way past. Should I be saying something? Who knows, who cares. Was this just another incident of "Hey fat boy I'm faster than you, oh I guess I'm not." This does happen and is very weird. I recognize we all have different training goals on different days, just cycle at your pace and Ill cycle at mine and we can all have fun.

After the cycle we headed straight into the mountains for a BBQ where I had two beers. I don't recommend this as apparently a bit of altitude sickness kicked in and I was all over the place. I guess I should have re hydrated first.

Dont watch funny DVDs

The day started badly with me going back to bed instead of watching Portugal vs Brazil. Just as well, it was rubbish. So the plan is just run.

I got on the treadmill and started the warm up and decided to run 10 minute miles for 2 miles and then ramp it down. Well my heart rate hit 160 after a half mile but I persevered and by 1.5 my heart rate was 137. What's up with my Heart Rate spiking in the first mile! So I ended up running 2.5 miles at 10 minute pace and then going to 11 minutes pace after that. I then figured out if I ran another half mile at 10 minute pace I could break 52 minutes on 5 miles. So I did. That's a PR! I have never ran that fast since I was about 20! I got in the 6 miles and shot out for lunch.

Move: The rest of Bad Boys II. Great Action movie but try running and laughing at the same time, its kind of hard.

The swim was 1800 yds and I got out after the kids were down. It was a tough start as I find after 7pm I start to slip into a sleep type mode. By the end of the swim I felt good. One of the things putting me off the swim is the Neds that inhabit 24hour fitness. Its getting tiring dealing with people sitting watching you or flirting with each other or just doing a "look at me" moment. Tonight was refreshing, hopefully they all got the boot.

I'm looking forward to the Platte River trail tomorrow. I'm going to take a camera but I bet I do not take pictures!

Update: Apparently I was a tad bit tired last night. Kathleen had to edit to make sense.

No bike today

So I am standing there fully ready to go out. I cant find one thing and then I see a couple of other things that annoyed me. I was feeling a little under the weather. Work was stressful. So I turned round and got a shower and went to work.

Sometimes you just have days like this.

Wedding Anniversary!

So that's it 9 years of marriage. Holy Moly. We went out last week as we had a baby sitter then. Kathleen's mother left today. So I decided to spend the night with my wife instead of in the pool.

The run went very well. 3 10:15 miles and 2 10:30s followed by the last warm down at 12 minute mile. The heavy fartleks last week really worked out. I think now Ill be adding more of them but reducing distance when I do them as they seem to help with speed. HR didn't spike either. Very cool.

Movie: Bad Boys II. Great action but too many funny bits. Its hard to run and laugh.

The US made it out of their group today to make the last 16 in the WC! Fantastic games today.

Find the small Victories

Its weigh in day! I was looking forward to it on Friday but by last night I was dreading it. So the weigh in was 259.4. Whats that all about! I have officially put on weight. So I weighed myself again at 6pm and I'm 254! I don't know what's going on there but it sure feels like the world is out to get me! Then the bike ride was tough I was a little slower today. It turns out it was in the 90s when I started the bike ride so that's why I was slower.

I have a new chain on the bike and really enjoyed the ride without jumping gears. I was even able to start climbing hills by getting out of the seat! That was great as it takes a bit more fitness to do this. Then to top it all I was using the bottom bar of the handle bars and peddling, I couldn't have done that 6 weeks ago! Things are looking up.

I pushed the distance up to 30 miles. I don't think I can go any higher due to time restrictions so Ill have to start work on speed now.

Look after your bike

I learned some new things about bike mechanics this weekend. Apparently after about a 1000 miles your chain starts to stretch. This in turn beds in to the gear cassette at the back and then leads to the chain slipping gears. My bike was in this state. I had to drop 250 dollars to get the bike fixed. A new cassette, new chain and labour.

A tool called a chain wear tool (about 10 dollars) would have saved me a lot of grief. The other bummer is every 1000 miles I'm going to have to drop 50 bucks for a new chain. That's a new chain every 8 to 10 weeks!

I have had this problem many times with many bikes and the stores I went to never mentioned that. So this was a revelation to me.

Run and swim

Its Fathers day! I got my run in after trip to iHop for pancakes. I managed a full 2 hours for 10 miles. I am happy with that. The odd thing was my heart rate blew up to 150 for the first mile and then dropped to 120, by the end of mile 9 it had got back up to 137. I'm getting worried this peak in the first mile is becoming a bit worrying.

Movie: Live Free or Die hard, excellent distraction movie.

Then D wanted to go for a bike ride. I was a bit tired but we cycled down to the Butterfly farm and then back again. The butterfly farm was a bit hot.

The swim was a 2000 yard swim I didn't know if I could do it as training seemed to go through the roof this weekend. Apparently I'm getting better as it wasn't too hard!

I'm a bit tired now and think sleeping may be hard due to my slight allergy I get to swimming. Its always something, Ha Ha!

I'm thinking about supporting NZ in the world cup as they have heart even if the Referee is out to get you. Isn't it odd that the Aussies have a similar problem with Referees! Its a FIFA conspiracy!

Great ride on the Platte river

I am tired of hills. So I have bought a map and I am going to try the Platte river. What a relief not to have to do another hill. I got a little lost at the start and fell off the Platte trail onto the clear creek trail. I followed a guy who said he knew where he was going and ended up on a dead end. So back to the start. I got on the proper trail and headed down town. To say there are a lot of trails that connect would be an understatement. Especially around REI where all trails converge (I found that out when I got home). REI was a mecca of cyclists, I have never seen so many in one location. Very Cool!

So I cycled down hoping to hit the cherry creek reservoir but I missed that trail. I ended up turning just before hampden where I fell of my bike. I turned round and headed back 47 miles later I was at the car! I was done. Hence not going the extra 3 miles.

So my gears have been slipping lately so I headed to Golden Bear to get it looked at. Mostly due to cycling through the grit and dirt in SD and ruined the chain and the back cassette. So I'm looking at 200 dollars for the parts. Bummer. I was informed that I should change my chain every 1000 miles. That's every 10 weeks! This will drop to ever 8 weeks, the chains are 50 dollars a whack. So instead of blindly buying a new chain I will invest in a one of those tools for measuring the chain.

If you have never Cycled (or ran) The Platte river trail I highly recommend it. It was very scenic, well except for the sewerage works! I joined it at 88th and Colorado and there was plenty of parking.

Oh and one more thing after 47 miles I wasn't spent! The hill rides around my house usually leave me in bits!

Better Run

What a difference a day makes. My heart rate was through the floor for my run, unfortunately my stomach still wasn't right. However I made the run and I am now running 6 miles. The fartleks at 7mph are now a bad idea at that speed. Maybe 6.5 and 5.5 would be better so I can get faster. 7 mph requires too much energy at this point.

I went off to the the docs today about my RA as the pain has been a problem. Well guess what? Its not RA. That seems to be going away this is just a repetitive injury. So I have another splint. Unfortunately I had a reaction, sigh. I remembered now I wear a sock under it so on Monday Ill try again. This is great news! I real injury and not something that is my own immune system!

The swim went well too. I am focusing on kicking a bit more as that is sadly lacking. Now its home and out to a party where I cant drink. Too much training tomorrow

A weak bike ride

Well the symptoms of the stomach bug aren't gone yet. Today's cycle was pain and borderline puking. I got it in though, about 1.5 mph slower than normal. I think I would normally have blown it off but I have missed too many long runs and bikes that I couldn't. I did drop the swim though as I thought overdoing it would be bad.

Sick Day!

Well I totally messed up today. First I felt a little tired, I thought this was my second run of the week so I added a Fartlek to the exercise. 7mph then 5mph every 200 meters for a mile. So as the run went on a got very tired and eventually had to walk the last 10 minutes. I did well on the run 5 miles in 52:15 but things went down hill after that. I went upstairs to shower and ended up lying on the floor for 15 minutes. I was all over the place. I ended up with a stomach bug that left me woozy and had to go to bed for a bit.

Still I got most of the run in.

Movie: Universal Soldier. A bit drab.

We had a date night. I took a ton of pills and went out. It was the first time 2 years I think we have been out, just the two of us.

Odd biker behaviour

Well I did 27 miles today. Nothing to report apart from my gears kept jumping which got a bit freaky.

So what is it with bike pride? I feel like the village idiot alot as I always say hello to people. So today I'm bike on the south side of Standley lake with a wind behind me. I am in a bigger gear and cruising. I pass a Mountain Biker who is on the bike path sidewalk and I am on the bike path on the road. I look over to say hello and I am ignored, nothing new there. I'm near the top of the small hill and hear a roar sound. Mr Mountain biker is out of his seat and coming up fast. Again no hello but a righteous ha. Some people are weird. I'm reminded of a rule for talking professional cyclist. "When you come up on yes you can go faster and yes you can smoke me. It wont make me go any faster as I know my heart rate and power output and its what I plan to do.

Again - some people are just odd.

Small Victorys

Well today is my day off and gave me time to reflect on the Mini Haha and triathlons in general. So 4 years ago I was down to approximately 240 pounds. The lightest Id been in a long time. I heard about this triathlon called the Mini Haha. So my friend Brian agreed to train with me (He didn't really need to train). I worked my ass off and pulled David around in a cart behind me. I used to cycle to the top of the Dam at Standely lake and run on a treadmill (some things don't change). In the pool I would do 2 lengths crawl and 4 breast stroke. I got up to 300 yards just before the race.

So what got me thinking on this? Three other people in my lane had trained their buts off for the Mini Haha. One had taken swim lessons and her husband had bought her a new bike the week before the event to encourage her. It felt so cool listening to individual achievements in order to do this event. I hope they enjoyed it and will do more in the future.

Now for me I went to the pub the day before and got fairly hammered. I did my best swim time and did well on the bike and run in adverse conditions. I didn't walk any of the run course, this was a first. I enjoyed it a lot and even took in the nice river running beside me making it an even better run. The river was an overflowing creek.

Although I am not much faster I have new challenges in my life which are keeping it interesting. Thanks again to the organizer - Dawn - for a great day out.

Normally its 85 when I run but from the picture of the kids you can see it was a bit cold.

Mini HaHa

Today marks the start of my season and a flag that I'm back. This time last year I blew out both shoulders and really was able to run and cycle consistently again until December. So it was Mini Haha Day. I did this with a friend, we weren't sure if we should do it as it was bucketing with rain and quite cold. We did it anyway.

The swim was good. I sat at the back in a lane with people who had a target of 6 minutes. Apparently I'm getting better at the swim as I found myself doing the breast stroke a lot. So 6:15 out of the pool and a lot transition to make sure I was warm. Note to self. When buying a new shirt make sure it fits and doesn't restrict breathing before you go on the course. Anyway the Cycle was a breeze I did about 13 on the hills and went for it downhill, the downhill was hampered by rain so I couldn't get much above 28. The run was great too I didn't feel tired.

Not bad after the 12 beers I had yesterday! I also placed 138/440 so that was great.

USA vs England!

Well I tried to get a bike ride in before the big game today. I did 7 miles, Im exhausted and RA pain is really bad. To say I was stressed would be an understatement even though its a small triathlon tomorrow its still an event and I want to do well. It raining in June and more like February! So the tri tomorrow will be in cold wet conditions.

What went wrong? Well lack of sleep is a constant, about an hour after I got home I realized that I didnt eat my energy bar and I didnt have a diet coke. I think I would have blowen up around mile 15 with lack of energy and the lack of motivation was the diet coke craving. Ill have to watch that.

So what did I do instead? I went to the bike shop and bought a new top. Isla helped me pick. Ive included a picture. As the race tomorrow wont be sunny and doesn't require a white top to deflect the sun I went for a fun top.

My long run, swim and cycle wont happen this weekend for the second weekend in a row. This officially stresses me out and will push me back a little bit.

A note on the RA pain. Well I have increased my Ibuprofen intake back to 800mg 3 times a day, unfortunately it takes a week for the anti-inflammatory part to kick in. I'm hoping this is a small set back and I wont have to increase the RA meds as the next step is intravenous treatments once a month with a lovely warning "Could cause death". With young kids and a wife I'm not really interested in those treatments. Hopefully the weight loss will lead to a reduction in RA not an increase. Oh yeah and the High Blood pressure isn't getting any better either! Jeezo.

Now its off to the pub for the US vs England game! I'm not saying who Ill support. Too many friends on both sides and I have the privilege of not dealing with an ignorant Prime Minister, ignorant Snickers people or ignorant British media. Those 3 in my opinion are the reasons its hard for Scotland to wish its neighbours well.

Great Run

The run went very well today. I focused on not over doing it and did a fast run with my HR below 160. Compared to Wednesday it was a blast, near the end I had to keep telling myself not to go farther or faster or Id blow it.

Time for 5 miles was 52:15. However I always run for an hour, the 5 mile time gives me a measure of where I am since I started years ago.

I have lost so many inches on my chest that I had to bring the Heart Rate monitor in a few inches. Brilliant.

I did blow my diet again. Its becoming a bit of a common theme, trying to balance weight loss and train for an Ironman is a real challenge. On average I'm burning 2500 calories a day so hunger and not enough nutrition can be an issue.

Thanks to my friends for their encouragement after my small breakdown on Monday! Overdoing it does lead to feeling down too.

Movie: Stealth, great movie.

Nice bike ride

Another bad nights sleep with a lot of RA pain. I started the bike ride and my knees and feet hurt, I think it was skeletal not muscular. I decided to do a small cycle and get in 20 miles. It was fun and a beautiful day, I wish I had brought my camera. The rivers were running full and everything was green.

Off to a group celebration and so I will have to watch what I eat and Kathleen's Mum arrives today. The kids are excited and we may get a night out without the kids!

good day of easy exercize

Run and swim day. I took relatively easy on the run. I went off a bit fast but by mile 3.5 my heart rate kept spiking at 160 so I was forced to slow my pace down. I didn't sleep well last night due to pain in my knuckles, wrist and shoulder so that would affect the HR.

The swim was a lot less than normal, 1200yds, so that was a nice break from the normal.

Movie: Assault on precinct 51

chamois butter is the biz!

Bike ride went well today. I got in 27 miles and I was in the solid 16 mph average speed now. I always cycle slowly the last mile and check my average with 1 mile to go, 16.5 mph. By the end it had dropped to 16.2 but that's brilliant! I am now solidly in the 16s. I have my eye on the 17s now but I think that's a bit off.

On the weight loss front. The week was awful so I expected a bad weigh in. Well I actually lost half a pound this week. One day I will meet the angels of weight loss and ask them whats the deal? To be honest even if my weight is remaining constant I'm still dropping waist sizes so I must be doing something right.

So shammy butter (or is it chammy butter?). Its the biz. I have been struggling with chaffing (One of the great evils) and comfort on my bike rides. I have been informed that if I get a 150 dollar pair of shorts that would help, but lets face it I cycle 3 times a week so that works out to 450 or a lot of washing. So the guy at the derby bike shop in Thornton was very helpful, he even explained how to apply the stuff (an odd conversation but very useful). Thanks mate!

No route today as my Garmin was out of batteries.

Why no posts?

Well its been a hell of a week. I had planned to catch up on Tuesday with the days I had missed but to be honest its been a disheartening week. I weighed in on Tuesday at 261 pounds. What the hell does it take to lose weight around here? I'm burning 2000 to 3000 calories a day just exercising and I cant lose any bloody weight! Well at the end of May I did get a 40 mile ride and a 9 mile ride in.

So this week its been a spiral into oblivion. The weight loss threw me off, then my RA flared up so badly that by Wednesday I had to take some heavy pain killers. I took Tuesday off to try and get the pain under control. Then Wednesday I had to work and couldn't get my ride or swim in (If your job was to burn disks all day don't you think you could pull that off). Yes I said ride and swim, the quickest way to hurt my shoulders do these in the same day. I had a BBQ on Saturday so I tried to be flexible in my training. Thursday I did my bike ride and got a puncture right at the end. I did my fastest run on Friday and I got a swim in.

If something comes up that takes an hour of my day I find it hard to micromanage that and find a way to fit in what I had planned that day.

Saturday was a blowout, no run. Sunday was a blowout no Elephant rock and now swim. Boy am I down and pissed off. To top it all I have blown my diet too. Is it too much to ask to have 1 bloody week where I don't have to be flexible and can just eat and exercise without temptation or stress. Obviously it is!!!!

So whats the plan for this week? Who the hell knows, Its supposed to be a down week but I think I had one of those last week. Ill have to redo my plan and bake this a base week and start again. I have the mini haha at the end of the week which I was looking forward to but now its just one more stress factor.

I am so close to chucking it all right now I can smell it. Its hot I'm in a hell of a lot of pain. I'm out of shape, Even my all the knuckles in my fingers hurt. I had to take vicoden last week to relieve the pain. I need to get back on track, I need to know if I'm really doing this and most of all I need to stop bloody whining and get this all sorted out.

Lets see how this week goes.