Day two started early with a bike ride at 5:00am. Based on the lessons I learned from the clavicle incident, I decided that it was not wise to hit the road at this time of the morning. This meant for a long, boring ride on the dreaded trainer. I really hate riding on the trainer. In the future, I'm going to effort to adjust my schedule to ride during daylight hours, but today I had an early meeting, so it was unavoidable. It was a huge struggle to get out of the bed and make it downstairs and the temptation to say "Screw it, I'm going back to bed," was strong.
It is very clear at this point that my ability to discipline myself to hit all of my early morning workouts will determine how successful I'm going to be in this effort. Today was a win, even if it was miserable. This is an important lesson to remember: you don't have to enjoy something to do it successfully. You just have to realize that the prize outweighs the sacrifice. If I can't convince myself of this on a daily basis, I'll never complete 119 more days of training. Maybe I need to get a tattoo or something as a reminder. Hmmm....
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Day 1 of 20 Week Half-Iron Training Plan
Today is day one of my twenty week training plan that ends with the Half-Ironman Florida on May 8, 2010. I started out well with a 1000m swim this morning. I've got a busy afternoon, so it's going to be a challenge to work in my 45 minute run this evening.
Overall, my training plan will be 20 week for a total of 289 hours of training. Let's hope it's enough.
Afternoon Update:
Day 1 finished as a success as I did complete my afternoon run. The schedule called for a 40 minute easy run, which I finished, completing 3.5 miles. I was interested to see how this would pan out since afternoons have been busy with a 3 month old at home. All three of us went to the weight room together to exercise (baby boy slept through the event). The goal is to omplete all scheduled workouts, with the exception of Christmas day, when I plan to be lazy and eat like a pig.
Overall, my training plan will be 20 week for a total of 289 hours of training. Let's hope it's enough.
Afternoon Update:
Day 1 finished as a success as I did complete my afternoon run. The schedule called for a 40 minute easy run, which I finished, completing 3.5 miles. I was interested to see how this would pan out since afternoons have been busy with a 3 month old at home. All three of us went to the weight room together to exercise (baby boy slept through the event). The goal is to omplete all scheduled workouts, with the exception of Christmas day, when I plan to be lazy and eat like a pig.
Back in Action!
Okay...it's been a while since I've posted, but that's because it's been a while since I've done anything. I am finally fully recovered from a clavicle break after wrecking my bike.
Actually, it was my very first ride on my brand new Cervelo P1 triathlon bike. Luckily, the bike was not damaged as my body absorbed most of the impact. I learned three things:
1.) Riding at 5:00 in the morning when it's very dark: Bad Idea.
2.) Not seeing a water puddle (see item 1) and riding through it at 30mph = hydro-plane incident.
3.) Broken clavicles hurt.
After surgery, my 4-piece clavicle was reunited via plates, screws, bolts, and synthetic bone grafts. It was a struggle at first, as my surgery came one week before my baby boy did, but I managed to still hold him without too much difficulty.
Now, I'm healed and back on the bike, the road, and in the pool. If it weren't for the gigantic scar on my shoulder, you wouldn't even be able to tell. Onward and upward.
Actually, it was my very first ride on my brand new Cervelo P1 triathlon bike. Luckily, the bike was not damaged as my body absorbed most of the impact. I learned three things:
1.) Riding at 5:00 in the morning when it's very dark: Bad Idea.
2.) Not seeing a water puddle (see item 1) and riding through it at 30mph = hydro-plane incident.
3.) Broken clavicles hurt.
After surgery, my 4-piece clavicle was reunited via plates, screws, bolts, and synthetic bone grafts. It was a struggle at first, as my surgery came one week before my baby boy did, but I managed to still hold him without too much difficulty.
Now, I'm healed and back on the bike, the road, and in the pool. If it weren't for the gigantic scar on my shoulder, you wouldn't even be able to tell. Onward and upward.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Half Iron Training
My base training has now started for a Half-iron race. I will need to build up my run speed, continue the progress that I've been making on the bike, and work on swimming form. I will likely start in a formal training plan either 20 weeks or 27 weeks out, but for now, I just need to make it a point to get my workouts in regularly. This may be a task, seeing that I have a very pregnant wife and will have a baby boy either late September or early October. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. After a post-race period of laziness, I completed a 6 mile run Wednesday morning, and another 6-miles this morning. I plan on giving my legs a rest tomorrow and doing some lifting. I do need a more formalized plan even for my endurance building period. I guess that'll give me something to do this evening.
Mountain Lakes Race Results
See results here...my numbers are down in the Male 25-29 category
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=10060
I finished 52/59 in my age category and 440/498 among all the men. Not earth shattering, but I finished my first race, so get off my back.
http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=10060
I finished 52/59 in my age category and 440/498 among all the men. Not earth shattering, but I finished my first race, so get off my back.
Mountain Lakes Triathlon Race Report
On August 8th, I finished my first triathlon. While I had competed in a few duathlons and 5k's, I had never entered a swim, bike, run event. I would soon learn that there had been a reason for this.
Alisha and I headed to Guntersville on Friday evening to meet up with two other couples, the Williamsons and the Mortons. We met at the race site to pickup our packets and then to enter a strenuous evening of race preparation. This preparation basically consisted of a dinner of fried seafood at Top of the River on Lake Guntersville, followed by a Dairy Queen run and playing xbox until midnight. We stayed at a house on the lake and had a relatively short trip to the starting line.
We departed early the next morning to setup our transition areas, and get body marking. After checking and rechecking my bike and transition area, I warmed up with a short swim in the lake. Alisha got there just in time to give me a good luck kiss before I entered the chute. My race number was 297, so I was fairly close to the front of our staggered starting line. The first racer hit the water at 7:45am, followed by everyone else in 3 second increments...all 900 of us.
I had not really prepared for the swim as much as the other portions, which I thought would be okay since I'm a decent swimmer. I was, however, unprepared for an open water swim with this number of people. In the pool, I never got kicked in the face or water splashed into my mouth when I came up for a breath. Getting a mouth full of water when trying to breath turned into an issue, and after about 200 yards, I realized that it actually was possible for me to die. I had to stop once and grab a buoy while returning the lake water that had been deposited in my lungs, courtesy of the adjacent swimmer. I finished the swim in 18 minutes; in the pool, I had timed myself at 13 minutes, so this was a big delay.
Upon exiting the water, I realized that I had forgotten to start my watch at the beginning, so I had no idea what my total time would be. T1 was relatively fast and I got off on the bike with no major issues. About 1/2 mile down the road, I did realize that the energy chews that had previously been pressed onto my handlebars were all gone. I later found the only one that hadn't fallen completely off; it was squished into my glove and sticking my hand to the bars. Other than that, the bike ride was smooth. The course had some substantial rolling hills, but I still managed to hold an average speed of 19mph.
I pulled into T2, pulled on my running shoes, and hit the run course. The run course was very flat, but as soon as I hit it, my calves began to cramp. I stopped at every water station to hydrate and stretch. The cramping eased some, but I thought that my delays on the swim and the cramping had thrown me totally off of my goal time, which was 1:45:00. I finally finished the run, fairly winded, and saw that my total time was 1:47:12. Missed my goal by 2:12. The frustrating thing was that I probably could've made this if I had started my watch and known what my time was. Oh well, lesson learned.
I didn't die, and I finished close to my goal. That's a good day in my book. As soon as I crossed the finish, Morty asked me if I was going to do the Half Ironman in Florida next May. Why not, I've got nothing else planned!
Alisha and I headed to Guntersville on Friday evening to meet up with two other couples, the Williamsons and the Mortons. We met at the race site to pickup our packets and then to enter a strenuous evening of race preparation. This preparation basically consisted of a dinner of fried seafood at Top of the River on Lake Guntersville, followed by a Dairy Queen run and playing xbox until midnight. We stayed at a house on the lake and had a relatively short trip to the starting line.
We departed early the next morning to setup our transition areas, and get body marking. After checking and rechecking my bike and transition area, I warmed up with a short swim in the lake. Alisha got there just in time to give me a good luck kiss before I entered the chute. My race number was 297, so I was fairly close to the front of our staggered starting line. The first racer hit the water at 7:45am, followed by everyone else in 3 second increments...all 900 of us.
I had not really prepared for the swim as much as the other portions, which I thought would be okay since I'm a decent swimmer. I was, however, unprepared for an open water swim with this number of people. In the pool, I never got kicked in the face or water splashed into my mouth when I came up for a breath. Getting a mouth full of water when trying to breath turned into an issue, and after about 200 yards, I realized that it actually was possible for me to die. I had to stop once and grab a buoy while returning the lake water that had been deposited in my lungs, courtesy of the adjacent swimmer. I finished the swim in 18 minutes; in the pool, I had timed myself at 13 minutes, so this was a big delay.
Upon exiting the water, I realized that I had forgotten to start my watch at the beginning, so I had no idea what my total time would be. T1 was relatively fast and I got off on the bike with no major issues. About 1/2 mile down the road, I did realize that the energy chews that had previously been pressed onto my handlebars were all gone. I later found the only one that hadn't fallen completely off; it was squished into my glove and sticking my hand to the bars. Other than that, the bike ride was smooth. The course had some substantial rolling hills, but I still managed to hold an average speed of 19mph.
I pulled into T2, pulled on my running shoes, and hit the run course. The run course was very flat, but as soon as I hit it, my calves began to cramp. I stopped at every water station to hydrate and stretch. The cramping eased some, but I thought that my delays on the swim and the cramping had thrown me totally off of my goal time, which was 1:45:00. I finally finished the run, fairly winded, and saw that my total time was 1:47:12. Missed my goal by 2:12. The frustrating thing was that I probably could've made this if I had started my watch and known what my time was. Oh well, lesson learned.
I didn't die, and I finished close to my goal. That's a good day in my book. As soon as I crossed the finish, Morty asked me if I was going to do the Half Ironman in Florida next May. Why not, I've got nothing else planned!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Self Discipline
"If only I had the willpower to ________." How many times have you made that comment to yourself. I know that there have been times when I wondered why in the world I simply couldn't force myself to follow up on my goals; to make myself execute my life plans ruthlessly. If you've felt the same way, you're not alone. Even during the periods of time when I have been the most committed to my goals, there would still be days and weeks where I would falter. In Romans 7:15-20, Paul says
"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it."
(New Living Translation)
Apparently we're not the first generation to struggle with this, and it's not limited to our fitness struggles either. In recent times, I have been much more successful in sticking with a healthy lifestyle, but have still not been as good as I would like to be as a husband, an employee, or a child of God.
My Pastor preached a sermon series on becoming disciplined, in which he stated that "trying hard" was not nearly as important as "training hard." I don't like getting out of the bed at 5:00 every morning to run or bike or swim or lift weights. If I leave it to myself to simply try hard to do it, I will continue to fail. If I can make it a habit, if I can train myself to do this such that it feels as natural as eating and drinking, then I can succeed. Now is the training period. It is the time to teach my body and mind to behave the way that I want them to. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.
And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it."
(New Living Translation)
Apparently we're not the first generation to struggle with this, and it's not limited to our fitness struggles either. In recent times, I have been much more successful in sticking with a healthy lifestyle, but have still not been as good as I would like to be as a husband, an employee, or a child of God.
My Pastor preached a sermon series on becoming disciplined, in which he stated that "trying hard" was not nearly as important as "training hard." I don't like getting out of the bed at 5:00 every morning to run or bike or swim or lift weights. If I leave it to myself to simply try hard to do it, I will continue to fail. If I can make it a habit, if I can train myself to do this such that it feels as natural as eating and drinking, then I can succeed. Now is the training period. It is the time to teach my body and mind to behave the way that I want them to. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
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