Mulligan

Alright - I decided that I'm going to combine my Triathlon Blog and my Weight Loss Blog into one.

I'm calling it "Tri-ing to Lose"  and you can find it here:  http://shawn-nawlb.blogspot.com/

PS:  NAWLB = "Not Another Weight Loss Blog!"  which is kind of how I feel - lol

2010 - kicked my ***

So here's the deal...

2010 wasn't so great a year for me.  I lost focus, stopped training and gained back some of the weight I had lost in 2009.

On the flip side I did get some things accomplished.  I moved, I got a new less stressful, better jobs AND in the past few months I've started going back to the gym.

I feel like I've regained focus and that I'm on track to get back to being an athlete again!

That being said, I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with this blog.  It started as a way to chronicle my training as I went through Team in Training for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.   Then, as I found I liked doing Tris, and wanted to continue doing them, I kept posting to this blog about my Tri tribulations.

However, this was only a small window of the 'big picture' of my 'athletic life' and I actually had an older blog that I was maintaining that had years and years of my weight/training struggles posted to it. I found myself struggling to decide what to post to that blog and what to post to this one.  I didn't want them to be mirrors of each other, and was trying to keep information that was related to the 'subject' of the blog on each blog.

As you might guess, with two subjects so closely intertwined, it got difficult and as my motivation fell, so did my posts.

Now I'm left with a quandary.  As I start to ramp back up in both endeavorers, getting fit and losing weight what do I do with these blogs?  Do I continue them, but keep them separate?  Do I retire one or the other of them?  Or, do I close them both and start a third blog with the focus being my entire 'fitness' journey.

Given that my posting has been so sporatic that neither of these blogs get much of a 'visit' I think the third option might just be a good idea and a great 'clean slate' for 2011.

Epiphany?

Last night after posting my workouts I came to a realization.  I'm ignoring my strengths to focus on my weakness.

While on some level this might seem like the right thing to do, but on another... it seems a little backwards;  especially in triathlons.

Let me explain.  I'm a good swimmer.  Maybe even a little better then average.  The fact that I can go out and complete a 1/2 mile open water swim after not touching the water for eight months, and still manage to stay in the upper/middle of the pack, I believe, speaks to my swimming aptitude.  Because swimming is so easy for me, I've been completely ignoring it in my training.

Then last night I realized, that if I took a little extra time and actually focused just a little on my swimming, I could probably really kill the swim portion of the tri and give myself some additional breathing room when it came to the run.  By ignoring my strongest event I was losing out on a chance of making my weakest event less of a handicap.

So, I'm reworking my schedule to add in more swim workouts and committing myself to stop skipping them.

Maybe with a little work I can (as my husband put it)  catch 5 waves :D

Week One - Check

Week one of thirteen is in the books - managed to put in all my training except the one swim I had planned. I'm ok with that. Three runs and two bikes for a total of 56 miles for the week is a pretty big accomplishment.  and, I logged 5:46 in training time.

First day was a strength workout that included 'hill bounding'. Only there are no hills in Alameda - so I modified my workout to 'stair bounding'.

After a 15 minute warm-up run I did 8 sprints of the stairs, with a 10 second sprint after reaching the top. Then it was a recovery jog back to the bottom of the stairs to do it. It was a short, but intense workout. What was funny was that while I was pooped after doing the stairs, after a short recovery, I was hardly felt like I had run at all and was feeling like I should do more! That's a good sign that I'm starting out on the right foot.  2 miles for 26 minutes

Day two was hill repeats on the bike. We've already established that there are no hills worth speaking of here in Alameda, so I do simulated hills on the trainer... In some ways I think training on the trainer is harder because there's no coasting it's 35 minutes of spin spin spin... 2 minutes of hills with 3 minute recovery 5 times  8 miles for 35 minutes

So, Thursdays are going to be my 'hard' run day. I know, it sounds strange for a 2 mile run to be hard, but I have have a goal of doing the Bridge to Bridge 12K at a 11 min/mile pace. So, thursday is when I'm training at this pace and for me, right now, 2 miles at 11 min/mile is HARD! Hopefully this'll get easier as training goes on.

For the actual 2 miles of my run (the .4 was warm-up) I managed to average 11:16 min/mile. A little above goal, but I'll be doing this same run next week and maybe I'll be able hit that 11 then.  2.4 miles and 28 minutes

Saturday I decided to ride with the Oakland Yellow Jackets.  This ended up being my longest ride to date. I was really happy with how the ride went - enjoyed the team, and the ride itself was fantastic. Just enough of a challenge on the hills without being overwhelming. The pace was perfect for the distance because I ended feeling I could still go more. AND I didn't fall once!  41 miles 3 hours 45 minutes of training logged.

Today was my last workout of the week -- Hooray!

I was so tired today, my legs just didn't want to move! even after 10 minutes of warming up I didn't feel warmed up and when it came time to put on the gas just a little bit - the engine just didn't want to go. Still, I made it through even when I wanted to quit! and managed to log the final 2.8 miles in 34 minutes.

I am calling this week a complete success.

For next week the plan is:

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Leg/Abs and running hill repeats (Might stay and run in SF for this one)
Wednesday - Chest/Biceps and biking hill repeats (Probably on the trainer)
Thursday - Back/Traps and 3 mile run for pace
Friday - Shoulders/Triceps
Saturday - Endurance Bike - (probably try to catch up with the yellow jackets again)
Sunday - Run 45 minutes Fartlek and 1500y swim

Oli Training starts

Start of a new training cycle.  Planning on doing an Olympic Tri in October and that's the focus now, although I have a few fun races I plan to do along the way, including the Bridge to Bridge.  I also plan on doing a intense resistance training program, mostly because I like and enjoy lifting weights, and it's nice to spend time doing something I'm good at :D

This week's schedule

Tuesday:  Run - Hill Bounding
Wednesday:  Bike - Tempo Hill Climbs
Thursday - Run - 2 miles goal pace
Friday - Rest
Saturday - Bike - 20 miles steady
Sunday - Run - Fartlek  and Swim - 1500 Yards

Yes - my training is going to be run heavy - it's really what I need the most help with so I've decided to add an extra run day in there.

Next race is the third try at the tri for fun in Sacramento on August 8th.  Hopefully I'll be able to break the 2 hour mark this time.

Took some time to recover this past week.

I did my markerset/TT run on Tuesday and my Markerset/TT on the trainer on Wednesday.  Thursday, I was having a really bad day, so I ended up just going for a walk with the dog.  Friday and Saturday I rested and recovered and then Sunday I joined up with Team Alameda to see what it was like to do a group ride with them.  Boy was I in for a pleasant surprise.  Fantastic group of people, and a great ride through areas I hadn't been before and where I probably wouldn't have gone by myself.  I think we ended up riding about three hours.  Hit a few challenging (for me) hills and overall just had a fantastic day.  The only bad parts were 1) my bike 'ghost shifting' in my low (climbing) gears and thus making the climbs 10 times harder then they had to be, and 2) getting caught in my clips and majorly biting the back of one of my legs with the opposite petal.  

BUT, there was one positive to all of that.  When one of the other riders took my bike for a spin to see if he had fixed my ghost shifting problem... HE nearly wrecked because he couldn't unclip.  All this time I thought I was just dorky and uncoordinated and part of the problem was that my clips were too tight!  He adjusted them for me and I have to say, I'm 100% more confident when coming to a stop that I can get out of my clips and not fall over!

The goals for this week are:

1) get in some quality weight training

2) spend some time doing yoga (trying to solve a tightness issue in my back)

3) clean up the nutrition!

4) Train

The training plan is:

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - Tempo run

Wednesday - Tempo swim/Tempo Bike

Thursday - Speed work (run)

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Bike/Run Race Sim Brick

Sunday - Open water swim

I'm finally starting to feel a little fire in my belly again - it's good to be back!

Lose It! Weekly Summary for Week of Mon, May 31st

Weekly Summary for Week of Mon, May 31st

for Shawn Mueller-Boddy

Daily Summary
	Budget	Food	Exercise	Net	+/-	Weight (lbs)
6/2/10	1,333	0	0	0	-1,333	207.4
6/4/10	1,333	0	0	0	-1,333	207.4
6/5/10	1,357	3,343	1,810	1,533	176	211.1
6/6/10	1,357	1,334	0	1,334	-23	211.1
153 calories over budget for the week
Gained 3.7 pounds this week

Nutrient Summary		% Calories
Fat	203g	40.3%
Saturated Fat	62g
Protein	259g	22.8%
Carbohydrates	420g	37%
Sugars	129g
Fiber	29g

Exercise Summary		Calories
Running	45 Min	528
Bicycling	1 Hour 5 Min	980
Swimming	20 Min	302
Total	1810

Report generated by Lose It!. For more information or to sign up for your free Lose It! account, please visit http://www.loseit.com

Well,  this has been a tumultuous year.

I've gained weight I didn't want to gain.  I've not trained the way I wanted to train.  I've had to change plans dozen of times (it seems).  And yet, yesterday, I finally got out and did a Triathlon.  It was a sprint, but, I did it.  And despite all the set backs of the year, I didn't do as bad as I had thought I would.  Hey, I didn't come in last! In fact, I think I might have even seen a slight improvement on my bike.

Overall, I have a lot of work to do to get back to the shape I was in last year, but I'm willing and ready to do it!

Next weeks a recovery week, with short runs and rides to recalibrate my baseline, then it's back to serious training to see how much I can improve before doing the same race on July 10th.

I'll have some fitness goals soon - weight goal - I'm going to drop 16 lbs.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

So, I mentioned that I haven't noticed a lot of changes with the change in diet. But, when I sat down and really thought about it, yes, I have. Now, I'm not having one of those "OMG, I can hardly stand it, where is all this energy coming from" transformations, but, I am seeing some interesting things going on with me.

Now, understand that I did a 'lowish' carb diet last year as part of my weight loss program, but it did include some dairy and some grains. It was also low fat and calorie restrictive. When I followed the program exactly as written I was always hungry, as in chew my arm off hungry. So, I would often supplement with nuts and generally felt better. I say all of this simply because, the fact that my body is already used to a lower carb intake could be one of the reasons I'm not experiencing a radical change in feeling/energy by going paleo. Or, it could just be that I haven't given it enough time.

Anyway - back to the changes I am seeing.

1) I'm losing weight. I'm not counting calories. I'm not going hungry. I'm not constantly watching the clock waiting for my next meal. I'm also not spending hours planning my meals for the day, and yet, I've lost 7.6 lbs since Jan 1st!

2) I'm not losing strength. Generally, dieting means having to compromise on strength training (and sometimes even cardio) and yet, I'm still putting up the same (if not better) strength numbers as the end of the year.

3) I have fingernails! I know, this is probably a strange thing to mention, but you have to understand that I'm a person who can't grow fingernails. My nails are normally super soft and very thin. They rip and break right to the quick, constantly. And yet, right now, I have nails that go beyond the ends of my fingers on all but one finger!

4) My sleep patterns are changing - for the better. Ask anyone, they'll tell you, I'm not a morning person. This wasn't helped by the fact that I often had trouble falling and staying asleep at night. Even after sleeping 8+ hours I would often wake up groggy and exhausted. Weekends were a constant battle for me. I would often not wake up until 10AM and could easily fall back asleep and stay in bed until Noon. Then Sunday night I would be laying in bed at 1:00AM staring the clock, stressed out because I knew I had to be up by 5:00 AM the next day.

This past weekend (a three day weekend for me), all three days I woke up 6:00AM (WTF!). Even after telling myself, "It's the weekend! You can sleep in" I ended up getting up before 8:00. I've also found myself falling asleep faster (in usually 10-20 minutes, instead of the HOURS it could sometimes take) and waking up in the middle of the night a lot lot less.

Now, my sleep patterns have always been cyclical, going from bad to worse at certain times of the month, so I'll be tracking the quality of my sleep for at least 30 days to see if it continues to improve, or even just stays as good as it is right now. If it does, then whoo hoo!

Oh, and last night, I made the most amazing pork stir fry w/tangerines and bok choy, and tonight we're having chicken that's been marinating in a homemade peach sauce. Nom Nom Nom!

And the 1/2 Iron Training Begins

One thing I didn't mention in my last post is 2010 will also be the year of the weight training. Hubby and I started getting constant at going to the gym late last year during the "off season". We plan to continue that effort through tri training. Normally that will mean hitting the gym for weights and stretching early in the morning (we get up at 4:00AM) and then doing tri training at night after work. Today however, since we got done with the weights early, and the run was only 30 minutes, we did our run right at the gym on the treadmill. Since the the weather's been bad to worse of late, and the focus was on running drills this actually turned out to be ideal.

Now, my back is sore from a killer weight workout, and I'm all energized from doing 30 minutes on the treddy - 10 of those minutes doing inseam drills.

The remainder of the workouts include:

25 miles on the bike tomorrow (we'll use the trainers)

45 min run on Thursday (The long run of the week)

30 min of drills on the bike Friday (supposed to be hill repeats - I'm thinking we'll just simulate with big chain on the trainer)

40 minutes of running w/hill bounding on Saturday (cross your fingers that the weather will clear like the report says it will)

and

30 miles on the bike on Sunday (again with the hoping for good weather!)

Yes, I know there's no swimming in there - that's because as of right now, I don't have any place to swim :( I canceled my membership in the town where I live, and I'm a woose, and I won't do open water swims when it's 50 degrees outside. My goal is to be able to do my swims on my lunch hour but that'll require me getting a second gym membership, something that's not in the budget (today). So, for now I'm going to have to rely on the the fact that I'm a strong swimmer and I've completed the 1.2 mile swim easily many times before...

That being said, I'll be signing up for a gym membership if I ever get some extra chashola, and I'll be hitting the OW as soon as the temperatures get reasonable.

PS: if you want more details on my weight training, I track it all at Daily Mile - and update twitter with my workouts (SAMBoddy69) You may notice I'm a much better weight lifter then runner - heh.

PPS: bought a second bike trainer over the weekend so hubby and I can workout together :D

2010 Goals

So, 2010 is upon us, and like most folks I've set a few goals for the new year.

I'm going to continue to do triathlons - I mean, do I have much of a choice? It's either that, or change the name of my blog :D

I've got one big goal for this year tri wise and that's to do a Half Iron Man distance race. I'm still finalizing my plans, but my hope is to do the "World's Toughest Half Iron Man" on May 23rd. I know, I aim High :D. This race is called "World's Toughest" because of the sheer elevation. I know, I know. If you've spend any amount of time on my blog you know I hate hills. Well, guess what, I'm the kind of person who likes to face my weakness head on - and so, I want to tackle the 1/2 Iron distance and hills all the same time. What's even better, this race has a 70.3 mile distance Duathlon. So, my husband is training for the same distance, same race. woo fun! Oh, and since this race is 18 weeks away, training starts this week.

I'm going to do a few other races along the way - some of the same races I did this year - overall, I plan to have some fun.

Now, if you've spent any amount of time on my blog, you can guess that the other big health and fitness goals is to get to my goal weight. Last year I started reading "The Paleo Diet" by Loren Cordain. I was intrigued, but wasn't ready to make such a drastic change. Then I bought, "The Paleo Diet for Athletes" by Loren Cordain, and Triathlete Coach Joe Friel. After some study and some deep thinking At the beginning of the year, I made the switch. How do I feel so far? Not really that different, I mean just a few weeks I'm not feeling as if my life has suddenly become roses. But, I'm not suffering giving up (most) dairy, grains and legumes so I'm going to keep with this. Mentally, at least, I feel healthier and that says a lot. I know I'm putting good food into my body, that has to be a good thing.

I know to a lot of people, this is rather extreme. And some might think my diet has got to be bland, but I'm actually really happy with the variety I've managed to have. Today I ate: 2 eggs and 3 turkey sausages for for breakfast, a turkey burger w/a couple cups of mixed veggies for lunch, and for dinner chicken w/beets and orange butter - yummy yummy! I've been having a lot of fun making dinners for new 'diet' and I hope you don't mind if I share them with you.

2009 Recap

The year 2009 was an interesting year for me.  I turned 40, and while not the introspective, page turning birthday that some experience, it did make me realize that I was getting much to old to keep putting my dreams and goals on hold.  If I was going to make a dent in my bucketlist, I better get a move on.

One thing I had be thinking about doing for years was a triathlon.  As I started to look forward to 2009 and my pending birthday, I knew that this was the year I was going to finally do it, so, I signed up with Team in Training and started training for Lavaman in Oct 2008.

At 240lbs, training was difficult.  I struggled with running and biking and was always the absolute back of the pack.  But, I persevered and through a myriad of struggles and injuries, on March 29th I started and finished my first ever triathlon.

It became clear to me that day that I was hooked.  But, it also became clear to me that I couldn't continue in this sport with success and with any longevity at 240lbs.  So, the day after we got home from Hawaii I stared, once again, to work on something that's been a goal of mine for 25 years;  to lose weight.

With race after race looming on my calender and the burning drive to "not be last" I stuck to my plan and  continued to lose weight week after week.  By August I was at my lowest weight in years and was feeling good.  I was also starting to feel a little 'competitive' at races, looking for more then just 'don't be last'.  I started trying to compete against others at the race instead of just myself.  I started having a lot less fun.

I was in the middle of Run Girl Run when I realized what I was doing.  Mid race I had an attitude adjusted why race if it made me frustrated and discouraged.  What was important was that I was out there, having fun, and on the road to self improvement.

Overall, health wise, I think I've had an excellent year.  In running I went from averaging about a 15:00/mile pace, with an average distance of 2.5 miles  to 11:00/mile pace, with an average distance of 5 miles.  On the bike I went from averaging 11 MPR on most rides, to being able to hold a pace of 16 MPR.  On top of all this, in body comp I lost just over 50 lbs, and dropped 5" off my waist and 6.5" off my hips.

Not too shabby

My Races for the Year:

2.25 Miles

Dog run Dog - 25:26

5K

Tough a Granite Trail Run - 37:47
Mountain House Run - 32:54
Skirt Chaser Run - 33:32

10K

Old Mill Run - 1:39:25
Skyline Mountain Run - 1:14:50

12K

Bay to Breakers - 2:08:10
Bridge to Bridge - 1:26:43

1.2 Mile Swim

Catfish Crawl - 46:23

1.5 Mile Swim

Sharkfest - 1:02:30

Super Sprint Tri

Deer Valley  - 59:44
Central Valley - 45:42

Sprint Tri

Napa Valley - 2:21:17
Anchorman - DNF (Got lost on the run)
SV Mountain Bike - 2:02:32
Tri for Fun (Pleas) - 1:30
Tri for Fun (Sacto) - 1:57:50
Tri Girl Tri - 1:49:22 (same race as Napa Valley)

Olympic Tri

Lavaman - 4:59:11
Central Valley - 3:16:46

Other

Escape from the Rock - 2:21:11 (No Bike)
Salmon Duathlon - 2:20:35

And that about sums up 2009 - I'll post again with some of my 2010 goals - it's going to be a GREAT year

Ramping Up

Although my Run/Bike workouts haven't been 100% I have been tearing it up at the gym.

Yep, I've been lifting - hard and heavy, and I'm feeling great!  Finally did a run last week and could feel the difference in the way I ran and how I felt after words.  I certainly have missed the RT! (Resistance Training).  I have a 'plan' for my Half Iron Distance race for this year, but, until I have registration confirmation in hand, I'm not going to post about it.  But, the training plan is in place, and hubby's going to train with me!  I'm soooo excited about this new year!

I haven't lost any weight the past few weeks, but I wan't really expecting too.  I enjoyed the holidays and to do that without gaining is a good thing.  Interestingly enough I'm kind of sick of 'crap' food and have already cleaned up my diet starting this week.  Who needs Jan 1st to start resolutions? :D

Waited too long

I've had a lot of stuff going on and haven't had the money to sign up for Vineman. But, today, since my company gave us a little tiny Christmas Bonus (enough to cover the cost of Vineman) I decided to finally sign up. Only...

It's sold out!!!! They opened this thing Nov 1st and it's sold out!? please excuse my language but WTF!? Not only are they sold out, but there is a waiting list almost 600!!! athletes long!?

Needless to say, that put me in a tailspin this morning. Whatever was I going to do.

I had decided that I wanted my first 1/2 Iron distance race to be a 70.3 branded event. I figured for the first, I would go to the 'big ball'. So, I got online and checked the IM website. We're luck enough here in California to host two 70.3 events. Both are sold out... So I started looking at other states. The next closest event was in Washington - in August. Well, I have an aunt in Washington who would gladly give me a place to stay. And I could use a little vacation, been meaning to visit the family up there anyway... So I went to active.com to sign up...

Now, I don't know about you guys, but it's rare, and I do mean RARE that I see a review for a race on active.com. When I do it's usually some little blurb about 'race was fun' or something else useless. People don't usually take the time to come back to the registration site to rate the race. But this race in Washington, it had reviews. 45 of them!? Do you know what could drive 45 people to come back to the registration site to let people know how their race had gone? Deep and bitter dislike and frustration. After reading trough the first 10-12 I figured I was better off not doing this as my first 1/2 Iron distance race *sigh*

So, I'm back to square one. I really really really really want to do a 1/2 iron race next year. I want to do it in July/August and I don't want to have to spend a lot of money to travel. what to do? What to do!?

A whole lot of nuttin'

Oh my, where to start...

I did the skirt chaser 5K in San Francisco on Nov 15th, and basically have done NOTHING since.

I woke up that morning not feeling 100%.  I didn't think much of it.  I figured it was allergies or something.  I continued to feel 'off' up until the race, but ran anyway.  It was actually a lot of fun.  A good race, well run, with great support, great food etc.

But, as soon as the race was over I wanted to go home.  I was tired a chilled and just wasn't feeling right.

By the end of the night I was running a fever and KNEW I was in a bad way... it was over a week before I would leave the house again.  The flue hit and it hit HARD.

Since then it's been really hard to get off the couch again.  The temps here have been running in the low 40's and sometimes into the 20's.  Yeah, here in Central Valley California, go figure.  Still, it's less the weather and more motivation that's got me glued to the couch.  I justify it by saying "it's the off season" - but feel guilty about it all the same.

On the positive side I have done SOMETHING the past two weeks.  I've gone to the gym!  That's right, hubby and I have gotten up, drove to the gym and worked out; three times last week and three times this week.  going back and hitting the weights feels AWESOME even if the weights I'm lifting feel piddly.

As for diet -- well it hasn't been so hot.  I'm kind of in damage control mode right now.  Enjoy the holidays, but try not to gain 10lbs.  Of course damage control would be easier if I added a little cardio into my routine... :D

I'm signed up for a race this weekend - not sure if I'll go or not.  The entry was free and since I haven't trained in a month and it's a 12k...  Just not feeling it, but we'll see.

Hopefully, everyone else is having a good holiday/winter season.  I'm going to focus on getting back into the training 'groove' next week.  Breathing is pretty much back to normal - it's time.

Vineman 70.3

I'm going to do Vineman next year - I'm gunna I'm gunna! haven't bought my entry yet -- but it's on the list, in the budget.

I've set myself some big big goals to go with it - as in - I WILL be at my weight loss goal. And the incentive. I've I'm not at or below my goal - I'll bow out of the race.

As for training? well it's going ok. I'm still finding the heart rate training to be incredibly SLOW, but, it's not boring! :)

I'm going to try to post here more often. I get caught up in things and don't always get my thoughts put down. But I know how good it is for me to be able to refer back - so this journal is important.

upcoming races in my world?

Skirt Chaser 5K - doing this with hubby, should be really fun!

Double Lake Merced - a 9 mile run I'm doing with Hubby and my Step Son - this will be my new 'offical logest race'

Modest Turkey Trot - a 5K with hubby on thanksgiving day

are what's in store for this month.  A lot of easy fun runs - just as it should be in the winder months!

alright then - back to work! :)

Zone What?

When I set up my training this week I didn't plan very well.  I didn't take my schedule into account when planning and that messed me up.  So both Tuesday and Wednesday I was tied up after work until 10:00PM - my workouts didn't happen.

So tonight was my first opportunity to do heart rate training.  It was an interesting experience.  The workout tonight was my 'endurance run' and it called for a 5 minute warm-up and then 30 minutes in Zone 2.  

I learned a LOT

I learned I never run in zone 2.

I learned that running doesn't have to = suffering

I learned that I don't have to want to quit after the first mile

I learned that I'm a pretty tough task master and I'm actually really good at pushing myself

I learned that running can actually be fun :)

I learned that have been approaching every training session as a race - pushing it all out usually in zone 3-4 and that's probably why it's sometimes hard to get myself out the door.  

It was interesting, it was fun and I think I'm going to really really like my new training program.  

There's always been a part of me that wondered if I've been pushing myself hard enough.  There was always this voice in my head that said "You're being a wimp, stop complaining"  I can't tell you how good it felt to know that I haven't been a wimp all this time and I've actually been pushing myself to the actual edge of my endurance.  Now to see if stepping back a little will continue to allow me to improve.  I wonder if I'll see the same results tomorrow on the bike.

Off and running

Yesterday went pretty much as planned.  I was spot on with nutrition, even with having lunch at Panda Express.  I got out in the evening and did my TT testing.

The plan for the day was to figure out my lactate threshold heart rate using Joe Friel's plan (which you can see here:  Joe Friel’s Quick Guide to Training With Heart Rate, Power and Pace

I started with a 15 minute warm up with 30 second sprints mixed in.  By the time I was done with the warm-up I was at the park.  What's nice about your community is that all the parks have a dirt 'track' around them .75 miles long- pretty nice to run on.  I figured this was as good a place as any to do my time trial.  I started my watch and did the first 10 minutes, then hit the lap button and did 20 more.  It was tough.  There were several times when I thought "Why am I doing this again!?"  I used every trick in the book to get through it, focusing on form, running to the next 'land mark'  and in the end it worked.  I made it through and I believe I got so good data out of it.  (Unfortunately, I can't look at ALL the data because I broke my ANT+ stick for my Garmin and can't download my data to my computer right now)

I did get enough info to figure out my training zones though.

For the first 15 minutes (warm-up) I went 1.33 miles @ 11:18 pace with an average heart rate of 161.
The next 10 minutes I went .94 miles @10:56 pace with an average heart rate of 171.
And, the last 20 minutes I went 1.83 miles @ 10:58 pace with an average heart rate of 173.

That makes my 30 minute distance 2.77 miles
And, my LTHR is 173

Throwing that number into my calculator...

Zone 1 - 147 and under
Zone 2 - 148 - 154
Zone 3 - 155 - 163
Zone 4 - 164 - 171
Zone 5a - 172 - 176
Zone 5b - 177 - 183
Zone 5c - 184 and up

And now I've got even MORE data to play with while working out.  I'll be doing my bike TT today.  I wonder if it'll give me the same Heart Rate Zones

Starting a new cycle

I'm starting a new training cycle and a new weight loss cycle.

For training, I'm testing out the 10 hours/week training plans (with some minor modifications) from over at Endurance Nation.  (The ebook is an excellent deal).

I'm starting the sprint program with the focus race being a Du I've got planned for Jan 2nd. (2 mile run/7 mile bike/2 mile run) I've got a 10 week plan in place.  The first five weeks I'm going to focus on:

Swim - Muscular Endurance (I'm pretty much planning on maintaining my swim fitness right now)
Bike - Muscular Endurance and Strength (Let's figure out how to fly up the hills)
Run - Muscular Endurance and Strength (Again, figuring out how to run the hills)

I'm also going to refocus on weight loss.  The past few months I've been in maintenance mode.  Since I don't have any 'big' 'important' races planned for the next 10 weeks, I've no excuse to 'carb up' :)  So it's back to a tight, clean eating plan.  I know one of the best things I can do for my race times is drop more weight.

And so, in brief here's my goals:

Goal Date:  Jan 2nd
Race Goal:  New Year Du
Weight Goal:  -20lbs

Goals this week:

Fitness Tests this weekend

Sat - Run - 30 min TT for heart rate zones; Swim - 20min for distance
Sun - Bike - 30 min TT for Heart Rate zones

Mon - Rest
Tue - AM: Lower Body training/PM: 30 Min Fartlek Run
Wed - AM: 1000Y Swim/PM: 10/15 Miles - Intervals
Thu - AM: Upper Body training/PM: 30 Min Run
Fri - 15 Mile Hill Repeats Bike
Sat - 30-35 Min Hill Repeats Run
Sun -15/20 Mile Bike

Goal weight:  -3 lbs (don't get all spazzy on me.  I've been eating like crap and I'm sure the first week I'll drop a ton of water weight - I'm probably under selling myself with only a 3 lb goal).

And that's it!  I'm going to try to update my blog daily with all the boring stats to keep myself honest.  And... maybe I'll even have some interesting stories to tell along the way :)

Central Valley Tri - International Distance

I'll try to put together a full race report later, but I had to post my results from the weekend!

The Backstory - in case anyone is new to my blog:

I did my first triathlon in March 2009 - yes, this year. It was the Olympic Distance Triathlon called Lavaman. My goal at the time was to finish, and I did, in just under 5 hours.

After nearly a year of training, I was hoping to improve at this, my second ever tri of this distance. I had been seeing steady improvement over the months and was feeling really good going into it - I set my goal for under 4 hours. Yes, a 1 hour improvement.

And I did that - and then some!! To my abslute amazement, I finished this tri in 3:16:46 almost 1 hour and 45 minutes difference!!

Oh - and because this was a rather small tri - I took first place in my age group!