Waking Rip Van Winkle

So I feel as though I've awaken from a wonderful sleep and remembered I have a desire to write down all that has happened in the last however many weeks.

And exactly what has happened you ask? 

I was supposed to ride my first century in April, for which I stopped running for three weeks in order to build my bike mileage, and as a side benefit give my shins a rest from the pounding of running in the suburbs. However, three days before the scheduled ride in the Wasatch mountains (mountains used loosely here) of southwestern Oklahoma was cancelled due to the last minute bailing out of about half the anticipated riders. While I could have been, and to an extent was, fairly upset about the news, it so happened that the small Texas town of strong German influence, Muenster, was holding its annual Germanfest festival the same weekend which happens to include a metric century popular among cyclists in north Texas who appreciate a cold Shiner beer following a windy ride.

So thus we began, my uncle and I, early Saturday morning with about 30 preliminary miles around the small lake where he lives, and then we drove the thirty minutes to Muenster to begin the metric on a clockwise loop (beginning at about 3 o'clock if you imagine it) on what turned out to be a VERY windy day, with the wind blowing out of the south. Thus the last 10 miles were a hot, fairly miserable leg with not enough fellow riders around to form anything resembling a pace line and suffering through the wind alone, wishing the headwind would at least bring about the aroma of brawtwurst and sauerkraut, but alas, it did not.

Muenster was over three weeks ago now, and much else has happened, including, but not limited to:

 my first ever time trial 

helping a colleague select the best pedal/shoe option

getting back into running

dealing (again) with shin pain

missing my first regular swim practice in months

checking out a new masters swim club

realizing my first "A" race, with which I hope to qualify for the US Open elite wave, may not actually meet qualification requirements

my new appreciation for mapmyride.com

progress on my fixed gear conversion project

my struggling attempt to maintain my workout/diet journal

recent podcast reviews

and... 

an upcomming trip to Colorado where I hope to complete a 22 mile ride which includes a 9 mile leg with 2500 ft of climbing

So brace yourselves, the firehouse of new posts might be opened soon, I'm in the middle of the spring and summer semesters with much too free time on my hands and the creative juices are flowing,

P

Ok...So I blew it

Swimming in the pool this morning did little to reassure myself that I really didn't waste my vacation as bad as I've been thinking since returning home Sunday night.

After ranting a while back that I wanted to swim anywhere besides a pool while knowing I would be spending 10 days in the clear blue waters of the Bahamas, I swam a full, count it, 1 time during my trip, and that amounted to little more than 2o minutes or so of actual swimming. Add a few ancillary swims while snorkeling and jumping off cliffs and I essentially did nothing to justify packing my swim fins, paddles and two sets of goggles. 

Perhaps you're thinking, well that's ok, everyone needs their rest and I'm sure you still managed to compliment what little swimming with some regular running, right? 

Wrong

The running was almost as bad as the swimming, granted I ran 40 minutes my second day there and another 20 minutes on day 7 or 8, neither workout justified the inordinate amount of food I ate nor the liberal amounts of Bahamian beer with which I cooled myself off.

All said and done I came back 3 pounds heavier than I left, a 6 pound deficit considering I was hoping to LOSE 3 pounds and while I needed some rest, I successfully peaked a full 3 months before my first A race of the season.

Not to be one to end on a bad note, I have a great tan now and the weather in Dallas is finally starting to look conducive to bike riding, learn from our mistakes to better ourselves going forward...

2009 recap

So here's the deal...

I started a post to do a quick "recap of the last week or so" and ended up putting all of 2009 into spreadsheets for the last 30 minutes and it is truly an eye opening experience in how it allows you to see true distribution of workouts across all 3 disciplines.

And now, after wasting an hour trying to get things posted on here, I'm just going to give you an overall recap with some additional notes below with which I began this post.

January Recap -

Total Swim Time/Distance 6.5 hours/13,800 meters (8.6 miles)

Total Bike Time/Distance 5.2 hours/95 miles

Total Run Time/Distance 6.4 hours/50.2 miles

February Recap -

Total Swim Time/Distance 8.8 hours/16,900 meters (10.6 miles)

Total Bike Time/Distance 9.0 hours/161 miles

Total Run Time/Distance 9.4 hours/64.3 miles

Total to date - 

Total Swim Time/Dist 15.3 hours/30,700 meters (19.2 miles)

Total Bike Time/Dist 14.2 hours/256 miles

Total Run Time/Dist 15.8 hours/114.5 miles

**NOTES FOR FEBRUARY WORKOUTS**

Sunday March 1 - 45 min tempo run - approx 5 or 6 miles, running the first 3 miles as a warm up with my wife

Saturday Feb 28 - Biked 61 windy minutes up and down about a 5 mile stretch of road near the house to get an interval type workout, overall the average speed was around 17mph, not bad considering the conditions.

Friday Feb 27 - Ran for an hour at a slow even pace, covering almost exactly 8 miles, nothing extra ordinary about the whole event

Thursday Feb 26 - Usual hour swim at 630am

Wednesday Feb 25 -Ran 6 X 400m (1:30 per lap) intervals with a slow jog lap in between on the track after 1.5 mile warm up and ended with 1.5 mile cool down, overall time 47:31

Tuesday Feb 24 -Swam approx 2350m at the morning swim and ran an easy 18 minutes with the wife

Monday Feb 23 - Biked the same route as the day before, but on the road bike instead of the tri bike. Windier today but overall time was comparable for a first test between the two bikes

Sunday Feb 22 - Took the tri bike out for about 19 miles, out and back on a new route, ran an easy 19 minutes with the wife

Saturday Feb 21 - Ran 5 miles in 37 minutes

Friday Feb 20 - Ran about 8.5 miles in 66 minutes

Thursday Feb 19 - Swam for an hour at the usual 630am time

Wednesday Feb 18 - Ran 40 minutes including 4 x 400m @ 1:30 per lap with an easy jog in between laps

Tuesday Feb 17 - Swam 2550 meters in about 70 minutes at the usual time

Monday Feb 16 - All my notes say is that I ran, don't know the details on this one

Sunday Feb 15 - Rode the new road bike to the Post Office to pick up dad's mail while he's out of town, hour out and hour back, overall about 35 miles

Saturday Feb 14 - No notes for today

Friday Feb 13 - Rode the new road bike on the lake short loop, about 17 miles in 53:10

Thursday Feb 12 - Swam for a full 80 minutes, no notes on the overall distance

Wednesday Feb 11 - Rode my bike for 51 minutes, covered about 17 miles

Tuesday Feb 10 - Normal swim outing, went for 75 minutes

Monday Feb 9 - Ran 6.8 miles in 61 minutes

Sunday Feb 8 - Ran 6.5 miles in 47:34

Saturday Feb 7 - Rode White Rock Lake with Rachelle and uncle John, easy pace, 23 miles in 93 minutes, outbound leg into a 20mph headwind

Friday Feb 6 - Ran 4.6 miles in 30:50

Thursday Feb 5 -Regular 60 minute swim

Wednesday Feb 4 - Ran about 6.5 miles in 50:19, average HR 162

Tuesday Feb 3 - 65 minutes in the pool

Monday Feb 2 - 45 minutes on the bike

Sunday Feb 1 - Ran about 7 miles in 48:55

A matter of cycles

These are my two babies.

There's a third, the bike that actually got me hooked on this consuming obsession, but it's hanging upside down from the garage ceiling right now and isn't very photogenic without a saddle on it. Just so you know, it's a Panasonic DX-2000 that my dad got back in the eighties and then sat in his attic for an unknown amount of time until a year and a half ago when the house sold and he was finally forced to clear out the "junk."

Since then, I've become a collector of sorts, most recently adding the Specialized "epic" in exchange for my old mountain bike from college.

What I wanted to know today, though, is how these two bikes (Cervelo and Specialized) compare side by side, something I've yet been able to test since acquiring the Specialized a week and a half ago. So today, after riding a fairly straight forward route yesterday on the Cervelo, I rode the same route on the Specialized. There was a decent amount of wind both days, but today seemed to be a bit stronger out of the south.

Today's results are as follows:
Outbound split - 34:25
Inbound split - 26:14
These splits are as measured by my watch, which continues to run during stops, the total elapsed time equaled 1:00:39, less than a minute more than my elapsed time yesterday of 59:17 (I think, I forgot to note exact times).

While the two bikes utilize two different computers (cateye estrada with cadence on the Cervelo and Bell 8 function wireless on the Specialized) the distances reported were within reasonable difference and the total "wheel spinning" time between the two were again within a minute of each other.

While this test is far from scientific, it's a beginning point for comparison and I will continue to test the two bikes on other routes and results will be posted accordingly. But so far it seems any differences are negligible at this time.

Till next time,

Peanutt

I'm so ready to get out of the pool

Not in the sense that I want to stop swimming, I just want to swim somewhere ELSE besides a 25m chlorinated pool.

Somewhere like the Bahamas. Where the water is as clear as a swimming pool but there's no wall to kick off of just when you start to get going and where there's no such thing as lane lines or master's club with whom to compete for lane space. Just you and the water, some sand below and a fish (or nurse shark) every so often to drive home to point that you are NOT in a pool.

Oh, and the water's warm too.

I'd even take some time in a lake at this point if the lakes in Texas weren't still too cold to attempt without a westuit I don't have. Though I admit I have confidence that the water will warm soon enough, not like the lakes in Colorado that "warm" up to a balmy 69 degrees in the middle of summer.

It's just a matter of time, and for now that means grunting through laps at the crowded, chlorinated pool, 25 meters at a time.

But soon...oh how soon it is......That's looking west into the sunset from the anchorage at Staniel Cay in the Exuma island chain of the Bahamas and will serve as my training "pool" for the week of spring break, if it ever comes, in March.

Or even......Possum Kingdom Lake in Graham, Texas - The only place I call home in the sense that it has been there since before I was born, and for someone who's moved almost 30 times in only 25 years, that means something.

Triathlon in real life

I spent almost 3 hours watching Stage 2 of the Tour of California on TV yesterday.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with watching professional cycling on TV, many people watch other professional sports on TV, like baseball, football, hockey, basketball, again, nothing inherently wrong there.

But to be honest, I don't have 3 hours to spend watching TV, or at least I SHOULDN'T have 3 hours to spend watching TV. I'm not a professional athlete, despite what my allusions of grandeur are and nice as that would be, but in reality, I'm just a lowly full time grad student who's also looking for a job.

I don't know what I'm going to do in the meantime to fix the situation, but the first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

I don't necessarily blame triathlon directly for my diversion from the work I should be doing, I've become a master of that on my own through a lifetime of practice across a variety of disciplines. Triathlon just happens to be the current flavor, granted it has lasted longer than many of the other flavors and as undoubtedly improved my life at least as much as it's potentially harming my life through distraction.

I mean it's hard to argue with the 30 or so pounds I've lost through both the increased activity as well as the intentional focus on healthy eating for health's sake, my wife sure seems to appreciate THAT change.

Nor can I complain about the people I've met through my training and competitions, triathlon company is certainly better than the company I kept as an unhappy EMS helicopter pilot.

I guess what it comes down to is a realization and definition of actual goals and priorities, being careful not to confuse dreams with attainable goals. Nor should I be negligent as to the danger of sacrificing valuable time to be productive for excessive time to enjoy something that is secondary.

None of this is easy for me

When is it going to warm up in Dallas?

As I've mentioned before, I have a goal of breaking 2:00 in an olympic distance triathlon this year and in order to do that, I'm forecasting a bike leg split of an hour. One of the reasons I'm fairly optimistic about this goal is all the time on the bike I got last semester commuting to and from school 2-3 days a week in addition to regular training rides on the weekends.

When it comes to riding my bike to school, the following issues come into play:
-Which bike will I ride?
-Will I take the train or ride the whole way?
-Do I have to pack my clothes or are there some that I've stashed in my locker in the library?

But most recently, the only issue I've been dealing with is the nasty weather we're having in Dallas.

Which bike I ride has essentially taken care of itself since last Thursday when I traded my old MTB for a road bike that, though it's not new, wasn't built in the 80's when they still put shifters on the downtube and made handlebar grips out of hard plastic.

I'm counting on these rides to help me towards my goal, not to mention to save on the $6 on tolls and gas it costs each day to drive, but it's looking like it won't be till after spring break when I can ride to school...Oh well.