Random and occasional thoughts on

Warning This is a long read, but hey, it was a long race. Preparation I signed up for this race after a lot of thought and discussion with my wife.  Christine has never seen first hand the schedule and effort that goes into preparing for an Ironman so I tried hard to tell her what my time commitment would be if I signed up for this race.   I did my first, and only other Ironman the year I turned 40 so this would be a decade later and the year I turned 50.  My job had a somewhat flexible schedule and no other significant commitments, so it seemed like the stars were in alignment and I decided to go for it. I had already been running a lot and did a trail marathon in February so I thought my running was on track.  I did a couple of open water swims, but never managed to get in the water as regularly as I had planned.  I wasn't too worried about that since my swimming background is pretty strong.  I tried to get 3 bike rides in a week when I was...

When we decided to spend Thanksgiving in Oceanside, I didn't think about doing a race while we were here, but when I saw my friend Rich Cruse post about the Oceanside Turkey Trot and I realized it started less than a mile from where we were staying, I thought it would be a fun way to start Thanksgiving. The start of the 10k was 6:45 so I left the condo at about 6 and walked over.  It was a little chilly but as long as I was moving I was ok.  I had forgotten my water holder belt, so I decided to just go with water available on the course and drank a water bottle on the way and while waiting for the start. It only took a few minutes to get there and find the race bib pick up. The only downside to the process was that even though they had plenty of volunteers, it looked like everyone who had pre-registered had numbers in the same range so there was only 1 volunteer that could help everyone which caused a line.  Not a big problem for me because I was early enough so I g...

First of all, I had the FitBit Surge before this and I loved it.  However, the band started to wear badly after about 8 or 9 months of hard use so when I fell and the screen got scratched, I decided to use my extra warrantee and trade it in. I went in to Best Buy planning on simply exchanging it for another Surge and I had been happy with it so I had not done any research into the other products on the market at that time.  When I got there, I needed someone to unlock the display to get the new Surge out and they started telling me about the Blaze.  I liked the look (more watch-like, less sport-tracker) and the associate assured me that it also had GPS and I could use it to track my runs without my phone. Turns out that is not true. I don't know if he was mis-informed or just mis-represented the product, but that is the only thing I had been unhappy with and that is not anyone's fault but mine for not looking into the product a bit more. So I've been using the Blaze f...

Most runners I know use running to occasionally "clear their head".  You know, when the pressures of life build up and you feel like you can't get ahead, a good run will help to prioritize the important things and start making progress on them.  A few nights ago, I was at that point and ended up going for a run around midnight.  Nearly full moon and lots of streetlights made this a pretty safe thing to do for me, and while I was not able to fall asleep as soon as I got home, I was able to sort out my thoughts and feelings a lot better.  When I did fall asleep around 3, I slept so soundly that when I woke up at 6, I felt more rested than I usually do after 8 hours of sleep.  That run was more of a "release-valve" type of run.  It just let me vent some emotions on the pavement instead of on my family.  This morning was more of a "clear my head" kind of run.  I decided to use a regimented 3/1 run/walk ratio rather than the "run till you are ready ...

It was beneath an overcast post-dawn sky that this epic ride was started.  OK, maybe most people wouldn't consider it an Epic Ride.  Alright, I wouldn't even have considered this an epic ride a few years ago, but hey, I just doubled my 2009 bike mileage in a single morning.  Pretty embarrassing to admit that my total logged bike miles for 2009 was 4. It did feel good to get out for a bit over 30 min this morning and I hope to get more rides real soon.

No, get your mind out of the gutter. Let me explain. About a month ago, I saw a message on Twitter that said " On 2nd day of my " 'running streak' ". I realized that since I had run the day before, I could match that streak. I had been struggling with running regularly and thought that I might give it a shot. According to the United States Running Streak Association, Inc , a running streak is defined as running at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one's own body power . It says nothing about pace, so I decided to give it a try. Every runner worth their salt knows that recovery is important. Typically, recovery takes the form of days off from running which would not happen with running every day. Why would someone do this to themselves? Is it safe? I learned during my triathlon training that recovery can also happen during cross-training (biking or swimming for example) or even on easy running days. During my ramp-up for my Ir...

While I am not currently training for a triathlon, I am still interested in tri-training, because I plan to resume tri-training in the future, maybe as soon as 2010 ramping up for another IM in 2011. I just read an article on training volume that sounded interesting. The concept being discussed is why many age-groupers hit "the wall". Jesse explains his theory of the volume required to avoid what he terms System Failure (walking the last 10 miles of the marathon in an IM for example). He states that for a triathlon, the following required distances should be met at least twice in the 6 weeks before race day. These distances are based on your race distance according to the following formula: Swim – 9/3 of the event distance, per week Bike – 8/3 of the event distance, per week Run – 7/3 of the event distance, per week For someone training for an Ironman, that means that in their final build block before race day, they should have a week with at least 12,660 yards of swimm...

The Plan. This kind of weather makes it hard to stay inside so I decided to head out for an afternoon hike up in the mountains. My youngest son decided to join me so we grabbed my camera bag and headed out early afternoon. Execution. We headed out to the Superstition mountains and found the trailhead we had selected without any problem. About 3pm, we headed out from the car. We had no rush to set a fast pace and just set out along the trail. We had great weather, mostly clear skies with just a few white puffy clouds floating by. Perfect t-shirt weather. The chart on the right shows the elevation. Pretty gentle till the last section before we turned around where it go a bit steep. The overall pace is surprisingly low, even when you consider that this was the longest my son and I have gone together, but we stopped quite a few times for sight-seeing. There are some amazing views in the Superstition mountains as well as quite a bit of wildlife. Several times we saw several humm...

OK, I ran at the gym on Tuesday as well, but last night I went about 2.4 miles. I made a few up and down sprints at the water retention basins for a bit of extra and threw in a short speed interval to give my son a run for his money (he was pacing me on his bike). I only took about a 30 second walk break after the speed interval to get my HR and breathing back under control. I managed about 5.5 miles last week (1 of those was walking with my lovely wife) and so far this week I am at 3.9 with 4 days to go (my training schedule starts Mondays) so if I get 2 more workouts in and average 1.55 miles each, I will be at 8 for the week. Any walks and I should be able to hit double digits! And that is on top of getting off to a spectacular start on maintaining my photo blog . My minimum goal there is to have at least 1 photo a week and try to get post every other day as a stretch goal.

Well, I voted this morning, so that was a good start to the day. I went to a Microsoft Road Show. Those of you that know me might be surprised, but my job also requires that I support SQL*Server in addition to Oracle so I went to try and learn a bit about upcoming versions. I learned that there are some new features that will make things easier to manage, but usually only if you use the more expensive "Enterprise Edition". Took care of some stuff at the office and then hit the gym with DS#1. It was our first night on the weight machines. We gave the legs a good workout. The gym was busy, but not over-crowded. Watched election returns and heading off to bed to dream about buying some new guns before they are banned.

Strength training at the gym was canceled tonight since the instructors are all involved in the big fight tournament this weekend and have stuff going on with that. I was thinking about giving the Tae Kwan Do class a shot, but after an early wake-up call and spending the day with my wife at the Mayo clinic (more tests and Dr visits) I would rather sit on the couch and relax. I did make it to the gym 4 times this week. Although Wed was not logged 'cause it was a Personal Defense class and really wasn't that hard from a calorie/exercise standpoint. In spite of personal defense being a bit less strenuous, it was very informative and educational. Also, several of those nights were Strength Training and Boxing for a double day. Well, I'm going to sit down and work on getting some pictures processed and posted. Thanks for dropping by and good seeing ya.

Went to strength training tonight. We worked our arms to death. Ouch. We also did some jump rope and I seem to be getting better at it. My cardio still seems to be in pretty good shape, and with the core work I've been doing the past couple weeks, 2 minutes of jumping seems to be getting easier. After strength, we started right in on boxing class. They worked in some kicks as well which is natural since most of the coaches are MMA guys and they also have MMA classes here (MMA combines boxing, grappling and kickboxing). It was a very fun class and kept us moving most of the time with some great feedback from the coaches so we were practicing the moves the right way.

Well, last week I finished the week off with a couple days of strength training (arms are still sore) and another boxing class. Really had fun with it. Part of it is my oldest son is doing it with me, so we get to hit each other. Not hard, but hitting each others hands as targets as we practice jabs, cross and hooks. Working on form more than power for now. Both boys helped out a lot in the yard yesterday as we needed to scalp the lawn in preparation for over seeding for the winter. We also made good progress on getting rid of the weeds. Hopefully some of the tests scheduled for my wife this week will start to yield some clues that let us make progress into her health issues. So what would I title this post? Misc? Stuff? Life? Weekend wrap up report?

Well, tonight was my 5th Functional Strength Training class. After that, I stayed for Boxing class. That was my first ever introduction to any sort of fighting. It was fun. I learned (and others practiced) jab, cross and hook punches. It was certainly a learning experience for me. I am looking foreword to the next boxing class and will also be trying out some of the other classes they have. The plan at this gym is for the first month you can take any class they offer but subsequent months, each additional class costs extra. It seems a bit steep pricewise, but the instructors are all really good. Most of them are MMA fighters and will be competing in a tournament next month. Sometime in the next 30 days I will need to decide what I want to work on the next month.

OK, so I was wondering if anyone has ever offered a class on NONFunctional Strength Training. "We build up muscles that you will NEVER need to use." So I went to my first Functional Strength Training. Let me tell you that the word FUN does NOT need to be part of the word functional. After a few warm up laps of running, skipping, sideways sliding we did some crunches, pushups, jumping jacks and leg raises. At that point I was ready to phone it in the rest of the night. I didn't. Next we did belly crawls (using only our arms to pull us, toes were ok if we needed a bit of extra help). This left me with some very nice mat burns on my elbows. Then a few more drills that reminded me of HS gym class (which I hated) and then we got into the station drills. They set out 10 stations that we would do for 2 minutes each and then with a short rest move to the next one. Weighted lunges, wall squats with light weights in your hands and keep your arms moving, hindu squats (what ...