The good and the bad

The good:

1. I got the V-Flow Max saddle. So far, I love it. It really is much more comfortable than the old stock saddle. It's even comfortable during 60-second one legged drills; with the old saddle I was screaming after only 10 seconds. I also got my hips a couple inches closer to the handlebars, and I feel much more powerful in this setup. All in all, a good thing.

2. This morning workout thing is going well, and I like it alot. I'm almost to the point where I actually want to be in bed by 9:30pm instead of telling myself that I need to be in bed by that time. I am getting up every morning, and it's great. 100% of my workout hours are invisible to my family at this point; 90 minutes in the morning and 60 minutes at lunch, completely invisible (ie no conflict between family and practice)!

3. Lifting weights in the morning on M,W,F after the bike. Once done with the bike workout, it's a short 5-minute jog to the gym for weights or swim. So far, I've managed to start the weight lifting in earnest. The first days I was very quite sore, but now that's gone and it's just a matter of consistency. It feels good to be lifting weights again. I swam four laps on one day last week; my form and feel are still there, with 35 second 50's with little effort. But I had no motivation to be in the pool. So I'm not sure what I'll do about the swimming; I can always do a longer bike workout those mornings, which is probably needed more than swimming right now anyway.

The bad:

1. Running consistency was good for a while but will now be non-existent. I missed Wed - Friday of last week, and now my heel feels much better after some sort of pain after the PFT on Oct 31. I figure I'll just stay off it a few more days and let it get to 100%. I forgot what a completely pain-free heel feels like, I guess.

2. Nearly 190 pounds, versus 175 during the summer. Not sure what's going on, other than I must be eating more than I think. I'm averagine 7 hours of workouts / week, and gaining 2-3 pounds per week.

Great week so far....

The only consistency is my inconsistency.

Last week's workouts sucked. This week I'm on a roll. I've done all my workouts this week, morning bike trainer rides and runs at lunch. If...no, when, I hit tomorrow's workouts, I'll have done 100% of my schedule. That doesn't happen often. I don't think it has ever happened. So I'm on a roll there, and I think I'll hit 20 miles running, too.

USMC Birthday was Tuesday night. We had a great dinner with the local Marines, all retired except me and a Corporal. I have absolutely no discipline when it comes to Marine Corps Birthday Cake; I ate at least four pieces, probably six, I lost count!

Looking forward to some snow and getting into the backcountry on skis! The seasons are at point right now that I don't do anything on the weekend. Kind of relaxing, actually.

Not a great week.

This past week was not so great. The only workout I got was a three mile run. No bike at all. Wow...what happened? Still not sure, but I know I was really tired and needed sleep, so I wasn't getting up in the morning. Tera and Paul were both sick all week, so I think that was affecting me, and my body must have been successfully fighting it off. I didn't get sick, but I got really tired for sure.

I haven't called about the V-flow seat yet. Still looking into it and pretty sure it's going to happen.

This upcoming week is an important time for me to get back into the swing of morning workouts and daily runs. I was doing pretty good in October and need to get that enthusiasm back. With November here, I am to a point where I shouldn't be too worried about burn-out anymore. I took off alot of September and workouts in October were pretty low-key. At this point, I'm losing important time on the bike that will get me down to the 1:08-1:10 times I want next summer.

In December, I want to start getting into the pool for about 2,000 yards a week and three days of weight lifting.

And Tuesday is the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy Birthday Marines!

And everyone have a safe Veteran's Day....say thanks to a veteran and also to his/her family because it's tougher at home when a family member or good friend is deployed.

PFT results and a V-Flow Max?

This past week became a bit of a recovery with a test week. I got in only three trainer rides and no training runs. I was quite tired all week...maybe it's something in the house because both Tera and Paul are a bit sick, and they're both really tired and sleeping alot.

On Saturday, I did my Physical Fitness Test (PFT) for the Marine Corps. It turned out to be a nice day. With a 1000 start, it had warmed up to around 45, maybe 50, degrees. Very little wind. I ran the 3 mile run on a track, and I was worried about getting bored. This "race" for time was more of an administrative requirement than any real evaluation tool for promotion. Therefore, I didn't go 110%, but I did put out at least 95%. I consider running 90% mental, so the mental aspect is important. Anyway, I ran a 20:22, with my first 400 at 1:30 and last at 1:38, with an average close to 1:45 for the rest. I thought it was a good run, and I'm happy with it.

I got 15 dead hang pull-ups. Not bad for not doing any training for pull-ups and being 10 pounds heavier than I like.

I got 85 crunches in 2 minutes. I'm suprised how my crunches have deteriorated. I always got 100 (the max) prior to 2008. I have a solid core, but it doesn't help when doing these crunches. Or, maybe I'm just kidding myself about my current core training, and I really do need to work on that.

I'm up to 185 pounds! Yikes! Too much birthday cake and other crap, I guess. No need to worry about right now, other than the fact my goal is to be at 178, and one month ago I was at 175.

Finally, I'm about to buy a V-Flow Max saddle. I figure something has to be better than this stock saddle I'm on. This current saddle isn't terrible, but it doesn't let me get up on the nose for more than a a minute or so without some serious issues. If I sit back, it's actually quite comfortable. On the trainer, if I get up on the nose, I can really feel alot more power. This seat should help me stay up there without any issues. Cobb offers a 180-day trial period, so that is the deciding factor over an Adamo, which is very much the same except for the nose. Most reviews consider them very similar except for the Adamo being a bit wider at the back of the seat. I'm excited about it.