Paul cooperates!

Paul woke up only twice last night, so I got some good sleep...finally! I wasn't really deprived of sleep the way some folks are, but it was getting pretty old waking up all the time. If I went to bed at 10:30pm, Paul would normally wake up at 10:45pm before I got to sleep and then I'd be up til 11:15 to 11:30 while lights are on in the house. Then up at 5:00am or so. So I've been effectively living on about 6 hours of sleep. I can do that, but it's not preferable. Last night was good, I got about 8 hours of sleep. That was nice.

So when he woke up at 5:30am, Tera fed him instead of me. What did I do? Did I get up and go to the gym? No! I slept in, thinking the sleep is good for me (which it is!). I thought I'd run at lunch and then swim and lift after work. That was a good plan, except in my sleepiness I forgot I had a working lunch. Duh! So all I got today was a swim and lift.

That swim and lift was good, though. Swam the 3x500 in entirety for the first time and then lifted the heavier weights I addded last week. The swim sets were done in about 7:45 with 90 seconds rest. I can really feel the additional efficiency that "snapping the hip" gives me; it's usually good for at least on less stroke per 25 yards and a slightly reduced heart rate and effort level. After a month or so, I hope it becomes a habit. I didn't expect to be able to lift all the reps of the weight sets, but I got everything up except the bicep curls. The gym is still packed with the new year's resolutions; I hope they can maintain their goals, but inevitably 75% of them will stop going to the gym in a week or so.

Tomorrow I'll be able to make up that missed run because my parents are here.

My parents are here for a few days to help me with Paul while Tera is gone to a work conference in Tampa. I have a solo mission with assistance Thursday through Sunday. It will be interesting.

Sometimes when I'm working out really hard, I get an appetite that can't be satisfied, and I'll eat everything I can for a couple of hours. I could never figure out what causes that. Now I know. After the run yesterday, that appetite hit me hard, and I ate and ate and ate some more. The only thing I did was do the long run, so I'm attributing that appetite to the run. It turned out to be a good thing because I was full when we left for the Superbowl party, so I didn't eat alot of junk there. In any case, it's good to know what causes that appetite so I can prepare for it by having healthy foods on hand. Anything over about 55 minutes of workout causes it.

First Sunday run in a LOONNGG Time

I'm not one to workout on Sunday. I prefer to hang out doing something other than an actual workout. That's not to say that I won't be physicaly active on Sunday because I often hike, fish, or ski on a Sunday. But to go out running or biking on a Sunday is something new.

That's where I found myself today. It was a beautiful afternoon, blue skies, no wind, and about 35 degrees. I took advantage of the opportunity to do my third run of the week (I wanted to get four, but the meeting Thursday night prevented that). Off I went at 1:00pm on my longest standard course of 6.6 miles. I got back in 57:44. My baseline from September was 54:30 running hard at level 4. This 57:44 was run quite easily at a level of 2.7 (what I call "going for a jog and putting out just a bit of effort"). I figure if I was running hard, I would have at least got to 55:00. That means I think I'm at the same fitness level I was at the end of the September 2008. I'm quite excited about that.

Why do something people not understand basic safety principles and think that if it's legal, it's right?

Here's a story for you: Part of today's run was a loop around a local field that is a leashless area for dogs. I saw a dog get hit by a car, but he wasn't hurt. In this case, it was the dog's fault because it was pretty dumb about being next to a moving car. Five minutes later and still in that area, I saw a truck cruising up the street and possibly going faster than the speed limit and certainly faster than he should have been going, considering the many dogs and kids out playing in the area on this beautiful afternoon. I motioned my hand and said "Slow down, dude" as he drove by. No reaction from him. A few seconds later, he pulled up behind me and asked if I wanted something. I said I was hoping he would slow down because of all the kids and dogs in the area. He said "I'm going the speed limit." At that point, I started to get really frustrated because it was clear he didn't understand to simply slow down because of the kids and dogs, no matter what the speed limit was. I said I had just seen a dog get hit, and there are alot of kids in the area. Again, he said he was going the speed limit. I explained I didn't say he was speeding, just that he should slows down. As I felt some anger welling up, I just said, "I'm not going to argue. Do whatever you do." And I started running again. He drove my mumbling something akin to kissing part of his body.

Blues Skies in winter = Skiing

An absolutley gorgeous day here in Poky. 40 degrees, sunny, and no wind. That means it's ski time! Tera and I took Paul for his first skiing adventure up at Scout Mountain today with the Flickers (with Ethan and Kate!). Two hours of cross country skiing in AWESOME weather. What a great time. Paul did great in his little polar bear snowsuit that Grandma Letzring got for $1 at JC Penney (saved $59!). It's a bit big, but it works. Today was a test run to see if we could take him skiing on the long-weekend trip to a cabin in Island Park over President's Day weekend. The snowsuit worked great. And Tera got some time on skis to build up confidence.

As for the workout, it was an active recovery day with the cross country ski. Two hours of easy cardio, not to mention getting the fresh air and sunshine. That was much needed after last night's bike.

Normally, my muscular endurance bike workout is on Thursday, but I had a meeting for work Thursday night, so I had to do it on Friday night. I was a bit concerned if I would have the right about of energy in my legs for a good workout because I did the weight lifting and swimming in the morning; the weight lifting in the legs is fairly intense for about ten minutes. But I didn't run at lunch to help keep my legs somewhat good for a hard bike workout. It worked.

I moved up to 3 sets of 23 minutes at Zone 4 with a two minute break between sets. That resulted in the first set of 83 average cadence with heart rate of 153. Second set at 81 average cad and heart rate of 157. I thought I was going to die on the third set, but I actually got into "the zone" for about five minutes and pulled an average cadence of 81 again but a heart rate of 164. All in all, this was definintely better than expected, and I would put it in the "championship workout" category because it was really good. Then I slept from 11:00pm to 9am! Then up to ski at 11:00am today. Good times.

I swam only 2x500 on Wednesday then lifted; I had planned to start 3x500 for the swim this week. Nothing spectacular. Ran the standard 5 mile loop on Wednesday at regular easy pace. No workout on Thursday (lazy!). Friday was a good day, then today was good, too. Thinking about going for a run tomorrow or maybe some more skiing. I'm two hours short of my week's goals right now, and I want to hit all the planned hours from here on out. If not for the Thursday evening meeting, I would have ran on Friday and be only an hour short. My weight is pretty steady at 178 right now.

Basically, a good first week of Build 1 phase. I added additional weights and additional swim volume....note to self, don't ever do that again because it doesn't really work out. I wanted to add a fourth run this week, but the Thursday evening meeting squashed that idea; I'll add it next week I guess. The bike is same workouts as before but going longer and harder.

Upgrades all around

I'm now into Build 1 Week 1, and it's upgrades all around. I start a muscular endurance plan for swimming this week that builds to 1x1500yds in 20minutes. I'm starting at 3x500 in 8 minutes with 2 minute rest. I know I can hit these intervals, but I need to make sure my body can handle the overall increase in volume. I also upped the weight in all of my weight lifting routines. On the bike, I move to 3 sets of 23 minutes, up from 4 sets of 17 minutes, both with two minutes rest. I hope to hit four runs of five miles each this week, up from three runs in previous weeks.

Sunday was a Sufferfest. I improved in categories: gearing, HR, and cadence. I'm quite excited about it. I realized that the muscular endurance plan is more than the Sufferfest, but the Sufferest is an all-out 20 minutes (it's a Spinnerval DVD workout on the trainer).

Sunday night was a rough night with Paul, so I didn't get up for PT in the morning. Instead, I shifted the morning workout to after work. I ran five miles at lunch really easy. I realized that I wouldn't be able to swim after work because lap swim doesn't start until 6pm. So all I did was a lift, but I increased the weights all around to the "next up" level. I'm writing this Tuesday night, 24 hours after the weight lifting workout, and I'm a bit sore from that workout still. Interesting for sure. I didn't expect to be sore just from a 10% or less increase, but here it is. We'll see how I do tomorrow morning after I swim 3x500 and then try the same weights.

I got in a bit of a bike workout today, but not what expected. Paul cooperated a little bit but definitely interrupted things. Plus, my legs were sore from the weight lifting, and turned out they were tired, too. So, I ended up doing more of a recovery ride than anything else. 45 minutes at heart rate of 127, with easy gears and cadence. I turned it into a chance to practice good form for 45 minutes.

Who is this Paul guy who keeps interrupting my bike rides, sleep, work, and other things?

Is he the coolest dude on earth or what?

R/R weekend

A nice weekend so far, ending a nice week to catch up on personal stuff. Thursday night was my muscular endurance bike workout. I'm at 4 sets of 17 minutes with two minutes rest on what I call my 8th gear on the big ring. I'm such a bike newbie that I don't even know the right terms for my gears! Anyway, I nailed the first two sets faster and easier than the previous week; my third set was about the same as last week (same Heart Rate, average cadence 1 rpm higher).

My fourth set was something else! I think the skiing from the previous weekend was still sitting deep in my legs because I got really tired. I couldn't hold over 70rpm in the same gear, so I had to ease up one gear, and I still got an avg cadence of only 75. I was really mashing, and I can feel it in my left knee now. That was interesting thing to learn about biking; I MUST keep a higher cadence because the mashing in a low gear has a fast and nasty effect on my knees. Anyway, I pushed through that last set, debating the pros and cons of stopping early because of my knee. Ultimately, I kept going just so I can have all my "data points" filled in on my workout spreadsheets that I use to gauge improvements in fitness.

The only thing I did on Friday was the weight lifting, and I backed off about 10% on the weights I use. That was a smart thing because for some reason I could barely do those sets.

Today, Saturday, I sat in the hottub for 30 minutes for a morning workout. That's my kind of workout! It felt really great and I really think it will improve the rest and recovery that is supposed to be happening. Then we took Paul to his first college basketball game, the Idaho State University women's game against Sacramento State....we won and it was a good game.

Tomorrow is my "test" during the R/R week. I use a spinnerval Sufferfest! for this test. It's a 20 minute time trial on the bike trainer. Again, I use the gearing/cadence/average heart rate data to determine if I'm improving. My legs are good for at least 20 minutes.

Monday I'm planning to finally get that swim video!

Race Schedule coming together

I have some extra time in this R/R week, so I'm putting together my race schedule and signing up for some races. This is what it looks like so far:

May 30: Rigby Lake Tri....thinking about it but that's pretty early, meaning really cold water!
June 6: Vikingman in Burley is possible but I'm not sure I want to race that early.
June 14: Bismarck ND Tri. I'll be in my hometown of Center for a high school reunion, and this race is only 50 miles away. I'm planning on doing it, but haven't signed up yet.
June 20: Janet's Triathlon in Hebgan Lake near Yellowstone. I'm guessing on the date right now, but I'm planning on it being this weekend because that's when it was last year. I consider this my first fishing trip to Yellowstone National Park with a triathlon thrown in. This is really a nice course and is a mountain bike and trail run. This is the same weekend as the Redfish Triathlon in the Sawtooths, which is simply too far for just a triathlon, although it's in a gorgeous area.
July 4th: no race this weekend.
July 11th: probable fishing trip to Yellowstone during the salmon fly hatch (good times!). Otherwise, the Idaho Falls Blacktail Tri is this weekend.
July 18th: Twin Falls Tri is a possible. This will be a late registration if I feel like I want to do a race that weekend. Tera will be out of town this weekend, so babycare is an issue.
July 25th: Burley Spudman....lottery draw this year, and it costs five bucks just to get into the lottery, and then another $70 if you get in. Quite expensive, but only an hour drive. It's a really big triathlon with good swim times. I'm not too keen on swimming in the Snake River. Probably won't do it.
Aug 1: Pocatello Tri. Doing it.
Aug 8: no race. Probably a fishing weekend!
Aug 15: Rexburg Tri in Rainbow Lake. Doing it. Registered tonight.
Aug 23: Portland Tri. My primary race of the year. Registered last week. A family trip, too.
Sept 12?: Probably date for Bear Lake Brawl. I'm planning on doing it whenever it is. I did it last year and liked the course. It's a nice family camping weekend, too. This will be a primary race, too, and the last chance to break 2:08 for the year. If I get a good swim, it is doable.

That's the line-up at this point. Getting this pinned down makes training alot easier because it's easier to stay motivated with specific goals in mind.

Another "two-day workout" in the books!

Back from the yurt trip, which I'm calling a two-day workout. It's not a full two days, of course, but it feels like it. This weekend I went to the yurt again, so it was two days of backcountry skiing for my cross-training. Honestly, it's a five-hour workout for both days, skinning uphill and then skiing downhill. This weekend, I tried to slow down on the downhill and make many turns and burn up my quads, and I was pretty successful at that. I got in a lot of runs, too, so there was more uphill skinning than last week. My whole body is pretty tired tonight. The weather was beautiful, the warmest and clearest skies I've skied under in January. We got in a few runs under the stars, too, which were awesome.

Here's a photo of the hills that we climb up and ski down. It's generally about 800-1,000 ft of vertical for each run, and the below photo is a snapshot of one area.