Wow, its really been a while since I had a chance to sit down and post something! What better reason to post than to recap an awesome race? Last Saturday I ran in the town of Bethel's Half Marathon. This race it actually the longest running 1/2 in Western North Carolina, celebrating it's 19th year! Bethel is a really small town outside of Canton, NC which is the town we locals know by the horrible smell the paper plant pumps out into the atmosphere. Ugh! Anyway, Bethel sits at the foot of Cold Mountain, which yes, this is the same mountain made famous in the novel and the movie Cold Mountain. It was a beautiful run, absolutely breathtaking! It was by far my favorite running race of the season. The weather was a bit chilly at the start, as there was frost on the grass, but as always, once you start running your body temperature rises and for a perspirator like me....the sweat starts flowing! Thank God for headbands! Anyway, there were a few hills here and there, but the course was suprisingly flat for this area of NC. At one point I was running by a farm and these two beautiful horses came running out to the fence along the road and then ran beside me as I trotted my way by them. Seriously, that was a pretty cool thing! Anyway, I ended up finishing in 1 hour 54 mins, which I was happy with being that this is my first 1/2 marathon and my goal was to finish in under 2 hours given the mountainous terrain. I highly recommend this race and the small town charm was just lovely! Lots of fresh baked breads, cakes, and cookies at the finish line! They also had some kick ass homemade potato soup!
In terms of training, I have laid out a pretty intense "Off Season" plan that includes 4 runs, 3 bikes, 4 swims, 5 weight training, and 7 yoga workouts per week. I will post a seperate post hopefully tomorrow that lays out exactly what each workout consists of. I have high expectations of increasing my fitness this fall and winter, so here goes nothing!!!!! I am two weeks into the plan and have hit my workouts consistently, so its certainly do-able. Right now I am doing 2-a-days through the week and oneworkout on the weekend days.
Got my indoor bike trainer and love it. I have seriously been killing it with this thing. I pop in a scary movie after the family is in bed and off I go. I get to watch all the horror films I have missed in the last couple of years and I get some serious mileage on the bike at the same time! What's better than that???
So here's hoping anyone reading this happy training, happy life and happy loving! Keep at it and train til' you can't train no more!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
11th Annual City of Lenoir Triathlon Race Report
Well this past Saturday was the last multi-sport event of the season for me and what better way to end the season than grabbing my first age-group win of the year!!?? This was a sprint distance, pool-swim tri that was held in a beautiful area of the Western Piedmont area of NC. It was great to see that my training seemed to pay off and I don't think I was completely off track with my training approach of hard, heavy and often verses going crazy over number of miles.......
So the morning started at 3:30 am, as this race was about 2 hours from the house and I knew I had to pick up my packet, and more importantly, find the venue, the morning of the race. I grabbed a Power Bar and Powerade Zero, loaded my stuff in the car and headed out by 4:00 am. I got to Lenoir about 15 til 6:00 am and found that my directions were completely off. (No I don't have GPS....remember I am all about Old Skool) so the thought crossed my mind to find the police station and ask a cop. Luckily I found downtown Lenoir, found the cop station, and got directions from a really nice officer that got me there in no time! (Later in the bike portion of the race, the same cop was stopping traffic for us....so thanks again goes out to ya!!!!) So I made it to the aquatic center where the swim and transition area were, to find that no one was there and the entrance was blocked off. So I went up the next drive, which was a church parking lot and saw that there were a few other racers there doing the same thing. I met a really nice dude, Robbie, from the town I grew up in (holla' fellow Gastonians!!!!) and we decided that the Punk Rock thing to do would be to stay parked there and hope the nice church folks would not have our cars towed (they didn't by the way). So after making the decision to stay parked here, I walked up to the aquatic center with Robbie to pick up our packets, made my way back down, grabbed my things and bike, then headed back up the 1/4 mile or so to set up. Needless to say after all this, I didn't need to warm up!!!!!
Ahhhhhhh....now to the race. The swim was a 250 meter swim in a 50 meter pool, so it was 5 lengths, all zig-zagging through 5 lanes that were roped off for the event. I did a 400 meter warm-up about 30 minutes before the start of the race. Swimmers started in 15 second intervals based on our estimated 100 meter times. I put down 2:20 as an estimate so I started 67th. Looking at the swimmers before me, I saw that I had underestimated my swim abilities! At least I was able to practice my draft passes, as I caught up to swimmer starting 2 minutes before me by the end of the swim! So out of the pool and a 50 yard or so run up the side of the building into the transition area and then........... the longest transition in the history of sprint triathlons! Seriously a 2 minute transition! I couldn't get my damn shirt on to save my life. It was like fighting a rabid raccoon in a potato sack! Everything, including my bike shoes went on with ease, yet the shirt was a nightmare. I learned a valuable lesson on this day....and that is from here on out in sprints, I will get a bib belt for the run, and just go shirtless on the bike and runs. I could have totally taken at least a minute off my overall time if I would have went this route, verses worrying with a shirt. I hadn't had this problem before, but man I won't risk it again after this experience.
Anyway, the bike course was beautiful! A few more hills that I expected, but all my heavy hill training over the passed couple a months really paid off. I passed quite a few folks and didn't get passed until the very end by one of those dudes on a 3,000 dollar tri/tt steed (including one of those sci-fi aero helmets) so I didn't feel too bad about that. In fact I would have really felt bad for the guy if he didn't pass me given his whole multi-thousand dollar get up! LOL!!!!! My bike did great, my legs felt fine and I really felt like I pushed about as hard as I could have to still have a semi-decent 5k run time at the end. I could have probably shaved 20 to 30 seconds off my time by having a faster mount and dismount, as well as pushing a little harder on the initial downhill start that was 1/4 mile or so long. I held back quite a bit on the decent, as it was a little congested with riders. So we're up to a minute and a half I could have improved upon thus far. Well, I know I could have pushed harder on the swim, so lets say there was 2 minutes up to this point in the race I could have improved upon.
And finally the run...... T2 was much smoother and much more like it. Less than 1 minute this time, and that was with sitting down to change shoes and racking my bike. The run was down the same 1/4 mile hill I have been speaking of, then to a really beautiful, scenic greenway with one turn-around before heading back. A pretty uneventful run, that took me just over 26 mins. to finish. So based on my 5k times I really think that I could easily shave 3 to 4 mins. off this time with some more speedwork and hill only sessions in the off season.
All-in-all I was happy with my 1:06 time, which was good for 18th overall and 1st in the Male 30-34 AG. I think that I can drop under an hour on this course next season if I do this race. I'd really like to put this one on the schedule just to see if I can make that time goal. So seriously if you are ever in Lenoir, NC in September, you should do this race! A very charming little town and a very scenic little sprint! I met some really nice racers and the folks that put on the race were great! The mayor even came out to wish us all good luck at the start! The Lenoir Aquatic Center was actually the training site for the 1996 Netherlands Olympic Team! They had a big photo and team flag in the display case and I just thought that was really cool!
So today is Labor Day and my wife and I are off with the little one. I am going to try to sneek a run in, although its raining pretty steadily outside due to Tropical Storm Lee that hit MS and is heading North through our area of Western NC. Training will be a little more run intensive, as I am doing the 13.1 next month!!!!! I haven't laid out my training calendar for September yet, but I want my weekly running miles to be around 30 to 40 by month's end. I really feel like I want to keep cycling 3-4 times a week as well because this will more-than-likely be the last month of really warm weather here and it will be hit-or-miss with suitable riding temps from here on out til spring. So I wish anyone reading this well and remember to keep training hard, heavy and often! Eat well and get plenty of rest! And most importantly, enjoy family, friends and life because these are the 3 things that are most important to our existance! Don't forget your yoga!
Namaste!!!!!
***Training update: I got in a mile swim and a 3 mile run with fartleks today
So the morning started at 3:30 am, as this race was about 2 hours from the house and I knew I had to pick up my packet, and more importantly, find the venue, the morning of the race. I grabbed a Power Bar and Powerade Zero, loaded my stuff in the car and headed out by 4:00 am. I got to Lenoir about 15 til 6:00 am and found that my directions were completely off. (No I don't have GPS....remember I am all about Old Skool) so the thought crossed my mind to find the police station and ask a cop. Luckily I found downtown Lenoir, found the cop station, and got directions from a really nice officer that got me there in no time! (Later in the bike portion of the race, the same cop was stopping traffic for us....so thanks again goes out to ya!!!!) So I made it to the aquatic center where the swim and transition area were, to find that no one was there and the entrance was blocked off. So I went up the next drive, which was a church parking lot and saw that there were a few other racers there doing the same thing. I met a really nice dude, Robbie, from the town I grew up in (holla' fellow Gastonians!!!!) and we decided that the Punk Rock thing to do would be to stay parked there and hope the nice church folks would not have our cars towed (they didn't by the way). So after making the decision to stay parked here, I walked up to the aquatic center with Robbie to pick up our packets, made my way back down, grabbed my things and bike, then headed back up the 1/4 mile or so to set up. Needless to say after all this, I didn't need to warm up!!!!!
Ahhhhhhh....now to the race. The swim was a 250 meter swim in a 50 meter pool, so it was 5 lengths, all zig-zagging through 5 lanes that were roped off for the event. I did a 400 meter warm-up about 30 minutes before the start of the race. Swimmers started in 15 second intervals based on our estimated 100 meter times. I put down 2:20 as an estimate so I started 67th. Looking at the swimmers before me, I saw that I had underestimated my swim abilities! At least I was able to practice my draft passes, as I caught up to swimmer starting 2 minutes before me by the end of the swim! So out of the pool and a 50 yard or so run up the side of the building into the transition area and then........... the longest transition in the history of sprint triathlons! Seriously a 2 minute transition! I couldn't get my damn shirt on to save my life. It was like fighting a rabid raccoon in a potato sack! Everything, including my bike shoes went on with ease, yet the shirt was a nightmare. I learned a valuable lesson on this day....and that is from here on out in sprints, I will get a bib belt for the run, and just go shirtless on the bike and runs. I could have totally taken at least a minute off my overall time if I would have went this route, verses worrying with a shirt. I hadn't had this problem before, but man I won't risk it again after this experience.
Anyway, the bike course was beautiful! A few more hills that I expected, but all my heavy hill training over the passed couple a months really paid off. I passed quite a few folks and didn't get passed until the very end by one of those dudes on a 3,000 dollar tri/tt steed (including one of those sci-fi aero helmets) so I didn't feel too bad about that. In fact I would have really felt bad for the guy if he didn't pass me given his whole multi-thousand dollar get up! LOL!!!!! My bike did great, my legs felt fine and I really felt like I pushed about as hard as I could have to still have a semi-decent 5k run time at the end. I could have probably shaved 20 to 30 seconds off my time by having a faster mount and dismount, as well as pushing a little harder on the initial downhill start that was 1/4 mile or so long. I held back quite a bit on the decent, as it was a little congested with riders. So we're up to a minute and a half I could have improved upon thus far. Well, I know I could have pushed harder on the swim, so lets say there was 2 minutes up to this point in the race I could have improved upon.
And finally the run...... T2 was much smoother and much more like it. Less than 1 minute this time, and that was with sitting down to change shoes and racking my bike. The run was down the same 1/4 mile hill I have been speaking of, then to a really beautiful, scenic greenway with one turn-around before heading back. A pretty uneventful run, that took me just over 26 mins. to finish. So based on my 5k times I really think that I could easily shave 3 to 4 mins. off this time with some more speedwork and hill only sessions in the off season.
All-in-all I was happy with my 1:06 time, which was good for 18th overall and 1st in the Male 30-34 AG. I think that I can drop under an hour on this course next season if I do this race. I'd really like to put this one on the schedule just to see if I can make that time goal. So seriously if you are ever in Lenoir, NC in September, you should do this race! A very charming little town and a very scenic little sprint! I met some really nice racers and the folks that put on the race were great! The mayor even came out to wish us all good luck at the start! The Lenoir Aquatic Center was actually the training site for the 1996 Netherlands Olympic Team! They had a big photo and team flag in the display case and I just thought that was really cool!
So today is Labor Day and my wife and I are off with the little one. I am going to try to sneek a run in, although its raining pretty steadily outside due to Tropical Storm Lee that hit MS and is heading North through our area of Western NC. Training will be a little more run intensive, as I am doing the 13.1 next month!!!!! I haven't laid out my training calendar for September yet, but I want my weekly running miles to be around 30 to 40 by month's end. I really feel like I want to keep cycling 3-4 times a week as well because this will more-than-likely be the last month of really warm weather here and it will be hit-or-miss with suitable riding temps from here on out til spring. So I wish anyone reading this well and remember to keep training hard, heavy and often! Eat well and get plenty of rest! And most importantly, enjoy family, friends and life because these are the 3 things that are most important to our existance! Don't forget your yoga!
Namaste!!!!!
***Training update: I got in a mile swim and a 3 mile run with fartleks today
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Training Update and Random Thoughts..........
Well training and my workouts continue to go well. I have been increasing my running miles to around 18-20 per week in preparation for my upcoming Tri on September 3rd. Really getting excited about this race and I think the excitement is translating into motivation to push a little harder in my training sessions. My bike rides are also going well and man I can really tell an increase in strength on the bike since mapping out a pretty brutal course I do 3x a week that is full of mammoth hills! I can't wait to see how well I stack up against fellow age-groupers in the bike split at this sprint tri. Right now the thing that I am trying to figure out is should I use my clipless pedals and cycling shoes for the 10 mile ride in this race, or switch out to my toe-strap pedals , so as to only have to change shoes in transition one time. I have used the toe-strap pedals in both du's this year I competed in and did fairly well against the others on road bikes. I know I can't hang with the dudes on the Tri/TT bikes regardless of pedals, but I want to put up a decent split nonetheless. I really feel strongly that I can place top-3 in my age group this race! I just don't want to make a stupid decision in regards to pedals and shoes!!! I will continue to think on it!!!! I guess right now I am thinking of keeping the clipless pedals on the bike. I have velcro fastening cycling shoes, so it'll go pretty fast in transition either way..... I also amped up my swimming this month, adding a mile-long swim in the mix each week. Still doing 3 weight training sessions per week as well, and throwing in yoga 5-6 nights a week to boot. All-in-all I feel really strong and relatively light going into my last real week of training before my taper week. Checked into a local triclub recently and saw that they get together for a weekly open-water swim. Man that would be nice, so I am really considering joining up with these guys next season, as my sights are set on a 70.3 in May!!!!! The one thing I really have dropped the ball on this year is open-water swimming...ugh...I got to make this a priority out of the shoot next Spring. The way my race plans for next year look, I will do an indoor tri in March, the Lake Junaluska Du again in April and then the 70.3 in May. Haven't thought much beyond that point.....my wallet will be pretty thin after those 3!
Oh random thoughts....hmmmmm? I guess I really don't have anything on my mind at the moment, but just wanted to throw out there how important it is to spread good karma into the world! Simple things like dropping a coin into an expired parking meter for a stranger or writing an uplifting message on random note pads or write-on boards that you see in stores where people write things, or even on community bulletin boards! People read these things and seriously as cheesy as it might sound, even if your message only moves a single person, trust me its time well spent! There is so much negative and toxic energy out there, its so relieving to see soemthing positive at times! So be a person that spreads that positive message........
Oh and one other thing I just want to say to all the idiots that think its soooo freaking funny to blow their horns at you from behind when your doing training runs....... grow the hell up! Seriously! Just one time I would love for one of these jerks to stop after they do this and I flip 'em the bird..... So lame! Just had to rant for a second :)
Peace, Love and Train Hard!!!!!
Oh random thoughts....hmmmmm? I guess I really don't have anything on my mind at the moment, but just wanted to throw out there how important it is to spread good karma into the world! Simple things like dropping a coin into an expired parking meter for a stranger or writing an uplifting message on random note pads or write-on boards that you see in stores where people write things, or even on community bulletin boards! People read these things and seriously as cheesy as it might sound, even if your message only moves a single person, trust me its time well spent! There is so much negative and toxic energy out there, its so relieving to see soemthing positive at times! So be a person that spreads that positive message........
Oh and one other thing I just want to say to all the idiots that think its soooo freaking funny to blow their horns at you from behind when your doing training runs....... grow the hell up! Seriously! Just one time I would love for one of these jerks to stop after they do this and I flip 'em the bird..... So lame! Just had to rant for a second :)
Peace, Love and Train Hard!!!!!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Losing Weight............
So thinking about and trying to decide where I wanted to go in this week's post, I decided to talk about something that I have a little (well ninety + pounds worth) of experience with....and that's losing weight. In our American society, we are consistently seeing more and more folks being classified in the obese category. Even more troubling is the amount of children that are overweight and obese. Obviously there isn't one single cause that's contributing to our ever-expanding waist lines. Many factors are often involved including socio-economic status, education levels, personal values, psychological factors such as self-esteem and percetions of self- image. Genetics can play a role, although I think that this has become a scape-goat (well maybe the more Punk Rock way of putting it would be cop-out) for many. I can buy into that some of us can be predisposed to a slower metabolism, have different body shapes and genetic abilities to either gain or not gain muscleat a given rate, and have a higher risk of developing things such as high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease, yet all of these things are not not certainties simply because you have a family history of such. Case in point, my brother is over 400 pounds, has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and issues with his joints. My mother is overweight, has had a stroke, 2 mild heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure and had to have a kidney removed. My father suffers from high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. I would also consider my father to be somewhat overweight. I will spare you the list of relatives that have health issues, but I'd say that all-in-all, I come from a pretty unhealthy family. With all this being said, I realize that there are risks that I have based on my family history, but instead of "folding" and resigning to some dismal fate of having cardiovacsular disease and being obese like my most of my family members, I use this as a motivation to get out and get healthy! I have always considered myself completely different from my family :) so I guess in order to be true to myself and Punk Rock ways, I'd better go against the family norm and be a health freak!
There is also another point to my writing all of this about weight loss and family history. There was a point in my life about 5-6 years ago that I really let myself go. Looking back on it and given my educational background in psychology, I can see that depression had a large part of it. Coming out of college I was in great shape. I'd played lots of soccer and football, and was a gym rat! Yet once the "party" was over and I was faced with thinks like family and working full time, my workout became shorter and shorter. If I only would have learned more about priorotizing and time management, I would have more easily been able to fit workouts into my life. I was very unhappy and depressed in my family life and work, so the downward spiral began. Food became a comfrt and my obsession. As my health declined, my need to rest and desire to eat increased. So if I would have stayed in shape, I could have used all that time I wasted eating and napping to improve my health and stay active. Ugh....youth! I guess that's why they say ignorance is bliss? I didn't realize what I was doing to my body at the time. Well ignorance can also be unhealthy and eventually life-threatening. Anyway I began to see and feel the impact that being around 90 pounds overweight was having on my body. I felt terrible, I looked ridiculous, and I was facing being put on blood pressure medication at 25 years of age, so I said enough to this..... I made the commitment to get HEALTHY, and that's the key here....getting HEALTHY. That's the point of this post. You see there is a monumental difference in losing weight or getting healthy. Getting healthy in many cases encompasses losing weight, but losing weight certainly does't equate getting healthy in all cases. Diet pills (which I have another story about these that I'll touch on later), ridiculous pieces of "fitness" equipment, hot towel wraps, too hard to follow diet plans, and endless other "As Seen on TV" routes to weight loss, drive into our brains that its all about weight loss. If you just lose weight, you've found a ticket to join an elite social group of the beautiful and enlightened....right? Well of course that isn't the case at all. We buy these things, we take the pills, we cook the bland boring foods that were promised to cause rapid weight loss, and all we end up with is a higher credit card bill and increasing frustration because it didn't work. Here's a Punk Rock Triathlete reality check: IT TAKES WORK TO GET HEALTHY, and IF YOU PUT IN THE WORK TO GET HEALTHY...YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT! I swear to god promise you will lose weight if you focus on getting healthy (meaning exercise, eating right, kicking heath declining habits like smoking and overconsumption of alcohol, etc. and paying attention to spiritual and emotional growth). It's easy to be fat.....it is not as easy to be fit and in shape, but it can be fun and its certainly rewarding! The journey from a fat guy to a realtively competitive age-group triathlete has been incredible for me! If getting into shape and getting healthy were easy, our society wouldn't continue seeing the rise in obesity statistics. It requires dedication, planning, paying more for foods, being open to preparing your own meals, getting down and dirty, sweating, being sore in places you didn't know you could be sore in....yet when you change your lifestyle and you make a commitment to live the healthy life, you will find a sense of inner peace and a rock solid willpower that gives you the courage to go out an conquer whatever it is that seems unattainable at the beginning to you! You'll have the energy to work, be a parent and spouse, maintain your household, be active in the community and also workout and train! I promise you that. Trust me if I can do it and so many other folks out there with even more "life" responsibilites that I have can do it, so can YOU!
Now back to the promised Diet Pills story: Just to drive home the point of how unsafe diet pills and weight loss aides can be, I want to share a personal experience that involves my deceased sister-in-law. 12 years ago this October, she passed away at the age of 29. She was a life-long sufferer of asthma and on the night of her death, she had a severe asthma attack that eventually led to her stopping breathing and having to have CPR performed on her to get her to the hospital, where she was then immediately placed on life-support. When the doctor met with the family, he presented a very interesting and troubling question..... had she ever taken Phen-Phen or any other diet pills containing ephederine? Immediately my brother agreed that she had taken Phen-Phen, along with other ephederine-based weight loss and "alertness" pills for quite some time. The doctor then went on to explain that her heart was severely weakened by the use of these drugs over the years, to the point that it could not handel the stress that this, what would be her last, asthma attack placed on it. He stated that because these drugs speed up the heart (which indeed does cause the metabolism to speed up, albeit in the most unhealthy of ways) it over-works the heart and can cause irreversable damage. Even being on life-support, her body shut down only a few hours after the attack and she passed away.......at 29 years old. She had just finished her nursing degree and began working as an RN, yet even with her knowledge of biology, pharmaceuticals, and the human body, it never seemingly occurred to her that these pills were dangerous. This doesn't occur to most people that buy and take them. Diet pills and the like were DIRECTLY linked to her death.
To think that so many people out there continue to use these "Fat Burnring" pills that have ephedrine-like ingredients in them is scary if not stupid. Commercials even have supposed doctors and health professionals claiming their safety. I just have to wonder about anything that you'd need a doctor telling you that it's safe and reccommended. If its safe, why try to fool me with a fake doctor telling me so? Reminds me of the old cigarette ad where it says "More doctors smoke Salems than any other cigarettes"!!!!! Just something to think about!
So just some final points to consider....not all skinny folks are healthy! Many measures that folks take to lose weight are dangerous and unhealthy. Lastly, make losing weight a sub-goal of getting healthy! Let health and having a healthy lifestyle be your goal!
There is also another point to my writing all of this about weight loss and family history. There was a point in my life about 5-6 years ago that I really let myself go. Looking back on it and given my educational background in psychology, I can see that depression had a large part of it. Coming out of college I was in great shape. I'd played lots of soccer and football, and was a gym rat! Yet once the "party" was over and I was faced with thinks like family and working full time, my workout became shorter and shorter. If I only would have learned more about priorotizing and time management, I would have more easily been able to fit workouts into my life. I was very unhappy and depressed in my family life and work, so the downward spiral began. Food became a comfrt and my obsession. As my health declined, my need to rest and desire to eat increased. So if I would have stayed in shape, I could have used all that time I wasted eating and napping to improve my health and stay active. Ugh....youth! I guess that's why they say ignorance is bliss? I didn't realize what I was doing to my body at the time. Well ignorance can also be unhealthy and eventually life-threatening. Anyway I began to see and feel the impact that being around 90 pounds overweight was having on my body. I felt terrible, I looked ridiculous, and I was facing being put on blood pressure medication at 25 years of age, so I said enough to this..... I made the commitment to get HEALTHY, and that's the key here....getting HEALTHY. That's the point of this post. You see there is a monumental difference in losing weight or getting healthy. Getting healthy in many cases encompasses losing weight, but losing weight certainly does't equate getting healthy in all cases. Diet pills (which I have another story about these that I'll touch on later), ridiculous pieces of "fitness" equipment, hot towel wraps, too hard to follow diet plans, and endless other "As Seen on TV" routes to weight loss, drive into our brains that its all about weight loss. If you just lose weight, you've found a ticket to join an elite social group of the beautiful and enlightened....right? Well of course that isn't the case at all. We buy these things, we take the pills, we cook the bland boring foods that were promised to cause rapid weight loss, and all we end up with is a higher credit card bill and increasing frustration because it didn't work. Here's a Punk Rock Triathlete reality check: IT TAKES WORK TO GET HEALTHY, and IF YOU PUT IN THE WORK TO GET HEALTHY...YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT! I swear to god promise you will lose weight if you focus on getting healthy (meaning exercise, eating right, kicking heath declining habits like smoking and overconsumption of alcohol, etc. and paying attention to spiritual and emotional growth). It's easy to be fat.....it is not as easy to be fit and in shape, but it can be fun and its certainly rewarding! The journey from a fat guy to a realtively competitive age-group triathlete has been incredible for me! If getting into shape and getting healthy were easy, our society wouldn't continue seeing the rise in obesity statistics. It requires dedication, planning, paying more for foods, being open to preparing your own meals, getting down and dirty, sweating, being sore in places you didn't know you could be sore in....yet when you change your lifestyle and you make a commitment to live the healthy life, you will find a sense of inner peace and a rock solid willpower that gives you the courage to go out an conquer whatever it is that seems unattainable at the beginning to you! You'll have the energy to work, be a parent and spouse, maintain your household, be active in the community and also workout and train! I promise you that. Trust me if I can do it and so many other folks out there with even more "life" responsibilites that I have can do it, so can YOU!
Now back to the promised Diet Pills story: Just to drive home the point of how unsafe diet pills and weight loss aides can be, I want to share a personal experience that involves my deceased sister-in-law. 12 years ago this October, she passed away at the age of 29. She was a life-long sufferer of asthma and on the night of her death, she had a severe asthma attack that eventually led to her stopping breathing and having to have CPR performed on her to get her to the hospital, where she was then immediately placed on life-support. When the doctor met with the family, he presented a very interesting and troubling question..... had she ever taken Phen-Phen or any other diet pills containing ephederine? Immediately my brother agreed that she had taken Phen-Phen, along with other ephederine-based weight loss and "alertness" pills for quite some time. The doctor then went on to explain that her heart was severely weakened by the use of these drugs over the years, to the point that it could not handel the stress that this, what would be her last, asthma attack placed on it. He stated that because these drugs speed up the heart (which indeed does cause the metabolism to speed up, albeit in the most unhealthy of ways) it over-works the heart and can cause irreversable damage. Even being on life-support, her body shut down only a few hours after the attack and she passed away.......at 29 years old. She had just finished her nursing degree and began working as an RN, yet even with her knowledge of biology, pharmaceuticals, and the human body, it never seemingly occurred to her that these pills were dangerous. This doesn't occur to most people that buy and take them. Diet pills and the like were DIRECTLY linked to her death.
To think that so many people out there continue to use these "Fat Burnring" pills that have ephedrine-like ingredients in them is scary if not stupid. Commercials even have supposed doctors and health professionals claiming their safety. I just have to wonder about anything that you'd need a doctor telling you that it's safe and reccommended. If its safe, why try to fool me with a fake doctor telling me so? Reminds me of the old cigarette ad where it says "More doctors smoke Salems than any other cigarettes"!!!!! Just something to think about!
So just some final points to consider....not all skinny folks are healthy! Many measures that folks take to lose weight are dangerous and unhealthy. Lastly, make losing weight a sub-goal of getting healthy! Let health and having a healthy lifestyle be your goal!
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Getting Focused
Well finally, I am sitting down to post something, as it has been a few weeks! Training has been going great the last few weeks and I have signed up for the City of Lenoir Sprint Triathlon on September 3rd. I am also signing up for the Bethel Community Half Marathon in October. With that said, I have really have been focused with training and its feeling great. I have been doing well with getting in at least 20 minutes of yoga in each day and I can already tell a difference! This just totally reminded me of how important and amazing that yoga is! Just allowing your body to open up, being able to shift energy into areas that typically get closed off, and to be able to focus on the present with an open mind and heart............ so healing!!!!!!
Anyway last week my swims were great! I swam a total of 3,250 yards and felt incredibly strong in the water. I am really excited to see how I compare with the other age-groupers in my upcoming race. I have also been slowly increasing my running miles. Last week I got in around 15 miles and hope to get up to around 20-25 by the end of the month. As far as the bike goes, I have been flat out hammering it. Yesterday I climbed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is around 3,600 feet. It was a 25 mile trip and as intense as it gts here on the East Coast in terms of climbing. It felt great and I dropped a guy that I caught up to (not to mention he had a fancy 2,000 dollar Cannondale). This ride was by far one of the toughest rides I have made given how hard I hammered it up the mountain. My goal is to do this ride once a week. Round trip, it took about 1 and 1/2 hours to complete. So my bike total for the week was around 60 miles. Living in the mountains of NC, these are hard hilly, mountainous miles so don't let the numbers fool you :) These are tough workouts regardless of the length. Lastly, I did 3 weight training workouts this week and have really decreased the leg workouts to lightre higher rep sessions, given my upcoming races.
So that's whats been going on here with me. I am finishing up my reading of the Traithlon Training Bible and just enjoying life with my family. My motivation remains high and I hope that anyone reading this will find the inner motivation to go out and do something amazing. Whether that's walking a mile or completing the Ironman, go out and challenge yourself. By doing so I promise YOU will become a motivation to those around you! Fear of failure so often prevents us from achieving what we are truly capable of....so go out and kick fear's ass!!!!!!!
Peace, love and happy training!!!! (Don't forget to add yoga to your training!!!)
Anyway last week my swims were great! I swam a total of 3,250 yards and felt incredibly strong in the water. I am really excited to see how I compare with the other age-groupers in my upcoming race. I have also been slowly increasing my running miles. Last week I got in around 15 miles and hope to get up to around 20-25 by the end of the month. As far as the bike goes, I have been flat out hammering it. Yesterday I climbed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is around 3,600 feet. It was a 25 mile trip and as intense as it gts here on the East Coast in terms of climbing. It felt great and I dropped a guy that I caught up to (not to mention he had a fancy 2,000 dollar Cannondale). This ride was by far one of the toughest rides I have made given how hard I hammered it up the mountain. My goal is to do this ride once a week. Round trip, it took about 1 and 1/2 hours to complete. So my bike total for the week was around 60 miles. Living in the mountains of NC, these are hard hilly, mountainous miles so don't let the numbers fool you :) These are tough workouts regardless of the length. Lastly, I did 3 weight training workouts this week and have really decreased the leg workouts to lightre higher rep sessions, given my upcoming races.
So that's whats been going on here with me. I am finishing up my reading of the Traithlon Training Bible and just enjoying life with my family. My motivation remains high and I hope that anyone reading this will find the inner motivation to go out and do something amazing. Whether that's walking a mile or completing the Ironman, go out and challenge yourself. By doing so I promise YOU will become a motivation to those around you! Fear of failure so often prevents us from achieving what we are truly capable of....so go out and kick fear's ass!!!!!!!
Peace, love and happy training!!!! (Don't forget to add yoga to your training!!!)
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Training Update
Well we made it back from our trip, I made it through 5 days of the cabbage soup cleanse like I had planned, and life has been great! I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful wife and children! The cleanse felt great, I really could tell and difference and just needed something to help me get my nutrition tightened up again after our hospital stay having the baby. We were there 4 days, and well 4 days of eating out of the hospital canteen can really make you feel disqusting! It did me anyway :)
Our trip to Onancock, VA (which is the Eastern Shore area of the Chesapeake) was amazing! I felt like I got some really nice training n. I logged about 100 miles on the bike and 10 miles of running. I know that isn't astronomical in mileage, yet it felt great and just what I needed coming off a very strict cleanse. I also did a coupe of hour long kayak excursions with my wife out into the bay. We beached for a bit and I swam minimally, yet it was great and felt nice to at least get some open water strokes in! That is after 6 months of 3-4 days in the pool at the gym!!!!! There were a lot of walks around town and just great hang out time with the baby and my wife's family. I loved the trip and feel so rejuvenated.
I have been hitting it pretty hard since we got back. At least my body feels like I have. We got back to Asheville Tuesday morning about 4:30.....yikes! Since then I have gotten in two 1/2 mile swims at the pool, a 12 mile and 9 mile bike ride, a couple 4 mile runs, and a weight training session hitting chest and arms really hard. Totally sore and beat today, yet I will amange to muster up the motivation to log a bike ride in before sun down....that is if it stops thundering outside!!!! Been slack on my yoga, only stretching here and there to loosen my back and hamstrings since getting back into town. I have to get more committed so I am thinking about doing Baron Baptiste's 40 Day Journey to Power program again to get back to a solid 30 minute a day yoga practice. My wife is totally rocking it exercise wise now, so I think soon we'll be able to practice together which makes it so much easier to get my yoga in. It's amazing what a toll that a C-Section can have on a person! My wife is certainly my hero!!!!!!
So now that the baby is here and is doing great, I am planning my races for the rest of this season. So far this year I have ran two 5k and two 10k races. I did one duathlon and one biathlon....all of which were great and I was happy with my results. Having the baby on the way, I couldn't realistically fit in anymore up to this point, but hope to finish out the year strong. I am signing up for the City of Lenoir Tri (Sprint) in September, a half marathon in October in beautiful Cherokee, NC. Those are the two I am doing for sure. There is a cool Pump and Run race in August that I am considering where you do as many bench presses as you can then run a 5k.....sounds awesome to me :) Not sure of what's out there in Novemeber, but being cool weather, I would love to find another half marathon to do that month and then I want to finish the year out with the Jingle Bell 5k in Lincolnton, NC that I did last year. I got to dress up in my elf hat and socks and just had a blast! Big plans to place in the top 3 of my age group in the Tri and the 5k's!!!!!
Well that's about it! I am working on getting my thoughts together to make the Shoe-String Budget Bike post...... There is so much I want to fit in because I seriously went on this in-depth 6 month journey learning about, researching and finally purchasing a bike. Trust me you have to do that when you are working on a $400 dollar road bike budget and want to get soemthing you can be competitive on! I made a great choice and love my bike.....the Forge CTS 1000. There is a pic up of the bike in the left-hand corner of the blog page. Anyway hope anyone that reads this is well and happy training! Just remember we can do anything that we put our minds to! Hardwork never killed anybody, at least not that I am aware of!
Our trip to Onancock, VA (which is the Eastern Shore area of the Chesapeake) was amazing! I felt like I got some really nice training n. I logged about 100 miles on the bike and 10 miles of running. I know that isn't astronomical in mileage, yet it felt great and just what I needed coming off a very strict cleanse. I also did a coupe of hour long kayak excursions with my wife out into the bay. We beached for a bit and I swam minimally, yet it was great and felt nice to at least get some open water strokes in! That is after 6 months of 3-4 days in the pool at the gym!!!!! There were a lot of walks around town and just great hang out time with the baby and my wife's family. I loved the trip and feel so rejuvenated.
I have been hitting it pretty hard since we got back. At least my body feels like I have. We got back to Asheville Tuesday morning about 4:30.....yikes! Since then I have gotten in two 1/2 mile swims at the pool, a 12 mile and 9 mile bike ride, a couple 4 mile runs, and a weight training session hitting chest and arms really hard. Totally sore and beat today, yet I will amange to muster up the motivation to log a bike ride in before sun down....that is if it stops thundering outside!!!! Been slack on my yoga, only stretching here and there to loosen my back and hamstrings since getting back into town. I have to get more committed so I am thinking about doing Baron Baptiste's 40 Day Journey to Power program again to get back to a solid 30 minute a day yoga practice. My wife is totally rocking it exercise wise now, so I think soon we'll be able to practice together which makes it so much easier to get my yoga in. It's amazing what a toll that a C-Section can have on a person! My wife is certainly my hero!!!!!!
So now that the baby is here and is doing great, I am planning my races for the rest of this season. So far this year I have ran two 5k and two 10k races. I did one duathlon and one biathlon....all of which were great and I was happy with my results. Having the baby on the way, I couldn't realistically fit in anymore up to this point, but hope to finish out the year strong. I am signing up for the City of Lenoir Tri (Sprint) in September, a half marathon in October in beautiful Cherokee, NC. Those are the two I am doing for sure. There is a cool Pump and Run race in August that I am considering where you do as many bench presses as you can then run a 5k.....sounds awesome to me :) Not sure of what's out there in Novemeber, but being cool weather, I would love to find another half marathon to do that month and then I want to finish the year out with the Jingle Bell 5k in Lincolnton, NC that I did last year. I got to dress up in my elf hat and socks and just had a blast! Big plans to place in the top 3 of my age group in the Tri and the 5k's!!!!!
Well that's about it! I am working on getting my thoughts together to make the Shoe-String Budget Bike post...... There is so much I want to fit in because I seriously went on this in-depth 6 month journey learning about, researching and finally purchasing a bike. Trust me you have to do that when you are working on a $400 dollar road bike budget and want to get soemthing you can be competitive on! I made a great choice and love my bike.....the Forge CTS 1000. There is a pic up of the bike in the left-hand corner of the blog page. Anyway hope anyone that reads this is well and happy training! Just remember we can do anything that we put our minds to! Hardwork never killed anybody, at least not that I am aware of!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Being Competitive on a Shoe-String Budget
Anyone living the Tri Life can attest to the fact that this sport can be one of the most expensive endeavors a person can engage in. Those fancy Tri/TT bikes can cost you as much as a new car, all the latest swim gear and training aids can add up to two week's salary, then throw in things like gym memberships, coaching, all the cycling accessories the folks in the club have, body work, nutritional supplements, and ahhhhhh................ you feel like the only way to compete is to take a 2nd mortgage out on the house or withdrawl half of your 401K savings. Is there anyway that a person can be seriously competitive without breaking the bank? Well, to a degree there is. You have to be willing to be resourceful, be opportunistic, and be willing to research the heck out of things before making purchases. I don't have a lot of extra money to spend on equipment, yet I want to do as well as I can when I race. That being said, I read everything that I can about equipment and then try to find the best deals out there or make the best possible substitutions for the really expensive stuff!
Let's start with the most basic area of multisport, in terms of equipment.....swimming. Technically speaking, a person can get by with only a pair of swimming goggles and a swimsuit. Yeah, trust me you have to have the swimsuit! There are some pretty inexpensive training tools you might consider such as kick boards, fins, and hand paddles, yet some of these are typically avaliable for use at most gym pools. If you feel like you need some of these training aides, search for used items. Ebay is a great resource. Become familiar with how to bid and be willing to wait a week or so to get your items. You'll also have to consider paying for a pool membership, or joining up with a master's swim class in order to have a place to practice and train for your swim unless you have a pool or live near an open water source you can train for free in. If so, I am jealous!
Running is also relatively light in terms of equipment needs. One thing that most folks that are runners, triathletes, or serious walkers will agree on is you can't skimp on shoes. You got to be willing to fork over a bit of money to get good shoes. Be aware that not all shoes are going to work for all people. Everyone has a slightly different running style and foot strike, so its important to figure out which shoe will best accommidate your running style. For example, I suppinate, meaning that the ouside of my foot actually makes contact with the ground first. Learning to read the wear pattern on your running shoes is a helpful way to establish your foot strike. When I first started putting in a higher number of miles, I experienced a great deal of pain in my knees. I decided to research this and when I saw that the outside heel of my shoes was wearing down, I was able to deduce that I am a suppinator......sounds like a super-hero......and then I was able to research shoes that can compensate for this. After having a list of brands and models of shoes to look for, I searched for the best price. By doing so, I found the shoes I use (K-Swiss Tubes) for 30 bucks cheaper than the going rate at shoe stores. The difference these shoes made in terms of knee pain has been incredible. So, if it hurts less, we typically don't mind training more! At least I don't :) Also with running, you'll need some running shorts and shirt. When I first started running more seriously, I didn't think it mattered what my shirt and shorts were made of, but once you get chaffed nipples or inner thighs, you'll do like I did and go out and buy some running clothes. The fabric technology out there these days is nothing short of miraculous. Well, that might be a lil' dramatic, but seriously the moisture wicking fabrics that running clothes are made of these days can make the whole running experience much more pleasant. You can get decent running shorts at major department stores, as well as shirts. Trust me they are much cheaper than the name brand ones at the sporting goods shop. I also use a head band when running in the summer because nothing sucks as bad as getting sweat in your eyes over and over while running. I also got a cheap watch that has a stop watch function so I can track my pace. Trust me you don't have to have the $500 dollar Nasa issued space watch to keep up with what you're doing in terms of pace. One last thing, sunglasses are a must have. Mine that I wear training and racing, running and cycling, were $7.00 at K-Mart. I love 'em and they work as good as any.
I will address the bike in the next blog. Obviously the bike is going to be an investiment. I researched bikes for 6 months before I made a purchase. I had a $400 budget and when it comes to road bikes, that ain't much! So I had to learn what I needed and what I didn't need. I had to evaluate new verses used and all that. Ummm........the fun of it all!
Let's start with the most basic area of multisport, in terms of equipment.....swimming. Technically speaking, a person can get by with only a pair of swimming goggles and a swimsuit. Yeah, trust me you have to have the swimsuit! There are some pretty inexpensive training tools you might consider such as kick boards, fins, and hand paddles, yet some of these are typically avaliable for use at most gym pools. If you feel like you need some of these training aides, search for used items. Ebay is a great resource. Become familiar with how to bid and be willing to wait a week or so to get your items. You'll also have to consider paying for a pool membership, or joining up with a master's swim class in order to have a place to practice and train for your swim unless you have a pool or live near an open water source you can train for free in. If so, I am jealous!
Running is also relatively light in terms of equipment needs. One thing that most folks that are runners, triathletes, or serious walkers will agree on is you can't skimp on shoes. You got to be willing to fork over a bit of money to get good shoes. Be aware that not all shoes are going to work for all people. Everyone has a slightly different running style and foot strike, so its important to figure out which shoe will best accommidate your running style. For example, I suppinate, meaning that the ouside of my foot actually makes contact with the ground first. Learning to read the wear pattern on your running shoes is a helpful way to establish your foot strike. When I first started putting in a higher number of miles, I experienced a great deal of pain in my knees. I decided to research this and when I saw that the outside heel of my shoes was wearing down, I was able to deduce that I am a suppinator......sounds like a super-hero......and then I was able to research shoes that can compensate for this. After having a list of brands and models of shoes to look for, I searched for the best price. By doing so, I found the shoes I use (K-Swiss Tubes) for 30 bucks cheaper than the going rate at shoe stores. The difference these shoes made in terms of knee pain has been incredible. So, if it hurts less, we typically don't mind training more! At least I don't :) Also with running, you'll need some running shorts and shirt. When I first started running more seriously, I didn't think it mattered what my shirt and shorts were made of, but once you get chaffed nipples or inner thighs, you'll do like I did and go out and buy some running clothes. The fabric technology out there these days is nothing short of miraculous. Well, that might be a lil' dramatic, but seriously the moisture wicking fabrics that running clothes are made of these days can make the whole running experience much more pleasant. You can get decent running shorts at major department stores, as well as shirts. Trust me they are much cheaper than the name brand ones at the sporting goods shop. I also use a head band when running in the summer because nothing sucks as bad as getting sweat in your eyes over and over while running. I also got a cheap watch that has a stop watch function so I can track my pace. Trust me you don't have to have the $500 dollar Nasa issued space watch to keep up with what you're doing in terms of pace. One last thing, sunglasses are a must have. Mine that I wear training and racing, running and cycling, were $7.00 at K-Mart. I love 'em and they work as good as any.
I will address the bike in the next blog. Obviously the bike is going to be an investiment. I researched bikes for 6 months before I made a purchase. I had a $400 budget and when it comes to road bikes, that ain't much! So I had to learn what I needed and what I didn't need. I had to evaluate new verses used and all that. Ummm........the fun of it all!
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Nutrition Nut :)
I briefly hit on my training in the last blog, so just wanted to do the same in terms of my diet and nutrition practices. I am up this late because I am finishing up my cabbage soup......seriously, as I am beginning a week long veggie soup based cleanse in the morning. My wife and I adhere to a pretty strict diet, but even still, there are times that we need to cleanse our bodies of toxins and excess garbage that we consume. Our typical diet goes soemthing like this....
The only animal products we consume are fresh eggs and fish (seafood more specifically), we eat primarily gluten-free foods (niether of us are allergic, its just a much healthier way of eating), no corn (insanely hard to digest), and we strictly limit the sugars in our diet. We use only coconut oil to cook, and olive oil to season foods. Other cooking oils actually become toxic when heated! That's no joke, research it if you don't believe me.........We consume fresh fruits and veggies, quinoa, rice, and rice products (noodles, breads, cereals, and milk), have tuna or salmon a couple times a week, oatmeal, almond cheese (it's incredible) and tempeh/tofu. We occasionally throw in some nuts and beans to increase proteins. I also use protein powder about one to two times per week, since I weight train 3 days a week.
Might seem a little strict to some, and not strict enough to others.....my yoga trainer was Doug Swenson who maintains an all raw food/ vegan diet! Seriously one of the strongest and healthiest guys pound-for-pound that I have ever encountered, yet there is no way I have that kind of discipline....or money :) Eating healthy is expensive. My family resides in Asheville, NC and luckily we have several natural food stores to shop at, yet the prices can drive you mad....but can you really put a price tag on your health???? Honestly???
So wish me well on my 7 day cleanse. I have did 3 fruit only, 6 day cleanses in the past 2 years and I have to tell you, you feel amazing afterward!!!! So light and well......cleansed! Have a bathroom close by although! You'll certainly be needing one. It has been my experience with cleanses that you really don't get all that weak like some folks claim. I have been able to maintain my training through them and don't expect this one to be any different.
The only animal products we consume are fresh eggs and fish (seafood more specifically), we eat primarily gluten-free foods (niether of us are allergic, its just a much healthier way of eating), no corn (insanely hard to digest), and we strictly limit the sugars in our diet. We use only coconut oil to cook, and olive oil to season foods. Other cooking oils actually become toxic when heated! That's no joke, research it if you don't believe me.........We consume fresh fruits and veggies, quinoa, rice, and rice products (noodles, breads, cereals, and milk), have tuna or salmon a couple times a week, oatmeal, almond cheese (it's incredible) and tempeh/tofu. We occasionally throw in some nuts and beans to increase proteins. I also use protein powder about one to two times per week, since I weight train 3 days a week.
Might seem a little strict to some, and not strict enough to others.....my yoga trainer was Doug Swenson who maintains an all raw food/ vegan diet! Seriously one of the strongest and healthiest guys pound-for-pound that I have ever encountered, yet there is no way I have that kind of discipline....or money :) Eating healthy is expensive. My family resides in Asheville, NC and luckily we have several natural food stores to shop at, yet the prices can drive you mad....but can you really put a price tag on your health???? Honestly???
So wish me well on my 7 day cleanse. I have did 3 fruit only, 6 day cleanses in the past 2 years and I have to tell you, you feel amazing afterward!!!! So light and well......cleansed! Have a bathroom close by although! You'll certainly be needing one. It has been my experience with cleanses that you really don't get all that weak like some folks claim. I have been able to maintain my training through them and don't expect this one to be any different.
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