So, here's what I did starting January 1st:

Bike: 69h 29m 58s - 1358.54 Mi
Run: 40h 57m 32s - 218.13 Mi
Swim: 44h 39m 39s - 124348.4 Yd
Strength: 16h 10m
Spinning Class: 16h 45m

and here's what it got me:

MALE AGE GROUP: 25 - 29
PLACE O'ALL NAME TIME
2 13 Bill Shearer 47:27

Woo hoo! Hardware!

This coming weekend will be different. The horses show up to the Heatwave, and I'll be put back in my place. I do feel confident that I'm going to shatter my time from last year though, and that's what really matters to me.

Hello High School Graduation

I weighed in at 155 this morning before my swim. That is as low as I've been since I graduated high school. It only took me three years to get to 205. Then I wrangled myself back down to 175 by the time I finished grad school. Then, after my knee surgery I was at 185. Then 175 for last years tri season. Sooooo.... goal one is accomplished. The mid 150's for the upcoming season. I feel light and faster (not fast by any means, but faster).

Finally ran into another endurance swim this morning. Got 3350 yards in. Almost two miles so you don't have to do the math. I actually was looking forward to this after Monday, which had a speed work swim in the morning, followed by another speed work swim after work.

Also, I'm feeling pretty recovered from the century ride and 5k this past weekend, so I think I'm up for a little bit of strenght training tomorrow. Back to the 5:30am body pump class at the YMCA we go.

Has it been a month?

Geez. I actually completely forgot to post some stuff here. I've been logging all my stuff on beginnertriathlete.com and have just ignored this blog, which is supposed to be my personal journal for the year leading up to the New Orleans 70.3. Anyway, I guess it's not too bad since race day is now 356 days a way. Pretty much a year right?

Where do I stand as of now? Where here is how March turned out:

Bike: 13h 58m 32s - 259.25 Mi
Run: 7h 47m 08s - 42.92 Mi
Swim: 10h 45m 20s - 27800 Yd
Strength: 5h 50m
Spinning Class: 3h 45m

Eh... I followed the plan from beg. triathlete. Kind of a weak running month though. Not much biking either, though four spin classes helped. April is off to a good start with this so far:

Bike: 8h 03m 22s - 105 Mi
Run: 7h 08m 37s - 37.89 Mi
Swim: 4h 55m - 12825 Yd
Strength: 1h 25m
Spinning Class: 2h 00m

So I've almost matched the running time from March in half the month. The bike is being helped along by a 100 mile ride I did Saturday at the Natchez Trace Century Ride. Also knocked out a 5K at Run From the Sun that night. Then I gorged on pizza and beer.

The training this month has worn on me, probably because I'm running a lot more. It may not seem like much to some more advanced runners, but as bad as I am and as much as I hate it, it's pretty good. However, I'm finding myself sadistically starting to enjoy putting the shoes to the asphalt.

Oh, and Mooch got a face lift in the form of Vittoria Rubino Pro tires. Love 'em.

Race Day

Did my first bike only race today. It was a 40km Individual Time Trial on the Natchez Trace, and holy shit was it windy. Like a 10-12 mph difference on flat road wind. It was a brutal 20km out, and one hell of a fun 20km in. I didn't do to bad either. 1:11:08. That's about 21mph, so I'm fairly happy.

I also managed to get a 1500 yard swim in today. That's actually not a big swim for me, but I did swim a 500 in 7minutes, which is good for my ability at the moment. I also weighed in at 161 pounds before the swim. Every drop in weight for me now is a new low since second semester of my freshmen year in college.

Oh, I'm doing this weight loss thing not because I think I'm fat, but because I want to "race light." In other words, 20 pounds less stress on my knees while running. 20 pounds less to haul around on a bike. 20 pounds less to pull through the water.

Weekly totals (Sunday - Saturday):

6700 yards in the pool
52 miles on the bike
13 miles ran
130 minutes of strength training
60 minutes of spin

I put in just under an 11 hour week, so I'm happy.

And for the year:

Bike: 34h 15m 26s - 700.05 Mi
Run: 15h 11m 08s - 88.33 Mi
Swim: 16h 54m 20s - 46900 Yd
Strength: 10h 10m
Spinning Class: 7h 00m

Why I don't do Duathlons

Daaammmnnn.... And I thought the bike to the run was a hard transition.

Yesterday I did an hour run. A nice, easy, slow pace somewhere around 11 minutes a mile. Oh yeah, I'm EXTREMELY slow. A combination of being bow legged, pigeon toed, and a four hour surgery on my right knee in May of 2005 have sort of handicapped my running. Anyway, I have a 10k personal best of just over 9:30 a mile, so this actually was a VERY slow pace for me. Anyway, I got on the bike which was hooked up to the trainer and H O L Y S H E E T!!!

I averaged 15mph for thirty minutes. Do what? I can normally hop on the trainer and EASILY crank out 20-21, and if I really want to work, and hour at 26-28 is attainable. It was brutal. My legs just wouldn't turn the cranks.

As for today, I managed to get in a 2000 yard swim. Did a 300 warmup, then a ladder. That would be 100, 200, 300, 400, 300, 200, 100. Then a 100 cool down. I sprinted the 100s and swam a 1:15 and a 1:18. These are in yards by the way. Also, before I swam, I did a 40 minute run. 5 min warm up and cool down sandwiched around a 30 min run at 10 min/mile on the treadmill.

So, 10 days into March I've biked 55 miles, ran 18, swam 7200 yards, done an hour of weights, and an hour of spin class. Pretty light actually as I took an easy week before starting this training plan for the Heatwave Triathlon. Even now that it has started, I have a bike race this weekend, so I don't want to kill myself this week.

So far for the year I'm at 655 miles on the bike, 84 miles run, 42k yards in the pool, 8 hours of weights, six hours of spin class, and my weight has gone from 175 to 163 without any decrease in energy. I feel like I'm off to a good start

Time for a change

I'm going to do a half Iron Man.

New Orleans. April 5, 2009. Heads up big easy. A bow legged, pale, slow, short guy who loves Abita is headed your way. Yeah, like that'll shock you. Look for near the back, ok.

To recap. Half marathons in December, January, and February. Did a 10k in there as well. In February of 2007 I plodded through New Olreans and finished a marathon. I've got two 62 mile (metric centuries) rides under my spandex, and I did three tris last year. One mini sprint, a .5/24.5/6.2, and a .5/20/4. I've already done the distances for each discipline in the half Iron Man. Now it's all about getting this tri thing down and putting them together effeciently. Oh, and I'm going to have fun doing it. I'll even enjoy the really shitty days when I feel like I want to break down and go eat half of the local Taco Bell inventory. The good days are only made sweeter by going through bad ones. So I'm going to grin and grind it out.

Let's see, though. Vital and not so vital info to begin this little quest:

1. Getting married on November 15th. (pssst... that's vital, really impotant, and I can't wait)
2. Weight is 163. Down from a 175 "racing" weight last year.
3. I still hate running. I just don't really, really, really hate it anymore.
4. My knee has healed perfectly. It's all in my head, It's all in my head, It's all in my head. (Run faster you jackass!)
5. I'm just posting some stuff to announce to all my readers (pretty much just myself) that I'm changing directions with this blog. Afterall, I'm the one that needs convincing that I can do this.
6. This is really just my personal journal of stuff I'll be going through. I keep a log at beginnertriathlete.com (thank you, thank you, thank you for that site), but this site here is strictly for me to bitch, moan, feel elated, have good days, have bad days, and share with anyone who isn't a member of BT. You probably won't get my daily training logs, but you can keep up with my sanity.

Dear self,

It's not like this is a full Iron Man. Lighten up.



Reply to self,

It feels like it to me, and who knows, maybe one day.

Running season coming to an end!

I have one last half marathon down in Pensacola this weekend, and then it's time to prep for the tri season. Actually, I've been doing that for a month and a half. After the MS Blues Half Marathon, the farthest I've run continuously has been a 10k. While I did set a PR, I don't think only doing a 10k is quality half mary training. Oh, well. The course is flat and I just want to get it over with. So, I biked almost 500 miles on my trainer in Janurary, and I'm already over seven miles in the pool for February. It's not like I won't have the endurance for a half mary, I just wont have the legs. Well, maybe the rest will have revitalized the legs and I'll burn it up.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

It should be fun either way. At least it's a trip to the beach.

In cycling news, the Amgen Tour of Claifornia is getting started this weekend, too. It'll be nice to have some road racing back on the tube, especially since football seaon is now a thing of the past.

Been too long since the last post, and I can't blame it on anything other than laziness. Mid-March marks the beginning of my training plan for the Heatwave triathlon in Ridgeland, MS. I may use this blog as an update on how it's going. Who knows.

And in beer news. Terrapin has opened up it's new brewery and it is tourable. Gotta get there sometime and check it out. If not for the Rye Pale alone.