June already.

I feel like I say this almost every month, but it's a little surprising that we're already at the end of May.   Yes, I'm actually ahead of the game this month, shocking isn't it, but it's Friday and a little slow at work.  I've talked at length about the Triathalon already so no need to harp on that anymore.   I've had a few weeks to reflect on it and I'm going to say I'm more than satisfied with my results.  No, I didn't get to swim, but that wasn't my choice and it was the right one

This is a picture I took that morning, and while it doesn't quite show the wave action, you can see it's pretty active.   We had a rip tide warning in effect and the surf was pretty active.  The dual runs were a bit much and made it clear to me that I was underprepared.  I probably should have taken a training plan and used it, but that's hindsight.  All that aside, I finished and I wasn't last.   I'll do better next time.

Let's get to it and recap the rest of May:

• Complete the triathalon
• Maintain weight
• Ride 350 miles - Yes I lowered this for pre-race taper and post-race recovery
• Weekly run and walk exercise.   At least two walks and one run per week.   
• Bi-weekly swims for the two weeks before the race. 
• Regular Yoga exercise.   At least once per week.
• Resume rowing activities after the race. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple April exercise goal
• Gold in my April challenges

Weight Results:

• Starting Weight: 218.0
• Ending Weight: 216.8

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 78
• Time on exercise: 23:57:56
• Distance on rides: 391.40
• Number of runs: 3
• Distance running: 5.27
• Number of walks: 6
• Time walking: 3:27:03
• Distance walking: 10.15
• Number of rows:  0
• Time rowing:  0
• Number of swims: 2
• Distance swimming: 2000yd

Results:

A whole lot of up and down this month...   Let's start with the down shall we?   While I've been holding my weight in the range I want to, it's been very volatile.  I seem to overeat on the weekends and then go back down during the week.   I would like that to stay more steady, and maybe get my eating a little more under control.   Yes, I know I wasn't going to talk about weight, but it's an important metric for me and I feel like my appetite is a little out of control and I excuse it because I work out a lot.  Oh and those 34 waist shorts?   Don't quite fit which is a bummer.   

Oh, there are other things to talk about?   Well, I didn't get gold in my solo challenge.   Missed that because I took some recovery time.   No rowing either.   As I've stated I was pretty sore and felt that way for about a week and a half after the race.   My hips and knees are finally feeling decent again, so I plan to start rowing next week.  I don't feel bad about the things I missed because I did taper down pre-race and that helped a lot.

Don't let me make it sound like it was all bad.   On top of finishing the race, I hit my revised mileage goal,  Plenty of walking last month and I feel like I might start running again next week.   I can definitely do a mile, or maybe two.   I need to get up to 5k distances because I see some of those in my future.   I didn't do as much swimming as I wanted, but I want to start some open water swims and I need to think about when I'll do the scuba certification.    Yoga has been fairly constant, I really like the restorative classes and want to make those a weekly activity.  And for my challenges, I crushed #mc40.  got a a perfect month in Apple, and a gold and silver finish in my challenges...

So what's in store for John this month?   Glad you asked..

• Maintain weight
• Ride 450 miles - Weather permitting I want to ride outdoors every Sunday.
• Weekly run and walk exercise. 
• One open-water swim, preferrably two.   Minimum of 1/2 mile distance. 
• Weekly Yoga
• Weekly row
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple June exercise goal
• Gold in my June challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc41

This should be a fun month.   MC41 has a lot, and I mean a lot, of bootcamp and fitpass requirements which should fit nicely into some cross training.   I don't know how many complete rest days I'll take, but maybe I'll try to slot Yoga in there or just alternate fitpass and Yoga with cardio activities.  The other thing I did was lower my cycling mileage.   This was initially supposed to be a 550 mile month, at least it was when I set my yearly targets, but I think that's unrealisitic given that I want to improve on my running and overall fitness, and I need more than just cycling for that.   Plus I don't want my legs to feel dead again, so we'll ride a little less, row a little, lift a little more, stretch a little more, run a little more and feel better overall.   Hopefully, the Apple June challenge isn't gross hard...   We'll see.   Tarpon Triathalon registration deadline is July 14 which is both Bastille Day and my mother-in-law's birthday.   Not sure that's what I'm looking for, but it is auspiscious so good enough...   More on that after June. 

Final Thoughts:

I've posted enough random shit today.  I'm excited for summer, and being active.   Have a great month and we'll talk soon!

More post race rambling

I was only half kidding about the massage gun in my last post.   I've been using it several times a day, both with the heat setting, yes it has a hot/cold option, and today is the first day I don't have some deep tissue soreness.   Honestly I don't know how I worked out without it.   I guess it's easier when you're young.  I'm still struggling with some general hip pain but that seems to be easing and I'm not sure if it's muscular or joint pain.   If I was going to guess, I'd say it's a bit of both, but between Yoga, stretching, massage gun and JJ's pain ointment it's getting better.   Maybe I should be a little more patient?   I did push myself pretty hard on Sunday and I need to let myself recover.  I need to remember that I'm 56 not 26 and to be completely honest, I feel like I was somewhat underprepared for the race and should have trained better which I think is why the run was so hard.

On that note, assuming I didn't damage my hip, I'm planning on running another Triathalon in Tarpon springs in September (9/21) and am already looking at training plans.   I winged it this time and I feel like I was a little underprepared, so this time I'm going to use a training plan I found online and see how that goes.   I might need to modify the running a bit, but I have time to work on running before I start training for real.  I also lowered my monthly cycling goal this month.   I had to account for the pre-race ramp down so I wasn't sore and tired as well as this past week of recovery.   It was just going to be impossible for me to hit it and I didn't want to feel like I underaccomplished this month.   So, it's down to 350 miles which I should be able to hit, and I'm already 200 miles in the positive this year so I'll make up the difference.  

So, what does it look like going forward?   Well, assuming my hip holds up, I'm going to maintain a bike/run/swim/row combo until I start my actual race training plan.   I think it will look like this:

• Sunday: Outdoor cycling until it gets too hot
• Monday: Rowing and/or Yoga and weight training
• Tuesday: Endurance cycling
• Wednesday: Low impact cycling and run
• Thursday: HIIT cycling and weight training
• Friday: Intervals and weight training
• Saturday: Ocean Swim and easy walking

I think that will keep me moving in the right direction and help me get ready.   I'll adapt as necessary and based on previous history, I'll probably cycle too much and for anyone worried about rest, zone 2 training is an active recovery, so between that and Yoga I'll be ok.

#truth

 

Triathalon...

Yes I survived the race, and I finished.   I have mixed feelings about my results, but I think some of that is disappointment in myself.  

Yes I finished and got my medal

My overall goal was to finish, which I did, however as a secondary goal I didn't want to finish last, and that's where the mixed feelings come in.   No, I didn't finish "last" but I did finish last in my age group, and by maybe 30 seconds.   I did beat men who were younger than I am, and by a few minutes, so I'm taking that with a grain of salt.   What was frustrating was I had to walk a good bit of the run.   Not sure if it was training, because my back hurt, or just physiology because my knees also hurt.  So, I'm going to work on running a bit and see if I can get myself able to run faster and longer because I think I can do better than 44 minutes for a 5k and if not?  Then so be it, but my knees don't hurt at all today, so I feel like I should be able to do better.

Otherwise I will say it was much harder than I expected.   The ocean was very rough and they cancelled the swim portion and we had to run twice.   I was better on the bike than anything else, but have work to do to get faster there too.   I was also pretty slow in transition.   When I do more I need to be better organized.  

So will I do another one?   Yes, of course I will.   At a minimum I'll do this race again next year but I think I'll do some more local ones to get better.   I think some of this is because I used to be much more competitive in races and I set unrealistic expectations, but Merinda said for a first time I should be very pleased and I don't really disagree with her.

In case anyone wants to see, here are my timed results.

On pre-race nerves...

 A couple of things before we head out to the race.   First, I can't believe it's two weekend in a row where we're getting up at the ass-crack of dawn.   Not very civilized.   Second, I can'r remember being this nervous before a race.   I think I felt this way before NYC, but I honestly can't remember.   Regardless, I'm full of nervous energy but I'm ready.   Look for my post race update.

Happy birthday mom.   I miss you and am thinking about you today.

Shit got real...

Well, I picked up my race packet today, so I guess this is going to happen.   In case anyone actually reads this I am #81.   I go in swim wave 2, which is not where I would have chosen, which goes off at 733am on Sunday the 19th.   The shirt is pretty cool and I'm both excited and nervous.

Wish me luck!

I'm in the home stretch...

 Yesterday marked a week until the triathalon.  I'm not going to lie and say I'm not nervous, because I am, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm also excited.  I've been slowing down the intensity of my workouts for the past week or so and I'll continue that through this week.   I did a longish outdoor ride yesterday, I'll swim once or twice this week and probably do the 75 minute endurance tomorrow as a true Z2 workout, but aside from that, this week will be mostly walks, gentle riding and yoga to stay loose and ready.   As I commented the other night, I can't get more ready.

I am disappointed that I didn't get any outdoor swims in, but I felt pretty wrecked after the drive, so a combo workout was a no-go yesterday.  To be honest I debated skipping it altogether, but after being kind of awkward about making it home, I really had to do something, and I'm glad I did.   Once the headache went away I felt fine.

Other than that, good week away.   Stayed on track with exercise, weight stayed where I want it to, and I feel ready for the race.   I'll try and post right before the race, but otherwise I'll post an update when it's done.   If it goes well there are a number of races in the area and I might do more. 

What's that about May Flowers???

 So....   Here we are in May again.   It's hard to believe that the triathalon is only 17 days away, but I've made a lot of progress on getting ready and despite not always feeling "good" about it, feel like I'm actually in a good place.  I know I was late on getting started swimming, and I know I've eased up a bit on running, but I finally caught up on my swimming prep, and finally got outdoors on my bike instead of just spin.   I'm now able to swim in excess of the 1/4 mile so I think we're ready there.   I rode over twelve miles on Sunday, but I knew I was ready there, so all that's left is stitching this all together.   If only we weren't going to VA tomorrow...   Just poor timing on that one, but Tyler turns 21 tomorrow and we have to go see Niamh for her birthday and, for reasons I can't quite explain, Merinda wants another dog...  I guess because our life wasn't hectic enough for her.

All that said, let's recap April shall we.

• Maintain Weight
• Ride 550 miles
• Weekly run and walk exercise.   At least two walks and one run per week.
• Weekly Yoga exercise
• Run 3 miles consecutively by EOM
• Weekly rowing activities - My goal is 8-10 for the month.
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple April exercise goal
• Gold in my April challenges
• Start swimming

Weight Results:

• Starting Weight: 216.2
• Ending Weight: 219.5

 Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 87
• Time on exercise: 01:09:16:30
• Distance on rides: 571.57
• Number of runs: 1
• Distance running: .51 miles
• Number of walks: 3
• Time walking: 1:13:56
• Distance walking: 3.30 miles
• Number of rows:  4
• Time rowing:  1:51:29
• Number of swims: 4
• Distance swimming: 1775 yards

Results:

Well, I'm not going to lie and say it was a great month, because it wasn't, but I will say it was a good month.   I hit most of the goals I set, and I feel like I made a lot of progress.   That said, there's still a lot of room for improvement before the 19th.   So what did I miss?   I didn't run.  My knees were feeling sore, and once I went for my first swim I realized I had a lot of work to do, so I sacrificed both rowing and running to catch up on my swimming fitness.   Swimming twice a week has made a big difference, and I feel like I'm finally on track there.   I'm not overly concerned about the run because I've always known that I can walk the 5k.   I'm sorry about the rowing, but that's just superflous right now and I should have given it up earlier.   I do regret walking, but to be honest, it was hard to do that with Merinda in Ireland.

So what went well?   Well for starters my weight is stable.   Yeah it goes up and down, but its right where I want it and, shhh don't tell Merinda, I bought my first 34 waist shorts, so clearly I'm doing something right.  I hit my cycling goal which was probably a little high given that I'm ready there and not quite ready elsewhere.   I don't think it's accurate, but Apple said I did eight yoga workouts and I did make an effort to do this regularly, so I think I'm ok there and I hit all my challenge goals.

What to make of it?   Like I said it was good but not great.   Maybe I'm being too ambitious in my goals given the overarching short-term goal of the triathalon.   We'll see what happens afterwards.

So, what's in store for May?

• Complete the triathalon
• Maintain weight
• Ride 450 miles
• Weekly run and walk exercise.   At least two walks and one run per week.   Depending on how I feel post race I'll evaluate running.
• Bi-weekly swims for the two weeks before the race. 
• Regular Yoga exercise.   At least once per week.
• Resume rowing activities after the race. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple April exercise goal
• Gold in my April challenges

Similar to last month but with a few important changes.   First, I'm trimming back on cycling mileage by 100 miles.   Since I'll be in Virginia for a week I'm going to play that by ear and if necessary I will lower it to 400.   I need to be a bit more focused on the race and a little less focused on "distance at all costs".   My legs have felt dead for most of April and I want to avoid that for the race and I think pushing all out to hit the April Apple fitness challenge was a little much.   This months challenge is better suited for race prep; walk/run 2.5 miles 14 5imes, so I'll be walking and running more and cycling less.  It's not reflected here, but, weather permitting, I'm also going to stop spinning on either Saturday or Sunday, yes I will miss endurance or Sunday Vibes, but I want to ride outdoors weekly, and the weekend makes the most sense.  Additionally, I'm going to resume rowing post race for cross training.   Otherwise, it's Apple challenges, Apple rings and #mc40.

Final thoughts:

I was pretty apprehensive about the race until yesterday.   Monday I was able to exceed 440 yards in the pool for the first time, but I needed a few rests, but last night I swam a 1/2 mile with fewer rests, and the big one after I finished the first 1/4.   While it's not the ocean, I feel like I've found my swim pace and assuming I don't suffer any setbacks, think I'm on track for the race.   I need to do some combo workouts, so I'll probably swim/walk or swim/run while up in Virginia and possibly do a mini swim/bike/run when I get home.

Other than that?   Looking forward to a great month!