Another month

Well July seems to have rushed in, and that's both a good and a bad thing.   Actually, I can't think of any good things about time accelerating.   What July does signify to me is that I have a race on Thursday, which I'm not really looking forward to, and that I have to start my next round of Triathalon training this month, which I'm also not looking forward to.  It's really not fair to say all that because it's a monday, and it's early, and I'm tired.  I do have a training plan, so if my knees and hip hold up I'll be ok.  Beyond coming into July feeling a little tired June was a pretty good month.

What did we plan to do in June?  

• 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

Weight Results:

• Starting Weight: 218.9
• Ending Weight: 221.4

Exercise info:

• Number of rides:  73
• Time on exercise: 34:12:45
• Distance on rides: 460.20
• Number of runs: 4
• Distance running:  9.73mi
• Number of walks: 6
• Time walking:  3:27:03
• Distance walking:  10.15mi
• Number of rows: 6
• Time rowing:  26:14:22
• Number of swims: 0
• Distance swimming: 0

Results:

Well, this month was a lot better than I remembered.   I did think it was goign to be a close call for the montly mileage, which it was, and to be honest, I knew I hadn't swum, but I'd forgotten that it was a goal, so I don't know if I want to talk about it, but let's finish all the misses.   I did pretty much run/walk every week.   I took last week off from the run, partly due to weather, and partly due to my hip.   Regardless, I finished all my virtual runs and feel pretty ready for this Thursday.   I'll probably go for a walk or light run tonight but that will be it until Thursday.   I already mentioned the swimming, and I also didn't do as much Yoga as I wanted.   As it turns out, I did three yoga workouts, but I've been successful at doing stretching classes and those are helping my flexibility, so three yoga's and over twenty stretches?  I'll take that.  Other things of note?   My weight ticked up a bit, but I'm also doing more weight workouts so we'll keep an eye on that, but I'm still under 225 so nothing to worry about.

There was a lot of good in June so let's talk about that.   As I stated above, I'm doing a lot of stretching and more weight workouts, which is what I need to do in order to lean out.   I need some muscle mass so hopefully that's going in the right direction.   Plenty of rowing, mostly bootcamps now, and I hit all the challenge goals etc... So overall, an excellent month.

I'm feeling a little flat today, so let's just get on to July goals:

• Maintain weight
• Ride 500 miles -  Outdoor rides when possible.
• Weekly run and walk exercise. 
• One open-water swim, preferrably two.   Minimum of 1/2 mile distance. 
• After workout stretch. 
• Row workouts until the triathalon training kicks in.
• Continue bootcamp workouts
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple July exercise goal
• Gold in my July challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc42
• Finish St. Pete pier run

This is going to be a transitional month.   We're going to spend some time up in Virginia, which might make my mileage goal a challenge so if need be I'll ramp it down to 450, but eight weeks from September 21 means I start my training plan this month.    I think I should be ok to hit all these goals, I don't think any are particularly hard.   The Apple challenge for July is a walk/run distance and the only other gotcha is when we drive to/from VA.

I also signed up for a 100km bike event in November.   Once the triathalon is out of the way I'll be training up for that.   Fun times!

Final Thoughts:

Not much else.  I'm just drained.   Happy 4th, and I'll post about the race.

Talk soon!

Motivation

Motivation is a fickle thing.   Some days the alarm goes off and I jump out of bed and feel ready to workout and get my day started.  I think of those as "easy" days because I'm already motivated and ready to get moving.  Thursday was like that, yes I work out late on Thursday, but work has been crazy and I had a lot of things to sweat out on the bike and it felt great.

Then there are days like today.  I was tired yesterday, I neither got enough sleep, nor did I sleep particularly well and went to bed early.  I got a fantastic night's sleep and still had a difficult time getting out of bed.  I hit the snooze button instantly and debated going back to sleep.  I did get up and as Merinda would say, dossed around, so I didn't get a warm-up in before I worked out.

Which day would you say I hit a PB in a class?  I didn't even notice I hit one today until well after class.  I knew I was working hard, and we did spend the first half in challenging effort, but I didn't even consider it.  Maybe it was the end where Jaime had us do a climb into a sprint and said "catch the person in front of you".  I still had some in the tank, so I went all out.   I hit max resistance on the climb, but even better was the sustained 100+ cadence at 22 or 23 resistance, and yes I caught the person in front of me.  Still, I wasn't sure I'd even finish top twenty whereas on Thursday I was top ten.

I guess the point of all this is you find motivation where and when you can.  Just remember you'll never find out until you try and you might surprise yourself.

On the election...

I've avoided talking about politics here, for the most part, because it's become such a divisive issue.  However, those of you who know me should be aware that I was very involvedin politics in my past, and studied political science in college.

That said, I was devastated by the debate last night.   On the one hand we have a candidate who lied about almost everything he said.   In a normal world we'd all laugh about that and know that he would get demolished come November, however on the other hand we have a candidate who looks, and sounds like he's suffering from dementia.  I know a little bit about this disease as my father has it, his mother had it and her mother had it, and I can recognize a lot of the symptoms.

You can say it's "ageism" but the fact is, nobody should be President at Biden's age.   I cannot believe he will make it through his term.  He's just not physically capable of the demands of the office.   I'm not arguing what his administration has/hasn't accomplished, because sadly that's not going to be the central issue of the election.   While we elect the "administration" we vote for a president, and therin lies the rub.

I will unfortunately have to vote for someone who I believe is unfit for the job to avoid voting for someone who I believe is going to take our country to a place I don't want to go.  Make our country into something that it shouldn't be, and divide our people.  I think it's a pointless gesture on my part, because after watching the debate I cannot see Biden winning the election.  He looked lost at times and had the same vacant start my dad gets when he has no idea what's going on.

I'm terrified as to what the future holds for the US. 

Im just impatient

Despite worrying about the weather last night I was able to get a 5k in, and despite all my concerns, I ran the best prep run I've run so far.   Hell, I even beat the time I ran in the Triathalon. 

Yes, this is my current PR for a 5k

As always there's good, bad and ugly.   So, what was ugly?  Well not too much other than my pace which is akin to a fast shuffle.   I'm sure some of that is due to bad joints, and being old and inflexible.   I was able to pick up the pace a few times, so I'm hopeful that I'll get faster and lengthen my stride.   The bad?  Just some joint discomfort that I was able to run through.   I'd like to feel more stable and nimble when terrain shifts, and it seems to be difficult for me to run on a slope.   So what was good?  Well, I ran the whole time.   I'm pretty sure I could have run an additional .9 miles and run four miles, which happens to be the race I'm running in two weeks.  I also feel pretty good today, so I'm not feeling joint pain afterwards.   Nor do I feel very tight or even stiff and that's a very good sign for future endeavours.   Maybe, just maybe, I can get to a 10k and then maybe I'd like to consider an olympic length triathalon.

runDisney 2024 challenge complete!

The other aspect of this is I'm actually finished with all the virtual 5k's I'm currently signed up for.   I finished the Disney ones and both the Stay Classy and the 5 O'clock somewhere runs.  I do think I'm going to try and keep running this at least once a week.   I would like to get faster and run further, and the only way to do that, barring a time machine, is to run more.

By the beard of Zeus, John ran another 5k!

So...   More 5k's to come.   Maybe after my 100km ride I'll work on some running distance.   It should be cooler then and I won't worry about overheating.   I usually drink a whole bottle when I run so I might need more than one bottle. 

Overall struggles....

I really didn't think I overdid it this weekend, or that I've been overdoing it in general, but that seemed to come to a head on Sunday morning.  Allow me to explain.

I might have stayed up a little later than I planned on Friday.   I also might have had a little more whiskey than I'm used to but I still got up on Saturday, rode the endurance, and ran all my errands.   Sure I was a tired, but nothing way out of the ordinary.   Saturday night I ended up going over to a friends house, didn't stay that late, came home and went right to bed.   Yes, it was after midnight, but I still expected to get up, get my workout done in plenty of time for us to go to brunch.

I slept until almost 10am.   Missed all the morning workouts I intended to do and described my legs as feeling like they were put in a blender.  Suffice to say that the last thing I wanted to do was work out.   I finally dragged myself onto the bike and got a light day in, but I was pretty surprised to feel that worn out.  Maybe I do need more sleep than I used to, but I really didn't think I was pushing myself that hard.  Maybe it's the weight workouts, maybe lack of sleep, honestly I don't know, but right now it feels hard to get myself to the next level of fitness.

On top of that I feel like I've lost control of my appetite.  Yes, my weight is stable, but I'm eating the wrong types of food and I'm very concerned that if I slow down exercise for any reason, including just letting myself have some rest, I'll gain weight.  I don't want to be scale focused, but it is an important metric and I have zero interest in gaining weight.

Happy monday y'all :)

Running struggles are real

I'm getting towards the end of my rope when it comes to running.   I know I have joint problems, and I know that I'm closer to 60 than 50, and I know that I used to be obese.    All of those are facts.   It also doesn't help that I only like to run outdoors.  However, I'm in relatively good shape, and my cardio fitness is high, so I finishing a 3-4 mile run should be feasible.

That begs the question, why am I struggling so much to run?   My gait can't get longer than what feels like a shuffle, and I feel like I need to stop often, and not always due to knee/hip pain.  I'm not under any illusion that I'll ever get as fast as I was in my 20's, but the metrics seem to show me getting slower instead of faster, and that's not acceptable.  Yes I was feeling a lot of pain last night, and don't tell Merinda this but I was I limping quite a bit, but that's just my fate and I need to accept it. 

I can accept that I'm pushing myself a little harder than I should, and I'm beginning to worry that a 4 mile race in 3 weeks is going to be very difficult, but I signed up for it and I'm going to do it.  I'll just keep doing my weekly 5k and try to gut out this race.   After that I'll be finished with the Disney races, the other virtual races and all I need to be prepping for is the triathalon in September.

I will say on a brighter note, I mapped out a 5k loop in my neighborhood which makes my life a lot easier.   Since I don't like to run indoors, and since I run like a dead slug, it's better to be close to home, and the other good part is that my knees are at a one, maybe two out of ten for pain today, so whatever is going on doesn't seem to be impacting my day to day life.   It does give me hope that I'll eventually make some kind of breakthrough and be able to run easier and faster.

 

Say it aint so...

I just read that Jabra is exiting the earbud market and I hope this isn't true.   I used to be a headphone junkie and still have a lot of different ones ranging from Sennheiser, arguably the best, through my airpods.   While the airpods work best with Apple products, I am consistently disappointed with the battery life and fit, so they get used mostly if I need to make/receive a phone call and I replaced them with Sony's for travel.  I switched to the Jabra elite 7 active earbuds for working out over a year ago.  Why?   They have adequate noise cancelling for a workout, substantially better battery life, and just all around a better fit.   While I think they're going to last a long time I suspect I might need to buy a new pair to stash in the event I lose these.