Understandable but still disappointing.

So I got an email yesterday that my ride for the animals was cancelled due to damage from Helene.   Yes, it's completely understandable seeing as how the ride would be six weeks from tomorrow, but I am disappointed as I was really looking forward to it, but access to the barrier islands just opened up the other day and I'm sure there are more important things to do out there than block the roads, assuming they're clear, and watch bicyclists ride by.

So....   What is John going to do?   Well, I think I'll actually find out about getting scuba certified.  I'll do a few runs here and there and spin.   Maybe find an event for the spring.

What a difference a week makes

First off, we're all fine from Helene.  We lost a gate and some tree branches, water in the house again, but other than that we had minimal impact.   We didn't really lose power and we were already aware of the foundation problems.  The area we live in was hit pretty badly by the storm surge and people who live in a flood zone got crushed.  I can only imagine what would have happened if we took a direct hit.   I hope I never have to find out, but it definitely changed my opinion on riding one out.   I think both Merinda and I decided we'll just get the fuck out of Dodge with the dogs and spend a comfy night elsewhere.   I say this as there's another "disturbance" in the gulf.   It's looking pretty mild, but everyone is on edge after Helene.  Just hope all those people up in NC get the help they need.  That looks insane.

Now let's talk about September.  Overall a good month.   I really can't call it excellent because I feel like I came up short on a couple of things, yes I expected some of it, but not all.    As a reminder here are the goals I set:

• Maintain weight
• Ride 500 miles - Need to get outdoors
• At least one more 5k tuneup this week.   Then the Triathalon and we can take a little break from running.   
• At least one more swim before the race, preferrably two and ideally one in the ocean.
• Resume after workout stretching. 
• Continue bootcamp workouts. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple September exercise challenge 
• Gold in my Septmber challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc44 and start #mc45
• Finish at least one, if not both, of the virtual 5k's I signed up for. 

Weight Results:

• Starting Weight: 214.10
• Ending Weight: 216.9

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 70
• Time on exercise: 50:28:42
• Distance on rides: 367.60
• Number of runs: 3
• Distance running: 9.16mi
• Number of walks: 2
• Time walking: 1:05:30
• Distance walking: 2.69mi
• Number of rows: 0
• Time rowing: 0
• Number of swims: 2
• Distance swimming: 1600yd 

Results:

I always like to start with the misses, so lets get that out of the way.   I badly missed my mileage target.  I took six days off the bike, which to be fair I mostly needed, but the week up in VA made a big difference, and to be honest, I wasn't trying to track miles, but get ready for the tri.  I did not get the Apple exercise challenge.   As soon as I realized what it was I knew I'd fall short because it had a really high calorie burn, and in a month where I was going to spend a week tapering and a week resting it was going to be almost impossible.   It really wasn't until this week that my legs began to feel better after the race, so I knew I would probably miss that.    I also missed my gold in two challenges.  I was overly ambitious because the non team focused ones are harder.   I was close in one, and missed by a mile in the other.   Oh well, there's next month :)

I talked about the bad, now let's talk about the good.   I ran a good race in Tarpon.   I really did.   Yes, of course there's room for improvement, but I am 56, almost 57 for those of you keeping score, and I have bad joints.   Other than some cramping I didn't feel that bad although I was pretty worn out for a week or so.   I suspect the 90 minutes I did on the bike on Sunday didn't help there.   Weight is good, I'm stretching more than I ever have, even if I don't feel like it's helping as much as I want.   Ran my pre-race 5k's and I'm taking bootcamp's twice a week now.   I don't know why I avoided them before, and I finished MC44.  I've even begun to do standalone weight training on my rest days.   It's a good way to keep moving and work on getting stronger.

Ok, so what are we going to do in October?

• Maintain weight
• Ride 550 miles - Ideally get outdoors once/week for at least 25 miles.
• Run at least one, maybe two 5k's this month.   
• Swim once, maybe twice this month.   Gentle pace for 500-1000 yards
• Continue weight training
• Continue bootcamp workouts. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple October exercise challenge 
• Gold in my Septmber challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc45 and start #mc46
• Start MDC3! 

This should look familar again, but I need to get a little more focused on the bike.   I have a metric century ride coming up in November, so I need to be ready to ride for 62 miles, which is about twice as far as I've ridden so far.   I'm estimating 4-5 hours, closer to 4, but it's going to take some work on my endurance, since I'm not used to working for that long.   That will tie in nicely to the distance challenge and an uptick in my monthly output.

I did take some downtime both before and after the race, and I'm glad I did.   I've been overtraining, and that can be a real problem.   I feel like I did this 30 years ago and it's why I burned out.   It's also why I like the challenges and other minor goals.   I won't be racing in another tri this year, at least I don't see that happening, but I don't want to lose the fitness I've worked at, so I need somethign to keep me moving.  I'll have to be a little more judicious in allocating rest time through the next few months.  I still want to take "rest" days, so I will be swimming and running and weight training on those days.  Obviously, not all at once, but I worked to build swimming endurance and I don't want to throw it away.  Same goes for running, especially since I have some races I'm planning to do throughout the fall.   Other than that, it's "typical" goals for me.  The last thing I wanted to mention is I'm trying to do more zone 2 training, so I can build up more endurance.

All in all, I'm excited for this month, assuming we don't have another hurricane.  I'm looking forward to the distance challenge and getting back to some semblence of normal exercise routine even if I'm not looking forward to getting older shortly.  Regardless, have a great day and we'll talk soon!

Well that's a wrap...

And with that, I finished the Tarpon Triathlon.

Post race selfie, and yes I felt shattered.

Let me preface all this with, I am 100% happy with my results.   I finished the race and didn't finish last in my category, or the race overall.   The weather was pretty close to perfect for the event too.   To talk about the individual portions, I had no issues on the swim and stayed close to or faster than my training pace.  My swim goggles leaked a little bit, but that's been an ongoing issue, and I will probably replace them for future races.  However, I felt good in the water and I think I could have gone 1/2 mile on the swim or more if I had to.  I need to swim in the ocean more because I just need practice at that.   Oh, and the seagrass/seaweed isn't fun to run through, but it could have been worse.

Yes it's official

I thought the bike went really well with the exception of having troubles clipping in.  I passed far more people than passed me and one person passed me because a race organizer on a trike was in my way and I had to slow down.   I think tri bars would help, but not as much as a better bike.   Don't get me wrong, I like my Bianchi, it's a comfortable ride, but I'll need somethign better in 2026 if I keep at this.  I do need to drink water while on the bike.   I feel very uncomfortable grabbing and replacing my bottle so that needs help.   Otherwise, with the exception of some of the elite/distance athletes I was on pace.

Now for the run.   Again, I finished the race and hit my goals, but I expected to do better running.   No, I'm not used to running after all that exercise, and yes, running is my weak link, but I was disappointed at how much walking I had to do.   My knee and hip were sore during the run and that hampered me, but I think more of that was allowing myself to get dehydrated.   Obviously, I can't drink in the swim, and I barely drank on the bike, so at this point I was an hour in and had minimal water.   I effectively chugged my fitly flask, and had to sip cups of water at the aid stations.   The only other change was that I was in slim socks, but my joints are fine now, so I think it's water intake and some fitness.   Both of which I can address in future training.

I was surprisingly pleased eating at Charley's for dinner, thanks for pushing that Jerry, because it wouldn't have been my choice, but that bison ribeye was on point :)

So where do I go from here?   Well, I think I'll repeat both Tri's next year with the goal of meeting or exceeding my performance so far.  Dunedin is a sprint, but I'd like to try an olympic distance.   I don't think I want to be ready for that in a year, so lets think about 2026 for that one :)   Beyond that, a few 5k's to go and my longish bike ride in November.   But before that, I'm going to take a light week and enjoy some R&R.   I'll still close rings and do that, but I'm going to let my body heal a little bit.   I was very sore going into the last week before the race and I think I overtrained.  I still have plenty of room to improve. but I tried to cram it into a small window and failed badly.   Now that I've finished the race I can plan for the training plan I wanted to run before this race instead of feeling overwhelmed and behind when I started my ramp up.

We live and learn right?   Glad I did it, and excited for new challenges!  Talk soon....

 

How can anyone say stupid shit like this...

Someone I know recently posted a comment that said "Things will be much better after the second civil war" and I am dumbfounded by the stupidity of that kind of sentiment.

Really?   A war in the US over fucking political beliefs is what you want?   Are you serious?

Lots of people will likely die and get injured, but things will be better?

Our country in ruin, our economy in ruin, but things will be better.   Why, because you expect Trump to somehow lead the country through that?

I guess people like that believe that somehow they're going to just eradicate people who don't agree with them and we'll go back to the 50's... 

How fucking stupid are you?

Just a week to go

I'm ready for this race so I can take a little break.   I'm definitely feeling burned out and ready to ease up for a little bit and recover.   No, I'm not going to stop being active, and yes, I'll still do 30+ minutes a day, but I'm going to dial back the intensity a bit.  I could use some rest days here and there, and maybe some yoga days.  I do have my long bike ride in November, but that's an easier training schedule since it's just endurance.

I think I'll have to look at my goals for this month as well.   The Apple fitness goal for August seems unattainable given what else is going on this month.   Take today, almost two hours of strenuous exercise, and I'm still 100 calories short of the 1045 calorie goal, and I'm supposed to hit that another thirteen times.    Yes, I'll probably cross it today, but I need to slow down next week and recharge for the race, and post race the last thing I want to do for the rest of the month is bust my ass.   We'll see how it goes, but I'll be ok if I miss, disappointed, but ok.   Same goes for my mileage target.   I didn't think 500 would be hard, but I barely made it last month, and that required a push at the end of the month, and I'm pretty far off the pace this month, only 31% to goal, with a pre-race taper coming next week.   So, again, I'll be disappointed, but ok with it.   I didn't expect to be in VA for a week, nor did I expect a triathalon mid-month when I made this plan in January.  Truth be told, I'm ahead of my overall goal for the year thanks to a few overachieving months so I can live with it.

The lesson from this is don't allow your goals to be so rigid that failure is inevitable.  Allow them to bend and adjust to your life, but don't give up on them.   Yeah, I'll miss a few arbitrary things this month, but I'm still in the best shape I've been in since I was 27...  Stew on that...   I'm going to compete in my second triathalon this year next Saturday.   I ran a four mile race in July.   I can run 5k's at my discretion now, and I think a 10k is more than feasible.   I have a 65 mile bike ride coming up.  I'm 99% sure I'll be working towards an olympic distance triathalon next year and a half marathon after that, and finally, I feel great most of the time, my knees and hip notwithstanding.

tldr - ready for the race and a little recovery afterwards.   Have a great friday the 13th...   More race updates coming.

Rememberance

I often think about my mother on 9/11.   No, she wasn't in NY, or on one of the planes, but I was visiting her on that day.   I remember that she was making breakfast, im pretty sure it was waffles, and having her furnace serviced because that's what you do in Vermont in September.   The furnace guy said "hey something happened in NY" and I turned the TV on.   It stayed on for hours.   My office was adjacent to the FAA in Herndon so I called my boss to make sure everyone was ok and they were being evacuated.  I was just fortunate to be with family on that day.   So many people weren't and never would be again...

I remember how odd it was to see no planes in the sky.

I remember driving home and going past NY and seeing the smoke plume from the WTC.

I remember that radio service was disrupted because so many stations broadcast from the WTC.

I remember being a child and going to the Windows on the World restaurant.   It was awe inspiring.

I still feel like something is missing every time I go to NY and see the lower Manhattan skyline.

I will never forget.

Better late than never

So we were up in VA visiting family for a week or so and I'm finally catching back up.  I always forget how brutal that drive is, especially when we take the dogs, until afterwards, but it takes a lot out of me.  I felt wiped out all day Sunday and didn't really feel better until Monday.   Fifteen hours of driving on five hours of sleep is tough, even if you drink a few energy drinks.   I did stay on track up in VA for the Tri with running and biking.   No swimming though because its a PITA to find a pool and then work around whatever the schedule is.   I went for a swim last night and almost tripled the distance I need so I feel good there.   I badly need an open water swim, but there's still a little time, but I'm running well, albeit slowly, and cycling is not an issue.

With that, lets look at August.

• Maintain weight
• Ride 500 miles -  Outdoor rides when possible especially for the distance training for the triathalon.  I know it's hot outside, but suck it up buttercup.
• Minimum of one run per week.   Try to stick to the training plan as long as my knees hold up.
• Start swimming per your plan.   Try to get in the ocean twice this month.
• Continue after workout stretching. 
• Continue bootcamp workouts. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple August exercise challenge
• Gold in my August challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc43 and start #mc44
• Finish at least one, if not both, of the virtual 5k's I signed up for. 

Weight Results:

• Starting Weight: 213.9
• Ending Weight: 212.1

Exercise info:

• Number of rides: 93
• Time on exercise: 35:44:14
• Distance on rides: 500.94
• Number of runs: 1
• Distance running: 2.45 mi
• Number of walks: 2
• Time walking: 1:00:23
• Distance walking: 2.72 mi
• Number of rows: 5
• Time rowing: 1:37:34
• Number of swims: 2
• Distance swimming: 1550 yd

Results:

Well, in hindsight this was a pretty solid month.   I didn't run as much as I planned, but I've been able to run twice this month and it's been "ok".   No knee pain which is a plus.   No, I didn't get the virtual 5k's done. but weather was an issue and I'll knock out one this week.  I signed up for some random challenge and didn't get gold in that, but did in the other two.   Weight was good, rowing was good...   I feel ready for the Tri.  Really the only thing I blew off was my training plan.   I just wasn't ready for the volume of running and other things it planned.   Maybe it was a little aggressive for where I'm at.  I still feel like I can work up to an Olympic distance race, but that means a lot more swimming.  Ugh.  I did miss stretching up in Virginia which was a mistake.   I stretched last night and suffered for it.

So, what does September look like?

• Maintain weight
• Ride 500 miles - Need to get outdoors
• At least one more 5k tuneup this week.   Then the Triathalon and we can take a little break from running.   
• At least one more swim before the race, preferrably two and ideally one in the ocean.
• Resume after workout stretching. 
• Continue bootcamp workouts. 
• Perfect Month in Apple
• Apple September exercise challenge 
• Gold in my Septmber challenges
• All the bonuses in #mc44 and start #mc45
• Finish at least one, if not both, of the virtual 5k's I signed up for. 

This month is going to be challenging.   I didn't pay attention to the September challenge while we were away and I missed a week of it.   Apple wants me to burn 1045 calories and I haven't done it once yet.  It's going to be difficult with resting up for the race and recovery.  I also think hitting 500 miles on the bike could be tough.   I'll need to average 20 miles per day for the rest of the month and a few extra zero days didn't help.   We'll see, but maybe 450 is more realistic.  As soon as I finish this race I need to start planning for the long ride in two months, so distance won't be an issue, and I'm hoping we have a distance challenge through Echelon again.  Otherwise this month is about the race.

Not much else to say...  Sorry about being late and we'll talk soon.