My legs are uneven

Sunday workout: Bike Fit

Bike fit was today. We discovered a couple things during the fit:

Blake making changes

• My left leg is 1cm shorter than my right
• The arches on my feet are not equal
• The front of my left foot is rotated counter to my pronate
• I have really good aero posture on the bike
• Back in the day when I was last fit, they put wedges underneath my cleats to solve the short leg and foot rotation. They did it wrong. It should have been an external riser and an internal wedge. I have been riding with a forced poor position.

 The hardest part of the fit was finding a good saddle. We tried probably 10 saddles and on a whim tried out a mountain bike saddle, which worked. I need to get some mileage on in the aero position to test that it's correct, but that's just time. I have a follow up in 2-3 weeks once I've gotten some road time on.

Spent the rest of the day working on replacing sprinklers in the yard. I ended up having to add spacers to 13 of the 16 and I still have one left. The outside of my hands are ruined from dragging against the concrete edges of the driveway and sidewalks. I probably spent a solid 6 hours working on it today (including Home Depot trips).

For a break in the middle, I finished putting Haley's Little Tyke car together. My parent's got it for her birthday, but it has been a massive pain in the ass to build. I got frustrated and quit about 1/3 of the way through. Dad made it another 1/3rd, got frustrated and quit. I took the rubber mallet to it and finished it. Haley loves it. When you put the foot base in, she can't get her feet caught. So....

Hot, hot, hot.

Saturday Workout:
Morning: 50 minute run
Morning Result: 5.03 miles / 208 feet climbing / average heart rate 154 bpm

Hot run. I spent the morning putting the sink back together so I was unable to do an early run, so I caught late-morning. Even though it's only 80*, when it's 80* is direct exposure and our relentless sun, it's hot. 10 minute mile pace, so not exactly record breaking, but steady. Running to heart rate is keeping to roughly that rate when running outdoors.

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Just pack it all in there.

Thursday workout:
Rest Day

Friday workout:
Morning: 1200 yards, 500 yards at race speed

Evening: 30 minute run
Evening result: 3.53 miles / average heart rate 154 bpm

Weird workout schedule this week. Sarah was in Dallas for work so I was left with Haley. Doing workouts with her is hard. My Wednesday bike didn't get started until 9:00pm and I couldn't do my Thursday workouts. I pushed my Friday rest day forward to Thursday and did my Thursday workouts today.

I ended up pushing both workouts until this evening, so it was my first back to back workout. The swim was 1000 yards, with an at pace 500 yard piece in the middle. I made a serious point to keep my form proper as I am pretty tired. The most recent points from Peter are for breathing and gliding. I wanted to focus on using my forearm to pull more water too. My pace felt slower than normal, but it was amazingly faster: 8:25 minutes,which is faster by over a minute.My guess would be pulling more water and turning my head vs. turning and lifting for breathing.

I immediately got out of the pool and did my run. 3.53 miles in 30 minutes. An average pace of 8:30 minutes per mile which is also a best. My calf doesn't hurt and didn't cramp up either. I am crediting that to changing my running stride some. I went back to a more mid-foot strike and it felt much better. I'm thinking that my physiology just lends to that type of run.

As silly as it sounds, today was also my best stretching day. I was able to get my hand almost all the way around my toes doing the hurdlers stretch and can almost touch my toes standing up. These are areas I have had consistent trouble with since my back surgery.

Today was a good workout day.

My weekend is going to be screwed up too. I have a 50 minute run Saturday and 30 mile ride on Sunday. I will be running back to back days because of today's workout and I'm not sure how good my bike will be on Sunday. My fit is Sunday at noon and while I will be there for 3 hours, I will be getting on and off the bike frequently. Hopefully I can get some cadence time down while he's testing the fit.

Beyond the workouts, this will be a very busy weekend. On Saturday I need to get the garbage disposal installation completed, tend to the yard, do our normal household chores, and be back home by 4pm to meet with the SolarCity rep. While we are very efficient with out electricity usage, we would definitely be using the AC more if I wasn't concerned about doubling our bill. Sunday will be meeting with the Home Depot rep regarding the counter tops that we are thinking about installing, I have my fit, and Sarah has a ton of work to do. We're going to be very jam packed this weekend.

Late night riding

Wednesday workout:
Morning: Off

Evening: 25 mile ride
Evening result: 1:29 hours / average heart rate 137 bpm

Sarah is on a business trip until Friday, so it's just Haley and me. Normally we take a split approach to getting her ready for bed; me for dinner and bath, Sarah for bedtime. That allows me to get onto the trainer by 7pm. Last night I didn't get started on my ride until 8:30pm. My ride and stretching weren't over until almost 11:30pm, which is after I normally go to sleep. I am using the late night and Sarah's traveling to justify my  pushing of rest day to today instead of Friday. That will allow me to not have to figure out how to handle Haley while I go on my run.

We did play all night instead of turning on the TV last night. Most of our time was spent on blocks. While she might have had a little help, we were able to  make a nice castle. Thankfully I wore her out last night, because she let me sleep in until 6:40am today. She was just playing in her room instead of coming into ours and waking me up.

We have a busy weekend coming up. I have a long ride and run this weekend. Somebody from SolarCity is coming out to give us an estimate on what electricity costs would be if we  installed panels. I have my bike fit, Sarah has a friend in town from London, and we're trying to get to Home Depot to price out new counter tops. Plus I'd like to get to Runner's Roost to see about getting some new  shoes. Mine are starting to get worn out and the pronate is amplified, which might be causing some of my calf issues.

It's just sprinkling. I'll keep running.

Tuesday workout:
Morning: 1000 yard swim - 300 yard warm-up; 10 x 50, 10" rest; 200 yard cool down

Evening : 40 minute run
Evening result: 4.27 miles / 205 feet climbing / average heart rate 157 bpm

...And it's hailing. About 1.5 miles into my run the light rain turned to a real storm and hail. Thankfully it was only pea-sized, so I just kept running. The run is my large "block" on the major streets around our house.

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The swim was uneventful. Worked with Peter a bit more on my breathing. I'm definitely getting more efficient, but the shortcomings of my strength are apparent.

My training log and schedule can be found shared on my Google Drive. Feel free to pull it down to see how the training is going and what is coming up next. As you can see, things are going to start getting intense, especially once we start to get into the 2 hour run range.

I did receive a follow-up email from the race promoter of last weekend's race. Apparently they are going to be taking a large portion of the climb out of the run for next year. not very many people were happy about the hill climb.

Here are links to a few of the race pictures:
Bike
Run 1
Run 2
Clearly not a lot of happy in those run pictures, but I wasn't doing it to be happy during the race.

I also found that the local running store, Runner's Roost, has Thursday group runs in the evening. I'm hoping to get involved in those soon. Sarah is out of town for two days this week, so I will have to try for next week.

Yep. It's Monday again.

Monday Workout:
Morning: 1000 yard swim - 300 yard warm-up; 5x100, 15" rest; 200 yard cool down
Morning Result: 500 yard swim / 9:52 minutes

Evening: 20 mile ride
Evening Result: 20 miles / 1:11 hours / average heart rate 127 bpm

I didn't workout yesterday because of the race Saturday. The training program says to consider a race day both weekend days of training. Given how piss poor the run in the race was, I should have run yesterday, but what can you do. We spent most of Sunday looking at counter tops. We are thinking about refinishing the kitchen, so we are doing our research currently. Choosing a material and pattern (would you call natural shaping a pattern?) is amazingly difficult.

I got a good swim in this morning. At 100 yards, today's intervals are the longest I have done so far. I didn't feel like I was going to asphyxiate from lack of oxygen until the last lap, which is a step in the right direction. I also did my second fastest at speed 500 yard block, and it was longer intervals.

Bike was another PR. For my bike "off" day, it's the fastest average speed and lowest average heart rate to date.

We'll see how tomorrow's run plays out. I have been having incessant cramping in my left calf when I run and I can't figure out why. I have a feeling that my pronation has killed the outside edge of my shoes and proceeded to force additional roll to the outside. Who knows. My shoes have about 500 miles of running and walking in them, so it's probably time for a new pair anyways.

 Sarah took a few good (and bad) pictures from the race over the weekend. I've pulled a few together from the cell phones. Supposedly there were also pictures on the nice camera, but I haven't seen them.A couple of Haley looking cute as always. And a couple of the fat boy. It's hard to tell that I've already lost 20 pounds. It just means that I have that much farther to go.

Fat boy or the green whale? Your call

Haley had her 2 year appointment today. She's 36" tall and still comfortably in the 99th percentile for height. Doctor is estimating her at being 5'10". She's going to be a ridiculously cute, tall chick. What did I do to deserve this? (Rhetorical question)

That's a whole lot of man meat on some spindly ass legs. Also, how cute is she with her backpack?

The results are in!

Saturday workout:
Lookout Mountain Sprint Tri: 1:33:24 / 5th of 9 in age group
Swim: 525 yards / 10:36 minutes / 4th in age group
Bike: 10 miles / 1139 feet climb / 41:39 minutes / 5th in age group
Run:  5k / 385 feet climb / 36:51 / 8th in age group

And I came up just short on the goal of upper half of my age group. 

The swim went well, but I got very winded, very quickly. The suggestions Peter had for my stroke made a huge difference and I ended up catching the person that started almost a length ahead of me. With the stoke being more efficient, I am taking less breaths per length, which mean I am breathing less. I expected that to be an issue, but didn't factor in the elevation change. The race was at 7800 feet vs. 5800 feet where we live. The reduction of oxygen took me from being winded at the end of lap 6 to lap 4.5. I definitely was taking breaks at the ends of the pool. If I could go through without stopping, I would probably be in the low 9 minute rage.

First transition was smooth. I forgot to bring a second towel so I had to use my event t-shirt instead. I need to make sure that I take a GU while I am in the transition zone as it's harder when you start moving.

Bike went, not surprisingly, well. It started with a long, fast downhill and proceeded to a relatively steep first mile climb. There was no warmup, which was unpleasant. From that point, it varied between steep climb and descent. The climbs were steep, so carry speed on descents was critical. Given my comfort at reckless speed descents, I was able to take advantage of it quite a bit. Once I ran out of momentum though, the climbs were grueling.

Transition two was also smooth. I had laid everything out cleanly before and it made a difference in my turn-around time. I will probably get a number belt, as it took extra time to get the safety pins for the number into my jersey. Still need to focus on eating GU and Bloks in the transition area.

No shocker but the run was by far my weakest leg. It was incredibly hilly, which is not something that I have been training for. It took about a quarter-mile to get my legs working properly. The first half-mile wasn't bad, then it turned straight up. I ended up power walking a lot of the hills, as I just didn't have the power to run up them. My average mile speed was 12:10 per mile, which is ghastly compared to my training run times. I must work on my running.

Looking at everybody else in my category, I am thinking that I should have registered for Clydesdale. In my age group, there were a whole bunch of skinny guys, and then my wookie self.

Results for the race can be found here. I was competing in Men's 30-34

Yeah, I was doing it wrong

Thursday workout:
Morning: 1250 yards, 800 yards at race speed

Evening: 40 minute run
Evening result: 4.45 miles / average heart rate 151 bpm

My swim this morning was the first post-coaching from Peter. I was very much swimming wrong. With my stroke corrected per his instruction, there was a noticeable difference in power and effort. My strokes per 25 yards went down from 19 to 15 and my 500 yard time went down as well. It was only down 10 seconds, but the fact that I was actually stopping to take breathe, shows just how much more effective it is. We'll see how I am able to hold that form on Saturday at the tri.

My run today was good as well. 4.45 miles at a 9:00 mile. While not impressive, that is back to back 9 minute mile distance runs. My first two miles were held at 8:20 miles, but my calf cramped up a bit slowing me down.

Tomorrow is my rest day. Saturday is my Sprint. My goal is still to finish in the upper-half of the competitors. Low goal, but given I am only 4 weeks in, I think it's reasonable.

You were better than I expected you would be!

Wednesday workout:
Morning: Off

Evening: 25 mile ride
Evening result: 1:32 hours / average heart rate 127 bpm

Was Peter's response to a video of my swimming form. Thanks, Coach Conte! But in all seriousness, it is nice to know that I'm not a hopeless cause. I need the swim to be a strong part of my race because it is no surprise that the run will be ugly. Tomorrow's swim is an 800 yard block, so it will give me time to focus on my technique. Currently at training speed I am taking 19 strokes to get across the pool. My initial goal for next week is to bring that down to 17. I'm not sure if that is a small or large target, but that is what I am looking for.

Today's ride was only 3 minutes faster than last Wednesday's, but there are some notable improvements.

1) I spent 15 minutes warning up and the last 1.5 miles cooling down. Even then, I still finished slightly quicker.
2) My average heart rate was 11 bmp slower; a full 8%.

Looking at yesterday's run and today's ride, I can see the fitness and power starting to come back into my legs. Now to focus on the swim.

Crossed a threshhold

Tuesday workout:
Morning: 1250 yard swim with 16 x 50 sw-10" rest between

Evening : 45 minute run
Evening result: 5 miles / average heart rate 151 bpm

Personal best tonight on my run: 5 miles in 45 minutes. It doesn't sound substantial, but it's the second longest run (by .14 miles) I've done since starting training, and it's the only run to hold a 9 minute mile pace. Plus, my average heart rate was lower than any other run with a sub-10 minute mile pace. It's the little things.

I got my starting position for the race on Saturday, and it puts me a ways back. There are 10 people in the Men's 30-34 category and my start time puts me smack into the middle. There are two guys in the 6 minute range for a 525 yard swim, which is mind boggling to me. That's almost 50% my proposed time. Mind = Blown. I do still think that upper half is reasonable, but out of a field of 10 that's not exactly an accomplishment.

On the Haley front, she's decided to go creeper on us. Last night when we went to bed, I closed out bedroom door. When I woke up this morning the door was open. Either we have a ghost or Haley got up in the middle of the night, came into our room, then went back to bed.To add to the 'aww' factor, Sarah just went upstairs to get ready for bed and Haley was asleep in our bed. I moved her back over, but I have a feeling that she will be back in our room by the morning.

(Insert witty title here)

Monday Workout:
Morning: 1000 yard swim
Morning Result: 500 yard swim / 9:47 minutes

Evening: 20 mile ride
Evening Result: 20.74 miles / 1:17 hours / average heart rate 129 bpm

The swim this morning was beneficial for two main reasons:
1. Dad was able to come and film my swim, so I can relay that to Peter. Hopefully with the expected list of things that I am doing wrong, I will be able to fix some issues to be more efficient.
2. It was my first 500 yard block. Given the race this weekend has a 525 yard swim, it is the first time I have been able to get a gauge to my speed. I estimated an 11 minute competition time and at 9:47 minutes for 500 yards, I think I nailed it. With a slightly slower pace and less pause time for breathing, I wouldn't be surprised if I do the swim in the race a bit faster.

Everybody left today, so it's back to just the three of us.

Delayed Father's Day update

Sunday workout: 30 mile ride
Result: 31.63 miles / 2:17 hours / average heart rate 136 bpm

Posting a day late because of Father's Day activities. Morning ride, afternoon picnic at the park, then dinner at Hillstone's (Houston's for the SF folk).

Haley's birthday party

Saturday workout:
Morning: Run 55? minutes
Morning result: 3.91 miles

Not sure exactly how long I ran for. My watch said I went for 55 minutes, but my distance did not sync with that. I ran half (according to my watch) with my Dad, but his watch said 20min. My average speed once I calculated it at home showed a 14min mile - which is walking. Either way it was screwy.

We had Haley's birthday party today. It was fun, but small. We don't have many friends here with kids, so it's always a small event when it's baby related. My parents and Sarah's mom are here to celebrate, which is nice. Otherwise normal busy Saturday.

Rest day my ass

Friday workout:
Morning: 1000 yard swim with 10 x 50's sw-10" rest between

Evening: off

Did yesterday's swim this morning, so I did not have my full rest day. I doubt it is going to be an issue this week.

My parent's flew in today for Haley's birthday,so I'll be doing my long run tomorrow with my Dad.

I signed up for the Olympic length race on August 17th. That is the second race I will do before Austin. At half the length and with an open water swim, it should start to give me some gauge of my fitness compared where I need to be on October  26th.

And boom goes the dynamite.

Thursday workout:
Morning: Skipped

Evening: 35 minute run
Evening result: 3.2 miles / average heart rate 133 bpm

I had my first blow up today. I was so exhausted from my ride last night that when I woke up this morning, I made it 15 steps, turned around and went right back to sleep. I was way too tired to swim. I am pushing my swim until tomorrow morning.

My run did not go much better than my morning swim. I had a good 8:40 pace going up until about 18 minutes and just slammed into a wall. It was not a wall that I could go past, so I ended up walking the rest of the 35 minutes.

Hopefully I can get some sleep and good calorie intake to rest my base.

That's a mighty fine box you have there... (Or, Blow Me)

Wednesday workout:
Morning: Off

Evening: 25 mile ride
Evening result: 1:35 hours / average heart rate 138 bpm

Whichever you prefer.

Having the heart rate monitor raises the ante quite a bit on the bike. While the ride was slower (I did have the warm-up and cool-down averaged in) and I had a lower heart rate than Monday's 20-mile ride, this was far harder. I haven't had a long workout that had me dumping sweat like that in ages. Possibly even since rowing. For the dumping sweat part, I think that I need to get better airflow by the trainer. Right now it's underneath an AC vent, but that can be quite chilly when you are already soaked. I'll be bringing a fan into the basement for my next trainer ride. Hopefully it will help me stay somewhat cooler.

On a side note, does anybody have recommendations for good action movies? I watch movies while I ride and I'm running out of those I want to see on Netflix. I've already taken down the whole Avengers universe, GI Joe, Dredd, and I'm watching Star Trek currently. And no, Brett, I do not need to watch Ronin again.

As for fine boxes, I arrived home to find a bike box in the living room. The tri bike showed up and I got it put together. It still needs to be fit and I'm not cutting the post until I have been fitted appropriately. Hopefully I can do it soon, as it would be nice to have it for next weekend's race. We are quite busy with Haley's birthday this weekend. While my parent's and Sarah's mom will be in town, I doubt I'd be able to steal away for 3 hours mid-day. Soon though. Soon.

I have started to notice I am in a constant state of hunger. I am eating more, but it's notably healthier than previously. I'm not sure why I want to eat substantially more, but the heart rate monitor has a nice little setting that tells you calories burned. Obviously it will be a bit off, but it gives a good gauge. And that gauge is telling me 1000+ calories per workout, so 2000+ calories per day being burned. Today's workout is showing as 1400 calories, so the burn rate is high. Even still, it does seem wild to me that I can eat a large serving of Sarah's lemongrass chicken stir-fry and then be properly hungry two hours later.

Can I get a J-U-R-Y? What's that spell? Jury Duty!

Tuesday workout:
Morning: 1250 yard swim with 8 x 100 sw-15" rest between

Evening : 45 minute run
Evening result: 4.8 miles / average heart rate 152 bpm

Also known as 'how I wasted my day'. This guy kept me in the judicial building from 7:45am until 6pm. There were 135 people called for this case, the DA and assistant DA were there. Apparently it's a really high profile case, so they called in a ton of people for the juror pool. While the experience is a pain in general there was a never ending stack to stupidity that kept making it worse. For starters, the cafeteria was closed and there were no vending machines, so no way to get food. We had one old lady just about pass out when she finally stood up in court at 1pm and asked when we were going to have a lunch break. Then the never ending run of people who could not answer a simple question, "Can you be impartial in this case?". Apparently, they were afraid that their true colors would be disclosed in public... If those people had just said their damn opinions, we would have been out hours earlier.

Nothing new with Haley. Still working on getting her to say 'please' in addition to what she wants. She's talking much clearer as of late.

Wait... you trimmed off the tuft?

Monday workout:
Morning: 1000 yard swim with 10 x 50's sw-15" rest between

Evening: 20 mile ride
Evening result:  1:08 hours / avg heart rate 146 bpm

Weight: 236lbs

No real change in my weight over the week, which is a bit frustrating. Given how well I am eating, I am putting the flat weight on muscle development. I am starting to get some definition through the fat and today's workouts went quicker than last week's, so there's something going on in there.

Got my haircut this evening. Julie took is upon herself to crop 'the tuft' to well below shirt collar line. I'm not complaining, as I appreciate it being done. However, we are either getting way to comfortable with each other or It was getting out of control enough that It had to be beaten back.

Otherwise nothing eventful in the Stone household.

Training Race #1 is on the calendar..

With Austin being such a long race, I figure it a good idea to get in a Sprint and an Olympic race beforehand. With the Olympic being half the length of the half-Ironman and the Sprint half of that again. It provides me with two intervals to gauge my training and to practice my transitions.

The Sprint is two weeks out on Saturday, June 21st. It's the Lookout Mountain Sprint Triathlon. It's a 525yd swim, 10 mile ride, and 5k run. The course is hilly, so it should be interesting to see where my training is taking me, as I have been doing most of my riding on the trainer due to time (and light) constraints. It will be at the end of week 4 of training.

The Olympic, which is tentatively on the calendar, is August 17th. It is the (arguably dumbest name ever) YOLO Olympic Triathlon. It's a .8 mile swim, 25 mile ride, and 6.2 mile run. This one looks to be mostly flat, so I should be able to really focus on my ride. That will be undoubtedly my strongest leg, so I want to get a gauge of how much I can push myself to not blow up on the run. It will also likely be my first (and possibly only) open water swim before Austin. I will be able to work on my drafting and landmarking (aiming). It will be at the end of week 10 of training.

We'll see how this all shakes out.

Rainy Sunday

Sunday workout: 25 mile ride
Result: 1183 ft elevation gain, 1:35hrs

Today has mostly been a chore day. Since my schedule changed to 8-5, my ability to do things in the afternoon before Haley needs to be picked up has evaporated. That means that we have to be far more efficient with our shopping and errands on the weekends. While it has been nice to have the mornings free for training, it does make my evening workouts occur after 7:30pm. Getting home at 9pm post-workout does tend to crunch my evening relaxation time, as I do need to get sleep still.

While we were out, we grabbed hotdog's for lunch at Bernie's, which is always nice. Haley surprised me with two things:

1. She didn't want to eat a cut hotdog anymore. Just the whole dog.
2. She can comfortably drink out of a open top container. Mind, a small opening, but she can do it in a mostly controlled manner.

We have a decent storm coming through this afternoon. The phone has been blowing up with severe thunderstorm warnings since about noon.  We also had a tornado warning come through for about 30 minutes. That however was focused about 20 miles South of us and heading East.

Hills are not meant for running

Saturday workout: 50 minute run
Result: 5.14 miles, 280ft elevation gain

I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and run outside. Also to start running on some hills. The Austin race has a couple of long rolling hills on which I need to be prepared to run. There are quite a few running trails around our house so I went on a long semi-random, exploratory loop, which was unexpectedly hilly. I had to walk a couple of the steeper hills, as my heart rate was going ballistic.The program wants me to stay in the 135-150 bpm range. It did make for what is painfully slow pace at 9:45 per mile. I need to get this down into the 8:45 range for 13.1 miles.

I have been short on sleep for the last week, so hopefully getting more over the weekend and next week will help. I should get my Polar working this weekend, which will help with maintaining heart rate over my workouts.

I'm looking forward to the bike getting here on the 11th.

National Donut Day

Today is my rest day. I decided to celebrate by participating in National Donut day. I brought two dozen into work this morning.

The rest day is much needed though. I focused on my running form last night, and my calves are definitely feeling it. I was able to keep a better pace than my previous runs and at what felt like lower energy output.

I received my FedEx tracking number for the bike as well. It should be here on the 11th.

20 weeks of training left

I have 20 weeks of training to do, so I will be documenting my progress here.  I am looking forward to getting my swim coaching done, as I need to make sure that my stroke is proper. My strengths will be the bike and swim with the run just 13.1 miles of 'remind me again why I am doing this'. My Dad has been working with me for years on my running, so I think I am pretty good on that. We'll hopefully be able to get in a run while he is out here next week for Haley's second birthday.

So far this week:
Monday: 1000 yard swim with 5 x 100’s sw-15" rest bet / 20 miles bike on the trainer
Tuesday: 1000 yard swim with 10 x 50's sw-10" rest bet / 40 minute run
Wednesday: 20 miles bike on the trainer
Thursday: 1000 yard swim 80% / 30 minute run

I am definitely feeling the pace of the workouts, but not exhausting myself. I have lost 15 pounds in the month since we've returned from vacation.

I want to do a triathlon. I signed up for a half-Ironman.

Meet Haley.

Said no logical person ever. Since having Haley, I have gradually moved from reasonably in shape to fat bastard. It has gotten to the point that our doctor is threatening to put me onto Lipitor. At 33 years old, I am way to young for that.

I finally hit my limit last month when Sarah and I went to the Dominican Republic for our five year anniversary. We decided to go zip lining and they had a max weight of 250 pounds. I barely squeaked underneath that mark while at the same time hitting my record high for weight. That, the man boobs, the being winded walking up the stairs, and the below picture all led me to one conclusion. I am a fat bastard. In this picture, I am 50 pounds overweight. I need to lose the weight and get back into shape. Partially for me, but for Sarah and Haley too. I need to be healthy to be the best husband and father that I can.

Fat Mark

 Having a goal has always been extremely helpful for me when I need to do something seemingly daunting. Something like losing 20% of my body mass. We decided that training to do another triathlon might be just what I needed to get there. It has all the cardio that you can imagine and I love swimming and riding (we'll discuss running later). We agreed that if I can get to the point of doing a half-Ironman, that I would get a real tri bike for the race. We also agrees that if somehow I ever get fit enough to do a full Ironman and can qualify for Kona, we would take a long vacation to Hawaii.

I spent a few nights looking up triathlons in the Denver-area and found a few that looked interesting. I put them on my short list to cross against our calendar. Most local races are Sprint and Olympic length races, with a few XTERRA races in the mountains. One local race that was off my radar was the Boulder half-Ironman. It is at the end of June, so there would be no time to train for a race of that intensity. I did the reasonable thing and didn't put it on my list of potential races.

Enter BJW. Three weeks ago while zoning out watching TV, the 2013 Kona Ironman World Championship comes onto the screen. We decided to watch it and the idea of racing an Ironman just swept over me. I spent the next few days debating as to whether or not I could ever get into shape for a race like that. Which led to looking at the Ironman website... and one thing leads to another... I told Sarah that I wanted to do a half-Ironman. With serious doubt and concern in her response, Sarah said "If you think you can do it, go for it". That night I signed up for the half-Ironman in Austin, Texas on October 26th. That was last Wednesday.

By the end of the night, we had flights and hotel rooms booked, an email to my parent's to see if they would come with us to help take care of Haley,and a massive amount of "Oh Shit. What have I just signed up for". I was now financially vested into this race and I had only started running a week ago. Not to mention, I had not run more that two miles in over a year. I spent a few nights scrubbing through Google to find a good training program, which I found here. I started it Monday and it's been properly hard work, but not crushing. Looking at it in more detail though has led me to determine that it is not a program for training, so much as competing. So here we go!

Given I had now signed up for a half-Ironman I needed to get a real tri bike. After spending a few days searching for a good priced, proper bike I found an online shop with new, old stock bikes. I looked at eBay, Craigslist, and just about every other place to buy a used bike, but being a wookie once again made the used bike search fruitless. Thankfully I was able to find this site to get a heavily discounted new bike.

Enter BJW round 2: Having told Sarah I would need to get a new bike, I just assumed I was free to go ahead and get one. Assuming of course I had done my research and found one for a good price, that was reasonably cheap. Yesterday (Wednesday) I bought a 2011 Specialized Transition Expert. Apparently I did not have the full go ahead, so I managed to get myself in trouble. Note to the other guys out there: just because the wife says it's okay, always double check before clicking 'buy'.

The bike should be here next week. I will need to get it fit for the Aero position, but thankfully that is all that I should need to do to it. I will keep you updated with pictures once I get it built.

Bad Judgement Wednesday...

What is Bad Judgement Wednesday? I learned it from my friend Evan. Last summer he and another friend, Nick, started doing epic high-country rides with no notice. Those all occurred on Wednesday's.

My initial foray into Bad Judgement Wednesday (BJW) started at 7:00pm while leaving work last October. The idea floated was to go ride The Whole Enchilada in Moab. Evan, Nick, Aaron, and I loaded up Evan's truck and left Golden around 9:00pm. We arrived in Moab at 2:00am and our shuttle pickup was at 8:30am. There were some emergency repairs before we even got started and ended up being chased down the mountain by the first snowstorm of the year. That same storm left us driving home on I-70 doing 30mph, because the conditions were so bad. All-in-all, really bad judgement.

Aaron, Evan, and Nick on Porcupine Rim, Moab

That being said, it is hands down one of the best rides I have ever done. I would do the same thing again at the drop of a hat. Totally worth it.

Why BJW? Simple. Because some of the best experiences you can have come from making what seem like bad decisions. So is life.