Another Triathlon Workout

I added a half mile on the bike and 100 yds on the swim. Now that I'm back from vacation, this kind of workout is going to hopefully happen every Tues and Thur. Hopefully.

Oh, and I weighed in at 188.2 lbs this morning.../flex!

More Mileage

Allllllllmost to that magical 5 mile training run! I'm going to be experimenting with my workout runs for a little bit; I'm switching my speed work to Wednesdays and incorporating a long run every Saturday. I will also probably shorten my Friday run in order to get in a better long run on Saturday.

I've hit the point where I'm no longer running to lose weight, but rather for the sake of training for upcoming races and staying in shape. I'm not anywhere near where I want to be weight-wise, but I figure if I keep on training the way I've been training as well as keeping the dietary changes intact, the weight will come off.

Back Home

Got back home at about 4:15, so I decided to squeeze in 4.32 miles to make it 12.4 miles on the week. Running was probably 40th or 41st on my list of things I'd rather do after spending 7 hours on the road, but the hot bath afterward did help mitigate some of that reluctance.

Ocala YMCA Turkey Trot 5K

Another race, another PR! I placed 25th in my age group, but I don't know how many guys were in my group. I placed 347th over all out of around 1100 participants.

My father-in-law placed first in his age group (60-64) with a 21:54. Yeah...show off...

Ahhh Florida!

I'm in Inverness, FL at my father-in-law's house for Thanksgiving. We ran this morning, and he promised me 11 minute miles.

As you can see, we didn't run even one mile at that pace. We did make two stops - one was his regularly scheduled drink and stretch at 1.3 miles. The second was at 3.7 miles when I had a....uh.....pressing issue...

Anyways, it felt pretty good to run in the nice weather down here, and I'm glad that my coach did push the pace a bit. He knew that I would do my best to keep up.

Thursday is my third race. I'm not expecting a PR because coach said that the course is a bit hilly and the races that I've done so far have been somewhat flat.

Bike Run Swim!

You'll notice several differences in my charts today. First off, I alluded to it today in the comment section from my last post, and here it is: Pale Yellow Yes, I realize that color is really hard to see; sorry I can't change the background. Pale yellow signifies a treadmill run.

The second thing is I've changed up my lap length. I was timing every length of the pool, now I just time laps (down and back.) I also added 100 yards; go me! Next up for swimming is to get rid of those rest breaks, then GO FASTER!

The reason for the 1/2 mile run is brick training. One of these days, I'll devote a workout to switching between running and biking, but for now, I'll do my best to run any where from a half to a full mile after my bike workouts.

Zooooooooooom!!

There was a time, just after the 3rd mile, that I was in the zone. I just ran. I didn't have any pains, no breathing issues, no weaknesses.

It was awesome! I was just running along at a 10 minute mile clip.

Now, it only lasted about a half mile, but still, I'm excited about hitting that zone more often. It felt really, really nice!

Of course, when I stopped running, everything started complaining...but there for about 5 minutes...bliss...

Gym Cardio

The weather was miserable outside, so I decided that biking from my house to the gym would be a bad idea.

I'm sure you all appreciate the pretty colors that I use to differentiate my biking, running, and freestyle/breast stroke swimming. Allow me to introduce you to the newest color to help you all with your scoring at home: The pale green.

"Thank you, Rusty. Hi, I'm pale green, and I must say that I am very happy to join the team in providing exciting differences for Rusty's workouts. I think that my record speaks for itself, but allow me to just mention honeydew melons, aventurine, and the luna moth.

"I'm sure you'll agree that Rusty has made a wise choice in selecting me to assist him, and I look forward to learning the exciting world of biking, specifically, stationary biking.

"My sole duty will be to provide a nice color difference, along with my better known counterpart, Lime Green, for Rusty's biking workouts. When you see me, you'll know that Rusty rode a stationary bike for that particular workout.

"Once again, I cannot say how thrilled I am to be part of this elite team, and I will work hard to be the best stationary bike color that Rusty could ask for. Thank you. "

Wow, I didn't realize pale green was going to give a speech; maybe I should have chosen another color that wasn't as gabby...

If you have a hard time reading his words, just use your cursor to highlight the text to give it a better background.

4.32 miles

Slowly but surely, I'm approaching the 5 mile daily run. I'll do two more of this distance this week, then increase it again. I'm looking at increasing my mileage every week; we'll see how long this can go on...

Run Bike Swim!

19.2 miles of biking
16.6 miles of running
.25 miles of swimming

~36 miles of activity last week! I won't get close to that this week or in the foreseeable future due to old man winter making a comeback, but I can see myself ramping up to that in the spring.

Also, I plan on doing some indoor stationary cycling to keep up my conditioning; I'll figure out some way of keeping track of what I've done. Time would be the most logical choice.

Speed Work

Timed mile was slower, but my warm up mile was faster than last time I did speed work. This workout was only 5 seconds slower than last time.

Another 5 miler, with less walking!

I biked over to my friend Jeff's house, and we went for a nice run. Jeff has some Achilles tendon issues, so we warmed up with about a half mile jog, walked about a half mile, then jogged the half mile back to his house where we stretched.

Then we set out on the remainder of the run and kept a nice easy pace where we could hold a conversation without huffing and puffing.

Veteran's Day

"Veteran is someone, who at one point in their life, wrote a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, their life."

A friend of mine (actually, my brother's friend, but everyone's friends on Facebook!) had this as part of his status today.

I like this perspective. Happy Veteran's Day.

(yes, that is me!)

Duathlete or should I say Dualthleet!

The order of today's workout was:

Bike from home to hair cut place. ~4 miles
Bike from hair cut place to LA Fitness. ~3.6 miles
Swim at LA Fitness. 400 yards alternated Freestyle and Breast strokes.
Bike from LA Fitness to Applebees. ~ 2 miles
Ate my free Veteran's Day meal. Yummy!
Bike from Applebees to home. ~ 2.2 miles

For my swim, I tried to work a bit on form, technique, and conservation. Mostly, I tried to glide through the water and keep as slender a profile as I could maintain.

Alternating strokes also helped me with my conservation and being able to swim two 200 yard sets. (I took a two minute rest after the 8th interval) I'll take the same game plan with my swimming as I did with my running - I'll rest at certain intervals, but the goal is to swim the whole thing continuously.

Another 4 miler, only faster!

11 minute miles, booya! I felt pretty good after each of these runs; I'm sure the slower pace has something to do with it. I'll be ratcheting up to around 4.25-4.33 mile runs next week; I haven't mapped them out yet, so I'm not sure what the final mileage will be.

Go Fish

I have been trying to incorporate more fish into our family's diet. As I am usually responsible for preparing dinner, I have a pretty big say in what we actually eat for dinner. Couple that with the fact that my wife and I like to eat tasty food, and, hopefully without sounding like a total tool, I've developed into a capable chef.

Of course, I've bragged, uh, I mean, told you all, about my Indian cooking, my leet Mexican soup making skills, my beer, and some other food that I've forgotten about.

But today, I'll run down a very tasty meal that you can make in the comfort of your very own kitchen! We had it tonight, and to say, "I was very pleased with myself," would be a huge understatement.

We had Orange Roughy with a roasted red pepper cream sauce, red potatoes, and asparagus.

Orange roughy is a very mild fish that my wife really liked (she doesn't like real fishy fish.), and I really liked the flavor combined with the cream sauce. Ok, ok, here's what I did:

Set oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients:
2 lbs Orange roughy (thawed)
1 medium sized tomato, sliced
1 lb Small red potatoes, quartered. (the potatoes I had ranged in size from a golf ball to a racquet ball)
1 bunch of Asparagus
Olde Thompson Fish and Seafood Seasoning (or your favorite seafood seasoning)
Olive oil
Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

In a large cooking dish (I used a 12x12 Polish pottery deep dish, anything but metal will do), place the fish in the middle, with the tomato slices laid in a single layer on the top of the fish.

Put the potatoes around the edges and the asparagus on top of the potatoes around the fish.

Sprinkle the seasoning on everything and drizzle with olive oil. Cover and bake 40-50 minutes at 350 degrees.

While that is baking, make the cream sauce! I followed the linked recipe with the following exceptions:

For roasting my peppers, I put a little olive oil in a frying pan, set the heat on medium, plopped the whole peppers in it, and occasionally turned them. When all the sides had some nice black char on them, they were done, and I removed them from the heat and covered them.

I didn't have any green onions, so I used 1/2 a small yellow onion, diced. I had to fry it a bit longer than green onions to get them cooked.

I did not strain the puree; I hated to waste all that goodness...

I added the called for amount of cream and then added more as I...uh, felt like it. I was shooting for a little creamier sauce than the recipe apparently makes. shrug. Of course, having all that pulp in my sauce probably accounted for having to put in more cream.

Now, I didn't follow this order because I'm giving you all the benefit of my hindsight. You might have to start the peppers roasting while you prepare the fish for baking; that's what I did.

And, because I did that, I was done with my sauce about 20 minutes before the dish was done, so the sauce had time to sit, off the burner. I do believe that time helped the flavors to meld together.

When the fish dish was done (the potatoes took the longest to cook), I warmed up the cream sauce.

My wife had the sauce just on the fish, but I had it on the potatoes as well. My son declined to have any sauce; he doesn't do sauces...

Ok, now comes the broken arm patting myself on the back part.

I'm sure that everyone has had a vision of something that they'd like to make, whether it's a dinner, or a structure, or a garden, a drawing, or, well, just about anything that one might create, and after you get through crafting the item, you stand back and are so amazed that it turned out not as you envisioned it...

...but even better. That was this dish for me tonight. It was better than I ever could have imagined!

5 Miles

What? Biking, of course! I was going to swim, but I forgot my Ironman watch. So, then, I figured it was such a beautiful day, that I would go for a bike ride.

After airing up my tires, finding my bike clothes, and getting situated, I headed off to the grocery store: Asparagus, red potatoes, and some tomatoes.

It felt pretty good to be back on the bike; I'm remembering why I like it more than running: Coasting, FTW!! (Ro, that's "For The Win" just in case you were wondering). It's really hard to coast when you're running; it's possible if you're running downhill AND you trip. And it's not really coasting as much as it's rolling. I would not recommend it on hard surfaces such as asphalt, concrete, steep frozen ponds, or buildings.

So, yeah, iBike!

4 Miles

I ran the whole way! I purposely started slow and kept it slow to make sure that I could make it the entire four miles without walking. At that pace, I felt like I could have probably squeezed in another mile, so I'm pretty happy with my condition.

I'll run another 4.07 miler on Wed, then on Friday, I'm planning on running a 5 miler with a friend. That run will be a mix of running a walking as we'll run a half mile, walk a half mile, run a half mile, stretch, then run about 3.75 miles. So, while it won't be all running it should be a nice workout, not to mention, I get to run with someone!

Making the switch

Ok, so, we all know that I'm no stranger to cold (to the newbies, I biked through two winters in Anchorage, AK. /flex), but, I'm finding that after 5+ years in Indiana, my body...has adapted.

And I'm also older.

And I figured why be out in the cold when I have another option for now.

So, this week, I'm going to run in the afternoons. If all goes well, I plan on switching for the winter; now next spring/summer is another ball game and I might switch back to mornings. But for now, I'll run in broad daylight.

Oh, yeah, let that be a warning to everyone that plans on being in my neighborhood around 3-4:30 PM time frame on M-W-F. Remember, the shambling zombie corpse that you may shoot might just be me!

A side note, so, I'll be posting my results after my run some time this afternoon.

More Perspective

My father-in-law (my coach) ran a 5K yesterday too. Now, he's got a couple of years on me, so it really shows that experience pays off. He is in the 60-64 age group...

...and ran it in...

...

...

...21:30...yeah, min:sec....

I don't know if I'll ever be THAT fast!

Race!

There were no scoring pads to start the race, so my official time was 29:31, which is still a PR. I'm going to go with my unofficial results, though, 'cause 28:59 is sooooooo schweet!!

I've been following http://bendoeslife.tumblr.com/; he's the guy in the 120 lb journey video that I "liked" on Facebook. Anyways, that guy, Ben, sells "Do Life" t-shirts, and I espied someone wearing one!

So, being the quiet little wallflower that I am, I immediately went up to him and started talking about bendoeslife and the video. Nick shared that he had just started running three weeks ago and that this was his very first 5K.

After I finished (in record time, mind you...did I mention that? oh yeah, I guess I did. 28:59, baby!!), I waited around for Nick and acted the fool cheering for him as he finished. It was a great time!!

Race temperature was a brisk 27-29 degrees F. I was a little concerned about keeping warm as our race was starting just after the sun was rising, but I ended up being ok in my Under Armor shirt, long sleeve shirt, shorts (SHORTS!!), headband, gloves, my chili pepper racing sockies, and my running shoes. Basically the same outfit I wore for my first race adding the headgear and handgear.

Alrighty then, 2 races in the books, both of them PRs. I believe that I am going to sign up today for the mini marathon here in Indy in May. I've got another 5K scheduled for Thanksgiving and plan on signing up for the training races for the mini. I might do the Jingle Bell in Dec.

Of course, the most important thing in all of this is....I DIDN'T DIE!!!!

Rest

Today is my second day of rest (no workouts) before tomorrow's race. I decided not to push my body with swim workouts this week due to the upcoming event, but next week, I'll try to incorporate at least two swim workouts.

I'm also thinking about changing things up with my runs, as in running after work. I've been getting up at 3:30 am in order to get my run in before work. There are several things I really like about running that early - no traffic, nobody around, peace/quiet, and solitude.

But there are also some things that I don't like - getting up that early, the darkness, and the avoidable coolness. I say avoidable because I know that if I switch to the afternoon, it would be much warmer.

If I do switch, it would also be much easier to hit the treadmill at the club after work; since the club opens at 5 am, before work is not an option. I'm not opposed to running in the cold, rain, or other inclement weather, but it would be nice to have another option.

The danger in moving my runs to the afternoon is the blow off factor. If I get up at 3:30 am to run, then by golly, I'm going to run. But if it seems optional...well, I could see myself hemming and hawing myself out of it. Oh yeah, I have something called self discipline that I can counter that with, don't I!

The best thing that I can do is to get into a routine where I work out every weekday after work, whether it's a run, the gym, or a swim. If I commit myself and make that routine my norm, then I should be ok.

I just have to be home in time to make dinner; momma won't put up with any foolishness in that department...

Not for the faint of heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTn1v5TGK_w

I don't often link youtube stuff, but this Ironman triathlon finish is pretty brutal...and inspiring in a sadistic/masochistic way...

Let the Crosstraining BEGIN!!!

aka, Rusty Swims.
At first I thought I'd only do 200 yards (8 lengths, 4 laps), but I saw that it only took me a hair over 6 minutes, so I added on another 100 yards. I'll be paying for that tomorrow, I'm sure.

I don't know if I'll be swimming every day after work, but I'm inclined to think, "yes." I'll have to do some research on swimming training and recommended starting distances/times.

Oh, and I'll need a goal...hmmmm... maybe this one... We'll have to see if another sprint tri pops up in Jun/July 2011.

The bouncing ball

It's been a while since I've posted a weight chart. To tell the truth, I reached a low of 185.x in May of this year and steadily gained tonnage until Aug. So, I was a bit ashamed of posting my fatness, but now that I've had some nice shedding, I'll post it.
One of the reasons for the post is that I'm very happy to report that I broke the 190 barrier this morning. Woot! Hopefully between the running and the gym, I'll be able to tone up and drop some more weight; 180, I'm eyin' YOU!

Rusty goes to the gym

Last night, my wife and I headed out to take advantage of our new gym membership at LA Fitness. We didn't do much, just a little machine training; we were mainly looking to familiarize ourselves with the machines.

I was going to do a little swimming and some jaccuzziing, but my wife didn't bring her swim suit and the yoga class that she was going to take while I was water boarding, was on Wed night...not Tues night...so, we just wrapped it up and went home.

Today, I'm going after work to swim a couple of laps and sit in the hot tub to soak my aching legs.

aaaaaaahhhhh....hooooooot tuuuuuuuub....

EDIT: I just did this post at work, so yesterday's difficulties in posting seem to be gone. yay.

Ouch

I hit a wall just after the second mile, and it was all I could do to resist cutting the run short and finish the 3.5 miles. I'm paying for it now: My hips ache, my muscles ache, my back aches. Good thing I don't have any more runs scheduled until the race on Saturday.

EDIT: that 4th mile should be .5 miles...

No run

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning were a lot of fun in my house; I had some wicked back spasms. I'm not sure if the speed work brought them on or if it was just my back acting up. Regardless, even though I'm back to abby-normal, I figured I'd take today off and run tomorrow.

Oh, and Percocet is my frieeeeeeend.