Flu

I have the flu again. Some horrible strain has been going around, and it seems it is not just my family. I didn't have a fever or even feel that bad really, but you get a dry throaght, stuffiness, then a really, really bad cough. I can hear horrible hacking coughs in the hallways at the office. I swear it wasn't me that got everyone sick!

So no training till my lungs can clear all this fluid.

Weight Loss Tips

I was recently invited to submit my weight-loss story to a new internet site called Weight Loss Tips. You can check out an interview with me one their site here. After looking at many of the stories on the site I don't find my weight loss all that remarkable, kind of slow actually. But like I have said all along, triathlon was not really about weight loss. It was about challenging myself to do something beyond my comfort zone and about changing my lifestyle. The weight loss was just a very happy result.

And I'm not done. I figure I'm only half-way there. I have been working on my plan for next season, and I'll post it when I figure it out.

Sorry, still no Malibu race report. I'll get to it soon. I promise!

It's Getting Harder

Sorry, still no Malibu race report yet. I'm still waiting for some photos!

I have been pretty wiped-out since Sunday. I guess it took more out of me than I thought. More on that in a bit, but first I have to say that I don't consider my triathlon adventure over, not by a long shot. I am still considering whether I should do another local triathlon, or just wrap up the season and start planning for next year. I guess this is rather silly, but the main motivation for doing another this season is so that I will have done three USAT events. When you do three in one year you get a national ranking. Now, I have to admit that I am a little embarassed to admit this since I think it is rather shallow. But for some reason I think it is cool to have a national ranking, even if I am number one million!

But I don't think that I have the time to improve much more this season, and if I start now I can start working on a solid base for next year. For some reason the idea of building this base fitness sounds really appealing to me right now. I don't have next season mapped out, but I do have some ideas of what I want to work on over the winter. Mostly I think I need to work on my running. My swimming and biking both need a bunch of work too, but I think there is the most room for gain in my run, so I think that should be my focus. Secondly I should take the opportunity to throw in some exercise that I don't really have time for in the regular season such as weight training.

So that is my general plan. Either way I am not taking any significant time off. I ended up taking a week off after Santa Barbara and that was just too long. I took Monday off and was back training on Tuesday.

Actually an embarassing thing happened on Tuesday. I forgot my dress shoes. It would have taken me a few hours to go back home and get them, and I really wanted to do my swim workout, so I talked myself into the idea of going to a store and buying a pair after my workout. But after my workout I thought about it more, and the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like that idea. I am rather particular about what I wear, and I didn't want to have to spend my hard earned money on a pair of lousy shoes that I don't love. So I just wore my running shoes to the office. I was embarassed as my Asics really don't go with my pinstripe suit very well, but figured I would just hide in my office most of the day and perhaps no one would notice.

Uh -- No. The first thing that happens when I get in is that I get an e-mail from the law partner in charge of my department to come into his office for an assignment. Ugh. Well, he didn't say anything, and I know he is a runner, so perhaps he understands. We talked a bit about my doing triathlons and running, so I guess it was ok. Just a bit embarassing.

After work I did a spin class. I haven't done one of these in a while because there really is no substitute for getting on your bike, but I have been having to work later and the sun has been going down later so I figureed it would have to do. One thing I noticed is that my heart rate was relatively low, around 130-140 range (70-75%), but I was still really tired. I was ok with that because this is really a recovery week, and it is very natural for your heart rate to be lower when biking compared to running.

But then this morning I went for a treadmill run, and I had basically the same senario. My heart rate was only around 130-140, but I would get really tired. I had to start walking around 30 minutes, when I normally run for at least an hour. I guess I am just still recovering from Malibu and shouldn't worry too much about it. I'm just concerned that it is flagging motivation. A weak spirit concerns me much more than a weak body.

Malibu Rocked

I don't have time to post a full race report yet, but I did want to post my race results from the Nautica Malibu Triathlon. I had a great time. I was worried because I have been so lax with training lately. I also had a bad cramp in my left calf when I went for an ocean swim on Friday. I was still tight and giving me problems on race day, so I was worried about that as well. But it didn't slow me down, I did much better than I thought I would. The event is a half mile swim, 18 mile bike and 4 mile run. My total time was two hours, seven minutes. I loved the bike course, but most of all I was really surprised with my run time. If the run was really four miles then I was doing 10.14 minute miles. For me, that is smokin'!

DietPower Update

I has been a bit anticlimactic after my first triathlon. I'm not sure why but my enthusiasm has gone way down. I was actually expecting this. Is has been around six months since I started this journey, and I have often had difficulty in sustaining interest in any project for over six months. I have been frequently thinking of all the things that I have given up to participate in this sport, which does produce a bit of longing for the gold old days of sleeping in and having relaxing weekends.

this troubling new attitude, in combination with recent family issues and work issues I just haven't had the focus on training that I need. The Nautica Malibu tri is less than two weeks away which puts me right in the end of what should be my peak training period. Instead I went 6 days last week without any training at all. The week before that was really light, and the week before that was another 6 days straight with nearly no training. I could definitely feel the effects of the lack of training on the Santa Barbara Tri. While I did better than I expected I would, I could have done much better. Now I am looking at Malibu and just don't seem ready. The course apparently has a very hilly bike segment which really scares me. I haven't trained much on hills. I assumed the course would be pretty flat since the tri is near the ocean. I guess that will teach me.

So where is the bright side? While I am feeling a bit down on triathlon right now, I have to admit that it has changed my life. I feel much better. I look much better. My daughter was sick over the weekend and I didn't catch it! I have met some great people and have really enjoyed the time spent outdoors. I remind myself of this as much as I can.

Today, I wanted to check in on my weight loss progress. I have been using the DietPower weight and nutrition manager as a integral part of my training and I give it a lot of credit with my weight loss. I could train several hours a day and still not lose body fat if you don't pay attention to nutritional inputs. DietPower gives my tools to evaluate where I am in regards to water intake, calories, fat, sodium, etc. It doesn't do all the work for me. I still have to not eat the double cheeseburgers (or eat less of them), but without its guidance I don't think I would have gotten this far.

Here is a screenshot of my weight history. You can see a bump up a few months ago where I changed blood pressure medication. I got through that and now I am nearly back on track.

You can see that I have a ways to go. According to the chart I have lost 25.5 lbs, but if you count the fact that I was 280 lbs just late last year, I have lost 43.5 lbs! My goal is to lose another 46 pounds, which puts me at nearly the halfway point.

One of the effects of lagging training motivation is the difficulty in keeping to my nutritional plan. I find that under times of stress I will binge eat. You can see from next screenshot of my calorie history. There are some serious red spikes which is where I went through a period of over eating. You'll notice that often these times also show low training levels (dark purple lines along the bottom).

I had a spike yesterday. Ugh! I missed my spinning class and ate an extra 1000 calories. Not a good combo. Today has been much better. I still have over 700 calories left to eat and I am not hungry. Into the bank they go.

The next two weeks are critical. I need to kick up the training this week and next week do a reasonable taper, and I'll be ok.