Inspiration from a total stranger

For a long time, I was a purist. I didn't run with an iPod, even on my long trail runs. I like to stay in my mind and especially in trail running, enjoy the scenery. There were a few times, I'd plug in, but not often.

These days, I've grown to rely on it more with the longer runs. I enjoy the music and it keeps my mind from getting too bored. Today though, the damn thing was goofed up. I've noticed that it's a little buggy sometimes when I recharge it. The next time I play it, all the treble is gone so all I hear is the background. Grrr...this morning I really wanted to work with the music since the training plan called for 75 minutes, 35 of which were tempo drills. But maybe it happened for a reason that it didn't work.

I was about 15 minutes into the warmup when a guy walked up with an Austin 70.3 race shirt on. He parked it on the treadmill next to me, so I asked him how he liked the race, how long he's been racing, etc. I normally am not much of a talker running, even less so at the gym, but he responded, then kept chattering back.

Turns out he lost over 100lbs in a year and now he's at the point where it's been off for quite a while. He's stablized at his current weight, which appears to be that of a normal guy. Amazing! I just am in awe of people, like my friends Janna and Deeann, who have managed to take off incredible amounts of weight like that and keep it off. And most times, they find themselves in a new life and a whole new outlook.

Sure enough, this guy was the same way. He tried his first 5k, then got into a couple of sprints, then found himself improving so much, he did a 70.3 last year and in a decent time. Wow! That's incredible. Now he has himself a coach and is working to do two 70.3's this season and possibly a full IM next year.

The guy has guts, that's for sure. I left him after my workout and he still had about an hour to go to finish his. Can you imagine doing 14 miles on the treadmill? That was his plan and he was already nearly halfway through it. It's really inspiring.

So for once, I was happy that the iPod was down. I got in a good workout, good chat, and managed to meet a potential new training comrade.

My workout for the day? I shifted my schedule a tad this week for other conflicts.
75min run.
20 min warmup
35 mins tempo -- 3 mins fast/2 mins recover 7x
20 mins recover/cooldown
Ended up with 7.6 miles. I'm content with that considering the warmup and cooldown were done at 5.7-5.8mph.

Swim tonight. Cycle tomorrow 2 hours.

Train hard y'all!

Saturday run

Saturday morning was busy. My folks were flying in from San Diego in the afternoon, so all the errands, cleaning, shopping and oh yeah, homework, had to be crunched in before they arrived. Amazingly enough, I was looking forward to getting in a run that morning as well and made it a priority. After all, many of my peeps were out running the Cross Timbers trail race up on Lake Texoma.

I get up at the crack of dawn nearly every day whether I want to or not. Even if it's a weekend. Sure enough, 6am, the eyes popped open for a new day. It was still a little too cool for this blood, so I got some cleaning done and made the list for the rest of the day.

By about 8:30 the mercury rose just enough and I was ready to roll. I decided that I'd do about 6 miles and wanted to get in a few small hills. There's a route through Highland Village that is perfect. I plotted the out-back up on mapmyrun.com, laced up the shoes, grabbed the iPod and left.

I almost always hate the first 1/2 to 3/4 mile as the legs warm up and stretch out. Usually, I'm ready to quit, but have to power through it. Same thing happened. But by the time I reached my turn at Brazos about a mile into it, they felt great. The music was playing hard (did you know Simon and Garfunkel have some great running pace tunes?). The pavement just flowed under the feet. It felt fantastic and I knew the pace felt great - less strained than usual.

The slow rolling hills start in at about mile 2. The last time I'd done this route was before the half marathon in December. I was struggling that time. This time, they didn't feel hard at all. I motored up them and by the time I realized it, I was at the turnaround point. I stood there for a moment, then looked ahead of me to the next hill which peaked about 1/2 mile away.

Aw, what the hell? I was still feeling strong, so I extended the run another 1/2 mile and conquored this next hill before turning around. I noticed several other runners heading out for their runs. Most everyone waves in this part of town, even if they're on the other side of the street. Nice.

At about mile 4-5ish, the boredom started kicking in. This is where I tend to walk a few minutes before running again. I'm normally not tired, just bored of the pace. This time, I managed to plow through it (some friends were in my head telling me not to stop) and continue.

Again, before I knew it, I looked up and noticed the water tower that's close to the 1-mile mark. Holy crap, I'm almost done? Sure enough I'd hit the turn back onto the main road and back to the house. The legs kicked in and I pushed the pace the last mile or so, only stopping briefly for the traffic light crossing. Amazing!

So I re-mapped with the turnaround point, and sure enough, I'd added an extra mile more than I'd planned. Yippee! I'm hoping more runs continue like this. It's encouraging.

Train hard, y'all.

Soooo close!

The goal starting after Christmas was to get down to 150-ish pounds by the end of March using Weight Watchers and tri training. I was probably sitting just a touch over 165. I don't know for sure because I was afraid to get on the scale, but the serious muffin-tops gave it away. I was probably at my all-time heaviest and felt like crap.

There have been some frustrating times and some setbacks as I bounce to happy hours and get too confident in my eating skills - reverting back to old ways. I've been hovering within about 2lbs of 160, going up and down for 3 weeks now, flirting ever so close to that milestone weight. At this point, just getting below 160 would be such a mind boost.

This week has been fantastic for training. The bit of warmth, especially after all the cold we've had, definitely did something to boost my spirits. To top it off, I got a much-needed kick in the ass from my friend and fellow blogger, Dave. He's seriously hard-core and is currently training for the Memorial Bataan Death March race in N.M. next month. He's planning to do it with a 40lb pack on his back. Amazing! I hear about his training and it inspires me to get off my butt and stop whining.

That said, the week was a great one for training! Got in a bit of distance and some speed work on the treadmill for running. There were two amazing swim days, one of which today was 3400yds in 55 minutes (ladder workout from 50-400 and back in 50 increment increases/decreases). I even got a bike ride in with a couple of chilly loops around WRL one afternoon (before heading to happy hour!) I'm hooked again!

Gotta keep focused and keep on track. The workouts are scheduled to get longer and more intense the next few weeks, though thankfully they'll be in increasingly warmer weather for some outdoor training finally.

And to top it off...the scale said 159 this morning. Whee!!!

Old habits

They say that it takes 30 days to make a new habit stick. I'm not so sure when it involves good food, good wine/beer, or cheese.

I've been using the Weight Watchers website since the last week of December and was really sticking to it. But with the past few weeks' training increasing so much, I've slacked off a bit on logging every morsel passing through my mouth. I've gotten to the point where I do well tracking the first few days of the week, then slack. I need to get back in gear, because old habits are starting to creep back into the picture, not helping the weight loss at all.

This week was tough on workouts as well. I'd planned to hit it hard Wednesday and Thursday, knowing I'd be out of town for the weekend. Well the snow and ice didn't help matters at all. They gym never opens on time on these kinds of days, which screws up the time I have to work out before going to my job. This made me lose a couple of days.

But my trip was cancelled at the last minute. There was no reasonable way to get up to Minnesota on Friday flying standby, so I stayed home. Now you'd think that I'd have made up the workouts over the weekend, but then again, you'd be wrong. Laziness, or rather, procrastination kicked in heaviliy so I ended up not doing anything at all.

And I had cheese fries. The wonderfully, nasty cheese fries from Snuffer's. With ranch dressing.

So today is starting a new week, not only for getting back on track with food, but training. The intensity of the training plan I'm on is ramping up for the next wave. And there will be two days of at least 50 degree weather which is the tipping point for me for outside work. Hopefully, those two days I can get out on the bike after work.

Train hard everyone!

Mass swimming

I guess you can tell by previous posts that I love to swim. I've always been a water baby, but who wouldn't be when you grow up in Southern California? I remember days after my parents divorced, we'd spend weekends with my dad on his sailboat where he lived. The marina had a small pool that was always over-chlorinated. My brother, Rob, and I would swim until Pop would pull us out, our eyes swelled shut from all the chemicals. Even in high school I swam my senior year and felt completely at ease. It was a place where the sweat wouldn't show.

But now I'm sort of re-finding my love of swimming through triathlon. It's a sport where I feel more competitive than most I do.

Today, my triathlon training buddy, April, and I did our first workout with Texas Triple Threat, a local triathlon club. They hold a swim every Sunday morning. This time of year they practice in a pool, but come late March, we'll be in Lake Lewisville doing open water swims.

April and I felt a bit of trepidation showing up at 7:30 this morning with about 25 other people. We thought we'd be outmatched by far. She set herself with the slow group and I set up about in the middlle as I eyeballed many a tattooed person with the Ironman symbol. It's terrifying.

Lo and behold, I warmed up and was held up by some of these guys. The coach suggested that I move up not one, but two lanes to the nearly fastest folks. After a warmup, we did 30 minutes of a continuous swim. The water was boiling like it does when you throw fish food into a pond full of koi. There were no lane lines to break the surge. It felt like it would in open water. It was incredible!

I got in with the guys in my group and was starting to pass... or try to pass. The guy with the purple cap and giant feet ahead of me apparently didn't get the memo that when someone touches your feet (several times, I might add) that he should've stopped on the wall and let me pass. I'd even hang out on the wall until he was halfway across the pool and catch up to him without much effort. I could see his inefficient stroke ahead of me and he drove me nuts. Finally at one point about halfway across the pool, I noticed that there was plenty of room, so I turned back around and got ahead of him. It worked until later when he was able to somehow get back ahead of me by sitting on the wall for a break. Bastard.

Thankfully the coach saw my frustration and suggested I move up to the fast lane. Finally I was in my element and excited to be pushed to keep up more. Where I enjoyed the more even pacing of the slightly slower lane, this lane really made me fight more to keep the pace higher. I think I'll go there next time. It felt so good to be in the top tier of swimmers. My biking and running aren't nearly as good so it feels great to be adept at one of the elements of triathlon

After the 30 minutes continuous, we did a few drafting/mass start drills which were a blast. We paired up and tried to keep up or physically pass some of the other swimmers. One guy pushed hard on me and game was on! I drafted him for the rest of that lap, but on the return, I pulled on his ankle and slowed him down, allowing myself to get just ahead of him. Yay!!!

On a side note, oh my Gawd triathlon guys are great looking! Holy cow, I think I finally may have found a bit of heaven. Now if I could only snag one of them...