Psychocookie.com: Throw Up or Die!

All work and no play vs. All work and then play

I choose all work and then play.  Monday’s, not typically most people’s favorite day of the week.  But I was feeling good after Sunday’s ride and was jonesing to get back out there.  Although my legs were telling a different story the night before and this morning.  But, I figured that’s a lay over from working out with Britini on Friday (oh yeah, forgot to mention that in another post… met with my trainer on Friday after it had been so long… well, my legs were punished for it apparently).   So today was go to work, get stuff done and get home.  But it turned into get stuff done with work and work some extra to make sure it was done.  So I didn’t get home till almost 6:30.  Luckily the sun doesn’t set now until like 7:45!  So real quick it was gear up, check the tire pressure and hit the road.  11.3 mile ride out the north-west bike route from my house.  All the way to where the walking bridge over I25 is just north of 104th Ave.  Then back… averaged 14.7mph too.  ~45 minutes round trip, not too bad, but still trying to figure out what route to take to get all the way to work and back that’s actually safe.  Anyone have any suggestions?

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Feeling good until you realize you’ve done 1/8th of what you need to

Sunday the snow was gone!  At least on my side of town, Areas like Golden, Boulder, Morrison, who knows, but Thornton to Downtown Denver was good.  After my Sunday bowling, yes… I’m on a bowling league too, Jana and I jumped on the road bikes and headed to REI in Denver, the flagship store near Confluence Park.  Total distance… 26.5 miles @ like 14.3mph.  Which is awesome, but when you stop and think… hm… for a half ironman I have to do more than double that (56miles), after swimming 1.2 miles…. then if you thought that wasn’t enough, add a half marathon to the end.  Then your excitement about doing 26 miles on a bike in just under 2 hours kind of goes away quick.  So, it was time to go swimming since I we were feeling good, but still not good enough.  So 2×400m and a 50m cool down finished the night… well, then a couple margaritas.

What does 1lbs mean to an endurance athlete?

I weighed myself today, its been nearly 6 months since I started training.  Granted it was interrupted a little and all, but I can tell I’m in much better shape… and I must say I already look better (yes, I tooted my own horn on that one).  But I’ve been checking up on my weight during that time, keeping an eye on it.  What I’ve noticed is that I’ve been slowly gaining more weight.  I’m up 5lbs now from when I started, up to about 180lbs.  I know muscle weighs more than fat, I know as I lose fat and gain muscle I’ll gain weight, but it can be annoying.  I think of the Ironman as needing a fine balance with your power to weight ratio, you want more bang for your buck with every 1lb you have to lug around with you.

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A long way to go before September

Today was another nasty day out.  Rainy and kind of chilly.  But, I went to the gym, swam a 1/2 mile and then worked out on some machines.  Came home and made some lunch.  It wasn’t long before I was at it again, this time watching the 2008 Ironman footage on Hulu.com while spinning on the bike and trainer.  After an hour of that pushing an average 13.5mph, it was time for a mile run.  I’d like to have run more, but it was long day and it’s not the nicest weather out there either.  Still need a lot of work on my running, only 5 more months until the 1/2 Ironman.  Time is running out… kind of.

Riding with that guy from Amazing Race

So yesterday (Saturday), that guy Phil, the host of Amazing Race was in town. He’s riding across the country raising money and awareness for MS. check out: http://philridesacrossamerica.com.  So my startup partner, Mario, and I went to the local Ride with Phil in Aurora to help start him out.  It would be day 14 for him, so if you’re checking out the blog, who knows you might see me (it’s currently not posted yet).  But the day was not a pleasant day in terms of riding conditions.  Cold, windy, and rainy… the bitter 3 hit us.  But we still ended up riding 11 miles dispite having an average speed of 12.2mph.  The way back was uphill and into the wind, a bad combo.  Oh well, it was a good time dispite the bad conditions.