Update!

Ok, looks like we're doing weekly updates these days, so let's see what I can remember...

Last thursday my training plan called for a 300yd swim and 30 minute walk, so I got my butt up early to get the the gym. Swimming is always more pleasant first thing in the morning, as I haven't had to share a lane yet.

So I did my 300yd swim and did my walk on the treadmill. I decided I could do a little more, so I did my first workout from my Weight Training For Cyclists book as well.

Friday was off.

Saturday I planned to go out and do a 25 mile bike ride with Amy, but she tricked me and switched the route up a bit, so it wound up being 30. No complaints though... I need all the miles I can get.

Sunday I ran 30 minutes. I've started using Map My Run. The run is here:

Not very good for 30 minutes, but I'm still trying to find the right amount of running time to maximize my training. Too bad I let all my past running go!

Updates!

Boy, I've been slacking on the posts...

Wednesday was a scheduled bike day, so I took a short ride with my buddy Chris Jones. We rode a 9.5 mile Middlebrook Loop. Good short ride, a couple of little climbs and a lot of fast flat road! If I'm staying on the big ring, going over 20mph, you know it's pretty flat! Just for kicks I did a really short jog after the ride to start seeing what my legs would feel like. Not a real brick, but just a short jog. Weird.

Thursday I got up early and did my 200m swim. Not much to say about that!

Friday - Off.

Today was a good day. Amy scheduled a pick your distance bike ride for the club. We started with Baby Goat Loop, came back to the house and then headed the other direction toward Greene Hills. I went about halfway there and back to the house for a total of 25 miles today.

If nothing else, it's good to know I'm already capable of making the minimum distance for the MS150 coming up in June. Maybe this year I'll make it the MS75!

Fit Day

I'm now using Fit Day to track my food intake... In an effort to combine diet and exercise to make my ass smaller!

Whew...

So after a relaxing day off, I got back to it again today...

We've got plans tonight, so it was going to be hard for me to split the run and swim up, so I decided to get tough and do both this morning before my 7:40am meeting!

I got out of bed around 4:45am and headed out to the Y.

It was another 200m swim and then 15 minutes of running on the treadmill.

Then I did my karate class this afternoon. Of all things, we did some squat/kicking drills, so my legs are a little numb!

Tomorrow... Bike Ride!

Bike Ride

Yesterday... Short run... First run in a long time... Not too good!

Today... Bike ride... 16miles... 1:29... Not bad for me!

I did the first half in 30 minutes, or about 16mph... But that was the easy half! The second half took me twice as long. Oh well... Hopefully makes the next time faster!

Tomorrow... First swim in a loooooooooooooooooong time.

Bike Ride

Today I did my first bike ride in a couple of weeks.

It was a 16 miles loop with a couple of tough (at least for me!) hills in the second half. Although, the biggest attraction was right after the first tough hill.

Once you get to the top, there is a farm with baby goats on each side. I've never been much for doting over random animals, but Amy and I have dubbed this ride "Baby Goat Loop" and they are just so cute!

Anyway, a 16 mile loop, that took me a ridiculous amount of time this week (of course, we stopped to look at goats, and I took a couple of extra stops to prepare for the hills...). I would say exactly how long it took, but I forgot to set my stopwatch!

The only other thing of note about this ride was that it my first ever using clipless pedals and bike shoes.

If you're new to road biking and haven't made this switch yet, DO IT!

I found myself expending the same amount of effort as with platform pedals and regular shoes, but consistently going 2-3mph faster. It was excellent. I highly recommend it to anyone!

Tomorrow is an off-day, then I start my real training program.

Happy daylight savings time!

Blah...

Third post in one day...

The thing that sucks the most right now is that I'm totally sick and don't feel like getting started right now.

I can barely breathe right when I'm sitting still and exertion makes me cough!

Good Book

I just finished reading Slow, Fat Triathlete and it was a neat book for someone with no experience in this game.

It's nice to read of other people who aren't the stereotype and have still been able to accomplish something like this.

Am I crazy?

Throughout the course of my life I've had experience with swimming (a couple of years of swim team when I was a kid, some fitness swimming in ROTC) and running (lost around 80 lbs in college running, lots of running in the AF).

I've never really been into cycling, but I did take that up about a year ago at the urging of my girlfriend. Though it causes me great pain, I do ultimately enjoy it and would like to get better.

So why, why do I now have the desire to combine all three of these sports into one painful, continuous effort?

I'm not sure of the answer to that, but I just know that, all of a sudden, I want to get into triathlons.

Not the Ironman kind mind you... Not the kind with all the impossibly fit, skinny people in spandex. The shorter kind, with people of all shapes and sizes running around in spandex!

I recently learned of what are called "Sprint distance" triathlons. These typically consist of a 250-700 yd swim, 12-18 mile bike ride and a 5k run.

I don't think I could roll out of bed tomorrow morning and do one of these, seeing as I'm far from the best shape of my life, but I think with a couple of months of training I can get there.

So the purpose of this whole blog is to share my thoughts and experiences as I get work my way up to the first triathlon.

Another big goal of mine is to get back down to a more reasonable weight... To this end, I'll put my weight on here whenever I can think about it to see what kind of progress gets made. Today, around 265.