update

felling pretty decent coming off the flu, still feel a bit tight in the chest. yesterday did a core workout at the gym and then swam 200m repeats with a 30 second rest in between. I am feeling smoother but not faster, times were an average of 4:44 per 200, did about 1200 meters then rode back to work. weather has been decent, been getting light snow in the morning and then It tends to melt off. plan for today is to ride home at 2 do a 90 minute brick and then do a cool down ride to pick up my jennelle in the kid trailer from school. decided since I am feeling stronger and leaner to keep up the KMA workout with Kyle twice a month up to the half ironman in June. Which reminds me I need to sign up in the next month. They raised the price to almost $200 not real happy about that. There should be a "locals" price for races.

This weekend traveling to Portland so need to factor that into my training session, want to see if I can muster a 30 minute swim session with my sis in law ( former NCAA swimmer), At the minimnun I will take amy video from dartfish and have her look at it too.

Polar plunge

The polar plunge was a great success. I am still trying to get some pics from friends. ( the one above has me right before I go in backwards in the yellow shorts) My camera went dead that Isis was using so missed out on the one person actually there to take my pic. It was about 31 degrees out and I was not really that cold standing there in my swimsuit. I guess after -1 degree temps in the wasatch while skiing it seemed warmer. I went in to my knees, turned around and did the ice tea plunge backwards so I went all the way under. That was a rule in my book had to go under. there were some that just got up to their knees....CHEATER!!!

Sat did a core workout and then swam for about 30 minutes, came home and did a 60 minute run with Rob. We did about 5 miles at an easy pace.

Sunday did the Hutchs Bicycle Shop group ride ( meant for all comers) and it was a 25 mile loop around Redmond. Cold and we were bundled up but no snow up there and the road was pretty clean. only about 10 people showed up but it was fun.

BRRRRRRR

today is the day for the polar plunge, it is ice cold out and snow is everywhere!!! Thank God!!! it was warm a few weeks away and I think that would have taken away from the experience. I want it Frozen tundra cold!!!! Got up at 5 am and did some weights and core work and then bike Commuted to work in the dark cold morning....I love those ( when I layer correctly). Brett did a podcast that I had a segment in about bike commuting ( click here) and I am am so glad to be over that illness, what a pain, I am about 5 weeks out from the Beaver Freezer and want to be ready to just kill it. Same course and I want to improve in all three time splits. Mt swim will take off minutes, my bike will likely be close and my run should improve a ton. Bruce failed to sign up in time so he is a LOSER and will come just to support but it sicks he did not make it in. With that in mind I need to sign up for my other events this month as well.

ok I will do a mini podcast tonight doing the Polar plunge and see me test out some "Shrinkage theory"

YIKES!!!!!!

back from the brink

Well after much rest i think I am back...i did a light 45 minute spin yesterday and felt good. It is now snowing and I think I will bundle up and go have myself a short run with my ipod. Simply Stu has a new show out so have that all lined up. he has his annual free worlwide tri coming up that Jennelle and I did last year. Would like to do outside this year if possible ( snowed a foot last year so no go.

Working out every day you get in a rythym and being sick for 4 days really throws you off for sure.

KMA #6 and then all week

Well I went into the KMA session not feeling great with headache but decided to do it anyway, actually performed ok. another hour session of super hard core work and mixed in with some fast twitch drills and we even did a session running on a treadmill backwards on an incline!!! Quad burner, try that at home. then after the session slept real poorly. went to a swim coaching session the next morning and felt BLAH but the session went well. went to work and got all hazy...went home to bed about 11 am and stayed there for 4 days. mixed in with 102-103 degree temps, body aches and a bunch of whining on my part. I feel about 80% today and am working from home as not to infect my entire office.....tip of the day get a flu shot. both my wife and daughter had one and they were each sick for about 1/2 of a day as opposed to my week long affair. i am ready in spirit to get back on my raining horse but the body says wait a few more days.

TEA

In an effort to hydrate more using my IM tea bag holder that Dave and Lisa gave me.....everyday!!!!

Thanks my Canadian friends!!!!

running gadget

My buddy Joe works for a cell phone company testing new gear so he gets all he latest gadgets. At dinner last night he showed me some up and coming stuff that is super secret ( well kind of) and he also tests phones for his service so he lent me this phone for awhile until the company wants it back. It has an mp3 player and a radio and real stereo headphones that also work as a phone headset. The main reason he lent it to me is he is not a runner so he wants to see what I think about the running feature that tells you how far you gave run and tells you how many calories you have burned. So I will run with it for a few Weeks and see. nice thing is I could put podcasts on it and listen while running and then of a call comes in i can use the same headset to pause the podcast and answer the phone.....we shall see and also see how accurate the distance meter on it is. Has a insta blog camera on it. I can take a pic and then send directly to a mobile phone blog
not sure I would use that too much but i will play around with it for a while. can still send pics to my email and I think they are higher res than my other phone. The nice thing is to try this phone he just takes out the SIM card in my phone and drops it in here and all my phone numbers etc just carried over....cool huh.

swim went well

200 warm up

300,200,100 with 20 sec rest at mod. pace
200,100,50 negative splits

100 fast

3x100 pull

100 cool down

total for today: 1650 metes or for those non swimmers: 1.02 miles



you know when I do these workouts I do not leave the pool totally worked, tired but not worked, so either I am setting a nice Even pace or I just am not trying hard enough. I really planned on about 500 meters more but the key is I get bored. I was even using a workout from a book that my buddy moonpie suggested ( see here) but after about 30 minutes my mind is bored, On the run and bike you can use stimulus from the new views around every corner or the music on the ipod. There is some mental discipline on the swim I am still working on. Now in races I do not get bored that's for sure but in training it is one of my weak points.

hydration

I have really ramped up being hydrated all the time. drinking water when i wake up and when I got out of bed, At my desk all day I rink out of my killer nalgene with NUUN and I have a hot water maker at my desk to make green tea as well.

But still not making me faster......My buddy Dave in Canada who is 60 and my idol, I want to be in the shape he is when I am 60. He did a 1000m time trial last week and did it in 18 minutes. I did it this weekend and it took 23 minutes. Now not bad for only swimming 1 year but I would like to get faster.

this week plan on swimming again and a run on Wed. with another KMA workout this Thursday then a swim coach lesson on Friday.

I have also been doing a 3 day a week core workout on Core website: HERE

The first three weeks are free so I will try it out, does not take Long in the morning and incorporates some good moves and stretching I had not been doing so the only thing I needed was the gear I have plus a foam roller. That thing gives a great massage for sure....good rehab.

Also had dinner with my buddy Dan and he has convinced me to enter an Early season time trial series that I think will work into training quite well....now thinking about a Zipp wheelset but not sure???

sample

Lyte n go sent me a sample of their portable electrolyte tabs. chewable, pretty good. large tabs that should fit in NUUN tube, tasted decent, used then during a run. pretty good. I would use them again.

at a buck a piece though somewhat spendy.

KMA #5

some pics from Kyles website


Ok I actually look forward to grabbing my ankles and hurting like I just finished a marathon every week in only an hour of working out...today we did the "Dirty dozen" even though I only made it to eight. warmed up on a treadmill and then ramped up to a decent speed and hit the incline to 2. then we ran for about 90 seconds hard and then jumped off and did 12 push ups. back to the treadmill for 90 then the 12 push ups and added s 12 squats with dumbbells and curls. back to the treadmill. then push ups and squats and added scissor kicks....anyway you get the idea. Every rep we would add another exercise and do all of them plus the new one......it started adding up quick.

overall the least set was:

90 seconds treadmill

12 push ups

12 squats with barbell curls

12 scissor kicks with military press dumbbell

12 push ups with barbells pulling them up for core

12 burpees with medicine ball

12 bent over rows

12 box jumps

12 side to side box jumps

OHHHHHHH Was I a hurting unit by the end of that!!!!!!!!!

Bu now the next morning I feel that I had a great workout and I plan to go do swim drills later today. The nice thing was the first two session my HR was about 185 and now I am keeping it at a constant 176....now my Lactate threshold is right there so it is hard do not get me wrong. I was dying by the end of that.

better choices

ok so road trip night two:

ran this morning for 45 minutes before work meetings. nice run. listened to fredcast a podcast about cycling.

then after work I went and swam:

500m warmup

5x100m

5x75m

5x50m

200 cool down


SO now I am hungry and I am in a strange town and yes I could eat out and expense it but the eating out thing makes it hard to eat healthy....so I went over to the super walmart thinking the damn thing is so big there must be a health isle....WRONG!!!!! damn it just had fatty crap, 5 minutes and I was out. went across the road to a Safeway and found a nice little package of goodies, I really wanted to stop at a pizza place by the club as it smelled really good ( well in my head as I drove by,......)

So i got a lean cuisine roasted garlic chicken pizza....pretty good actually and 7g of fat.

supplemented that with some carrot sticks, some fitness water and nuts and energy bars for later and in the morning.

I felt better than getting a high fat pizza like I used to do. I guess if I am working out twice a day I should not ruin all that hard work eh?

ROAD TRIP

So a lot of us have to travel with work and I try and make the best of it.

A few positives:

• all the time i want to workout away from family
• time to focus
• new scenery

Some Challenges:

• away from your kitchen for healthy food
• not your gym ( if any)...( or worse...crappy hotel gym with gear from 1982)
• quality of sleep in strange bed

Well, I am stuck in the middle of cattle country in Pendleton Oregon. I must admit the 4 and a half hour drive was nice to catch up on a bunch of podcasts. Also I asked at the hotel if they knew of anywhere to swim laps since the pool here even though nice is only about 12 feet long. They said that a local health club had a pool and said that guess of the hotel get to workout there for free just show my room key.....BINGO!!!! sweet, I have stayed here a bunch and never asked since they have a pool here and a decent workout room. So that is sweet. I went and did 30 minutes of cardio and then worked on some core for a bit. I will hit the pool in the morning. By going to the local grocery store and buying some real food I passed all the tempting restaurants.

2 more days on the road.........

Solid Saturday

I went to Juniper on Sat and swam for a great workout:

WARM UP 250
Drill 4x100 odds finger tip drill/free by 25 then evens fist/free by 25
MAIN set 2x200 + 2X50 the 200s at Cruise and the 50s at cruise + 5 sec.
stroke count: 4x 50s free golf ( count strokes and seconds and combine and try to lower the total)
WARM DOWN: 200 breathe every 3-5 strokes

This was my first set after my lesson on friday so I was working on some of the issues that Vanessa brought up and it was still fresh in my mind.

Then i went over to the workout room and did 20 minutes on the treadmill at a decent pace increasing incline as I went, Finished with a upper body weight workout.....nice day all around.

now headed out for an 8:30 run with the local running store for a pre Superbowl run not that I actually plan on watching the Superbowl. Jennelle and Isis are going running as well and then i will try and get my long bike ride in during the game.

new book

I almost bought this book on Amazon about 4 times but then out of nowhere my suggestion to my local library to buy it came through and they are getting a copy and they have it reserved for me!!! so after I read it I will do a review, if like his other books should be spot on for reference information.

Swim lesson Friday

Great Swim lesson on Friday with Vanessa. I found I had fixed a few items and had a few more that we worked on. I really am loving the swimming because it is hard. A good analysis Bruce came up with it is like helping out a golf swing.....its complicated and you are never done improving. I set up lessons every other week until the Beaver Freezer and then likely I will go see here at least once a month until Ironman to keep things focused and she can help me build some workouts . All in all I think I swam about 300 yards during the lesson as we were working on technique and discussing aspects of the stroke and trying things so a god recovery day. Today I plan on going to Juniper and working on a longer swim practice of at least 2000 meters and also either a spin class or if it gets sunny a ride outside for an hour or 2.

Training is going great and I think based on getting these two coaches it is keeping me focused the rest of the week on my workout and nutrition. I dropped all of the Holiday chunky and am back to my training weight of 170. Now I need to build of those lungs with more base and lean it out working on core and swim technique and I will call it a great Winter session.

KICK MY ASS #4

Wow another hour of Kyle kicking my ass. Feels so good after and during all of my other workouts. I was redlined today. we did a little strength but mostly cardio and i about passed out again...seriously. I feel great after though so it seems to carry me to the next week. I have to say this is what I needed to jumpstart my year. Bruce did it last year and he could not stop talking about it and he was right. I didn't even wear my heart rate strap today because I know it says 185 5 minutes into the workout and never goes down so what the point???


here is what I remember from the workout ( I was a bit hazy)

treadmill warmup 10 minutes
then every minute treadmill incline up one and speed up
after about 5 minutes did 10 pushupos on instability board, then 10 burpees then 10 scissor squats with a med ball

back to the treadmill still at incline and still going fast. started increasing speed and decreasing incline every minute...5 minutes pass another set of pushups etc added jumps

then went to jumping rope and doing sit squats on a med ball until ( as kyle put it....) our thighs were burning with fire.

then did a exercise where we grabbed a small weighted ball in a squat and the jumped up to touch his hand ( he was standing on a large block)

back to jump rope

mountain climbers while holding onto the instability boards

jump rope

then we did some other stuff but I was quite hazy now ( redline of 185 hr+ for sure)

OH yeah there was a routine on the bike as well and some more treadmill laps as fast as we could go for 3 minutes

ended with lots of ab work in the mat

Here is a link about the coach I use Kyle Will......also a good guy.

Super swim

Had a great swim workout yesterday, did :

300m warmup
4x100 fingertip drag drill for 100 then next 100 split between crawl and fist frill then back to fingertip drag
2x200m main cruise set
cool down 100 breathe every 5th stroke

then I had to go run an errand so was out of time but good Quality workout I felt. total meters were 1200 meters. i am working up to a 2000 minimum for workouts. Bruce keeps telling me to join masters and he id likely right but my schedule while flexible does not always work for that. I had set up some more lessons with Vanessa for Feb and March.


I have signed up for the first race of the year at my Alma mater: THE BEAVER FREEZER of GYGO fame.

Also fundraising on the polar plunge is going along well!!