January 2005 Archives

The first week of my base is complete. I exercised for 5 hours, 39 minutes, and 25 seconds. It's a bit short of the scheduled six hours because of the swimming. I completed swim workouts in my book, but they took me a lot less time than expected. In the future, I will adjust my swim workouts to meet the expected hour-long swims. I also completed my first "brick" workout. A brick is the combination of a run workout directly after a bike workout. Being the first week, it was relatively easy. (30 min bike/15 min run) The week concluded with an hour-long bike Saturday, and a 45 minute run (outside!) Sunday. Here's how each discipline broke down:

The body is holding up well. My left Achilles tendon was sore after basketball Thursday. My basketball shoes are the only ones without arch supports, and that might have been the culprit. By the run Friday night, it was still sore, but didn't hurt while running, so I pressed on. The week ended with a splurge of food at the local Vitamin World, originally just to get some soy protein for some homemade energy bars. I don't know how to explain what happened. It just did. It was very surreal and now we have plenty of low-carb energy food at home.

For Week 2, there is a slight increase in workout time for a total of 6.5 hours.

This week marks the start of my base phase in training. From now until September 11, I will be following a relatively strict workout schedule. Right now, I have the next three weeks scheduled: what I am doing everyday, for how long and at what intensity. Thanks to an excellent Christmas gift: Be Iron-Fit by Don Fink, I've got an idea of what to do every week. This week it's six hours total. Next week it's six and a half hours. Then seven, seven and half, then back down to 6 or so to recover. Then I go back up to eight and continue that trend (three up, one back) for the next thirty or so weeks. I'm psyched.

Up to this point, which I considered my "Pre" phase, (2005 only) I've swum 3.5 miles, ran for 18, and biked for another 105. In three weeks I managed nearly 127 miles in about 13.5 hours. On The Day, I have to cover 140.6 miles in less than 17 hours. I've got some work ahead of me, but am very eager to get it going. In the "Pre" phase, if I missed a workout I could move on without too much consequence. Now, a missed workout isn't so bad, but it's not so good either. With only so many hours to work, eat, sleep and train every week, each workout is precious, especially on the weekends. That's the domain of the long bike and run workouts. Right now it's under an hour for each, but the bike will grow to a six-hour ride, and 3 hours for a run during the peak week. Note that everything is based in hours. While on the bike and running, I'm using my heart rate monitor and stopwatch for my training, rather than miles. It allows me to train anywhere, and not have to worry about measuring it out before or after. And everyone's using their heart rate as a training indicator, so why not me?

I hope to update this space weekly if not more often. Each update will include training time and any thoughts. In the right column there's a countdown to the big day, as well as my event schedule as it stands. There's a couple more events that I'm thinking about, so there may be some additions.

An amazing five-part race report of an age-group with a lottery slot at Hawaii. In part one, he describes what it's like to race in Hawaii:

But Kona is different, special. Kona is the Ironman, where the roads have been baptized with the sweat of thousands, paved with sacrifice, where Pele has crowned champions and crushed pretenders, where agony and ecstasy merge over 17hrs into one blurry kaleidoscope of suffering, sacrifice and triumph.

If you've got some time, you should read the rest. It's in five parts: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five

Here's what I did last year. All since August 16, 2004:

"Super Size Me." I can remember when those three words meant so much more than the thirty-nine cents they cost. It was the summer of 1999. My last before the working world. I was interning for an engineering firm that had me stationed in the City of Waupun. I was up at 5 AM, on the road by 6, and in town by 7. I didn't have time to make a lunch in the morning, and was too lazy to do it at night. Enter McDonald's and the double quarter pounder with cheese meal. Super sized. I ate one nearly every day for lunch for the entire summer. I wasn't working out. I was too tired from working to do anything but go out with friends. (What was I supposed to do? I was in college.) So tack on many beers, none of them light, to the already growing number of calories. My only saving grace was to sweat during the day in khakis and polo shirts. (The dress code prevented anything less.) And it wasn't the summer to really be enjoying the outside (June, July and August weather stats. Note that July's average high was 85°F.)

Following that summer, I finished my last semester, graduated and got a desk job and ceased to workout, maintaining my high-caloric intake and poor grocery store habits. Scratch that. I rarely went to a grocery store. Instead, I bought a small chest freezer and frequented the frozen food section at Sam's Club. Pizza Pockets were my favorite. Two or three at a time, two to three times per week. The other nights were split between breaded buffalo chicken fingers, and and a dozen or so chicken nuggets. There were no accompaniments and the drink always included a left over Mountain Dew or fresh beer. I was getting fat. I knew it, but didn't care.

Why this memory, you ask? "Super Size Me." The movie struck a cord with me because of my diet this fall and my resulting eight loss. We watched it last Thursday (courtesy of Netflix, which rocks) based on the recommendation of many friends. It was extremely well done. Much more enjoyable than the other one.

And it seems like we watched it at the right time. The day after, Frazz runs a comic that sums up one of the main reasons obesity is a second biggest health threat in the US.

Furthermore, in the movie, an interviewee in the movie vocalized a thought I've been carrying with me since I lost my weight. When will the obese be socially criticized for being overweight? And will they be told to correct it at the same time? Most places, smokers are shunned to stand outside to fulfill their addiction. And, as the interviewee shares, they are even given grief for lighting up at a table of friends. Nearly every time I pass an obese person, I develop a bit of scorn and disappointment that they've taken their own body and severely trashed it. "Why don't they want to lose weight?" If you're ever in Wisconsin, look at the people around you. How many are overweight? Too many.

As a result of the movie's success, there are no super size options at McDonald's and just recently, the vending machine industry is starting a campaign to provide healthy food alternatives in schools.

Again, an extremely well done movie. It deserves your attention and the attention is has garnered. Keep reading to know how fat I got.

When Kris got a laptop, we decided to move her old computer out of the back room, donate the monitor to my Mom, and use the extra space for our growing bike collection. Still, after several months, we had the computer desk. Although it was kinda in the way, it was serving a purpose, holding loose paper, some pens, and any overflow items that didn't fit anywhere else. Alas, the room it's in is next on our list to clean in earnest and the desk had to go.

Our car isn't big enough to haul it to Goodwill, and it's in too good of shape to throw out, but it's too cold and snowy to leave out for someone to grab. What do we do? Enter Freecycle.org. On a tip from a co-worker, Freecycle.org lists all the local groups that using message boards to offer items free for the taking. I checked into the local group to see what was offered. Amazingly, things were being snapped up within mere minutes. Like wise, within a half-hour of offering our desk, there was a request to pick it up.

Cheryl's sister had a fire over Thanksgiving and had no insurance. This desk allowed her to use her kitchen table as a kitchen table once again. Within three hours of the original post, the desk was in their minivan on its way to a good home.