Time flies when you're having fun

My last blog was over a month and a half ago (July 13th).

There has been a lot going on since, but nothing more important than meeting with my manager and getting an excellent performance review. Even on this down economy, my numbers (total sales as well as volume) have been consistently doubling up. I am very optimistic that my “high-expectations” budget will be met and hopefully exceeded by the end of our fiscal year.

To date, my weight continues to be well managed even if I have eaten a few carb-rich meals. But once I do that, I immediately return to my low-carb lifestyle and manage to keep it off. This morning the scale read 180.5 LB What an accomplishment this has been for me.

Last weekend – Aug 22, I completed another triathlon race. This was the first race I did last year, so it was very important to gauge my improvements. Last year, my time was 1:27:48, this year it was 1:09:59 (official time) That’s the official time, but my own stopwatch indicates 1:07:10 - can't argue with the officials.

I broke 1:10:00, and took almost 18 minutes off my previous time. This time was good enough for the following standings:
14th place out of 34 in my category and 130th place out of 500 in the race.
Needless to say, this is a great improvement in my speed, my fitness and my well being. Last year’s time got me to the top of the slowest 25%, yet it got the motivation engines started, and here are the results of 12 months of training and consistency.

During the weeks since my last blog, I completed two other mock tri’s with some friends. This I feel has been the best kind of training and motivator. Back in PRico (vacation) I did some Run Intervals in a slight hill, which REALLY helped with my speed and handling pain. This combination of workouts have allowed me to improve hugely as well as fast.

Right now I have no scheduled races for September, but a Labor Day weekend vacation at the beach with family and friends. I will bring all my exercise gear (bike included) so I can train in a different environment. My next scheduled race is October 10th. However, I am considering forfeiting it for an Olympic distance race on the 11th. The Olympic distance is pretty much double the distances of the races I have been doing so far. We’ll see how that goes.

The next event in my schedule after October 10 is my first half marathon, in November. I’ll let you all know how that goes. Stay tuned…

July 13

First I want to encourage you to go near the bottom of this blog and click on Tony Dungy's video I posted. It is brief but speaks volumes. Tony is a major role model.


Wow - lots of things happening. First my 40th, then 4th of July, my family went on vacation and I completed another triathlon.

July 12 was my last race thus far. After getting up at 3:30AM I headed to Clearwater. It turned out to be a majestic and blessed day. Temp was in the low to mid 80s, water about 85.

There were 1,100 triathletes at this race. That's the biggest race I've done so far. My swimming went really well, and so was the bike, except for climbing hill/bridge #1. It was the run that set me back after I thought I had this race "in the bag". Nonetheless I made great time even on the run with a 9 min per mile pace.

The calm waters of Clearwater bch were a great setting. Now, there were over 100 people in my wave, meaning that everyone is trying to get to the same point so, there is a lot of kicking, and hitting going on. I got out of the water feeling fresh and later on I learned that I even cought up with some of the folks from the previous wave. I basically focused on being relaxed and getting from one buoy to the next without stressing too much.

Once out of the water we had to run over sand and gravel quite a long distance and this only got me tired but as soon as I changed into my bike gear, I was out of there and passing people. The route was rather technical with many turns and those "hills" I mean, bridges. But there were people guarding at every one of them. In the last straightaway, while I tried to get my garmin on my wrist I dropped it and had to stop and U-turn. This cost me some time, but I learned my lesson. T2 was really fast.

I took off running and though I felt I was going at a good speed, my legs would not move faster, my knees would not come up higher and lots of people were passing me. I realize that I must now work on gaining speed on my run.

At the end I finished with a time of 1:20:25. This was basically 6 minutes off from my mark. 38th in my group of 79 athletes and 336 overall, out of 1,100. I have to admit that this is not bad at all.

Analyzing the standings I realize that if my running pace would have been 8:00 I would have completed the race within the 175 best times. So, that's my new goal. I have to set my bike aside and work on running speed.

Regarding my weight I was up 4 lbs but mainly because this week I rested for the race, my body was craving more times. As soon as I resume my regular exercise routine, this goes away.

Let's see what I log for my next race.

Milestones

Last week was Father’s day, and also my 40th BDay, I can not believe how much better and younger I feel today than any other stage in my life. So well, that I did not feel any jitters as the day approached.

To celebrate my 40s, I hooked up with a few friends and we did our own triathlon, it was called The Big 4 “O” race. It was fun, fast and best of all, a BLAST. We’ll repeat the event in a couple of months and hopefully can gather a few more athletes to join us.

My wonderful wife threw a party with a bunch of friends, mostly relatives - even a DJ and great Latin food. It was awesome. Honey – I know you read this, so, I love you! Thanks for treating me like your king!

The last two weeks were business as usual in regards to food intake and workouts. I have been able to do at least each sport during the week and then repeat on the weekend. My waist size is down to 32 and my weight stable at 182 LB. It feels good to fit small in your oldest jeans. Yay!!!

The 4th week of the month proved to be a little more difficult but as I added my workouts into my schedule, they take visibility and have a better chance of getting done.

While traveling for business, I met with an old HS friend, we had some good times remembering other good times. I also had a few extra beers (carbs) which I immediately felt on my waist. But I also completed a 5.7 mile fast run around Ft Lauderdale's downtown area. Although a very bad lightning storm made me stop and take cover, the rain cooled the air nicely.

Then, on Saturday, did a 32 mile bike ride – it was done mostly at a slow pace so we would burn fats, not carbs; but also so the folks riding with me would learns the route and hopefully get their own chances to ride and train around here. As I came back home I had a chance to see the Kiddy - 4Th of July Bicycle parade at my community. Then it was family time.

Sunday morning was my first real set of running intervals training. This is a method of running to help you gain speed. In which, instead of running hard and fast for 3 miles you would calculate the time you want to be running at (ex. 8 minutes per mile x 3 miles = 24 minutes). At this point you would break your run into many pieces that include 24–1 min sprints, or 12–2 minute sprints, etc, plus a predetermined rest time between sets.

As my first workout of this kind, I picked 15 x 1 min sprints with 2 min rest intervals. As you can quickly figure out, this workout takes time to complete. The entire workout consisted of 1-10 min warm up, 15 sets of intervals, and 12 min cooldown. The last 2 sets were very difficult to get to the speed I was shooting for, which is very important for this type of workout as that is what we’re teaching the body to do.

All in all it’s been a nice couple of weeks. The clock might be advancing but I am feeling younger, I am training harder than I have ever done and keep moving towards my goals.

Not bad for a 40 year old man!

My next race is in 2 weeks and I have yet to get comfortable with my swimming. Next weekend is July 4th, so until then, train hard and God bless!