Thursday, December 20, 2012

Random Junk

1) I got the go-ahead to sign up for IMTX. but I haven't signed up yet.  I'm not sure if that makes me smart, scared, cheap, realistic or just a procrastinator.  I'm leaning towards all of the above really.  I wish I could wait until about March, to see how my training is feeling, but that's not an option as the race is nearly sold out.  I'm concerned about trying to bike through the winter here in the north, plus I'm a little worried about trying to race in the the Texas heat after having trained in the northern cold.  In the end, however, I just need to STFU and decide.  Personal deadline, January 5th.

2) Form vs. Repetition.  There's a gym in my building and I walk by it on my way to lunch nearly everyday.   Today I saw a guy knocking out dips at an incredible rate.  The thing was, his elbows were not coming anywhere near 90 degrees.  Now, I'm not Mr. Universe or anything, but even I could see that his form was crazy wrong.  I was immediately reminded of my swimming form.  I'm sure swimmers walk into the pool area, take one look at my swim form and have the same gag reflex that I had today watching dips guy.  The only thing in my favor is that my swim form starts out half decent and degrades over the course of my workout where dips guy's form was bad from the start.  I win.

3) I've not purchased even one Christmas gift yet this year and I don't think I'm going to.  It's not that I'm all scrooge or anything, I'm just not into it.  Don't get me wrong, we (Cath and I) have been good Americans who spent a bundle getting ready for Christmas.  We've installed new light fixtures and we built a built-in bench in the dining room.  Plus we bought and installed new cabinets in the living room and a picture rail.  Actually we've done so much work on the house I'm waiting for the "were moving" discussion to pop-up.  But seriously, not one present, for anyone: wife, kids, grand-kids, mother, etc. What's wrong with me? I guess I'm just demonstrating the Christmas spirit via actions instead of gifts.  That's not too wrong, is it?




Monday, December 3, 2012

November Notes and Numbers


November was an interesting month for me.  I started to exercise again with some regularity, but nothing like actual training.  I realized that it's much easier to train against a training plan and towards a goal vs. "just getting up and going for a run".  I started strength training again and I have to ask "Why am I more sore after a 25 minute calisthenics-based strength training workout than I was after a HIM?"

On a more personal and non-triathlon note, my wife and I moved our daughter and granddaughter out after 6 months of cohabitation (our son-in-law was overseas with the Marines).  This is significant for any number of reasons that I will not get into here, but take it from me, our house is really quiet and sorta lonely.  Turns out I'm a big fan of multi-generational living.

By The (off-season) Numbers

Run: 36 miles
Bike: 0 miles
Swim: 0 laps (I still have not been in the pool since race day, but that's about to change...

Goals:
The only thing on my books right now is a fast mile (running) and a 1000m time trial (swimming).

To that end I set out on Thanksgiving day with the intent of achieving my one-mile goal.  It was a horribly organized attempt that started with a warm up run to the track, which was all locked up, like it should be on a random Thursday morning.  Next I debated if I should just wait and try some other time.  Then finally  I decided to just sprint home, without any milestones or time checks, and hope that I covered enough distance to actually equal a mile.  Not exactly what I had in mind - my ending elevation was higher than my starting elevation and there were rolling hills in the middle - never the less, Strava tells me that my fastest mile was 6:44 which is 16 seconds under my 7 minute goal.  Winner.

New Goals:
Only one - GET BACK INTO THE POOL!  This should not be a problem.

So that's it for me kids.  How was your turkey month?  Did you get any training done?