its certainly interesting

it really is interesting having a new baby in the house. i just got back from my interval ( get my ass kicked ) session with some of my club mates and was told a story by my wife.

naturally it was about little baby Kiera. basically what happened was that it was feeding time, and that is basically the only time that she gets a bit cranky. anyway, kiera basically thought it was the end of the world. she was crying her eyes out and screaming her lungs out. so mommy got her bottle as quickly as she could, got her all comfortable and started feeding her.

withing about 5 minutes and 1.5 oz she was done and passed out. it was really funny as i came in and was watching jennifer do her absolute best to try and wake kiera up. making noises, tickling her, whatever it took. but all in vain. kiera looked as if she was drunk and was out like a light.

it was funny listening to jennifer talking to her asking what all the pre-feeding fuss was all about. it was if the world was ending, she said. kiera doesnt normally actually cry unless she is really pissed. all it took, was just a little 1.5 oz sip and she was satisfied. luckily after a few farts and a few burps. she woke herself up and polished off another 3 oz and everybody was happy.

on another note, i went out for my weekend interval training session with some of my club mates. ( yes the ones that kick my ass ) we had a really good ride. temp was about 60 and there was a 10mph wind.

all went well, i took it a bit easier during the week so it wasn't as bad as last weekend. i managed to keep up with them to about the midway point of the hills and to my surprise actually passed one of the guys on one of the hills. everybody was surprised and congratulated me at the top of the hill. needless to say that hill took a lot of steam out of me and i struggled the last few hills. it was a lot of fun though and they invited me back again and told me to keep on coming out.

i am going to try to make it as it can only be good for me. everybody should try to get interval training into their schedule so that they can improve their cycling.

great podcast

i listened to a really good podcast today, you guys should check it out.

here is the website, have a look. http://www.zentriathlon.com/

jason

valuable lessons learnt this morning

Learnt some very valuable lessons today on my morning ride. the basics of the situation are that i went on a 30 mile ride this morning with some guys that my tri club coach said will help me pick up some speed as they are pretty quick riders. Turns out she was right. You know that you are in trouble when you are doing 28mph going down a hill and they are leaving you in their dust. Lucky for me that was the only downhill that they did that to me, but it was more the uphills that were the problem.

So you might be asking about those lessons and basically i have an idea that i would like to Complete a 70.3 distance bike leg at 21mph. if the conditions are good for speed that would probably put me in the top 10. Naturally i would have to kill in the swim and run as well. As i am not running at the moment i am concentrating on my swim and bike training.

So the lessons would be that i have a long way to go. I definitely need to work on my leg strength as i sucked on the hills. I dont think it was to bad though as we were slowed down by a few traffic lights and we still finished the 30 odd miles at 19mph. It is great interval training though riding with them as you are pretty much sprinting at 20/25mph on the flat sections and they were probably averaging 15/20 mph up the hills. me on the other hand was probably averaging 10/15mph up those same hills.

The fact that i had a big gym workout on wednesday and did 57 miles on thursday probably didn’t help me any either. Thats what im telling myself anyway. So for the weeks to come im going to try and get into the gym as much as possible and work on strengthening my legs. if i can get 100 miles in on the bike a week would also be great and i definitely want to join the speedsters on the weekend for interval training.

ive got a lot of work to do, got my body fat down to 16.8 % and want to get my diet back in check as well. During the wife's pregnancy we let that slip a little and we are getting back into our routine of eating. I thought it was pretty funny, we were filling out the baby book last week and there is a section in it where you fill in how much weight daddy put ON during the pregnancy, lucky for me we had to scratch out PUT ON and fill in LOST and it turned out to be 10 pounds......

what motivates you

Day off

So i have taken the day off today. had a pretty good workout week. did my 56 mile ride last week thursday. it was really, really cold. stopped off at a bike shop and bought some full finger gloves. i decided that i might have to get some full boot covers as the toe cover warmers only seemed to work about 2 hours. after that my toes got freezing cold.

The weather was rather crummy on sunday so i went off to the gym and spent some quality time with the rowing machine. Fitness guru Ben Greenfield has studied the quality of the workout you get and apparently it is the second best calorie burn that you can possibly get in a gym, second only to the treadmill with an incline.

i used to row in school so i am actually a big fan of the rowing machine. depending on your intensity you can burn upwards of 1000 calories an hour on the rowing machine. As for me and my intensity i was burning around 750 calories an hour and seen as i was on the rowing machine for 75 minutes i burnt about 950 calories.

Monday morning my shoulders were a bit sore, but i definitely felt like i had a good workout. Monday morning i also went to the physiotherapist again. i am still working on getting my knee sorted out. I have an ACL sprain and am working with Shane at Edge Physical therapy in Frisco to get it sorted out. With the help of his Alter-g anti gravity treadmill i have been able to start running again. i have been running 3.1 miles at 65 % of my body weight and will increase my body weight as time goes by.

We seem to be making some progress with my business. Its taken some time but are finally getting things sorted out now. hopefully before to long i will be able to start making some money and if all goes well we will be able to send Kiera to daycare come january. stay tuned for details.

Kiera is really doing well. She is getting so big now, almost 11 pounds i think. It sure has been a life changer having her around. Jennifer is also doing well. She has started going to the gym, doing some light cardio and today was her first day to have her bodybugg back on. i think she is ready to get the last of her baby weight off.

56 miles, alone and 40 degrees

So had an awesome 56 mile ride this morning and thought i would share some of it with you.

So the plan was to meet up with some friends this morning but when i woke up i had a text message that one of them was ill and the other couldnt make it either so i had to make the decision if i was still going to go or not. something else i had to contend with was the knowledge that it would be a high of 45 degrees today.

So i made the decision to go out anyway and packed my stuff into the car. Took my bike off the trainer and hooked it to the back of the car. felt pretty good that i would be warm enough as i had the woolen socks on and another pair over them as well. i had recently bought a pair of toe covers for my shoes as well so i was all set to go.

i got down to the parking lot from where i ride and got all set up. at this stage my car was telling me that it was 37 degrees and was a little concerned that there might be a bit of ice around as it was snowing and raining yesterday and i had a lot of shady areas to ride through and was sure there would be a few puddles around.

the ride:

the ride started off pretty well although it was cold and passed a few icy puddles but only saw them on the grass and didn't come across any ice on the pathway i was riding on. right away i knew i would have an issue with my fingers as i don't have proper winter gloves yet and was riding in my normal fingerless gloves. they were freezing right from when i started and i wished i could stick them in a pocket or something, naturally i couldn't as i was doing 20mph and was on a narrow little pathway that was swerving around trees and stuff. luckily for me near the lake i ride around is a store called richardson bike mart and i whipped out my phone to find directions to it and stopped by and bought some nice full finger gloves that definitely made my ride more comfortable.

the mind plays funny tricks on you when you are involved in endurance events like this and its difficult to explain to normal people ( as we are not normal ) exactly how tough it really is.

for example, at mile 12 i was telling myself thats its really cold outside and no-one will blame me for only doing 25 miles today as apposed to the planned 56 and it would be pretty easy for me to go back to my car. lucky for me i fought through that and kept riding. at mile 25 it came back and i told myself surely 30 miles would be enough for today and i could do the rest on he trainer at home. then i reminded myself that with the wife and kid at home, that would never happen. so i fought through that and carried on riding. it was about this time that the wind picked up a little bit and my feet started getting cold.

mile 30 - 40 really went well and my legs felt strong and then i remembered at 40 that i still had 16 miles left to go before i was finished. i dont care who you are but thats enough to take the wind out of anybodies sails. 40 - 50 was ok and it was the last time up the 3 hills that hug the west side of the lake. i have just recently discovered them and am planning on getting to know them a lot better over the next year.

mile 50 was when i hit my wall. my legs were DONE. i found it funny that once again, the last 10 miles of my ride were marred by a 100mph headwind. why does it always happen to me.

im sure it wasnt quite 100mph but after 50 miles it sure did feel like it. if anyone is planning on doing i ride of this distance there are a few things you need to remember to take into consideration.

a: weather, be sure to be warm enough or cool enough, if its hot outside.

b: nutrition, find what works for you. try different types of stuff. Gu gives me stomach cramps at about 2 hours so i've changed to hammer gel now and it seems to be working really well for me.

c: water, remember u should be drinking about a bottle of water an hour, probably more in the summer when you sweat a lot. try not to drink to much as you will have to stop and pee if you have to much.

d: equipment, you are going a long way from home or your car, take your phone and wallet with u incase you might need them. i'm sure i don't need to tell you about flat tire kit. also tell someone where you are going and what time to expect you back. even better ride with someone else. you can never be to safe.

all in all, i had a great ride. its the first time i did that distance all by myself and physically, as well as mentally, it was really tough and goes a long way towards gaining 70.3 experience. which is what im training for next year.

i am setting up a little website as well to give people a better idea as to what it takes to compete in triathlon and im also hoping to sell some nutrition etc on it to help me fund my new triathlon habit.

please have a look at it, even though its still under construction in a few areas and feel free to give me some ideas as to how i can make it better. if you think its crap, you can tell me that as well.

http://tinyurl.com/yd55exm

happy training

jason

madiba

hey guys, i know its been a while.

i just watched an interview on tv with morgan freeman about his role as nelson mandela in the new movie invictus.

its a weird feeling to see a movie made about a huge event that affected your life in such a way. i was born in south africa and was a part of the massive transformation that took place in south africa in the mid 90's. Nelson really did an incredible thing in transforming south africa into what it is today.

Its a pity to hear stories about how crime and poverty are destroying a country that has so much promise.

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Was a pretty cool day. Legs are super tired though. Had the physio yesterday, all is going well, we are working on strengthening the muscles around the knee. Also  a lot of lateral movement work to strngthen muscles and prevent further injuries. 

We nt for a nice and slow 47 mile ride this morning. The weather turned out to be really nice and towards the end of it, it was in the 60's.

We found some really cool hills at the lake and will be hitting them again for sure. 

Now however I have some really sore legs. I think the physio and the ride combined was maybe just a bit to much to handle. Anyway, happy thanksgiving to everybody for tomorrow. 

Safe travels for everybody

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So, heard back from my doctor and he has the results from my MRI. Turns out I have swelling in my knee joint and a strained ACL. Guess I won't be doing any running soon. I strt my physiotherapy tomorrow.

I did 43 miles this morning in 2:20:30 at an average of 18.3 mph. That's 5 mins off my previous time of the same distance. I guess the trainer must be working. It was also really windy today which sucked. By the time I was 10 miles in I was stuffed.

pavlik brace

well, pretty rough day today. Our doctor had some concerns that kiera had some issues with her hip joints. a bit of background is that kiera was breach and therefore we had to have a c section. apparently it is common for breach babies to have hip joint issues.

so we went to a specialist this morning and turns out she has mild hip aplasia in her right hip joint, which basically just means that the ball socket is not as tight with the ball yet. its pretty loose in that it want to pop out.

unfortunately kiera has to wear something called a pavlik brace for about the next 3 months basically 100 % of the time to keep the 2 bones in place so that the ligaments can form properly and we will have a happy healthy little baby girl. as all mothers can imagine, jennifer my wife is pretty broken up about it and isnt taking it to well.

from what ive read and heard from other people its the best thing for them and doesnt bother them to much.

as i say that kiera is crying and its pretty tough to handle. turns out she just spat up a little and didnt enjoy it to much. she is on the boob now and all is good.

anyway. had a good gym workout last night working on my shoulders, back and arms. had a good swim the day before as well. covered about 1.36 miles.

my knee

went for a short run tonight, knee felt like crap. going to doctor tomorrow morning at 10:30am

:(

my first video blog

Have a look, this is my first video blog.

I get to see my mom on friday night

Well, its thursday morning. I have been up with Kiera since 3:30 am after her feeding with mommy, I took over as Kiera doesn't go to sleep after her morning feeding so that mommy can go to sleep.

So i hung out in the lounge for a while watching tv. Once i thought that Kiera might be asleep i took her upstairs to the computer room and naturally, she was just playing with me and she was wide awake again. So i tried the little battery operated rocker and a little baby soothing music, which didn't work either.

Anyway, weve made it to 7 o'clock and she is hungry, thank heavens so i've handed her back to mommy for some more boob.

So you might be thinking, why is this post labelled something about me seeing my mom. Well, for those who don't know yet, i am actually and african american. you might say then, wow, you look really white, and so does Kiera. Well, i am a REAL african american. I was born in Cape Town South Africa. And i now live here in Dallas texas. Thus making me an african american.

Anyway, so i've been here for 5 years now and Jennifer and i decided it would be good idea to fly my mom over here to come and help us out with the baby. And seen as i haven't seen any of my family (besides an aunt of mine ) for 5 years now its quite a big deal and i'm sure when she sees her granddaughter she is going to pee her pants.

She gets here on friday night from south africa and i am really looking forward to it. My mom, like many texans has never travelled outside of the country and she is very excited as well. She is bringing us lots of our favorite south african goodies and i will be sue to tell you about all of them when they get here.

I cant wait, we are very excited.

pretty awesome day today

pretty awesome day today. Had a couple off feedings during the night with mommy and Kiera. Baby didn't want to go back to sleep after her 4:30 am feeding so i got up with her so that mommy could go back to sleep. So we got up, made some coffee and a few slices of toast.

She finally fell asleep at about 7 ish so i went upstairs and sat on the computer for a while. Mom woke up at about 9 so once the girls started feeding i went off to the gym and spe

nt about 45 minutes in the pool doing drills and speed work. After i came home from the gym, mommy told me that she had some friends coming over to play with the baby so i had a great idea and made a

n appointment at our chiropractor and got an adjustment and also and awesome massage.

Its a pity it only lasted an hour cos i had some stiffness around my shoulder blades and started feeling really good towards the end of the session.

On the way home chad, from my triathlon club ( frisco triathlon club ) called me up and said he would be at our house at around 3pm with ou

r supper. Kudos to our new found friends at the club who have brought us food during this time where my wife hasn't felt like cooking. You might say, well Jas

on, why don't you do the cooking. Firstly, i'm not that good but secondly with everything else i'm doing around the house to clean up the mess the hurricane left, we are very appreciative for the saints that offered to bring us food.

I was going to go for a run this afternoon as well but i'm doing a long ride in the morning so thought i would save my legs for that not to mention take a bit of pressure off mommy and look after Kiera. Not that it is to difficult at the moment as she is sleeping.

On another note, i'm contemplating some upgrades on my bike. i don't want to spend too much money though. maybe you guys can make some suggestions for me.

This is what it looks like. Its just a road bike with some aero bars on it. Im thinking of buying some MPH if you know what i mean. Maybe and aero helmet, Some tri handle bars. Maybe a forward shifting seat post and maybe a handlebar mounted water bottle with tube. what do you think, if you had about 100 dollars, what would you do to this bike.

Anyway, so thanks to my new BFF chad, we have pork tenderloin, rice and salad for supper, and ice cream and pie. Who said having kids suck.

First week in November

Well the first week in november is behind us. I had a pretty good week as far as being active is concerned. You see i didn't call it training. I am not going to call it training for a few weeks. Im not going to have a structured routine. I am going to try and spend as much time in the gym working on strength as possible. But if the weather is good, you will find me out on my bike or going for a run.

I am also going to take it very slow as far as the running is concerned, i really don't want to hurt my knee again and i am in no rush to get my miles up just yet. Im going to keep it unstructured and just do whatever i feel like doing. Like today i didn't have much time so i went to the gym and hit the rowing machine for an hour. apparently its the second best calorie burning machine in the gym. its a full body workout that you really feel after and hour on it.

Oh, on a side note, thanks to green bay for knocking me out of my football pool. the 6500 dollar winning would either of bought me a new bike or my wife would of put it towards a new kitchen. who do you think would of won.

i was active for 6.12 hours this week. 66 miles on the bike, 2.32 miles in the pool and 2.1 miles running. oh and also 8.1 miles on the rowing machine. I think this week i will havea bit more freedom. Mommy should be a bit more mobile and that might free me up a bit more, maybe i can get my long thursday morning ride in. that will be cool, maybe do 57 again.

I have received the new triathlete magazine and it looks like there are some good articles in it. cant wait to get into it.

well, lets see what this weeks holds for us.

update on run and knee situation

well i had a little run again this morning. those of you who don't know, i had an over usage injury on my knee. after the US open i have taken a break from running under doctors orders. I was supposed to start running 2 weeks ago but we had a baby and so its had another 2 weeks to heal.

I did 1 mile last week and went for another little 2 miles run this morning. I took it really easy and ran about a 9 minute pace just to see how things felt. i used to run about a 7:30 pace. Anyway everything worked really well. I'm sitting with ice on it now just to make sure there wasn't any inflammation. I really hope everything stays good so that i can keep running.

funny stories

we were up this morning, bright and early. Kiera was awake at about 5am after her feeding and i wanted to let mommy get some sleep so i took her and we went to the lounge to watch some tv. at about 8-oclock kiera and mommy were both in LA-LA land when that pesky squirrel came scratching at our skylight again.

Again, you might ask. Well yes. For the past few months he has been scratching at our skylight as last year i blocked off his 2 openings into our roof. So anyway, i have actually got a BB gun from Jens dad that i have been trying to shoot him with.

So there he was , scratching away and i thought, damn him. I got up as slowly as possible not to wake up the baby. Got the gun, made sure it was loaded. Walked quietly to the back door, so i could get outside and have a few shots at him. So i got to the door, quietly unlatched it. And then, as i opened it was reminded by a LOUD SIREN THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN TO SWITCH OFF THE ALARM.

Damn, so naturally after i had switched it off, thought, oh no, everybody is awake now. Well yes mommy was and she came running out of the room. But to our surprise, Kiera was still in dream land on the couch where i had left her. Awesome.

Anyway, so that was the fun start to the morning. i think the damn squirrel also got a big fright and hopefully wont be back.

Other than that it was a miserable 80 degrees and sunny today in dallas. I got out of the house again and went for a swim at the gym. managed 1.25 miles in 38 minutes. im definately getting faster and stronger in the pool which is great. My head and neck are still lazy and i do most of my breathing to the one side. I really have to work more on breathing both sides.

That was pretty much my day, Thanks to brian and marinda for coming for a visit.thanks also to the wonderful people who have been brining us food. you guys are saints.

awesome bike ride today

Well, sorry for you people that live up north. Here in Dallas today it was a horrible 78 degrees and sunny. I just had to get out on my bike for a few hours. So after i woke up this morning i made sure that mommy and baby were all happy and head out the door.

The route that i sometimes ride starts about 10 miles away from my house so i just jump in my car and head down there. Its a parking lot in a park setting. There is a concrete path that leads all the way down to our local lake which is known as white rock lake. Turns out its about 7 miles from the parking lot to the lake. Then its about 9 miles round the lake. Also with very good concrete and asphalt pathways.

So today i felt like doing a longish ride so headed town to the lake and the did 3 laps of the lake and then back up to my car. So i had an awesome day out. i am back home now with mommy and kiera and my legs are kinda tired. I didn't go to hard as i was trying to keep my heart rate between 130 and 150 which worked out pretty well.

The weather was really awesome and hopefully it will continue for a while longer. We can normally still get good weather here into december with a few cold days mixed in. Its normally January and february when we get below freezing consistently. So anyway ended up doing 43 miles in 2:25:05 at an average of 17.8. will be pushing for 18 next time and then onto 19.

So some interesting fact i thought i would share with you.

From the 1st of january here are my training stats:

workouts, bike, swim, run and gym : 161

distance : 1080.63 miles

time : 102:13:36 hours

average time per workout : 38 minutes

ave distance : 6.8 miles

max distance : 57 miles

calories : 61 394

Wow, looking at a year in this way put things in perspective for you doesn't it. I wonder what it will look like at the end of the year and what it will look like at the end of next year. Here is what it looked like at the end of 2008 :

workouts, run and gym : 35

distance : unknown, most of it was in the gym though

time : 33:42:22

average time per workout : 57:16

ave distance : unknown

max distance : unknown

calories : unknown

Wow, now its really in perspective isn't it.

Training wrap up for October

So looking back on october, i have to say it was a success. On the 11th it was the Us open Triathlon in which i came 5th in my age group. Here are the stats.

age : 32

overall place : 31 out of 274

division place : 5 out of 45

gender place : 28 out of 205

time : 2:03:20

swim 800m : 14:50

T1 : 3:16

bike 24.8 mile : 1:20:07

T2 : 1:51

run 3.1 mile : 23:17

Whilst this was slower than i was hoping for i do totally blame the weather for that. It was a cold, windy and rainy 55 degrees for the race and the roads were wet the entire way. In fact i only felt my toes about 2 miles into the run.

That was my second sprint race and went much better than the first which was in september.

but looking back on it it is obvious that my training paid off and i am very happy with the result.

So as far as my training went for october this is what it looks like.

swim distance : 7.68 miles swim time : 3:48 swim pace : 29:41

bike distance : 226.67 bike time : 12.49 bike pace : 17.7

run distance : 5.77 run time : 0.47 run pace : 8:11

total miles : 273.22 total time : 19.45 total cals : 12715

It just dawned on me that i will be training about that much a week when i do my ironman in 2011. wow that crazy. That is the one school of thought anyway. The other that is punted by a lot of people these days including Ben Greenfield is that you could complete an ironman on about 12 hours a week. That might be something to look into.

Anyway, as you might notice, there wasn't much running going on as i was recovering from an injury to my knee so wasn't allowed to run. That seems to be all better now and hopefully will be able to get some miles in.

Also october was the month that my daughter Kiera graced us with her presence and that has slowed my training down a bit, but was on my bike yesterday again after about a week and a half and it felt great. i actually did 23 miles at an average pace of 19mph. So i am taking the break as my post triathlon season break.

Anyway so as november rolls on and with it some cooler weather i am hoping that i can get back into training. Hopefully i can hit about 300 miles this month on my bike. about 20 miles running and about 10 miles in the pool. that would be great.

How are we doing

So i just thought i would fill you guys in on how we are doing. If you didnt see, Kiera Paige Mellet joined us last Sunday on the 25th of October at 14:58pm. She weighed a healthy 7lbs 7oz and is doing well.

Its been an interesting week to say the least. Kiera's first night at home was very tough. Neither my wife or I got much sleep as Kiera probably sensed our fear and took full advantage of it. She spent most of the night screeming her cute little head off and nturally we didnt get much sleep.

Lucky for us though, the rest of the time has been pretty good. Whist she still hasnt got her days or nights in the right order, She has been pretty good for the most part. She sleeps a lot which is good. It gives me time to clean the house and prepare meals whilst mommy sleeps and takes it easy.

I went for my first trial run yesterday morning. I had a slight knee injury and have not run in almost 3 weeks. I did a nice and easy mile around our neighborhood to see how it would hold up and all was good. And then to my delight my wife told me i could go to the gym today so i got an hour in today as well. I have the best wife. Now i am looking for a bike trainer that i can use here in my house so i dont have to dissapear for 3 hours on my bike.

Incase you were wondering, Jennifer (my wife ) had a C section and cant really do much at the moment and is still in a lot of discomfort.

Other than that, we have had some friends around who have brought us food which is totally awesome of them.

Im looking forward to getting back out on the road to put in some miles.

quick update

just a quick update for everybody. My wife went into labor on sunday morning and we had a beautiful little girl who we decided to name Kiera Paige Mellet. She was a healthy 7 lbs 7 oz and both my girls are doing great. I will get back into this when we get home from the hospital on thursday.

jason

Hammer's Wrap Up!

Workout details from Oct 17, 2009 to Oct 23, 2009
Date	Type	Hrs:Mins	Miles	Pace	Est. Cals	Cum. Pace
1 - Sun Oct 18, 2009	BIKE	3:30	57.00	16.3 mph	2280	16.3 mph
2 - Tue Oct 20, 2009	OTHER	0:30	3.10	6.2 mph	-	6.2 mph
3 - Wed Oct 21, 2009	BIKE	1:00	20.00	20 mph	800	17.1 mph
4 - Wed Oct 21, 2009	SWIM	0:38	1.25	30:06	500	30:06
5 - Thu Oct 22, 2009	BIKE	0:45	15.00	20 mph	600	17.5 mph
6 - Thu Oct 22, 2009	WEIGHTS
7 - Fri Oct 23, 2009	OTHER	1:02	20.00	19.3 mph	-	15.1 mph
Swim Distance: 1.25 miles		Swim Time: 0:38		Swim Calories: 500		Swim Pace: 30:06
Bike Distance: 92 miles		Bike Time: 5:15		Bike Calories: 3680		Bike Pace: 17.5 mph
Other Distance: 23.1 miles		Other Time: 1:32		-		Other Pace: 15.1 mph
Total Miles: 116.35 miles		Total Time: 7:25		Total Calories: 4180		-

So these are my workout details from this past week and i thought that maybe every friday i will give you a run down and we can compare how the week went and maybe what i want to accomplish in the week ahead.

So as you can see this wasn't a crazy week however you can see last sunday i did clock my biggest mileage yet when i completed 57 miles in a single ride up in Van Alstyn with my tri club. Frisco Triathlon Club. I only got one swim in this week but is was a good 1.25 mile swim and i am going to be building on that over the next few months so that i can start competing in the olympic distance next season and also that 70.3.

You will also notice that there was no running. As some of you are aware i'm just getting over my knee injury and am on a no running regiment at the moment. Monday is the big day and will be doing a short run to see how things go. Basically what happened is that i got an over-usage injury from bumping my mileage up from 4 miles to 6 miles without taking it slowly. I was kinda dumb and it was my own fault that it got injured. Anyways, lets hope monday goes well. Maybe i will do it on the treadmill so that is the minimum amount of impact as possible.

The "other" that you see on the Tuesday is my time i spent on the rowing machine at the gym. Im going to add that to my weekly training as well as it is such an awesome total body workout and kills millions of calories at the same time. Im trying to lean up a little bit and maybe loose a few % body fat and build lean muscle for next season. And then Fridays "other " was the time i spent in the spin class this morning which i did because i felt like getting a good group workout in to spice things up a little bit.

So basically my goals for this week would be to swim at least twice this week and try and clock 100 miles on the bike. If all goes well with the knee i am going to try and run twice this coming week and take it slow, so maybe a total of 4-5 miles.

So tomorrow which will be saturday i will try and get a swim in and then sunday i will be doing 40-50 miles on the bike which i will calculate into this weeks amounts for next fridays Hammers Wrap Up!

p.s. Oh and my wife is going to have a baby this week, so i might not do any of what i just spoke about.

Winning my age group

So the end of the day is drawing near. Todays weather has been miserable. I hope the weather is better in austin this weekend for the longhorn 70.3 triathlon. Go Frisco triathlon Club. This year as far as my introduction into triathlon is concerned has been ok, if not pretty good.

Halfway through the year i decided to get a bicycle to find a different way to keep fit. I ended up getting a mountain bike as i didn't really know what i wanted to get and it seemed the most practical choice.

About a month after that a friend of mine convinced me to train alongside him for a sprint distance triathlon about 6 weeks down the road. Well, it wasn't long after that i realized the mountain bike just wasn't going to cut it. So off i went back to the bike shop hoping i could get a trade in. Lucky for me they said it was ok and before to long i was out on the streets on cruising along on my road bike.

So i started piling on the miles in the pool as well as on the road. And as race day came along i was feeling pretty confident but had no idea as to how i was going to fare against all the other athletes. It turned out i wasn't all that bad and the training was paying off.

In my first tri, in my 30-34 age group i came 11th and in my second which was the US open i came a very competitive 5th in my age group. Whilst i am still at the sprint level the US open was a long sprint which included a 800m swim, 40km bike ride and a 5km run. Finishing on a cold, wet and windy day in a time of 2:03:07. I think i will transition into the olympic distance quite well and am looking forward to next year's triathlon season.

In fact i am more than just looking forward to it, I want to win my age group as often as i can next year. I know its going to take a lot of hard work and dedication but who knows, it might just happen.

Here's to a short winter and some serious work in the gym and out on the road.

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still raining

So the weather was awful this morning again. Once again the weather man got it wrong. Thursday was supposed to be partly cloudy. Rain was supposed to end on wednesday night. However, it was still raining when i woke up thursday morning.

So it was off to the gym as apposed to doing speed work on my bike around the lake. So anyway i am recovering from my knee injury as well. So i spent a little time stretching. I have found that to be more and more important every day. Worked on some core exercises, a little bit of leg strength and also some shoulders. I am hoping it dries out a little more as i want to ride my bike today still.

I have spent the day working on my computer and cant wait to get outside and build up a good sweat. It is killing me that i cant run at the moment but if all goes well i will be back at it next week.

Why you say. Why is it such a big deal to train every day. Cant you miss a few days. Or cant you skip it this morning.

Well here is the answer

Base training

So what is base training. From the little bit of reading that i did. Base training is pretty simple. Its the basic training that you do on a day to day basis. Its racking up the miles on your bike or trainer. Its endless laps in the pool. Its mile upon mile in your running shoes. Its you getting fit, slowly, over time.

So this would partially be what my base training schedule looks like for this month so far.

Swim Distance: 6.26 miles		Swim Time: 3:07		Swim Calories: 2504		Swim Pace: 29:53
Bike Distance: 211.67 miles		Bike Time: 12:04		Bike Calories: 8466.8		Bike Pace: 17.5 mph
Run Distance: 4.67 miles		Run Time: 0:38		Run Calories: 467		Run Pace: 08:05
Other Distance: 13.1 miles		Other Time: 1:19		-		Other Pace: 10 mph
Total Miles: 235.7 miles		Total Time: 17:08		Total Calories: 11437.8		-

It is the day to day, month to month grind of your training.Base training doesn't concentrate on specifics like technique etc. Its rather a place where you practice your technique.

The other side of the coin is when you concentrate on strength training, drills, technique etc. and that would not be considered as base training.

For running you might go to a track near by your house and work on running drills like your A, B and C's. Swimming drills might include using a kick board to strengthen your legs and cycling might include one leg drills on a trainer or spin bike.

Either way, base training is not as complicated as it sounds, just get on your bike and ride.....

Fear of the unknown

Fear of the unknown i guess sums up ironman for a lot of people. With that if you don't have professional triathlon trainers and dietitians there is also a fear of the unknown. what i mean is, every day you are questioning yourself about your training schedule. your diet. your sleep, etc. For me, alot of the time if i dont know what to do, my attitude is just get out there and do something that will make you sweat.

I try not to stick to one workout in the gym. As whilst i am undiagnosed. i might just be A.D.D. So i mix things up. This morning i was really looking forward to riding my bike so when i woke up and saw the rain i headed off to the gym and hit the spinner for an hour. But yesterday i was on the rowing machine, which, in fact, i have heard is the second best calorie burning machine in the gym. behind the mighty treadmill used at an incline. Apparently number 3 behind them is the elliptical. So i would say it is important, even thought triathlon is 3 specific disciplines, keep mixing it up, oh and sweat a lot.

So anyway, at the moment i am in recovery from a slight knee injury so i am not doing any running or doing anything that will impact on my knee. Doc said cycling is still fine as well as swimming. I was planning on doing a half marathon towards the end of this year ( which was actually a new years resolution that i forgot about during the middle of the year ) so i have put that on hold till next year when i will hopefully incorporate it into my 70.3 training.

So now comes the questioning part. Can my body handle it? Do i have the self discipline? Do i have the courage? And most importantly, with little baby girl showing up next week, Do i have the time and freedom?

My 1 concern so far is looking over the past 3 months of my training/ working out i have averaged about 20 hours of training a month and have covered from 200 to 300 miles in swim, bike and run all put together. Im sure that that number will drop over the next few weeks due to baby. So with about 250 odd days to the buffalo springs 70.3, the question is how much training should i do. I know with winter coming on now i will probably work on something called BASE training. I think that is your base distances. Get to a point where you are comfortable with them and then work on making them faster, through drill, strength training etc.

I will consult youtube guru later and fill you in on base training. Thanks to the few of you that have been reading this blog and for your responses. I don't pretend to know everything, in fact i know very little about this sport and your input is much appreciated. I am a beginner triathlete with some lofty goals. Watch out Chris & Craig........

Youtube Triathlon guru lesson

So im sitting at lexus getting a new battery for our car and thought i would use the time to add 1 piece of advice i am going to follow for my 70.3 training.

Basically youtube guru said, do not use spin classes as a form of training and fitness building.The reason for this was that your average heart rate is too high and whilst you will get fit quick, it does not carry though and last as long as if you gain your fitness slowly over time.

Rather youtube guru said we should train at a lower heart rate unless of course you are doing intervals etc.

So basically on your long rides and sessions on the trainer keep your heart rate at about 130bpm.

keep checking in as we learn from the all knowing youtube.

My dream of a 70.3 half ironman

Well i have nothing but time on my hands. The business is taking its time to get off the ground and i find myself looking for things to do to keep myself busy. Naturally there are things for me to do in the babies room. A few things to paint downstairs and the computer room to clean out as mom is coming to visit on the 13th of November.

Baby seems to be still about 11 days away and Jennifer and i are both getting very impatient but maybe this is my way of handling the stress.

Anyway so as i have completed a few sprint triathlons this year and am dreaming of bigger and better things to do, i am thinking of doing a half ironman 70.3 next year. I thought it might be funny if i get the majority of my training advice from youtube, just as an experiment. I am a member of the Frisco triathlon club here in Dallas texas and there seems to be a wealth of experience in the club as many people have completed full ironman events as well as all the other distances.

In posts to come i will discuss what i have done so far and my achievements as well as what i am planning to do next year. This naturally is taking into account that we are having a baby in 11 days and who know how that is going to affect things.