Did a fun race this weekend.  It was called "Racin the Station".  It was a perfect race for the Rocket City.  It was a duathlon (run, bike, run).  It was sponsored by Nasa, so it was a little on the geeky side.  But being a geek myself, I could relate.  It was a pretty short race, 2 mile run-14 mile bike-2 mile run.  Actually, being a Nasa race, the runs were PI km (3.14) and the run was e*PI (23) km.  Gotta love it!  The goal of the race was to finish the race before the space station could complete one orbit which takes about 91 minutes.  Which turned out to not be as easy as it sounds.

I was not planning on doing the race, since I had something going on the day of the race.  But on Friday, it turned out that I could make it so I signed up.  I was glad I did.  A lot of friends from past triathlons were there.  We had a blast.  I did pretty good.  I did not beat the station though.  My time was 1:38:49.  I'll beat it next year!  I did manage to average 10:10 for the first two mile run.  That's 1:05 better that my fastest two miles so far.  I am still not endangering the podium, but I am getting better each time.  I am getting a little tired of being almost last in my age group though.  I hope bu next season I can at least make it up into the middle of the pack.

Of course, sticking with custom, the TRI-101 peeps went out to grab a bite to eat and get some "liquid" recovery.  Hey, I'm sure it was five o'clock somewhere.

Monte Sano 10K and 5K

I am taking another Fleet Feet training course for a half marathon.  The Monte Sano road race was one of our training events.  We had to run both races.  I was a little nervous since 7 miles was the longest I had run.

The 10K wasn't too bad.  Actually, the first 5K was a PR for me, 11:02.  The second 5K was a little slower.  My time for the whole thing was 1:15:00.  My goal was 1:10:00.

The second race was awful, 0:45:00!!  My legs hurt so badly.  When I got home I filled up the bath tub with ice and just sat in it for about 30 minutes.  It is now two days later and my ankles are still a little sore.

I obviously have some work to do to get to 13.1 miles.

Rocketman Olympic Triathlon

The Rocketman was my first Olympic distance triathlon. I was singed up for the "aquabike" which is only the swim and bike portions of the race. I thought it was too soon to try the whole thing. I didn't think I was ready for the 10K run.

At the packet pickup I had lunch with Caneilia, Janet, and Rick. They were Tri101 coaches. It was great to see them again. We had a great lunch.

I got my packet, attended the pre-race briefing, and got body marked. This was my first time using the TriTat marking, so I let them put them on for me. Since I was also volunteering after the race, I also picked up my volunteer shirt. And, of course, the only sizes they had was XL. I have lost a lot of weight, but I still can't fit into an XL shirt. I have a closet full for race shirts that don't fit. Maybe some day.

I was a little worried about the swim since I hadn't gone that far in a race. I had swam 1800 yards several times in training, but that was in a pool by myself. I tried not to think about it and just do it. It turned out not to bee too bad. My time was 34 minutes. I am not a fast swimmer. I need to work on that over the winter.

T1 was uneventful, 1:45 or so. The bike was a little tougher than I expected. It was pretty hilly. Every race I have been in so far they say the course is "flat and fast". If that was flat, I would hate to see what they call hilly. I finished the bike in 1:29:00. A little slow.

I think I probably could have done the run before the cutoff time, but it would not have been pretty. My legs were pretty wobbly.

After the race, I hung our by the finish line and cheered on the people coming in. This will probably be the last time I get to do that since I will probably be one of the last ones finishing from now on.

When the awards started I went and helped tear down the bike racks and then headed out.

Huntsville Sprint Triathlon

It has been a while since I have written in this blog so I thought I would catch up.

The Huntsville Sprint Triathlon was our target race for the Fleet Feet Tri101 program.  This was technically my third triathlon.  The Wet Dog was my first and then Tri101 did the whole Huntsville Sprint course as a practice race the weekend before.  So I was pretty ready for it.

I arrived at 5:30 when the transition opened and set up my gear.  There was lots of excitement with all the Tri101 peeps there.  For a large number of them, this was their first.  It was fun to their faces, excited, nervous.  I kind of felt like a veteran since I had done it before.

Before the race started, we all gathered together to stretch and get ready. Then we got lined up.  We were not able to warm up in the pool for some reason, so will all just milled around outside the pool and talked.

The race itself was pretty uneventful.  I did lose my goggles on the first lap which was kind of a bummer.  Apparently the strap came loose.  So I had to swim the remaining 7 laps with my head out of the water.  I think my time was about 14 minutes.  Not what I was hoping, but I made it through it.

The bike and the run went well.  My overall time was 1:16:00.  Which wasn't too bad.  If I hadn't lost my goggles I think I would have been close to my goal of 1:11:00.

After each Tri101'er got done we all went to the Fleet Feet tent and cheered all the others on.  It was so much fun.  I hung around until almost everyone had left.  I didn't want to leave.

The Tri101 program was the best thing I ever did.  All of coaches and participants were such great people.  It really was a great experience.  I am a little sad it is over.  I am taking another Fleet Feet training course, Half Marathon, but it isn't the same.  For some reason, the camaraderie isn't there.  Maybe it's the difference between runners and triathletes.

Summer Sizzler Super Metric Century

Had an excellent ride on Saturday.  I did the Summer Sizzler Super Metric Century in New Hope, Alabama.  There were three routes, 75, 45, and 25 miles.  I did the 45 mile route.  It was my longest ride so far.

The first section was about 12 miles.  It was mostly flat and pretty fast.  A friend of mine that I ride with during the week war riding with me.  When we hit the first rest stop, I was feeling pretty good.  I filled up my water bottles, got come nanners and a oatmeal pie.  The volunteers were great.  I stretched a bit, and hit the road again.

The second section was a little hilly.  Actually, it was A LOT hilly.  Aside from not being physically ready, as most of my training has been done on mostly flat roads, I was not mentally ready.  I had not driven the course ahead of time, so I didn't know what to expect.  The hills were not especially steep or that long, there were just so many of them.  Everytime I turned a corner, I was at the bottom of another hill!  I was able to climb all of them, but there were draining me and I was getting frustrated that they were slowing me down.  It wasn't a race, but I did want to try to maintain 16-17 mph.

I guess my friend got tired of waiting on me to climb the hills because he took off and left me about half way through the second section.  When I fianlly hit the second rest stop, my friend was there waiting on me. I filled up and grabbed another banana, and then we took off again.  There was a pretty good hill leaving the rest stop.  I managed to climb the hill pretty well, but then we hit all the small hills again and my friend took off.  It kind of sucked because I had waited for him on the first section, but whatever, I just kept plugging along.  I was getting a little tired of riding by myself so I stopped on the top of one of the hills and waited for some of my TRI101 peeps to catch up.  I waited for about five minutes, and was starting to get stiff, so I started decided to start going again slowly and let them catch up.

About 40 miles into it, I started feeling a little tightness in my quads.  Within a mile, I had full on cramps in both quads.  For a second, I thought I could push though it, but I was soooo wrong.  I finally had to stop, get of my bike, and lay down and try to relieve my cramps.  I thought I had put some Endurolytes on my bike, but I was wrong.  I tried to drink some Gatorade, but it didn't do anything.  Someone drove by and gave me a couple Endurolytes.  Two minutes later, the cramps were gone and I was back on the road.  Amazing things.  I will not forget them again!

After my little "break", a couple of the TRI101 people passed me, so I caught up to them and finished the ride with them.  When I got about 1/2 a mile from the finish, I saw one of the TRI101 coaches RUNNING the other way.  I thought, you've got to be kidding me.  My legs were still cramping there was NO WAY I was going to be running.  Turned out I was wrong!

When I crossed the finish line, my friend was there eating pizza.  I got some pizza, water, Gatorade, and a couple more Endurolytes.  My legs still had the post-cramp soreness, but over all I was doing pretty good.  I ran into another TRI101 coach, Edd.  He said he just got back from a mile and a half run.  I could see where this was going.  Then I was talking to a couple more coaches about the ride and they said "did you bring your running shoes?"  I said yeah, but I couldn't run right then.  Of course they shammed me into running with them, so I put my shoes on and we started running.  I made it about a mile and I was done.  My legs were cramping and I was about to throw up the pizza I just ate.  I had to walk the last 1/4 mile, BUT I was able to run a little.  I was kind of impressed with myself.

After the run, I decided it was time to go before someone found a pool and wanted to swim laps!  Of course, as it turned out, I ended up swimming about 400 yards in a lake a couple hours later!

It was a great day!  Needless to say, I slept VERY well Saturday night.
 

I Tri-ed!

Saturday, 7/21/2012.
Beep, beep, beeeeppppp.  My alarm clock goes off at 4:00am.  Normally, I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep, but today is my first triathlon.  I was surprising alert at the early hour.  I hopped up an executed the plan I had gone over in my mind before going to bed.  Everything had been packed, unpacked, rechecked, and packed again.  I went into the kitchen and made some breakfast; an egg, ham, and English muffin sandwich and a glass of water.  Then off for a quick shower.  I was feeling great, not nervous, no discernible pain, aside from my usual post-sleep stiffness, no stomach issues, I was ready to go.  I put on the tri kit that I had laid out the night before, grabbed my stuff, and I was headed to Decatur.

The drive to Point Mallard in Decatur is about 40 minutes from my house, so I had plenty of time to think.  I ran through every part of the race in my mind, tried to think of everything that could go wrong.  What was I going to do if my goggles were knocked off?  What if I had a flat?  One of absolutly favorite quotes is "The body cannot take you where the mind has never been".  I don't know the origin of that quote, or even if I quoted it correctly, but I thoroughly believe it.

I arrived around 5:30am at the park.  There were about 30 people already there setting up in the sea of racks in the transition area.  I parked, got my bike and backpack and headed to the racks.  I looked the transition area over to figure out where the best place to set up would be.  Most of the people were set up close to the "bike-out" exit from the area.  I assumed these were the people that were actually trying to get on the podium.  Since this was my first event, I decided to stay out of their way and find another spot.  I knew I wanted to be on the end of a rack somewhere that was easy to spot.  I found one of my coaches just off the center of the group of racks and decided to setup next to her.

I had practiced transitions several times in Tri-101 and I had even built my own rack to practice on my own, so I was some-what prepared.  I set up my stuff as I had practiced and was ready to go.  I walked around the transition area to the two entrance/exit gates and made sure I could locate my bike.  I brought the brightest yellow towel I could find so it would be easy so see.  And it worked, I could see that towel from anywhere.  I saw several of the Tri-101 coaches and lot of my fellow-trainees while I was walking around.  This wasn't our goal race for Tri-101, but several of us thought we were ready.  And I for one, just couldn't wait anymore.

I went down to the river where we would be doing the swim.  They had not set up the buoys yet, so there wasn't much to see.  But I tried to picture the course and visualize myself swimming.  I hung around until the Tri-101 group picture, then headed off to the body marking tent.  Since I hadn't done this before, I wasn't really sure what the procedure was.  I just followed everyone into the tent and did what they did.  I think next time I will bring a Sharpie and mark myself and save myself a trip to the tent.

I decided it was time to go warm up.  I went down to the swimming area again to swim a little.  I have been having a problem with a bone spur in my shoulder and I wanted to make sure it was warmed up so I didn't tear anything.  I didn't want to have to finish the race in pain.  I swam out a little way, nice and slowly, paying attention to my form and breathing.  Everything was going great.  I turned around and looked at the shore to spot where the exit was.  I had swum in open water a couple times before, so I was ready for the limited visibility.  I thought to myself, "well, I think I've got the swimming part licked".

I got back to the shore and got out of the water.  It was almost 7:00am, so I just milled around waiting for the start.  As time got closer, the coordinator started talking over the PA.  The system was very poorly designed.  The speakers were way behind us and I could not hear anything she was saying.  I hoped it wasn't important.  I did hear that we should start lining up in number order.  I was number 209, so I just moved over to the side.  I figured when I saw 150 go in the water I would start lining up.  As I got in line, I adjusted my swim cap and goggles.  When there was about 5 people in front of me, I put my goggles on and got ready.  My heart was beating a little faster now and I was getting a little nervous.  I tried to push all the thoughts out of my head and just concentrate on listening for "GO".  When the starter said "GO", I hit the water.  Immediately, my left eye cup started to leak.  I thought "no problem", I had planned for that.  I just lifted my head and reseated it...still leaking.  Tried again...still leaking.  Ok, I didn't plan for that.  So the whole swim I had to stop every once in a while and empty my goggles.  I still don't know why it was leaking.

As I was swimming, I was watching the guy in front of me, the guy on my left, the guy passing me on my right.  I could feel someone hitting my feet and I noticed I was hitting the guy's feet in front of me.  I was paying attention to everything EXCEPT my own swimming.  My arms were flying, I was kicking like a mad man, and I was breathing pretty hard.  I pulled up to empty my goggles and I saw that I had only gone about 100 yards!!  I thought "Oh crap, I'm not going to make it".  My form was out the window, my arms and legs were flying in all directions, I was sucking in water every time I took a breath.  I had totally lost control.  I started swimming breast stroke, party out of exhaustion and partly to collect myself.  I calmed down, had a little chat with myself about form, and started off again.  I was so caught up in the "race", I forgot the basics.  After, I got my head back on, I did much better and had no problem finishing the swim.

When, I got back to the shore, I felt really good.  I wasn't at all dizzy which sometime happened when I was training.  I ran up the beach to the transition and had no issues getting on the bike and taking off.  The bike portion was, of course, a breeze.  I was a very nice ride, mostly flat and very low traffic.  I pushed it a little more than I had planned.  I was going to push for about 7 miles and then backoff the last two miles to let my legs recoup, but of course it didn't work out that way.  I did let off about half a mile from the transition.  I got my feet out of the shoes and got ready to dismount about 200 yards from the line.  I remember thinking that there sure were a lot of people standing there, I hoped I didn't bite it doing my flying dismount.  But it all worked like I practiced, and I hit the ground running just like I was supposed to.

I got back to the bike rack and went to rack my bike.  I was standing at a weird angle and lifted the bike to put it on the rack and felt something catch in my back.  "You have got to be kidding me!!"  I thought, maybe it will be ok.  I had some trouble getting my socks and shoes on and when I stood up, pain shot down my leg.  "Yup, threw my back out!!" I stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to do; do I go on, or do I quit?  Well, I was still breathing, so quitting was out of the question, so I started running.  The pain was pretty bad.  I was ready for the tight calves that I always have getting off the bike, but I wasn't ready for the pain everytime my left foot hit the ground.  It was like someone shoving a knife in my back.  As I was running, I passed Stephanie and the girls.  I tried not to look like I was having any difficulty, but after the race she said she could tell I was in pain.  I toughed it out until I got into the woods, then I started walking.  I was almost in tears, not from the pain, but because I so mad that I thought I was going to have to quit.  I ran/walked for about a mile.  By then, at least my calves had loosened up.  I finally settled some strange gait that was a cross between a limp and a hop but it was a little easier on my back, and I managed to continue.  I stopped occasionally and tried to stretch my back.  I knew it wasn't going to help, but I figured it was worth a try.  I was really getting discouraged and I was about to stop at the next water station and have them drive me back in.

The trail opened up briefly onto the road which was the return portion of the run.  When I hit the road, I heard Janet, one of the coaches who was also running the race.  She was on the road on her way back.  All she said was "You can do it, your almost there".  She of course, had no way of knowing that my back was killing me, but for some reason I believed her and I kept going. 

When I made the turn onto the road, a kid, probably 10 years old, went sprinting passed me.  He got about 100 yards ahead of me, then stopped and started walking.  When I got up to him he started sprinting again.  He got 100 yards ahead again and started walking.  We kept this up for the last mile and half.  It was actually kind of helping me, it kept me going.

When I got to the turn onto the home stretch, there was Janet again, cheering us on.  I don't know if my back was just totally numb from the pain or what, but it all of a sudden didn't hurt...as bad.  I passed Janet and picked up a little speed then there was Edd and Noel.  They were yelling "almost there, finish strong".  I turned the last corner leading to the finish line and there was Caneilia, Rick, and some others, all cheering us on.  I made the last few steps and crossed the finish line.  I just finish my first triathlon! 

As I was walking back from the finish line to the Team Rocket tent, all sorts of things were running through my head.  Images of me sitting on the couch five months ago, 65 pounds heavier; getting out of breath walking up the stairs at work; the first swim workout in the pool, not being able to swim two laps without stopping;  my whole body in pain after running a mile; stumbling through my first transition practice.  I really have come a long way.  I don't think I could have done it without the Tri-101 program and the great coaches.  And it's not so much that they are telling me things I didn't know or couldn't have found on the internet.  The concepts for endurance training are well known and all over then internet.  But having the constant encouragement, seeing the passion that they have for the sport, and them genuinely wanting to help you, not because they are paid to, but because the want to, really goes a long way toward motivation, at least for me.  It's almost like I want to do well because I don't want to let them down.

I know it is hard, if not impossible, to identify life changing events while they are happening.  Usually, it takes benefit of looking back at things in the past to identify them as a point where something changed.  But, it sure feels like this could be something that changes my life.  I guess I will have to wait and see what becomes of it.  I want to believe I will develop a lasting passion for this sport and will continue it as long as my body will let me. I hope that sometime I will have the opportunity to share that passion and get to encourage someone else on their journey to change their life.  Only time will tell.  Until then, I am having a blast!  I have meet some great people and maybe a few of them will become great friends.

As a side note...I just got back from the chiropractor and after a few pops and cracks, my back is much better.  So, BRING ON THE NEXT ONE!!!

Still going

I haven't written in a while. Too busy training I guess. The last entry was my crazy 7 mile run. That turned out to not be the best thing. I had some pretty painful tendonitis of some kind in the foot and lower leg. So I was off of training for about a week or so. I learned my lesson though. Steady progress, no big jumps in distance. Actually, I probably haven't learned that lesson, I am sure I will do it again. That's just how I am.

Training is going pretty good. I am up to about 1500 yards for my swim work out, four miles running, and 10-15 miles on the bike. I have been trying to include a run after a bike work out when I can. I am getting a sense that I am not training as effectively as I can. When I train, I have just been doing a continuous distance and evaluating how successful the training was by the speed or pace that I covered the distance. I think my body is figuring out what's going on and has decided that it doesn't need to adapt because I am not going to do anything to intense.

I went and talked to a trainer a while ago, thinking that I needed someone to help me lay out a better plan. The guy I went to talk to was Eric Doehrman. A super nice guy, seemed to really know what he was talking about. The only problem was that he was pretty expensive (at least for me), and he wanted a year commitment. Both of which I totally understand, but I started to have flashbacks to all those gyms I have belonged to that I stopped going to but had to finish out the contract. Since I am just starting in this sport, I decided to wait at least until next year and make sure I am still in to it.

I have also been taking a training class at Fleet Feet. It is a great class with some great instructors. But there are about 75 people taking the class and they just can't spend the one-on-one time with each person. Also, it is an introductory level class, so the training is rather wholesale, not really much more than the couch-to-5k type program. It does work somewhat, I couldn't even run half a mile when I started now I can run 3 miles after biking 10 pretty easily. But none of the reason or science behind the training is presented. So a novice cannot really figure out how to tailor the training. It is not getting me to the next level.

I have been researching endurance training on the internet. There is a lot of information to process. I think my goal is to come up with a training plan that has very detailed workouts, not just "run 3 miles this week and 4 next week". There is going to have to be some interval type training and some other higher intensity type stuff to really improve. I am really bogged down in the details right now. I have learned just enough to confuse myself. I don't know how or when to do endurance type training versus speed type training, or how to set up a session using things like VO2Max and lactate threshold or even how to determine those quantities.

As far as races, I ran in the "Big 5K" a few weeks ago. It went pretty good. I ended up talking to a guy while I was running, so it really wasn't my best time, but it was fun. I have signed up for 6 events in the next 8 weeks (see, I told you I didn't learn my lesson). The Wet Dog sprint tri is this weekend, Paint the Streets 5K the next weekend, and then the Summer Sizzler (45 mile bike ride) the next. Then I get a weekend off. Then the Huntsville sprint tri, RocketMan Oly tri, and the finally the Frantic Frog sprint tri. I think I am going to sign up for the Aquabike at the RocketMan. I am not sure I am ready for a full olympic distance. The 10K run would be really tough.

I have also signed up for a half marathon training class at Fleet Feet to try to improve my running. The Huntsville Half Marathon is in November.

Run Detail

BEST RUN EVER!!!

All I can say is WOW!  I was running like I was possessed tonight!  We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant tonight and afterwards I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go for a little run.  The only thing I have done all week was some swimming on Sunday and the Cotton Row on Monday, but no training.  So I went home and changed and headed to the greenway.  Since I missed the Tri101 classes on Tuesday, I decided I was going to run for 30 minutes.  It was about 68 degrees out and not very windy—PERFECT!.  I got my music like I like it, a little Nine-Inch-Nails to start off, and I started running trying not to start off too fast.  I started at 11:00 min/mile and was feeling good.  I got to 15 minutes and was going to turn around, but since I was feeling good, I decided I would just go ahead and do 5K.  So I kept going and was going to turn around at 1.6 miles.

When I got to 1.6 miles, I was still feeling unusually good, so I decided to go for 2 miles and make it 4 miles total.  When I got to 2 miles I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be a kick if I did a 10K”.  I was still feeling ok, so I kept going.  When I got to 3.1 miles, I could see then end of the greenway so of course, I kept going.  When I got to the end of the greenway I had gone 3.55 miles in 42:10.  Which is about 12 minutes/min.  Not exactly tearing it up, but I had run continuously, with no walking, for 42 minutes.  AND, I still felt ok.  I didn’t have any pain and was not breathing that hard.
So, I turned around and kept going.  I told myself I would try to run for 60 minutes.  On the way back, my left foot and my right ankle started hurting a little.  When I got to 60:05 and had gone 4.94 miles non-stop.  My foot was hurting, so I stopped and walked for a while.  My legs felt really weird and walking actually made my foot/ankle hurt more.  So I spent the remainder of the time running/walking trying to ignore the ever increasing pain.

I ended up doing a total of 7.09 miles in 1:33:24 (13.1 min/mile).  NOT BAD!!  And the best thing was I wasn’t tired or breathing hard.  My feet were KILLING me, but other than that, I may have been able to do more.

Some notable times, 1st mile – 11:57, 1st 5K – 41:08 (13.2 min/mile), 2nd 5K – 40:19 (13 min/mile) (how about that! a negative split!!), total 10K – 1:21:27 (13.1 min/mile).

When I got home I immediately iced my foot and ankle and took an anti-inflammatory, drank some water and ate a banana.  I am feeling pretty good, but my legs kind of hurt.  I am really STOKED about running so far.  I probably would be able to walk for two days, BUT I DON’T CARE!!!

Like always, I try to learn something every time I do something and apply it next time.  First of all, I think I ran a little too far.  I am excited I did it, but I may have compromised my training next week.  Going to be hard to bike or run if I can’t walk.  Second, I run WAY better with music.  There is nothing like Metallica and Guns and Roses for running.  It’s too bad you can’t wear headphones at most events.  And lastly, USE BODY GLIDE!!  My nipples were literally bleeding when I got home.  (yeah I know – OUCH!)

Cotton Row Run 2012

Another 5K in the books.  I ran in the Cotton Row 5K on Memorial Day and had a blast.  I came in at 39:05 and was number 1349 out of 2047.  Not too bad.  I was hoping for under 35 minutes, but couldn’t quite get there.  My time was more than a minute better than the last 5K, so I can’t really complain.  I felt pretty good afterwards except the outside of my left foot hurt pretty bad.

Run Forest...RUN!!!

I "almost" did my longest sustained run at Tri101 on Tuesday...30 minutes.  I say almost, because I did walk for about 30 seconds at the 23 minute mark but other than that I ran the whole way.  I was having issues with my GPS so it did not record the run correctly.  But according to Google Earth, I ran 2.7 miles in 30 minutes which is 11.1 min/mi.  Not too bad I guess. 

I am trying not to get frustrated that I am not seeing quicker improvements in my times.  I was really hoping to be under 11 min/mi by the Cotton Row 5K this Monday and around 10 min/mi for the tri.  I know, I know, "it takes a while...it's a process", yada, yada, yada.  It is a personality flaw and I know it, I have very little patience with myself.  Something I need to work on.

Tour de Cure

The Tour de Cure was the past Saturday and it went pretty well.  We went down to Birmingham on Friday afternoon about 2:00pm.  We stayed in a Hampton Inn in Inverness that was near the race.  Pretty nice hotel, clean, quiet.  We had promised the kids we would eat at the Cheesecake Factory so we dropped my bike off at the hotel and headed out.  Surprising there was no wait when we got there even though it was 6:30 on a Friday night.  I had not been to a Cheesecake Factory in a long time.  Last year at this time I could have gone crazy.  All the food looked so good!  But this is the "new" me, so I got the healthiest looking pasta dish I could find.  It still wasn’t that healthy, but it could have been worse...a lot worse. I did have to get a piece of cheesecake, but I only eat half of it :-)

Saturday morning I got up at 5:00 and started getting ready.  The hotel had a very nice complimentary breakfast, eggs, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, waffles, etc... I had some fruit, yogurt, and a hardboiled egg.  We headed over to the race about 6:45am.  When we got there I got checked in and rode around a little to warm up.  By about 7:00 there were a hundred riders there.  Since this was my first race, I wasn't really sure what to do.  I just kind of followed everyone and got lined up toward the back of the pack.  I could barely hear the announcer from where I was.  They sang the National Anthem and had a prayer and then they were giving out instructions.  I should have gotten a little closer so I could hear, because apparently they were the instructions for the 100 mile ride!!  I was apparently in the wrong group.  I was going to do the 25K ride.  I did not know they were starting the different groups at different times.

I heard someone counting down and then heard GO! and we were off.  It was kind of exciting.  This huge pack of people all trying to fit through this rather small start gate.  We finally made it out on the road and I was feeling pretty good.  After a few minutes, there was one group that took off ahead, but I was doing a fairly good job keeping up with the middle of the pack.  We were averaging about 23 miles/hour.  Since the course was an out and back, when I got to 5 miles I thought it was a little strange that I hadn't seen anyone from the lead group coming back yet.  At about 7 miles I could not keep up the pace anymore and started to drop back.  When I finally made it to the 10 mile point there were only about 10 people behind me.

There was a rest area at 10 miles and a lot of people were stopped getting water, GU, and bananas.  I noticed a big sign that said "25K Turn Around".  I also noticed that everyone seemed to be continuing on.  That is when I realized that I had left with the wrong group.  I asked one of the volunteers if this was indeed the 25K tour around and if the course was the same on the way back.  They said yes.  So, realizing that I was in the 100 mile group, and there was no way I would make 100 miles, I turned around...by myself.

On they was back, I passed the 50K group and then finally the 25K group.  I was a little embarrassed, but I decided to do the best I could.  When I got back, I did not go through the finish line.  I pulled off just before where Stephanie and the girls were sitting.  Stephanie was smiling, because of course, she realized what had happened too.  We laughed about it and my kids got a big kick at of me coming in "first".  When a couple more people finally came back, I went up to the finish line told them what happened and checked in.

All in all, I was a great experience and I had a great time.  I can't wait until next year.  And next year I will make sure I start in the right group!

SWIM DAY

Swimming again this morning.  Same plan as last time, two 4x100's.  This time I went to a different Y and there were far less people there.  This Y has eight lanes and there were only two other people swimming.  I also took an antihistamine before I left the house this time and it seem to help a lot.  I didn't get the congestion I got last time.  I was a little dizzy when I got out of the pool, but that could have been because I didn't have breakfast before I swam.

I did the two 4x100's with no problem this time.  I rested 5-10 seconds between 100's and 1:30 between sets.  Felt great.  I was swimming about 1:15/lap (50 yards) and felt like I could have done 800 more yards at that pace.  I think that should be about 11 minutes for 400 meters.  I can probable shave a couple minutes off that by race time.  I am shooting for 8 minutes.

I need to find a place to try some openwater swimming.  I can go down to the river, but I need to find someone to follow me in a canoe or something in case I get tired.

SWIM/RUN

Had a "two-a-day" yesterday - swim in the morning and run in the evening.

I got up early and headed to the Y to do a little swimming.  My plan was to do two 4x100's with each 100 separated by 30 seconds and a two minutes between the sets.  The Y was pretty packed.  I can tell it is getting closer to the meat of the triathlon season.  This Y has 5 lanes and they were already occupied when I got there.  Four of the lanes were already doubled up, but one lane only had one guy in it.  So I quickly jump in before anyone else showed up (which they did).

So I started my from 4x100.  Only two laps per 100, so the first couple 100's went pretty good.  I am applying similar logic to the interval approach to training for a 5K.  I was a little winded after they first 4x100 but not too bad, and my arms/legs felt good.

The second 4x100 was a little tougher.  Just after I started, I noticed that I was getting a little congested and it was hard to breath correctly.  I wasn't having difficult breathing, it was just hard to get the timing down.  I sucked in some water a couple times and came up coughing which got me a concerned look from the life guard.  I gave her a thumbs up, and went about my business.  (More on the congestion later)

Well, I only finished two of the four 100's.  My muscles were starting to fatigue a little and I was getting tired of inhaling water.  So I packed it up and headed to work.

I passed on the lunch bike ride since I knew I was running that afternoon.  I got some ribbing from the guys I ride with, but I didn't think I could do all three in one day...yet!  And since we were doing the 20-minute run evaluation that night, I didn't want to be to worn out.

The topic at the training session was bike fit.  Not much new information, except maybe a little about forward/aft seat positioning.  It did start me thinking, however, about how hard it would be to convert my road bike to more of a triathlon setup.  May be a good project for this winter.

We finished up the discussion and did our 20-minute run.  I pretty much stayed with the 5:30 run/1:30 walk group this time.  I still can't do much more than 1 1/2 miles running continuously...yet!  We finished the 20 minutes and I had gone about 1.73 miles or so which is about 11:34.  About the same as last time.  When I was done, I noticed that I was getting congested again and my voice sounded funny, like I was horse.  I asked one of the trainers about it and he said I might have "exercise induced asthma".  He said he used to get it, but doesn't anymore.

I wasn't completely satisfied with the answer, so I looked it up when I got home.  Well, there actually is such a thing as "exercise induced asthma".  I am not sure I have asthma though.  I think the difficultly breathing was being out of shape and still 50 pounds over weight.  When you have asthma, you have difficultly mainly exhaling, and that was not what was going on.  What I did find out was very interesting.

There are several exercise induced conditions that center around histamine production.  Apparently, some people start producing more histamines when they exercise.  "See, I told you I was allergic to exercise!".  Some people get rashes and some (although rare) even go into anaphylaxis.  This also may be a cause for people feeling dizzy right after the stop exercising.  Who Knew!  Anyway, the article I was reading suggested trying a non-drowsy antihistamine a couple hours before exercise and see if that helps.  So I guess I will try that next time.

Next Session: BIKING!!! (finally, something I can do)

SWIMMING 101

Saturday was the first swimming evaluation for the TRI 101 class.  I was a little surprised to find out that I was one of the better swimmers in the group, at least in stroke technique.  I have a ways to go in endurance though.  They did give me some pointers about ho to improve my stroke a little and get more power.  The biggest thing was that I was not fully extending my arms and only doing about half a full stroke.  They also said I was rolling too much.  I thought that was good, but apparently I was rolling a little too much.

The coach said I should be able to finish the 400m in about 6 minutes.  I am a little skeptical since it is taking me about 15 minutes right now.  But he said if I can swim about 2-3 times a week to get my endurance up and get a little more power in the stroke, I should be fine.

So, now it all comes down to running (and doing all three together of course).  I know I can do it, I just need to practice.

I was told about a good website for help with swimming technique called Swim Smooth (http://www.swimsmooth.com/). There is a lot of good information and videos that show proper technique.

TRI-TRAINING HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN!

Up until now, I have really just been screwing around.  No schedule or plan to speak of, just going out and doing it.  I guess I just wanted to make sure I could at least finish all the events separately, then worrying about putting it all together.  Well, that plan met with limited success.  Yes, I did prove to myself that I could finish all the events.  But, I do not think I was improving my endurance or strength in any way.  I was really just killing time until the training really started.

Yesterday was the first official training session for the 16-week couch-to-triathlon training program, TRI-101.  The program is being run by FleetFeet.  At the first session yesterday, there was a complete spectrum people, old, young, skinny, fat, you name it; about 75 people in all.  There were several people who had even taken the class last year.  I don't know if they were held back or what, or if they just really liked it.  Each class begins with some sort of related discussion topic followed by some kind of training.  The topic yesterday was Proper Running Technique.  Very informative.  Nothing earth shattering, but good information. 

The training was a 1-mile evaluation run.  We split ourselves into groups by expected pace.  There was a coach running a constant pace for each group.  You didn't have to stay in the group, it was just kind of a starting point.  The groups were 8, 9:30, and 10:30 mi/mile and the two interval groups, 4 min run/2 min walk, and 1 min run/2 min walk.  Well, crap.  I know I can run a mile without walking, but my pace is more like 12 min/mi.  Ok, ok, before you start in with the "12 min/mi!! that IS walking", that's running to me, so BACK OFF!  I decided to get in the 10:30 group and just lag a little.  We were supposed to run our own pace anyway, so it didn't really matter.

We all started at the same time and tried to stay with our groups.  As usually, I started off way too fast.  When I download my watch that night, it appears that I started at about an 8 minute pace, which of course, only went down from there.  Well, I trotted my 1-mile (without walking thank you) and ended up with a time of 11:32.  Not too bad I guess.  Something to improve on anyway.

I learned a few things, first, I really need to learn how to pace myself.  I ALWAYS start off too fast and then run out of gas.  Second, posture and how your feet land while you are running are pretty important to efficiency and comfort.  And lastly, not to be mean, but there are just some people that don't need to be wearing spandex...I'm just saying.

Next week: Bike Fit/Riding Etiquette and 20-minute evaluation run

The seems to be something wrong with my foot.  I have some significant pain in the top of my foot.  Since a car hasn't rolled over it (lately), I can only assume that I either have a stress fracture or some kind of tendonitis aggravated by running.  I guess it is RICE time!!

I just did the final weigh in for Scale Back Alabama...I lost 44 pounds over the 10 weeks.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself.  I want to lose at least 20 more before August and then 20 more by the end of the year.  If I do, it will be a total of 110 pounds lost from my heaviest about 3 years ago.

I also managed to be the "Biggest Loser" at the contest my company was having in conjunction with Scale Back Alabama and won an iPad.

I think I'll celebrate by going for a bike ride!!

First 5K is in the books!  I didn't do quite as well as I had hoped, but I guess it wasn't too bad. 

Yesterday morning I got up a little early so I could pack my bag before leaving for work.  I packed up all my clothes, shoes, socks, etc.. and made sure I had my GU and my BLOKs.  For those who are not familiar, GU and BLOKs are forms of quick energy boosts.  I think they are both some mixture of vitamins, glucose (from rice), and other stuff.  GU is kind of a paste and BLOKs are like fruit chews.  I usually like the BLOKs before exercising and GU if I take it during.  The drawback with GU is that you have to take it with water or you can't swallow the stuff, and BLOKs are like carrying big, sticky gummy bears which are hard to handle while you are moving.  Anyway, I wasn't planning on needing to refuel during the race, but since I am on a diet, I thought a shot just before would be good.

For lunch I had a salad with some chicken breast and some crackers. ***MISTAKE NUMBER 1***.  Even though I have turned into a couch potato, it wasn't always like that.  I used to play football, volleyball, rugby, soccer.  I even did a short stint on the Cross Country team in Junior High.  So I knew better.  Salad with chicken provided my absolutely nothing I needed before a race.  Protein and fiber are not good pre-race food, at least for me.  But I have been caught up in this weight loss thing and neglected to THINK.  Somehow I thought the 160 calories from the BLOKs would fuel me sufficiently to expend as much energy as I could for 40 minutes...WRONG!  To make things worse, all I had for breakfast was yogurt and I skipped dinner the night before.

When I got to work, I got my one cup of coffee for the day.  Hey, I can't function without coffee in the morning.  And I started drinking water.  I have been drinking a lot of water anyway, but I drank a little more yesterday.  ***MISTAKE NUMBER 2***.  About 10 minutes before the start, I really had to pee.  And of course, there was about a 15 minute line for the porta-potties.  If there wasn't been 500 people there, I would have found a tree, but there was no convenient place, so I just held it.  "Once I get going I will forget about it..."  WRONG!  That was ALL I thought about the whole time.  I did distract me a little from the feeling that my knee-caps were going to pop off, but if you have every tried to concentrate on anything, like breathing, when you have to pee... you can understand how miserable it was.

About 4:00 I starting winding stuff down at work and getting ready.  I stretched a little, pinned my number on my shirt, put my shorts, got some water, walked around the halls a little (since my butt hadn't left my chair in several hours), re-pinned my number on my shirt, got some more water.  I was a little nervous.  I don't know why, it wasn't like I was actually competing for anything.  I knew I would make it through the run, sooner or later.  My goal was 40 minutes, but really any time before they started packing up the tents would have been fine.

At 4:30, I gathered all my stuff and and headed over to the race.  The race didn't start until 5:30 but I needed to get a good parking place because Abbie also had a softball game at 5:30 and I was planning on leaving right after the run to catch the end of her game.  I also wanted some time to stretch and warm up.  When I arrived, I eat my BLOKs and drank some more water, stretched, and jogged around a bit.  I felt pretty good.  My joints didn't hurt and my calf felt normal.  I wasn't tired and felt like I had pretty good energy (recall the BLOK I just ate).

Just before 5:30, I met up with some people I knew and we made our way towards the back of the pack behind the start line.  We were probably about 200 feet back from the start line.  This race didn't have those little timing thingy's that some races have, so everyone started at the same time even though it took about a minute for the back of the pack to make it through the narrow, inflatable starting line.  Not that it was a big deal to me, I just wanted to finish.  At 5:30 the "gun" went off.  Actually, it was some anemic sounding horn that I could barely hear.  All of us "back-row" racers, started walking toward the start line as everyone herded through the opening.  When I hit the line, I started my watch and started trotting.  A friend of mine was next to me and we stayed together for about 1/2 a mile and talked a little (while I could still breath).  I was feeling pretty good, not really breathing that heavy and no pain...yet. My plan was to run 1/2 a mile, then walk 30 seconds, run 1/2 a mile, then walk, etc... So at the half mile I started walking and my friend continued on.  I did my 30 seconds of walking, then started running again.  "Left, Right, Left, Right.....", "Trot, Trot, Trot....", "Boy, do I have to pee".  Starting to breath a little heavier now and I am aware of my ankles and knees.  The don't hurt, but they are definitely letting me know that they are there.

At the one mile point, or what I thought was the one mile point, I walked again.  Ok, breathing pretty hard now.  I had reverted to breathing every step.  So I got my breathing under control and looked up and saw the timer about 200 yards ahead of me.  "That's odd", I thought, Why wouldn't they put that at the one mile mark.  Well...they did.  My measurement on Google Earth was apparently short.  (I seem to be having a problem with that lately).  When I got the the ACTUAL one mile point, my time was 11:21.  Not too bad.  Keep this up and I will make my goal.  So, I started trotting again.  I could definitely detect a little pain in my ankles and my feet were getting warm.  And let's not forget, I still had to pee.  I passed on the water station ***MISTAKE NUMBER 3***.  Even if you don't want to drink water (which you should), getting a mouthful and spitting it out helps, especially us mouth breathers.

Since my pre-race measurements were obviously WAY off, I switched to time.  I was going to run 3 minutes then walk 30 seconds.  Well, I didn't even make it one minute.  You see, I was on a hill.  Not a big hill mind you, but a hill none the less.  Neither the greenway that I had run on or my treadmill have hills.  One would not think that it would make that much of a difference, but apparently it does, because I was out of gas.  My BLOKs were gone...my salad burned up.  I was really regretting my lack of nutritional planning at this point, and... I STILL HAVE TO PEE.

So, now I am in survival mode.  Running/walking at the best ratio I can muster.  I am trying to stay ahead of the 60 year behind me, and keep up with the two girls in front of me.  The next two and a half mile were torture.  I do not remember seeing anymore timers, or water stations, or anything.  My joints are really singing now, my feet are on fire, I am starting to get a headache, my mouth is dry...and yes, I still have to pee.  The only good thing was it was pretty cool out.  If it had been warm, I probably would have passed out.

When I made it to the final half mile which was this winding path fashioned into something resembling DNA (Double Helix Dash, remember), there goes granny passing me.  Oh, SNAP, NO SHE DIDN'T!!  I told myself as soon as I see the finish line, I am going to run as hard as I can.  Granny is not going to beat me!  We made the last turn and started up the hill to the finish line and I took off like the wind.  Ok, it was more like a weak breeze. BUT, I did passed granny and even the two girls I had been following.  As I approached the finish line, I noticed that I was getting light headed and my vision was starting to narrow a little,  Oh SHIT, I am about to pass out!!  I slowed just a little and managed to make it to the finish line and get into the cattle guides that narrowed the finishers down to a single line.

Well, a few of my friends that had finished before me were at the the finish line cheering me one.  Don't remember a thing.  I have no idea what I said to them, I don't even remember seeing them.  They said I talked to them, but I don't remember.  I do remember someone pawing at me trying to get the tag off my the number pinned to my shirt and someone else trying to shove a "We're glad you didn't die" participation medal in my hand.  I was pretty unaware of what was going on.  After exiting the cattle chute, I manage to find a banana, a piece of pizza, and some Gatorade, after which I felt a little better and my vision returned.

I milled around for a while talking to my friends, whom I was now aware were actually there.  After about 15 minutes or so, when I thought I could drive, I headed to the car to try to catch Abbie's softball game.  Caught the bottom of the last inning...they tied.

My goal was to finish under 40 minutes.  My "un-official" time was 40:17.  I didn't quite make my goal, but I survived.  Even though the end was pretty tough for me, all in all, I had a good time..and I DID IT!!

And I learned a few things...
1 - You have to eat more than a salad before running a race.
2 - Energy boosters last about 30 minutes and are "boosts" not replacements
3 - Get water when offered

and last, but not least,
4 - Don't drink so much water before the race that you are going to have to pee during the race!

Cotton Row 5K...HERE I COME!!

Today's the day!  The 5K is here.  I definitely do not feel like I have prepared enough for it.  I am still not that comfortable running.  It is still pretty painful on my joints, but I am getting better.  I know I am going to finish, the question is how am I going to finish.  The past two 5K's I have done with my daughter, we finished right at 55 minutes.  My goal is under 40 minutes today.

In other news... I dropped a few more pounds and I am now one pound away from losing 40 pounds in 10 weeks.  I should be there by Friday.  I should weight in right after the race today, I will probably drop 5 pounds by the end of it.

Only five days left until the Double Helix 5K.  Last night I decided to try out the distance and see just how long it is going to take me to run 3.1 miles.  I went over to the green way by my house after work for the run.  It is a little flatter than the course will be on Tuesday, but at least I would have an idea of what my time might be.

I have been trying out different iPhone applications to track time and distance.  Yesterday, I used the RunKeeper application.  I have used it before, but only in manual mode.  I would get the route off Google Earth and manually enter the time.  This time I let it do everything.  I also have Nike shoes with the little sensor in them, but I did not turn it on this time.  So I set up my iPhone and got my music cued up, AC/DC today.  I pressed start on RunKeeper and started my run.  RunKeeper calls out time, pace, distance, etc...  So there I was lumbering along listening to my music occasionally interrupted by a sexy voice telling me how great I am doing.

I decided not to try to kill myself this time and be a little smarter about things.  So I was going to run half a mile, the walk for about 30 seconds, run half a mile then walk, etc...  That way I wouldn't totally be out of gas after a couple miles.  Things were going pretty good, I was feeling pretty strong.  "Hell's Bells" was jamming in the headphones and Samantha (my iPhone coach) called out the first leg "0.5 miles, 3 minutes 36 seconds, pace 7.<something>".  I thought, WOW, that was pretty easy.  I didn't really think about how fast a 7 minute pace was.  I continued with my plan, when Sam (sometime I call her Sam), called out 1.5 miles, I ran a little further then turned around.  "Halfway" I told myself.  I was feeling a little less spunky as before, but still not too bad.  When my walk portion was over, I started trotting again.  Same story as before.  Run-Walk-Run, Sam calling out time and distance.  I thought "I got this!!"  When I turned the corner and could see the parking lot, my AC/DC ran out and the Black Eye Peas came on.  I guess I didn't have enough AC/DC songs in the playlist.  I crossed the finish line and hit stop on RunKeeper.  Sam called out the final stats..."3.28 miles, 24.26 minutes, average pace 7.28".  "I am going to blow them away on Tuesday", I thought.  RunKeeper poped up a message that said "Do you want to post your activity?"  "HELL YEAH".  I packed everything up and headed home.  I was very tired, sweating like a whore in church, and my legs hurt, BUT... I was not completly spent.  I actually didn't feel that bad.  Well, let's say, I have felt worse.

Later that night I was on Facebook checking things out and I noticed a message from a friend commenting on my run.  "Wow, that's fast!"  I thought, surly we can't be talking about me.  I scrolled down and saw the RunKeeper entry.  It had added the average speed to the post -- 8.04 miles/hour.  I thought, "wait a minute, that doesn't sound right".  I haven't been calibrated to think in minues/mile yet, but miles/hour I understand.  And that did seem fast, so I rechecked the route on Google Earth.  "@!$%&#, SAM LIED!!!,  That route was only 2.01 miles!!!"  (Luckily, the kids were not in the room.)  So, my pace was actually more like 12.2.  I was a little disappointed.  I pulled up the route map on RunKeeper and it bounced all over the place.  "ARRRGGGHHHHH, piece of @%$!"

Oh well, 12.2 isn't that awful at the stage I am at now.  And I feel I would have had enough left to finish the 5K at about the same pace, so it wasn't a complete disaster.  But I think Samantha and I are over.

Needless to say, I will be checking out other applications and gadgets.  So stay tuned if you are interested in my road tests.

I am going to miss Sam.

Only Two Weeks Left!!

I only have two weeks left until the Double Helix Dash (5K).  I am sorry to say that I am very behind on my training.  I am still not able to run the whole distance.  I have run about 1.5 miles continuously at about a 14 min/mile.  I am not putting the time in like I should be.  I have been doing too much swimming and biking.  I really need to focus on the running.

I am also concerned about my calf.  A few months ago I torn my calf playing racketball.  The doctor elected not to do an MRI, so I do not know how badly it was torn.  But there was very little visable bruising so I don't believe it was that bad.  Anyway, I followed the doctor's instructions (mostly), and kept weight off of it for a week, rested, blah, blah, blah.  It quit hurting after about four weeks, but I gave it the 8 weeks he suggested before I started stressing it and then started slowly.  Everything was fine for the first couple weeks, but this last week I have notice that when I cool down after running or biking may calf gets really sore.  I don't know if I may have re-torn part of it or if it is just getting aggrevated.  I really don't want to injury it again before the triathlon in August, but I have already registered for the 5K in two weeks and there are a couple bike rides coming up including the Tour de Cure that I really want to attend.  The Cotton Row 5K is also coming up at the end of May.

Interesting Day

I went out for a ride at lunch today on the green way near work. Everything started pretty good. I was feeling good, making good time. About six miles into it a %$&@!# bug flew into my helmet. I had no idea what kind of bug it was. I had to be pretty big because I could hear it buzzing and feel it bouncing on my head. Just before complete panic set it, I was able to unclip my shoes and slam on my brakes. I torn off my helmet sending my sunglasses flying about 20 feet and slung it to the ground. The only thing missing was me screaming like a girl. I am sure everyone on the green way got a good show. I still don't know what it was. Needless to say, the ride was pretty well shot. I still managed to get 12 miles in.

Tonight I "ran" 2 miles on the treadmill. My legs are shot.

Swimming tomorrow!!

I feel like I am getting in better shape each time I run/ride/swim. The weight loss has slowed a little...could have been the Mellow Mushroom yesterday :-p I have lost 33.4 pounds since January 27th. I have 6 pounds to lose in a week and a half to meet my goal.

Swimming day yesterday.  I swam 500 yards in about 17 minutes.  Not really great, but I made it this time.  I have noticed that I seem to be unable to pace myself when I swim freestyle.  I start off way to fast and wear myself out pretty quickly.  Yesterday, I alternated between freestyle and breast stroke and it worked pretty well.  I was able to swim the whole way without stopping.

I have not actually started "training" yet.  I signed up for FleetFeet's training program, but it doesn't start until May.  I am trying to do some work ahead of time so I won't embarrass myself and also drop some weight.  So now I have done all the distances seperately.  I am still very weak in swimming and running and cannot run/swim the whole way without resting.  I have not tried to combine anything yet, but I am hoping that will happen in the training program.

Things seem to be progressing pretty well.  I have also dropped another 2 pounds!

The Scale Back Alabama competition ends the week of April 9th.  We have to record our final weight by Friday, April 13th.  Coincidentally, there is a 5K on April 10th.  I decided to sign up for it.  Maybe, training for the 5K will help me get to my goal.

I have done the Cotton Row 5K a couple times with my daughter.  We didn't burn up the course, we walked more than we ran...but we did finish.  This will be the first time I can actually see what I can do by myself.  This will also be good practice for the triathlon in August.

The company where I work decided to get involved with Scale Back Alabama and encouraged everyone to participate.  We were split into teams of four and everyone on each team have to lose 10 pounds each.  There are prizes if everyone loses weight, yada yada yada.  I decided to sign up and give it a go.  The competition lasts 10 weeks.  I am a pretty competitive guy by nature, so I set a pretty aggressive goal of 40 pounds.  We have two weeks left and so far I have lost 32 pounds.  I am going to have to really step it up to make it, but I am within reach.

During this weight loss adventure, I ran across the Huntsville Sprint Triathlon.  I have always wanted to do a triathlon, but never thought I could.  I am not rally sure I can do it now, but I decided to give it a try.  When I was going through the registration process, one of the questions that was asked was what my weight was.  I grudgingly put down my weight and continued the process.  When I got my confirmation, I saw that I was put in the Clydesdale division.  Clydesdale!!!  What exactly are they trying to say?  Clydesdale's are pack animals, not sleek racing machines....oh....I get it.  I guess I am not exactly a sleek racing machine either.  Well, I decided to embrace the term and show everyone what a Clydesdale can do (when not hooked to the Budweiser wagon).

So this blog is about how I am going from couch potato to the Racing Clydesdale!