By the new year, I'll be a whole new person! Or at least I'll look like I've eaten a person!
Is it time for a new years resolution yet??
Saturday, December 26, 2009
A big fat santa!
I'm turning into a bowl full of jelly! Ugh, it's been so long since my last workout that I can feel the muscle withering away. Lucky for me I've been eating (gorging really) on proper Christmas food, so there is LOTS of fat waiting to replace the muscle.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Fake Race Report
Imagine something pithy and witty here:
It is good and funny. It makes you laugh and cry.
It is well worth the wait!
Perhaps you can actually imagine it so well that you can actually write some of it in the comments. Because, I seem to have completely forgotten what I wanted to say. It's been so long that the details have slipped out.
I have sometime off next week, so hopefully I will be able to find the mystery that has escaped me.
In the meantime, please accept this as my fake race report post. At least this way, I can move on and post things that are actually going on right now!
It is good and funny. It makes you laugh and cry.
It is well worth the wait!
Perhaps you can actually imagine it so well that you can actually write some of it in the comments. Because, I seem to have completely forgotten what I wanted to say. It's been so long that the details have slipped out.
I have sometime off next week, so hopefully I will be able to find the mystery that has escaped me.
In the meantime, please accept this as my fake race report post. At least this way, I can move on and post things that are actually going on right now!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Quick Update
First I want to say Congrats to everyone who did B2B. For a lot of people, it was their first half or their first full. I am so happy for you all! Way to go!
Secondly, I now have not one but two race reports to get out! Last week I did the Hoover Dam Marathon and this weekend I did Silverman Full.
I am going to gather my thoughts, figure out what the heck to say and hopefully get a report out to you guys soon!
In the meantime, I plan on SLEEPING!!
Secondly, I now have not one but two race reports to get out! Last week I did the Hoover Dam Marathon and this weekend I did Silverman Full.
I am going to gather my thoughts, figure out what the heck to say and hopefully get a report out to you guys soon!
In the meantime, I plan on SLEEPING!!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Purgatory
I have to admit, I have never understood the point of sauna or steam rooms even the spa is bit of a mystery to me. I understand that people think that they are therapeutic. Somehow spending a few minutes in the magical room will wash all away all the soreness.
It has never happened to me. I sit for ages in the spa and feel…prune-y. It just feels like a hot bathtub for me.
Regardless, I am still sick so I decide to suffer through a few minutes of the steam room to ‘flush’ out the sickness. I love the idea of flushing it out. Like somehow the cold will just magically be gone. Washed away in the sweet sweat of the steam. I imagine this will work for other things too like alcohol or cancer.
As soon as I enter the room it seems like a bad porn movie! The steam is so thick I can only see a foot or two in front of me and I can vaguely see the shapes of people in the room. Not wanting to be caught in some errant orgy, I head to the back and the top step.
It is here that I am reminded of common thermodynamics. Hot air rises ergo it is HOTTER on the top step then the bottom step. Let’s do some simple math: if it is an inferno on the bottom step then it is an inferno times X on the second step and on the third step it is now inferno to the power of X! Simple math really.
HOLY CRAP is it hot! Never mind the orgy anxiety, it is too hot to move let alone copulate. I am struggling to breathe. Every inhalation brings a searing sensation to my lungs. I have long since abandoned the idea of breathing through my nose. Every nasally attempt feels like some one is shoving a red hot poker up into my nose in search of my brain.
Speaking of brains, mine wonders what in the hell I am doing here! Why would anyone want to do this? And I am reminded of my eternal quest for that answer every time I partake in an endurance event. Why in the hell I am out here? And just like that, the comparison of the two has linked them in my mind. I am now associating the steam room to an endurance event. And just like it’s sacrilegious to quit an event merely because it is hard, it’s now impious to leave this room simply because it makes me uncomfortable. No, Now I am stuck. I have to get through this. I need to prove that I have the mental endurance to last it out. Damn!
So I settle in. Try to make the most of my penance. Block out all thought of the heat (it’s hot…really hot…seven inches from the midday sun hot); block out all thoughts of how nice it is outside this room (It’s so nice…like eating ice cream nice…like cold water fountain nice); Block out all thoughts.
I am in my happy place, I am one with the universe and all that jazz. Just about that time, a searing hot pain goes through my foot. My foot has been nailed to the cross and I am crucified. OUCH! WTF?!
I can barely see more than a shadow of people but is no one around, no one has moved, I can’t see a culprit. My foot has just the tiniest dab of water on it.
Water on it? Like something spilled on it. Something from somewhere?
Suddenly another sensation. Something hits my bare shoulder and I feel the sting of a whip across me! Good lord! It only last a second and then it is gone replaced with a cooling burn like you feel when you burn your finger and then run cool water over it. Burning but not hot, burning but not from a specific source. Burning but mild.
My back is to the wall there is no one behind me. I look up in time to see a drop of water from the ceramic ceiling tiles drip down. This drop falls away from me and I watch it splash into the tiled ground.
The steam has condensed and built little drops of moisture on the ceramic tiles. Little mounds of intensely heated water. Each drop the cumulative equivalent of a thousand hot suns.
There are hundreds of drops up there. All of them hanging down like deadly icicles. Waiting to drop their little death upon you. They fall at random; no logical way to determine when they will swell to such a size that they can no longer resist nature and gravity hurls them down upon you and your unsuspecting skin.
Little lashes and whips to torture you! Exactly what I need! Thanks! Like the intense heat wasn’t enough. Now I have to deal with random floggings too!
The heat has peaked now. I am breathing in slow and deliberate breathes. Too quick of a breathe sears my lungs, so each breath is long and deep while still somehow remaining shallow and slow. The singe of the heat is no longer noticeable until I turn my head or move my body. If I look around, then the stinging needles of the heat attack me. It cuts at my skin like razors. It burns my eyelids like being too close to a roaring fire. But it subsides once I stop moving.
For god sakes don’t move!
Splash! A surprise drop of water whips down on me and jerks a sudden movement out. Damn!
I go deeper into my pain locker and wait until my time for freedom is here.
Why am here? I don’t know. But I know being here will make me stronger. Every searing breath I take and every drop of hot lava I endure will only make me that much of a better, stronger endurance athlete. If I can endure this then the race will be nothing. Every moment I am here is another moment longer that I can be out there.
So I wait. I endure. I strive.
It has never happened to me. I sit for ages in the spa and feel…prune-y. It just feels like a hot bathtub for me.
Regardless, I am still sick so I decide to suffer through a few minutes of the steam room to ‘flush’ out the sickness. I love the idea of flushing it out. Like somehow the cold will just magically be gone. Washed away in the sweet sweat of the steam. I imagine this will work for other things too like alcohol or cancer.
As soon as I enter the room it seems like a bad porn movie! The steam is so thick I can only see a foot or two in front of me and I can vaguely see the shapes of people in the room. Not wanting to be caught in some errant orgy, I head to the back and the top step.
It is here that I am reminded of common thermodynamics. Hot air rises ergo it is HOTTER on the top step then the bottom step. Let’s do some simple math: if it is an inferno on the bottom step then it is an inferno times X on the second step and on the third step it is now inferno to the power of X! Simple math really.
HOLY CRAP is it hot! Never mind the orgy anxiety, it is too hot to move let alone copulate. I am struggling to breathe. Every inhalation brings a searing sensation to my lungs. I have long since abandoned the idea of breathing through my nose. Every nasally attempt feels like some one is shoving a red hot poker up into my nose in search of my brain.
Speaking of brains, mine wonders what in the hell I am doing here! Why would anyone want to do this? And I am reminded of my eternal quest for that answer every time I partake in an endurance event. Why in the hell I am out here? And just like that, the comparison of the two has linked them in my mind. I am now associating the steam room to an endurance event. And just like it’s sacrilegious to quit an event merely because it is hard, it’s now impious to leave this room simply because it makes me uncomfortable. No, Now I am stuck. I have to get through this. I need to prove that I have the mental endurance to last it out. Damn!
So I settle in. Try to make the most of my penance. Block out all thought of the heat (it’s hot…really hot…seven inches from the midday sun hot); block out all thoughts of how nice it is outside this room (It’s so nice…like eating ice cream nice…like cold water fountain nice); Block out all thoughts.
I am in my happy place, I am one with the universe and all that jazz. Just about that time, a searing hot pain goes through my foot. My foot has been nailed to the cross and I am crucified. OUCH! WTF?!
I can barely see more than a shadow of people but is no one around, no one has moved, I can’t see a culprit. My foot has just the tiniest dab of water on it.
Water on it? Like something spilled on it. Something from somewhere?
Suddenly another sensation. Something hits my bare shoulder and I feel the sting of a whip across me! Good lord! It only last a second and then it is gone replaced with a cooling burn like you feel when you burn your finger and then run cool water over it. Burning but not hot, burning but not from a specific source. Burning but mild.
My back is to the wall there is no one behind me. I look up in time to see a drop of water from the ceramic ceiling tiles drip down. This drop falls away from me and I watch it splash into the tiled ground.
The steam has condensed and built little drops of moisture on the ceramic tiles. Little mounds of intensely heated water. Each drop the cumulative equivalent of a thousand hot suns.
There are hundreds of drops up there. All of them hanging down like deadly icicles. Waiting to drop their little death upon you. They fall at random; no logical way to determine when they will swell to such a size that they can no longer resist nature and gravity hurls them down upon you and your unsuspecting skin.
Little lashes and whips to torture you! Exactly what I need! Thanks! Like the intense heat wasn’t enough. Now I have to deal with random floggings too!
The heat has peaked now. I am breathing in slow and deliberate breathes. Too quick of a breathe sears my lungs, so each breath is long and deep while still somehow remaining shallow and slow. The singe of the heat is no longer noticeable until I turn my head or move my body. If I look around, then the stinging needles of the heat attack me. It cuts at my skin like razors. It burns my eyelids like being too close to a roaring fire. But it subsides once I stop moving.
For god sakes don’t move!
Splash! A surprise drop of water whips down on me and jerks a sudden movement out. Damn!
I go deeper into my pain locker and wait until my time for freedom is here.
Why am here? I don’t know. But I know being here will make me stronger. Every searing breath I take and every drop of hot lava I endure will only make me that much of a better, stronger endurance athlete. If I can endure this then the race will be nothing. Every moment I am here is another moment longer that I can be out there.
So I wait. I endure. I strive.
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Irony of it all
Last post I said that I could not imagine a day without working out. Every day I had to do SOMETHING! I had to feel the struggle of my body fighting gravity and my genetics. Striving forward. Struggling ahead, getting stronger and faster. Becoming a better me.
And then it happened. Struck down. Not by car or truck or even a bus. No, no man made creation had touched me. Rather it is a viral sickness that now runs through my body and debilitates me.
With the sickness raving my body, I have decided to forgo my daily pilgrimage into the torture chamber of training. Probably a smart idea, let my body rest and recuperate but it is still a little unnerving.
I have sat restless for several days now. I had expected to feel like I was wasting my time, I had expected to feel like I was wasting my time and edgy. I had expected all that. But instead I felt fine. I felt restful. I felt like I was doing the smart thing.
That was several days ago. I still feel like that. Still feel sick.
Now my resting days are seriously starting to interfere with my training days.
Like that old commercial “I haven’t got time for the pain”. I don’t have time to feel sick. I need to train, I need to get going. I need to be out there training.
And so I went. Against better thinking I rode. Of course, it had to be a windy day. With wind battling hard against me, I struggled for 30 miles. No hard effort, no tragic turn of events. Nonevent.
Until I got home. Then my body revolted, shut down and fought back. Now I am suffering all over again.
Two steps forward…one step back.
Good thing I have a race this week!
And then it happened. Struck down. Not by car or truck or even a bus. No, no man made creation had touched me. Rather it is a viral sickness that now runs through my body and debilitates me.
With the sickness raving my body, I have decided to forgo my daily pilgrimage into the torture chamber of training. Probably a smart idea, let my body rest and recuperate but it is still a little unnerving.
I have sat restless for several days now. I had expected to feel like I was wasting my time, I had expected to feel like I was wasting my time and edgy. I had expected all that. But instead I felt fine. I felt restful. I felt like I was doing the smart thing.
That was several days ago. I still feel like that. Still feel sick.
Now my resting days are seriously starting to interfere with my training days.
Like that old commercial “I haven’t got time for the pain”. I don’t have time to feel sick. I need to train, I need to get going. I need to be out there training.
And so I went. Against better thinking I rode. Of course, it had to be a windy day. With wind battling hard against me, I struggled for 30 miles. No hard effort, no tragic turn of events. Nonevent.
Until I got home. Then my body revolted, shut down and fought back. Now I am suffering all over again.
Two steps forward…one step back.
Good thing I have a race this week!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Ignosce mihi, Pater, quia peccavi
Forgive me father, for I have sinned.
It has been 66 days since my last blog. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to blog. I have. In fact every time I work out I think of what I am going to say but inevitably once I get back home I feel that I can’t post yet because I didn’t post the workout before that, and the one before that and the one…So finally I have thought that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Just get it out and if it doesn’t make sense or is meaningless then oh well. I feel that I’ve got to get at least some of it out otherwise I will never post again because I have such a backlog. So here is my confessional:
I have biked a great many times. I have biked long and hard and repeatedly. I have biked in the wind and up hills. I have swore while biking, I have laughed while biking; I have surrendered more than once and called for a ride while biking. Please forgive me.
I have ran a few times. Not nearly as much as I have biked. I have biked 4 to 5 times as much as I have ran. I still loathe running. I still enjoy running (but only after loathing it first). I have not run for very long but I have started to run faster. I still suck at running. Please forgive me.
I have not swam! Whew! Well ok, I have swam but only a few times and even when I did I didn’t want to, so that doesn’t count right? I have swam in the gym pool back and forth until I have lost count and knowing that it was not enough, I have swam even longer. I have not even SEEN the lake since early summer! I am not even sure I know how to put on a wetsuit! Please forgive me.
I have thought the thoughts of a Triathlete. I have thought about biking and running and (occasionally) swimming. I have friends (YES! I do have friends 1 and 2) who have wisely chosen to enjoy their off season, but I have found that I cannot stop working out. Everyday I take off from working out, I feel like a lazy slug! I feel like I am losing fitness with every breathe. Somewhere out there some one is getting faster than me (which is not hard to do!). I become grumpy and moody when I don’t work out. Please forgive me.
I have signed up for races that I am vastly underprepared for (just my style). I have no fear. I know they will suck and I don’t care. I am ready to suffer. I am looking forward to it. The insanity is overwhelming. Please forgive me.
I have abandoned all thoughts of P90X, almost as soon as I posted my last blog post (the one that says I am “renewing my energy into it”). I just couldn’t do it. Not yet. I don’t really have an off season, and every day that I wasn’t riding the bike or doing something cardio intense, I felt like I was loosing my (limited) fitness. I know the benefits to weight lifting are huge, but I just could justify it during training season. Perhaps I’ll pick it up next off season (if I ever get one). Please forgive me.
OK. I think that is it. Or at least all that I am willing to confess to at this moment. Thanks for hearing my confession.
It has been 66 days since my last blog. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to blog. I have. In fact every time I work out I think of what I am going to say but inevitably once I get back home I feel that I can’t post yet because I didn’t post the workout before that, and the one before that and the one…So finally I have thought that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Just get it out and if it doesn’t make sense or is meaningless then oh well. I feel that I’ve got to get at least some of it out otherwise I will never post again because I have such a backlog. So here is my confessional:
I have biked a great many times. I have biked long and hard and repeatedly. I have biked in the wind and up hills. I have swore while biking, I have laughed while biking; I have surrendered more than once and called for a ride while biking. Please forgive me.
I have ran a few times. Not nearly as much as I have biked. I have biked 4 to 5 times as much as I have ran. I still loathe running. I still enjoy running (but only after loathing it first). I have not run for very long but I have started to run faster. I still suck at running. Please forgive me.
I have not swam! Whew! Well ok, I have swam but only a few times and even when I did I didn’t want to, so that doesn’t count right? I have swam in the gym pool back and forth until I have lost count and knowing that it was not enough, I have swam even longer. I have not even SEEN the lake since early summer! I am not even sure I know how to put on a wetsuit! Please forgive me.
I have thought the thoughts of a Triathlete. I have thought about biking and running and (occasionally) swimming. I have friends (YES! I do have friends 1 and 2) who have wisely chosen to enjoy their off season, but I have found that I cannot stop working out. Everyday I take off from working out, I feel like a lazy slug! I feel like I am losing fitness with every breathe. Somewhere out there some one is getting faster than me (which is not hard to do!). I become grumpy and moody when I don’t work out. Please forgive me.
I have signed up for races that I am vastly underprepared for (just my style). I have no fear. I know they will suck and I don’t care. I am ready to suffer. I am looking forward to it. The insanity is overwhelming. Please forgive me.
I have abandoned all thoughts of P90X, almost as soon as I posted my last blog post (the one that says I am “renewing my energy into it”). I just couldn’t do it. Not yet. I don’t really have an off season, and every day that I wasn’t riding the bike or doing something cardio intense, I felt like I was loosing my (limited) fitness. I know the benefits to weight lifting are huge, but I just could justify it during training season. Perhaps I’ll pick it up next off season (if I ever get one). Please forgive me.
OK. I think that is it. Or at least all that I am willing to confess to at this moment. Thanks for hearing my confession.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
A work in progress
I still haven't figured this whole P90X thing out yet.
The first week I hit it hard, and I paid for it hard. My arms hurt and my body ached. I continued to hurt for the next three days!
The next week, either I got stronger or I got a lot more timid, because I didn't feel overly sore after any workout. I felt like I worked but I didn't feel beat down.
The third week, I think I became complacent. I barely put effort into the workouts. Once I hit my max rep I stopped. I told myself not to push it too hard and that my body will get stronger naturally. This may be true, but really I think that I just got lazy.
By the fourth week it was recovery time and I screwed up and forgot my workout CDs at home while on vacation. I tried to do my best, and I went for a few aerobic runs but it was a far cry from the pescribed plan.
On the Fifth week, I was at a lost. Do I pretend like I never missed a week and keep going? Do I repeat the recovery week? Or do I start all over again? In the end, I realized that my motivation was slipping and I most likely wouldn't recover from starting over again. This all meant that I shouldn't go back and do the recovery week, so de facto I was moving ahead. Unfortunately, my motivation did not move ahead with me and I rather pathetically tackled the weeks workouts.
It was right about this time that I seriously considered dropping out and beginning another triathlon training schedule. I know these workouts. I know the exhaustion I feel and what they mean. I know what progress is. This was also the time that I decided to blog about P90X. If its out in the open then maybe it'll be harder to abandon.
Now that I am on my sixth week, I still feel undermotivated. I have missed several workouts and feel so far behind that it seems impossible to get ahead. Curiously, this is also the time that I decided to start picking up some cardio exercises too.
Funny enough, that seems to have helped out. With my cardio exercises lined up, I feel more energized to do the P90X. I have a plan and a psuedo schedule. I feel like I can do it.
Which brings me to my latest revelation regarding how to tackle these workouts. It seems to require a change in mentallity. I have been focused on the (long)endurance aspect of training so long that I try to leave a little in the tank, not to exhaust me so much that I can't do another long hard workout the next day. But P90X wants you to go full out. Blow every bit of strength you have on that pull up. Be exhausted after your workout. Because the next workout is going to be something completely different.
I am not sure how this different is different from triathlon different. I mean each day in Tri training is a different focus too. I am also not sure how exhausting myself each workout is going to effect my cardio workout but this is all just a big experiment.
I'm gonna roll with the punches. Drink my protein shakes and nurse my sore muscles.
Wish me luck!
The first week I hit it hard, and I paid for it hard. My arms hurt and my body ached. I continued to hurt for the next three days!
The next week, either I got stronger or I got a lot more timid, because I didn't feel overly sore after any workout. I felt like I worked but I didn't feel beat down.
The third week, I think I became complacent. I barely put effort into the workouts. Once I hit my max rep I stopped. I told myself not to push it too hard and that my body will get stronger naturally. This may be true, but really I think that I just got lazy.
By the fourth week it was recovery time and I screwed up and forgot my workout CDs at home while on vacation. I tried to do my best, and I went for a few aerobic runs but it was a far cry from the pescribed plan.
On the Fifth week, I was at a lost. Do I pretend like I never missed a week and keep going? Do I repeat the recovery week? Or do I start all over again? In the end, I realized that my motivation was slipping and I most likely wouldn't recover from starting over again. This all meant that I shouldn't go back and do the recovery week, so de facto I was moving ahead. Unfortunately, my motivation did not move ahead with me and I rather pathetically tackled the weeks workouts.
It was right about this time that I seriously considered dropping out and beginning another triathlon training schedule. I know these workouts. I know the exhaustion I feel and what they mean. I know what progress is. This was also the time that I decided to blog about P90X. If its out in the open then maybe it'll be harder to abandon.
Now that I am on my sixth week, I still feel undermotivated. I have missed several workouts and feel so far behind that it seems impossible to get ahead. Curiously, this is also the time that I decided to start picking up some cardio exercises too.
Funny enough, that seems to have helped out. With my cardio exercises lined up, I feel more energized to do the P90X. I have a plan and a psuedo schedule. I feel like I can do it.
Which brings me to my latest revelation regarding how to tackle these workouts. It seems to require a change in mentallity. I have been focused on the (long)endurance aspect of training so long that I try to leave a little in the tank, not to exhaust me so much that I can't do another long hard workout the next day. But P90X wants you to go full out. Blow every bit of strength you have on that pull up. Be exhausted after your workout. Because the next workout is going to be something completely different.
I am not sure how this different is different from triathlon different. I mean each day in Tri training is a different focus too. I am also not sure how exhausting myself each workout is going to effect my cardio workout but this is all just a big experiment.
I'm gonna roll with the punches. Drink my protein shakes and nurse my sore muscles.
Wish me luck!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
