pump me up

Due to lack of effort as well as all this cardio crap I've been doing, I've found it extremely difficult to maintain/add upper body muscle.  So, as of yesterday I'm taking a steady diet of l-glutamine, creatine and protein.  I'm hoping that this, in addition to more gym time will help me not be such a skinny little guy. 

The first 5k I ran this summer opened my eyes (again).  I was like "whoa.  where did all these skinny sickly people come from?  I  don't want to be one of those.  I'll  let you know how it all shakes out. 

I'm  going to be on the road for 2 days a week for the next 2-3  weeks so  that won't help.  AND, did I mention that my second kid is scheduled to be born on November 11th?  I'm sure that will take up some of my workout time.  (As well as MW2 time.) 

Man, my wife has some nerve having a kid the DAY AFTER the greatest game of all time is released.  I tried to get the OB to keep him in there for a few more weeks/months but apprently the human reproductive process does not work like that.  Oh well.....

You spent too much on your shoes

I am by nature a researcher.  The advent of the internet has made it significantly easier.  When I was a kid I spent weeks comparing all brands of roller blades before spending my hard  earned lawn mowing money.

Now that I'm beginning to run a little more (sometimes a little less depending on the week), I'm trying to learn a little more.  One of the big things right now is the "fad" of  minimalism and natural running.  The premise is that modern running shoes, with all their  new cushions and technologies have not reduced injuries at all.  In fact, running  injuries have shot up over the last 30 years or so.  Not only that,  but  running in modern sneakers (the studies say) is much less efficient than barefoot and causes you to run "un-naturally."

I'm game.  Over the last few weeks I've tried to move to more of  a mid-forefoot run and  run more efficiently.  I've slowly increased mileage and I've been running with no socks and no footliner in Nike Frees.  I realize that they are still not close to barefoot but it's start.  This week I plan to head over to the local school's cross country course and do some  barefoot training on the grass. 

I'm not sure that I'm all gung-ho about the total barefoot thing.  But when I go to the gym I can't understand how people can thump, flop and bump on the treadmill with a heel-strike run.  It sounds terrible ( and painful on the shins).

I take everything in stride (pun intended), so I realized that the actual truth is somewhere in the middle of the extremes.  Nonetheless, there are more and more articles like this one coming out that are quite interesting.  Check it out and let me know what you think.......what have $200 shoes brought us??

I survived.

Well, I survived a sprint triathlon over the weekend.  And I'm happy to say that it went really well. 

Here's the back story.  I  started a new job and my new boss basically asked why I  was such a lazy ass.  I tried to explain that I was coming of a long season of COD and it was a pretty intense schedule that didn't leave much time for other things  (except beer and corn chips).  So, 2 or 3 months ago I started running a little bit.  And I do  mean little.  Even now, I average about 5-8 miles per week.  That's not great considering most training programs want you at 20+.  I have completed a few 5k races between 26/27 minutes.  After the last one I decided that just running was a tad boring and I  wanted to try something else.  I found a sprint triathlon a month away and decided to go for it.

This was a great idea since it gave me a reason to keep training.  I knew that I was still in crap shape and it  scared me enough to get out  of the house and do something.  I  still wish that I had put  a little more time and effort in.  I used my  wife's stationary bike a few times a week and I kept up my sad running rutine.  I  couldn't find a place to swim without changing gym memberships and paying out the nose.

All that said......

It was pretty cool.  I  got there at about 7am on Saturday, just as the rain started pouring down.  Including relay teams there were almost 350 people in the race. After checking in and getting marked up and my timing chip I  went to look at the swim course.  Wow, 600 yards is a lot longer than I remember!  I started to think I  should have  paid the money for a new  gym.  The gun went off at 8am and the first wave of 150+ swimmers took off. 

About 1:30 into the swim I began to have a minor  panic attack.  I was sucking wind and crapping out.  The water wasn't to rough but enough that I was drinking more than my share.  I swiched over to a relaxed breaststroke until I could calm myself down and then found a slow but consistent stroke.  It wasn't a fun 15 minutes.  If you decide to do one of these, definately practice swimming a little. 

As I hit the beach and tried to start running to the transition I nearly fell over.  Trying to keep my head above water for 15 minutes had left me beat and my legs were rubber.  I got to my bike, snapped my helmet, pulled on a tank top and slipped on my nike frees (great shoes if you don't like socks. I used elastic lace locks so I didn't have to tie them or fumble around).  I want to remind you that it is still pouring right now.  Ran the bike out to the road and got  started.  I don't actually own a bike so I had to rent one.  Glad they let me have the $3500 all carbon fiber Felt z25.  This bike was a godsend.  It let me comfortably cruise at nearly 19mph for the 13 mile ride.  I passed a bunch people who beat me on the swim but got  passed by a bunch of the uber hardcore time trial bikers who passed me like I was standing still.  I could have pushed the bike a little harder but I wanted to save some energy for  the  run.

I'm glad I held back a little.  I got  back to transition and ran my bike  back to  the rack.  I biked with  my running shoes already on  so I passed a few of the bikers who had to change shoes.  Not to worry,  most of them caught  me on the run.  My  tank was empty and I was crapping out.  Those 5k races that I did were only 3 miles and I did those fresh.  This was 3.5 miles and I just wanted to  lay down.  I  kept picking places ahead and was like "ok, that's where I'm going to start walking."  But I never felt bad enough to do that.  I kept hoping that  I'd twist an ankle or something manly that would allow me to walk.  Didn't  happen, so I  was forced to keep puttering along.  Average pace 8:44/mile, blah.

Before telling you my finish stuff let me say this:  the week before the race I looked at previous years results and kind of guessed what I thought I  could do.  I worked out that I could shoot for  1:27 finish which would put me arouund 150-175th.  Well, amazingly enough, I finished in 1:26 flat and was 109th out of  the 286 individual racers.  I can go home happy with that.  It's not a world record but it is an awesome feeling of accomplishment.  I would highly recommend a sprint tri to anyone who is looking for an entry level challenge for  themselves. 

My goal now is to get into better shape for an olympic distance tri next spring.  That would be .75 mile swim, 26 mile bike and 6 mile run.  After that may retire, who knows.  Questions, Comments? 

Peace & love.

Modern Warfare

I can't freaking wait for Modern Warfare 2. It looks like there will be a crap ton of new guns and it looks like there is a mix of urban and open maps. Very nice.

In other news....I'm going to try sprint triathlon tomorrow morning. That's a 600ish yard swim, 13 mile bike and 3.5 mile run) I haven't had a chance to swim yet and I had to borrow a bike but I should be ok. Not looking to win anything, I just want to finish (not last). I'll check in once I recover and let you know if I was successful on either account. Have a great weekend. Peace & love.

Alive and well

Hey all.  This is just a quick note to let you know that I'm still alive and well.  I realize that it is some what narccisistic to assume that anyone would notice or care, but what are blogs for right?

I haven't seen most of the PCP guys in a while because I switched back to COD4 about 2 months ago.  I can't believe that I left that game for W@W, I  feel  dirty, like a cheat.  If you don't already have W@W make me a reasonable offer and it's yours.

I've been pretty busy so far this summer; that translates into more real life and less of this stuff.  Let me check my schedule.....I was in Philly a month ago, then home for a week, then back to philly, then to D.C. last week and I'm leaving for Baltimore today.  Then I have 2 weeks at home then I'm in Oklahoma City for a week then the week after that  I'm in Montreal for about a week.

And when I'm home I'm trying to get back in shape so I'm running and spending the evenings in the gym.  I'm not apologizing in any way.  Summer is so freaking short here in Erie that I'm going to milk every last drop of sunshine.   I have to enjoy being fit now because I'll probably find plenty of excuses once MW2 comes out. 

So there you have it.  Whilst you all are fawning all over every new site member who claims to be female I am out conquering the world.  Thank you and have a lovely day.