March 19, 2009

calorie adjutment & no HR monitors!

Anyone who has ever read my blog knows I struggle with my weight. Weight is extremely important to endurance athletes. As Lance Armstrong says, "Skinny isn't a body type, it a tactical necessity."

I've always competed in triathlons at a much heavier weight than most triathletes. My race weight from late 2003 to early 2007 was 227 pounds. The last year my weight has been a yo-yo of up & downs, peaks & valleys. From as high as 256 in Nov 2007 to 188 pounds in May 2008. I've been wondering why the vast fluctuation when I'd been at such a consistent weight for about 4 years? My workouts have been better than ever, so what gives?

While reading my favorite blog Couch-Potato-to-Ironman I believe I found the answer. Couch Potato said he went to a nutritionist specializing in triathlon. She told him he was causing himself problems because he was trying to live off 2100 calories a day. She made him increase that to 2800 because he works out so much & so hard. 2100 calories is exactly how many I'd been trying to sustain myself on for the last year of struggle & yo-yo dieting.

Because my calories were too low for my activity level I'd be on my diet for 1-5 days & then have such horrible cravings I couldn't control my eating. I'd binge, get back on track, then fall off the wagon again, then repeat over & over again. Of course with me there is an emotional aspect to my eating. But to be honest, 3/4's of the time my overeating was from physical cravings, not emotional. Now that I see the error of my ways it makes perfect sense. Even to the point that I am questioning myself with, "How did I not see that before now?" But hey, better late than never. I'd rather learn a hard lesson than not learn at all.

On Sunday I raised my daily calories from 2100 a day to 2500. Plus I eat 50 calories for every 100 I burn from exercise. I'm five days into my new daily calorie experiment & I'm doing great! I'm a little hungry, but it's at a tolerable level. I don't have that feeling of being horribly ravenous like before. I think I'm on to something here & I'm REALLY EXCITED. There is no doubt in my mind why I came across this knowledge 2 weeks after I started to pray for God to help me with my weight. He answers prayers to those who trust in Him. I give ALL glory to God! Through him anything is possible!

Both my Garmin 305 GPS heart rate monitor & my Polar F-6 heart rate monitor stopped working. How ironic both would be not working the same week. There 's a$99 flat rate plus shipping & handling to fix any & all problems with the Garmin. $18-$79 to fix the Polar. Hope they send them back quick. I feel blind training without them!

All things considered It's been a great week & I'm more pumped up about multi-sport than I have been in a long while. I believe with my new found diet knowledge I'll be down to a fast & furious racing weight with less of the pain & agony from in no time!!!

Thanks for tuning in!

March 16, 2009

2009 Raptor duathlon race report

Today, March 15th 2009 was the Raptor duathlon. It's a 5k run & a 30k bike on a very flat & fast course. This morning was a real treat because the race director hooked it up so that I could stay on the military base. I woke up 100 yards from the race sight. Usually when I stay in Alamogordo I have to wake up @ 4:30am to make it through the military's front gate & to the race sight on time. Today I woke up at 6am & still was at the race sight earlier than when I stayed in Alamogordo! Happy happy joy joy!

Today there were some smoking fast athletes who showed for this. I fellow by the name of Dirk won it in 1:05. 2nd place was retired pro-cyclist & endurance endeavors owner James Webster. Jason Atkinson was winning & flatted with 3 miles to go. Fellow Outlaws Paul & Mark were 3rd & 4th overall. Smoking fast triathletes!!!

I was disappointed to see that Jason McClure was not there at the race today. Of course since he is faster than me it was actually better for my standing in the series that he didn't show up, but I do love racing against him because the level of competition he brings makes me a better racer.

My first assumption since he wasn't there was that there would probably only be one or 2 Clydesdales at the Raptor du. The Raptor usually isn't well attended by Clydes. But I found out right before the start of the race that there were 7 Clydes there today!!! Oh boy, not good news for me because I'm running slower than I have in over 5 years. My cycling has gotten a tad bit faster for short course racing, but not nearly enough to make up for my run.

I started the run & felt pretty decent the first mile. I was a little faster than I thought I'd be. About 8 minutes for the first mile. After the initial mile I ran about what I thought I'd run, 8:15- 8:30 minutes per mile. I don't mean to beat a dead horse here, but I raced today at the same weight that I did for nearly 4 years when I averaged about 7 minutes per mile. 1 minute 15 seconds per mile is a bunch of time to lose when most races have a run of 3.2- 6.4 miles long.


A dream race situation today would of been a shorter run & a bit longer of a bike. Thankfully that was exactly what happened. They shorted the run by quite a bit. I finished the shorter than 5k run at the 25:45 mark.

I had a relatively average bike split for my normal time at the Raptor du. Finishing with a total time of 1:19:40. Now I have a vastly superior bike & a brand new disk/tri spoke wheel set than the other years I've done this race. Same time with faster set up equals a slower engine.

I could get down on myself for being slower in both disciplines at the same weight I normally race at, but I'm actually pretty excited. Here's my thinking: I'm at rock bottom as far as speed goes with no where to go but faster. Today I got a 1st place finish at a race where I raced quite slowly. I recieved another 1st place for the South West Challenge series because of the lack of competition showing to the Raptor! Perhaps I'll be able to get back to my usual speeds in time to hang on to my slight SW series lead- a 3 point lead to be exact. I have 29 points from two 1st place victories & one 2nd place, Jason McClure has 26 points. I have a mere 3 point lead on a power house of an athlete.

I have not been able to figure out why I've been running so slowly & why my breathing has been my limiter. Used to be when I ran I pushed myself to the point where my legs were SCREAMING but my breathing never really got out of control. Recently my breathing has been my limiter, meaning when I run at 100 percent I'm gasping for breath long before I reach the point where I'm pushing my legs. I had James Webster of Endurance Endeavors explain to me why. Now I know, & knowing is half the battle!

Thanks for tuning in!

March 02, 2009

Teaching my daughter, stressing my wife

Yesterday I signed my daughter up for the age 5 swim class she tested into. She's only three & a half years old!!!! That's my girl!!!

To the horror of my wife & in-laws I'm looking in to her starting to practice with the Santa Fe Patriots, which is a local Santa Fe wrestling team. She can practice at age 3, but can't actually compete until she's 4 or 5. And then of course there's the thing I'm most looking foreword to, at age 5 she can start taking Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the Santa Fe jiu-jitsu academy!!! Oh ya. I won't have to worry about my baby girl. She'll be able to take care of herself! She may even be able to whoop her old man soon:)

Then of course there's 2 more babies of mine (one in utero) which I will teach the fine art of Don't Mess With Me!!!! A whole clan of lil' bad blond mama-jamma's!!!! To the horror of my wife, I really am loving being a Father:)

Now as far as my Multisport training is going I'm a tad bit confused. My weight is fluctuating, but seems to be staying in the 220-230 range. Of course I'd prefer to be lighter, because light isn't just a weight, it's speed. But as long as I'm under 230 I won't stress. I'm destined to be big bald & beautiful! At least that's what I assume because I have a hottie of a wife, & I know darn well she isn't with me because of my money, or intellect. I know she's not with me because of the things I get my baby girl into either because I send my wife into small states of panic on a consistent basis. I do get a sick kind of fascination watching that though. (cue evil laugh)

At the beginning of this week I did a run Time Trial to test my lactate threshold. I am a slower runner now than I have been since early 2004. Late 08 I was running a 6 minute 18 second mile. Last month it slowed to a 7:35. This week an 8:24!!!! Uuuhhgg!!! To be completely honest I was very close to not racing the Raptor Duathlon on the 15th of March because of how slow I'd become in my running.

On the flip side I did a cycling Time Trial today & I was faster than I've ever been. Usually I feel when I'm making speed gains & today's TT PR was a complete & total surprise to me. I went a full half a mile faster in a 30 minute TT. That is a pretty substantial gain! I have no idea what is going on with my body right now. How can I make such gains in one event & digress so much in another? I dunno, but I guess I'll go ahead & show up to the Raptor Du. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky & be the only Clydesdale to show that day. Doubtful, but as Princess Leah said "Obi-One, your our only hope". Ok, a little out of context, but that very well be my only hope.

I've decided to start swimming again. I had taken time off from the pool to let my M-dot tattoo heal. For those of you who don't know the story, I got an Ironman tattoo on the back of my right calf & then went swimming before it was healed so consequently it faded from the red it was supposed to be to a bright pink. I got it re-colored & lo-and-behold it came out pink again!!! What the heck? Well, to be specific, it's no longer a bright pink. Now it's a much more dignified dark pink. Uuhhhggg!!! Out of all the colors of ink my body has to reject why did it have to be red? Well, since my tattoo's already an embarrassment I might as well start swimming early again. It's not likely to turn rainbow which would be the only thing I can think of that would be worse than a dang pink tattoo.

Now onto the important stuff. I've started studying the theological ideological differences of Armenian faith vs. Reformed faith. Not sure why God led me to study such a huge & hotly contested theological issue. This issue has been debated since 431 at The Council Of Ephesus. But the Lord has led me to study this, so I will do my best. I've read 1 book on reformed faith & the points brought up were convincing. Now I'm searching for a well written book supporting the Armenian aspect. If there are any suggestions on books for either side I'm willing to hear em. Also any of you Christ following peeps out there who have an opinion, feel free to leave one in the comment section, or if you'd prefer your opinion to not be public feel free to email it. I'm thirsting for knowledge here.

Thanks for tuning in, I'm out!!!!