Hydrostatic Body Fat Testing

Today I got a Hydrostatic Body Fat Test done at the UNM exercise physiology department. I weighed 188.4 pounds, @ 10.1% body fat, I have 169.4 pounds of lean mass & 19 pounds of fat. The person who gave me the test has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology. I told her I'd like to get lower, she said for a triathlete anything under 10% is perfect. She said once a person hits 5% they are putting themselves & their season in danger. Last July I was fast & lean but wanted more. I continued dieting until I got down to 184, then promptly fell apart & gained 50 pounds by the end of the year.

So what do y'all think? Drop to 185 7.5% for IMAZ or stay at 188?

which Ironman for 2012?

My wife told me that ever since I started training from the book Ironfit my Ironman training has meshed well with our family life. She said if I could find an Iron that is during summer break she'd like it if whole family could go so that we could make it a family vacation. There were only 5 Iron distance triathlons that fit in that time frame. I showed her the list & told her she could pick where she wanted to go.

Ironman Texas, May
Lake Placid, July
IMCDA, July
Vineman, July
Mont-Tremblant, August

She chose the Vineman which is in California so that we could go to Disneyland after the race. So Vineman 2012 it is! Who else is in?

A well calloused gooch is essential!

For those who aren't up to date on cycling terminology, a gooch is the area of a cyclists/triathletes body that we sit on when we ride our bike. Most cyclists ride in cycling shorts or cycling bibs because they have padding to sit on & because they won't get creases or folds in cycling shorts like regular shorts or sweat pants will. A fold or a crease may not sound like a big deal, but if you ride on a piece of your shorts that has doubled over that fold WILL hurt after after awhile & can cause very painful saddle sores.

A couple days ago I lowered my aero bars on my TT bike to get into a more aerodynamic position, & then I went on a 36 mile ride to see how the new position would feel. Turns out the new position rides great. Did you notice I said it rides great, not feels great? By the time I got off the bike today it felt like my gooch had been RUBBED RAW & LIT ON FIRE!!!! I've been training for triathlons since 2004. In the 8 years of riding a bike I've developed somewhat of an immunity to anything even close to saddle sores or gooch pain. But riding in a new position changed what area I sat on! Oh goodness, breaking the new gooch spot in is not going to be pleasant! I'm glad I decided to change my bike position now rather than waiting late season when I'll be doing frequent 6+ hour rides!

I'm thrifty, not cheap

I wear cotton shorts or sweat pants & a t-shirt to ride & run in. Why don't I wear cycling & running shorts like all the other triathletes do? Money, that's why. Even a cheap pair of cycling shorts on clearance from an online store like Performance bikes cost at least $20 plus shipping & handling. In the late fall I can buy a pair shorts from Wal-Mart or K-mart on clearance for $2. I'll buy a dozen pair of cotton shorts for less than a pair of cycling shorts & I'll run & bike in nothing but those 12 shorts & my free race t-shirts all year. I get free T-shirts from every race I do. I compete in 14-18 races every year. So I have virtually an unlimited supply of shirts. I couldn't train enough to wear out all the shirts I get from races every year. A cycling shirt, or cycling jersey can cost from $25-$100.

I only spend $24 for a years worth of running & cycling clothes. Most cyclists and triathletes won't even blink at spending over a hundred dollars on a single cycling bib. I don't spend that much money in 4 years worth of training clothes. Some of my cycling buddies say I look like an idiot riding on a nice bike in cotton shorts & a T-shirt. I'm sure I do, but I like to say i look intelligent Lets compromise & say it's thrifty... Ok, maybe I'm a little cheap;-)

The upcoming Storrie Lake triathlon

I'm pretty excited about the Storrie Lake triathlon this weekend. It's an Olympic distance triathlon consisting of a 1500 meter swim, 40 K bike, & a 10k run. The race will be this Sunday, which is Fathers day.

I've competed in 6 Olympic distance triathlons, the Las Vegas triathlon 3 times, & the Buffman & Squeaky 3 times. The last Olympic distance triathlon I'd raced was the Buffman & Squeaky in May 2008. I weighed around 225 pounds then & I still PR'd with a time of 2 hours 40 minutes. I'm weighing around 191 right now & am much faster at swimming & cycling than I was back in 2008 so I'm hoping to PR.

I got my bike back from the bike shop. They got Shimano to replace my rear derailer free of charge. I love my bike shop. I have no idea what I'd do without them. While my bike was getting repaired I also had them replace all the cables, housing, it got a thorough cleaning, & I also had them drop my aero bars down a little. I'll find out how I feel riding my bike in a lower profile in the morning, I'm scheduled for a 2 hour bike ride.

The only bad news about the race is my front HED3 tubular race wheel had a flat & I still haven't received my tire from Tire alert. Tire Alert replaces the tubes on sow up tires. They've had my tire a month & a half now, & they are sending me spam emails. I'm not happy with them thus far. Hopefully the work they do on my tires will be better than the service so far.

The never ending trip!

My family & I left for vacation to Lubbock TX on Sunday June 5th. I got a call mid week from my best friend that he got a transfer to Dallas TX. He couldn't find anyone to help him pack or move, so Sunday morning June 12th, I drove from Lubbock TX to our home in Santa Fe, dropped off the wife & kids, drove to Albuquerque & helped my buddy pack up his house & load it into his U-haul. I got to his place a little after 7 PM. It felt like it took forever just him & I loading up his house! We left his house at 1 AM on Monday morning & drove straight through to Dallas.

We were both exhausted but continued driving. Just outside of Wichita Falls Texas our low gas warning light cane on. By the time we pulled into the nearest gas station our u-haul was sputtering! I blame not refueling on exhaustion.

We got to his new apartment at 1:15 PM. It took almost an hour for him to sign the paper work & get his keys.

From 3:30 until 6:04 PM we unloaded the van. It's hot & humid here! I'm tired. Haven't slept. I'm dehydrated. But I'm still going on my 1 hour long run. IMAZ is coming & sub 13 hours waits on no man.

A run through a herd with a knot and a drive-thru

This morning I had another wonderful run. Not only has this been a great family vacation, it has turned out to be an amazing destination training camp too!

Each day I've been on vacation here in West Texas I've done nothing less than 4 hour long bikes or 85 minute long runs. This morning I ran from 62nd street & Louisville to 4th street & Texas Tech Parkway, then back. I ran through a big field just North of Covenant hospital & I felt like something a person would experience in a movie about a persons dream vacation. The kind of scene where a person is swimming in the Pacific ocean with swarms of tropical fish, or running with herds of horses through the rolling plains of the mid west - only instead of the tropics of Hawaii, or the plains of the mid west, this scene is in West Texas, so there were no tropical fish or wild horses, instead I stirred up a huge group of fifteen frolicking jack rabbits! I know it doesn't sound all that impressive, but it was actually pretty cool. There were 15 jack rabbits & they ran around me & dashed madly in front of me for a while.

Before I started my run I hit my head on a cabinet door that I'd left open. The knot on the side of my head swelled up so much that my glasses weren't fitting on my head properly. As I was running and sweating my glasses kept sliding & falling off my face. Good times.

My only complaint I have of Lubbock is how many food temptations there are here. A couple days ago at the tail end of a ten mile run I ran down wind of a Krispy Kreme & a wienerschnitzel! Uhg. Pure torture! Today I had to run by a Cinnabun.....twice! OH FAST FOOD CHAINS HOW YOU TORMENT ME! U'm a full bodied athlete competing in a thin mans sport. Don't you know I want to be told, "Cody you look triathlon thin!", NOT, "how does a big guy run so fast?"!

calories of Dions pizza & replacing chains

From counting calories I've found that three largest pizza chains all have about the same calories in a large piece of pizza. Tonight we are eating out at Dions pizza. I wanted to figure out how many calories the gourmet pizzas have so I hopped online. I found the calorie count of the regular pizzas & I was shocked to see how many more calories Dions pizza has than the other chains. No wonder they taste so much better!

A slice of pepperoni & cheese from a large pizza is 520 calories.

A slice of cheese from a large pizza is 460 calories.

A 6" pastrami submarine sandwich from Dions is 600 calories, I think I'll eat that with a cup of fruit instead.

Today I broke my first chain on my road bike. At first I was convinced it broke because I've become such a powerful cyclist, but when I looked at it I saw the chain was in really bad shape. It broke not because of my cycling prowess, but because I should have replaced it a LONG time ago!

I recently had the chain on my triathlon bike replaced also. When I replaced the chain on my triathlon bike it I had over 3000 miles on it. I need to get better about replacing my chains. It's better to replace a chain for $45 than a cassette for $110.

To early to tell but not to early to dream

I know 7 weeks into a training program is to early to tell how I'll race at the end of a 7 month training program, but if my training now is any kind of indication I'm going to ROCK Ironman Arizona! I finished a 10 mile run tonight at a much faster pace while my average heart rate was 10 beats lower than I could normally keep.

Tonight there was enough ambient light to run here in Lubbock Texas until a little past 9 PM. I love west Texas.

bonked & dehydrated in West Texas

We are visiting family in Lubbock Texas. Since August of last year my longest bike ride has only been about 30 miles. Today my cousin Greg & I were able to slip away for a 62 mile bike ride. We rode the Buffalo Springs Lake Triathlon 70.3 course & through Ransom Canyon twice. It was a GREAT ride.

Since I'm not used to riding longer than 30 miles I made some stupid mistakes on today's ride.

1) I usually don't ride long enough to need to buy extra Gatorade and Power gels to finish my ride. So when we pulled into the convenience store we realized we had both left our wallets & money at home. The people who ran the local convenience store in Slaton Texas let us fill up our water bottles with tap water, but without any more calories to finish the ride I bonked hard on the way home. I'm sure I could of handled riding 62 miles with that few of calories if I was used to riding those distances, but since that was twice as long as I was used to riding I fell apart.

2) the other mistake I made was not planning for how much hotter it is here in west Texas & how much more fluid I needed to drink. By the time we got home I had bonked & was seriously dehydrated.

The good news is I got to ride through my favorite 2 areas: Buffalo Springs & Ransom Canyon. When I retire in 2015 I desperately want to move to one of those 2 areas. That area would be perfect to train in & it would be a beautiful place to raise my babies- yes, in that order too!

We rode by the metal house in Ransom Canyon. That thing is weird, but oddly fascinating (see picture above). It's designed & constructed completely from scrap metal by local Texas Tech professor Robert Bruno.

My cousin rode his recumbent bike today. I had no idea how fast those things were. I'm in better shape than him & weigh less than him but he still laid a smack down. He let me put in a few miles on it & I was amazed at how comfortable it was & how fast it rode without much effort. I have to say I have a new goal. Before I die I'd like to ride in a 12 or 24 hour bike race on a recumbent. They are fast & comfortable & I'd be able to finish an ultra endurance ride much more comfortably on a recumbent than I could on a traditional road bike.

I love it here in West Texas! I can't wait to move here when my wife graduates & I retire!

Today while on my ride I tried Cliff gels for the first time. They were the best tasting gels I've ever had! They were like liquid candy! I'll be switching brands of gels from now on.

Hard core calorie logging

I always weigh or measure my food so I can log my calories. Always, no matter what. Even when we go out to eat. I often have people staring at me when I weigh my food at a restaurant.

This morning when my family & I were eating our free continental breakfast someone came up to our table & asked why I was weighing everything I was eating. That happens a lot too. It's easily explained that I'm an Iron distance triathlete & that it's important to keep my weight down, but I truly feel bad for my poor wife & kids. They suffer because of my compulsion.

How Does Your Body Burn Fat?

This is one of the best articles I've ever read

By the Editors of Women's Health
Women's Health

How would you like to magically burn off about 40 calories in the next 15 minutes, without even breaking a sweat? Want to try? Okay, here's what you do:

Go into the bedroom. Open up the closet. Look inside. Anything need to go to the dry cleaner? What about that pashmina you spilled New Year's bubbly on? Toss it in the laundry bag. Straighten a few hanging items and refold your sweaters so the inside of your wardrobe doesn't look like you had to flee the paparazzi. Good job. Now have a seat.

Ta-da! You've just smoked 40 or more calories in less time than it takes to put on your makeup, and all you did was neaten up your clothes. Magic, right?

Well, not really. You see, your body is already primed to be a fat-burning machine. All you need to do to start changing your body's shape is tune up that fat furnace and get it revving at maximum efficiency so you're burning even more fat while going about the mundane rituals of life.

This fat-burning magic comes from your metabolism, a word you've probably heard tossed around a lot but maybe don't quite understand. What is metabolism? Simply put, it's all the various chemical reactions that happen inside your body, 24-7, that keep you alive. It's food being turned into energy and that energy being burned off to keep your hair growing, your heart beating, your liver pumping out bile, your lungs transferring oxygen into your bloodstream, and your intestines turning Amstel Light into urine (not that there's a huge leap there).

It's the engine room of your individual starship, your never-ending calorie burn. And while you may imagine that the majority of your calories get burned while you're engaged in some strenuous activity like riding a bike, diving into a pool, or getting jiggy with your honey, you're actually burning most of your calories, well, just keeping the lights on.

In fact, think of metabolism as your caloric 401(k) program. It's not going to give you instant gratification, like hitting a slot machine jackpot. It's a long-term strategy, but it's a sure thing: Invest in it and you'll get slow, steady, effective returns that will keep you happy and healthy for years to come.

Now, like any long-term investment, it needs a little maintenance from time to time. In this chapter, we'll show you the smart ways to tweak your metabolism, improving your burn just enough to gain even more over the long haul. (Or to borrow what they say in financial circles, it's time to work less for your calorie burn and have your calorie burn start working for you!) Prepare for a few surprises, starting with...

Why Burning Calories in the Gym Is a Waste of Time
Whoa—did we just say what you thought we said? That burning calories in the gym is "a waste of time"?
Well, stay with us here. Burning calories in the gym is great. But the energy you expend while you're in the gym isn't as simple as those tired old LED readouts on the treadmill might make it seem. See, we all have three "burns" that make up our metabolism.

Burn One

Basal (resting) metabolism: Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) accounts for 60 to 70 percent of your overall metabolism, and surprisingly, it's the number of calories you burn doing nothing at all: lying in bed staring at the ceiling or vegging on the couch watching TV. As we said earlier, it's fueled by your body's inner workings—your heart beating, your lungs breathing, even your cells dividing.

Burn Two

Digestive metabolism, or thermic effect of food (TEF): Simply digesting food—turning carbs into sugar and turning protein into amino acids—typically burns 10 to 15 percent of your daily calories. Digesting protein burns more calories than digesting carbohydrates or fat—about 25 calories for every 100 consumed. Digesting carbohydrates and fat burns about 10 to 15 calories for every 100 consumed.

So pause a moment to think about this: Between 70 and 85 percent of the calories you burn every day come from either eating or just hanging around doing nothing.

So, what about the other 15 to 30 percent?


Burn Three

Exercise and movement metabolism: This part of your metabolism includes both workouts at the gym and other more enjoyable physical activities (we call this exercise-activity thermogenesis, or EAT) along with countless incidental movements throughout the day, like turning the pages of this book and twiddling your thumbs (that's called non-exercise-activity thermogenesis, or NEAT).

So, here's an interesting question: Why is it so hard to lose weight just by exercising? Why are there so many fat people in the gym? The answer is simple. Exercise only targets 15 to 30 percent of your fat burn. Up to 85 percent of the calories you burn in a given day have nothing to do with moving your body!

So, skip the gym, right? Not quite.


Why the Fatter You Get, the Fatter You'll Get

Fat doesn't just show up at your door one day, rent a room, and live alone quietly. Fat loves company. Fat's organizing a cocktail party where nobody ever goes home and everyone hangs out around your midsection. The more fat you open the door to, the harder it will be to stop even more fat from inviting itself in. Here's why:

Your BMR, or resting metabolism—the body system that eats up the majority of your daily calorie burn—is determined by two things: your parents, and the amount of fat versus muscle in your body. And while you can't choose who your parents are (if you could, there would be no children on The Real Housewives of New Jersey), you can improve the other part of the equation and turn your resting metabolism up a few notches.

Problem is, fat plays its own role in the metabolic game, and it's literally working to slow down your calorie burn. See, the term "fat and lazy" is pretty accurate from a scientific standpoint. Fat is lazy, on a metabolic level. It barely burns any calories at all. For your body to support a pound of fat, it needs to burn a mere 2 calories a day. Muscle, on the other hand, is very metabolically active.

This is key (and why muscle is your BFF): At rest, 1 pound of muscle burns three times as many calories every day just to sustain itself—and a lot of those calories that muscle burns off come from fat's storage units. That's why fat hates muscle (and why you should love muscle), because muscle is constantly burning fat off.

So fat actually fights back, trying to erode muscle and fit more of its fat friends into your body. The real villain in this internal battle happening right now, in your body, is a nasty character called visceral fat. Visceral fat is the kind that resides behind the abdominal muscles, surrounding your internal organs (viscera).

And visceral fat works its mischief by releasing a number of substances, collectively called adipokines. Adipokines include compounds that raise your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation, and heart disease. Visceral fat also messes with an important hormone called adiponectin, which regulates metabolism. The more visceral fat you have, the less adiponectin you have, and the lower your metabolism. So fat literally begets more fat.

A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that those biologically active molecules that are released from visceral fat can actually degrade muscle quality—which, again, leads to more fat. The solution?


More Muscle

After age 25 we all start to lose muscle mass—a fifth of a pound of muscle a year, from ages 25 to 50, and then up to a pound of muscle a year after that—if we don't do anything to stop the decline. And on top of a slumping metabolic rate, loss of muscle strength and mass are empirically linked to declines in the immune system, not to mention weaker bones, stiffer joints, and slumping postures. Muscle mass also plays a central role in the response to stress. And further research is expected to show measurable links between diminished muscle mass and cancer mortality.

1st time at Cici's pizza & the Albuquerque century

Here's a picture of my youngest eating a brownie at Cici's pizza. He was so exited when I put it on his plate he screamed "yeeaa!" so loud the whole restaurant looked over. Good times! This was my kids 1st time to eat at Cici's. They really enjoyed it. I had water, lots of smiles, & is leaving Cici's with lots of great memories!

My wife took a cycling class last semester. She told me she wanted to do the Albuquerque century this weekend since she finished the year in great shape. She also told me she was going to leave me in the dust on the ride. I have to admit, I was a little worried. When I went to register I found out it was $165 a person to register. Needless to say we didn't end up doing the Albuquerque century. $165 per person? Crazy!

Instead on Saturday my wife & I went on a 16 mile bike ride on the Rio Grande bike trail. I'm grateful she took it easy on me. I'd of been a little embarrassed if I got smoked by someone who only had 8 weeks experience in a cycling class under her belt.