hard work and inspiration

Today I dropped 5 snatches of only 70% of my max. I've never missed that many times in a row. I hesitate to say it was a bad day of training because I learn more from a bad day of weightlifting than a great day. Even after a day like today I'm still confident that I'll make a bodyweight snatch by the end of 2016. I believe hard work, dedication, and persevering through the low times will make for amazing results.

Today my 8 year old ran in his 2nd track meet. He ran the 800 in 3:40. He also ran his first ever 1500m in 8:35. We moved to Albuquerque late in the season. He started 13 weeks after the rest of the club. Even though everyone else is in much better shape than him from training over 3 months longer than him he still works so hard and never gives up. He's knocked 20 seconds off of his 800 meter run in the last two weeks. Things like this is what motivates me. I want to work hard to set an example for my babies because my kids are so inspiring to me.

treadmill tabata #3

Today I did my 3rd treadmill tabata since starting up cardio again a little under a month ago. Today I did my usual 5 min warm up, then put the treadmill to a 12% grade and ran 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes. I did the first 2 minutes of the work set at a 12 mile an hour pace, the 2nd 2 minutes at an 11:45 pace. I felt like it was a struggle to keep that pace up, but I like pushing myself. Next Thursday I'll attempt the full 4 minute work set at an 11:45 pace.

Everything I've ever read says you can tell your getting in shape if your heart rate returns to normal after being elevated through exersion. My heart rate is lowering more quickly after cardio now, and also I'm not as out of breath when I'm training at olympic weightlifting. Progress baby. Progress.

2nd treadmill tabata workout

Todays workout was a day for recovery from strength training, and hard cardio. I did a bench press workout of 5X5 at 65%. After the easy bench press routine I did a treadmill tabata. I did a 5 minute warm up then put the treadmill at a 12% grade, then ran 4 minutes of 20 seconds hard and 10 seconds recovery at a 12 min per mile pace. I felt like I was working hard at that speed. I'm pretty sure I could have ran at a slightly faster pace-, not much more though. I was close to max effort. Next Thursday I'll try the same workout with 2 minutes at a 12 minute per mile pace and 2 minutes at an 11:40 pace.

Man am I in horrible shape! It's hard to believe I used to be so good at running back in my triathlon years. I used to be able to hold a 7 minute per mile pace indefinitely. Now I struggle running sprints on a treadmill at a 12 minute per mile pace. But as long as I'm moving I'm going in the right direction. I have to keep this up and start eating healthier. Being this heavy is not ok. Yesterday my 6 year old was in a play. It hurt to sit in the chair through the whole performance. My belly is so big it pushes against my legs and makes it difficult to breath. No one should allow them self to get so fat that it's uncomfortable to breath while sitting in a chair. I'm currently 279 lbs. My first weight loss goal is to get to the 105k (232lbs)weight class in olympic weightlifting. My 2nd goal is to get to the 94k (207 lbs) weight class. Back when I was training and racing for triathlons I felt best at 200 lbs. Here's a picture of what I looked like at 186 pounds, my body fat percentage was eight & a half percent.

I figure I'll have a lot more muscle now that I'm a weightlifter, so 207 should be pretty lean and healthy for my body type. My #1 goal is to get to a healthy body weight again. While in triathlon I was at such a low body weight it was causing health problems, now I'm at the oposite end of the spectrum.

Healthy. That's where I want to be. Healthy for my wife. To support her through nursing school and the start of a wonderful career that she's always dreamed. To be be a parent and spouse with her, not just a memory. To live long enough to show my baby girl what it's like for me to love her, respect her, treat her with kindness, and listen to her thoughts, feelings, and opinions in the hopes she learns not to settle for anything less than a man who treats her the same way. I want to make sure I'm there for her to walk her down the isle. One of my wife's friends had to get married without her Dad there because he died young. I don't want to do that to my baby girl. I want to be there long enough to teach my boys how to be good, strong, and kind men. If I don't change my eating soon I wont be able to be there with them and it'll be my fault.

2nd treadmill tabata of 2014

Today I completed my 2nd treadmill tabata of 2014. This time I wanted to push myself harder than I have in awhile so I increased the treadmills elevation to %12 and ran at a 10:45 pace for the hard sets. The goal was to run 10 hard sets worth. Even though I pushed myself to the point where my legs were almost collapsing and I was getting dizzy I was only able to run 8 hard sets. Next time I'll decrease my pace to a 10:56 and try for the full 10 sets. Once I 'm able to complete the full 10 I'll start increasing the speed I'm running and the amounts of hard sets I'm completing.

This morning I received a call from a loved one to tell me my grandpa died last night. His funeral will be held outside of Dallas Texas. I usually cover any emotions I'm having with eating. I'm going to try really dang hard to do a lot of praying, working out, and talking to my family about my feelings rather than turning to food.

first run in many moons: treadmill tabata

I have been postponing running until I get below 250 pounds, I'm currently 260, but since I signed up for The Missile Man duathlon (formerly the Jon Stermer duathlon) on Feruary 1st 2014 I decided I needed to start running now. Yesterday I did a tabata so that I'm building my running ability while also building fast twitch muscles. I did a 5 minute warm up on the treadmil, then set the incline to 4% and the pace at 8 mph. Then I ran 20 seconds on 10 seconds off. I could only keep that up for 6 rounds, stopping at the 9:50 mark. I've also started cycling to and from work again. Until the Missile man duathlon I'll be weightlifting on Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sat's. Cycling on Tue's, and running on Thur's. After today my tabatas will be more strenuous. I'll set the incline to 12% and the pace 30 seconds slower than my latest best 5k. Then 20 seconds on 10 seconds off for four minutes or 8 rounds.

I have to say thank you to Travis from Zia CrossFit for helping me out with this fast twitch building cardio. It's new to me and I'd never have known what to do if it wasn't for your help and guidance.

duathlons, bloody nipples, and other uncomfortable things

I hadn't trained much in the last 14 months, so I knew I'd be sore the day after yesterdays race, but I forgot that there are things that hurt from racing and/or training other than muscles. One of those things is bloody nipples. Sounds painful doesn't it? It is. It's pretty common though. If you run and bike for long distances, and your shirt rubs your nipples each time you take a step running or peddle, it eventually rubs them raw. So this is the end result:   

 

And my arm pits are chaffed raw where my tank top style shirt ended in my pitts. The shirt got rubbed back and forth in between my arm and arm pitts as I ran, and this is the result:

 

And my butt crack is chaffed- don't worry, I didn't add a picture of that.

And my gooch is rubbed raw. Are you new to cycling and don't know what a gooch is? A gooch is a cycling term for the area of your body you sit on when cycling.

Makes you want to go out and do a duathlon or triathlon doesn't it?

finding a training program that works

A week and a half ago I stopped dieting and working out AGAIN. I feel like a broken record. I realize I need to change some things or this cycle of starting and stopping training will continue repeating itself. I need to start doing what I can and change the things that I cant stay consistant with.

I still love competing in triathlons. I still enjoy running but I currently have issues with cycling, so I started a run focused training program with just enough cycling to be able to finish the bike portion of a triathlon. I wont be as well rounded of a triathlete without a lot of cycling, but training consistently is more important than having a perfect triathlon training program that I dont follow. Now that I've addopted this new training regimine I seriously doubt I'll be finishing races with the caliber of athletes I used to. And I can pretty much garentee I wont be beating Arnold Ceniceros anytime soon;-( But those things aren't the reason I fell in love with triathlon anyways. I love triathlon because I love challenging myself, because of the amazing people I meet at triathlons, triathlon training keeps me healthy, and allows me to keep up with my babies!

I weighed in at 236 this morning.

running and being loved

I took my 3 year old to the track today. While I ran my son hunted for flowers and gave me the ones he found when I finished a lap. There's nothing in the world as wonderful as one of my children expressing their love to me.

In this picture you can see him pointing out his favorites.

chasing Arnold day 4

I started my run this morning as soon as there was enough light to run safely, 6:50 AM. I had to cut it short so that I could be home to take care of my youngest when my wife left for school. I ran 3.5 miles. I haven't come close to rebuilding my endurance or speed yet, but I felt better than I had in a long time.

There's not much better than triathlon training on the highway 14 here in New Mexico, also called Turquoise Trail. It's much easier to get up everyday and train when I know I get to see views like these.

 

When I laid my son down for a nap today I hopped on the rollers and did a little cycling while watching The Walking Dead on Netfix. Thank goodness for streaming movies and TV shows, otherwise indoor cycling would be torture!

Currently my metabolic rate is a little above 3,000 calories. Yesterday I burned 822 calories and ate 2,607 calories. Another day of low carb diet success, I should hit my goal weight of 200 pounds no later than mid summer 2013. I'm currently 227.

chasing Arnold day 3

Friday was my first day back to training after having surgery on October 12th. I ran a little over three miles. Considering how little I've trained this year I felt pretty good.

Saturday was a triathlon rest/recovery day for my kids soccer and some time for my wife and I.

This morning I rode my bike for the first time in a VERY long time. I started a little before 7 AM when there was enough ambient light to ride safely. After only a few miles a large truck passed me pulling a horse trailer and I immediately came back home and finished the rest of my workout on my indoor trainer. A little over a year ago I got ran over by a vehicle while cycling, since then I've struggled to ride outdoors near traffic.

I've lost most of my cycling fitness in the last year, so my indoor cycling workout was terrible. My rpms kept slipping below 85 and when I tried to increase my cadence above 85 per minute my heart rate would sky rocket into zone 3. I wrapped up my workout after an hour so that I could get the kids up and ready for church. In that hour of riding the rollers my average pace was less than 12 mph. I have a LONG ways to go until I'm able to accomplish one of my personal goals of beating Arnold Ceniceros, the champion (multiple years) of the Clydesdale open division in South West Challenge series. At the Eagle in the sun triathlon in El Paso Texas in September Arnold Ceniceros swam 400 meters in 8:06, biked 12 miles keeping a whopping 20.2 mile an hour pace, and ran 5 kilometers keeping an average pace of 9:36, he finished in 1 hour 16 mintues. My average race swim and running times are comparable to his, but I've only had a few races in my life that I was that fast on the bike, and I'm no where near average right now. If I'm going to try competing against ol' speedy Ceniceros I have to get MUCH MUCH faster. There's a LONG road of training ahead of me.

temporary digression

I'd been on a low carb diet I'd read about in the book "The art and science of low carb performance" for two and a half weeks. In that time I'd lost 17 pounds. Although I was getting fantastic results I became frustrated because that book didn't go into a lot of detail about how to eat their version of a low carb diet, so I started eating a more traditional diet for endurance athletes and promptly shot back up to 235 pounds. The book "The art and science of low carb performance" mostly explained why a low carb diet works for ultra endurance athletes. The book said I should buy the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" for a more detailed explanation of how to eat his version of a low carb diet. So I purchased the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" and started reading it last night. I'm back on the low carb diet as of this morning and am expecting a lot of the confusion I had previously to be worked out by this book.

Today I went on a 9 mile run and it hurt. My problem during the run wasn't my endurance. My endurance was sufficient. My problem was that I'm just to heavy to run long distances right now. My body was beat the heck up after that run. I'm very motivated about training for my first 50k ultra endurance trail run, but I'm afraid I need to postpone training for an ultra until I'm at a lower body weight. Hopefully now that I have the book "The art and science of a low carb lifestyle" I'll be more capable of getting to that lower body weight so I can resume training for my goal of earning my 1st ultra endurance trail run belt buckle.

The 2012 Warrior triathlon race report

On Sunday October 7th I competed in The Warrior triathlon, it was my 1st off road triathlon, and my 82nd multisport race. This year the Warrior triathlon was held at the Albuquerque Academy. It was a 5k run, 12k bike, and 400 yard swim. The run and bike utilized the dirt and sand trails inside the Alb Academy. There were plenty of help, over 60 volunteers. The course was a ton of fun, it was well marked and had multiple volunteers at every twist and turn so we never had to worry about getting lost or turned around.

The run was mostly hard packed dirt with a few sandy sections. It was uphill and challenging on the 1st half, down hill and blazing fast on the 2nd half. My run time was a slow and grueling 29:19.

The bike course had some flat hard packed dirt sections, some asphalt, some sandy technical sections, and even a couple ravines that we had to dismount and run our bikes through. I was nervous about the bike, this only the 3rd time I'd ridden a mountain bike off of the black top, so i knew I was out of my realm. Considering my total lack of experience riding a mountain bike and on trails I was content with my performance. My bike time was 41:47.

The swim course vastly different than any pool swim I'd ever done. It was held indoors and utilized two two hundred yard pools. The 1st 200 yards was in a salt water pool, then we exited the 1st pool and ran to a 2nd pool that was a normal pool. I'd never swam in a salt water pool, that was awesome. Having to get out of one pool half way through the swim and run to another to finish the last half of the swim reminded me of Ironman Florida's swim. I felt the split swim with a salt water pool was great fun and made for a perfect end to a fantstic and unique triathlon. Over all this was the most fun I'd ever had at a triathlon. My swim time was 8:16.

I take my hat off to Mark Mico, the race director of the Warrior triathlon.

My total race time was 1:19:20, I finished 7th out of ten in the 35-39 age group and 62nd out of 220 overall.

Just before the start of the race my front tire went flat. Turns out I'd forgot my tire irons at home. Thankfully a guy by the name of Brian Gutierrez jumped in and lent me his. While changing my tire I broke one of his tire irons, but he was ok with it. I was grateful for his willingness to help out. If anyone knows this guy, tell him I said thank you.

Rebuilding my base fitness or programming the Garmin forerunner 305 heart rate limits

In my opinion the most frustrating part of training for endurance sports is having to rebuild my base. An athlete needs to rebuild their base after they finish a workout routine that is based on periodization, or after taking some time off from training.

Since I took off nearly 4 months from training my base fitness is horrible. When I jog my heart rate shoots up into zone 3 very quickly. Then I have to stop and walk to get my heart rate back into the base building zone, or zone 2. Running slowly, even jogging with frequent bouts of walking is a frustrating but is a necessary aspect of becoming a fast runner.

One of the things that has helped me to run in the proper heart rate to build fitness is programing my Garmin Forerunner 305 to beep anytime my heart rate rises above zone 2. Here's how:
Go to the main menu, highlight training, push enter (bottom right button)
Highlight training options, press enter.
Highlight alerts, press enter.
highlight HR alerts, press enter.
Highlight Max HR Alert, press enter.
Highlight which zone you want to avoid exceeding, press enter.

Now you can run knowing your training in the proper zone without having to look at your heart rate monitor every few seconds.

low carb and endurance running

I'm currently attempting to build up my run miles for next years Angel Fire endurance trail run. It'll be a challenging 31 mile run over mountains and through valleys using national forest trails starting at the base of the Angel Fire ski resort. Currently my endurance is poor, I have a long way to go. Last week my longest run was 6 miles. I ran it slowly and it was uncomfortable.

Earlier this week I started a low carb diet I read about in "The art and science of low carbohydrate performance". It's a low carb diet for endurance athletes. When I started this diet I assumed my endurance and speed would decrease. I was also fully expecting to feel horrible. So far I feel great. Today I ran a little over 7 miles consuming nothing but water and felt fantastic. Feeling even better than I had felt on a traditional endurance athletes diet was not what I was expecting, but that is exactly what has happened.

On my first day of my low carb diet I lost 2 1/4 pounds. I'm back into the 220's again! So far I'm loving this.

The 2013 Angel Fire Ultra Endurance trail run 50 K

In 2004 I completed my first triathlon. I was slow, out of shape, and over weight. Finishing a triathlon opened up a passion and love for endurance athletics that's hard to explain. I became insanely motivated and goal driven. My motivation was to become an Ironman. I've done 2 of them. Training for, racing in, and finishing an Ironman was a tremendous experience! One of the best experiences of my life.

 I still love endurance athletics, but am needing a bit of a change to keep me excited about training. I've decided to try being a runner for awhile. I've been running exclusively for a week and loving it. Now that I've been training consistently the next step for me is choosing a goal that excites and motivates me. I've decided to try earning an ultra endurance trail running belt buckle. The shortest distance trail run an athlete can compete in to earn a buckle is 50 kilometers, or 31 miles. There's an ultra endurance trail run in Angel Fire NM that gives belt buckles to the finishers. It's supposed to be an insanely difficult course, tons of steep long mountain climbs where the trails are filled with a massive amount of loose rocks and pine cones. I love a challenge! So now my goal is set: The Angel Fire ultra endurance trail run 50 K in June of 2013!

a new sport and a new diet to go with it

I've decided to give up cycling for awhile (see last post for the reason why), I'm now finishing my 1st full week of training to be a pure runner.

I'm adapting a new diet to go along with my new exercise routine. I'm trying a low carb diet from a book called "THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LOW CARBOHYDRATE PERFORMANCE", by Volek, phd and Phinney MD. Tim Olson who followed the low carb diet advise found in this book won the Western States 100 mile trail run with a record-breaking pace. Now I'm going to try it too! I'll let you know how the low carb diet works for me while doing an endurance athletes regimen. Stay posted!

afraid to cycle

Last year I was involved in an accident while on a bike ride. Since then I've been having difficulty cycling. When cars pass me my heart rate jumps up 20 beats a minute and I cant descend without freaking out and riding my brakes. I end up skipping most of the bike rides on any triathlon training programs I start, then get frustrated about all the missed training sessions and stop training altogether. Consequently I haven't been able to train consistently and have gained 65 pounds in the last year.

Last week I was on a run and having a blast! While on that run I realized I still love running. There's no reason for me to give up on endurance athletics just because I have anxiety cycling. I need to change sports at least temporarily. I believe I'll try being a pure runner until my subconscious starts to forget that cycling is so dang dangerous.

My next step is to find a running race that gets me excited and motivated. I have a few ideas. I'll let you know as soon I decide on one.

Ironman training: running with a metronome

Recently I’d heard a lot of good things about running with a metronome. Fall of 2011 I purchased a Seiko electronic metronome to try it for myself.

I was worried the metronome I purchased wouldn’t be loud enough for me to hear while running if it was windy, if I was breathing heavy, or talking with someone during exercise but it is plenty loud. There’s 3 volume settings, and I use the middle setting. The loudest is way too noisy for what I use it for: running

The very first day of running with my metronome I fell in love with it. My average pace increased forty five seconds per mile without seeing an increase of my heart rate.

Where I find the greatest improvement is with my endurance! With my metronome I can run FOREVER without seeming to tire! I can run at a faster pace with less fatigue. The longer the run the more the metronome helps. I’ve also found that I can increase my run volume without increasing fatigue or needing more recovery time. Since adopting this new training tool I’ve had visions of grander for my Ironman this September.

Through trial and error I’ve found the perfect pace for my running is 177 foot strikes a minute.

Up until recently I thought the metronome was the perfect running tool with no down sides. There is a down side to a metronome. Last week I ran without my metronome for the first time since last fall. Without the metronome I fell apart on my run. Apparently I’ve become dependant on it. Without it I was running slowly and became tired very quickly.

I’ve decided to take a new approach for Ironman run training this season. I’ll run with my metronome on my long run days so that I can get maximum endurance benefits with as little fatigue as possible. But I’m going to run without it the rest of the week so that I don’t become dependant running with it. I’ll post the results of this new approach to Ironman run
training here on my blog as I see how it works for me.

Thanks for tuning in!

Running in Cold Weather

One of the great things about running is that it's a sport you can indulge in all year round. Whether the temperature is chilly or hot and humid, with some reasonable precautions you can still get out there and enjoy your daily runs.

Running in cold weather does require a certain amount of planning to ensure that you don't end up freezing on the side of the road somewhere. There's nothing more unpleasant than being miles from home in the shivering cold with no way to get back other than on foot. Here are some preventative measures to ensure this doesn't happen to you:

4 Tips to Dress Properly for Running in Cold Weather
How you dress for the elements can a make or break your winter runs. This doesn't mean you should pile on all the clothes you can possibly manage to stay warm. It is possible to dress too warmly, and the result can leave you sweaty and uncomfortable.



The rules for dressing properly are:

1. Dress in layers.

Wearing several thin layers of clothing helps trap warm air between each layer keeping you considerably warmer than if you were to wear one heavy layer. This includes socks; wearing two pairs of polypropylene socks keeps your feet warmer and drier than one heavy pair.

2. Wear the right fabrics.

One area where modern runners have a huge advantage on those who started out in the running boom of the late 1970s and 80s is in the types of fabric available for running gear. Materials such as polypropylene, capilene, and some wool/synthetic blends wick moisture away from your body and keep you as warm and dry as possible.

Avoid wearing cotton because it doesn't wick moisture and also has very little insulating ability, which will leave you wet, cold and uncomfortable.

3. Wear a protective shell.

It's critical that you wear some sort of waterproof windbreaker or shell to protect you from the wind and precipitation. Gore-Tex is the best material to wear as it does a great job of releasing moisture from the body while also keeping out moisture from the outside elements. Nylon also does a reasonable job for a lesser price.

4. Cover exposed skin as much as possible.

A hat and gloves are absolutely necessary once the temperature dips below freezing. Your body will lose that majority of its heat through any exposed skin, so cover up as much as possible. If it's really cold, you can cover exposed areas such as your face with Vaseline to reduce the potential of frostbite.

5 Safety Tips for Running in Cold Weather
Running in cold weather presents some unique safety concerns. Extreme temperatures can even pose life-threatening risks if you don't take some basic precautions.

1. Always tell someone where you're going and when you expect to arrive home.
Make sure that at least one competent person is aware of your plans. If you don't arrive as expected, they'll recognize that you're missing and know where to look for you.

2. Always wear reflective gear when running after dark.
Due to the decrease in daylight hours, it's more likely that you'll be running in the dark during the winter. Make sure you wear light-colored, reflective clothing so that you can easily be seen by oncoming vehicles.

3. Run short loops.
When it's cold outside, consider running multiple laps of a short course, rather than one longer loop. This ensures that you'll never be far from home in the event of an emergency. Running a short course also ensures that you won't be heading into bad weather for an extended period of time, which, aside from being extremely unpleasant, can significantly lower your body temperature.

4. Be careful rounding corners.
At least once a year I manage to fall flat on my face after stepping on an icy surface. The biggest risk occurs when you try to change direction with ice underfoot. Make sure you go very slowly when turning corners and be very careful on icy surfaces. Don't worry about losing fitness by running a bit slower; the main goal is to get through the run without pulling a muscle or injuring yourself in a fall.

5. Carry your cell phone, identification and some cash with you for an emergency.
If you run into a major problem, make sure you have your cell phone handy and enough cash to get you home if necessary. This is good advice for any run -- year-round. Sometimes unavoidable circumstances can leave you stranded and you definitely do not want to find yourself out in the cold, unable to run, and several miles from home without help.

The main message is this: Running in cold weather requires some planning and some sensible precautions. Once these are taken care of, your runs will be safer, more comfortable and enjoyable.

I got this article off of active.com

back to trainning with my daughter

Today I went on my first run since getting sick last week. My 5 year old daughter rode her bike next to me during the entire run which consisted of a 20 minute warm up, 4X 4:30 at a zone 4 pace with 1:30 recoveries. On my speed sets I was averaging a seven minute thirty second per mile pace. On my last set of speed work she lapped me! Total we ran for 58 minutes & covered 6.19 miles. That's a long bike ride for a 5 year old!!

I felt pretty good considering how sick I was. My lower back still aches but it felt better once I started running...perhaps it wasn't the exercise that made the pain subside, perhaps it was the company of such a wonderful little girl.