2013 year end miles

When I was a hard core triathlete I used to post here on my blog how many miles I'd swim, bike, and run at the end of each year. Since I got ran over by a vehicle while cycling back in 2011 I've virtually stopped all swimming, cycling, and running. I wasn't going to post my years milage because of how low the totals were, but I've decided to go ahead. Most people who read my blog have no clue who I am anyways so what could it hurt?

2013
bike 689 miles
averaged 57.4 miles a month, 13.25 miles a week
run 122.1 miles
averaged 10.1 miles a month, 2.3 miles a week
swim 874.9 yards
averaged averaged 72 yards a month, 16.8 yards a week

2012
bike 3,161 miles (almost entirely indoor trainer miles)
averaged 263.4 miles a month, 60.7 miles a week
run 493.6 miles
averaged 41.1 miles a month, 9.5 miles a week
swim 7,864 yards
averaged 655.3 yards a month, 151.2 yards a week

2011 milage
bike miles: 4,410.6
Averaged 367.5 miles a month, 84.8 miles a week.
run miles 1057.8
averaged 88.15 miles a month, 20.3 miles a week.
swim yards: 48,040.4
averaged 4,003.3 yards a month, 923.8 a week

2010 milage
Bike 4,505.6 miles
averaged 375 miles a month, 86 miles a week
run 775.7 miles
64.5 miles a month, 14.9 miles a week
swim 5,258.3 yards
averaged 438.1 yards a month, 101.1 yards a week

2009
total bike miles 3915.3
averaged 326 miles a month, 75 miles a week
total run miles 705.1
58.75 miles a month, 13.5 miles a week
toatal swim miles 102,960 yards
averaged 8580 yards a month, 1,980 yards a week

Saffron Extract and hunger

I've been overly hungry since I started taking creatine monohydrate and whey protein. Each day I've eaten all of my alotted calories and I've still been hungry so I've been taking Saffron extract to curb my hunger. It's working great at making my hunger go away. I'm still stuck at a body weight of 260 pounds, but since I'm building muscle that must mean I'm losing fat right?

I've tried taking safrom extract before. It always helped prevent hunger, but it does nothing to stop emotional eating. When I used Safron extract I'd always make quick weight loss, but have never been able to sustain any long term weight loss.

After weeks of struggling with bad form on the snatch I finally did a set with decent form. Finally some progress on the most technical lift!

creatine, whey protein and Olympic weightlifting

I've made big gains in my strength the last week. I've made bigger gains this week than any other 3 weeks combined. I'm even feeling less fatigue and recovering more quickly between sets! The only thing I've been doing differently this week than before is that I'm taking 5 grams of creatine monohydrate once a day and whey protein immediately after my workouts. The only negative effect's I've found about taking creatine and whey protein is that my weight loss has stopped and I'm REALLY hungry all the time! I assume the weight loss having stopped and me being so hungry is because I'm building more muscle, so I can't complain. Ultimately me gaining more muscle will make my body burn more calories and help me to drop more fat later on, so I'm content maintaining my weight of 260 pounds for awhile if I continue to make such wonderful gains.

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.

The upcoming Missile Man duathlon Feb 1st 2014

I've decided to register for the Missile Man duathlon at White Sands Missile Range NM which will be held on Feb 1st 2014. Ever since I got ran over while cycling back in 2011 I don't feel comfortable cycling near vehicles. So now on the rare times I race I prefer to race at WSMR. There's rarely anyone driving on the bike course, when there is a rare vehicle driving near us they always slow way down, are courteous, and give the cyclists a ton of space and respect when passing. WSMR is the closest thing I've found to racing on a completely closed bike course.

The 2014 Missile Man duathlon will be my 87th multisport race and my 21st duathlon. I competed in this race last year. At the time I weighed 250 pounds, the race took me a dismal 2 hours 28 minutes and hurt me like bloody hell. Right now I'm weighing 260 pounds..... gulp. I expect it'll hurt even worse now that I'm heavier. I'll let you know how I do.

creatine monohydrate and weight loss

I've been dieting since starting Olympic weightlifting a couple months ago. My goal is to get to the middle heavyweight division (94k), but I also want to get as strong as possible while losing the weight. It's not easy to try and get strong while losing weight. Even with an exellent diet a person usually losses some muscle while on a calorie restriction. So far I've been pretty lucky. I've gained a bunch of strength while having lost a bunch of fat. To help continue my strength gain I've decided to try supplementing my diet with creatine monohydrate. I know creatine helps build muscle and also causes a gain in water weight, but I'm not sure how it works for an athlete who is dieting. Will the creatine stop or slow my fat loss? Or will my dieting nulify the benifits of creatine? I'll use myself as an experiment. I started yesterday. I'll post my results and findings below: 

 Jan 14, 2014 http://cody-the-clydsdale.blogspot.com/2014/01/creatine-whey-protein-and-olympic.html

first cardio since respiratory illness

I got the worst respiratory illness of my life the last week of December. I didn't feel well enough to lift again until a few days ago. Today was the first day I've felt well enough to try doing cardio. I did a tabata on my indoor bike keeping the hard sets above 22 mph. Tonight I'll be commuting to and from work on my bike. Hopefully I've recovered enough for my body to handle the cardio. I'll soon find out, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

dieting, food cravings, and strength

Back in the day, when I was an endurance athlete, I was on calorie restriction for what felt like FOREVER. One of the lessons I learned while staying endurance athlete light (gaunt) was that I needed to take a break from calorie restriction on occasion. I can tell when I need to stop dieting and go into a maintenance phase because I start resenting having to eat less than I want and I start craving lots and lots of crap! I hit that point of food obsession this weekend. For the next 1 to 2 weeks I'm going to maintain my body weight. After the food cravings go away I'll go back to dieting again. While my calories are increased not only will I be preparing my body to lose weight more comfortably but I'll gain more strength too. More food and an increase in strength, it's going to be a fun couple weeks!

I'm currently weighing 260 lbs. I've lost 20 pounds since picking up Olympic weightlifting. 54 more pounds to go until I've hit my goal of getting into the middle heavyweight division (94k weight class).

White Sands Missile Range 2014 Race Dates

                White Sands Missile Range 2014 Race Dates

1 Feb 2014 Missile Man Sprint Relay Duathlon
7K Run/28K Bike/5K Run
Start time: 0800

12 Apr 2014 Tax Day Triathlon
5K Run/30K Bike/400M Swim
Start time: 0730

10 May 2014 Howling Coyote Triathlon
5K Run/30K Bike/400M Swim
Start time: 0730

7 June 2014 Beat the Heat Triathlon
5K Run/35K Bike/400M Swim
Start time: 0700

2 Aug 2014 Roadrunner Triathlon
7K Run/40K Bike/400M Swim
Start time: 0700

6 Sept 2014 Yucca Triathlon
7K Run/40K Bike/400M Swim
Start time: 0730

8 Nov 2014 Veterans Day Duathlon
7K Run/50K Bike
Start time: 0730

Dec 2014 Polar Bear Sprint Relay Triathlon
5K Run/30K Bike/400m Swim
Start time: 0800

Olympic weight lifting motivation while sick

Today I tried to go back to the gym and train for  the first time since I got sick. Even during my warm up I was out of breath, coughing, sweating profusely, and light headed. I decided I was going to do a few sets of light clean and jerk to practice form, then go crawl back into bed. After only a couple sets I was contemplating going home. Rise miller who is only 14 years old and is the coaches son told me when your sick or unmotivated that's an opportunity to teach yourself to push through adversity. He said, "your feeling crappy right now, but if your able to put your mind in the right place, focus, and train through it now, then there will be nothing that can happen to you during a competition that could be anywhere as bad as this." Rise then told me about how Michael Phelps swimming coach had stepped on his swimming goggles on purpose during a meet once so that his goggles would fill with water while he was swimming to teach Michael to continue to push hard and stay focused on the task at hand even when things aren't going your way. Rise was right. Me being sick wasn't a problem, it was an opportunity. If I could stay focused on the weights and form at that moment, then anything I faced at a meet would be easy in comparison. I finished 5 sets of jerk, and 5 sets of clean and jerk. Lesson learned. Thanks Rise.

sick and training

So far after 6 weeks of Olympic weightlifting I've built up to a 53k power snatch. A 53k snatch is much much weaker than I was hoping for, but I'm still much better at Olympic weightlifting after 6 weeks of training than I was after many many months of triathlon training, and I eventually became an excellent triathlete.    

My Olympic weightlifting coach Shane Miller of Miller weightlifting says my biggest attribute is my enthusiasm and effort. It was the same way with triathlon. I had the worst body type for triathlon, but my dedication and willingness to push myself harder and train more made me an excellent triathlete. I'm hoping my determination and willingness to work hard will make me as successful at Olympic weightlifting as I was at multisport. So far after 6 weeks of hard training I was feeling sluggish, fatigued, and ended up getting sick. Getting sick is a good sign in regards of my training. It means I was pushing myself to my bodies limit. I used to get sick every few months when I was training for triathlon and I was an endurance beast! I'm spending this week lifting light weights to recover, next week I'll come back stronger.

"Success is often nothing more than moving from one failure to the next with undiminished enthusiasm."
-Winston Churchill

I'm currently 260 pounds. 20 pounds lost so far in 6 weeks of Olympic weightlifting.

Stress and the holidays

I needed the workout the day after Christmas. I needed it for stress relief. This Christmas was horrible, I'm still stressed out and heart broken. I grew up in an abusive family. When I was a kid holidays and vacations were the times of my life that I'd suffer the most abuse and stress. Most people who grew up in an abusive family abuse their children, and their children abuse their children, and the cycle continues indefinitely. I'm one of the few who has been able to stop the abuse cycle. I'm a great parent.... most of the time. Still to this day I get stressed out when we have large family functions, ESPECIALLY when it is Thanksgiving or Christmas. But for some reason this Christmas this year was even worse than usual.

My wife, 3 children, and I decided to spend Christmas holiday with my in-laws. From the time we got to their house I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't relax, I couldn't sit still, I kept pacing, I didn't want to play with my kids, I didn't engage anyone in conversation, and when anyone tried to talk to me I did everything I could to end the conversation as quickly as possible. I didn't mean to be, but I was an ass and I'm sure I made everyone feel uncomfortable. I never yelled at my kids, said hurtful or abusive things to them.  But by the end of Christmas eve my 6 year old had a melt down. On Christmas day my 4 and 8 year were grumpy. I'm certain it was because they picked up on my anxiety.

Next week I have family coming to visit for 6 days. I don't want to act like I did at Christmas, but I'm afraid it'll happen again. I seem to be broken.

sleep for Olympic weightlifting recovery

I must really be into this whole Olympic weightlifting thing because I just took a nap for no other reason than to get more gains from my Olympic weightlifting training!

post tabata cycling exhaustion

Yesterday I did my first cardio routine that is fast twitch muscle tissue specific. This morning I was so tired! I had a hard time waking up, no amount of coffee seemed to help. Even when I started my workout I felt like I was moving in slow motion. I think my fatigue is because of the cycling tabata I did yesterday. That workout really tore me up! I'm really excited about having started fast twitch muscle tissue building type cardio. I think it's the last missing piece for me to become a great Olympic weightlifter.

cardio for CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting

When I first started doing CrossFit the athletes and coaches told me I shouldn't do any long and slow workouts, or "base training" as endurance athletes call it. At the time I vehemently disageed. I used to be a hard core triathlete and saw first hand how beneficial base training was to me for fat burning and endurance. It wasn't until I watched the CrossFit games that I realized the things CrossFitter's are training for uses almost exclusively fast twitch muscle fibers. If they did any long and slow training at all it would build slow twitch muscle fibers, which would minimize the amount of fast twitch muscle fibers they could build. It would also recruit some of their fast twitch muscles to act more like slow twitch muscles. Ultimately they were right, the long slow workouts that build endurance will hurt the performance of CrossFit'ers and also Olympic weightlifters. The entire 6 weeks I've been training for Olympic weightlifting I've had a very hard time giving up endurance workouts. I justified doing long slow workouts by telling myself, "I have to lose more fat to get out of the super heavy weight division and get to my goal of being able to lift in the 94k weight class (187-206 pounds)."

After yesterdays workout I realized that I'm weak. My lack of strength is partly because I've only been Olympic weightlifting for a month and a half and partly because I'm still doing the long slow workouts that an ultra endurance athlete would do. I have finally come to grips with the fact that to be good at Olympic weightlifting I MUST give up slow twitch muscle fiber building workouts. Today I did my first high intensity cardio bike ride. I had to bust out my old cycleOps indoor trainer to do it.

I was a little worried about using my bike on my indoor trainer at my current weight of 262 pounds. I was afraid I'd crush my carbon bike or the trainer, but amazingly both held up! I did a tabata on the bike which consisted of a short 5 minute warm up, then rode HARD for 20 seconds, then peddled softly for 10 seconds. I kept that up until I could no longer hold a 20 MPH pace on the hard sets. My legs gave out at the 15 minute 19 second mark of the workout. When I calculated my results on Dietpower I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I burned 300 calories in a little over 15 minutes.  I'd only burn a little over 400 calories in 30 minutes when I was doing long slow cycling. I think I could get used to this high intensity cardio training! More calories burned in less time plus I'll be building the type of muscle tissue that will make me a stronger Olympic weightlifter! Boom goes the dynamite!

Nike Romaleos 2

For the last 6 weeks I've been saving up for a pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes. I finally horded enough to buy them!  I bought a pair of Nike Romaleos 2. They were expensive but everyone at Miller weightlifting agreed that a good pair of Olympic weightlifting shoes will last years, so I figured I should buy a pair I'd enjoy. I'll post later what I think of them.

 

Until now my Olympic weightlifting coach Shane Miller has been letting me use his Olympic weightlifting shoes. How cool is that?

less overtime, more sleep and calorie inceases equals olympic weightlifting increases

Last week I hit my max lifts in a few exercises and have been obsessing on ways to start getting stronger. I've decreased the amount of overtime I've been working at the New Mexico state penitentiary from an average of 30 hours a week to around 3 hours a week so that I get more sleep. I've also slightly increased my daily calorie intake which will slow my weight loss but increase my strength gains. Those things have worked. Last week I could only get an 82k bench press 3 reps on my last set of the day, this week I was able to get a full 5 reps with 1 kilo more weight. I was also able to get faster on the cardio workout coach Miller has me do at the end of my strength training by a full 45 seconds. The only thing I didn't make significant increases on was the power snatch.

The 2014 South West challenge series rule changes

I was surfing the web and saw that there was only 1 Clydesdale who completed the 5 race minimum for the 2013 South West Challenge series, which is the oldest and largest multisport series in the world. That got me excited. The South West Challenge series old rules says all I'd need to do is complete 5 races in the series to be eligible to win. While I was browsing their web page I saw they have changed their rules and the minimum amount of races I'd have to compete in is now raised to 8. That would be fine except the SW challenge series kicked all the races in Northern and Central New Mexico out of their series. There's only 1 race in the entire series that is closer than a 5 hour drive from my house. I cant afford to drive 10 hours round trip 8 times in 2014! Uncool SW challenge series, very uncool.

hit my current max lifts

My Olympic weightlifting coach, Shane Miller, has had me gradually increasing the amounts of weights I'm lifting. Today I hit my max lifts of 5 sets of 5 reps on the power snatch, squat, and bench press. For the snatch it was 50k, for the squat it was 92k, and for bench it was 83k. I was disappointed at how weak I was. But when I thought about it I realized I've lost 18 pounds the last 5 weeks, and dieting causes a person to be weak, and that I'd spent the last 9 years doing nothing but training for ultra endurance athletics. In that time I did 66 triathlons, 20 duathlons, 2 Ironman triathlons, 7 70.3's, 8 olympic distance triathlons, 48 sprint distance tri's, 1 off road triathlon, 2 marathons , 2 half marathons, 2 10K's, 2 5k's, 3 cycling centuries, and 1 cycling road race. That type of training and racing builds slow twitch muscles almost exclusively and recruits fast twitch muscles to act like slow twitch muscles. So I need to realize I'm going to be a weakling until I can build some fast twitch muscle tissue, particularly type 11B, my body realizes that I'm no longer an endurance athlete, and I stop restricting calories.

eating after olympic weightlifting

I know how important it is to eat after a workout. I always did when I was a hard core triathlete. It made a huge difference in my training and recovery. I hadn't yet started the habit of eating after  strength training.  I knew I should have been eating after strength training for glycogen replenishment, the protein window, etc. Yesterday was the first time I ate immediately after Olympic weightlifting. I feel much better today than I have been used to feeling the day after strength training. Well, I'm a slow learner, but this lesson has been learned... again. Refuel immediately after working out. Duh!