Posts from — December 2006

It is much easier being a triathlete when you don’t have to work a job. I’ve taken the last two days off and I find getting in my workouts to be much easier. I can sleep in if I want to and get out the door at my leisure. Then I can come home, eat, nap and then do a second workout if it is called for. It is such a better routine than swimming, biking and running before 8am in the morning.

I’ve started to strength train again. It feels good to begin building back some strength and I am somewhat reassured in my fitness when I realized I hadn’t lost as my physical strength as I feared. The first time was this past Tuesday. I went to the Dodge Y with my kids who said they would wait for me to weight train after we first went to the pool. The kids had a fun time swimming after and diving for their Water Toypedos. They would race to see he could return the most the fastest. It was a good way for them to build up their swimming endurance. After the pool, my daughter read a book and my son followed me around the gym while I did a quick 25 minutes weight training session.

On Wednesday, I went for a 6am run. The most memorable thing about it was that I was back in my house and back in my bed before 7am. I was able to sleep for another half hour before I had to get up for work. It was like the run never happened and if not for the file I downloaded from my Polar Heart Rate monitor I may not have believed I actually did a run. I also swam on Wednesday evening; a relatively relaxed 2300 yards.

Thursday morning was a trainer ride in my basement. I am liking riding my bike in the basement as opposed to dressing warm for an outdoor ride. I am able to space out and watch a movie, instead of dealing with the cold. Not that it has been cold around here lately, but it was chilly enough that I didn’t feel like dealing with bundling up. Later in the day I met my friend Chris at the Y for my second strength training session of the week. We did dumbbell press on a stability ball, one-arm dumbbell rows, leg press and abs.

Today I did another morning run. I asked my daughter if she wanted to come with me, but she wanted to sleep a little longer and said she would go to the pool with me later. I ate breakfast afterwards and hung around the house for a while. Then it was off to the pool, where my kids played in the water on their own while I swam 2000 yards. We got home a little after 2pm. My kids had snacks and watched some TV, and I did some chores around the house. After a while I cajoled my kids to go back outside. It was too nice outside to let the remainder of the afternoon pass by indoors watching TV. My wife felt I should just let them sit around, but there is something about wasting the time away watching TV when it is nice outside that just drives me crazy.

Christmas Eve

I was supposed to do a 12 mile run today, but I just wasn’t feeling it. My HR wasn’t getting to where it should be and I suspect I am just a bit tired from staying up too late and biking and swimming. I went swimming yesterday for the second day in a row. It wasn’t far, only 500 yards, but the two days in a row combined make it a lot more than I have been used to. I was able to get that swim in while my kids played in the family recreation lane at the Dodge YMCA. I took them to the pool for a swimming evaluation for determination of which swimming class they can take in January. So far I am making the most of my membership.

So instead of suffering through a slow and painful 12 miles, I went home to grill vegetables for the xmas eve party we throw every year. It’s nice sitting by a warm grill drinking a beer and listening to my Ipod. Add in wireless internet access and I am feeling no pain. All I needed perhaps was a football game on the radio but it was still before noon.

I noticed that I have love handle starting to develop again. If the sight of that is not enough to get me back into training, I don’t know what is. It is pretty scary looking. I’ve grown accustomed to the svelte mal-nourished look. Actually, I never felt I looked mal-nourished, but that is what some of my friends have told me in the past.

Christmas Day

Well I am making like Santa today and taking the day off. It was too much fun watching my kids open their presents and I just wanted to be with them all morning. Both my kids still believe in Santa Claus. I am starting to feel funny that they still do, but on the other hand there is something about their innocence that just melts my heart. I want it to last as long as it can.

My son got a Rubik’s cube and both of my kids got MP3 players. My son wanted Rock and Roll on his and when I asked my wife what I should put on it, he replied that he wants all of it. I don’t think his MP3 player has that sort of capacity.

It is a lofty responsibility deciding on what music to put on your children’s Ipods. Where do you begin? I have a decent library of music, but I am clueless as to what is appropriate. Is it ok to give my son Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Judas Priest? I am also without a clue when it comes to current music. Any recommendations would be appreciated. My parents didn’t have to go through this. I need a teenager to help me. Damn I am getting old.

At least I am not so old that I am too dense to figure out the Rubik’s cube. Once I figured out the instructions, it was a snap.

So far this xmas has been easy. Like right now, I am sitting in my car with my wife driving on the way to her aunt’s house. I get to relax and work on my blog (posting too, technology can be cool). Hopefully there will be no traffic when I have to drive home later.

There is a demolition site along 56th Street in Manhattan that I pass everyday on the way to my office. As they tore the building, this funky painting of a mushroom was revealed. But now it is gone.

I had the hardest swim workout today. It wasn’t hard in the sense that I went at it very hard; it was hard in the sense that it was difficult to do. I guess that is what happens when you don’t swim in almost 2.5 months; you lose all of your swimming fitness. I have to make sure I don’t take such a long layoff again. I feel like I am starting at the beginning. It was such a struggle just to get in the first 500 yards. At least after that point I started to feel a little better and swam a total of 1500 yards in a dismal 30 minutes. I also ran 6 miles earlier this morning, so today marks the first day I’ve done a run/swim combo in quite some time.

Getting back in the pool though was a major accomplishment. Perhaps I am back on the righteous path. I went to the Dodge YMCA, which is close enough to my house to make the commute to it painless. I had to sign up as a new member and the process was quick and painless. The front desk was even kind enough to lend me a lock since I forgot mine at home. It was a 4 digit combination lock and I was able to go to a locker which had the exact same number. This was very convenient and scary. Convenient because I didn’t have to remember the combination and scary because when I opened that locker door, there happened to be a young boy hiding in it. It was just pure coincidence and the kid got a real kick out of how badly he startled me.

This past Wednesday night, I did another run/ride with my daughter. I think we had our best conversation of all the times we’ve gone out together. We were just talking about life, memory, dreams and desires. Perhaps one day we will both talk about the guy we saw walking a white dog near a red stop light. It was a warm conversation which flowed naturally and easily. It made the run pass very quickly, which was a good thing because her small hands and toes were very cold by the time we got home. When we got back into the house, she wrapped herself in her Yankee blanket, lounged on a chair with footrest and drank a cup of hot tea. It all seemed so adult like, except for the fact that we watched Spongebob while she warmed up; but then again I know many an adult that likes Spongebob.

I hate the building in which I have to work everyday. It is completely ugly and depressing. Everything about it is geared to make you miserable. Outer offices are plagued by the incessant noise from the street below and the internal offices, like mine have windows that face inside the block and are surrounded by all of the buildings around it. You would never know if it was sunny or cloudy outside even if you could see through the grime encrusted windows. Actually, I don’t even have windows that face this middle of the block limbo, but rather a window that looks out onto the seating area that has a view if it.

Now that it is winter and the heat is on, we get an extra special bonus for working in this building – static electricity. The building is plagued with it. You can’t touch a metal surface without getting zapped. I can be feet away from something metal and the built up charge will arc over that distance giving you a zap worthy of bringing Frankenstein to life. The elevators are such a pleasure. They have the heat sensitive buttons and only activate by the tough of your bare skin. In other words, if you are wearing gloves you must take them off in order to press the button for your floor, thereby guaranteeing a shock as soon as you walk into the building.

At least things in my area of the building are getting interesting. They are demolishing the building next door, so I am treated to the incessant pounding of jackhammers as they slowly knock the building down. And when I say next door, I mean it. The building is right up against the wall of my office. My desk vibrates from all of the noise. Just beyond my office are windows that overlook the deconstruction site. We setup a “demo” cam to broadcast the demolition to our computer monitors. At least I can see my tormentors. Maybe one day my wall will accidentally be knocked away and I’ll be left sitting there overlooking a gapping chasm.

The building even tortures you in the bathroom. There is absolutely no ventilation causing the men’s room to stink all the time of everyone’s dumps. It can be quite putrefying and petrifying at times. Today while taking a dump a building maintenance worker peaked over the top of the stall door to hand me a roll of toilet paper. I was sitting there all comfortable reading a book and listening to my iPod when he scared the crap out of me. Why he felt I needed toilet paper I am not sure since there were already 5 rolls inside the stall.

While I am on a bitching and moaning fest, I may as well make a comment about the new Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0. I don’t know if it is possible for Microsoft to make a bigger piece of shit. The menu bars are all fucked up and can’t be placed in any sort of configuration that makes sense. Plus all of the commands and toolbars are located differently causing you to have to go through a big learning curve to figure it all out. If you are thinking of upgrading don’t or go to Firefox if you want that tabbed browsing feature.

Maybe I am irritable because I didn’t work out this morning. I am still having trouble getting up early in the morning. Most likely because I have been watching too much TV at night. After watching several weeks of CSI (various versions), Law and Order, etc, I think I have had enough. The shows are really nothing so good that I should be getting to bed late and blowing off working out. It is time I started to focus again and get back into my old routines. I think I’ll be much happier once I do.

F Train – 9am.

I’ve been out late for the last few nights in a row, making it impossible to wake up in time for a workout. Truth is though I am being a little lazy; at least that is what I tell myself when I start skipping workouts. The current streak started Sunday when I let myself sleep too late to get in a full workout on Sunday. We were at a Hanukkah celebration Saturday night and I got in late. Then after a birthday party on Sunday, I totally blew off going to the pool on Monday morning because I felt I needed more sleep. Top that off with a holiday party Monday night and I am working on two days without any significant workouts. I of course slept in this morning, so if I don’t get something in tonight, I fear I will blow back up to a big fat slob before New Years. I am already finding I have to let my belt out a notch.

I can’t let that happen though. I’ve now fully committed myself to doing Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon on June 3. TriCalifornia got their act together and sent me a corrected link to register, plus refunded my money for the mistakenly registered Wildflower. I even booked a hotel room and the economical rate of $104 per night only about 5 blocks away from the transition area. Now I just need to pay for airfare.

Alcatraz is all about the swim. How many times in a lifetime do you get to swim from the Rock like a convict trying to escape the place? 55 degree water, choppy, full of currents and sharks; sounds like fun. I want my family to go with me, but right now my wife is objecting to that notion. She doesn’t know it yet, but she doesn’t have a choice and is going. The trip will be an experience for me and the kids. I don’t want anyone to miss it. I think it would be a crime to do so, just in the name of saving a few bucks. It’s a life experience and as far as I am concerned you need to take every good one that gives you.

So all this being said, I need to start swimming again. I am completely out of swim shape. I probably couldn’t do a lap around my bathtub right now. I bet I can probably float real well from all the extra weight I put on. Ok… from this point forward, I am going to think swim. I am a swimmer; I am one with the pool. I am not cold all of the time and the water will feel refreshing. There is nothing like positive thoughts to kick start your motivation.

I’ve forgotten what it is like to suffer because you are pushing very hard in a race. I haven’t done so in a very long time. Yeah, I’ve done a lot of long stuff, but never at an intensity that brings about that suffering feeling. I am not used to it anymore. Today was the first time I’ve pushed myself hard throughout an entire race in quite some time. It yielded my first sub 7 minute mile pace in almost 3 years. It’s nice to know I can still have it in me.

For my pain, I was able to set a PR for the 10 mile distance and a PR for my Age Graded percentage. According to NYRR I ran at a 67.7% level which is the best I’ve ever done. I guess this means that I am in the best shape that I have ever been in, but I really can’t go by that since I haven’t “raced” a NYRR race in quite some time. Perhaps I was stronger in the past, but never knew about it. My finish time for the race was 1:09:13 which took over 2 minutes off my former PR.

Today was another spectacularly warm and sunny December day. I wasn’t even cold before the start and I was able to shed all of my warmer layers of clothes. I ran in shorts and lightweight long sleeve top. I even ditched my gloves although my hands were still a bit cold throughout. The only downside to this warm weather is the lack of snow to go sledding with the kids. However, it does make it great for racing, running and biking.

On other good news I just found out that I am the winner of a lottery entry spot into the 2007 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. I am shocked, awed, dismayed and excited all at the same time. I understand that it is very hard to get into this race and I am not going to pass up an opportunity to do it. The only downside to the race is that it is exactly 1 week before the Eagleman Half Ironman. I don’t know if I can justify to myself disappearing for two weekends in a row from my family to go race. Maybe I can get them to come to San Francisco with me.

I was so excited about winning an entry through the lottery, that I immediately followed the link I received in the email to sign up. It wasn’t until I paid and completed the entry process that I noticed that the race it said I was signing up for was the Wildflower Triathlon on May 6. Hopefully they will straighten this little problem up soon or I guess I will have a conversation with my credit card company.

Speaking of age grading I was watching TV after I got home today and saw a commercial for The Heritage Plan; a Funeral Pre-Planning product offered by some life insurance company. They are looking for people born through 1966. It’s nice to know I qualify for something else today as well.

I am struggling again to get myself to work out. So far I’ve been successful in getting myself out of the door, but it has been difficult. It is much easier when I have someone to go out with me. That is what got me outside last night. Larry called to see if I was up for a run. I told him I was but asked if he might not like to go for a ride instead. He asked me if a ride was my preference, to which I replied it wasn’t, but a ride is what I had scheduled for this day. The weather was nice and warm, perfect for an evening ride, so I think that is what convinced Larry to want to ride over a run.

The weather has been fantastic or crazy, depending on your point of view. It is the middle of December and the temperature yesterday afternoon was 60 degrees. I was walking around Madison Avenue around 3pm and based on the mild conditions, you could have sworn it was just September rolling around. When I left my office around 5:30pm, I was kind of surprised to see it do dark outside. The lack of sunlight didn’t jibe with the warm temps and September feel to the day.

Riding in Prospect Park last night was like riding on country roads during a cool summer’s evening in the country. There was dense fog throughout the park, give the whole place a ghostly feel to it. The air was completely still and hardly anyone was outside. I would have thought on such a calm and warm night more people would have been outside. Perhaps they are all at various Holiday parties.

I am supposed to get into the pool twice this week. That is definitely not happening. I can manage to begin riding, but the thought of going to a pool is too painful just now. I suppose that once I go, I’ll feel much better and glad I went. Maybe I’ll psych myself up for it over the weekend and schedule a couple of days next week.

Omega Man, the Charlton Heston classic about a doctor in Los Angeles who is one of the few survivors on Earth after biological warfare and must protect a life-saving serum while repelling mutant attacks was on TV this morning. I was unlikely to see something so good in Prospect Park, so I elected to run on the treadmill and watch it while running.

After my run, I notice from my Polar file, it was very hilly. My basement must be l undergoing a gravitational flux, causing my elevation level to change in great leaps and bounds. My Polar file says that through it all I ascended 400 feet. Hopefully this will continue, because doing hill training indoors through the winter is something I can get used to.