Rest Day!

Yep today is rest day! I made it to another rest day this week. It is also day 3 of staying on plan on weight watchers. I am doing good so far. Had the muchies like CRAZY this morning but my snack size popcorn saved me, 94% fat free and only 1 point. Whats weird is i didn't like them yesterday but today i LOVED them!

I have had Grapes, Banana, water and some sugar/fat free capacinno so far. I am having Baked Beans for lunch so look out cubicle neighbors.

Tonight i am meeting some friends in a restaurant so i have to work out a plan for that. I am still avoiding the over abundance of cup cakes and donuts in our lunch room because of someones birthday and a training class we are having.

My water intake is doing ok to. I am cutting way back on Soda. I told myself i would have to drink all my water before i drink ANY soda and that seems to really help.

Preparation is definitely the key. I think this morning i would of ate some bad crap if i didn't have grapes and popcorn on hand.

Tomorrow I have a 1.5 hour bike ride scheduled so i may just do the double spin class at the Ymca.

Well i better look up what i am going to eat for tonight.

Hello Weight Watchers

Well i did it!!! I asked my wife if she wanted to come with me and we both ended up joining! This is my second day 'on plan'.

The meeting was pretty cool. I did not realize they were only 30mins long either. Of course i was the ONLY man in there except for a guy in his 80's at the back. After the meeting i decided to join up. I got weighed, got my little book, she taught me how to use the point system. I got home and went online to download the app for my Ipod touch and Blackberry. Everything is good to go.

I like that my first goal is 5% of my weight loss to work towards. It doesn't seem so far away. There were lots of normal people in the meeting and they all had great advice.

Today is my second day and i am doing good so far. I do not feel hungry and i am learning to love fruits and veggies again.

Another cool thing that happened was the Lunch pool swim. On Tuesday i tried to catch up a 30 min swim workout. So i rushed out the door, drove to the YMCA and got my 30min swim in. I got back just in time that i was not late from lunch. Very cool!!!

Wednesday i was scheduled for a 1hr 15 min run which i just barely made. I have had a really sore throat and alot of congestion in the mornings. I was hoping to go 1hr 30mins but i just got done what i had to do that day.

This morning was a swim/ bike. Is that a Swike? or a Bim? anyway i got it done. Tomorrow is rest day!!! Phew!

Above is my snacks for work today. I had to go out on a business lunch so i had chicken soup. It was 11 points.

Last night i watche a movie called 'Food Inc' I HIGHLY recomend everyone watches it. Espically if you eat ANY kind of meat.

Let hope i rock day 3 on plan!

Indoor Triathlon

SO Sunday was indoor Triathlon Time!!! Woot.

I was in the first wave and there were 6 people to a wave. We swam 18 laps of our indoor pool. I had my 10 yr old daughter lap counting for me and she did a great job. MY pace was fast and she said i came out of the water second or third out of all of us.

Then i ran over to the spin bikes. I stayed with sneaker and not clip less shoes as 5 miles is pretty short. I was sweating a good bit by then. I headed off to the run next.

We had to run 25laps of their indoor track. This is pretty much when everyone caught up with me. MY heart rate was in the 160's! I normally run at 130. I just couldn't seem to force myself to slow down. After 10 mins running i FORCED myself to walk fast for 1 min. This helped allot.

My Final time was 41 mins something. Last year i was 46 mins! SO i made up good time.

I do not have all the placings yet as they have not put them on their website.

It was good fun and i highly recomend it.

I am going to a Weight Watchers meeting tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!! I talked to my wife and she was all for it. Especially seeing as her brother just lost 25lbs from being with them. We are going to go check out a meeting tonight. I shall let you know what goes on:).

Sat Bike Ride wootness starts

So it was a balmy 32F today and i was scheduled to ride for 1.5hours. I managed to get out the door around noon. At first i was not liking it so much then i got in a groove and had a great time and LOVED being outside. I took pictures along the way and rather than do an all out workout i just enjoyed myself. I had my new face mask thingie that i got online and it worked fantastic at keeping my face and neck warm.
This is part of the Budweiser plat. I think it is some kind of yeast filling tower. A big huge Ship comes by from Canada once a week and fills it up (or takes stuff away) Not sure which.

This is my bike in front of the USS Cobra. It is a World War 2 Submarine. There are tours you can get on it and look around. The engines still work! They fire them up a few times a year. When you take the tour it is unbelievable to think that men lived in there for up to 3 months at a time.

This is the Main street in Manitowoc WI, couldn't of guessed that right?

This is one of the bridges into the town of Manitowoc. You can see some ice in the water.

This is a bike store that just opened! If only i had some money to spend in there!

Looking down from my handle bars. You can see i have the front suspension locked out.


This is my new cold weather mask thingie! It works great! It is made out of wetsuit material. It covers my neck great too.

This is some old tractor. It looks like they still use it to plow snow. No seat in it. You stand and drive!

Look at those snow chains! Yes its Wisconsin People!

This was a cool truck with a projection screen on the side. I don't really know what it was doing here. People were looking at it. He was playing videos of Bret Farve of course. I think he was on his way to a show.



This is where the bike trail ran out as not all of it was plowed out. But it made for some fun snow riding.

Isn't it pruudy! It was nice to be outside instead of being stuck indoors on the trainer today!

Another massively cool event is i got chased by a young pit bull. I thought i would drop him easily but i looked back and he was still coming! I had to really put the hammer down to get away from him before he gave up! I love running from dogs on my bike!

Ok its Triathlon time tomorrow.

Weekend Wonder Boy

Is Friday people!
Been busy. I treated yesterday as i rest day. Today was my scheduled rest day but i switched it up a bit. I did make it to the pool at 5am this morning and did my scheduled workout. Which was:

wu: 300 continuous. slowly increasing pace each 100
main: 20 x 50, odds at RPE 4, evens at RPE 9!
cd: 150 easy, hold form

Yes you read right RPE9!!! Jinkies. It was a great swim workout! IT took me 42 mins. I jumped out the pool grabbed my bike shoes, threw a t shirts on, ran up stairs to hit the 45 min spin class at i have a 45min bike scheduled today to. But Alas it was sold out. No bikes left. Ahhhh Shucks. Fridays spin isn't normally that busy.

I will go back tonight to do the 6pm spin or do it on my trainer. But i really feel like i am going a little faster on the swim now. MY kids probably want to hang out at the Y tonight anyway.

I have been thinking about joining weight watchers for mental support. But i will have to talk to my wife about this. I don't want to go to the meetings without her! I already do too many things without her so i want us to do this together. Now how the Heck do you ask your wife if she wants to come to weight watchers with you with out getting your arse kicked? Advise please?!!!

One of my spin Instructors saw me on the way in to the gym and said 'Your an ANIMAL on the fittness challenge!' THis is the YMCA challenge we are having and i have been rackin up alot of points because of my Half Iron Man training. SPeaking of the Half Iron Man i have been thinking about the effort on it. DO you think a half Iron man for a 250LB guy is the same as a Full Iron man for a 150LB guy? Lol.

From my webcast yesterday a Lady called in that had heard and told one of my work buddies that 'whoevers voice it is on the webcast makes my toes curl!' Pretty cool. Thats a good thing right?

Sunday i have INDOOR TRIATHLON!! YAaaaaaaaay!!! My start time is 8am. I will let you know how it goes. I will hopefully record some for my Podcast also.

I took this picture this morning outside my YMCA. It is right on Lake Michigan. this was at about 6.10am. Well i got to finish my Friday off. MY Wife will be home tomorrow too. YAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Last night 10.5 miles

So yesterday was my long run day. I was determined to make 10 miles on the treadmill this week. I was mentally pre-pairing for it all day. And yes it seemed VERY long. I saw people come to the gym, do there workout and leave, over and over again.
The total time was 1:50 mins. Now when i do long runs like this i have to break it down. I WILL fail if i just intend to run steady for 10 miles for sure.
This is how i did it.
Run 9 mins walk 1 min. Running was 5.8mph and walking about 3.7mph
Then after 40 mins i introduced what my training plans calls Cheetah strides?! Basically you speed up for 30-40 seconds every 5 mins. IT REALLY helped out too. It felt like i was giving my legs a little blast.
After 40 mins i speed up at 43mins to 7.0mph for 30 seconds keeping my strides short. Then back to 5.8mph. Then at 48mins i speed up again to 7.0mph for 30 seconds. at 50min i walked for 1 min. Then speed up at 53 mins etc....repeat for the rest of the run. So i always felt like 'just make it to 3 min mark..then make it to 8 min mark the make it to 0 min mark to walk. I never felt like i had a huge goal in front of me just a lot of little ones. This i have learned is how i get through going long.
I was thinking of going for a recovery walk at lunchtime but my legs are shot! That's a good thing though. I like when they feel like that.
Tonight i have swim run scheduled. I have been doing evenings as my wife is away this week and i like to see the girls in the morning before they go to school.

New Podcast is up. EP 19.

The picture is from this morning of me hosting a Webinar to about 150 people at work. I have 2 head sets on, phone for the phone conf and the other for the internet audible. Good thing i am used to hearing myself on the podcasts:)

Eating healthy (not a big fan)

I have a really really hard time eating the right things. It seems like i can go 2-5 days of eating really well and then i just lose interest and crash/burn. I always say in Triathlon my weight holds me back and that's the only thing holding me back. I don't know why i let it! If i could master eating healthy ALL the time i would be unstoppable in my minds eye. SO this week i am starting again to do whats right. Prep is a big thing. If i cut up my snacks and have the ready to go it really helps. Like the above picture shows. Prep is key for me.

I really want to get down to 200LBS. Lately i have been ever so slowly gaining weight and that is not acceptable. I bought a new book called Skinny Bastard, from the makers of the book Skinny Bitch and it is def no holds barred truth about what you eat. I will let you know how it is going.

Last night i got done my swim after work and i thought maybe ..just maybe...i could do the indoor triathlon that is happening on Sunday. Originally i thought i would not be able to make it but it turns out i can. Well cut off was Friday (12th March) so i thought no way i am getting in. I talked to the Organizer and he said there are still some open spots...so Bamo...I'm in! Woot. My first Official Tri of 2010. I feel bad because i know i weigh more than when i did it last year but i am not going to let that hold me back.

It is 18Laps of the indoor pool (25M) then you run to an exercise bike and log 5 miles on it then off to the indoor track for 25laps of running. You can see it is super short but it is about having fun! I will report in and let you know what happened.

OK time for some veggies.......

Missed my first workout!

I'm Back! Yes it has been a few days. I am finally back in my office today. I was meant to be here yesterday but i was out sick (Kinda) I got so many emails to my Blackberry from work that by 11am i had to fire up my laptop and just work from home. Ah well. I am over whatever i had yesterday. In fact i was feeling a lot better by 3pm so at 5pm i did my scheduled workout.

It was Saturday that i missed my first workout on my Half Iron Man program. Try as i might this is always a very busy weekend for me. Feb 14th is my Wedding anniversary (12 years now!) and is also my daughters Birthday (very inconsiderate of her). Sunday was going to be a wash as my wife has to go out of town. SO we had to do all our celebrating on Sat.

It was my daughters 10th birthday so we had a party at the community center. This is def the way to go. 15 10 year old kids and they can make as much mess and be as loud as they like. Cake included and crafts all for $70! We only do 10 and 16 as big birthday parties. The part was at 10am. I had driven back from Louisville KY on Friday. School was over at 3pm so i had a 8-9 hr drive in front of me. I made it back home by 10pm local time but i was beat and slept till 8am on sat (o you lazy lazy man) Friday was my scheduled rest day.

So i was meant on Sat to do 1.5hrs on the bike. After our daughters Birthday party i had made plans to take my wife to a movie and had reservations at a fancy bistro for our anniversary. SO i just didn't get it done. The Bistro was really nice. A New York City style restaurant. Nice and small. Here is the link if your ever in Green Bay: http://www.plaebistro.com/

Sunday i was going to try and fit both session in but i had a 40min run and a Loooooong swim. 2000meters! By the time i had done that i wasn't going to get the bike in.

Monday i did 30min run on the treadmill and 65mins in the spin class. It is a 45 min class but i had scheduled a 60 min cycle.

Tonight i have a 30 min swim which always seems like it takes me 45 mins to do.

I feel bad for missing a workout! But what am i going to do? I am not going to quit. So i will just move on.

O the photo? This was what it looked like the other day coming out the YMCA

Spin and Swim

Well i am still at it.
Yesterday i did my long run in the morning on the dreadmill at the YMCA of Downtown Louisville! I got 8.5 miles in at 5am before i had to leave and go to school

Today after school was out i drove straight to the YMCA down town to get to a 5:45pm Spin class. I just made it in time what with the Traffic across the Bridge and stuff. It was a cool class and it is always nice getting to try a different instructor. She was very chatty, talked about LOST, American Idol, getting a passport and all kinds of things. I kept pretty quiet as i was newbie boy. Right after i let my heart rate get down and did my swim workout which took about 35mins. I got huge cramps in my calf's at the end which was weird cas i ate 2 Bananas today to try and combat that.

Well I have to pack tonight then i have last day of school untill 3pm. Then the 8-9hr drive home as i have to be at my soon to be 10 year olds birthday tomorrow. Tomorrow is my rest day on Iron Man plan.

The picture is my fav British Pudding and i thought you might find the name funny. I didnt buy it by the way.

Thank You YMCA Louisville KY

So as you may or may not know i away on business. As i said in my last post/blog sometimes it is a challenge to get the workouts in.

Well i am a member of the YMCA so i can use my away program thing. Today i had a swim scheduled for my half Iron Man program that looked like this:

wu: 5 x 50 continuous, odds are breathe every side, evens bilateral.

main: 2 x 500, 1 is RPE4, 2 is RPE 6

cd: 250 easy

So it is a little difficult to do 1500 yards in a 10yrd Hotel pool! I found the YMCA in Louisville KY. Called them to see if i would need a towel. I went over there and it always a little scary to go to a new gym/pool as you do not know where everything is. They were super nice and i got my swim workout in! I should be able to go back there in the moring for my long run.

It IS kind of a pain to find somewhere when your traveling. But you get to try new gyms out which is the cool thing. They have a spin class i can hit latter in the week too. It is a downtown location and i LOVE busy cities. I guess growing up in London did that to me. I would LOVE to live in New York City when my kids are grown up.

School is going well and i am learning a ton of new stuff which should be very helpful to my job.

Check in soon!

Back to School

Yes i am away again this week. This TOTALY throws off my training and diet most of the time. I can not let it! I have to get used to working out and eating right while i am on the road. I am in a factory school all week at our Sister company in Indiana just across the river from Louisville KY.

Problems with being on the road:

• I have pretty much unlimited money to eat whatever i want because the company pays for all my meals and snacks while i travel



• I feel lonely and blue sometimes being on my own so much



• I have to find a gym or use the hotel gym to workout in. It is a pain in the butt not knowing if i have to bring a towel, where to park, what the hours are etc..



• The people i do hang out with want to 'party' and drink lots of Beer and eat out a lot.



• Boredom..If i hang out in my hotel room too long i want to eat as i am bored.

Ok i will try and look at the positives

• I get to run in a new place, see new sites, find new running routes



• I get to try new gyms and have new experiences. (One gym in Ottawa was in the ground floor of an indoor mall



• It makes me more grateful for what i have at home.



• I save money on eating

My plan for this week is to stay focused. I already did my 30 min run downstairs in the hotel GYM. It was a bit dark and cold to be outside at 5am. I did watch Disaster date on MTV was was pretty funny though. I am meant to do 1hour on the bike and i didn't bring my trainer or bike with me. The hotel gym only has a recum bike so i will probably have to head to the Downtown YMCA tonight. I know there is a dinner i am meant to go to but i will not stay too long. The Hotel pool is way to short to get my swim training in.

As far as weekend went i didn't do as well as i hoped on the eating. Not to bad. I went to bed last night after watching the Superbowl in my hotel room by myself (waaaah) with a bad stomach. I felt like i was pregnant with a food baby.

Still no Podcast! I forgot to bring my recorder. I feel like i have enough stuff on there to make a show but it doesn't help if i leave it at home. I been feeling bad about the quality of my shows lately too. I think they could be way better. So i am trying to think of a how to improve them.

Well i better get ready to face the day. It is good to blog as it keeps me focused.

Jeans Day

So glad it is Friday! Yesterday i had a PERFECT diet day! I had to keep focused. I feel myself feeling sorry for myself sometimes when i am watching what i eat and thats not good. Instead of the 'woe is me' i need to have the 'wow this is super good for me' type thinking

I have been re focusing my brain all the time lately. It wonders off and i have to bring it back to look at the long term goal.

Right now i am using SlimFast for breakfast and lunch and a healthy meal in the evening. Of course it has only been 2 days and i a fully expecting the point where i start to lose zest to keep it up but i will work through that.

Training wise i cycled last night and swam. Today is meant to be my rest day but i have to drive all day on Sunday so i switched it out to Sunday being my rest day.
Yes i am away for work again the whole of next week. So my schedule is going to get broken up again.

The place i am going is a 9 hour drive. If i fly it will be at least 7 hours with airports and thats IF there are no delays. I have got delayed every time this year so i am renting a car. Hmmmm That also means i could throw my bike in the back!

Photo: The best tasting cappacino i found that is ONLY 30 calories for a small cup. Cant beat that!

Sleep is back...

Finally i got some solid sleep last night!! It felt good! I managed not to eat anything after 6.30pm and i think that really helped!
I woke up at 4am after my alarm went off and decided i needed the sleep. It felt great. So i got to lie in until 6.30am this morning wooo hooo. :)

I plan on doing my workout after work today to shake things up a bit and my kids can play in the pool while i do my swim workout. I have new motivation to eat right and i started tracking my food intake on sparkspeople again. The food is such a mental battle with me.
My brain needs to be trained better about food and everything else too. It like a dog..i tell it to be still and then it runs off after a distraction and i have to tell it again 'No no come back sit still' and so it goes on. Eventually it will get used to sitting still and being focused.

Lunch time update: It has been too cold to walk or run for me but i am hoping it breaks soon! I am so excited about the summer coming. I cant WAIT to be riding my bike to work again. The morning ride in was OK last summer but the ride home was always AMAZING, a total stress buster.

O the picture today is me listerning to one of my fav Podcasts!

Friday Eve Eve

Yes its Wednesday. Woooo hooo. MY life is getting crazy. This morning my Plan called for a 1 hour run at 2 RPE and finishing with 3 RPE. Well i ended up doing 1 hour and 10 mins. I wanted to go a bit longer but i have not been sleeping well lately and i was SUPER tired. It was one of those mornings your drag yourself out of bed and i didnt seem to wake up.

I saw all my friends at the YMCA this morning. I have been going there a good solid 2.5 years now 5 days a week on average and i realised just how many people i know there now. I still do not know all there names yet (yes i am lame) but they all give me the 'Nod' and sometimes even stop for chatter.

Last night i got on my trainer. As i just felt like i needed some extra biking. I so miss biking outside! I hopeing the temperture but be up enough for me to take my mountain bike out. I used the Sufferfest video on my laptop and i was a super good workout.

Towards the end i got iunterested in the 'Lost' recap on TV that my wife was watching so i ended up losing a little bit of speed. I really like the attitude on the sufferfest videos. The guy that puts them together is super funny. One of his tweets said 'Hello Bike, i have come to destroy you'

I have been doing better about not eating after 6pm. I find i sleep much better and i am sure i consume less calories that way.

Todays picture was taken yesterday morning on my way out the door after my swim to my car in the car park.

Bye Bye Jan hello Feb

Yes Jan is over. Ok well it was over yesterday and i forgot to post my totals:
Run: 15h 6m 88.9miles
Bike: 15h 12m 318miles
Swim: 3hr 45min 8500yards

Today i did an actual swim workout instead of just doing lap after lap. This seemed to make it go faster. I felt like a major dork writing my workout up on the swim teams black board with some caulk but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I am glad i payed for the half Iron Man yesterday because i found out i have a new financial burden today and its a biggie. I might not have signed up if i had waited till i found this out today. Probably means i am going to have to cut back some actual races. I think i am going to do some self supported race distances in the summer to keep me feeling like i am racing.

Turns out i owe some lovely taxes too. First time ever. I told one of my out of state friends i owe Wisconsin some money and she said that would of made her really made and want to kick a cow!

My training session was only 46 mins long today. It felt weird not going at least an hour. I have a 1 hour run scheduled tomorrow so i am saving myself for it. Last year i did some work for the company that puts on alot of the Triathlons here. Basically i just set out cones and what not. And for that i got free race entry!!! woot!!. MAybe i should call them again this year. :)

Oh todays picture is courtesy of my 8 year old daughter.

Your entry to the High Cliff Half Iron Man has been acepted

"Your entry to the High Cliff Half Iron Man has been accepted" is what i read this morning after i signed up. Today is the last day before the early bird fees go up. There are more races i want to enter before the fees go up today but i just can not unload that much money right away. As it is this race was $90. Which is actually cheap as some Half Iron Mans are 200-250 bucks!

Sorry i been a bit absent but i been super busy:) As i am sure you are too! Yesterday my official Half Iron man program began. Here is a link to the actual event.
http://www.midwestsportsevents.com/highclifftri.html

Yesterday was day 1 and my program called for 40min run at RPE 3 and a 40 min swim. However...i been doing my long runs on Sundays and i didn't want to give that up. I had time so i ran 1 Hour 40mins for 9.3 miles. This was with walking 1 min and running 9 min. It hurt but my legs were fine this Morin:)!

Today i had cycle 1 hour and run 30mins. I was worried about running 2 days in a row cas i don't normally do that. It was fine though! I did a spin class for the bike and just stayed an extra 15mins to make it to 1 hour.

I downloaded some new videos this weekend for my bike trainer too. They are truly AMAZING. They will play on my Ipod touch or on a Laptop. I love the aggressive and funny style of them. You can check them out here.
www.sufferest.org

I am a bit behind on my Podcast but i will be updating you soon.

So many races i want to do this year. I have to be care full with the race fees though. I would race EVERY weekend in the summer if i could. Here are some i want to do:

YMCA Indoor Triathlon Feb 21st
Paper Discovery Duathlon May 2nd
Green Bay Trithlon (Olympic) June 6th
Cellcom Half Marathon May
OshKosh Triathlon Aug 8th
MAnitowoc YMCA Triathlon Aug ?
Door County 100mile ride

There is so many i am bursting to do....easy cowboy