Swimming for Lunch

I got up late today so i did my swim workout at lunch time. I have talked about lunch time running before and lunchtime swimming is possible too. I basically have a 1 hour lunch break and a 30 min swim workout to do. so 10 mins there 3 mins to change 30 mins in the pool (actually took me 35mins cas I'm slow) and pack in time to be at my desk in 1 hour. It is very energising too.

Here are some tips.

• Do not eat your lunch food before the swim, eat after. I just eat at my desk while i work
• Have everything ready to go!
• Do not drive fast, safety first
• Have you workout on a card in a zip lock bag so you can take it pool side
• Do not come back to office smelling like eau de Chlorine (or do if your hardcore and want to impress your work friends)
• Swim MP3 players are highly recommended

Here is my swim workout for today

Warm Up: 250 Yards Freestyle

Main: 10 x 100 , 50 Easy 50 build, 50 easy, 50 hard. Rest no more than 20 seconds between each

Cool Down: 150 Freestyle

Yesterday i went shopping for some Vegan foods and found some great option at Wal-Mart. Kashi makes some frozen Vegan meals that are not too expensive. I had one today and it tasted awesome!!! I found Veggie burgers of course but plenty of options. I have some not to expensive Soymilk and some Rice milk that really taste very good. I will try Almond milk next. It seems like Fruits and Vegetables are tasting better to me all the time too! Today i had Blackberries and strawberries for breakfast.

Tomorrow i am off to NYC! I can not wait. I LOVE the city.

Run to work day!

I did it!! Yep another thing accomplished that i set my sights on last year while cycling to work. I live just over 12 miles away from my office. Last year i started wondering if i could not only just bike to work but run to work to. This morning i left my house at 4.45am with money, some GU Gel packs and a little nervousness.

On Monday i had already set up my locker with work clothes and there is a shower there i can use that i hardly ever see anybody using. It was actually light at 4.45am already so i set out. The temp was about 60f so perfect. I carried my arm band pouch with the gels in it and a shoe pouch with some money.

At mile 3 i stopped at a gas station and bought some water i drank some and carried some with me. At the 1 hour mark i ate my first GU gel and drank some water with it. I was running alongside lake Michigan now. I ran past my YMCA and waived to my peeps in the spin class! It was good to be outside. At mile 10 i got more water and ate my second GU and drank the water with it.

I got to my office around 6:57am. Went and got my shower and was at my desk at 7.15am! I have to be here by 7.30am.

I had left some bananas at my desk yesterday for a post run snack. For Lunch i ordered a veggie sub from Jimmy Johns with delivery. My lovely wife is due to pick me up for the ride home. Sweet!

Tips and things i thought of:

• Get things set up the day before. You do not want to be carrying keys to get in the office, shower gel, clothes etc.


• Have food at your office. Plan lunch, you may have to order something for delivery.


• Take your cell phone with you 'in case'


• Bring money so you can buy water along the way rather than carrying it


• I thought about 'hiding' water along the route the night before. This might be a good idea as the gas stations were busy in the morning.


• Have you ride how ready

I am going to try and do this once a week. Maybe one day i will be able to make the run home to!

My Nike Plus said it was 13.8 miles but i think it was more like 12-13 miles. It took me 2 hours and 22mins.

The picture is of my new water bottle from Nathan's. I love there stuff.

Weigh in Day

Weigh in day at WW today! I lost 5.4 LBS !!! Sweet. This sounds like too much but i gained 1.8lbs the week before so i think it is just all averaging out. I am on a 1.6lbs a week average so i am OK with that.

I did shock them a little today though. They asked how much i lost total as i got my 10% medal thingie. I told them 29 LBS on Weight watchers and 210lbs total! :) That was a good one and very unlike me to talk about myself like that. There is allot of extra overweight people so i wanted them to know it is possible to lose a large amount.

Last night i was on a serious group bike ride. Just when i thought i was getting better the group puts the hammer down. It was way deeper into the pain cave than i wanted to go but very good for me! There were alot of times i got my heart rate into the 160BPM range and held it there for 5 mins. I had alot of motivation knowing if they dropped me i would be lost! On the down hill i hit 36mph! Sweet.

Amazing weather in Wisconsin right now. Tomorrow i am planning on running the 12 miles to work. So i should leave at 4,30am and then get here around 7am enough time to shower and change into my work clothes already in my locker.

Monday encouragement

Picture of some people pn my Sat. Group Ride!

Hello!!!

WOW i got some new subscribers!!!!! Yes!!! Lots of thanks for being up to 21 now!!

Last week i was away all week in Atlanta in New Orleans! I had a good week apart from missing my family. I got some good exercise in too. To start with on Monday i ran 15 miles on the Chattahoochee River path! It was about 80f so i got some good heat training in. I carried a pack of Gu Gel and my new water bottle waist pack to try it out. It worked good and had very little bouncing, you can see it here http://www.nathansports.com/ just look for the triangle product.

I got some spinning in at two YMCA's i found on my travel and some swimming in as well. The YMCA in New Orleans had an outdoor pool so it was nice getting some sun! The Gu Gels are working out good right now you do have to take them with water. The Chocolate one is amazing!. I would prefer something a little more natural and i found this in Publix store in Atlanta. If only they had Publix in Wisconsin!







More Big news.

I have been 'flirting' with the idea of going Vegetarian or Vegan with quite a while now. I got the chance to sit down and do some research on all my flights last week. 1 week ago today i took the plunge and decided against eating meat or dairy products (Animal Products). This is very interesting the way peoplel react. I am very shy of telling anyone but i had to sit down and talk to my wife about it. She was VERY understanding. She cooks for myself and girls so it is a big impact on her. If you have questions about it i can direct you some places. The biggest problem is when people find out they kind of think your attacking them or looking down on them and i am not! It is totally your choice to eat meat and i completely respect that.
I did find i had a TON of energy this week and my mood was way up. I know its only the first week so i will let you know how it goes.

Bye for now!

Hello Friday!

Yaaaaaaaaaay. Friday. Last night I did my 1 hour swim but put off my 1 hour bike ride. The weather was bad last night and i wanted to get outside for it so i did it this morning. I got up at 3.55am again. My alarm is set for 4am but i keep waking up every morning at 3.55am every morning for some reason.

I got geared up in cold weather gear and left the house on my road bike at 4:40am. I had my lights on and by about 5.10am it was light enough to read my HR Monitor without having to use the light. I had an awesome ride. 2 Deer ran out right in front of me just as the sun came up and nearly took me out!! Amazin!

I felt really slow going out the first half as i was against the wind. The wind is a funny thing, i have learned if i can not feel the wind coming in my face or on the left or right of me it is probably at my back. There always seems to be some wind around.

The HR training is great for wind issues. Wind can be frustrating as your cycling on a flat road and only going 15mph. I start to think why am i going SO slow. Then when i turn around and put the same effort in and go 22mph i realize it was the wind. My HR monitor eliminates all the guessing. I just keep my HR at 120-130bpm and try and forget about the speed. I need to learn this so the 4-5 hour ride on the Ironman does not burn me out.

This weekend is the Green Bay Marathon and i am hoping to get up there as i have to do some leafleting for a Race Organizing company up there (i get free entries for doing this!)

Training is long and i am having a hard time balancing family and training. I have no clue how full Ironman trainng can balance it all!

Enjoy your weekend.

More loss

More news. Yes i lost another 4.2LBS last week!!! And that's with all the crazy Donuts, Pizza Popcorn etc that my office brought in all last week. So i was very surprised by it.

Workouts are going good. This morning i had a 2 hour run to complete and i wanted to experiment with fueling. I left the house at 4.50am. It was pretty light by 5am. I tried a GU Gel pack at the 1 hour point and it seemed fine. No upset stomach issues. It did have some caffeine in it. It was worth 2 points in WW though!

I been doing better about getting my food from Fruit and veggies (mostly fruit!)
My MP3 swim player finally died after 1-2 years so i am looking into options on getting a new one. Not looking forward to a 1 hour swim with no music.

Picture is from the beach i ran past this morning on my run.

Long workouts

So Saturday i had a 4 hour workout. It started out with me doing a 30min run outside the YMCA before they opened at 7am. I got there right at 7am and ran in and upstairs for the spin class as it was rainy and cold. I did the double spin class (1.5 hours) then headed back outside and ran for another 30mins. This is called a brick.

Then i did my swim workout which ended up being 1hr 15 mins. I was meant to do this on Sunday but they were closed Sunday for mothers day. SO all in all it was 4 hours keeping my heart rate 115-130. It was not too bad. On Sunday i had no pain in my legs so i recovered quick it seems.

Sunday i just did a 45min recovery walk.

Monday i slept in. I got to the pool at lunchtime for my 30min workout and rushed back to work. (JUST made it all in 55mins!) After i got home i did a 50 min bike ride outside followed by a 30min run. I made the first 2 miles a 120-130 HR and the last mile a 135-140 HR so i finished with a negative split woot!

Today is weigh in day! I am starting to feel a little faster and lighter on the bike and run but i got a long way to go yet :)

Picture is of a Tall building in New Orleans. I LOVE the city!!!

Movin on UP to IRONMAN

I took an AMAZING run the other night. There were thunderstorms running through our area and i decided i needed to run through our area. It is good experiance to run in the ran as you don;t know if it will be raining on the day of your triathlon! SO i left the house at 8pm right after doing some push ups to get warmed up. Yep it is 50-60F right now in Wisconsin:).
Just is i left the Tornado Sirens were going off! How exciting. I know i am slight stupid for running outside in that but i stayed in the neighbourhood so i could run into someones basement if there was trouble. The sky was just totally lit up with lightning the whole time. I got a little wet too :)

Yes more weight loss.

I lost a total of 2.4lbs last week!!! Very pleased with that!
Last night i went on a group ride and it was the best weather yet. I had an amazing time. THe only hard thing was everyone at work was going out to eat and drink on the company money after work and asked me to go. I had to say no as i had a long bike ride and i KNOW i would of eatern badly! Sometimes thats hard.

Al l this week we have special meetings and the company is bringing in lunch, cookies, cake, donuts and they even rented a popcorn machine with heavy butter popcorn that smells AMAZIN. I am resisting but its not easy. I have to learn to get over this.

Hope you enjoyed the last Podcast! I rented my Wetsuit yesterday for the Ironman 70.6. I really should buy one but i do not want it to get to big as i lose more weight.

Weekend Madness!!

So the weekend biggie was my 30 min swim, 2 hour bike ride and 30 min run. Got this done on Sunday. Not too bad. I have to admit i was super tempted just to go home after the bike.

I did the swim in the pool in my official 2XU tri suite which makes me feel like i can swim super fast! I got out just after 30 mins of a hard pace. Kept on the Tri suit. Slipped on a bike shirt and got my bike and took off. Was kind of windy and the first hour i was riding in to it. Then i felt pretty wiped out so i just decided to enjoy the rest of the ride and i felt way better. I am sure my time was slow but it was more about being in the saddle for 2 hours and then running afterwards.

The 30 min run at the end was slow and smooth. I think my pace was about 31 mins for a 5k on it.

The picture i captured was a sunny day with Fog rolling in off the lake at about 12.30pm