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.......