Stress Relief

Exercise is my stress relief. Its my outlet. I used to play a lot of video games but found that they instead caused more stress in anxiety. With triathlon training if I'm having a bad day I can take it out on the water, pedals, or pavement.

Day 2

Bike

I just got on the trainer for about 30 minutes. I was more interested in seeing what zones I could hit and how long I could maintain each effort. Its been a long time since I've gotten on the bike. Felt good though. It helped melt away some of the stress I had been carrying through the day. I was even able to solve some work problems afterwards because it cleared my head.

Being Flexible

Well I never said this was going to be easy. Going to start from day 1 again but I'm starting to feel like I've mentally regained my mental commitment to testing my physical limits.

One of the things I've learned about becoming a parent is you often learn to be more flexible. You're no longer just compromising with your significant other but you're compromising with another person who you can't even reason with.

When things don't go your way and there's nothing you could have done about it, its important to acknowledge that fact and just move on as quickly as possible. Remaining flexible in life is, to me, what Bruce Lee was describing in his "Be like water" analogy:

Day 1

Swim

I'm just taking things one at a time. I know personally that my swim is the weakest so that's the part that I have to spend the most time as I get back into race shape.

I swam for a little over 15 minutes, just doing drills to work on my form. I felt surprisingly good. I guess it has to do with me spending most of my swims in the open water. The pool just seems like a piece of cake now.

Open Letter to Endorphin Fitness Ironman Team

All,

I can't begin to describe how immensely proud I am for all of you. For most of this past year I watched as you constantly pushed your physical and mental boundaries with your training and commitment.

All of your EF teammates here in Richmond watched and cheered you on as you took on Coeur d'Alene Ironman. It was great entertainment for me while I was up with the baby! I was excited as I saw your stories of perseverance and accomplishment. I know for some of you the race did not go exactly as you anticipated but you made it through your training and to the start line and that's pretty amazing to me.

I hope all of you get your well deserved rest. I can't wait to see all of you to hear your stories and get out there training again soon. You all are a true inspiration!

Sincerely,
- Ryan

A Little Out of Tri Shape

I'll admit it. Keeping up with workouts with a baby is hard. I thought that I would be able to maintain my regiment but have quickly fallen out of that. And now after two weeks of sporadic activity I've gotten out of tri shape. I need to get back on course! So I'll be starting another exercise streak (I said it was hard, not impossible). This time though, the emphasis will be on the at least 10 minutes of activity everyday more than anything else. I just need to build up a consistent routine again.

Mentally wise, I need to remind myself I'm not where I used to be and I think that was holding me back. I've had the mentality that I could compete at the age group level and when I couldn't get the workouts required for those goals in I just wouldn't do them. So now my goal is just to finish a sprint triathlon. After that, I'll reevaluate where my fitness is and raise my expectations accordingly.

Finally I'm going to sign up for a race, the 3Sports Sprint Triathlon. I'm a firm believer that you need to have a goal on the calendar to work towards to in order to achieve optimal fitness.

Morning Run

This was my wake up call. I was surprised how hard it was. I did get into a groove after a mile and a half but I feared that if I kept pushing it I would be spent for the rest of the week.

Strength Workout

I just did one set of everything. Some of the exercises involved quite a bit of balance and I'm starting to realize that is a weak area in my strength fitness.

New Mantras

Well that ended quickly. I had gotten up my most recent exercise streak up to 10+ days but with family in town to visit the little man that just went out the window.

I think we've fully acclimated to having a child, at least as best as we can be. In fact, my wife actually started triathlon training too! I better watch out, I was with her during her entire labor and if she endured all that I'm sure she'll be kicking my butt in no time.

I've decided that I'm going to live by two new mantras; basically they are new phrases for me to live by. The first one, No Excuses is actually inspired by a teammate of mine. In one of his posts, Grayson gives an amazing race report describing what its like to compete for first place. The part that struck me the most though and inspired this first mantra was the following:

But many other triathletes out there felt the need to tell me why they were not on the top step today. And I could have responded informing them that I raced with a concussion, that just a few months ago I was out for six weeks with a gnarly sprained ankle. Or that my body was rejecting all fluids today and I puked all over myself multiple times in this race. Or I could tell them how I just got done with my final exams on Tuesday to finish with Dean’s List for the semester. I could tell them all my setbacks over the months and years. But that would not accomplish anything. Because its not what we face that makes us the athletes who we are, its how we respond.

Its crazy that we're considered teammates even though we might have trained together once. That's what Team Endorphin Fitness is all about. His race report and personal perspective are so inspiring I"m going to include a link to it one more time.

The second mantra I've decided to use Keep on Trucking. This has been inspired by the fact that while I'm making the personal commitment not to make anymore excuses, I've also got to keep on moving forward when things don't go my way. There were several workouts that this week where I just felt dead tired. I wanted to stick with my commitment not to make excuses but I wanted to also ensure that I did something to finish strong mentally and physically.

What about everyone else? Do you have some personal mantras that you use on a daily basis?

Past Week's Training

5/31/11 Hard bike in the morning and strength class at night
6/1/11 River swim in the evening
6/2/11 Sprint run workout in the afternoon followed by strength class

So I Lied. Well Kind Of...

Remember when I said I might hold off on another training streak? Truth was I already had it my mind that I was going to start another one.

My current priority list looks as follows

1. Take care of family stuff.
2. Work.
3. Learn more work related skills and continue physical training.
4. Blog when have some extra time.

It sucks that the blogging has fallen at the end of my priority list but I know I'll be back in a more consistent rotation once I've gotten used to things. I mean if I don't blog they I don't get comments like this:

Even without a daily training streak blog from you, I'm still encouraged and motivated by you, bro.

And Eris isn't the only person who has something like this to me. Its pretty cool when you feel you've motivated other people in some sort of way.

So here's the super short version of this past week's worth of training. I like to call it Super Secret Solo Training (S3T) since a lot of it has been on my own at random times of the day.

5/21/11 6PM - Pool Swim
5/22/11 8PM - Long trainer ride
5/23/11 8PM - 6 mile run
5/24/11 730PM - Strength Training
5/25/11 8AM - Technique trainer ride, 6PM - River swim
5/26/11 930PM - Technique run
5/27/11 6AM - River swim

Obviously my training is all over the place right now. The hardest part of all of it is just making myself do a workout. I've missed group workouts the last several weeks from just not being able to wake up in the morning. I know, I know I have a kid now but I know there are people out there doing way more with their time with way less sleep.

Much Respect to Crossfitters

Just tried to do "Chelsea". I only did about 11 rounds. That's not even half way!

Master of Snooze

I have become a master of the snooze button. The good news is that I've stuck with my commitment to continue and develop my programming skills. The bad news is that its taken me pretty late into the night the entire week. That combined with my little guy crying sometimes during the night results in very little sleep.

6:30AM

Team Run

After only 3-4 hours of sleep and hitting the snooze button about 8 times I finally got myself out of bed to go to run practice.

The workout was pretty tough. My main goal was just to make it there. I didn't even think about doing anything intense. Coach Tyler had a different idea. I don't remember the details but I think I did several pretty hard 800s. My legs were pretty spent at the end of it but like I said I was satisfied with just making it out there.

I Do Remember How to Swim!

9:00PM

Swim

It seems like ages since I last swam. It was actually about three weeks ago to be exact.

Taking that much time away from the water can be daunting. Swimming is such a feel and technique driven sport that you've got to do it all the time to be good. One of our coaches always talks about how crazy he thought it was that swimmers would spend thousands of hours in the pool only to get a several second gain on their swim time.

So I had my reservations before going to the pool. At first I was going to do a Master Swim class but then I convinced myself that it would be too intense. I ended procrastinating for quite a bit longer. In the end I eventually built enough motivation to get at least a 30 minute swim.

The swim went surprisingly well. My biggest take away is that I think I'm in a much better spot mentally with swimming. I expect some pretty big gains with the rest of this year's training. I even gave myself a personal rule to never touch the wall with my hands. I used this in order to force myself to do flip turns. It was a great time!

My First Date with "Cindy"

I tried to wake up for the morning team bike but there's something about becoming a new parent that messes with your sleep schedule. I can't quite put my finger on it.

Anyways the alarm rang at 5:15, I woke up and mumbled some half awoken encouragements to my wife about how great of a job she was doing and then passed back out. Woke up again at 6:15 only to curse myself for sleeping in. By the time I was finally out the door at 6:30 it started pouring down rain and thundering. DRAT!

10:00AM

Trainer at Home

Several hours later I was finally on my bike. I've been using the JetBlack Z1 Fluid HYDROGEL trainer and I'm not quite sure how I feel about the ride. Its nothing like the Kinetic Trainer we use at EF. The biggest adjustment I've had to make is that the JetBlack seems to have so much more initial resistance. Gears I would normally hit with the Kinetic seem impossible to hold with the JetBlack. I guess in the end it'll be better since the more resistance will make me stronger but there has been an adjustment period.

I ended up only riding for about 25 minutes. My Mom was flying into town so I wanted to squeeze in as much as possible before she arrived to the house.

"Cindy"

I've mentioned before that I've been interested in doing crossfit but didn't have the time. Since I was working out from home I decided to go for my own mini version of a crossfit workout.

The workout was "Cindy" which I've heard great things about. I only did three rounds which I'm sure is pretty lame by crossfit standards but I'm trying to squeeze in as much as possible with little time.

Training Streak Broken

The title of this post is one of the first things a buddy commented to me after the birth of my first child. Obviously because of my two week disappearance from blogging its been quite the adventure so far.

It was crazy I had literally just finished writing this post when my wife revealed to me she had been labor for about an hour. Let me tell you, helping your wife through labor is no easy task. Its a lot of physical work. So much that I was going to consider it part of my training streak. I'm tempted to document all of it here but I think the reason why it hasn't been described from the male's perspective so much is because it seems like a right of passage for first time dads.

I will say this: bring warm clothes because hospitals are cold, bring plenty of snacks for you and your wife (she loved cliff shot blocks), and be patient. The labor took over 44 hours. For those of you keeping track from triathlon perspective that's about four Ironmans for elite athletes and at least two to three for everyone else. My wife's a warrior. I told our coach at EF that I'd be scared of her whenever she decided that she would try out a triathlon. I don't know how you lady's do it but I do have a new profound respect for all mothers.

Going back to the streak. Yeah, its over. It was great I had made it to 113 straight days of working out. I could honestly say not only did I think I was close to if not the best shape in my entire life but I also felt like I had the most consistency and control over my life as well. Then the little one arrived. Things got kind of chaotic but like everything you adjust and move on. After the first five days I made a mini attempt to get another streak of about four days going (bike/run, long run, stretching, brick/strength) but I decided that it would be best to focus on what's most important right now, my family.

This isn't to say that another one won't start tomorrow but in the grand scheme of things its moved down my priority list. The little guy does seem like he'll be quite the competitor though. He had "the ideal term heartbeat" all through those 44 hours of labor. I'm going to have to stay in somewhat good of shape to keep up with him.

Days 110 - 113: Like Waiting for Christmas

I know. I've been slacking on the blog posts. And once again, no the baby isn't here yet. My training is still coming along but the anticipation for this little one is really starting to wear on me. I think I've had restless sleeps for the past week or so and this is supposed to be the time where I get the most sleep!

I was really trying to come up with a scenario that describes what the anticipation of having a first child has been for me. I've come to the conclusion its a lot like the first Christmas's you remember as a kid.

You hear about this magical day but you're still a kid so you don't really grasp the time so you shrug it off and say to yourself it'll come when it comes. This is how I kind of felt when we heard about our due date. We were super excited but at the same time realized it was a long ways away.

Then things start to happen around you. You notice toy shops promoting Christmas and decorations coming out of the attic. You feel the excitement start to build up inside of you. For me this was the kind of emotions I was going through when I first really started to feel our baby kick in my wife's belly.

Finally, the tree is up and your presents are wrapped. This is where you just go berserk as a kid. You're constantly eying your presents. Even picking them up to shake to see if you can got some kind of sense of the joy that is contained inside. As the days go bye the crazy excitement continues. It even keeps you up a little longer each night as you stay in bed. This has been the past two weeks for me.

Its crazy. I was pretty calm and collected. When people asked, I would always say "he'll come when he's ready and we're just happy to have him." Somewhere along the line the crazy man switch got turned on in my head. No more! Starting tonight I will try and resemble my once non crazed self. That is until the little guy comes. Can't wait!

4/27/11 6:00AM

Team Swim

This swim happened so many days ago I can barely remember how it felt. This is what early parenthood must feel like. I remember that it went well. I felt strong and I'm pretty sure I left the workout with a positive feeling.

4/28/11 6:00AM

Team Run

We did a 30 minute race pace or slightly harder run. It went OK for me. I think I squeezed in close to 4 miles. I did have some tightening in my calves. I talked with our coaches about this and they think its because I've been focusing on my foot landing rather than lifting my legs during my run. I worked on that for the last mile and I felt the sensation more in my hamstrings than my calves. It makes sense that this would be more efficient as its the larger muscle group. I did 6 for the day total.

4/28/11 7:15PM

Strength Class

This was just as tough as last Thursdays class. Squats, pushups, box jumps, step ups, and more craziness. I'm loving this class. Think my body is starting to wear down. I'd say it'll adapt but by the time it gets close the little man will be here.

4/29/11 6:30AM

River Swim

This went better than my last swim in the river. We still had a pretty good current which was challenging physically and mentally. I just don't like the sensation of being pushed off course but I know I'll get used to it again. Because of my discomfort I stuck with just swimming half way across and back. My sighting went really well though. By my next river swim I should be fully used to it again.

4/30/11 7:00AM

Long Ride

I wanted to stay close so I didn't bike too far with the main group. I think I ended up getting about 20 miles in but that's okay with me. Just liked that I made the ride more enjoyable and relaxing than anything else.

Brick Run

This was just like the bike. I was trying to pull the most joy out of it as possible. Loved the weather. Got a little over 2 miles in and hit some pretty good paces in the process.

Day 109: It Feels a Little Different

6:00AM

Bike/Run Time Trial

I'm not sure what it is but racing hard feels kind of different. I was thinking it may be because I'm just coming off that knee injury but I think its more a feeling of control.

Last year when I raced sprint triathlons and short runs it felt like I was just dying. I would cramp up so badly. I remember one race my coach just told me to calm down my breathing and I think this has been the key difference. I've done a lot of yoga that has allowed me to focus on how my breathing affects my muscle recovery. The body is a really an amazing thing once you take the time to notice and learn to control its inner workings.

The time trial itself went well. I'm guilty of doing quite a bit of drafting but I did finish the bike and run feeling like I had nothing left to give. I'm also happy with the current speed I'm maintaining off the bike. Now I seem to be only loosing about 20-30 seconds off my usual run pace rather than the 1-2 minutes I was loosing last year. I just need to keep on working at it to get comfortable with getting the legs turning after a hard bike.

7:15PM

Strength Class

I'm really digging these classes. Its a shame that I'm just getting back into them before the little bugger arrives but that's life. Just got to be like water and flow with it.

Days 104-108: Getting it All In

Nope, the baby isn't here yet. Yep, the exercise streak is still going. I've been busy the past several days. I've also realized that hardly anyone reads this blog on the weekends. With that being considered I've decided to start condensing several days of training into one post just for brevity.

4/21/11 6:00AM

Run Time Trial

I was pretty scared of this run going in. I had no idea what kind of pacing I could hold so I feared that I could potentially blow up mid way through it and just have to walk.

I ended up starting very conservative and tried to chip off time with each loop. In the end I did the 2 miles in 12:41. I'm pretty happy with those results. Still just glad to be out there running again. I know what my body is capable of so that time will come down eventually.

4/21/11 7:30PM

Strength Class

We've got a new strength trainer at EF (we'll miss you Rusty). She. Is. a. Beast. I think her saying was "Tough...not mean. Mean...not cruel!"

The workout was grueling in a good way. It definitely settled any thoughts I had about trying to replace my strength training with crossfit. I ended up being sore a good four days afterwards. Got to get this in in order to get faster/stronger.

4/22/11 4:30PM

Technique Swim

The day just passed me buy. I had to literally sneak this swim in. I had to go to EF since the pool at the Y was full. I just worked on my bilateral breathing. Tried to take it somewhat easy as it had been a pretty hectic week.

4/23/11 4:00PM

Long Bike

We had some pregnancy videos that we had been meaning to watch so I just got on the trainer. I ended up doing about an hour ride with 30 minutes of zone 4 intensity in the middle. Great ride. My legs felt strong.

Brick Run

Did about a 2 mile run right off the trainer. It was a gorgeous day outside so I just tried to put the fatigue in the back of my mind and just focus on enjoying the day. So glad that I can run again.

4/24/11 8:00AM

Long Run

10 miler. I couldn't believe that I ran this far! It was at least 3 miles further than my longest run this year. Marco, a buddy from EF, had to do 20 miles so another friend and I joined him for the second half. The run felt great. The last 4 were tiring but again its just wonderful to be out running.

4/24/11 3:30PM

Mountain Bike

I went downtown to hit the Forest Hill trails with some Mountain Bike friends. I have a long way to go. I think I might of sweated more during this short ride than my 10 miler earlier in the day. The sheer terror kept me on the edge the entire time. I did have a lot of fun but I do realize I have a ways to go before I'll feel comfortable on those kind of trails.

4/25/11 3:00PM

Enjoyable swim

It was our "rest day" so I just did a nice easy swim. I tried to make it as enjoyable as possible. I did a lot of flip turns and even practiced doing flip turns for snake swims. I know having these kind of positive moments with the swim will only make me stronger in the long run.

Day 103: Visualizing Victory

6:00AM

Team Swim

As you can tell from my last several posts about my swim things haven't been going the way I would have liked. Things could have gone south really fast for today's swim as well as it seemed like one of our toughest swims of the year.

Once I saw what the workout was going to be yesterday I did have a couple of bouts of fear. Instead of letting that negative energy overtake me though I decided to visualize what it would be like to be successful at the workout. I tried to imagine every time my mind would falter and what I would do to overcome it. Instead of focusing on the workout as an opportunity to get stronger physically I viewed it as an opportunity to get stronger mentally. This mental preparation helped out a lot.

During the swim there were moments where I wanted to just stop in the middle of the pool but instead I told myself "small victories will make you mentally stronger." I used that as my own personal mantra for the day. The workout was still tough (think we did about 1500 yards at max effort) but I do feel like I left victorious. Got to finds those little wins whenever you can.

Day 102: Keep Pushing it Harder

Its so awesome training with other people and coaches. There are a lot of social benefits but also competitive ones that make you want to push yourself harder to keep up. Last year I was a front of the pack kind of guy but no more. Everyone on our team has gotten stronger and I've got to continue to push myself to improve. Triathlons are also increasing in popularity so we've got quite a number of speedies on the team for me to chase. I've found that this year has been more of a mental battle than last. Love the challenge though!

6:00AM

Team Intensity Bike

This was similar to last week's workout. We practiced race scenarios such as surging ahead of a bike pack and then holding onto the lead. Its pretty challenging. It was crazy to think that these are the kind of things professional cyclists maintain when they're in an actual race.

Love that this is coached also. I always think I'm hitting my maximum effort but then I'll hear Coach Tyler saying "go up another gear!" It takes a toll on my legs but I know its making me stronger.

Brick

I've made a mental commitment with myself to come off the bike harder and faster. Last year when racing I would loose so much off my usual run pace when coming off the bike. It could have been mental but it also was probably that I wasn't training hard enough for my bricks. I was pretty spent by the end of the run but like I said its all making me stronger.

Training Streak: Day 101

6:00PM

Core workout/Stretching

Had a good session of doing some ab and core exercises. We also did some pretty intense stretching. I often have mixed feelings about this workout because I'm not sure if I'd rather do this than Yoga. But today I tried to bring to the workout the concept that I feel is most essential to me personally regarding Yoga: the ability to breathe and relax. We'll see tomorrow morning how effective this will be.

Day 100: Looking Back

Wow! 100 straight days of exercise. Trying to remember why I started this streak in the first place I looked back at some old posts and realized it boiled down to just trying to be more consistent.

Since starting this streak I now regularly make it to all of my coached workouts. I even managed to do this despite suffering a pretty significant injury. But this isn't the only area where I've gained more control over my life.

• I read the Bible and work on my spirituality daily. This is a more recent development. I try to start every day with this so that it can help me put the day into perspective.
• I floss daily. This may not be a biggie to some people but I think I went through all my years of college without seeing the dentist. To say that my oral hygiene was lacking would be an understatement.
• My GTD system has improved. I've made drastic improvements to the way I get things done. This is due to the fact that I do my weekly review consistently.
• I read more often. I used to love to read in High School. Over the years with TV that habit kind of just died. I now carry a book with me just about anytime I go out.
• I cook more often. My pregnant wife loves this one. I used to cook a lot during college but somehow also got out of that habit. Admittedly this has stopped the last several weeks but its mostly because we've been doing a lot of other things to prepare for the little man.

I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this streak going, especially when my wife goes into labor and we bring the little guy home. As most of you who answered the poll suggested, its no problem, I can just start over again. I'm happy with the progressed I've made and look forward to continuing to grow personally.

7:00PM

Solo Run

My goal was to do at least a 6 mile run but it had been a long weekend and I was feeling kind of lazy. I decided that I also wanted to push the pace more to see if I was back to my old speed. This ended up being a mistake.

By mile 3 my calves were tightening up and decided to wrap things up to fight another day. I'm just thankful that I got to go out and run.

As a tip to new runners (this currently applies to me as well), its better to go slower when you're increasing either the distance you run or the amount of time you spend on your feet. The speed will come naturally once you establish a good base of mileage. Then you can start throwing things in to help increase speed such as hill work or speed work. Just be consistent and listen to your body (again, just telling myself this).

Day 99: Breaking in the Trainer

8:00AM

Home Trainer Ride

With the baby's imminent arrival I decided to get a bike trainer. I don't think I'll be able to get away for many workouts so I'm going to have to be selective for what I can do at the house versus at the gym.

The ride was pretty challenging. It was the first time I really put this trainer to the test. I wasn't hitting the gears I typically hit. I attributed this to either the lack of coolness in our apartment or the lack of team environment to motivate me.

In the end I realized I had the back wound way too tight. You could actually see particles of my rear tire that had worn off due to the friction. Looks like I'll be in the market for new tires soon too!

Day 98: Wetsuits - Another Creative Way to Burn Calories

6:45AM

Pool Swim

Bummer. The water at the river was way too high and the current was crazy fast. We were standing out there just watching debris breeze by in the water. That would be a creative open water swim practice, how to dodge debris.

I wanted to get some sort of swim in so I just headed to the Y. I didn't do any structured work out I just did some random stuff to feel like I got some kind of exercise.

I've really been out of the swim lately. I've been trying to analyze what is different this year than last. I'm thinking its probably higher expectations. Last year, I was so new to swimming that all I could think about is my improvement. This year all I've been focusing on is getting through a workout. So for my last lap all I wanted to do is try to experience the joy of swimming and take in what I've accomplished. I need to start making sure I end every swim workout like this for my mental sanity.

Getting In and Out of My Wetsuit

I've forgotten how much of a workout getting in my wetsuit can be. I wanted to do this today because it took me about 10 minutes to get out of it last week which is quite unacceptable for a T1 time.

These things are tight. I think it takes me at least 20 minutes to get it on right. Its a workout in itself! I wonder how many calories I burn doing it? How long does it take everyone else to get into theirs?

Getting out of it was straightforward today. I think it took about 20 seconds. What I did was wear the suit for about 30 minutes to let it stretch out a bit. I also used a trick from last year which consisted of applying body glide to the areas that the suit gets stuck when removing. For me this means putting body glide on my wrists, forearms, and calves. I also put it on outside of the suit in the same areas to minimize any kind of friction when removing the suit.

Whew! What a workout.