Today I went to the gym, got on the Elliptical to do 60 minutes. After that exhausting hour I went to the treadmill to do 20-30 minutes. After about 2-3 minutes I bumped the speed from 3.5 to 6.0 to see if I could run. Well that only lasted about 1-2 minutes. It didn’t feel to great on the knee, maybe I’ll need to wear my knee brace for support to ease the pain when I run. Let’s just say I did a fast pace walk for 18 minutes. I headed down to the locker room to swim. On the way down I was feeling exhausted and wanted to just go home. Anyways I fought the urge and jumped in the pool. I did 10 laps to time myself for the swimming part of the triathlon. I got done in 10:56, I would need to look back at my posts but I think that is my fastest time yet. I was kind of proud of it, but it could have been faster as I hesitated at times, changed up my strokes, and took a few to many breaths. I have the day off tomorrow, long all day (4:00 am-10:30 pm) trip to Chicago. Maybe when I get home I will jump on the bike trainer for at-least 10-20 minutes.
Archive for February, 2013
The 99 Percentile
I think I am about healthy again to get back into full swing (starting Monday). I went to the gym yesterday and did an hour on the Elliptical. No problems, and on Monday when I walked on the treadmill at a fast pace I felt I could run. Starting Monday I will have exactly 13 weeks and 91 days until the Triathlon. It’s time to step up the training, with more miles running, swimming and biking while also hitting the weights hard. I found a 4-day lifting program that I modified for myself last year, that I am going to do the full extent for the next 10 weeks. Hopefully that will help me surpass my goals. Also I use the Lose It App on my phone to keep track of the calories I take in and burn. They have groups you can join for motivation and also challenge to be apart of. I was invited on there to join the March Madness Triathlon Training. I logged my minutes on my App for Running, Biking, and Swimming. It should automatically add to the challenge It will just be another motivation to maybe rank in the top 5 within all these other Triathlon Athletes. I got more Physical Therapy today and Monday, and my last doctor visit on Tuesday. I think I am ready to go full force, I can bend my knee further with little to no pain.
So after the week off due to a knee/ankle injury I finally got the OK to get back to the gym. I walked (a fast pace) on the treadmill for about 17 minutes, then jumped on the recumbent bike for 10 minutes and then swam for another 10 minutes. The walk was good, I felt maybe I could run, but keeping it slow and will gradually get back into running 1-2-3 or more miles. The bike was good too, I think sometime this week I want to take my bike shoes and go in the cycling room when there isn’t a class to see how those bikes feel on the knee. The swim, although it didn’t hurt except for a minor pain in the ankle and knee every once in a while, sucked. I guess the week off hurt my swimming time, I only did 250 yards instead of 500-1000 yards. I feel I will need to step up my Cardio activity to help build endurance and not be out of breath quickly. So that’s the Bad, but the Good is even though I was out a week with no exercising and probably eating more than I should admit, I stayed the same at 198 pounds. So at least that was a boost in my motivation to keep going!
Physical Therapy part 2
This morning I had my second round of Physical Therapy. I got on the bicycle (which it’s always fun to be on a bicycle) to do a 5 minute warm up. It felt good, not great, but good. I can still feel a little of the stretch-ness in my knee. I did some stretching and iced the knee. The P.T told me I will probably only need about 2-4 more sessions, and maybe less. I go back to the Doctor tomorrow to figure out if anything is different but it looks like I can get back into my routine of Triathlon Training. 1-week set back will hurt me wont stop me, it will only motivate me to work harder. I plan to go to the gym tonight. The P.T. said I could walk on the treadmill and bike along with my upper body lifts. I am also going to get in the pool and swim to see how that feels…plus that means I can sit in the hot tub afterwards. 
Physical Therapy
Well I went to P.T. yesterday to get the knee and ankle looked at. Got some good news, I had a feeling that maybe I did more damage than I thought I did, but no torn ligaments or any serious damage. Its more of just a strain in the knee and ankle. I can start going back to the gym and lightly get back into my Triathlon training. I will start using the treadmill to walk so that it’s comfortable and so I don’t over do it. Plus I will start doing all the upper body lifts I can, and the legs lifts I can tolerate. I will attempt to swim and see if that feels OK, and I will also enjoy the hot tub from time to time.
I will be great just getting back into the gym. I can’t wait to be fully healed so I can get back to biking and running. Although the Physical Therapist said I could probably get on a stationary bike to test out the knee and help stretch it out. She gave me some stretch exercises to do at home as well.
As some of you may know I started a book club…or BOOK PUB back towards the end of December. One of my many New Years Resolutions was to read more. The plan is to select a book to read each month and at the last Thursday of the month we can get together and discus the book at a different bar, tavern, or Pub! Last month we read The Shack (if you go back on my calendar to the last Thursday of January so can read that summary). This month we have selected a book called Picking Up Strangers, by: Bob Morgan. Below you will find my review on this book. SO IF YOU HAVEN’T READ IT YET…AND PLAN TO READ IT PLEASE STOP HERE AND COME BACK AFTER YOU HAVE READ IT.
This was a book I was more interested in that the first Book Pub book. It involved one of the things I love to do and that’s Biking. This was about a guy, Camp Preston, who planned a summer bike trip from Cali to Cape Cod. Most of the time he was alone for miles on ends and even days without seeing human life. That was until he stopped at a Coffee Shop in Nebraska. It was a little town called Sageville. In the coffee shop, a beautiful woman stopped to talk to him about his bike, his trip and other random questions. She was fascinated that he was biking such a long distance. Clara Scott was her name, a typical farm girl who had her life drawn out for her, where she would go to college, her job and where she would work. She wasn’t a huge fan of it, but that all changed when her parents died of Carbon Monoxide poisoning 4 months prior.
She decided that that she needed an adventure and after inviting Camp to stay at her place after the next day she decided to join him on his adventure. She was also an avid bike rider, but never rode across the country before, plus she kind of had a thing for Camp. She left her job without any reason, and hit the road on the long adventure. Her “boyfriend” or so he called him self, Darren Sykes, thought she was taken against her will. He was a overweight computer geek and hacked into her hard drive and email accounts to locate her. This begun his chase to find her.
After days of biking across Iowa, which part of that was through RAGBRAI. (Registers Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, something I participate in every year). The first night of RAGBRAI Camp finally made his move on Clara, which she wondered why it took her so long, but in the end she was amazed by his performance in bed and they basically did that every night after that.
In the last chapter, Darren finally catches up with them in Independence, IA. He stole his fathers gun, and was going to intimidate Clara and Camp to get Clara to go back to Sageville with him. He threaten to shoot Camp if she wouldn’t go….AND he also found out while searching her hard drive, the she had a play in her parents death. I guess Clara wanted to get out of her crummy life and killed her parents for her inheritance of 4 million dollars. She wasn’t sure how Darren found out, and tried to play it off like she didn’t do it but ended up going with Darren. Darren told her he would tell the cops if she married him and then in December they could get a divorce and split her inheritance and go their separate way. Camp called the cops but after they caught up to Darren and Clara they told the cops there was no gun and that Darren was helping Clara. This made the cops investigate Camp, who still agreed to disagree with the cops that there was a gun. The officers told him the FBI was coming to talk to him, Camp asked if he could go get lunch. The officer let him and as he left he never turned back. He continued his ride East. THE END
Now, this is where I was a little bummed. It kind of ended with no explanation on what actually happened with Darren and Clara, did the cops ever track down Camp to question him more or even if Clara and Camp ever met up again? I was hoping for a better ending, but the overall book I’d give a 4 our of 5. Mainly because it involved biking, RAGBRAI and mystery. It could have been a 5 out of 5 with a better ending and if the book wasn’t 9 LONG chapters and broke it down to like 18-25 smaller chapters. All in all it was a fast and easy read. I enjoyed it and can’t wait to pick the next book. If you have any good suggestions on a book please leave a comment below!
Damn Set back!
So, typical morning, head to my morning job at the YMCA Day Care, do some activities in the gym playing basketball. I was having fun, everything was going good and then I went jumped up and when I landed…Crack Boom Bam! My right knee locked up and and sent intense pain to the brain and when I went to move it my right ankle twisted left and right. I fell to the ground and sat there for a few seconds. Got up and limped to a chair. I figured it was just sore and would need to ice it for a bit. After about an hour the pain was still there so I went to the Doctor. After 3 hours and X-Rays I got the good and the bad new. GOOD news is there were no fractures, the bad news it I twisted it pretty good and need to stay off of it for a week. Gave me an ankle strap, knee brace and crutches. I am not a fan of being told I can’t go to the gym, or walk, or run, or BIKE, or even DRIVE! This will be a tough week as I had stuff planned, and not being able to drive effects my work as well. Hopefully I can get this back in good shape soon…I have a damn Triathlon to train for and Weight to Lose!!!
Stuck in a Rut
I feel STUCK kind of like the dog in the photo. Since my training started this year I haven been going back and forth from (starting point of 200) to 198-194. I can’t seem to shack it. In the past few years I have dropped the weight quickly between Jan-Apr. I am guessing it’s because in previous years I focused more on Cardio than lifting. Hopefully it’s just the muscle building that’s making me gain weight. I think I am going to step it up more to get in more Cardio along with my lifting. Hopefully I get get out of this rut I am stuck in to get down to my 170 goal by June 1st!
CRABFART Ride!
Yesterday was a great day. First outside bike ride of the year, and a fun one too. CRABFART or Cedar Rapids Alternative to Brr Frozen Ass Road Tour, is a fun party bicycle ride that I have done the past few years in warm, cold and snowy weather. It was nice getting out of the gym (even though I did do a 90 minute cycling class in the morning before the ride) and doing a bicycle ride outside. After having a few beers at BAD BOBBY’s BAR we headed to City Beat, Omalleys, La Cantina, Parlor City, The Shack Tavern and a few other bars. There were quite a bit of bikers out and ran into people I new at each bar. It was an overall great ride, cold…but not that cold. I think I’ll be getting Black Betty out more often now if I want to beat the 2012 record of 2500 miles and reach 3K this year!
