Well it is almost May and that means that 4 months of the year is almost over as well. So let's review my goals going into the year.
Goal #1 was to join DFW Tri Club, do a tri, learn to swim and bike and just overall improve my abilities. - So far this goal is a success. I have done two sprint tris, my swimming is improving although still a ways off for the open water swim, I am training on Saturday's with the open water swim as well, I am finally getting confident with the bike and with that I am also seeing myself getting stronger and stronger with it. Second part of this goal is now on hold. That was to do a 70.3 in 2015. I am not saying that I am not going to do it but I am saying that my confidence in the open water is shaky at best so let's work on that first before I sign up for one. No need to put any extra pressure on myself just yet.
Goal #2 was to run 2 marathons this year. So far this is a success as well. I did my first in The Cowtown and plan to end the year doing either the BCS Marathon again in College Station or do the White Rock Marathon as both are on the same weekend I can only choose one but I will get my second marathon for sure then if not before.
Goal #3 was try to get into the Marine Corp Marathon. This one is a fail as the registration was the same day as The Cowtown Marathon I just couldn't be in two places at the same time. But this is not a goal that I was putting a lot of hope on anyway due to it being truly based on luck when you register.
Goal #4 was to get my weight down to 140. Yeah that was and is a huge failure as right now my body is stuck on 163 to 165 and I haven't been able to move from those numbers all year so far no matter how much I train, sweat or limit my eating at times.
Goal #5 was to get more involved in Gateway. This is a 50/50 success and failure. Yes I got more involved in things like Equip Class but I have not gotten involved yet in the singles ministry. So a mix result here.
Goal #6 was to learn something new once a week. Again a 50/50 success and failure. I am learning new things for my triathlon training, hazmat training for work and even learned how to cook salmon but all of that started probably back in February so it started slow and really hasn't been consistent yet.
Goal #7 was to keep my mind focused on my training goals. That has been a success. My training is strong and continues to be strong as well.
Goal #8 was to get a grip on my anxiety in all areas. 50/50 here. My General Anxiety is getting better but it still effects me at times. My Social Anxiety is still pretty strong and while I am trying to get more involved with groups of people I still find myself preferring small groups or no groups at all. But still working on getting control over both of these so hope is still on the horizon.
Goal #9 was to get closer to God. I will never feel I can get as close to God as I should be. But I feel that ever since I started attending Gateway Church I am finding myself getting more and more into wanting to get closer to God and find myself so excited for every Equip Class or weekend service so if nothing else I am finding myself getting more and more excited about wanting to get closer to God.
Goal #10 was to find a couple of people who think I am a complete bullshitter and that these goals of mine are worthless due to them not believing that I could achieve any of these even if they fell from the sky and hit me. I still got one person in my life that fills this role but dang it I just cannot find the other person. Why must people like me so much. It turns out that finding that other person or two is harder than I thought it would be. So this is a failure at the moment.
My theme for the year was "Going beyond what I have ever done before in my life. To prove to myself that I can do the impossible." And that is a success because I am doing things that even last year I never thought I would or could do. The impossible is quickly being the possible. So I need to start finding more impossibles for my life. Skydiving anyone.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
Easter Ride
Easter this year was fantastic to say the least. First going to Friday service at Gateway was extremely great. I loved Fellowship Church but am extremely thankful every night that God led me to Gateway Church. I cannot tell you how much I have grown in just the short amount of time there. But anyway long story short by going to church on Friday it freed up my weekend for lots of training.
So on Sunday I went to my second favorite coffeehouse in The Design District. From there I quickly changed my plans and from Trinity Park in Fort Worth to Katy Trail ended up being the location I went to. I started off with a bike ride. Riding the Katy was fun but also for the first couple of miles a little more stressful and slow due to the many runners and walkers who were taking up the full lane. Now I know how bikers feel when I am running the Katy although I do tend to run to the sides of the path anyway so I am usually not their problem. Or at least I hope not. From there I jumped on the side road at the end of the path and headed to Mockingbird and SMU. And wouldn't you know it church on the campus let out about the same time I hit the campus and there were even more people on all the path options I had. But still managed to get around them and off to visit the campus for the bike perspective was awesome. This was purely a easy ride for me so taking selfies was part of the plan. I am finally getting myself use to taking these selfies. I am starting to become a pro at self promotion or selfies as the rest of y'all call it. But hey if I don't promote myself who will. When and visited a lot of the campus and really got a fresh look. Extremely pleasant time for me. That ended up being right now 17 miles give or take some. I haven't uploaded my data yet.
Got my run on next and started off real fresh and real ready to run. And that lasted for a mile. The rest of my run was good and with no back tightness so that is something I am happy with. Now my running shoes I cannot say the same thing for. I have been having a love hate relationship with my current pair of shoes. I love Brooks but I tell you the fall of 2013 have not been their best time frame for shoes with me. It is making me think of switching brands for this summer and beyond for sure. I just cannot have it be a 50 / 50 chance on whether or not I am going to be having a good run. That is just too risky for me and not good for my body as well. I at least did buy three pairs of running shoes from The Cowtown running expo that Luke's Locker were selling for $25 per pair if you bought three or more pairs. And I was glad to be able to buy three pairs for less than what it would cost me to buy just one pair. So I may have to bring one of those pairs out. I was hoping to save them until the fall but that might not be the case anymore. Saving my ankles and knees should be the most important concern for me.
Today I ran 6 miles and the back tightness came back but I still managed to run 6 in a decent time. Not a time I am proud of but about the time I did my first ever 10k in. So that is strange but it also showed me that I need to just run 6 miles a day for the work week so I can get in my 30 miles of running and hopefully between getting myself stronger in the run and also stronger in the core exercises that it will benefit me for the long haul.
My swim on the other hand tonight was horrible and very short. Tonight I finally realized why triathlons start with the swim and not end with it. After running 6 miles and doing about 45 minutes of core workouts I finally got into the pool. Only to swim one lap and then my left leg starts cramping up and from that point it was hard for me to get my kicking down because everything I would start the swim the leg would start to cramp up. So tonights swim was quick but very painful. And I learned a lesson. Try to swim first IF possible and end on the run. That I will still need to work on.
Tomorrow is a swimming lesson and I will then head over to Katy Trail and get in about 6 miles before heading home. I miss my Katy so seeing her these past few days is great. I just can't be with her as much as either of us would like. But tomorrow I shall be with her and then end the night at Eatzi's. Until then...
So on Sunday I went to my second favorite coffeehouse in The Design District. From there I quickly changed my plans and from Trinity Park in Fort Worth to Katy Trail ended up being the location I went to. I started off with a bike ride. Riding the Katy was fun but also for the first couple of miles a little more stressful and slow due to the many runners and walkers who were taking up the full lane. Now I know how bikers feel when I am running the Katy although I do tend to run to the sides of the path anyway so I am usually not their problem. Or at least I hope not. From there I jumped on the side road at the end of the path and headed to Mockingbird and SMU. And wouldn't you know it church on the campus let out about the same time I hit the campus and there were even more people on all the path options I had. But still managed to get around them and off to visit the campus for the bike perspective was awesome. This was purely a easy ride for me so taking selfies was part of the plan. I am finally getting myself use to taking these selfies. I am starting to become a pro at self promotion or selfies as the rest of y'all call it. But hey if I don't promote myself who will. When and visited a lot of the campus and really got a fresh look. Extremely pleasant time for me. That ended up being right now 17 miles give or take some. I haven't uploaded my data yet.
Got my run on next and started off real fresh and real ready to run. And that lasted for a mile. The rest of my run was good and with no back tightness so that is something I am happy with. Now my running shoes I cannot say the same thing for. I have been having a love hate relationship with my current pair of shoes. I love Brooks but I tell you the fall of 2013 have not been their best time frame for shoes with me. It is making me think of switching brands for this summer and beyond for sure. I just cannot have it be a 50 / 50 chance on whether or not I am going to be having a good run. That is just too risky for me and not good for my body as well. I at least did buy three pairs of running shoes from The Cowtown running expo that Luke's Locker were selling for $25 per pair if you bought three or more pairs. And I was glad to be able to buy three pairs for less than what it would cost me to buy just one pair. So I may have to bring one of those pairs out. I was hoping to save them until the fall but that might not be the case anymore. Saving my ankles and knees should be the most important concern for me.
Today I ran 6 miles and the back tightness came back but I still managed to run 6 in a decent time. Not a time I am proud of but about the time I did my first ever 10k in. So that is strange but it also showed me that I need to just run 6 miles a day for the work week so I can get in my 30 miles of running and hopefully between getting myself stronger in the run and also stronger in the core exercises that it will benefit me for the long haul.
My swim on the other hand tonight was horrible and very short. Tonight I finally realized why triathlons start with the swim and not end with it. After running 6 miles and doing about 45 minutes of core workouts I finally got into the pool. Only to swim one lap and then my left leg starts cramping up and from that point it was hard for me to get my kicking down because everything I would start the swim the leg would start to cramp up. So tonights swim was quick but very painful. And I learned a lesson. Try to swim first IF possible and end on the run. That I will still need to work on.
Tomorrow is a swimming lesson and I will then head over to Katy Trail and get in about 6 miles before heading home. I miss my Katy so seeing her these past few days is great. I just can't be with her as much as either of us would like. But tomorrow I shall be with her and then end the night at Eatzi's. Until then...
Monday, April 14, 2014
The Caveman Report
Well here is my report for my second sprint triathlon. I was extremely happy with my results even though on paper I shouldn't be. My total time for the tri was actually about 3 minutes slower. But in the end the areas I wanted to improve I did. So...
I get to the race around 5 AM because I am always early for any race I am in and glad I was. I got into the transition area sooner and that allowed me time to get my gear set out, allowed me a chance to go inside and look over the pool and back to the transition area to get my final gear that I believe I would need for at least the pool event. I get my pool stuff ready, finalize my bike gear and my running gear to help me speed through the transitions when those two times could up. My bib # is 635 which means I really got time for a nap because it will be about an hour before I actually will get my turn in the pool. While waiting we hear the great news. It is raining outside and strong winds. Because after all a triathlon with Stan in it can't be complete without extremely bad weather. Waiting is hard because I get anxious about the swim. I am very glad it is the first event but it is still hard to wait till it is your turn. Finally I get in.
The pool event IMO was a huge success. I am still having troubles with my overall swim form even though I can swim and breath perfectly well while training. Once you put a clock to me I just seem to forget about all my training. Strange but I think I can work though that for sure with just some more lessons. Remember I have only been swimming for a little over 4 months now. And for The Caveman I did not use my snorkel at all. Now before we all say great, way to go Stan and congrats. Let me say that I assumed by walking into the pool area and seeing the depths from the first row that all other rows would follow along. Well just like my assumptions in relationships lets just say I was wrong. It only got deeper as the lanes got further along the first row. Damn assumption. You only lose by assuming it. BUT at the same time I had a very good swim for me and compared to St. Patricks Tri. For the St. Patricks try my time was 20:56 with an avg. speed of 6:59 per 100 meters. Well for The Caveman I cut that time down by a third and ended with a time of 13:25 and an avg. speed of 4:53 per 100 meters. That was goal number 1 and that was achieved so I was like I said extremely happy. And I did not panic or had a panic attack as well. So there is hope for me after all.
After the pool I get ready for my bike ride. I put on my biking and running cloths, get the bike and off we go. For a change unlike last time I am actually competing with other athletes. So that alone makes me very happy because no matter how good or how bad an athlete you may be you always want to compete against others. So I hop on my bike and off I go for the 14 mile ride. I take the first 7 miles strategically with me focusing on keeping up my speed even with the wet roads while trying to past the slow rides but not going after the ones with speed just yet. Once I complete my first 7 miles my strategy chances to getting my bike up to my max speed while now going after all bikers regardless of speed in front of me. This paid off as my bike speed went from 12.2 mph during the St. Patrick to 13.0 mph in The Caveman while still be a ton slower than the better athletes with their speeds probably about 10 miles or more per hour faster than that. And to be fair I do average around 14.7 mph on good road conditions so if that were the case yesterday I think I could have top 15.5 to 16 mph. But the most important number for me was I was only a minute slower but had an additional 2 miles more in distance. Point taken and part two of my goal for this race was also a success. And again there is hope for me after all.
And here is where I ended up losing time compared to my last race. It took about 7 minutes SLOWER than my last race. And to top that off I was only averaging 13 minutes per mile on my run. Heck I know people twice my age that can run a lot faster than that. But to be fair once I got off my body pretty much every part of my body from lower back down were in major pain. To the point that walking it completely crossed my mind a couple of times. I have been having lower back tightness problems recently and that sure as heck did not help me. But what really hurt me was the fact that I gave it my all on the bike and left nothing for the run. Major mistake and very dumb for a runner to commit as well. A runner is the last person that should left nothing in the tank for their run. I was trained better than that with some pretty good coaches. And that is a mistake that cost me major time differences between my two triathlons. I will say that I will not make that mistake again for sure. But on the positive side my upper part of my body about the lower back felt great and I did meet a great guy on the path that we talked back and fourth and sarcastically about how slow we were. But for the most part my run was wet, painful and very disappointing. For this event this was a major fail.
I did at least beat the heaviest of rain. It came down as soon as I was getting my gear put back up and ready to go.
That is it. Overall I was disappointed when I saw the total time initially but when I started to really break down the numbers I realized that I actually achieved all that I wanted to in this race and that while the end time wasn't great the race itself was for me. I just need to start focusing on all three events and not just two of them and leave the running to the side. I cannot allow another race go by where it would appear that running was my weakest link instead of my strongest event.
I get to the race around 5 AM because I am always early for any race I am in and glad I was. I got into the transition area sooner and that allowed me time to get my gear set out, allowed me a chance to go inside and look over the pool and back to the transition area to get my final gear that I believe I would need for at least the pool event. I get my pool stuff ready, finalize my bike gear and my running gear to help me speed through the transitions when those two times could up. My bib # is 635 which means I really got time for a nap because it will be about an hour before I actually will get my turn in the pool. While waiting we hear the great news. It is raining outside and strong winds. Because after all a triathlon with Stan in it can't be complete without extremely bad weather. Waiting is hard because I get anxious about the swim. I am very glad it is the first event but it is still hard to wait till it is your turn. Finally I get in.
The pool event IMO was a huge success. I am still having troubles with my overall swim form even though I can swim and breath perfectly well while training. Once you put a clock to me I just seem to forget about all my training. Strange but I think I can work though that for sure with just some more lessons. Remember I have only been swimming for a little over 4 months now. And for The Caveman I did not use my snorkel at all. Now before we all say great, way to go Stan and congrats. Let me say that I assumed by walking into the pool area and seeing the depths from the first row that all other rows would follow along. Well just like my assumptions in relationships lets just say I was wrong. It only got deeper as the lanes got further along the first row. Damn assumption. You only lose by assuming it. BUT at the same time I had a very good swim for me and compared to St. Patricks Tri. For the St. Patricks try my time was 20:56 with an avg. speed of 6:59 per 100 meters. Well for The Caveman I cut that time down by a third and ended with a time of 13:25 and an avg. speed of 4:53 per 100 meters. That was goal number 1 and that was achieved so I was like I said extremely happy. And I did not panic or had a panic attack as well. So there is hope for me after all.
After the pool I get ready for my bike ride. I put on my biking and running cloths, get the bike and off we go. For a change unlike last time I am actually competing with other athletes. So that alone makes me very happy because no matter how good or how bad an athlete you may be you always want to compete against others. So I hop on my bike and off I go for the 14 mile ride. I take the first 7 miles strategically with me focusing on keeping up my speed even with the wet roads while trying to past the slow rides but not going after the ones with speed just yet. Once I complete my first 7 miles my strategy chances to getting my bike up to my max speed while now going after all bikers regardless of speed in front of me. This paid off as my bike speed went from 12.2 mph during the St. Patrick to 13.0 mph in The Caveman while still be a ton slower than the better athletes with their speeds probably about 10 miles or more per hour faster than that. And to be fair I do average around 14.7 mph on good road conditions so if that were the case yesterday I think I could have top 15.5 to 16 mph. But the most important number for me was I was only a minute slower but had an additional 2 miles more in distance. Point taken and part two of my goal for this race was also a success. And again there is hope for me after all.
And here is where I ended up losing time compared to my last race. It took about 7 minutes SLOWER than my last race. And to top that off I was only averaging 13 minutes per mile on my run. Heck I know people twice my age that can run a lot faster than that. But to be fair once I got off my body pretty much every part of my body from lower back down were in major pain. To the point that walking it completely crossed my mind a couple of times. I have been having lower back tightness problems recently and that sure as heck did not help me. But what really hurt me was the fact that I gave it my all on the bike and left nothing for the run. Major mistake and very dumb for a runner to commit as well. A runner is the last person that should left nothing in the tank for their run. I was trained better than that with some pretty good coaches. And that is a mistake that cost me major time differences between my two triathlons. I will say that I will not make that mistake again for sure. But on the positive side my upper part of my body about the lower back felt great and I did meet a great guy on the path that we talked back and fourth and sarcastically about how slow we were. But for the most part my run was wet, painful and very disappointing. For this event this was a major fail.
I did at least beat the heaviest of rain. It came down as soon as I was getting my gear put back up and ready to go.
That is it. Overall I was disappointed when I saw the total time initially but when I started to really break down the numbers I realized that I actually achieved all that I wanted to in this race and that while the end time wasn't great the race itself was for me. I just need to start focusing on all three events and not just two of them and leave the running to the side. I cannot allow another race go by where it would appear that running was my weakest link instead of my strongest event.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
OWS and Bike
Saturday comes and I am completely not feeling like getting out of bed. I mean there is nothing in the world that could get in out of bed until I realize there was one thing. The DFW Tri Club group swim and bike ride. And I got my wetsuit on Friday so really why would I miss the opportunity to use that beast. I get there a little late. And let me say that I hate being late and I really hate being late to something that I live less than 5 minutes away from as well. Seriously. But when mother nature calls she doesn't less a message. So I got to the OWS like 2 minutes late.
Coach Lyndsi is coaching us newbies in the OWS arena. And there is no one more green than me on this. But she is the coach that can get me doing things I would not do on my own. My wetsuit worked great I must say. I on the other hand was only so-so. I just for whatever reason cannot get myself to exhale in the water. I am holding my breath which is a huge mistake for sure. But I get my face in the water and all I see is brown and the thought of exhaling literally just flies by me and the thought of holding it comes in instead. This is how great Coach Lyndsi is. She realizes that getting me and Monty to go out further is a waste of her breath so she then has both of us swimming parallel to the shore thus the water will not get any deeper so we can focus on our swimming without the fear of being in a place of major un-comfort. Monty and I must be special because we were separated from the rest of the group. :) But in the end every hour in the water does produce positive results just maybe not as much as what I am seeing from my pool training. But in time I will be just as good in the open water as I am in the pool or at least hoping to be in the pool.
OWS is over and group ride is next. This ride was by far my best ride yet. I am seeing tons of improvement with each ride but Saturday's ride I saw the most improvement from any one event to the other. We rode 16.6 miles and in that ride my legs only had trouble just once. For me that is huge. I have seen my legs improve with each ride and stronger as well. But I haven't seen me go that distance with the results I had on this ride. The group ride was only my second time to ride with the club with my first ride being not good at White Rock. They were much better than me at that time and I felt sorry for the coach who had to stick with me because I wasn't comfortable with my bike during that first ride and was really slow. But this time I kept up with the group and had a great time doing it. Biking is quickly becoming an event that should not hurt me in the final standings in my future races. I am also seeing myself getting more and more at ease with my bike during down hills and keeping my hands off the brakes to slow myself down. Didn't think that time would ever get here.
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