Battling

Another rough early morning, but I made it through it. I suppose it was kind of a blessing being awoke with some major stomach pains at 4:30AM. It allowed me to do what I was forced to do, then shave, get dressed, feed the dog, let the dog out and then head for work around 5:30AM. I was in the office at 6:20AM this morning and thus got a very early start on the day.

So yes, I am still dealing with some lingering stomach issues. It is really quite bizarre, I wake up anywhere between 2AM and 5AM, take care of business (not pretty business either), then I am fine for the rest of the day. I have been dealing with some indigestion, heartburn and bloating, all of which have made me uncomfortable, but not so much that it is crippling me. I have a doctors appointment for 3:45PM this afternoon and I am hoping that he can shed some light on my stomach issues. I just want to be able to get a full nights sleep with out the half hour interruptions I have been dealing with since last Tuesday.

On the training front, I did manage to get a run in at lunch today and I felt pretty good. It took a bit of internal coaxing to actually get myself out there....the weather is absolute rubbish (rainy and cold). I went out pretty easy and only for 4 miles. Being I hadn't run in five days and fearing some issues, I chose to go relative slow to start ( I usually do the first mile pretty fast and then slow to a steady pace). When I was all done I was happy that I went out and got it done.

Today: 4 mile run, 31:52 (7:58/mile), 155 PM - Raining, cold and dreary. Glad to finally get out and move my legs a bit. I'm looking forward to a week of good work outs!

That is it for today. I need to get some work done. Oh geez, I can't believe that Ironman Arizona is a mere 51 weeks away!!!

Simply.....Sick

It is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I am still dealing with a stomach bug that has limited my daily activity significantly. Aside from some work around the house, I haven't done anything else. I haven't even attempted to run, bike or swim because I feel so weak. I think I have lost about five pounds over the past week which is amazing when you consider Thanksgiving dinner occurred smack in the middle.

Anyway, I am hoping that tonight will be a good night and I can get back to business tomorrow. If not, I am going to have to go to the doctor and find out what the heck is wrong with me.

Bacon Pizza and Regurgitation

Last night sucked! It all started out well and good. My wife decided that instead of cooking we would just order in pizza. I was psyched because that meant I could order bacon as a topping on the pie and basically be in heaven. I proceeded to eat two slices, but wasn't feeling all that well at the conclusion of the second slice. Something just wasn't right, but I didn't think anything of it.

Following dinner I tasked with getting the girls in the tub and shower and making sure they were clean. Not a big deal except for the fact that my stomach wasn't feeling all that great...I soldiered on and got them clean as a whistle, into their pajamas and ready for bed.

By 8:30PM they were both in bed and asleep (thank God!) and my wife was down on the treadmill getting a run in. I was going to go down and watch TV with her, but I just wasn't feeling any better so I opted to just hang out in our bedroom and chill out. Then around around 9:30PM I started feeling horrible and that's when it happened....

Bacon pizza is my favorite type of pizza. It is so much different from the standard fare, it is a bit out of the ordinary. I savored every bite of it at dinner.

....the bacon pizza decided that it didn't enjoy my stomach as much as it normally does, so it reversed direction and ended up in the toilet. Yes, what tasted so good going down was absolutely disgusting coming back up, so much so that the thought of eating it again brings back pangs of nausea. The rest of the night was no picnic as I tossed and turned in bed and made another visit or two to the bathroom to take care of business.

I woke up this morning feeling absolutely beat, so tired and my stomach was aching. Thank goodness that I planned to work from home today, because I was not in any shape to be doing anything strenuous. Needless to say I didn't run or bike today, nor do I have any plans to do so. In retrospect, I'm not sure what made me so sick, maybe it was the turkey sandwich at lunch, or possibly it was the bacon pizza that I so love. Well, whatever it was I think it is gone now, but I am going to take it easy at dinner tonight....I do not want to go through that again.

That is about it for now, time to make dinner for me in the girls. I do hope to get in a run tomorrow morning before heading out for Thanksgiving with the relatives.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Catching Up

Aside from yesterdays extremely brief post, I haven't really put anything up here in a week. It isn't that things haven't been happening, it is more about my lack of time to post anything. The past week has actually been a pretty good week, I'll do my best to recap it now while attempting to keep it somewhat interesting.

I finished up last week with a day off from running on Thursday and then a relatively quick run on Friday. Friday was also the day that the crap hit the fan with some financial issues that caused utter chaos in our household. To state it simply, numbers were not correct, things were said and no one was happy. I ended up working late and thus didn't get home until 6:30PM. Not a fun day. On a positive note, everyone was happy prior to bedtime and I was able to catch up on Thursday night TV that I DVR'd, so I had that going for me.

The next morning the family was up early and in the car bound for NYC for my nieces 4th birthday party. We piled into my wife's rental car....oh, BTW, she committed deer homicide about two weeks prior and we are now driving a Suzuki Forenza until hers is fixed. Yes, it is a sweet ride that has absolutely no redeeming value aside from it will take you from point A to point B (translation - no DVD player, no reclining second row seats, no fun for the kids and thus no fun for the parents). This made for a long and whiny ride into the city as both or our girls were constantly asking if we were almost there (just like in the movies, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"). We did eventually make it in successfully and the girls had a great time at the princess tea party. All in all, we all had a good time, caught up with my wife's family and probably left for home around 4PM.

When we got home, I did have all of the best intentions of either getting out for a quick run or going to the basement and spinning for an hour or so, but it just didn't happen. Instead I made my wife and I hamburgers topped with pork roll and fried eggs. They were awesome and mostly definitely added a few extra points to our cholesterol levels.

Sunday was a beautiful day. My lovely wife had to run some errands so I was on Mr. Mom duty until she got back. I don't really recall what me and the girls did, but it probably revolved around playing in the basement. Once she got home, I cut the lawn real quick and then headed out for a run. I really didn't have any plans on how far I was going to go. I just popped outside and started going. It was so nice out, sunny, ~55F, and no real wind. I felt pretty good so I kept my pace a decent level. Even when climbing a pretty good sized hill near me I was chugging up it at such a solid pace that cyclist came rode up next to me and commented on how fast I was going....he soon pulled off before hitting the really steep part (pansy!). It ended up being a seven mile run, and I enjoyed ever minute of it.

Yesterday I took the day off to spend with my oldest daughter (DD1) who is off from school. So after dropping my little one off at Pre-K, I surprised DD1 with a day of ice skating, something she has never done before. We headed to the closest rink, rented her some skates and headed out on to the ice. As is the case for anyone trying to skate for the first time, it was a bit, well, slippery for her. She did a bit of wall grabbing, she did some "walking" and she did some slipping and flailing. After about 15 minutes she started to pull on some roller skating experience and started to much more confident. After 30 minutes she was laughing and having fun, joking around with me. After an hour she decided to "sneak" on to the ice by herself and do a lap around the rink without holding on to the side boards (she made it all the way around with out falling or holding on to anything). She couldn't have been more proud and I was proud of her as well. Our day of skating came to an end when she took a pretty hard fall on her tushy and promptly told me that she wanted to go home, "I want to go home, I want to go home right now!" Despite the fall that hurt her pride more than anything else, she (and I) had a great time.

[Time for me to be a corny proud father] The entire time that were were at the rink, and as here skating improved with each lap around the ice, I couldn't stop just watching her. Here I was with my little, big girl, just she and I doing something for first time. She was having so much fun learning to skate and being her funny/goofy self, while I just stared at her with a big ole grin on my face. She is fearless, she is brave, she is daring, she is happy, she is funny, she is perfect. I have said it before in a previous post, but I don't think it can be said too much. It is important to cherish the special days you spend with your children. They don't happen too often and they shouldn't be taken for granted. I am doing my best to take advantage of these days because I know at some point in time they will happen much less often.

That about sums up my week...oh yeah, and I friggin' signed up for Ironman Arizona!!!! Here is what my training looked like:

Friday: 4.5 mile run, 34:26 (7:40/mile), 163 BPM - Ran with Chris and for whatever reason my heart rate was through the roof. We had a good run and as usual, Chris pushed me pretty hard for the last mile or two so that we could get our pace under 7:40.

Saturday: Off....but really should have done something since I pigged out on bagels, pizza and a big ass awesome hamburger!

Sunday: 7 mile run, 54:57 (7:51/mile), 164 BPM - Awesome day, awesome run, felt great! This run included a pretty solid hill where my pace dropped to 8:20 for a mile, but I still managed to keep my pace down. Probably ran faster than I should have, but I didn't want to waste how I felt.

Monday: 9.17 mile bike, 30:37 (18.0 MPH), 139 BPM, 87.1 RPMs - My legs were tired and sore from Sunday, but based on my food intake from the day (and days prior...McDonald's for lunch), I really needed to ride for a bit to burn off some calories. I was on the trainer and ended up watching Ironman Monaco 70.3. Good ride, could have gone longer but dinner was ready.

Today: 4.33 mile run, 33:21 (7:42/mile), 162 BPM - I had all intentions to take it easy today but my legs just started going and off I went. I slowed a bit by mile three but then picked it up for the last 1.33 miles. My heartrate is too high, I should probably slow down a bit.

That is it for now. Aloha!

Ironman Arizona 2010 - I'M IN!!!!!

Short post today because I am hanging with my oldest daughter. I just had to say that I am officially registered for Ironman Arizona 2010. It is all real now and I can't believe it. I was shaking when I hit the "Submit" button. I will post later on tonight....it has been a good week or so since I last posted, a lot of good workouts, good times with the family and good week of work.

One last time.....HOLY CRAP, I AM DOING

IRONMAN ARIZONA IN 2010!!!!

Trainer: Round 2

This will be a quick post...short on time but want to get it in here anyway. I wasn't able to run during lunch yesterday so I decided I would hope on the bike (now firmly affixed to my indoor trainer) and do my best to ride for an hour. It just so happens that "The Office" is on for two hours straight on Tuesday nights (TBS), so that gave me something to watch while riding (and also making me laugh). I went in with a different mindset, I was going to find the right gear where I could somewhat comfortably keep my cadence right around 90 RPMs. What ever speed that gave me was fine.

The long and short of my night on the trainer...it went much better than the first night. Here is what I have learned thus far about riding on the trainer:

• I need to have a fan set up in front of me when riding because I get super hot and sweat like a pig...it is really gross
• I have to have something on the TV that is either extremely funny or super motivational
• Getting into the aero position is going to take some practice on the trainer, much different than riding outside (I need to pick up a riser block or make one)
• I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, how riding this through the off-season is going to benefit me come Spring
• I look forward to working out with my wife, she on the treadmill and me on the trainer (we were working out together the first night and it was pretty cool)
• Having 1 - 2 bottles of water on hand and a towel are crutial to making it through a workout

Tuesday (ride): 15 miles, 50:18 (17.9 MPH), 142 BPM, 87.7 PRMs - I found the right gear and rode comfortably for 50 minutes. I know that I got a good workout in because I was drenched in sweat and my legs were the slightest bit wobbly after. A good night!

Today (run): 4.33 miles, 33:29 (7:44/mile), 155 BPM - I ended up running with Rob today. I happened to run in to him about a half mile into my run. I think I have mentioned him before on her, but he came in second in the NJ State Triathlon (Sprint) this past year. He is recovering from a bit of a calf injury so he isn't running too hard, but still fast enough to give me a good run. Good pace and my heartrate was very low for a change! Yea!

That is about it for now. I guess I need to find a pool to swim in soon. Swimming is by far my weakest discipline and I am totally procrastinating. I am thinking that I will try to do a free month at the local YMCA for December and then join HealthQuest in January....maybe work out a deal or something. Hasta luego!

Trainer & Race

I will take this moment to announce that training for my first Ironman is going to be really friggin' tough this winter. I used my Kurt Kinetic Road Machine for the first time on Friday night and it was TOUGH!!! Granted, I probably didn't ride it like I was supposed to, I probably rode in too low a gear, I probably should have had a fan in front of me cooling me down, I probably should have had a plan in mind. Unfortunately I didn't have any of the above and instead just decided that I was going to climb on it and try to bang out twenty miles in an hour. Piece of cake....nope!

In short, I was struggling to maintain 20 MPH and 80 RPMs while riding. When I ride outside on a relatively flat route, I can easily maintain 20 MPH and 90+ RPMs. This is not the case on a trainer. It wasn't until the end of my session that I realized I should drop to a larger rear gear and increase my cadence to try and get where I needed to be instead of trying to muscle a smaller gear and keep the cadence up. It was like learning to ride all over again. I ended up doing 13 miles in 41:55 (avg speed 18.6 MPH). I will definitely be a bit wiser the next time I climb aboard.

Saturday I took the day off from training because of a few things, I had my daughters last soccer game, then a post-game pizza party with her team, and lastly because I had a 5K race on Sunday. It was nice to chill out for most of the day, not something that I am accustomed to doing. Really quick, the pizza party was great and I believe everyone had a good time. I was surprised to hear that a lot of the parents of the girls on my team want me to coach their girls in the spring. This really meant a lot to me. I coach my daughters soccer team for a few reasons: first and foremost to spend some time with her, second to be involved in a sport that I really love, third to share my passion of the sport with young girls in hopes that they too will learn to love it and have fun playing it. The fact that just about all of the girls would like to play again in the spring and have me coach them means that I am doing what I set out to do. It isn't always the case when this happens, and I am really happy that it has.

Sunday morning, after vacuuming the house (yes, you are welcome dear), I headed over to Delaware Valley College to run a 5K, the proceeds go to support the cross country team. I only heard about this race two weeks ago via IamTri.com and decided to run it. I was surprised that there were only about 70 - 80 people that showed up to run the race. This meant one of two things, I would finish near the top 10 or they were all good runners and I would be hanging on to finish in the middle. As it turns out, there was a handful of "good" runners there and I am pretty sure that I finished in the top 10....I know that I did beat the first female finisher. The race was on the schools cross country course which meant it was run on rutted out grass and had some changes in elevation. Despite a pretty solid first mile (~6:50), I couldn't hold on to that pace and I slowed over the next two miles. I did manage to pass a youngun' with about a half mile to go and held him off to finish in 21:41 (6:59/mile pace). I really wanted to get closer to 21 minutes flat, but based on the course I don't think I could have done it. I was happy with my race.

Weekend recap:
Friday: 13 mile bike, 41:55, 18.6MPH, 153 BPM - very rough training session on trainer, heartrate was way too high. I will get better/smarter the next time around.

Saturday: Off day

Sunday: 3.1 mile (5K) race, 21:41 (6:59/mile) - tough course but ran it hard and finished strong.

Today: 4.05 miles, 33:00, (8:10/mile), 154 BPM - a nice easy run today to work out any residual soreness remaining in my legs from yesterdays race. Did encounter a crazy driver in the back roads of Whitehouse Station....drivers can be such pricks!

I hope to have a solid week of training this week, get out an run three or four days and get on the trainer at least two. Ironman Arizona is this weekend, I will hopefully be watching it online!

Ida Be Sick of This Rain Real Soon

I am sick of enduring my fourth straight day of rain. I can't believe that I am also going to have to be a part of the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida for a second time in a matter of days. I was in Atlanta for a business meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday; I went for a run when I arrived and ended up doing something closer to surfing and less like running. At least I think I was at wet if not wetter than if I was actually in an ocean. To try to describe the scene could never do it justice, so I will simply say I was as wet as one can possibly be.

It was great to get home on Wednesday and pick up my girls from school. I think they were both really excited to see me, I know I was psyched to see them.

I really wish that I had more to say right now, but I'm just not feeling it. Probably because I have some much work in front of me. Maybe sometime this weekend I can think of something really awesome to write about....or not. Who knows?!?!?!?

Here is what I have been up to thus far this week....also, had some fun with Photoshop last night and thought I would upload this picture. Yes, it is me behind the mask.

Tuesday: 6.74 miles, 53:42 (7:58/mile), 155BPM - This run took place in Atlanta during the onslaught of Tropical Storm Ida. Around two miles in I just decided to splash and splosh my my through it and have fun. I made a wrong turn and ended up running a bit longer than I wanted but that was OK.

Wednesday: 4 miles, 33:11 (8:18/mile), 156 BPM - a 6:30AM run in Atlanta...I wasn't feeling all that great. The weather was still crap and I was tired from the night before. I am happy that I did get out and get it done though.

Thursday: 4.3 miles, 34:24 (8:00/mile) - Back in Whitehouse Station, I was a little tired due to 4.5 hours of sleep the night before. I started OK, got slower, then picked it up at th end.

Today: Haven't done anything yet....I am hoping to try out my Kurt Kinetic Road Machine tonight and do a 60+ minute ride while catching up on NBC's Thursday night line-up.

Ciao!

Indecision

Indecision...that is the word of the day. I am working from home today which means that I have the ability to either run or ride. The only problem is that I have run/rode six out of the past seven days and I really need a rest (last rest day was last Tuesday). Being that I really don't have the ability to ride all that often because of lack of light, lack of heat, or lack of motivation, today would be the best day to head out and ride a bit (sunny and 66F). Problem is that my legs are a bit heavy and my lower back in a bit of pain. Well, the smart Jamie made the decision to rest as I originally planned.*

So, it looks like I am going to take it easy today and then run the next few days. I am heading to Atlanta tomorrow and I hope to get a run in soon after getting to my hotel. There is just something about running in a different city that is exciting. I haven't been to Atlanta in a long time and I am looking forward to exploring it a bit.

Friday - 4.61 miles, 35:23 (7:41/mile), 161 BPM - Ran with Chris and it was a quick one...our splits were: 7:55, 7:56, 7:43 (up hill), 7:26, 7:12 (last .61 miles). Amazingly I felt really good.

Saturday - Ride - 17.57 miles, 1:01:47 (17.1 MPH), 137 BPM - Had the chance to take the bike and it was fun. I didn't ride all that hard but I did ride a bit of a hard route. My pace was slowed because the bridge to NJ was closed, which I didn't find out until I was on the other side. Then I had a good climb back up from the river.

Sunday - 9.57 miles, 1:16:25 (7:59/mile), 161 BPM - I really wanted to run 10 but I also wanted to get home and see my family. I pretty much kept my pace at 8:00/mile with the only exceptions being steep climbs or descents. My last .57 miles was at 7:36/mile.

*There is a pretty decent chance that I am going to throw the trainer wheel on my bike and try out my Kurt Kinetic trainer tonight....so maybe a night of total rest just isn't in the cards. We'll see.

Maintaing the Status Quo

Training the past few weeks has been pretty good. Actually, training has gotten to be fun again now that my pace has gotten significantly better. I attribute this change in my running times solely to the cooler temperatures. Despite this rejuvenation in my desire to get out and run more, I still feel like I am running just to run and not necessarily running with a purpose....not that it is a bad thing. I am so used to training for something, a short or long term goal, that I haven't really just run for the sake of it. There is something that is freeing about throwing on my running shoes at lunchtime and not knowing how far or how fast I am going to go. I just decide on left or right and I run until I feel like turning around.

So, I guess these days I am all about just keeping on keeping on or as they say in that High School Musical song, I just have to "stick to the status quo". Note: I have a 6 year old daughter who loves "High School Musical", thus I have been forced to watch it, and its sequels numerous times. I am not proud that I know every song from each movie as well as most of the lyrics, but it is a fact of life and I am OK with the rest of the world knowing this.







Now on to more interesting and less embarrassing things:

Tuesday - Day off - Had to work from home and couldn't convince my 6 year old to run with me (I would have thrown her in the jogging stroller). We did go for a short bike ride to Rite-Aid to pick up some candy for some benefit fairs I had to work. Other than that the only running that happened was when my daughter begged me to let her try running on the treadmill in our basement....it was hysterical. Her top speed was around 4 MPH, although I did crank it up to 6 MPH and stayed behind her in case she went down.

Wednesday - 4.3 miles, 35:07 (8:09/mile), 160 BPM - This was a 6:30AM run that I just had the hardest time completing. I am not a morning runner, at least yesterday morning I wasn't.

Today - 4.34 miles, 34:05 (7:52/mile), 163 BPM - Ran with Chris and as usual he was pushing the pace for the last two miles or so. We saw a girl who works in our building and he was determined to beat her back. We did beat her....thanks to a 7:27 last mile. Bastard!

I am looking forward to a relaxing night tonight, watching Community, Parks & Recreation, and The Office (of course my wife will be watching Greys and Private Practice...yuck!).

Back to Form

I suppose that I should open with some reference to Halloween since it occurred over the weekend. Frankly, I have never been a big fan of Halloween, I never liked dressing up in costumes. I'm not sure why, maybe it has something to do with an event back in 1975 (or 1976) when it was decided I would be a hockey player. Everything was good until it was determined that a part of my costume would include a pair of pantyhose being worn under my hockey pants. Now I'm not saying that I protested a lot back when I was only 4 or 5 years old, but I do recall not wanting to wear them but inevitably I did in fact put them on and then went trick-or-treating. This is a memory that I will never forget, it is burned into the deepest parts of my brain. Is that why I don't like Halloween? Probably not, but I am sure that it doesn't make it any more likable.

As for Halloween at our house this weekend, it was a lot of fun (thankfully I didn't have to dress up). My oldest daughter was a China-girl and my little one wavered between, Tinkerbell (at school), China-girl (pre-trick-or-treating), and Rock Star (actual trick-or-treating). I would post some pictures, but the wife is a bit leery of putting pictures of our kids up on the Internet. We had a party at our house with a bunch of our neighbors and their kids and I believe everyone had a great time (we ordered 7 pizza's one of which was topped with bacon....my favorite....it was gone in seconds). As for the trick-or-treating, it wasn't great because it did rain a bit, but overall I think my girls have more candy than they will be able to eat...this doesn't mean that they didn't try to eat as much as possible yesterday from dawn 'til dusk.

All in all it was a good weekend and despite my unfavorable attitude towards the holiday, I had a good time....due to my girls love of getting dressed up.

I did manage to fit in a couple runs this weekend...my attempt to go for a ride on Saturday morning was thwarted by rain. Honestly, it wasn't so much the rain as the potential for a crash due to wet leaves everywhere. Here's how it went down:

Friday: Rest day....I didn't do a thing.

Saturday: 3.32 miles, 26:00 (7:50/mile), 158 BPM - I felt good and really just went out to stretch my legs a bit.

Sunday: 8.04 miles, 1:02:21 (7:45/mile), 158 BPM - I felt awesome. The first mile was flat and then the next three were slightly up hill and I still managed to keep my pace right around 8:00/mile. The last four miles were in: 7:47, 7:37, 7:39 and 7:21. I felt like I could have kept going and going. Definitely a return to form run for me.

Today: 3.51 miles, 27:50 (7:56/mile), 158 BPM - I just wanted to go easy today, ended up finishing a bit too fast. Oh well, these things happen.

Well, that's it for now. Oh, I did order my Kurt Kinetic Road Trainer on Friday night....I hope that I get it soon so that I can start getting some bike work in. Ciao!