FU P90X!

I did P90X's "Chest and Back" on Monday and I am still in pain.  I am barely able to bend my right arm at the elbow because my right tricep is so tight.  My chest and left tricep are sore, but not as bad as my right.  I was really trying to push myself and I think I may have pushed a little too hard.  Holy crap!!!

That is it for now, I will attempt to try and work out again tonight.

Slowly Getting Back to It

This week was a good one for training, rather it was an OK one.  I finally managed to get my bike back on the trainer in my basement since I haven't been able to get out and ride on the weekends (I am lazy).  I managed to put in to sessions this weekend of an hour each.  Also during the week I ran one day and rode another.  Wow, four whole days of exercise in a week, that's crazy!!! 

I have been asking myself recently what the heck happened to me?  I was so determined to maintain my Ironman fitness and build on it.  What happened, why wasn't I able to continue.  There are a few factors that have played into this, some of which I don't feel comfortable getting into, others which are injury related and the remaining are just bad excuses.  I think part of my whole problem is that I am making excuses for not working out rather than trying to find reasons to work out.  Here are my reasons for not training:

• Lack of time - e.g. I leave the house at 6:15AM for work and don't get home until 5:30PM (if I am not traveling for work).  I need to get up super early or stay up and run/ride after the kids go to sleep.  This does not apply to weekends....flat out lazy on my end!
• Health issues - I don't know if it is allergies or I have some illness, but my breathing has been horrible for the past nine months.  Also, every time I run my heart rate goes through the roof.  I should go to the doctor, but I just haven't.
• Motivation - I don't have any races (triathlons, running, biking, etc.) or any other activity to train for.
• Pregnant Wife - Probably not the best excuse, but I have had to step in and try to help out a lot more since my wife got pregnant, which has meant less free time for me (I am not complaining about this).
• No pool/gym membership - I miss swimming...actually I hate swimming, but it helps keep me in shape.
• New-ish job - I have been at my current job for nine months now, but I still haven't gotten into a groove yet.  I need to figure out a schedule and then schedule my days accordingly

Injury/Health Stuff

• Left Quadriceps - feels almost back to normal, but still not 100%.  When I first hurt it in December 2010 I read that it can take six months to a year to heal completely, but I thought it would be much quicker.  I was wrong.
• Lower Back - I am in pain just about ever morning.  I can barely touch my toes anymore without a hot shower and/or a run to loosen it.  I am told that a cortisone shot will help it, but the thought of a needle going near my spine scares the crap out of me.
• Breathing/Heart Rate - it just hasn't been right.  I don't even know where to start, who to talk with.
• Various dings - two big-toe toenails about ready to fall off, elbow pain, wrist hurting, sore shoulder, achy left knee, etc.  These aren't always there, they come and go, but still just bother the heck out of me when they happen.

I think that the past two days of riding in my basement have helped a lot.  I road hard and felt good.  I am going to take a second run at P90X starting tonight and couple that with running and biking over the next few weeks.  This is now my off-season training....I know it is a little early, but I need something.  In the upcoming weeks I am going to try and put together a 2012 race schedule so that I can get a training plan put together as well.

Lastly, I am going to mention that I am officially the heaviest that I have weighed since around 2006/7.  I have maintained my normal diet despite not training at all.  Obviously this is not a good mix.  Also, the last time my wife was pregnant I was up around 220 - 225 lbs.  I guess when my wife gets pregnant, I start putting on pounds along with her.  Ugh, not good!!!

So there it is, wish me luck everyone....it started this past week and I need to keep it going.  Ciao!

I Suck at Blogging

Ugh, I am a horrible blogger.  Actually, I'm not a bad blogger when I am blogging.  It's the getting to the blog and writing in the blog that I am not so good at lately.  The problems are stemming from the fact that I have very little time to blog about and have few blog-worthy activities to mention here.

I will sum up the past couple weeks here as succinctly as possible:

Hurricane Irene - I was luck in that my home escaped Irene with no damage what so ever.  Also, my parents managed only a few problems, flooding in their garage destroyed a refrigerator and cabinets and wind knocked out their hot water heater.  Yes, it cost money to fix/replace, but otherwise the house is OK.

Soccer - Both of my daughters are playing soccer and for the first time in three years I am not coaching either of their teams.  It is driving me crazy not being involved.  I am turning into "that Dad" who complains, etc.  I have decided that I am going to abstain from saying anything about the coaching and be a cheerleader for my girls and photographer.  Below is a picture of the the girls new cleats, very stylish, eh?

Surfing - Ugh, so many good waves between Labor Day and September 7th....and I suck at surfing.  I tried and even though I failed I was still out there.  I crashed more than I rode, but I was brave and tried to take of on a lot of waves.  I really want to get better at surfing next year.  Here are some pictures of sunrises from Labor Day weekend.

Pregnancy - Whew, my wife is big, and I mean that in a good way.  She is in her 31st week I think and the due date has been set for the third week in October.  I need to start banking sleep now because those first few months are going to be rough.  I suspect I will be getting back to doing my morning work-outs thanks to 4AM wake up calls.  A little tidbit of information about me:  When my wife was pregnant with our second daughter I weighed the most I have ever in my life....220 LBS!!!  I am not that heavy now, but I feel close to it.  Below is a picture of the first day of school for my girls.

Work - I have been all over Maryland and DC the past couple weeks and I am going to be down in Richmond and Virginia Beach soon as well.  I hope this travel turns into dollars for me!!!

Training - Nonexistent at this point.  I actually went ten days between runs recently.  TEN DAYS!!!  That is unacceptable.  I need to get out and run on the weekends, maybe even get out and ride my bike.  I think a gym/pool membership is much needed.  I need to set up my bike trainer in the basement and get back to my evening training sessions.  If I am going to be sitting around watching TV, I might as well be burning calories, right?

I hope to spruce things up here soon, maybe liven things up a bit.  Cheers!

Hurricane!!!

Hurricane Irene as of 9:10AM, Saturday night.

Tuesday there was an earthquake...not a terribly traumatic event, but enough to wake everyone up on the East Coast.  Five days later we are now all hunkered down in our homes far away from the coast (if you're not, you should be) waiting out Hurricane Irene.  It is absolutely pouring our right now and I am a solid 40 miles in land.  My parents are here with us, they live two blocks from the beach in Lavallette.  We are glued to the Weather Channel hoping that the storm surge isn't too bad and that the winds don't get too strong so that their house remains safe.

More to come tomorrow or Monday. Stay safe everyone!!!

Earthquake

Yesterday at approximately 1:52PM I experienced my first earthquake.  I was at work in Center City Philadelphia, on the 41st Floor of our building.  Out of no where, it felt like the floor was bouncing up and down.  One by one my co-workers stood up from their cubicles and emerged from their offices asking if everyone felt what they were feeling.  Immediately I did a quick search on Google and saw that there had been an earthquake centered in Virginia.  No on had a clue as to what we should do, do we stay put?  Do we get out of the building?  Why are there no announcements from the building management telling us what to do?  Someone in our office suggested that we get out of the building....oh and not via the elevators, we needed to walk down 41 floors to street level.  At this point I will point out that the whole lot of us did exactly the wrong thing.  We should have stayed put and if anything ducked under out cubicles for cover from any potential falling debris from the ceiling.  Nope, we decided that we should walk down 41 floors and go out on the street so that should there be any damage to our building or the surrounding buildings, we would get rained on by glass and concrete. 

Long story short, it ended up being a 5.9 magnitude quake with the epicenter in Virginia.  We felt it pretty strongly here and everyone emerged unscathed.  If nothing else it was a pretty cool thing to be a part of and the fact that there was little to now physical damage makes it that much better.

I wonder if that is a sign from God telling me that I need to get my fat ass back to working out regularly?  Probably not, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to take it as such.  Cheers!

Busy, Busy, Busy....but No Training

Wow, it has been eleven days since I wrote here.  That is a long time for me.  Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of good stuff to write about here.  I have been pretty busy with work and family stuff, but not much in the way of training.  I have pretty much accepted that this was my year off following my BIG race last year.  I don't think I am going to do anymore triathlons this season, I just don't have the time or the money to do it.  Add to that the lack of training I have done over the past eight months and I just wouldn't be happy with the performance of any race I would do.  I am going to start focusing back on my running over the next couple months and try to get back to a sub-20 minute 5K and try to run a solid half marathon in the winter/spring.  Hopefully I will be able to join a pool this winter so that I can get my swim back to where it was this time last year..

Here is a little taste of what has been going on over the past week and a half:

Saturday August 13th - I rode from my house in Pennsylvania down to my 'rents in Lavallette, a nice 75 mile ride through the nicest parts of NJ.  I averaged around 19.3 MPH for the ride which I am very happy with considering my time on my bike has been few and far between (last year I did the same ride at 20.3 MPH).

Sunday, August 14th - My daughter did her first multisport race ever!!!  It was supposed to be a triathlon but there was heavy rain and decided to eliminate the bike portion.  It ended up being a 50yd swim and 1.5 mile run.  My daughter did AWESOME!!!  She will be faster than me one day.

 Here she is finishing up the run.

Proud Mom with little sister holding the trophy and big sis eating a well deserved Italian ice.

August 16th - 19th - I was down in Lavallette with my girls for a few days.  It was my most time off from work in a while.  We had a great time together.  Wednesday we spent the whole day on the beach and finished the night off with some miniature golf (my little one had three Hole-in-Ones).  Thursday was a bit overcast so we did some crabbing, which the girls absolutely love, and managed to get about an hour up at the beach later in the day.  Friday was a full on beach day, a lot of playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean.  We headed home that night through a torrential thunderstorm.  Below are some pictures from Lavallette.

Saturday - My wife celebrated her birthday, the second time she has celebrated a B-day while majorly pregnant.  We went out to a Hibachi restaurant for dinner...it was a blast and the girls were mesmerized.

That about sums up what has been going on.  I have gotten out for a few run here and there, but nothing of consequence.  I definitely need to start running again, if nothing else but to keep my weight in check.  God knows that once the summer is over I am going to balloon up if I am not active.  Cheer!

The Recap

Time seems to be flying by, especially the past two months or so.  So much has been going on recently and I have been remiss to write it all here.  The reasons are few:  lack of time, desire to keep some things private, disappointed in training, busy at work, etc.  I guess the best thing to do is a quick recap of the past few days and a bit of the past few months....here I go:

Tuesday - Thursday

I was in Pittsburgh on business Tuesday night through Thursday.  It was my first time in western PA and all in all it was a good trip.  I managed to line up a ton of meetings, was able to get out on three runs around the city (along the rivers), and even managed to take in a Pirates game.

Last Friday
I had off from work last Friday, the reason being my daughters had what is called "Fanny Fun Day" at our pool (where they take swimming lessons). What was also included was a mini-swim meet for all of the swimmers in advanced lessons, which meant my oldest would be able to take part in her first ever swim meet.  She took part in four events (the max one could compete):  25 yd free, 25 yd breast, 25 yd back, 50 yd free.  I was so proud of her, she was swimming as hard as she could and did so well.  I was so bummed that she didn't come in the top eight for any of the events (they all received special ribbons); the look on her face just broke my heart.  I had to explain to her that this was her first ever meet and she was one of the youngest girls there.  We left there with her wanting to try and get on the swim team next year which I think is a great thing, meaning that she wasn't too bummed and she really wants to get better. 

After the swim meet it was all about watching my little one take part in the fun of Fanny Fun Day.  She has come so far since the first day of swim evaluation when she wouldn't even put her head under the water.  She is a regular torpedo now.  Both girls had so much fun, and it just made my day being able to watch the two of them.

Saturday

Born to Tri triathlon in Asbury Park, NJ.  See race report from the other day.  I spent the remainder of the day at the beach with my family.  It was a beautiful out and I was on my feet the whole day, whether it was building a sand volcano for my youngest, playing catch with my oldest or getting tossed around in the ocean.  I just love the beach and am so lucky that my parents live there.  Just a great day.

Sunday

Sunday was a big day for me....I turned 40 years old.  Officially I have moved up an Age Group (one of the more competitive ones out there).  I planned to head out at 6:00AM to do a 40 mile ride to celebrate my 40 years on this earth (cliche, I know).  Well, just as I was about to head out the door, the skies opened up and the rain came a pourin' down.  The ride would have to wait until later on that day.  Thankfully my wife and kids gave me the green light to go for a ride around 11AM when the rain stopped for a short time, although I was only able to get in 28+ miles, albeit with an average speed of 20.3MPH.  I was thrilled to get out and just fly through Island Beach State Park....I don't look 40, do I?

Oh, I went crabbing with my girls for the first time. My wife, my mother and I took the little ones to one of the Lavallette piers to try and catch some crabs.  It was awesome to see how excited the girls were at seeing the crabs that all of the other folks had caught.  We didn't manage to catch any keepers but that didn't matter to the girls.  Below is a picture with the first crab they ever caught.

Monday - Wednesday
I have been home alone this week; my wife and kids are at my in-laws for the week.  The reason is that I have a job to do, I have to paint our "guest room" and my wife likes to have the girls out of the house when I am painting.  There are a bunch of reasons for this, the possible paint fumes, the mess that goes along with painting, and their insistence on wanting to "help".  Why am I being charged with painting the room?  Well, take a look at the picture below and guess:

In case you can't tell what color the room is, it is PINK!  Maybe not the correct shade that my wife picked out, but definitely the correct "color".  Why would we paint the room such a color?  Well, I am officially announcing to whoever reads this blog that we are expecting our third child on November 13th.  Yup, I just turned 40 and I am going to be a Dad for the third time around.  I can't wait for the middle of the night feedings, stinky diaper changes and shirts riddle with spit-up.  Seriously, we are all very excited and preparations are in full swing to get the house ready for the new arrival.

So there you have it, a quick recap of the goings on with me over the past week or so.  I have a busy weekend ahead as I am heading to the shore for the day on Saturday to see friends/family I haven't seen in a while and then my daughters first triathlon on Sunday.  So exciting!!!  Peace out!