Mobile Blogging

So I am actually typing this from my mobile phone, which is kind of convenient but also kind of pathetic. I am on a bus to the ferry, and traffic is really bad right now, so I figured why not. I had a great workout today at the gym -- back, biceps, and abs, and then another half hour on the treadmill. The run felt great -- it seemed like it went by so quickly, which is always a good sign for dreadmill runs. Completely off topic, but the woman next to me has been on her cell phone talking loudly for the last 40 minutes. God do I hate stuff like this -- do these people have any self awareness whatsoever? Sometimes I seriously wish that cell phones were never invented...

Happy Thanksgiving!

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and with the in-laws coming into town I am not going to be able to work out at all for the next few days. I know that I am getting more serious about my training, though, because I am still getting in four workouts this week (running on Monday, weights yesterday, and both today before I begin focusing on Thanksgiving dinner preparation). Monday I did a half an hour on the treadmill at 7:41/mile pace, which felt pretty relaxed. Yesterday I hit the weights, and on the way out had my body fat measured. I came in at 12%, which I am O.K. with given its late November. I would love to get that down below 10% by next summer -- we will see how that goes (got to cut down on the sweets!). I am still loving the fact I got an early jump on my training for next season...

Treadmill Malfunction

Today I ran for a half an hour at the gym at 7:47 per mile pace. It was fairly uneventful, aside from the fact that the first treadmill I was running on completely shut down about 21 minutes in (it was a bit herky-jerky prior to stopping, so it was not a complete surprise). I quickly switched to another treadmill and maybe stopped running for 20-30 seconds, so it was no big deal. Last week I managed to get my two runs in and lift weights -- I wanted to get another workout in over the weekend, but it did not happen. I was feeling a tad bit guilty until I remembered that I started training two months earlier than normal for this upcoming season -- that was enough to make me relax a bit...

Picking Up The Pace (A Little)

Yesterday I did a half hour on the treadmill at 7.6 MPH, or 7:54/mile pace. I really did not notice any difference from last week when I did my runs at 8:00/mile pace, which is good. I always start my run training by adding 0.1 MPH a week until I get down to low 7:00/mile pace (in really good years, sub-7:00), which I have found is a nice way to get my legs used to running again. I spent entirely too much time on http://www.slowtwitch.com/ today and found a lengthy forum thread about a guy who did the swim portion of Ironman Florida with fins -- needless to say, it was entertaining stuff. Oh, and I just got a bunch of new running tops -- four from UnderArmour and one from Nike. And no, I didn't get the cheesy supertight UnderArmour ones that you see people wearing at the gym. Here is a picture of one of the new tops -- WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE (not sure how that is applicable to triathlons, but why not)...

2009 Training Starts Early

O.K., so I decided for the first time to start training for the 2009 triathlon season before the New Year. There are a few reasons driving this decision:

1. For the first time in a long time my season was done before Labor Day, so I have already had two months to rest and recuperate.
2. I am really not happy with my weight right now (185ish lbs., which is not terrible for this time of year, but I want to race next year at 170-175), and I simply burn more calories when I am training.
3. I want to try something different this year in my training plan -- I am going to concentrate on running for two months, biking for two months, and then swimming for a month before settling into a more conventional triathlon training schedule. Thus, starting early will give me plenty of time to build my base this way before jumping into a training routine that incoporates all three disciplines.

Yesterday I ran for 30 minutes at 8:00/mile pace (my first run since my last triathlon), and today I just did the elliptical machine for 30. I'm going to try and do a better job of keeping the blog updated this year, but I'm not promising anything...