Chasing The Black Line

Update

I have been complacent updating my daily workouts here on CtBL due to the fact that I have to log all of my work outs on my coach's site.  Still not sure if he checks out those logs but I like to keep the official running total there.  The workouts have ratcheted up enough each week and like most weeks, the speedwork workouts on the treadmill push me to my puking breaking point but not quite over the edge.  I don't know if anyone has ever thrown up in the cardio room of my YMCA...

I leave for Italy on Friday for nine days with Mrs and Baby Chasing.  I will try to throw a couple workouts in during the trip but I'm sure I will be bringing some extra luggage home around my gut.

I'm going to finally meet with my coach face-to-face when I return to a) just meet the guy, b) find out what his strategy for me is from the middle of July until the triathlon in September and c) to discuss if I should enter another triathlon before the one in Malibu.  The one I'm thinking about entering is in NJ and is two weeks before Malibu.

Right now I'm in the middle of a bike drought as I have not ridden my bike for two weekends in a row and with the Italy trip and a Hamptons wedding the first weekend we're home, I will have gon five weekends of just stationary bike work.  Its too bad too because the bike really is my favorite thing to do.

Don't Cry Greeners

I'm dedicating this post to my friend and walking mosquito bait, Mr. Greene-Jeans, for reminding me that it's been awhile since I posted.

I've been posting the results of my workouts on my coach's website making the Chasing website the red-headed stepchild of workout entries.  But I'm making a concerted effort to keep a regular schedule of postings as I countdown to the triathlon in CA on 9/16.

I just got back from the pool.  Unfortunately, I had to cut my workout a few yards short tonight due to a massive calf cramp that had me howling underwater.

These workouts I've been getting form my coach are challenging to say the least.  They have taken my normal workouts and kicked them up to the cliched and proverbial "next level".  Calf cramps aside, my body is responding quite nicely.

The one thing I've found out through this experience is that I love riding my bike more than running or swimming.  That might change down the line but for now I wish I was able to ride the bike more than once a week.

We're leaving for Italy at the end of the month on vacation and I've already been doing the important things:  Buying books and figuring out which dvds to take for the flights.  Books choices:  D-Day by Stephen Ambrose, and two LA detective novels.  I've narrowed the dvd selections down to Lawrence of Arabia, Inside Man and The Magnificent Seven.   I might add Orson Welles' Touch Of Evil, but I'm not sure yet.

Cherry Broken

I have now completed a triathlon.  There were moments of hell, fun moments, and a few other feelings sprinkled in between.

Here's the quick version:  My wave was the first to start (8am) and was the short course competitors 34 and under.  I stayed up in the front of the group as we waited to go on the beach.  I broke out with the lead group of swimmers, in the coldest water I've ever swam in (low 50s) and didn't feel good until all skin outside the wetsuit was completely numb.  I was out of the water in fifth place (Estimates from the wife and in-laws put the size of my group around 150).  Coming out of the water, I could barely keep my legs under me, my breathing was more like gasping and I felt woozy/light headed three or four times before I got changed and out on the bike course.  By the time I left the water and before I got on my bike, three to four people passed me.

The bike was fun and has become my favorite part of the triathlon - training and competing.  In the end, I think I held a little too much back on the bike but figuring things out like that is why I did the tri today anyways.  Dudes on hardcore tri bikes blew past me a few times.

The transition time from bike to run, unlike the swim to bike, was super fast - maybe a minute.  My legs felt terrible on the run for the first half mile and then magically loosened up.  I ended up as the 13th person to cross the finish line but considering the 35 and older wave of competitors that started 5 minutes after I did I'm sure I will take a tumble in the official results...

This whole time, even through the triathlon and for most of the day, I had thought the run was 2 miles long.  On the first mile of the run I was thinking to myself "Jeezus, this is the longest mile of my life!  I'm running in slow motion here..."  After perusing the triathlon's website this afternoon trying to find out when they'll post the official results I noticed that the run was actually a 5k (3.1 miles). 

Wife and In-Laws clocked me in at an unofficial One hour and twenty-two minutes (400 meter swim/12.1 mile bike/5K run).

I've got a long way to go for September (where the water will be a much more humane high 60s)...

Well, Pilgrim...

There was a guy I used to work with - he left for an internet start-up two weeks ago - who used to get free dvds from movie/distribution companies all the time when they started the dvd release promotion campaign...He would horde most of the good ones - there were a ton of bad ones, and not the good bad ones that I like, but really the terrible bad ones...Anyways, he took off and his office-mate, a woman with much different tastes than mine now takes receipt of the incoming dvds which has really been beneficial to yrs truly. 

In the past couple of days I've received Porkys, Rio Bravo and True Grit.  Rio Bravo is a movie I've always wanted to see and never gotten around to actually watching.  Porky's was brought to my attention when I was 12 thanks to the power of cable television - where it was seemingly played non-stop.  I have a quick hour and a half flight to Louisville next month, which will be perfect for a revival screening.  Rio Bravo - Gotta watch it this weekend.  The Duke and Dean Martin in a western together -genius.

Am waiting to get details on 'race strategy' from my coach for Sunday's triathlon...I have found through this week's workouts (and actually had an inkling of my entire life) is that I am terrible at pacing myself.  So, hopefully, my race strategy will be light on pacing and heavier on - who knows?  I'm either going to be great or crap this weekend as far as the timed results go.  Either way, I'll know where I stand and can move forward in preparing for September's triathlon.

5/18:  No workout/Rest Day

Doublin' Up

I am now logging my workouts in two places:  Here and on my coach's website that I have a page where I get my workouts and then let him know how they went with all the particulars sprinkled in.

The bulk of my workouts are done for the week.  Tomorrow (Friday) is a rest day and I am supposed to do an easy ten minutes each on the bike, running and swimming on Saturday to stay loose for Sunday's Triathlon.

Here's what I've done since last night:

5/16 - Stationary Bike, 45 minutes, 12.5 miles, switching resistance regularly while keeping the same pedal cadence.

5/17 - Treadmill, 40 minutes, 4 miles, starting with an easy pace and going faster with each mile.

1st mile - 10:40 pace

2nd mile - 10:00 pace

3rd mile - 9:31 pace

4th mile - 9:13 pace

Incline was set to 2.5

New Era

This is the week leading up to my first triathlon.  This tri is really the 'training wheels' tri for me.  The transitions, open water swim in a wetsuit, etc...My real fear about this race is forgetting how many laps I have to do on the bike loop section or completely forgetting where my bike/gear is in the transition...

Working with my new coach starting last night.  Did the prescribed swim workout.  Still had gas in the tank after I was finished (Completed the workout in 30 minutes) but this week - and the triathlon on Sunday - is really to figure out where I am physically so my coach can figure out the right work outs for me.  Tonight is a bike workout.

Here are the official results:

5/14 - No Workout

5/15 - 1,600 yards, main set build from 100 to a 400 with 30 seconds rest between.

Weekend at Charlie's

Spent the weekend at my in-laws and brought my parents along (they're in town hanging out for a week babysitting F)...Finally took my bike out to the in-laws and hooked up with a friend of theirs and his wife who happen to be into triathlons (Husband just qualified a week ago for Ironman in Hawaii)...They have a group of friends they workout with on the weekends and allowed me to bike and run with them.  Great group of people and two of the more fun workouts I can remember.  Hopefully, I will be able to join them on the weekends throughout the summer as I train for Malibu.

Here's the workout specs:

5/11:  No Workout
5/12: Bike 1 hour 30 minutes (Around 20 miles)
5/13: Run 5 miles

Jumping In With Both Feet

Jumped back in the water last night after devouring Chinese food with my parents, wife and baby.  I finally broke down and ordered General Tso's chicken.  Tso must have been the fattest dude in the Chinese military.  Ate about 8 or 9 chunks of Tso amidst a plate of other Chinese delicacies.  Felt sluggish afterwards and really thought I was going to punk out and go to bed instead of throwing on the Speedos.  Fortunately, I did the right thing.

Although, when I got to the pool last night it was almost empty - only one person per lane.  Great.  So I do the usual - jump in feet first into my lane of choice and start out easy.  After 2 laps, I hear the lifeguard blowing his whistle.  I look up at him and he's pointing at me.  He tells me that I can't jump in, that I need to bend over, put my hand on the deck and hop in.  I fight the urge to tell him that he's insane and give him a half-serious, half-'you've got to be kidding me' thumbs up.  He returns a completely serious one.  I burn on it until my work-out is over and then check the posted Pool Rules and nowhere does it say not to jump in feet-first.  I feel the lamest vindication ever.  This could be the dumbest post in the history of Chasing's existence...

5/10:  Swam 40 minutes, 2,000 yards

Kinda Back In The Swing

Parents are in town, babysitting Lil Baby F.  Went out to dinner with the wife and the friend who introduced us to each other on that fateful morning seven years ago.  This all boils down to the fact that I still haven't gotten back to my regular schedule in two weeks...But this Saturday I am going on a ride with a friend of the In-Laws who last weekend qualified for the Kona Ironman.  I am shitting myself just a wee bit about that.

Here's the workout info:

5/8: Swam 30 minutes (1500 yards), Stationary Bike

5/9: Treadmill 30 minutes

Roasted

Last night was another one spent away from the gym.  Went to a benefit dinner where Mrs. Chasing is on the board.  It was a great night and the entertainment portion of the evening was a PG-ish rated comedy roast of Lew Black - who I could watch and listen to forever. 

That said, I ate the entire dinner that was served plus my dessert and most of the wife's too.  I love dessert. 

I should hopefully get started on a new prescribed workout plan this week.  Waiting to hear back from the coach I contacted a week or so ago...With the NJ triathlon 11 days away and having not gone on any training rides on my new bike, I might be deep Bandini soon...

5/7: No Workout