5.31.2012 Running

THE WORKOUT:  Run 6 miles.

The new diet seems to be helping my daily energy and recovery. I woke up this morning feeling a lot less sore from the previous day's workout and more energized to get on with the next one. It's still not dialed in quite right, but I'm getting close.

The run was pretty good. The temperature was awesome, but the humidity when I went out was obscene. The air just felt thick, I was pushing Liam in the stroller and the handlebar was constantly wet and gummy because of it. What this meant for me was a hard time breathing. I finally started to get somewhat accustomed to it around mile 4 or the humidity had begun to burn off. Either way, my breathing finally started feeling normal and I was able to pick up the pace. Could also be getting burned out due to my recent ramp up in activity, also could be due to the recent diet change. I'm just in a transition type phase right now as I'm moving back into endurance training. It's difficult, but I'm so looking forward to the rewards.

5.30.2012 Canoeing

THE WORKOUT:  Paddle a canoe with your arms like it's going out of style!  Be sure to get close enough to shore that the people on land will see enough to think you're crazy ;)

We took Liam out to the lake in our canoe today. For a while I did the normal paddling, then I felt like I could be getting a relatively good swimming workout in. So, I put the paddle down and started freestyle paddling with my hands. I was pushing me, my son and wife through the water at a pretty decent clip. I must have looked pretty ridiculous, to the people on shore, paddling around the lake Castaway style! I didn't care at all though, it was a great workout. As close to a swimming workout I've got without getting in the water. Open swimming starts soon at the lake, so I'll be getting in my swim workouts then. Right now since I don't have a gym membership I can't do any swimming.

5.30.2012 Running

THE WORKOUT: 4 mile run. Miles 1 and 2 warmup. 3rd mile high intensity. 4th mile recover.

I've been struggling with nutrition recently. It's been so long since I've been eating for endurance that I've forgotten a lot of what it takes to make it possible to train at the higher levels required for triathlon. As I've been putting in longer runs at greater intensity, I've been noticing that I'm drained throughout the day and struggling at the beginning of every workout. I decided to take a good look at what I've been eating against what I should be eating. I've been eating a really high protein diet since about January, it's worked ok until the last few weeks and now I'm noticing the difference that I stated previously, just drained all the time.

Starting today I'm tracking my food for a little while to see where I sit in this game of endurance nutrition. I'm also concentrating on eating more carbs in the form of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. I'll still keep up the lean protein, just not as much as I have been. The overall goal is to get 55-65% of my calories from carbohydrates, 20-30% from fat, and 10-20% from protein per Livestrong.com.

Well, about today's run. Basically I wanted to see how quick I could run a mile right now. I warmed up for two and then stretched after the second. Oh, I was pushing Liam in the jogging stroller for this too. So, I let Liam run around and play in the soccer field as I stretched. Once done I asked him to get back in the stroller, he wanted to race me to the goal first. I accepted. It was a close race but he ended up pulling out the win in the last few yards. He's gonna be a fast runner!

To sum this up, I ran the third mile at 5:54 and then recovered on the last one at 8:01. I'm pretty happy with the 5:54! I'm getting closer to where I used to be.

5.29.2012 Running

THE WORKOUT:  6 mile run.

This morning was a great example of how workouts can go if you don't prepare properly the previous day by eating the right foods. Yesterday was Memorial Day and what is the kick-off family get together for summer without hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, chips, pasta salad, apple pie, ice cream and beer? I had all of those but one :(

Last night I got a little more sleep, but was still up twice to let our puppy Ruby out. 5:30 came all too quickly when Liam woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep. I got up took the dog out again and felt how nice it was! It was the perfect morning. So I got Liam dressed had a Greek yogurt and some peanut butter toast and we left the house not really sure of how far or where I wanted to go.

Sometimes when I have Liam with me, I let him choose the route. We'll get to an intersection and I'll ask him "which way?" This morning a truck drove by as we ran out of our driveway and he wanted us to go catch the truck, it was no use, but I gave it my best!

I felt like I had lead legs. Every step was a conscious effort to move it in front of the other one and just keep chugging down the road. I had very little gas in the tank and my legs were still affected by the lunges yesterday. We got about halfway into it and my poor nutrition yesterday caught up with me. I was running on fumes.

I downed a bag of Jelly Belly Sport Beans and went into a comfortable pace for a little bit to see if I'd start feeling better. My legs were about done, I was feeling beat, and I wanted to stop. Everyone hurts, everyone has bad days, we're all human, and sometimes you just have to suck it up. Never Quit. I couldn't stop. I'd be angry at myself for the rest of the day, all I had to do was forget about how I was feeling and push my body to do what I wanted. Mile 4 was a maintenance mile as I regained some energy, then 5 and 6 I started moving. Those were the fastest two miles of the run and I finished averaging under 8's for what started out to be a crappy run.

5.28.2012 Strength Training

THE WORKOUT:  Bodyweight exercises.  Hitting all the major muscle groups.

Just some basic weight training. I do mostly body weight exercises and just use dumbbells for a few things. I've always preferred body weight exercises and about a year ago found a really great book full of exercises for every muscle group that you can do right in your home. I was never a gym junkie, I'd rather workout in my basement with a piece of cardboard to do situps on and some 40lb bags of salt to use for obliques, back, and lunges.

Today's workout was in the living room though while Meagan was running. I was watching Oliver and Liam and just figured I might as well get some strength training in. Liam joined me for most of it, in one form or another. Whether he was bouncing on my stomach during ab workouts, riding on my back for pushups, or running around me as I was doing lunges he was my little training buddy. :)

I won't bother embedding the Endo info since it'll just show time. I went for about 40 minutes.

Run tomorrow.

5.27.2012 Running

THE WORKOUT:  Long Run. Distance and time undetermined.  

It has been two days since I worked out. Friday was completely full as we were cleaning the house and getting things ready to go photograph a wedding all day Saturday. Saturday was an all day wedding, which is a workout in itself. You may not think that standing and squatting for 10 hours isn't much, but it never fails to have me exhausted by the time we leave and just looking forward to sleeping.

So, Sunday morning came around and I woke up determined to make up for the lack of formal workouts over the last two days. I decided I'd take Liam with me and we'd run on a new trail up to Shawnee Mission Park from our house and then call Meagan to come pick us up and then we'd go for a walk with our trio of Liam, Oliver, and Ruby.

I started at a very comfortable pace and spent the first few miles getting through traffic and stoplights. We finally made it to the trail around mile 4 and started to make some better time. It was WAY more hilly than I expected and really a tough hot run. Liam and I both got sunburned. I need to remember to put sunscreen on him before we go out again. We saw a few trains, which Liam was super excited about.

I brought 36 oz of water and drank most of it. I also consumed 2 bags of Jelly Belly Sport Beans during and a CLIF Chocolate Chip Mint Protein Bar before the run. All in all, it was a fun run. I could have done without the heat, but it wasn't terrible. I'll just have to start running earlier in the morning to beat the heat.

5.24.2012 Running

THE WORKOUT:  Run 4 miles at high intensity.

I was so dissatisfied with my previous workout today that I had to do something else to redeem the day. I really wanted to run and I felt like if I did it was going to be a good one. I put on my new favorite running shoes and headed out the door. 27 minutes and 4 miles later I had run the fastest 4 miles in my 30's :) Soon, I'll just be setting records for my fastest miles and times ever... but for now, this is progress. It was a really great run. I had a Clif Chocolate Chip Mint protein bar about 30 minutes prior and a few shots of espresso. Coffee and Espresso are my lifeblood right now. We've got a 2 month old boy and a 10 week old puppy, sleep is a luxury.

5.24.2012 Cross-Training

It was time for some heavy bag work and various other body-weight exercises, abs, legs, back, arms and so on. I went into it pretty determined to have a good workout. Problem was, today is our anniversary and we had just gone out to lunch... and I had a margarita, it's had been forever and we don't get many opportunities to go out to eat. Sooooo I got the margarita and some salmon, I was hoping the salmon would vouch for the margarita once it made it to my innards. It didn't. The workout was less than inspiring. I did it all, went through the motions and didn't slack on it, it just wasn't great. I finished very unsatisfied, and with a reaffirmation that a margarita is in fact not a good pre-workout drink!

5.23.2012 Running

Today I did intervals while pushing the jogging stroller... with Liam in it. It's about an extra 40lbs when all is said and done. I was planning on doing intervals on the track, but ended up taking Liam out with me. So, we went on the jogging trail and I set the workout on Endo to interval and input 1 minute low intensity and 1 minute high intensity... for 45 minutes. I made it 32 before I decided to call it. My original plan was to do 30 minutes of speed work today, but at the last minute thought 45 sounded better and doable. It DID sound better prior to minute 31. It was a windy, semi hot day, and pushing the stroller didn't make it any easier. It was one tough workout, and even though I went 30 instead of 45, I really enjoyed today's run and am super satisfied with my effort.

5.22.2012 Spinning

4:30am came pretty quick and I was quite tired. Well, I was really tired. You know when you're so tired you feel dizzy and ill... that was me this morning. I knew I wanted to put in some time on the spinning bike though, so I grabbed a bowl of cereal and some water and headed down to the basement. 45 minutes later it was done. Nothing too eventful, just putting in time in the saddle and conditioning my body to get back in bike shape. I'm getting my road bike setup for tri's and will be throwing it into the mix soon. I really can't wait. I've missed my bike.

5.21.2012 Running

I've been trying to get in some longer easy miles, just picking an easy tempo and going for about 7 or 8 miles. Usually when I go out and run though, I've just been wanting to push myself to go faster. I know I won't continue to make gains that way, but it's hard to slow it down and still feel like I'm putting in a good effort. I'm sure it's a feeling most of us have had. Anyway, I had Liam with me in the jogging stroller and we made it 3.5 miles before he really wanted to start heading back home. He began pointing at every house and asking if it was ours. He even pointed at a rabbit and asked if we were home. So, maybe 7 total is his limit. We'll try it out again and see. I was trying to keep it at 8:00 minute miles the whole time, but it was hard to judge the pace at first. Even with Endomondo tracking current speed, it's not always continually accurate. Especially with some tree cover, I was getting values as high as 11:00/mi while continuing at roughly an 8 minute pace. So, the last two miles I had to go a bit faster to get my overall average to under 8's. Here's what Endo had to say about it.

5.20.2012 Running

The second half of my workout today was a run. I wanted to go on a longer one slower one, but timing didn't allow for it. So, I decided to put in a medium-high intensity 5 miles. The weather was excellent, windy on the turn around, but really great otherwise. The Brooks Pure Connect shoes are still feeling like a dream. I wasn't expecting too much out of this run since my nutrition yesterday was destroyed by me 3 yr old son's birthday party. Pizza, hotdogs, cake, rum, beer, and chips equated to a 5 lb gain in food weight from the onset of the party to bed time. I ate much better today, but still didn't have high hopes for the run. It's those kind of runs/workouts that are sometimes really surprising. I was happy to find that I got into a good stride and just floated through the first 3 miles, 4 was a little tougher, and then 5 was easier. All in all it was a pretty good run.

5.20.2012 Spinning

It's been tough getting used to having a 3 yr old (Liam), 8 week old (Oliver), and a 9 week old puppy (Ruby)... and still figure out how to get early morning workouts in. This morning everything aligned perfectly and at 5am I woke up to let the dog out and immediately afterwards I hopped on the spinning bike to put in some time. An hour and a half later, Liam woke up and the ride was over. I'm happy I got in that time though and hopefully I'll be able to get into a routine that works for everyone. I'm ramping up to 2-a-day's do it's going to be important to get the early morning workout in. Here are the numbers from the Spinning workout as tracked on Endomondo. It doesn't really track a lot of info, but I really like the simplicity of Endo, and the ability to track every workout I do. It's strengths seem to be in running.

5.18.2012 Running

This is the first run in my new shoes. I've been running in some Reebok's that I picked up at Famous Footwear at the beginning of winter. Since I'm not a heel striker, I feel that I can be a little more forgiving in my choice of shoe. Which has been true for a long time. This pair of Reebok's really started to hurt my feet and give me some blisters. So, I went in to Gary Gribbles running store and talked with a salesperson. About an hour later and probably 10 pairs of shoes later, I finally left with the new Brooks Pure Connect.

Yesterday it just wasn't in the cards to workout. So, today I HAD to take them out for a test spin. 4 miles later, I'm in love! I feel like they were made JUST for my foot. You know when you're a kid and you try on a new pair of shoes and you feel like you can run faster? Well these actually do make you run faster! Ok, that last part was a lie, but I am running more comfortably!
The last mile was terrible... and from mile one they got progressively worse. I had a good leg session in this morning's workout, so it came back to haunt me this afternoon. Not bad though, still better than I was a few weeks ago.

5.18.2012 Cross-Training

The entry in Endomondo says Boxing, which is some of what I do during this workout, but overall it's more cross-training. I'd choose the Cross-Training option in Endo, but I feel the "boxing" logo more accurately represents what I'm doing ;)

5.16.2012 Running

No testing of streaming video this time. I had to stop at the grocery store in the middle of the run, so the camera apparatus off the front would have been cumbersome in the aisles. So, we just tracked it on Endomondo and sent out some Glympses. Both of which work really well to track the status of the workout as it's happening.

5.15.2012 Running

The next step is to be able to stream while moving through the environment, aka... outdoors. This first test turned out pretty good. My major dissatisfaction with it is the quality and the fact that it cut out a few times during the run. I had a webcam attached to my laptop. My phone Droid RAZR (on 4G LTE) was acting as a WiFi hotspot which the laptop was wirelessly connected to. So, an area of possible of improvement is to hardwire the laptop to the phone and maybe get a little bit better quality. Battery life is also a concern. This was only a short 32 minute run.

B.O.B. Stroller Webcam Add-On

Here's how I've setup the webcam on the stroller to get a view of Liam and myself. I used a piece of bent aluminum, a hose clamp, and some zip-ties to secure it in place.

Photos

5.15.2012 Spinning

This morning I streamed from my laptop and a webcam. All the previous videos have been streaming from my phone with the Ustream app. Apparently, the web version doesn't automatically record the stream and save it. From yesterday I changed the angle of the bike just a little bit. The quality still leaves a bit to be desired. I'm trying to figure out if it's a factor of connectivity or if it's that I'm using the free Ustream broadcasting service, versus the ones that are $100+/mo.

5.14.2012 Spinning

I decided that the clutter in the background was really ugly and annoying. So, I moved the bike. It's a little better but still resembles a dungeon. I'll need to adjust the lighting and maybe paint the wall to make it look a little better. I also change the position of the bike. We're getting there :)

First Spinning Test

I'm developing an idea and for the next few posts we'll be seeing the results of different tests and configurations to try and get the best possible results for streaming video. Stay tuned and we'll see what happens. This is a pretty crappy first attempt, I actually get on the bike around 13 minutes.