Getting a Life: "From Couch to Competition"

Couple of important notes about set up. [1] Get someone who knows what they are doing, seat height, position back and forth, up and down are crucial. Also the precise position of the pedal at the bottom of your rotation should be exact. If you mail order (save tax and usually money) get a buddy who knows his or her stuff to set up for you. The trainer is the Nashbar mag rim trainer and it's pretty smooth. The spinning is going okay and I'm learning to run the gears. It's been a long time since I had a decent bike.

Got in the Pool today for the first time in a while. The cold has kept me out since last post - but at least began doing the TI drills getting ready for swim workshop in Chicago.

Finally... I'm over the worst of the cold - key lesson was to not push the cardio training  - yet patience is not a number one virtue for me. Backing off, however, pays off. You can stick with the weight training though.

It's Here!  It has been 25 - 30 years since I had a decent bike - and not this decent. The technology has really changed. This didn't come with any "how to" papers. I guess they figure by the time you buy a bike like this you know what you are doing. (I don't!)  Fortunately, I have a good friend who knows all about this stuff. Tonight we go to his house and get it set up. That's the Nashbar rim drive mag trainer behind the rear wheel. It's winter in Iowa and I need to be in shape when riding time comes. On the training logs at Beginertriathlete.Com, I am seeing lots of people write words like BORING with respect to using the trainer. Hopefully between my workout jams and maybe a good training video, the boredom can be overcome.

Dealing with a cold...    Bummer - got a fairly bad cold yesterday and it's blowing out my workout routine. But - here are a couple of clues. Getting fit really makes a difference. A bad cold used to really knock me out. I've learned a few things though. Get a juicer. The Juiceman entry level machine is just fine. Eric Harr has a cocktail in his book that supposedly puts your immune system into overdrive. Juice a beet, grapefruit, orange, 1/2 lemon, 1/1/2 carrots, 1/1/2 stalk celery, small piece fresh ginger, 1/2 onion and 2 cloves garlic (YUP garlic - don't leave it out - sleep on the couch if you have to. This worked for me - day two of the cold and I'm way ahead. Second thing - keep water by you at night and drink all the water you can handle. I never did the fluid thing well before, but this time I'm drinking water day and night. Be sure to stay within sprint range of the bathroom. But - it works. Last thing - there's lots out there about whether to work out when you have a cold. With flu - it's easy - you can't workout while you are throwing up! I hate to give up my workout days, but my advice is to drink water, double up on the Vitamin C, and let your body rest. Your heart rate and pulse may be up just a bit when you have a bad cold and allowing yo0u body to get fully recovered will get you back in the gym or on the road at performance level quicker.

So the bike is one the way and the running piece is coming along - as we hang in and keep putting one foot in front of the other, it all falls into place. The dream begins to take shape and the bones of actually doing a triathlon are visible. Soon you begin to feel a lifestyle coming on that will put you in a good place for the rest of your life. It's like something within has finally figured out that I want to be fit for the rest of my one and only life. A kind of personal motto is making a lot of sense these days, "It isn't where you are at this moment, what really matters is the direction you are headed."

Man this is fun! (Man this could cost some bucks - but hey, beats paying the co-pay on heart surgery right?:)

The journey over the past 10+ months has been a real learning experience. In the beginning something like the giant burger at the left looked good to me. But, just as the six - eight weeks of building a physical discipline in the beginning brought about a positive habit, so also I found my tastes changing. A big night for me was to go to the Outback steak house and have a New York strip and baked potato (loaded of course - actually you couldn't really taste potato)! Going almost no fat and getting rid of sugar, red meat, and canned or boxed food brought about a change in taste after a couple of months. To each his/her own on this - but I actually don't care for the taste of red meat. Soon cravings for fruit and vegetables took over. I use a lot of soy products, keep a can of almonds around and have my own version of a whole wheat bread with seeds and protein supplement. This bread provides great complex carbs, good fat and some protein to boot. (Check back soon for that recipe on my recipe page.)

Endurance Training and Muscularity:  If you are like me, you  find it important to combine endurance training with weight training to maintain and hopefully even grow in muscularity. There is a bit of a balance here, but you will find what works best for you. There is a great web site at the University of Montana  - it's a virtual basic course in Sports Nutrition. Definitely worth a visit!

One of the weight rooms at the

Indiana University Sports Complex

I am afraid not to work out!  Know something? In the "old" days, I would have been looking for any excuse not to work out. Hey - travel, bad flights, meetings to attend, being "wiped out", no way to work out with all this going on - right? Wrong! IF this new lifestyle is going to work out, you breathe, you eat, you sleep, and you train!  So, I drag myself over to the sports complex at IU (guests at University Place Hotel can buy a pass) and head for the weight room for an upper / lower body workout in the weight room. I am afraid to not work out. The old lifestyle is too close, too seductive, too darned scary.

Here's the good news. I had not had my nap after the horrid three or so hours of sleep - but strangely, I felt much better after the workout and slept like a baby for a 2 hour nap (blew off a meeting). I happened to read an article today that jetlag could be reduced considerably if a person went for a workout before they even unpacked after a trans-oceanic flight. The moral of this story is - find a swim, a run, a stiff walk, or some component of your program to accomplish. For me - I don't stay in hotels any longer that do not have a fitness center of some kind. Sometimes it's just a treadmill or two and some free weights - but if more of us continue to ask, "Do you have a fitness center?" when we book hotels - the list of places that do have them will grow.

Me and Shania on Heritage
Trail - She's in the headset singing to me. (Up!)

Hey not bad for Jan. 1 in East Central Iowa huh? This is beautiful "Heritage Trail" that runs from Dubuque to Dyersville. No snow and a great running surface. (Got to take care of those "doggies". My advice, especially to folks 40+ new to running. Get good shoes, stay off concrete and pavement, and baby those feet. That bundle of bones, tendons, and tissues have been bearing the load for quite some time - ay?

Now I just need to find a bike and get my Speedo on eBaY!