Month: March 2006

Open Letter to Amazon.com

So, about 7 years ago, when I was building my kayak, I ordered a couple of books (actually, about a half-dozen) off of Amazon to learn how to keep my head above water, literally and figuratively. Likewise, before the first kid, ordered a couple of baby-type books to have something to thumb restlessly through while trying to figure out why Pinky wouldn’t stop crying.

However, it’s been nigh-unto six years since I’ve even looked at another kayak book – water’s still wet, paddling in bad weather and rough seas will still leave you exhilarated or dead, and there’s still a dozen potentially life-threatening conditions that could be happening for every observable feature of a baby.

So, Mr. Bezos (or lackey) – run on down to the folks who draw up your algorithms. Hand them this idea:

Instead of recommending based on who I used to be, see what folks who used to be like me are buying now, and offer me that crap instead of the fifth edition of a book of which I bought the third edition…

S l o w D o w n

So, I’ve been reading “Lance Armstrong’s War” by Daniel Coyle. Great book, pretty even-handed on the whole Lance subject.

But the phenomenal part are his details of the training regimens and strategies of the ProTour riders. The #1 concern? Weight.

Which kind of meshes with one of the bugbears I’ve been wrestling with lately, and kind of cemented in my strategy for the year: Get thin. Not cyclist thin, or even triathelete thin. But to hit target weight before really cranking up the training. Or at least get down to below my thinnest from last year.

Last year, I think I made a pretty big mistake in leaping into racing. Dunno what it is, but it seems to me that there’s mechanisms in the body that go into protective mode as soon as you start really stressing the aerobic system. Which is why regular folks in marathon training can fail loose weight when mileage gets too high. Every extra pound puts extra stress on the body for every extra step, so if you’re up in the higher BMI, the effect is multiplied. Just my opinion, but what is life if not a big sandbox in which to play?

Where I’m going with this is to a strong appreciation of the idea of heart rate training, and keeping the rate way, way down to encourage fat burning (say 65-70% of max) instead of going fully aerobic to build capacity. After a week, it seems to be working – the scales have shown the beginnings of a steady decline again. Plus, in talking to my skinny wife, it’s what she did over the last year after she stopped nursing – moderate pace, at least 30 minutes a day.

So – Tuesday was another 30 minutes at lunch. Measured it in the car, and it’s not much more than 3 miles.

Wednesday was back to the pool – 5 laps breast, 30 laps free, 5 laps free – standard 2000 yard workout.

It’s kind of tough to focus on slowness after so long of going out and letting it rip, but I can feel something distinctly different going on with my body. But it’s kind of nice, and relaxing in its own way.

So.

Am I nuts?

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Semi-Hiatus

Hey, y’all –

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Cycle, Cycle, Too is going on semi-hiatus for about a month. Couple of cool projects at work, the perspective of a cool project at the church (set up a system to digitally capture sermons, burn CD’s instead of the cassettes we have now, and possibly put the service out as a podcast), a potentially cool pair of projects at the house (completing repairs on the kayak and building a new boat), some not-so-cool projects at the house (roof), and longer days with which to try to burn off some of this lingering belly flab necessitate that I spend a little less time with the RBF. I’m still running, will still race (some), but won’t have a ton of time to read and comment. I’ll likely keep posting, ’cause this works well as both an mental outlet and a log.

So, for the time being, I apologize in advance. Hope y’all have a great spring!

Weekend Wrap-up

So.

I was completely slack at the end of last week – didn’t do anything between Wednesday and Sunday. Not sure quite why, but such is life.

Sunday, the mother-in-law is in town (good thing). We all trundle down to the Y for the traditional Sunday swim/workout where the boys and I splash and the wife thrashes the elliptical trainer into submission. Per tradition, I waved goodbye in the parking lot, and started jogging home.

Wow. Terrible run. Legs weren’t in it, even though there were several days of rest, and I started having “discomfort” in my left foot. Which was comforting – it was my right leg that had issues with PF during the marathon, so at least the pilates stretching program is working.

I walked about a mile of the 5.5. Which is all right. The important part is that I was out there – calories don’t get burned sitting on my duff.

Monday was a much better day. At lunch, I set out to do an easy 30 minutes on the road. Ran out for 15 minutes, keeping the heart rate about 140 – low aerobic, burnin’ fat! At the turn, Wilco’s “At Least That’s What You Said” comes on, and I was complelled by the guitars and distortion to do about 3 minutes of max effort, ’cause the song’s that good. When I slowed down, I checked my pocket, and my badge had fallen out at some point.

So, on a sunny day in the 40’s (First run of 2006 in shorts!), I was forced to turn around and retrace my steps to see if I could find my badge. The guy about 2 minutes behind me had picked it up, so, life was good. Jogged gently, got my heart rate back down pretty quickly, and finished up in 35 minutes.

So I had that going for me.

In keeping with my plan to do an Olympic tri, I headed to the pool after bath time. 5 laps breast to stretch out. 10 laps free that felt incredible. 20 laps free that were pretty good, but started to get long at the end. Did some alternate side breathing here – wow, does that feel akward.

After that, I look, and two lanes over, the tall guy with the beard (featured here) looks over, and we exchange pleasantries while clothed this time.

I did another 10, the last 5 of which were absolutely great. Nice way to finish the actual work. 5 breast to stretch, and I’m out. 50 laps, 2500 yards.