Bicyle!....Bicycle!

  I just finished a nice Sunday bike ride. Temps were in the mid 60's but a little on the windy side. We went 23 miles in about an hour and 46 minutes. It wasn't a scorching pace but I was happy with it. The cool part is I discovered within our route there was a 4 mile loop that you can easily repeat to increase your mileage. The loop has one long straight road that is excellent for cyclist and you can practice maintaining your cadence on it.
  Speaking of bike rides, a few friends of mine are thinking of riding in the LBJ 100 bicycle tour on March 27. It's a tour of the Texas Hill country from the LBJ ranch. It has varying distances of 10, 30, 44, and 65 miles and it's only $35 for early registration. It looks pretty good to me. If anyone wants to dust off the old bike and come out and ride let me know.
  I still need to try and squeeze in a swim before the sun goes down.

Long Run

  It was a windy run this afternoon. Temperature was 54 degrees but the wind was NW @11 mph gusting to 21 mph. Is it me or do the gusts always happen when you start to go uphill? Is that some sort of Murphy's Running Law? Another of my favorite things about the wind is that sometimes no matter which way you are facing it's a headwind. I think it is natures way of helping you train better. Oh well. 8.75 miles and 1 hour 14 minutes later I was finished. Equates to about an average of 8:30 minute per mile pace. Not exactly my long slow pace but to be fair it was only 8 miles. Also, some weird guy kept passing me only to slow down right in front of me. I am not sure if he was just super alpha runner guy or using me as someone to catch up to. I was trying to keep a steady pace but after passing and being passed about 5 or 6 times by the same dude I decided to put an end to it. Afterburners were fired, distance was gained, his pride was hurt, and I was happy.
  So my heart rate monitor:Reebok Precision Trainer XT Heart–Rate Monitor with Chest Strap, works well for the price but I maybe looking to upgrade soon. Mine won't let me do splits so I will write more whilst I do some research.
   In local Oskar news: I found out that he really likes eating those bubbles that you can buy in the toy section of the grocery store. Fun Fun. Oh that Oskar.

Rest Day

  I have an option for cross training or easy workout or nothing. After Seeing my buddy's band last night at the Beauty Bar I think I will go with nothing. Highly recommend The Sterlings if anyone ever gets a chance to hear them play.
  No workout just recovery and a long day at the park for Oskar and I.

Speed Work On the Trail

  After Oskar terrorized the dog park for about an hour I got to run Town Lake for 5 miles. Oskar is still a puppy, with a lot of energy, and a very patient lady said it was "OK" that he was jumping on her because he was still so cute. I wonder how long that will last.
  My 5 mile run on the trail included fartleks. Funny name I know but it means "speed play" in Swiss. Basically it's interval training that is less structured. I ran easy for a little over 10 minutes and then did 20 second sprints followed by 1 minute active recovery (easy pace). I definitely got a really good workout in. After that I cruised home to finish the day with a 15 minute core workout and 3x20 Tire Flips. I could barely breathe when I was done.
  I just found this guys website mutantfitness.com , it looks like the kind of extra curricular training I'd like to do on top of swim/bike/run.
  On a side note I have been tracking all of my workouts at Mapmytri. For those who have never used mapmyrun or mapmyride it is an invaluable tool for the self coached athlete. It helps me keep all of my workouts organized for later reference.
Thanks for reading y'all.

Snow Day

  Here in Austin, TX we received a bit of snow today. Lucky for me I can switch my run out for an indoor session on the trainer. I have included a picture below. Oskar not included.
  I rode on the trainer for an hour at about 90 rpm with a 10 minute warm up and a 5 minute cool down., for a grand total of about 18 miles. I did this while still watching Battlestar Galactica - Season Three. I know I am a huge nerd but at 34 I am strangely at ease with my geekdom. I followed all of this up with a 15 minute total body strength session with dumbbells and core work. Great workout day but I am afraid I might not be able to move my arms tomorrow. 

Swimming is good for you

 

  Monday is the start of the new week. This is the last week of my 3 prep weeks and then on to Base 1 building. All of this can be found here:The Triathlete's Training Bible if anyone is curious about periodization training.
  Today was a swim day down at Big Stacy. I did a 200 warm up, 2x400 pull (with a buoy) at a moderate pace, 200 cool down for a total of 1200. It was right at about 30 minutes total pool time. Everything felt good, all in all it was a solid swim.
  I picked up this old tractor tire, pictured up above, at GCR Tires.It weighs about 150 lbs and is about 3.5 feet in diameter. It was marked as scrap and they gave it to me for free but I tipped the "yard guy" 20 for helping me find it and load it in my truck.
  The point of this is that I am incorporating it into my core workout. I flip it. Without Oskar in it of course. You squat down while arching your back and lifting with your legs you pick up one side with an underhanded grip. Once you get it a over 45 degrees you switch your grip overhand and push it over. I did it 6x10 times and man I was whipped. I like the Rocky Balboa style workout. If anybody has any other ideas like this feel free to let me know.
  p.s. Oskar was safe in the middle of the yard chewing his new bone.

Long Ride

  28 miles and 2 hours later I made the long ride down to Buda and back. First, the weather was amazing. The temperature was in the low 70's, sunny and with little wind. My friend and I took off a little after 2 o'clock this afternoon. We took it pretty slow so I was able to clock a lot of time in the saddle. I can feel all the work I have been doing on my trainer for the last couple of months is paying off. My pedal stroke is a lot more consistent and even. If I can keep that up all I need to do is ramp up my endurance for cycling.
  I like the idea of riding with a few other people for companionship and safety so I plan on finding a riding group. Anyone with a bike is invited to join. All experience levels are welcome.
 In Oskar news we conquered Auditorium Shores dog park this afternoon. Once again he ran until he could barely walk. I was so proud.

Run Day

  I like mixing up the workouts between the three sports. Just when I was starting to really miss running I go out this morning and knock out a 10 mile run down at Town Lake. I ran 9 minute miles while keeping my heart rate in the lower 150's so I am pretty happy with that. A couple of times I started feeling like I hit my stride. Everything seemed to fall in place for a few minutes. My pace slightly accelerated and my heart rate dropped a few beats and I felt like I was floating. I hope I can find that stride more often and for longer periods of time.
  Tomorrow is a long and slow bike ride if anyone cares to join me. I want to ride between 25-30 miles.

Swim Day

  Yay!! I finished a one mile swim. Unfortunately I wasn't able to time it since I forgot my watch. I swam at the best little secret in Austin and it's called Big Stacy Pool. It is a free, heated, outdoor pool that is open year round. It has three lanes roped off dedicated to lap swimmers. I really enjoy swimming at this pool. Did I mention it was free? Yep, free. Thank you city of Austin.
  My ultimate goal in this whole training adventure is the Longhorn Half Ironman. The course is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. I am already close to being able to finish the distance in a pool but I reckon it will be more difficult in open water. I can definitely run the 13.1 mile distance and I think with some work I can get my legs "up to speed" for the bike part. While living in New York this last summer I was a bike messenger in Manhattan for Breakaway Couriers. Side note: I loved this job. On a busy day I was riding about 30-40 miles a day but it was spread out over an 8 hour period. Right now I am pretty confident that I can get to that distance goal of 56 miles before race day.
  I started the morning off with Oskar at the dog park. It was nice to see that this little cattle dog has absolutely no fear of other dogs, even the gigantic German Shepherd that none of the other dogs would mess with. After he got his exercise it was my turn.
   Tomorrow is either a long run or long bike ride depending on the weather.

Technical Day

  Today was a "light" workout day. I started early with a quick spin session on the trainer focusing on technique. The workout was a 10 minute easy spin to warm up followed by 10 minutes of one legged spins. You go 30 seconds with one leg with an easier gear, switch legs for another 30 seconds, then 1 minute of both legs on a bigger gear and then repeat 5 times for 10 minutes. I followed this with 5 minutes at 90 rpm in a heavier gear finishing with a 5 minute cool down.
  As soon as I finished I jumped off the bike and took Oskar for a quick1 mile run. I have to admit that practicing running off the bike is getting a little easier. Oskar he did really well on only his 4th run. He still wants to jump ahead of me from time to time but we are both learning. I tried to time my transition between the bike and out the door running but I somehow missed hitting my watch button. Awesome! Oh well.
  I followed this up when I got home with a strength training workout I got out of a .Men's Health (1-year) magazine. It is two sets six exercises of low weights and high reps. Basically it's squats, lunges, mountain climbers, rows, and side lunges. This is the same strength training workout from a couple of days ago and my glutes and hamstrings are still pretty sore.
  For those who are curious I am including a link here to the training manual I am following throughout this training season. It is an easy to understand with plenty of useful tips for novices and experienced triathletes alike. I am definitely on the novice side of the spectrum.

Run Day

  Today was a beautiful day for a run. I only wish my workout was longer. I started my morning at the dog park at Auditorium Shores with little Oskar. I let him run around and terrorize everyone else for about an hour. We learned that he was only scared of jumping in the water for about 10 seconds, then he got over his fear. I packed him back up in the car and went for a fast 4 mile run. I definitely pushed the pace and ran 7:30's keeping my heart rate in the upper 160's maxing out at 192 on the sprint finish. I got home and did my core workout for about 15 minutes.
  A good friend of mine suggested I take up yoga to replace my core workout. She followed the link on my page and saw that the exercises were the same in the yoga classes she takes. The classes are at Black Swan Yoga and it is a donation based co-op with a suggested donation of $10. I think I might check it out in a couple of weeks and try to conquer my fear of yoga studios. I am letting my dog inspire me to overcome my fears.
  I have not written too much about the gear I am using for this training season. So here is today's topic. For all three disciplines I use a basic Reebok heart rate monitor I bought online at Woot. Since today was a run day I will talk about my shoes. I recently received a pair of Nike Frees for Christmas. I have been running for a few years in stability shoes to correct the imbalance in my step. Recently I have tried to concentrate on running more forward. Leaning just slightly forward and striking the ground more with my forefoot instead of the middle or heaven forbid the heel of the foot. The Nike Frees are great since they offer virtually no support for your feet which means all of the cushioning must come from your joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles from your toes all the way up to your hips. It forces you to strengthen your weakness making you a better runner. It has not been as dramatic of a switch as I thought it would be. I love these shoes. The most I have run in them at one time was 16 miles but after a couple of months of running I have no new injuries and my old plantar issues in my left foot have almost all gone away.
That's all I have for today. I see my dog napping and that sounds like a pretty good idea.

Busy couple of days

It's been a busy few days starting with Sunday at the Austin Marathon. I did not run this year although I kind of wished I had run it. It seemed to be near perfect weather and a lot of my friends had a great day of racing. Congrats to Kelly Harris for her Boston Qualifying time. It was great to see all of my Rogue Running friends out on the race course. My plan is to run with Rogue starting at the beginning of March for about 6 months for my Saturday long runs. After seeing my friends March can't come soon enough.
As for myself, I have fully recovered from my sick days and have got all of my workouts in so far this week. These include a one hour spin session on the trainer yesterday. I have been focusing on the trainer to try and improve my turnover speed and form. I followed it with a 15 minute core workout that I have been doing. It went pretty well and I am happy with the workout.
Today I finally got to swim. It feels like it has been forever since the last time I swam. I also used today's workout to improve my swimming form. I was in the waqter for about 36 minutes and swam 1200 by doing 12x100 intervals. I rested for about 10-15 seconds in between each interval so I could maintain enough focus on my form. I am trying to take less strokes per lap and glide for a bit longer. I can't wait to get out in the open water. I am excited to train with the Guppy Max group in the spring if they'll have me. Now all I have left is a round of strength training and that is my day.

It's back on

  I did get to spin on the trainer for about 30 minutes and oozed a ton of sweat and felt pretty good. My heart rate was 123 avg and 138 max. The fun thing about the trainer is that time goes by quickly because of my TV hooked up in front of it. Currently I am spinning my way through the entire Battlestar Galactica series. Yes, I am a nerd. It was an interesting episode about boxing that made me remember my brief stint at South Austin Gym kick boxing. I did it for about a year and had an awesome time meeting a bunch of great people. The owner Randy Palmer is the nicest guy you have ever met but punching him feels like hitting an iron door that opens up to a brick wall. Whenever I got into the ring with him I spent about 99 percent of my time just working on dodging his punches. Another guy who is a really good musician that is so calm and peaceful outside of the ring but punches harder than anyone there that was my size is a guy named Adam McIniss. If you ever get a chance to see his band perform and want to hear some music that makes you feel like the world is a good place then check out his band. Here is his website: Adam McIniss. I wanted to keep kickboxing but I kept getting hurt, it's a contact sport, and I needed something easier on my body. By the way a special thanks goes out to my friend Todd. My jaw still does not close all the way when I first get up in the morning because of his right hook. Wow the mind can wander during endurance sports training.
Definitely not what I had scheduled today but I am trying to salvage the end of my workout week while dealing with a recent sickness. I jumped off the bike and took Oskar for a quick run. We did a half mile out and back for a total of one whole mile. He is getting better and better every time we go out. Best dog ever.
Good luck to all of my running friends who are doing the Austin Marathon tomorrow. 26.2 miles to glory!!

Gonna Tri

  So the sickness seems to have been a bad reaction to a bunch of seafood I had earlier this week. I have given my body a couple of days to recuperate and I am going to try to get on the trainer for at least half an hour. Too much time off makes Colin a restless being.
On the Oskar news front we did spend the morning at the dog park and learned quite a deal about each other. I seem to be a anxious dog owner that doesn't want to encroach on other people while Oskar is that one crazy lunatic dog that runs from one side of the park to the other in a matter of moments chasing EVERY other dog. All in all a good day so far.

Sick Time

  I took off training on Thursday because of a weird allergy that gave me cramping and feverish condition. I was scheduled to do a run test to determine my training paces but instead I think I will use my last 10k time as a base line figure. I am also going to take off today which was supposed to be a swim day because of the near freezing conditions. I plan to convalesce for one more day.

On a side note Oskar has learned to lay down in just one training session so I have high hopes for him to learn to run with me on a regular basis.

Cycle Test

 I scheduled myself for a bike test, core workout and a long swim. The sleet in Austin canceled my outdoor swim but I was able to do a bike test and a core workout.
  The bike test was a way to find my lactate threshold. Lactate threshold is basically the maximum amount of effort you can sustain while your blood pumps the lactic acid buildup out of your muscles. Knowing this number is important to structure your workouts for intensity and duration for each of the three disciplines. In order to control variables such as wind speed, incline and road conditions, I did the test on my trainer indoors.
I started with a 10 minute warm up to get my heart rate up. After that I got up to 15 mph and timed myself at every half mile. At every interval I noted my heart rate, perceived exertion level, speed and time. Then I increased my speed by one mph for every half mile until I could not go any longer. I figured my LT for cycling to be about 162-165 beats per minute(bpm). I also noted the time it took for my heart rate to return to the starting rate of 105 bpm. It took 3 minutes. Knowing this info is a good starting point to modify my effort level in future workouts and have a baseline to measure myself in future fitness tests.
My friend, Mark Enstone, suggested to go for a quick run as soon as you get off the bike to get used to the feeling of "running off the bike." Since I was only running a mile I thought this was also a good opportunity to run with my dog, Oskar, a 6 month old australian cattle dog mix. He did pretty good for his first run but he needs a ton of work.

As soon as I got back I went ahead and did my core work out that I found on Runners World website here: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-263--13030-2-1X2X3X4-5,00.html while adding a few push ups and seated rows with an exercise resistance band.
After eating I was dressed to go swimming when I opened my door to see it sleeting. For now no swimming for me in the near freezing conditions.

Meet and Greet

Hello,
  My name is Colin Moss, I live in Austin, Texas and I am a novice blogger and triathlete. In other words I have done neither. So any mistakes in form and style in the actual blog should be forgiven and any creative constructive advice will be much appreciated.
Now as for the triathlon part I am a beginner with respect to training, preparing, and racing in a triathlon. My background in this area is that I grew up a swimmer hating running and biked only for fun. After I turned thirty I quit smoking and started exercising regularly. After a year of kickboxing and all the little injuries that go along with it I went searching for a sport that had a lot less contact.
  My friend and I took up marathon training from a coach at RunTex named Dave Moody. He is a sub 3 hour marathoner who convinced two non runners that we could finish a marathon with about 6 months of training. He was right and three years later I am turning to the dark side, i.e., triathlons. My plan is to get through five races of Sprint, Olympic and Half Ironman distances, injury free and with a sense of accomplishment that I did the best that I could. I will be self coached with the help of books, online articles, advice from friends and strangers. This will be an organic process that will unfold as I discover what I am capable of.
Now for the physical side of me. I am 34 years old, about 185-190 lbs (depending on the day), and I run a four hour marathon. I am not doing this to lose weight but the fortunate side effect of triathlon training is that if done right it can get you into shape. This is my first official week of training but I have spent the last two months strength training, and doing basic workouts in all three disciplines getting ready for the next 8 months of training.
 This week I will be testing to see what my times, heart rate and lactate thresholds are in the three events. For those of you who are not familiar with triathlons more information will follow as the blog progresses but basically you swim, bike, and then run. The distances vary depending on the races.
So if you are interested then follow along to see how it goes.
Thanks,
Colin