Back again in force

I know I haven't updated this in some time (work, school, family et al) but I'm back and now focused on achieving some truly mediocre results in all my athletic pursuits.

So with that, I did the following in the past month.

Signed up for the lottery of the NYC Half Marathon sponsored by Nike

Took my swimming seriously by doing a Total Immersion weekend Clinic

Rejoined New York Sports Club The Livingston NJ javascript:void(0)
Publish Postlocation has a fantastic small lap pool. Not very crowded (usually empty) and a great steam room.

Some of my upcoming stuff to get my flabby butt moving.


www.active.com
The Lincoln Tunnel Challenge on April 20th.
The Giants Stadium Draft Day 5K.

On another front, I received a blind inquiry to participate in the Janus Executive Challenge for Fiancial Services professionals. They sent a great Tri Tank. Unfortuately the shirt fits like sausage skin, and not in a good way. It's given me some inspiration to finally start moving. Take a look.

http://www.nyctri.com/Registration/Janus_Financial_Executive_Challenge.htm

I'll start posting the weekly workout results this week.

Ugh, this will hurt.

My goals for 2008 updated.

Well,

I got into the NYC Triathlon

I was probably one of the first 100 or so people. I signed up at 12:01 AM. They sent me a dri-fit tee from Accelerade, which is one of my favorite performance drinks.

Now for the Marathon, I have to do some very cold running for the next five weeks. I need four races to guarantee a place in the NYC Marathon.

Today I ran the God Loves, we deliver race in Central park, with a respectable, but not outstanding 8:56 per mile run. I can't shake this cough for the last month, so I'm not going to have any PR's anytime soon. 8000 runners and Joan Rivers playing emcee, making fun of Katie Holmes I believe like this.
"Katie Holmes is in the crowd to run this race"
"She's with a chinese baby and a midget"



In the next three weeks I have to run a 15K, 10K, and a 4 miler. With that, I will have two out of three goals acquired.

The NYC Half will be an open lottery. If I don't get in, I will have to substitute a local half marathon to replace the marquee race.

Keep on Runnin' with Alli(Trademarked)

208 pounds - 3 pounds lost

Some updates.

Okay, so my wife points out that I can be rather cheap in weird ways. I tend to blow off things that seem expensive, but for the most part are locks to be good products.

I was considering NutriSystem. Then when I priced out the food, I got a serious case of sticker shock.

So, what to do? Well, Alli(I don't know the keystroke for trademark) to the rescue.
has become my new dieting tool.

Simply put, so far it works. Read up on some of the treatment effects that can occur if you deviate from the rather bland diet with some fatty foods.

The treatment effects are essentially the "no no no you bad man" cop when you decide to go off your diet.

The diet itself is fairly vanilla, low fat, low calorie, but let me stress, the low fat must be adhered to. If not, the Alli product will make you pay for it.

I will weigh myself next Friday to see how I do.

My goal for 2008 updated

A quick note.

I got into the NYC Triathlon. I signed up for it at 12:01 AM on November 1st. That's one down and two to go.

For the full marathon, I have four races left to run this year for my automatic berth into the event. I just did a pre-2007 marathon race that was a five miler last week. I have one race in two Saturday's that is also a charity event. Plus three in December. Those are going to be cold races.

For the Half Marathon, I have to cross my fingers for luck in the lottery or join a charity for a defined spot. That lottery will occur in May 2008.

I didn't get to weigh myself today (oh darn, too bad) but I will before I post next.

It truly sucks to get old at times.

Weight 211.


I can run an 8 minute mile. I can do a triathlon. I cannot seem to get under 200 pounds. At 39 years old, I find that I cannot lose a damn pound unless I'm nearly starving myself.

So, I'm going to embarrass myself to do it. I'm going to start a regimented diet, and I'm considering some of the more known diets like Weightwatchers or NutriSystem.

Either way, every time I post I will be posting the current weight. My ideal goal for the short term is 12 pounds by December 31st. So that will level off to about 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week.

So if I post my weight and in the slim chance that someone actually reads this blog, I will have the incentive to lose a bit of weight because someone will call me on the carpet if I don't.

40 and fit is now my goal for 2008

I had been basically slowing down these last couple of weeks since the Triathlon. I have been working out maybe three times a week, and nothing really heavy involved.

What I do not want to happen is to lose the gains that I've made. But, to be honest, it's a tough thing to keep yourself motivated when all you want to to is "stay in shape". The holidays, work, family, can easily derail you.

For me, I think I found my set of goals for 2008. Now that I've been officially bitten by the Tri bug, I knew one of my goals was to do the NYC Triathlon. So much so, I found a cable recap of the event on SNY TV and watched it. Brenda groaned when she saw what was on, but I didn't care.

But what else? Well, I am a member of NY Roadrunners. and I've always wanted to do the Marathon, so there is goal number 2. And since I had a great time at the NYC Half Marathon why not put that on the list as well? I am starting to see a pattern.

So in short, there's my goals, but I don't want to schlub my way through each event. I want to do well. So the best effort includes best preparation, I decided to set the bar of each event as follows:

NYC TRI: 2:40
NYC Half Marathon: 1:50
NYC Marathon: 3:50

I will be doing other events like some of the local runs and maybe a few other Tri's, but those are my "must do" events. And to hit those times I need to really get in gear and get in shape for them.

Too much for my 40th year of existence? I know that the midlife crisis is when a guy is supposed to go out and get hair plugs, a sports car, and a new set of threads, but in those respective categories I have too much hair (back especially) I already have the sports car, but I could use some new clothes. So hopefully all this working out will allow me to get some new duds for work and home.

More on how I plan to do this in an upcoming post.

Finished!

On September 23rd 2007 I participated and finished the Walt Disney World Triathlon in a not record breaking time of 4:23 minutes. The biggest hurdle that day was to overcome cramps and some really steamy temperatures. While it was the hardest thing I ever had to do physically, I don't regret a single minute of it.

Before I get to the triathlon details I want to thank all the people that sponsored me as a Team in Training participant. I am truly overwhelmed by the generosity of the people in my personal and professional network and I am grateful for your support. With your help (and some from my employer) we donated 6500.00 to help the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fight blood cancers. Meeting with survivors of these diseases the night before the tri was enough to remind me that whatever I faced in the race was absolutely nothing to what people with these diseases go through. It honestly kept me going on a miserably hot day. I actually used the thought "This beats Chemotherapy" many times, when I wanted to quit. Also, I was participating with a group of over 300 L&LS participants, the event raised 1.1 millon dollars which was truly inspiring.

Now onto some of the nitty gritty for anyone who ever wants to "tri" this. I am hooked and will do some more tri's next year.

The "Geez, I wish I did this better" thoughts.

I wish I actually watched what I ate. Someone had told me, have a blast, you are working out burning calories so you can eat almost anything you want. REALITY: I did eat almost anything I wanted, but, I'm 39 years old and my body will not willfully allow me to lose weight eating the things that I ate during my training period. So, I'm going to start a serious diet on Monday. I didn't gain weight, but I certainly didn't drop thirty pounds either. Life sucks when you like to eat and you're body does what you don't want it to do with that food.

I wish I can learn to take a punch. In the swim I actually did worse than I expected, mainly because I didn't want to get kicked in the face. I took a cautious (read slowwwww) approach to the swim and wished that I had a little more guts to get into the fray. I think I could have cut out about 5 to 8 minutes off my time. I realize I will never be a fast swimmer, but I don't need to be as slow as a leaf meandering down a stream. I will take a chance the next time.

I wish I got myself truly "fitted" for my bike. While I improved on my form I probably could have used some more tuning by a real professional bike fitter. 36 miles of continuous riding and you start to notice that your seat isn't ideally placed, and that your legs could use an inch or more extension. A proper fitting could have cut out the massive cramping that I had around mile 23-25. That cost me about 10 minutes as I had to stop and walk off the charley horses ripping me from calf to 'ahem' crotch.

By the way, I met God on that road, and asked him why he/she was making my leg straighten like a 2x4 with horrific cramps that I never experienced in my life. Sadly, God did not respond with any encouragement, so I let the pain subside and continued on.

I wish I did more torturous hot weather running! Dammit. Now the focus of this event was to raise funds, have a good time, and enjoy the moments created. All that was accomplished, but heck, I wanted to break four hours at least! The run was probably the hardest thing I had to go through, even worse than the bike. (The bike generates a breeze after all)
The run was situated on a mix of shade and sunny paths that were 90-95 degrees with a relative humidity of oh 90 percent or so. It was brutal. I love running and can usually do a six mile run in 49-55 minutes. When I finally got over the golf ball sized cramps above both knees and one calf, and could run continuously, the heat just drove me back down to a walk. So the final leg was a run-walk-run-walk-run that took me 77 minutes. What was I thinking, this is Florida!! It's HOT! Next time I won't avoid training outside during a typical NY summer day.

I should have ordered a larger (much) size. These outfits are tight. Really tight. 10 pounds in a five pound bag tight. Enough said.

Sounds ugly right? Well, yes, When it was over, I wanted nothing more than to find the nearest industrial strength 10 gallon water bucket and do a swan dive into it. But there is an upside.

Why I will do this again.

Triathlons are a lot more interesting than plain old working out. You are doing something different almost everytime you train. If you hate the gym, give triathlon workouts a try. You won't be bored, because it changes. Swim one day, run the next, through some weights in, and follow up with a bike around town. And don't do what I did, throw a sensible diet into the mix and it's a sure fire bet to get into great shape.

The comraderie with your fellow particpants is fantastic. Face it, this is a competitive sport, but it's mainly a sport where you are competing against your own limits. The people you compete with are supportive and most likely will give you advice if you ask for it. In fact, I don't recall any "trash talking" throughout the entire event. At the start of the swim, there were call outs from all of the other people in my 'wave' of "good luck" "enjoy the day" and "let's have fun". Granted, you are getting these kind words from guys in tight lycra and rubber suits, but there's nothing wrong with that!

Doing it for a charity will allow you a good deed every year. While as a consultant, I didn't participate in these events because it took time away from what I thought I needed to do (work) and as a consultant, you don't ask your clients to kick in a few for a good cause.
As an employee, well, I'm still working, but I have a great employer that will do matching of funds that I collected. It's one of those perks of larger companies that not many people take advantage of. I will do this again, and feel good about doing it. I have to say that philanthropy has bitten me also, and I would like to be involved in more events like this as volunteer and participant.


All in all, this was an event that I will never forget for the above reasons and because my family was there to see me through it. Which leads me to thanking my wife Brenda and my in laws Tom and Geri in coming down with me. I also want to thank my wife for putting up with these crazy workout schedules that I was trying to fit in with work and school. I promise I will get up early in the morning from now on to get my workouts in. She's a saint and puts up with too much of my behavior quirks. Plus both my sons were there, and while there was the event, we were in Disney after all. Seeing my children as happy as I have ever seen them while meeting the Disney characters was worth every cramp that I felt on that day. We took this picture after our day at Disney was done. The boys let every scheduled nap slide and had a blast. The just caught up at the end.

Thanks again everyone.