January Resolution and training update.

Back at the beginning of the month I laid out some simple resolutions. Just wanted to provide an update to what is happening.

1. Reduce the amount of soda I drink.
This one is harder than I thought it would be. I've found the biggest challenge is with meals and I've gotten to the point where I don't have diet soda with every meal so that's progress. I've found I don't drink soda just to drink. When I'm thirsty and not eating, plain water is fine (cue Bobby Boucher from the Waterboy). I've mixed in Diet Snapple and Diet Arizona Ice Tea for meals and find that works, especially for breakfast. I have some Crystal Light to try too. I haven't gone a full day without soda yet but I think I'll get there soon.


2. Increase my strength and flexibility.
   I didn't even bother with the initial test putting myself in the lowest category for the hundred push up challenge. I was making progress having done the first two weeks twice then my hip/knee started hurting more. I also got "The Perfect Pushup" that seems to make me do the pushups with good (dare I say perfect) form. Who knew they were harder when you do them right? Still more wood to chop here but I'm still at it.
   
   I'm fairly happy with my stretching program. It is rare that I don't do it daily. Of course it help that this is the primary path to recovery from my latest injuries. The program takes about 25 minutes from beginning to end focusing on hamstrings, ITB, glutes, and hip flexors. I feel good about my progress here.

The focus of this blog used to be on my training and racing. Even though I haven't been dwelling on that, I think I haven't completely atrophied. In the month of January:

• I rode 247 miles (mostly on the Computrainer with a little bit of mountain biking thrown in).
• I walked/ran 27 miles (yes there was a Disney Half Marathon squeezed in there)
• Swam 8 short swim sessions (4.0 hours swimming).

Most of these workouts haven't been at a high intensity but looking back at it, it could have been worse. In fact, I reviewed 2009's January's workouts and found that this year's bike is much longer, run is about the same and I had more swim sessions this year (but shorter overall duration). If my hip/knee improves I should be in a good place to ramp up my fitness for the race season (after all it is still January for at least a few more hours). I have a half marathon scheduled for early April, but my first "focus" event is St Anthony's Olympic Triathlon at the end of April and I only need to be able to survive run a 10k for that. Then on to Eagleman70.3 in June.


In summary, the resolutions aren't resolved yet and the work outs are still working out.


Rock on.

New Month Resolution: Anti-Fatty February

What I have been doing on the weight loss front just isn't working well. It is just that the effort I'm putting in does not reflect in the results. While my weight hasn't gone up too much, I've yo-yoed in a small range, never really getting the breakthrough I think I need. I've found that I do well during the week but the weekends are my nemesis.

My injuries haven't let me really push training so the amount of training that I've been doing feels like much less than usual. It probably isn't a tremendous amount less but it feels like a lot less. Doctor's orders say that my rides can only be at an easy (exact quote: "not crazy like a spin class") effort. No running (limited strolling instead) and I'm still building up my swim duration from my broken rib. It is better than stopping cold turkey but I can't count on bumping up the workouts to help burn more calories.

So I need to mix it up a bit. Call it what you want: induction, detox, boot camp, intervention, refocus, pond scum (?), whatever. I've decided to make February an intense focus on weight loss. Call it Anti-Fatty February. What does that mean?

• I'm not really leveraging WeWa properly so I'm stopping paying the monthly fee. My doctor once said most any of the major diet programs work IF YOU FOLLOW THEM. I haven't been following it (and it shows) so it is time to try something different.
• I'm going to use The Daily Plate to track all the food that goes in my tummy. This will help me identify where I succeed and where I fail. Sort of using this to identify red, amber, and green times and days.
• I'm going to track my weight daily to see if the weekend nemesis continues. I'll post on the blog the weekly weight on Fatty Friday (or hopefully anti-fatty Friday).
• I'm not a saint so I'm giving myself two days of amnesty already: 2/7 (there is a football game that day, a new microbrew for me [Blue Point Winter Ale] is already in the fridge and I bought a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue to sip a bit while the game ) and 2/13 (dinner plans at Morton's for Valentines Day/MrsRockstar B-day).
• I'm not going to set a weight loss target. I doubt I will get where I need to be in one month (I'm about 25 pounds off) but this is just to get me on the right direction and path again.
• I've already apologized to my family as I expect it to be miserable to be around me for a few weeks.

I hope that by March I'll be able to kick up the training a bit. My hip/knee seems to be improving but at a glacial pace. Walking seems to help and I should be able to swim long enough to resume Team Total Training Master's Swim classes soon. Guppies, here I come to join you. Watch out, fat guy doing cannonballs.

Losing weight can't wait until my injury heals. This can be the new month resolution for February. I'll keep grinding away at the January resolutions but add this one to the pile.

Rock on.

Do what you can for philanthropy.

I saw this topic in the newspaper. Amy Fisher, who rose to infamy as the Long Island Lolita in the Mary Jo Buttafuco shooting, has decided to become a stripper (I guess her foray into "acting" didn't work out so well). She decided to donate the tips she receives during her local debut (she also seems to have her own gift matching program) to help with the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts.

This is not a review nor an advertisement for the stripping show so you'll have to look elsewhere for that. It is, though, more of a reminder for philanthropy and generally doing good. My wife and I believe in philanthropy. That's a simple sentence but I think that it says a lot. We try our best to help out when we can. Sometimes we can do better than other times but we try to try. I've been successful raising a lot of money for charities (one of the reasons that I've been able to do umpteen events with Team in Training). It doesn't always have to be about money (although that seems to always helps and is often the focus) and sometimes you run the risk that some may try to take advantage of you but the rewards out weighs the risks.

I haven't found the "perfect" charity yet but do have some favorite and unfavorites. Many of you may have favorites and unfavorites too. Leave a comment or send me a mail with your favorites and ones you think should be avoided and why. I'll try to summarize them in a later post even though this is completely unscientific assuming I get enough interest.

Does Amy believe in Haiti relief? I hope so. The Rockstar household will be donating something to help out with the recovery there but we haven't decided which organization could help best yet. It probably won't be an organization that gives stripping lessons though.

PS: Charity Navigator at http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=1004 has summarized a list of their top reviewed charities that are targeting Haiti relief. Not an endorsement for Charity Navigator nor any of the charities themselves but more information can't hurt.

A potential waste of education.

I registered to take the USAT Level 1 coaching class scheduled for this April in Baltimore, MD. I hope this 2.5 day lecture based class will provide me with a foundation of knowledge so that I can understand the training process better.

This isn't an inexpensive class. In addition to the tuition and burning a weekend, I have to drive down to Baltimore (about a 4 hour drive) and stay in a local hotel. I have to get a background check done to make sure I am not an ax murderer or the like and after the class I have to complete the final exam and send it in.

In a past life I was one of the cycling coaches for the local Team in Training chapter. Besides learning how to ride slow and for a long time, I learned how to get newbies to the point where they could successfully complete a Century. I still occasionally ride with the team but I haven't coached officially in a while.

So, why take this class at all? Gunna to put your shingle out and become "Coach Rock Star Tri?" The short answer is most likely not.

I don't expect that I can dedicate the time necessary to become the type of coach I would be proud to be but I do expect that I will learn something that will help me in my own athletic adventures. If I could help others from time to time, great, but that isn't the focus. A little bit of knowledge could make me dangerous and I hope this doesn't turn into a complete waste of education (sort of like my MBA).

How much does blood weigh?

My friend Mindyruns decided to organize a blood drive to celebrate her 50th birthday. She thought it would be a great thing to get at least 50 people to donate a pint each and I can't agree with her more. Although I've had disagreements with the blood center policies in the past (that I won't go into here), I decided to help her meet her goal. MrsRockstar and I couldn't make the official donation window so went down to the blood center this morning instead.

While on the table watching the so called fluid of life drip out of me I wondered how much a pint of blood weighs. I realized then I had a scheduling fail as I weighed in earlier that day and should have weighed in AFTER donating blood rather than BEFORE. Next time I'll be smarter (won't be the last time I say this phrase).

Even so the number on the scale was 251.6. This is down 1.6 from last week and I'm thinking a good compass is having the BMI click down at least a tenth every week. This upcoming week will be a challenging one for me. My daughter Courtney's birthday is coincidentally today and the birthday celebrations (read: multiple) for her are already scheduled. Hitting the scheduled workouts might be tough but I need to stay the course to keep on track with training and weight loss (I'm guessing the blood will grow back before I weigh in next time so no help there).

Got to get ready for hosting 20 something tweens for the first of the Courtney celebrations tonight. Happy Birthday, Mindyruns. Happy Birthday, Courtney.

PS: The blood center said we counted as pint 57, 58, and 59 for Mindy. I counted as two, not because I am a rock star but because they hooked me up to a newish machine called Alyx that takes out double of some stuff while it puts other stuff back into you. Sorry for the technobabble.

I got tagged!? 10 things that make me happy.

Anne at Iron Dreams tagged me (Me? Yes, me) to post on 10 things that make me happy. First time I've ever been tagged so please forgive me for not following the proper protocol. So, without further ado, the ten:

1. My wife and girls -  I could probably spend more than 10 things just on this one but I know I wouldn't be the same person if I didn't have them. Something that makes me especially happy is celebrating their successes with them.
2. The feeling when I successfully finish a workout that I initially thought was completely insane and undoable.
3. My coach and the EagleCrew - The sage guide and the buddies who supported me through my first two HIM and continue to expect more out of me since they know I can do more than I know. 
4. The pride I feel during my continued quest for excellence (no, I am not channeling Bill and Ted) in whatever Dude (ok, maybe a little).
5. My friends and extended family. They knew me before I was a rock star and even so still put up with me.
6. Sarcasm and irony - stupid things just crack me up. Most are inappropriate in some context but that's ok, in fact it may be encouraged.
7. Workout toys. I have 4 bicycles (the only one I haven't ridden in the past week is in the shop) with most cycling toys known to man included on at least one of them. Swim toys ( fins, H20 audio, buoys) are taking over the endless pool room (could be considered another toy itself). My latest addition to the toy chest is the Perfect Pushup to help me on the 100 pushup challenge (I've completed the first two weeks twice and will, repeat will break through the 3 week threshold this time).
8. When I do something and later, months or even years, it turns out to be a really smart thing to have been done.
9. Seeing results from hard work. It could be on the scale, on the power meter, on the watch, or as simple as being able to step away from the cookie. And then step away again.
10. Inspiration from the blogerati (see 100 push ups and maybe even this blog post). Comments on posts that make me think and followers that lead as well as follow.

Now official protocol implies I'm supposed to call out 10 people to do also this too but I'm deciding to make this an opt-in activity. Part of this is due to the fact that this "tag" has spread faster than chicken pox in a 2nd grade class so dearest blogerati, followers, lurkers, and even lay people, please do this and publish as you wish. Let me know if you do and we'll see if we can make the opt-in protocol into a "thing." Soon everyone could be doing it and we'll all say it started here. That could make me happy (see number 8). Note if it isn't a "thing" I reserve the right to play it forward and tag the folks under blogs I follow (Look on the right side of the blog. No the other right. There. Got it? Good). Need more of a hint Jeanne, Jess, Scott, John, Mel, Lisa, Missy, Diane, Tom, Amanda, Alison, Mike, Danielle?

Thanks Anne.

Certification in First Aid, CPR, and AED.

Last night I completed a 7 hour, 2 night course in First Aid, CPR and AED offered by the local American Red Cross office. I've taken CPR classes in the past but it has been a long while. I, along with what seems most (there was only one person in the class who didn't take some flavor of this class before), did not go through the re-certification process so had to retake the whole course. I've never done the AED flavor before and the last time I reviewed first aid I was a boy scout. As hard as it may be to believe, I was a crappy boy scout.

Most of the people in the class were doing this to meet a requirement for work or some thing. I've never had this as a work requirement but took it this time (as well as in the past) to prepare for a "just in case" scenario. Of course it would be best for me (and it is all about me after all) if those around me took this class just in case I need help. The likelihood of me needing first aid could be considered low since I already got hit by a car while cycling but lightening (or something like it) could strike again.

This course is painless except for finding the time to take it. It would be best if I never need to use the knowledge in this course but I'm trained just in case.

9+1 = 26.2 ?

For those who aren't aware, one of the ways to get guaranteed entry into the NYC marathon is to, as a New York Road Runner member in good standing, run and finish 9 qualifying races and volunteer for another. This is not for the current year but for the subsequent year. This means if you meet this requirement during 2010, you could be toeing the line of the marathon in 2011.

I did this in 2008 for my entry in 2009 and I was doing this in 2009 to get my entry into 2010 until I got hit by a car. I had 7+1 done but since I couldn't race the marathon in 2009 I was able to defer my 2009 entry to cover the 2010 event.

I can't run now due to my hip injury but I've decided to try to do the 9 this year anyway (maybe I'm insane but I'm still hoping for a quick recovery). I don't expect to be running the marathon in 2011 but plans could change so I want to have an option. I still expect to be doing something of the iron flavor in 2011 but having the 9+1 could give me a choice to do the marathon instead. After I earn entry into the marathon in 2011, I would have a choice to defer to 2012 if I want. This flexibility is good.

Most of these races I use as "C" type of races which are more like supported training runs rather than races. They are timed, of course, and they do provide opportunities to set PRs and the like. They range in distance from 1 mile to beyond a marathon in distance. Some of these are really fun to run too.

I signed up for the first of these races even though I can't run but mainly because it is a fun race. It is on Superbowl Sunday morning and my daughter Amanda wanted to run it. Before the race is a football throwing contest and I fully expect to toss the pig skin before I walk the 4 mile course. Many people (thousands?) will be walking it with me. This race limits out at 5000 participants and it should sell out.

Walking it will still count as one of the nine as long as I finish since there isn't a time limit. No matter how good I may feel I will not run nor jog it. I'll probably be pouting over my weak showing in the football toss but we'll head home to celebrate the football game styling in our Gridiron classic race shirts (unless the Jets pull another rabbit out of their hat and in that case I'll be wearing green and white).

Game on! Literally.

Do the work, then it will be time to show off.

My children are both excellent musicians. This weekend was the Nassau County Music Educators All-County Music Festival. In order to be selected to perform, there is a whole audition process involving the students preparing some psychotic piece to play (and be graded by an independent judge), nomination by their teacher and ultimately selection across all of the schools in the county. Both of my children were selected to the orchestra but in different age groups.

After a week that they had multiple nights of 4 hour rehearsals, two 3 hour concerts (including orchestra, band, jazz band, and chorus) were on the agenda this weekend. Each concert included school administrators getting up to pontificate about how funding for the arts is in jeopardy due to the economy, blah, blah, blah, how music education is important, blah, blah, blah, what a pleasure it was to see the children learn and grow, blah, blah, blah.

What does this have to do with running, racing, and triathlons besides showing that I'm a proud Daddy?

One of the administrators, after his initial words that sounded like every other administrator, broke the speech template and actually said something interesting. He said that the musicians have put in the hard work and now it was time for them to show off.

I plan on using this statement as my mantra for my next race (whenever it may be). That's much better than thinking a race as an exam. Do the work, then it will be time to show off.

Got to hop on the trainer now while I watch the Jets tease the faithful again. Doing the work.

Suck it up.

Thank you for all of the comments on my blog, emails, and phone calls. It means a lot to me.


The other night I was explaining my hip issue to my daughter Courtney. Courtney will turn 12 next week and I wondered how she would handle it. I've tried to instill a desire in my children to always try their best. Others may be better than them at whatever but as long as they try their best, I'd be proud. I'd be proud of them anyway but that's a different slant on this.

So I explained what the doctor said. I explained what the impact will be on my training and my events on the calendar. I tried not to paint a bleak picture but to state the facts as I knew it.

She thought about what I said, waited a moment and then said "Dad, suck it up. That's what you've been doing for the last few years so what has changed? Just do your best." Then she laughed.

I went into this conversation hoping to explain the impact of my injury to her but I think she explained it better to me.