Round 4: Day 60 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Mrs. Gias says my form is improving, but I think she's just being nice.

My TriTraining schedule is falling off a bit this week because I'm working late pretty much every night.  Luckily my morning workouts with the Mrs. haven't been interrupted.  This morning's yoga session was nice and relaxing after a tough couple days at work. Hopefully things will slow down a bit tomorrow and I'll be able to hit the pool or maybe work in a bike ride.

Round 4: Day 59 - Just Arms

This is a Side Tri Rise - kind of a one arm pushup on your side.

I have to say, after 30:15 on Sunday and Insanity yesterday, my pecs, shoulders, triceps and abs are hurting.  Often times when I know that I'm in a lot of pain I like to think about the thing that would make me feel better and then, sadistically, I think about the opposite of that. 

Today, the thing that would have made me feel better would have been a nice stretch routine or perhaps a lower body workout so my upper half would be able to recover.  Of course, the opposite of that would be a routine that isolates my arms.

By reading the title I'm assuming you can guess what we did today...

Round 4: Day 58 - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Is it me, or does my ass look extra big in this picture?

I forgot how much I really like Plyometric Cardio Circuit.  It might be my favorite Insanity workout.  As Shaun T says, "I'm smiling because I love it."

Weekly Challenge: Week 9 - Variety

OK.  This may be the weekly challenge I'm most excited about.

Here's the deal.  We've been going at this for eight or nine weeks now and have been doing some form of P90X for a significantly longer time (about 9 months for Mrs. Gias and over a year for me).  Although one of the best parts of P90X is the fact that it has plenty of variety, it can still get you into a rut every once in a while.  This week, we try to shake that up.

One day this week each of us gets to choose something totally different to count for our P90X workout.  It can be a new workout in the morning for the two of us to do.  It can be a class at a health club.  It can be something we've been meaning to try (maybe some turbulence training or kettle bell work).  It can be an outside workout or a session with a personal trainer.  It's just got to be something that we don't normally do.  If it's outside your comfort zone, all the better.

I think I might try a class out at my gym, we'll see what they've got.

60 Minute Bike Ride (Outside)

I view of the trail I was on at my turnaround point today.  Cloudy and cold, but gorgeous.

Cloudy.  43 degrees.  19 mph wind with gusts up to 26 mph.

That's the craptastic weather I rode in this morning.  I was outside, so I was excited about that.  However, I was outside purely because I am stubborn and had my mind set on an outside ride today.  In hindsight it may not have been the best idea.  I was slow and cold pretty much the whole time.

A few notes about the ride:

• Riding through a puddle and getting your legs wet when it's already 43 degrees with 20mph of wind only makes your legs colder.
• Do not try to take a drink while going downhill.  You will drop your bottle, be forced to stop and walk back up the hill to find said bottle.
• I dropped a chain for the first time on this bike today.  It was off of the front derailer.  Fixing that in the cold with gloves on was not as easy as it should have been.
• I have almost resigned myself to the fact that I will be much slower than I want to be on the bike during my race.  I'm just not that fast.  Yes, it's disappointing, but it gives me something concrete to work on, so I can hopefully do this for a long time and keep getting better all the time.
• Riding outside, even with all the complaining that I did about the weather is infinitely better than riding inside.  Nature is fabulous. 
• The picture below is a blue heron I saw in one of the lakes along the trail.  it was probably 5 yards from me but by the time I got my camera ready it had flown further back into the brush.  It was awesome.

The Heron was so close at one point I could practically touch it.  Awesome.

Round 4: Day 57 - 30:15 Upper Body Massacre

I'm doing close grip pullups, not humping the door frame.  I promise.

We're out of recovery and back into our proper workouts.  This week follows the schedule we had for the first three weeks of the round, which means it was Upper Body Masssacre Sunday once again.  We haven't done this workout in about a month and I had forgotten how it totally kicks my butt.

We were about 9 sets in (there are 24 total) and I remember telling Mrs. Gias that I didn't think I was going to make it.  That's odd for me because I'm usually pretty good at pullups and pushups (the only two exercises in 30:15) but I was feeling spent.  It's just set after set of brutal body weight exercises, pushups, pullups, pushups, pullups over and over for an hour. 

Needless to say at the end of the workout my arms, chest and back were totally burned out.  Lucky for me B wanted me to hold her for the duration of church this morning.  I think thirty pounds of dead weight one arm at a time for a little over an hour is just what the doctor was calling for.  Don't get me wrong, she wanted to be held, and I would NEVER turn that down, so I gritted it out and held her the whole time. 

But seriously...ouch.

42 Minute Swim - 65 Minute Bike

All these weights with no one to lift them...kinda creepy.

Zero.

That's the number of people that were at the gym when I walked in this morning at 4:20am.  Usually there's a few people on a treadmill or elliptical, maybe one guy on a weight machine.  And there's usually a guy behind the desk (or within shouting distance of the desk).  Today, there was no one.  Not even the guy that works there (he must've been in the back somewhere).  It was a little creepy.

I got into the locker room, threw my stuff in locker 117 and hit the pool.  I had kind of a weird week because I didn't get in a short swim or short bike this week because I was staying too late at work.  It was OK because it's recovery week and I kept up on my other training, so I wasn't going to lose sleep over missing a 20 minute swim.  Anyway, I thought maybe to push myself a bit today I would try a little race against myself and do an indoor tri, 20 or 25 minutes of swimming, 40 minutes of biking and 20 minutes on the treadmill.  It would be a nice tight little workout and get me home by 7am, when Mrs. Gias requested that I be available so she could go shopping with her mother today (yeah, shopping at 7am, I don't know, I just do what I'm told). 

Ever seen a locker room at 4:30am?  Now you have.

Once I got in the pool I decided that I would do some ladders today because I had been struggling with finding a swim routine other than just 100 yard intervals or 1500's (which get monotonous).  Once I got into it I noticed that I was having a really good swim session so I extended my yardage a bit and went ahead and did a full 42 minutes in the pool and decided I would just do my usual Saturday swim/bike brick workout.

Today's ladder was 2x25, 2x50, 2x100, 2x200, 2x200, 2x100, 2x50, 2x25 for a total of 1800 yards.  I really liked the workout this way and I think I'll do it again next time.  It makes it easiser to not look at the clock, just go hard, 10 seconds rest and do the next set.

I finished in the pool and went out to do an hour or so on the spin bike before I needed to get home.  By this time there were about 6 people in the gym.  Frizzy McBlonde Hair and Old Navy were back, along with Brownie vonCrop Pants - the whole crew (plus a few people I hadn't seen before).  I think we should start a club and make shirts.

Anyway, I rode with a mid 90's cadence and finished with an average speed just over 21 mph.  Pretty solid ride and my knee started acting up a bit, but not enough to make me stop.  Tomorrow's run outside (hopefully) will be the real test of how my knee holds up.

Round 4: Day 55 - Core Cardio and Balance

Yes, this is an actual move from Insanity. 

Yes, I actually look this stupid while doing it.

Sleepy.

We stayed up until after 11:30pm last night watching Mrs. Gias's alma mater, Kansas State University, put a beating on Xavier in double over time in the NCAA Tournament.  It was a good game and pretty exciting towards the end.  Of course as far as I am concerned, basketball season is over for the year after my Jayhawks got uncerimoniously bounced in the second round...but I digress...

I remember there was about 12.1 seconds left in overtime and KSU was up by three or four and Mrs. Gias thought the game was pretty much over and I said, half joking, "12.1 seconds in basketball time could mean hours."  Why do I always have to be right?  Two overtimes and an hour or so later and the Cats finally put it away and we could try to go to bed. 

I know, 11:30pm doesn't sound that late, and it's not, although when you're getting up five hours later to exercise, it's brutal.

Still, we got up this morning and were a bit loopy during our Insanity workout.  This is our last recovery week session and this workout in particular seems to call for a lot of silliness on our part.  Something about the low impact nature of the exercises along with some thumping music that kind of sounds like No Doubt makes us think that we can dance.  I should point out that this assumption is incorrect as evidenced by the side to side clapping picture below.

Slacker

I believe the alarm went off this morning at 5am...I honestly don't remember.  It's on Mrs. Gias's side of the bed and she usually leans over and puts on the snooze for a couple of minutes before rolling out of bed.  If I haven't gotten up already to let the dog out before our workout, I roll out of bed when the snooze alarm comes back on at 5:07am. 

No such luck today.

I finally woke up at 6:00am and realized I slept right through Core Synergistics this morning.  Oh, I have a long list of excuses...work is hellish this week (five all day depostions in five days including some prep in the evening and mornings before they start), it's recovery week so it doesn't matter, the alarm is Mrs. Gias's responsibility, etc...

But who cares about excuses?  We'll get up tomorrow and do Core Synergistics and work in our last workout on Saturday when we usually don't do anything P90X related.  Remember, you miss a workout...fine.  Push play tomorrow.

But I still feel like a slacker.

Round 4: Day 53 - X Stretch

Mrs. Gias is bendy...

Geek: What do you remember about our session this morning?
Mrs. Gias: That I was in an awesome mood and you needed to add some pep to your step!
Geek:  Yeah, but it was just X Stretch...and we were both a little tight this morning...
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, but you were extra boring today and I was fired up!
Geek: Is it me or does it feel like we've reversed roles?
Mrs. Gias: But I'm not boring.
Geek: Really?
Mrs. Gias: Jerk.

Who says spending time together isn't good for your marriage?

Round 4: Day 52 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Twisting Chair Pose..."my torso hates it, but I'm learning to love it."

We were both kind of tired and out of it this morning.  Mrs. Gias had taken a Tylenol PM last night before bed and its effects hadn't quite worn off by the time 5:00am rolled around.  Accordingly, she dimmed the lights when we started and we really didn't do much talking during the session today.

20 Minute Run (Treadmill)

I was supposed to do a 42 minute long run this week (recovery week, so it's about half distance), but because of my lingering knee issue, I decided to cut it in half again and go for twenty minutes (two miles) at a nice slow pace.  I wanted to see if I shortened my stride and kept to a fore-foot strike if my knee would react better.  I have to say, so far so good.  I have another run scheduled for Wednesday or Thursday this week and I'll try the same thing again to see if I can get back to some longer runs next week.

Round 4: Day 51 - Core Synergistics

Steam Engine looks fairly stupid in a still picture.

Day two of our recovery week and we got into Core Synergistics.  We had a good workout and were in good spirits, just nothing too memorable today.  I had a lot on my mind for work and Mrs. Gias focused on having such fantastic form that I looked silly in comparison; all in all a pretty regular day.

Round 4: Day 50 - Core Cardio and Balance

It's the beginning of our second recovery week for this round.  Frankly, with the injuries I've had it could have come last week, but this week is still pretty good timing.  I'll be shortening up my TriTraining workouts and be doing low impact P90X workouts all week, which is good for my knee and hopefully this chest congenstion will also clear up in the next few days.

Today we did Insanity's Core Cardio and Balance, a nice cardio routine that keeps your heart rate up in zone 3 or so, but doesn't really ever max you out.  It's a great way to start the recovery week and the day.  You feel like you worked out at the end, but you're not falling on the ground like you've been kicked in the gut, which is how I usually feel after an Insanity workout.

Weekly Challenge: Week 8 - No Food Porn

This week's challenge is all about food.  I borrowed this liberally from a talk that Tony gives at his fitness camps about "food porn".  "Food Porn" is exactly what it sounds like, it's food that you don't need, that doesn't help fuel your body and doesn't get you any closer to your health and fitness goals.  Think soda, candy, cake, greasy burgers...you get the idea. 

Mrs. Gias and I actually eat very clean as it is, probably over 90% of our food is "clean", meaning lean proteins, whole grains, healthy fats, fruits and veggies.  However, I know that I am guilty of grabbing a cookie from the breakroom at work or having a little too much brown sugar on my oatmeal.  No, it's not a lot, but if I think about it at the end of the day, I don't need to have it and it is not getting me any closer to my fitness goals. 

Thus, this week we are going to put an extra focus on eating "clean".  No food porn, no cookie from the breakroom, no sugar on the oatmeal.  We're going to really think about everything we put in our mouth this week and if it isn't fueling our body and helping us towards being more healthy, we're not going to eat it.

70 Minute Swim/141 Minute Bike

Yeah, that's 6 inches of snow.  It was sixty degrees 12 hours ago...WTF?

I woke up before my alarm this morning at about 3:50am.  (Note: In college I used to get home on Saturday mornings at 3:50am after a night of debauchery...how life changes...)  I quietly slipped around our bed to the alarm clock by Mrs. Gias's head (she likes it on her side) and clicked it off to make sure that she could sleep until a reasonable hour.  I then pulled on my Speedo and made my way downstairs for a quick bowl of oatmeal before my three and a half hour marathon session at the gym. 

As I was choking down my oatmeal I looked out the front door at the winter wonderalnd outside.  It's March 20th and we got like six inches of snow.  It was 60 degrees yesterday.  I've lived in Kansas my whole life, but I still cannot believe the swings in weather that we get.

I drove slowly on the snow covered roads to the gym.  I probably should have taken Mrs. Gias's 4x4 rather than my little two wheel drive sedan, but since there was no one else on the road, it wasn't too bad.

I got to the gym and there were all of two people there.  I jumped in the pool and started my workout.  I'm still trying to get over this chest congestion so my breathing wasn't ideal today, but it was a good workout overall.  I basically warmed up and then did 100 yard intervals for the remainder of the time on a 1:40 to 2:00 interval (slower as I did more intervals).  Near the end I got a pretty good leg cramp in my left leg so rather than cooling down, I jumped into the whirlpool to workout the cramp before hitting the bike.

I got out to the bike about 5:45am and there were now four people in the gym.  (Our numbers had increased by 100% since 4:30am.)  I started pedaling and watched Knocked Up on my Zune (it's almost exactly two hours and twenty minutes, so it worked perfect for the time I needed to ride).  I noticed after a few minutes that my knee was giving me a little trouble and I really didn't want to injure it any further, so I backed the resistance down to about half of what I ususally do and tried to keep my cadence in the low 80's rather than the mid 90's.  I could definitely still feel some discomfort, but I wanted to push through on the easier setting to see how I would feel at the end of the ride. 

I finished my ride about 8:00am and there were about 10 people in the gym, very light crowd.  The only person I recognized was Frizzy McBlonde hair, who is not frizzy anymore.  She got a haircut, the easiest way to describe it is the "Ellen Degeneres cut".  I was going to say something when she went to get a drink of water by the spin bikes, but I thought she would think it's creepy that I noticed and have never spoken to her before.  Of course, she'd probably think it was more creepy to know that I just dedicated a paragraph on my blog describing her hair for everyone.  Yeah, I'm creepy either way I guess.

The knee bothered me a bit this morning, but it's feeling better now.  I'm starting recovery week tomorrow in both P90X and in my TriTraining schedule, so my run should be short tomorrow.  We'll see how I get through it on my knee.

Round 4: Day 48 - Total Body Plus

A balance curl, basically stand on one leg and do regular bicep curls. 

It ends up working your whole body, arms, core, legs, balance - it's a great move.

Total Body Plus today.  This was our last workout before the start of recovery week number two for this round.  Luckily my neck is completely recovered, my knee is about 95% and my side is slowly but surely coming around.  Hopefully if I can get in a few workouts this weekend and then take it easy this next recovery week, I'll be 100% and raring to go for phase 3 of this round. 

By the way, the weather was about 60 degrees yesterday and I couldn't get out of work early so I didn't get outside.  Today it's supposed to hit 62 degrees, although I have depo prep all afternoon, so I'm not likely to get outside again today.  Tomorrow's the weekend (yay!) and the weatherman is calling for...a winter storm advisory and snow accumulation all weekend.  Awesome...more snow...I'm so excited. 

Exercise bike and treadmill here I come.

Round 4: Day 47 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Got in a nice stretch this morning.  The knee is at about 90%, the neck is feeling much better but my side is still bothering me a bit.  The yoga stretched out all of these problem areas and hopefully I'll be full strength in another day or two.  It's supposed to get up to 60 degrees and sunny today, perfect for a bike ride if I can get out of work at a decent time; we'll see.

85 Minute Bike (Outside...FINALLY!)

I wore my bright orange since I was riding close to dusk...

...easier for cars to see me writhing on the ground when I fall for no reason.

I got on my bike with trepediation this afternoon.  This was my first time on this new bike.  This was my first time on any bike in over 15 years.  I had been anticipating the first ride of the season since December so I had plenty of time to worry.  I was worried I wouldn't remember how to ride, or if I would fall, or get a flat tire or get into an accident...Yeah, I was in my head just a little bit about this ride.  

This is where I rode today...the trail is gorgeous.

I started out slow and figured I would just ride down to a bike/running trail that is by our house and try to figure out what I was doing on there.  After I got going for about thirty or forty minutes I started to relax and really start enjoying the ride.  I hadn't been more than about 4 miles down the trail before (I've only run on it) so going another 10 miles or so was really cool.  The trail is beautiful, has a nice mix of rolling hills and curves, just a really great ride; I'm looking forward to riding it again.

A few quick notes:

• I need to get bike shorts with a pad - there was a bit of chafing today.  (Too much information?  Sorry.)
• I need to fix my bike computer (clicked off about 2 minutes into the ride), it's annoying to not know how fast or how far you're going.
• STI shifting (on your brake levers instead of on the frame) makes riding 1 million percent easier than I remember - I just need to get better at it.
• Coasting kicks ass - you stop pedaling and keep going...you totally can't do that running or swimming.
• Biking scares me more than swimming.
• My neck hurts twice as much as it did before I started riding.
• I'm certain that I will have an accident involving toe clips...it will look hilarious to bystanders...it will hurt me severely.

38 Minute Swim

I bugged out of work a little early today to get a few afternoon workouts in.  I hit the pool first and tried to get in a good swim.  However, I had a hard time today because of my stupid neck.  If you remember, I tweaked my neck this morning during a set of pullups.  It is excruciating to turn my head to the left.  Normally I bi-lateral breathe when I swim (one breath on the left, take two strokes and on the third, breathe to the right) however, when I do distance work, I tend to breathe on every two strokes, so I favor one side.  I'll give you two guesses which side I favor when I breathe...yeah, it's my left side.  Basically, that means that I wasn't terribly comfortable in the water today.  However, a nice byproduct of having a strained neck was that it kept my head down and forced me to focus on my rotation and breathing on the right side.  All in all, a good workout, even if it did look a little gimpy.

Round 4: Day 46 - Back and Biceps

Corncob pullups with a strained neck hurt like CRAZY.  I only did 7 today.

Injuries and weather are driving me batsh*t crazy!  I had to stay later than I thought at work yesterday so I didn't get an outdoor bike ride in.  That was OK because as I was driving home the temperature was hovering right at 40 degrees, which, on a bike, is freaking cold!  The weatherman said it would be warmer this week...stupid witchdoctor.  Unfortunately it doesn't look much warmer today (and it's raining) so I might have to push my ride to tomorrow.  Ugh.

We got up this morning to do one of my favorite routines, Back and Biceps.  My knee was feeling great, probably 85% and I knew another day or so of taking it easy it would be right back to full strength (and I could go on a run and re-injure it for another week - ha!).  I got down stairs and on my very first set of pullups, I strained my neck.  C'mon workout gods, give me a break here.  My side, my knee, my cough...now my neck too!? 

Anyway, I pushed through the rest of the workout without being able to really move my head to the left much.  Instead of lifting heavy and feeling good about myself today I ended up backing off on the weight so that I wouldn't strain my neck any further (or some other body part the fitness gods think would be funny to injure).  I got a pretty good workout, it was just discouraging to not be able to push as hard as I'd like. 

Hopefully it'll warm up a bit and the sun will peak through the clouds a bit so I can get in some bike miles today.

Round 4: Day 45 - Cardio Power and Resistance

I may not have been able to jump high, but I can stretch like nobody's business!

Although my knee was still hurting me today I knew I needed to get in a good Insanity workout as it had been nearly a week without one...I was itching to back at it.  We did Cardio Power and Resistance, which, as I've said before, is a great workout.  I did the routine favoring my left knee so my squats weren't quite as low and my jumps weren't quite as high, but I still felt the workout.  Overall, it really didn't feel like my knee was overworked.

After the workout was over, Mrs. Gias and I were chatting about how my knee was, whether I was going to swim today (yes), if she was going to run today (yes) and various other sundry things.  The topic of tomorrow's workout came up and I mentioned that since we're a day behind due to my race on Sunday we wouldn't have our normal Wednesday yoga session, much to Mrs. Gias's chagrin, it would be pushed back to Thursday.  

Mrs. Gias: Wouldn't a nice Irish yoga session be great tomorrow? [tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day]
Geek: Uh, Irish yoga?  You're not even Irish.
Mrs. Gias: Aye, matey, Irish yoga! [in the worst "Irish accent" you've ever heard, followed by a jump up and a click of her heels, possibly trying to impersonate what she believes a leprechaun would do]
Geek:  "Aye, matey, Irish yoga?" Who talks like that, a yoga pirate?

Round 4: Day 44 - Diamond Delts

Because of my race yesterday, Mrs. Gias and I didn't work out at our regular 5am time so that I would be fresh for my race.  Accordingly, we shifted our workouts one day late this week so we did Diamond Delts today.  I have to say, the run yesterday didn't do any favors for my knee; it was feeling better and today, after the short run in the race yesterday, hurts like hell again. 

The workout today was fairly uneventful.  My shoulders feel stronger and I was able to press more weight than ever before today, which was cool.  I think it has to do with me actually getting stronger as well as the fact that I've had three days off of weights and my body had some time to recover.  Crazy about rest, huh?

Race Report: TriKC Indoor Triathlon

The site of my first triathlon.  Creepy.

So I participated in my first Triathlon on Sunday.  OK, it wasn't outside, it was weird distances and there were less than 10 people entered.  But...there was a clock, we measured distances, we did all three disciplines with transitions and we were racing each other...so I'm calling it a race. 

This weekend was the third (my first) indoor winter triathlon put on by the Kansas City Triathlon Club.  TriKC schedules four of these (one a month, Jan - Apr) prior to the outdoor season starting in May as "tune ups" for the big races.  They are very laid back, very grassroots (no finishing medals, t-shirts or ridiculous entry fees) and a lot of fun.  Basically we get a group of TriKC members together (guests too) on Sunday morning and you start out in the pool.  You swim for 15 minutes counting your laps, the further you swim, the better you do.  Then you get five minutes for a transition to the spin studio where you spin for 20 minutes, again, the further you go, the better you do.  Then you hop off the spin bike and run upstairs to the indoor track and run for the remaining 20 minutes of the hour, again, the further you go, the better you do.

If you do all of these races in the series, you would (hopefully) see an improvement in the distance you can go and it is a good way to measure your progress.  It's also fun to have a few other competitors there to push you to go a little faster under the guise of friendly competition.  It definitely feels more "race like" then working out by yourself. 

For being my first "race" I was a bit more rushed than I would have liked.  We ended up going to 7:30am mass as per usual and then I left straight from church (Mrs. Gias and I drove seperately and she took the girls home) to get to the gym, which was downtown and took me a bit of time to get there.  I found it without any problems and rushed inside, still in my church clothes, with gym bag in hand about 20 minutes before my race was to begin.  Little did I know that the time change must have thrown everyone a loop (spring forward this weeked!) because I was the second to arrive after Jan, one of the TriKC organizers.  I chatted with Jan for a few minutes then headed into the locker room, still thinking that we would get started in about 15 minutes, right at 9:20am.  

I slipped out of my church clothes and into my tri-clothes...OK, full disclosure...I wasn't sure if I would have time or access to a locker room before my heat started, so I wore my speedo under my slacks to church.  I don't know if I had some weird vision of acting like Superman stripping off my church clothes to reveal that I was ready to swim or what.  In fact, if I did have to do that, I'm pretty sure that me getting out of my church clothes and into a speedo on the pool deck would have been even worse than me having to find a bathroom to change.  Anyway...

I left the locker room to check out the pool and a few other volunteers had wandered in.  Amy, Tina and Don had all arrived.  They were volunteering for the race to count laps, keep time, etc.  Awesome of them to show up on a Sunday morning to help.  This was my first event with TriKC and everyone was great, especially the volunteers. 

It was getting to be about 9:12am or so and I was still the only competitor that had shown up.  This might be embarassing if 1) I have to race myself; 2) have 4 volunteers watching me the whole time; 3) haven't ever done this before so I'm not 100% sure how it will all work.  Thankfully a Rick and John sauntered in a minute or two later and we had enough to at least get a little race going. 

I wandered down to the pool to set up my "transition area" (really just a  place on the ground for my towel and shoes) and hopped in to start warming up.  (I did not go to the spin studio to adjust my spin bike, this was a significant mistake we'll learn about later.)  I did a few quick laps to warm up and noticed that the pool was salt water, not chlorine.  Interesting, I've never swum in a salt water pool before, it was kind of cool.  Anyway, I had to jump out and towel off for a minute when the rest of the crew came in becasue we were getting body marked.  Yeah, there were three of us in the heat, (five more showed up for the heat after us) but we still got numbers written on us with permanent marker anyway...kind of fun.  (I was "7", by the way).  (Who am I kidding, getting a number on my arm was awesome!)

Before I knew it we were getting ready to start our three man heat.  One of the competitors, John, was doing his first triathlon, just like me, and training for a half-ironman race in Lawrence in June.  He and I have the same swim coach so I knew he would be pretty good.  Lined up on my other side was Rick, a veteran of triathlons in his 50's.  Although he had a few years on John and myself, he more than made up for the age difference in experience. 

I felt a little nervous going into the swim, not knowing what to expect or how exactly to pace myself.  I knew it was 15 minutes and that I could probably do about 800-900 yards in that time.  However, your nerves get going, you're FINALLY swimming against someone and you just don't know how you'll react.  Luckily I'd done some competitive swimming in high school, so I wasn't going in totally blind. 

Next thing I knew, the clock started and we were off.  I started the first 200 yards waaaaay too fast and knew there was no way I could maintain that pace for the duration.  I also knew that I had pulled away from the other two pretty significantly and that I wanted to continue to pull away from them so I didn't let them creep back into the race.  I continued to pull hard and before I knew it I lapped both of the other guys in my heat.  I checked the clock and noted that about 8 minutes had passed.  I knew I could lap them again if I kept my pace steady, so that became my new goal.  At the 13 minute mark I passed Rick and at about 13:30 I lapped John again.  There was about 45 seconds left and I knew if I sprinted I could pound out one last 50 so that's what I did. 

I hopped out and learned that John and Rick had both done about 700 yards each and I had finished right at 900 yards.  That was the upper limit of where I thought I would finish, so I guess the pacing wasn't too bad after all.  I quick slipped on my shoes and threw on a shirt in the "transition area" (pool deck) and noticed that we still had three or four minutes left before we could start spinning.  I quick ran into the locker room, because I had the extra time and threw my towell in my locker and went to the bathroom.  I ran back out to the spin studio with only a few seconds to spare.  This is where my naivete cost me.  I didn't adjust my bike before the race and by the time I got to the studio the time was about to start.  I ended up with my seat too low on a bike that scraped against the pedal guard (annoying and it slows you down) for the entire 20 minutes.  I considered jumping off and starting on another bike, but I thought with such a short race that would probably cost me too much time.  Instead, I pedaled hard and got through the session in about the same distance as John and Rick, but I think I had to work a lot harder at it because of my lack of preparation.  I won't make that mistake again.

At the end of the spin session we hopped off our bikes and scampered upstairs to the indoor 1/10th mile track and started running.  I have to tell you, swimming to biking to running makes your legs feel weird.  It's different muscles and you are shocking your body from one thing to another.  My legs felt a bit Jello-like for the first couple of laps.  I was ahead of John, but Rick was ahead of me by about 30 or 40 feet.  I hung back, trying to get my legs to feel right and to get my pacing down.  I knew if I kept him close I could try to pass him later in the race.  After about 5 or 6 laps, I decided I needed to make my move and pull in front.  I started to increase my stride and passed by Rick in about a lap or so and continued to pull away from him for the duration of the race.  The run after that point was a little monotonous, 1/10th is a short track, so I ended up going around 21 times; it all starts to look the same after a little while. 

At the end of the time I finished ahead of John and Rick and felt great.  I walked around and thanked all of the volunteers again for their time and traded a few quick stories with them. 

It was a great race experience.  It only took an hour, I had a clock, others to race against and it was a great change of pace for my training.  Overall, I really enjoyed the race and I'm defintely signing up for the next indoor tri in April. 

Weekly Challenge: Week 7 - Set a Weekly Goal

This week it's all about setting a small, manageable goal.  We've set goals for the round, but today it's about setting a goal for this week and then seeing if we can meet it by next week.  It's important not to just have large, long term goals but also small, managable goals that you can use for immediate motivation and confidence.  It can be as easy as, "do every workout".  It can be as specific as, "100 extra pullups".  Or it can be as difficult as, "don't be so dorky".

Rest Redux

I think my knee is getting much better, in fact, today I'd say it's somewhere in the 90% range.  My side still hurts a bit, but it's getting better and my cough will likely be gone tomorrow.  Last night Mrs. Gias and I decided the best course of action today was to not exert my (almost) healed body at the risk of adding a few more days to my recovery.  So this morning I got plenty of sleep and I'm taking it easy today and I think it's helping. 

Hopefully I'll be 100% tomorrow...for my race! (It's an indoor tri with the Tri Club of Kansas City, kind of a winter tune up before the season starts...more info tomorrow...assuming I'm healed enough to compete)

Rest

It all came to a head today.  Hurt knee, hurt side, head cold, cough, lousy sleep.  I'd already worked my upper body three times this week and I just can't put pressure on my knee with any kind of cardio workout.  I figured the best thing was to take a day off and see how I am tomorrow.

It's my first day of no workouts since January 25...Maybe I should schedule more days off.

Round 4: Day 40 - Total Body Plus

After my workout this morning my three year old told me something profound. 

"Daddy, you smell like garbage." 

Thanks, sweetie, nice of you to notice.  Ah, the honesty of a child.


Today was Total Body Plus again.  It is harder to favor my knee in this workout simply because there is a lot of lunge and squat moves incorporated into everything.  Oddly, a deep squat doesn't hurt my knee much, but if I try to walk down stairs - whoa nelly!  It was a good workout and I did most of the exercises with only a slight modification.  Still waiting to hear back on scheduling the MRI...

Round 4: Day 39 - FOY Yoga

Nice down dog.  Showoff.

I had a terrible night's sleep and felt horrible when I woke up this morning.  My knee hurt every time I tried to move, my head was full and I had a nasty cough.  I almost (almost) didn't get up to workout this morning.  We trudged downstairs and I got through the session the best I could. 

After the workout I called the doctor and got in to see him first thing this morning.  I got myself set up for a Z-Pak for the cold and cough.  However, instead of an easy prognosis on my knee, he wants me to get an MRI. 

Ugh.

38 Minute Swim

I went for a 38 minute swim after work today and it was difficult.  I thought I could push through a swim workout with my knee, and surprisingly my knee wasn't a problem at all (even on flip turns).  The big issue tonight was my endurace and breathing.  I've got this head cold and cough and I couldn't hold my breath worth a crap.  I ended up doing short intervals and stroke work the whole time, which was good, because I got something done even though I couldn't really do any distance.  Hopefully I can shake this thing by the weekend so I can get a good endurance workout in.

Conventional Wisdom...we have a problem

I'm sure you've heard the common axiom that the more you exercise and build lean muscle mass, the faster your metabolism and thus, the faster you burn calories.  Well, James Fell from That's Fit (Canada) begs to differ.  He basically states that this principle is simply an old wive's tale perpetuated first in the early 90's by a guy trying to sell supplements.  In actuality, he says, the more you work out, the lower your metabolism gets, truly making that "last ten pounds" especially tough to lose.

Exercise enough so that you "get in shape" and lose a bunch of fat, and your metabolic rate drops. This means you will burn fewer calories while you sleep, while you exercise, while you watch reality TV, or while you do... other stuff.


Bummer.

Think of this: You're in lousy shape and you run a mile. You sweat like crazy, your heart races, your lungs burn etc. Your metabolism is operating at a high level because it's not used to this kind of crap, and your heart and breathing rates stay elevated for a while even after you stop running.

Next scenario: Six months later you weigh less and are in much better shape and you run that same mile. You hardly sweat, your heart rate isn't that high and you aren't breathing very heavy. Also, your metabolic rate returns to normal not long after you stop. Ergo, your metabolism isn't working that hard because it has become accustomed to the exercise.

Guess which mile burned more calories?

That's the sucky part. The better shape you achieve, the harder you have to work to burn calories because your metabolism becomes more efficient at doing work; any kind of work. Even sitting at your desk you will be burning fewer calories once you are in shape.

Round 4: Day 38 - Back and Biceps/ARX

A "Mason Twist" from ARX. FYI - I. Hate. Mason. Twists.

My knee is still questionable at best right now.  It's better than yesterday, but it still hurts going down stairs and when I put any kind of impact on it when bent - i.e. jumping and running are still pretty painful, so they're out for now. 

In interviews that I've listened to with Tony, the subject of working out when injured comes up quite a bit.  Tony's general advice is, "If you upper half is hurt, work your lower half, if your lower half is hurt, work your upper half.  The key is to do something.  Injury is not an excuse to not exercise.  You modify your best laid plans and you do your best."

In other words, with a questionable knee, today was the perfect opportunity to do a back and biceps routine.  I could favor my left left and still get in a great upper body workout, which is what I did.  I even ended up hitting a few personal bests in terms of weights today.  I've really been working on lifting heavy to gain more muscle mass lately and it's nice to be able to turn the dial on the SelectTechs and ramp up the weight.  I either matched or exceeded Bobby (one of Tony's trainers in the Back and Biceps DVD) in all of the exercises today, which (I think) is cool.  I can't quite curl 50 pounds for a set like Tony, but hey, a guy's got to have goals, right?

Round 4: Day 37 - Recovery for Results

What are we doing today Notebook 'O Workout DVDs?

Today we were scheduled for Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance.  However, after waking up this morning and hobbling down the stairs on my throbbing left knee, I decided to call an audible and switch up the workout today.  I pulled out our Notebook 'O Workout DVDs (pictured above - exotic, don't you think?) and decided to give Recovery for Results a try.  It's a 35 minute One on One workout with Tony doing low impact cardio, resistance and stretching.  It's just enough to get your blood pumping without really putting a strain on any of your muscles.  It wasn't half bad, considering I'm sure that the warmup of the Insanity workout previously scheduled for today would have literally collapsed my knee.  That would have been bad.

Through a rigorous 4 minute Google search, I self diagnosed my knee problem as Runner's Knee (maybe?).  I find this odd and disheartening at the same time.  Odd because I consider myself the opposite of a "runner".  Diseartening because I was really starting to enjoy running outside.  Yesterday I did 7 miles and thought I could probably keep going further, that's a great feeling.  Of course my knee was hurting during the run, so it probably wasn't advisable to do the 7 miles I ended up going. (Yes, I know it may sound like a lot for a "non-runner", but I've been using the 10% rule so this is the mileage I should be doing this week - it's a little different only because I have started running outside rather than on a treadmill.)  Anyway...

It looks like staying low impact on the knee for a week or two and backing off a bit on the running mileage coupled with anti-inflamatory medication will likely get me back into tip top shape (hopefully).  However, I'm pretty deep into this training schedule so if it hurts this much tomorrow I'm going to the doctor - no waiting around this time, I've got racing to do.

64 Minute Run (Outside)

7 miles in 64 minutes.  6.5 mph, 9:04/min/mile.

Geek's Body:  Geek, I thought we had an understanding.  You don't run unless something is chasing you and I promise you won't get injured.
Geek:  I've been running pretty consistently for a couple of months now, so why on earth does my knee hurt now?
Geek's Body:  You only ran a few miles at a time before, now you've starting ramping it up and I don't like it.  The knee is just the beginning, you keep running and I'm going to f-you up!
Geek:  Woa body, pump the breaks a little bit there.  This is for our health...
Geek's Body:  I will destroy you!

OK, so my body is revolting a bit.  A mysterious muscle on my left side/back is pulled, my left knee hurts and I have a stuffy nose and a cough.  The smart thing to do may have been to take the day off, recover a bit and try to workout later in the week.  Instead, I went for a 7 mile run, (the most I've ever run in a row) after already having worked out this morning. 

Now my knee hurts and I'm having trouble walking up and down stairs.  Thankfully tomorrow is just one Insanity workout...

Round 4: Day 36 - Diamond Delts

Another Sunday morning, another day to obliterate my shoulders. 

I think I tweaked a muscle in my side/back (left side) right at my rib cage yesterday (not sure how) because it hurts like crazy when my core tightens.  Since today is almost all presses above your head, my core had to tighten on pretty much every move.  Lovely, that felt great.  Of course, I'm just smart enough to go ahead a push through the workout anyway, good thinking, Geek.  The good news is that my shoulders got a crazy good workout.  Hopefully I'll get it worked out today and be able to keep going the rest of the week.

Weekly Challenge: Week 6 - Write a Letter to Yourself

Creepy, no?

At the end of this week we'll be about half way through our round.  It's important to think about the goals we set at the beginning and the weekly challenges that we've had so far.  Are we on our way to achieving our goals?  Have we stuck to the nutritional plan the way that we know we have to in order to get dramatic results?  What has been really good about this round?  What has been really bad about this round?  How can we make the second half of the round better than the first?

These are all important questions we should ask ourselves to make sure we're on track.  Perhaps Mrs. Gias's letter will be short and just say, "you're awesome."  I know my letter will have some important points about intensity and nutrition.  I know I can do better and my letter will tell me as much.

Why write a letter?  Quite simply, it's a specific way to chekck up on yourself and (at least I think) it is much harder to lie to yourself that everything is going the way you want it to if you write it down.  You are your own worst critic, if you take it seriously and write an honest letter to yourself you're going to identify things you can do better.

I'll be working on my letter and post it later this week.

117 Minute Bike/58 Minute Swim

117 Minute Bike (Stationary)
~20 mph
~40 miles

58 Minute Swim
Coaching Session

I got to the gym at about 5:30am this morning and hit the bike first.  I cruised pretty well the entire time, although I have to say, two hours on a spin bike is pretty monotonous.  I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which helped pass the time (that movie is hilarious, by the by).  Senora Gray Boots and Old Navy were both there; nothing too exciting to note during the session though.

Then I went to the pool and warmed up a bit before my session with my coach at 8:00am.  I was definietly fatigued and probably couldn't have done a 1500 straight, I was just so tired.  It is good that I got to do a trainer session today, it's harder mentally, but easier on your body because there aren't as many yards.  We also ended up talking quite a bit about general triathlon information, which was increadibly healpful.  A few things from today:

• Long sleeve wetsuit over short sleeve wetsuit for bouancy and speed.
• Tri-shorts and shirt over tri-suit unless the tri-suit is tight.
• Never wear a tri-suit in a long distace race, it's impossible to go to the bathroom without taking the whole thing off.
• Black or dark gray are the only acceptable colors for shorts, there are just too many things that can be exposed with other colors (see picture for explanation-Yikes).

Round 4: Day 34 - Insanity Max Interval Circuit

During Plank Punches I just imagine I'm punching the stop button on the DVD.

Insanity Max Interval Circuit from this morning goes something like this:
Jog in Place (more like "run for your life"),
Arms Up Jumping Jacks (jumping jacks with your arms straight up),
1-2-3 Heismans (three steps left with a high knee and back to the other side with another high knee),
Side-to-Side Jump Ropes (jump continuously elbows bent going from side to side to work your obliques),
Arms Out High Knees (High knees with arms out straight at shoulder level),
Switch Kicks (alternating leg jumping waist high kicks),
Hit the Floor (slap the ground and jump up),
Side-to-Side Floor Hops (plank position jump your legs high in the air to the right, back and then to the left).

Each exercise 30 seconds and repeat this sequence three times, increasing the intensity each time until you are going all out.

You finish this sequence dripping with sweat, look at the TV and realize in horror that there's still 45 minutes left. 

Yeah, that was the freaking warm-up.  The workout hasn't even started yet...shudder...

I have to admit, I started this workout with a bit of trepedation because I had some idea of what was coming.  You see, if you do a regular Insanity schedule, for the first four weeks, you do 40 minute workouts everyday, getting your body aclimated to high intensity cardio, then in the last four weeks you do "Max Interval" workouts.  These are basically the big brothers of the original 40 minute workouts.  They are more intense, use more compound moves and last 60 minutes.  Max Interval workouts are monsters.

Of course, in my infinite wisdom, Mrs. Gias and I are doing a hybrid schedule so we are only doing two Insanity workouts per week instead of the usual six.  I was a bit worried that our bodies would not acclimate to a Max Interval workout without some more work.  Surprisingly, we both did better than I expected.  I'd say that we both kept up with the DVD really well.

I have to admit, I really liked it. 

35 Minute Run

Did my short run this evening.  Just a quick 35 minutes (3.5 miles) on the old suckmill.  I really wanted to run outside, but I got home and Mrs. Gias was going out this evening, so I needed to stay home with our girls.  It wasn't too big of a deal, but I definitely want to get back outside this weekend.

Round 4: Day 33 - P90X+ Total Body Plus

Here I am doing the 1/2 Dervish, basically big swinging twists with weights in both hands. 

As I do this move approximately three feet from my wife, a better name might be

"the smack your wife in the face under the guise of exercise". 

Total Body Plus from the P90X+ series was on tap for this morning.  I had done this workout a few times a couple of months ago when I was looking for some variety.  I remembered that it was a lot of compound moves and generally a good total body workout. 

It did not disappoint this morning.

A few notes about today's workout:

• It's a shorter workout (45 minutes) but it really moves, there are still more than 20 exercises, some with multiple parts.  It's actually kind of hard to keep up unless you really know what's coming.
• Everything in the video is compound, meaning you work more than one muscle at a time.  Lunge while doing a curl, pull-up crunches, weighted warrior, etc.  This is excellent, the workout incorporates balance, strength and endurance into a tight little package.
• I was ungrounded from Shakers today...you really don't know how much you miss something until it's gone.  Let's just say Mrs. Gias had a pretty spectacular shaker about halfway through today...it's one I won't soon forget.

Round 4: Day 32 - Yoga X

Tired.  Fatigued.  Broken.

Mrs. Gias and I agreed this morning that our bodies were screaming for a respite from our workouts.  We had destroyed our shoulders on Sunday; I ran six miles later that day.  Monday we we had our roughest Insanity workout to date.  Tuesday we blasted our back and biceps with innumerable pull-ups and curls, then I went for a mile long swim and a twenty mile bike ride yesterday evening. 

This morning, from head to toe, we were broken.

We slipped into the quiet calm of our basement, the sun still lost in its evening slumber, the waning gibbous moon still shone brightly through the crisp morning air.  We started slowly, bending, twisting and reaching through our asanas; each action stretching those sore muscles, each movement more fluid than the last.  Our yoga was focused this morning, our breathing clear, our practice nearly silent.  Nearing the end of our 90 minutes, a thin layer of glistening perspiration started to glow as the sun began to rise and bathe us in its radiance through the east window. 

If there is anything more relaxing than yoga at sunrise, I haven't had the pleasure.  I am still tired, still fatigued, but not broken.

35 Minute Swim and 70 Minute Bike

35 Minute Swim
Stroke Drills, 100 intervals

70 Minute Bike
60 Minute Actual
21.25 miles

Short post tonight because I'm tired!

I got to the gym today for my short swim and short bike for the week and went in without a great "plan" as to what I wanted to swim.  This is NOT the best way to go into a workout, I should have had a plan so I could benchmark what I was doing.  Instead I ended up doing stroke drills and 100 yd repeats.  It was a good workout, just not enough planning to make it a great workout.

I finished the swim and jumped on a spin bike (still under 40 degrees today, no outside ride yet!) and actually had a GREAT bike session. I went for 60 minutes and my cadence was in the 100s for the entire hour.  I pushed hard and got through it a sweaty, dripping mess.

Ugh, I'm so tired I can't even think of anything pithy to say.

Round 4: Day 31 - P90X Back and Biceps/ARX

Well hello old friend.  I haven't done this workout in about a month.  Let me tell you, even though I knew what was coming, my body did not.  The whole routine is based on doing two back exercises followed by two bicep exercises.  You basically blast one body part then switch to the other so the first one can recover.  It's a routine of basically pullups and curls and it felt great.  Nothing too exciting from this morning other than Mrs. Gias and I were both shaking when we finished the last set of curls.  We both kind of looked at each other increadulously and said, "That was tough."  Enough said.

Round 4: Day 30 - Cardio Power and Resistance

My "wicking" shirt (epic fail on the "wicking") looks like a Rorschach test for "hot sweaty mess".

I don't know if it was because I was sore from my run yesterday or this workout was just tough, but...geez, this thing wore me out today!  Insanity Cardio Power & Resistance is Shaun T's version of gulag.  It felt higher impact than the other Insanity workouts that we've done, which in turn, beats down your body a bit more. 

Mrs. Gias and I were going from Power Jumps (start in a squat, jump as high as you can with your knees up to your shoulders and hit your hands before coming back down into a squat...as fast as you can...without stopping) into V-pushups (exactly like the Pike Presses we murdered ourselves with yesterday in Diamond Delts, so that was a nice treat for our already battered shoulders - who made up this stupid schedule anyway...oh yeah, nevermind) hardly being able to keep up.  It's a new workout for us and it moves pretty quick from jumping moves into pushup moves.  It's a good total body workout and your heart is thumping in your chest like some kind of terrible club music that you can't get away from.

Needless to say, there was very little talking during the workout today as I found it necessary to save my strength to make sure I could still mutter "help" after my inevitable collapse onto the floor in the fetal position.

How was your morning?