Geek in a Speedo

Round 5: Day 9 - Total Body Plus

2010-07-26T20:55:00.000-05:00

This is "Mr. Moon," it's harder than it looks. (That's what she said.)

After we finished working out this morning, Mrs. Gias said that Total Body Plus was always harder than she remembers. After sweating bullets this morning, I have to agree.

Round 5: Day 5 - Chest and Back + ARX

2010-07-22T21:28:00.000-05:00

Pullups, they do a body good.

Chest and Back is one of my favorite P90X workouts, hands down.

I like that it's all body weight exercises.

I like pushups.

I like pullups.

I like Tony's pep talk at the end.

I like that it was the first P90X video I ever did.

I like that it feels like a truck ran over my chest when I'm finished.

OK, maybe not so much that last one.

Round 5: Day 4 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

2010-07-21T11:59:00.000-05:00

Quick, think of an inappropriate caption for this picture. Yeah, didn't take me long either.

This is the first time in a while that we have done some yoga...and you could tell. Although I was already sore from the past few days' workouts I was also pretty tight in my stretches today. I'm not quite the Stretch Armstrong that Mrs. Gias is, but usually I can at least bend and get to my feet.

Not today. I could barely get my hands to reach my shins.

Round 5: Day 3 - Shoulders and Arms + ARX

2010-07-20T21:38:00.000-05:00

It looks like I died and am moving towards the light...

Holy crap I'm sore.

We've been pushing it pretty hard these first few days of Round 5 and my body is starting to feel it. For reasons passing understanding my butt feels like I went ice skating and fell on my ass. Repeatedly. It hurts to sit down, it hurts to get up, it hurts to do oblique v-ups during Ab Ripper X. Hopefully a little yoga tomorrow will work out these kinks.

Round 5: Day 2 - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

2010-07-19T21:46:00.000-05:00

Navy shirt, black shorts. What can I say, I'm a snappy dresser in the morning.

I had delusions of grandure of doing Plyo Max Circuit this morning. It's basically the same workout we ended up doing but it's about 20 minutes longer and has been known to literally make your heart explode.

After a brief discussion with Mrs. Gias, she thought it would be a good idea to leave our hearts intact today. At the end when I had to use a beach towel to wipe up my pool of sweat, I thought she made a good call.

Round 5: Day 1 - Total Body Plus

2010-07-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

Hello, old friend.

It's time to start a new round.

We did day one of a new round this evening and it kicked. My. Ass. I was sweating bullets at the end. I could keep up, but boy, did I feel weak. I don't have much time to post tonight, but I will put something up in the next day or two with our new Round 5 schedule and my goals for the round.

Should be interesting.

Insanity Pure Cardio

2010-07-01T15:28:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Gias said, "it looks like you have three legs." That's what she said. Ha!

Back to a fitness video today. We've been doing other things, running mostly, this week and this morning we decided to get back to one of our old favorites. And by old favorites, I mean, heart attack inducing cardio with Shaun T.

You remember Pure Cardio, right? It's the one with no breaks where Shaun T mentions that he's nervous for the workout because it's so hard. So, yeah, good one to start back up on.

Sunrise Run

2010-06-28T23:42:00.009-05:00

Instead of a cross-train cardio session today (like Insanity), instead I got up and did another run right at sunrise. It was cool and a little windy, quite a change from our 90's and humid weather we've been having. I saw one other person out running and about 10 cars - pretty peaceful on the loop around our house.

I'm trying to be a little run focused for a few weeks because I feel like I'm lacking good run base. From what I've heard, the best way to get better at running is to...run.

Run

2010-06-27T15:59:00.000-05:00

Sunrise runs are awesome.

After finishing Upper Plus this morning, I knew I still needed to get in a little cardio, so I left the house for a nice early morning run before church. I didn't go very hard and I didn't go very far, but I got in a few miles and felt good about it. Oh and the sky this morning was awesome.

I think tomorrow we'll probably do some cardio intervals in the morning and then I'll try to run or bike tomorrow evening. We'll see how that goes.

Upper Plus

2010-06-27T15:04:00.000-05:00

Combat iso pushups...they hurt.

I'm pretty focused on cardio work right now getting ready for my next tri in two weeks, but I still need to get some strength work in to keep my muscles working. Accordingly, I let Mrs. Gias pick the workout today and she wanted to do Upper Body Plus from the P90X+ series.

It's an interesting workout because it's all time based, that is, you pick a weight that you can finish for the enitre alloted time, not the number of reps you need to do. Normally, I'd do curls for eight reps and use enough weight so that I would be feeling it on the eighth rep and basically max out right there. For today's workout, we did bicep blaster (curls) for 90 seconds. To do 90 seconds of curls I had to significantly lower my weight and it still burned like hell at the end.

60 Minute Swim, 60 Minute Bike

2010-06-26T21:33:00.000-05:00

Note fromThe Geek: Yikes! I've been gone a while. Me and the family were out of town for a few days and then I had a monster few days at work in order to catch up and I just haven't had time for blogging. That's not to say I didn't work out, I did some modified workouts while out of town, mostly CrossFit stuff, but probably not as much as I should have. The good news is, I didn't gain any weight, the bad news is, I feel like a slacker...

I was back to my old schedule today, up at 4:30am and to the pool. I spent about an hour swimming doing some ladders for warm up and 500's for my main set and then a cool down. I swam the 500's on the 7:15, which is an average right around 1:27/500, which I am happy with given my lack of hard swimming practice lately.

My story from the gym today is a similar one that I've told before, but my after talking to my father in law earlier today, he reminded me of a Seinfeld episode that was especially relevant. Everybody's seen the Yada-yada episode. In it there is talk of the "Jewish workout" (Seinfeld's term, not mine) where a guy goes to the gym sits in the sauna for 30 minutes and leaves. The allure is that if you sit in the sauna for a half hour you sweat a bunch and lose 3-5 pounds.

One of those guys was at the gym this morning. Of course it's all water weight and you could get the same effect by just not drinking anything for a few hours. Whatever. There was a guy who got there at 5am and say in the sauna for thrirty minutes and then left. He literally got up early to sweat out water and then go back to whatever he was going to do this morning. Weird. I wonder what would happen if I asked him to jump in the pool with me and do a few laps.

If finished my swim and headed home for a bike ride. It was hot and humid again, even though it was just a little after 6am. I rode the course I would be on for my next triathlon which is around Shawnee Mission Park Lake. The sun was coming up as I was circling the lake, it was beautiful. It would have been better had I not been sweating like a prostitute in church.

Stretch

2010-06-14T21:51:00.000-05:00

My legs are more sore than they have ever been. More sore than after a triathlon. More sore than after Bun Shaper. More sore than after Plyo Legs.

Straight up...sore.

Crossfit squats yesterday kicked my butt and my legs are not recovered. Time to stretch.

Note from The Geek: I'm heading out of town with the family for a few days so the blog may be a little slow unless I find a computer to use.

CrossFit and Killer Abs

2010-06-13T10:34:00.000-05:00

This is a CrossFit squat...maybe.

Today, I wanted to try something a little different. As they say, variety is the spice of fitness (or something like that).

Fellow blogger Fitbomb has been talking about CrossFit to add a little functional fitness to his regimen. I decided that Mrs. Gias and I should try a little something different so we are going to do one of CrossFit's "Workout of the Day" routines. The one we chose was to do:

5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

Repeat 15 times or twenty minutes, whichever comes first. The object is to go as fast as you can with good form. Needless to say at the end, I was totally out of breath and got in a seriously good workout in the 13:11 it took me to complete the 15 rounds. Mrs. Gias finished right on my heels at 13:20. I know that we'll probably have to work on our form and try a few more workouts, but I think CrossFit might be a great new tool to add to our workout arsenal.

After we finished our first attempt at CrossFit and took a few minutes to recover, we threw in Killer Abs from Tony's One on One series. I don't care how many times you done this routine, over 450 reps of ab moves still burns me up everytime.

The workout today was quick, efficient and hit just about every body part. I really liked it.

30 Minute Swim & 60 Minute Bike

2010-06-12T08:48:00.000-05:00

Ooooh, wood grain laminte lockers...so luxurious.

I haven't been swimming much in the last few weeks, not because I didn't want to (who am I kidding, I've been slacking), but because my health club was renovating and the pool was unavailable. It's opened back up now and I went in for an early morning (or late night, depending on what time you get up) swim.

I got to the newly renovated club a few minutes before 5am and noticed that everything seemed to have a fresh coat of paint and a few new pictures on the wall, it looks better than it did, but nothing too special. They re-did the locker room with some wood-grain laminte lockers and refinished the pool deck. Overall, a nice little renovation.

I hopped in the pool and started doing a little 500 yard ladder warm up. Almost instantly I noticed that in the renovation process they also must have renovated the chemicals in the pool because the chlorine content was so high it practically made me choke. Ugh.

When they renovated the pool deck they either had some chemicals seep into the water or they jumped up the chlorine right after the renovation to make sure the water was clean. Whatever the reason, it made breathing a bit challenging. It was kind of like breathing really humid air that burned your lungs a bit. Wonderful.

At any rate, I got through the workout and did about 1500 yards. Man, it was hard swimming after not having been in the pool for a while. I'm sure I'll get my groove back, but today felt like a struggle on every level.

It was very manatee like, but with less grace.

I finished in the pool, hopped in my car and drove home. I quickly changed into my cycling clothes and hit the biking trail right as the sun was coming up. It was pretty cloudy, so I didn't get the full effect of the sunrise ride (which I normally really like) but it was still nice. A little breeze but probably 60%-70% humidity so i was sweating like crazy. Otherwise, the ride was pretty uneventful other than I felt pretty slow today.

I got home right at 7am and got to have breakfast with my girls. Overall, not a bad workout for a Saturday morning.

Rant about Cheerios

2010-06-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

I was at the store the other day and learned an interesting fun fact about Cheerios. Everyone knows that there are different varieties of Cheerios, the two most popular being regular Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios. The difference between these two cereals is pretty simple, they are exactly the same except that to make Honey Nut Cheerios, you take regular Cheerios and add a layer of sugar.

To be clear, the only difference between the two is that Honey Nut Cheerios goes through an extra step at the manufacturing process to add an additional ingredient, sugar. Using an extra ingredient and going through an extra step at manufacturing logically increases the cost of producing Honey Nut Cheerios...right? So that would mean Honey Nut Cheerios should be more expensive at the store...right?

Wrong.

For reasons passing understading, Honey Nut Cheerios are actually cheaper than regular Cheerios. This is problematic for at least two reasons.

First, regular Cheerios are significantly better for you because there is literally 11 times more sugar (11g vs. 1g) in Honey Nut Cheerios, this is practically a no brainer; 11 times more sugar = worse for you. Yeah, everything (including sugar) in moderation is OK, but why does anyone need this extra sugar?

Second, the only logical reason Honey Nut Cheerios are cheaper seems to be so that parents buy the cheaper cereal (which is clearly more expensive to produce) in hopes that their children will get addicted to the sugar content and eat more than they should, forcing the parents to buy more cereal, thus making up for the extra cost in increased volume of sales.

The business strategy seems to be tricking parents into buying the cheaper product, then using sugar to encourage children to gorge themselves on sweetened cereal so their parents have to buy more. Is it any wonder that there is a childhood obesity epidemic in this country?

P90X Shoulders and Arms

2010-06-08T17:43:00.001-05:00

Oh, you don't know this move, it's called, "Light headed Geek should take a break and know his limits."

It was my turn to choose the workout this morning and I wanted to do a tough upper body workout. I decided to go old school with P90X's Shoulders and Arms. This video is right at 60 minutes and it is tough.

According to my logs, we haven't done this workout since January. It was every bit as tough as I remember it. It's 15 exercises repeated (30 total) going back and forth between Shoulders, Biceps and Triceps. I like this workout because I can lift heavy and always feel spent at the end no matter how many times I do the workout.

That's the great thing about weights, they can always get heavier.

Today I got through about half the workout and started feeling light headed; which isn't a new experience for me. It happens when I workout hard. For whatever reason I start huffing and puffing or muscle up an extra rep and I'll get a little dizzy.

Only today it came back after every move. It started to get quite annoying.

Mrs. Gias: Do you need to pause the video and get a drink?
Geek: Maybe for a minute.
Mrs. Gias: 'Cause it looks like you do. Pansy.
Geek: Love you too.

Nothing better than marital banter at 5 in the morning.

Insanity Core Cardio and Balance

2010-06-07T20:30:00.000-05:00

Look ma...I can fly!

Back in the saddle. It's been a few days since we worked out, but first things first...Mrs. Gias ran in Hospital Hill on Saturday and she did GREAT! She PR'd on a humid day and on probably one of the toughest half marathon courses around. B & G, my inlaws and I all cheered her on and had a blast.

As for the workouts, yeah, I've been slacking. Mrs. Gias was tapering last week and I decided to taper with her even though I didn't have a race...it was basically just an excuse to slack off for four days. The other problem I've had is that I've been eating like an idiot lately, sneaking a soda, eating pizza, throwing in a hamburger when I took my girls out for lunch. Was it non-stop junk food? No. Was it more than I should have had? Yes. I desperately need to work out, eat right and get back into a routine. It's only been four days, but geez, I feel like I'm falling down a hole and worried and can't come back up.

That's why this morning's workout, even though it's not the most intense, still felt great. We built up a bit of a sweat, I had a sensible breakfast and felt much better about myself today. We'll workout again tomorrow and the next day and I'll get my rhythm back...I hope.

40 Minute Open Water Swim

2010-06-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

At the Kansas City Triathlon I had a terrible open water experience. I decided that if I was going to do more triathlons I would need as much open water practice as I could get. Luckily there's a lake about 10 minutes from our house that does open water swims Tuesday and Thursday evenings (after Memorial Day so today was the first one).

It was pretty cool because there were probably 50-100 triathletes that showed up for practice and they had bouys set up a few hundred yards apart and you could just swim. There were enough people there that you had to do a little swimming in traffic, but not so many that you had to worry about really getting smacked in the face too much, which was great.

Long story short, today was a great open water experience. I worked really hard on sighting, swimming straight and keeping an even ryhthm. I think with a few more practice sessions I'll be in good shape for my next race in July.

Core Cardio and Balance

2010-06-01T20:09:00.000-05:00

It's like I'm a more awkward version of Ralph Macchio doing the crane.

T-minus 4 days until Mrs. Gias's Hospital Hill half marathon. She's in her taper week and wanted to do some low-impact (nothing tricky on her knees or hips) cross training so we settled in for about 40 minutes of Insanity. It got a nice little sweat going and the minimal amount of jumps we had to do were pretty soft.

30:15 Upper Body Massacre - Memorial Day Edition

2010-05-31T14:10:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Gias wanted to get up today and do some upper body. Don't know why, but this woman loves doing pullups and pushups. We have probably 10 upper body workouts and she chooses 30:15 - 24 sets of pushups and pullups. As you've read before...it's tough. But she likes to work hard, and I love that about her.

Track Intervals

2010-05-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

It's Memorial day weekend and I've been slacking a bit the last few days on structred workouts. Friday I cleaned out the garage, Saturday I painted the trim on the front of our house and today, I needed to run.

I decided to try something a little different todayy so this afternoon I headed to the local high school and did some intervals on the track. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was beating down to the tune of about 90 degrees. Perfect for getting a solid sweat going and doing some speed work in the heat.

I warmed up with a quarter mile jog and then some stretching before getting into the intervals. I decided I'd do distance rather than time intervals, just to see what happened. I would go all out for a quarter mile (one lap) and then briskly walk a half lap, rinse and repeat until my quarter mile times were over 2 minutes (8 minute mile average).

My first run interval was 1:32 (about a 6 minute mile) and the walk was about 2 minutes (16 minute mile). I continued this cycle for about 25 minutes and was dripping sweat. It felt good to get out and run hard, sweat buckets and torch some calories. I think I'm going to start doing speed work once a week because it's quick, effective and (hopefully) easy to track progress.

P90X Chest and Back

2010-05-26T10:50:00.000-05:00

Military pushups with a leg in the air...that's just silly.

My two days of doing nothing are over after my race and so this morning we jumped back into some morning workouts. As Mrs. Gias has a race in about 10 days and we haven't started a new 90 day cycle yet, I let her choose what she wanted to do. To my surprise, she wanted to do a resistance workout that worked "here" (pointing to her arms sides and upper back). I told her we could do Chest and Back, Chest Shoulders and Triceps, Back and Biceps, 30:15...we have a lot of those type of workouts. She settled on Chest and Back.

At the end of the workout, we were both totally spent and I asked her, half jokingly, if she wanted to do a quick ab routine too. Her response:

"In hindsight, I don't even want to do Chest and Back."

Classic.

Kansas City Triathlon - Race Report

2010-05-25T20:58:00.001-05:00

Prologue
I was getting ready to pack up my bike into our Jeep the night before the race. I was giving Sir Blanco a quick once over with my multi-tool, tightening bolts, checking the roll of the wheels, basically making sure that the bike was ready for the race tomorrow. As I was spinning the front wheel, I noticed that my cyclo-computer didn't come on. It automatically turns on when the wheel starts spinning so it can record how fast the bike is going, how far, etc. I thought maybe my fiddling had pushed the sensor on the wheel out of alignment so I fiddled a bit more to no avail. I then discovered that the lead wire had split. Don't know how, don't know why. This was a bit disconcerting because you don't need a spedometer when you're racing, but it's nice to see how you're doing and how far you've got to go. I decided this was either a bad omen, or it was my one equipment hic-up for this race and this just meant that everything else would go perfectly...we'll see.

Pre-Race
I woke up excited. The alarm was set for 4:45am and I was up two minutes early. I got out of bed and started my daily routine like it was any other day. I shaved, showered and then went downstairs for a little breakfast. The biggest difference was that I was wearing spandex while I made my bowl of oatmeal.

Normally, I only wear spandex when we go out to eat.

Mrs. Gias got up just after I did at 5am as she had some pre-race snacks to make and needed to get our girls up and out of bed in order to get to the race site by 7:15am - the time I told her she should be there to see the swim start at 7:34am. Of course, she's a trooper so she was up with a positive attitude making sure I was ready to go. I gave her a kiss and hopped in the Jeep for my 25 minute drive to Longview Lake.

I got to the race site a bit before 6am and it was already pretty full. There were way more people there than I anticipated so I quickly texted Mrs. Gias to let her know the parking situation was going to be a pain and then found a spot along the course route about a half-mile from transition to park the car.

I walked in with a number of other racers and upon entering transition to rack my bike, I got body-marked. They had assigned transition spots according to your bib number, which was nice, no fighting for spots. I quickly went to my spot and set up my gear.

Next I had to get in the chip line, which was pretty uneventful and then on to the porta-john line. I chatted it up with a few other racers about how this was their first race, or their 50th race and what to expect on the course. It was nice to be one of the athletes jawing with the rest of the athletes about what we were about to do.

Before I knew it the announcement came over the sound system that transition would close in 15 minutes and a pre-race meeting wout start shortly thereafter. It was time to put on the wetsuit and head to the beach.

I have to admit, I had some trepedation walking to the water. I knew it would be cold and I'd never done anything like this before. I thought the best thing to do would be to follow my plan and hop in the water to get acclimated to the temperature and try to swim a few strokes.

I jumped right in and....damn...the water was cold. It was 60 degrees and it literally takes your breath away when you first get in. I tried swimming around a little and with the wetsuit on, and after a minute or two it really wasn't that bad. Could I tell it was cold? Yes. Was it unbearable? No. It's amazing what 5mm of neoprene will do for you.

A few minutes more passed and I headed up to the beach to get near the start, it was about 5 minutes away. It was at this point I saw my dad waving his arms from the back of the start chute. I hussled back there and said hi to him and Mrs. Gias. They told me the rest of my cheering section had arrived and were on the other side of the beach ready to see me pop out of the water. They wished me good luck and I headed down to the edge of the water for the start.

The Swim
I lined up for the start of the swim with the rest of the males 30-49...that's a big group by the way. They originally told us it would be by age group, then they decided to put the four largest age groups together for what amounted to a mass start...no idea why. Anyway, I knew that if I swam like I knew how, I would do fine...although, those bouys looked pretty far away...and the water was awfully choppy from all the wind.

Go!

It was a mad dash into the water. If you've never seen a mass start for a swim race, there's a reason they call it the washing machine. It's random limbs flailing everywhere, water splashing and churning, you get kicked in the face, you smack someone else's arm, someone grabs your leg, people are going sideways across your back...it's chaos.

Oh, and the water is 60 degrees, taking your breath away and making it that much harder to breathe and focus on swimming.

I sighted the bouy about 600 meters out, but just barely, the sun was rising directly in the line of sight with the bouy making the glare pretty blinding. I started stroking and sighting like I'd practiced, which, by the way, wasn't working at all. I'd look up and stare into the sun for a second, just long enough to get kicked in the face and then try swimming again. Even after we were out about 200 metersI was still having a hard time breathing and I could tell I wasn't swimming straight...at all.

When I got to the midway point between the shore and the furthest bouy, about 300 meters or so, I panicked. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see, I couldn't stroke regularly, I had the realization that I was already exhausted from the start and I wasn't sure I could continue. I thought seriously about trying to get to the nearest paddle boat to have them take me to shore.

It was terrible.

All of my training, my delusions of grandeur of finishing the race, of having my cheering section see me exit the water, finishing the triathlon like I promised myself I would do, doing triathlons in the future, all flashed before my eyes in an instant.

I told myself to settle down, catch your breath and get on it. You're a good swimmer, you're comfortable in the water and you can certainly swim 1500 meters. Quit jacking around feeling sorry for yourself, put your head down and go. If you run out of air, switch to breast stroke for a while. If your time is slower than your goal, do better next time. You think you're going to drown, but you're not. Forget about everything else and...just...swim.

I started making little deals with myself, just like I do when I'm in the pool. Swim to that bouy and then take a quick break. Do 10 strokes then site the bouy. Say a Hail Mary breathing to the left, then say one breathing to the right.

Before I knew it I was on the back stretch of the swim coming back towards shore. Coming into shore was significantly faster than going out. I was almost in a rhythm, or as close to one as I could find, and I knew I could make it.

Of course my rhythm was something like stroke stroke, kick in the face, turn slightly left, then back right, stroke stroke, repeat. It was like some dark Philip Glass musical number about a slow triathlete. (Yeah, I just dropped a Philip Glass reference, deal with it.)

I think the biggest problem for my actual swimming was that I could not, for the life of me, seem to swim straight. The wind was strong, the water was choppy and I was all over the damn lake. I'm sure I ended up swimming well over 2000 meters with the crazy diagonals I was making.

Red is the actual swim route. Yellow is the Geek's swim route. "Well there's your problem..."

Was the swim a good one? No.

Did I panic, get scared and feel as if I would almost drown? Yes.

Did I drink so much lake water that hydration wasn't a problem? Yes.

Did I finish it and smile for the camera? Of course.

It was only later that I would learn that my piss poor swim time would still land me in the top 50% overall. I've got to practice open water swimming...like...everyday.

T1
I hit the beach exhausted, mentally and physically. The panic, the cold and the one mile (probably more) swim took a lot out of me. Not to mention I was pretty shaken up from being so panicked in the water, I was just happy to be alive, but mad at myself for doing so poorly.

I ran up the beach and saw my full contingent cheering section for the first time. Both my sisters with their husbands, Mrs. Gias, her mom, both my little girls and my dad. There were cheers, signs and all kind of yells. I can't tell you how much of a pick-me-up it is to have a cheering section, especially when you finish something like that swim which really had me dejected because I thought I was off to such a poor start.

Hey moron, it's stuck on your watch.

I hussled up the beach trying to pull my wetsuit down to my waist where it got stuck on my watch. Here's the thing, if you don't wear a watch when you practice taking your wetsuit off, but you wear a watch for your race, your're going to look like a one-armed idiot running into transition. I was flailing like some kind of mental patient trying to get my arm out of a straight jacket...not my most graceful moment.

I ran through transition area, which seems substantially longer when you're in bare feet across the uneven asphalt, and got to my gear. My younger sister, her husband and Mrs. Gias had raced up the beach on the other side and were right outside transition giving me encouragement.

I stripped down the wetsuit, this time catching it on my timing chip on my left leg. Let's just say that Mrs. Gias tood a few too many pictures of the Geek bending over to get the wetsuit off of my left leg. I'll spare you from having to look at any of those here.

I slipped on my shoes, sunglasses and helmet and was off. I ran towards the transition exit and then hopped on my bike.

Wait a minute, where are my feet?

The Bike
I started the bike and my pace felt kind of slow (of course, I couldn't really tell because I didn't have a working spedometer). I was tired and didn't quite have my legs under me yet. I had used a lot more energy in the swim than I thought and my legs were already feeling a bit tired.

No biggie, just a 25 mile ride with 20-30 mph winds followed by a 6 mile run...who needs fresh legs?

Anyway, I started to ride and was still in my head about my swim. I checked my watch and thought it was about 33 minutes or so, about 8-9 minutes slower than my goal. Realistically, the goal should have been a bit more conservative, but, live and learn. I was upset and dejected at my swim time and then with the bike seemingly starting so slowly I didn't quite know what to make of my race day. Honestly, I was mostly worried about my cheering section having to stand around waiting for me to finish sometime late into the evening. Yeah, a little dramatic, but hey, it's all in my head.

Not having a bike computer I had no idea how fast I was going so I just kept plugging along. The course was a 12.5 mile loop we did twice. The first 6-7 miles were on roads with a pretty significant headwind/crosswind, which really makes you work hard and go slow. Then we hit a neighborhood section which was cool because people that lived there came out to cheer, but was not cool because there were a lot of tight turns that made keeping a decent pace difficult.

I almost look like I know what I'm doing...I should be an actor.

Luckily you come out of the neighborhood, hit one more massive hill and then...mile 10. Manna from heaven. It's downhill/flat for about 2.5 miles with a tailwind. It literally felt like I was flying during this section. The blacktop smoothed out, I found a gear I liked and just cruised. It was awesome.

Yeah, even my signs used my nom de plume...awesome.

The cheering section was out in full force when I finished lap 1 and it was again, like someone recharged my batteries when I saw my signs and heard them yell. Best feeling ever. I muscled through that first loop and checked my watch. 44 minutes.

Wait a minute. My goal time was 47 minutes per loop...I'm ahead of schedule on the bike...in this wind? That's crazy. That was a nice pick-me-up as well. I mashed through my gears into the wind and neighborhood one more time gaining confidence the whole way, knowing that the last few miles I could do a bit of resting and still have a strong run.

T2
I rolled into T2 almost exactly in 90 minutes averaging a higher speed than at last weeks duathalon, which was half the distance of today's ride. I don't know what it was, but something on the bike went right. Don't get me wrong, I'm still SLOW, I was just a little less slow today.

I got into T2, dropped my helmet, racked my bike and made like a banshee for the exit. I was tired and didn't have my legs under me, but I was ready to finish this thing.

Wipe that grin off your face, there's 6 miles to go!

The Run
As has happened to me pretty much everytime I start a run after a bike ride, the first mile is SLOW. I'm pretty wobbly and trying to get a rhythm going is difficult for me. Luckily at the top of the first hill about a quarter mile in, my cheering section was out in full force. I had to smile.

The run course had one pretty decent hill, but for the most part was pretty flat running around the lake. I passed a number of people on the run, which is weird for me because I am not that fast. Luckily today I was consistent. I kept my pace pretty even throughout. My first 5k split was about 28 minutes and I slowed down just a bit on the second half (I know, I know...negative split your run...I was tired, leave me alone!).

This is right at about the three hour mark...smile less, run more.

I saw my cheering section one more time on the trail towards the finish around maybe mile 5 or so. This is where you know you can finish but you just need a little bit of mind over matter to make sure you keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The run felt like it went by pretty quickly and my knee felt great...which was a huge relief. I got about a quarter mile out from the finish and noticed one more guy in my age group ahead of me that I wanted to pass. I kicked it up as much as I could, which wasn't much, but I got to him and I think he tried to step it up for about three steps and then just let me go. It felt good to finish strong and as I crossed the finish, my cheering section went nuts!

Of course this is the always flattering downstride picture where it looks like I'm losing to gravity.

Post Race

I walked slowly down the finisher's chute, got a bottle of water and my post race towell and made my way through the barricade to my family. I went to chat with them, take some pictures and basically just enjoy a few minutes of the morning. I told them all about how I thought I was going to quit 10 minutes into the swim, but how thinking about seeing them at the finish pushed me through. I also saw a few people that I had trained with and shared a few war stories with them.

The hairy chest is a little gross.

I even ran into my coach and a few other "experienced" triathletes. They made me feel pretty good (partially because I actually beat my swim coach on my swim time) and also because everyone was pretty much saying that the swim was terrible. They all thought the water was cold, the chop made it impossible to navigate and that it was OK to have had a bad swim. One guy even said he swam Escape From Alcatraz three weeks ago and that the San Francisco Bay was an easier swim than Longview that day. That helped restore a bit of confidence for next time...

Cheering Section

After I finished the race I was looking for the awards podium because I was certain that I would easily win for best cheering section. Who knew that wasn't a real award? It doesn't really matter, because everyone there knew the Geek had the best fans.

My cheering section minus Mrs. Gias...somebody had to take pictures.

I've mentioned them above, but I have to give at least one more shout out to my fabulous cheering section. They came out in full force for the beginning, middle and end of a three hour plus race on a Sunday morning.

They brought signs, snacks and a fabulous attitude. They were reason enough to finish the race.

You guys are the best. Thanks.

Kansas City Triathlon - Quick Update

2010-05-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

I'm totally worn out and don't have time to write a full report tonight; that will come tomorrow. Let's just say I finished the triathlon, the swim was terrible, the bike was pretty good and the run was a run...nothing special.

I finished 332 out of 427 in 3:11:11, which was close to my prediction of 3:03. I can pinpoint where the extra 8 minutes came from...exactly. I predicted the swim at 25 minutes, I did the swim in 34 minutes. The short story on the swim is it was cold, it was choppy and I panicked.

The one thing I wanted to mention for sure was that I easily, and I'm saying EASILY won the award for best cheering section of any other competitor. Mrs. Gias came out with both B & G, my dad, both sisters and their husbands and my mother in law were there...with signs...and themed snacks...and loud cheering. It was awesome. Huge thanks for taking the time out of a Sunday morning to come support the Geek on his silly little New Year's resolution. You all are the best.

More to come...

Kansas City Triathlon - Pre-Race

2010-05-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

"I predict you'll be crumpled on the ground crying like a little girl...before the race even starts."

Well, tomorrow is the Kansas City Triathlon. I picked up my packet yesterday afternoon and got my bib, swim cap and a few goodies. After last week's race, I can't decide if I'm more nervous about this race or less. Overall I think I'm just excited to finally get out there and race. As you know, last week was fine, but canceling the swim was kind of a buzz kill.

The good news is that today and tomorrow we're going to have the warmest temperatures of the year in Kansas City. It looks like it will be about 70 degrees when the race starts and will likely reacy the mid to upper 80's sometime tomorrow. There's officially no chance of rain, so it should be perfect! The only unknown is what the wind is going to do, right now they're predicting 20mph winds out of the south, which could suck...we'll have to see. (Usually there's less wind in the morning, so perhaps it won't be that bad.)

The other news (not sure if it's good or bad) is that the lake water temperature is in the low 60's right now. So definitely a bit cold and wetsuit legal, but probably not hypothermia inducing cold; which is always a bonus.

The other exciting part of tomorrow is a bunch of family members are coming out to watch me ~~embarass myself~~ race. I have a few little surprises for them to keep them occupied during the race (it could get a little boring after a few hours) that I might tell you about tomorrow.

Race Prediction
Swim 1500m (.9 miles) - This is going to be open water, a bit cold and lots of competitors around. Frankly, not a situation I'm particularly comfortable with, even though I fancy myself a strong swimmer. Remember, last week (when the swim was canceled) was supposed to be my run through on a short course in open water. No such luck. However, based on my pool times and doing a little conversion, I predict I'll finish the swim in 25 minutes.

T1 - Last week both transitions were under a minute, however, I didn't have to take off a wetsuit last week, so T1 should be slower than last week. I anticipate it taking 2 minutes.

Bike 40km (24.9 miles) - I am SLOW on the bike, so I'm frankly a little worried about this leg of the race. If I take the pace I went last week, which was only half the distance of this week, the bike will take me 92 minutes. Although maintaining that pace for double the distance seems unlikely, I'm going to predict 95 minutes on the bike.

T2 - I think I can keep T2 under a minute (or close to) because it should be similar to last week, which was less than a minute. Thus, I predict 1 minute for T2.

Run 10k (6.2 miles) - Last week, again at half the distance I was averaging a little over a 9 minute mile. Let's assume I can keep to about that pace for the full six miles (unlikely, but I'm an optimist) that would put the run at just under an hour. I'm changing my strategy slightly on the run and I'm going to walk the aid stations (one per mile) to make sure I get a few calories and water; last week I think I was a bit dehydrated at the end fo the race so this may help me maintain a better pace. I'm predicting 60 minutes for the 10k.

Total - Added together above, that predicts a finishing time of three hours, three minutes which is probably pretty accurate. If I finish in under three hours, I'll be pretty ecstatic. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Lawn Work X

2010-05-21T23:59:00.000-05:00

It's two days out from the Kansas City Triathlon, so no workouts today or tomorrow. I did end up burning a few calories mowing the lawn this evening though. It's been raining here pretty much non-stop for weeks, so let's just say the lawn was a bit long. And by long, I mean, we lost one of our children when she was playing outside last week. Yeah, it was time.

P90X+ Interval X

2010-05-20T14:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a lateral move called Super-Skaters...it works ya.

I don't think I've ever written about Interval X before. It's part of P90X+ (prounounced "plus" at the end), the follow up to P90X. It's supposed to be a more advanced follow up to P90X, but I don't think the workouts are all that difficult. They're good, don't get me wrong, just not super challenging. Which is exactly why we did Interval X today.

I'm only three days away from the Kansas City Triathlon and I really don't want to be sore. Mrs. Gias wanted to get in some cardio cross training today for her run schedule, but I was worried that an Insanity workout (normally our cardio cross training of choice) might be a little more than what I was looking for.

I definitely wanted to be active today, just not so active that my legs or abs hurt tomorrow. Interval X is a perfect mix for that. You can go pretty hard through the routine, but it doesn't kill you. It's basically 15 moves for one minute each, a 60 second break and then you repeat the moves again in reverse. The first 20 seconds of each move are easy, then 20 seconds of medium and then 20 seconds of "full tilt" as Tony calls it.

The moves vary from jumping jacks, squats, kicks and pushups. It has good lateral movement as well as a few moves that make you go vertical to practice your explosive leg strength. Again, not too taxing, but enough that you are sweating pretty good at the end of the workout.

Fountain of Youth Yoga

2010-05-19T21:16:00.000-05:00

We were sore this morning. I think we pushed it a little too hard on Monday with Chest and Back because neither of us could lift our arms during sun salutations without groaning something fierce.

Insanity Pure Cardio

2010-05-18T20:53:00.000-05:00

I really did not want to workout this morning. I was a little sore and super tired. We went downstairs with the intention of doing an Insanity workout, we just weren't sure which one we should do. I settled on Pure Cardio because we hadn't done it in a while and after all the pushups yesterday, by pecs were a little sore and I didn't want to be stuck in plank for 10 minutes like in Plyo Circuit. Of course, not doing Pure Cardio for a few weeks, I forgot about the burpees and pushup jacks that end the workout.

I don't remember being run over by a car, but I wouldn't be surprised to find tire marks across my chest.

P90X Chest and Back

2010-05-17T20:48:00.000-05:00

Diamond Pushups - I haven't done these in a while...they're hard.

We're in a mix-n-match time period right now. We're not using a formal schedule for our morning workouts because we've both got races coming up in the next few weeks. We want to focus on our races and not on getting sore with Tony. We're going to start a new round right after Mrs. Gias runs Hospital Hill the first weekend in June, but for now we're kind of playing it by ear.

That being said, Mrs. Gias wanted a good upper body workout today, so she chose Chest and Back. Oooh, it's an oldie but a goodie. Basically pushups and pullups with a few weighted exercises thrown in for good measure. I went about 85% today because normally this workout makes me pretty sore and I don't want to strain myself much because of my race this week.

That or I'm just a slacker.

Heritage Park Triathlon Duathlon - Race Report

2010-05-16T22:19:00.001-05:00

The start of the run around the lake...that we should have been swimming in.

I got up at 4:45am today to give myself plenty of time to get to the race. I rolled out of bed and the first thing I did was flip on the weather. It showed pretty much what I expected, 50 degrees, rain and 7-10mph winds. Not the best weather for a race, but I'd pretty much set myself up for this, so I wasn't that worried about it.

Oddly enough, I went through my regular morning routine, I shaved, showered, etc. just to kind of wake up and get me into the right frame of mind. I threw on my tri-shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt - today did not seem like the day to wear a sleevless tri-top - and headed downstairs for a little breakfast. I choked down some oatmeal and a glass of milk and headed out the door. I had packed the car with my bike and gear last night, so I was ready to go.

I got to the parking area about 5:45am and proceeded to find a place to rack my bike in transition. I started to set up my area, but realized that 1) it was raining a bit and I didn't want all my stuff to get wet yet; and 2) it was still waaaay freaking early because the race didn't start until 7:30am.

I walked over to pick up my chip and get body marked and headed back to my area. As an aside, it was kind of silly to get body marked today since I was wearing long sleeves and there wasn't a swim, but hey, I'm not in charge.

Mine's the crappy white bike right in the middle, affectionately known as "Sir Blanco".

I jacked around with my stuff for a bit and chatted up a few people. About 7am I went for an easy one mile warm up run and stretch, just to get the kinks out. I visited the porta-potty one more time and I was about ready to start the race.

Who's that goofy tall guy...oh wait.

As I was lining up to start the race, Mrs. Gias walked up and found me. It was pretty crappy weather, so I told her I wouldn't be offended if she didn't want to come out and watch, but of course, she's awesome and came out and took a bunch of pictures. Thanks, sweetie! (and if she hadn't come...major guilt trip later)

Well, a minute or two after I saw Mrs. Gias, the race started. The first leg of the duathlon was a two mile run that I wanted to take easy to see how my left knee was going to hold up. I started running and felt strong, but I held the pace back a bit to make sure I could continue the rest of the race. Those first two miles went pretty quick and before I knew it I was in T1. I did the first two miles in 16:39 - an 8:19/mile pace. Faster than I planned to be going, but it still felt SLOW compared with the monster athletes I was competing with. However, overall I was pretty happy with this first split.

Here's me coming out of T1 trying not to look like a total idiot...mission failure.

T1 was actually a place where I had a bit of anxiety. Getting on the bike, while running, in front of people, had the potential to be a disaster. Let's just say I am not nearly as graceful as I should be and I recently took a fall on my driveway that didn't have me brimming with confidence. Luckily I didn't have any falling incidents and got out of T1 in 54 seconds - that's an excellent time for me (and for most people), I'd take less than a minute in every race.

Quit smiling for the camera and pedal faster!

The bike leg started and it was about a 4 mile loop we did three times. There were some good and bad things about the ride. The good: it started with a nice downhill section and ended with a decent downhill section; of course the bad: the middle was pretty much all up hill, which was awful. Other challenges of the bike course was the fact that it was 50 degrees and drizzling the whole time. This made visibility through my sunglasses streaky and cloudy at best. I know what you're asking right now, "Geek, why didn't you take off your sunglasses?" - well the drizzle and wind would have then went directly into my eyes and likely would have been even worse...lesser of two evils I suppose. I also think I was the only one wearing winter thisulate gloves while riding the bike...what can I say, I'm doing this on the cheap and it was cold.

The bike went well and I averaged about 16.2 miles per hour, which isn't fast, but it's pretty decent for me on this course. Only one person in the race averaged more than 20mph, which tells me the course was slow and difficult today.

What kind of weird ballet-dismount is that?

The other nice thing about the bike was that it was on a loop. Yes, it was a little monotonous, however, I also got to see Mrs. Gias every 12 minutes when I passed the spectators, so that was a nice bonus. I finished the bike in 42:08. The first lap seemed slow, but before I knew it I had finished all three laps and was ready to head into T2.

Me falling down woudl have been a far more interesting picture.

If I was nervous about falling coming out of T1, T2 was a total nightmare scenario. It was wet and I am not the best and unclipping and continuing to jog next to my bike. Also, if you've never ridden a bike for a while and then tried to run right afterwords, it's harder than you think. Your legs are wobbly and it's hard to get your bearings. Luckily, I unclipped waaaaaay early and was able to run into T2 without falling on my butt.

Frankly, that's like a victory for the day right there.

It was at this point that I began to questioin why the hell I ever decided to try multisport.

I got through transition in :59 seconds, again, less than a minute, I'll take it. I started the home stretch three mile run. I have to say, I felt weaker than I thought I would. I don't know if it was the earlier run, the fact I didn't drink as much as I should have on the bike or if the bike/weather combination really just wore me down more than I think that it should have. For the most part the run was pretty uneventful and I kept a decent pace, not as fast as I'd like, but not bad. I did the run in 27:18 or about a 9:06/mile pace.

I was honestly beat near the end of the run and I really couldn't kick much to finish at full speed. That's odd for me because usually I have a little something left in the tank to finish hard and strong. I guess I was just really beat today. Honestly, the cold and rain (and the terribly thick, humid air) got to me.

In any event, I finished the race with a smile on my face and felt good about it. My final time was 1:27:56 and since I've never done a duathlon before, it's a Personal Record! Ha! After I finished I met up with Mrs. Gias, got some post-race goodies (chocolate milk, bagels, etc.) and went to find my stuff in transition. It was pretty cold and raining still, so I didn't stick around to chat with people too long (and nobody else was sticking around either).

So a few thoughts on the race:

I'm humbled by the fitness level of these people. Wow, I thought I was in pretty good shape, but the people I raced today are machines. They are fast on the run, faster on the bike and just keep going. It's a lot to take in.
I've got a race next week that's about twice the distance of this race...I'm a little worried. Mrs. Gias asked me after I finished (and was totally worn out) if I would have rather gone into the race next week not knowing how hard this was going to be or if I was glad that I had this little warmup/wakeup call. I told her I wasn't sure...
Total respect for Ironman triathlons. They are literally, ten times longer than what I did today. That's crazy.
Triathletes love their gear. I mean, I had kind of figured this out before today, but the number of $6000 bikes with every gadget imaginible, even for people with no hope of ever winning anything was unbelievable.
I've got lots of work to do. I can finish races...but I want to be faster.

Heritage Park Triathlon Duathlon - Pre-Race

2010-05-15T20:54:00.001-05:00

So I was getting all fired up for tomorrow's triathlon. Yeah, it was going to be cold, it was probably going to rain, but I was excited and ready to go. Then today when I went to packet pickup they told us that they canceled the swim and made the triathlon into a duathlon due to the inclement weather. (For those of you not in Kansas City right now, it's been raining since Wednesday and it's about 50 degrees...but seriously, if I'm swimming I'm already wet...htfu.)

Buzzkill.

I was totally excited about the swim, I was doing this race to get open water experience swimming with a group and to practice transitions. Now, not so much. Now I have to run extra, not swim, not use my awesome new wetsuit and miss out on the discipline that I could actually do really well in. No, I'm not a super speedy swimmer as far as swimmers go, but as far as triathletes go, I might be able to get near the front of the pack. Arghhh!

OK, enough complaining.

So the duathlon is tomorrow and here's how it works. 2 mile run, 11.5 mile bike, 3 mile run. So basically you replace the swim with a two mile run. This will be good because I need to do more running and practicing the bike in a group is much needed too.

So here's the prediction:

2 mile run- start out with an easy pace and come into transition strong - 18 minutes

11.5 mile bike - go hard and see what happens - I'd love to go under 40 minutes, I think 45 is more realistic. I previewed the course and it's got lots more hills than I thought it would so it could be a challenge.

3 mile run - if my knee is hurting - 33 minutes - if my knee is fine - 27 minutes - not blistering fast, but still pretty hard.

I'm a little worried about full on race pace for a run because my knee has been bothering me, so I'm taking it pretty easy in those predictions. If it's feeling good, maybe it'll be better.

Back tomorrow to let you know what happens...

Rest

2010-05-14T22:21:00.000-05:00

Heritage Park Triathlon in two days. No workout today, didn't want to risk being sore this weekend. The anticipation is killing me...

Two Mile Run and Patience Yoga

2010-05-13T21:47:00.000-05:00

I went into work this morning super early, like 4 something in the morning early, so I didn't get a workout in. After I got home I put B & G to bed and Mrs. Gias had a meeting at church, so I took advantage of some alone time.

I got on the treadmill and pounded out a quick two miles. It was a good run, not too hard and my knee didn't hurt at all. That's a good sign. I have to admit, I've been really tenative on my knee the last few weeks and pretty scared to run hard. This weekend is a short run, about three miles and I'm excited to really open up and see what happens.

After I finished my run I popped in Tony's Patience "Hummingbird" Yoga to get a nice post run stretch. It was 35 minutes of quiet, relaxing stretching. It was a pretty good for a taper workout.

Two days and counting until race day...I'm getting pretty stoked.

9 Mile Bike Ride

2010-05-11T21:34:00.000-05:00

I didn't get home until 7pm tonight, so I didn't have time for much of a workout. My weakest discipline right now is the bike, so I hopped on for a quick ride. I got about 9 miles done in 30 minutes, not a bad pace and it was a good confidence builder for this weekend.

A few quick points about my ride:

I got passed by two bikers today that were much faster than I am. I wasn't mad about it, until one of the guys passed me and then rode without hands for a minute or two, still pulling away. I know I'm slow, but you don't have to rub it in.
My bike is not very good, and the shifters are showing that on these harder rides; sometimes it shifts for no reason, which is kind of annoying and doesn't give me a lot of confidence for a smooth ride.
My front tire loosened up a little and came out of true during a ride over some bumps. That would be terrible during a ride...

Reader Question

2010-05-11T13:40:00.002-05:00

I got a reader question from midlife_swimmer the other day and I'd been meaning to answer it because I love reader questions!

midlife_swimmer asks:
"What length tri's are you looking at and what is your previous time on the swims and your goal time. When you swim in a tri does it feel like a warm up or part of the workout to you."

My current "A" race is the Kansas City Triathlon on May 23, which is Olympic distance. That is, a 1500 meter swim (~.9 miles), a 40km bike (~24.9 miles) and 10km run (~6.2 miles). I also have another race coming up as kind of a "warm up" for that race. This weekend I'll be doing the Heritage Park Triathlon which is a 587 yd swim, 11.5 mile bike and 3 mile run.

Both swims are open water and my guess is...cold. Our morning temperatures have been in the high 40's low 50's for the past few weeks, so at least I have that to look forward to. At the Heritage Park Triathlon last year the water temperature was 58 degrees for the swim... it was actually warmer than the ambient temperature for the bike and run, which is kind of scary. Yeah, I feel a little stupid for doing races this early in the season in Kansas, but hey, what could go wrong? (besides hypothermia, drowning, frostbite...aghhh!)

As for my times, when I do distance work at "race pace" I average around a 1:25-1:30/100 yards. My last time trial was 15 minutes and I did 1050 yards - right at 1:25/100. If I'm doing repeat 100's for practice, I usually slow that down to 1:40/100 interval work or go about 75%-80% and take 15-20 seconds in between sets depending on the workout I'm doing.

I'd love to get my time down to 1:15/100 (or so) which would put me on pace to finish an Olympic tri swim in under 20 minutes.

So...does the swim feel like a warm-up or part of the workout? When I'm training it defintely feels like part of the workout. I'm a decent swimmer so improvement comes in small increments these days. I can shave one second per 100 off by increasing my kick cadence or upping my stroke count from 17-18 per 25 yards...stupid little stuff. The real improvements for me come from doing lots of laps and trying to keep myself breathless during practice. So definitely a workout.

During races, the swim is my best discipline so it's not so much part of the workout as the place I want to "try" to shine a bit. I know I'll get schooled on the bike and the run, but I can at least keep up during the swim. So is it a warm-up...nope...it's my favorite part of the race!

Thanks for the question midlife_swimmer! If you haven't checked out her amazing story, you should check out her blog!

Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance - Mash Up

2010-05-10T19:44:00.000-05:00

I let Mrs. Gias pick the workout this morning and she decided she wanted to do a little Insanity. I really like Insanity workouts so I was totally game. Nothing too eventful, I felt good, didn't take any mid-set breaks and built up a nice sweat.

Mother's Day X

2010-05-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

We finished our 90 day round last friday and yesterday I went for a good swim and bike session. We're still trying to figure out the best way to continue working out and supporting our upcoming races but we haven't settled on a schedule just yet. The fact we didn't quite know what we wanted to do today coupled with the fact that it's mother's day and Mrs. Gias wanted to get some much deserved extra sleep, we took the day off.

60 Minute Bike Ride & Epic Transition Fail

2010-05-08T23:52:00.028-05:00

I got back from my swim about 5:45am and got my biking clothes on to try to get a quick early morning ride in before the rest of my family woke up. I hopped on my bike and started riding. As an aside...what the hell is up with this weather? During the week it's 75-80 degrees, sunny, no wind, Saturday or Sunday come along and it's 45 degrees, cloudy and windy. I'm getting tired of riding in this crap. OK, rant over...

So the ride was pretty uneventful, until the very end.

I'm about a week out from my first race, so I decided when I was coming in from my ride to practice doing a transitioin from the bike to the run. In my head, I saw myself rolling into the transition area on one foot, hopping gracefully from my bike, leaning it against the rack, ripping off my helmet and beginning my run.

This is not what happend. At. All.

So I rolled into my driveway and unclipped my right foot from the pedal and swung my leg over the seat so that all of my weight was on my left foot while coasting at about 5-7 miles per hour. It was at this point that I would hop off and gracefully jog with my bike to slow it down and start running. Of course the critical mistake here...I did not unclip my left foot. When I tried to hop off, my left foot stayed on the pedal and the bike wanted to keep going. This resulted in me falling sideways/backwards right on my left butt cheek with the bike on top of me. Ouch!

Luckily, my left foot popped out and I didn't hurt my ankle. Unluckily, I feel like I need one of those inflatable donuts to sit on because it feels like I have a golf ball in my back pocket when I sit down.

The only saving grace about this whole incident is that it happened on my driveway, rather than at a race. It was about 7:45am so none of my neighbors were oustide to witness my ridiculous fall. Also, it's good that it wasn't next week at the race where there are spectators and cameras all over the place. I would hate to immortalize my first race with a picture of an injury to my...well, you understand.

60 Minute Swim

2010-05-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

Got up early. Went to the gym. Swam a bunch of laps. Came home to ride my bike before anyone else wakes up.

Pretty standard Saturday.

Round 4: Day 90 - Core Cardio and Balance

2010-05-07T10:25:00.000-05:00

This is a lame Day 90 Picture...maybe we'll take some different shots later.

Round 4 Complete!

We finished our 4th 90 day round this morning with a little Insanity Core Cardio and Balance. It feels good to finish the round, but I can't take too much time to rest as I've got a race next week, and the one after. We'll see if I decide to have a cheat meal this weekend to celebrate or save that for after my upcoming races.

As for what's next...hopefully we'll have something on that in the next day or two. It'll probably be some low key maintenence for a few weeks so I can taper appropriately for my races, but we'll see.

Round 4: Day 89 - Core Synergistics

2010-05-06T10:27:00.002-05:00

Core Syn again today. I got through the workout but I felt like I was horizontal more than I usually am during this workout...weird.

Round 4: Day 88 - X Stretch

2010-05-05T20:47:00.000-05:00

This is called "Camel". I don't know why. I did drink a lot of water...

X-Stretch this morning. It's easily the least demanding of our workouts, which is nice sometimes, but I usually finish the hour of stretching and feel like I haven't worked out. Because I haven't. That's fine every once in a while; and it was fine today.

40 Minute Bike Ride

2010-05-04T21:31:00.000-05:00

The wind is a fickle mistress.

On the first half of the ride I was cruising along, easily averaging over 21 or 22 mph (which is fast for me). Of course, on the way back the 20 mph wind slowed me down something fierce.

So that sucked.

Round 4: Day 87 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

2010-05-04T15:46:00.002-05:00

Only 3 days left this round...clearly I'm praying to the P90X Gods to ensure my survival.

Work's been a little hectic lately. Yesterday I was pretty sure I was going to Ohio today and Wedensday. Then that got canceled yesterday afternoon. About two hours after that got canceled I was scheduled to go to Los Angeles for Tuesday through Thursday. This morning (before my flight, thankfully) that got canceled and it turns out I'm (likely) home all week.

At any rate, a nice quiet session of yoga was a nice way to start the day. It's weird though; I know during yoga I'm supposed to let the stress of life slip away and focus on positions and breathing and balance. However, sometimes you focus on all the stress and other stuff in your life and almost forget that you're sweating bullets and you're not sure how you got into the twisted position you're in.

Today was one of those days.

Round 4: Day 86 - Core Synergistics

2010-05-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a nice full body workout to get your day going. I'll admit, I was a little fatigued this morning but I still got a good workout. Apparently my fatigue was a little too apparent to Mrs. Gias.

There's a move called loading docks where you take a weight from the floor on one side of your body to up above your head on the other side (as seen in the photo above). I used a 10 pound weight today and had a good range of motion, but admittedly it was a little light for me. Mrs. Gias also used a 10 pound weight today.

And she let me know about it.

Repeatedly.

12 Mile Bike

2010-05-02T21:14:00.000-05:00

This was easily the best biking session I've had.

I didn't have much time so I went out for a quick 40 minute ride. I'd been really starting to worry that my biking was going to be super slow and losing a lot of confidence in how I would do in my upcoming races. Today I told myself that I was going to go as close to all out as I could for as long as I could to see what would happen. I think my problem in the past was I didn't know what level of exertion was necesary for a solid bike leg, so I just putzed along and ended with times that were waaaay too slow.

Today I pedaled strong, got out of the saddle, whatever I had to do to keep my cadence and my speed up. I ended up increasing my average speed by a few miles per hour and while I was more tired, it was still managable. In other words, today was a great confidence booster on speed.

No, I'm not going to be a front of pack biker in these first few races, probably not even a strong middle of the packer, but I have confidence that I can keep up and work hard enough to continue to improve. I just wish I'd discovered this "ah-ha" moment a few months ago so I could have been practicing more efficiently. It's OK, I'm a total novice at this so I'll just roll with it and keep getting better. I can't wait to get back out on the bike.

Round 4: Day 85 - Insanity Core Cardio and Balance

2010-05-02T21:01:00.000-05:00

We're into the home stretch on this 90 day round and we just started our last recovery week. Core Cardio and Balance is a good recovery week workout because it's not too challenging, but it gets a bit of sweat going to let you know you're working out. However, at the end, it kind of kicks you in the butt with a bunch of burnout moves, first on your hip-flexors and then in your shoulders. It's a bit uncomfortable and I really can't figure out what good it's doing me fitness-wise, but we do the moves anyway.

During the shoulder burnout Mrs. Gias's arms and mine got a little bit close. It should be known that Mrs. Gias does not like...let me restate...hates...being touched, even brushed lightly, while working out. Well, I have long arms and apparently they got a bit close to Mrs. Gias. It was early so her english wasn't quite top notch, but she said pretty clearly,

"I don't even want that near me not even a little bit at all."

Well, at least that was clear.

60 Minute Swim

2010-05-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

I had a session with my swim coach today. It was a good session, she really didn't have any critiques of my technique that were negative, which is pretty cool. Since my technique and form are going pretty well, we worked on two modifications to my stroke to try to gain more speed.

The first change is to increase the cadence on my kick from my current 4 beat kick to more like a 6-8 beat kick. Second change was to try a new breathing technique called three-two breathing. Yeah, I got bored just writing those sentences, sorry. (If you really want to know more about either of these things, leave a comment and I'll let you know...what nobody? That's a surprise...)

I guess the main point here is that I have used all the coaching sessions that I've paid for and I'm not sure I need anymore. I got three so that I could have my stroke broken down, fixed and I could get faster. Now that my stroke seems to be in good shape and my speed is pretty good (although you can always go faster) I think I just need to keep working. I'll reassess after a few races and see what I really need to work on (newsflash - it's the bike and running).

Round 4: Day 83 - Insanity Max Interval Circuit

2010-04-30T11:43:00.000-05:00

I know what you're thinking, "Oooh, Geek, a different Photoshop filter...you're so artsy".

There's no two ways about it...Max Interval Circuit is hard. Mrs. Gias and I tried to be playful at the beginning. That did not last long.

It's telling that at the end of the workout, everyone in the video literally drops to the floor in a pool of their own sweat. You seriously wonder for a minute if a few of them might actually be dead. There's one trainer that has very pale skin who we thought might be a vampire (Mrs. Gias just finished the Twilight books - everyone is a vampire these days...anyway) who collapsed face down on the gym floor; why would you do that unless you couldn't move? So yeah, great workout.

After the first circuit (there are three, repeated three times) Mrs. Gias went quickly from "playful" to "if you get any closer to me with your hot sweaty body I will smack you in the face."

Which I probably deserved.

Round 4: Day 82 - Total Body Plus

2010-04-29T23:59:00.017-05:00

Note: Ahh! Almost forgot to post this. Mrs. Gias's laptop went a little haywire yesterday so I spent my evening doing recovery of her files rather than ~~wasting time on the internet~~ posting this. (I backdated it to last night so it would show up on the right day.)

We did Total Body Plus this morning. You know I like this workout. That is all.

Round 4: Day 81 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

2010-04-28T14:25:00.000-05:00

Half Moon. Just be glad I didn't give you the "full moon" or you'd be blind right now.

My left hip and left wrist were all out of whack today (unrealted, I think). I couldn't quite torque the right way on my left hip, making my yoga even more wobbly then usual, which is to say, it looked like I was performing yoga during an earthquake. As for my wrist, I think I may have tweaked it during Diamond Delts on Sunday and stressed it a bit yesterday during our resistance workout. At any rate, up-dog was not nearly as relaxing as it normally would be.

Overall, not really very loose today, not really very excited about yoga today, it was just a day to get the workout done. These days happen and in my experience, pushing through the discomfort and the lack of motivation make you more ready for tomorrow. Here's hoping that's true.

Round 4: Day 80 - Back & Biceps

2010-04-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

This angle kind of makes it look like I'm on a TLC show called "Little People, Big Workouts."

'Cause I look short...but I'm working out...yeah, that was pathetic; I need to up my blogging game.

It was unusually cold when we got up this morning. The thermostat in the house said 63 degrees, which isn't shiver inducing, but it's a little cooler than is preferable for rolling out of a nice, warm, comfy bed. We snoozed once and then headed downstairs for one of my favorites, Back and Biceps. It's basically pullups and curls for an hour; and I really like to "bring it" in this workout. I lifted heavy today and by the last set I could barely pick up my pencil to record my reps and weight.

I was commenting to Mrs. Gias before we started that I really like this workout because it's as hard as you want to make it and totally trashes my upper body.

Mrs. Gias commented that she hates this video because the assistants Tony works out with are ass-hats.

Maybe "ass-hat" was my word, it was early, I don't really remember what she called them...

Actually, I think the assistant that annoys her the most is the interior designer "Katie". She looks like Pam from "The Office" and seems to fall behind the workout and gets a little too dramatic when doing her reps. She also laughs a disproportional amount at Tony's jokes. The other two assistants, Tim the former Marine and Bobby Stevenson, are actually both pretty cool.

Round 4: Day 79 - Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance

2010-04-26T15:08:00.000-05:00

Tricep dips look a little like a sweet disco move...I assure you it is not.

Whew! We had a good workout today. Mrs. Gias and I were sweating significantly more than we have in the past few weeks worth of workouts, so we know we were pushing it today.

Although, I think I know why we were pushing a little extra hard this morning...they were only a quarter...and who doesn't love some soft serve and cookie dough? Let's face it, we were obligated to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Blizzard last night.

And we did.

And it was delicious.

Round 4: Day 78 - Diamond Delts

2010-04-25T21:05:00.000-05:00

She likes her diamond delts, but unfortunately for me she likes real diamonds better.

Ms. Gias did the Trolley Run this morning (she PR'd - great job sweetie!) so we pushed off Diamond Delts until this evening rather than this morning so she could make it to her race. It's the last Diamond Delts of this round, so I really pushed it on the weights and went heavy.

Ouch.

Round 4: Day 76 - Insanity Cardio Recovery

2010-04-23T08:46:00.001-05:00

One of the many isometric lunges in today's workout; it looks dumb, but it hurts worse.

Mrs. Gias is running the Trolly Run (the largest 4 mile race in the nation) on Sunday and she has her last taper run this afternoon. Furthermore, yesterday's Plyo Legs routine has been re-named "Pants of Pain" due to the ungodly soreness in our glutes, hamstrings and quads. Accordingly, she requested that we take it easy on the cardio and legs today so that she could properly prepare for her race.

I obliged by offering to switch our workout to Insanity Cardio Recovery. It's a video that we've never done before, but it's about 35 minutes and it has recovery in the title, so it seemed appropriate.

This was a tactical mistake on my part.

I will say that the video's title is correct, there is not much cardio in this video at all, I'd be shocked if my heart rate topped 120 the whole time. However, it did have a lot (read A LOT) of squats, lunges and glute exercises. Unfortunately, we got about halfway into the workout and realized that this may be the opposite of what Mrs. Gias was looking for.

Mrs. Gias: What's this video called again?
Geek: Uh, Cardio Recovery.
Mrs. Gias: Really!? It's now officially renamed to, "My Ass is on Fire".

45 Minute Swim

2010-04-22T21:23:00.000-05:00

I had a great swim workout today. I mentioned in the last few posts how I was looking for some variety, some motivation and a plan to make sure I was getting in quality workouts. Well, I finally went to a website that I had heard about on some triathlon message boards, http://www.swimplan.com/. Swimplan.com is a website where you put in your skill level and then tell it what kind of workout you want and it will give you a detailed workout with a warmup, drills, core workout and cool down. It's set up specifically with times for your level of swimming and for a duration that you choose.

I finally signed up today and printed out a workout for this evening. It was awesome. Really it wasn't much different that what I usually do; however, I always work out better with a plan. This is exactly what I needed. I got quality yards in and it helped pass the time. I'm definitely using it again. For all of you swimmers out there, I highly recommend it.

Round 4: Day 75 - Plyo Legs

2010-04-22T11:53:00.000-05:00

Mid-point of a "super skater". Certainly made my ass feel "super".

We haven't done this workout in a while. If you remember it's a 60 minute mix of plyometric jumps, squats and lunges. It doesn't really get the heart rate into dangerous territory, but my legs were really feeling it at the end.

A few quick items:

This is the first of the One on One series and it shows. (1) There's no warm up; (2) Tony seems to run out of things to say about half way through, apparently he wasn't ready to fill an hour just talking to himself; (3) There are two camera guys (as opposed to just one in all the other videos) although they attempt (poorly) to hide the fact that the second camera guy is there...weird.
It's raining so I probably won't get on the bike today, which is not good.
It's raining so I can probably swim today, which is fine.
I have a "thing" Saturday morning so I won't get in my usual early morning workout, which is problematic.
I've been staring at the computer screen for 10 minutes without being able to come up with anything interesting today...yikes.

Round 4: Day 74 Redux - Patience Hummingbird Yoga

2010-04-21T22:43:00.000-05:00

I was up until a little after 2am working last night and went into the office at 5am cramming on a project. Obviously I wasn't able to work in any yoga this morning (although I totally could have used it...the Geek is sore). I got my project done at work and made it home by about 6:30pm to put my girls to bed and then I convinced Mrs. Gias that we should do a quick yoga session before dinner.

We've only done Tony's One on One Patience "Hummingbird" Yoga one other time. It's short, about 30 minutes (which is why we picked it for tonight) and very, very, quiet; especially for Tony. There are long stretches of the video where Tony doesn't say anything, expecting you to breathe and get through the asanas without any direction. Last time we did this video I don't think we liked it much because of the lack of direction and the fact that the session moves slowly. It truely takes patience (as the name implies) to make it through this video.

I must say that I may have previously misjudged this video...today, it was awesome. I think it worked today for two reasons. First, it's the end of the day so a nice, slow, relaxing yoga session is a great way to let all the stress of the day just fade away. Second, at the end of the day your muscles are a bit more loose than when you first wake up, which means I was significantly more flexible than usual. It was fun to effortlessly grab my feet and stretch out my sore muscles.

Round 4: Day 73 Redux - Just Arms

2010-04-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

Forearm curls make me veiny...

I think I pushed a little hard at my indoor tri on Sunday and then doing back to back workouts yesterday pretty much ensured that my whole body would be sore today. It feels like every major muscle group is bruised and tender. I realized standing up after doing a set of seated bicep curls today that my quads and calfs may actually hurt more than my arms...which I wasn't even working today.

Note to self, doing 30:15, Insanity and Just Arms within a 25 hour period may be too much.

Round 4: Day 72 Redux (Evening Workout) - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

2010-04-19T21:24:00.000-05:00

As I explained in my last post, we moved our workouts back a little. I didn't want to miss a day so we doubled up today with 30:15 this morning and Plyometric Cardio Circuit this evening.

Mrs. Gias went to her Monday night bowling league so I put the girls to bed and then went to the basement for a little Insanity by myself. I am still fairly sore from yesterday, but after warming up I was ready to go.

I got through the workout without too much trouble except for part of the last circuit which are called "Level 1 Drills" which is basically like a set of burpee pushups (on your feet, drop down to plank, 4 pushups, pedal the feet, back up, repeat) followed by jumps while in plank position. My arms were pretty worn out from 30:15 this morning and this part of the workout sucked big time.

But now I'm back on scheudle and it feels good.

Round 4: Day 72 Redux - 30:15 Upper Body Massacre

2010-04-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

This angle is cool because it looks like I only have one leg.

This is a redux week due to the fact of the totally slacker week we had last week. Missing three workouts?! Aghhh!

OK, I know, I know...30:15 was supposed to be yesterday and Insanity was supposed to be today so you're thinking, "Hey, Geek, way to come back strong, you're already behind." Well, yesterday I had my indoor triathlon (detailed race report to come a little later) in the morning and I thought it would be silly to totally burn out my arms right before I'm trying to do a triathlon at race pace. Thus, we moved 30:15 (intentionally) to this morning and we're doubling up with a little Insanity tonight so we won't miss any workouts AND I got to go into my indoor tri pretty fresh.

This is the last 30:15 of this round and it was HARD. My whole body aches from pushing hard yesterday at the tri. 24 sets of pushups and pullups is a lot...I am hurting.

TriKC Indoor Triathlon (April)

2010-04-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

I did another indoor triathlon today. I previously did one other indoor triathlon last month with good results. Today I was back for more. The full race report should be up tomorrow.

Right now I'll just say that I improved in all three disciplines. And I wore a wetsuit. Oh yeah, a wetsuit.

60 Minute Swim - 60 Minute Bike

2010-04-17T20:53:00.000-05:00

Cold. Unmotivated.

Those two words pretty clearly describe today's workouts.

I started at the pool this morning at about 5am. I was supposed to do about 77 minutes, which should translate into somewhere around 4000 yards or so for me. Yeah, I ended up doing something like 1500 yards. The water was colder than usual, I was tired and just couldn't bring myself to push myself during the workout. I took long breaks, didn't get in full sets, basically just a lazy, unmotivated workout.

I finished my swim, drove home and got on my bike. I got about a mile from home, and realized I couldn't feel my hands, so I turned around, went back and got some winter gloves. The temperature has been in the 70's the last few days and was supposed to be beautiful again today. That was absolutely the case...this afternoon. This morning it was 44 degrees. I was freaking cold. I started the ride really wanting to do a long 30-40 mile ride. I did about 15. Ugh. Again, I was tired, cold and totally unmotivated.

I need something to light a fire under me right now, to refocus on my workouts and to make some progress in my training. I have another indoor triathlon tomorrow and I think it may be just the motivation I need to refocus the last 45 days or so before my first race. Let's hope so...race report tomorrow.

Round 4: Day 75 - FOY Yoga

2010-04-15T20:44:00.000-05:00

Stretching. Bending. Flexing. Yoga.

Round 4: Day 74 - Total Body Plus

2010-04-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

The middle of an O Crunch Pushup...Oh, I crunched it! I'm sorry, that "joke" was terrible.

Ahh, feels so good to workout again. It's been three days! If you'd told me a couple of years ago that a three day hiatus from working out would send my world into a tailspin, I would have thrown my french fries at you (before picking them up and eating them anyway...I used to really like french fries).

Anyway, since this week is pretty much shot as far as staying on schedule, as we've already missed three of six workouts, we've decided to do a little hodge podge for the rest of the week. We're going to to Total Body Plus today, Yoga tomorrow and a random Insanity Max Interval workout on Friday. Then, we will restart Week 11 on Sunday with 30:15 and finish out the round. It seemed silly to try to make up three workouts this week, so we'll just extend this round by a few extra days to make sure we complete our schedule, then we'll do something else.

I hate getting off schedule, but I hate not completing our workouts even more.

Round 4: Day 73 - Plane Ride X

2010-04-13T21:02:00.000-05:00

I left my house at 4:30am this morning to catch a 6:30am flight to St. Louis. I spent the day in a deposition and then hopped on a 6:30pm flight back. I just got home and had some oatmeal.

I'm considering my workout today Plane Ride X.

Round 4: Day 72 - Blah

2010-04-12T20:16:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm having a bit of a week. Yesterday I didn't work out because Mrs. Gias was out of town and I had my girls to myself...not the best excuse, but that's what happened. Then, this morning, the alarm was still set for 6am (the time I woke up for church yesterday with my girls) instead of 5am and so we slept...another missed workout.

Everything will be better tomorrow though, right?

I found out today that I need to be in St. Louis for an 8am meeting, which means I have a 6:30am flight tomorrow morning and I won't be back until late tomorrow night (nothing like a day trip to St. Louis). Yeah, no workout there either. I'm starting to feel a bit weirded out by not working out for a few days, I haven't had a stretch like this in more than a year.

Well, I'm going to try to stick to my Tri schedule which isn't messed up this week and I'll do some fill in workouts the rest of the week and repeat this entire week starting next Sunday.

I just need to take my own advice...miss a workout, do better tomorrow.

Round 4: Day 71 - Rest

2010-04-11T20:38:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Gias has been out of town this weekend, so I've been chasing B & G all over the place the past two days. Don't get me wrong, I love it and I wouldn't change it for the world; I always feel like I've accomplished something when I play the role of the single dad. However, it also tuckers me out something fierce.

Anyway, I decided to take the day off today.

77 Minute Swim

2010-04-10T20:46:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's our oven clock when I left ~~last night~~ this morning.

Today, I had a nice long swim without any noticable injuries, no cramps, no interruptions, it was great. I hit the pool about 4:30am and just swam. I did ladders, stroke drills, 50's, 100's, all kinds of different stuff.

You see, the thing about swimming by yourself is that when you stop, all you hear is the sound of yourself breathing; when you swim, all you hear is yourself splashing. You basically stare at the black line on the bottom of the pool and have nothing to occupy yourself except for the fatigue in your shoulders, the burning in your lungs and whatever you choose to think about.

That being said, just mindlessly swimming 100 yard intervals for an hour and fifteen minutes is basically like torture by sensory depravation. The way you break that up is to switch up what you're doing with drills, strokes and games. Yeah, "stroke count golf" sounds boring, but it helps to pass the time.

Today, I used all my tricks and I need to find something new for next week...Suggestions?

Round 4: Day 69 - Plyometric Cardio Circuit

2010-04-09T15:52:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately I was in this position far too much during the workout today.

Mrs. Gias and I did a little Insanity this morning to get the blood pumping. There's a section of this workout which has you in a plank position (think pushup position) doing pushups, jumping your legs in close to your chest, etc. I was having a particularly difficult time with this section today; I just could not hold the position, my arms were too tired. I usually don't have any problems with this section, but for some reason today I had a lot of trouble.

Geek: Man, my arms are toast today.
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, you were really struggling.
Geek: I don't know if I was struggling...
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, you were weak.
Geek: Well...I mean...I took more breaks than usual...
Mrs. Gias: Yeah, you didn't do like half the moves.
Geek: I did more than half...
Mrs. Gias: You mean today?
Geek: Uh...I don't know...I think so...
Mrs. Gias: I just call it like I see it.
Geek: Uh, thanks for the support?

12.8 Mile Bike Ride

2010-04-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

I had a few extra minutes when I got home from work so I went out for a little hour long bike ride. It was beautiful weather so I hit the trail and tried to get in a few miles. I know that my biking is weak right now, I'm only averaging about 15 mph and that needs to get up into at least the 18 mph range. From what I'm reading the only way to increase speed is time in the saddle.

So, I'm in the saddle every chance I get.

Round 4: Day 68 - Diamond Delts

2010-04-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

That's 31 year old shoulder meat! Yeah, that sounds weird.

We did Diamond Delts this morning and although we'd noticed it before, this video really has some "classic" (read "horribly corny") Tony Horton lines in it. In no particular order, here are the top five:

[Introducing the video] It's Diamond Delts 'merica!
[Stopping the workout midway to answer the door to his house] I have to go show this woman where to put my log cover.
[After the director comments on his less than spectacular clothing choice for the video] I'm Tony Horton, your fitness clown.
[After flexing] These are diamond delts, watch out or you're gonna get cut!
[After the director comments on Tony's toned shoulders] That's 50 year old shoulder meat!

Makes you curious just to watch the video to understand the context, doesn't it?

Round 4: Day 67 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

2010-04-07T20:24:00.000-05:00

Up Dog is one of my favorites because it stretches out my back...

...and clearly, it looks sexy.

My balance was a little off today; not sure why. I was a little tight on my left side, and I couldn't seem to hold a few of the easiest asanas. After I fell over during a few asanas and then during "Happy Baby" (lay on your back with your feet in the air and bend your knees grabbing your feet with your hands, just like a baby on a changing table - one of the easiest poses we do) Mrs. Gias said that maybe I should just do child's pose until the end of the session and I didn't think it was too bad of an idea.

46 Minute Swim

2010-04-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

Although this is a busy week, I was able to get to the pool this evening after work for a quick workout. I did ladders again and swam about 2000 yards; it started a little slow, but I ended up having a great workout. A few observations from today:

I met a new guy, Dan, who is also doing the KC Triathlon in May. We may end up doing some training together, which could be good.
I hate when the pool is full of inexperienced swimmers. Don't get me wrong, if someone wants to swim, I'm the first person to offer to split my lane. If you're trying to swim to get in shape or train for something, I respect that, I've been there, I am there. But if you don't ask to join a lane the right way, or don't stay to your own side...it's just impolite. Seriously, learn a little protocol.
I hate the ~~fat bastard~~ guy that uses the pool like a cool down bath out of the whirlpool. C'mon man, there's already enough crap in the pool without you using it to rinse off, use the shower.
Dark blue goggles are a little dim for indoor swims and I should probably get some clear goggles because for whatever reason I was having a hard time seeing tonight. Weird.

Round 4: Day 66 - Back & Biceps

2010-04-06T12:46:00.000-05:00

This was supposed to be a picture of in-and-out hammer curls;

unfortunately it just looks like I'm waving the dumbbells like a spaz.

It's a full week at the Geek's house. I've got depositions all week at work, Mrs. Gias has something planned on a number of evenings and she's heading out of town at the end of the week...let's just say we're hurting for time. However, we're into the final third of our P90X cycle and I have 47 days left until the Kansas City Triathlon. It's time to get serious. It's time to focus on the workouts and not slack off.

It's time to stop eating chocolate bunnies with reckless abandon. (C'mon, like your diet the last few days hasn't had a little too much from the "chocolate" food group?)

Round 4: Day 64 - Cardio Power and Resistance

2010-04-04T20:34:00.000-05:00

It looks like I'm just curled up on the floor in pain. However, I swear this is a real Insanity move.

It's Easter Sunday, which means access to chocolate and large meals with multiple family groups. Due to the excess of calories that we thought we would likely be taking in today, we switched up our workouts a bit and did Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance this morning instead of Diamond Delts. (I know, I know, one workout doesn't make up for a bunch of candy, but we're trying here, OK?)

So Mrs. Gias and I noticed a little something about Shaun T. this morning. He tends to describe a lot of things as "the most important part of the workout." For instance, "Don't ever skip the stretch, it's the most important part of the workout." Or, "The warm-up is the most important part of the workout, y'all." You get the idea.

So we did a little deductive reasoning and scientifically came up with the top 5 most important things about Insanity workouts according to Shaun T. We counted the number of times that Shaun said something was the "most important" part of the workout, or did something so many times that it was clearly important. Here they are from most important to least important, in other words the one you should NEVER skip all the way to the one that if you "had" to skip something you should skip the one on the bottom:

1. The stretch
2. The warmup
3. Water breaks
4. Taking off your shirt half way through the workout
5. The workout

Notice anytyhing funny in that list. Shaun T. likes to say that the strech, warmup and water breaks (he constantly takes his shirt off, so that must be important) are not to be skipped. He never mentions that the "workout" is the most important part of the workout. Apparently if we are ever short on time and needed to skip something in an Insanity workout, we should just skip the workout part.

70 Minute Swim

2010-04-03T15:02:00.001-05:00

I had a good bike session yesterday, so I decided to just put in a long swim today. That being said, I got to be really wild and I slept in until 4:50am! Ha! I know, you're wondering how I get anything done sleeping so late, but it was a nice change of pace to arrive at the gym after 5am.

I got there and a few people were wandering about. I dropped my stuff in my usual locker - 117 (by the way, if someone can identify the geeky reason I use 117, you win a prize) and jumped in the pool.

I decided to do a monster set of ladders today, doing 2x25, 2x50, 2x75, 2x100, 2x125, 2x150, 2x175, 2x200 - and then back down again. Three things of note during the swim today:

1. I got a monster cramp in my left calf and upper right thigh, like to the point that I almost couldn't pull myself out of the pool to stretch them out. It was bizzare. The pain from the cramp is still lingering as I sit here 9 hours later. Worst cramp ever.

2. I usually have the pool to myself, but today at about 5:45 another guy came in to do some laps. It wasn't any big deal, it's just the first time that I haven't had the pool to myself during an early morning session.

3. Here's the weird stuff. At 10 'till 6am a girl, aged 25 to 30, walked into the wet area (I've described this before - pool, whirlpool, wet sauna, dry sauna - all coed) and into the dry sauna. In a black bikini. And sat there for at least a half hour.

Now normally, if this is just a busy Tuesday evening at the gym, I would probably just think this was some vapid girl that wanted attention so she threw on a bikini and tried to strut around the gym to have people notice her. Of course, the problem with this explanation for this morning is that it was freaking 5:50am! Seriously, what the hell is she doing there with the other 8 people in the place? Did she set her alarm to get up, drive to the gym, put on a bikini and sit in the dry sauna for a half hour? Was this in her day planner? Had she not gone to bed yet and was trying to recover from Friday night? I'm totally confused.

There may be less than 10 people in the gym at 5am, but the percentage of weirdness is through the roof.

21.2 Mile Bike Ride

2010-04-02T21:36:00.000-05:00

Had a great ride today. It was about 62 degrees, sunny, but a little windy. However, I noticed a truism of cycling today.

I'm not as fast downhill as I am slow uphill.

I need to work on that.

Day 62 - Insanity Pure Cardio

2010-04-02T21:27:00.000-05:00

Mummy kicks in a still picture look significantly less stupid than my last few pictures.

We haven't done that workout in a while and boy, it's a good one. It's a nice little 40 minute sweat fest that keeps the heart rate up the whole time. Every time I do an Insanity workout I like them more and more.

Round 4: Day 61 - Total Body Plus

2010-04-01T10:30:00.000-05:00

Mrs. Gias rockin' some close grip pullups.

So, banner day today for Mrs. Gias. At the end of the workout she informed me that today was the first workout she had completed where she did not have to use a chair for any of her pullups. Up to this point, she was able to get a couple pullups here and a few more there, maybe even a full set here and there, but she would always fall back and use the chair later in the workout to finish her reps. Not today.

Today she completed Total Body Plus with no chair at all. Watch out boys, Mrs. Gias is a bad ass.

A few other points of note:

Slept with the window open last night because the weather is getting gorgeous...maybe a bike ride today if I can sneak out of work a little early (not likely)?
It's April Fool's day and no, there is no April Fool's day joke on this page. I've done them before, but not this year.
However, in honor of April Fool's day, I was trying to teach B some Knock-Knock jokes at breakfast she could use on her grandparents. This was a total failure. Three year old humor is...difficult to understand. Case in point, I spent a significant amount of time teaching her the classic banana/orange knock-knock joke (Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Banana. Banana who? Knock knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana.) After nearly a half hour of practice at breakfast, I took her upstairs to try the joke on Mrs. Gias. B proceded to tell this joke:

B: Knock knock.
Mrs. Gias: Who's there?
B: Horse.
Mrs. Gias: Horse who?
B: Horse glad I didn't say comb?

Wha? Yeah, total failure.

Round 4: Day 60 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

2010-03-31T21:17:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-30T19:37:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-29T20:53:00.001-05:00

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

2010-03-28T14:01:00.000-05:00

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)

2010-03-28T13:44:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-28T13:29:00.001-05:00

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

2010-03-27T14:47:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-26T12:36:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-25T17:39:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-24T20:30:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-23T20:51:00.000-05:00

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)

2010-03-22T20:24:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-22T20:17:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-21T00:00:00.035-05:00

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

2010-03-20T20:59:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

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

2010-03-18T09:08:00.000-05:00

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!)

2010-03-17T21:12:00.000-05:00

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.