58 Minute Run (Outside!)

58 Minute Run - 1pm
54:07 Minute Actual
6 Miles
6.65 mph
9 minute mile

It was a blistery 36 degrees today (so I broke my arbitrary sub-40 no outside workout rule), but it was sunny and I couldn't take running on the treadmill again, so I finally got outside to do some "actual running" instead of spinning my wheels on the suckmill.  I don't want to understate this, so let me be clear...it was awesome.

I was at my parent's house with my girls, and when they went down for their afternoon nap, I put on some shorts, grabbed my iPod (yeah, yeah, I know...but Geek, don't you have a Zune?  I'm a geek, I've got both...get over it already) and started running.  There's a trail that starts about a half mile from their house, so I went down a couple blocks and hopped on the trail.  It's a beautiful asphalt trail through the woods that, if you go from end to end, is about 11 or 12 miles.  Of course I didn't need to go that far, so I ran the trail three miles and then turned around to come back.  I felt like I kept a nice pace and it actually has some nice hills so there was plenty of variety. 

As you probably know, I've never been a runner.  In fact, I typically hate running.  My old joke was always, "I only run if I'm being chased" or some stupid variation of that.  But today felt different.  I've been running consistently (on a treadmill, of course) for the past two months and I finally got to go cover some ground and I really liked it.  I had my iPod pounding out some tunes, I had a general plan as to where I wanted to go and I just ran.  It was great.  I can see where some people really like to get out and just run.

A few observations:

• I tried to smile and say hi to everyone I saw on the trail.  A little lame and weird, maybe.  But I'm out running because I want to, if I'm not having fun, then what the hell am I doing out there, I should just stay home and eat pizza, right?  I figure everyone else is out there because they want to be as well...so they should be happy, right?  Let's just say I did not get reciprocation from everyone I saw.
• Yes, it was 36 degrees, but I saw far too many people wearing heavy coats, gloves and hats for how warm it actually felt.  I was in a long sleeve UnderArmor shirt and shorts and was fine, what's wrong with everyone's internal temperature?
• I used a Genius autofill for my iPod today and I set the starting song on an old school Nirvana song from their Incesticide album.  I basically just wanted some rock/alternative to run to.  This ended up being awesome, I heard some old stuff I hadn't heard in a long time, Stone Temple Pilots, Seven Mary Three, Cream, Nirvana, Black Crowes...then it got weird for a few songs.  Apple decided that I also wanted to listen to Tom Petty (which I guess I can understand, but it's not really the same) and then...Phish.  OK, I know what you're thinking, "Geek, you're the one with a Phish CD, why are you complaining?" True, it's from a phase in high school where I probably didn't know what I was doing, but why on earth would it Genius think that a jam band would match the rest of what was on my playlist?  Awkward.
• Now I'm wondering, what the hell happens when I put a Phish song as the starting place for Genius?  What does that playlist look like? (Yeah, I'm totally doing that tomorrow.)
• It's harder to keep a steady pace outside without mile markers of some kind, I need to remember that.
• It's totally easier to lengthen your stride when you're not on a treadmill and can vary your tempo slightly.
• Six miles is the furthest I've ever run continuously (no walking at all today) and I still had plenty left in the tank.  I'm feeling good about this race.

Round 4: Day 29 - Diamond Delts

Inverted Pike Presses are hard...Lucky for me Tony thought doing 4 sets would be hilarious.

Today's workout is the first of phase two this round.  It's a week of all new workouts to help us keep from plateauing and to keep making gains.  Today's workout was from Tony's One on One series, Diamond Delts.  True to its name ("delts" is of course "deltoids"), this workout isolates the shoulders and burns them out nicely. 

It was a relatively short workout, about 40 minutes, but gave the shoulders a nice workout.  We're still considering whether or not this will stay in the rotation or if we want to switch this with a workout that exercises a few more muscle groups. 

I like isolating a muscle group every now and then, but not at the expense of missing out on other stuff, like biceps, back, chest and triceps.  Right now isolating the shoulders is good for me particularly because I'm training pretty hard in the pool and swimming takes a lot of shoulder work.  We also have some other workouts this week that hit those muscles, so we'll see. 

Weekly Challenge: Week 5 - Take the Stairs

This week's challenge is all about making fitness a part of our everyday lifestyle.  Yeah, we get up at ungodly hours to workout.  We eat good food (usually).  We do other activities like running, swimming and biking.  However, to really have a solid, fulfilling and healthy life, we should think about our health and fitness all day, everyday.  We need to think about how we can improve our fitness not just during the hour or two of workouts that we do each day, but in EVERYTHING we do each day.

Thus, this week's challenge is Take the Stairs. 

It's really that simple.  If you need to go up, skip the elevator and take the stairs.  If there aren't opportunities in your daily life to take stairs, do other everyday activities that will both take advantage of the fitness gains that have been made and help build on them for the future.  These shouldn't necessarily interfere with your life, but be integrated into the things that you already do*.  It will get you thinking about your health, it will burn a few extra calories and help you to gain or maintain some functional fitness.  Here's a few more examples:

-You go to the grocery store, park in the back and walk the entire parking lot. 

-When you let the dog out, take him to the end of the block instead of the end of the yard. 

-Jog when you go down to the mailbox.

-Use a basket instead of a cart at the store.

They are simple things, but when you add them up over the course of a day or a week, they will make you stronger, leaner and healthier. 

And the best part is, it really isn't that hard. (that's what she said...sorry, couldn't resist!)

*Personal caveat - I work on the 25th floor of an office building and I wear a suit and wingtips to work almost everyday.  It is both impractical and impossible for me to walk the 25 flights of stairs to get to my office.  However, it is not impractical to park in the lowest level of the parking garage (underground) and walk up four flights of stairs to the lobby.  Just so you know, I'll be doing the stairs from the parking garage to the lobby, not to my office.  It's my challenge, I get to make the rules.  Live with it.

35 Minute Swim & 60 Minute Bike (Stationary)

Not my girls, they were terrified of skating.

So it's my last Tri workouts for this recovery week, thus, I kept them pretty easy (considering it was a Saturday double workout).  Nothing too interesting to note at the gym, unfortunately (none of the regulars were there except for Old Navy - it was actually slower than usual).

I hit the pool about 4:30am, did some stroke work and then hit the bike for an hour.  I took it easy  and averaged about 19 mph for right about 20 miles.  Again, nothing special, just an easy workout thinking about recovering and hitting it really hard next week.

As I was driving home, however, it hit me kind of strangely.  I just finished a 2000 yard swim and a 20 mile bike ride before 7am on a Saturday morning and I was thinking about how "easy" I was taking it today.  WTF?  Never in a million years would I ever have thought I would be the guy thinking to himself that an hour and a half of cardio before the sun comes up was taking it "easy".  My oh my, how perspective can change in a year.

As an aside, I actually did a "winter triathlon" of sorts today.  After my swim and bike I picked up my girls and took them to see Clifford (the big red dog from the cartoon) at the Crown Center Ice Terrace (outdoor skating rink).  I hadn't put on ice skates in over a decade, but I did pretty well.  B was terrified of skating, G wanted nothing more than to run away and live at the Ice Terrace forvever (she's much more daring, obviously) and they both loved meeting Clifford (some dude in a suit on ice skates - how do I get that job, by the way?).  And me, well I considered my "Swim Bike Skate" to be a nice little winter triathlon. 

Nothing quite like going from a swimming pool to an ice skating rink in the matter of a couple hours.

Round 4: Day 27 - Core Cardio and Balance

Today's workout was clearly based on the Mexican hat dance. Am I graceful or what?

Well, we had another great Insanity workout today.  Core Cardio and Balance was a nice way to end recovery week.  On Sunday we'll start phase 2 of our hybrid program with all new workouts.  The change of pace will be nice.  We may tweak the schedule just a bit by changing one of the upper body workouts depending on what we think of the rotation next week.  I guess we'll see.

Round 4: Day 26 - Core Synergistics

I'm holding chatarunga iso for this picture.  Of course, Mrs. Gias thought it would be

hilarious to take her sweet time to take the picture so I just kept holding and holding...arghh!

Mrs. Gias was in a playful mood today.  I wish I had been recording our workout becuase she had some zingers that were 1) uncharacteristic of her this early in the morning, and 2) totally hilarious.  Of course, now I can't remember them specifically, just know, she was in rare form this morning. 

One thing I do remember is that I was put on "Shaker Suspension" for one week today.  A little background...during P90X workouts, one of Tony's favorite things to do in between sets is to "shake it out".  Which is exactly what you would think that it would be.  You shake your legs and arms, roll your neck around a bit, basically get the tension out of your muscles after a hard set.  Mrs. Gias has taken it upon herself (sarcastically, of course) to really put forth some "serious" effort into her shakers...to the point of whole body flailing, shaking and jumping that looks like a spastic Wile E. Coyote getting shocked by one of his dasterdly Acme traps.  It's a thing of beauty, really. 

Anyway, Mrs. Gias began what was to be her chef d'oeuvre of shakers and I apparently wasn't watching closely enough.

Mrs. Gias: Did you see that?!
Geek: What? Uh, yeah, it was great...one of your best yet...
Mrs. Gias: You weren't even watching, were you?
Geek: I was trying to loosen up, but I saw it, I mean, you're right there.
Mrs. Gias: Whatever, you're on Shaker Suspension for a week! You're grounded from shakers for one week.  No shakers for you.  Deal with it.*
Geek: What?
Mrs. Gias: You don't get to see one of my shakers 'till next Thursday...we'll see how that treats you.
Geek: Uh, OK.

Playful mood, indeed.

*UPDATE: Mrs. Gias corrected me in the comments with the "actual" quote from this morning.

20 Minute Run (Treadmill)

20 Minute Run (Treadmill) 7pm
2 miles

I nice easy run on the old hampster wheel.  Nothing too exciting.

Round 4: Day 25 - X Stretch

It's simple, it's easy, it's just stretching for an hour.  It's a nice way to wake up and work out all the kinks.

21 Minute Swim & 40 Minute Bike

I went to the gym and had a short swim and bike session today.  I basically just worked on stroke drills in the pool since 20 minutes really isn't enough time to do any distance work.  The swim felt good and i think I'm improving, although some of my drills need work.  It's just about practice, practice, practice.

On the bike I decided to do three minute intervals, 2 minutes 30 seconds at a steady 90-95 cadence and then 30 seconds all out at about a 120-130 cadence.  It was nice becuase I think this kind of speed work will make me faster and it was a nice way to break up the monotony of a spin bike.

Round 4: Day 24 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

You ever wake up and in that early morning haze, not realize what day it is or what you have to do that day?  Of course the feeling wears off after a couple of seconds (or minutes), but for those first few minutes, it's terribly disorenting.  I had that feeling today, I couldn't remember if it was Sunday or Monday or what workout we were doing or if I had to go to work today...it was really weird.  Then I quickly remembered that it was recovery week and that we were supposed to do Yoga today.  Yoga is one of my favorite workouts, so that was a nice relief. 

We started our yoga session and after a minute or two I decided that no matter how tight I was today I was going to really push myself into each of the poses.  I kept pushing a little farther, a little lower, living in that zone of "slight discomfort" to get a really good stretch.  And it felt great.

35 Minute Run

It's recovery week...it's supposed to be slow.

Just a nice easy recovery week "long run".  I took it nice and easy and just chugged along at a 12 minute mile pace.  Just enough to get my heart rate up a bit. 

Round 4: Day 23 - Core Synergistics

Mrs. Gias in Bow.  Look at that height.  I'm so jealous of her flexibility...

Second day of recovery week we went old school P90X with a little Core Synergistics.  I've written about how much I love this workout, so it probably doesn't need repeating, other than to say that I love this workout.

Round 4: Day 22 - Insanity Core Cardio & Balance

The list of things Mrs. Gias is not good at is short.  However, dancing is clearly on that list.

Mrs. Gias and I kept a conversational heart rate almost the entire workout today and for whatever reason, we were both in a pretty peppy mood this morning. We ended up taking a number of the "back and forth" moves and adding in our own little step, high five or twist...basically we tried to coreagraph some white people dance moves into our workout and I'm sure we ended up looking like big dorks. However, as the picture that starts this post shows, Mrs. Gias may have won the "biggest dork" contest with her increadible impression of "Walk like an Egyptian" at just the right time during the workout.

Yeah, and somehow I'm the geeky one. Whatever makes you sleep at night.

Anyway, today was our first time with Insanity's Core Cardio and Balance routine.  It's day one of our recovery week, so our workouts shift from very intense to moderately intense to let our muscles have a week to recover a little bit before we enter phase two of this round with new workouts.  Core Cardio and Balance is a 40 minute routine that takes you through about 15-20 moves, all at moderate intensity to get your heart rate up, but not maxed out, and it gives you a good stretch.  It also is focused on your core, so your abs stay tight almost the entire time.

When someone hears "recovery week" they probably don't think of a workout like this, because it still gets a nice sweat going, and on at least of few of the "burnout" cycles, it's all you can do to keep up.  However, at the same time, it's significantly easier than a regular Insanity workout, so it's a nice break.

Weekly Challenge: Week 4 - Nutritional Accountability

Mrs. Gias made grilled chicken salad with asian sesame dressing for dinner tonight. 

Perfect P90X food.

It's been three full weeks on this round and we're moving into our first recovery week.  It's the perfect time to reassess our nutritional goals and to make a conscious effort to evaluate how we've done and to re-double our efforts if we've fallen behind.  In any fitness program if you want results you must have good nutrition. 

One of my favorite sayings is "abs are built in the kitchen".  I don't care how many crunches you do, you'll never get the abs that you want without dropping body fat and eating right.  It just isn't going to happen.  No electronic "ab belt" or "ab circle" or "ab ball" or whatever gizmo you saw on TV is going to get you abs. The ONLY thing that will work, is changing your body composition and lowering your body fat percentage.  To do that, you have to eat good food.  Accordingly, almost all measurable fitness results are dependent on good, solid nutrition. 

So what do we do for nutritional accountability this week?  Simple.  We think about everything that we eat, we write everything down and we review the rules that we set up for ourselves to make sure that we're still on track.

The rules that Mrs. Gias and I are trying to follow during this round are below.  These are guidelines liberally borrowed from an online chat with T-Hort last year.

Diet Guidelines

1: No enriched/processed flour – only whole grain pasta, whole grain bread, no cakes, no cookies, etc.

2: Reduce dairy intake – a slice of low fat cheese is OK here and there, Pizza once a month tops

3: No carbonated drinks – one diet 12 oz cheat per week tops

4: 1 cup of coffee per day + 1 protein shake + water and tea only

5: At least 2 meals a day with vegetables, 1 with fruit

6: No red meat for 30 days

7: Write it all down for the first 30 days (at least).

8: Eat 5 times a day at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm

9: Your goal is 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates, 20% fat

10: If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, you are not hungry – skip the munchies

Remember: Don’t create arbitrary rules for eating if their only purpose is to make you feel in control. Try to eat healthfully, but if there’s a choice between eating ice cream and spending all day obsessing about ice cream – eat the ice cream, just don’t go crazy and don’t make it a habit.

Bringing it during workouts is only 20% of the program.  Bringing it in the kitchen is the other 80%.

117 Minute Bike (Stationary)

No, I did not wear a helmet on the spin bike today.  Even I'm not that Geeky.

(I just really want to get on a real bike - stupid snow.)

117 Minute Bike (Stationary)
41.45 miles
21.3 mph

I finished my swim and hopped on a spin bike (stupid snow...still can't ride outside) for a little less than two hours.  I flipped on the Zune and watched Transformers...a perfectly Geeky movie to watch while spinning; I've seen it a few times, you don't have to pay attention and it helps pass the time.  (Plus, giant robots are awesome!)

Today I was pedaling hard and trying to keep my cadence in the high 90's and I was pretty successful.  I was already pretty tired from the week and my swim session, but I really wanted a good workout on the bike, so I put my head down and tried to push hard the whole time. 

I felt like I was playing a constant game of chicken with the lactic acid in my legs.  The resistance would go down and I would get a short respit before ramping back up like I was going up a hill and the lactic acid would feel like it was trying to burn through my shorts.  I just tried to breathe through it and keep my legs moving.

My heartrate didn't ever get up above the low 140s and stayed in the mid to low 130s most of the time.  I was happy with that because I think I have my conditioning to a point that I can run my heart almost idefinitely at that range.  The only limiting factor today was the soreness in my legs.  I kept my focus and pushed myself pretty significantly and got through the workout feeling great. 

People Watching Update
Frizzy McBlonde Hair and Brownie von CropPants were both there today, again with no Old Navy (that's three weeks in a row!).  The person that was there again was Senora Gray Boots and this week she was early.  She was already on the stair master by the time I came out to start spinning at 5:30am.  She was dressed identically the same, as if she was frozen in time from last week.  The more I think about it, I still think it's super weird, but at the same time, kind of awesome as well.  How may older ladies do you know that probably don't have much background in working out would come to a gym every Saturday, before 6am, to workout and try to get healthier.  This lady seems to be taking her health seriously, and that's pretty awesome.

Of course, she could just be crazy, in which case, less awesome and more "watch out for that psycho".  Whatever.

58 Minute Swim

It is a weird feeling to have a Speedo and flip flops on when it's snowing outside. Welcome to my world.

58 Minute Swim - 4:30am
100 Warm up
1 x 1500 26:30 (~1:46/100 yds)
Stroke Drills

I had another great swim session today.  It was early and I was sore from the week's activities, but I hit the pool right at 4:30am and started to work.  After a short warm up and stretch I jumped right into a 1500 (race distance).  It's funny, you get through about 100 yards or so (4 of 60 total laps) and you start trying to make deals with yourself.  "Oh, my arms are sore, I'll just stop and stretch them out," or "I'm not feeling like I'm getting enough air today, maybe I should take it easy and not do this crazy distance," etc.  Swimming by yourself is totally a mind over matter workout; you just have to tell yourself, "I'll push through another 4 laps and see how I am," and pretty soon those few other laps and you're up to 40 or 50 laps and you realize that you just have 10 or 15 laps to go so you can't stop now...  It's a weird game I end up playing with myself, it's like a constant negotiation with myself. 

Anyway, I got through the 1500 a bit slower than earlier this week, but still respectable (frankly, if I did a few extra laps in there I wouldn't be surprised, counting 60 laps is pretty monotonous...).  After I finished I did some stroke work, trying to keep my head down and rolling enough on my side to keep my hips up.  It's oddly harder than it sounds, but when it works, you really feel like your floating on top of the water and gliding much more efficiently. 

Once again with a few minutes left in my session, my left calf cramped up again, just like last week.  I jumped out and went straight to the whirlpool to work it out before the bike.  If anyone has any ideas on what might be causing the cramp, let me know.  (Yes, I had 32oz of water before starting my swim, so I doubt it was dehydration this week, although it's possible.) 

Round 4: Day 20 - Insanity Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs

H, our dog and loyal workout companion.

This brings us to the end of phase one and Sunday will start our recovery week.  Pure Cardio today (also here and here) was good.  It's constant movement so there's not a lot of time for jibber jabber back and forth.  However, Mrs. GIAS did say, "It's days like today that you understand why we have eyebrows; to catch the waterfall of sweat coming off my head."  Exactly.  We were both hot sweaty messes at the end of this workout.

The picture above is our dog, H.  His crate is in the basement where we workout, so our routine in the morning is that I head downstairs, let him out, feed him and take him outside for a few minutes before we start our workout.  Usually after that he finds a blanket on the couch and goes back to sleep.  Not today. Insanity apparently gets his heart rate up too as he was running full speed around the basement during most of the workout.  Usually he only spazzes out for a minute or two at a time.  Insanity, however makes it seem like I put amphetamines in his Science Diet.

70 Min Bike (Stationary)

70 Min Bike - 5:10pm
Cadence mid 90s

Boring-tacular. 

That's what describes my bike ride today.  I finished my swim and went to change my clothes and realized I forgot my Zune, which means I was on a spin bike for 70 minutes with just background noise and my own thoughts.  People watching was lame, there are so many people at the gym in the evenings it's hard to focus on any one thing so it's like overload on your brain to see anything interesting.

The other thing that was a bit upsetting was the bike I was on had a computer that seemed to be off.  I started riding and after five minutes it said I had gone three miles, which is like 40 mph, pretty sure that wasn't accurate.  I stopped the computer and reset and then it started going low because I had a higher cadence than usual (mid 90s) and the computer seemed to think I only went 18 miles in my 70 minutes.  I think it should have been more like 23 and change.  Whatever, the riding was fine, I was bored.

The only saving grace is that today it was approaching 50 degrees outside and I almost rode outside except that I need to do a bit of work on my bike before a ride.  If it's nice this weekend, I'm definitely getting outisde. 

35 Minute Swim

35 Min Swim - 4:30pm
100 warm up
Drill work
1 x 1500 - 25:30 ~1:42/100
58.82 yds/min

I had a great swim today.  I hit the pool and warmed up with a quick 100 and then I decided that today was the day to give some distance a try.  My race is 1500m in open water - ie, no wall to grab and stop.  I wanted to give a race distance a try to see if my breathing and endurance would hold up.  I started swimming and just set my mind to swimming 60 lengths, all flip turns and pushed through.  I used the trick I talked about during my last swim and said the rosary as I swam.  I finished and looked at the clock which was right at 25 minutes 30 seconds.  That's a solid pace and it's a great confidence booster that I won't embarass myself too badly come race day.  It's also nice to be three months out and feel comfortable with the distance; now I just need to get faster.

New Diet Book Helps you Lose Those Pesky Pounds

I've been actively engaged in my fitness for just over one year and I've had some pretty decent results.  However, as everyone knows, weight loss and fitness are ongoing struggles and I still have a ways to go and still need to work to lose those last few pounds.  Lucky for me (and you) I learned about a new book coming out by Paul Mason.  It takes you through his Journey (also the title of the book) of weight loss and offers tips and secrets to losing a few of those pesky pounds.  When I say "a few", I meant to say "279 pounds". 

Yeah, he lost 279 pounds. 

Amazingly enough, he is STILL the heaviest man on the planet at a staggering 698 pounds.  I don't know about you, but I'm not sure that taking diet tips from the heaviest guy on the planet is going to be all that beneficial. 

Plus, if I followed his advice and lost all 279 pounds, that would put me at about negative 110 pounds, which seems like kind of a dangerous weight for me.

Round 4: Day 19 - Plyo Legs

So this is our third time doing Plyo Legs (other times here and here).  Today I think my quads were literally going to explode at no less than three different times during the workout. 

First, was during the horrendous three minute wall squat, which is exactly what it sounds like. 

Second, was during "toe roll iso lunges" which is basically going into a deep lunge, front knee over your ankle, back leg straight out behind you and rolling forward so your front knee goes over your toe and then back over your ankle fifty times on each leg.  Yeah, I'm fairly certain this was used to extract information from Jack Bauer this week on 24. 

Third was during the 90 seconds of one legged wall squats; and yes, in answer to your question, they are lots worse than regular wall squats.

The workout was fine and I feel like I got a really good lower body workout.  All that extra soreness should prove useful for my swim and bike session later today. 

Food for a Week

Check out this facinating post from My Modern Met about what families around the world eat in a week.  It's fascinating to see the differences between the United States and UK and other countries.  The US families seem to have significantly more processed food (everything is in a box!) than many other countries.  It's no wonder that the US leads the world in childhood obesity.

Round 4: Day 18 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Yeah, she's clearly better than me at yoga, but I could totally destroy her in a game of Halo...

if she didn't think video games were so lame and would agree to play me.

I remember about six months ago when I was finally able to grab my feet during a two legged hamstring stretch.  I was pretty proud of myself.  Of course, Mrs. GIAS over there is made out of putty and can contort herself comfortably past her feet to the point that she needs that yoga block just to feel a stretch.  Yeah, look again, her hands are easliy six inches past her feet (and we were both a little tight this morning...sheesh!).

Whatever, yoga isn't a competition.  If it was, she's pretty much the Harlem Globetrotters to my Washington Generals...


TRI Training Update:  Didn't make it to the gym last night so I moved my short swim and short bike to Thursday evening.

Round 4: Day 17 - Just Arms/Killer Abs

Why do they make these things so heavy?

Today was very quiet during the workout.  I don't know if Mrs. GIAS and I were both just tired or just totally focused and intense on what we were doing.  It wasn't quiet "weird", more just quiet "focused".  We've been married over five years, we can have silence and not worry about it, I suppose.  Or it could be that she didn't want to be on the blog today.

Anyway, hitting the gym this evening for a swim and spin session.

58 Minute Run (Treadmill)

Good evening, Treadmill. Oh, how I am getting tired of you.

58 Minute Run (Treadmill) - 7pm
50 Minutes actual
4.75 miles
5.7mph

I started the run at 7mph (8:30 min/mile) for about three miles, then I slowed down significantly because I was tired.  Running at the end of the day always gets to me.  I just need to keep working and push through.  I think mind over matter I could have gone faster tonight, it was just tough.  I also am starting to hate the treadmill.  I'm ready for the weather to get better so I can get outside and do some runs.  Hopefully this weekend.

Round 4: Day 16 - Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Although this picture seems to say otherwise,

there are no Insantiy moves called "shake your money maker".

Duing today's workout there's a move called "mountain climbers" (basically alternating your hands over your head and bringing your knees up one at a time high to your chest like you're climbing...hence the clever name).  Anyway, this move is during the warmup and being so early, I often like to get Mrs. GIAS fired up for the workout by asking her innane and/or rhetorical questions.  She loves that.  Today's deep and engaging questioning session went something like this:

The Geek: What mountain are YOU climbing!?
Mrs. GIAS: *CENSORED FOR CONTENT*
The Geek:  I can't really put that on the blog, you know.
Mrs. GIAS: Everything I say isn't meant for the blog...
The Geek: C'mon, what mountain are YOU climbing!?
Mrs. GIAS: *CENSORED FOR CONTENT*
The Geek: Whatever, I'll think of something else to post.
Mrs. GIAS: So all I have to do is say *CENSORED FOR CONTENT* and I won't show up on the blog anymore?

Apparently not, sweetie, apparently not.

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

If anyone wants to get me a present, a taller doorway would be great.

Today we did 30:15 again.  I have to admit, I was feeling tired and my back was hurting pretty good.  I think it was from leaning on a spin bike for two hours yesterday.  Needless to say, pullups were difficult.  I didn't quite hit my usual numbers today, but I had better form than usual and still felt good about my intensity.  Pushups were not nearly as hard as the pullups, so I hit 30 on every set without incident. 

I was planning on doing my long run today (58 minutes) but I ended up spending the day with B & G and I was pretty tuckered out when I got home.  Mrs. GIAS is out tomorrow evening, so I'll try to hit the treadmill after I get the girls to bed tomorrow.

Weekly Challenge: Week 3 - Intensity

Tony spends a lot of time talking about intensity and "bringing it" and challenging yourself during workouts. Most people workout at too low of an intensity to bring about dramatic changes.  For example, if you're doing curls and your goal is 10 and you hit rep 10 and you know you can do more, you need to raise your weight and your intensity; reps 8, 9, 10 it should be a battle. Your form should not suffer, but you should be pulling or pushing with everything you have to get out that last rep. This week we really need to focus on what level we're working ourselves.  If it's a 3, 4, or 5, out of 10, it's time to step up our game. If we're at a 9 or 10, we need to back off a bit so we can make it through the workout.

It's week 3, which means we've done this rotation twice and our bodies are starting to get aclimated and know what to expect. Instead of coasting through to our recovery week we need to make sure we bring it. This weeks challenge is about being honest with ourselves, and raising the bar. Our goal for every workout should be 7 or 8 out of 10. 

Any less and we're probably wasting our time.

53 Minute Swim - 107 Minute Bike

Yep, that's my car clock from this morning...EARLY.

53 Minute Swim - 4:30am
45 Min Actual
1x100 warm up
4x500 on 8:30 - 1:42/100

107 Minute Bike - 5:30am
37.2 miles
20.86 mph
AHR 134

I had just under three hours of actual workout time scheduled for this morning and I wanted to get back home at a reasonable time, so today was EARLY.  Alarm went off at 4:00am and I slipped on my speedo and some sweats and went out the door.  I got to the gym a little before 4:30am and there were, surprisingly, already a few people there, but no one that I recognized yet. 

I threw my stuff in a locker and hit the pool.  I started with a quick 100 yards of warmup and stretched out my arms a bit.  Then I decided that today was the day to really get some distance in.  Before today I had been doing all 100 yard interval work.  That is, I would swim 100 yards, stop, catch my breath and then continue on a similar pace set by the clock, either 2 minutes or 1:55, whatever.  Today I really wanted to up the distance, so I decided that I would only swim 500 yds at a time.  This would hopefully give me some confidence to do longer distances and give me a more realistic look at what I need to work on to get in shape for a race distance (1650 yards).

I also tried to use a new trick today, I was going to try to say the rosary while swimming so I could focus something else rather than being fatigued.  I prayed a Hail Mary on every length and then threw in an Our Father to start a new 10 lengths.  500 yards is 20 lengths, so I would basically get through two decades per 500, it worked out kind of nice and kept my pacing rock solid as well. 

Anyway, I was cruising along at a nice pace on my fourth 500 (I had one, maybe two left before my time was up) and my left calf cramped up worse than any cramp I'd ever had before.  I basically dragged my left foot for the last 50 yards or so with no kick, I couldn't even raise my hips high enough to be parallel in the water.  After I finished that 500 I tried to stretch it out with no luck.  Finally, I hopped out of the pool and hobbled over to the whirlpool and sat in there for about five minutes to work out the cramp.  It was terrible.  I have to think that the cramp was from dehydration because I didn't drink anything prior to swimming this morning - won't make that mistake again!  Anyway, got the kinks worked out and my time was up so it was of to the spin bike for about two hours.

I jumped on my spin bike and started watching Superbad.  I've seen it a bunch of times and it's easy to pay attention to, so that was a good choice to watch today (it's also almost exactly two hours long).  Anyway, Frizzy McBlonde Hair finally showed up and so did Brownie von Croppants, although this was the second week in a row with no Old Navy...I wonder if he got depolyed?  People watching was pretty boring actually, until about 15 minutes left in my ride.  Who do you think showed up...that's right Senora Gray Boots.  She did practically the same thing she did last week, suede trench coat, gray boots with heels, jeans, the whole thing.  It is bizarre.  Seeing that every week is reason enough to wake up early and hit the gym.  Other than that, pretty uneventful session this morning.

32 Minute Run (Treadmill)

32 Min Run (Treadmill) - 4:00pm
3.77 miles
7.07 mph

I was dangerously close to running outside today.  However, my car's temperature guage said that it was 39 degrees.  That's one degree cooler than my self imposed 40 degree limit (yeah, I may have made that up today as an excuse not to go outside, we'll see...)  Anyway, I ended up running on the treadmill and I had a great run.  I ran at about an 8:30 minute mile.  That puts me in the low 50's pace for a 10k.  Sunday is my long run of 58 minutes, so I'm going to try to do a full 10k in under 55 minutes to see if my goal of mid 40's for race day is reasonable. 

Round 4: Day 13 - Insanity Pure Cardio & Cardio Abs

As Shaun T says, "This sh*t is bananas, y'all." 

I agree, especially if bananas cause you to fall on the floor like a little girl.

Mrs. GIAS was, shall we say, "chipper", this morning during the work out.  I think she was pretty excited to be up at 5:00am to do heart-attack inducing cardio while trying to deal with a massive head cold making it difficult for her to breathe.  Yeah, she's a champ for just showing up, but she also had a few choice lines this morning.  Let's just say she did not want to talk to someone who was playful and invigorated - which was bad for me because I was both 1) playful and 2) invigorated. 

In honor of Mrs. GIAS's spectacular mood, I present to you three snip-its of actual conversations below, the first line either coming from me or Shaun T. and the second line either from Mrs. GIAS or one of the folks in the video that Shaun was torturing today.  See if you can figure out which two are me and Mrs. GIAS and which is Shaun T and one of his trainers...

1. [While beginning a jumping jacks sequence]:
"It's time to jack it up!"
"I'm warning you, don't jack with me."

2. "How we doin'!?"
"I want to leave."  

3. "Feelin' good!?"
"Well, we just did legs yesterday so my ass is already on fire, so no, not great."


One and three were straight from Mrs. GIAS's mouth.  Number two was actually in the video.  Anybody else find it a bit odd that 1) one of the trainers paid to be in the video thought the workoutt was so hard that they wanted to leave; 2) they told the leader of the video they wanted to leave; 3) on camera; and 4) they didn't edit this out becuase apparently all of the other camera angles and audio at the time were worse?

Round 4: Day 12 - Plyo Legs

Plyo Legs again today.  Mrs. GIAS has a terrible head cold and last night I didn't think she was going to make it up for our workout this morning.  She proved me wrong and hopped right up this morning.  By "hopped right up" I really mean "rolled out of bed and drifted downstairs halfway unconscious".  The workout isn't strenuous in a cardio sense, I mean, the heart rate gets up there, but it's more a resistance workout for your legs.  It's a nice change of pace and is definietly developing the lower half.

Speaking of the lower half, I probably should have run yesterday evening; I've got 32 minutes left (short run) to do for this week (plus a long swim and long bike on Saturday).  I'm committed to putting myself into the 8:30/mile time frame for this 32 minutes, which should be just under four miles.  We'll see how that goes.  Anyway, I was just so darned tired last night and was ready to eat that I didn't run.  Of course, tonight Mrs. GIAS and I have a dinner to go to, so running is out for tonight as well.  It'll have to be Friday night (who says I don't have an exciting life!?) or do a mammoth session on Saturday...48 minute swim, 107 minute bike and 32 minute run - yikes.

Finally, last night Mrs. GIAS made a new meal, pictured above.  It's called Italian Sausage Pizza Soup.  She healthified it and made it with turkey sausage, zuchini, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and chicken broth (with some red peper flakes to give it a kick).  It's like 150 calories per serving, low fat, low sodium, has a great taste and seemed pretty easy to make.  Delicious.

Round 4: Day 11 - Yoga X

Right angle pose...You can't tell, but my left hand is flat on the ground, I swear. :)

Long Yoga, how I've missed you. 

It's been a few weeks since we've done this version of Yoga and I really like it.  It's about 92 minutes, which is a lot to get in before breakfast and getting ready for work, but I always think it's worth it.  It starts out with 50 minutes of vinyasas and moving postures (Warrior series; Crescent Pose, Right Angle Pose, etc.) which really get the blood flowing and usually builds up a nice sweat. 

The first time I did this routine I thought it would be a piece of cake, just some stretching and balancing on one foot.  Oh, how I was wrong.  If you've never done yoga before and think it would be easy, come try the first 50 minutes with me.  It's tough.  Probably the routine that I struggle with the most in P90X.

The last 40 minutes or so are balance postures, (also challenging) stretches and an ab routine affectionately known as the "Yoga Belly 7" (it's not nearly as fun as it sounds - about 6-7 minutes of isometric ab exercises).

After you finish you feel like you've worked pretty hard and gotten a nice deep stretch in all of your muscles.  I always feel refreshed at the end.

Of course, Mrs. GIAS and I also like to play a few games during this routine, because we've done it so many times (easily more than 50).  One of our favorites is "that's what she said."  It's excatly what you would think. 

Examples: 

Tony says, "when you're on your knees, you want to pad them up," we say, "that's what she said." 

Tony says, "it will feel like a rod you've never felt before," we say, "that's what she said." 

Tony says, "drop your knees around your head," we say, "that's what she said." 

I think you get the idea.  Yeah it's childish and stupid, but then again, so am I.

32 Min Swim & 63 Minute Bike

32 Min Swim
Drills

63 Min Bike (scheduled)
48 Min Actual (15 Min Short)
14.9 Miles
18.6 mph

Hot. Sexy. Bike. Action. 

Yeah, that's right, that's the Air Bike 950 that we talked about before.  Mrs. GIAS came in tonight after I'd finished my ride and said, "tell me about your bike in four words."  My reply, clearly, was, "Hot. Sexy. Bike. Action."  How else do you describe the Air Bike? 

Anyway, I did go to the gym tonight to get some swimming in and the session was mostly drills and short distances because I only had about a half hour to swim.  That was OK and I got some drills in but I think my next long swim on Saturday will be interesting to see if the drill work transfers to distance practice. 

Instead of hitting a spin bike at the gym like I usually do, I drove home and helped Mrs. GIAS put B and G to bed.  Mrs. GIAS had to leave for a little while tonight (which is why I came home a bit early) and gave me the opportunity to ride the Air Bike.  It's not the best bike workout, but it's better than nothing. 

Round 4: Day 10 - Just Arms/Killer Abs

Yeah, not my best work, but it's a 5 minute Photoshop for a daily blog, give me a break.

Arms. On. Fire.

Mrs. GIAS and I were finishing up our workout this morning, complaining about how much burn we had in our arms, and I asked her what quick picture we could snap with my Blackberry to put up on the blog today.  She said, "We should get a picture of your arms and then you should photoshop some flames on them."  Ask and ye shall receieve, sweetie.  That is actually a good representation of what my arms feel like; I lifted heavy today and burned them out pretty good. 

After we finished Just Arms I asked Mrs. GIAS what Ab routine she would like to do today, Ab Ripper X, Killer Abs or Cardio Abs.  She chose the shortest of the three, Ab Ripper X (still 16 minutes and 350 reps) and I pretended not to hear her and asked again.  Again she said, "Ab Ripper X".  I said, "Oh...OK."  I went to change the DVD with a dejected look on my face and she quickly changed her tune and said, "obviously you don't want to do ARX, why don't we just do the long one [Killer Abs]."  I responded gleefully, "Perfect, I knew you'd see it my way."

460 reps later, when my upper abs felt like an orangutan was dancing the tarantella on my ribs, I realized why I should always listen to my wife.

Round 4: Day 9 - Insanity Plyometric Circuit

This was a great workout once again.  I think Mrs. GIAS may be coming down the the cold that our daughters (and everyone else) has been fighting lately.  She wasn't to peppy this morning b/c of a sore throat and full head.  She pushed through great though and we both thought that this was a better session than last week, just becuase we knew what to expect.  It's much easier to pace yourself properly when you have some idea of what's coming up.

That being said, I felt like I pushed harder but ended up taking a few more breaks (could have been the same number, just don't remember).  Anyway, it's nice to only have one workout scheduled for today.

Weekly Challenge: Week 2 - Drink your water!

There's a part of one of the P90X video where Tony basically shouts at you, "Drink your water people!"  Mrs. GIAS and I, jokingly, shout it at each other all the time because we think it's kind of funny. However, it's also our weekly challenge this week.

Drinking enough water is critical to your fitness.  It keeps you hydrated, helps your muscles recover and best of all, makes you feel full so that you don't get the munchies.  Accordingly, this week's challenge is to make sure that the both of us drink no less than 100 oz of water per day.  It sounds like a lot, but it's not too bad.  I am usually really good about drinking a lot of water, especially at work, but I need to refocus and make sure I'm getting enough.  Mrs. GIAS will, of course, do likewise.  It's not an impossible task, but we will need to think about our H20 more than we usually do, which is a good thing.

Round 4: Day 8 - 30:15 Upper Body Massacre

Yeah, that's Mrs. GIAS, like I've said before, she's bad a$$

Week 2 of our new rotation is starting and I was fired up for 30:15.  I was also super freaking tired since I just finished running 5.85 miles literally 1 minute before we started.  I had a nice thick sweat already and now I needed to do 360 pushups and 180 pullups. 

Running before this workout was...stupid.

I got through the pushups without too much trouble, I even added a little plyometric move to the last two sets for fun.  The pullups were increadibly hard today because I was so fatigued.  I took more mid-set breaks than I usually do, but I ended up getting through all the sets.  My levers were dramatically improved from last week and I'm sure that by the end of the round I'll have much better form and be able to rip out a good number of those.

Mrs. GIAS was doing great today as well, she stayed on her toes for almost all of her pushups, including close grip/diamond pushups.  Those are super difficult and require a ton of upper body strength and she got through them with flying colors.  Super proud of her today.

53 Minute Run (Treadmill)

53 Min Run (Treadmill) 6:00am
5.85 miles
6.6 mph

B and G spent the night at my parent's house last night so that Mrs. GIAS and I could go to a wedding.  Consequently, they weren't home this morning, so we pushed our P90X workout back an hour and I got up at regular time to run before we did 30:15.  I did the run at a steady 6.6 mph and it felt really good.  I think that's the furthest I may have ever run today and I did it at a faster pace than I have run a significant distance at.  I also think that I could have gone further and possible faster; that's encouraging.  I think a good goal is to shoot for a 10k time in the 40's (that's about 4-8 minutes faster than I am right now, I think) so after a few more months of training, I think that's reasonable, we'll see.

48 Min Swim

48 Min Swim - 8:00am

Instead of doing a typical yardage swim, I worked for about an hour on stroke drills and technique.  I went ahead and hired a personal trainer to give me some swim lessions.  I met Sally at the pool right at 8:00am.  She had me swim a hundred yards and then started breaking down my stroke.  Sally's very smart and has been doing this stuff for a long time.  She's huge into triathlons and has completed a number of Ironmans (pretty awesome).  Anyway she had a lot of good feedback and gave me a number of items to work on. 

Specifically I need to (1)keep my head down and sight only at the bottom of the pool; (2) reach forward, shoulder width and not towards the middle; (3) stretch my arm out before letting it enter the water so that I can reach further; (4) keep my elbows high throughout, not just during the recovery, but also during the pull rather than down the center of my body; (5) lay my head down flat on my shoulder when breathing to increase my roation to 90 degrees; and (6) angle down so that my butt is out of water.  (Yeah, so just a few things...sheesh!)  She also gave me some drills to work on before our next session including using a kickboard to keep my head down and a drill where I swim on my side which I'm sure was a chinese torture technique because you feel like you're drowning if you don't do it perfectly.

Overall it was a good session and Sally also gave me some instruction on how to prepare and focus for triathlon, how to train, some benchmarks I should be hitting and how to feel comfortable for my first race.  It was very reassuring and oddly enough, she didn't think my stroke and technique were terrible, she seemed to think that I needed to change some things, but that I could get faster and luckily, I'm not totally hopeless. 

97 Min Bike (Stationary)

97 Min Bike (Stationary) - 5:30am
34.9 Miles
21.59 mph

Got to the gym about 5:30am this morning and went straight for the bike instead of swimming first because I had a session with a swim coach at 8:00am.  There were a few people there including Frizzy McBlonde Hair and Brownie von Crop Pants.  This is the first week that I haven't seen Old Navy hanging around.

Anyway, I was on the bike and kept a nice steady cadence in the 90s and watched District 9 on my Zune.  What a cool movie.  Watching it on a three inch screen probably takes something away from the visuals, but I really enjoyed it and since it was almost exactly the same length as my ride, the bike session went pretty fast today.  I need to remember to make sure I have a couple of good movies on the Zune to keep my attention for long stationary bike sessions.

People watching was pretty slow until one lady came in, then it got super awesome.  So an older lady, at least 60, probably older than that with platinum blonde/white hair that was shoulder length but very frizzy and very full started walking around the club.  She was wearing jeans, a cable-knit grey shirt with a full length camel colored suede (with furr edges) trenchcoat and grey boots with heels (as pictured).  She walked over to a cable machine, grabbed one of the handles and pulled on it with a 6 to 8 inch range of motions (normally the range of motion on this machine is 24-30 inches) for about ten seconds, still in her boots and overcoat, then let go, grabbed it with her other arm and did the same thing.  Then she took off her trenchcoat, grabbed the handle with each of her arms again, same 6-8 inch motion for ten seconds, put her coat back on and walked away. 

It is at this point that I vowed that I would never go into the gym without my Blackberry so I can take pictures of this stuff, it's just too good.

So she wasn't done yet; she walked over to the leg press machine, with her trenchcoat still on and her big heeled boots, sat down and did a few leg presses, maybe 5, then got up and I lost track of her.  Weird.

About 5 minutes later I saw her on a treadmill, her trenchcoat off and draped on the side handle of the treadmill and she had changed into plain white Nike's that had seen better days, and she was walking.  She walked for 20 minutes or so with her hands draped over the top of the machine, still wearing jeans and a grey cable knit top.

I think this is the most weird becuase you have a grandmother-looking lady in boots, and regular clothes and a trenchcoat, sporadically using exercise equipment in a 24 Hour Fitness on a Saturday.  At 6:30 in the morning.  I just can't understand what is going on, it's just weird. 

Anyway, I lost track of her and didn't get a chance to chat with her, maybe she'll come back next week when I'm ready with my camera!

More Snow

The view outside my office window today.

So any delusions I had of an outdoor cycling or running workout this weekend seem to have been cancelled by mother nature.  Hello stationary bike and treadmill, more fun with both of you tomorrow.

Round 4: Day 6 - Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs

Shaun T and the kids doing Wide Tuck Jumps...scary?

"I've got to be honest with y'all, I'm a little bit scared of this workout."  -Shaun T, creator of Insanity.

Yeah, it's a nice warm fuzzy feeling when one of the first things the fitness instructor says is that he is scared of the workout you're about to do.  Great Shaun, if you're scared, how am I supposed to be feeling?  Giddy with excitement?  Ready to take on the world? 

No...the correct answer is "worried that I might die."

After that little pick me up at the beginning I didn't have much time to think about what was going on becuase this workout moves.  After the warm up and stretch, there are no breaks, just full blast cardio work touching the floor, jumping up, doing pushups and jumping back up again.  This workout was no joke.  It was a nice change from our regular Kenpo X sessions on Fridays and I have to admit, I am really starting to like Insanity.

After being tortured by Pure Cardio, Mrs. GIAS and I went ahead and popped in Cardio Abs from Insanity as well (hey, it's on the scheudle, you have to do it, right?).  Cardio Abs is a 16 minute ab workout that relies heavily on the "C sit position" which is basically balancing on your butt while doing various leg and arm lifts at different angles.   (If you've done P90X, Cardio Abs is to Insanity as Ab Ripper X is to P90X.) It works you "nice and good" to quote Shaun T.  I like having a tough, dedicated ab workout three times a week to make sure my core stays strong and this will do the trick nicely.

Overall, these two workouts are definitely keepers, no matter how scared Shaun T is.

29 Min Run (Treadmill)

29 Min Run - 7:15pm
3.15 Miles
6.5mph

Here's a tip for you...don't watch Modern Family while you are trying to run on a treadmill.  That show is hilarious and I literally had to jump onto the rails of the treadmill three or four times because I was laughing so hard...If I didn't slow down I thought I was going to hurt myself on the treadmill.  Here's a taste:

--Luke: "What's Jaegermeister?" [Phil's 10 year old son]


--Phil: "Well, you know how in a fairy tale there's always a potion that makes the princess fall asleep, and then prince charming starts kissing her? Well, this is like that except you don't wake up in a castle. You wake up in a frat house with a bad reputation."

Anyway, if not for the added danger of laughing during the run, this was one of my better running sessions to date.  My calves, glutes and hamstrings were a bit sore from this morning's workout, but I still kept a steady 6.5mph pace and felt like I could keep going after my 29 minutes were up.  I basically did a decent 5k with gas left in the tank.  I think my training is benefiting from being slightly fatigued at most (if not all of my workouts) as triathlon seems to require you to push through being tired to finish.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Round 4: Day 5 - One on One Plyo Legs

Thursdays in P90X is usually scheduled for us to do Legs and Back.  As I've been doing this for almost a year, 40 or 50 sessions of the same Legs and Back workout on Thursdays has gotten a bit old.  Keeping with working the legs on Thursdays however, led me to add this little beauty to the rotation.

Tony starts out with very little warm up and very little stretching, which is fine, and then gets into 20 moves that vary from squats to jumps to lunges.  I'd seen many of these moves before, although there were a few new ones thrown in as well.

Mrs. GIAS has been nice enough to humor me by doing whatever workout rotation I decide without complaint, so of course she was game for the workout today.  It was pretty funny though, about halfway through she commented, "You know, with wall squats and super skaters, this feels a lot like our regular leg routine."  A few minutes later she noted, "actually, with the 180 jump switches and squat jacks it feels a lot like a Plyometric routine.  Maybe they should call this Plyo Legs."

Yeah, honey, great idea.  Although I feel like I've heard that somewhere before...

Round 4: Day 4 - Fountain of Youth Yoga

Mrs. GIAS and I are doing pretty well on our weekly challege and were in bed last night at 9:30pm, but we ended up watching a DVR'd version of American Idol (I know, I know...lame right? What can I say, it's a guilty pleasure) as we were falling asleep, so it ended up being more like 10:30pm.  Anyway, we slept pretty well and were intending to get up at 5:00am for long yoga, but our bodies told us that sleeping in until 5:30am would be better for us and would help us to keep our weekly challege of 7 hours of sleep. 

So yeah, that's a long way of saying we hit the alarm and slept in, consequently only doing short yoga today. 

That's OK with me and we still got in a good stretch.  As I mentioned, my body has been feeling pretty broken so some nice stretching and breathwork really helped to relax my body.  My calves are still pretty sore, but other than that, I'm feeling much better. 

Until Plyometric Legs tomorrow...

Increase The Geek's Speed by 700%

Photo of Usain Bolt: antonhazelwinkel/Flickr

This article in Wired talks about the potential for a person to be able to run 40mph.  That's crazy fast.  Usain Bolt (fastest man alive) tops out at 27.3mph for about 100 meters.  Yeah, it's a big game of "what if" right now, but with Science on the case I'm sure this'll all be figured out. 

"The human frame is built to handle running speeds up to 40 miles per hour, scientists say. The only limiting factor is not how much brute force is required to push off the ground as previously thought, but how fast our muscle fibers can contract to ramp up that force.

If you just find a way to rev up those contractile fibers for the muscle, then everything else from human biology and gait would allow us to be that fast,” said physiologist Peter Weyand of Southern Methodist University, lead author of a study published Jan. 21 in the Journal of Applied Physiology."

I've been averaging around 5-6mph on my runs and hope to increase that to 7-8mph through training.  Now, if Science can tack on another 30mph by developing more "ultrafast 2X type muscle fiber" I figure I'll be all set. 

Of course, at my speed, I'm not sure that I have any "ultrafast" anything right now...so that could be a problem.

58 Min Bike (Stationary)

58 Min Bike - 6:15pm
19.74 miles
20.42 mph

I had a nice steady pace on the Life Cycle tonight, my cadence was right around 90 the whole time.  People watching was OK, but nothing extraordinary.  Today felt very workman-like; I put in my headphones, listened to my audio book and just pedaled.  Hopefully the weather gets a bit warmer in the near future so I can do a few of these rides outside.

I'm feeling fatigued and I think most of my body is sore.  It's actually kind of a nice feeling.  Also, tomorrow all I have is 90 minutes of yoga; I have a feeling that's just what the doctor ordered.

29 Min Swim

29 Min Swim - 5:30pm
1350 yds
46.55 yds/min

In my mind's eye, I look like a dolphin, gracefully skimming the top of the water, cleverly coming up for air every few strokes, almost winking at the atmosphere, as if it's an inside joke that someone as smooth and elegant as myself would bother with breathing during a swim. 

In actuality, I think I probably look like a angry drunken stepfather, slapping the water as if it's a petulant child all the while gasping for air as if I'd just finished running up Pike's Peak.

Yeah, the swim was OK, I sped up and did my intervals on the 1:55 and flipped all my turns again.  I'm getting better and faster every time, I just feel like there's a long way to go.  Thus, I have scheduled a session with a personal trainer on Saturday to break down my stroke and lead me away from the drunken stepfather I resemble and closer to the dophin I know I can become.  Or something like that.  Whatever, it better make me faster.

Round 4: Day 3 - Just Arms & Killer Abs

Today we did Just Arms and Killer Abs.  Two workouts from the One on One series that we hadn't tried yet.  Just Arms is exactly what it sounds like, biceps, triceps and forearms, that's it.  I lifted pretty heavy and it was a good workout.  Now that I know the routine, I think I'll probably be able to go a little heavier. 

Killer Abs was a nice challenge from Ab Ripper X, which is what we usually do for abs (3x/week).  Killer Abs is Ab Ripper 200 from the Power 90 Series (10 sets of crunches @20 reps each) and the complete Ab Ripper X routine (12 moves @20 reps each), back to back.  It got a nice burn going in the core.

Let's make sure this new schedule is working...shall we review: My pecs and back are still sore from 30:15 on Sunday, Insanity wore out my legs and destroyed my core (feels like my abs are literally bruised) on Monday (and I went for a 4 mile run), and today we ripped up the rest of our arms and core for good measure. 

I'm a walking billboard for DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).  Oh, and I have a swim and bike session scheduled for tonight.  Sometimes I think, "Geek, you're an idiot."