Comment Responses #1

Comments, obviously welcome, seem like an undercooked idea on blogger. So instead of only replying to comments on the hidden comments page, I will reply to a select few on the main page to bring them to the forefront.

In response to "A Stepping Stone", Carol wrote:

I love your idea to get rid of things that tempt you to be a lazy bum. If
you
are still looking for a beginner training plan, I can make a couple
recommendations. Happy workouts, Carol
(www.triathlontrainingblog.com)

I am still looking for a beginner training plan so any
recommendations would be greatly appreciated since you've already gone
through exactly what I am going through.

In response to "The First Injury", Monty wrote:

how about you go see a doctor that might actually help you

Doctors cost money. My doctor is far away. I'm not a little girl. It's probably not that serious of an injury since it feels better now than it did. Enough reasons?

In response to "The First Injury", Pat wrote:

If you're going to be running a lot you should take glucosamine. Its the
building blocks of ligaments and such. It's given to horses when they have a
serious ankle or knee injury.
...
A lot of runners swear by
glucosamine. At the least, it should help you
recover from your knee
injury.

I have been shying away from any supplements, especially those to gain mass (since triathlons are mainly about endurance), but glucosamine sounds like a pretty good idea. I'm just worried about becoming dependent on supplements in order to have a regular workout. It seems like a somewhat unnatural and expensive habit to be in. But if it will prevent me from hurting myself, which I most likely stupidly will, it may be a worthy investment. I'll look into it.

Keep the comments coming, I do read them and appreciate them.

The First Injury

I ran over 3 miles straight on Wednesday. 25 minutes of constant running. It was awesome that I finally broke 3 miles and it made me realize how impossibly fast I used to be in High School. Back then I ran cross country and would finish races in under 18 minutes, which I thought was an average/below average (in the bad/slow direction) time. It's going to take a lot of training to reachieve those times... but my training is on hold for now because of a newly acquired mysterious injury.

Back in High School, I injured my knee in cross country my senior year just from overuse. I had to stop running and the injury stuck with me for a few years. It slowed me down and made me very cautious about running alot. I stuck to using ellipticals or swimming for a while for a fear of reagitating that injury. I think running 3 miles on the treadmill messed it up in a new never-seen-before way. The back of my right knee has sharp pain sometimes when I straighten my leg. It only hurt occasionally on Thursday but on Friday it came to fruition (I hope at least). Walking up several flights of stairs, the back of my knee felt like it was freezing into place and sharp pains shot up through my leg. I'm going to rest my leg for a few days and then do a couple weeks of just biking machines or upper body work. Whatever the problem is will hopefully heal itself in that time, or new muscles or ligaments will merely ecclipse the problem, hiding it for a future event down the road. Here's to hoping!

The First Chart

Part of my training includes stretching and doing pushups and situps (crunches) before hitting the machines. Sometimes I feel like I can do a million situps, and therefore I think I must be performing them in the most girly girl of ways most days. But it's kinda hard to fuck up push ups, and I feel they can be an accurate measure of my progress. Yesterday I was finally able to do 50 consecutive push ups and feel that is an important milestone. Here's a chart with my "Calisthenics" progress so far. Alternating situps are situps that alternate between going to the left and right knees.

Must've been a full moon on the 13th...

Once I start actually training, I will join a gym instead of using the rinky-dink apartment gym. My previous experience in joining a gym (Lifetime Fitness) was a good albeit expensive one. I started going 3 to 5 times a week. However, I moved to Rosslyn 4 months after joining the gym and the closest lifetime was over 30 miles away. Paying money is definitely a motivator to go to the gym more often. There is a gym called Planet Fitness across the street which is only $10 per month. But, their website is very pink and purple and they're very big on a "Judgment Free Zone" which sounds sort of like "Don't ask, Don't tell." Fitness First is a brand new gym also very close that is about $30 per month and has a bunch of included classes (I would do the 6:30 AM boot camp), which Planet Fitness does not have. Another choice is the Gold's Gym about a mile and a half away since I have a couple friends that already go there. But I'd be least likely to go to Gold's Gym since I'd have to drive to get there. None of the gyms have a pool, so I'm going to have to figure that part out.

A Stepping Stone

When I first started looking into training for a triathlon, all of the free training plans on the internet seemed a little too intense. I would have to train and get into some sort of shape to start actually training. Based on my limited knowledge of the theory of exercise through a brief stint with a personal trainer, various kinesiology classes in college (e.g. basketball, martial arts), and the public school system's health courses, I started my pre-training plan.

The pre-training plan is pretty simple and can be broken down into 5 parts. The first part is to take away objects that provide opportunities to be a lazy bum. This first part includes limiting or completely ridding my life of sedentary activities. I let my parents "borrow" my xbox 360 to learn guitar hero so I wouldn't be tempted by that. I didn't subscribe to cable tv when I moved to my place so I would be limited to the number of channels to which I could veg out. I don't even have the distraction of a roommate anymore. Am I going through withdrawl? Difficult to say since I've already lost my marbles working at home alone. Once you're drenched you can't get any more wet. The idea of the first part is that I'm seiging myself into such an extreme state of boredom where exercising actually seems like a better choice than chilling at home.

The second part is to make obviously healthy choices. These can easily be made and actually make you feel like you accomplish something even if you're not really doing anything lifechanging. Stairs or elevator? stairs. Beer or Hard Liquor and Coke Zero? Liquor. Eat at home or taco bell? home. Top or Bottom? Top. It's not that difficult. Noone's perfect with these decisions but 9 times out of 10 I aim to make the healthy decision.

The third part is to actually work out frequently and always beat my previous workout. My workouts consist of building my core muscle groups and an increasing portion of cardio. The whole point of doing a triathlon for me is not to compete with other people but to compete with past versions of me. It's a future dan vs. past dan face-off in everything I do (exercise-wise). Well I'm definitely not competing against any seasoned triathletes but if any of my friends want to bring it on, you will get served. Then you can try to bring it on again. But then it's all or nothing. And if by the 4th time you're not in it to win it, you might as well just slap yourself silly.

The fourth part is to buy healthy food. At the grocery store I focus on produce and healthy protein. If I don't bring unhealthy food into the home, I will have no choice but to eat healthy foods. At least at home. I need to work on not eating out so much. I'll have to buy a house or something so the thought of spending money is actually a deterrent to eating huge portions of fatty foods at restaurants. But I can't go out on a first date and order a salad. I have to at least pretend like I'm manly.

The fifth and final part is to record everything and make it available to the public (even if noone ever reads it, I can pretend like they will). I'm in the process of making the data seem visually appealing rather than just a collection of numbers. Opening my process up can have a couple goal-beneficial consequences. One is that it will keep me going for fear of public (even if it's just a pretend public) failure. The other is that it may inspire friends or future friends to become triathletes with me.

Following this free-formed pre-training program will get me in the right attitude and right shape I need to be in for the step-up to a legit training program on February 1st. On February 1st I'm going to begin training for the first stepping stone in my goal of becoming a triathlete, a duathlon which is not too far away and doesn't seem too difficult with a couple months of training. I plan on registering at http://www.virginiaduathlon.org/ . The race is on Sunday March 30th and consists of a 5k run, 30k bike, then another 5k run. There is also an option to do a relay version, but I want to try to do all of it. And my friends, I would love for any or all of you to come out and support or participate. We can get campsites or hotel rooms for the weekend and it'd be a fun-ass time. I hope some or all of you will come out with me.

Intro

My goal is to one day participate in a triathlon or a few triathlons or a plethora of triathlons. I've decided to train at my own pace and am in no real rush to accomplish the goal. I am starting pretty much in the worst shape of my life with the worst diet of my life mostly consisting of beer. Lots and lots of beer. My tentative goal is to participate in a triathlon in august or september. I recall hearing of one happening in Annapolis which doesn't seem too challenging. Ultimately I'd love to participate in an Iron Man event and not die. Eventually I can be as hardcore as one old man and drag a son that was born paralyzed through all of the grueling miles. A more likely goal is to become a paralyzed son.

Hopefully making my efforts public will shame me into keeping up with it. Already I've been doing some training for a month. I also joined a basketball league and should start playing soccer again soon. I changed my diet a bit, reducing alcohol and fast food intake and increasing boiled egg intake. But it's not hard to decrease daily and increase never. But if you put a frog in a boiling pot, he will jump out immediately. If you stick him in a pot of luke warm water and slowly boil it, you can enjoy some frog soup later. It's all the rage, right behind Hot Ham Water. I'm keeping track of my progress and will post updates. An analysis of my training so far will be posted soon.