Okay, 1 Step Back...Just wait till the leap Forward

The Good:
Mrs. TV went swimming with me last night at Bally's. I love seeing all the haters, guys staring, girls glaring. She's beautiful, sexy, smart, and.....mine, for now. At least until she gets her senses together. But I'm going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts (which according to the vows, till death, hers or mine, which ever comes first).

The Bad:
So yesterday was a 1 mile run during my lunch break and a 500 yrd swim after work (which is late). I need to start waking up earlier to work out. Maybe I'll take up my new friend Whitney (from meetup.com - Go Inland Tri Group) and run in the mornings with her. Need to look at T3 (calender) again and work things in.

The Ugly:
So my official weigh in for the Quadrathon Weightloss Challenge is +2 lbs. Yeah, you heard, I gained 2 pounds. Its okay. It give other an opportunity to bask in achievement before I obliterate the standings. [hey, who knew that trash talking to be so much fun]. Look who's talking, back on the high school basketball court, I would have talked down to Kobie. So enjoy your brief glory people and prepare for your demise.

Side Note: We finally got our TV hooked up to cable after a 1.5 year hiatus. Olympics here.we.come.

Happy 08-08-08!!!!

Not much to report since internet has been down for a while now. But once I get things situated just wait till you see the number and graphs I have. Oh, I'm participating in this little challenge over at Quadrathon. I say little, because there won't be much of a challenge to beat everyone. I mean, this is me we are talking about. So the official weigh in is 220 lbs. I'm 5 Foot 5 Inches, so that definitely categorizes me as a Clydesdale. Let's see if I can't "fit" into the Age Group category once all is said and done. Well, more like done, since I won't have to say much...just smile really big at those who gave that Ol IM try. But they forget...I am TRI-Vortex.

"Those who mess with the best, die with the rest." - 80's I know, but I"m 28, it's okay for me.

Shaken But Not Stirred

Just another sunny and shaky day here in California. That little 5.4 Earthquake in Chino, CA. Well guess who works 15 miles from there. Yup, that's me! Enough of local news on to more important things....

The Gauntlet has been thrown. TriDad (= my dad) has slapped me in the face with this:

Dad: So when is the the next event that you'll be in

Me: I haven't registered for anything this year, just training and trying to lose weight.

Dad: What about that event you did that was later in the year.

Me: oh, the Hermosa "Day at the Beach" Tri. Ya, that's in October.

Dad: What about trying to reclaim your manhood from that last time I spanked you, at my first attempt at triathlon, mind you.

Me: It's ON!!! [click, hang up]

People, I've already started last night with a 40 min. trainer ride to get my butt all nice and numb. I'm already trying to plan out some 2-A-Days for the coming weeks.

Meetup.com

My First Group RIDE!!!! And by group I mean more than 1 person that I don't know. Which means there were 3 total (including me). We did the Victoria Ave ride in Riverside, CA. Its a ride I've done a few times before so I felt comfortable. That's until we got going and I got dusted. But I know that I only average 12 Mph on that ride so I was expecting to be passed by a little girl on a tricycle. Here my and Billy before the ride...

See me smiling next Mr. I just got finish with THE tour and I'm looking for a warm down. hahaha. And here's Gary and I afterwards...

It kinda reminds me of an old 80's song..."Age groupers just wanna have fun!" Sorry about the prison-lean-pose. It was a nice ride as usual but something out of the norm was when I looked at my Garmin. I average 14 MPH!!! Yes lady's and jelly-spoons, I PR'd the ride. I guess when you look at people far upfront that you're supposed to be riding "with" you tend to push just a little harder. And for me, that little harder equated to 2 Mph increase. Nice. Taw taw for now.

Looky What I Found

There are people near my neck of the woods who ALSO like triathlon. And here I thought I was the only masochist. And I'm going on my first group ride this Saturday in Riverside, CA.


I found them through a cool site called Meetup.com. I also found a group that gets together to practice ASL (American Sign Language) and some other interests I have. Let me know if the site is helpful for your area!

Just a Spot of Bad Luck

Boy when it rains it pours. Lets take it from the top. It all started right before a trip to Catalina on my dad's boat. Purely pleasure for me and semi-vacation for Mrs. TV. She had to work on a school project during our trip but that wasn't the problem. She need access to the internet while on the island. My laptop's internal wireless just stopped working all of a sudden. After getting reassurance that his laptop works my car burns up. What I get from the mechanic is that a couple of things broke at the same time so there was no warning that my car severely overheated. So the engine fried. I had to pay for a new engine for a 2005 Mitsubishi Galant.

Pause on the bad stuff: It was a great trip to Catalina, the seas were ok on the way over. We hiked, swam, and drank at the Isthmus (Two Harbors).

Play: We got back from Catalina and my car is finished. I start in for work and guess what...the radiator splits. So now I have to shovel out for a new radiator (same car). Next my desktop starts acting up, and by acting up, I mean the "Blue Screen of Death."

Finally my lawn mower breaks down. Not that I even like doing the lawns but now my equipment won't work.

I need to meditate...uuummmmm ummmmm ummmmm. It's not working.

A Year in Review

I know its very late for this but a lot of thought needed to be put into it.

My first season as a newbie Triathlete...TriGeek. First, thanks to all the
support from my fellow bloggers/
triathletes and the podcasts: GYGO! (Get Your Geek On) and SimplyStu. You guys make workouts fun and entertaining.

Coming from a competative background (nothing professional) I have resparked the flame that working out used to bring me. I used to be on the highschool water polo and swim team. Then after those practices I went to martial arts training. Many moons later I'm married, still working on my continuing education (got my BA, but working towards a Masters), and 70 lbs over weight. Being, what I first thought was a derogitory class, a "Clydsdale" has had me dredding any tight clothing. But after years of wearing a speedo, board short just didn't cut it. But I didn't want people throwing up in the pool so the long jammers had to do. Then I had to wear more tights with my bike gear.


Note: I don't know if I ever posted but my ride has a name..."Petra" (A character out of a favorite book of mine Ender's Game).


Everyone out there has been great. I know that I can be a bit...sarcastic. Kahuna, sorry for rip'n on your stroke on the New Years Tri but Robo made me do it. By the way, I never got to see the video from that day.


For my first season (which I enclude my first tri, which makes it over a year) I did:

Hermosa Beach Sprint (Tri)

GYGO New Years Day Tri (Tri)

Bonellie Tri Express Series #1 (Tri)

Played on the 210 Freeway (Bike Ride)

Almost everyone I met on the coarses were excited, enthusiastic, encouraging, and inexplicably nice. Something I'm not accustomed to. Hey, who hasn't been burned. But the triathletes have given me a renewed hope that not everyone is an ass.

The sport of triathlon has given me something new to obsess about. There are so many aspects to working out, nutrition, racing, preparation, equipment, that this should keep me interested for a while.

I've gone over and over this post...re-editing it. But I finally took out all the crap and whittled it down to this: Thanks to everyone out there keeping me honest to my word, thanks to the asses on race day that keep me chasing even when I have nothing left, thanks to Mrs. TV for not going insane with the constant chlorine and sweat smells that radiate from my gym bag, thanks to my uncle for getting me to sign up for my first triathlon (even though he didn't, good story, you should look to my races and read up on my first), thanks to GYGO and Simply Stu podcast for getting me through workouts (the problem is that now I want to listen when I swim so I have to find a waterproof MP3 case), and thank you to myself (without me the word would be a little sadder) ahahaha, I mean I'm glad I've stuck with it so long and have been able to make sooooo many friends.

Christmas Boost

As most of us already know, we're all geeks...TriGeeks. And part of being a nerd is gear, check out the newest addition to the arsenal:

That's right, you are looking at the proud papa of a Garmin 301, compliments of Mrs. TV. So far the weather has been a freezing 40-50 degrees in the morning and evenings. And this toasty bottom hasn't ventured out into the cold. So I've just been testing this thing out on the cycle trainer. I just set it to one of the preset works outs based on heart rate/zone and time and I'm off. I feel more and more like a hamster but hey, what's a guy to do...get cold. I don't think so.

I love this thing, much better than my Mio. But it did the job as long as I wasn't working too hard. Trying to keep your arms steady while getting the sensors to read on the "strapless" heart rate. More to come as I do more tests. I have noticed that it takes a couple of minutes for the satellite to acquire.

Guess Who's a New Grad!!!!

I was so excited. It's been a long time coming. But it is official...I have a B.A. in Psychology from California State University San Bernardino. Lets start with the morning of. Mrs. TV planned a big party for me at the house, mostly family and a few friends. The rental chairs and table didn't arrive the day before like they were supposed to. So in the early morning I was receiving the delivery. The ceremony was set for 9:30AM and asked for Grads to be there an hour early. I was up till 2AM that morning and had to get up at 4:30AM to start with last minute touch-ups to the house. Didn't get much sleep but I was too excited to sleep anyway.

The ceremony was long and boring as usual. It was a good thing that I didn't eat breakfast since when I went up to shake hands I felt like I was going to hurl. It was nice to see my family all standing and yelling for me in the stands.

So enough with the pleasantries...

Recovery...NOT!

One of the many reasons I haven't been posting can be seen in this picture:

Yes those are bruises.

Once upon a time I this was me...

And that is a black belt around my waist. As you can tell, it's been a while. TriChef has a friend that is opening a martial arts studio. Guess who stopped by to take a look. It was the first time I've stepped into a studio in years. After some stretching and observing I was invited for a little friendly "light" sparring. First lets take a look at the sensei's credentials. The studio is called PacTKD. Go to the staff tab and look on the right side...yeah. Thats who I got my butt kicked by. But at the end of the day I was happy with my performance. The only problem is that my body does react as quickly as it used to. Hence the bruises.

Why do I like pain? I guess its for the same reason I got into triathlon...testing one's self.

"I'm baaaack"

[bradey bunch theme] There's a story of T.V and his little lady. Who were bringing up 3 ladies of their own (2 Lab Retrievers, 1 Cat). They're all spoiled...like their mother, the youngest one now hurls (hairballs mostly).

Till one day T.V left with his lady. They traveled up to camp out in a bush.

Okay I'm ending it there because 1) I'm not that clever 2) I forgot how the rest of the song went. ha.

It was a nice 6 hour drive up Hwy 1 to Limekiln State Park. Home of the lime kilns and Limekiln Falls. The drive up was nice and relaxing...for me. Mrs. T.V. however isn't that fond of traveling on the edge of cliffs. The first real hiccup didn't happen until we started setting up the tent. Hmmmm, I wonder which husband forgot the wind shield that goes over the tent (which only has sheer side panels)? As you can see our first night our spot was in the Redwoods. We positioned the tent right behind some bushes and parked the car up close to block as much wind as possible. Yah, things were a little cold since there was nothing keeping the heat in.

Equipment malfunction, for the one that remembered to bring. The camera batter said fully charged when we left the house. Then we get to the site and I snap ONE shot and now the little green battery turned to a little RED battery. I'm not an electronics expert but the flash wasn't even on. So it was like that the whole trip. I never knew how many pictures I had left. Green, then Red, then Yellow, then back to Green. Geez I didn't even eat any of the mushrooms!

We made the trechurous journey to the Limekiln Falls. As you can see all those roots can be tricky and you might trip.

The second night we talked the ranger into letting us switch spots. He said that the spot wasn't for cars. But hey I have a Mitsubishi OZ RALLEY, its supposed to go offroad (not stock, but I didn't need to mention that part). And we landed my dreams spot. One of only two spots that are cut into the cliff overlooking the ocean. We made a make-shift wind guard and sleep in warm peace listening to the crashing looking up at the stars.

In the morning we got up packed up the car and headed back to the trail to check out the actual kilns that the place was named for.

Then it was back on the road to travel the 300+ miles home. We took our time and made a few stops.

Sea Lions

One of the many lookouts on Hwy 1

[Sorry but there should be more pix, but Blogger won't let me load them now and it's already been too long since I've posted]

Now for the Real Weekend

This is where I'm going to be from Saturday till Monday. Limekiln Falls in Big Sur, CA. Mrs. T.V. and I are going camping for the first time since I proposed (now thats a kewl story, if you're intersted I'll post it sometime). Campsite is 100 yards from the ocean and only 1/2 mile to the falls. aaaahhhhhhh relaxation. Till next week....

What "Extended" Weekend?

(Not actual pix)

Guess what I had to do on Saturday? Move carpet. I'm chalking that up to 1:30:00 of home improvement work out in my book. These aren't little pieces either. We are talking 800+ square feet broken up into 4 big pieces. I'm taking another day from work to make a real 3 day weekend with Mrs. T.V. More on that later.

Aaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

Hey tri-peeps. Longtime no blog. It's been hectic on the IE Front. But a little hard work isn't going to get this Roadie-Fish down. We'll skip over the miniscule workouts that I haven't posted. And jump right into tonight. Not much and certainly not Olympic distance worthy but 700 yrds in 25 minutes.

I'll be spending the next few days catching up so if you see me posting like crazy, sorry.

Grinding

Just the same ol, same ol. Except that summer school stinks. My Tuesdays and Thursdays are like this. Wake up 4:30AM, leave the house by 5AM. One hour commute for work at 6AM. Then its work with no lunch till 11AM. By that time traffic has set in and I leave the office for 1-2 hour drive to class that starts at 1PM. FOUR HOUR CLASSES...nuff said. One hour break then another 4 hours in class. So now its about 9:30 or 10PM and I'm getting home. Been trying to get runs in there somewhere. I can't wait to be done with school.

Sorry, not much to report except that the Accelerade stuff grows on you. I've been using it as a suppliment drink during my commute to class in the afternoon and it gets me through till dinner. I know its not nearly as many calories that I should be taking in but I'm thinking of it as a diet. You know, one of those dangerous one's that so popular with the celebrities. J/K I sneak junk food in between my days...wish I was just kidding :-(

Till the weekend when I stretch out my legs...

Accelerade

Well I've had a chance to go over the product. I also gave a few away to co-workers for a sheer taste test. They were accustomed to drinking healthy alternatives to soda, so there was no bias there. I know that the whole thing is about performance, but I wanted to confirm some thoughts I had. It was a unanimous decision. Accelerade = Cottonmouth.

It comes in 4 flavors: Citrus Grapefruit, Peach Mango, Fruit Punch, & Mountain Berry. Two out of four is not bad. The Fruit Punch and Mountain Berry are way too sweet and don't mix well with the dry mouth sensation that you instantly get when drinking this stuff. The other two, Citrus Grapefruit and Peach Mango seem to work well with the dry mouth. My co-workers are all in agreement that if we didn't have tongues, this would be great. And its not even that it tastes horrible or anything. It's the feeling you get on your tongue that lingers for a while. Oh, and you have to drink it cold.

Okay, now for the real test...Performance. For me, the test has always been the run. So this is how I test out how my nutrition and hydration is working out for me. It's where I struggle most. Guess what. My legs actually feel less fatigued afterwards. I mean it took less time for me to recover afterwards. That's where I really saw the difference. During, I was only concerned with drinking this stuff that made me more thirsty. After the first trial I decided that after I was done with the bottle I would quickly chase it with some water...huge difference! Most of this review is pretty superficial. I haven't talked about the facts: 1) its one of the few out there that have protein, 2) 120 mg of Sodium (high in comparison), 3) 15 mg of Potassium (low in comparison).

Pros:
- Fast Recovery
- Pre-Mixed
- 2 Okay Flavors

Cons:
- Cotton Mouth
- Not in a Sports Bottle (you would think that they are marketing to endurance athletes, that they would package it in a sports bottle, but nooooo)
- Low Potassium content (this is coming from someone who has not yet competed in an event and NOT cramp)
- 2 Bad Flavors

Final Decision: I'll finish up my free sample and try something else. But come race day I'm going back to my GU2O. Maybe I'll try Gatorade Endurance (200 mg Sodium, 90 mg Potassium).

If someone out there can help me, please let me know how to NOT get cramps. I always feel great until I step off the bike. Then my calves go into convulsions.

For all of you who have tried, let me know what you think about it.

Sponsored???

No, I haven't been given a spot at Kona. But I might as well for how kewl I feel. Would we all agree that sponsored means you don't have to pay for stuff...right? Well someone out there's been reading my blog and decided to "give" me a 30 day supply of Accelerade Edge.

Now, don't anyone go and burst my bubble by explaining that companies give away stuff all the time as marketing ploy. But when this came in mail...



This back-of-the-packer felt sweeeeet! Now they are assuming that I train everyday. hmmmm ya...sure. But now that I have this stuff, I gotta try it. So its no less than 3 workouts per week and at least one 2-A-Day (which for me is starting my day with a spin on the trainer). I heard something on Bret's podcast (Zen and the art of triathlon) about Hornet Jizz, or something. And I know that Hammer gels have been working well for many in the Blogger Alliance. But didn't I hear an interview on a podcast about this Accelerade stuff? I listen to so many they are starting to run together. Except for GYGO! (plug) Those two tri-geeks are hard to forget.

So you all will definitely be hearing a lot from me in the days to come. And I'll be reporting how it's working out with the Accelerade. Here on my blog and on their site (hmmm I have to per an agreement...but I'm still sponsored, "ya, that's the ticket"). I've only been using Gu2O for hydration so now I'll something to compare it to. I'm stoked!

PS. Bonus points for the first one to name who said the quote and from where? (Hint: TV).

PSS. Thanks Marcy, now I feel real great about my self.
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At least you can tack on a 30 day supply of hydration that I'm putting in...that gotta be worth a few more extra bucks.

Riverside Ride

Another ride with TriChef under the belt. We met up at my place in the morning (for the record, its not supposed to be HOT at 7AM!). We drove out to Riverside, CA. and took the backroad that runs parallel to the 215 Freeway (Victoria St). We started down at La Sierra and went straight up to Central and back again. Its a nice ride with no turns (except for the turnaround) that goes through orange orchards and beautiful homes.

Note: I'll have a picture of the route posted soon (Most of my routes can be found at http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/)

I finally got around to tweaking my cleats. I shifted them as far back as possible so that they sit close to my instep. Guess what?!?! No more shooting pain in my ankles after the ride. [heavenly] aawwwwww. When I get some scratch together I'll be giving the people down at TriZone a call to get fitted on my ride.

June - A Month in Review

Here's is what June looked like for me. As you can see...no yellow, that means no running. I know, I know. It was an extremely slow training month for me. Only made time on the weekends.


Time to rectify the situation, Friday I went in for a 3 mile run at the gym. On the tread mil set to an incline = 2. Legs felt good, but my cardio has definitely slipped a little. I'll be working on it though. I have a 16 mile ride planned for this weekend with TriChef.

Cleaning IS Training

(Not an actual client)

I just spent 8 hours of my day cleaning 4 peoples houses. What a nice way to spend a Saturday. But I'm not going to complain, extra scratch is extra scratch. When I got home I pretty much had some water and passed out on the couch...the section right under the AC [ahhhhh].

(1 hr later)

RRRRIIIINNNNNGGGG goes my cell phone. Oooops, I forgot to call Mom to see if the wify and I could stop by the Grandparent's new place. Mrs. TV loves looking at new houses, so I had to jump in the shower and 35 minutes later we were in Beaumont, CA.

It was a long morning that I'm putting into my training log. Hey 8 hours of non-stop movement is work out to me.