onefortypointsix

Japan recently instituted a law requiring companies and local governments to measure the waist of their adult employees.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/how-does-your-waist-measure-up/

Here is an interesting article about students surveyed in Germany, many of whom believed they were too fat, even though they were a normal weight.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/many-normal-weight-teens-feel-fat/

Intervals in central park at 5:45 in the morning, baby! Nothing gets you ready for the day like sucking air while the rest of the world is sleeping. It had just rained this morning, and it was already 50+ degrees at 4:30 am. Perfect weather for a ride. I layered down for the first time in months, hopped on my bike, and undertook 1.5 hours of just grueling intervals.

I’m having a lot of trouble tranferring power on the flats. I happen to have a great strength-to-weight ratio, so I do really well on hills, but I get hammered on flats, where I lack a lot of brute strength to mash high gears.

Ah, we’re working on it, right?

An interesting article on bonking found in Runner’s World. It doesn’t address how to not bonk so much as it talks about the nutritional battle over how to avoid it.

It’s hard when you decide that you’re going to do something and then you end up not doing it. Really hard. I decided months and months ago that I was going to use my time over spring break to ride my bicycle down to Washington DC. It is now the Thursday of my supposed trip, and I’m still sitting on my ass in my apartment. This is not what I had envisioned.

I have a ton of stuff I need to do here - namely, applying for jobs. In reality, this is not work that should take more than a couple of hours. I have to write some cover letters and get them sent off. I’ve been saying for weeks that this is something that must be done, and I’ve never put the time together in order to make it happen. I’ve made choices in the past, like prioritizing the last training camp over job stuff, which had the net effect of putting my now interests over my delayed interest. It seems those choices are coming back to bite me in the ass. The problem with that kind of decision-making is that it can create a situation where you don’t do what you really want to do, but you also don’t get the opportunity to do the things that you need to do.

I have opportunities going forward, this is true. It may be possible to put together this trip for the summer time, in order to give myself some more time to plan and make sure that it’s all good before I leave. However, the question is still whether I’ve done something good for myself here and now, whether I can live wholesomely with my response to a difficult situation. I’ve spent a lot of time in my life skirting conflict or saying that I don’t want to do something in order to focus on “getting something done” or doing what’s expected of me - I’ve created a dearth of “me opportunities” that in their primarily self-serving aspect, enhance my character and make a happier person. Sometimes being happy means being selfish, and maybe sometimes that’s ok.

I’m waffling. I’ve wanted to go, I’m nervous, and so I’m calling it off, but now I want to go even more badly.

It’s too late in the day to go now - there’s too much potential for mishaps and getting lost from riding in the dark.

I really feel like I’m letting myself down.  Next time I try and do a trip like this, I need to plan it so that it works out and I’m not scrambling at the last minute to get things together. The route, the accommodations, these were things I should’ve thought about many weeks ago, and planned for, so that I didn’t have a situation like this.

I’ve been planning this trip for forever. It’s something that’s second only to my job and my Ironman, in terms of number of people I’ve talked to and how much of myself and my identity I’ve invested in the trip.

Like Randy Pausch says in his “last lecture” - brick walls are there for a reason: so we can prove how badly we want things. I could scale this wall right now and head out on the road with my bicycle. That’s the whole allure of this trip - that in just setting out, I’m putting the worries and concerns of my everyday life away, and getting in touch with my truer side.

I feel really bad.

An interesting article in the New York Times discussing how steroid usage, contrary to popular belief, has been prevalent for decades.

On my Saturday night and Sunday workouts (#16 and #17) I used some of my mom’s Accelerade, and mixed it into my 1.5 L water bottle. MY GOD it made a difference. I’m  used to feeling pretty drained at the end of a 1.5 - 2 hr workout, but I felt like a million bucks. Especially on my Sunday workout, the added calories in the drink carried all the way through my weight lifting, which is often a time when I start feeling like Sisyphus when he first wakes up - “oh shit, I have to do this AGAIN? NOW?” I legitimately felt powered up, however. This was an important discovery to make at the beginning of my training, and I will have to continue investigating other, potentially superior alternatives.

Yoga baby! I followed the first 30 minutes of a yoga video I found downstairs in the TV room. It was great for me, an almost complete yoga novice, to get some detailed instruction on the basics. I found the instruction a welcome break from the normal routine, and felt energized and refreshed by the demands of the poses. I would love to have a personal yoga instructor, just for rest days.

I really want to do Pilates, too. I’ll have to work on that.

Today was supposed to be a 1:10 run, but I opted to the 1:30 cross training workout I missed on Friday, which I really think was a good choice. My 20 minutes on the rowing machine were significantly easier than the erg workouts I was doing over summer break, which was great to see. Then came 20 minutes on the stair stepping machine, which I actually really like, though I kept fearing I was going to trip and fall down and die. After that, I transitioned to the elliptical machine for 20 mins, then 30 mins of weights. All in all, an excellent workout.

I traveled back to Portland, OR early this morning in order to see my family and watch my sister, a very talented athlete in her own right, play volleyball. Happily, her team whupped up on the other guys, so I got to see her victory in addition to my mad frequent flyer miles.

Of course, when you’re seriously pursuing an endurance event and traveling, finding a location to work out becomes a top priority. After seeing my sister play on Saturday night, I promptly printed out a 7 day pass to 24-hour fitness and head on over there at 10 pm or so. I have to say that going to the gym at 10 pm felt a little strange - even for me - but I’m really realizing that this year is going to be all about breaking down mental barriers. That’s really the mantra for the year, and part of that means re-evaluating what I, or others, consider “normal” when it comes to time devoted to training, sacrifices made for training, and money spent on equipment. Going to the gym at 10 was just what needed to be done.

Anyways, I did a 34 mile ride. As I’m sure other cyclists can attest, riding on a gym bike is not anywhere close to riding on your own (fitted) bicycle. My knees were sore at the end of it, and I blame it on the machine. I consciously focused on lowering my intensity in order to keep my knees from hurting - my second goal for Lake Placid this year is to train without injury. I finished the workout in about two hours, and finished up with some stretches. I noticed significant increases in flexibility from the week of continuous exercise.

I was stymied in my efforts to get in a double today, however. Ideally my bike would have followed an hour swim, but I’ll accept the compromise in training, as I am home and need to take advantage of that opportunity. Next week will bring greater flexibility in scheduling and I should be able to take on the full training schedule.