Today is a Good Day!

Things are starting to come together, on a Saturday, Yes a Saturday I woke up at 6:20 am without an alarm while my wife was still asleep to get out on a bike to peddle for 17 miles with no destination but to end up home again. I did not set an appointment with someone so I would have to keep my word and be on time, I just did it? Anyone that knows me knows first off this at one time this was the time of the morning I would return home from the night before and that I enjoy my sleep time so this hours are not a norm for me. I know for sure that I will never be one of those old men that are up at the crack of dawn to tinker around the house and read the paper but the thought of this does scare me a little.

I have had more energy lately, between my fitness program and my nutrition plan I am finding it easier to maintain a level of comfort each day and do not find myself feeling worn out or my mind wondering in the middle of the day. I have increased my training some with the addition of Asylum and backing off slightly, less days, with my running, swimming and biking. I increased the distances and try to stay within a percentage of my heart rate (zone training) and this is working for me.

Eating Primal 80-85% of the time really has helped me achieve this, I do not get hungry almost ever. In fact I have had days where I have experimented with intermittent fasting and it seems to kick start my metabolism. There was a time where my body used to go into starvation mode if I was not constantly feeding it and would store fat. The strange thing is, and I can’t figure out why this is happening, I am continuing to drop inches but not weight. In fact I gain and lose weight like a roller coaster, I can feel that I am stronger but I am not yet seeing the decline in weight I would like to see.

Most importantly I am enjoying everything about what I am doing right now and want to ride this wave in the hope of all things coming together. With that said I am going to reward myself a little today as my wife and a few friends head out to a local Beer Festival. It looks like it's going to a beautiful day so get out and do something. 

Shrinking My Core

Very sore today, I plan on doing Back to Core tonight and I am sure it will be a struggle. I really enjoy Back to Core so at least I am not looking down the barrel of something like Vertical Plyo, wait that is most likely tomorrow.

The weather here has been inconsistent at best and I am seeing lots of rain at night which is hindering my training schedule. I don’t mind running in the rain but the lightning I kind of mind.

I am experiencing some strange feeling about my size; it seems now that I have shrunk in size when I do put back on a few pounds (which sometimes seems a little too easy for me to do) I really feel self conscious about it. This is funny because I have never really felt this way before but now I feel as though I am letting myself down if the cloths that have become lose on me don’t continue to feel this way. I have gotten more comfortable and I am not stepping on the scale as often but rather measure my progress by how my cloths fit.

I once went to a seminar where the speaker said that I am willing to bet that 75% of the people in this room are currently wearing clothes that are too tight on them and those that are not will experience this feeling of restriction within the next year with the cloths you are currently wearing. I have often thought about this statement and I am happy to say I have now gotten to the point where I am reversing that trend for myself. I am even willing to bet the suit I was wearing that day may be lose on me today.

Find something that makes you happy and hold on to it. 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day to those of you which this applies to! I will be doing some early evening gardening after I get home from work today, my wife loves to dress the house up and this is her wish for today so as they say “make mama happy” I love you Kathy and I hope you have a great day. 

Tomorrow I plan to do a mini triathlon/brick training session just to experience the transition of everything and have my body get used to the feeling. I have planned out a quarter mile swim in the pool followed by an eight mile bike ride and then I will finish up with a two mile run. This will let my body experience he fatigue and stress it will experience when it is time to get busy and do the real thing. I will be doing this two months to the day of when I expect to take part in my first race of the season.

Yesterday was a bad day for the diet; I ate bread at two of my three meals and indulged in two beers while in the pool. I will mark it up as a cheat day which I don’t really like to do and tighten up my routine this week to catch back up with my program. 

An Appetite for Coaching

All this Cycling, Running and Swimming has gotten me into a completely different state of mind. I am finding myself eating with less abandon, well actually more? My point is I am not counting calories finally I have trained myself to stay away from the bad things and bad snacks and I now pile on the good things. I have actually gained a few pounds over the last few weeks but had to once again poke a new hole in my belt. I am almost an inch and a half smaller.

I made this a light week of training and will kind of pile it up at the end of the week so I will get the same miles in but kind of back loaded it. The reason you may ask? This year I coached my sons baseball team and this week was playoff week.  We were "one and done" but the experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. I am a lifer when it comes to baseball as you may have already figured out from reading this blog. I have been helping my son’s coaches as an assistant for the last few years and really not getting too invested in the process or the kids because of the restrictions I have with my real job. This season I was asked to take a team on and my son happened to be standing close by and heard the question before I could deflect it and avoid the commitment. It’s not that I did not want to do it, it was that I did not think I could do it and do the job the way it needs to be done. 

I love the game and would not want to slight any of the kids assigned to my team my total and undivided attention but when your own son has been begging you to do it and then he knows you have been asked to do it you are kind of stuck unless you are just a heartless SOB.

The experience was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my entire life. Yes it was a lot of work but is it really work when you are having as much fun as the kids are? I was sore each Tuesday and Wednesday after our Monday night practices but still managed to get up and kill my workouts and now I look forward to the summer off from baseball because training is going to be a breeze without having to pitch a triple header each Monday night.  The playoff loss hurt not because we lost but because the season was now over. I wanted to continue to see these kids progress, get better and continue to emerge not only in their talents but in their personalities. As I got to know these quiet little kids and they me, we started to have more and more fun.

I told the kids before our last game that they would remember that game for the rest of their life. I may have been thinking this to myself out loud when I said it because I know I will remember that game forever as well. 

The Thrill of the Game!

This morning I actually may have enjoyed my run, I am getting a little more comfortable in the activity. Don’t get me wrong I will never be one of those guys you see running down the road at sun up in nothing but a pair of shorts and his running shoes but I only need to make myself conform to enough running that I can withstand the final leg of these races.

I went to the baseball field last night to throw my son a little batting practice and hit a little fielding practice to him. It’s our time together and for us its fun.

I have been experiencing some serious foot issues for the last few months and I have finally put things together. I throw batting practice to twelve kids each Monday night approximately 35-40 pitches each so let’s say 480-500 pitches for batting practice in a 45 minute window of time that we have the batting cages.  To say I am sore the next morning would be an understatement but I am thinking now that I have strained my left foot and this is the pain I am experiencing the worst of. On top of all this we usually have a scrimmage game in which I pitch to the kids again so let’s say this is another 100-125 pitches all totaled I am guessing I will throw somewhere about 600 pitches each Monday night. I realize now I need to get my head checked.

My left foot is the foot I land on with each throw and the pain is sometimes crippling and other times nothing at all.  Last weekend we walked all over the Disney Parks and intermittently I was limping and other times felt nothing. Pinched nerve maybe? I am not sure yet but at least now I may have figured out what I did to cause the issue. My father was visiting last week and came to watch a practice, when we arrived at home he asked me how many kids were on the team and how many balls were in the bucket? I knew right away what he was thinking and it dawned on me that when you enjoy something your body will ignore the pain during the time you are competing long enough to feel the rush of enjoyment and then your body will collapse at the finish line. I guess this is what one of those early morning runners experience; I just want that rush at the end of each one of my Triathlons.