Nubella - Is Your Body Wired to Resist Weight Loss?

The title is a little bit misleading; this article is more about the plateau effect. It's an interesting read, especially if you think about how man has evolved, and why our metabolism and statis systems are not well-suited to modern life:
Nubella - Is Your Body Wired to Resist Weight Loss?

Lower Body Fatigue

Yesterday Sue and I did the Cosmic Yang™ Lower Body workout from TBT. At the time, and even right afterward, it seemed pretty easy. But then about 2 hours later I realized, "my legs are kinda tired." Maybe it was just adrenaline from all the jumping that was masking the training effect. (And I need to remember to wear my basketball shoes next time: the sneakers I usually wear do not have the lateral stability needed for Gunterr Hops.")

Today Sue and I went swimming. We've both been battling a lot of fatigue over the past few days, and today we were both struggled in the water. I could not get my breathingrhythmm at all: I kept wanting to inhale while my face was still in the water. Rather than do the long swim I had planned, I instead did 50-yard intervals, with 1-minute recovery. (Which at my pace is one minute on, one minute off.)

Quick Recap

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but Blogger has just been agonizingly slow (or non-functional) since they started moving to their new version.

Last Wednesday, I swam 30 laps for the first time ever. Then that evening Sue and I went running with Joseph. Then Thursday I did a very difficult run (6.2 miles in 57 minutes). I was a little bit sore after that, so I took Friday off. Then Saturday neither Sue nor I were feeling especially well, so we took that day off as well. Yesterday the in-laws came over, so aside from a frenzy of cleaning, we had no time to do anything.

This week we're getting back to the gym in a big way.

Bike Training and More

Yesterday Sue and I woke up early to ride with the Central Penn Racing crew. We had decided last week to do the course for the Penn State Dam Triathlon. It's a nice course, with a couple of challenging hills. Once you get off of Route 26, it is a really scenic route, with not much car traffic. What was especially nice is that we were able to break out into three groups, so everyone could go at their pace. Somehow I was leading my group most of the way, but I think that's only because Sparky was riding a single-ring bike. Given the hills (both up and down) that's damn impressive.
Later, Sue and I took Joseph for his first training run. We walked and ran a total of 2 miles in about 20 minutes, over a pretty flat course. (And we made him do some stretches, including downward dog, afterward.) His next training run is Wednesday. We'll probably cover the same distance, but we'll run more of it.
Sue and I also need to get back into the gym more regularly. It'll be a scheduling challenge over the next few weeks to fit everything in.

Chi in the Forest

Last night I did Tussey Discovery #2, an 8-mile run, mostly flat or downhill, in the woods between Tussey Mountain and Whipple Dam. I felt great when I started out, but after the first couple of miles the dehydration from Wednesday's stomach flu started getting to me. I was really hurting in the middle of that, and slowed my pace a lot. Then, at about mile 6, I came into a flat section, and there was no one around me anywhere. It was just me, the woods, and the birds talking amongst themselves.
I don't know why, but it really re-energized me. I felt great for the next mile or so, until my shoe came untied. I thought I could finish without tying it, but soon enough my foot started to slip. When you've been running a certain time (for me, usually it's about 40 minutes), you get to a place where it feels better to keep running than it does to stop. Words cannot describe how much it sucked to stop, bend down, and then start running.
My goal was to run it in an hour, and I finished in 1 hour, 44 seconds. Hmmm, I wonder how long it took me to tie that shoe?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the valley, Sue rode her bike up and over Beckwith Road, and turned around and came up. That's a nasty climb, especially the trip back (there's a short section that's gotta by 20%+ incline, going around a bend). Yay, Sue!

Give Me Strength!

Yesterday Sue and I went to the gym for the first time in about two weeks. It was an upper-body workout day. I expected to have some decrease in performance due to the layoff, and in certain exercises (pull-ups, dips, curls) I did indeed. But there were some exercises (particularly bench press) were I felt stronger than I did when I'd last been in the gym.
Last night we were going to do a bike ride, but something I ate did not agree with me. I am hoping to do a long run this evening, if I can rehydrate adequately today.

Learning in the Pool

Sue and I went swimming today, and my shoulders felt terrible. I was trying to change my style a little, to try to stretch out and lengthen the stroke. It wasn't working at all. But at the end, when we were warming down, two revelations came to me.
First, Sue had me just swimming very slowly, and she told me to put me head down. Then she told me to tuck my chin to my chest. When I did that, my hips popped right to the surface!
Second, for the last lap I did backstroke just to work different muscles. I felt great doing that: it felt like that finally loosened up my shoulders. So next time I'll do backstroke for warm-up. And I know that if I get tired during a swim, I can turn over and do backstroke for a while.

Busy Weekend

I spent most of the weekend on a ladder, trimming our giant privacy hedge. The electric hedge-trimmers are murder on your hands and upper arms. It's that constant vibration.
Sunday morning Sue and I joined some folks from Central Penn Racing for a bike ride. It turned out to be 22+ miles of ups and downs, but it was a beautiful day and a fun group.
Thanks, Sarah!

Hill Work

Wednesday evening Sue and I did hill repeats on the bike. Four sets of three minutes each of climbing, with rest time only the amount of time it took to get back down the hill.

Then last night I did Tussey Discovery #1, which is 3.2 miles up, and then 3.2 miles back down. My glutes were so sore on that climb, but I didn't give up (and believe me, I sure wanted to). I felt great on the run back down, though.

Originally we were going to swim today, but my fatigue and Coach Sue's schedule are working against it. So instead I'll do doing yoga this evening. That will feel good, I haven't done any yoga for over a week.

Got some pics

Here's some pictures of me in action at the tri...

What's Next?

So now that the timer has run down to zero, it's time to start looking for the next challenge. There are three that I'm considering:

1. Penn State's Dam Triathlon on September 10. I'm hedging on this: after my first/last tri, I'm not sure if I'm ready to do this. Then again, I felt like I could have done so much better, and I want a chance to redeem myself.
2. The Knights of Columbus 5K on October 15. The challenge here is that I want to train my beginner-running friend Joseph to do this too.
3. A marathon. The Philadelphia and New York Marathons are both in November. If I commit to training for one, I think I can do it easily.

Or maybe I can do all three. I'll let you know what I decide on, and reset the ticker at that time.

Post Race Analysis

The Triathlon didn't go as well as planned.

First though, I have to say that the event itself was wonderful. I have never done any race that was so well organized: the volunteers and staff were excellent, the course itself was beautiful, and triathletes are far and away the friendliest competitors I've been around. The weather couldn't have been better, either. It was warm and sunny, but not too warm until near the very end. And the water in the lake was a balmy 78 degrees: that's warmer than the pool where we usually train.

Things went wrong for me in the swim, almost right from the start. The water was choppy, which is not something I had counted on, and it really messed me up. Then, about 150 meters in, I got stuck between a person on my left doing butterfly, and a person against my right. The butterfly guy was directly in front of my left shoulder, so I would be hitting his back every time I reached out my left hand. I was pretty much swimming with just my right hand, and I couldn't move to get away, so I was just getting more and more tired. I finally got away from them just before the turn at the halfway point, but I was exhausted. I made the turn and was struggling along for another hundred yards or so, when people started passing me. My goggles were totally fogged up, and I was feeling all disoriented. And then I caught a big mouthful of water. Long story short, I started to panic a little. I saw one of the buoys that mark the course, and I swam for it. I grabbed on, waiting for the panic to pass, trying to get my breath back. Then I had to wait while swimmers from the later heats passed.
So how bad was my time? Well, Sue started two heats after me (which is about 10 minutes), and she literally bumped into me about 50 meters from the finish.

By the time I got out of the water I was too exhausted to run through the transition.
I got on the bike and I had no juice to put into the ride. The course was 2 miles of hard climb, then 5 miles of rolling hills with an overall increase, then turn and head back down. I was so tired though that all I could do was grind out the hill. I passed Sue about a mile in, but we weren't allowed to ride together, so I left her to her own struggle. I finally felt better about 5 miles in and started to reclaim some of the time I'd lost. I hit the turn-around, and saw Sue soon after. She was doing awesome!

I didn't really get my legs back until well down the mountain, and just as I was started to make up ground, it was transition time. My one quibble with this race was how the run was laid out. It's an out-and-back course out to the waterfall, which is beautiful. But there are two foot-bridges to cross (one of which has stairs), and you weren't allowed to pass people one the bridges. So I got off the bike and started running, and about a third of a mile in is this first bridge (the one with stairs). And wouldn't you know, I got caught behind someone going much slower than me. It totally ruined my rhythm, and I couldn't recover it. I got a really bad stitch about a half-mile later (no doubt from swallowing half of Cayuga Lake) and I just didn't have the chi to push through it. I had to walk for about five minutes.

When I finally started running again, I came to the second bridge. Stuck behind someone again! I didn't let that discourage me, I pressed on as best I could. I vowed to keep running no matter what. It's easy to push yourself when you're near the lead or a PR. This was just about me overcoming my own exhaustion and disappointment. I kept running, and I saw Sue and yelled encouragement to her. I finished in 255th place (out of 291 finishers), dead last in my age group, in 1 hour, 56 minutes, 8 seconds

Sue had had bike troubles after I saw her (her chain came off). I am sure that if not for that, she would have beaten me. She finished 275th overall, in 2:06:53. I could not be more proud of her. Yay, Sue!

Final Countdown

Just 72 hours left! Yesterday I did my final swim practice at Whipple Dam. Tonight we'll probably do a bike ride and maybe a run. Tomorrow is a rest day (although I might do a short yoga), and Saturday is a travel day. If we have time, we'll check out the location, the bike route, etc.

Exercise Resistance

Finally, a scientific name for being lazy.