It's a sprint tri. 0.8 mile swim, 14.5 mile bike, 3.1 mile run. For the last month I've been swimming 1500 yards (in a pool). I was breaking it down into 15 100-meter sections. The last couple times I've split it into 3 500-meter sections, so my endurance for the swim is getting better. We have some bike trails that go next to the railroads here, so every Sunday I've been biking 15 miles and following it up with a 3.5 mile run. I don't have a real road bike, just a decent mountain bike, but I did swap out the pedals for the clip-on type, and that change alone took 5 minutes off my bike time. Learning to swim properly has been the hardest part. I've always been able to swim, but not "swim-swim"..know what I mean? The idea of exhaling into the water was very hard for me to get used to, but the last few weeks it's been great. I'm pretty excited.
I completed my first triathlon today! Overall a pretty great experience. On the unofficial standing I finished 17th in my age group (hopefully there were more than 17 in my age group). The swimming for me was by far the most difficult part. Despite all my practice, swimming in open water (for the first time ever) while being kicked in the face a couple times really threw me off. I felt good on the bike, but I forgot my damn Camelbak at the transition station and didn't have any hydration for the bike or the run. I think I was just so happy to be out of the water that I rushed myself a bit getting ready for the bike. The run felt fine. I feel like I could have done faster, but I'm not sure that I really could have. When the official results get posted I'll be sure to share them.
Swimming is always tough, for myself added 40 minutes of walking up and down hillsides to my workout.
This is horrible... Apparently a man died during the swim portion of the triathlon I was in on Sunday. When I was in the bike transition I heard someone from the shoreline call for a paramedic, and an ambulance came down the Market St. bridge as I was on the bike. I heard rumblings at the finish that a man had a heart attack, but it turns out it was actually a drowning. This scares the hell out of me, because that was my biggest fear. http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130715_ap_12409e40b128464ba393cdbe2ebf7389.html
My official times are in! Swim (0.8 miles) - 17:31 Transition 1 - 2:04 Bike (14.5 miles) - 45:01 Transition 2 - 1:14 Run (3.1 miles) - 25:27 Pretty good for my first Triathlon I think. I'm not 100% sure that the distances are completely accurate, but this is what they have on their website.
You run time is very good! Less than a 9 minute mile. I think if you continue training you could vastly improve your swim time.
Thanks man! When I go out and just do a run, I avg. about 7:45 for 3.5 miles. I think I was just a bit gassed. When transitioning from the swim to the bike, I forgot my camelbak and had no hydration at all for the bike or run..so my juice was probably running a bit low. It was also my first time on that particular bike. A buddy of mine from work let me borrow his road bike since I only have a mountain bike. Hmm..after doing the math I avg.'d an 8:11 mile...so not too far off my "fast" pace. I'm stoked!
Good work Pads! Keep it up. My 4th round of P90X starts Monday...along with some half-marathon training. I'm going road bike shopping this afternoon. I'm addicted.
Yeah I had never been on a road bike until my buddy let me borrow his Trek 2.3 for my triathlon. I absolutely loved it. I figure if I'm going to be doing any more events, I might as well invest in a bike for myself. I have a nice mountain bike, but it's so night and day between that and the nice road bike.
Exactly, different gearing, different weight, more responsive, I ride a hybrid or old school ten speed nearly everywhere. Just make sure the "fit" is proper. I live in mtns which cuts the effective commute range to 5 miles or so one way, on flatter land 10 miles one way would be simple. Most people can peddle at 20 mph, or a mile every 3 minutes, half an hour trip is not that big a deal on flat land.
Yesterday began yet another round of P90X, starting with Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X. I forget how many rounds this is now. It had been a while since I've done this routine, and it felt like the first time all over again. My numbers certainly show that I've been through it a few times, but my body felt absolutely wrecked. It just goes to show that even as you get better, it still holds up and is as intense on day 1 as it is on day <insert number here>. Oh and I picked up a new road bike! I got the Trek Domane 4.0.
Congratulations on picking up a bike! And I've heard nothing but good things from P90X. I haven't tried it myself, although I did try Insanity and thought it was a great workout but it started to bore the **** out of me and got old quick. Might try to download it and do it again though, who knows. Also as a general note in regards to weight loss, I have found that coffee is an AMAZING tool for helping to curb hunger. Next time you are hungry have a cup of coffee and wait like 5 minutes before you eat and you'll eat far less or decide to not even eat in general.
This is at least my 3rd full round of it, along with a couple rounds of P90X2 and Body Beast. I've done 2 rounds of Insanity, and one each of Insanity Asylum Vol.1 & Vol.2 Full disclosure though, I'm a coach for this stuff, so I'm addicted to it And you're right about coffee..caffeine is a main ingredient in most "fat burners" because it's such a good appetite suppressant. Just watch what you put in it
Finished up my first week of this round of P90X last week. Did Legs & Back before we hit the road to go to VA to visit my grandmoms and go fishing. It's pretty cool to see how far we progress as we get more fit. I remember during my first round of P90X a couple years ago, during the pullup moves during the back exercises, I could do 2 or 3 pullups at most before I went to the assist band. Now I stop myself at 15 to make sure I have enough gas to finish up, and I did it with no problem. That feels awesome My buddy and I brought our bikes down to ride Saturday morning before we all went out on my boat, and took advantage of the nice flat roads for about a 17 mile ride. I love that new bike. When me, my wife, and daughter got home on Sunday and after some rest, I decided to go for a run and check out my new 'hydration belt' made by Nathan. My previous long run was just under 6 miles. I went 10.4 miles yesterday..holy crap!
Hit a wall this week, was doing two a days walking up and down the mtn side and bike commuting and my legs felt completely dead and my injured knee simply began locking up on me. Soo..2 days off, and today it begins again.
All worked though, down to 200 pds for the first time in a while. Tonight start the walking cycle again, which tbh, is hateful to me. "..oh good, another hill..is this lap #4 or #5 ?..."
Since April, I moved, my son was born, and with work...I haven't done a thing but eat garbage. I lost 18 pounds. Unfortunately, 16 of them are muscle. I'm hoping to get back into things in a week or two.
Congrats on the arrival of your son man! That's awesome. You'll get back on the wagon, no worries at all. What an awesome morning yesterday. Did 15.7 miles on the bike from my house to the Hanover Junction Rail Trail, where my wife and daughter met me. We put my bike in the truck and I changed my shoes and went for a 7 mile run while my wife jogged and daughter rode her bike. Now time to give my legs a break and do some upper body today (after all, P90X Legs and Back was Friday).
Finally got below 200 pds again, and took a week off as my knee just was not happy with the amount of work I was putting in. Checked the mileage on the trail and it's 3.2, up and down steep hills, quite the workout.
Those hills are a killer man. Walking, biking, jogging, doesn't matter what you do when you start incorporating hilly terrain it works ya
Landed a job near my house basically loading trucks, on my feet for 8 hrs per day in a un air conditioned warehouse...yeah baby 185 here I come!!! TBH, that is my bottom weight, not sure if anyone else can really understand this, but that whole "5% body fat" stuff looks great, but if you get to light you feel weak, tired, and vaguely sick all the time if your weight drops to low.
I get ya...I'm not too worried about my actual BF%, because measuring it is far from perfect anyway. I use the scale, measurements, and the mirror. Also a major thing for me this spring/summer has been performance. Can I do more? How do I feel after working myself hard? etc... I'm naturally a thin guy anyway. I don't know if I'd ever get to 185 lbs (currently 160) without just straight up weightlifting for a couple years, but that would go against my athletic goals. I do have my "bulk" program I do in the winter since I can't get out as much as I'd like, but I ditch that quick for circuit style stuff (P90X, X2) or HIIT (Insanity) or cycling/running.
Nice for me is since power lifting in HS I've always kept a muscular frame, even when I ballooned to 255ish, now about two weeks of consistent lifting and I've bulked up noticeably. My problem has always been that sort of last 10 pds and my body structure means I basically have to wear size 34's when 32 should be my nature pant size, just have a really thick core.
I hate that, since entering my 30s, my face and jowls are the last place to lose any excess chunk. Freakin bull****.
Sure would be nice if we could "spot-remove" fat. My area is the love handles...everything else seems to carve up but they just hang on.
That is sort of where I am at, the last 10 pds are hanging on tenaciously in the mid section. My solution is not for everyone, basically this is where I use supplements and eat very very little. That seems to be handling it, but it is slooowww..starting that new job and all of the activity will help, but I'm also going to have to work that job AND do extra cardio work to get rid of it. Other thing is, and it's funny, why is it after a long day of work, the "go home and work out" becomes "go home, eat dinner, have a couple of beers", it's like genetic programming..
Everything I've read points to dietary changes being key to that last bit of change...so like you said either eating very little (which might actually make your body hold on to the fat, because it thinks it's being starved), or changing around what you're eating. Carb-cycling works for a lot of people, as does strictly low carb stuff, but I can't stand doing that because I feel so damn sluggish when I've tried it.
Yep, for myself I up the protein and fiber intake and reduce excessive eating. It is tough though, I've plateau'd around 200 pds, my goal is the low 190's, I'll work for 4-5 days and see what effect it has, if I'm still around 200 I know I'll have to up the cardio and hit the weights more diligently.
I had myself a hell of a busy weekend. Saturday the wife and I did a major cleaning job on the garage. Afterward I decided to go for a run. I knew I wanted to go over 6 miles, but I figured I'd just see how I felt and go from there. Well I ended up doing a half-marathon. Holy crap. What really shocked me is that my energy level and my breath felt absolutely fine. My legs and feet were screaming though. My previous best run was just over 10 miles. I have an official half-marathon race in September, so I thought is was pretty cool that I was able to do one on a whim. We went out to eat a little later and I think I ate all the food at the Japanese Steak House. This morning my buddy came over and we went for a nice 18 mile bike ride. When I got home I push mowed my front yard and around my pool area. I'm a tired boy right now. Oh, and I finished up the 3rd week of this round of P90X. Next week is a recovery week that consists mostly of yoga, some light cardio, and core work.
I feel your pain about having a really thick core. I just got down to 200 and I still wear 36 lol. I think I even wore 36 when I was at 180 in high school.
Just curious, but how much weight has you dropped? Just trying to see your progress, you have to be killing it! I love seeing everyones progress every week! I know we all live in different areas, but I feel like we are all doing this together
Honestly I didn't have a ton of weight to drop when I started out about 2 years ago. I've always been naturally thin, but I had become that skinny dude with a gut. I started out around 182-185 and now I'm about 160 and holding. If you want I can PM you my facebook page and I have some before/after photos there. Since I'm a coach for beachbody programs I don't think it would be ok for me to post my links here on thephins
When I lost 4.2 pounds in one week to get below a plateau here is what I did: 7:30am: Coffee in the morning and then vitamins 10:30am: bottle of water 12:00pm: Coffee 3:00pm: 1.5 pounds of Friendship 1% cottage cheese 8:00pm: As much grilled Chicken Breast covered in Franks hot sauce that I could manage to eat I also might have had a protein shake with milk in there somewhere but NOT before 3:00pm. Basically, I used the coffee to suppress my appetite as long as I could manage and then pigged out on cottage cheese. The last half pound of cottage cheese was rough, but I forced it down by telling myself the weight loss would be worth it. I think I did that for two days in a row and then just continued eating like usual the other days. I actually plan on doing the same thing sometime this week. It definitely helped me out. I think it works on several levels: coffee as an appetite suppressant, INTERMITTENT FASTING (which is awesome for weight loss), tons of protein so you are full most of the day, and then very little calories.
