Rollers are WAY more fun than the trainer!

I said I was going to learn how to ride rollers before winter ended!

It was kind of hard at first.



I just kept getting back on though.

(this video is sideways, sorry)



I finally got it down and made it almost an hour without falling. I love being able to really feel like I am riding, even if it is just in a straight line.

Last night me and Dominic were watching You Tube videos of people trying to ride rollers for the first time. Check this dork out, he's even wearing a helmet. Then there's the really cool tricksters. This guy totally rocks. I wish I could be as good as him.

Dominic's desperately needs a project to do. He can't paint any of his sanded down bike frames (I think he has 3 waiting to be painted!) because it's too cold and the paint bubbles up. So he's going to make e-motion rollers out of the ones we have. Kind of like this. He says we'll really be able to hammer out some miles this way. I cannot wait!

Thanks for all of your comments from the post below. I really appreciate your honesty.

On an ending note - send us some healing thoughts for Dominic's 8 year old fish, Rocco. He's got a nasty fish disease called "Hole in the Head". Dominic will probably lose it if Rocco dies.

Thanks for reading.

Why do you read this blog?

I have been in a funk the last week or two. I don't know if it's this cold ass winter weather, PMS, or my money woes. I guess it's just everything. So, because of this funk of a mood I am in, I haven't really felt like blogging. I don't have anything to say. I am sick of the same old bullshit blogging I do. I am sick of my swim sets, sick of my runs, sick of it all.

I know that people read this blog. I have 35 "followers". My statcounter shows an average of 92 visitors a day, and more than 60 returning visitors. I posted a poll last week and had 36 votes.

So readers.....why DO you read this blog?

What do you want from this blog?

Do you want more addiction stories? I don't mind talking about my "heroin years". I just don't know how it relates to Ironman training, ya know? I'd like to share my story, if only to help someone else with addiction. I just don't know HOW to do it. I am more like "today I did such and such" and that's just SO fucking boring.

I don't know what direction to take this blog anymore. Help me out.

This week in pictures

12 mile run

on the trainer

yummy dinner

bruno

ari

dominic got new glasses

2 pair

snowed in

snow day!

Saturday Recap

POLL

So far, 3 of my readers think I have no clue what I am doing. That's ok, cuz I kind of agree with them.

WEEKLY RECAP:

Sunday - 10 mile run, 45 minute Spinerval Zoot Challenge

Monday - Crossfit, + 30 minutes of weights, 3 mile run with dogs, 2200y swim

Tuesday - 10 mile run, 90 minutes power yoga

Wednesday - 4x1200's total 5.5 miles 80 minute Spinerval

Thursday - 3000y swim

Friday OFF

Saturday - 4 mile run

Total hours - 11.5 hours (including yoga, but NOT including my dog's walks/hikes).

I got an email on Facebook, from a Blogger friend, who told me some things about over training. These two things really stuck out in my head:

1. You should rest as hard as you train.

2. No one wins any races in January.

I looked at my IMKY training schedule that's not supposed to start until 4/13. It starts out at 8 hours the 1st week. If I continue to train 11 hours a week now, I'll be burnt out by the time the real training kicks in.

BUT, I am registered for a full marathon on May 3rd.

I just have to make it all work. I know I can.

1991-ish

This picture was taken at an annual Halloween party this guy Kevin used to throw every year. He had a huge bon fire and everyone was always there. It's funny, even Dominic went to his parties, but we didn't know each other back then.

The last 4 days I have over trained because I can't seem to contain myself. I am so fucked up, that I can't seem to just stop and chill out. I am wired all wrong. Nothing seems to make me slow the fuck down and go sit on the couch, except lots of training. I just can't seem to calm down. So now I am feeling run down, I can't stop coughing and I am snapping at the dogs.

I am almost scared for the IMKY training to really start because the starting hours will be so little compared to what I am doing now. Hence the reason for a coach, but no funds for that. I bet I have more than 11 hours of training just from the last 4 days. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I definitely have the January Blues. The cold is really kicking my ass and I am trying to fight it.

Yesterday I met up with my buddy Tom (Amanda's training buddy from last summer). He is doing a 70.3 in April and had a 90 minute run on his schedule. Despite me already having done a 10 miler on Sunday, I told him I'd run with him yesterday. It was about 22 degrees. No wind, or so I thought. I was looking forward to hearing him talk and also the Nky scenery. I get sick of running on the west side. We had a great run though it was cold. It was really good to see him again. He is such a good guy.

Today I met up with Heather and Tom also came along. We were doing speedwork at the track. We did the following workout:

2x800 warm up

4x1200 with a 400 recovery lap in between each 1200

2x800 cool down (I only did 1x800)

My times were good!!

5:21 (tooooo fast, almost puked)

5:39

5:37

5:36

According to the McMillan running calculator I should be running 1200's in 6:29 so I am way ahead of schedule.

I was coughing and hacking after each one. After the first one, I swear I felt those hard boiled egg whites about to come up. That's why I slowed it down.

Total miles for me 5.5.

When I got home, I, like the super idiot that I am, decided to do an 80 minute Spinerval DVD (courtesy of Claire) called Time Trialapalooza, #22. Difficulty level 9.8. "A time trial workout - increase anaerobic threshold while measuring power". I love having cadence now. I ended up turning it off about 14 minutes early because I had to work from home tonight and the dogs still needed a walk. Ugh.

Now I am coughing like some maniac crackhead.

I obviously over trained.

Can someone come and just sit on me for a while and make me stop?

I got a body fat test today!

And hell yea I am gonna brag on it!

I went to Crossfit today. Rainer, the owner of DAS gym is a body builder and CF junkie extraordinaire. I trusted him to give me an accurate test.

He gave me a 9 point caliper body fat test. Which basically means he pinched me in 9 spots - along my back, stomach, quad, calf, and arm. Then he told me to go weigh myself, and I was about 4 lbs over what I normally weigh. I was holding water from a salty dinner last night so I didn't expect good results.

He came back with 13.3%! HOLLA!!!

That's pretty good for 38 years old. I was so psyched. He made my day.

Crossfit went like this:

Warmup: 90 sec Run/Jump Rope
Push-ups/Squats, 5 Jumping Jacks (starting at 10 push ups, 10 squats, 5 JJ, then 9 push ups, 9 squats, 5 JJ, 8 push ups, 8 squats, 5 JJ, etc....until you had 1 push up 1 squat, 5 JJ)


WOD for MLK day - Rainer is creative.
M - Medicine Ball Thrusters
L - Lunges
K - KB Swings
J - Jumping Pull-ups
R - Rower
3 rounds 1 minute on, 1 minute off.




After class I did about 30 more minutes of weights, lower back, upper back, biceps and shoulders.

Yesterday I had the shittiest run of my life. I ran 10 miles and the windchill was at around 13. I know, I know, at least we had positive numbers, but the headwind sucked and my face was freezing and I was cussing at the wind and just wanted to go home.

I was so pissed when I got home that I decided to spin my legs on the trainer. I did a 45 minute Spinerval that Betty Betty sent me called The Zoot Challenge. That's a hell of a workout with lots of standing and sprinting. And can you believe there is a girl on there wearing a fucking bathing suit???

For my Facebook Friends......

I laughed so hard I cried.....

11 hours and counting.....

Yesterday it was 7 degrees in Cincinnati when I woke up. I can't run in that kind of cold like my hard core girl Julie up in Chicago, or Vito and Steve in Minnesota. Fuck that.

I went to the Y and ran on the dreaded treadmill. I forgot how hot and sweaty those treadmill runs can be. I didn't do any kind of set intervals but I did get up to 8.0 MPH (I think that's a 7:30 minute mile) and ended the run with 5 miles in 43 minutes. An 8:40 pace. My face was bright red and my clothes were soaked. It wasn't as torturous as I thought it would be.

After the run I changed into my suit to swim. It felt good to get in and swim, but once again, my lower back was killing me. I did more kicks than I'd have liked:

1x200 warm up
1x100 kick
1x200 pull
2x500 intervals (25e, 25f, 50e, 50f, 75e, 75f, 100e, 100f)
1x50 kick
1x300 free
1x50 kick
1x200 free
1x50 kick
1x100 free (fast)
1x50 kick
1x200 cool down

2500y total

Today it was -7 when I woke up. So, obviously no run with the dogs. Plus Ari is favoring one paw. I think he might have hurt his toe. They wanted nothing to do with the outside and went back on the couch under their blankets.

I hopped on the bike and did a Spinerval DVD called "Hillacious". It was 65 minutes long. This is another great DVD that Claire sent me, and it just kicked my ass. Dominic switched out my stem, moved my seat a little forward, and the fit seems to be about perfect now. I am not reaching as much and can comfortably switch gears in my drops.

Recap so far this week:

Sunday - 12 mile run
Monday - 90 minutes of weights including a Crossfit class and a 4 mile run
Tuesday - 4000y swim
Wednesday - 2 hour Spinerval bike session
Thursday - 5 mile run, 2500y swim
Friday - 1 hour Spinerval bike session
Saturday - ??

Have a good weekend everyone. Thanks for reading, and stay warm!

I am going to leave you with an old picture of me in 1982, at camp, when I was 12. I had body image problems even that young. I actually thought I was fat.

I am the last one on the left.

I don't wanna walk around with you

Here is the link to the news story about Crossfit. My 5 seconds of fame.....

I am still sore 2 days after that Crossfit class. All over sore.
That didn't stop me from my other workouts though.

Yesterday I did a long swim. I was too sore to do anything else. It felt ok, my times were sucky, and my lower back hurt a lot after. I asked Marni about it and she thinks I need to kick more from the hip and not just from my shins and feet. Anyone else have anything to add to that? It seems to be an ongoing problem.

The set was as follows:

1x500 warm up
1x100 kick
1x200 pull
1x100 kick
1x200 pull
5x200
3x300
2x400
1x200 cool down

Total 4000y

After the swim, me and Dominic ran some errands and had lunch. Last night we watched this documentary on The Ramones called End of the Century. It was good. I gotta go download some of the old stuff I liked so much (the name of this post is a great song). I never knew Johnny was such a dickhead all those years, and he was always my favorite Ramone. Now Deedee RIP is.

Total sweat session


Today I did a 2 hour Spinerval DVD called Have Mercy. It's a compilation of some of the hardest Spinerval interval sets out there. And now I have cadence on my new computer so I am working even harder. I actually got up to 150 on one of the sets and I was cussing Coach Troy very loud. My quads were screaming for most of the 2 hours. The time flew by and my ass wasn't even broken! I put the front wheel on two thick telephone books and I think that helped plus I had on my cushiest chamois.

My bike is in a good position and it felt pretty good except I need a shorter stem. I was reaching too much. I really can't wait to ride it outside.

Sore

Yesterday I met up with Sandi, Heather and a guy named Rick for a 12 mile run. All of us are doing the Flying Pig marathon and we're all registered for IMKY. They all run much faster than me but promised to slow the run down some just for me. About a mile into the run, I could tell it was going to hurt.

Heather brought her dog Jeb and Sandi brought her dog Mikah. I should have brought Ari but he's not used to that much mileage. I'll have to build him up to it.

We did a lot of the mileage on the actual marathon course, which is something I usually avoid when training for the Pig. I usually train off the course, so that when I finally run the race, I am not sick of the scenery.

About 3 miles into it, I felt like I was running my 10k pace (a tad under 9 minute miles). I pushed though it and kept on running, even up the hills in Eden Park, which are known to hurt a lot. Lucky for me, Sandi had to pee, so we stopped for about 5 minutes at Rick's parents condo. It was a nice break. We headed on through Walnut Hills and then through O'Bryanville. We stopped at a popular running store there and took another pee and water break. Then it was downhill towards Eastern ave and all flat the rest of the way back downtown.

Rick and Sandi mapped it out and we totaled 12 miles. It felt more like 22 miles because of the pace. Heather seems to think I can finish the Pig in 4 hours but I am not sure. If my 800's continue to stay at or around 3:45, I guess it's possible.....who knows.



Today I woke up early and headed to a Crossfit class. I have been Facebooking with Rainer, the CF teacher at DAS gym. He sent out an invite for today's class because Channel 12 news was going to be there filming. It was fun. He totally kicked my ass.




After the warm up, we did tabata's (20 seconds on, 10 seconds off, intervals of squats, push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks 3x) our WOD was as follows:

Parallette Push-ups
Wall Balls
KB Swings
AbMat Sit-ups
Pull-ups
DB Snatch
DB OHD Walking Lunges
.12 mile run
Slam Balls
BB Push Presses
Squat Jumps
Rope Climb

12 reps on each exercise, 2 rounds for time.

After class, I lifted weights for another 30 minutes. Tonight I am sore as shit.

In addition to the CF class, I ran Nancy's dogs 4 miles and hiked another 3 miles with my own dogs. I am exhausted. I should be on the news tomorrow at 5pm. I'll post a link if I can find it.

Here she is!

January rain

As I was getting ready for work yesterday morning, my home work phone rang. It was my boss telling me to log in from home due to bad weather that was expected. She wanted everyone scheduled this weekend to work from home too. In order to be able to focus on work, my dogs need to be fully exercised.

So this morning I woke up to freezing rain. My dogs hate the rain.

But I knew if didn't run the dogs, they'd be up my ass all day.

I got dressed in my kick ass thermal running tights, a base layer, hoodie, and rain jacket. Then I put my dog's coats on. They have Pilot Dog coats (from 4 years ago). Ari wears Cheeko's old coat. They are weather proof on the outside and have a wool lining on the inside. They kind of look like horse blankets.

Cheeko and Lucy in their coats and leg warmers on their necks

We step outside. Ari tries to run back inside. I pulled him back out and off we go. It was a short run, just 4 miles. It was cold, wet, and miserable. My dogs were not happy.

Ari did the happy dance when we got home and both dogs only got wet on their faces and legs. The coats kept them dry for the most part.

Good week

I am logging about 11-12 hours of training a week right now. I really don't want to go over that if I can help it because I don't want to be over trained before IMKY training really kicks in.

Yesterday I met Sandi and Heather at Heather's work and we ran the mile over to UC's running track. Another girl named Ivy met us over there. It was snowing and windy and cold and it sucked.

We did 8 x 400 (I averaged 1:35) with a recovery 400 in between each sprint. Then we ran the mile back to our cars (about 6 total).

The 400's are easier than the 800's but trackwork just sucks. This is the 1st time I didn't actually have to pee, crap or puke during the sprints. I suppose that means I am getting used to them? Or maybe I didn't work as hard.

After the track we all went for coffee and I ate lunch. Sandi and Heather are nice girls. Heather is also doing the Flying Pig and she's trying to qualify for Boston. It's nice to have some cool women to train with.

Dominic was working at the bike shop for a few hours, so after lunch, I went to see him and check on my new bike. We are waiting on various parts to arrive so it's not going to be built until next week. I still can't believe how light that frame is. I am so not worthy!

After we left the bike shop I went to the Y for 2500y in the pool. I can't remember the entire workout but I did 10x100 and averaged 1:34.

Today I got up early and went to a spinning class at the Y since I have no bike to ride on my trainer. I suppose I could ride my fixie but the last time I did that, I didn't sweat much so I didn't feel like I got a very good workout.

The spin class kicked my ass! I had the resistance up too high! DUH! I felt like I had to puke for about 75% of the class. I liked it though. I will be going back to that class again sometime.

After class I did 9 sets of shoulders in the weight room and then headed over to Emily's for some girl time. We had some cheerios and talked for a bit and then I had to come home and get the dogs out for a walk before I logged into work from home.


1986


I bought a scanner! Watch out!

I was 16. I only had my driver's licence for a few months and was going to soccer practice in my Mom's car. I don't know how I got involved with soccer since I went to a Performing Arts school. I only played a few games before dropping out. Our team sucked. I remember pulling a bag of weed of out of my cleats once during practice. I had forgotten that I had stuck it in there. Those girls thought I was nuts.

P.S. Thanks for voting in my poll. I am going to leave the lay out as is for now.

12 miles

The weather is wet, cold, and it's raining a mixture of ice, rain and sleet.

And I just ran 12 miles in that crap.

Man it's going to be a long winter.

Dominic got that GPS trainer programed last night and I took it out with me today. I have to say as far as gadgets go, all I have patience for is my MP3.

The run itself was good. I felt strong. I had some long hills included in today's route too (which I can't really avoid running from my house, anways).

Things I see on the ground during my runs

P.S. I really wasn't trying to be bitchy in the comments section below. I guess it just gets old when everytime I post pictures from a ride, I have more comments about my lack of helmet than anything else. Maybe I should disable the comment section for my riding posts. I don't know. I just know that the more you tell me to do something, I'm going to do the exact opposite.

First brick of 09

Yesterday was warm, 50's and wet. It had stopped raining, so me and Dominic went out for a ride. We rode about 2 hours total. It was a slow ride because it was so wet out. We rode from my house to downtown, up Vine street hill to Clifton. Then over the viaduct to Hyde Park, down to Mt. Lookout sq where it started raining really hard. I stopped to pee at a coffee shop and then we headed down to Eastern and back downtown. I was nervous riding in those conditions but I kept telling myself it was good to get out of my comfort zone on the bike. Once we were downtown, we headed back towards the west side and took Glenway hill back to my house. We got a few nice climbs in and my legs felt fresh.

25 very wet and cold miles.

After the ride I was supposed to go to the gym with Emily but she wasn't feeling good so I decided to go run. I ate a quick turkey sandwich and then changed into some running tights and left. I ran 30 minutes. It felt good.

Here are a couple of blurry pics from our ride.

ONE WORD - FAST!

Frame & Fork:
Frame Construction - Monocoque
Frame Tubing Material - Fuji C-10 Superlite High Modulus Carbon
Fork Brand & Model - Fuji FC-330 Carbon
Fork Material - Carbon fiber/carbon fiber steerer, aero crown