Good Morning,
Yes, I have been a slacker this week. Between Christmas parties, Christmas shopping, and whatever else I was doing at the time, it kept me from working out. No, that is not an excuse.
I am going out for a ride with my Georgia Tech cycling buddy today. Weather is nice it is going to be about 65 degrees this afternoon.
I have had a post that I have been wanting to put up on both my sites, due to the fact it is both sports related and a good post in general. For some reason I never got around to doing it. Since it is slow today, I thought it appropriate.
My best friend Matt is a Police officer with the Peachtree City (GA) Police Department. I have known him for about 12 years now, longer than any other friend I have known AND kept in touch with. We have always been there for each other, and inspired each other with lots we have done. When it comes to sports, Matt was very involved with martial arts when he was younger, and is still involved with weightlifting, although not at the same intensity that he used to. Due to the physical problems that have developed from weightlifting, he does not really get involved in sports where there is a lot of running or long term physcial stressors involved (unless their are breaks, timeouts, etc...). I on the other hand, have been doing some sort of physical sport, whether organized or personal, since I was about eight. The triathlon phase of my life (which I hope will now continue until I die) has now been in full swing for almost two years now, and he has seen me and supported my efforts. I always nag him, that he should get involved in running or triathlons, but he always says he could not make it the first mile. Whenever we used to work out at the same gym, I would sometimes get there just a bit earlier so I could run for a longer period of time than him, before we worked out. Recently his wife has gotten involved with running and has now completed a couple of 5K road races that were local ones in Peachtree City.
Weeks ago, I was working on Saturday morning, and I got a phone call on my cell around 10:30a or so. I called Matt back on my work phone and asked him what was going on. Right now he works the night shift, so he usually does not call me in the morning unless it is something semi-important. He called to tell me that he had just completed his first 5K event! He did admit that he walked and ran the event, but that he finished. It also happened to be the weekend when it was 18 degrees outside that Saturday morning. For those of you who have never lived in the SE United States, 18 degrees is damn cold for us. But he completed the event anyways. He said it was a really good experience, and that he would like to repeat so that maybe one day we could both run together in one.
I do not know all of his reasons for completing this event, whether it was solely for health reasons, wanting to do one with his wife, etc..., but I would like to think I had some small part in him completing his first event. Needless to say that I am very proud of him, that he was motivated enough to complete something he did not think he could do, and did anyways.
I will post some more later today with my bike stats for the day, so I am not quite done yet...
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Saturday, December 16, 2006
NO!!!!! NOT THE BIKE!!!!! OH THE AGONY!!!!
Hello All,
Well Wednesday night I went for another swim, and saw a few of the guys I had met on Monday night there. I kind of kept track this time. I know you guys (and girls) are saying I need a set training schedule, but I really need to get back on the ball before I can "do any tricks." I basically did a warmup, and then a 400M free main set, and then a 8 X 50M free sprint set. I finished up by sitting in the hot tub.
Friday I was going to work out, but I had some community service to complete. Don't ask. Long story. The weather has been nice here in Atlanta, and my community service for the day was to rake leaves at one of the cemetaries in downtown Atlanta. I raked leaves all day long, and I swear I raked at least an acre by myself. It actually got warm enough yesterday that I could have work shorts there (but it was cold in the morning). I burned so many calories doing that, when I finally got home and took a shower I did not want to do anything else. So Friday's workout was 8 hours of raking and bagging leaves. There is your CROSS TRAINING for you!
I am thinking about hitting the pool again today here in a little while. Jackie and I are going to ride the Silver Comet trail tomorrow for some base riding. Oh, and her sister totally hit her bike with the car when coming in from downtown late last night, and I will have to plug CYCLEWORKS big time for this one. Jackie was devastated when she saw what happened, since she was going to ride today. So she took the bike to Cycleworks where she bought it and they fixed the whole thing for FREE! And it was not even the store's fault. They kick ass.
Well I hope everyone is having a productive workout weekend, as the weather here in the SE United States kicks butt this weekend.
Murtha...
Well Wednesday night I went for another swim, and saw a few of the guys I had met on Monday night there. I kind of kept track this time. I know you guys (and girls) are saying I need a set training schedule, but I really need to get back on the ball before I can "do any tricks." I basically did a warmup, and then a 400M free main set, and then a 8 X 50M free sprint set. I finished up by sitting in the hot tub.
Friday I was going to work out, but I had some community service to complete. Don't ask. Long story. The weather has been nice here in Atlanta, and my community service for the day was to rake leaves at one of the cemetaries in downtown Atlanta. I raked leaves all day long, and I swear I raked at least an acre by myself. It actually got warm enough yesterday that I could have work shorts there (but it was cold in the morning). I burned so many calories doing that, when I finally got home and took a shower I did not want to do anything else. So Friday's workout was 8 hours of raking and bagging leaves. There is your CROSS TRAINING for you!
I am thinking about hitting the pool again today here in a little while. Jackie and I are going to ride the Silver Comet trail tomorrow for some base riding. Oh, and her sister totally hit her bike with the car when coming in from downtown late last night, and I will have to plug CYCLEWORKS big time for this one. Jackie was devastated when she saw what happened, since she was going to ride today. So she took the bike to Cycleworks where she bought it and they fixed the whole thing for FREE! And it was not even the store's fault. They kick ass.
Well I hope everyone is having a productive workout weekend, as the weather here in the SE United States kicks butt this weekend.
Murtha...
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Slowly but Steady...
Hi Folks,
I am getting there, I promise you. I really want to update my blog for next year as well, so we will see if I can create some kind of banner and maybe some other cool stuff. If you have any idea how to create all that cool stuff you see on these other blogs, or you went to some website and paid to have it done, just let me know how you did it. Thank you.
I eluded to Saturday's run in my last post. By the way, even though the post says December 2nd, I finally finished it on December 9th. Here is how it panned out.
Distance: ~3 miles (do not have a pedometer or Garmin, and where I live I have not measured it out by car yet)
Time: ~31 minutes
Pace: 10:20/mi
I was really taking it easy, seeing as how the last time I ran was when??? Oh yeah, long time ago.
Monday night I went swimming for the first time since October 8th. Ok, yes you can scold me now. I spent about 30 minutes in the pool, although I was not swimming the enitre time. I am going to the gym in about 15 minutes and I am going to run on the treadmill for a little warmup, and then I am going to spend a bit more time in the pool tonight.
I am going to have a bit of free time, oh wait, no I am not. Well I will FIND some time this weekend to get a full schedule going, with weight training.
If you have not seen my post on raceAthlete.com about weight training, check it out here.
Speaking of raceAthlete.com, I just have been trying to get caught up on everyone's blogs, and I saw the new cycling Jersey for 2007 for team raceAthlete. I definately want to get one.
Oh well, it is off to the gym for me, and hopefully this will finally be the start of my 2007 season!!!
Here we go.......
Murtha...
I am getting there, I promise you. I really want to update my blog for next year as well, so we will see if I can create some kind of banner and maybe some other cool stuff. If you have any idea how to create all that cool stuff you see on these other blogs, or you went to some website and paid to have it done, just let me know how you did it. Thank you.
I eluded to Saturday's run in my last post. By the way, even though the post says December 2nd, I finally finished it on December 9th. Here is how it panned out.
Distance: ~3 miles (do not have a pedometer or Garmin, and where I live I have not measured it out by car yet)
Time: ~31 minutes
Pace: 10:20/mi
I was really taking it easy, seeing as how the last time I ran was when??? Oh yeah, long time ago.
Monday night I went swimming for the first time since October 8th. Ok, yes you can scold me now. I spent about 30 minutes in the pool, although I was not swimming the enitre time. I am going to the gym in about 15 minutes and I am going to run on the treadmill for a little warmup, and then I am going to spend a bit more time in the pool tonight.
I am going to have a bit of free time, oh wait, no I am not. Well I will FIND some time this weekend to get a full schedule going, with weight training.
If you have not seen my post on raceAthlete.com about weight training, check it out here.
Speaking of raceAthlete.com, I just have been trying to get caught up on everyone's blogs, and I saw the new cycling Jersey for 2007 for team raceAthlete. I definately want to get one.
Oh well, it is off to the gym for me, and hopefully this will finally be the start of my 2007 season!!!
Here we go.......
Murtha...
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Here I am!!!
Hi All,
Yes, I am alive. If you look at my last post below, I will have to say I did not get better (finally) until about the 26th-27th. Since this thing was viral, my body had to fight it, and it had a real problem getting rid of this sinus cold or whatever the hell I had. I did OJ, Odwalla Citrus C Monster, Chicken Soup, Sleep, Rest, Not going out, basically everything you are supposed to do. I was able to get out last weekend (two days in a row!) and ride on the Silver Comet Trail. Here are the stats;
11/18/2006
Distance: 20 miles
Time ??? (I really did not care, Jackie and I were taking it easy that day)
Avg Speed ???
11/19/2006
Distance: 36 miles
Time: ~2 hours
Avg Speed: ~18mph
11/26/2006
Distance: 33.29 miles
Time: 1:55:50
Avg Speed: 17.2 mph
Max Speed: 25.8 mph
(There was a hell of a lot of wind this day. Real big pain in the ass. Made have a bit more appreciation for people who have been on the Queen K.)
So I am about four weeks behind (I am finishing this post on 12/09/2006) in my "2007 Triathlon Season." I am not too worried, since I was getting started extra early. I was trying to get "ahead of the game" so I would not have to worry about sickness, proper taper before first race, etc. Well I blew my wad with the sickness deal. I did get a few emails from a couple of you wondering where in the heck I was. I appreciate it.
I am also trying to get a second job to pay down some debt and get some money saved in the bank. I have had a stacked schedule like this in college at one time, but I was not training for triathlons. So I will have to see how this whole thing is going to work out. I think I am going to have to do fewer, but more quality workouts each week. I know from experience that the minute you try to do too much, your body is going to break down and you are going to have problems (i.e. pneumonia, acute sinusitus, etc... basically stuff I have gotten from overdoing it).
I went out running today for about three miles I think (I will have to measure it when I take my bike out next time). It was at the Silver Comet Trail. The temperature was about 49 degrees. I was a bit bundled up, but I ended up leaving most of it in the car, and I was just fine. It is that first few minutes of stretching and getting ready to run that kills me in the cold.
I hope all of you have had a great past 3-4 weeks with the holidays and your off season training. I am going to try and get caught up on some of your older posts, so don't be suprised if you see me commenting on something that you don't remember writing about the previous day.
Going to cut down my Christmas tree tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
Murtha...
Yes, I am alive. If you look at my last post below, I will have to say I did not get better (finally) until about the 26th-27th. Since this thing was viral, my body had to fight it, and it had a real problem getting rid of this sinus cold or whatever the hell I had. I did OJ, Odwalla Citrus C Monster, Chicken Soup, Sleep, Rest, Not going out, basically everything you are supposed to do. I was able to get out last weekend (two days in a row!) and ride on the Silver Comet Trail. Here are the stats;
11/18/2006
Distance: 20 miles
Time ??? (I really did not care, Jackie and I were taking it easy that day)
Avg Speed ???
11/19/2006
Distance: 36 miles
Time: ~2 hours
Avg Speed: ~18mph
11/26/2006
Distance: 33.29 miles
Time: 1:55:50
Avg Speed: 17.2 mph
Max Speed: 25.8 mph
(There was a hell of a lot of wind this day. Real big pain in the ass. Made have a bit more appreciation for people who have been on the Queen K.)
So I am about four weeks behind (I am finishing this post on 12/09/2006) in my "2007 Triathlon Season." I am not too worried, since I was getting started extra early. I was trying to get "ahead of the game" so I would not have to worry about sickness, proper taper before first race, etc. Well I blew my wad with the sickness deal. I did get a few emails from a couple of you wondering where in the heck I was. I appreciate it.
I am also trying to get a second job to pay down some debt and get some money saved in the bank. I have had a stacked schedule like this in college at one time, but I was not training for triathlons. So I will have to see how this whole thing is going to work out. I think I am going to have to do fewer, but more quality workouts each week. I know from experience that the minute you try to do too much, your body is going to break down and you are going to have problems (i.e. pneumonia, acute sinusitus, etc... basically stuff I have gotten from overdoing it).
I went out running today for about three miles I think (I will have to measure it when I take my bike out next time). It was at the Silver Comet Trail. The temperature was about 49 degrees. I was a bit bundled up, but I ended up leaving most of it in the car, and I was just fine. It is that first few minutes of stretching and getting ready to run that kills me in the cold.
I hope all of you have had a great past 3-4 weeks with the holidays and your off season training. I am going to try and get caught up on some of your older posts, so don't be suprised if you see me commenting on something that you don't remember writing about the previous day.
Going to cut down my Christmas tree tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
Murtha...
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