Back in the saddle...not really.

Well I am back working out. Today I ran then swam. Swimming is very hard when you do something tiring before it. I ran 4.1 miles in 30 min on the dreadmill and then swam for 30 mins alternating laps between breast stoke and freestyle. I was able to convince Capt Cueball to run and swim with me. It was fun having someone to endure my pain with. He did the same amount of time as I did, but just different distances. He just had a surgery on his man parts recently and is still a bit sore. Give him sometime.
I have kind of stopped riding my bike to work. It has gotten cold here in orlando (I know cold is relative to people in the N.E.) and biking to work in the cold is not an idea I am fond of. I didn't ride yesterday because it was cold. I was going to man up and ride today, but it was cold AND windy. If hadn't been windy I might have done it, but the combination is a tough one to over come. I have been told that when it gets cold in FL, wait a few days and it will warm up again. I surely hope so cause I might need to get warm workout clothes. I can't fathom how people in NYC run in the snow. That is retarded. If you can see your nose breath, you have business being outside for ANY reason. I am ok with your mouth breath, but if you can see your nose breath... stop what you are doing and go back inside.
Top 5 reasons not to go out into the cold...
1. I am skinny and cold to me is probably much colder than it is to you
2. Sometimes you can't simply put on more clothes to warm up
3. Nose breath... you have to be insane to be outside if you can see it
4. Cause warm is just so much nicer and way more enjoyable
5. Because the cold sucks. Flat out, it sucks

I almost didn't get to workout

So today at work we had the Marine Corp Cake Cutting Ceremony. Quite boring. Mostly pomp and circumstance for the civilians we work with. An opportunity to parade ourselves around and tell people that we are better than the other services. All while standing in the back row and getting served cake last. I'm sorry I thought this was the MARINE'S birthday cake, not the civilians that work with us... I'm off my soap box but Capt Cue Ball at work agrees with me.

Moving along...
I went to the YMCA (it's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.Aaaa) and there was all this police activity. Luckily I still got into the Y. Rumor has it that the park the YMCA is next to is where Caylee Anthony (google the name, but if you are too lazy... local little girl that went missing a while ago and was totally killed by her mom. I mean this mom is like O.J. guilty) was killed. Diver's apparently found human remains in the river, so police closed down the area. Like I said...luckily I was still able to get my workout in. Started off with a swim but actually did a warm up. I don't normally do that kind of thing (cause I'm always so hot enough...ohhh). Just kidding. Anyways, after the warm-up I did 800 meters as fast as I could alternating between freestyle and breast stroke. 800 meters (or 16 laps) in 16 mins. Not too shabby. After that I did a cool down.
After my swim I got on the dread mill (I mean, treadmill) and ran. I figure if I can run 7 miles an hour I can finish a marathon in under 4 hours easy. So I ran at 7 miles an hour. But around mile 3 music from the Foot Loose soundtrack came on, and I was unable to maintain my slow easy jog. It was like I could control my hand as I pushed the increase speed button making the machine go faster and faster. Luckily my legs were also possessed by the movie ghost of kevin bacon and were able to keep up with my possessed, speed increasing hands. In the end my whole body stayed in rhythm and I kept on running at what I call "Foot Loose Speed". For those of you keeping track "foot loose speed" is just a few notches below "hyper speed" which is just below "ludicrous speed". Those of course were made famous by the movie Space Balls (and if you haven't seen that movie, you are a bad person and Santa Clause won't visit your house until you rent it). So needless to say "Foot Loose Speed" is pretty fast.
Anyways...
Top Five Reason the Marines are the best...
1. Dress Blues
2. Jessica Lynch wasn't one of ours
3. Our Junior Officers can tell the difference between our head and our ass
4. Our Junior Enlisted Leadership (NCOs) really know the difference between their heads and their asses. This critical fact makes #3 possible.
5. Marine Movies get actors like Clint Eastwood (Heart Break Ridge), John Cena (The Marine), John Wayne (Sands of Iwo Jima), Samuel L Jackson (Clear and Present Danger), Will Smith (Independence Day) and Mark Wahlberg (Shooter).
The Army gets actors like Bill Murray (Stripes), Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan), Meg Ryan (Courage Under Fire), Tom Hanks (again) (Forest Gump), Alec Baldwin and Ben Affleck (Pearl Harbor).
The Navy gets actors like Tom Arnold (McHale's Navy), Owen Wilson (Behind Enemy Lines) and the Village People (Song: In the Navy).
And finally ... the US Air Force only has one movie about them and it is Air Force One. And they get their plane stolen from them and the President (an Old Harrison Ford) has to save the day.
Game, set, match.

A review...

So I have been busy the past few days. Let me fill you in.
Today my work had a card board (one word?) boat race. I had no idea what that was until now. I got voluntold that I was a rower for the team. So my buddy and I figured CHPs would be our theme for this year. He was Ponch and I was John from the late 70's show CHPs (California Highway Patrol). But our CHP was Combat Hardened People; he is an Afghanistan Vet. Here is me and jose as Ponch and John...

And this is what a boat race looks like...

And here are the other boats sinking...

We ended up getting second place in our heat for the fastest boat, but we took first place in the most laps (without sinking) in 10 mins. It was a fun race.

And also this past weekend the in-laws were in town visiting. I would call him papa-bear but he is more of a bull guy then a bear guy so let's call him papa bull. Papa Bull works for a company that has seminars from time to time at various locations throughout the US. Well when Papa bull saw there was one in Orlando he and Mama bull (ok I am done with the bull names) came out for a visit. The wifey's dad spend the day time in seminars and the wifey and her mom were shopping. Ok, they didn't shop everyday. One day we all sat out by the pool at the Ritz Carlton. The company doesn't skimp on accommodations. So I swam laps at the Ritz Carlton’s 50m resort style swimming pool. Ahh the swimming lap of luxury. Last night we all went to go see cirque du soleil at Downtown Disney. It was the first cirque du soleil I had ever been to and it really is a circus, just french and way cooler. It was a good chance to show off our house and show them our little world here in FL. And now that they have visited I can show pictures of our newly painted kitchen and living room. Complete with curtains (that I had nothing to do with).
Kitchen then Living Room before...

Kitchen then Living Room after...

And finally a family pic from the weekend...

And we had Veterans Day yesterday. I guess I never realized what a veteran was cause I found myself saying "happy veterans day" to guys and wondering if they were veterans or not. At first I thought veterans were people who had served in the military. But then I thought veterans had to sever in a war. But these days it is hard to be in the military and not be in a war, but still. So I asked around at work and asked the all knowing Google. So for those that don't know a veteran is "one who has served in the armed forces, but usually not someone who had a dishonorable discharge. " According to Wikipedia. Another definition I am fond of is "For dogs of not less than Seven years of age on the first day of the show". That is a quote from http://www.show-dogs.co.uk/ - The UK's premier site for dog showing, dog shows and schedules. So Veterans day in the UK is a day to celebrate dogs over the age of 7?!?

But I think a guy at work said it best (and he heard this from someone else) that a veteran is "someone that wrote a check to their country equal to the value of their life when they volunteered." I think the quote is pretty accurate. So I hope you all had a happy veterans day. I know I did.

So I am still training for something, but not sure what. My sister threw out the NYC Marathon but we will see. I guess I could try to qualify for Boston? Who knows? Top Five today...?
Top Five Reasons I am not doing a top five today...
1. I don't want to
2. I am tired
3. I used all my creativity at the boat race
4. Cause you don't pay me enough
5.

So what do I do now??

So I am a newbie to this insanity called triathlons and the Ironman and tend to make rookie mistakes quite often. Now as you can read directly to the right -----> you will see that the point of this blog was to document my training as I trained for the Florida Ironman next year. Well in the Ironman world, signup for next year's race starts the day after this year's race. so the 2008 Florida Ironman was on Nov 1 and signups for the 2009 (my goal) opened shortly there after. Seeing as how I have never done a single triathlon, I thought it was pretty ambitious to sign up for a full Ironman so soon. I figured I would give myself a bit of time and sign up in the next few months. I know these events can sell out so I didn't have forever... well less than forever turned out to be shorter than expected. The 2009 Florida Ironman sold out in a matter of hours. I recently bought concert tickets for a Fall Out Boy concert in December... and they didn't even sell out in hours like the Ironman did. Could it be that Ironman > Fall Out Boy? This thing is more popular than your senior prom queen. I knew there were crazy people in this world but a few hours?!?
So now begs the big question? So now what? With no 2009 Florida Ironman what do I do now. I don't know. I haven't figured it out yet. I guess I will just keep working out and keep looking.
Peace out.

A bit of rambling...

Well again, it has been a while. I have still been training but I was slacking on the blogging about it. Day light savings was this past weekend and I might as well call in Bud’s training light savings. I hate being awake in the morning and it still be dark outside. Getting up when it is still dark outside sucks. Staying awake and actually exercising while it is still dark outside… impossible. But now the sun is awake when I am and things are happy. From personal experiences of not seeing sunlight for days upon days, it is amazing what sunlight makes on our body clocks. I am staying up later, waking up earlier and I am feeling less tired then I did before. The Sun Rocks.
Anyways, this weekend the wifey’s best friend (or besty or BFF) flew into town. It was mainly a social visit, but she is an interior designer, so we put her to work. The weekend was spent taping, painting, buying curtains, hanging curtains, buying more throw pillows and then more painting. Luckily I didn’t have to be involved for all of it (namely the pillows and curtains, we have a lot of pillows) and I even was allowed to go to a college football game. The local team UCF (University of Central Florida) is pretty smart. They aren’t good just smart. And many other smaller and equally sucky schools have figured this out too. They know they aren’t going to ever be played on prime time or on a station other than local access if their games are the same times as everyone else. So they wised up and started playing college football on Thursday, Friday and Sunday nights. UCF played East Carolina on Sunday. Both teams sucked but I had fun.

Ok, new topic real quick… No that wasn’t a typo earlier. I said EAST Carolina. My map only has North and South Carolina, but no East on it. When I asked where East Carolina was I was told, just next to West Carolina but a bit more East. Seriously?!? East Carolina? I guess that isn’t as bad when there are schools like San Diego State or Chicago State University. Since when are San Diego or Chicago states?? Now I have Aztec pride and have a SDSU Diploma mounted on my wall (not mine though) but come on. San Diego isn’t a state but at least it is real. There is a San Diego. I can google it and look in up on a map. There isn’t an East Carolina. I can not look it up or google it. East Carolina? Seriously?? Ok soap box complete.

Anyways work outs…I got a book yesterday about how to train for multisport events. It should help me focus and better define a training plan. Right now my training plan is run, bike and swim as long and as fast as I can and eventually build up enough endurance and speed to finish an Ironman. That might not be the best training plan. Hopefully this book will help.
And here it is, today’s top 5: In honor of the elections I figured I would politically charge today’s top 5…
Reasons YOU should NOT vote:
1. It makes my vote more important
2. Most people are too stupid to know what they are voting for (that statement doesn’t exclude myself, but that doesn’t matter because of #1)
3. You probably don’t understand the electoral college and feel like you vote REALLY doesn’t matter because of it. For those of you who want to understand it better google “History of electoral college” and learn a thing or two. Or check out http://www.fec.gov/pdf/eleccoll.pdf
4. You think both candidates suck and really wish there was a choice of ‘neither’ on the ballot. If ‘neither’ wins both parties should elect a new candidate.
5. You are Katie Couric-ish and plan to move to Canada if your candidate loses. If this is the case don’t waste out time, don’t vote and move to Canada NOW! I am still waiting for her to move to Canada BTW…
Honorable mention:
You have a fear of public places (agoraphobia) and there isn’t online voting (yet).
You don’t want to give into the man and validate and contribute to the corruption involved in American politics. (If this is you, please refer to #1)

It's been a while...

Ok, so this weekend went exactly as I had hoped. I wanted to do something physical, ANYTHING but sleep is just too nice and enjoyable. I lifted weights on Friday, and did nothing this weekend. No swimming, no biking, no running, no lifting but plenty of sleeping. Sleeping IS one of my strengths. I am probably the best sleeper any of you know. Anytime, any where on any surface. If there is a challenge, bring it on. (Or bring it on 2) Anyways, Monday inevitably arrived and I had to go back to work, which meant I would work out again. Monday's workout consisted of swimming and lifting. I am getting better at swimming. My brother in law said he didn't want to do a triathlon with me (even though he already bikes and runs for recreation) because he said he would sink and he sucks at swimming. Everyone does! It has taken a while but I am getting better. The trick is your breathing. But that is not the point. Today I rode my bike into work despite it being freakin' cold and windy. I wore a long sleeve shirt which worked great for my top, but didn't do anything for my legs and my poor freezing hands. What a difference temp and outside conditions make on my biking. Normally I get to work in about 30 mins and bike around 20mph. Today it took like 45 and I avg around 15mph. What a difference being cold can make. For right now my whole body hurts and feels tight. I hurt in places that never hurt before (I still need bicycle shorts) so when I try to figure out too much or too little I guess for me I will keep up my 5 days a week program and then as I get closer to my longer triathlons (and after day light savings) I will add in morning workouts and weekends. But for now, I think 5 times a week works for me.

And now the real reason I blogged today... (and to be honest) the only real interesting part about my blog...Today's Top 5:Top 5 websites that are awesome, and a complete waste of time, and just cool. If you got time to kill you HAVE to check these out. And all are safe for work, maybe not for little eyes, but safe for adults. Enjoy.

1. www.Engrish.com - The wifey and I are going to submit to this website. For those that don't know... engrish is like spanglish... it is the Japan's (or other asian countries) attempt at speaking english. Way funny, cause they are real signs, commercials, t-shirts, etc.

2. www.YouGotOwned.net - Awesome videos of people getting hurt (nothing serious). The phrase "you got owned" is somewhat defined in these videos.

3. www.WillItBlend.com - A really cool website devoted to blending everyday items. Now THIS is a blender!

4. www.HowToFoldAShirt.net - Not sure what language this is, but this is a real website. Really? Who sat down and decided they needed to make this video?

5. www.pointlesssites.com/our-favorites.asp - A website devoted to other pointless websites. A lot of fun (stupid) online games that can waste a lot of time. The honorable mentions are top games that kill time.

Honorable Mention:

www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=9644 - A bit lengthy, but funny.

www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2007/flight-hamsters-p1.php

Pride comes before the what??

...The Fall

I originally learned about the details of bike racing from my brother-in-law. He was in this bike race for the cure (not sure which cure... I mean they are all good causes but there are just a lot of race for the cure organizations) and the wifey and I went to go see him. He was telling us about bike shorts (still need to get a pair, btw), and bike pedals that you clip into. Clip into? I asked. You clip your shoes into the pedals so you are basically attached to the bike. And immediately I thought to myself, self what happens when you fall? Your feet are stuck on the pedals and normally you just put your feet down and regain your balance, but if your feet are clipped in...? Do you just take the fall like a man or what? Well, my brother in law is smart enough to not clip into the bike pedals. He just put his feet on them and pedaled like normal. Well normal was never a word used to describe me...
So I am clipped into my pedals this morning and biking to work. I am biking in the street and about to cross the street so I check behind me to make sure it was safe and sure enough... a car. So I try to slow down so the car can pass and I can cross the street but the car decided that just because there no speed minimum, that meant he could drive as slow as he wanted. So while I am waiting for this car to pass, I am trying to keep the bike moving (and thus upright) but not too fast so I don't miss my turn. Well, eventually gravity won (you may have won this time gravity, but next time you might not be so lucky) and I fell over. And I figured out the answer to the age old question, no not the tree in the woods, that one is easy... (yes it makes a sound but you can't hear it because all the other trees are laughing at it) but if you are stuck to your pedals of your bike and you fall, you simply fall too. I stuck my arm and my knee out to break my fall. And quickly looked around to see if anyone saw me. Luckily the streets were quiet and no one but the slowest moving car in Orlando saw me. So I got back up on that bike, cried a little, sucked my thumb, cried a bit more and eventually got back on that bike and carried on.
Now I am nervous about falling again, but at least I know what to do when I fall over... try to get as much of your body to hit the pavement as possible to protect the bike.
Well I went for a run this afternoon and my legs felt like lead weights. All this swimming and biking really takes a toll on the legs. I ran a loop around UFC but managed to make the run more interesting my venturing off into the woods. Running in the woods can be both a good idea and a bad idea at the same time. While running in the woods I keep thinking about my dad warning me over and over to be safe from the alligators and how I am at every step about to be attacked (on land) by an alligator. Luckily I don't live in West Virginia or I might also worry about some back woods hill billy (one word or two?) grabbing me and acting out scenes from the movie Deliverance. But I digress... good idea running in the woods, splashing in the puddles, jumping over logs... bad idea running in the woods and getting lost or ending up further from home than intended. Well a simple little run turned into what my Nike+ told me was 9 miles. Total run time 54 mins in the hot Orlando Heat. (The Heat are from Miami, not Orlando). Anyways... I'm out.

Top Five alternate names for my blog:
1. The Pretty Pretty Princess, It’s so hard to be the pretty sister (you don’t ask, and I won’t tell) (That one comes courtesy of my sister Lu)
2. Plus 1
3. The Infantryman’s guide to the Galaxy
4. Consider this my facebook page
5. I’m a PC and this is my blog

Honorable mention:
Things I do when I am bored at work
Simply Me
I’m British (but I’m really not)
The world is your oyster, but what if you are allergic to shellfish?

Too much or too little...?

I have been reading stuff on the internet about training for a triathlon. Some sites say one of the worst things a newbie can do with their training is to over train. Another site says one of the worst things a newbie can do is under train. I have not worked out since last Thursday (and that was only riding my bike to work and back). I had a busy day at work on Friday and slept in Saturday and Sunday. So I am under training at this point or what? I think that was just laziness getting the best of me and that I should worry about under or over training. I know my body and I will know what is too much or too little. Anyways, here is what I did today.

Swim: 1000 m in about 30 mins. Swimming is getting easier but it is still extremely difficult.
Lifted: back and chest muscles.
Swimming really gets the chest and back muscles tired. 185 pounds felt much heavier today than usual.

In reply to my dad's email about western movies here is today's top 5;
Top Five Westerns:
1. Lonesome Dove
2. Tombstone
3. Young Guns
4. Open Range
5. Brokeback Mountain (just kidding)
5. Shane

Honorable Mention:
3:10 to Yuma
Unforgiven
Silverado

The road goes on forever...

I am already tired of running. Running while deployed and on a ship was easier. Everyday was so mundane that even logging hundreds of miles on a treadmill staring at the wall was exciting. Now that I am running and have a normal life again I am reminded just how boring running can be. Maybe it was just one of those days and tomorrow will be easier, but then again maybe the road just goes on forever.
Q: Who sings the song that today's title refers to? Hint: The line ends with "and the party never ends." First one to answer correctly wins the honor of being the first person to answer correctly.

That was neither here nor there (which by the way, what does that mean. If something is not here nor there, then where is it?) But I digress.
Today: Lifted Chest and Back muscles then ran 5.5 miles in 40 mins.

Top 5 Songs to Jam on your Ipod while running:
1. Anything off the Footloose Soundtrack (pick any of them)
2. Almost anything by Fallout Boy (most of their songs are awesome)
3. Into the Night by Santana feat Chad Kroger (the guy from Nickelback)
4. Jump (For my love) by The Pointer Sisters (When I hear this song I think of the scene in the movie 'Love Actually' where Hugh Grant is dancing around his house while jamming this song. It is just a fun song, and something fun can go a long way when facing the boring monotony of running)
5. ABC by The Jackson 5 (Just a good song)
Honorable Mention:
Rage Against the Machine
Rise Against
(Both are good, angry, I wasn't hugged enough by my father kind of music)
Note: I don't fall into the above description but angry music is good to get you pumped up sometimes.
I know my #1 and #2 answers weren't songs but rather albums but I challenge anyone to put on a Footloose CD and see how long you can listen to it before you need to hit the next button.
(And FYI you would hit the next button 2.5 times; Waiting for a Girl Like You by Foreigner, Almost Paradise by Ann Wilson and Mike Reno, and half crap credit point for Somebody's Eyes by Karla Bonoff) And if you have an Ipod and don't have Footloose or Fallout Boy on it, you need to.
That's all I got, I'm out. The lame debate is on.

Key West Baby!!!

First Off - Congrats to my sister and brother in law. My sister is knocked up (again) and she found out today that they are having a girl this time. Two boys and they are now adding a baby girl to the family. She has been calling this for a while now; she knew it was a girl and she was right.
This weekend the wife and I went to Key West, Fl. Only a short 7 hour drive (sarcastic) from Orlando and you can be in an Island Paradise. Here are a few pics but trust me there are more. With our fancy camera in hand, we were picture taking fools.

Anyways... the purpose of this blog wasn't to brag that I am going to be the uncle of a baby girl or that I went to Key West this weekend; it was to post my work outs as I prepare for an Ironman. I took Friday-Monday off while we were in the Keys. Today I rode my triathlon bike for the first time. I bought the bike shoes that clip into the pedals yesterday and even bought a helmet (safety first!). So today I took off for a ride. 18.25 miles. All I can say is that I need to invest in padded bicycle shorts, ouch. That was all I did today.
No top five list today, I didn't have time to work on it. Peace out.

It is official now...

Well it is official. I have signed up for 3 triathlons. I have a sprint on Feb 14, 09 (Swim 400 yards, Bike 9 miles, Run 2 miles), an Olympic Tri on March 14, 09 (Swim 1500 meters, Bike 24.9 miles, Run 5.5 miles) and a half Ironman on May 17, 09 (Swim 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, Run 13.1 miles). It is for real now. I am doing this. Here is today’s workout…
800m swim: 25m any stroke easy pace
25m freestyle fast
10 rounds of the following circuit:
10 pushups
10 curls (65 pounds)
10 thruster (75 pounds) Don’t worry about what a thruster is, not important.

Instead of a top five list I give you a disclaimer...
Before we go any further, let’s be friends…
I am not sure I totally understand the name, Blog, though. Isn't this just an online diary or journal (for those of us who think diary is for sissies and girls). I am not sure what a Blog is, but after being wrapped up in several of them for some time now, I have decided to take to the world wide web and contribute my piece to society.
A bit over dramatic, most likely, but for those of you who become loyal readers, or just unlucky passer-bys who happen to be reading this I will forewarn you that I tend to be an overdramatic person. At least in my head I am. I am not sure if my actions or even my reality is ever overdramatic, but my thoughts and the fantasy world in my head are definitely overdramatic. Also, a second warning. I am not very good at spelling. Nor do I really read what I write to ensure I write what I mean. In fact sometimes I can write the exact opposite of what I intend to say simply by leaving off certain letters. Can't can easily become can, and didn't can just as easily become did. So, please read not the words I write, but the message I intend to write. Or read what I actually write compare that to what you think I meant to write, then have a great big laugh about it in the end.

This is where is all begins...

Well today wasn't the first day of my training but it was the first day to post, which means it is the first official day. The more I type and the more you read the more you will understand why this is a real super man's blog. I took about 6 weeks off and did zero training until about a week ago. So I am starting to get back into the swing of elite fitness.
Today: Ran 2.5 Miles (20 mins), 100 pullups, 200 squats, 300 crunches (40 mins), 2.5 mile run back (20 mins)

Top Five List of things most people don’t know about me:
1. Milk gives me gas.
2. I think I am ambidextrous, just out of practice at using my left hand
3. My biggest fear in life is living with regrets
4. This is actually the third blog I have done. The first two didn’t work out so well.
5. I am an introvert… an introverted Alpha Male. Go figure.
Honorable mention:
Without proper self motivation, I am the laziest person in the world. A lazy super man? Yeah, that's my kryptonite - laziness.