Skinny's Blog (11)

I am moving my blog posting back to my other blog ( http://brad-teamskinny.blogspot.com/ ). Not sure why I am doing that, but I am. I like to change things up every so often. Thats just the way I am. The first posts over there will be on my thoughts on the bike portion of the challenge, followed thereafter by my thoughts on the run. Logical, no? And I already added my Finishers Ribbon to the new site. YAY Me, I finished GOLD!!! See you all on the other side.... Brad (Skinny) Continue

Now that I have had time to sit back, relax, and reflect on the challenge, I have realized a few things. 1) A 3 mile swim isn't as scary as it sounded Actually, a 3 mile POOL swim isn't that bad. Open water would kill me. Sure, it took me through 3 separate lifeguard shifts, and I had tile marks pressed into my arms from leaning against the side, but with enough time and taking breaks, 3 miles is easily doable. 2) Technique is HUGE As I was training for this swim, I read all the… Continue

While I had originally planned on doing the silver challenge, which I thought would be challenging enough for me, someone on here (Beverly, I'm looking at you...) pointed out that it was my 30th birthday, on the 30th of the month, and that should be worthy of the Gold challenge. Never being one to turn down a challenge, I figured I would go for it, with the possibility of changing to the Silver if things weren't going right. I started out with the swim at about 11:45 am. My wife came to the poo… Continue

If all goes as planned, by this time tomorrow, I will have completed the Gold challenge. If it doesn't go as planned, I will be laying in bed, full of Extra Strength Advil, trying to decide if I should finish it the following day. I think I like the first option better. Tonight, I made sure my gear is ready to go. Bike is tuned up, new aero bars and bar tape installed. Looks fast (for a road bike). Water/gel bottles are clean, waiting to be filled in the morning. Ipod is being loaded with energ… Continue

... or "Why Base Training is Inadaquate for a 2.5 km, All Out Sprint on a Downhill Mountain Bike". Wow, one week to go, and I am feeling COMPLETELY unprepared. The world is conspiring against my training plan. Oh well, thats life. Last week, after fighting off a cold, I had a couple good days of training, and was planning on a couple good rides / runs at the end of the week. Then work went and got in the way. BIG TIME. I normally work two day shifts (10 hours long, starting at either 6 am or… Continue

Day two with the Hornet Juice, and this time I remembered to eat breakfast. I mixed it with gatorade in a shaker cup, and it mixed it quite well. There was still a little bit of an aftertaste, but I have had issues with sucralose in the past. Nothing I can't handle. I was in the pool about half an hour later, and had easily my best swim workout yet. The lifeguards were commenting on my improvement, both technique and how much stronger I look in the pool now. My energy levels stayed up quite a bi… Continue

After taking half a week off due to a nasty cold, I got back to training today. A few topics today: I decided to test out my newly arrived Hornet Juice today as well. I had read on another forum that some people found the taste to be not so pleasant, so I went looking for a "chaser". I thought I had a stockpile of gatorade in the fridge, but apparantly my wife got into the supply, so I followed it with a Red Rain (Red Bull knockoff, tastes better than the original). I didn't find the tast of th… Continue

Last night, I ran 10 km. Actually, according to my Garmin, 10.5 km. I started out thinking I would run 6, maybe 7, but was still feeling good so I kept running. As I was running, I started thinking about my longest runs in the past, and realized that my previous long run was only 8 km. So, this was a new personal best distance. And the best part of it was that I could have gone furhter (I still wanted to be able to walk today). I did have a few laps of walking in there, usually when my heart rat… Continue

Well, its getting to be time. I have until the end of the month to get fit enough to complete this thing. On the one hand, I am envious of all these Gold finishers, who are able to basically use this as an extended training day. On the other, I am proud of the people who are using this challenge to either get into, or back into, shape. I think I fall somewhere between those two groups. I have never been what I would consider "out of shape", but I have always felt I could be fitter than I am. The… Continue

Went swimming again today, and while my less-then-stellar distance/time ratio may not impress anyone, I was happy with my noticable improvement. Long ways to go to reach 3 miles though. And a question for anyone reading this: everyone I talk to gives me a different number of lengths that I will have to swim. What is the conversion of 3 miles into a 25 meter pool? I followed up todays swim with a short (30 minute) easy bike ride tonight, just to fill the time I was going to spend running. I canc… Continue

great motivation for me. Since signing up, I made it to the pool for the first time in four years, and tonight, I actually went running when it was pouring rain and only about 5 degrees Celsius. This is pretty impressive for me because normally I am a fair weather exerciser, and haven't done much running in a few years to go along with the swimming. Not only that, yesterday I woke up early before work to ride my bike on the trainer. This doesn't sound like much, but I am anything but a morning… Continue