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More Time To Get Fit - 2025

i should have my three speed mixte set up on a trainer soon! gonna pedal lightly and work on rom. walking still sucks.
 
Big weekend was big :laughing I was about 11 minutes slower overall this year compared to last. Im ok with that. I’m not sure my heart was in it as much this year vs the others. I felt pretty weak on the swim and the bike hurt but pushed as hard as I could. I had one chain drop towards the end that cost me a few positions but I didn’t flat which was my biggest fear. For the first time ever I had to pull off course on the run to answer the call of nature… im glad it happened at mile 2, my guts felt much better after :laughing

The weather was kinda nasty. Saturday was gorgeous but the wind and fog showed up on race day. Overcast and cool is great but the wind could have mellow out. At least it was a tail wind on the return.

For context, the fastest man yesterday crushed it in 2:11:00 and the fastest woman was a blistering 2:22:00 It's unbelievable how good at this some people are. I'm thinking about stepping back from triathlon for a bit. All I seem to want to do is ride my bike and it's where I'm strongest anyway. We will see. There is one more triathlon I have my eye on. The "Escape the Cape" also kicks people off a boat and takes place in my hometown in NJ. I might decide to do that one next year as a bit of a homecoming. If i do decide to take that on, a home town crowd of friends and family might make me focus more than I did this year on my training. I love the Alcatraz tri. It's beautiful and the vibe in impeccable. I think I might have topped out on it for a while though.

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Way to go Mike. A 3h31m race is no joke, especially with how terrible it all feels with gut issues.

Is it fun or terrifying getting kicked off a boat into the massive bay?

Ya you are stronger on the bike. I'll be waiting to see you at more cycling events 😄
 
This year the swim actually scared me even though I knew I wasn't in any real danger. I knew I hadn't swam enough, especially open water, to be ready. I still can't quite figure out where my motivation in the pool has gone. It might simply be a little bun out. I usually swim with a ton of confidence and want to do well on that leg. The first 500 yards this year were really tough boarder line panic mode. I had to stop swimming and compose myself more than once. It is usually tricky to find a swim rhythm in rough open water. Its extra hard when the bay current is ripping around 3-3.5 knots as it was this year. I only got into a little groove with about 250 yards left. Lots of other people I talked to were on the swim struggle buss with me.

I am absolutely looking forward to catching a glimpse of you before you drop me on a bike race Robert! :laughing :thumbup
 
That is awesome I wish I had the kind of commitment to do something like that and I have nothing but respect for those that do it.

So last week portion control diet saw me stay pretty stable with some weight loss even though I only hit the gym once last week due to pulling something in my upper back/neck area. it was annoying but didn't want to make it worse so skipped 2 days. luckily it got better by Sunday because it was golf day. Hit the course with one of the girl child units and her BF. Only lost about 6 balls on 18 holes but a few were just me being obstinate and I kept hitting on some holes I maybe should have skipped due to my golf balls and me having an affinity for water. :ROFLMAO: I had one really nice drive where I hit about 270ish yards but it curved slightly to the right at the end and went right in the corner of the water hazard. I did figure out my driver issue turns out if you stop stepping off your distance to the tee you wind up being too far away and hitting the ball with the tip of the driver and causing it to go hard right and into the trees where it is lost forever. Whilst looking for one said such lost golf ball came across a shed snake skin that was about 5 feet long and said nope call that ball lost I am not taking a chance on running into the snake that shed that skin. But lost golf balls aside it was a nice day at the course and it was better than anything else I could have done that day and got to spend some time with the girl child.
 
Putting my head underwater and seeing the expanse of deep water is like the only irrational fear that I have. I've swam competitively, but it would take a lot for me to do open water regularly. Last time I swam in the deep ocean, I just didn't look :laughing
 
Ridley said:
Sharxfan and Mike you both have Nope activities. I’m 1,000% afraid of swimming in Jaws infested waters and am not a fan of snakes.
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Well granted in the great state of Louisiana there are a bunch of snakes so its a everyday occurrence here. Snakes are not my favorite animal but in defense of golf in over 10 games played at this course this is the only time I have seen signs of a snake and this was only a discarded skin. In all honesty the one I found on my miter saw in my workshop freaked me out more than that one. I now know that damn thing is in there somewhere and I am going to have to hunt it down with a hoe. Although from the length and size it really looks like a garter snake so may just chase it out.
 
So I am trying to get things rolling again after the blood clot and associated PE. It's tough. I did an online workout this morning which was supposed to be super easy. It was not. I did go up and join the gym and will probably go get on the eliptical this evening.
 
Baby steps add up BL. Hang in there man. Blood clots are serious!! My lowest lows are always when im starting to get back from an injury or illness. It sucks. One day at a time, you can’t fail if you refuse to quit, something is always better than nothing. You will be better than you were. Keep at it.
 
Brokenlink said:
So I am trying to get things rolling again after the blood clot and associated PE. It's tough. I did an online workout this morning which was supposed to be super easy. It was not. I did go up and join the gym and will probably go get on the eliptical this evening.
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Hell yeah. Doing anything is better than nothing. I find that a gym membership makes me go more than having equipment at home. hope that same thing works for you. Start slow is all I can say. Don't be like me and push it because you remember what you used to do and figure it is all there waiting for you again. It is but it takes time and you don't want to hurt yourself and set yourself back more. I have done that and it is disheartening. When it comes to the treadmill I gradually up my times. Like I do a long warmup then when I do a jogging interval I either increase my time by about a minute each gym day if I feel it or just maybe Monday and Friday you will find what works best for you. Then once I get to a time interval I have set in my mind as my goal I then start increasing my speed in small increments each session. I think of it like putting a frog in a pot of water and slowly bringing it to a boil like the old adage by the time my body knows what happened its already doing more than it thought and its too late for it to complain. :LOL:
 
+1 to what the other guys said. The big thing for me is even when I don't want to go workout, I make myself go to the gym and change. Then decide if I want to actually work out. To date, I've only gone home a couple of times, cause I felt like absolute shit. There are times when I felt so sick or tired that I skipped. That's not bad neither....getting rest instead of working out when you're at a battery level of almost 0 is essential. The downtime is as important than the workout time.

On going back after injury/extended time away; take the first day to get back into the swing, IME. Don't burn yourself on day 1.
 
this is all (mostly) still in a boot. it is in spurts and not continuous. i am still quite pleased.

i grow stronger each day and have more stamina. i should be free of the boot by monday. i confessed to my PT that i’ve been walking barefoot with crutches in the house from bed to bathroom or bed to kitchen for a glass of water and being very careful. his response was that he was very impressed with my ROM and he didn’t yell at me about the boot thing. it’s part of the reason my ROM is good - i am fidgety and the ankle gets moved. we worked on some productive fidgets today.

i’m really excited to work with the PT and it seems i have access to lots of remaining sessions. my foot is still too swollen to fit in anything other than my flip flops but i’m hoping to get into walking shoes and get up to two continuous miles by the end of july.
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weird article (if you could call it that). ‘building muscle’ wasn’t listed as one of purported benefits, but ‘not building muscle’ was used to debunk the purported benefits. how does that work?

also not sure how you can compare ice bath influence on building muscle between individuals. it has a huge amount to do with body type. i have the opposite problem (build muscle really fast - it’s common in my family). as a woman, it’s not a look i’m into, so i have to modulate my workout routine to control it. strength? yes. mass? no. i suppose if there’s any validity to their point about strength, it would best be represented as a ratio.

all that said, if it helps with inflammation and pain management (which it does), i’m into it (and i am).

edit - ice baths aren’t recent for me. or trendy. started a long time ago on the advice of my ortho surgeon, and physical therapist (as a result of numerous ‘incidents’).
 
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littlebeast said:
weird article (if you could call it that). ‘building muscle’ wasn’t listed as one of purported benefits, but ‘not building muscle’ was used to debunk the purported benefits. how does that work?

also not sure how you can compare ice bath influence on building muscle between individuals. it has a huge amount to do with body type. i have the opposite problem (build muscle really fast - it’s common in my family). as a woman, it’s not a look i’m into, so i have to modulate my workout routine to control it. strength? yes. mass? no. i suppose if there’s any validity to their point about strength, it would best be represented as a ratio.

all that said, if it helps with inflammation and pain management (which it does), i’m into it (and i am).

edit - ice baths aren’t recent for me. or trendy. started a long time ago on the advice of my ortho surgeon, and physical therapist (as a result of numerous ‘incidents’).
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You probably don't spend much time in the lifting bro-sphere. In that space ice baths are pushed as a way to get jacked. Apparently they don't do that.
 
Mike95060 said:
FWIW, I really enjoy a cool dip, low 50's, not icy. One of those and a sauna make me a very happy and I don't really care what they do to my physiology :laughing
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my girls and i love to go to spas and I am typically the lone weirdo hopping into the cold plunge.
 
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