Cook Train Eat... Clean?

My apologies to my twitter friend Cook Train Eat Race for bludgeoning his twitter handle for my post title.

It's definitely taken some effort to adapt to our new lifestyle. Because they're shorthanded, Rach is putting in a ton of hours at work. This puts me in charge of the house, which if you know me you'd probably guess to be trouble. Truth be told, I'm kind of enjoying carrying some of the extra load in terms of cooking and cleaning. Considering I'm home all day working, it's pretty easy to do some cleaning on lunch, or start dinner right after I finish working.

Training has been going well; 2 mile run on Sunday, 19 good bike miles with a good amount of climbing on Sunday, 2 running miles and .5 swim miles yesterday, 8 miles on the bike today at high tempo (17 MPH Avg), with a .75 mile swim. Tomorrow is the long ride, 26 miles, then I'll back off mileage a little the following two days to ramp up the run and the swim. The climbing on the bike is the only thing I'm worried about for this race, so I've spent as much time as I could on the bike in the time since recovering from the Cedar Point effort.

Finally, It took a little while but I've shaken off the disappointment from Cedar Point. It's pretty hard to be in the dumps very long when you live with this every day!

Mission 140.6: The beginning (and some fun stuff)

Working from home in an area where internet is not reliable has it's advantages; today I spent part of my day not doing a lot because the internet was down in our little town, and it took most of the day to fix it. But because it was during work time, I couldn't just go ride my bike or clean the house. I had to be at my desk listening to conference calls, and working on my 90 day plan.

But when I wasn't doing that, I was finishing off my thought process on Mission 140.6 (yes, I am going to call it that, all formal and stuff) and here's what it looks like:

Step 1: Weight loss. I've started working on this already. The weight loss plan incorporates a healthy diet, weight watchers meetings, and as a reminder, a giant sign on the fridge telling me to stay the F*ck out unless its meal time or a post workout snack.

Step 2: Get a coach. I've talked about this before, but moving down here we can actually afford it now. Well, not technically now, but in the next couple weeks.  I'm not really sure what we're looking for in a coach, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

Step 3: Get a team. Moving away from Boston meant we're a long way from Wheelworks, and while I considered rejoining because they're such a great group of athletes and friends, it just wouldn't do us a lot of good. So we're going to look for a local team to train with. Oh, and I also applied to Team Rev3. I'm sure most people don't make it public, but I don't keep much from you guys, and this is something important. If I get it, it means we'll save money on races, maybe get some nice equipment, and make some new friends. Rach applied too, but if they pick one of us, they probably won't pick the other, so the one who doesn't get picked will join the local team, and gets to buy a nice bike.

Step 4: Pick a schedule. We've got a few races already picked out (A few Rev 3 with Cedar Point as the obvious one), but we're still looking at the local early season races as well.

Step 5: Train.Train like I never have trained before. Seriously, and with commitment to get the volume I need to go back and get the job done at Cedar Point.

The fun stuff:

- I now know what motivation really is. I was on a 15 mile training ride yesterday when I got chased by a mean looking dog. It came within centimeters from my left ankle barking and snarling. I hit 18 MPH going UPHILL, so next time I really need to dig deep, I'll think of that dog. I was doing great until that dog spiked my heart rate. Wound up doing 15 miles in 1:04:xx on a very hot day, just missed 15 MPH average.

- The blog has been a little bereft of pictures lately, and I apologize for that. Here are some of the things that I've been too lazy to get off my phone until now:

Talk about a support crew: There were like 10 people in pink shirts
with something to the tune of  "Go Dave!" on them.

Bumping this car made the move to NC a bit more expensive

This bench is in front of the local grocery store here in NC

I had to explain to Rachelle that she couldn't dress shop
in the Big & Tall section

I may have completely disregarded this sign

I petted this penguin. Be jealous.

One of each, please, but especially the one with the cannon

If you look real close you can see several deer we spotted
on our first visit to a NC state park

Endless Summer

I've talked about a lot of the fiscal benefits of moving from Boston to Raleigh, but one thing I hadn't really thought too much about was the weather. It's still summer down here. Sure it's rained a bit, but 80s and sunny is summer in my book, and Summer in October works for me. Being a lifelong Beach Boys fan, the Endless Summer, is an idea I can completely jibe with. If fall has to happen, it can happen late October, in time for the Halloween party Rachelle is planning for us to throw. 

Being in warm weather right now is great prep for Rev3 Anderson, which is good because I found out this morning I will be able to go. Not just that, but we also booked a pretty nice hotel for dirt cheap, (thanks, Priceline!) making the trip even more affordable.

Also, I'm aware the blog has been kind of dry lately, but I'm putting my effort into Mission 140.6 content which I had hoped would be ready today, but looks like it will actually be ready tomorrow. Bear with me, please.

Many changes for the good

We've clearly made a lot of changes in just the past 2 months; living in a hotel, moving to North Carolina, starting new jobs, our first IM attempt, living in a home instead of an apartment, along with all of the other parts of starting essentially a new life. I really think every one of these things is a positive towards my goal of living a more healthy life and finally making a concerted effort to lose more weight. 

One of the biggest is that I'm home now every day, so I'm no longer tempted to get "lunch with the guys" which was nearly an every day occurrence. Usually, I'd make a relatively safe choice like a sub sandwich, but I never knew for sure how many calories I was really taking in and with all the bread my guess is that it was a lot more than I should have been. So while I now have unfettered access to the kitchen, we've stocked it almost entirely with healthy choices, and I'm watching carefully what I eat. I'm counting points and measuring food again (I started today).

I've got a lot of reasons to get where I want to go. The biggest is doing everything I can to be more prepared for next years Rev 3 Cedar Point and all the races leading up to it. Aside from that, there's a new goal. Rachelle and I are joining some friends of ours on a cruise, and some of the fun things (like zip line riding) have a weight limitation I currently exceed. 

Im starting with large intentions but reachable milestones along the way.

- 30 pounds by 12/24/11 (weight 299)

- 70 pounds by 4/28/12 (weight 259)

- 90 pounds by 9/1/12 (weight 239)

That puts me in the right place for Rev3 where I should have no problem finishing. I know during the season it will be challenging to continue losing weight during the season, that's why Im giving myself 4 months to lose  only 20 pounds. Once next season is over, I'll work to lose the last 14 pounds to reach 225. 

I know this is a big goal, and I know that it will be quite a challenge, it's a key component of Mission 140.6, which you'll hear more about tomorrow.

A plan to fail

There's that old saying "A failure to plan is a plan to fail". Well, it sort of looks like that's where I am right now. You see I got all excited about Rev 3 Anderson, got signed up, started training, and in my thought process for the race I kept thinking about the fact that I was getting my first full paycheck prior to the race, allowing us to do all the things we needed to do, including pay rent, buy a couch, etc. and still allow me to race.

Not so, it would seem.

After realizing I had misread the payroll calendar, I actually will only get one weeks salary, which while enough to pay the rent, etc. may not include enough funds for us to afford to drive 5 hours each way to the race site, plus eat and stay overnight on Saturday. We bought the couch last weekend, and even if we could cancel the order, I wouldn't. You don't know how much you value furniture until you don't have any. So, it's now just waiting to see how much my check is to see if we or even just I can afford to go. If not, I can defer my entry fee til next year, but I was really looking to get in at least one more race this season.

Training lately has not been without cost either. If you remember, I flatted on my road bike just a 1/4 mile down the road from our house in the days leading up to Cedar Point. Yesterday I had 15 miles planned on the bike, and was using that time to explore new roads in the area. Everything was going great until mile 10 when I heard that familiar sudden hissing sound out of the front tire. In the battle of $80 race tire vs. chip seal   pavement, I guess we know who won. Plus, there's a small gash in the tire itself now, so I think I'm pretty much done with the expensive-y (yes, it's a word) race tires. I do have a spare tire to ride for the time being, until I can pick up a couple of stronger tires (Gatorskins probably) later on in October.

Speaking of picking up bike stuff, there are several Performance Bike's in the Raleigh area, which I'm excited to explore. There's also a triathlon shop called Inside Out that we're going to visit as well probably sometime in October. If nothing else, we're probably going to need a bunch of tubes.

To end on a positive note, the training has been going pretty well in terms of recovery from Cedar Point, and in pushing myself a little. Even with some small hills (200 ft of climbing over 10 miles) both of my past 2 rides I've been able to average over 15 MPH. I'm running today and start swimming tomorrow. The pool at Rachelle's work is free to staff, and very inexpensive to spouses, so we're happy to be able to have access to a nice facility just a couple of miles down the road. And tonight I try out my new running shoes which were desperately needed as my old ones had over 400 miles on them and were completely worn out.