Stonecoldtruth's New Adventure

[stonecoldtruth]

lol @ "sad josh".

Soon everything will be in the 3rd person. You'll be going around saying things like "Josh doesn't like that.", "I don't think that Josh approves of this". That'd be hilarious.

On a serious note, good luck in the race. Glad to see youre working hard at it.

Josh doesn't talk in the 3rd person, Josh talks about the Josh that talks in the third person, therefore making it the 6th person, biatch!

Just kiddin! Thanks for the well wishes, I am going to own this race. I've trained properly for it, my nutrition is in check, and my willpower is as strong as wolverine!

SCT

[Spartan]

Josh doesn't talk in the 3rd person, Josh talks about the Josh that talks in the third person, therefore making it the 6th person, biatch!

Just kiddin! Thanks for the well wishes, I am going to own this race. I've trained properly for it, my nutrition is in check, and my willpower is as strong as wolverine!

SCT

Josh exponential. Josh³™

[asianbabe]

4 u Josh! so good to hear from you again!!!!!

[pu12en12g]

Damn I would be a happy camper if I had a hot tub

[stonecoldtruth]

Damn I would be a happy camper if I had a hot tub

It is at the gym but we have:

Hot Tub, Ice Bath, Dry Sauna, Massage Therapist on staff, and soon we will be getting a steam room... ah it's the life!

[stonecoldtruth]

I believe that one of the keys to being successful in ANY journey is to be informed about the terrain you will travel, the weather you will encounter, and the wildlife found along the way. While my journey is less literal than that, I do believe the same type of knowledge is important.

Since I know that my journey towards being a successful triathlete will be a long way, I have began to research some of the methods and tools of the trade. As you've seen in previous blogs, I have located training plans to assist me in reaching my next desination, but those are merely details of WHAT to do and not HOW to do them with the utmost efficiency.

With this in mind I sat down at my laptop last night and began scouring over tons of information in regards to swimming, as I feel this is my weakest event currently. After reading various forums, magazines, and book reviews I settled on a single book to begin my journey of knowledge:

Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin

I located the book, for a reasonable price, on Amazon.com and proceeded to 'check-out' when I saw they also offered combo deals with other books. One of the combo deals was the TI book and The Triathlete's Training Bible. Talk about a 1-2 combo geared specifically towards me eh? So I purchased both books as quickly as possible. The downfall was that shipping (since it was a thursday) looked to be expensive if I wanted the books anytime soon, so it was with much regret that I ordered them on standard shipping, which had an estimated ship date of 2/20/07. I was bummed, until I received an e-mail this morning stating that the items have already been shipped and that I was upgraded to 2-day shipping due to being a 'new customer'.

Until the books come I've been busying myself puttering around Terry Laughlin's site, http://www.totalimmersion.net/ and soaking up all the knowledge that I can!
They even offer triathlon training camps, something I might consider for 2008.

I'm going to begin laying out my race items for tomorrow as soon as I finish this, I need to be as organized as possible to eliminate extra 'external' stresses. I wish you all a GREAT weekend and will be updating again after the tri tomorrow.

Josh

[stonecoldtruth]

Triathlon Time!

I AM a triathlete
Let me share with you a story my friends, a story about a 288lb man who participated in and FINISHED his first indoor triathlon.

The day began unlike any other, at 8am. I did manage to get a full 8 hours sleep, thanks to the Staybridge Suites VERY comfortable hotel beds. In the morning I was a tad stressed and may have been a TAD snappy to the wife, but after breakfast things calmed down. I had oatmeal, a hardboiled egg, and part of a blueberry bagel. After we finished breakfast we headed back to the room and packed up everything. After triple checking my race bag we headed off to the gym.

We arrived at the gym around 10am, and I was scheduled to be ready at 11:15am, so you can see we were a tad early. After organizing my lockers, yep I took up two lockers, I headed to the sauna to warm up a tad. A few laps around the track, just walking, and I felt like I was physically ready. I donned my swimsuit, swimcap, goggles, and a hoodie to keep warm and went to wait in the sign-in area.

The other competitors for the second heat began arriving shortly after, and to be honest for a few minutes I questioned if I 'fit in' with the others. Everyone else in the triathlon was by all definitions 'trim and fit', but I quickly dismissed those thoughts when TC showed up and we began talking trash about the bike ride. If you don't remember he and I bet $10 each, the winner of the bike ride taking the pot.

At 11:20 we all headed back to the pool and waited for a few 1st heat stragglers to finish up. I double-checked my swim gear to ensure I was ready and proceeded to wait for the start of our heat. Finally at 11:45 we got into the water and prepared to begin our triathlon. TC was sharing a lane with me, which ensured I'd be grossly outmatched in the swim category.

My first few laps of swimming felt pretty good, but I think I got too excited during the 4th lap. During that 4th lap I began not rolling enough on my breaths and started to swallow a... considerable.. amount of water. After adjusting my breathing and lengthening my strokes I began to feel at home in the pool. About this time TC was done in the pool, but I didn't let that phase me. I just kept going.. I was VERY proud of my work ethic in the pool. I NEVER stopped at the wall, always kicking back off immediately. In the 7th lap I experienced what one might call a TRAGEDY ... my swimcap suddenly appeared in front of my eyes! I had no clue what had happened, but figured that somehow the cap ripped. I reached up and pulled the cap and threw it on the side of the pool. However, again, I didn't let it phase me. I merely continued swimming like the fish I almost am. When I hit the wall for the last time I felt really overheated, but proud.

My swim time was 12 minutes and 45 seconds.

I got out of the pool, grabbed my towel from the wife and headed to the locker room. The microfiber towel worked great for getting water off of me quick. However, while I was hurrying, it was not a FAST transition, hehe. In the middle of putting on my clothes my nephew Domanic came in to help me. He opened my gatorade endurance for me, which probably saved a good minute since I was kind of uncoordinated. I finished getting dressed and threw my swim clothes into the locker.

Upon walking out towards the bikes I noticed TC was still going. Seeing as he had finished swimming a good 6 minutes before me I expected him to be done already on the bike. I knew at that point that if I could keep on point on the bike that I'd win our $10 bet. I had to wait a moment for the timer to be ready to start me on the bike, which was a welcome relief. One of my very favorite trainers at the gym, Kadie, was my timer which made me push even harder. I started biking hard, and then yet another thing went wrong... my mp3 player started sounding like the devil. I was listening to Karate Kid's 'You're the Best Around' and I began to hear strange noises that sounded like... well.. the devil. Instead of freaking out I checked the mp3 player and found that the headphones were not plugged all the way in (this will now be added to the checklist for the next race). Upon correcting this the music began flowing like mana from the heavens. My speed increased and my endurance went 10-fold. At 3 minutes I was only 1.6 miles in, which meant that I was nearly 30 seconds behind my goal! I kicked it up a notch as my family started to cheer me on, AND kadie started cheering me on as well.

My total bike time was 5 minutes and 45 seconds.

At the end of the day it turns out that this was the 2nd fastest bike time out of ANYONE in ANY heat. The only person who beat me was someone who biked FIRST.. however, to his credit, he biked a 5 minute flat 3 miler. Oh yeah, he was 72. I hope when I'm 72 I can bike that hard.

After my 5:45 bike I got off, now $10 richer, and felt like my legs were officially dead. Kadie gave me a few high-5s and I felt reinvigorated. I walked over to the run area and saw a few friendly faces. Kim, Angie, AND Debbie from the gym were all run timers. So I now had a HUGE cheering section when you add in the family. In my head I knew that if I wanted to come in uner 30 minutes I would have to run hard.

My sister Tracy stood trackside to hand me gatorade or water as I passed, and my nephew Domanic stood a few feet beyond to catch the bottles as I threw them back. On my 3rd lap of the track I noticed my new shorts were sliding down my butt, so I had to make a mental note to keep pulling them up since I couldn't really adjust the drawstring while I was running. On lap 6 I started to really fatigue, but upon passing my cheering section I knew that I would finish. TC came back to jog with me on lap 8, we talked for a few seconds and then he asked if I needed him to jog the rest with me. I knew that it would help, but this was all about ME.. so I told him he could go. The next lap a woman and her child who had been walking (not doing the tri, just walking) told me that I was doing great, and to keep going. I wanted to cry.. talk about motivating. When I was told I had two laps left I started to speed up. A runner who had just began her laps was on the opposite side of the track.. I decided in my head I was going to catch and overtake her. It was a daunting task seeing that she was a half-lap ahead, but as I rounded the 11th lap she was about 10 yards ahead. I pulled up even with her and she smiled and told me I was doing great. She looked forward and said, 'final stretch', she nodded and kicked it into high gear. I had no clue I had any actual 'running' left in me, but I passed her easily and ran through the finish line.

My run time was 11 minutes and 27 seconds.

My total triathlon time was 29 minutes and 57 seconds.

I finished 3rd in my age group, out of 3, but I did own the bike time. My nearest competitor was 2 minutes and 43 seconds behind me on the bike. This gives me very high hopes for my future triathlons, knowing biking is my strongpoint I can take advantage of that.

Because I met my goals I registered for a SPRINT DISTANCE triathlon later this year. Info on that below:

Green Lake Triathlon
Sprint Course: 1/4 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run
August 12, 2007
http://www.greenlaketri.com/

Today ranks as the 3rd best day of my life. The first would be my wedding day, the second would be the day I decided to start my journey towards being healthier, and the 3rd would be today.. the day I became a triathlete.

Thank you to EVERYONE who believes in me, I did this as much for you as I did for me. No longer shall we be limited by our weight, my society's perceptions of us, NOW is the time to bust stereotypes and preconceived notions.. I love each and every one of you for the support, inspiration, and motivation you give.

Josh

[Sethva]

Can we sticky this?


Awesome job SCT!!

[stonecoldtruth]

Can we sticky this?


Awesome job SCT!!

Sticky it??? Haha you are too kind my friend!

Just wait until I begin the new training program on monday that is geared towards my next triathlon, it is just about INSANE!

Josh

[ddawg91]

Congrats man!

[asianbabe]

Today ranks as the 3rd best day of my life. The first would be my wedding day, the second would be the day I decided to start my journey towards being healthier, and the 3rd would be today.. the day I became a triathlete.

Thank you to EVERYONE who believes in me, I did this as much for you as I did for me. No longer shall we be limited by our weight, my society's perceptions of us, NOW is the time to bust stereotypes and preconceived notions.. I love each and every one of you for the support, inspiration, and motivation you give.

Josh

hooooray just like winning an oscar

good going!

[Mr. Aries]

congratulations man.. inspiring story.

[pu12en12g]

Nice work man !

[stonecoldtruth]

So today I began my quest towards preparing my body for a sprint distance triathlon in August of this year. This is somewhat similar to the mini-tri I just finished, but it is outdoor and the bike and run are exponentially longer.

The swim is a 450 meter open water swim.
The bike is a 12 mile out and back with some rolling hills (ie omgi'mgoingtodie hills)
The run is a flat and fast 5k (3.1 miles).

With this in mind I have structured my training to be two-fold in purpose.

#1 - Build endurance in all three events, training beyond the actual distances of the race in each event.

#2 - Continue to lose weight/bodyfat, aiming for at least 30lbs lost by raceday.

Today was really a measuring of where I currently am as compared to the prescribed plan, and as such is not part of the plan itself.

Today I completed the following:

100 warmup in pool
150 yard non-stop
150 yard kickboard + fins
100 yard 6 kick roll
50 yard cooldown

Total of 550 yards in pool, easy as pie.

30 minutes walk/run (4 laps walk, 1 lap run)
The walk/run was very relaxed as I had my sister-in-law training along side me and she could barely keep up with that pace. This felt almost TOO easy as I am used to running fairly constantly.

3 miles bike on stationary bike, 9 minutes on Lvl 10
This was a tad harder than I had anticipated, by putting it into a higher gear I was going faster than in the lower gears, but was also putting out a lot more effort. I enjoyed this portion the most.

10 minutes stretching

And a nice bowl of wild rice and chicken soup to top it all off!

I am waiting to hear back from a triathlete friend who has done just about every distance imaginable on where I should start my training in the previously mentioned training program. I feel that starting at week 1 would be too easy, so now we merely pinpoint where to begin.

Have a blessed day all,

Josh

[stonecoldtruth]

When today started I could feel a buzz in the air. I felt in my bones that it would be a good day. I decided upon waking that I was going to head to the gym early enough to eat some oatmeal (they make the best oatmeal) and then chill out until it was time to work out. The oatmeal was not only delicious, but it turned out that it was FREE! Theresa insisted on it being on the house since she had accidentally added walnuts, which are the one kind of nut I despise. I tried to gently reject the offer of free oatmeal, but I was vetoed by the Cafe staff.

After my meal I hung out for a while and talked to a few regulars, all who asked about my indoor tri experience. Finally, about 45 minutes later, I felt that I had digested enough to head for the sauna. Normally in the sauna I just sit with my mp3 player and rock out for 5 minutes, just to get myself 'warm' before my warmup. However, today was also the start of my training being MP3 player FREE.. meaning that since my races are music free, so will be my training.

The 5 minutes in the sauna provided me a chance to really think over the plan I have been working on. I've posted the link a few times, so I won't bother to look it up now, especially after the modifications that have been made make it very unlike the original 'cookie cutter' plan.

After leaving the sauna I headed for the weights area. Today was the restart of my weight training routine, I'm taking it nice and easy on weights to ensure my shoulder holds up this time.

Weights:
Bench Press, 4 sets of 15
Incline Bench Press, 4 sets of 15
Seated Row, 4 sets of 15
Shoulder Press, 4 sets of 15
Seated Bicep Curls, 4 sets of 15
Overhead Tricep Extensions, 4 sets of 15

As you can see the weight routine is all high rep work, which means the weights are superlow. I will share increases in weights used from week to week. During my weight training I talked a bit with TC about my August Sprint Tri and he informed me that due to MY motivation, he went and registered for a July Olympic distance triathlon, that crazy man.

After weights I had to attend a meeting with Kathy to discuss my and her thoughts on the swim portion of my triathlon training. We were both of the mindset that I should not drop volume just to follow the program. Because of this I will be keeping distance high, and using a variety of drills and distancework to ensure that I am prepared for the race.

After the meeting I was stoked beyond all belief, and headed for the bike for today's ride.

Bike: 4 miles, 12 minutes and 2 seconds

The pace on the bike was JUST under 20mph, which made me cheese from ear to ear since it was done without music. Talk about being a different type of animal, training without music is just plain harder for me.

After the bike I started to walk a mile cooldown when I noticed a younger guy (maybe 19) playing basketball on the courts. He had just asked an older gentleman if he wanted to play one on one, to which the older guy had said no. The young buck, as he shall now be referred to, was kind of cocky and arrogant about it, telling the old guy he would have lost anyways. That was just about all I needed..

Walking onto the court I asked the kid if he wanted to play a game of one-on-one.. after smirking at me he said he would love to. I shot for ball, made it. We were going to 21 by 1s and 2s.. I ended up 11-0 after the first few minutes, I think he expected me to be slow for some reason. He was huffing and puffing, hands on his knees.. I was just cruising along.

I think at that point he mentally decided he needed to find an edge on me, and on my next layup he decided to elbow me hard.. in the nuts.. Yes.. I was seeing red. My first reaction was to strangle the twit, but instead I walked it off and came back to claim the ball. He said, 'That wasn't a foul.' It was then I knew he was going to play dirty for the rest of the game.

I did my best to play defense while avoiding the elbows and trip attempts when I was shooting, but after I had managed to get up 18-6 the play became even MORE rough.

He attempted a layup, I blocked it. Instead of taking a step back and regathering himself he just jumped up again. I leaped, with my hands up, prepared to block him again. However, the ball did not head for the goal, but instead my nose. I took the 'shot' right in the nose. Luckily I have a tough nose and titanium frames for my glasses.

At that point I just literally stood there and let him score the 15 points he needed to do to win. I didn't attempt a shot, didn't attempt a rebound.. didn't attempt anything. I just wanted to be done with this moron.. he won and he was happy.. I was sad for him.

After the game I finished my cooldown walk and headed to the cafe for a wonderful chicken breast with 99% fat free ham sandwich with swiss cheese and fat free ranch on homemade honey-almond bread with mixxed fruit.

You would think that I would have been aggravated by the basketball game, but inside I felt on top of the world. I have came so far in my journey that I managed to outrun, outplay, and outclass someone 50lbs less than me and 5 years younger. It feels good to realize that..

I ended up taking unplanned time off from work today, because I am getting behind on laundry and some other things that NEED to be done. We get a lot of vacation at work though, so it is ok. I tend to frontload a bunch and then work a long of the year without vacation, but so be it.

I stopped at Spoke and Sport on the way home and talked shop with the bike guys for a good 30 minutes, and sent them on the hunt for a GOOD trisuit for my August triathlon for under $100, in a size XXL. They seemed to love the challenge.

After the stop at S&S I headed home, to find that I received TWO packages.. yes TWO.

The first was my package from Amazon.com with my recently ordered books of: 'Total Immersion' and 'The Triathletes Training Bible'.. talk about exciting. I now have TWO of the premiere books used by triathletes worldwide.

The second package was from a former boss of mine, Tank, who owns Controlled Labs, a bodybuilding supplement company I used to be a rep for. He sent me a goodie package to help along the way with my triathlon adventures!

To top it ALL off, the wife and I are going to look at bikes tonight.. I might be able to talk her into letting me buy one.. oh yeah baby.. what a freaking day.

Josh