Beagle269’s BodyBlog

Well, once again, and this time sooner than ever, I’ve upped my workout level to incorperate commuting to work on my bicycle.  I have a new bike this year, a Specialized Tarmac.  (gonna post pics soon)  But I am even more excited about saving gas money, enjoying my commute, and getting a grinding workout before and after work.  In addition to anything else I do after I get home.  I am a bit concerned about getting my new bike all dirty when it rains around here since I do live in Washington, and it’s a little nice for a commuter bike, but hey, it sure is nice to ride!  People think I’m weird because I like riding the 18 miles each way, with substantial hills.  But I think they are weird, because they sit in Seattle traffic.  Or in my case, Hwy 9!

Hey all, I’m getting really excited about this upcoming season of my life and fitness program.  I have several triathlons, bike rides, and runs.  The soonest races of mine are an early bike ride in May, with my peak races being in July being the Lake Stevens 70.3 Ironman, and the Seattle to Portland bicycle race.  My question for you is, that I am thinking about signing up for an early April Marathon race to jumpstart my training.  But I really want to peak for the Lake Stevens 70.3 in July.  In August I am doing another marathon, and in September I am going to try and run a 50k (Mackenzie River run).  Is this too much racing for a season?  Will my peak be all screwed up?

Well, the last few weeks have been hit and miss on the consistency of my workouts.  The recent raquet ball playing doesn’t get me a good enough workout, and I’ve been counting it. =) The last 3 days I had good workouts on my indoor bike trainer, and I am feeling good about it.  With the temps outside dropping into the 20’s, everyone around me is coming to work sick with all different symptoms.  I really don’t want this sickness, it looks terrible.  I need to up the healthy food, up the vitamins, and up the cardio fitness level.

This weekend I competed in a winter run/race event.  It was a 5.4 mile run about an hour north of where I live in Burlington.  I felt like my performance didn’t go as well as hoped, but it is the middle of winter, so what more could I expect.  I guess my numbers look better then how I felt during the race.  I finished 9th place overall, and first for my age group.  My average mile time was 6:55, with a total time of 37:03.  I felt like I was too cold while running, it was only 40 degrees out, and I wore my shorts and long sleeve running jersey (Cold legs).  I also felt like my swim the night before didn’t help too much.  For about the first mile, we were running into a strong headwind, which seemed to sap a lot of energy out of me.  Anyhow, I attended a local concert in Ballard at the Sunset Tavern to see a local band named the "Cops".  Whilest moshing in the crowd I could feel my legs and tell that I had ran pretty hard that morning.  -Travis Stecker

Holy cow, I have been feeling good about my workouts lately.  Yesterday, I went for one of my running days, and decided to change up the schedule a little bit and go running at the local high school track.  Well, Football practice was going on, so I went running with a friend on the road, like usual.  Then after, since we had parked our car at the track, I decided to try and run my mile time.  I have timed my mile time using my Garmin watch on the road, but it’s really hard to trust the accuracy.  Well, anyways, after running 5.15 miles on the road at medium pace, I ran a 6:07 mile time on the track!  I started out way to fast, but finished strong.  I felt like I was running fast, not to mention it was about 34 degrees out, and I had a bundle of clothes slowing me down!  Next time I’ll run when I am fresh and a little warmer out, then we’ll see how fast it is.  Nice to see the accuracy of my Garmin in 4 lap tracks showed 1.01 miles!  I really like this watch.  I suppose I should slow down my training a hair, don’t want to have a burnout before triathlon season!

Wow, I have been training so good compared to my normal off-season triathlon season.  I think it is really helping me to have friends to workout with, changing up my normal cardio triathlon training, and helping to be single.  Today I did a Max lift for squats, I have been lifting fairly hard, getting nice and sore, and working on my form.  I did my last Max lift about only a month ago, and have been working my legs ever since pretty hard.

I lifted 235 today, that’s 10 lbs more then my end of year goal!  Woo Hoo, right, but I’m feeling great, I think I will be able to accomplish all my lifting goals by the end of the year.

I almost lifted 245 which was even more crazy.  I can’t remember what my high school PR was, (because squats were never my favorite), and High school was the last time I had a scheduled lifting program, but I think I am getting close (to my old PR), already, after only working my lifting program for a few months!

-Travis Stecker

So, the last couple of days I have been feeling sick, just the normal head cold, throat, ears, the usual.  I have taken one or two days off from working out, but even considering the days when I did workout, (while I was sick) I still felt much better afterwards, but felt a lot worse during the workout.  Some people say to take a couple days off when you get sick, and others say to continue with your workouts, or change them up a little.  So, I feel like I did better mentally from accomplishing something.  Does anyone else have any input on this subject.  My father long ago told me how he would get tons of clothes on and go running hard in the rain, which I have found to help me in the past.

Also trying to figure out how to get my name to google to my bodyspace, perhaps by putting it in here in places…  -Travis Stecker

So, the last couple of weeks I have kept at it, my winter weight lifting program that is.  And I am feeling great!  My increase in strength and tone is already noticable.  I have been able to lift 3 or more days a week for the last few weeks, and each time I have been able to get my energy out, get sore, and feel like I accomplished a lot.  I remember in high school, in the height of my Wrestling and weight training program my strenght, my max amounts, and my muscle bulk, I can’t wait to get it back.  I can’t wait to take a trip down to my brothers in Oregon and take my measurements again.  I finally lifted my max lifts for measurement purposes and didn’t even have enough weights to complete the exercise!  I need to buy some extra weights I guess.  My increase in ability to lift a given amount of weight is awesome.  I am struggling with an outlined workout, due to limited equipment, and overage of energy (when my partner is lifting, I start lifting other things! hahah)  Anyways, hoping to post some progress "Start pictures" on my page which were take a few weeks ago.

The last 2 weeks I have been able to start a different type of training than I have been used to for the last couple years.  For the last couple of years I have focused almost entirely on my cardio workouts and triathlon training programs, except for the few guest passes that my friends would invite me to a workout with them.  However, I have finally found a place to workout, and lift, not to mention a friend to workout with.

Finding a friend to workout with has been difficult for me, it seems all my friends over the years do not have enough intensity, or desire for a tough workout.  Others just want to stand around, chat, and lift bench press, while checking out the gym girls of course. Finding a friend to workout with me for triathlon training is a huge joke as well, no one has the needed intensity, or required disipline, not to mention that they all think I am crazy.
But now, I have someone who lifts similar weight amounts, and is into it for the workout, the intensity, and interested in the improvement.  Not to mention that he has a gym at his house so that it can save me money.

So, in the last 2 weeks, I have been able to lift 3 days each week.  And I am already feeling good, already feeling the increase in ability to lift.  After each workout, I have been very sore, even with such low weight amounts compared to what I used to lift in high school.  After not lifting for so long, and only working  on my cardio all these years, I feel I should be able to increase my muscle strength and body tone at a good rate.  I try and explain to people my curve theory, most don’t understand at first glance.  But in essence, since I suck at lifting, my ability to increase my stats and tone, towards the beginning should be very easy.  Then it gets harder and harder as you improve to get an increase, or something like that, right?

In relation, to my curve theory, if someone sucked at running, or didn’t run at all, and they ran a mile time, then trained for a month or two, they could take a ton of time off their mile time.  Whereas, if you were a fast runner, and already trained, you could run a mile, and then train harder for 2 months, and be happy to take even seconds off your time.

Anyways, I am really looking forward to getting my first max lift readings in about 2 weeks, once my muscles are prepared for it. (Don’t want to get hurt or do something stupid)