Project Exercise

As most of you know, Hawaii was under a tsunami warning.  The warning was posted last night and although we have had 4 ocean surges at this point, the warning has not been lifted.  I live a little less than a mile from the beach, but outside of the “inundation zone”.  Most of the roads around my house are closed.  I have been watching the traffic cams and it looks like a ghost town out there.

The primary bike path runs along the road that is inside of the inundation zone and the police are stopping all traffic (vehicular, foot and cycle).  My plan was to get on the bike and go on a 20 mile ride with hill training.  Since I did not know how long we would be in this situation I decided to do a session on the indoor trainer.  I jumped on the trainer about 20 minutes before the first surge was expected to hit so that I could watch the events local news (which has been on non-stop since last night).  I rode for an hour.  After the ride I jumped on my Tower 200 to knock out a shoulders, biceps and triceps workout.

We have had a few surges so far and it has been uneventful.  That is good news for us.  We have had life and property losses in the past from tsunamis so we take this stuff seriously around here.  It’s kind of like when they talk about a hurricane on the gulf coast, people listen.  Actually, I was on the island of Kauai when hurricane Iniki hit in 92.  All the houses around our house were flattened.  Our house, surprisingly sustained minor damage.  Anyway, I digress… it looks like we dodged the bullet on this one.  It was interesting to watch the ocean surge out and expose the reef just prior to each surge.  My mom saw the same thing in 1946 as a child on the island of Molokai.  At that time, we didn’t have the technology for a tsunami warning so most of the folks were not sure what was happening.  Then all of a sudden a wall of water slammed onto the island shore.  At that time we lost life and property.

I am watching the news right now and there are already reports of house thefts at homes that were evacuated.  What the heck!!!  That is really disappointing.

I ordered a Road ID last night.  I am sure most of you already know what a Road ID is.  If your races have been anything like the ones we have here, you have probably found Road ID coupons in your race packets.  Anyway, I after I ordered it I got an email from the company with a promo code that can be used to get a $1 off.

Coupon Number: ThanksIokepa622320

This coupon is good for $1 off any Road ID order. It can be used up to 20 times in the next 30 days.  Btw, Iokepa is my Hawaiian name.  I don’t use it on this blog because a lot of folks can’t pronounce it.  LOL!!!  Actually, folks around here simply call me Kepa.  Darn, I got off on a tangent again.  I went on YouTube and searched on Road ID and I came up with a video of a blind runner who carries several Road IDs!

I was thinking about taking a rest day today, but I ended up being a meat-head (as my buddy Jeff says).  So, instead, I got up at 4:45am and went to the YMCA for some swimming.  I got in the pool at 5:45am and did 1700 yards.

• Warm up 1oo yards
• Main Swim 1500 yards
• Cool down 100 yards

I was out of the pool about 6:25am, showered up and headed to work.

During the warm up and cool down I practiced bilateral breathing every 3 strokes.  During the main swim I occasionally did some bilateral breathing.  Instead of bilateral breathing every 3 strokes, however, I would do a length of the pool breathing on the right side and the return length breathing on the left side.  Most of the main swim, however, was done one-sided breathing on the right side.  Breathing on the left is just not comfortable for me.  I would really like to master bilateral breathing.  However, I actually swim faster doing one-sided breathing.  I am sure I could swim just as fast or faster with bilateral breathing if can master the technique.

During the main swim I had to really concentrate on form.  The arm workout that I did yesterday affected the swim today.  I am just getting back into swimming, biking and running (no I haven’t committed to running another triathlon).  I have been doing P90X, Insanity, i30x5 and Tabata type of workouts for the past 3 months so I need to get used to the multisport training.  If I am not committing to another triathlon, then why the heck am I siwmming, biking and running.  Well, because I enjoy ot.  So for me its swim, bike, run and lift.

I wanted to do a lifting session today, however, I got busy after work and let life get in the way.

You know how they say, “no pain, no gain”?  Here is the “pain”…

I worked from home today because my son had to stay home from school.  He wasn’t feeling well.  My wife also fell sick this morning so I ended up staying home to watch both of them.

Late this afternoon I was able to get a 5k run done.  I was pleasantly surprised that my knee held up through the run.  There was some dull pain, but no sharp pains or lock ups.  I ran the entire time in zone 2.

I was also able to get do a biceps and triceps workout.  I was supposed to be on a recovery week from strength training.  I will just do it next week.  It was just an excuse to play on the Tower 200.

Ok, I gotta keep it short this evening.  So I will leave you with a video of an angry cat.  Reminds me of a guy at the gym who has roid rage.

I thought I had cold symptoms a couple days ago, but I think I have sinusitis.  I went to the WebMD site and the symptoms are right on.  After my swim today I was just miserable at the office.  As soon as I got home I took Sudafed PE.  That helped a lot.  After every pool session I have been having trouble with my sinuses.  I will take Sudafed right after my next swim to reduce the symptoms.

Anyway, I did 2200 yards today.  I started with a warm up of 1 x 200, then a main swim of 2000 yards and a cool down of 100 yards.  I wasn’t trying to go particularly fast.  I just wanted to “go the distance”.

I came across this swimming calculator that counts laps using an accelerometer.  It is called “Pool-Mate“.  You don’t have to push buttons to count each lap.  It also gives overall time, average strokes per lap, speed, distance, and calories burned.

I wanted to go running this afternoon, however, this sinus thing just tore me up so I will have to try a run another time… maybe tomorrow.

Here is a Pool-Mate video…

The Caine Mutiny

I began to feel a cold coming on last night so I went to bed a bit early get a good nights rest.  When I got up this morning I was still congested so I axed my planned morning swim and headed to my man-cave for a cycling session on my trainer.  I didn’t have anything interesting on the DVR so I dug up an classic movie dvd… “The Caine Mutiny” with Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson and Fred McMurray.  Ok, I know a lot of you are saying, “I ain’t never heard of that movie”.  It’s a pretty old movie.  I am an old movie buff.  I love movies of the 30′s, 40′s and 50′s. Okay, so I jumped on my trainer and went for 45 minutes.  For myself, that is a long time to spend on a trainer.  I really have to fight the boredom of riding my bike indoors.  The movie helped out quite a bit.  I had to do a few standing spin intervals so I could lift my rear end off the seat.  My saddle is very uncomfortable.

I used my Tower 200 to do an abs/core workout.  It worked out great.  I was able to do lying resistance crunches, kneeling pulldown crunches, and wood choppers.  There is also an exercise that I saw in the manual where you hook up the ankle straps and grab the overhead handles.  From a standing position you pull down with one arm, raise the opposite leg and touch elbow to knee.  Its like doing bicycle crunches in a standing position.

Did you know that resistance bands are dangerous?  Check it out…

I got to the pool at 6am this morning to get my swim done.  I did 1 x 1000 and 3 x100.  During the long set I ended up doing my one-sided breathing.  It is just tough to get out of my comfort zone when going long.  After the long set I worked on bilateral breathing for 3 sets of 100.

During lunch I worked on chest with bench presses and flyes.  I then took off for a 5k run.  During my run I realized that I am supposed to be on a recovery week from strength training… doh!  Around 2 miles into the run, my left knee popped off track.  If you are new to my blog, I have a problem with my left knee… chondromalacia to be exact.  I was running at a slow zone 2 and I was prepared for it.  When it locked up I ended up hopping on my right leg until I could come to a “graceful” stop.  It sure beats falling down.  I have a way of moving my lower leg until it pops back in place.  Its kind of cool because it makes a popping sound like cracking a knuckle.  After I got it re-aligned I walked it out a bit and resumed running.  This is just a problem that I have to deal with when I run.  As my sports medicine doctor told me… just run on it as long as I can stand it.

Ok, I gotta turn in now. I feel like I am coming down with a cold so I hope a good nights sleep will take care of it. I will leave you folks with this short video where a doctor uses a technique to determine if someone has chondromalacia.

Yesterday I decided to jump on the bike and go cycling for 45 minutes.  Nothing too intense.  It was a nice day and I just wanted to get out and ride.  I did a couple of rounds around Diamond Head so I could get some hill training done.  I need to get a better saddle to protect the boys and the arse.  I wish I could get one of those darn fangled triathlon bikes.  I do, however, bave bullhorn style handlebars and aero bars on my road bike.  I also have shifters mounted on my aero bars.

As I cruise around YouTube looking at workout videos I notice that my workouts these past few months actually resemble MMA conditioning workouts.  I am not talking about the actually combat arts, but the actually conditioning training that these athletes perform.  I came across a device that MMA champ Randy Coulture uses.  It is called a Tower 200.  It mounts on the door.  It is something that can easily be incorporated into an i30x5 workout or a Tabata session.  I am a sucker for good home gym stuff so I ordered one.  It came in the mail yesterday.  So I put it up and did a biceps and triceps Tabata workout.  It is an awesome piece of equipment.  Just by the design of it, you can go from one exercise to another in a Tabata circuit instantly.  It can deliver up to 200 lbs of resistance.  I am looking forward to trying an abs/core workout on it.  My man-cave is set up pretty nicely now with the heavy duty Terrell Owens Bodylastics band system, the Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells, my bench and my curling bar and Olympic weights.  I also have my gym membership that I use during my lunch breaks.

Here is a videos of Randy Coulture working out with the device…

I worked on my bilateral breathing for 3 x 200.  I started to do the next 500 yards bilateral breathing, but somehow I started competing with the guys in the lane next to me.  I noticed that when I did bilateral breathing I was just keeping up with my lane buddies.  However, when I went back to one sided breathing I was able to pull away from them.  This is not really an excuse to revert back to one-sided breathing (or maybe it is).  I gotta stop getting competitive in the pool and continue to work on my form and breathing.  I am such an idiot.  Its just that I am such a slow runner and I actually have a chance in the water.

Ok, so I got home and did shoulders and legs.  Doing i30x5 and swimming is not very complementary.  I will probably do a recovery week from strength training next week.  I will continue swimming though.  I may have to figure out a better schedule for swimming and strength training.

Ok, since I am back into my swimming I needed something to make me feel good about not knowing how to do a flip turn (btw, who needs flip turns in the open water anyway).  This is the way I train in a pool when I get to the wall.

I got to the “Y” at 5:45am and all the lanes were taken.  I had to share a lane for a while.  It was cool though because the lanes are wide enough.  I really need to work on my bilateral breathing.  I am not comfortable breathing on my left side.  So the entire session was dedicated to bilateral breathing and stroke form.  I notice that bilateral breathing helps me with my body rotation.  The body rotations and doing long reaches on the stroke was helping me glide better.  I was doing 16 to 17 strokes per 25 yards.  Hmm… I wonder if I can get that down to 12-14.  It is amazing how little things can make big improvements.  I did 5 x 200 all bilateral breathing.  I intend to continue working on this for the next few sessions.

In the afternoon I worked on abs/core.  While the workout had intensity, it was nothing special.  Pretty much plain vanilla.

Hey, have you ever had times when you made a decision and almost immediately knew it was the wrong decision?  Here is one of those moments…

I hit the pool at 5:40am.  There was a bit of a morning chill accompanied by a breeze, but the water temp was a nice 80 degrees.  The pool opens at 5am and there are a lot of people swimming.  I had to share a lane for about 10 minutes.  I did 3×200 and 1×500.  I am still working on my stroke.  I need to start bilateral breathing.  Before I stopped swimming last summer, I was beginning to get more comfortable with bilateral breathing, however, I am back to breathing only on my right side.  Breathing on both sides is a tough thing for me to do.  Why?  Who knows… more likely it is because I am old dog trying to learn new tricks.

After work I knocked out a biceps and triceps workout.  i30x5 was tough today.  Doubling up this workout with swimming is a challenge.  Today’s workout, while challenging, was good.  I still have a good pump a few hours after finishing.