Alaska

I think we got what we wanted to see and experience in Alaska and more. I would have to say that my wife and I were one of the young couples on the cruise ship and tour. We began with a 3 day cruise ship from Vancouver to Juneau Alaska. On one of the mornings while on ship most of the people woke up to being sea sick including my wife who had scheduled a yoga class that morning but had to cancel. I had fun with a 40 minute spinning class followed with 5 miles on the treadmill. The treadmill run was the most difficult run I ever experienced. It was like running on a roller coaster ride. The food on board was exceptional along with the service.
The land tour of 7 days was a jam packed whirl wind site seeing of the Yukon Territory and Alaska. We traveled by train, motor coach bus, and boat to follow the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898. We visited many historical towns and learned about how a romantic life was like to live in the wilderness at that time.

We also did a lot of walking and hiking up mountains.

This was a hike to the Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska.

Under a glacier!

Smallest desert in the mountains.

Alaska is calling all those who love the true wilderness and want to experience the last frontier. Don't wait until you retire. You need all your young strength to enjoy the vastness of Alaska.
I wanted to add more pictures but Blogger would not accept more pictures. We are off for a family reunion during the 4th of July week at Deer Creek State Park, Mt. Sterling, Ohio. Anyone want to come visit me for a bike ride along the Deer Creek Triathlon course or swim in the lake can email me for more info. I'll bike Wednesday & Friday. I'll run Tuesday & Thursday. And I'll swim just about every day.

Short Tempo & more

Yesterday's workout:
On the track - 2 miles easy, 3 miles averaging 5:54 per mile, finish 1 mile easy. I used a heart rate monitor for the first time in years. My max heart rate was 151, and my average was 132 beats per minute. During my 3 miles of tempo running my heart rate stayed at 148 BPM. According to the heart rate calculations the 148 is at my maximum heart rate range between 80 and 85%. I guess they call this the anaerobic zone. That is the zone where you cannot speak eloquently. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out what to do with these numbers but for now I've got to run.

Today's workout:
15 minutes of dumbbells on the ball. I love that little jingle, "dumbbells on the ball".
35 minutes of a steady swim in the pool for lunch.
BRICK: 12 mile Bike ride in the park on my way home from work, followed with 2 miles running barefoot.

Saturday 5:00am:
My wife and I fly to Vancouver Canada and set sail on Holland America for our 11 day cruise and land adventure trip. Actually, 3 days on ship and 7 days on land by train, bus, and boat to make our way up to Anchorage, Alaska. We are excited and are ready to go and celebrate a wonderful time together.

I am not bringing my wet suit but I do hope to get a couple days of pool swimming, running (probably on treadmill), strength training, and stationary biking in on early mornings.

Hopefully, I get a chance while I'm up there to update my blog. I'll post pictures later too.

Peace,
Papa Louie

Adventures in marathon training.

Finally, after a 11 year hiatus from running a marathon I am back to tackle the challenge. This past March I have decided to run the Columbus Marathon as a qualifier for the Boston 2007 Marathon. Today's countdown number for the Columbus marathon is 123 days away!
It is also my first day to begin an 18 week marathon training program. The training is similar to what I did for the Cleveland Half Marathon race this past May. The training is basically, 3 days per week of running and 3 days cross training. The running is of intense quality workouts.
To view my marathon training schedule click on FIRST to the Finish. This program starts at 16 weeks but I will start 2 weeks prior to this schedule and then continue with week 16.

I am looking forward to the adventures in this serious 3 running days per week schedule. I think the excitement in starting a new training program is just as exciting as running the race.

Today's workout was 12 x 400 @ 1:14 average (1:30 Recovery Interval)

Sorry, I can't tell you my predicted marathon finish time. Although, I will accept any guesses you might have. A clue from my recent Half Marathon race results should help.

Wendy's Triathlon Race Recap.

Do you know why Wendy's restaurants make their burgers square? According to Dave, founder of Wendy's, said that, they do not cut any corners when it comes to making a great tasting burger. I would have to say that would be the same with the Wendy's International Triathlon, that I ran this past Sunday. There were no corners cut in this well run race.

The Swim was in beautiful Alum Creek State park beach. We swam in warm 72 degree water which was warmer than the 62 degree air temperature. It was a 1/2 mile swim from one end of the beach to the other end. Before the race I was debating whether to use my wet suit or not. I didn't want to lose time in transition by fiddling and fumbling with trying to get the wet suit off.
I went with wearing the wet suit. We swam in about 4 to 4 1/2 feet water which some people would stand up and walk through but I didn't want to cut any corners so I swam freestyle non stop. With the buoyancy, comfort, and confidence I gained from wearing the wet suit I was well pleased with my swim results. I managed to get the suit off in no time standing up by using my legs to step on and pull off the suit without much hands.
1/2 mile swim in 14:26 13th out of 28 in my age group.
T1 in 1:29 fastest transition time in my age group. (not too much fumbling around here.)

The Bike was a fairly flat and fast course. Although, I came upon the result of 2 crashes. One was at a sharp left corner and the other was at an intersection where we had to zig then zag around 2 short corners and around cars that were held up by patrol officers. I think 2 maybe 3 people were involved in that one. As I approached these turns I cautiously went through and found a clear open line for me to sprint about 100 yards to regain my speed.
16.8 mile bike in 48:06 (20.9 mph average) 5th out of 28 in age group.
T2 in 1:43 5th out of 28. (fiddled and fumbled with trying to unsnap chip strap with cold and numb fingers) Next time before I get near transition I will shake and squeeze my hands to get blood flow and circulation in them.

The Run was also on a flat and fast course. This was my chance to catch 4 of the remaining 5 guys in my age group. No problem, since I am a runner turned triathlete. I had the 6th fastest overall run time.
5K run in 18:53 (6:03 average pace)
Finish time 1:24:39
2nd place in 45-49
Wendy's web site results

Water Fast Follow-up

On Tuesday morning after I broke the water fast with a light breakfast smoothie I felt my strength was beginning to come back. For my mid morning snack I ate a home made power bar and an orange. I then hit the pool for an easy 35 minute swim during lunch time. The swim felt good. For lunch I had 2 turkey stuff cabbages and an apple. For my afternoon snack I had a garden salad, handful of pecans, and handful of raisins. For dinner I had 2 pinto bean borritos which I ate about an hour and half before I went to the track to workout with the club. It was on the track that I noticed I had not fully recovered my strength. My legs were feeling tired and heavy during 400 repeats. I averaged around 1:22 for 8 - 400's which was about 7 to 9 seconds slower than normal.
Oh, and I still drank water throughout the day too.

trifrog: I do believe that going through a detox diet does help make you aware that you can eliminate certain "bad" foods from your diet by learning to make healthy choices.

jessie_tri_mn: As of Wednesday I feel fully recovered from getting fatigued during the fast. My hunger is about the same. I eat a morning meal, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, and an evening snack. I eat all day to keep my metabolism working. I started eating this way and incorporated strength training 2 to 3 times a week since January and have lost 8 pounds.

Lana: Mondays are my rest days. I did not have any workouts scheduled that day. That is why I chose Monday to have the water fast.

deb: Having nothing to eat but only drinking water for 36 hours was a mental and physical and spiritual discipline for me to experience.

qcmier: Right on with Eddy Money.

Main ingredients for a smoothie is 3/4 cup yogurt, 3/4 cup milk, 4-6 ice cubes, the additions can be whatever fruit and grains you have on hand and to add more protein use 2 tablespoons of whey power.

Today's smoothie additions was 1 cup cooked oatmeal, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, 2 tablespoons flaxseed, 1/2 cup mangos, 1/2 cup diced cantaloupe, and a squirt of pure maple syrup. This stuff fills me up and keeps me satiated until my mid morning snack.

Gimme some water.

On Sunday evening at 6:30 I began a 36 hour water fast (cleansing, detoxification). And not for the reason to starve myself or to lose weight, but for the benefit of its natural healing and cleansing process.
A water fast is probably not for everyone to try yet I think it is good for the body to go through some type of detox program once in awhile.

I started with 1 gallon of Distilled water.

On Monday morning rather than having a cup of tea with my wife I had hot water in a cup. Thus began my long day of consuming only water throughout the day. The day at work went well but after 24 hours (6:30 pm) I felt lightheaded, droopy eyes, and overall fatigued, kind of like I do when I try to stay awake all night. I also had to wrap myself in my house coat because I was cold. I guess getting cold is also a side effect along with a mild head ache. No bowel movement today. I went to bed around 9:00 pm.

I was so happy to wake up Tuesday morning at 6:15 am to break my fast. I took a picture of the 24 ounces of water left in the jug and dumped the rest down the drain. After washing my face I ate a banana and made a smoothie that my son was also looking forward to have with me. I put all my favorite ingredients in a blender (that my son normally would not eat) to blend them together. This mornings smoothie consisted of 3/4 cup yogurt, 3/4 soy milk, 4-6 ice cubes, 2 teaspoons of peanut butter, 1 tablespoon of flax seed, and some strawberries. We drank up and were singing, "umm, umm, good". I felt refreshed and ready to start my day. As the experts say, that the bowels should move within an hour or two after the first meal, I was right on schedule.

While fasting I gained an appreciation of the lesson learned in self-restraint. That is, to be able to control my choice of what foods to put or not to put in my mouth.

I think a water fast is harder to do than any other fasting. I've done a 2 day apple fast and found that to be easy. My next experimental fast will be a juice fast. I'll try that some time in the fall when I can juice apples and pears when they are in season.

An article on Nutritional Program for Fasting can be read on line.

A cheap workout

Did you check out any of these McDonald's promotional deals they are giving out with the new Asian Salads and bottled water? I have all except the Cardio.
The DVD's are 15 minute workouts that have some value.
When I did the Core workout I felt some burn in my abs. I modified some of the exercises by holding dumbbells which gave me more of a challenge.
The strength workout caused my Adductor Magnus to be sore the next day. The soreness came from all the pleia squats with dumbbells.
I haven't done the Yoga DVD but was able to view some of the workouts and decided that it would be a good cool down following the Core and Strength workouts.
If you are looking for a cheap workout then these easy to do 15 minute workouts are a quick fix.

Things are flying in the air.

The cottonwood trees are shedding their furry little seeds this time of the month. Out on today's run in the park I found myself dodging those little white hair balls but they still managed to get in my hair, nose, and most troubling in my eye.
Yet it was kind of cool to run through a white out with fuzzy things blowing all around and on the ground.

I was able to enjoy the run with my wife riding on her bike chasing me. And she was able to keep up with my 6:40 pace for an 8 mile run. I appreciate the time when she can be with me on my runs. She likes it too. But I'm doing the flying while she cruises along.