Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in ironmatt's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Thursday, April 10th, 2008
6:30 pm	Thursday Date: 04/10/2008 Time: 18:30 Duration: ~1.5 hours Location: Autobahn Sport: Cycling Workout: 8mi time trial Distance: 8mi x 3 Cadence: 90ish RPE: 15 Nutrition: 1 Gu, 28oz Gatorade Endurance Weather: Mild and sunny, winds from the north People: TxFe Comments: Result: 20:20. I'm not really happy with it. It felt much faster, or at least much harder. Ties my slowest time from last year. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
6:37 pm	Tuesday Date: 04/08/2008 Time: 18:40 Duration: ~15 minutes Location: Barton Springs / Zilker Sport: Running Workout: not really Distance: insignificant Nutrition: None Weather: Hot, humid, sunny, oppressive-feeling People: TxFe Comments: I'm not sure whether it was the lingering infection, the tetanus shot, or the 1.5 hour crawl down Mopac on my motorcycle behind an old Chevy burning oil, but this was a Bad Run. I had no energy and felt like I'd aged 20 years. I was over 30 minutes late for the workout, so was given an abbreviated version by Jamie, but starting into it I knew it wasn't to be. I'm lucky if I even made it a full 15 minutes total. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
6:08 am	Tuesday Date: 04/08/2008 Time: 06:08 Duration: 53:14 Location: Barton Springs Sport: Swimming Workout: 60 minute swim Distance: 2400m (5 crack laps) Weather: Humid, mild, high 60s and dark at start People: shublog, teambaraka, deankat, eventually whyiron Comments: Yes, this really was my first workout in over a week. Crash recovery took longer than expected, and the thought of slipping on the wetsuit over newly-healed roadrash wasn't the most inviting, but it turned out OK. My fitness felt way off so I just kept it as easy as I could (and still keep forward momentum) and went with the mantra of "enjoy." My left-hand breathing is getting to feel more natural, and I'm slowly getting back my ability to sight, such that I for the most part followed straight lines across the pool. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
9:27 am	Sunday Date: 03/30/2008 Time: 09:27 Duration: 25:44 Location: Neighborhood Sport: Running Workout: 2 hour run Distance: ? Cadence: Low RPE: Low Nutrition: None Weather: Warm, humid, drizzle/rain People: Alone Comments: I was supposed to do a 2 hour run, but after getting up and assessing things decided to cut it to an hour. Then, as I was getting ready to hop out the door realized I was feeling warm and not really that great. So, I applied the 20 minute rule. Due to the swelling under my right arm I didn't really have much arm throw, and it just felt bad, so I kept it slow. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
8:39 am	Saturday Date: 03/29/2008 Time: 08:39 Duration: 3:06:21 Location: NE Austin Sport: Cycling Workout: Rosedale Ride Distance: 62 miles Cadence: 90 RPE: 13 Nutrition: 4 Gu, 6 Saltstick caps, 28oz Gatorade Endurance, 28oz Accelerade, 54oz water Weather: Cool and humid, mid-50s to mid-60s, overcast People: Amy, Pam, Jeff, Pam, Laura, many others Comments: I love this ride. This was the first year that we didn't have horrible winds that I can remember. Instead, this year only had 10-15mph winds from the north. This made the ride out (north) a bit of a grind, but they have improved so many of the roads out there it was hard to tell at times. I started at the front, but let the peloton drift off once we got onto Cameron, since my goal today was an informal time trial. My goal was to break three hours. Most of the ride was great. Once we started heading southward the miles were chewed up rapidly. I say "we" because I was in the continuous process of picking up people who had fallen off the peloton, and would pull them for several miles at a time. One group of three sat on my wheel for about 15 miles on the way back. While it's nice that I can do this to help guys who are struggling, it was my undoing. As we came flying up to New Sweden Rd, I began into the turn when I felt my rear wheel being pushed; the guy who had been right behind me hadn't slowed enough and clipped my wheel. Since I was already about 30° into the turn my wheels just went straight out, and I slid through the entirety of the intersection. None of the filthy begats of dogs riding my wheel stopped. Luckily, nothing broken, bike or rider. I did end up with a small pinch slit on the sidewall of my front tire, but other than a few scratches that was it. I engaged in a quick tire change and got moving again. I had been making excellent progress on my time goal, but after this I'd lost a bit of momentum. I have no idea how long my recovery and tire change took, but I guess I'm still happy with a 3:06 time. I should be happy to have been able to finish at all. Crossing under the finish arc I went to the first aid tent to have them remove some gravel/glass and do a quick wash of my wounds, went to the car to change into shoes for: Time: 12:15 Duration: 1:01:03 Sport: Run Workout: 1 hour run Distance: ? Cadence: 155-160 RPE: 12 Nutrition: 1 Gu, 20oz water Weather: Warmer, humid, overcast. People: Alone Comments: Since I didn't know the area at all, I just went back behind Samsung and ran through some of the neighborhoods for thirty minutes, and came back via the same path. Toward the end my upper arm / under arm area were pretty sore, so it didn't fret a 1 minute positive split. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 28th, 2008
1:09 pm	Friday Date: 03/28/2008 Time: 13:09 Duration: 44:09 Location: BodyBusiness Sport: Swimming Workout: 60 minute swim Distance: 2133m Weather: Indoors People: Alone Comments: I arrived a bit late after running into most every variety of quality driving, and had to crawl out for a pool cleaning. Overall, it wasn't too bad. Progress. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
6:00 pm	Thursday Date: 03/27/2008 Time: 18:00 Duration: ? Location: Barton Springs / Zilker Sport: Bike / Run brick Workout: Transition practice Distance: N/A RPE: 13-14 Nutrition: 1 Gu, 28oz Gatorade Endurance Weather: Warm, high 70s/low 80s, sunny People: TxFe Comments: We did 5x bike/run transitions. The bike and run loops were really short, so it was mostly about keeping your head together in transition and getting through ASAP. I managed to DQ myself my first time in off the bike by unclipping my helmet and taking it off before my bike was "racked" (propped against the curb.) Times (very roughly): 1: 3:58/1:41 2: 3:25/1:34 3: 3:24/1:36 4: 3:22/1:32 5: 3:19/1:30 (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
4:00 pm	Wednesday Date: 03/26/2008 Time: 16:00 Duration: 1:20:00 Location: Garage Sport: Cycling Workout: 80 minute trainer workout Weather: Warm, humid People: Alone Comments: 10min easy, 10min moderate, 10min strong 3 x(4,2,1 min fast, 2min recover), 3 min recover between sets Watched 2.5 episodes of The Young Ones. Hurray for Lemmy and Madness. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
6:10 am	Tuesday Date: 03/25/2008 Time: 06:10 Duration: ~30 minutes Location: Barton Springs Sport: Swimming Workout: 30 min swim Distance: 3 laps? I don't remember Weather: Cool and a bit muggy, around 50, dark and misty People: Amy, then whyiron, teambaraka, IMAZBarb, OtherMark Comments: Our first Barton Springs / wetsuit swim of the year. I've definitely got some slimming to do in order to get comfortable again. Practiced my left-side breathing, which caused me to veer all over the place. Fortunately the pool was lightly populated so didn't result in any collisions (though I hear I'm not alone!) On my last lap, the others jumped in and I sat on Barb's feet on the way down. Drafting is something I need to practice. Badly. --- Time: 18:00 Duration: ~1.25 hours Location: Barton Springs / Zilker Sport: Running Workout: 6x .5mi Distance: ~4 mi, all told Cadence: 160 RPE: 14-16 Nutrition: 1 Gu prior Weather: Low 70s, sunny, windy People: TxFe Comments: Having just picked up a pair of Mizunos to take for a spin, we had to rush across downtown to Barton Springs in order to make it on time for the workout. Andrea told us it was going to be a quick workout. That always makes me nervous. Fortunately it didn't turn out to be the 1 minute sprints. Instead, it was half-mile repeats in Zilker. Since I wasn't racing this weekend, I was tasked with six of them. 1: 3:02 2: 3:02 3: 3:03 4: 3:02 5: 3:03 6: 3:05 That last one nearly killed me. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
8:40 am	Sunday Date: 03/23/2008 Time: 08:40 Duration: 59:11 (30:28 out, 28:43 back) Location: Mesa Sport: Running Workout: 60-90 minute run Distance: ~7 mi Cadence: 155 RPE: 11 Nutrition: 1 Gu Weather: Cool, mild, sunny People: Alone Comments: Just an easy run. Felt tired. -- Went with Amy to Gregory gym to help her start a weight training schedule. We went through most of what I do and why, and figured out what machines she could use, and in which gym they were located. I did most of a single set myself, but it was definitely abbreviated. Afterwards we did a quick ten minute swim in the outdoor pool. It was very, very nice. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
8:23 am	Saturday Date: 03/22/2008 Time: 08:23 Duration: 3:11:00 Location: South Austin Safari, mostly Sport: Cycling Distance: ~62mi Cadence: 90 RPE: 11-13 Nutrition: 4x Gu, water, Gatorade Endurance Weather: Mild and sunny People: Dave for most Comments: I started the day acting like a dickbag, angry with myself for not getting up as early as I should have and forgetting several things at home, including my running shoes, and conspired to ruin everyones' day. The first hour riding burnt off most of my angst. We rode most of the Safari course, adding on some distance in a few places, and Dave peeled off in Buda so he could get home, and I had to make a detour due to construction south of the "animal ranch." Behind the ranch there was a cycling accident of some sort with two ambulances present. I didn't get the details, but only saw one person sitting with a possibly strained ankle. There were about 15 cyclst standing around, so just kept on moving. The winds were much more gentle this week, but picked up a bit once I got east of 35. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
6:00 pm	Thursday Date: 03/20/2008 Time: 18:00 Duration: ? Location: Northwest Park Sport: Brick Workout: 1x brick warmup, 3x bike/run transition bricks, 2x run loop cooldown Distance: ? RPE: 14-15 Nutrition: Lots of water Weather: Cool, pleasant, mid 60s and a little breezy People: TxFe Comments: A good workout. Despite traffic on Great Northern by the ball field, my speed was ok. A bit rough in places, but I felt better than I expected. Donned the dork helmet just to get some transition practice with it, and I'm glad I did since it was somewhat less wieldy than I figured. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
3:00 pm	Wednesday Date: 03/19/2008 Time: 15:00 Location: BodyBusiness Sport: Strangth Training Comments: Single sets of the usual. Bumped up a couple weights very slightly. --- Time: 17:30 Duration: 1:00:00 Location: Garage Sport: Cycling Workout: 60 min ride w/ 10 x 1min fast w/ 2min recovery Cadence: 80-100 RPE: 11-15 Nutrition: 1 Gu Weather: Garagy People: Amy Comments: Watched some Young Ones. Actually, half of one episode twice due to a broken remote. Regardless, it never gets old. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
11:54 am	Tuesday Date: 03/18/2008 Time: 06:00 Duration: 30ish minutes Location: BodyBusiness Sport: Swimming Workout: 30 min swim Distance: don't remember People: Amy Comments: I need to find a swim picture. --- I missed the evening run workout to stay with the dog who had just come back from the Dr. (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
7:06 am	Sunday Date: 03/16/2008 Time: 07:06 Duration: 2:04:24 Location: Balcones / Scenic / TLT Sport: Running Workout: 2 hour base run Distance: 14.6mi Cadence: 160 RPE: 12-13 Nutrition: 4 Gu, 50oz water Weather: Cool, wonderful, high 50s, sunny People: Alone Comments: Amy and I had the grand plan of doing our run and then immediately getting our swim out of the way. Amy was to run the 10mi TLT loop with Leslie, so I thought I would start at the house and meet them at Deep Eddy at roughly the time of their finish. The run went really well. Arrived at Deep Eddy much earlier than I anticipated... and found that it was closed; it was ~8:30 and they open this time of year at 10. :( So, since the girls weren't back yet, and knowing that I wouldn't really be holding up the swimming, I jumped out on the trail and decided to do a short loop. At the creek bridge I saw the backs of whyiron and teambaraka, so sped up to say "hi!" At the other side of the birdge they turned left to run towards the pool, and I decided to join them for a bit since I was no longer in any particular rush to finish. At the main entrance I split off, and hit Stratford to jump on the bridge and get back to the pool. As I got back, Amy, Leslie and Steph were just stretching from their run, and we decided to just give the swim a miss, since we didn't want to deal with having to pay to park and to swim at BS, or wait around an hour. We had plans for brunch with mhat at 11, so we even had time to go home and destinkerize. (Comment on this)
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
8:06 am	Saturday Date: 03/15/2008 Time: 08:06 Duration: 4:20:00 bike, 30:07 run Location: Ride out, straight back, run. Sport: Cycling + Run Workout: 4 hour ride, 30 minute run Distance: ~68mi bike, 3.7mi run Cadence: around 90, 160 RPE: 11-13, 13 Nutrition: 6 Gu, 28 oz Gatorade Endurance, 56oz Clif drink stuff, 56 oz Water™ Weather: Pleasant, mid-50s to mid 70s, sunny, very windy People: Dave for bike Comments: AmyCo. were riding to San Marcos and back on the standard Old San Antonio route, and I wanted to get in a bit more distance, so threw in the loop over to Driftwood. Dave had called me the day before to see if I was riding, and was interested in joining in. With strong NW winds, we hit them pretty quick, as soon as we turned onto 1626. This meant we pretty much flew from Driftwood to San Marcos. I was trying to be conservative, but Dave was really enjoying the 33-35mph pace. He paid a bit for that, and upon turning around in San Marcos, directly back into that wind that had picked up to 20mph, he began to flag. The ride back was slower, and once back on Old SanAnton he gave me leave to peel off, since he knew I still had a run to complete, and that Amy would likely be nearly done and waiting for me. The run was decent. It had certainly warmed up, and that area sports pretty much zero shade. Still, my legs felt pretty good and I kept a decent pace. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 14th, 2008
2:20 pm	Friday Date: 03/14/2008 Time: 14:20 Duration: ? Location: Deep Eddy Sport: Swimming Distance: ? Weather: Beautiful, sunny, low 90s People: Spring Break Comments: I had a doctor's appointing first thing in the morning, so had to wait until the afternoon to get my swim in. I wanted to get my swim in as early as poossible, and BodyBusiness' pool wasn't available for lap swimming until 15:30. When I whined to Amy about it, she recommended Deep Eddy. Oh yeah! Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that it was Spring Break, so it was *packed*. I managed to get into a lane, one that was only three to a lane. It was a tough swim. I'm not sure what it was about it; maybe I was just tired. Breathing to my left was tough, and I ended up doing a lot more stopping (and coughing) than I had planned. I counted laps at the time, but I honestly can't remember how many I did. (Comment on this)
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
6:10 am	Thursday Date: 03/13/2008 Time: 06:10 Duration: 54:34 Location: NW Austin Sport: Running Workout: 50 minute run Distance: ~7mi Cadence: Low RPE: 10-13 Nutrition: 1 Gu Weather: Dark, humid, mid-50s People: Alone Comments: Continuing in the theme of not sleeping well, I woke every 10-15 minutes from 2:30 through 5:30, and decided to get up then and get started. Amy had started about 25 minutes before me, and I didn't want to keep her waiting, since she was giving me a ride to go pick up my cycle from the shop. Regardless of intentions, my run was really, really slow -- the first half, at least. I normally don't run with an mp3 player, but figured I'd listen to the news while running in the pitch dark. Well, as dark as it ever gets in central-ish Austin. I should probably not do this in the future for any run where I care about the time. I ended up getting to my turn-around point four minutes slower than I had planned. Woops. I guess the combination of tired, fatigued and distracted aren't a recipe for success. My way back, I picked it up a bit. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
1:00 pm	Wednesday Date: 03/12/2008 Time: 13:00 Duration: 46:13 Location: BodyBusiness Sport: Swimmin Workout: 60 minute swim workout Distance: ~2133m (20+80+40 lengths, 50ft pool) Nutrition: An orange Comments: Still working on form over speed or duration, but it seems to be slowly coming together. I started on 20 lengths to see how I'd feel at breaths every 3 strokes, alternating sides, and it was surprisingly OK. Feeling a little more with my positioning I went for 80, then a slightly faster 40, all 3-stroke. Got a bit of a cramp towards the end, but it was likely due to not having eaten anything recently, and a total lack of sodium in my system. --- Time: 14:10 Duration: 34 minutes Location: BodyBusiness Sport: Strength training Comments: I Was tired after the swim so just did one circuit again. I did up a few things slightly. The pull-ups and bar dips were killers. Type reps/count weight Weighted pull up 1x10 10 Bar dip 1x16 N/A Squat 1x16 225 Leg press 1x16 280 Bench 1x16 100 Delt press 1x16 60 Leg Extension 1x16 120 Hamstring Curl 1x16 120 Lat pull 1x16 105 Tricep 1x16 22.5 Hip Abductor 1x16 80 Hip Adductor 1x16 80 Back 1x16 N/A Weighted Abs 1x16 25 Fly 1x16 12 Y 1x16 12 Oblique crunch 1x16 80 Hip flexor 1x16 N/A Pull Back 1x100 12 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
6:00 pm	Tuesday Date: 03/11/2008 Time: 18:00 Duration: 1:45:00ish Location: Barton Springs Sport: Running Workout: ~1.5mi w/u, 8x400 decending 2s per 2 w/400 recover between each, ~1.5mi c/d Distance: ~7ishmi RPE: 11-15 Nutrition: 48oz water Weather: mild, sunny, dry, mid 60s People: TxFe Comments: Track workout night. We did a warmup run over to Austin HS track, and I got to chat with whyiron a bit. At the track, we did a warmup lap while waiting for everyone to arrive, and then did two sets of drills+strides. Then, we were told the workout: 8x400, decending two seconds every two. It had been quite a while since my last real speedwork so I wasn't really sure how my body would respond, and aimed my pace towards something safe, 1:40. Jamie asked the group to confer among itself and try to find 4-5 others around your pace, and to head out in single-file clumps. Milling about, I met Scott, Elizabeth(sp) and one other fellow (I really am horrible with names) who were all shooting for a start pace of 1:47, which would be just about right for my final laps. So, that decided, we set out. After finishing our first one at 1:35 we decided to change plans and use that for our basis, decending from there. We hovered around there for the next few, but then began to decend. For the last one, Scott and I decided to run the first 200 at our goal pace, and then throw what was left into the last 200. 1: 1:35 2: 1:36 3: 1:35 4: 1:36 5: 1:32 6: 1:29 7: 1:29 8: 1:18 I definitely was overly-cautious in my pacing decision, but am glad I did; I got to meet several new TxFe peeps, and felt great doing it. (Comment on this)