Kennesaw Mtn

I am going to try a new thing on Wednesdays. I am going to do hill (mountain) work.

After I did my practice Tri, I needed to work on my hill climbing. One of the best work-outs for hills are steeper hills. That is why I rode up Kennesaw Mountain last Wednesday, and why I plan to do it this Wednesday.

I told one of my riding buddies that I was going to do it, and his advice was to use my gears. He must be insane, because by the first 100 yard I was in the lowest possible gear I could be in, and their I stayed.

It is about a 1.5 miles to the top of the mountain. That means it is a steep 900 ft elevation gain to the top. I had to stop at the 1 mile mark and catch my breath before I finished (I plan on making it all the way the next time). After a brief rest and some water I was on my way again. All in all, it took me 15 minutes to get up the mountain, and 4 minutes to get down (there is a speed limit that is enforced).

I basically had my Heart Rate maxed out on the way up. It was the first time since boot camp that I wanted to throw up because of exercise.

P.S. My Weigh-In Wednesday for last Wednesday:

Tri Test Drive

As you know, I was going to test the run and ride course for my upcoming (Oct 11th) triathlon (Aug 12th post). Last Sunday, I did just that.


The Run
The run is a 3.1 mile trail run. I am not sure what trail they are going to use, but judging by the different trail mileage, I guessed it was going to be a combination ow the Yellow and Blue trail. I hadn't done the Yellow trail before, so this was my first time on it. The yellow trail is much like the Blue and Red trails (see July 22nd post). It is wide, shaded. mostly flat, and full of horse poop.


The run itself was pretty easy. I didn't set any records with my pace.


The Transition
I wasn't really practicing my transition. I plan on wearing a set of Tri shorts at the event. Tri shorts are compression shorts that you can wear running, riding (they have a smaller chamois than bike shorts, so they don't bug you during the run), and swimming.


During this test I was wearing running shorts for the run, and was planning on the changing into my bike shorts in the aquatic center's locker room for the ride. Unfortunately, the aquatic center doesn't open till 1 o'clock on Sunday. That meant I had to ether ride in my running shorts, or go full Monty in the parking lot. Sound the stripper music, because I was not going to ride in running shorts. After a quick look for people, I stripped down and changed into my bike shorts (Side Note: The breeze was quite refreshing), and I was off for the bike ride.

The Ride

The ride was tougher than I anticipated. I turned left on HWY 166 out of Boundary Waters Park. Traffic was moderate, but all the drivers gave me plenty of room. I followed HWY 166 to Oak Hill Rd, and took a right. This is where it started getting tough. Oak Hill Rd is hilly, and it has speed bumps. Alot of speed bumps. Speed bumps suck for cyclist. They stop momentum, and on a bike, momentum is everything.I made it over all the speed bumps OK, turned right on Chapel Hill Road. This portion of the ride was uneventful.

From Chapel Hill Rd I turned right on Anneewakee Rd. This was the road that hurt me. Although the hill on this road wasn't too long, it was steep. I took this hill like the profane little engine that could. Saying to myself, son of a b!t

From Anneewakee I turned right on HWY 92/166. This is a busy section of highway, but it has a bike lane. Unfortunately, someone drove a bulldozer over it and left track marks all over it. Riding over the track marks made my teeth hurt.

Luckily this section wasn’t too long. I turned right onto HWY 166, and took the mostly downhill road back to Boundary Waters. I was sure glad it was downhill, because my legs were smoked. I finished the 13 mile course in less than 45 minutes.

As of right now, I’m pretty sure I can finish the triathlon in 2 hours, but I’m going to tri (pun intended) to do it in a hour and a half.

Welcome to the Family

Heifer

Welcome to the family. My sister adopted her this sweet girl this weekend. Her other Dane is not happy, and he's showing it.

Sorry your new brother is such a butt head.

The Last Chance Triathlon 09

If you read the last post, you know that I signed up for my first triathlon. It is the "Last Chance Triathlon 09" in Douglasville. It is being held at Boundary Waters Park (See July 22nd post), on October 11th. It is a reverse triathlon. That means you do a 3 mile trail run first, a 13 mile bike ride second, and a 1/4 mile pool swim last.

I chose this to be my first tri for 2 reasons: 1) It is close to home (less than a hour travel); and 2) Pool swim. Because swimming is my weakest discipline (remember, I run at a whopping 15 minute mile; that should tell you how bad a swimmer I am). In a pool swim, if you get too tired you can stand up (can't do that in a lake).

With signing up for it, I am taking away my excuses. It will be sink or swim (literally). Because of this I've stepped up my training. One of the ways I 'm stepping up is by doing the coarse this weekend. I will do a 3 to 5 mile trail run and 1 or 2 laps of the 13 mile bike course. I've been looking forward to doing it; psyching myself up for it. But, I've recently received a fortune cookie fortune that has me a little worried.

If you have read this, and are wondering why is he worried. It is because my fortunes tend to be sarcastic.

Weigh-In Wednesday

252.8 lbs

43.5% Fat

Today was my weight lose challenge at work. I weighed in at 261 lbs. I think there scale is off. So far, every other time I weighed in at the challenge it has been 5 lbs greater than my weigh-in Wednesday weight.

This last week I have been doing well in my workouts. It might have something to do with the fact that I have signed up for my first triathlon. I've kicked it up a bit. I joined the Cobb County Aquatic Center. After my swim classes ended, I joined so I could do laps. I figured I would keep going Tuesday and Thursday, just like class, but I've bumped it up to Monday Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Besides my swimming, I've increased my mileage on the bike. I've bumped up my lunch time ride to 12 miles (adding 2 miles), and have started doing at least one 20+ mile ride per week.

I've also started back running. Before this week, the last time I ran was mid July.

Urban Hip

I haven't lost much weight recently, but I'm OK with that. If you are asking yourself, why? It is because I've become accidentally "Urban Hip". What does "Urban Hip" have to do with weight? Not much, but it does have to do with size.

The other day I was wearing my favorite pair of cargo shorts, and I found myself pulling them up every 3 steps. If I didn't pull them up, they would drop down to my waist (now for something you don't hear people say often, "Thank god for my big ass."), and would have continued down to my ankles if my ass hadn't stopped them. With them around my hips and my underwear showing I became "Urban Hip".

I have no wish to be "Urban Hip". I find this fashion statement to be stupid. If you have to hold the crotch of your pants up in order to walk, you are a idiot. Buy a belt. I always find it funny when you see on TV a cop chases someone wearing this style, and their pants fall down as they are running.

I have taken up a personnel fight against this "Urban Hip" style.

Weigh-In Wednesday

I will blog later with pithy comments.

Karma

If you are looking at the above picture, and are thinking, "Why is there a wheel and pump in your office?", the answer is because Karma is a bitch.

Last week I was out for a easy (recovery) ride. That didn't happen. I saw a couple of co-workers riding ahead of me. I didn't have to catch them. I could have just done my easy ride, but I caught them one by one. I didn't have to pass them. I could have helped the slower of the two catch up to the first, and then worked with them as a group, but I passed them. Not only did I pass them, I smoked them. I didn't have to say anything about it, but I wrote on facebook that I went all Alberto Contador on their ass.

Today I was feeling good and I came up on one of the riders again, and this time I really smoked him. By the end of the first 2.5 mile loop I had opened up a 1 mile lead (at least). By the second lap I was going hard, feeling good about myself. That is when I got a flat. No big deal, I can change a flat in a couple of minutes. That is if I have a tube or a patch kit, but I didn't. Karma decided to mess with me. After my last flat, I had put tools and a repair kit in my seat pouch, but I took out the patch kit the last time I went mountain biking, and the spare tube I usually carry in my jersey pocket was left in my gym bag under a change of clothes. The only lucky thing I did was bring my cell phone. I was able to call back to one of my co-workers, and have him come and pick me up.

The moral of the story is, don't mock others riding ability, if you don't want to sit in your office fixing a flat.

P.S.
Last Wednesdays weigh in was 357.4 lbs and 38.9% Fat.