John's Stuff

Weekend Plans

2009-01-09T09:09:00.000-08:00

This weekend I am planning to attend the Twin Cities Multisports Clubs sponsor open houses: Grand Performance on Friday, Accua on Saturday and StartLine Running Store on Sunday. I will also be continuing the organizing & cleaning of my house. I will complete building up my tri bike. On Saturday I will spin to one of the new CTS Progressive Power DVDs on my road bike to check it out and make sure it is shifting correctly and the set up is dialed in before attending Fiona's 2 hour spin at Balance on Sunday. If I am able to get all that done, I will start working on getting one of my old PCs up and running so I can use it to play/stream music through my stereo. That's all folks....yeah right....

2009-01-08T06:20:00.000-08:00

Here are the 2009 races & events I have either already registered for or will be registering for. I may add in a couple mountain bike races later in the summer. I will also do RAGNAR again if we get a team together.

April 26
MN Ironman Bike Ride
100 mile route
Lakeville, MN

May 9
Oakdale Duathlon
3 Mile, 14 Mile, 3 Mile.
Lake Elmo Park Reserve, Lake Elmo, MN

May 16
The Brute Challenge
200K route
Memorial Park, Arcadia,WI

June 7
Buffalo Triathlon
Olympic: 1.5K, 40K, 10K
Buffalo, MN

June 13 and 14
Tour Of The Mississippi River Valley
Long Route: 108 miles / 88 Miles
Bettendorf, IA

June 20
Horrible Hilly Hundred
200K route
Blue Mounds, WI

July 11
Timberman Triathlon
International: 1 mi, 23.8 mi, and 6.0 mi
Ruttger's Sugar Lake Resort, Grand Rapids, MN

July 19 - 25
RAGBRAI
Iowa

August 2
Brewhouse Triathlon - 23rd Annual
Long Course: .8 mile - 20.6 mile - 5 mile run
Pike Lake, Duluth, MN

August 23
St. Paul Triathlon
Sprint Course - 1/2 Mile • 20K • 5K
Lake Phalen, St. Paul, Minnesota

September 5
St. Croix Valley Sprint Triathlon
1/3 mile, 10 mile, 4 mile
Lake Front Park, Hudson, WI

September 12
Square Lake Triathlon/short course
1/2 mile, 18 mile, 5 mile
Stillwater, MN

September 19
Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival
Short & Fat
Cable, WI

Image Test

2008-12-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

This is just a test at adding an image to my blog.

Been Sick

2008-12-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

I have been battling the flu, Saturday - Monday, and now I have a good old fashioned cold. I was not at work on Monday so I skipped swimming on Monday as well. I did not go to cycling class last night either as I did not feel good in the evening. I will also most likely be skipping my power/stability workout tomorrow morning. I don't like being sick so I hope this is it for the year, which would also be nice so I don't have to take much more time off from training once I get going and start to build up my training load.

Thursday's Power Workout

2008-12-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

This mornings workout was a power workout. We determined our 1 rep max and then completed 4 sets of 6 reps of dumbbell bench, squat, bent over row, power cleans and hammer curls each at 85% of our 1 RM.

Nothing new

2008-12-03T09:09:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to report on today. Last night during cycling class my lower back was cramping up a bit. I suspect this was due to swimming on Monday and my back was still fatigued. I know my core was a bit sore from swimming, which was good as it proves that I do use my core while swimming to initiate rotation.

Work could get interesting over the next few weeks as another Manager 1 position has opened up. I will be looking into getting more information on the position to see if I am a possible fit. I was approached last week about an existing Manager 1 position that is currently open. In either case, I will be applying for one of the positions.

I am not looking forward to tomorrows power/stability workout. It is going to hurt....

First swim workout in 2 months

2008-12-02T09:32:00.001-08:00

I completed my first swim workout in two months last night. It felt good to get back in the pool even though my arms & shoulders fatigued pretty quickly. As my arms & shoulders fatigued, my form also fell apart pretty quickly. I tried to keep my focus on a couple central stroke focal points to make sure it did not fall apart too badly. I started by leading the lane and after the second set of 50s (4 sets of 4 x 50) I dropped back to 3rd position not to hold anyone up. Overall I only swam 1200 yards (300 warm up, 4 sets of 4 x 50, 100 cool down) but I was still pretty fried. It was a good first swim workout to get back in the swing of things.

Personal Training vs. DVD's

2008-12-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

I spend quite a bit of money on training, especially personalized indoor cycling classes in the winter ($180 / 1 session per 8 weeks) and dynamic speed/power/stability personal training classes ($225 / / 1 session per 8 weeks). I bought the P90X DVD's ($150) and will be going through the 3 month series starting very soon. I plan to get the CTS Progressive Power Series DVD's ($150) for Christmas and go through the series starting in January.

At initial glance the DVD series contain all the same type of workouts I do during the personal trainer run sessions. The only thing missing is having a trainer right there holding you accountable for doing the workout and pushing you. The major benefit will be spending the money once to buy the DVD series instead of paying for personal training sessions every 8 weeks. In the long run the DVD's will be much more cost efficient.

I have already recruited other triathlete's to do the workouts with me which will help in staying motivated to do the workouts at home and help with pushing each other to go as hard as you would with a personal trainer.

I will post all of my starting and ending fitness test results along with updates of how the DVD series compare against personal training.

First Blog Entry

2008-11-30T15:50:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog entry. Just trying it out.