Scott Gibson's Ironman Journey

Today I had plans of getting in some swim time at the lake and then coming home to do my first real road ride on the bike….and I did just that…pretty much.

Heading out to the lake, I hit the water with a course of about 100 meters each way.  I quickly learned that I obviously need to spend more time in the water.  Ended up going out and back 5 times for about 1000 meters.  I was pretty happy about my swim overall, but again, much more work is ahead of me.

After getting back home, my arms were pretty tired, but I was excited about getting my bike out onto the road for the first time.  I jetted out of my neighborhood and turned down the road I had picked out for my ride.

I jammed up the first hill in anticipation of zipping down the other side.  As I was zooming along, transitioning into a flatter section, the rear of the bike started to get a little loose.  Crap!  Flat rear tire.

The summary of my ride? 20 mph out, 2.5 mph back.  I pulled off my shoes and socks and started the 1.3 mile walk back home…the walk of shame as it were.

What made it worse was (1) the warning I got from a co-worker about how she blew a tire 10+ miles out and that I should
always have a spare, and (2) how my wife asked me if I had my cell phone on the way out.  I guess I really learned my lesson.

Even if somebody had offered to pick me up I would have declined.  I felt it was my punishment to walk back.  At least I got in a great swim…and then a nice walk.

On the other hand, I am just shy of getting below 200 at now weighing in at 200.2 lbs.  Chugging right along at nearly 3 lbs per week.

Current Weight: 200.2 lbs
Average Weight Loss: 2.9 lbs per week
Total Weight Loss: 16.8 lbs

Taking a rest day today.  Tomorrow I am going to get some swimming time on the lake and then do my first real ride on the road with the bike.

Wicked kick-ass workout tonight…mostly motivated by a crappy experience with a realtor that we rented a lake house from.  Long story short, she really tried to screw us.

I ran fast and I ran angry.  It was great.

Should this be a motivational tool in the future?  Maybe I should get my wife to cheat on me so I can get in a serious angry workout? 

At any rate, it felt good to run hard.  Oh yeah!

Took the night off to spend time with the family.  I think getting beat up by my 8 and 4 year old girls is a good workout…if nothing else, it reminds me why I want to be a healthier person.

The weight is starting to come off at a good rate again…yes!

Took my first ride with my new Garmin Edge 305 bike computer…too cool.  It’s stuff like the 305 that will motivate me to ride more often.  It captures so much information like GPS location, heart rate, speed, elevation, etc.  Then you can download it all into your computer and keep track of your workouts.

The chart above shows: my ride summary in the upper section (yes, it was a fairly short ride through my neighborhood), the middle area is a map of my route, and the graph below show speed vs. heart rate.

Did an hour of biking tonight and finished off with 30 mins of sit-ups and push-ups.

After a several day break for Memorial Day weekend, it was nice getting back into the routine again.  While I am sure it was good for my body to get some rest, I really feel guilty for missing that many days of training.

Cranked out 90 mins on the bike and a short upper body workout.  Going to focus mainly  on bike work and upper body this week.  This will consist of exercise bike at a minimum, but I am going to make a strong effort to get a bike trainer for my Cervelo.  I really need to start conditioning myself for long rides.

Looking forward to the mini-tri and hoping I don’t look like a total donkey out there.

It has been nice having several days off to enjoy Memorial Day weekend with friends…it’s back to the grind as of tomorrow.

I got a cool bike computer (Garmin Edge 305) and I am looking forward to being able to start training on the real bike more if the weather would just cooperate.  Got a great deal on it at eBay.  Normally goes for $350 and picked it up for $180.

The downtime and break from training was good and I think my body really appreciated the rest.  The mini-tri is coming up in a couple of weeks so I am looking forward to getting ready for the event.

Non-training day for Memorial Day weekend.

Non-training day for Memorial Day weekend.

Non-training day for Memorial Day weekend.