Scott Gibson's Ironman Journey

For some reason, my oldest daughter Hannah has been asking to workout with my wife and I lately.  She had expressed interest in doing triathlons before, but I don’t think Dawn and I really took her seriously, especially since she can barely swim or ride a bike.

This afternoon, she kept pestering us that she want to work out with us and go on a run.  Fully expecting that she wouldn’t last very long, I suggested that she try running on the treadmill to see if she liked it and to allow her to stop whenever she felt that she had enough.  While I am thrilled that she is showing interest in sports and exercise, the last thing that I want to be is one of those parents that push their kids into doing something they really don’t want to be doing.

I fired up the treadmill and started her off slow just to get her familiar with running on the mill.  She did good right from the start and we ended up getting to a comfortable pace at 4mph.  As she was running, I kept letting her know that she could stop whenever she wanted.  To my amazement, she ended up running 1.5 miles and barely broke a sweat.  She even got up to 4.5mph for the last few tenths of a mile.

She wanted to keep running, but I suggested that we see how she felt tomorrow and if she wanted to keep jogging, we could try it a few times a week.  She starts soccer tomorrow so I would expect that practice and games should satisfy all of her running needs for now.  Although, we may need to start practicing the swimming and riding more…who knows, maybe I have the next Chrissie Wellington living under my roof?

On a personal note, good 5k run tonight.  The weather is getting back to normal and it was nice to get back outside.

Tonight’s workout was pretty weak.  I can’t wait to get back outside to run and ride the bike because this indoor crap blows.

Started off on the treadmill and got bored after 1 mile.  Sat on the bike and didn’t even fire it up.

Spent about 20 mins doing some core stuff with the workout ball and then just decided not to bother faking it.  I would expect that in a few days I can get back outside once this cold snap is over and get back to enjoying the workouts again.

After riding the bike tonight, I did a little core work on a workout ball.  The funny thing is, I am not really sure how you’re supposed to use an exercise ball…officially…so I just made some stuff up that seemed to work my core.

I tried two things.  First I put the ball under the small of my back, then rolled it towards my butt as far as I could keeping my torso parallel to the floor.  After holding for as long as I could, I rolled back in and took a 30 second rest and repeated serveral times.

Next, I went face down and put the ball under my knees and went into a prone position with my elbows on the floor, arms stretched out.  I slowly rolled back and forth so my elbows would be extended way past my head, then under my chest.  It not only works the back muscles, but generates a nice burn in the shoulders and arms as well.

Those are probably real exercises that I saw at some point, but I will just pretend I made them up!

While running tonight, I started to think about my breathing and what exactly is the best or ‘right’ cadence while running. There are a lot of schools of thought on breathing for swimming as well.

Come to find out that I  have a very common cadence used by many runners:

“When you run, choose one foot to be the foot that guides your breathing. For example, if you choose your right foot, then you will breathe in and breathe out as your right foot hits the track or pavement. You can vary how many steps you take between breaths; for example, you might take two steps per inhale and two per exhale for long-distance running. To finish up a race, you might switch to two breaths per inhale and one per exhale.” - http://www.ehow.com/way_5588610_cadence-breathing-exercises.html

While keeping on the same topic, for swimming, I don’t do the optimal ‘bi-lateral’ breathing which means that you alternate sides when taking a breath. I feel most comfortable as far as form and oxygen intake with breathing every time my right arm comes out of the water.

With Ironman Augusta being quite a ways away, I just wasn’t feeling incredibly motivated to dive back into heavy training yet. I wanted to change that, so I decided to sign up for the Revolution3 1/2 Iron distance triathlon in Knoxville going down May 9th.

Unfortunately, I had already signed up for the Jekyll Island Turtle Crawl Olympic on May 15th, so I may end up scrapping that event. Entry was only $70 so I am not too worried about it if I decide not to go. The Knoxville event is just so much more convenient and not to mention, a bigger event. Looking forward to it!

Got in a quick workout today before heading over the neighbor’s house to enjoy the Superbowl. Definitely took away some of the guilt that comes with eating the great food we had. Thanks to Lee for yet another great session on the grill!

Finally got all of my old posts from the previous Ironman Journey blog moved over to this one. I am now fully settled here!

Man, I really didn’t want to work out tonight.  No, really.

I decided to just do a whole bunch of stuff to distract me from the fact that I was working out.  Started on the treadmill, then moved to bike, then moved to the workout ball to do some core stuff.

Amazingly, the hour went by pretty quickly and I feel like it was a pretty decent workout.

Glad that I made some time to workout tonight, even though my allergies are in full effect.

Went for a brick tonight, consisting of a quick 2 mile sprint run and then 10 miles on the bike.  Despite feeling like crap, I would have to say that I muddled through the workout well enough.

I must say that I love the cycling pants that Dawn got for me…they are perfect for running outside in this weather.  They are Louis Garneau Oslo’s and she got them at my favorite Tri store…All3Sports.com

Built a new website over the weekend called TriathleteClub.com to better connect with fellow triathletes.  There are several networking sites out there, but I wanted a simple straight-forward tool that was specific to the triathlon community.

I am SO ready for spring to get here…tired of being indoors and sporting the Conan O’Brien complexion.