Week Four, Day Three: 40 min Swim + 30 min Run + Triathlete Observations

Another good, solid training day.  My knees, legs and joints are feeling so much better.  It might be from the glucosamine, fish oil, and addition protein, it might be that I finally have healed up?  Whatever it is I am going to just keep doing what I am doing!  Okay, I did a swim of about 1500 meters today.  I only did about 150 meters of drills from The Essential Triathlon Swimming DVD and then the rest was just pure lap tempo swimming.  Then around 7pm I did a 30 minute run in my neighborhood.  The temp was about 47 degrees and made for some comfortable running.  I ended up doing 3.46 miles in 33 minutes.

When I run at night I leave the iPod at home for safety reasons.  So that means I have a lot of time to think and I started reflecting on how my life has changed since I have became a triathlete.  Here are some of my thoughts:

• I am constantly hungry.  Back in my P90X days I used to struggle to eat the recommended 3000 calories a day.  Now I sometimes have that knocked out by lunch!  Seriously, this is what I ate today: AM - Protein Shake, whole wheat bagel w/ Peanut Butter, coffee, handful of almonds; AM Snack - Muscle Milk, Two handfuls of Almonds, Peanut Butter Zone Bar, Banana; Lunch - 12' Turkey Sub from Subway, Apples, Pure Protein Bar; PM Snack - two handfuls of Almonds, Cookies N Cream Balance Bar, Muscle Milk Light (after Swim); 2nd PM Snack - Banana and 2 teaspoons of Peanut Butter; Dinner - 2 grilled Turkey Burgers on whole wheat buns with veggies, two handfuls of almonds!!!  --- Now I don't even bother to figure out calories anymore but it is a lot.  The good news is that aside from all the calories it is still a pretty darn clean diet!

• I am a fitness snob.  Yes, I am pretty annoying.  I correct fitness experts on TV (talking to you Jillian).  When people ask me for fitness/nutrition advice I probably raise my nose up in the air before I respond.  At the gym last week one of the personal trainers was asking me about my workouts (it is her job to do this, I should respect the sales attempt).  I didn't hear a single word she said to me because she was in what I now consider not very good shape - had a little jiggle.  All I could think was she is from the school of "Do as I say, not as I do!".  I am not proud of this new trait, but unlike our current administration, I believe in full transparency (talking to you Obama)!

• My shoe collection is beginning to rival my wife's! Well, that is not true. Most shoe stores cannot rival her shoe collection!  But, as a dude I always have like 4 pair of shoes: Black dress shoes, brown dress shoes, sneakers, casual non-sneakers.  Now I have running shoes, trail running shoes, bike shoes, long run shoes, short run shoes, old short run shoes that I might use again someday, shoes I wear to the gym, flip flops for the gym, flip flops for race day ...etc.  Just ridiculous.

• I am very skinny.  Back when I was doing P90X and dropped a bunch of weight and got all ripped everyone was always telling me how great I look.  Now everyone is telling me I need to gain weight or that I am wasting away.  Here is the thing, I am a triathlete now and the less I weigh the faster I am!  With each pound I lose my running becomes better.  Now I am not trying to lose anymore weight but my body does what my body does.  Pretty sure my friends will soon be having an Intervention for me!

• Clothes no longer fit right?  My waist is 30" right now.  I cannot wear 30" pants because the pants are too tight in the legs because of the size of my thighs and calves.  Example:  I go to buy jeans last week.  I cannot get the 30x30 jeans over my thighs, they are just too tight.  I have to buy 33x30 jeans and wear a belt to hold them up.  As I was trying the 30x30 jeans on I had to call Annie into the dressing room to help me pull them off of my legs because they were that tight.  She laughed for like 20 minutes.  Bottom line is I have the lower body of The Hulk and the upper body of David Spade!  Very disproportionate.

• I have become a sentimental pansy.  If you were to ask my close friends and family to describe me  the word "sensitive" would not be one of the words mentioned.  I am normally very analytical and rarely make decisions based on emotion.  But ever since I have got into Triathlon I have found myself being inspired damn near ever day.  The triathlon community has so many people that have overcome so many impossible things and I truly enjoy being part of it.  They are a group of people who (for the most part) check their egos at the door and will bend over backwards to help one another out.  I have watched the Kona video like three times now and will admit that it has got to me all three times.  When I started this blog back in 2008 I did it as a tool to hold myself accountable.  I told all my friends and family I was doing P90X and to check my blog each day.  This made me not miss workouts and not make excuses.  Well, I don't really need the accountability anymore.  I will do my workouts with or without this blog - it is now a lifestyle.  But I think the real reason I do this now is because every now and again someone comments and says that I am inspiring them.  That makes me feel really good and if I can just help a few people to change their lives by taking 15 minutes a night and posting my training than that is what I will do.  So thank you triathlon community for inspiring me to continue to post and continue to train!

Tomorrow is 2 hours on the indoor bike trainer.  I have a few movies DVR'd so I might have a movie review as well tomorrow!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff