Week 6 - Transitions

This week is dominated by a camping trip to Lake Whitney State Park with the kids again.  My first time to visit and it was nice.  I took two opportunities to exercise while there.  My first open water swim (um, water was freaking cold) for awhile.  I was reading that most triathloners have trouble swimming straight in open water so I tried some of the techniques to look forward without stopping.  I didn't like that at all - will have to just pause from time to time to check.  I was pretty good at staying straight.  What I really didn't like was the feeling a motor boat would clip me in the water - I got out pretty far but the lake was pretty empty.  Still, I would stop every few minutes to check for boat traffic.  Next time I'll need to drag a swimmer flag off my ankle.  On the biking front I also took another foray on the mountain bike for a couple of hours.  I used this time to find a few geocaches - another fun past time of mine.  If you are unaware of geocaching then it's time to stop being a "muggle" and participate.  Likely there are geocaches all around where you are right now and you didn't even know it.

So, from a health perspective I'm feeling pretty good.  Still monitoring my right knee but it's actually the ball of my left foot.  Feels sore sometimes but not a sharp pain.  Hope it's not a stress fracture that gets in the way of getting stronger.

So, the title refers to the crazy transition period of kids going from school to summer.  Lots of activities planned.  I feel like I need to back-off a little too.  Hard for me to know when I'm getting into over-training mode.  Maybe my sore foot is a sign.

Week 5 - Running?

"Are you running or jogging?", says my son Austin.  He's amused as he sits on his bike watching me suck in all the oxygen in the area during my second "run" of the week.  I stared daggers at him between laboring breaths.  I hate running.  Yep, I said it.  This was the one sport of the 3 that I knew I wasn't going to like in training for a triathlon.  Thankfully, the Couch to 5K running plan starts off with as much walking as "running".  It's manageable even for someone like me who is so overweight and hasn't run more than 30 yards to catch the bus and that wore me out.

The store I have to thank for amusing my son with my athleticism is Fleet Feet.  I wanted to go to a real running store instead of buying shoes from a teenager at some big box store.  The store I visited was in the Champions area and, while out of way for me, was well worth the trip.  The lady who helped me was just turning 60 and she didn't look a day over 35.  Being in shape can do that.  She was a wealth of information and I came down to two shoes I liked - an pair of gel Asics (can't remember the model) and a pair of shoes I've never heard of before called Newtons.  The Newtons have a strange landing area on the ball of the feet to help cushion flat foot running, which this lady also recommended.  The Asics felt a bit more snug but I like the Newton design and thought it may help me prevent injury.  So far, so good and I've been able to finish each run on the training plan.  I'm such a big guy with a high arch that I chose their stability trainer, shown here.  You can see how the extra cushioning in the ball lifts the front of the shoe up.