back to the regimen after an extended weekend of indulgence with friends =)

Tonight's table tennis session was good. I still get blown off the table by the top guys, but I won matches against several guys that I hadn't beaten yet. I'm seeing improvement in my shot consistency and also match play—figuring out the serve returns and the appropriate strategies against different opponents.

I'm having fun, win or lose, and am getting excellent cross-training workouts so that's what is great about this right now.

Last week we had a good Cinco de Mayo dinner. pt and I rode our bikes to a local Mexican restaurant. We called N and fortunately she was able to join us, we met her on her bike on the street. It was totally like when we were young, cruising around the neighborhoods meeting up with friends on their bikes. Except now we get to go as far as we want from home, and drink. ;)

We thought about going to one of our favorite places downtown, but they were having music that night as part of the celebration and we didn't want to get too annoyed with a band in our face as we're trying to eat. I'm glad we checked out AZ-T-CA, it's a little place nestled in the corner of a Schnuck's grocery store strip mall. Great find though, their Tuesday half-price margarita special was in effect ($2.50 each!) and they were tasty, definitely not bottom shelf liquor.

The small restaurant was packed and we waited a really long time to find a place to sit, actually ended up squeezing in at the end of a large group's table. The food was good, and cheap. I got 3 fish tacos for $6, pt had some sort of tequila shrimp for about $8. Some guy I was talking to while we were waiting bought us a round of margaritas too! The weird thing is that they had a lot of people working, but maybe just one guy (the owner) doing all the cooking. Maybe he needs to hire me on as sous chef?

I was surprised at how busy the place was, but apparently it's very popular. That's the thing about Springfield, it's like you have to know where some of the good spots are, because, as you see in the picture, you'd never know by driving past that it was hoppin' in that restaurant. Before we left some guy saw our bike helmets and started talking to me about biking; he and his buddies have a riding group that seems like it's about my speed, so I gave him my e-mail address and I hope he contacts me for one of their weekend group rides.

My goal for next year is to get on an smsl futbol squad, maybe AZ-T-CA will have a spot for me... ;)

( my 5x5 strength training testimonial )

Long bike ride + run in Washington Park w/ pt + 2 massive breakfast burritos = ZzzzZzzzz

I did my first swim for tri training today. I flailed around for 400 yds. Burping is still a problem, but not as bad as before. Lots of improvement needed in technique and endurance, but I think I have enough time.

treadmill pace chart

I read long ago that you should set your treadmill to about 1.0% incline to mimic running outside. This chart says about the same.

I'm in week 9 of my first 12-week 5x5 cycle and I am a complete believer in squats, both as an exercise and as the anchor to any strength training program. I used to have knee problems with running, so far this year I haven't had any.

Seriously, if you have access to the equipment, just squat it. (And that program and the forums offer lots of suggestions for alternatives for those without access to a squat rack.)

The rain messed with our schedule a little today, but we finally got the courage to run outside in the semi-cold drizzle. We don't know what the weather will be like on race day, so it's a good idea to get used to running in so-so conditions. Just a few other people were out at the park, so it was a nice quiet run, especially since they close off half of the park roads to cars on Sundays.

At one point we had the road to ourselves as we ran by the carillon and someone was playing a nice tune on the bells. Kinda felt like it was a private show. :) Ran 9.0 miles, walked 1.0 mile. The race is in two weeks; we'll be fine, not speedy, but we should be able to finish with no major problems.

With the delay, we ended up eating our post-run brunch at 5p! O_O Hobo skillets using grill-roasted potatoes from last night, topped with ricotta, fresh rosemary, and shredded cheese; further topped with poached or sunny side up eggs. French toast using stale no-knead bread. YUMMUY!

pt and I totally worked out with Richard Simmons today!

And yes, we did actually Sweat to the Oldies. There were hundreds of people there, not quite a thousand though (which was the limit), but definitely pushing the 700-900 mark. In the hour leading up to the workout, Richard went through the crowd and greeted/hugged/kissed people.

The actual workout was fun, sometimes a little hard to keep up with the moves since we were in the back of one section and you couldn't always see exactly what Richard was doing. He went through basic stuff slowly before he started, but then added new stuff during the workout. Anyway, the moves eventually filtered back as people simply followed what others in front of them were doing. It was low impact, I think because he wanted everyone to be able to participate. Lots of clapping and dancing and shouting and singing along. It is truly amazing to see what kind of energy he has, at age 60, no less.

After we were done he had everyone come closer and sit down while he gave an excellent motivational speech. He talked about his past and current relationship with food, how he almost died from it (binging/bulimia followed by anorexia), depression, body image, friends and support systems, and lots of other stuff. It's hard to imagine how anyone could come away from that experience without some sort of motivation to live a healthier lifestyle.

After the speech he stayed on the stage and had people form a line so that everyone who wanted to could come up and meet him individually. What a nice guy. :)

( some pictures from the event )

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that sometimes he can be a tiny bit raunchier in person. Before the workout he handpicked a bunch of people to be on stage with him—he called on a woman in a pink top and called her "fuschia tits" haha! XD Really nice guy though.

update: there's a video on youtube now.

Just got a message that I get to work out with Richard Simmons this Saturday. hahahaha!

I've started another weight training program: 5x5. hundredpushups was fun, but too targeted, so I'm giving this a shot. (Mostly because I was really interested in a good squat routine, with the hope that I could fortify my knees for running the 1/2 marathon and triathlon.)

The site is chock full of tips and advice. There's a lot of very opinionated writing on the site, but the guy is really passionate about it and posts tons of pictures and videos so that you can learn proper technique.

I'm only a couple weeks into it and I really like the gradual increases. Anyone with me?

In other fitness news: Richard Simmons is coming to Springfield! I will try to sign us up for it. Say what you will about the guy, but I think it'd be cool to claim that I've worked out with Richard Simmons. XD

It got really warm today, I had to go out for a ride. I did the usual Washington Park loops for about an hour. 14.95 miles.

Trying to get back on the one hundred push ups challenge wagon here.

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Capital City Century: 111.50 miles, 7h26m riding time, 8h52m total time including breaks, average pace 14.8mph, fixed gear, I hit the century mark at 6h36m but the last leg was rather difficult, rolling hills and I was basically running on fumes), calories burned ~3700, calories consumed: a lot more than that. I celebrated by drinking an ice cold Harvest Moon in the shower.
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Damn. Milwaukee, you better look out.

The break from the hot weather has been nice, especially for the garden stuff. Our vegetables are basically done, so we're just tending to all the different greens we have growing.

Up at 6am today as practice for tomorrow's century ride; I plan to get up around 5:15 for that. Went to the bike shop yesterday to get a last minute accessory for the ride and one of the guy's there told me that they are expecting close to 700 riders this year! I have plans to make an inexpensive handlebar camera mount so I can document the people (well, actually their bikes ;), country road riding, and that 1/4-mile brick road stretch of old route 66).
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pt's cooking me a nice early pasta dinner tonight. =)

Week 3 of the hundred push ups challenge:
Long break: 3 weeks after I completed Week 2.5. Been ramping up the bike mileage lately, and I don't often have the energy to attack the push ups properly. I've settled for sets of push ups whenever I can to maintain my current level. It's been sufficient to do at least that.
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Week 3 of the hundred push ups challenge:
Didn't start the next week on time because I've been getting lots of road mileage down for the Capital City Century, which is in 6 weeks (and the CMC after that). Waited a day after my weekly long ride on Sunday and it wasn't enough to complete the prescribed day 1 of week 3. Rested a few more days and I still couldn't complete day 1. I looked at the numbers and felt that with the week break I took it was too much of a jump between weeks 2 and 3. So I modified the plan for days 2 and 3. Week 2 was already too little; I settled for somewhere in between.

Retest after Week 2: Wed 07/16, 35 push ups until failure, choose column 3 for weeks 3 & 4. Bold numbers mean I didn't complete the scheduled amount of push ups.

Week 3, scrapped after two failed attempts at day 1 (25,17,15,15,at least 25)
Mon 07/21 day 1, 60 sec rest between sets: 25, 17, 17, 10, didn't do last set, 69total, 21min
Fri 07/25 day 1 again, 60sec rest between sets: 25,17,16,13,21, 92total, 18min
Week 2.5
Mon 07/28 day 2, 90sec rest between sets: 20,15,15,13,20(max>19) 83total, 13min
Wed 07/30 day 3, 120sec rest between sets: 23,17,17,15,24(max>22) 96total, 21min

Okay, now I'm ready for week 3.

My dad asked me to look for a good pedometer for him. He's been mall walking regularly and I think he wanted to track things in more detail. I also suggested he try a heart rate monitor, not primarily for dialing in aerobic performance, but more to get in tune with his heart and to learn how it feels when he is actually overexerting himself versus perceived overexertion.

He went in for an evaluation this week to start rehabilitation on his upper body. I think he's bummed that he can't be golfing this summer; initially he thought he'd be back on the courses by June. Still, I think he's doing pretty well. He had a few beers and manned the grill all Saturday afternoon. Though he slept in and took a super long nap on Sunday.

Anyway, for anyone who's interested, here's a copy of my basic preliminary research that I sent to him:
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