Good Sunday

At the time of uploading this blog, I'm readying myself to go on a late afternoon ride like I mentioned in the video. It's a wonderful Sunday afternoon and the weather is hot - just like I like it. It's been a hectic day in getting the house cleaned up to show to prospective buyers this afternoon, but now that that's over I can relax and go on a stress releasing ride.

Troy is getting in an evening 40 minute run and I'm a bit jealous. He's still a bit leary of riding due to his glute muscle, but he says it's getting less uncomfortable so he should be back on the bike real soon.

I'm still waiting out the extended rest period for my achilles tendon issue, but it seems to be doing fine. I just want to give it ample time to properly heal so I don't do any long term damage. These age-related minor injuries are super annoying! I wish that getting older wasn't such a cruel joke. Well, . . . gotta hit the ball that's pitched to ya!

The Saturday 22

This morning I woke up at 6:00 am to get in our weekly Saturday 22 mile ride. However, I had to do this all by myself. Troy is having a little problem with his left glute muscle. He's not real sure how he tweaked it, but to him it's painful and he's trying to be cognizant of not doing more damage to it yet still allowing it to heal and be able to train. I know it's frustrating for him. I deal with the same crap. However, it's part of the process and it's something that has to be dealt with by every athlete.

Today was a very enjoyable ride - even though it was alone. I had a good amount of quiet alone time with my thoughts and prayers and was granted an extra dose of peace from the Lord. Throughout this process, I know and have faith that the Lord will protect me and my family and keep them safe and cared for. This I know and am thankful. Triathlon and its training has, in many ways, saved my life!

The New 20. . . for Troy

With it being Friday, Troy and I really wanted to get in a good but comfortable ride this afternoon before we trek out on our 22 miler early in the morning. Even though we had to battle the afternoon rain, we managed to squeeze it in and got our easy 20 accomplished. Troy ended up enjoying the new route that I had charted and liked the fact that it's not too hilly. This is the 20 mile loop that I frequently do on my own that's so cathartic for me. It's got everything. It has a few hills, it's got good paved roads, and best of all, it's got amazing scenery! This is one of my all-time favorite rides outside of the Harpeth rides and hopefully Troy will end up feeling the same. He did extremely well on the ride and seemed quite comfortable - to the tune of averaging over 17 mph. Not bad for the first time.

With it being Labor Day weekend, I intend to go out on a 63 mile ride on Monday morning. I've got to start mentally preparing for that NOW! We'll see how it goes.

On the Grind

Today was a tough but good workout that Troy and I had this morning. We did a 40 minute swim/drill training swim. Later, it was brought to my attention (by Troy) that we were actually supposed to do a 30 minute swim and then a 35 minute run. Oh well, we over did it just a bit but it was for the good. Now we've just got to fit in our second session of the day which is a 35 minute run for Troy and a 40 minute bike for me. I'm hoping I can get it in with all that I have to do before the weekend. At any rate, I'm looking forward to the weekend as I'll be able to get a lot of good training in and a lot of good "alone" time.

Now off to spend time with my girls before they get off for the weekend. Happy Labor Day weekend!

A Rest Day Swim

Since I ended up doing NOTHING on Monday, I figured that I'd better make up for it today even though today is mine and Troy's rest day. I went to the Rec. Center and got in an easy 30 minute drill/swim workout before I had to be in the studio to finish the never ending kids project. This thing is going to be the death of me for sure! I can not wait to get this thing done and in the can! Our training however, is what's keeping me sane and in touch with the Lord on a daily basis. He seems to speak the loudest to me when I'm alone and focused. It's also the most peaceful time that I have. It's actually funny how that works. Putting your body through stress and strain while your mind and soul is totally at peace. It doesn't seem possible in my brain, but I can only chalk that up to the sovereignty of Christ.

Night Time Swim

We're currently getting a ton of the residual effects of that hurricane Faye that past through Florida. That doesn't make for very good training weather outside. Nor does it really get your spirits high to do anything physical. For the past two days, I've really struggled to make myself work out and stay on my schedule. With work in the studio and the pressure that's going along with that, combined with what's going on outside, I haven't wanted to train at all! I've even toyed with wanting to just throw in the towel and do NOTHING! However, I don't want to let down Troy and I know the longer I stay with this, the more benefits I well receive long-term - both physically and spiritually.

Today ended up being pretty productive on the training side. With being in the studio all day and pressured by the deadlines, I managed to sneak in 45 minutes in the pool as I was picking up Shelby from swim practice. It felt good and it was extremely cathartic. However afterward, I cheated by Shelby and I treating ourselves to a huge monster burger from Hardee's! It was so magnificent and tasted so wonderful! Why do all the bad foods taste so freakin' good? It's just not fair!

The Rainy Day Blues

Today was one of those days that I definitely didn't feel like workin' out. However, I did and got through it with no problems. I've still yet to do weights as of 7:30 pm but I'll get it in later tonight before bed.

Troy, on the other hand, got in a lunch time run and really rubbed it in my face with the fact that he enjoyed it and actually ran well. It kind of pissed me off and discouraged me in a good way. It only made me hungry to start back running again even though I know I have to wait.

Troy's a jerk! :-)

The 42 Miler. . . again

This morning we embarked on our second 42 mile excursion on the bike since our Top Gun Triathlon. Going in, we didn't really know what to expect in our fitness and endurance. We did know that we could make it of course. We just didn't know how we would fair toward the end. So to that end, Troy and I decided to experiment with our calorie intake and our hydration process. We went to the REI outdoor store and got some GU gels to test out to see how our bodies and our energy levels would respond. Put it this way, . . . they work! I found myself, toward the end of the ride, having a ton of energy and ready to keep going. Troy's endurance and energy level was definitely higher than normal too. Therefore, we're going to keep training and racing with these "new" products. I know this is no new found thing, but it's new to us and this process and it's cool to continue to discover things about our nutrition and fitness levels. We continue to learn new things and continue to progress. That's what we love. Not to mention the whole spiritual aspect of the training and being outside in nature and with our thoughts, ideas, and our Lord.

Troy the Sick Boy

Today's vlog pretty much says it all. Troy's been sick for the last couple of days and I can tell it's been highly frustrating for him.

Me on the other hand, I've been steadily keeping up with my training minus the running part which is just as frustrating. However, the rest on the achilles tendon has been quite good and it definitely feels much the better for it. I'm really hoping and praying that this thing heals properly and makes a full recovery so I can compete hard in the coming race and upcoming races this next year. Troy and I have many exciting plans in the year to come to do a lot of races, organized bike rides, and various hikes. I guess you could say we've turned into outdoor sportsmen. I never thought we'd view ourselves as something even close to that, but that's exactly what we've turned into and we both love it.

Gotta rest for the upcoming long 42 mile ride early tomorrow morning. It should be fun.

Me, Myself, and I

Our schedule today technically calls for a run and a swim. With my achilles issue, I'm obviously doing a bike and swim today. I say this; I'm REALLY going to either get sick of biking and swimming or get really good at the two. I hope it's the latter.

Anyway, this morning I went on a 20 mile early morning ride to get that aspect out of the way so I can concentrate on our late night swim tonight. We have a 40 minute swim in front of us, so I'm going to implement 10 minutes of fin drills and so forth.

Troy's still doing extremely well and making big strides on this long journey. I'm anxious to see how he does on his run when it comes race time. I'm sure he'll be much better than last time.

Rest Day

Today, nothing is going on training-wise as you'll see in the above video. Wednesday is our newly acclimated rest day and it's quite nice. Tomorrow is a swim and run that is scheduled, but for me, I'll be doing an early morning swim and bike. I'm ready for this achilles tendon problem to go away. I'm actually ready to run and do some sprint work.

Looking forward to the Suncoast Triathlon in October. One step at a time!

The Tortoise and the Hare

Today has been a good training day for me. Reason being, Troy and I went hard in the pool this morning, then I went on a morning hour long ride to finish out the training schedule. It was tiring, a bit pressing physically, but extremely peaceful and rewarding.

I gotta say however, I was very surprised and impressed by Troy this morning in the pool. As I was doing intervals (a 400 warmup then 200 intervals with 50 sprints at the end), I kept noticing that I never saw Troy stopping between his intervals like he normally does. Come to find out at the end, Troy told me he never stopped swimming for the entire 30 minutes that we were in the pool. I was trippin'! I haven't even done that myself! So in essence, it became a case of the tortoise and the hare. Guess who the hare was and ends up being the loser! I thought it was great and a huge testament to how far he's come in his lifestyle change. I'm not exactly sure he knows how much of an inspiration that he is on me in this whole physical and spiritual process. If he doesn't, he certainly knows now! :-)

Lastly, I think we've decided to push ourselves to go on a couple of long hikes over a weekend to just switch things up and make our training interesting. We're looking to go sometime in the next couple of weeks. It should be a great time to get some footage. We'll see.

In A Little While

We haven't posted anything in the past couple of days due to extreme business in Troy and I's schedule. It's certainly a blessing for me because it keeps me busy and there's something on the horizon that can be a big prospective employment opportunity that I could really excel at. I continue to pray that God has favor and allows things to progress in my favor.

Troy and I have respectively been keeping up with our training and Troy, in particular, has been making great strides in his physical weight loss. I have no idea how much he's currently lost, but I can definitely tell in his appearance.

As for me, I had a swim and weight workout today and the swim was extremely tough for some reason. I was definitely not on my game. Hopefully, tomorrow will be different and we'll work to bring more video tomorrow as well. Until then. . . 

The Deuce Deuce!

Today may have been one of the most enjoyable rides I've had to date. The weather was absolutely perfect, we didn't push it too hard, and I had my brother by my side to talk to and to help to push me. It was what I consider a slice of heaven.

I'm still a bit bummed about the fact that I can't run, but I'm going to stick to that so to not cause permanent damage to the achilles tendon. My target date is September 20th to be able to begin to start to run again. Until then, . . . I've mandated no running at all for myself! Troy is helping me to stick to that. Thanks T.

Other than the slight setback, Troy and I are still really enjoying our training and pursuing the goals that we set for ourselves. In fact, Troy signed us up to be USA Triathlon members. Now we've got some incentive to really work to get into some serious races beginning in '09. I love it!

Therapy Ride

This was a great ride for me and a very creative thoughtful one as well. Some things are seemingly starting to come together in the career department.

Today I spoke to a professional sports trainer about my calf and achilles problem. As it turns out, I very well may have a micro tear in my achilles tendon. The only thing that I can do is not run on it for approximately a month. Otherwise, I could possibly do much worse damage to the point of not being able to run for as much as one year. I must admit, my body has been telling me to not run or take it much easier but I haven't been listening until now. I don't want to do long-term damage, so I've decided to completely lay off of running for a full month. So in essence, I'm not running one time until September 15th. It'll be interesting to see how things progress in that long amount of time. I'm praying that it properly heals so I can start building strength and speed for the 5 and 10k in upcoming triathlons.

Troy and I have decided to race in the Suncoast Triathlon for sure. It's on October 23rd and it'll be a whirl wind trip. Very unlike our last one that was extremely relaxing and therapeutic. However, we're still excited and looking forward to seeing our progression from our first race compared to our second. We shall see.

Morning Swim

As you'll see here, we've already knocked out our swim for the day. Now we just have to finish our run. . . which I'm not looking forward to. Calves are sore again and I've GOT to find a way to figure out how to not allow them to get to this level. I guess that means more research!

Troy's swim is continuing to improve and his time intervals are steadily dropping between laps. Now we've just got to get him to continue to drop the weight and gain muscle, which he's doing. I'm proud of him!

Wednesday Rest Day

After re-evaluating our training and its routine, we've changed our rest day to Wednesday due to Troy's family and work schedule. With today being Wednesday, it's obviously our day to relax on the training. It's much welcomed too.

Tomorrow is a swim and a run so Troy and I have planned to wake up early and swim in the Rec. Center Olympic lap pool that's in Brentwood. Even though it'll be an early morning, we'll have it out of the way and all we'll have to do the rest of the day is knock out the run.

Yesterday's run was tough in that I ran twice (as you'll see in the video) and the leg muscles are paying for it. Tomorrow will be a welcome change from running in the morning but I'm still trying to find a way to enjoy the running aspect of all of this. I'll get there. I've just got to train my body and legs to go a long way without the residual effects of the pain. It's a process and we'll see how it goes.

Back at the Brickhouse

We're back in the swing of our training starting today. As you'll see here, we're back at Scott Brickell's house getting a weight workout and then a 40 minute run. Between now and September 21st, Troy and I are determined to teach ourselves to like the running discipline and therefore lowering our running time. I'm shooting for shaving off about 7 to 10 minutes off of my 5k run in the upcoming Meat Pie Triathlon. This is going to be one of my primary focuses in the coming weeks. We'll let you know how it goes.

Back in the Valley

Well, we're back in Franklin and the "vacation" is now officially over. Tomorrow starts our updated training schedule for our next race. Troy and I are definitely rejuvenated from learning more about what we can and can't do to prepare for a race. I'm excited to get on with the training and target our next thing. We had a great time in learning about the triathlon process, the actual race itself, spending time with our parents, resting, training in a different environment, etc. Now it's time to focus again and also concentrate on getting Troy even more svelt and ready. He's willing and able and that's over half the battle. He's really had a great attitude in allowing me to make him my guinea pig. I think I'm actually learning more than he is!

At any rate, being back is bitter sweet but that's a huge part of life itself. I'm anxious to see my girls and continue moving on to the next chapter. It's all about moving forward and not looking back.

The Long Road Home

As I lay here typing this entry, Troy and I find ourselves in Georgia somewhere North of Macon and just South of Atlanta. We're in a hotel room getting some rest in order to awake in the morning to finish our trip back to Franklin. In the quiet of the room, I contemplate our trip, what we did leading up to the race, our preparation, what we can do better, and what lies ahead. I gotta say, it's greatly rewarding knowing that we set out to accomplish something and we did it! I love that feeling. It's the same feeling that continues to bring me back to this place and want to help others to get to experience what I've experienced. I feel that's becoming my calling. Maybe that's better decided by the Lord. In any case, I'm rejuevinated and ready to get back in to our routine of training and starting to step it up a notch. On the other hand, I'm still very stressed by what awaits me back home in my responsibilities, my duties, and the overwhelming mountains I have to climb on a personal level. However, I do find comfort in the peace I'm afforded from the Lord almighty. I've realized that it's through my family and close friends that I've truly felt His presence and peace. He continues to speak to me mightily through people He places in my life and I'm grateful for that. I don't receive subtleties very well and the Lord knows that best. He's managed to purposefully place some very special people in my life, and it hasn't been until just recently that I've truly opened my eyes to that.

Well, enough of the sentiment. It's now 11:50 CST and it's time to allow my body and mind some rest. The Lord is good and I know that He is with me through this tough time. With His strength, I know I'll make it through and actually have the ability to look forward to the coming days.

Freakshow!

This video blog pretty much speaks for itself. This is a perfect argument for dedication and focus on being physically and nutritionally better. Troy has the right idea!

East Point Ride

It's Thursday and today was an absolute beautiful day in South Florida. However, with the beauty comes extreme heat and humidity. Just like I remembered from growing up here. Troy trekked out to Plant City where we grew up to see some old friends and former teachers that he hadn't seen in many years. That was great for him but had no bearing on me and quite frankly I didn't want to go over there with him and be bored during his "meetings". As a result, I decided to stick around Mom and Dad's house and do some personal things. One of which included getting in a ride to Ft. Desoto for over an hour. As usual, it was greatly therapeutic and much needed. I zoned out and just got into a nice rhythm and rode quietly by myself.

As for Troy, he obviously hasn't had a chance to get a workout in, but we plan to get a weight workout in late tonight. Today was a good day!

Inactivity for the Day

In reading some articles about rest and recovery, I've realized that the best thing for Troy and I is to take a full and complete day and literally do nothing but rest and let our bodies recover. Troy's been having problems fully recovering from last Saturday, so we both decided to take it easy for the day.

We plan to pick it back up tomorrow and get a nice healthy ride in. Plus, when we get back, we're going to tweak our training schedule and ramp it up a bit for the Meat Pie Triathlon in Louisiana in late September. It's a constant learning and experimenting process. I love it!

A Ride at Dusk

Today Troy and I decided to go for a late ride - maybe too late. At right after 8:00 pm EST, we decided that we needed to get in a light workout. Either a run or a ride was what we were thinking. We both wanted to ride, but at the time we realized that we were going to be pushing it for time. It was obvious that we were running out of daylight. However, we figured we'd just go for it and try and either beat the darkness or tough it out. As a result, it became quite stressful once it got dark outside due to not being able to see the road or worrying about the cars being able to see us. We were glad we got through it once we were done.

We're trying to be conscious of somewhat keeping our fitness level up after our targeted triathlon, but we're not finding it too tough due to still being on a high from our competition. We've caught the bug and we're looking forward to the next one. It's truly addicting and it continues to be fun and a challenge to get Troy to his targeted weight while he continues his quest.

The Cool Down

We're still in St. Petersburg, FL and it's been quite a nice visit and vacation. After our triathlon yesterday, we got really jolted into getting back into our routine of training. We've decided to establish our next goal to shoot for. It's the Meat Pie Triathlon in Natchitoches, LA on September 21st. It's a 1/2 mile swim, a 13.4 mile bike, and a 3 mile run. We're highly anticipating it and we know better about how to train and what we need to concentrate a bit more on. We obviously both need work on the run portion but that doesn't necessarily mean a ton more running. It just means more repetitions, more quality runs, and smarter training in the run. Plus, I think I'm going to start implementing more leg weight training to strengthen the lower core.

It's a constant tweaking process and it's fun to learn more about what it takes to go farther in our weaker areas.

Doomsday. . . At Last!

Today was a day that I knew was coming for 3 months. On April 28th, Todd and I embarked on a detailed and very specific training routine to get us ready for the 2008 Top Gun Triathlon in Ft. Desoto Beach very near where my parents live in St. Petersburg, FL. Having not ever done this before, T and I walked in pretty “wide eyed” to the experience. Let me tell you, no matter how much research you do, stores you visit, YouTube videos you watch on this stuff, or websites you peruse, you just can’t prepare for the excitement of what it’s like when you’re in there actually doing it for the first time. I plan on doing many many more of these, but I have to admit, I think I’ll miss that sense of unknown excitement that will only come the first time you do this. I’m so happy to have come to the top of this mountain. My brother committed himself to help me improve my health and wellness, and hold his end of the bargain he DID in spades! I’m a VERY blessed man. Truly, today is a day to be thankful for the love of my savior and my brother, my wife, my kids, my parents, and my entire group of friends and family. Now...on to the next one. This is a LONG work in progress. WE are not done yet.

Troy Collins

Today was a day that was monumental for me. Let me just say that reaching this goal was a life changing experience in many more ways than one. It's been much more of a spiritual enriching journey for me than a physical. However with the triathlon behind me and it being our litmus test, I now know more about how better to train and we have a ton of room for improvement.

Todd Collins

Check the stats HERE.

The Calm Before the Storm

Today's entry is taken from the site of the Top Gun Triathlon. Our next entry will be after the event is over. Troy and I are very excited and I'm a bit nervous due to wondering how far I can push my body. All of the training and watching what we eat and so forth have culminated to this particular day tomorrow. It's a bitter sweet occurence to see this chapter come to an end. As a matter of fact, Troy and I are already looking at what our next event is going to be. This trip is going to be a catalyst to our planning the next goal to shoot for. This has been a part of life for me and it's been highly rewarding to see this transform into being a part of life for Troy as well.

The above picture is of the finish line for tomorrow. It'll be much more "lively" tomorrow.