Monday Men's Session

It's Monday and that means that we have a very light and inviting weight day. That's all. It's a welcome activity after pressing hard this past weekend. Tomorrow brings a 45 minute run, which for me, will be a bike ride and/or a swim. I haven't decided yet. Plus, I'm not sure of my schedule tomorrow so I'm playing it by ear.

Troy's really feeling it of late and is "killing" it! I find that I'm getting pushed by him as much as I feel I'm pushing him. It's encouraging for me to see him so diligent about fitting in his fitness. As a result, he's caused we men around him and in his life to be spiritually encouraged and filled from the fruit that he produces from his life. It's a wonderful thing to see and experience. He's an amazing and inspiring man!

A Sunday Surprise!

Today Troy and I decided to go for a training swim after church. That went about status quo and we both felt pretty good. Troy's noticeably a much better swimmer because his rest intervals have become much shorter. However, that was not the most impressive part of the day. After the day was almost done, we decided to go for a short but intense training ride at around 7:00. Here's where it gets really interesting. About half way through the ride, I looked down at my speed meter and realized that we were averaging 18.7 mph with Troy doing the pacing. On our rides, I always allow Troy to set the pace in order for him to stay comfortable during the ride. Once I realized that he was setting a personal best, I wanted to see just what he had in him for the rest of the nearly 10 mile ride. Suffice to say, we ended the ride averaging 19.3 miles per hour. That, until this point, is unheard of for the "Big Man"! I found him pushing my limits today and struggling to stay on his wheel. I'm still in shock at how much he's found within himself on the bike. Troy has truly found himself on his machine and once he's drop more weight, there's no telling how good he could be due to his natural strength. I'm in the middle of witnessing him as a test lab rat as he transforms his body and health. What a cool thing to see!

Now from Troy's perspective:

Ok, for the 3 or 4 of you out there that are following along, I wanted to interject a direct work from me to you (at the urging of my brother). Today was a GREAT day. I can really feel my body adjusting to the demands of what will be called upon in two weekends for the “big day.” Let’s not kid ourselves about Todd. He’s BEEN ready! This is more about transforming my XL carcass into some semblance of condition for a triathlon. Today we swam for 30 minutes at the Rec Center. It was a little bit tough at first, but half way through it, I felt my adrenaline kick in and I felt I could have gone on and on for a while. Suffice to say that after a bit of a swimming layoff, Aqua Man is BACK! From there, we spent time with friends out by the pool at the Brickell’s house. All of our kids just LOVE that place, and rightfully so. Truly, our friends are a gift from God in every way. When we left the Brickell’s, we went to our respective homes and prepared for a sprint ride into town. We did our normal route, but something was different today. Today, I felt “froggy” as Todd would say (meaning feeling a little bit extra in the tank for any random reason), so we decided early in the ride to push it! It was AWESOME! T drafted off of my for the first half of the ride and then as I became weaker due to the pace, I drafted off him on the back half. When we crossed over the finish line, we had done about 9 miles at 19.3 mph – more than 2 mph over my personal best. If you don’t know biking, it’s like shaving 30 or 45 seconds off your personal best on a mile run all at once. It kind of came out of the blue. I’m super pumped about it. It only motivates me that much more. I feel myself getting happier and more confident by the day, but most importantly, I feel my relationship with God increasing in closeness, and I feel like Todd is sharing in that feeling as well.

PS. I tried on my “goal clothes” tonight for the first time. I was VERY fearful of it, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. I’m only one inch away in the pants for both suits to be able to wear them. In truth, probably 1.5 to 2 inches away from a nice and proper fit (in the waist). I’m still carrying a good bit of my gut, but even at that, I WAS able to button all three buttons on both suit jackets. Mind you, there’s no way on God’s green earth that I’d wear them that tight outside of my bedroom, BUT, they did button without having to push it too hard. I think in a month or so, I’ll officially be formal attire eligible. :)

Not Feelin' It!

The title explains it all. I feel like I'm being so covered over that I'm falling into a slump or not being very motivated. Hopefully with Troy being back in town for a while, I'll be more motivated to train and train hard. We'll see.

Enough said.

The Saturday Ride

This morning was the beginning of (hopefully) our weekly Saturday ritual. We're targeting every Saturday morning to ride the Harpeth 22 mile ride and then do the 42 miler one a month. We'll see how that goes.

Troy did well this morning, especially considering the fact that he had an injured hamstring. We did the 22 mile ride in 01:18:00 and averaged almost 17.0 mph. Not bad! Troy continues to get better at every discipline and continues to get more fit and lose weight. He's doing great!

Editor's Update: It IS July 12th Troy!

Short Fast Ride

With Troy struggling with his hamstring and yesterday's cardio training being cut short, we decided to go on a short training ride today even though it's supposed to be our rest day. Much to my surprise, Troy's speed on the bike was faster than it's been in a long time. . . maybe ever! I can tell he's gotten much more fit by the way he's riding, running, swimming, and in his mentality. If he holds this line, he'll be able to do whatever he wants fitness-wise and he'll look as good as he wants to!

Tomorrow is a big training day and I'm motivated to do a lot of riding since I've been watching the Tour de France. It's incredibly fascinating to me.

The Hammy

During Troy's and my workout, we ran into somewhat of a hurdle. We were running sprint intervals, everything was going good, then Troy pulls up with a hamstring pull. That's an injury that he's never had in all of his years in athletics. Oddly enough, he's struggling with it right now because it's very uncomfortable for him and he bummed because it's so close to our triathlon. However, as long as he ices it and is diligent about not doing too much on it, he will heal quickly. I feel for him though because it's highly frustrating. But that goes with the territory when you are training for an even like we are.

Tomorrow is our scheduled rest day, but we've decided to take a bike ride early in the morning since we had to cut short our run. Plus, Troy is leaving town on business and is wanting to get in as much training as he possibly can. He's truly in to this! We had a good weight training session today and he still feels like he didn't get anything done because there was very little cardio work. It's funny to me because I can now see the tangible change in Troy's outlook on his health. It's about time!

The 42 Miler

This morning Troy and I woke up early to tackle a 42 mile bike trek that was plotted out during the recent ride that we took during the Harpeth River Ride. Not much to report other than we made it and even Troy did pretty well considering he hadn't ridden his bike in over a week and a half. He was definitely struggling at times, but he made it nonetheless at an average speed of 15.2 mph. Not bad considering we had to conquer some tough hills and deal with the heat.

I was proud of big Troy. He's hanging in there and he certainly didn't want to quit on the ride. He was obviously determined to not only finish, but also to eclipse (by a long shot) his longest ride he's ever done.

It wasn't at all tough for me, but it was quite enjoyable going at a moderate pace and getting to chat with someone while riding the beautiful country roads of Williamson County. I'm looking forward to doing that ride again and possibly going on my own to see how hard I can push it. Maybe next weekend.

On the Bike

Still can't really comfortably run yet due to mostly a huge blister on my foot and my calf still being sore. It's much better than it's been though. I'll be back on the pavement soon.

Troy just got back home from North Carolina and we've got a scheduled swim at the Williamson County Indoor Swim Complex in the early morning. I'm actually looking forward to that because Troy keeps me accountable to our training and I found it easy to be able to slack off when he wasn't here. I'm glad he's back to keep me motivated and on top of my training.

5:30 comes real early tomorrow morning! Gotta get some rest!

The M-Doub

It's Tuesday and today called for a 45 minute run. Well, between my slight calf injury and a massive blister on my foot, I decided to go on a bike ride for an hour. I averaged just under 19 mph which is not bad considering I was alone on the ride with no one to draft off of. At any rate, it was a gorgeous day and the temperature was around the mid 80's at 5:30.

I haven't spoken to Troy in the past couple of days so I don't know where he is on his training. I have to admit, I haven't felt very motivated to train for the last 2 days. However, I somehow made it through and forced myself to get a workout in. I've felt better for doing so, but even still, I really haven't wanted to train. Maybe it's due to knowing that Troy's been out of town and I know that I don't have anyone pushing me. . . or it could be other extenuating circumstances.

Whatever the case, the training must continue! Life is a competition and I really want to win. Right Mike?

A Run Instead of Bike

Yesterday was Troy's 38th birthday and it turned out to be a really bad one for him. He lost his wallet and had to cancel all credit cards and all the hassle that goes along with that. I felt bad for him. Consequently, he didn't get to get his run in yesterday and was going to get it in today after he gets to North Carolina. Hopefully, he'll be able to stay on his training schedule minus the biking.

Also yesterday, I didn't get a chance to do a blog update due to being too busy with work and carting around teenagers for activities. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love being able be around my girls and their friends and love that they feel comfortable enough to come to the house to hang out where it's safe and away from trouble. Well yesterday I was able to get in my allotted 45 minutes of running but today I was supposed to ride for 40 minutes. However, it rained really hard here so that put a damper on any type of ride. So I waited out the rain then slapped on my running shoes and went for a 40 minute run. Tomorrow I will replace my run with a bike ride and I'll be even.

The calf seems to be healing up although not as quickly as I would like. It's still a bit sore when I run, but I'm purposely taking it slower as to not further injure it.

Testing Out the Calf

Okay, we're back on our regular training schedule after this past weekend and today, by design, is a light day that consists of only weight training. Troy and I met at the gym at 7:30 this morning to push weights then get on with our day.

Troy had a bit of a mental setback due to his weigh in this morning. He seems to be holding steady at 300 lbs. This was discouraging for him because he hasn't seemed to have lost weight. However, he's losing inches and it's definitely noticeable. That's the most important part because he's gaining muscle mass and muscle is much more dense than fat. At any rate, he's ratcheting up his diet even more and going to really focus in on his food intake because we know it's not something he's not doing on the training side of things.

Me on the other hand, . . . I actually had a crazy "food filled" night last night with Shelby. We decided to pig out on junk food and watch movies. We had a good time eating pizza, garlic bread sticks, and Coke. I know that's not good for me, but I realize that I can splurge once in a while and it not bother me. However, I'm back on track for this week.

Lastly, the video is of me testing out running on my calf. It seems to be much better with very little soreness. But, I'm going to continue to take it slow and let it properly heal so as to not re-injure or further injure the muscle.

Happy Monday.

Rest Day!

Today is Friday and that means we have a rest day in our training schedule. I'm looking forward to not having to do anything training wise today. After yesterday, it's going to be a nice rest. And I must admit, after the many interruptions from yesterday's swim, I thought for sure that Troy would miss out on his run later in the day. As usual, he surprised me later in the the evening by running at 10:30. If nothing else, it tangibly showed his commitment level to his training and health. I was proud. On top of all of that, Troy bettered his running time and distance by 45 seconds! That's tangible proof of his improvement.

Big E came into town yesterday on his way to Knoxville on business and we had a great time just hangin' out, watching basketball, listening and working on music, and getting a light workout in. It was great getting to see my best buddy! I don't get to see him nearly as much as I'd like because he's so involved with college, pro, and United States basketball for Nike. He's got a sweet gig!

Above is a picture of The Big E.

It's All A Scam!

The picture to the left is mine and Troy's future biking club. We'll see if it pans out. From left is: Jeff Willett, Me, Troy, and Aaron Benward.

Today is a swim/run day. 30 minutes of swim and 15 minutes of running. Troy and I met at the pool this morning to knock out the swim portion of our day. We'll get the run in late this afternoon once the heat somewhat subsides. This morning's swim was awesome weather and pleasant. However for some reason, I was struggling a bit. I obviously made it through but the swim was a little harder for me today than usual. My normal routine is to swim a 50 on every minute. I usually get in about 1500 yards in 30 minutes. Not too bad, I guess.

Troy, on the other hand, had a good swim as he swam 50 yard intervals every 1:30. It's cool to see his quick progressions in both swimming and biking. Plus as you can see, he keeps me laughing!

Troy the Roman Soldier

Today called for 30 minutes of swimming and 20 minutes of running. With me having to wake up at 5:30 to get my daughter to swim practice, it was no big deal to meet Troy at 7:00 am for a morning workout swim. We swam laps for 15 minutes then did fin drills for the remaining 15. After the swim, I went home to eat breakfast and ended up falling asleep for about an hour. Troy however, was a beast! He rested for approximately 20 minutes then immediately went out on his run! He was really feeling himself today! He's really making this a priority and it's fun to watch him get upset when he can't seem to get out to train or something gets in the way. It's funny.

Today was a good day of training, but it was bit tough due to the heat. I'm starting to find that I'm wanting to train more and devote more time to it, but can't due to my schedule. I'd love to be able to do what the pros do by training everyday and that's literally their job. Wishful thinking.