Oh how I've missed you

So I never got those pictures up huh? Ray has a very flattering picture of me up on his site with a link to here, so I figured I better update the blog with something. So, if you were looking for some pictures, or you just wanted to see my handsome face, go take a look over on Lunatic Biker.

Last week was pretty busy (and work blocked all blogger access). I had a swim and a bike test with my new coach. He filmed my swim stroke underwater, so that was pretty cool to see. My stroke is pretty good, though I still hyperventilate a little bit if there is too much time between swim workouts. I owe all of that to my older sister. When we were younger and would go to the public pool, she would come over to me and hold me underwater. Seriously there were times when I thought I was going to die. Now my chances at qualifying for the 70.3 World Championships are just a dream. We’ll they always were and will be a dream I just wanted to blame it on something other than simple lack of physical ability.

The Bike test was cool. I got real numbers as far as power goes. We calculated my power to weight ratio (which is currently ~3.7), and set some goals as to where we would like to have it once the season starts (something around 4.2). So that means I need to do two things, loose weight and strengthen my legs. I also found out that my cheap alternative to a power tap system is working well. My coach said he used the Kinetic road machine and the power computer for all of his training last year. He ended up making it worlds in the short course and had the 5th best bike split. The point is as long as you have some consistent power and heart rate data (accurate or not) you can gauge your progress and make improvements. I don’t know who said it and how it actually goes but its something like this “That which does not get measured does not get improved”.

That leads me to another thing, if you try to lose weight without tracking your consumption, you might as well forget it. I can be hungry all day, but then when I look at my total caloric intake it’s an amount that equals zero weight loss. To all of the people on the biggest loser, not to mention many others doing it all on their own, Cheers. BTW - the winner this year lost over 200 lbs. Can you effing believe that?