UPDATE

Took a little vacation. Now I'm back in the gym.

Today:

30 min ERG --> cadence 21-24
split 1:58-2:04

Weights --> chest, shoulders

20 min Swim --> 3 x 250

Great Raleigh Road Race

Just thought I would post the results from the GRRR so we could all be in awe of how fast some of these guys are. The winning time was 25:07, a 5:03 minute-mile pace for 5 miles!! And 4 of the top 5 guys were in our (20-24) age group. The only guy that was not in that age group was the 3rd place finisher and just so happened the same guy that WON the triathlon last weekend! (26:05, 5:14 min-mile pace).

I finished 45th overall, out of almost 400 people, and a lot of them were really serious runners. I finished 6th in the age group (did I mention that 4 of the top 5 were from my age group?!), with a total time of 34:21, a 6:53 min-mile pace. I was happy, as I was shooting for sub-35 minutes, and did that by 40 seconds.

Needless to say, my body has been fighting me back after all of this punishment, but i've got a knee brace, some advil, and determination, so hopefully i can get it back in line, haha.

We're also still thinking about doing one more triathlon before the end of the summer if anyone is interested. I'll send out info to the listserv once we make a decision.

Full race results are online at http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=66085

Triathlon Results

Dane, Logan, and I finished our first triathlon yesterday. It was a lot of fun, and we all did extremely well. Out of over 320 participants, the three of us were all in the top 69 finishers!

My final lap of the swim

So, as promised, here are the results. I could not get a chart to fit on this page, but all the results are listed at http://fsseries.com/results/smileTrainResults.htm. BUT, I will list out the times for Logan, Dane, and myself. I listed our rank for overall men, as well as for our 20-24 year old age group. T1 and T2 are transition times, s=swim, b=bike, r=run.

Chris: 20th men, 2nd age, 4:07 s, 1:22 T1, 37:08 b, 1:08 T2, 22:18 r, 1:06:00.9 total
Dane: 44th men, 4th age, 5:13 s, 1:55 T1, 39:59 b, 1:44 T2, 21:39 r, 1:10:28.1 total
Logan : 60th men, 6th age, 5:53 s, 1:37 T1, 40:58 b, 0:34 T2, 24:45 r, 1:13:44.7 total

Waiting to start the race

Highlights included Dane having the fastest run in our age group and one of the top 10 runs overall while mine was #16 overall and 2nd to Dane in the age group. I was also able to crack into the top 20 times overall (19th in men). I also thought it was pretty impressive that all 3 of us were easily in the top half of our age group, despite having never run a triathlon before.

If I had quicker transitions, I would have won the 20-24 age group, as I beat the winner by 2-3 minutes total if you only count the run, bike, and swim (without transitions). So that was disappointing, as I only lost by 15 seconds and it wasn't because he was more athletic...but because he knew how to transition extremely quickly because he has run these before. But now I will no better next time!

Dane finishing on the bike

We are hoping to take what we learned from this race and enter another tri later in the summer or in the beginning of the fall. If anyone is interested in joining us this time, let me know. I can honestly say that it was a great time that we all enjoyed, and it gave us something to train for in between the end of last season and the start of the next.

My medal for the 2nd place finish

Complete results can be viewed at http://fsseries.com/results/smileTrainResults.htm

Helloooooo.....

Is anyone out there?

This place was hoppin' for the first couple of weeks, but apparently now either no one is working out anymore, or we've just ditched the blog. I personally hope that for most of you it is the 2nd option.

Anyways, figured I would let everyone know what I've been up to. I was on vacation last week so we'll say i did some "cross-training" consisting of wakeboarding, surfing (or at least attempting to...so a lot of paddling/swimming), and kayaking the Cape Fear, Haw, and Nantahala Rivers.

I did, however, do some regular training as well, since the triathlon is coming up fast, TWO MORE DAYS! White Lake is relatively flat, and has a nice 7 mile loop that circles the lake, so I spent some time biking laps around the lake, and one day I ran it....but it was entirely too hot for that, so I just about killed myself.

As I mentioned, the triathlon is this Sunday. The seeding was based on the 100m swim time you entered, and apparently I was a little more confidant in my swim than Dane and Logan, as I am starting 27th and they are starting 214 and 217 respectively. I sure hope they don't catch me! that would be trouble. If you are interested in tracking our progress Sunday morning or seeing the results, they will be posted during and after the race at www.fsseries.com. The race name is the BASF Smile Train Triathlon. I'll try to post the results on here shortly after as well, or at least give you an exact link.

I hope everyone is having a good summer. I also hope you haven't ditched the workouts already. I know it's hard with the lake, the beach, the pool, the girls, etc., but you'll be glad you put in the time over the summer when you get back in August.

Summer School Sucks

So I'm at UNC for summer school and there have been two things that I do daily: workout and do chemistry. I live on an all male hallway which I have to say shattered my expectations of meeting some fine looking ladies this summer. Complaining aside, I have been keeping up with my cardio and have begun to erg again, which brings back some painful memories. I go to the gym everyday whether it's for lifting or for doing cardio. Contrary to popular belief (tucker) I have been doing a lot of lower body work, I hope to one day have the massive thighs of the great Jake Soberal.

Last week I rowed on Lake Wylie with David Bierer along with some members of the women's team; an interesting experience to say the least. I also took out a pair with Ivan yesterday morning which was really fun because the weather was nice.

I hope you guys are having a good summer and I look forward to catching up with you when we see each other in August.

Trainer, diet, etc.

Well, I've gotten myself a few workouts a week with a trainer down the street and he's helping me build strength in addition to my cardio workouts. I'm still doing about an hour of erging on a regular basis, and now that my friend from the Naval Academy is home, we're probably going to be running together. The trainer also has me on a bit of a diet of 6 really healthy meals a day, so I'm starting to feel pretty good. I hope ya'll are all keeping with your workouts too.

And Taylor - be careful in that spinning class. You know how good you are at setting off gaydars, haha.

HELLO? IS ANYBODY THERE?

Hey guys,

So for the past week or so I've been doing a lot of swimming, for me it's been the easiest way for me to get my heart rate up (and keep it up).

I'll generally do 3 or 4 x 250m, followed by a lift (squats, shoulders, back) then I'll hop on the bike or the elliptical for 20 or 20 min.

Today I experienced a spinning class for the first time...it was 75% girls, 20% gays, and 5% straight guys (me, only). Spinning is really good for interval training, you'll go all out for a few minutes, then rest, and you'll switch off from strenght settings to cardio settings.

Anyways, I'm out, Rachel is sitting next to me making irritated impatient noises...

T