Team McAlister

only 52 to go!  As of yesterday, I’ve lost 8 pounds!  Down from 265 to 257.  That leaves a mere 52 lbs. to hit the target 205 lbs. The workout program and proper diet are working.  A few years ago, when I started cycling, my weight was 282 lbs.  It went down very quickly (maybe too much so) to about 230.  During the last 18 months though it crept back up to 265.  To have a chance of completing an Ironman length tri, a bunch of that has to go.

I know this is repetitive…sorry.  To see this progress is very pleasing though.

Today I swam 1 mile.  That’s the farthest I’ve swum in years and it took 44 minutes.  Back in the day, I could swim 2 miles in a bit under an hour. Many pounds and many years ago.  Then, my planned 2 hour ride became a 1 hour affair due to continuing mechanical issues on the machine.  

So a priest walked into a bar…..oops! wrong story….I walked in to the bike shop and told Kevin what was going on and he just said, “I can fix that.  I know what it is.”  About 10 minutes later I was test riding it and it was whisper quiet!  Thanks, Kev!  He IS The Man! (Tech note: toxic sweat messes up carbon fiber components.  It makes them bond to each other in ways that are probably Biblically forbidden; and, requires them to be forcibly separated, cleaned, and re-assembled in a way that will preserve their dignity, assure their performance, and keep them separate but equal.

Last week, Jett and I were talking and I said something about needing to swim the 2.4 mi in about 1:15, ride the 112 mi in about 5 -ish, and run the 26.2 in something like 4:30.  Target time of 10:45 to 11:00.  All of that seemed reasonable to me.  Then I started researching what sorts of times guys in my future age bracket  (60-64) turn in.  I almost predicted a top end performance in my chat with Jett!  That kind of time would qualify me for Kona in 2009! (We’ll see what 2013 has in store for us.)

2013 and those times are still a very long way off, but I feel confident about the swim and cycle times.  Once again, it’s the running that presents the biggest challenge.

Training can be pretty hard, right?  There should be some balance between plain old hard work and fun in a training regimen.  That balance does not mean though that pain and pleasure will necessarily coexist in any given workout.  Often, pleasure comes after the pain in the form of a sense of accomplishment.  Or a cold drink. Or maybe just the absence of pain.  All pain is not equal, either.

For me, swimming does not involve pain at all.  I’m not fast enough or good enough to get into a place of pain in swimming.  Maybe I just take the build up of conditioning in swimming so slowly that I’m avoiding pain.  I do get my heart rate up and make my breathing elevated during intervals and such.  But there’s not “real” pain.

Cycling can be another story.  I can, and do, create some pain on some training days.  The climb up RMR in my big ring, for example.  Some interval training is very tough.  All of that pain is predictable and manageable; desired and pursued; expected and enjoyed.

BUT running SUCKS!  At least for me, running must be what my personal hell will be.  Every step, every second, every minute, every thing about that discipline is miserable.  If I can conquer this issue, I will reach the tri goal.  Although it may not work, the only idea I have for conquering running is to keep at it.  Old-fashioned persistence in the only idea I have for dealing with the pain.  Well, persistence and a plan that a good coach set up to help.  If literally taking it one step at a time will work, then I have a chance.

Yesterday, I continued on the Hal Higdon program for runners over 40 and today I can honestly say that I’m encouraged, for a change.  So many factors figure into conditioning that I don’t know exactly what to credit for this feeling.  More strength; weight loss; better diet; anti-oxidants; anti-inflammatories; better overall conditioning?  All of the above?  Regardless, yesterday I managed to finish the workout exactly on Higdon’s plan and last night and today feel okay.  No swollen joints.  No lingering pain or discomfort.

So, I’m ready for today’s 1 mile swim and 2 hour bike ride.  :-)

I’m trying to really focus on some training.  Eat right.  Workout consistently.  Cross train.  You know the drill, right?  So, yesterday was time for my regular Mon/Wed tri training routine.  I swim at lunch time.  Then, go for a ride and run after work.  The swim ended up being an intervals session.  600 yards total.  Warm-up and cool down of 100 yards each with 8×50 on 45 sec in between with 15 sec rest.  Not awesome, but I was feeling it – lack of good oatmeal breakfast hitting me?  Anyway, then the afterwork ride was also an interval session 3x 6 minutes at just under threshold with 6 minute recovery.  Just for good measure at the end of the workout I decided to ride up 1 of my fav climbs – River Mountain Road.  It’s about 1 mile end-to-end (flat at both ends though) with an average gradient of 7%  - call it 3/4 mile of actual climbing.  Now, I remember clearly the first time I even made it up to the top; and, more clearly how miserably I failed in attempts to climb it before that initial success.  This is a routine climb for everyone around here and something that many of us do on hill repeat days.

For some reason yesterday I decided to climb it in my big ring (50), or at least to try to climb it.  I decided early on that I would just bail out rather than down shift and mark the spot where I stopped.  I was completely surprised as I kept going and going, until I finally thought, “Hey!  I’m gonna make this!”  I definitely alternated between wanting to puke and thinking I might have a heart attack.  And, I actually PASSED one guy that I consider a pretty good cyclist and athlete!  I don’t know if it was the endorphins or what, but I immediately felt super strong and powerful for having done that climb.  I was feeling very tired after those workouts and am in recovery mode today, but I’m stoked for the next session also.

The good news is that I’ve been training more than it may look like on this blog.  The bad news is that I haven’t been doing nearly enough training or writing.  

Have been getting in some quality rides, but not much else.  Even so, the riding has not been adequate.  However, I went out today and had a nice, albeit short ride….1 hour…and a nice little 30 minutes on foot…mostly walking, but a little bit of easy running.  

I’ve decided to get serious about food…and to forego all riding events this season to develop my running and swimming.

This past week took its toll with work, travel, and odd weather.  However, it began with a little training time on the rollers on Monday, followed by a nice little 24-miler on Tuesday.  The trip to DC was brutal though and killed 3 days and included one night with 2 hours sleep and one with about 4 hours.  Friday and Saturday were spent trying to sleep and re-gain some energy.  Today, though, ah yes, today – 53 miles; 3 hours 30 minutes, inclusive of everything imaginable – high cross- to head- winds the entire ride; a couple of stops; and, some stretching.  The ride went well and felt good.  I have no statistics at all since I had no cycling computer mounted.  I actually liked the freedom of not being tethered to the electronics and just enjoying the riding.

Just a quick update on the shoes: still awesome. Calves hurt worse than when I first started running, but strangely not WHILE running. Did a half mile yesterday and a mile today, keeping the distance short as a precaution which may not be necessary. Not even the slightest sign of shin splints or any other injuries!

Long time no see, huh? Yeah, I haven’t been doing a whole lot of training, to be honest. I do make it to the gym 3-4 times a week, but now that I’m terrified of shin splints I keep the running pretty short. I can do a mile in 7:30 now! So I’m improving, in spite of things. My Lombardi’s coupons expire soon, so I’m gonna go ahead and get some running shoes before that happens… then maybe I’ll have some more activity to update on! The weather is getting nicer all the time, so I’d really like to take the running outside and get away from that treadmill.

I hope to be doing a lot of tinkering with the site in the coming weeks, so if anything looks weird or broken it’s my fault. I’m working on my personal site (no link, because it still sucks) and some of what I learn might apply to this one as well. So yeah, there’s the news.

So, I’m still not really training, but it’s not like I never move. I’m keeping up with Krav and TRX, and now that the sun is visible once again, maybe I can get out for some bike rides.

While my training is still relatively slow compared to the family, I stumbled across something interesting today and thought I would share it with everybody.

NutritionData.com is a website that gathers information from the USDA, restaurants, and food manufacturers to make it easy to find the nutritional value of nearly any food.

My favorite features of the site are the graphs for each food. They show how balanced the food is, the quality of the proteins it contains, how filling vs. how nutritious it is, and what makes up the majority of calories (carbs, proteins, or fats).

If you can’t find a food on their site, you can customize one using the My Recipes and My Foods tools (these require creating a profile). When you add things to your foods, you can then tell the site what you ate in a day, and it will give you all the previously mentioned graphs for each food combined so you can see how balanced your daily diet is.

It’s all pretty sweet, and since diet is an important part of an exercise regimen I thought it might be worth trying out.

Tags: diet, eating, food, health, nutrition

Man, school is keeping me busy. I’ve pretty much put the training on hold, although I try to make it to the gym a couple of times a week. Still no running—I’ve tried a few short, 1-2 mile runs here and there and completely given up until I can get running shoes.
The weather has turned, so there may be some bike rides in my near future! Assuming, of course, that I can get my homework under control. It may be Spring Break before I get outside again.

I traded a couple hours of sleep this morning for a workout. 20-minute 2.02-mile run, and some weights. It was much needed, and I feel a little bit better about my week now. Exercise is truly habit-forming, and once I’ve gotten into the habit it is not pleasant to break it.

I got some gift certificates in the mail from Lombardi’s, so I may be able to splurge on some real running shoes in the near future. I used to sell running shoes there so I have a little bit of a customer loyalty thing going on.

No sign of shin splints or any other sort of injury today, so that’s good news. Maybe keeping the mileage low is a good idea for now.

For the next few weeks, or months, my training is going to have to take a back seat to schoolwork. Already, midterms are sneaking up on me like a ninja in the night, trying to catch me asleep in my Bed of Unpreparedness and murder me with a Sword of Harsh Grading after battering me senseless with Nunchuks of Innumerable Assignments. The regular workload of 12-15 class hours and 8-10 hours of homework for each of three studio classes isn’t too bad in and of itself. But in addition, I have to write, draw, and produce a full-length comic book within 8 weeks, and I’m trying to build a portfolio site where I can show my work. The comic book is going to kill me—last semester in my Comics class the pace was 1-2 pages a week, and that was tough enough with only one other class that semester.

So, I’m not going to make it to that half-marathon in April, but I will do my best not to backslide from where I am now. The main thing is to keep my grades up, otherwise I won’t graduate before we do this thing. Thanks for putting up with my bitching, I’m off to study some art history.

So, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but it’s also been a long time since I’ve made any serious progress in my training. This is not the post to change that.

This is a post asking for help from our kind readers so that I can have my dream job. I need everyone to go to islandreefjob.com and rate my video highly. Every view and every star will bring me that much closer to getting the best job in the world.

Thank you for all of your support, I look forward to training with the Makos in Australia soon!

P.S.- Though my training hasn’t really moved to a new level, I have gotten better at the training I’ve been doing. TRX never gets easier, but I’ve been increasing the resistance a little each class. I’ve also been getting more confident in Krav Maga and can endure a little longer with each class.

Tags: australia, dream job, help, Krav Maga, mako shark, TRX

I’m gonna start running again as soon as it stops raining. So like, probably in May or something.

Tags: san francisco, Weather

Hey, remember when I said I was going to run 9 miles today? I lied. The opportunity arose to go for a bike ride with some friends, so I postponed the run until tomorrow. It’s probably a good thing, I feel like my knees needed the reprieve.

We went to a neat little cafe called the Velo Rouge for lunch. As you might imagine, it’s very bike-centric. Funky bike racks and a pump outside, SFBC stickers all over, and lots of old pictures of Tours de France. My favorite was of a rider lighting a cigarette for the rider next to him, that’s what I mean by “old pictures.” The coffee and the food were both outstanding, I might have to stop eating out altogether so I can make Sunday brunch there a regular thing. They have a t-shirt with a picture of a bike on it that says “53 miles per burrito.” I really need that shirt. I wear a large, by the way 

Tomorrow I will be trying for 9 miles, for real.

Tags: bicycle, bike, biking, cafe, food, health, san francisco, velo rouge

But I have a clean, sparkling aquarium with happy(????) although mostly brainless critters. That’s because I missed the estimate of how much water I took out and when I started replacing it, I didn’t have enough…..so off to the aquarium store for more water. That’s a 1 hour drive round trip, which completely blew my whole schedule. Oh, yes, I could’ve worked it out, but the karma today was encouraging me to take the day off. One knee is swollen and cranky….waiting for the Aleve to kick in. What a lazy pig. lol

Two-thirds of the time I mention this triathlon idea to someone, they say something along the lines of “I hear you get beat up pretty badly in the swimming part.”

Bearing this in mind, my tri training for the past two weeks has consisted of two one hour TRX classes and at least one Krav Maga class per week. I know I won’t out-swim everybody, so I figure I ought to be able to hold my own in this underwater Mortal Combat I’ve been hearing about.

Other than that, my training schedule has been mostly about avoiding injury. Seeing as how slow and steady wins the race, I will be going on four 2 mile walks this weekend, partly to get ready for that running portion but mostly to get to work and back. I might start jogging soon, and not just when I’m trying not to be late for work. I’m keeping my eyes open for a place to run that’s easily accessible and won’t require dodging regular pedestrians.

Tags: fight, Krav Maga, procrastination, TRX, walking

So, Lance Armstrong has announced that once he’s made his comeback in the cycling world, he’ll be doing an Ironman. How cool would it be if we were in the same one?

Also, according to that article the winner usually finishes in around 8 hours. I did the math, and that’s an average speed of about 16.7 mph. Right now I can sustain speeds of about 6 mph running, 18 mph biking, and I don’t even know about swimming. I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Oh, one more thing. I sucked it up and ran on the treadmill yesterday. One whole mile, and it only took me 10 minutes. One day we’ll all look back at this and laugh, unless of course it’s at my funeral after some fatal treadmill-related accident.

Tags: Armstrong, Ironman, Lance, run, running

You don’t have to be crazy to be here, but it helps!

Usually, stories about guys that set off on some sort of major undertaking begin with, “Well, we were just sitting around having a couple of beers and then…” The reason for suggesting to the guys that we embark on this mission still is pretty unclear to me. It seemed like a good idea at the time though. We definitely have some athleticism in the group: I was a college athlete, sort of, and have been involved recently in cyclng; Jett has run multiple marathons; Colin was an excellent competitive swimmer and started cycling last summer with me; Schuyler has always had athletic ability beyond his willingness to exhibit it (unless marching to the beat of a different drummer counts). So, the idea that we might be able to perform the events in a triathlon wasn’t all that far-fetched. The idea that we might all converge on a single, competitive Ironman-length organized event is where it began to get interesting. No alcohol was consumed until after we realized what we had agreed to do.

Colin says that laughter ensued when I mentioned it. He might have said that “derisive laughter ensued”. The fact that Jett almost automatically agreed to do it, even if his brothers didn’t, may say more about the effects of Chicago winters on a person’s brain than it does about anything else.

Enough history for now, though. With only 103 days until my 56th birthday, we’ve wasted the better part of a year talking about this mission, but doing little more than routine training and living. Agreed, Jett has started swimming and is on a schedule as his marathon training continues. I’ve continued my cycling regimen and am happy with it. I’ll let the other guys speak for themselves about their activities. The only other comment I have is that I’m at the beginning of Week 2 in a running program.

Running is my weakness. (I almost wrote Achilles heel, but that would have been very poor, don’t you think? My self-editing will probably never be that tight again.) Hopefully, using Hal Higdon’s book “Masters Running” will help get me through this discipline. So far, so good.

Tags: goals, intro, story, triathlon

April 28, 2008: Lou, the patriarch, decides that for his 60th birthday (April 28, 2013) he wants to do an Ironman triathlon. What’s more, he wants his three sons (Jett, Schuyler, and yours truly) to accompany him. Laughter ensues.

A few days later: I get a voicemail saying something like, “Well, your brothers are in! Are you gonna do it or what?”

So we’ve set up this blog, hoping to chronicle our metamorphosis from couch potatoes, video gamers, weekend cyclists, and crazed marathoners into hardcore Triathletes. Stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy the read!

Tags: first, intro, origin, story