Monthly Archives: September 2010

Get Back At It

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It took me a long time to learn the lesson. Too Long if you ask me.

Learn Your Lesson, You are Not Perfect!

From grammar school to high school, I was an excellent student. I almost always did my homework. I rarely missed a day. I wasn’t perfect, but I tried my best. I was very close to perfect. I had no doubt I was going to college. In fact, I could pretty much pick the college I wanted to go to provided my family and I could afford it.

Something changed in college, my focus changed. It went from academics to social. It took me almost the entire four years of college to regain my academic focus. I skipped classes. I took homework for granted. I was able to get B’s and C’s in most classes without having to do too much work. Yet, how did I slip up? What lesson did it take me too long to find?

What would happen is I would miss a class. I’d miss a homework date. Then, I’d miss another class, and another. I’d think to myself. Since, I already missed a class and homework, I can’t be perfect. So, I might as well miss more. Then, mid-term would come, and I’m spending the night before cramming my butt off, because I didn’t do the day-to-day work. I’d get a B or a C on the midterm. This success without work quickly became a bad habit. The thinking since I wasn’t perfect, I might as well slip up even more was poor judgement. The if I’m not perfect, I might as well be the exact opposite.

How does this apply to fitness?

Its the same as thinking, well, I just had a bowl of ice cream, I might as well eat the whole pint.

Its the same thinking as I missed my exercise the past few days, I might as well not do it today.

For me, the lesson I learned is that perfection thinking is crap thinking. Just because you slipped up yesterday, and you can not be perfect anymore doesn’t mean squat. I’m not perfect. I’m human, and humans are not meant to be perfect.

The lesson that took me so long to learn was: If you get off the horse, get right back on as soon as you can! I’ve talked about this unperfection lesson in a different way in the past in the blog post: Begining with the end in mind.

Why do I bring this up? Well, This past week, I fell off the horse. The prior week, I was great. I met all my fitness goals. This week, not so much. I did some great hiking on Sat, Sept 19. (I know that is last week, but the hiking was pretty strenuous and I needed Sunday and Monday to recover. Okay, that seems like an execuse and probably is.) So, I skipped all my weight workouts. I did Bike Wednesday a nice strong 17 miles. Yet, I feel like a failure especially considering I have not adjusted my diet to match my lack of activity. I am even posted late this week. I did a late Tue, but where is Thursday’s post like I said.

But, when you fall off the horse, you get right back up as soon as you can. I’m blogging today, Friday. Saturday, I plan to walk around most of the day. Sunday Morning, I plan on running with my wife for an anniversary jog. I’m still figuring out the rest of my exercise schedule, but I’m going to do it! I’m making exercise immutable.

In other news, I get a chance to practice my photographry skills as I’m going to the Chicago Gourmet Food & Wine celebration this weekend. I will plenty opportunity to take all sorts of great shots in Millenium Park. I’m excited about all the tastings and the chance to hear some expert Chefs and Sommeliers speak. If you have any recommendations on what tastings I should hit, let me know.

Remember. You are not perfect! Yet, you can get dust yourself off and get right back up! You can do it just as I can.

For the Love of Action

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I’m not sure I’m a triathlete yet.

This past weekend, I went camping and hiking with my dad, my 5yr old son, my brother, and my two nephews.

A family that plays together stays thin together.

I enjoy hiking a ton. Its super fun to walk out in nature. Take in all the bugs, animals, and beautiful foliage.  (okay bugs are so fun if they’re mosquitos.)  We drove 3 hours away so we can endure a little bit of topography during our hike. Just the fact that we got to see views is awesome considering Illinois is a flat geologic basin (although, we benefit by great ground water). The activeness of topography was one characteristic of living in Montana or Colorado that I really miss.

My wife and I try to encourage our kids to be active. We go for walks, we play at the park, we’ll play tag inside, dance, swim, soccer, baseball, basketball.

By taking my son hiking and camping, he gets to use his body and have fun doing it. Who doesn’t like climbing boulder-sized rocks along a lakefront? That’s better than a jungle gym if you ask me.

When I was growing up, my mom and my dad always provided ample opportunity for me to have fun in action. We camped, we walked, we played sports. Some of these I did alone, some of these we did as a family. I really thank them for those opportunities. Of course, they are fond memories, but it also helped me to realize that moving my body is Fun! Exercise can be fun. It doesn’t have to be running on a treadmill that goes nowhere. It doesn’t have to be lifting weights with no action. Instead, I can carry the weight of a backpack while hiking through a forest or up a mountain.

Why do I say I’m not sure I’m a triathlete?

I mean I like biking, and I like swimming, and I guess if you twist my arm, I don’t mind running (too much). I had a great time with my past Triathlon experience.  The race really motivated my exercise.  However, This past Sunday where we were at in WI, it was 50 some degrees. It was rainy. The campground we were at held a triathlon. I was kind of excited and wanted to go see the participants. Yet, since it was so relatively cold and so wet, I was just happy to take down my tent without getting soaked.

I could not imagine getting up early to set up my transition area in a wet cold morning much less jumping in a cold lake, and then doing a bike and run afterwards. Those people are Triathletes. I’m not quite there yet. I’m not saying I won’t do another triathlon or another race. I’m not committing either way. However, on that cold morning, I had no desire to be out on there with them.

You know what? That’s okay. Everyone is different. We have to find exercises that we like. We have to learn how to naturally include more movement in our day to day activities in addition to the more strenuous endurance activities.

Races are great motivators, but they’re not the only way. Sure, I think races are good for me to motivate my exercise schedule. You may be different. What exercise do you love? That’s what matters when action in general becomes immutable in life!

Chicago Triathlon Swim, Part 3 of 7 2010 Recap

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Post Triathlon Recap Part 3 of 7. I started writing up a recap of my event, and it kept growing and growing and growing. I decided to break it up. The purpose of the recap is give new people the thoughts and ideas they can use to help them prepare for their own future first endurance event!

Scott Ready for the Swim

About an hour before my race time, I walked back to the swim start. I watched a heat or two, and just mentally went through the whole race. Mind you, the time is around

7:00am ish. I knew from my practice, that it would take me about 30 minutes to put on my wetsuit. Those things are a pain the neck to put on. They’re so tight and new ones especially haven’t been stretched out. Wetsuits are suprisingly very fragile and can easily rip. As I was putting on my wetsuit, I started to sweat like crazy. The weather wasn’t too warm yet, but it was warm enough to be in shorts and a shirt and be comfortable. My brother came out to see me, and he helped zip the wetsuit up. By the time I got my suit on, my heat for the race was already in the chute and close to being next. I had to cut through a couple of heats, to get to my group, the white caps. At this point, I’m a little nervous, but confident. I feel like I’m a good swimmer, and I put in more than adequate time swimming in the pool.

My brother was standing there with me on the other side of the fence, so I was able to chat with him. I asked him if my ears were supposed to be in or out of the swim cap. I had never wore a swim cap before, so I didn’t know. He said it didn’t matter, but for me it was more comfortable to have the ears in the cap. My wife and kids showed up just as I was the next heat to jump in the lake. That was super fun. My daughter, Miss M, calls me super Daddy when I wear my wetsuit. I felt proud to be demonstrating an active lifestyle to my young kids. That as you age, you can still have fun and be active. My parents did that with me by participating in sports leagues and hiking. I’m glad I learned that lessson, and I am passing that on to my kids.

Chicago Triathlon Swim Chute

Now, I have never did get a chance to swim in my wetsuit. I also did not get a chance to swim in Lake Michigan. I had no idea what to expect. I expected super cold water. When it was our turn to jump in the lake for our swim start, I was surprised at how warm the water felt. It was officially 72 degrees at the start, but with the wetsuit on, I was totally warm. Almost too warm.

Bang, My First Triathlon Starts

At the Chicago Triathlon, you tread water for a couple of minutes before the start of the race. Now, I think I am a strong swimmer. From my timed pool practice, I felt I’d be a little better than average in the lake. So, I tried to position myself near the middle back of the pack. There were a lot dudes in my heat. The gun goes off, and we start swimming. There is really no where to go at the beginning. The people in front of you are not going, because the people in front of them are not moving. Its a really slow start.

I felt totally unprepared. Swimming with a swim cap was totally foreign. I felt like I couldn’t hear. I totally recommend that you swim with a swim cap at least part of the time before your next race just so you can get used to it. As I was swimming in the beginning, I tried to swim with the cap covering my ears, then i stopped and then tried it with cap just above my ears. I felt more comfortable with it over my ears, but all of that was challenging to do while swimming.

Swimming in the Dark

Its not dark. In fact, the sun is up and it is pretty bright outside, but the lake water although it is clear, doesn’t have the white bottom of the pool. So, as your swimming its really quite dark. Visibility was really low for me. I could not see where I was going at all. I tried to pick my head up to sight, but It was so difficult.

So, the awkwardness of swimming in the wetsuit for the first time, the darkness of the water all have me spooked. In fact, I almost panicked. Seriously, my heart was beating so fast. I just could not get used to swimming and bumping into people. Everytime I tried to swim, I would bump someone. I didn’t mind people bumping too much, but it was when I would put my hands out and bump someone else. I felt terrible about it, because I felt it was my fault since I couldn’t see so well. Also, your just not used to swimming into people since you don’t do it in your everyday swims. I’m really glad I’m a good swimmer, because I just kept telling myself the swim is the shortest part time-wise. Spacing will open up soon.

I had to actually do some breast stroke just to call myself down a little bit. While I’m swimming, I’m thinking there is no way I am doing a triathlon again. I can’t imagine if the water is freezing or if dead fish happened to get in the course, etc. Yet, I kept saying to myself, just swim. Its not that bad. Just swim, get to the outside and swim. So, I did that. I just kept stopping to see where I was, and just kept swimming on the outside trying my best to swim around people. its hard to tell how far you go in the lake, because you don’t turn at the pool wall and there are obviously no laps. However, the way the chicago triathlon swim course is set-up, you swim south in the lake then turn around and swim back north past the starting area. So, when you hit that starting area again, you know you’ve gone about half-way. So, the whole part, I keep thinking. Swim to the buoy, turn. then, I keep thinking swim to the start.

Just swim.

One happy surprising thing about Lake water swims, is the water actually tastes pretty good. Its basically Chicago Drinking water without all the copper pipe taste. Its much better than chlorinated pool water. That was kind of refreshing.

So, I just swim and keep sighting towards the finish. I felt bad, because I mentioned I am a pretty good swimmer. Well, I would get in a groove and swim pretty fast, and then I would bump into someone. This would cause me to stop and see where I was in relation to other people. At this point, I could see where there was a swimming lane and just swim around people, and did that most of the time. Yet, there were a few times, where I would bump into someone, then see where the person is, I swim past them then bump into them again, the swim past. I was really spooked by the bumping into people. I don’t know why, because like I said I wasn’t afraid of drowning or anything (except when I almost panicked a little after the swim started). I guess its been a while since I let my competitiveness take over my polite-ness.

I finally near the finish line. I’m making a bee-line towards the steps, and there are steps in the lake. For the triathlon, they build these steps in the lake to get out to run to the

Scott Triathlon T1 Transition

transition area. At the swim exit, there are bunch of volunteers in the water helping you. That was actually really nice.

The Transition and the Swim Exit Mat, is actually a good 400 yards away from the lake. So, I started jogging, I took off my swim cap, and googles, I half unzip my wetsuit and start running.

Run a Triathlon Barefoot?

I was totally surprised how far the lake swim exit was to the transition area. 400 yards is a healthy jog especially when you are doing it barefoot with wet soggy sensitive feet. I felt like I was running on gravel and tearing up my feet. It was due to that, I wasn’t sprinting to the bike.

Finally, I enter transition, and I plop down on the hill and pull of my wetsuit. I knew from my experience, that I’d need to sit down to take off my wetsuit. I wasn’t going to have enough room by my bike. My T1 transition was long compared to the norm. I was about 7:00 minutes and the norm is about 4:30 minutes. Part of the issue was I forgot my heart rate strap, and had to go back and get it. I know to practice my transition for next time.

Overall, my swim time was decent. I was right at the pace I wanted. 35:33.

Tune in next time to see how my Bike went.

Part 1:  Expo Day
Part 2:  Transition Set-up
Part 3:  The Swim
Part 4:  The Bike
Part 5:  The Run, if you must call it that.
Part 6:  Post Race.  Will I do a triathlon again?
Part 7:  Race Day Gear Thoughts

Are you That Guy?

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I mentioned to my wife the other night that I didn’t want to live up to a committment. She’s mentioned why don’t you reschedule or cancel.

I replied: “I don’t want to be That Guy.”

Are you That Guy?

Who’s That Guy?


That Guy is someone who says they will show up at 7:00pm, but he always shows up at 8:15pm.

That Guy is someone who raves at lunch about a great book. You ask him about it, and he say he’ll email you the title of the book, but you never receive an email.

That Guy is the person who says: Great to see you. We should connect. I’ll call you, but never does call.

That Guy is the person who says, I’m going to lose weight, but never does.

That Guy is someone on your team who never pulls his or her weight.

That Guy becomes a guy that is all talk and no action.

There is a theme here.

A theme of action with consistency!

If you set goals for yourself and you don’t take any action, You only hurt yourself. If you announce those goals to the world, you hurt yourself and risk becoming That Guy.

I preach Consistent Acition here at Simpleweight often.

All of these recommendations are about consistent action.

In my post about Breaking Bad Habits, I talked how I was going to break out of my rut. I promised to post two days a week, and I posted my workout schedule. Its Tuesday, I have yet to post.

Whew, I just made it. That is done. Yet, without a race, my workout motivation has been lax. I have yet to do  my Tuesday weight workout like I promised.

No Execuses?

My kids woke me up in the early morning, and I feel like I’m in the very early stages of fighting off a cold. Meaning, if I get my rest now, I won’t get a cold. So, when I woke up this morning, I decided to roll over and go back to sleep for a few extra minutes of sleep.

Yet, Making Exercise Immutable means: No Matter what, Exercise Happens. There are no execuses.

Today, I’m in danger of falling down the slippery slope of being That Guy.

What do I have to do tonight? I have to exercise! That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m coming home after working all day and then teaching at night to do a weight workout. I’ll comment  when I’m done exercising.  It’ll be late, but it’ll be done.  I’m not That Guy.

What are you doing to NOT be That Guy?

Sunday Morning: Transition Set-up, Part 2 of 7 for 2010 Triathlon Recap

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Post Triathlon Recap Part 2 of 7. I started writing up a recap of my event, and it kept growing and growing and growing. I decided to break it up. The purpose of the recap is give new people the thoughts and ideas they can use to help them prepare for their own future first endurance event!
Chicago Triathlon Swim Start

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP- Transition Time

Transition set-up is early. When you plan on doing a triathlon, no one really tells you that you have to be up at 3:30am even though your start time might not be until 7:52 or even later (9:36am). That’s right.

You have to wake-up and get your bike, your bike/run gear into the transition area and set-up before they lock the transition area off for the event by 5:45am.

Now thinking back on it, I should have expected this. How can you have people setting up a transition area, when racers are motoring through converting from swim mode to bike mode.

So awake I did.  In fact, it was difficult sleeping.  I could have set-up my transition at 2:00am if they let me.

While I was in transition, I’m looking for a spot. Experts say get to set-up early and try to get a spot near the end of your rail.

I couldn’t find my wave number. Finally, I found it. It was hidden under a tree. Yet, I had a sweet spot as I was near the end of the number.  Near me, around the tree, was open running alley that I could use to get near the fence line between the sprint racers and the international distance racers.

Now, that I’ve done one Triathlon.  One suggestion I do is actually practice your transition about a month before your event. What I mean by that is put out your items on the floor. Then, slowly and methodically go through the process of putting on your socks, shoes, etc.  This will help shorten your transition time and prevent you from forgetting anything.

Forget Anything?

One thing I did forget but remembered as I was a couple of steps from my transition area was my Heart Rate Monitor. Since I always trained with it, I felt like it would be a good idea for me to have during my bike and I stopped went back and grabbed it. Had I prepared and practice my transition more often, I’m sure that would have been avoided. Also, I think I will wear my heart rate monitor during the swim to avoid even having to worry about it during the transition. I was little worried it would be uncomfortable under my wet-suit. I don’t think that will be the case.

During the transition set-up, I walked to the bike-out area. I took mental pictures of me jogging out my bike. I also tried to mentally picture jogging my bike-in to converting from bike mode to run mode. I decided the path I was going to take. I’m glad I did that, because I had no decisions to make during the transition about how I was going to find my bike. I just followed the path. I didn’t do any crazy balloon or tape jobs like some people did. I just looked for my unique striped towel. That was a good idea. Bring a one of kind towel to put on the ground. It will re-assure you when you see it during transition that you’re in the right spot. Also, I walked to the swim-out, run-out transition spots. Again, I took mental pictures of the path I was going to take to find my bike. I went back a couple of times to my bike to make sure no one messed with my spot or squeezed it too much. All was fine.

Finally, I walked from the swim-out to the water exit area.  The idea again was to try to get the lay of the land and prepare myself for the actions I would need to take in just a couple of hours.  I walked the length of the swim. I checked out the water. It looked fine.

Despite the early set-up time, I have to say the whole transition set-up was really fun. I mean can you imagine there are 8,000+ triathletes all doing the same thing as you. Chicago and London duke it out for the title of the largest Triathlon in world. All these triathletes are out there pre-dawn focused on the task at hand. It really is very exciting, and the total energy was enormous. So, even though there are butterflies, I was having fun.

I went back to the swim start area. I wanted to watch the first swimmers off. Then, as I’m standing there waiting. The event announcer asked everyone to rise for the National Anthem.

Whoa, I am at a sporting event. That was a cool surprise to hear the national anthem pre-sunrise with bunches of other competitors and spectators.  I was pretty inspired.

BANG!

The first waves got in the water even before the official sun-rise. There were a few clouds at the horizon that was keeping us shaded for a bit. After about 4 waves of swimmers (16 minutes), the sun decided to peak out from the clouds and the rays of sunlight was a beautiful yet powerful foreshadowing for the rest of the day. I decided to lighten my pre-swim gear bag and to do a pre-race restroom break. I walked about 10 minutes to my hotel room. I wasn’t worried about waking my family. Jen is a light sleeper, and I knew she would be up when I got up. I’m glad I went back, because I’m not sure that my bag would have fit in the swim-gear check bags they were handing out.

Tune in next time to see how my swim went.

Part 1:  Expo Day
Part 2:  Transition Set-up
Part 3:  The Swim
Part 4:  The Bike
Part 5:  The Run, if you must call it that.
Part 6:  Post Race.  Will I do a triathlon again?
Part 7:  Race Day Gear Thoughts

Bad Habit Relapses happen. What do you do about it?

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I think it must be the post race blues or something.  Now that my race is long gone (one week), Bad habits are returning in droves.

Q: How to break the Bad Habit Relapse?

A: Take Action immediately.  The sooner you can re-focus your actions on good habits, the quicker the bad habit will ride into the sunset.  The longer you let a bad habit fester, the more difficult it will be to remove from your vernacular.

In case you need a reminder, last week, I finished a triathlon in 3.5 hours.  Not bad, and I still have so much to say about it.  Yet, my blogging habits have not yet recovered.  Writing is a habit just as eating and exercise.  With any habit, consistency is the key.  I’ve been nothing but an inconsistent blogger this summer.  I’ve been so focused on my own health, my own fitness, and my triathlon, that I’ve put many other projects on the side including this website: simple weight.  Off that side-track!

Return of my Killer Bad Habits

Late Night Sugar Binges

In one night, I had a bowl of ice cream and a half a bag of Twizzlers.  In another night, I had a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids and a half of bag of Twizzlers.  Now, I’m not talking the friendly snack sized items.  I’m talking more the movie sized candy bags.

Sept 6 was the first day I did any exercise since my Triathlon (Aug 29) (I weight lifted for about 20 minutes).  In addition, one thing I noticed especially earlier in the week, my appetite was just out of whack. I wanted to eat anything and and everything I could find.

My work at home productivity has nose-dived.  I guess after one exerts so much effort and so much focus, its only natural to crash a bit.

The key I think is getting back on the bicycle and re-focusing both literally and figuratively.

3 Steps to Break your habits:

  1. Identify the Bad Habit.
    example:  Eating mindlessly late at night.
  2. Describe the Habit in detail and try to look for root cause.
    example:  When do I eat mindlessly at night?  I use Sugar & Carbs to improve work productivity.  What is causing the lack of productivity?  Energy low & lack of mental focus.  Possibly Lack of plans and/or lack of goals.
  3. Take Steps to replace the Bad Habit with Good Habits.
    example:  Return to an immutable exercise schedule.  Find a race to focus on.  Do a better job of identifying projects and categorizing next actions.

How quickly can one get refocused?

I know for me, having a race really helped me focus. In fact, it focused my action so much that: My next-action task is to find my next race.

In the meantime, I’ve created an off-season workout schedule to do some base-building again.

Sunday:  Weights

Monday:  Treadmill, Bike, or Rest Day

Tuesday:  Weights

Wednesday:  Swim

Thursday:  Weights

Friday:  Treadmill, Bike, or Rest Day

Saturday:  Swim.

This week will be a little altered due to the holiday.  I lifted Weights on Monday instead of Sunday.  So, I’m going to have to adjust the week. In addition, I have to build some flexibility into my schedule due to my changing consulting/freelancer work combined with my runner wife‘s crazy work schedule.  Navigating workout times is always fun.

The single most important thing for me though is to jump back in the pool, on the bike, or pound the pavement consistently!

I’m still trying to figure out a writing schedule.  As I said before, just like my exercise needs to be an immutable force in my life, scheduling consistent writing is required.  Subject to change, I’m thinking Tuesday and Thursdays will be my publishing days for now.

How can I help you break your bad habit today?