Training update - Swimming

Well I have a feeling that my blog is going to have a slight shift over the next month or so as I discuss the various things I am doing to train for my event in april. Just to refresh everyones memory its a 400m swim a 13 mile bike and 3 mile run. I feel pretty comfortable in both the bike and run seperatly but its when you put them together that things start to get hairy. Also the only thing I have done over the winter is lift and run so I am a little nervous about my muscles getting re-acclimated to the bike. And then their is the swim.

If you have ever watched pro-swimers you might for the briefest moment think. WOW maybe we are designed to spend some time in the water. Then again if you look at people like me and the rest of the world who dont fall into that 1% of the populace you would have this re-action. Oh my what is that hurt sick or dying thing doing thrashing around in the water. Well thats how I feel most of the time with the swim leg and I feel its my weakest area. However I am going to try and change that this time. How you might ask. Here are my primary workout goals

1. Spend a lot of time in the pool. At least 2 pool workouts a week till the tri.

2. Get back on the bike! I want to try and do some 20 milers before the race.

3. DO some brick workouts probably on my saturdays. (a brick workout is when you ride hard on the bike and then transition to a run just like in the race. Why is it called a brick workout??? b/c when you get off the bike and start running it feels like people are throwing bricks at you. ^_^ )

SO in the start of my training today with a good 5 weeks to go I decided to try and see just how much endurance I still have with swimming since I have not been in the water for like a year. Well I did a warm-up 100 and then I decided to just go for it and see if I could do a 400. Well I did it. I was not fast by any stretch but I did it and I still had energy left over which is how I wanted to feel. I then took a minute to catch my breath and did a cool down 100. this will probably be my workout this week then next week I will go to a 100 - 500 -100 then the following week I will do a 200 - 400 - 200 then the week after that 200 - 500 - 200 and after that I will have to see how I am doing. At that point I might stick with the distance and try to increase speed. or I might jump to a 200 - 600 - 200 b/c if I can swim that for like 2 weeks and feel pretty good then the 400 swim in the race should be like a cake walk which is what I want.

I think my end goal is going to be to come in under 1 hour 20 min. Heres how im breaking down my times

16 min in pool. ( i think this can come waaaay down)
40 min for the bike (this is going to depend on me and the course)
26 for the run. Now I know what you are thinking and yes I know if I add all those up its greater than 1 hours 20 min. Its actually 1:22:00 but I am hopefull that I can shave time off the swim and the bike. Their was a time I could do 10 miles in around 24 min on the bike and their was a time I could run a 5k in 18:00 pretty easily so I am hopefull that I can shave some time. I do not think I will be in any real "competitive" area in terms of finishing but you never know. Most people in my age group are healthy and dont have a bum leg but I have a lot of experiance and I know how to run properly and I know how to bike so who knows. Can we say cinderalla story????

Now I have to give a shout out to my sponsors!

My wife lisa for always believing in me and not telling me that I am too old for this type of thing or that it costs too much money. And also for not laughing at me when I get my race clothes!!!

Sterling Clay for letting me borrow of whole mess of goggles from him that are defecting in one way or the other and no longer good enough for him. However I have finnaly found goggles that dont leak for me which is like WAAAAHHHHHH so awesome. Now if I can just find a replacement strap

Bike nashbar for not being a very successfull mail order company and having lots of old stuff that was exactly what I wanted on closeout b/c most other people have moved on. I seriously ordered three things from them today and no other mail order or online companies had any of it at there prices so I LOVE YOU BIKE NASHBAR!!!!!!

My wife lisa for letting me pursue my dream of the ironman and again not telling me im too old or too fat or whatever and being supportive.

Stay tuned for my next update "The first transition -- making my bike work the way its supposed too."

Cheers!

The downside of Funk

I think I am starting to feel the effects of the winter weather as it seems to not be able to make up its mind over if it should be warm (oh please please please stay warm) or if it should be frigidly cold. At least this winter was not as bad as last year and I think I shoveled my driveway maybe 2xs so thats not that bad. Im just totally ready for things to be warm again. I need this badly. Top 10 Reasons I strive for warmth:

1.) Possible beach vacation with my sweetie this year! If I ever get enough vacation time that is.

2.) Races are much more fun when its warm then when you are cold. Man I hope april is not cold

3.) Riding a motorcycle is more fun when its warm than when its cold

4.) I just enjoy being outside in general but not when its cold.

5.) I have a great pair of sandals that are just cyring out to me from my closet

6.) My tan is really fading and needs to be re-charged!

7.) Winter coats are bulky and just get in the way whenever you go some where

8.) My dogs are really really shaggy and need a haircut but If we get them one now they will freeze

9.) I want to get blizzards from dairy queen and not freeze to death while eating them

10.) and lastly Warm weather is the bomb bizzle.

SO there ya have it I think I have made a pretty good argument as to why it should instantly turn warm and no longer be cold. Oh well guess Im going to be waiting at least a few more weeks till we get a consistant warmup and hey think of me on april 8th as I jump out of the pool at around 8:15 am and hop on a bike soaking wet in what will probably be 40 degree weather!!!

Cheers!

My new laptop!!!!

Well as promised I took a couple of pics of my new laptop and well I put a 360 controller with a couple of them for size reference. Just to clarify its an Averatec 1000 series laptop with a 10.6" widescreen and it weighs a scant 3.5 lbs with battery.

So there ya have it. And yes I did name it Chiyo chan and it rocks and I have to say I think it looks sweet next to the 360 controller. Well thats it for now. Oh yeah I signed up for a sprint triathlon in april. SO I now have some motivation to start training a little harder and to get some time in the pool. The distances are 400m swim -- 22 KM bike -- 5 KM run. Im really excited about it as im starting to not feel as weak as I have been in the past. Although my right leg is still much weaker than the left I am doing what I can to strengthen that and I can tell its making a difference.

Cheers!

I got it!!!!I

Well it took a bit of time and a little convincing but I got my new laptop and am actually blogging wirelessly on it right this second. So this is my first wireless entry and my first entry from my new laptop. Pictures are coming maybe by tommorow I hope. Other big news is that my ipod is at this point officially dead. I have run several of the diagnostics and it passes most everything however occasionally the hard drive test fails and I get basically a fatal read error. SO it looks like the drive in it is toast and I am thinking now that perhaps the flash based mini and nano's are a better way to go then the hard drive based units as hard drives dont really like to be moved while they are spinning. well dinner calls but hey if anyone wants to get me a black ipod nano i wouldnt turn it down ^_^

cheers!!

And Friday makes 15

yes not only was friday the 1st anniversary of my blog it was also the day that I was involved in my 15th yes thats a big one followed by a big fat five -- 15th car accident. And in the spirit of me and my life it had to be something unusual. SO as I was sitting at a red light In my (still brand new to me hyundai tucson) I was rear ended by a guy who just was not paying attention. He has totally jacked up my bumber and now I have to take my car to get repaired. Now you might be thinking hmm doesnt sound that bad. Well as I was pulling off the road to get things like insurance info and check damage the guy who hit me RAN. yes thats right he fled the scene. SO there I was all alone with a jacked up bumber waiting for the cops. SO that totally blew and I would write more but I need to restart my computer again b/c my ipod is totally not working. Do you hear that payton. this is at least the 3rd time that I have had to search through forums and look through stuff b/c my ipod just forgot what it was supposed to do as in it lost all my music and then no longer would sync with my pc. SO thats what I am doing now. Trying to resurect my ipod again.

Cheers!

1st Birthday Evuh!!!

Thats right peoples today my blog is officially 1 year old! I cant believe I started this over a year ago and that I still regularly post to it and that my posts are probably longer than most people care to read! WOOT for me! SO thanks to everyone who stops by and reads and thanks also to all those who leave comments as they are always appreciated and help justify my poor existance in this thing we call INTERNET.

Ok so heres my funny thought of the day and it really shows the difference between being support and being an end user.

If you are an end user calling support you pray you dont get voicemail

If you are support calling an end user you pray you get their voicemail

Seriously im not joking. Most of the times I do callbacks I just sit and hope that they dont pick up the phone. SO anyway just a little something to think about.

Cheers and thanks again for reading!!!!

My shout out to RP missions

Ok I got a question from Payton over what RP missions is and so I thought I would give a quick shout out to all my homies over in BEAVER FALLS!!!! yeah thats right theys be kickin it ollllll skool doing mission work the way its meant to be, overseas and out of yo comfort zone but with established churches so yo work aint in vain yo.

Ok more seriously RP missions is really awesome and proof that through God one person can make a dramatic difference and impact a large number of people. Matt Filbert is the head of RP missions and he does in a part time setting what most missionary organizations have a whole staff and buildings to accomplish. The amazing thing about this is that it totally keeps the cost of trips down since very little if any administrative costs are built into what you have to fundraise which is generally unheard of.

SO whats my connection to this whole thing?? Well lisa and I went on our first trip to scotland in 98. then we had a weee hiatus and came back with a vengeance to lead a team to Norhtern Ireland in 2002 and then we went to japan for matt in 2003. Also since 2001 we have been opening our house up as a geograpically neutral venue for the annual RP missions team leader training. Which is used as a way to help prepare people who might lead trips the following summer and answer any questions they might have.

SO in a nutshell thats RP missions.

Cheers!

Yeah im here so keep your nick knacks on!

Ok yeah so I know I have not posted in a little bit, but im still not as bad as some people (coughlukecoughdennycough) so there. Well what has been up with me. Well a lot actually this past weekend we opened our house to what is now becoming an annual event which is The RP missions team leader training weekend. This is the 5th year that Lisa and I have opened our house up for this event and this was by far the largest turnout that we have had yet. At one point in time we had I think 22 people in our house and 18-19 spent the night on friday and saturday night. SO needless to say their were sleeping bags everywhere!!! It was a really good time and again Lisa and I are always Glad when the Lord give us the opportunity to use our house for him. Aside from preparing for that and getting the house ready for that we have also been preparing for the newest resident in the Knodel house and she arrived yesterday evening. Thats right Lisa's sister sara moved in with us last night and will be living with us for an undetermined amount of time. Were really excited to have here at home and pray that its a great experiance for her. Ok so thats life stuff what else. Oh yeah I have a request in for a new laptop!!! I have talked to a couple of people about it and until it gets the final approval im going to hold off on posting that much about it but I think it will be uber kewl and I have already come up with what I will name it if I get it -- Chiyo Chan -- SO if that works out then I will finnaly name my pc and give it the name of -- Sakaki San -- If you dont know what the significance of either of those names are I will give two clues. One they are from the same thing. two use google. Ok so hopefully I will get the approval on that and get to order it soon as my laptop is essentially worthless at the moment. what else is up oh yeah Saw the official Silent Hill Trailer the other day and WOW it looks like its capturing the spirit of the game in a great way so I am even more excited about april!!!!!! Oh and I was searching around the net some and found out they are also in pre-production for a fatal frame movie!!! Someone is paying attention! But for some reason us movie makers dont want to use Japanese actors for japanese roles. Think memoirs of a geisha which as I am reading had a mostly chinese cast and little japanese representation. Which is really dumb and reminds me of the old westerns where the indians were often whiter then the cowboys. Anyway guess I will end on a game update since I have not done one in awhile

Xbox 360
Still working on kameo (2 hours) and Perfect dark(2 hours) when I get time. I think we have played more hexic than either one of those games. I just need more time!!!

Xbox
DOA3 and DOAU are taking up my time here but I have not touched either in a month

PS2
Xenosaga 2 owns me right now and Lisa and I are playing that to death. However its good but no where near the caliber of the first one. I really hope they go back to some of the earlier mechanics for the 3rd and final game in the series - clocked time 35 hours

PSx
still kinda fiddling with FFIX when I get the time however I just picked up Chrono Cross (brand new mind you) and so I think after xenosaga im going to try to get lisa interested in that one so that I can play through it in a shorter period of time then say a year.

GBA
made a huge breakthrough in Legend of Zelda and now I feel really dumb. Also somebody coughstevencoughdennycough has still never let me borrow one of a thousand pokemon games that he has. SO someday I might play one of them as well.

Ok so there ya go that was a pretty long post that summed up everything thats pretty much going on with me. SO hope everyone is doing well and I will post again this week I promise.

Cheers!