It's a fun time of year!!!!!  March Madness Baby!!!!!

Each year at work, I get 2 personal days (vacation days) to do with what I want.  For the past 5 years I save both days for this time of year.  For one, it is a good time to take a Spring break.  Another, more important reason, is I get to watch the opening rounds of the March Madness college basketball tournament.  It is a good way to spend a few days, which only could be topped by spending this time of year in Vegas watching all the games in a sports book, which is where I will be next year.  So far, my only big mistake has been taking Wisconsin into the sweet 16, they lost in the opening round.
Taking a day off from work also gives me the chance to take my time and get a good workout in.  A few days ago, I checked out a book from the library about endurance training.  I finally got a twitter account a few months ago, and began following Mens Health and Crossfit accounts.  On twitter, I came across a book: Power, Speed, Endurance: A Skill Based Approach to Endurance Training by Brian Mackenzie.  After reading part of the book, I have again changed up my workout plan.  Before reading the book, I was trying to log as many miles as possible in the pool, on the bike, and on the road running.  However, now I am going to do 4 to 5 days of crossfit, mostly doing the workout of the day on crossfit.com, and add interval training in the pool, bike, and running, with one day a week of a long swim, run, or on the bike.  Today I did my first official crossfit day.  The workout of the day was to do the following:

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
150 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups

 Let me just say that this was the hardest workout I have done in a long while, and I did not even get through it all in 12 minutes, I was only able to do the 150 wall ball shots and 90 double unders and I was spent.  After that, I got in the pool and did interval swims.  I did 2 minute swims at a medium to fast pace 4 different times.  Then I spent the rest of my time swimming working on my form.  After reading the book I mentioned earlier, I realized I have horrible swimming form.  Just about everything about my form is incorrect.  Trying to change form is like trying to learn to swim all over again.  Good thing I have time to make adjustments.

After taking 2 days off due to a very sore back, legs, groin, and various other parts, I was back at it today.  I was hoping to ride my bike outside, but due to rain showers, I went to the YMCA and rode the bike and ran on a treadmill.  I ended up riding for 10.1 miles (42 minutes), and ran for 3.2 miles (30 minutes).  One thing I am noticing more is that my armpits are chaffing more as my workouts are getting longer.  We were watching the finale of Biggest Loser that we recorded from yesterday, and my t-shirt was rubbing my chaffed area to the point I had to go shirtless.  I am going to have to address this problem.  I might have to lube up my armpit with vaseline.  After showering up and adding deodorant, the deodorant brings tears to my eyes if it comes into contact with the irritated area.  If you have ways to address this problem of mine, please let me know.

Yesterday was Hastings annual Whoopers and Hoopers basketball tournament.  Teams from all over come to play 5 on 5 basketball.  I got a call on Wednesday to join a team, and I agreed to play even through I have not shot a basketball for about a month now.  Our first game was at 9 am, so I woke up early to eat breakfast and have enough time to drink my coffee and have the food settle.  However, when I woke up, my lower back hurt.  Every now and again, my back hurts, not a muscle hurt, more of a pinched nerve hurt.  So before the game, I sat in the hot tub, and stretched it the best I could.  I survived the game (we lost), then had 4 hours before our next game began.  The down time gave my back enough time to start tightening up, and was pretty sore come time for the second game.  As my luck would have it, it was a very rough game, and I ended up on the court a few times.  I also survived the second game and then retired to the couch for the rest of the day.
Last night while I was sleeping, I woke up each time I moved due to my back hurting.  I think I slept on it wrong again, or maybe yesterday's activities are settling in, because my entire back now hurts, and it is painful to move.  In addition, my left knee is also acting up, so I am gimping around whenever I move.  I do believe it is time to take a few days off to recover.

Since purchasing the road bike last week, I have significantly changed my workouts.  I have added much more cardio to my workout and drastically cut the weights.  I found a workout plan that I started following to train for the triathlon:  http://www.amateurendurance.com/training-programs/article/half-ironman-training-16-wk/.  Now I do cardio 4 to 5 days per week, and weights for 1 day a week.  My cardio workouts are also much longer, an hour to 1 1/2 hour.  Today, I rode 13.2 miles (about 49 minutes), and then ran 3 miles (25 minutes).  It will take some getting used to transitioning from the biking portion of the race to the running.  My legs felt like dead weight when I began running after the bike, but they worked themselves out after about 1 mile.  A weird thing that I have noticed, after a extended cardio workout, I find that I cough a lot.  I don't know if I am cleaning out my lungs, or developing new air sacs within my lungs.

"Sorry kids, there will be no Christmas this coming year."  When they asked why, I had to tell them that dad spent all of next years Christmas money on 2 new bikes for his mom and dad.  We were in Omaha on Wednesday and stopped by the Trek store in Papillion, and walked away with 2 bikes and accessories.  It was a very nice store, with nice bikes.  After test riding a few, you sure do get what you paid for, and it would be easy to splurge.  In the end, we both ended up getting a nice middle of the road bike.  I did end up spending about 3x more that I had planned on spending for bike.  I did end up getting a 3 year warranty, not being familiar with bikes, I figured it would be a good idea in case I cause any type of damage unintentionally.  Since getting my bike on Wednesday, I have been on 2 rides.  The 1st ride, I rode the course of the minitri that is coming up in May through the YMCA.  That ride ended up taking me 49 minutes, 13.2 miles.  Today, I got out before the rain and snow hit and rode out to the Regional Center and out to Idlewilde and back, which was a total of 9.8 miles.  The wind was brutal on my way out, but very nice on the way back.  My legs are not too tired after riding the two days, but my core is a little sore.  I don't know if the pedaling is working my core in a new way, of if something else made it sore.  I also got a nice gadget that tracks mileage, speed, and time that is mounted on the handle bars.  I also got the nice tights to go with it.  So if you see me riding by on a nice day, keep that in mind before you start checking me out.

                                                                      My Bike.

                                                           Terri's bike.

                                                   My little computer that tells me how many miles I crank out.

Holy nipples Batman!!!!!!!!
Yesterday (Tuesday) I started training for the triathlon (which I am 95% committed to, I just need to register).  I rode the bike for 30 minutes and then ran for 30 minutes.  I rode my bike which is set up on rollers in my basement.  It is in the same room as my furnace, so it gets pretty hot in the room.  By the time I finished my 30 minutes, I was sweating bullets.  I then got dressed in clothes to run outside (keeping the same shirt on).  I then ran for 30 minutes, which was 4 miles in category 1 hurricane winds (18 mph).  When I got home, my nipples were raw.  Even a full day later, they are still a bit on the tender side.  I sweat so much, my shirt becomes soaked, when then rubs on my man nips.  I need to remember to lube up with Vaseline or put band-aids over my man boobs.  Other than sore calves (I haven't ran on concrete much lately) I was still in decent shape at the end, so I think I am off to a good start.

Like Ben mentioned we have decided to do the YMCA's sprint triathlon. I have been swimming and let me tell ya, there is a lot more to swimming that one would think. You have to have your breathing down, you have to have your kick figured out, get your hips in line etc... Luckily enough I have a friend who is awesome at swimming and she gave me some pointers. She told me to help aid in my breathing to use flippers and that will help you to not only have time to get your breathing situated but to also help with finding where your hips need to be and to aid with kicking.
I put the flippers on and man how I glided like a sea creature. It allowed me to kick more slowly to help give me time to adjust my breathing, however, using the flippers for the first time on my second pool length the flippers began to feel heavy. She also told me to kick from the hips not from the knees, like people naturally tend to do. With the flippers on they also help you keep your legs a bit stiffer. It takes some getting use to them but they do help a lot and they let you know where things need to be when you don't wear them. My swimming has improved a lot with that advice. I still struggle with breathing but all in do time. I try to get to the pool on the mornings that I do yoga and I try and go on Sunday's as well. What is going to be hard is to adjust to perhaps sharing a lane during the triathlon.
On an other note, Ben found this great article from Men's Health talking about the power of high intensity interval training. The article showcased a workout that Ben described in a few posts back. We did it together and then did sprints and I was sore in the same place Ben was (on that upper hip area). While doing the sprints (which by the way I have not done since I was in high school) I was humbled by the fact that my 8 year old son was a tad faster than me. Needless to say I awoke the hibernation slumber my fast twitch muscles were in and they reacted the same as if you awoke a bear from it's hibernation as well.
I loved that work out and I returned to it yesterday. I began the circuits and during my second round while doing mountain climbers my left groin just gave out I couldn't continue with the mountain climbers. I pulled my groin muscle and my God how that hurt!! You could say it's my first "injury" I attribute the injury to my lack of stretching. Once I finished my workout the stiffness quickly began to sink in. It hurt to adjust my leg in the car on the way home, just barely lifting it up killed. It was a good thing that the next day was my yoga day. I took the morning off of swimming and went straight to yoga. Yoga seemed to do the trick. It's much better now. I am going to take tomorrow off from exercise and give it just a little bit more rest before I hit the pool on Thursday.

We are still in need of donations.  Please donate here:  https://register.toughmudder.com/fundraising/donate.aspx?event=13403&fundraiser=r7473298

This is what you are donating for:

Quick update.  After swimming yesterday, I also did a quick workout with Terri where we did interval stations and the ended by doing 30 second sprints (4 total) with 2 minute rest between sprints.  I did not think much of it at the time, because I took most of it easy except for the sprints.  However, as Saturday afternoon rolled in, and all day today, the very top of my thigh (level with my hip) is very, very, very sore.  I have tried to stretch it all day today, but it is the strangest place to have a sore muscle. 
I did make it to the Y today.  Rode the exercise bike for 4 miles, ran 3 miles and lifted weights (biceps and triceps).  I felt fine once I was all finished.  But it is amazing how it sets in once you hit the couch.  The longer I am planted on the couch, the more difficult it becomes to move.

This past week, I have been thinking long and hard about entering a half triathlon.  70.3 miles of pure bliss.  Lately I have been thinking about places I would like to visit and things I would like to do in the coming years.  Maybe it is a midlife crisis of sort, but I am forming a bucket list.  Items that are included in it so far include:  guided 6 days Grand Canyon rafting trip with www.raftarizon.com, visit the skywalk over the grand canyon, ski and snowboard a few times a year, visit national parks in various states, go to a Duke basketball home game, complete a half triathlon, maybe a full, and most of all visit more places.  As you can see, my list is in the infancy state, just getting started.  I started thinking about the triathlon for two reasons.  Reason 1:  signing up and completing a tri would give me opportunities to visit places I otherwise would not visit, and 2:  I am getting older and better get started before the aches and pains get worse.  Since Terri and I have signed up for Tough Mudder in middle of June (PS: donations are still needed) I was targeting the middle of august as a date.  After looking into it, most triathlons are early summer and early spring, not many in late July and August because of the heat I recon.  However, there is one in Boulder, Co the 1st or 2nd week of August.  Since I started entertaining this idea, I have also looked into road bikes, this will be a sizable financial commitment. I actually entertained the idea of starting with a good old fashion Walmart bike and then up grading, but after thinking about this more, nothing good would come from that.  So on Wednesday, Jake has a Dr. appointment in Omaha, and we might hit a few stores before coming back. 
As far as training goes, I am trying to get in the pool once a week.  I swam yesterday for 25 laps (27 minutes), I think 33 laps is 1 mile.  I hope to get 1 mile next time I hit the water.  Other than that, cardio and weights continue.  I am trying to figure out how to fit crossfit exercises into my workout.  It is hard to make a change and get the old fashion weightlifting out of my workout.  I am taking baby steps.