Back in the Water and Off the Wagon (Temporarily)

Well, I didn't win the Fat Cyclist Raffle (I really didn't expect to win)and to add to this downer the next session of my triathlon swim class started bright and early this morning. I had not been in the water since Vikingman a couple of weeks ago. During one part of the workout he had us all swim ten 50's at a 1:05 pace. Uh...that hurt a little more than it should have. I was way too out of breath. Plus, there were three newbies in the class that showed up. All women and two of the three look like they are at least as fast as I am if not faster. Yeah, that sucks--still not in the top half of the class. Both of them have more tri's under them than I do, too, so I guess I shouldn't complain.


Now please excuse me while I obsess and continue my whiny weight talk for the remainder of the post.


Melinda, a friend of the wife and I, travelled to Utah to visit family. She raced in a sprint triathlon and came in 2nd out of 14 in her age group and in the top ten for women overall. And she rides on a crappy--or at least decidedly average--Tirreno road bike from a couple years ago. She doesn't have any aerobars or wheels or any other technological advantages that I employ. Yeah, and she still smoked the most the field. She ran a great run too. She is pretty thin and like it or not the more I get into tri's the more I realise that where I lose out more than any other reason is because I weigh more than most. The more you weigh the more effort it takes to run fast. She ran pretty fast despite having a running style that looks like Forrest Gump before the corrective braces took effect.

Weight does not seem to matter nearly as much on the bike. I can power past most of the flyweight weenies out there--or at least hang with them. After all, triathlons don't go into hilly areas and that is where I would start to drop versus a lighter rider who was equally fit because of my power to weight ratio. But the run...the run is where I just get thrashed. I really need to drop to around 180lbs. Getting there is going to suck. My weight has been stuck for a few days in the upper 190's, I need to keep the goal in mind when I am tempted (and then cave) to eat vile blue cheese bacon hamburgers fresh from the bar-b-q, fresh strawberries on pound cake with whip cream and other horribly tasty treats (yeah, that was last night). I have a valid excuse--Bridget's sister and her husband were in town from Virginia and so I had to join in, right? Dang, it is going to be a lot of self denial involved here to get down to my goal.