Week 2: And the bass keeps runnin' runnin' and runnin' runnin'

I'm not really running, but this song is stuck in my head...

Last week finished out pretty good.  I got in another swim and a 30 minute bike ride.  Not to mention the strength and endurance test that is adult league softball!!  ( I joke about the softball, but I'm the catcher, and I can't throw very well, so I have to stand up to throw to ball back to the pitcher.  In order to execute this 4 point movement I have to 1. Catch the ball.  2. Stand up from a squatted position. 3. Throw the ball back to the pitcher.  4. Squat back down.  My team also is currently working on winning more than 2 games a season, which allows me the opportunity to stand and squat about 150 times a night.  This makes my legs sore so that when I wake up Friday morning and it hurts to get out of bed and I get to feel like less of a man.  Awesome!!!)

This morning I got the kids to daycare on time and in turn got to the pool on time.  It was somewhat crowded but I was able to get the same lane I've had every time I've been swimming.  The swim felt pretty good and I was able to do 8 laps more than I could do last Monday.  I did find out from my wife Ann that I've been doing the breast stroke wrong, so I'll be taking a swim lesson via youtube.com later on today.  

One thing that is hurting my swim is my stupid beard.  When I turn my head up to breath, the bread retains water and drains it into my mouth at the exact same time I'm gasping for my next breath.  I have synchronized it perfectly!!  Why not just shave you say.  Well friend, there is an event that I attend annually.  An event I am a founding member of.  An event SO legendary, that pictures can not do it justice.  It must be attended to truly know its real power.  This event my friends in the 4th Annual Mustache Invitational.  A day when a group of gentlemen get together, dress in an agreed upon fashion, dawn their finest lip sweater and drink all of the beer in Virginia.  (Here is a link to some pics of us at a bar we went to last year for MI:3 the theme was old school basketball )   So what is the reason I can't shave the beard?  Have you ever seen someone trying to grow just a mustache?  It looks AWFUL!!! So I grow a beard, then the day of the Invitational, shave all but the mustache and I'm good to go!  The event is Sat. Nov. 13th.  I can't wait to swim the following Monday morning with a smooth face and no built in water into mouth drainage system.

40-30-20-10

Some fun facts about me: I don't like to read, it like a chore to me, and I am awesome at procrastinating.  Remember when The Da Vinci Code book came out and everyone was reading it?  Not me, I joke that I would wait until the movie came out, but then the movie actually came out.  I never saw it either.  And as far as procrastinating goes, I once at an alter ego "superhero" i made up named Tomorrow Man.  As in, the lawn needs to be mowed, but wait, "This sounds like a job for Tomorrow Man!"

But I have now combined my two dislikes to work against me.  If I need to do something, lets say, just a random example, start a weight training program to help get me in shape in time for next spring, I will then read ohh 30 or so articles on what I should be doing, thus procrastinating from ever starting the program.  Man, I am tricky.

So in my what could be my never ending search for the perfect routine, I have read about sport specific training.  How certain exercises will help better for tri specific activities.  After reading for over an hour I decided that doing anything would be better than sitting at the computer reading.  I got up and did a very basic crossfit workout: Squats, push ups and sit ups, 4 rounds, 40-30-20-10.  I was difficult for me.  At one point in my life I was pretty awesome at squats.  Not so much anymore but I'm still ok at them.  I am not ok at push ups and sit ups.  Or as my business coach would have me say, "I'm currently working to improve my push ups and sit ups." (Positive mental attitude!!  What you think about comes about! ) Nearly all of them were modified.  But I finished and it felt like a small victory to be done.  I have the rest of the day ahead of me and I will make it a great one!!  Onward!

Captains Log: Day 1

Failure to plan is planning to fail!!  Well lucky for me my wife Ann is the most organized person I know.  She does a great job keeping me in check because I'm one of the most unorganized people I know.  But not even she could help with day one of training.

Let's take a step back real quick.  Let me introduce myself, afterall it might be weird to read about a total stranger.  My name is Sam Hardman, i'm a Realtor in Northern Virginia where I grew up.  I have a wonderful family, my wife Ann, and 2 boys, Sammy and Mason.  I'm a bigger fella and when my second son Mason was born I decided it was time to get in shape.  I started a diet and weighed in at a svelte 300lbs. (not my finest moment)  Just through diet I was able to drop 60 lbs and there I've sat for about a year.  I wanted to start working out and I had alway wanted to finish a triathlon.  So i did.  I finished my first sprint tri in June of 2010, and not even in last place.  It was awesome!!  So awesome that i signed up for another one in October 2010.  The problem was that I hardly worked out at all between the two races, and it showed.  My tri in Oct was hard for me.  I was embarrassed.  So now, I will use that feeling to fuel me through this off season, and I will be more than ready next spring.  Today was the first day of training and I chose to swim, it's what i struggle with the most.

Knowing that I would be swimming this morning, Ann had me pack last night so I would be good to go.  My boys typically wake up at 6:30 or so.  We get ready and I take them to daycare at 8:00.  I would be to the pool and in the water by 8:15, out changed at to work by 9:30.  Perfect!!

What happened was the boys slept until 7:30, I forgot that I had taken their car seats out of my car, so those had to be put back in.  I had to put dinner in the crock pot and make breakfast for me and the boys.  I dropped them of at daycare a full HOUR late.  Not cool, that's a real rookie move.

I got the the pool, or apparently the senior center soaking spot as it should be called, at 9:15.  When I got to the locker room, I was the youngest on there by at lease 30 years.  I saw a man in the shower, curtain open mind you, with a cane.  Those guys love being naked!!  Zero sence of urgency to cover anything up...none.  Just loose skin moving about here and there.  Anyway, I got in the pool swam my laps, taking breaks frequently, while the 80 year old woman next to me just kept going.  I have work to do!!!  At least my bag was all packed the night before right?  Wrong...  I forgot underwear!!!  I am a 31 year old man who forgot to pack underwear!!!  I think I actually heard one of my naked locker room buddies mumble something about it as I put on my pants commando style.  So now, here I sit, at the office, typing away, free ballin...but at least day 1 is done.  Let's see what day 2 brings??