Random Gym Thoughts

I love watching the numbers on the treadmill tick up . . . distance, time, calories, etc. So, I was watching the calories numbers count up this evening and I was thinking about the total number of calories burned over the course of a day in the gym. Here's what I got:

average number of people/hour: 400
average workout length: 1 hour
average caloric rate: 600 cal/hr

So, using those estimates, I get that the total number of calories burned over the course of a day is 5,760,000! Given that there are 3,500 calories/lb, I estimate that 1,645 lbs are lost in one day. That's equivalent to the body weight of 9 people (approx 180 lb) people!!!

So, as I was thinking this through, I was wondering about the total number of calories consumed in one day in the cafe at the gym. Wondering if the net weight of the people at the gym is increasing or decreasing over time. Seriously, this is what I think about while I run.

I'm starting to feel fast again in the pool. Its so frustrating to remember how it used to feel to swim fast and just not feel the same. I used to feel like I had four or five "gears" that I could swim in. Just tell me the pace that I was supposed to be on, and that was it, I could pace it perfectly. Now, I'm struggling to hold sets that used to be SO easy. Frustrating, but the more I work at it, the better I'm feeling. I think that this is my hangup about swimming, why its so hard for me to get in the pool - I remember how it used to feel, compare that to how I feel now and get upset that I'm not as fast as I used to be. But, I'm working on celebrating the little things. The little thing for me today was getting complimented on my flip turns.

I'm back on nights for the weekend, then (hopefully!) done with working crazy hours for the time being. Then, its off to Amsterdam and France for 12 days (doing my happy dance!)! The original plan involved skiing, not so much hope in that now. The Alps have been unseasonably warm this year and there's no snow. Oh well, I'll take my hard-earned time off.

Today's workout:

SWIM
200 warmup
5x100 @ 1:40 (hold 1:25)
50 active rest
5x100 @ 1:30 (hold 1:22)
100 active rest
4x50 @ 1:05 (25 easy, 25 sprint, IM order)
100 cool down

RUN
3.7 miles
30 minutes
alternate 2 min @ 7 mph, 2 min @ 8 mph

Happy Thanksgiving!

Staying in the spirit of the holiday, here's my list of things that I'm thankful for:

-Having enough family to get two invites for Thanksgiving dinner.
-Time off from work to relax and celebrate.
-Getting to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner.

-Ryan - who is incredible and loving and wonderful.

-My health.
-A job that (for the most part) makes me happy.
-My go-fast bike.
-Ginger and garlic.
-Good wine and good friends.
-The Alps.
-Plans for an action-packed summer.
-Lake Michigan.
-John Irving.
-Not being in Peru over the holidays (sorry Alyssa).
-An extended family that's growing.
-The rabbit in my backyard.
-Having a goofy sense of humor.
-Darren Aronofsky.
-Law & Order.
-Clinton & Stacy.
-Michigan football.
-A willing-to-try-anything-once attitude.

I feel bad that this list is all I could come up with, but I have a long list of things to accomplish on my day off and blogging is just one of them.

Tri Clubs

This past running season work had a running club, and at the end of the season the running club had a big get together to celebrate. I didn't run in the club because they required you to run six races. With all of the bike racing I did last season, I didn't have enough weekends to do six races. But, Ryan did do the club and took me with him to the party at the end of the season. I love this group of math nerds. Being one myself, it was really addictive talking to them about how to improve the scoring for next season.

First off, individuals were divided into teams. Each racer ran six races and were scored based on the PLP (performance level percentage). The concept (so cool!) of the PLP is that each racer is competing against the world-record for their age. Your PLP for a race tells you the percentage of the fastest time for your age and distance. OK, science lesson over . . . on to the real point of explaining this.

Hopefully, we're going to start a triathlon club for work! We think that we have about 5-10 people that would be interested in doing a couple of tris. The math geek in me is so excited by trying to figure out how to score the tri club. This is complicated by the fact that most people in the club will do both individual and relay tris.

So, I'm thinking to score by doing a PLP-type number for each leg of the tri. Meaning, take the world-record for a race and break it into each leg so that the swim, bike and run can all be scored separately. Completing it individually should get a finisher some bonus points. We're thinking its bad form to penalize people - more carrot, less stick. Should we add bonus points for some of the longer races?

My other thoughts on this is that we should be rewarding people for podium finishes. I think part of the "healthy living" is encouraging healthy activities in the community. Meaning, buy running shoes from the local store so that they can keep supporting the local races. So, I think it would be cool to reward people for finishing in the top of their age groups at local races.

And, on a training note, I finally have a training log! Thank you Ryan! I have been wanting one for a long time, because I would love to be able to track my weekly mileage and see how well I'm doing relative to my training plan.

2007 Race Calendar

I finally came up with my 2007 goals. The biggest challenge for 2007 will be completing my first half-ironman. I'd also like to go sub-2:30 at the Chicago Triathlon (Olympic). Training objectives include holding a 21 mph average on the bikes at the big races and improving run speed to 7:00 min/mile.

So, onto the races:

March 25 - Shamrock Shuffle 5-mile race (Chicago, IL)
May 27 - Mad City Half-Marathon (Madison, WI)
June 9 - Liberty Half-Ironman (Independence, MN)
August 4 - Steelhead Half-Ironman (St. Joe's, MI)
August 26 - Chicago Olympic Triathlon (Chicago, IL)
mid-September - Fever River Adventure Tri (Galena, IL)

So far I'm only registered for the Chicago Tri. Liberty HIM and Shamrock Shuffle registration opens on January 1. No info yet on Steelhead or Galena.

The training plan is a work in progress. I have the rough outline of what I need to be doing each week, now I just need to translate that into daily workouts. I have never really done much running speedwork, so that's proving to be a challenge. I have enough biking and swimming workouts, but I can't figure out how to make the treadmill work with speed/hill workouts. I'm trying to get that ironed out this weekend.