End of Feb. You Tired of my Cardio posts yet?

So its the end of the Lazyman Triathlon as Feb. comes to a close. I managed to drastically slow things down after the first two weeks where I accomplished all initial goals. I still enjoy doing all three workouts, but on a much lower intensity. I am just going to swim to swim and get my form, running's focus is on longer distances as I only do a max of 5 or 6 miles at a time, and biking...well all I really need is to maintain time on the saddle. Here are my lazyman numbers:

Running: 52.4 miles
Swimming: 3 miles
Biking: 145 miles

Mile Marker 100

So counting from Jan 1, 2011, I have logged 100 miles in running form. That is just under 2 miles a day (52 days). I am feeling pretty good about it in part because I compare myself to Alex and his body doesn't seem to like running very much :)
I plan to keep going, I just wish I could amp up my biking and swimming as easily in the winter months...well, swimming doesn't come easily in any month, but whatever.

Bar Raised. Now to keep it there...

So it took me 15 days to accomplish the lazyman triathlon put on by my air force base. My goal was two weeks and it took a day longer than I wanted, but since it was my first time doing it, and I have been out of a swimming pool for two years, I still considered it an accomplishment. Now that I have found my swimming muscles again, all I need to do is maintain all three. Maintaining all three over the span of almost five months will be tricky. It feels good to have some sort of motivation. My motivation was an official event. Hopefully I can keep my motivation alive without that.

Raising the bar

So this is just a quick blog post for all the followers from Sarah's side who plan on doing the triathlon at the cabin. I haven't committed to it yet as I have yet to see or hear about the route, but just in case I sign up, I am being fair and letting you all know I am training for it. I am working up to doing an ironman distance in 6 days, doing each event 4 times in a week. After that, I am going to see how quick I can whittle my times down before July. I thought that if I raise the bar, then maybe it'll be competitive, rather than me blowing you all out of the water...literally...meaning before the first leg is over, you may as well quit. :)

Growing old is not for sissies

Shift working isn't for sissies either. I hear shift work disorder is common among space operators who work different shifts, couple that with a slight apnea problem I have and the occasional restless legs syndrome and you have problems... as I am typing this at 5 a.m. after getting home from work at 11:30, finding myself with a speeding train in my head and legs and toes that are twitching and aching to walk around.
That is another thing, the anxiety or whatever that makes your mind run faster than normal and can't relax. I have been having less and less of those occasions, but they obviously still exist as it is blocking my ability to drift away.
I ran 52 miles in January while biking 130. That isn't very much biking for how warm January was, but I have never run that much in one month. For the first two days in February I ran 5 miles each day. I thought that if I can get some stress relieved physically, I may sleep better. Overall I think it is helping, but it doesn't seem to be a cure all or a simple solution. I went to webmd.com and took a sleep survey. I don't seem to be critically deprived nor do I have an obvious problem, but it did mention things I didn't know. Apparently alcohol is a good way to get sleepier initially, as well as help relax the muscles, yet it dehydrates your body and can cause you to wake up early and not go back to sleep as alcohol interrupts the different sleep stages.

Anyway, one good thing of having a steady day job I guess. They say I may be getting one of those soon. I am looking forward to that aspect of it anyway.
I have had random dreams of dad the past year or so. Two nights ago I dreamed I was helping him re-roof his house. It was weird. I have been missing him lately as well. Sometimes I imagine going back in time at certain times because I think I would do some things differently. I am fooling myself to think I could change things enough to where he would grow old with mom and enjoy his grandkids more, but sometimes I think we all willingly fool ourselves to keep a bit of bliss in ignorance, whether it harms us or not, one of those aspects of being human.