Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A day in the life of

First, the workout last night. I had a very distracting, distressing afternoon yesterday. The kind of afternoon that makes you want to really get a hard workout in that evening just to correct your stress levels. So I got down and dirty with an early brick last night. 15 miles on the bike, 3 mile run. Mission accomplished, stress relieved. I couldn't decide if I wanted to bike or run yesterday, so I just did both. it was awesome.

I had the resistance cranked up on the bike so my speed was a little slower than normal. I only stopped at 15 miles because I finished the book I was reading and got bored. But I'm trying to ramp the hill work on the bike this week to setup a recovery week next week. I was supposed to do speedwork on the treadmill last night, I think that will be tonight instead. In bike/run bricks I prefer tempo style runs over some kind of drill or speedwork. So I just cranked it up to a 6.9 speed and did my 3 miles. I actually wanted to go 6 miles on the treadmill, but it was cut short thanks to poo. Another perfectly good speedy run cut short by poop. oh well, happens to everyone I guess.

Bill Clinton is a badass, officially. The plane with those 2 journalists just touched down in California, he got those girls free. Still, since it is Bill Clinton, I have to wonder if he used the phrase "bang these two asian chicks on the plane ride home" as a part of the negotiations. Of course, if he did, and it worked, and he did, then his badass status just rose yet another couple of notches. Something tells me Hillary was not on the plane to supervise. And if Bill Clinton just got me out of a 12 year sentence in a North Korean prison, I would be pretty appreciative. That's all I'm saying.

So have you ever wondered how I can work full time, keep the family placated, keep regular triathlon training, and still keep my sanity? I wanted to spell it out for you. You see, every day is exactly the same. It's getting incredibly boring, repetitive, and I'm trying to figure out what to change with this schedule. Remember I work from home, so the wife and kids are always here and my commute is walking down a flight of stairs.

  • 6 am: up and at 'em
  • breakfast: oatmeal, rasins, banana (I love this breakfast, and I eat the same thing every day)
  • 6:30 or 7 am: yoga twice a week
  • sometime between 6:30 and 8 am: Downstairs into the office. Other office people start filtering in around 9 am, so I like to get an early start on work. and by work I mean posting and reading blogs.
  • 10:30 am: morning snack, usually a small bowl of cereal, or eggs, or leftovers
  • I also usually get the Tri Power workouts done in the morning from behind my desk
  • 12:30 pm: shower, get dressed, make lunch. Lunch is usually a lean cuisine and some costco organic animal crackers. I'm addicted to those dang winnie the poo vanilla animal crackers. Sometimes I'll make a turkey sandwich instead of a lean cuisine
  • Back downstairs to the office, eat lunch at the desk while "working"
  • 3:30 pm afternoon snack - I've been cutting this down lately. Sometimes it's leftovers if I'm really hungry, sometimes just a handful of almonds. lately, it's been nothing at all.
  • 6:30 pm: stop working, dinner is weight watchers friendly and on the table.
  • 7:30 pm: get the kids into the bathtub.
  • 8 pm: get the kids in bed
  • 8:30 pm: kids are down, head to the gym. It's too dark at this point in the day to workout outside. plus this time of year it's still too hot outside here.
  • 10:30 pm: get home from gym, evening snack/recovery meal. This is usually a large bowl of cereal
  • 11 pm: finally go to sleep. End of the day is a good thing.

So the typical eat times are 6, 10:30, 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, and 10:30 6 small meals a day, each one 200 - 400 calories. I'm still trying to lose the last bit of belly fat. I finished reading the Jillian Michael's book last night, so this information will be important for the book review coming tomorrow.

Gym time is once a day, late at night. Kelley hits the gym early in the mornings, so I have to stay here with sleeping kids. I need to find a way to work a second workout in sometime during the day. I take monday and friday as rest days, but I end up needing a higher frequency of workouts without doing bricks every day. Maybe I can squeeze some bike time on the trainer in my office before lunch? Gawd that gets boring. Got any ideas?

Happy hump day! Book review coming tomorrow.

11 comments:

Manderz said...

I cant wait to hear your review on the Jillian Michaels book. You dont know how many times I picked it up but never purchased it!

Mel-2nd Chances said...

and your traffic jam is everyone trying to use a washroom all at once :) Since I work at home too, my schedule has a lot of similarities... whatever works, right?

carrie said...

Good! I love book reviews.

And...it hasn't been six weeks since I ran...just six weeks since the marathon. It's been three weeks since I ran. I'm bad, bad, bad. BUT...I went again today. Two days in a row. Woo!

Wes said...

Bill Clinton is a badass

Bill Clinton just gave baby-Kim all the childish attention he's been craving. Now every rogue childish nation will be kidnapping American citizens.

So have you ever wondered how I can work full time, keep the family placated, keep regular triathlon training, and still keep my sanity?

Just damn... I thought you were going to say alcohol :-)

Having an organized structure helps keep a hectic life bearable. Throw in a couple of kids and ehhhh? LOL...

Great brick bro! Keep up the good work.

Alisa said...

Wow, your schedule is busy. However, you're lucky you have a commute time of 2 minutes or less. My commute is relatively short compared to most so I can't complain. I wish I could sneak away for mid-afternoon workout sessions, some people do.

Since you can't workout in the morning since Kelley does, I think mid-day might be a good option.

Also, this is lame sounding but I'm in bed by 9:30...can't believe you can workout so late and get decent sleep.

joyRuN said...

Get on your bike trainer during your conference calls. Just don't forget to mute the phone so they don't hear all your heavy panting.

I hear you though. With the kids & work, you just have to squeeze it in where you can. My gym has babysitting, fortunately - that helps.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

Got nothin' for ya. Looks like a pretty full schedule.

Good job on the workouts, though. It's always hard to find time

teacherwoman said...

Nice job on the bike ride and run. Isn't it amazing what a good workout can do for the stress level? I am starting to get stressed here with the end of summer school and am thinking about hitting up a spin class this evening. I know it will make me feel better.

LOL about Bill Clinton. You crack me up.

Lovin' the share of the schedule. As long as it works for you, why change it? How's the 6 small meals a day treating you? I find it hard to get 6 in, but I am always ill-preprared and away from the house for a lot of the day. Is the 6 small meals helping with weight loss? I assume it is. But, you know what they say about "assuming".

Jess said...

Loved the whole Bill Clinton paragraph! Very funny.

RockStarTri said...

CJohn,

Thanks for helping keep the balance between focusing on the training world and the real world. I'm still laughing about "Bill Clinton is a badass" and it made me laugh all through my six miler this morning.

Rock on.

Unknown said...

Lol at the Bill Clinton stuff:)
I wish that we could be more scheduled and regimented, but Rich and I work different schedules from each other and each of our schedules varies week to week. There is really no way for us to have any consistency in when we get up/eat/work out/go to bed which gets frustrating.