workout log - week 2

Just finished up the second week of my training season. I must say, although I am kinda freaking out a little bit about it being this warm in January, and I'm pretty bummed cuz all of the snow is melting, it is absolutely PERFECT riding weather! I just got finished with this 50 mile beauty:

richmond to the hills 3

This was my first time on a long ride with my bike set up in the tri position (seat in the forward position with aero bars). Two obvious conclusions:

1. Cruising speed is significantly higher! Riding >22mph in the flats was a breeze! I can feel how fast the air is flowing past me, but it's just not holding me back!
2. Long rides are a lot tougher on the neck/back/shoulders. In that position, you are resting a lot of weight on your upper body, and you are more crouched, so it's not quite as comfy on the neck especially.

So far, I haven't QUITE been keeping up with the training plan, but I am getting closer. Started taking spin classes at the Berkeley Y, and swimming there as well. It's tough to fit it in with my commute though. Going to the Y means getting off at the Berkeley station on my way home, riding up to the gym, and either finishing a workout in less than an hour in order to make it back for the next train, OR doing an extra super long workout and catching the late train home. I think what's going to happen is a combination of the two. Take the late train two days a week, do a short workout two days a week, and one day off. Doable!

I've been keeping track of my calories, too, and I've been doing pretty good for the most part (other than the Korean BBQ last night). Calorie intake has been pretty consistent at about 2700. I've dropped 3 or 4 pounds since New Years, and down to 15% body fat (behind my target so far).

Time to rest!

New Years Resolutions - time to get specific!

Body

1. Complete Vineman 70.3 (July 19) in under 5:30, or Top 50 in my age group (about the same time according to last years race results). Pretty ambitious. Wish me luck.
2. Get down to 150 lbs. I started New Years at 165 lbs. Lowest I've been was last yr at the end of my bike tour (154 lbs.). I think I can do lower. Specifically, I'm aiming for a pound every two weeks, and hopefully levelling off around 150.
3. Get down to 10% body fat. Started New Year at 17%. Long ways to go! This one might be pretty tough for me to accomplish. Will involve changing my eating habits.
4. Complete a Double Century. Havent yet decided when. Training for Vineman is going to take priority until July. If I feel good enough, I might try and knock this one out in May or June. Otherwise I will wait until later in the year.
5. I've pretty much cut all fast food except for In N Out, but even that I want to try to reduce as much as possible. Only after a long workout! Same goes for sweets (ahem...brownies!)

Mind

1. Make something cool out of carbon fiber (thinking about DIY aero bars...looking for ideas! maybe something simple like an iPod case).
2. Weld something!! What? Who knows! Maybe a bike frame? Something!
3. Work on the electronics skills - make something with the Arduino! (still trying to figure out a project....ideas? think lights, sensors, motors, music, actuators...)
4. Motorcycle project! I've got an old Honda CB750 sitting in Vallejo. First idea was to convert it to electric...now that we're living in Richmond, though, I may reconsider since they tend to have a pretty limited range. Maybe just fix it up?
5. Pass the PE exam in October (time to become a true professional!)

Soul

1. Travel somewhere I've never been (ideally tropical!).
2. Spend more time with friends and fam.
3. Keep a tidier apartment!

Hello New Year!

Hi there, it's been a while.

Brief life update:

1. I did end up going back to my old company. I'm now a Manufacturing Engineer II working on a project to move our main product line to Costa Rica. The project is scheduled to go through September of this year, and should involve a couple of trips to Costa Rica. In the meantime, I am trying to transfer over to a better position in the Process Development department, and I'm told they want me for the job. Fingers crossed.
2. I no longer own a car. I was in an accident a couple of months ago, on my birthday no less, and decided to sell the car rather than pay the 5000 it was going to cost to get it fixed. I now commute daily via Amtrak and bicycle. It was a hassle at first, but I am getting used to it. In fact, I am blogging via the train on my way to work right now.
3. My resolutions are mostly fitness related this year. I've decided to up the ante a bit and signed up for the Vineman 70.3, which is a half-ironman. So far I've got Stanton and my coworker Chris on board to do the race as well. I want to approach my fitness this year from an engineering standpoint, so I have started a training plan/journal with specific goals in mind. I will record as much data as possible from my workouts as well as my nutrition. Additionally, I am trying to do an assessment every morning of my weight, body fat %, resting HR, sleep quantity/quality, fatigue, soreness, and stress. Ideally this will serve a double purpose. It will be a motivation tool, as I will be forced to log each time I cave and eat at in n out or skip a workout. It will also be a way for me to track my progress in fitness, and see what works/doesn't work for me. I'm pretty excited about it.

OK, gonna cut it short because my stop is coming up! Will try to blog more though :P

christmas lights + slow shutter speed + 7yr old = fun!

Wait, I thought CHENEY (not McCain) was the penguin!

Oh man, the similarities are kinda creepy in a way...

Change I Can Believe In

I finally took my can of change down to the grocery store to change it out with CoinStar.

I was very surprised to find there was $120 in there! Wow!

I turned it into an Amazon gift card, so that CoinStar wouldn't take their 9%!!

But now I don't know what to buy! Books? Maybe I should just save it until holiday season.

either way. Lesson learned. Don't underestimate your change!

Review - Google Chrome (Beta)

I've been using Google Chrome for the last few weeks, since they announced their Beta launch.

For the most part, it's not bad. But I have definitely noticed a few issues here and there that i thought I would point out.

Pros: 

• Very clean look. 
• Lots more screen space for page viewing
• No "File, Edit, etc" control bar on top, which is a nice change of pace for PC users.
  
• The search bar in the top is very powerful. It searches through your bookmarks and history pages, as well as performing a google search to try and predict what you are looking for. Very handy, especially in the case where you have a million unorganized favorites and you want to find one.
• You can easily create desktop shortcuts for your favorites, or any site you wish. I haven't used this feature, but I can see how it might be handy for someone who loves to have everything on their Desktop.

Cons:

• While it has been stable for the most part, there are still a few bugs to work out. Ironically, the most bugs I have noticed with this browser have been with Google services, such as Google maps, calendar, iGoogle, etc. You would think that they would have those issues under control!
• I originally thoght that Chrome would be less resource intensive than Firefox. I was very surprised when I checked my processes one day and saw how much Chrome was hogging my resources. Each open tab in Chrome opens another instance of the program, and for some reason, there were more instances of Chrome showing than there were tabs open. I did a comparison with Firefoz by opening the same 5 websites in both program and comparing the memory allocated to each program. I had 5 pages open, and my task manager showed 7 instances open for chrome. The memory comparison is 256M for chrome, compared to 200M for Firefox.:

• So far, you can import favorites from another browser, but you can't export them! This is a big bummer for me...I imported my favorites from Firefox, organized them, and have been adding to them regularly. Now, I want to switch back to Firefox, but I have all of these new favorites that I can't transfer over! Boo!!!!
  

Anyways, in summary, Chrome is very aesthetically pleasing and has some neat features, and I am sure it will continue to improve, but as far as the Beta goes, Firefox is still much better in my book!