Posts Tagged ‘tampa

22
Feb
12

Flipturns

By Feerlessfood 3 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have a new outlook.  It came from my coach this week.  We were on our way to a ride in Ocala (more on this later…) after swimming and I was beginning to think I might bail on the ride.  I was planning to go to a hockey game that night and didn’t want to be late, and, of course, by going home, I could make sure I had comfortable foods to eat and just ride where I knew I would get a good workout.

Felipe was in the car in front of me and I called him to discuss this and he really let me have it- brutal honesty in the most beneficial way it can come.  And it plays to so many factors in my life.  He basically said “I’m trying to help you, but you keep finding ways out of it and being sketch.” This was true.  He brought up the example of doing flipturns in the pool.  Right now, I don’t (didn’t) do them because while I can do it, I’m not great at it and don’t like it and stick with my comfortable “quick-touch and go” method.  But, he has told me many times to do exclusively flipturns.  If I don’t start, how will I ever learn to do them or really break my fear of them?  I never will.

Then he said something that sort of blew my mind—“it’s better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing wrong.”

How true!  This is so relevant to anything in my life—unless you buy in and bite off that piece of success, how do you expect to get better?  Instead of knowing there is a problem and then looking for excuses of how to get out of it, why not proactively face them and discuss them with someone who can help?  Instead of hiding my fear of flipturns, Felipe told me tell him!  Say, “Felipe, I’m not good at flipturns and they scare me—how can we work together to overcome this problem?”

Face your problems head on—don’t run from them—get comfortable with being uncomfortable.  That’s how you get better, in love, life, sport, or anything—it plays true everywhere.

And well, speaking of Ocala and our ride there… let’s say it was quite and adventure ; ) …

Ocala is the HITS half Ironman course that we will be racing in March.  The goal was to ride the course and do a time trial on the back end.  I ended up going ahead of the friends I was with and just thought, duh, I’ll right turns at every dead end and then make all the left turns coming home.  Problem with this logic is that you have to remember where those left turns are, since they aren’t dead ends on the way back!  So after 23 miles, knowing I had to be back for the hockey game, I turned around and began heading back to the car.  It’s funny how one wrong turn can ruin a ride…

Another 25 miles later and I was totally lost.  Turns out I had looped back and was almost back (unknowingly) to the place where I had turned around.  Since no one wanted to stop and help me on the road, I wound up at a gun range with a bunch of “country folk”… after some bargaining and figuring out where the F my car was (about 18 miles in the other direction) I finally convinced a “feller” there to drive me back for $15.

When I got back to the car I found Jess and Felipe waiting, very worried, and also learned that the police helicopter that had been circling the park was actually looking for me…  Ha, we then called the sheriff and let him know to call off the search and then he came and made sure I was in fact alright.  Well, my adventure wasn’t yet over as I had to go back to the gun range and get my bike. Then just head south and drive straight back to Tampa right? Wrong- try being on the long split of the highway and heading halfway to Orlando… LONGEST DAY EVER!

When I wasn’t being lost the ride felt great—I felt strong and fast and even though I haven’t been riding a ton, this was really promising!  My speed was good and my heart rate seemed like it was a solid spot. Just got to up the mileage a little bit now.

So take those lessons this week—it’s better to do the right thing wrong, than to do the wrong thing wrong. And then, what Felipe thought may possibly be my last words to him—“real men eat the banana peel.”

So do flipturns and eat the peel.  Words to live by.

  1. How was your weekend?
  2. Send any sports/training/nutrition questions you have–we are recording the next podcast this weekend with hopefully a pro triathlete!
  3. Anything fun going on this week?
25
Jan
12

Are you at 110%?

By Feerlessfood 10 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life has many components—the main ones being family, friends, health, career, God, and your passions.  To me, the goal of life to be actively giving all of these the attention and time they need.  If you do that, then you are living your life to the fullest, at 100% percent of your potential.

I’ll be honest, I’m not.  I’d give myself 80%, at best. Whose fault is that?  Mine.  This post is not meant to be negative be any means, but rather a kick in the butt to me and anyone else who needs a little inspiration to get out and do more—to feel more alive!  Here’s where I’m struggling: Balance. Here was last week in numbers:

Swim: 10,050 yards

Bike: 8+ hours

Run: About 33 miles (missed one run)

Fun with friends: 0

Church: 0

Work: Plenty

Sleep: Not nearly enough!

Here’s an example of my lame weekend—go to bed way too late, wake up, train, eat, go back to bed for a nap, train, eat, go to bed way too late.  Repeat on Sunday.  Let’s see, were friends mentioned in there? Was going out and doing something fun mentioned?  (And no, my trip to Whole Foods doesn’t count).

Granted, I’ve had a hard time making a lot of new friends here in Tampa and that has been frustrating (if you live here, get at me!), but in the same vein, my attempts at making friends haven’t been overly abundant.  This is probably because I prioritize working out on my weekends, which is FINE to do, but only if I don’t go back to bed after!  As for family, I had a great time when they visited last week, but I definitely bailed out of a lunch my mom had planned so that I could go eat food I was comfortable with and then take a nap before I worked out in the afternoon.

This grinch was seriously a punk ass, no lie

Sob story right?  Na, this is my pledge, my vow to get my life to 110%!  Why not 100%?  Because that’s where I could be, but I want to reach above that, go beyond that—I want to find a way to not only improve my life, but improve the environment I am in.  To make other people happier, more successful, and help them reach their goals.  The best part about this is the reward it brings me and motivation to stay committed to my goals.  This also means volunteering and going to church—I spend a lot of time praying, but that’s not the same as taking the time to give God the time he deserves.

 

So what’s my plan to make this happen?

Action plan for 1/23 – 1/30:

  • Go to bed earlier.  Seriously, by 1 every night for this week
  • No wasting time drawing dinner out
  • Workout in the morning both days this weekend
    • Thus, due to going to bed earlier and working out in the morning…
  • Do at least 1 fun thing this weekend during the afternoon or night
    • There is a huge Gaspirilla Festival this weekend… which has something to with pirates—apparently it’s a big deal
  • Dominate my workouts
    • This includes eating right and including recovery after the workouts.

 

So Keep me honest!  We’ll review next week!

Last thing is that I’m going to be starting a podcast with a friend of mine, Max.  This is going to legit—we will be discussing health, nutrition, training, and interviewing some really cool (and famous) people.  We’ll also be answering any questions you have, so if you start to develop some, let me know and we’ll answer them each week!  Look for the first show to come out later this week where Max and I introduce ourselves a bit and discuss the purpose of the show!

Oh, and check out these awesome meatloaves I made- let me know if you want the recipe.

Peppers, onions, grass-fed beef and more!

And check out this article! Does the guy in the picture look familiar?

  1. What is one thing you will change for a better this week?
  2. How much do you sleep every night?
28
Jun
11

Touch and Go

By Feerlessfood 12 Comments
Categories: Bars, breakfast, Dinners, Eating disorders/ recovery, Eggs, fitness, Nutrition, Races, Side dishes and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve officially been in Florida for over a full week now!  The longest I’ve been in one place for the past month.  That being said, I am flying to Nashville tomorrow for work for a few days and come back on Saturday. Anyone live in Nashville and want to meet up Friday night?  Or can recommend any fun things to do?  I’ve been having some fun here in Tampa too this first week and hopefully this weekend will be checking out a place called “Boing”—a huge warehouse filled with trampolines!

I’m also finally getting a race schedule put together: it’s looking like-

  • July 10th: Moss Park Triathlon Festival—Olympic (might do the Sprint on Saturday too?)
  • July 23rd: Siesta Key Beach triathlon—Olympic
  • August 21st: Fall Triathlon Festival—Olympic
  • September 11th: The Nations Tri (in DC)—Olympic
  • September 18th: Mango Olympic Triathlon (MAYBE)
  • September 25th: Ironman 70.3 Augusta
  • October 1st: Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon
  • October 9th: South Carolina Half Rev—Half Ironman (Probably)
  • October 15th: Men’s Health Urbanthlon Chicago
  • November 5th: ITU Long Course Worlds (Las Vegas)
  • Anyone up for a December marathon?  Somewhere warm!

Wow, that list is a lot longer than I thought!  Granted these are all tentative, especially back to back ones.  But I needed to get them all written down.

Training has been in spurts… it kind of goes like: 2 days of epic workouts followed by painful day of training as the previous 2 catch up with me ha.  This will get better once I can finally get settled any find people to ride and train with.  I did put in 40+ miles running this past week as well as some specific bike workouts and a little bit of swimming.  I’ve been hitting the pool in my apartment building (which is maybe like 23 meters?) for quick, short hard swims before work.  My office also has a “gym” so I’ve gotten in a few lifting sessions at lunch.

Oh!  And guess what—I actually ran IN THE MORNING one day last week and will have to do it again before my flight tomorrow morning.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about nutrition lately and a lot of research.  The “speech” function of my Mac is amazing and allows me to get through a lot more information since it reads it to me (#awesome) (yes, I just used a Twitter hashtag).  I’ve been researching the paleo diet a lot lately, and while I don’t think I will do it, I’ve been finding incredible information of the importance of eating fats—real fats like grass-fed red meat, egg yolks, butter, full fat dairy (cheese, milk, yogurt), and healthy oils such as olive oil and coconut oil.

This being said, I don’t know that a “diet” is the answer, but rather a cleaner way of living is the best option.  I don’t want to limit myself to giving up entirely certain foods—I’ve been there and don’t want to start rekindling any of my eating disorder behaviors; I still deal with enough of those as it is and it makes life hard enough.

If there are any nutrition topics you want to know more about or would like to see me write some post about, let me know and I will!   Send me any questions as well… and just leave a comment and let me know you’re here!

Katelyn Tweeted an article the other day about schools banning flavored milk in schools.  I have mixed opinions on this.  On one hand, yes its good, decrease the added sugars and unnecessary calories these kids are consuming.  However, by flavoring milk, nothing is being taken AWAY from the milk—all the vitamins, proteins, and minerals are all still there.  But by taking away the milk, won’t kids just be more likely to bring in soda or Gatorade and just find replacements for the milk?  Why not stop serving corn dogs and French fries first before taking away the milk?

What are your thoughts?

And finally, for some fun, here are just a bunch of random pictures from the past couple weeks!

Another attempt at overnight oats

Sign in the stairwell at my office.. really? Like I didn't know there were 9 floors that came before the 10th?

My new parking spot. Worst. Spot. Ever.

Delicious coconut vanilla oatmeal bar

Avocado yogurt cream sauce... sooo good!

Chocolate banana Coffee Honeymilk overnight oats!

Mmmm eggs with mushrooms, onions, and plenty of crushed red peppers (like I said, trying to eat more whole eggs)

 

I had some leftover broccoli and chicken from dinner so I threw it in a bowl and added some eggs and baked it for lunch

The 2 oddest shaped foods I've ever bought... the cashier laughed at me. The little one is a Jimaca? Not good

Thanks for reading guys and I hope you weeks are off to great starts!  This blog is going to get revamped pretty soon so look for some really big changes!

  1. Best thing you ate or thing you did this week?
  2. Thoughts on flavored milk in schools?  And nutrition or triathlon questions you have for me?
  3. Let me know you’re reading!
15
Jun
11

The Intimidator

By Feerlessfood 11 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m in Tampa!

Crossing into Gator Country

Actually, that’s a lie, I’m back in Virginia Beach right now till Saturday wrapping up previous job and then I’m back to Tampa to start the new one on Monday!  The past week was full of driving and moving- Cincinnati to DC, DC to Norfolk/Virginia Beach, Norfolk to Tampa! With some fun time driving around North Carolina at 2 in the morning trying to find a hotel.  But I made it alive, and my stuff finally arrived yesterday so everything is in the apartment.  Maybe sometime in the next 6 months I’ll actually unpack everything… anyone want to come interior decorate for me??

The unpacked new pad!

After spending 1 night in my apartment, I woke up the next morning and head to Clermont Florida to race the Florida Challenge Half Ironman Triathlon!  This race had like 3 names and was also called the Intimidator!  Going into it you can imagine my expectations- it’s Florida right?  It should be flat and the only hazards should be some Gators right?  Not so.

Number 82 baby!

The race was Sunday and even though I’m used to racing, I woke up what seemed like every hour in the hotel.  Finally I got up and grabbed my breakfast (love the Coffee HoneyMilk pre-race for my first caffeine jolt) and headed to the course.  I think there were about 250-300 racers but I don’t actually know for sure.

Transition area

The race began at 7:30 and it was already too hot.  It was a lake swim and the water was gorgeous! I’ve found I like swimming with out a wet suit better and also spent a lot of time warming my shoulders up so they wouldn’t tighten up like they have in the past.  I tried my best to keep on the heels of another swimmer right off the bat and was actually able to do until I think I passed them.  After that, while I was clearly in the bottom 1/3 of the pack, I felt much better than in the water than I have in a long time.    I Tweeted a couple guys before the race and Ben Greenfieldtold me, “Go balls out, you’ll forget about it 5 minutes into the bike.”  So true for you triathletes out there. Honestly, you use such different muscles swimming that except for energy exertion, the bike is so different.  So I did this, and while my time was still way slower than I’d like, I took 6 minutes off my time from Wildflower. Coming out the water, I misjudged the depth, and while doing a dolphin move used in shallower water, scraped my chest up… I had to laugh at myself.  Transition went smoothly enough, although it was but wasn’t very fast.  I leapt on the bike and started locking it down.  The first few miles felt great!  I was cruising in aero, the roads were smooth, and it was in a wind protected area..  Plus, I was adamant to catch 2 guys in font of me who were literally riding side by side… But then I found out they weren’t in the race.  As I aforementioned this course was NOT a flat course.  The first half was relatively smooth with some rollers that kept it fun and mild wind.  I was averaging around 20-21mph at this point I would say, but in the second half, we made Sugarloaf Mountain and the rest of the hills.  This was no Wildflower, but they were substantial hills.  The hardest part was trying to eat amidst constantly getting in and out of aero and the saddle to tackle the hills. These hills took my pace down a fair bit and the heat didn’t help, and I wound up finishing the bike in 3:01:30, at an 18.5 mph pace.  Had I kept my first half pace, I would have been around 2:45, just to put it in perspective- gotta do more hill work!

Hotttttt

I came into T2 and had a quick transition till it came to my shoes- first time transitioning in my new Nike Lunar Elites and I had my zip laces to tight, making the shoes hard to get on.  It was still not too bad though.  But at this point it was 96 degrees easily.  The run course was 2 loops of an out and back- the 10k course twice- plus an additional .7 miles at the beginning.  The first half was flat, but the second had a couple rolling hills.  My pace started at about 6:38, but after about 3 miles, as hard a pushed, it gradually fluctuated a bit higher and higher.  This really bothered me as I know I have really been cranking on my run work lately.  I also realized at nearly the end of the run that my feet were totally soaked from a combination of sweat and water.  As much water as there was on the course, you can never get enough when trying to maintain a fast split.  I could have probably done with eating more than I did too. If you have any questions about how I fuel during my races, let me know! There were 4 guys that I really wanted to mow down on this run and I got them all.  2 were one age group below me, but were decked out in their K-Swiss gear, and while they were good, I wanted to be better.  Another was a really skinny guy also looking like he was wearing sponsored gear so I wanted to rep my new team of Apex Endurance and beat all 3 of these guys.  Finally, was a guy in my age group who looked really strong. My final time on the run was a 1:34:20, (excepting Wildflower) the slowest half I’ve ever ran at a pace of 7:12 min/mil.  However, as smoked as I felt from this, I can to find out this was the 3rd fast run split on the day! The heat was brutal, and I’ve never been so happy to see the finish line!  My final time on the day was a 5:25:23. At first, I was pretty upset by this, as my PR is a 4:54.  However, I came realize that the winner only did like a 4:50:00 and the whole entire field of racers was slow due to hills and heat.  Thus, when I found out that I took 2nd in my age group and 15th overall, I was actually pretty happy!

My results

When it comes down to it, I have a lot of chance to improve: to put this in perspective, I was in 74th place coming out of the water, 53 coming off the bike, and finished 15th overall.  If I can step up that swim and bike … : )  My run was 3rd fastest on the day which made me feel better about it even though it was way slower than I wanted.  I did, however, prove to myself that I can push through a lot of pain for a long time and I’m really looking forward to racing again.

Winner Mug- although the distances are wrong on it , ha!

For you triathletes out there, Heather Gollnick (5-time Ironman champion) but it looks like she bailed before the run… I beat her bike time though : ).  I didn’t get to talk to her but it was cool to see her. Overall I am now more pleased with the results than I was previously. I can’t wait to get back to Tampa and really start my training again!  If you’re from that area, I am definitely looking to meet people/training partners so let me know! Thank guys- remember to follow me on Twitter @Chuckfeeerick and ask any nutrition/fitness questions to me via this blog or through Twitter, or by emailing me at chuckfeerick@gmail.com!

  1. What was the highlight of your weekend?
  2. What positive affirmation do you have to share?
17
Apr
11

Spin, stride, stroke, stretch… and my big announcement

By Feerlessfood 9 Comments
Categories: breads, Eating disorders/ recovery, Motivation, Recipe, Side dishes, Vegetables/ Vegetarian and Workouts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A couple great days can make up for a rough week.  This past week I took way more days off than I had planned…1 because I needed to, but the rest we a failure in willpower undisciplined poor justification.  Getting more sleep would have combatted this, but that goes back to the last of discipline. It’s funny how I can be so disciplined in some aspects of my life and so not in others.

Live it up

But anyways, Saturday and Sunday made up for this week!  Saturday I had a great workout:  It started with a 9.5 mile run worth of a hard intervals in 1:02:00 that went like this:

15 minute increasing speed warm up

6 minutes at 6:15 pace (9.6 mph)

1 minute recovery at 8.5 mph

5 minutes

4 minutes- 2 min at 6:15, 2 min at 6:10

3 minutes

3 minutes

Finish out rest of time as fast as possible

After this was 30 minutes elliptical intervals, 30 minute bike intervals, and a 2050m swim. Phew!

I was afraid I’d be too sore, but today, after 4 hours sleep (go figure) I met some buddies at hit up a long ride.  A few more miles would have been nice, but some of the guys wanted to make it to the Reds game. The wind was WICKED out today! This provided some great resistance and speed work though.  After the ride, I went straight into a run.  Wow- that wind was brutal; literally it almost knocked me over a few times.  The worst part was I finished :01 over the goal pace I wanted… Running with the wind I was hitting 6:20 pace miles easy, but against it I was at like 7:40. Came out to a 7:00 min/mile pace overall.  Damnit lol.  Finally, after burpees and push ups in the middle of the street, I shot over to the pool and banged out an awesome workout there.  Done and done!  Here’s what today’s brick looked like:

50 mile ride

7.5 mile run

2,600m swim

STRETCH

While the run off the bike was hard, it made me feel good about where I am with my training.  Going to crank it up big time this week and a half then prep for Wildflower!

I also realized that I can do what I put my mind to… and it is NOT dependent on my eating disordered compulsive tendencies.  These will seem really weird, but way to often they rule my life. To me, unless I do specific things, my workouts or my body won’t be right the next day. For example:

  • Chopping my vegetables up a certain number of times
  • Taking a specific number of steps
  • Stretching and foam rolling in an exact order
  • Saying my prayers in an exact way every night
  • Eating my food beginning in an exact order
  • Wearing certain clothes- or if I skip a workout while wearing certain workout clothes, not wearing that combo again

But wait, let’s get rational: how can IN ANY WAY the order I foam roll and the specific number of times have any effect on how I will look the next day and whether or not I will work out? IT CAN’T!  That’s ridiculous and impossible.  I know this, yet its still a battle everyday.  However, this weekend is putting me in the right direction: that crap doesn’t matter- be real, live each day differently, and live life without worry.  My dad gave me an amazing talk the other night and left me with a crazy quote:

“Anxiety is just another form of atheism”

That hit me deep.  What is there to worry about when God has a plan for us?  Quit arguing it and live the way he has planned for us.  That is my goal this week- to live anxiety free and embrace God’s plan every day. I hope you can too.

—————————-

In the tough week that was this past week, I did get the chance to spend some time with friends. Thursday was a gorgeous day, and I literally just wanted to embrace life and friends.  There was a free concert at the zoo, and I literally got off the treadmill and decided I needed to be outside with people who were fun. Here were some shots of the fun lol.

The band

Tigers! Day got instantly better at this point

What? This is cool, right...?

I made an awesome new recipe last night- avocado potato puree!  I mixed 1 baked potato, 1/2 avocado, 2 tbsp almond milk, 1 Laughing cow, and seasonings.  Put these all in the Magic Bullet and whipped into a delicious, creamy, thick puree!

Blendin

I would have taken a picture, but it looked a little gross so I thought I’d spare you even though it tasted amazing haha.  Tonight, after a long day, I wanted pizza. It tried at first to make my own crust, but it came out too small for me.  However, it made like an awesome flatbread, so I’m going to make a sandwich out of it tomorrow:

The versatile flatbread

And now, my big announcement:

I’M MOVING TO TAMPA!!

Permanently! (For a little while anyways)  As I’ve mentioned before, I am in a Leadership Development Program in my company and for the past 2 years I’ve been rotating to a different department every 6 months.  Hence, why I am currently in Cincinnati working for 6 months.  I spent the previous 18 months in Virginia Beach.  Well, as the program comes to a close, I have been offered a permanent position and promotion working in Tampa!  I can’t wait- and talk about a great triathlon opportunity!  That being said, I LOVE Cincinnati and am very glad that I still have a few months here.

That’s all guys

  1. Have you done anything this week that totally made up for something that wasn’t as good earlier in the week–like an amazing meal or experience?
  2. Try and put your life in God’s hands this week and truly live his will and plan!

FoodBuzz


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