There Is A Buzz At The Gym

Last night I was all ready to fix my popped tube, so I got the tire and tube off the bike, looked at the rip in the tube (quite impressive - over two inches long!). I also noticed that part of the tire looked a little bit questionable. The wire edge of the tire was exposed meaning that the rubber had sort-of blown off around the edge of the tire. I wasn't quite sure what that would mean. So, I put a new tube on and put the tire back on the wheel. I pumped up the tube and Drew happened to notice that there was a bulge on the tire. I googled this problem and saw that it can sometimes be fixed by deflating the tube and sort of trying to move everything around. When I was doing that, I realized that the tire damage was worse than I initially thought and that a new tire would be required. At least, that's what I think in my very limited opinion. I've brought my tire to work with me today so that after work I can head over to Toga to see what they think (I'm not sure if there is a way to repair this or if it's just time for a new tire). I really can't believe my luck!

Although, I guess I don't have the worst luck in the world ... yesterday while I was swimming I was sort-of wishing that I had a heart rate monitor so that I could see how hard I was working since sometimes when I'm swimming on my own I know that I don't push myself as hard as I could. I mentioned that to Drew and he said that he had never returned the heart rate monitor he had bought for himself on E-Bay (it turned out that it was a women's instead of a men's) and that if I wanted to try it out, I certainly could. So, last night, I tried out this Polar F6 heart rate monitor and worked on setting it all up. Drew made us do 10 push-ups as a test to see if it was working or not. It definitely was. My heart rate went from 80 to 100+.

Because of my busted bike tire, I was unable to go to the Terrier brick this morning. I had thought it would be raining so it wouldn't be too much of a loss, but of course, the morning was just fine. Drew woke up really early this morning and left for the gym before 6 AM. I had set my alarm for 6, but didn't get up until about 6:20. I really didn't want to get out of bed, but then I remembered that I could test out this heart rate monitor some more, so off to the gym I went. Of course, I had been planning on doing a brick, so I had my tri shorts and Terrier tri top with me, which was a little bit of a funny outfit for the gym, but there wasn't too much I could do about that.

I met Drew at the gym and did some strength stuff in the "boy area" with him. Right after I got there, we bumped into Drew's trainer, Billy. Billy was training another girl this morning and the four of us chatted for a minute. The girl said told me congratulations on training for an Ironman and I told her that I was pretty sure that congratulations weren't in order quite yet as I haven't decided one way or another yet. She then told me that there is a buzz going around the gym about me and the Ironman training. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I'm going to take it as a good thing.

This was the workout I did with Drew:

Bench Press:
10 reps at 45 pounds
8 reps at 55 pounds
7 reps at 55 pounds

Incline Bench Press:
8 reps at 45 pounds
8 reps at 55 pounds
8 reps at 55 pounds (but Drew helped me with the last two)

Chest Flys:
12 reps at 40 pounds
2 sets of 12 reps at 50 pounds

Skull Crushers:
3 sets of 10 reps at 35 pounds

When we were done with those exercises, Drew was ready to head home and I said that I'd just go with him. Because he was leaving for Africa this morning and won't be back until August 8th, it seemed more important to hang out with him for a little while longer than it did to do cardio. I'm pretty sure I've got my priorities straight on that one.

Just for the record, these are today's stats: 127 calories burned, Max HR 130, Average HR 99, duration: 35:53. Nothing too remarkable there, but a little interesting nonetheless. I'm much more interested in having this for cardio. I'm hoping to make it to the gym tonight, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have after getting the tire situation taken care of. We shall see.