Paul Asay

Got to experience a max heart rate test Sunday on a Velotron. The goal of the test on several cyclist here in town was to find your lactate threshold. Basically how hard you can work before going into the red zone where you can no longer maintain that pace. Now that we know that magic number you can base you training around it. For me that number is a heart rate of 155 to 160. The test itself include an increasing incline effect until you reach you max heart rate while the machine is evaluating your oxygen uptake and co2 exhale. That part of the test told me my VO2 max was 51.2. I was told that number changes very little and it is basically tied to your God given ability. My max heart rate was 178. It was hard, but only lasted a little over 10 minutes. The way it sounded my VO2 max was higher than most (the good), but I hit my limit in the shortest amount of time (the not so good). All in all it was a good experience with some friends also getting to share the same experienc...

Paid my entry fee and made a hotel reservation for the Rev3 Olympic distance triathlon on May 9th. Figured it was as good a goal as any to start the new year with. Hope to figure in the top 5 in my age group. Something good to aim for any way. From a race technology standpoint it looks to be top notch. I can appreciate that. Hopefully we can get a good group to attend from Indiana.

My first shot at goals for 2010: Jan 29th, ICTN Triathlon Camp, Tucson, AZ May 9th, Rev 3 Triathlon, Knoxville, TN May 22nd, Terre Haute Triathlon, (as race director) June 13th, Hoosier Man Triathlon, Bloomington, IN July 17th, Rain Ride, (Ride Across Indiana) August 22nd, Race the Lake 90 Mile Road Race, Fond Du Lac, WI September 19th, Ironman Branson, Branson MO November 13th, Ironman 70.3 World Championships, Clearwater, FL (if I qualify) otherwise Ironman 70.3 Miami (October 30th) We will see how this goes ...

Several years ago when our pastor first came to our church he mentioned in a sermon about “thinking medium”. The concept was not to think of yourself more highly than you should, nor too low either. He summarized that in the term “think medium”. From then on I have thought about that a lot, and tend to agree with it more and more. Actually I find great comfort in the concept. I have some gifts and some accomplishments, but all in all, not that much. I also know for a fact that in many cases I am a miserable lot. Well today I’m home sick which thankfully doesn’t happen very often, and I happened to listen to Chip Ingram on the radio this morning. I ended up checking out his website http://www.livingontheedge.org and also listened to his talk on R12. Low and behold, it basically validates the “think medium” concept in Romans 12:3-8. Nice to know the concept has real depth to it. While thinking about goals for 2010, which I do a lot these days, I remind myself that the journey ...

Recently I had a talk with a friend and professional triathlete Daniel Bretscher about helping me with my swim. He mentioned the first step might be to video tape my swim so he could take a look at it. From there maybe some individual lessons would be in order. He then mentioned someone else he was working with did this with a fairly inexpensive and waterproof video camera, specifically the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 model. With $165 and a week’s wait from Amazon.com my shiny new camera arrived in the mail. On a Monday morning at the Student Rec Center I met Joe for a swim workout with the camera. After a brief warm up I videotaped him for a few minutes, then he did the same for me. I thought I was swimming fairly smooth, but I know my swim technique was not particularly good, but I thought it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t really do any lap swimming until I was 30 so no real swimming background to go from. I have to admit when I did swim in high school gym class I was terrible. Well I re...

Saw the headline today on the BBC that taking low dose aspirin is only good for those who have had heart attacks or stroke. Doesn’t seem to work as a preventative and might cause gastrointestinal bleeds. Guess I’ll ditch taking low dose aspirin, and stick with just the multi-vitamin and some anti-oxidants. At the end of the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8338763.stm it says "The best way to reduce your risk of developing this disease is to avoid smoking, eat a diet low in saturated fat and rich in fruit and vegetables and take regular physical activity." While contemplating this on my drive out to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, enjoying the sunshine and fall leaves, it just goes to show, life is not Rocket Science. So here are my top 10 ideas on how to enjoy the non Rocket Science life: 1. Have some faith that God exists and wants good things for you when all is said and done 2. Take a walk in the park on regular occasions no matter the weather and enjoy t...

08:02 Movie night tonight, Race Across the Sky #