On March 7th several friends of mine did the New Zealand ironman triathlon. John, Isla, Charlotte, Anna and Perry all swam 3.8 km, rode 180.2 km then ran 42.2 km. Impressive and inspiring stuff, but I am not even close to doing a full triathlon myself. I  recently began my very own “get fit with Jed Bartlet” program. There are numerous celebrity fitness DVDs on the market but this one is a sure fire winner. Follow the simple steps. Purchase the The West Wing box set. I got mine on Amazon in a special sale for 75 dollars. (HMV in the UK had it for 50 pounds) Set up bicycle in front of computer on trainer. (I am using a friend’s 1up trainer) Get on bicycle and pedal away while watching all 45 DVDs Purchase new trousers because legs have doubled in size. I am nearly at the end of the first series, and really enjoying it. I think my legs are getting stronger and my back is slowly getting used to being in the aero position. …

Over the last month I have done my 40 km bicycle commute 4 times. My time dropped from close to 2 hours to 1 hour 38 minutes for the ride there, while my fastest ride home was 1 hour 30. (The university is at the top of a hill.) I’ve learned some important things about riding: When it’s cold, riding faster warms up your muscles but the wind chill means you are still freezing. Most car and truck drivers are very considerate and give cyclists a wide berth. However it would only require one idiotic / sleepy / distracted driver  to make a real mess of your shiny bicycle and limbs. Defensive cycling is an necessity rather than an option. Riding in the rain is fun the first time, but the novelty wears off fast. There is an infinite number of varieties of asphalt, and a cyclist can feel every nuance through their bottom. The stock seat that came with my bicycle had a rather annoying squeak, and was not specifically designed for a triathlon bike. I am …

Yesterday I went out on my bike and, using the bike’s odometer to measure the distance, rode up the coast  for 5 kilometers. This morning I put on my old sneakers and my new Polar heart rate monitor (thank you little brother for my X-mas present) and jogged the 5 kilometers up the coast and back again. My first ever 10 km run. My heart rate monitor gave me my total time as 1 hr 4 mins with an average heart rate of 165 bpm. Now I am sure that taking over an hour to run 10 kilometers is not a good time, but this just leaves me a lot of room for improvement. One thing I do need to sort out is that my heart rate monitor seemed to suggest that I should be training with a heart rate of  between 140 and 160 bpm. Unfortunately, for almost the entire run my heart insisted on beating at around 166 bpm. This resulted in the watch continually flashing and beeping a warning signal, the watch …

Back in October I started teaching a couple of days a week at Meio University. It’s about 40 kilometers from my house to university and using the toll road expressway it takes 45-50 minutes door to door. The drive isn’t bad, but it’s a lot of time to be spending in the car, and quite an expensive commute. I decided that it might be possible to do the commute at least once a week by bicycle. I would save the money I normally spend on fuel and toll charges and I would get fit at the same time. So one sunny day, my friend Ken and I decided to ride from my house to Meio and back. I road on my beat up old mountain bike.   We peddled at a slow but steady pace and took several brief stops at convenience stores along the way. It took 3 hours 15 minutes to get to Meio and 2 hours 45 minutes to get home. At this point it looked like the commute would be unfeasible. …

Inspired by Miyako Strongman Triathlon