307.5

After my dual workouts yesterday, drinking barely enough water, eating fairly good (with the exception of my mother-in-law's awesome potato salad and 36 oz. of Orange juice for dinner) I was able to shave another 1.5 pounds off. I know since I'm NOT going to the gym today that some of that will come back. But I like the trend!

Finished a Triathlon . . . kind of?

OK, so tonight Teri and I went to the Y. We were supposed to just sit in the hot tub, but Teri wanted to run on the track. I wanted nothing to do with running, or anything else for that matter. I just wanted to sit in the hot tub. BUT I took my goggles into the pool area anyway. And I swam 1,000 yards. I did it slowly . . . just kinda casual, but 1,000 yards none the less. So technically today, I completed a Triathlon. I'm pretty sure that starting the swim 10 hours after finishing the run doesn't count, but in one day I did a 20K bike, a 3K run and (almost) a 1K swim. I was pretty dang dizzy tonight when I got home, so I'm sure I am/was dehydrated or something. But pretty cool me thinks.

Surprising . . .

Last week I was lamenting about trying to get below 311. It seemed that I would do OK for the week, then blow it all on the weekend and start all over on Monday. Well, it kind of happened that way again. I did OK through Saturday lunch. But then as I expected, the food at Rick & Annette's was so good, I just couldn't stop eating. I think I had 4 helpings of this tofu dish they had. It was amazing. Then Dave & Ang stayed Saturday night and on Sunday we cooked breakfast. It was official, the weekend was toast.

On Monday, I ate nearly nothing all day, then Teri and I fixed dinner. I pigged out at dinner. (Yes, I know this isn't good, 6 meals a day and all that) On Tuesday the scale made it official. 316.0. FIVE pounds gained since Friday. SIGH. I skipped working out Monday and Tuesday. However on Tuesday I made a very concerted effort to eat better. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a Zone Perfect bar for a snack, A Taco Time chicken soft taco for lunch (no soda, no tater tots) and Teri and I had left over Weight Watcher chicken chili for dinner. I did eat a lot of the chili and I made mini burritos out of it with cheese and sour cream.

I woke up this morning dreading what the scale might say. When I stepped on, it showed 310.0. HUH? No f-in way. So I stepped off and stepped back on. 310.5. OK? Well now I GOTTA go to the gym. So off to the gym I went. My plan was to ride the bike for 12.4 miles (20K). So I hopped on the bike. Scott had said that Steve and Erick were completing the 20K in about 25 minutes. I know (or I think) there is no way by Triathlon day that I'll be doing 20K in 25 minutes, but I wanted to crank up my intensity none the less. So I warmed up at level 6, increased to 7 . . . then 8 and finally 9 . . . I alternated between 7 and 9 for the whole 20K averaging between 17 and 21 MPH. It hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt. I finished the 20K in 40:45, my best time thus far.

After I got off the bike, I decided that even though my but hurt and it was tough to walk, I should hop on the treadmill and see what I could do. I started out at a slow walk (3MPH or so) just to get the kinks out of my stride. I cranked it up to 4MPH and at about .2 miles decided to see if I could do a light jog, so up to 5MPH (12:00 mile pace) it went. I held the 5MPH to the 1 mile mark and slowed back down to 4 . . . 0.2 miles and back up to 5MPH for a tenth. I went back and forth between 4 and 5MPH for the remainder with the last 0.2 at 5MPH. My final time for 1.9 miles (3K) was 25:20. Not too shabby. I'll be delighted if I can finish it on Tri day in under 24:00.

During the workout, I drank two large bottles of water. My shirt was soaked with sweat and I wanted to throw up a couple times, but I pressed on. I think with 10 - 15 minutes of rest, I could have done the pool too, but I was running out of time and didn't bring my goggles. I'm going to be sore today, but it was worth it.

So when I got home, I stepped on the scale again. I know, twice in one day is a bit OCD, but I really wanted to see it. I wanted to see the zero move over a slot. I wanted my mini-milestone. I stepped on, the scale settled in . . . 309.0 . . . I did it! MINI-MILESTONE ACHIEVED! If I can eat right today, I should be able to hold that for tomorrow and with another workout tomorrow morning, might be able to sneak another pound off. SWEET!

Breaking Bad is Just Broken and Bad

So AMC has been promoting the hell out of their new show "Breaking Bad" for months now. I've seen it in Men's Health, all over TV and god only knows where else. I was intrigued by the idea. The premise is this, the main character is a high school chemistry teacher and to make ends meet, he works at a car wash in the evenings and weekends. He is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Attending a drug arrest with his DEA agent brother in law, he sees a former student sneaking out of the next door neighbor's home and running away. He figures out this is the guy his brother in law was looking for to bust for making crystal meth. He gets an idea and goes to this kid's house and proposes that they go into business together. The kid knows the drug business and he knows the chemistry. So they buy a used RV and start cooking crystal meth. I guess the idea is that he can make some extra money to support his family when he eventually succumbs to the lung cancer.

I've watched the first two weeks of this show and to me, it's about the most morally bankrupt show on television. Beyond anything I've ever seen. And that's saying a lot for me. Some of my favorite shows are the Sopranos and Dexter. Mobs and Serial Killers. But this show is just horrible. The characters lack anything that you can cling on to. I want to feel sorry for the guy, but I just can't. He goes from upstanding dad and worker to drug lord in about 32 seconds. He further goes on to suggest disposing of bodies using hydro flouric acid. And this is in two episodes. The acting is bad, the show is bad, it's just all bad. I feel sick after watching it. I'm cancelling my season pass to it. Ick.

Writers, come back soon . . . . please?

Hopefully Lost will provide some respite from the utter lack of anything to watch.

311.5 This Morning

OK, so the past couple of weeks I've really kind of pigged out on the weekends. Teri and I have gone out to eat for breakfast, sometimes lunch, and often dinner. This has pretty much sabotaged any work I've done in the gym during the week. So on Friday morning I'll weigh X and then on Monday morning I'll weigh 5 pounds more. It sucks. Then it's back in the gym to wrestle the 5 pounds off again.

So this weekend, I'm trying a different approach. At the VERY least, we're not eating out at breakfast. We were even invited to breakfast with Scott & Leslie which we politely (I hope!) declined. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and I'm expecting lunch to arrive at site any time now. That usually consists of a sandwich, small bag of chips, piece of fruit and maybe some cookies. Tonight is going to be the tough part. Dinner at Annette & Rick's. The food is going to be good and plentiful . . . so I'm REALLY going to have to restrain myself. If I can do that, I think I have a reasonable shot at only gaining a pound or two this weekend. Which HOPEFULLY will allow me to see the mini milestone of 309.5 by next Friday.

Here's hopin'!

The pool again this morning

So this morning I basically swam 1,000 yards straight. I did a few flip turns here and there when I wasn't feeling like I would drown. But for the most part, the 1,000 yards were pretty constant. I did take about a one minute break after 500 yards. I think all in all it took me about 23 - 24 minutes. I think I'm going to pick up a Timex Ironman watch soon just to have something in the pool to keep me honest about my time.

I haven't been tracking my food on The Daily Plate much lately. Mostly because I've been eating horribly. Fortunately it hasn't been so bad that it's showing up on the scale too much. But I'm trying to re-focus and get back on track. This morning I had an Odwalla Citrus C monster and a bowl of Fiber One cereal with organic fat free milk for breakfast. I'll have a Zone Perfect bar for a snack later, then a lean cuisine with a banana and apple for lunch. I think Teri and I are doing a Dinners Ready meal tonight for dinner. So it should be a pretty good day of eating. I want to REALLY focus this weekend on my eating habits. Saturday night is going to be tough. We're going to a friend's home for game night and we were told to "Come Hungry". Our friend is Guamanian and his mom is apparently and unbelievable cook. So I'll have to exercise some serious restraint.

My knee has been feeling better the last couple of days, but it's still really sore. At least now I can mostly go up stairs without much pain. Baby steps. I'm hoping to be back on the treadmill and bike next week.

Skipped the Gym This Morning . . . I'm a walking zombie

Between working nearly every day since Teri and I got back from Jamaica, Stressing about life and our financial situation, Working out 3 - 5 days a week, I'm beat. I've been doing well with my business goals. I've added a new listing in the last week and went on two other listing appointments. I've got one of those for sure, and I'm pretty sure my marketing presentation was the best for the other one. I just don't think they were happy with what I told them their home was worth. So we'll see on that one. I also wrote a deal for buyer client of mine. Things are ticking along, all be it slowly.

This morning, I just couldn't drag myself outta bed to get to the gym. I know I should have gone, but I just didn't have the energy. I think there is something to be said for an extra hour and a half of sleep. I had strange dreams last night, so I don't know that I got really restful sleep, but it was sleep. I do feel slightly more refreshed today than I have in days past, so I guess it's a good thing!

My lust for Rainier continues . . .

So here are a few photos I shot of Rainier on Monday while Teri and I were out and about delivering flyers, etc. Just an amazing place to live . . .

A Compliment . . . Cool!

So first off, big kudos to Scott . . . dude I'm impressed with your work this year . . . you're kicking ass and not taking names. It's good to see and inspiring as well. I'm working on having that kind of determination . . . it doesn't seem to come as easily for me.

So I hopped in the pool this morning . . . despite not wanting to get out of bed. I was fairly late getting in . . . 6AM. I could feel yesterdays workout in my shoulders this morning, so I decided to do a shorter one today so as not to over do it. I did a 300 swim, 100 kick, 300 pull, 200 swim and a 100 IM.

I've decided I'm a butterfly snob. Sad, but true. There was a guy in the lane next to me doing butterfly and immediately I looked at his feet only to find fins. HA! I thought . . . that's not FLY man! That's cheating! Yes, I am a butterfly snob. So of course, I had to show my mad butterfly skills . . . at least for 25 yards. So after 900 yards I busted out a 100 IM. My butterfly was surprisingly strong and I even (briefly!) considered making the turn and attempting a 200 IM. But I did a 100 IM. When I was done, the guy next to me . . . . you know, the cheater . . . looks over and says "So do you still swim competitively?" OK, maybe he's not so bad after all. I told him that no, in fact I don't swim competitively. He wanted to know how long it had been . . . I said about 20 years. We had a nice chat and I decided to not be such a butterfly snob. It will take much counseling, but I'll get through it. I thought that was a pretty cool compliment . . .

The Mile Post . . .

OK, I'm calling this "The Mile Post" for a couple of reasons . . . #1, it's gonna be a long one so strap in. #2 - I did a mile in the pool this morning!

One Mile - 1,760 yards - 5,280 feet - 63,360 inches
No matter how you cut it, I did a mile in the pool this morning. I actually did slightly more as I did 1,800 yards. I started off with a 500 swim, followed by a 100 kick, then a 500 pull, then another 100 kick and finally a 600 swim. All in all it took me about 45 minutes. And it felt really good. I could tell by about 1,500 yards that I was getting tired, so it wasn't all pretty, but it got done! And I'm still faster than Phil Carter (see below)

Why do I open my big mouth?
So some background here . . . one of my all time favorite "Y Guys" is Phil Carter.


When I was in high school and just out . . . I worked at the Tacoma Center YMCA. One of the fitness directors was Phil Carter. He's a great guy. Awesome sense of humor, an amazing athlete (stand out star at Foss High School and Notre Dame), and just all around good guy. When I left to work for Boeing, Phil followed a few years later to run their Oxbow fitness facility. He eventually returned to the Y and he and I lost touch. Well, he's back and is now executive director of the Mel Korum Puyallup YMCA. I ran into him a couple weeks ago. I was shocked that he remembered me. Anyway, in high school as a swimmer, I could always whip Phil in the pool. He just was never a swimmer. Now mind you, it's the ONLY place I could whip him, but at least I had that. Lo and behold this morning when I got in the pool, who should come in right behind me? Phil Carter. So we shared a lane. I'm still faster. :-) We were talking and I said "You know Phil, I've never known you to willingly get into a pool . . . what's up?" Phil Replied that he's starting a Triathlon training group and the goal was to meet at 5:40AM on Tuesdays and do 30 minutes swimming, 30 minutes biking and 30 minutes running. After swimming myself into delirium for a few minutes, I told Phil I'd join his group next week. So right now, the "group" consists of Phil and I . . . as no one else showed up. I told Phil next week I'd do the swim and bike with him and depending on how my knee felt, maybe walk a bit. Why do I open my big mouth? UGGGH.

Teri goes to Tight Cuts
So yesterday, I worked a half day as Teri was off I wanted to spend some time with her. We met at the house at noon and she accompanied me down to Yelm to drop off flyers at my new listing. On the way out and back, we stopped various places to shoot pictures of the mountain in all her glory. (Pics to come) When we got back into town, we both decided we needed haircuts and I called Tight Cuts to see if they also cut women's hair. They do. For those of you that don't know, Tight Cuts is a shop that caters to men. They employ only women. Most of them are pretty cute and their "uniform" is a short black skirt with a tight white t-shirt top (generally low cut). When you walk into Tight Cuts, you're greeted by big screen TV's playing sports, XM Satellite radio is playing, only men's magazines sit next to the plush leather chairs and you're handed a beverage of your choice (no beer or liquor). The shop chairs are wide plush leather and very comfortable. With your haircut, you get a shampoo and condition, scalp massage, 5 minute neck and shoulder massage and a hot towel on your face. It's a GREAT overall experience. So when Teri said she wanted to go, I wasn't quite sure how she'd react to the whole scene. Overall I think she really enjoyed it. And for her anyway, it was a lot cheaper than the salon she's used to going to.

Maintaining Focus
I've been slipping as of late on my focus. I've not been in the gym as much as I'd like. I'm eating out more, including the drive thru. I've had soda a few times in the last week. I don't know why, but about a month into it, I usually wane and end up back where I started. As of Friday at least, I haven't gained a whole lot of weight back, but if I continue on this path, I will. As of Friday morning, I was at 312.5 . . . up 1.5 lbs from the previous Friday. Maybe that's why I did a mile in the pool today? I'm going to stay out of drive thrus and restaurants the rest of the week and hopefully I can be back at or below the 311 mark. Especially if I'm in the gym Wed - Fri as well. Wish me luck. I've got to persevere!

There, now we've done a mile together.

Another Vote for the MLS Hall of Shame . . .

Sometimes the photos I find on the MLS crack me up . . . so I have to share them. Notice in this photo, there is a ton of crap on the fridge and the kitchen island. NOT good staging people. OH and apparently it was too much to have grandma move out of the picture too! LOL . . .

Pool Workout This Morning . . .

So my buddy Mike is in town from California, he arrived last night. Teri, Mike and I were up chatting until almost midnight. I told Mike I was going to the gym this morning at 5:15 and he asked if he could tag along. So around 5:30, we were on our way. I'm dead tired. I don't think I got to sleep until after 12:30 or so. After we got to the gym, I showed mike where the weight room was and headed to the pool.

I decided this morning to see how it felt to swim 1,000 yards . . . basically non-stop. Originally I got in and did 100 yards to warm up, then told myself I'd do 150 without stopping. Well 150 turned into 300 and at some point I just decided to keep going to 1,000. That's not to say that I did flip turns at every end of the pool and swam continuously. I'm not there . . . yet. However, at each end, I stopped long enough to take a couple of good breaths, no more than 5 seconds and was off again. It felt surprisingly good to do the 1,000. After the 1,000 I did 100 kick and then a 200 pull for a total of 1,300 yards. I think that's my longest swim workout yet. I felt like I could do more and actually wanted to push it to about 1,800 yards to make a mile . . . but I knew Mike was waiting, so I hopped out and showered.

Felt good this morning. I can feel the strength coming back to my shoulders, tris and lats . . . my wings are re-emerging. I'll never forget one time (at band camp) about 13 years ago. Brandon and his friend Sun Soo Pak and I were working out in our little gym at our apartment complex. Brandon and Sun Soo were doing lat pull downs . . I forget what weight . . . and when it was my turn, I put an extra 30 or 40 pounds on and did mine . . . Brandon said "Jesus! Look at the wings on that guy!" Ahhh . . . to have a swimmers body again . . .

How can you possibly have a cranky day . . . and fins are cheating!

So this morning in the pool, there were a number of people doing butterfly. I was impressed. It's not often you see people doing that stroke. I feel fortunate to be able to do it and do it somewhat OK. I have to admit I was feeling a bit inadequate with all these people doing fly, doing it well and doing it fast . . . until . . . I noticed . . . they were all wearing . . . fins. OK now I don't feel so bad.

I did a 200 swim, kick, pull, kick this morning followed by a 100 swim and a 100 IM (sans fins).

As I was driving home, I was noticing what a beautiful day it was. And then I pulled into our neighborhood and saw the following picture perfect post card. If I had a little more time, I would have watched the sun rise completely . . . but it's days like this you just cannot be cranky no matter how hard you try. You can't. It's why living in the great northwest is so unique. Here it is about 35 degrees out, crystal blue skies and the sun rising behind Mount Rainier. You cannot beat it. The winds on the mountain blowing flurries of snow make it look like the sun is so hot it's melting the snow and turning it into steam. Incredible site. Our neighborhood is good for pictures like this. It's oddly calming to live so near an active volcano. When she blows there won't be much you can do about it, but sit back and enjoy the view.

The Girls . . .

So having 5 labs in your home at one time would be insane right? How about 4 then? Pictured below are: Dixie, Taylor, Sophie and Poppy. Trying to get 4 labs to sit still while taking their photo is nearly impossible . . . Teri bribed them with treats . . .

I can still murder a burger . . . and a gyro . . . oh pizza too.

It was a BAAAAAAD weekend for ol' John in terms of eating . . . We had guests in from Canada and I'm using that as my excuse. So Friday night we went to Greek food. Saturday night we ordered pizza in. Sunday afternoon we went to the Ram. EEEKS. And I didn't have a care in the world. I ate what I wanted, in the quantities that I wanted. And I didn't log it on The Daily Plate. On Monday, I headed out the door and and straight to the drive thru, do not go to the gym, do not pass go, none of that $200.00 crap. Much gluttony and debauchery was had by all. I was sufficiently evil for an entire army of darkness I think.

This morning though I had had enough. I felt sluggish, I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and sleep until Thursday. But at 6 I got up and headed to the gym. I was in the pool by about 6:25 and cranked out a 1,000 yard workout . . . I wanted to stop at 800, so the last 200 was not pretty. At all. But I got through it. I hit the hot tub for 20 minutes or so and headed home to face the dreaded scale. Yep. Pretty much what I had suspected. On Friday I was 311.0. On Tuesday, after a workout, I was 315.5. I guess it could be worse. BUT I've got to really focus and bear down this week to hopefully get me back to 311.0 by the end of the week. Then we can start working again on the mini-milestone of 309.5

I need to figure out how to be either more focused on the weekends, OR simply say enough is enough when I'm out to eat and not finish everything that is put in front of me. Baby steps. OH, and if you want to read a review that I wrote on Mr. Greek in Puyallup, it should be in the links to the Right on the "Hurlbuthomes.com blog"

Overheard Sunday . . .

"Your bitch is beautiful"

My Knee . . . Sigh

OK, I think I'm going to have to go to the doctor. My knee seems to be getting worse, not better. Now instead of just having pain on the outside of the knee, I also have pain on the inside. I don't know if I'm walking funny and tweaking the inside to make the outside feel better or what. I know I had a partially torn something prior to that fateful night playing racquetball . . . I was really hoping it was not torn more . . . but I'm afraid it may be. It's always something isn't it?

Taylor photos

It's been awhile since I've posted any photos of Taylor, so here are a few that Teri and I have shot over the past couple of months . . . . enjoy!

5 Labs . . . 1,200 yards and 311.0

So last night, Taylor's breeder, Shelley and her friend, Michelle, another breeder (The breeder of Taylor's Dad) arrived in town for a dog show this weekend at the Puyallup Fair grounds. They were scheduled to arrive at 7:30 - 8:00, but due to border delays, they didn't get here until after 10. They are staying with us for the weekend. They each brought two of their dogs to show. Shelley brought Poppy and Dixie and Michelle brought Sophie and Sam (Taylor's dad). As they unloaded the truck and got set up in the garage, we shuttled each of the dogs one by one to the back yard to do their business. Taylor was VERY excited to meet each and every one of them! And when Sam came out, you could REALLY see some of the resemblances. Her coat especially and her tail. When Taylor and Sam got into the back yard, you would have thought it was the black lab 500 . . . they were tearing around the back yard and having a ball! I'm sure our neighbors loved us last night. We finally all settled down and headed off to bed around midnight. I think I finally fell asleep around 1.

5 AM - The alarm goes off . . . ugggh. I wrestled with trying to sleep, but with guests in the house, Teri getting ready for work, it just wasn't going to happen. I decided to hit the pool. When I got in I said to myself . . . OK, just a quick 500 today and you're done. Well I ended up doing 1,200 yards. I don't remember the exact combination, but it was something like a 400 swim, 100 kick, 500 pull, 100 swim and a 100 IM or something like that. They were basically sets of 100, with brief rests in between. But it felt good and the nice thing is my Butterfly was strong for the full 25 yards of my IM. :-)

So after my workout, I jumped on the scale . . . I know I shouldn't way myself every day, but I have OCD or something about it . . . so deal with it . . . . The weight was 311.0. I saw a brief flash at 310.5, but it held steady at 311.0 . . . pretty cool. I know I'll gain a couple/few of those back this weekend . . . but it gives me an AWESOME shot at 309.5 by next weekend.

Keepin' on keepin' on.

312.5

Getting closer to the mini-milestone of 309.5 . . . only 3 lbs to go . . . 16.5 pounds lost since returning from Jamaica! Woo Hoo!

Treadmill This Morning

So lately I've been trying to get an additional hour or so of sleep when Teri gets up at 5. It usually doesn't work, between her getting ready and the dog all hyped up, I usually just lay there frustrated that I can't sleep. So this morning I got up at 5 with her and headed to the gym. (What? 4 days in a row John?) As I'd been on the bike and in the pool this week, I hit the treadmill. One of the things I'm trying to accomplish is going beyond the limits set in our Triathlon (12.4m bike, 1.9m run, 1,000yd swim) so that when we do each event, it feels like a sprint. So ideally I'd like to be doing between 15 - 20 miles on the bike, 3 - 4 miles on the treadmill and 1,500 - 2,000 yards in the pool. It'll take me awhile to get there, but I think the reasoning is sound. Comments?

So I got on the Treadmill this morning and stretched, then started the belt. As I warmed up, I increased the speed up to about 4.4 MPH at some point. I ended up doing 3 miles in 42:03 . . . or 14:01 mile pace. I feel good about that. My knee is still sufficiently messed up that I don't want to run yet. Although I think by the time I DO feel comfortable running, I should be able to eek out a 12:00 mile . . .

On the bike today . . . a$$ cramp

Sorry, TMI? Anyway, Taylor woke us up by wretching at 4AM today . . . I tried desperately to go back to sleep, but finally at 6 I said "forget it" and went to the gym. As I'd been in the pool the last two days, I wanted to get on the bike. So I hopped on and started pedaling. I don't know what was different this morning . . . but between last week and this week I was a LOT slower. The only thing I can think is that last week, the bike I was on was in Italian (all the menus, prompts, etc) and maybe it was set to metric, so I thought I was a lot faster than I am? Anyway, I was basically at resistance level 7 for most of the workout spinning between 95 and 100 RPM and the 12.4 miles took me just under 52:00 . . . 51:58 to be exact. Almost a full 10 minutes slower than last week. So I don't know what it was. When I got off, I was hurting too . . . the seats on the stationary bikes are not comfortable at all . . . and my a$$ hurt like crazy. I stretched out and walked around the track a couple times . . . I've got lots of work to do.

Also, I've been tracking my daily caloric intake at The Daily Plate and also recording my fitness. I've got it set up to lose an average of 2 lbs per week. It says I should be taking in just over 3,000 calories per day. I rarely get to that many calories and part of it I think is that it estimates way too many calories burned when I input my exercise. Like today on the stationary bike it said I burned around 550 calories, but when I input it into TDP, it'll probably be closer to 2,000 . . . so I don't know which to trust.

This losing weight is not an exact science thing . . . if it were, there wouldn't be a million weight loss books, diets and gurus out there, there'd be a pamphlet . . . maybe double sided.

Hi Ho . . . Hi Ho . . . It's off to the pool I go . . .

I can't remember the last time I was in a pool two days in a row. I was so high after my workout yesterday I decided to give my knee (still bothering me!) another rest day and hit the pool again. I tried to stretch out my splits a little more today . . . Here's my workout:

• 3 X 100 Swim
• 1 X 200 Kick
• 1 X 300 Pull
• 1 X 100 Swim
• 1 X 100 IM

I still felt like I had enough energy at the end of 900 yards that I gave myself about a minute to rest and went for a 100 IM. My fly was good for about 22 yards, breathing every other stroke . . . then I was REALLY tired and thankful for the backstroke. My breast stroke was horrible as always, but it's a good rest leg before the push at the end with free . . . long ways to go to make this a 200 . . . but I'm happy I can do a 100 now.

Gym on a Monday - WOO HOO!

So lying in bed this morning, again I just don't have that "AWESOME It's 5:30 I'm going to the gym!" attitude. Teri hit the snooze once or twice this morning then got up. When Taylor started barking at the hair dryer (crazy dog!) I decided I'd better get up and go. So about 6AM I headed out. It got REALLY cold and snowed at our house last night, so the roads were slick as snot. I almost tweaked my knee again slipping through the Y's parking lot. I was in the pool by 6:25. I decided to do some more distance this morning . . . not overall, but with my splits . . . instead of doing all sets of 50 . . . I'd do some sets of 100 and 200 yards. So here's how the workout worked out:

• 1 X 100 Swim
• 2 X 50 Swim
• 1 X 200 Kick
• 1 X 100 Pull
• 2 X 50 Pull
• 1 X 100 Swim
• 2 X 50 Swim
• 1 X 100 Pull
• 2 X 50 Pull

I let the lady I was sharing a lane with borrow my kick board about half way through my swim and she just kept it when I was ready to kick again, so I went back to the pull. Which is fine, I hate kicking anyway. After my 1,000 yard workout, I cooled down for about a minute and then did about 20 yards Butterfly . . . I could have done 25, but I would have smacked aforementioned lady with my kickboard in the nose. Then 25 yards backstroke on the way back. OH and on of my sets of 50 swim was breast stroke as well. My goal through all this swim training is to be able to once again do a 200 IM (50 yards each of Fly, Back, Breast and free in that order). It was my favorite event in High School, that and the 500 free . . . so it'd be cool to be 20 years older and still be able to pull off a 200 IM.

Good pool day! I need to, over the course of the next month or so, ratchet the swim portion of my workouts up to about 1,600 - 2,000 yards so the 1,000 at the end of our tri feels like a breeze. OH and the 1,000 yard portion of my workout took about 25 minutes today. Almost a full 10 minutes shorter than last week. I'll get my swim endurance back and be able to rattle off 200 and then 500 yards without stopping I'm sure.

315.0

OK, I know I'm losing weight too fast . . . I know I'm not eating enough, but to be honest with all the water I'm drinking . . . about 3 Liters give or take a day . . . I'm almost NEVER hungry. It's weird. According to Thedailyplate.com, for me to lose an average of 2 pounds per week, I should be taking in about 3,000 calories a day. I've been lucky lately to consume that much. Unless of course Teri and I go out to eat, or order a pizza. Yes, I ate an entire small Papa John's pizza in one sitting and added a slice of a large for good measure over the weekend. So all bad habits are not yet dead. But even on that day, I only consumed a little over 4,000 calories and half of that was the small pizza! Then adding exercise into my profile at Thedailyplate.com means I have to consume even MORE calories! Like yesterday my cycling added about 1,300 calories I was supposed to eat for the day . . . well I'll bet I didn't even hit the 3,000, let alone come close to 4,300.

I know I'm going to plateau . . . and I know it's gonna piss me off . . . but honestly, I don't want to have some fast food just to get my caloric intake up. Maybe I'll have two weight watcher meals for lunch today . . . of course that'll spike my sodium intake for the day too. Sheesh.

I do feel good that I'm only 15.5 pounds away from seeing a 2 . . . I'm setting a mini-milestone too . . . 309.5 . . . to see a 30 will be a welcome sight as well. Ok enough rambling.

Triathlon Training - Day 3 - Treadmill

OK, so today I completed what will be a one day event in April. I got up and went to the Y and got on the treadmill this morning. I was a little nervous just because of my knee. I knew at some point during my time on the treadmill that I would want to run. But I had to force myself to keep it at a brisk walk or risk injuring my knee further. I got on and started out at about 3MPH, but quickly grew tired of going so slow, so I cranked it up to 4MPH and that felt good for awhile. I think 4.2MPH was about my average with occasional bouts to 4.3 and 4.4MPH. I ended up doing 2.0 miles in 28:42 or about 14:21 per mile. I know that if I can get my knee to heal, I can probably crank that up to about a 12:30 or maybe even a 12:00 mile. Still not fast by any standard . . . but for where I'm at now, I'll call it good.

OK, so my "Triathlon" this week looked like this:
Swim 1,000 Yards about 30 minutes
Bike 12.4 miles 42 minutes, 52 seconds
"Run" 2.0 miles 28 minutes 42 seconds
Total Time: 1 Hour, 31 minutes and 34 Seconds

Now I have somewhat of a baseline. I think my strategy is to do individual workouts in January, ratcheting up to dual workouts in February and part of March and MAYBE attempt a trial Tri on my own in Early April . . .

Steve wants to do the Ocean Shores sprint Tri in July. Our triathlon in April will be a good gauge for that, so we'll see.

Milestone Achieved! - 317.0

As I mentioned earlier . . . 317.0 was the next milestone I wanted to hit. After my workout this morning, I weighed myself . . . 317.0 on the dot!

Next Miletone Ahead - 299.5

Triathlon Training - Day 2 - Bike Day

So this morning I headed to the YMCA again (TWO days in a row!) to do a little biking. Last night daboyz and I got together to discuss our goals, etc. for the coming month and the topic of the Triathlon came up. There was some confusion as to how the stationary bikes worked in terms of resistance and speed. Erick was under the impression that if the resistance were set to the lowest setting, the highest possible speed could be achieved and therefore, everyone should have their resistance set the same when we do the Tri. Scott and I didn't think that was the way it worked. So this morning, in addition to wanting to see how long it took me to do 12.4 miles on a stationary bike, I was going to determine how the resistance level affected speed. My goal was to keep my cadence around 100RPM throughout the ride. At the minimum resistance level, I was spinning out and it was not comfortable at all. I was going about 12 MPH. So I increased the level to where it was comfortable, level 5 and my speed increased along with it to about 17 MPH, still spinning at 100RPM. After warming up for a few minutes, I increased the resistance to level 7 and left it there for most of the ride. My speed was anywhere between 18 - 19.5 MPH. So IMHO, resistance is directly related to speed in that the more resistance at the same cadence = faster. BTW, this is the way a real bike works too . . . maintaining the same cadence in a higher gear (more resistance) gives you greater speed. There is no way I could go 20MPH on my road bike in the smallest gear, even downhill with a tail wind, but in the top gear, I can hit 20 fairly easily (can't maintain it, but I can get there!)

Anyway, I did 12.4 miles in 42 minutes 52 seconds.

My knee is still killing me from my racquetball workout a couple weeks ago. So my left leg did most of the work today. Standing on the bike to re-adjust was a painful experience and I had to really think to put most of my weight on my left side when I stood. I know that working out frequently is probably NOT the best idea for my knee right now, but I certainly don't want to take many days off either. Doing one of the three legs is hard enough now . . . but putting all three together is REALLY going to challenge me!

January Goals and December Review

I know that most people set goals for the year in early January, but I feel like I need to set more frequent, realistic goals to feel like I'm succeeding. So here is a review of the goals I set for December, and new goals I'm setting for January:

December, 2007 Goals Review:

On December 3rd, I posted the following (Progress toward goal follows each goal):

• staying out of the Drive Thru for December. I went through the drive thru twice in December and ate fast food a total of 6 times. As normally I would have eaten fast food 6 times in as little as two days, I'm saying this is a success.
• I'm eliminating Soda from my diet for December. I drank coke on 3 occasions in December, again, the amount of soda I drank was far less than I would have normally had in two days, so again I claim victory
• I will be in the gym attending a Spin class a minimum of 10 times in December (Yes, if I need to, I will spin twice a day). OK, this goal was eventually revised to 5 times, but still I only attended two spin classes. But I did play racquetball once and did a nearly 5 mile walk and a few 2 mile walks with Taylor and Teri, so I'll say not quite, but close
• I will weigh (hopefully significantly) less on January 1st than I did on December 3rd. My stretch goal is to lose 20 pounds in December putting me UNDER 310. I weighed in at 317.5 pounds this morning making 11.5 tubs of butter gone for the month. OK, I didn't weigh in on the 1st, but I KNOW I was less than I was on Dec. 3rd. Again, Victory is mine!
• I will resume taking my daily vitamins AND I'm adding Fish Oil supplements to the plethora of pills I'll be popping in the morning. I added the fish oil supplements and took my vitamins nearly every day of the month. I did run out last week and have to buy more vitamins today. SUCCESS!

So four out of five is damned good in my opinion and the fifth was REALLY close IMHO. The big one for me was weighing less on Jan 1st than on Dec 3rd. Having to go through X-mas and New Years in that stretch was tough, but I persevered.

January 2008 Goals:

OK, so this month is basically going to be a repeat of last months goals as they worked out so well. So here they are:

• Eat less fast food in January than I did in December. This will mean less than 6 trips to a fast food restaurant.
• Drink less soda in January than I did in December. This will mean drinking soda on less than three occasions in January.
• Perform at least 10 workouts in January. This is to include a minimum of 5 Triathlon specific workouts.
• I will weigh less on February 1st than I did on January 2nd. My stretch goal is to lose 18.0 pounds in January putting me UNDER 300.
• I will continue taking my daily vitamins AND Fish Oil supplements to the plethora of pills I'll be popping in the morning.

That's it . . . Here's to a GREAT new years everyone!

Triathlon Training - Day 1 - Pool Day

OK, in High School, I was a competitive swimmer. I was on the swim team and the water polo team and was in the pool for up to 5 hours a day. I'll just say . . . I am no longer that man. OUCH! So since concocting the idea of doing a group triathlon with "daboyz" last week, I've known I need to do some serious training over the next 2 - 3 months before we actually compete. Because of my past, I think I've got the best shot to win the swim leg of the event, assuming I make it there. Although Steve and Brandon have been working out like crazy for a couple years and I'm not sure how good they are in the pool. Anyway, I hopped in the pool today to do 1,000 yards. Here's the workout I did:

• 3 X 50 Swim (150 yds)


• 2 X 50 Kick (100 yds)


• 3 X 50 Pull (150 yds)


• 2 X 50 Kick (100 yds)


• 3 X 50 Swim (150 yds)


• 2 X 50 Kick (100 yds)


• 3 X 50 Pull (150 yds)


• 1 X 100 Swim (100 yds duh!)


• TOTAL = 1,000 yds

I did all of the 50 swim and pulls on the :60 averaging about :45 seconds for each 50 with about :15 rest in between. The kicks (always been the weakest part of my swim) were on about the 1:30 averaging about 1:10. Now contrast this to High School when I could swim 100 yards freestyle in about 56.5 seconds. I am no longer that man. But my last 100 I swam in about 1:45 . . which for weighing 100 pounds more than I did in High School and having not really swam since then, I'll call it pretty good. :-) Next up, Bike . . .

Way of the Peaceful Warrior

The other night Teri and I were flipping through channels trying to find something to watch on the boob tube. I noticed that "Peaceful Warrior" was on Showtime, so I turned it on. I knew what the story was about, but Teri was wondering aloud "Why are we watching this?". I explained to her that the movie was based on a book that I had enjoyed a few years ago, "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman. The movie was not nearly as good as the book (are they ever?) and afterwards, I was left with wanting more. So on my way to the bathtub for some reading that evening, I stopped by the bookcase in the bonus room and dusted off Mr. Millman's book. When I read it before, I was in a very happy and secure place in my life and I honestly didn't get a lot out of it. I'm starting to believe that things are put in our paths for a reason, and as such, that movie was on at that particular time for a reason. It was a gentle nudge for me to revisit this book.

Well the past few evenings, I've been reading it and it is a wonderful tale about a man (Dan Millman) searching for answers and purpose in his life. One evening when he cannot sleep, he heads to an all night gas station for some food and meets a curious old man whom he later names "Socretes". As he's leaving he turns around to see Soc standing on top of the gas station, where no more than 30 seconds earlier, he was seated just outside the station. He asks how Soc was able to get up there so fast and Soc gives him a cryptic answer. Thinking the old man must be crazy, Dan heads home. But he continues to return to the gas station and becomes a student of the strange man and learns more about life and what it means to really live life than he ever thought possible. Higly recommend picking up this book if you've never read it.

Here's a passage I came across a couple days ago that really stuck with me: (Thanks for not suing me Dan)

"Listen to me," he interrupted. "Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for. There have never been past warriors, nor will there be future ones either. The warrior is here, now. Your sorrow, your fear and anger, regret and guilt, your envy and plans and cravings live only in the past, or in the future."

"Hold on Socretes. I distinctly remember being angry in the present."

"Not so," he said. "What you mean is that you acted angry in a present moment. This is natural; action is always in the present, because it is an expression of the body, which can only exist in the present. But the mind, you see, is like a phantom, and, in fact, never exists in the present. Its only power over you is to draw your attention out of the present."

- Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior