Disappointed . . .

My Cellulitis is back. It hit while I was at a conference in Seattle yesterday. When I get this, my right leg turns fire red, there is a shooting pain in that leg up to the crotch and I come down with flu like symptoms. Sweating, aching, etc. It totally sucks @$$. Fortunately before Teri and I went to Jamaica, I had my Doctor fill my antibiotic prescription for it, so I was able to get on antibiotics really quickly yesterday. BUT, that means I likely won't be able to work out this week, at all. Just when things are going so well . . . this sucks.

Sunday Workout - Tri Update

OK, so Sunday afternoon Teri and I went to the Y. Brandon, Liz, Teri and I were supposed to go riding yesterday, but scheduling didn't work out, so Teri and I decided to hit the gym. Earlier in the day we had gone to Sports Authority and I bought my first pair of real running shoes in probably two decades. A nice pair of Asics Gel GT-2130's. So of course I wanted to try them out on the treadmill. I decided to do another 5K. The shoes were damn comfy I must say!

So I started out running at 5.3 MPH. At some point I kicked it up to 5.5 MPH and I hit two miles at 22:17. So my 1.9 Miles was probably somewhere around 21:00 or maybe a bit under. I felt really good about that. I did .25 walking at 3.5 then .25 running at 6.0 and then .25 walking at 3.5, then running for .25 at 6.0 and finally .10 walking. Total time for the 5K was 37:42. A full 2+ minutes better than the last time I did it.

Then I met Teri in the pool for a bit. I ended up doing only 450 yards though . . . my arm was REALLY sore from throwing the ball for the dogs at the dog park earlier in the day. But that was well worth wearing out 4 labs! During my workout I did do TWO 100 yard IM's though. Now to just string the two of them together and I'll feel damn good!

I heard from Scott this weekend that when he and Erick worked out on Saturday I think, Erick did our whole triathlon in 1:45, including transitions. EEKS! Erick is ALREADY doing the whole thing! Damn! I wasn't planning on doing the whole thing until next month, but with Erick stepping up this weekend, I may have to push my training schedule up! My hope is that by April 20th, I'm able to do the whole thing in under 1:30, but I think Erick and I are pretty comparable now, so I don't know that I'll be able to shave off a full 15 minutes between now and then. If I take my BEST times for everything, not including transitions, I'm at like: 21:00 for the run, 40:00 for the bike and about 21:00 for the swim, or about 1:22 total. But obviously fatigue will be a factor doing the whole thing together. We'll see what happens. But Erick, nice work man! I'm proud of you!

It's been cool to see how this little challenge I put forth has inspired DaBoyz to step up and give it a shot. Even some of our wives are getting into the mix. Jerry's wife, Theresa, is thinking about doing the indoor tri with us. Scott, Teri and myself are all thinking of doing the Ocean Shores triathlon in July, of course after Scott and I do the indoor tri in April. It's nice to see all my boyz united and working toward a common goal. Kicking each other's ass. :-) I'm proud of you fellas!

Teri and I had a great day yesterday. We took Taylor to the dog park, had some breakfast at Applebees, went to the gym, then watched a couple movies last night. Michael Clayton and I now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry. It was a nice day off. I really appreciated it.

VHS Versus Beta for the new millenium . . .

If you remember the format wars of the 70's ?? or was it 80's?? You'll remember the raging debate over VHS and Betamax as prevailing VCR standards. Beta was clearly the better format, but due to various issues, size, length of tapes, etc., VHS won out in the end.

Here in the first decade of the new millenium a similar debate has been raging although it's not as hotly debated (IMHO) as I remember the VCR wars being. The new debate is over prevailing high definition (HD) DVD formats. In one corner you have HD-DVD and in the other, Sony's Blu Ray. Both camps argue their format is better. On the HD-DVD side, supporters will argue marginally better picture quality, advanced features such as direct internet access and picture in picture. On the Blu Ray side, their supporters will argue larger capacity discs and support for advanced features coming with the 2.0 standard. Well apparently the fight is over.

In this article, it was announced yesterday that Toshiba, the largest manufacturer of HD-DVD drives is pulling it's support for the format. With major studios like Warner also pulling out of the HD-DVD game, it looks like HD-DVD will be the betamax of the new millenium. I have an HD-DVD drive for my Xbox 360 and I've got to admit, watching American Gangster last night was a real treat. The picture was AWESOME and the advanced features over a standard def DVD are pretty cool too.

However, that being said, I've been wanting a Blu Ray player since I got my new TV and Receiver. It seems as though I may come into a Best Buy gift card in the near future that could provide me with a new Blu Ray player. So last night I started researching. I'm torn between buying a stand alone BD player or buying a Sony Playstation 3 which comes with a BD player built in. Both retail for about $399, but the PS3 has the advantage of also being a pretty awesome game machine. I'm still primarily an Xbox guy, but if a game came out that I really wanted and was only available on PS3, I'd have the option.



But, as the machine would primarily be used for it's BD drive, I decided to do some research to find out if it was a good quality BD player, or simply an added feature of a gaming system thrown in to bolster sales. After doing the research, it looks like the BD player in the PS3 is actually Sony's flagship BD player. OK, so it's probably not as high quality as their ES line of players, however it does have some advanced features that even the ES players don't. For example, with the PS3 already having an ethernet port, the PS3 BD player is already poised for the 2.0 spec for BD. Simply a firmwear upgrade for the PS3 and you've got the most advanced BD player on the market. No titles currently take advantage of the 2.0 spec, but expect them out later this year.

Many articles I read listed the PS3 to be amongst the best BD players they had tested. Some of the drawbacks they mentioned is lack of Analog 5.1 outputs, a non issue for me as my receiver takes HDMI inputs. They also mentioned that the PS3 will not internally decode some of the newer HD audio formats, again a non-issue because my new receiver will decode them all via HDMI. And the final drawback, which IS a bummer for me, is the lack of an IR port on the PS3 to allow control of the DVD player via a non-Sony, non-Bluetooth remote. Like my Philips Pronto. That would be a big bummer to have to add an additional remote to my current line up of . . . one remote. So fortunately over on AVS forums, I found a delightful work around for this solution that allows you to use standard Sony DVD IR commands to control the BD player.

Debate over, I'm buying a PS3 when/if I get said Best Buy gift card.

The difference between 99% and 100%

OK so this morning after my workout, I really did NOT want another bowl of cereal. I really WANTED a drive thru, but I abstained. So when I got home, I busted out the carton of egg whites, some green onions, salsa, sour cream and whole wheat tortillas. Time for some huevos rancheros roll ups baby! OK, so the carton of egg whites stipulated "99% egg whites" and there was less than a quarter cup left, so I went to the back up carton. It showed "100% egg whites". I poured the 100% on top of the 99% and thought something was wrong. The 99 was yellow and thicker. The 100 looked like cloudy water. I put the cap back on and shook the 100 up more. Same stuff came out. HUH? So I looked at the ingredients on both cartons. On the 100% as you would expect, there was ONE ingredient . . . egg whites. DUH. On the other it was 99% egg whites and then about two dozen other ingredients. Some were vitamins and others were things I couldn't pronounce. When I went to make my second roll up, I poured only the 100% into the pan and what do you know? It actually LOOKED like the white stuff around the yolk of an egg! I had always wondered why they called it egg whites when it came out of the carton yellow? Now I know. It's that other 1% making it yellow!

I just thought that was interesting. Now that I type it, not so much. Sorry to put you through my analysis of differnt brands of egg products.

Workout this morning:
Again, really did not want to go to the gym. I stayed in bed until almost 6:30 despite being woken up by a ringing phone at 4:30!!! So my plan was to do 12.4 miles on the bike. I got to the gym, got on the bike and started pedaling . . . it was all I could to to muster 6.2 miles . . . I did it in 20:30 so about on pace for what I normally do, but those damn bikes are so uncomfortable that I just had to get off. I don't know what I'm going to do for the Tri . . . but I've got to get myself comfortable on them for 12.4 miles. And I hate recumbants. Sorry Scott. So feeling like a wuss, one of the stair climber machines was open. You know the ones that look like a scrolling staircase? I've wanted to hop on one for awhile now, but they've always been occupied. So I hopped on. Typed in my weight and age and set it for 30 minutes at level 5. YIKES! Level 5 was a bit much. So then Level 4 and finally settled in at level 3. I eventually went up to 4 and 5 again for short periods of time, but this machine kicked my butt. Literally! I ended up doing 83 flights of stairs (Higher than the Columbia Tower) and 1.73 miles overall. So pretty good workout.

Weight this morning:
A new low - 301.5 WOO HOO! Gotta get a workout or two in this weekend to have a shot at under 300 by next Friday! I've decided I'm going to take a sandwich to eat on the way to the wedding today so I'm not starving by the time the reception rolls around.

5 Circle Goals . . .

OK, the company I get my coaching from, Buffini and Company, has a symbol that is basically 5 circles in a star shaped pattern. That logo relates to your "5 Circle Goals". i.e. you have 5 circles in your life: Spiritual, Personal, Family, Business and Financial. The idea is that if you are "down" in one area of your life, the others suffer or if you concentrate too much on one area, the others suffer. They want you to be a well balanced, well rounded individual. Makes sense to me. So at every Turning Point Retreat, we set goals in all 5 areas of our life. I'm usually pretty good at setting the goals, but then like the Showtime Rotissary Grill, I Set it and Forget it! I rarely look at my goals again and as such, don't make much progress on them. So at my last coaching call, my coach asked me to set 2 goals in each area, then post them where I can see them often. So the first step is setting them, so here goes:

Personal

• Weigh Less Than 300 Pounds by March 1st, 2008
• Since that goal is pretty imminent, here is a stretch: Weigh Less Than 280 Pounds by May 15th, 2008
• Complete the First Annual "DaBoyz Fit Club" Indoor Triathlon on April 20th, 2008
• Complete the Dam2Dam 50 Mile Bike Ride in September

Business

• Close a minimum of 23 Transactions in 2008 with an average Gross Commission of $6,522.00 (GCI of $150,000)
• Study for, Take and Pass the Washington State Broker's License Exam on or before June 1st, 2008
• Pay off Business Visa (~13,000) on or before December 31st, 2008

Financial

• Pay off personal Visa (~$7,200) on or before December 31st, 2008
• Have 1 or more months of Personal Expenses (~$4,500/month) in Savings on or before December 31st, 2008

Family

• Take Teri on a weekend getaway in early May to celebrate our 1st Anniversary
• Endeavor to work with Taylor on advanced commands off her lead to make her a better all around puppy dog

Spiritual  OK, this is really a struggle for me. The first goal here has been the same for five years and I have not yet gotten it worked out.

• Define what spirituality means to me
• Attend Church with Chad and Tina at least once to explore the possibility of that being a part of my life again

There you have it, a quick cut at my 5 circle goals. Probably not the best idea to post them in such a public forum, but hey, my life is an open book I guess.

Baby Steps . . .

I've detailed here the past two weekend's transgressions as to eating, etc. My low a couple weeks ago was 304.0. I've seen the scale as high as 312.5 over the past two weeks. Now I know that a lot of that is not REAL weight. To REALLY gain 8 and a half pounds would require far more eating that I have been doing. So I don't really pay attention to it, other than to regain focus. This week, that's what I've done . . . regained and resharpened my focus.

On Tuesday I did 5K on the treadmill. Yesterday I did 3+ miles on the elliptical and this morning, I did over 1 mile (72 Laps Scott) in the pool. Even though I haven't been doing a fantastic job of tracking what I'm eating on The Daily Plate, I've REALLY been watching what goes into my mouth. No drive thrus so far this week. Breakfast has been at home, lunches have been made (John's Big Ass Ham & Turkey Sammiches) and I've cooked two pretty kick ass dinners at home. (WW Chicken Enchiladas on Tuesday and WW Parmesan Turkey Meatloaf last night). Overall it's been a good eating and working out week. This morning that was reflected on the scale. 302.0 after my workout. Holy crap. Only 2.5 pounds to go (technically 2.000000000000001 pounds, but my scale only weighs in .5 pound increments) to be UNDER 300. (edit: It just dawned on me that that is a full 50 pounds off my high! SWEET!) I need to maintain laser like focus through the weekend. I have a wedding an reception to attend tomorrow afternoon. That will be a good test. I don't think Teri and I have any plans for the weekend, so if I can get a workout or two in over the weekend, I'm hoping by next Friday, the 29th of February, I can claim a major milestone achieved. Wish me luck!

Oh, and here's my workout from this morning if anyone cares:

• 10 X 100 Swim on the 2:15 (22:30 for 1,000 yards)
• 200 Kick
• 200 Pull
• 100 Kick
• 100 Swim, Kick, Pull

1,800 Yards total

Boring workout today . . .

I didn't feel like going to the Gym today (Why did I capitalize Gym? Do I revere it? Hmm strange . . . ) so I got up and worked on taxes for a bit. Made some calls, checked the MLS, did some laundry, just basically being lazy today. So around 10:15, I decided to hop on the elliptical. I did about 3.3 miles in 45 minutes with an avg. HR of 134 . . . pretty boring. But it's something I guess.

Stress as a trigger and another 5K

So yesterday I was doing really well eating. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a Zone Perfect bar for a morning snack, a ham and turkey sandwich for lunch and a whole lot of water. Oh, and a Rock Star energy drink in the afternoon. I even wrote a contract for a client of mine. It was a good day. Then in the afternoon, the stress hit. I had a very stressful interaction with another client of mine. I'm hopeful the situation will work itself out this morning, but as of last night, I was pretty stressed. Now I think that number 1, I did not eat nearly enough during the day and by the time I got home between that and the stress, all I wanted to do was eat. I wanted to go out to dinner, but Teri had a long day too, so we stayed in and ordered a pizza. I had two slices, then two more. I was REALLY telling myself I was full. But it didn't work, so I had two more. I could have likely eaten the last two, but I stopped myself. However, SIX slices of pizza is NOT a good thing when one is trying desperately to lose weight. (See self sabotage post from last week!)

This morning I decided to hit the treadmill to see if I could work off a couple of those slices. Instead of starting out with a walk, I wanted to jump right in and see how quickly I could do the 1.9 miles (3K) we'd be doing in the triathlon in April. So after stretching a bit, I started the belt and off I went. I set the speed at 5.2 MPH. I was NOT feeling good and quite often my HR went into the "Danger Will Robinson" mode where the little orange LED flashes at you. But I kept on. I really wanted the 1.9 miles . . . I hit it at 22:05 . . . my personal best so far . . . I slowed down to a walk for another .35 miles . . . at 2.25 miles I kicked it up to 6.0 MPH for .25 then back to 3.5 for .25 back to 6.0 for .25 and then back to 3.5 for the last .10 miles . . . 3.1 miles in 39:04. Better than last weeks time, but I felt like throwing up most of the time. However, I do have to say that the 6.0 pace feels really good. I'd love to be able to do that for some distance. My stride feels really natural at that pace.

I did get angry looks from the triathlon training group as I walked past the spin bike room . . . I just haven't been able to get up at 5 to be in the pool by 5:40 on Tuesday to join them.

Kids say the darndest things . . .

Today I went out and showed some homes. I looked fantastic! I had my black dress pants on, black shoes, a caramel colored shirt on and a great looking tie. I've been wearing a shirt and tie about 4 - 5 days a week for the past 6 weeks or so. With my new, slimmer me, my dress shirts fit better, the collars button, and overall I feel better about my looks. I feel like I have more confiedence, I feel like I project a more professional attitude, and it just feels right.

While at a model home with my client, her daughters had to use the restroom. They all shuffled off to the restroom, and you could pretty much hear everything they said while in there. Her daughters are 5 and 2 I think. Her 5 year old said "He's fat!" and mom quickly corrected her by saying "Honey, don't say that. We don't say that about people." It completely ruined my mood. Now I know she's only 5. And I know she wasn't being mean. But still, after as far as I feel I've come, it was pretty obvious, I've got a long way to go.

Kids say the darndest things. You're so right Mr. Cosby. They sure do . . .

Who needs a gym?

OK, well I do . . . but I REALLY didn't want to go to the gym today. But I did force myself to get up and get on our fancy Precor elliptical that I haven't been on since . . . oh APRIL Edit: March? Sometimes I just feel like I should go to the gym and that if I don't go, I'm a wuss. But likely I would have done the bike or treadmill there, so why not do the elliptical here and save myself the 1/2 hour back and forth commute? I think this will work well for Saturday and/or Sunday workouts. Anyway, I think I did pretty well this morning. When I got on and selected my user profile, it was fun to subtract 25 pounds from the weight I WAS at last time I used it. Not so much fun to add a year to my age though! :-( I'll have to look back in the archives and see if I hit any personal bests (PB) with this one. Here's the workout:

• Time: 45:00 (40:00 workout - 5:00 Cool down)
• Program: Random
• Resistance: 7 - 9
• Total Distance: 3.42 miles (PB) Distance in 40:00: 3.1 miles (PB)
• Avg HR: 141
• Max HR: 162 (oops!)
• Time in Zone: 35:37
• Total Strides: 6520 (PB)
• Calories Burned: 750.1

Overall a damn good workout I think! And hopefully will help me burn off some of the damn doritos, ruffles and tortilla chips I ate last night. [SIGH]

A Tale of Two Scales: OK, so this morning after my workout, I weighed myself on my scale. It's a Pelouze shipping scale. Really, I've thought of all the jokes, so don't bother. I got it because it has a 400 lb. capacity. That's so sad when I think about it. Anyway, it weighed me at 307.0 (yes the doritos and ruffles and tortilla chips are still hanging around). Then, I stepped on our other scale. It's a body fat % scale that Teri and I bought one day at Kohls. I never use it because it always weighed a lot heavier than my scale. But today it read 307.0. I must have gotten down into it's accuracy range or something. It also measured my Body Fat % as 33%. I don't know how accurate that is, but assuming it's close, that means my lean body mass is about 205.69 lbs (307.0 X .67 = 205.69). Well that's good news I guess. That means that if I have a healthy 15% of body fat, I should weigh in the neighborhood of 241.98 lbs. Assuming my math is correct . . . 85X = 20569 . . . solve for X . . . algebra folks . . .the classic IS OF problem . . . 205.69 IS 85% OF What? Now that doesn't sound too bad . . . again, depending on how accurate that scale is. I should really do the ol' dunk tank routine to really measure body fat, but this gives me hope that I don't have to think about 220 really . . . and 242 really sounds doable.

I want to be noticed!

Yes, I am the proverbial attention whore (gigalo?)! Damn it, I've lost nearly 50 pounds and I want someone to just come up to me and say: "Hey John, have you been losing weight? You look really good!" But alas . . . I have to point it out to everyone. Wednesday I had lunch with my favorite lender, Gina Miller at Venture Mortgage (call me if you want her number, she's fantastic), and I had to say "Do I look smaller to you?" It had been about 2 months since we'd gotten together and I've lost about 25 pounds in that time. She said "I thought you did! But I didn't want to say anything in case you hadn't." AUUUUGHHHH! People, SEE ME! Ahhh well when Dave Scott hands me the gold medal for the Ironman championships in Kona . . . maybe then someone will know who I am! :-)

My 5K and Self Sabotage

I'll start with the good news, the light stuff first. So this morning, I had it in my head that I wanted to do a 5K . . . or 3.1 miles . . . on the treadmill. I don't know why such things pop into my brain, but they do. I've been meaning to bring my heart rate monitor chest strap to the Y to see if it works on the machines. Rather than grabbing the handles, it would be handy if I could just monitor my heart rate while I went along. So this morning I dug through my desk and found it. I went to put it on and it slid off. WTF? I pulled it back up and it slid off again. AH HA! I weigh about 30 pounds less than the last time I wore this! SWEET! So I had to show Teri. Off to the Y I went.

After stretching a bit, I started out walking at 3.5 MPH. I did this for 0.25 (or about a quarter) miles, then kicked it up to 5.2 MPH which felt fairly comfortable. I wanted to see how long I could actually run (jog, whatever!) before having/wanting/needing to walk again. Well I passed our Triathlon distance of 1.9 miles at 23:53 and kept on going. Finally at 2.25 miles, I slowed it back down to 3.5 MPH. I ran 2 miles non-stop. (OK, I paused a couple seconds to re-tie my headphone cord around my iPod lanyard) I felt REALLY good about that. When I'm in shape, I actually LOVE to run. It's an illness, I know. But I really do enjoy it. Mainly I enjoy the looks from people that seem to say "There is no way somone that big should be that fast" I doubt I'll get the "that fast" feeling ever again, but still. I digress . . . so I walked for another .25 miles then kicked it up to 6.0 MPH for another .25 miles and finally walked the last .35 miles for a total of 3.1 Miles or 5K. Total time was just over 40 minutes. I was stoked to do the 3K (1.9 Miles) in under 24:00 though. With .25 of that walking.

I have mostly eliminated my transgressions of the previous weekend. I'm embarassed to say that I gained 6.0 pounds last weekend. I've lost 5 or so of those this week. If I can get into the gym tomorrow morning as planned, and keep faithful to eating right, I should be OK for Monday's weigh-in. Which brings me to my next point and is not nearly as light as "Hey everyone, I ran this morning!"

So I had my coaching call yesterday. Really the first call with my new coach, Grace. We chit chatted a bit about my workouts, some of my personal goals, etc. She mentioned my heritage profile and how my domineering trait is "Olympian" click the link to read the rest of this post. (more)

Correlations . . .

Sometimes I'm a bit slow on the uptake. "No!" you say. But I'm afraid it's true, dear reader. You see about 7 days ago, I ran out of my vitamins. About 5 days ago, I started feeling sluggish. About 4 days ago, I started eating like a pig. About 1/2 hour ago, I weighed myself. About 15 minutes ago, after I stopped crying, I said "Ah HA!". So today I'll be going to Super Supplements and picking up my vitamins. Heh . . . a little slow on the uptake.

I did get into the pool this morning. I did 1,000 yards. (By the way, big Kudos to Scott for completing 44 laps in the pool the other day! Nice work man! Brandon is going to be soooooo jealous!) I did a 1 X 100 Swim, Kick, Pull . . . then a 1 X 200 Swim, Kick, Pull and finished it off with a 100 IM. It felt horrible. See preceding paragraph. :-)

The Whirling Dervish . . .

Since Teri and I have gotten back from Jamaica in late November, I feel like I've hit the ground sprinting and have not stopped since. I got in the gym a few times in December, was in there more than not in January and started February as I had ended January. I've worked at least a little nearly every day, save Christmas and New Years, since we've been home. For the most part, I've watched what I eat and watched even more closely what I spend.

That all went out the window on Sunday. I had set three buyer appointments for Sunday. 9, 12 and 3. Three different buyers, three different parts of the state at three different times. I was out the door by 6:45 (I did mention it was Sunday right?) and didn't return home until after 6:30 that evening. Friday morning I had weighed in at a svelte 304 pounds. I've not been on a scale since for good reason. Sunday morning started out with a trip to Jack in the Box for breakfast. Sometime after one, I found my car BACK in the JITB drive thru for lunch. I finished the evening with some left over pasta and chicken. It was a glorious eating day. Now had it ended there, it would have been fine. But no, the car wanted McDonalds Monday morning and apparently it wanted Greek food last night. It did skip lunch yesterday though. (You see by blaming it on the car, I can feel a little better about myself and tell myself that I'm still 304 pounds, only my car gained weight) Today though, enough was enough and I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

I haven't been in the gym since Friday and haven't really felt like going. I think I'm trying to come down with something, but I'm not letting my body win. I've got to get some deals in escrow so I feel better about our trip to Puerto Vallarta in May. I think this Whirling Dervish I've been on is paying off though. Since X-mas I've written up two condos at CitiLife. My listing in Lacey received an offer, we countered and they accepted yesterday. I've got two really solid buyer clients that I'm working with that will hopefully write contracts in the next couple of weeks. AND I've got two really solid leads at CitiLife that may also put offers in on condos there. So with any luck, by the end of the month I'll have 6 - 7 transactions in escrow and be well on my way to my goal of 23 for the year.

The Whirling Dervish shall continue Whirling. The strong shall prevail. I intend to be Whirling and Strong. This was merely a respite from the daily grind. Back at it!

Workout This Morning

Bike and run this morning. 12.4 miles bike in 41:23 . . . for some reason I thought I was doing 12.2 and stopped and was about to get off the bike and said "Crap!" and hustled the last .2 miles. OOPS.

Run, I only did 0.95 miles, or half the distance. That was in 12:20 . . . extrapolated to the full distance would be 24:40 . . . if I could keep that pace. So probably 25 and change when all is said and done.

Peace!

Open Letter to DaBoyz - Fitness Goals 2008

Here's a letter I sent to my boyz today:

OK, since we all seem to be on this fitness kick . . . I want to throw a few items out there and see if they stick . . . i.e. who is interested and in what. These are some things I’d like to accomplish this year if at all possible. 2009 is a possibility for some of them too . . . but I don’t think most of them are out of reach by the end of summer if we keep up our routines. So here they are . . . not in any particular order:

1) Rattlesnake Ledge
2) Little Si
3) Mount Si
4) Mailbox Peak
5) Tiger Summit
6) Tiger Summit via the Cable Route (Picture Mount Si without switchbacks)
7) Pebble Creek – Mount Rainier (7,200 feet)
8) Camp Muir – Mount Rainier (10,000 feet)
9) Sprint Distance Triathlon
10) Dam2Dam Bike Ride (50 Miles)

I think it’s reasonable to knock off at least half of these this year. Keep in mind for the Mount Rainier climbs that Paradise, the starting location, is at about 5,400 feet. So don’t be too daunted by the elevation of Pebble and Camp Muir. The route to Pebble Creek will likely be snow bound until at least June . . . but with all the snow we’ve had this year, it could be July . . . from Pebble to Muir is ALWAYS in snow . . . so some extra equipment will be required if we’re to travel on snow. As long as enough people are there on the day we go, the path should be pretty well tamped down and we won’t need snow shoes . . . but up above Pebble it can get icy, so at the very least plastic boots, gaiters, and instep crampons would be a good idea.

Anyway . . . just thinking about being under 300 and what it’ll be like to be able to do some of these things again. I’m dying to get back to Camp Muir. The VIEW is incredible.

304.0

I'm officially down 25 pounds since Teri and I got back from Jamaica! Sweet! Only another 4.5 pounds to go to a Major Milestone! This puts me down 48 pounds from my high of 352 . . . eeks. I'll never see that again! Just a quick 1,000 yards in the pool this morning. I did a 200 swim, kick, pull, kick, swim.

Pigged Out . . . but it's OK!

So yesterday my wife got a new job! Congratulations honey! I'm proud of you for setting that goal and achieving it! I know you're going to do AWESOME! Last night I took Teri out to dinner to celebrate. I gave her her choice of anywhere she wanted to go and she picked Applebees? So off to Applebees we went. I hadn't had lunch yet and was STARVING when we got there. Again, not good I know. However with my workout yesterday, I felt pretty confident I could eat pretty much anything I liked and be somewhat OK. I started out with a caesar salad, followed by the club house grill sandwich (Ham, turkey, jack and cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoe, bbq sauce on grilled sourdough) with onion rings. I topped it all off with one of their new dessert shooters (chocolate mousse). It was GREAT!

This morning, I wanted nothing to do with the gym. In fact, I even went to bed last night at 9PM and slept all the way until about 6:30 . . . up off and on between 5 and 6:30 trying to guilt myself into going to the gym. But I think I needed a day of rest. I was worried about the scale this morning, but stepping on it, I was only 306.5. So only gained 1/2 pound from my low. As I'm skipping the gym today, I've really got to watch what I eat. So I had a bowl of Fiber One cereal for breakfast, I'll have an apple and a zone perfect bar for a snack and a Weight Watcher meal for lunch. Hopefully a sensible meal at home for dinner. Then back in the gym tomorrow morning!

AND today I was able to get into my favorite dress shirt. It's been awhile since I've been able to button the collar and it was a bit of a struggle yet this morning, but it's buttoned and the tie is on! Bring on the buyers!

Tri Training . . . No . . . Really

OK, so a couple weeks ago I mentioned that I had run into Phil Carter at the Y. He was starting a Triathlon training group on Tuesday's at 5:40AM. Well I missed last week, but told him I'd be there this week. So at 5:40, I was in the pool, ready to go. A couple other folks showed up too and Phil got there just after 5:40. He started us out with a quick warm up of a 100 Swim, Kick, Pull. After that was over, he declared it was "Time to have some fun" and that we were going to do 10 sets of 100's. Joy. He then went on to say "Since John swims at a different pace than everyone, John, why don't you do your 100's on the 2:00 and we'll do ours on the 2:30" Great. So off we went. I did the first 4 on the 2:00, the next 5 on the 2:15 and the final one on the 2:00. So technically I did 1,000 yards in 21:15 (if my math is right?). Then finished up with a 50 swim, kick, pull.

Next it was off to the spin room . . . after we got changed, we headed for the spin bikes. We ended up doing about 25 minutes of spinning. I did 5.5 miles according to my little spin computer. Bringing my cycling shoes next week.

I really wanted to bail on the run . . . but didn't want to have everyone think I was a total wuss, so I hit the track. I did a mile, but walked about 2/3 of it. I've really got to get my knee better, my weight down and my endurance up if I want to be competitive at all in our Triathlon this April. Or have any prayer of surviving the real deal in Ocean Shores in July.

I hadn't intended to do all three events this morning, but it just worked out that way. It was a good workout! I even ran into an old High School classmate, Kurt Hatch, on the way out. Pretty cool.

An Open Letter to Fatty . . .

As Fatty at the FatCyclist is prone to doing, I'm following his lead and posting the letter I sent to him last week asking him to not sue me and his subsequent response. Thanks Fatty . . . as soon as I get the weight off, get the jersey, and the photo, the link is comin' your way!

Letter to Fatty:
Fatty . . . er Elden . . . Um . . . Mr. Cyclist,

I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy very much reading your blog. I even voted for you in the bloggies. I hope you win, by one vote, then you can shower me with gifts. But I digress . . .

I’d like you to know that I too am a fat cyclist. A couple years ago, I weighed 352 pounds. I bought a Specialized Roubaix Elite as a reward to myself for some achievements I made at work. Last year I put about 400 miles on it. Not a whole lot, but about 399.5 miles more than I had ridden the previous 18 years on my 1985 Bridgestone 400. I even attempted a 50 mile ride, the Dam2Dam Thumbs Up bike tour sponsored by Mike Utley and the Mike Utley foundation which is trying to raise money for spinal cord research.

Since riding my bike, other strange things have started happening. I discovered a weird but wonderful building in my home town. I think they call it a gym? You may have one in your town, I would recommend looking for it. Wonderous things await you there. Many flashy moving objects, vast quantities of water they allow you to submerse yourself in and other cool things. I guess what I’m trying to say is that since I’ve been cycling and gyming (see how I made a verb out of a noun? Cool huh?) I’ve gotten myself down to (as of yesterday) 307.5. Giving your blog 100% credit would really be sucking up, so I’ll give you about 93.33 repeating of course.

The real reason I’m writing (and sucking up so much) is that I’d very much like for you to not sue me. You see I set a goal/reward for myself this morning. That goal is to get under 300 pounds by the end of February. The REWARD is of course to purchase for myself a shiny new 2008 Fat Cyclist jersey. I even threw the gauntlet down to my wife and told her to set a goal and when she achieved it, I would buy HER a 2008 women’s fat cyclist jersey. (I don’t however think she will be nearly as flattered as I will to be called a fat cyclist.) I posted this goal/reward in MY BLOG, which by the way you did NOT vote for in the bloggies, this morning complete with pictures of said jerseys. That’s the “please don’t sue me part”.

Here is the post for your review:
http://johnhurlbut.com/blog/index.php?itemid=321

If I have somehow done you wrong, please kindly reply and let me know and I will make the appropriate changes.

Also, I want you to know this is a BIG reward for me. You see, I’m a real estate agent. I’m sure you’ve heard something about the housing market lately on the news or whatnot, so you understand that this will be a major purchase for me in 2008.

Anyway, keep writing, I’ll keep reading, and about that suing thing . . . blood from a turnip and all. :-)

Thanks for adding levity to my day.

John Hurlbut (west coast fat cyclist)
john@trekkin.com
http://johnhurlbut.com/blog - John’s blog
http://hurlbuthomes.com/blog - John’s real estate blog

Fatty's Response:
Sue you? Ha! I should be thanking you for the free advertising!

Seriously, I'm incredibly impressed with the path you're on and how far you've come on it. Congratulations! I'll definitely want to see a photo once you get the jersey. Why don't you post it in your blog, let me know, and I'll link to it?

Again, congrats on the weight loss progress you've made.

Elden

Swim Workout This Morning . . .

Wow, another Monday morning workout? What the heck? Who is this guy? Well my arms were completely sore today from my weight lifting on Saturday with Carl, but I managed to get into the pool this morning and do 1,000 yards. They weren't pretty, but they got done. The IM at the end I'm sure was really ugly . . . :

• 1 X 200 Swim
• 1 X 200 Kick
• 1 X 200 Pull
• 1 X 200 Swim
• 1 X 100 Kick
• 1 X 100 Individual Medley (IM)

Tonight daboyz and I meet for our monthly check in and see how everyone is doing meeting. Looking forward to that.

UPDATE!  306.0 This morning! WOO HOO! An actual weekend where I LOST weight!

Carl Hates Me . . .

So yesterday a co-worker and listing agent of CitiLife Condos, Carl Shaw, visited me down at CitiLife to just check in and see how things are going. Carl and I are in the same office and also belong to the same gym. He asked me if I was going to workout this morning and I said "no". He quipped back (as he's so good at doing) and said "Whyyyy because it's Saturday? C'mon dude" So we agreed to meet there at 6:30 this morning. Again, why do I open my big mouth? The idea was to do weight training. Number one, I HATE . . . HATE . . . HATE lifting weights. Number two, (and I think it's directly related to number 1) when I'm lifting weights, I see how friggin' weak I really am. If I happen to work any of my swimming muscles like my latissimus dorsi (lats), pectorals or my triceps, I'm a stud. Biceps, shoulders, not so much. I feel like a total pansy. So today, we did chest, back, shoulders and arms OH MY!. This will definitely aid in my weight loss. Not because I'm building more muscle and increasing my metabloism, oh no . . . simply because I cannot lift my hands to my mouth to eat! Carl hates me.

With Every Great Achievement There Should Be Reward . . .

OK, I guess I'm in a blogging mood today, but this hit me while I was in the shower. SO, here's what I'm putting out there. PENDING Wifely approval, when I get below 300 pounds, I want to reward myself by purchasing a 2008 Fat Cyclist Jersey. Fatty in conjunction with Twin Six just released the new design and I love it. I want one. I doubt he'll be making XXXL versions, so I'll buy an XXL version and hope that by the end of cycling season (maybe the Dam2Dam!?) I can fit into it comfortably. OH, I might buy a T-shirt too . . . and maybe a water bottle . . . Here's the jersey (Sorry Fatty for stealing your pictures, but I'm trying to get you more sales, I promise . . . please oh please Fatty, don't sue. Just look at how many times in this one article alone I've linked to your site. That should be worth something right?)



Furthermore . . . Teri, set a goal, I don't care what it is . . . when you hit it, I will buy YOU a 2008 Fat Cyclist Women's Jersey. Please note that a portion of all proceeds from sales of Fat Cyclist paraphenalia are donated to helping Fatty's wife Susan fight cancer. So it's a good cause, and a just reward for achieving your goals.



For those of you that do not read Fatty's blog and are into cycling, I HIGHLY recommend it. His posts are often humorous and even occasionally contain some cycling information. :-)

Starting February out Right

OK, one workout down, 14 (or more!) to go for the month! I got in the pool this morning. My legs are still pretty sore from doing my "triathlon" on Wednesday. I just did a lazy 1,000 yards this morning. Took about 28 minutes with a LOT of kicking, so I feel good about it. Here's my workout:

• 1 X 200 Swim
• 1 X 200 Kick
• 1 X 200 Pull
• 1 X 200 Swim
• 1 X 100 Kick
• 1 X 100 Individual Medley (IM)

I'm glad I got out of the pool when I did. A girl came in after me that was in the middle of one of the most amazing swim workouts I'd ever seen. I mean even in my heyday in High School I wouldn't have kept up with this girl. I was in the hot tub and watching her. She warmed up with a couple hundred yards of freestyle and then went into SETS OF 200 IM's . . . I saw her do 4 sets of 200 IM's before I got physically ill and felt like Willy and had to leave. (BTW, Willy was the starring character in Free Willy. Also known as Keiko the whale) Unbelievable. I know Megan Quann (Jendrick) is from Puyallup, so I need to look up pictures to make sure I wasn't in the same building as an Olympic gold medalist. She was likely doing her IM's faster than I had done them in races in High School. I've got a long ways to go!

Update - I looked at pics of Megan Quann I dont think it was her, but the breaststroke style of both girls were similar, so I can't be completely positive it wasn't her.

January Goals Review - February Goals

January 2008 Goals Review:

I think I did fairly OK for the month. Still really need to concentrate on my intake and get better at logging stuff in The Daily Plate

• Eat less fast food in January than I did in December. This will mean less than 6 trips to a fast food restaurant. I haven't looked at Microsoft Money yet, but I know I went more than 6 times. Most of it was stress related or just being lazy. I will continue to work on this.
• Drink less soda in January than I did in December. This will mean drinking soda on less than three occasions in January. Yeah, same here. I know I had more than three days of drinking coke. And I tried "cheating" by using a rock star here and there. But I drink FAR less soda than I used to. I am getting better after having a soda, being soda free for the next few days/weeks
• Perform at least 10 workouts in January. This is to include a minimum of 5 Triathlon specific workouts. I Seriously kicked ass on this goal this month! I was in the gym a total of 16 times and every workout was either swim, bike or run. Including one day where I did all three!
• 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. Didn't hit the stretch, but on January 2nd I believe I weighed 317.0. On February 1st I weighed 308.0. 9 pounds for the month. I did hit a low yesterday of 307.5, but that was after my dual workouts the day before. Again, kick ass on this one!
• I will continue taking my daily vitamins AND Fish Oil supplements to the plethora of pills I'll be popping in the morning.Yep

February 2008 Goals:
Again, why fix what's not broken. My goals in February will pretty much mimic my goals in January with some slight modifications:

• Eat less fast food in February than I did in January. This will mean less than 6 (or so) trips to a fast food restaurant.
• Drink less soda in February than I did in January. As I'm not entirely sure how many days I drank soda in January I'll say 5 or less days drinking soda.
• Perform at least 15 workouts in February. This is to include a minimum of 5 workouts where I do at least two triathlon events. (Swim/Bike, Bike/Run, etc.)
• I will weigh less on March 1st than I did on February 1st (308.0). My stretch goal is to lose 8.5 pounds in February putting me UNDER 300.
• I will continue taking my daily vitamins AND Fish Oil supplements.
• Do at least one group workout with some or all of Daboyz training for the Triathlon

That's it . . .