Matt's muscle music

I promise, I haven't slacked off TOO much this week. This is actually my third workout of the week, but I've been dragging me feet on the blogs. That needs to stop. Anyway, I biked 12.5 miles on Monday and did some weightlifting yesterday. Today, though, I got in the pool.

There wasn't anything of note to report other than the fact that I thought I lost my swimsuit, but fortunately, it was in the Roy Rec Center's lost and found. I must have left it on the bench in the locker room last time. Whew... I swam 1,000 yards and called it, went upstairs and did six quick miles on the bike. It wasn't a lot, but I'm glad I dragged myself over there and did something. Tomorrow I want to go all out on something so I can cap my sluggish November on a high note.

Also, I've been doing additional weightlifting, more than I usually muster anyway. I don't really need any added bulk, but there's just something about lifting that makes me feel big and strong. Perhaps I'll be able to make my own muscle music like Terry Crews does below.

Total distance: 1,000 yards swimming, 6 miles cycling

Long week of guilt

Something is seriously wrong with me. More than I've experienced in a long time, my motivation to get up and work out just isn't there. I had several opportunities to work out this week and didn't. Plain and simple. I've pigged out all week, stayed up way too late a few nights and haven't been able to drag my self out of bed early enough to get to the gym. I went six consecutive days with zero exercise and whether or not it's all mental, I feel like crap for it. I haven't felt this guilty about my health in some time.

So, today I broke the streak and went for a run. I didn't last very long before my knee started hurting, so I turned back early. It wasn't much, but it was something and I suppose that's better than what I've done these past several days. I actually made the quick drive over to the gym first, but it was closed for the holiday weekend. I need to find a new motivator and fast. I am terrified of falling out of the exercise habit, because I know it can happen before you know it and just like that all my lost weight is back. Ugghhhh....

Total distance: 1.54 miles running

New favorite workout snack

One of my new favorites

Normally, when I work out, I eat something small before I leave the house, like a granola bar or piece of toast. But sometimes I just use the energy gel packs you can buy in most sporting goods stores. They are easy on your stomach and don't require much breaking down, so they don't cause me to cramp up during exercise.

The past year or so, I've been using the Gu brand gel packs. I can only ever find them at Harmon's and Sports Authority and they have served me well. However, I found a new favorite brand last week, when I was getting my bike tuned up at The Bike Shoppe in Ogden. It's called Hammer and I know a few open water swimmers who like their powder products. They are the same price as the Gu gels and they have different flavors. I tried the banana and tropical recently and loved them. I think I'm going to have to start interchanging my Gu and Hammer products to mix it up a bit.

Anyway, today I just rode the stationary bike for about 20 minutes and followed it up with a 30-minute swim.

Total distance: 6 miles cycling, 1,500 yards swimming

New goals for rest of 2012

It appears as if I am going to come up well short of my 2012 exercise goals. I may have set the bar a bit too high and various injuries and random spells of laziness didn't help my cause, as well. However, I want to finish this year strong, so I set some short-term goals for my remaining 48 days. Here is where I stand so far and what I want to reach by New Years Day.

Swimming: 100.03 miles (need 115)
Running: 125.46 miles (need 183)
Cycling: 475.10 miles (need 730)

Given my knee and shoulder issues, I plan on doing extra bike time, so I set that goal a little higher than the others. I don't have any events in mind for the next few months, so I'm going to have to find some sort of extra motivation. Any suggestions?

Anyway, today I finally got a decent swim in, making sure to alternate breaststroke into my set every 150 yards. Gotta lay off too much freestyle. I also ran a quick mile on the treadmill, just to get my blood pumping before the swim.

P.S.: I finally passed 100 swim miles for the year. I'm ahead of last year's pace, but far behind my initial "Go The Distance" goal of 175 miles.

Total distance: 1 mile running, 1,950 yards swimming

What now?

Today, I had no idea what I wanted to do. With the Turkey Tri behind me, I don't have an upcoming event on my radar just yet. So, I'm not really training for anything in particular. I did want to get some cardio in, though, so I stuck with the familiar.

I hopped on the bike and rode at a elevated level for 30 minutes. I followed that up with the treadmill, but didn't stretch very well, and I paid for it. I only lasted about a half mile before the pain in my shins was too much, so I stopped immediately. After that I did some weight work in addition to push-ups to get some upper body time in. Not a bad little workout.

Total distance: 9 miles cycling, 0.5 miles running

Weber State Turkey Tri race report

What started out as a crummy day turned out to be a good one. I woke up early so I could get up to campus and set up my transition area for the triathlon, but it there was still a ton of snow on the ground and it was still falling. Sure enough, when I checked in, they announced the bike leg had been canceled. I was very disappointed and my heart kind of sank a bit. I've trained primarily for the bike leg, given my knee and shoulder issues restrict my swimming and running, so that was a blow. Obviously, trying to beat my time from last year was out the window since the race was only a duathlon this time around.

Chatting with Kelly and Jess just after finishing.
They were in the first wave, while I was in the second.

However, the weather cleared up a bit just before the race started and when it was my wave's turn to start the race, I was amped and determined to go all out on my run, regardless of pain, knowing I wouldn't have to follow it with a bike leg. It hurt and I was certainly sucking wind, but I gave it my all and didn't stop despite the cold. The swim was cake. I cruised past people in the short 300-yard pool event and mostly, people were conscious of faster swimmers, letting them pass when needed. I really wish that leg was longer, because it's the only place where I have an edge over most triathletes.


Me at the start of the race (in all black). Note the damn snow, just like last year.

I finished in 36:38 minutes, good enough for 5th out of 10 in my age group and 48th out of 112 overall. In the end, I'm still bummed I didn't get to use the bike I went through the trouble of borrowing, but with the time I logged on the other two legs, I'm still confident I would have finished in under an hour this year and possibly finished higher up. However, I did have one of the top 10 fastest swim legs in the whole race. To counter that, I also had one of the top 10 slowest transitions. I probably could have shaved a minute off my race if I didn't take my sweet effing time getting to the pool.

Jess, Kelly and I hanging out during the post-race raffle with our new bling.

Jessica and Kelly each won prizes in the raffle and Jess was given a medal for finishing first in her age group which was kind of cool. She acted very surprised and with good reason, because when the official results were posted today, she actually took fourth in her age group. What a fraud! Haha! Also, ran into some old friends and some acquaintances I work out with at the Roy Rec Center. After the race, I joined Jon McBride and Gentry Reinhart, -- my old pals from The Signpost -- for some lunch at the Shooting Star Saloon in Huntsville and we followed that up with a Weber State football game (also in the snow). The day still didn't end, as I took Jen to an Ogden Mustangs hockey game later that night (also in a cold ice rink).

The famous Shooting Star. My stomach
 didn't sit right for the rest of
 the day, though. Worth it...

What a day... A cold one.

Total distance: 3.1 miles running, 300 yards swimming

Bike ride in the sun

I took the bike out for a test run today, given the Turkey Tri is only a few days away. I borrowed it from Jen's boss and took it to The Bike Shoppe in Ogden where they were offering free bike tune ups. When I took it out today it was a really smooth ride. I was a little bit nervous going down the main drag by my house where there is heavy traffic, but I did my best to follow the traffic rules and stay clear of cars in the lane to my left.

My borrowed ride. It's real nice, so I'm worried about hurting it.

I went to where I thought was three miles before turning around and made great time going back, since it was slightly downhill. The sun was out and I wore a dark shirt, so I felt like I was cooking in the end, but it still turned out to be a nice little workout and test ride. After looking at the map, I ended up going a bit farther than I thought.

Total distance: 6.5 miles cycling

New stationary bike record

I don't have a ton of time to blog, so I'm going to keep it short. I went to the gym with the hopes of getting a long cardio session in. After about 20 minutes on the bike, I noticed I was keeping an abnormally accelerated pace, but I didn't feel any worse for wear, so I kept at it. I poured it on in the final 10 minutes knowing I could surpass my one-hour goal on the bike, which is a little over 17.5 miles. I finished with 18.04, which for sure was a new personal-best. The machine claims I burned about 750 calories and I believe it. There was a sizeable sweat puddle I accumulated on the floor that I had to wipe up. Gross...

Total distance: 18.5 miles

November kickstart

I think I may have overdid it with my run a few days ago, because my knee has been in a pit of pain. More like discomfort, actually. So I decided a short, but intense bike ride would suffice for today. I wanted to see how fast I could pull off a 10k ride, so I poured it on for the entire session. I managed to finish in 20:28. I was hoping to get under 20 minutes, but that was still pretty good.

My drippy suit hanging to dry in the locker room.

After, I went down to the pool for a swim. My shoulder still bothers me, as always, and I slept on it funny last night, so it was particularly sore this morning. I decided to use fins during my laps, so it would take some of the strain off it. It worked perfectly. I was able to get some decent cardio and yardage in without any real pain.

On a side note, thanks to those of you who still read my blog every now and again. I'm sure they've gotten kind of dull after a while, but last month, I set a new record for page views since I started this thing. THANKS A TON!!! It's very encouraging.

Total distance: 6.5 miles cycling, 1,400 yards swimming