Week 7 report

It's been a long week and I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to keep it short in this update. Last week wasn't ideal, but overall, I managed to keep myself under control regarding what I put in my mouth. I had a couple of bad days, but they weren't so overboard that I couldn't recover with exercise.

I haven't seen this territory in about eight years. Holy crap!

That being said, I still finished the week in the red with my remaining calories, which is a first since I started this. I only managed to work out four times, rather than five, but I think it's OK to miss every once in a while. I still managed to lose a little bit more weight, dropping 0.8 pounds this week. When I stepped on the scale on Wednesday, I couldn't help myself as I instantly grabbed my iPad and took a photo. I weighed in at 169.8 pounds, which puts me very close to a 10-pound weight loss since March 13. I haven't seen the 160's since I was 19 years old (almost eight years ago), so I was pretty damn excited.

However, the bloody push-up challenge fell through after less than four days. It was simply too much, too fast, and my shoulder told me so. It was in terrible pain for several days after and it's still twinging a little bit. All I can do is ice the crap out of it before starting my swim class next Tuesday. Oh well. I still managed to get in almost 350 push-ups that I wouldn't have otherwise done.

Till next week. Less than five pounds to go!

Week 4 report

I'm officially one third of the way there.

I struggled mightily with my calories this week, but still managed to stay a hair under my weekly allotment. That being said, I maintained my hold on about 37% calories from fat, which didn't climb along with my increased intake. The only way I managed to stay ahead was with an extra session at the gym on Sunday, which earned me a bunch of extra calories.

Wearing down the final hole in my belt. It's time to cut out a new one.

My shoulder is still in a state of despair. I've been in considerable pain since last week's cortisone injection, which is what I feared would happen. I began my rotator cuff exercises, but they haven't been pleasant. I know I am not icing it nearly enough, as I keep forgetting to bring my shoulder pack to work with me. I signed up for a swimming class on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Weber State for the summer (tuition is free because I'm staff now), and I'm nervous I won't be ready for it in time. It begins in May and I want my shoulder to be somewhat stable before I begin. I hope the class works out, because I need to be very careful not to log too many yards in it, but I think the instructor will cater to it just fine as there will be swimmers of all levels in the course.

Other than all that, there isn't a ton of new information to report. My weight was 172.6 pounds this morning, marking a 6.6-pound total weight loss since starting this regimen four weeks ago. That's 1.65 pounds per week, which is definitely above what I was aiming for. I'm still nervous about how my body fat percentage has been affected, but I'm confident it is on the decline. Six pounds isn't a ton of weight, but I can actually start to see some small changes in my physique in the mirror, now. Also, I'm out of holes on my belt again. Another good sign...

Week 3 report

There really isn't a whole ton to add to this week's update. I'm still going strong and I'm still on pace for my weight goal. I weighed in at 174 even this morning (a 1.4 lb loss), which still puts me ahead of the curve for my 12-week goal.

This is almost identical to what I had done yesterday. Rather than getting the injection into my bursa sac again (like in this image), the doctor shot the cortisone down into my shoulder joint, which was much deeper and much more painful.

The nutrition has been going well, albeit not stellar. I maintained 36 percent of my calories from fat and 17 percent from protein, which is about the same as last week. No significant improvement there, but I stayed under my calorie intake goal for the week and it's obviously paying off on the scale.

In the fitness department, I basically rotated between cycling and running/hiking. One day, I'd knock out 30 vigorous minutes on the stationary bike, and the next I'd go for 40 minutes (one day I even did a full hour) on the treadmill, alternating 10 minutes of brisk walking on a heavy incline and 10 minutes of running at 5.5 miles per hour.

I haven't been able to do as much weight training as I wanted, due to ongoing shoulder issues, but I did do some, including a difficult ab workout session after the bike on Friday. I had an MRI done a few weeks back to see if there is an actual tear in my rotator cuff and thankfully, there isn't. However, there was some significant "fraying" throughout my tendons, and the doctor was unable to give me a straightforward solution as to what's next. Surgery to clean up the fraying is an option, but an expensive one that I cannot afford with the baby coming, and it's not even guaranteed to fix the problem.

So ... he filled up my joint with cortisone yesterday (different from the injection I got in my bursa sac well over a year ago) and told me to start doing the weight-bearing exercises on my rotator cuff religiously once the initial soreness of the shot wears off. That should limit any exercise-related pain while I strengthen the tendons as much as possible.

It may work ... it may not. I suppose only time will tell.

Cycling madness

It's strange how my exercise has evolved over the past two years. I started out doing primarily swimming, then added some running, then slowed down the swimming and added some cycling. After my shoulder and knee injuries, that's turned into mostly cycling with a bit of running and almost no swimming.

My shoulder still hurts on a regular basis, despite hitting the pool only a few times this past month. I'm truly just weary of going back to the doctor, so I can get another bullshit diagnosis that doesn't tell me anything new and doesn't offer any new way to fix it. I'm no doctor, but I really think my rotator cuff is torn, especially after reading about Gordon's surgery and the type of pain he had before it. That would explain why it continues to hurt even though I rarely swim and I regularly do the tendinitis strengthening exercises I was given after my last visit to the clinic.

Oh well. Tons of cycling seems to be working for now, although I miss the water so much. I just don't consider myself a dryland guy. Prospects for a new job are in the works and with Jen being pregnant, I want to start fresh with a new workout regimen and better diet when the new year starts. I have to set an example for the rest of the family.

Today though, I just rode the bike before doing some light lifting and ab work. I signed up for a 30-minute circuit training session at my gym tomorrow, so I'm kind of excited for it.

Total distance: 9.7 miles cycling

Shoulder rehab

The last week was a crazy one. My mother was hospitalized, so Jen and I were taking care of my 7-year-old nephew, Carter while she was out of commission. Combine that with work and cleaning her house/lawn throughout the week, I didn't manage any exercise and I feel terrible about it. Today, though, I was excited to finally start the exercises my doctor gave me, so I can begin rehabilitating my shoulder. There are all sorts of different ones, mostly involving my own body weight, a resistance band and light dumbbells.

This is one of the exercises I worked on today. This dude is using an apple, but I had a 10-pound dumbbell instead. He looks about as pleased as I was.

I just did those today, and plan on hitting the Roy Rec Center tomorrow. It had been closed for the past two weeks during renovations. My knee is still tender, so I'll probably work on the bike a little and perhaps throw in a light swim. Some weight training is a must, too.

What's next? Half marathon?

It's been a full week since Bear Lake, which is the longest I've gone without working out since I started exercising again over a year and a half ago. I saw the specialist on Tuesday and, to my disappointment, he really didn't give me any new information about my shoulder. The only thing I learned is that I haven't seriously damaged anything, so surgery or anything like won't be required. He offered me another cortisone injection, but I turned it down, because it only seemed to piss my shoulder off even more last time.

It's torture to use, but it is very highly reviewed for helping with IT band injuries.

I think I'm going to take one more full week off from swimming while trying to strengthen my tendons a bit with exercises the doc gave me. In the meantime, I bought a foam roller to help toughen up and stretch out my IT band in my knee. I say this because Wes is trying to talk me into running the Huntsville Half Marathon with him in a little over a month. That isn't a ton of time to train, but cardio-wise, I think I'm already in moderate shape. A half marathon and perhaps even a full marathon are both on my bucket list, but the knee kind of stopped me the last time I trained for one, although I was making very good progress, reaching eight miles at one point.

I'll start tomorrow with a 3-4 mile run with Wes and see how it feels.

Race report: Bear Lake crossing

What a 24 hours it has been. The Bear Lake swim turned out to be a success, although at times I felt like a total failure. Anyway, here's a breakdown of the day.

The best smile I could muster after the race.

Jen and I stayed at a campground the night before on the Idaho (east) side of the lake. There was nothing else available in the camping department, even though I checked six weeks in advance. We both slept like crap, due to noisy neighbors and a windy night. We both probably got less than two hours of sleep. Not a good start. In the morning, before the sun was even up, we drove around the lake to the marina in Garden City to get shuttled to the start, which was at Cisco Beach, close to where we were camping, but we wanted our car to be on the other side and ready for us when the race was over. On the bus, we chatted with Chad, Goody and his support kayaker, Lang while we drove back around the lake to the starting point. It's always fun to see those guys and I hope to see them more often this winter in some polar bear plunges.

The start of the race at Cisco Beach. I pilfered this photo from Goody's blog.

Jen and I got the kayak loaded up at the start, I did some light stretching and waded around in the water waiting for the start. A wet suit swimmer next to me was complaining about the cold water and it made me laugh, because I thought it was really warm. I looked over at Goody when she said that and he just grinned. I didn't crack any jokes about her finger paddles and flippers she had on for the swim either.

All is well and progress is good about halfway across.

The race started and we were off. I felt very good early, even though I fell to the back of the pack within the first mile or two. I was only in front of one other swimmer at that point. The water was calm, and Jen had me going at a nice pace. It wasn't until about Mile 4 or so that I started to have trouble. There were supposed to be buoys marking every mile across the lake, but some were nowhere in sight, except way off to the left and right of us. We probably followed the wrong one for a good 40 minutes before realizing the buoys had drifted and I wasted some very valuable "shoulder time" as I called it. Because not long after that, the pain started and my left arm deteriorated quickly after that. It got really bad, so I immediately went into breaststroke. For most of the remainder of the race, I alternated breaststroke and freestyle, but for a while, I couldn't get more than 20-30 strokes at a time before going back to breast. I had fallen into last place and the nearest swimmer was beyond sight, so I knew I was very far back.

Plugging away with my breaststroke

At that point, after another feed, I really wanted to stop. The race organizers were in a speedboat and were constantly zipping around me causing a strong wake and it made progress very slow. I was pissed off, in a lot of pain, but Jen wouldn't let me quit, even though I probably took a lot of my anger out on her. She pointed out a buoy to me after talking with the guys on that boat, claiming it was the Mile 5 mark, even though I probably had already done at least six. I could see the marina way off in the distance and those last "two" miles were torture. Every time I looked up, it didn't appear any closer. Later, Jen said I was pretty much swimming in place because there was a heavy current coming out of the marina due to a constant stream of boats exiting the docks. It didn't help that the same organizers were turning up the water all around me. I was beat down, both physically and emotionally.

After what seemingly took forever, my shoulder went completely numb, which probably isn't good, but the pain went away, so I said screw it and went back to freestyle for good. I finally saw another swimmer about 300 yards ahead as I finally approached the marina and Jen just looked at me with a stone face and said, "If you have anything left in the tank, now is the time. You can catch him." That got me amped and I really poured it on with my strokes, even though I was still moving slow. I caught the guy and passed him with ease as we rounded the rocks on the corner of the marina for the final stretch to the beach. I thought I was crawling at a slow pace, but when I passed the guy, I felt like a missile in the water, because he was BARELY moving, making progress in inches, so I cruised past him.

The final stretch.

Jen and I at the finish. Note the guy and his kayer I barely beat behind me.

Zonked. I couldn't hear very well for a while after. My sinuses are still messed up this morning.

I could hear Tim and Jen's parents cheering me on during the final few hundred yards which was awesome. They made the trip up just to watch me finish, which I can't thank them enough for. I stumbled out of the water and gave Jen a big hug. My watch read 4:21.34, which was well ahead of my goal of finishing under five hours. I didn't finish last either, which would have been a huge disappointment to me. Apparently, I also passed one of the relay teams during that two-mile torture stretch, which was kind of cool. I did the whole thing myself and still beat them. That boosted my ego a bit. Jen claims I probably ended up swimming around 10 miles, although I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was probably closer to eight, or maybe nine at the most, but it was still more than I initially planned or trained for. The race was supposed to be a seven-mile crossing.

I'm so glad to have such a supportive wife. Jen was also hurting from paddling that whole way, fighting the same current and wake that I was and the whole time, she stayed patient with my childish complaints and didn't let me stop, no matter how much I whined. Finishing was quite an accomplishment for her, too and I'm glad we did it together. I'm super proud of her.

Jen is the best wife and support paddler I
could ever ask for.

Overall, I'm glad I did the swim, but it was very poorly organized. I had a hard time getting info leading up to the race, the shirts were cheap, there was ZERO food, water, medals or anything for that matter at the finish. The "marked" course was non-existant, due to the drifting buoys, which in a race that long, is a pretty big thing to screw up. Not to mention the damn race organizers buzzing around me in that boat like a fly throughout the last half of the race. I heard similar complaints from many other swimmers at the beach after the finish. The only real praise I have for the first annual Bear Lake Swim, was the shuttle service before the start. That was nice, I guess.

We went to lunch with Tim, Greg and Anita and we both were pretty much zombies until finally getting home at about 9 p.m.. We immediately fell asleep after showering and twelve hours later, we both feel like we got hit by a truck, but it was totally worth it. Now, it's off to the doctor to see a specialist about my shoulder on Tuesday...

P.S.: I didn't realize it until this morning, but I also passed the 200-mile mark with this race. Kind of a cool coincidence.

UPDATE: The results are posted and the "relay" I thought I beat, was actually another individual swimmer, so I finished third from last, instead of second from last. 14th out of 16 swimmers in my division. Sweet!

Total distance: 8-9 miles. Not really sure, exactly.

Here's a few more photos from the race.

We were all smiles the night before.

Bear Lake at sunset. I was ready to cross that sucker in the morning.

Chad and Goody on the shuttle to the start. They both are first-class
 swimmers and a lot of fun to be around. Utah open water swimmers really
have a great support system.

F*$#@ng shoulders!!!

Well, bad news today. After Tuesday's five-mile swim (almost) I woke up the next day with the worst shoulder pain ever. Which would have been tolerable if it were just the one. But now, my other shoulder has joined in on the act. I've never had a single problem with it until now, and I'm certain it's tendinitis just like the other. Exact same kind of pain.

It's left me with some serious thinking to do. I have to consider the long-term consequences my body might suffer if I continue marathon swimming. Nothing I've tried over the past year has really worked, and icing constantly has kept it manageable, but I can't do it forever. I think Bear Lake might have to be the final "long" open water swim for me. I refuse to give up swimming and I'm pretty sure I can keep at it, training for pool events where the focus is more on intensity rather than volume. So here's the game plan ... for now.

1. No more swimming until Bear Lake. My shoulders are in such bad shape that I can't risk injuring them further before my big swim. I feel my cardio level is ready for the event, so I'm not too concerned about finishing in that regard. I just hope my shoulders can hold up to get across that sucker.

2. See a doctor, and actually get the work done to properly diagnose and treat my problem (MRI and possibly ultrasound).
3. After Bear Lake, take 2-5 weeks off (or whatever the doctor suggests) from swimming. I know I'll be in considerable pain after Bear Lake is all said and done, so I will need to take some time to heal. In reality, if I want to fully heal, I need to take months, rather than weeks off, but I don't know if I can do that again. I really need to work on my kicking if I want to improve pool times, so I'll probably do regular work with a kickboard while I rest my shoulders.

4. Swim in the SDRC Masters meet in mid-November. I hope six or so weeks of solid, intense training will get me ready. I might set daily yardage limits on myself, though, to keep from furthering the destruction on my shoulders. I have a few goals I'd like to meet, beating some times from last year and perhaps trying some new events.

As far as after that goes, I just don't know. I will probably swim in the open water races the following year, but they will have to be the shorter 1-mile events. Anything more probably won't be possible or even good for me.

Anyway, Kelly and I went to the gym this morning and got some leg work in. I rode the bike for 30 minutes, followed by squats, leg presses, lunges, mountain climbers and some ab work.

Total distance: 7.35 miles cycling

Kicks galore

I was supposed to get up early and swim at Pineview with Kelly this morning, but despite icing last night, when I woke up, my shoulder was throbbing in pain. I've been able to keep it at bay, for the most part, with a vigilant regimen of icing during the past few weeks, but for some reason it didn't help this time.
I didn't want to skip today, so I figured I'd work on my legs a bit, although I hardly kick at all when I swim. I went to the Roy Rec Center to see how much kick work I could manage in the one-hour window.

I felt like this little kid when using a kickboard.
Although she's probably better at it than me.
I'm a total amateur at it.

Here's what I pulled off
300 free kick with fins
200 breast kick
300 free kick with fins
200 breast kick
150 free kick (this was brutal)
150 free kick with fins
200 breast kick easy (cool down)

Holy crap, was I hurting! My legs aren't used to getting that much work and I was feeling it on the first lap. I was hoping to swim a mile of kicks in the hour, but I simply couldn't do it. My fitness level below the waist is not at all where it should be. I was also surprised as to how exhausting it was in the cardio department. I think I will definitely start working more kicking sets into my swims after open water season is over. I'm sure that will help some of my pool times immensely.

Total distance: 1,500 yards

Body's breaking down again

Sometimes I feel like I am truly not meant to be an athlete. Every time I think my body is getting stronger, a nagging injury surfaces to say, "Hold on a sec there, bud. I'm not gonna just let you do whatever you want." It has been nothing short of maddening.

Immobilized with ice packs on both my
shoulder and knee after getting home from
the gym. Don't I look happy?

Last Thursday, I started feeling severe pain in my shoulder again. Not the normal achy soreness that I've had ever since I injured it last year, but a legit pain. I took the weekend off after Friday's short swim and it hasn't improved at all. To make matters worse, my knee started acting up again while I was at the gym today.

It seems like I have an injury in both parts of my body that are crucial to getting any sort of cardio workout. When my shoulder hurts, I can't run because of the knee, and visa-versa. It makes it impossible to effectively train for swim events, triathlons or even that elusive half-marathon I've been wanting to do. I've never been so upset with my job and the incredibly shitty insurance I receive as a "benefit." I'm a journalist, so I'm not exactly raking in the dough and just to get an MRI done on one part of my body is going to cost me more out of pocket than I have. And yeah, I'd need two of them.

Anyway, today's session was good, other than the knee pain. I ran 1.5 miles, cycled for 20 minutes, ran for another mile, and cycled for 15 more minutes. My knee started hurting during the second run session. After some extensive stretching in the sauna, I did an easy swim for a cool down, even though my shoulder is on fire.

I don't know what the hell to do.

Total distance: 9.6 miles cycling, 2.5 miles running, 600 yards swimming

Short and sweet

I don't feel like writing much today. The cold weather deterred me from going to Pineview again this morning, so I went to the pool for a short swim. I'm trying to keep my shoulders fresh for Saturday's race, so today's swim was short and sweet.

Warm up
200 free
Core
5 x 100 free (on 1:45)
5 x 200 free (on 3:30)
6 x 50 sprints (on :45)
Cool down
200 breast

I'll probably go once more this week for a very short swim, just to keep my shoulders active, but no real workouts. Maybe I'll do a good bike session tomorrow.

Total distance: 2,200 yards

Bleh....

Gonna make it short today. My shoulder is still sore from Tuesday's weightlifting and push-up session, so I put off my swim for one more day. I have no choice but to swim tomorrow if I want to get my third swim in this week. However, I rode the stationary bike for 50 minutes today and got my sweat on. I wish I could have been in the pool, but at least this was something.

Total distance: 12.1 miles cycling

Longing for water

When I was completely out of action in the swimming department, I often found myself sitting on the stationary bike, looking down at the pool and wishing I could be in the water. With my shoulder a bit sore today, I went with a little dryland training and cycled for about 30 minutes. It didn't last long before I gave in and ran downstairs to the locker room, slipped on my suit and jumped in the pool for a few laps.

I didn't want to go all out, considering I was originally planning on resting my shoulder today, so after a 250-yard warm up, I turned on my watch and swam for 20 minutes, managing 1,100 yards without really going faster than an easy pace.

Total distance: 1,350 yards swimming, 7.75 miles cycling

A hair over two miles

I'm not feeling terribly wordy today, so I'm going to keep it short. My shoulders were still feeling sore from last Friday's weightlifting, but I went for a swim anyway.

Warm up
250 free
Core
3,300 free
Cool down
100 breast

I didn't plan on going for a new 2012 mark today, but after the first 1,200 yards or so -- during which my shoulders were very tight and felt like bags of sand -- I felt like I could go the distance and up my distance a bit. I finished strong with 3,300 yards, which was 300 yards longer than my last mark, and I probably could have kept going. I didn't want to press my luck, though, and I am currently icing the crap out of my shoulder now.

Total distance: 3,650 yards

Brief break for shoulders

I was planning on swimming today, but my shoulder has been a bit achy since Wednesday, so I decided to give it an extra day to rest. Instead, I hit the bike for the first time in a while. I went for about 45 minutes while reading my book and followed it up with some light weight lifting. The focus was on my triceps, biceps and chest today, while being careful not to aggravate my shoulder. Not too shabby. I'll hit the pool tomorrow morning for one last swim this week.

Total distance: 12.15 miles cycling

Open water practice

Every now and again, I'm stuck in a lane right between two swimmers who don't have particularly good strokes or old guys that flop around in the water a lot. The combined effect is a choppy, wavy lane in the middle, the one I'm trying to swim laps in. Every four or five strokes, I come up for a breath and get a mouthful of water from the wave hitting me in the face. There are no lane lines to work as wave absorbers either. I get used to it after a little bit, and to be honest, today it was kind of fun, because it felt like I was in open water again. Good practice, I suppose...

My shoulder was still a bit achy from last week, so I started small this week. Here's what I did.

Warm up
150 free
Core
10 x 150 (100 free, 50 breast on 3:00)
4 x 50 free sprints on 1:00
Cool down
150 breast

Not a terribly productive day, but I plan on cranking up the yardage on Thursday. I'm going to attempt my first 1-mile bilateral breathing swim.

Total distance: 2,000 yards

First day back in the pool

Today was the moment of truth. Although I don't see my doctor until tomorrow, today marked four weeks since I stopped swimming in order to let my shoulder heal. I was so excited to get back in the water, I honestly couldn't sleep last night. I tossed and turned in anticipation.

When I got to the gym, first, I ran 1.5 miles just to get my blood pumping. I followed it with a 20-minute ride on the stationary bike. I wanted to do these before swimming, just in case my shoulder wasn't ready and couldn't handle it. I wanted to be sure I got at least some exercise.

Once in the pool, I wanted to take it nice and easy, just to gauge where my shoulder and my stamina are at. Here's what I did.

Warm up
100 free easy
Core
2x500 free (alternating free and breast every 50)
Cool down
100 breast
During my warm up, I could feel a twinge of pain every time I pulled with my left arm. Immediately, my worst fears were realized. Before, there was minimal pain during swimming and it usually came later in the day. But this time it hurt like hell during my warm up. However, after some deep stretching, it felt loads better. Perhaps my rotator cuff wasn't used to the crawling motion of freestyle when I warmed up and it wasn't quite used to it. I've been extra careful not to use my arm in that motion and I think it just needed a minute to adjust.

My core workout was simple and I'm not too worried about yardage yet. Just to be sure I wasn't overdoing it with the continuous motion of freestyle, I did two sets of 500 alternating freestyle and breaststroke every 50 yards. My shoulder didn't hurt at all. I was a bit gassed and I'm still not very accustomed to bilateral breathing, but I did it during all of my freestyle yards. I cooled down with a slow 100 breast.

It's been about four hours since my workout and so far, my shoulder isn't aching. I feel a tiny bit of discomfort every now and again, but overall, I'm pleased with the result. I iced it once right when I got home and I'll do it again tonight. I'm in high spirits about it now, but maybe I'll be singing a different tune tomorrow.

Total distance: 1,200 yards swimming, 1.5 miles running, 5 miles cycling

Playing Sherlock and a new cycling best

Today was a great day for two reasons. The first, I think I may have found the reason my shoulder isn't healing as fast as I'd like. The second, I hit a new personal-best on the bike today.

The shoulder: Two days ago, Jen and I bought a new bed. We've been kind of waiting for our tax return to do it, but now that we have the dough, we bought it. It's an upgrade from a full size to a queen and during the past four months or so, I've been sleeping on the floor because it's too crowded with Jen, myself and two dogs. I genuinely sleep better on the floor. However, I'm just now realizing that my shoulder pain almost exactly overlaps the time frame where I've been sleeping on the floor. Being a side sleeper, it makes sense that it could be the reason my shoulder isn't healing right. The inner Sherlock Holmes in me failed to put two-and-two together.

The new bed. Now it's time to paint the bedroom.

I know it's only been two days on the new bed, but I haven't had even a wince of pain in those two days. I'm going back to have my yearly check up with the doctor next week, so I'll double check to see if that's a possibility. Here's hoping.

The bike: Today, I woke up determined to push myself hard during my workout. I had to wait a few minutes for my favorite bike to get freed up, but I took that time to stretch and warm up on the indoor track. Once I got on, my goal was to beat my previous best distance of 17.5 miles in an hour. I set it for my normal pace (level 8), but this time, every 15 minutes I'd increase it to level 9 for 2 1/2 minutes, then level 10 for another 2 1/2 minutes. Then, I'd drop it down to level 8 again. I did that for three increments of 20 minutes and I think that extra 15 minutes of higher levels did the job, because I managed 17.65 miles before doing a two-minute cool down.

Did a hair over 18 miles if you include my cool down.

By the end, I was sweating particularly bad, so I knew I didn't slack off. I followed it up with some shoulder work with dumbbells and sat in the sauna for about 15 minutes and did some nice deep stretching. My stupid nose started bleeding in the shower, though. I probably should have hydrated better.

Total distance: 18 miles cycling

Doctors suck!

I'm starting to lose faith in doctors. Not only have I been told separate things by different doctors regarding what's wrong with my shoulder, the more they continue to try and figure it out, the longer I'm stuck out of the pool. My January 3 trip revealed I still have tendinitis and with a cortisone shot I should be good to go in 4-6 weeks. Well, it's been over three weeks and I haven't noticed even a bit of improvement in the shoulder pain. I've done everything the doctor asked, including regular icing, stretching, an ibuprofen regimen and I've steered clear of any exercise that involves lifting my arms laterally... to no avail.


My doctor feels strangly similar to Leo Spaceman (from 30 Rock)

Perhaps I'm just being impatient. Maybe the pain will magically disappear in the next three weeks, but I highly doubt it. It seems like I'm running out of options and I don't know what to do. There must be something seriously wrong, considering how much it continues to hurt and how much I've been pampering it.
Anyway, in the meantime I've still been training for a half marathon. It sounds like there is a strong possibility the Salt Lake City marathon isn't happening this year, due to recent turmoil with finances, so I'm trying to find a race I can still train for. The Ogden Marathon has been sold out for some time, but they hold regular drawings for people who donate to their various charities. I went and donated to one of the Goal Foundation's parter organizations this week's, so perhaps, with a little luck, I can win a spot and register in the Ogden half. Here's hoping.

Today I did a nice easy 45 minutes on the bike, followed by some light weight lifting and did some serious stretching on my shoulder in the sauna. I did my 6-mile run on Monday, although I initially wanted to do it last Saturday. I'm still on for my first 7-mile run this weekend, though.

Total distance: 12.4 miles cycling

Cortisone shot = No surgery, but still no swimming

Well, today was one of those good-news, bad-news kind of days. First, I locked my keys in the house when I left for the gym, so I had to walk about 15 minutes to get there. When I was done, Jen had to drive home from work to unlock the house for me. Yeah, I'm stupid. Anyway, I went to the gym to try and get a swim in before my appointment with the doctor later in the morning, because I feared it might be the last swim I would get to do in a while. Unfortunately, I was right...



This is the procedure I had done this morning. Yes, it hurt.

The good news was that my shoulder didn't even require an x-ray or MRI, which is a huge relief on my wallet. The doctor could tell I didn't have a tear or any bone issues based off the exercises he had me do. Fortunately, it's still just the same old issue of tendonitis and it simply refuses to heal, even though I've brought my swimming to a screeching halt. I had to get a cortisone injection in my shoulder, which was not fun and that's when the doctor told me the bad news; no swimming for 4-6 weeks. Zero.

It could be worse, though. Surgery would have likely kept me out of the pool for months, so hopefully when it heals properly and I start swimming again, I will start from scratch and work on having a more efficient stroke with bilateral breathing. That way, I don't put so much wear and tear on the one shoulder. It's still very frustrating though. I put off going to the doctor so I could afford to get an x-ray or MRI done at the beginning of the new year, and I didn't even need one. I could have gone in and had this procedure done months ago. I'd probably be back in the pool already.

The doctor also looked at my foot and told me my pain was because I didn't have the right running shoes, which sucks, because I just bought new ones and it's too late to return them now. Hopefully some ice for the rest of the week will keep the swelling down and some good insoles on Saturday morning will suffice to get me through my 10k. I have to revise my exercise goals for the year (I know, already), with swimming still not an option, so I'm going to drop my swimming goal down to 150 miles and up my cycling goal to 900 miles and my running goal up to 325 miles. Hopefully that will be enough to give me the extra cardio needed to make up for lost time in the pool.

Anyway, I managed just over a mile in the pool today, my last swim for a while....

Total distance: 1,850 yards