Fun swim at Causey Reservoir

Today Kelly and I took a little trip up to Causey Reservoir for a swim. I had a terrible week in the exercise department, only working out once before today, so I had no excuses and needed to swim. Plus, the weather was great.

This isn't a photo of us, but it is of the same "smaller" rocks we jumped off. The bigger one was probably only 15-20 feet higher.

When we got there, we immediately realized we forgot to bring a camera. Oh well. We got in and just went for it, swimming a little over a half mile out to some rocks were a bunch of people were cliff jumping into the water. The biggest jump was at least 70 feet up and pretty intimidating, but I took my safe swimmer off, stowed it on a rock and climbed right up. Everyone was just standing there daring each other to jump, with nobody really doing anything, so I just went for it. Kelly told me after that he was a little stunned I just went up and jumped without even thinking about it.

We then swam back across the reservoir to another area of cliff jumping and this one was a little smaller, so Kelly and I both went up and jumped off those a few times. We could see some dark clouds a ways off and decided it would be best to put our goggles back on and swim back. It was perfect timing, because just as we got out of the water, the wind started to pick up and rain began to trickle.

All in all, the weather and the lake itself were both beautiful and it was a very fun swim, even though my shoulder is very mad at me for it. Totally worth it...

Total distance: About 1.5 miles

Intense cardio after long rest

I took the last four days off from exercise in order to give my body a break. I'm no doctor, but that seemed like the logical thing to do given how bad my knee and shoulder were feeling. It seemed to work ... well, for my knee anyway. The pain went away, like it usually does after a week or so once it flares up, but unfortunately, despite doing absolutely nothing for four days, my shoulder hurts worse than ever. I'm almost certain there is serious damage in there.

Unlike before, I'm not just going to stop swimming for several months and hope it gets better. That obviously didn't work last time, so I'm going to swim as much as my shoulder can tolerate until I can afford to get an MRI done. More and more, though, it's looking like Bear Lake might not happen. I'm unsure if I'll have enough time to prepare myself for it. An athlete's worst mistake is underestimating a task that big. We will see. I don't want to count myself out just yet.

Anyway, I still would like to do the Layton Triathlon, so I figured I'd do some dry land cardio again. I knew running would just agitate my knee again, so I stuck to the bike for 40 minutes and then hit the treadmill, walking briskly on a heavy incline, which usually seems to kick my ass worse than running anyway. I did that for 30 minutes and then hit the weights. I made the mistake of trying some push-ups, which really made my shoulder scream at me, so I stopped right away.

Let's see what tomorrow has in store. One day at a time ...

Total distance: 11.7 miles cycling, 1.66 miles treadmill

Day at the beach

I joined Wes and Dani for an afternoon at Pineview Reservoir before heading into work. It was the first day in a while where the wind wasn't blowing, so it was perfect for a day at the beach. Jen was shacked up at home with a dislocated knee, so I felt kind of bad leaving her there, but she was in no shape to be swimming.

I didn't plan on doing any ACTUAL swimming, but it only took about two minutes once we got there for me to cave, slap on my Speedo and head out. I swam out to the first buoy with my safe swimmer and then turned around and went back. It probably wasn't more than half a mile. It was a nice little swim though, considering the sad state of my shoulder at the moment. I wish I would have taken pictures...

Total distance: 1,000 yards (roughly)

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

Another mini triathlon

I've been watching the Biggest Loser on Netflix a lot lately, and surprisingly, I've been craving dryland training because of it. So, today, I decided to do another little triathlon.

Rode the bike for 20 minutes first, then followed it up with another 20 minutes on the treadmill, although I walked this time, with the incline set up high. I actually ended up burning more calories that way.

Once I got down to the pool, I met a few people who are training for some upcoming races, including a gal who is also doing the Bear Lake Crossing in August. Based off what I heard from her, though, it sounds like she is severely underestimating how difficult it will be. She's never done open water before and hasn't been swimming more than two miles per week. She doesn't even plan on training in open water until two weeks before the race. But she claims to be swimming her entire life and that somehow qualifies her to not train properly. Who knows, perhaps I'm the one who is underestimating her. I hope she gets it together and manages to pull it off.

Total distance: 1,500 yards swimming, 5.55 miles cycling, 1 mile walking (inclined)

Mini triathlon

I think I'm doing the Layton Triathlon next month, mostly as a means to keep me motivated and exercising while I prepare for my Bear Lake crossing in August. I figured it was time to mix it up a little bit so I did the bike, treadmill and swam today.

First
Cycling 20 minutes (hard)
Second
Running 1.5 miles (moderate)
Third
Swim 1,000 yards (hard)

I ended up getting a decent workout, despite not doing any one thing for longer than 20 minutes. Not a bad day considering I had zero knee pain and limited shoulder discomfort (it usually hurts when I swim two days in a row).

Total distance: 5.6 miles cycling, 1.5 miles running, 1,000 yards swimming

Milk was a bad choice

Here's some free advice. Don't drink milk immediately before a workout. I made the mistake of having a bowl of cereal less than 30 minutes before getting in the pool today and I paid dearly for it. Every time I hit the wall to flip around, my stomach felt like the inside of a washing machine. It made for a long, miserable swim.

I must have looked something like this when I felt like retching.

Warm up
250 free
Core
500 free
750 free
1,000 free
5 x 100 free sprints
300 kick with fins
Cool down
Skipped it

When I hit the wall after my first 500, I felt closer to vomiting than I have in a very long time during exercise. Anita looked down at me from her chair and must have seen the look on my face and asked if I was OK. I took an extra minute to rest and resumed my ladder sets. After doing the sprints, I gave up and did kicks for the remainder of the hour, giving up on my goal of hitting two miles for the day. I came close though... Yuck!

Total distance: 3,300 yards