Training Helps

I'm pretty sure that I've wrapped up my triathlon season...its been pretty short and I did my third tri last Saturday. I did the Telos Turkey Tri in Orem, UT and it ended up being a great day for a tri in November. Because its a bit cold this time of year the swim was indoor and so the race was reverse order (run, bike, swim). It was also a shorter race than I've ever done; we ran a 5k, biked only 10 miles, and then swam only 350 meters. Really the distance of the swim was a great disadvantage to me, however it was nice cutting like 13 minutes of the race time.
One big problem that I suffered from was a lack of preparation, training actually helps and I didn't do very much of it to get ready for the race. I haven't been swimming at all really and I stopped biking about 3 weeks ago because of the cold weather, the only thing I've even been doing sporadically is running and even those haven't been very quality runs. I'd like to find some races for the winter but have no idea where they have winter races and how I would train for them but we'll see.

Time to re-dedicate

Its been quite a while now since a wrote in here about anything. The last week in July I did the
Spudman Tri in Burley, Idaho. I did okay but really wasn't prepared for it the way that I should have been. As a result I ended up cramping really bad for half of the run...it was pretty miserable. Since that race I haven't really been training too hard at all. I've been riding my bike fairly consistently but my running has been sporadic at best and swimming non existent. I've managed to pack on some extra pounds around the mid section and really I just don't feel very good about myself right now. So its time to once again dedicate myself to training. Hopefully I've given my knee ample time to heal and I'll be good to go. Really I think that running is the core of my training process, its what motivates me to get better and better and I work my other trainings around its schedule. First thing first I need a training plan....time to get to work.
Train hard and win big!

A Depressing Day

It has been 18 days since I last ran more than 50 yards. Today as I was driving I saw a ton of people out for jogs and I was getting the urge to get out there and join them. Not being able to run has really been pretty depressing for me, if it weren't for swimming and cycling I would probably be hating the whole world right now. As I was driving and feeling this urge to get out there and join the pack, I managed to talk myself out of it as I knew my knee was still hurt....but then I saw her. There she was trotting along without a care in the world just enjoying life to its fullest; she was an overweight over-aged women. That's when I started getting pissed! How is it that a fat old women can run and I a 23 year old in shape kid can't?! So I threw out all reason and decided to finally strap on the running shoes and go out for a run. I decided that I would stop running as soon as my knee first felt pain.
I started out feeling great, had a decent pace going but wasn't pushing myself hard by any means. The first mile went by and all was good, I actually began to think that maybe during my forced time off the knee had got better. At mile 2 I realized that it was all in vain as my knee suddenly started hurting just as bad as before, so I walked back to the truck cussing the whole way. Looks like I'm still injured. Really sucks!
I'm pretty worried about my race that's coming up in a month and a half, I need to train for it by running...not just swimming and biking.

Saturday Race Day

So I've now done a triathlon and I can say it was pretty sweet. I was way nervous on Friday night and once Saturday rolled around I couldn't even eat. I felt like I was about to swim at state finals. Right before the race I actually managed to calm down though and kind of clear my head.
PRE-RACE
I woke up around 6:00 and drove to the Burnham's house cause we were all going up there together. I slept most of the way to the Toole, where the race was. Once we got there I really had no idea what to expect and I think that is why I was so nervous. We unloaded all the bikes and started setting up. For the first 15 minutes or so I just kind of watched all the other athletes trying to figure out what my routine would be. After getting checked in and all that I went over to the transition area and found my spot on the bike rack and got set up. This was more challenging than you might think because I didn't know what I was going to want between events, I basically just copied the guy next to me and it seemed to work okay. At 9:00 the olympic distance guys went off and that was kind of cool to see them swim, I still had an hour before my race though. People around me were getting there wetsuits on and stretching out. I thought that was kind of stupid cause we still had an hour to go, and I was right, I latter heard them complaining that they were sweating to death.
THE SWIM
I've never swam with a full wetsit on before, but I liked it. We were allowed to start in the water and actually get in about 4 minutes before we took off. I tried to warm up a little bit but didn't really know what to do so basically just floated there, this would come back to haunt me. I consider myself a decent swimmer so I went up close to the starting line, second row back. Well turns out that I do swim fairly fast and I should have gone first row, some idiot that was much slower than me made it so I was caught in the middle of the pack after about 15 seconds. At that point someone from behind decided that they were tired of being there too and actually swam right over me, surprisingly this didn't really affect me though and I decided to follow him. At this point I realized that open water swimming in a race is nothing like race swimming in a pool, it was either get out of my way or pay the price. I soon found myself doing exactly what had been done to me, I swam right over someone. I didn't help that the water was so murky, every stroke I would take I would lose sight of my arm at about the elbow. I did manage to kind of break away from the pack and with about 300 meters to go of the 250 M swim my arms started to get really super tight and cramp a little bit (next time I'll warm up better) but I still managed to finish and was withing the first 10 out of the water.
THE BIKE
Getting out of the water and running to the transition area was interesting because I had no shoes on and was kind of light headed, try swimming for 13 minutes then running. People were cheering though and I managed to keep going. The actual change took me longer than I wanted but once I was on my bike I was doing well. Still a little wet it was kind of cold at first, and it took my legs a good mile just to get warm. I was going pretty good though and actually managed to pass a couple of people, until the last 3 miles when the wind was suddenly in my face and my legs were getting tired. I pretty much died and people started passing me, even my "big" friend Matt passed me. I was also only wearing a jammer so by mile 6 my butt was getting pretty sore. I did finish though and going into the transition area I knew I was going to have to go pretty fast on the run to make up for my loss in the bike. My knee was beginning to give me a little trouble though.
THE RUN
I haven't done a whole lot of running right after biking and it would have really helped to have done some. My legs felt like jello and even though I wasn't at a lose of breath I just couldn't go. I managed to keep going though and pushed through the awkward feeling until I eventually got the blood going through my body a little bit. I could see my Matt about 200 meters away and all I wanted to do was beat him, I really didn't have anything much left in the tank though. By the halfway point (1.5 miles) I had closed the gap between us to about 80 meters. I really started to to try and catch him at that point and gave it all I had. My knee was killing me by this point but I caught him with about .25 miles to go. I hung with him a while then with about 200 meters to go there was a hill and I went numb and just started running as fast as I could. That last bit of the race is the best part because everyone is there cheering you on and you feel pretty good, once you finish just the sense of accomplishment is good enough to make you want to do it again.
THE RESULTS
So it turns out that I ended up beating Matt by 8 seconds and got first in my age group (20-24). They actually gave me a medal and it was all pretty cool. Overall I placed 25th and in all the guys I placed 22nd out of 112. Do for being my first tri ever I feel pretty good with the results.
The swim took me 12 min 44 sec for 750 M. My first transition 2:16. The bike took me 39:50 to go 12.4 miles. My second transition only took 39 seconds because all I had to do was get off my bike, I still don't have cycling shoes. The run 3.1 mile run I managed to do in 23:55 going at a 7:43 min/mile pace. Total time was 1:19:22. My goal was 1:15:00 but I'm still okay with my time. Really though it was a lot of fun and I'm psyched to do another race.If you click on the pic it will get a little bigger.

Just 2 Miles to Go

Last Friday I ran further than I have ever ran and went 9.4 miles, after doing so my ankle was kind of jacked up and I decided to take a few days off to recover; by doing this however I lost some of my drive for running. Three days passed and I finally motivated myself, against my will, to get out and run on Tuesday, I went 3.9 miles and the run hurt the whole way. The next day I decided to do the same run and it seemed to go a little better. Yesterday I came to the conclusion that I needed to stop pampering myself because I only have a little over 2 weeks until my sprint tri so I decided to go for a 5.9 mile run that I've done a bunch of times. I headed out at a decent pace and decided to run the easy way, hitting up all the hills first leaving me a relatively flat 3 mile finish. The run was going well and I was actually feeling pretty loose, the sun was out and there was a cool breeze to keep me from getting too hot, in short it was a great day for running. When I had almost reached mile 4 I realized that there seemed to be some road construction up ahead. I wasn't too worried because from past experience I figured I could just run through the construction zone and no one would care; turns out though that they had totally closed the road! Once I got up to where they had closed the road off I was stopped by some construction dude who seriously looked like he thought he was a body guard for someone special. I asked him if I could just run through to the other side (200 yards away) really quickly as I was almost done with my run. He apologized and explained that due to the dangerous machinery I wouldn't be able to pass and would have to find another way. "Dangerous Machinery", ie: 1 dump truck, a front end loader, a couple pick-up trucks, and a bunch of guys standing around doing nothing.
I thought I could possible woo him with my amazing convincing skills and explaining that if I were to just run back the way I'd come it would end up being an 8 mile killer hill run and that if he let me go through I'd be careful and be done in with my run in a matter of minutes, just two miles to go. He looked at me like he really didn't care, kinda smirked and said, "Wow, 8 miles huh? That would be a pretty decent run then!" The over-weight construction dude obviously wasn't a runner of any kind and I could then tell I was only wasting my time.
I really didn't want to run the hills again because they would have killed me, so I took off down a side street in hopes of finding a way to the other side of the freeway where I needed to be. Yeah the section they had closed off was actually an underpass below the freeway to the only road that led back to my house.
After running down a road that ran parallel with the I-15 I finally found an overpass that crossed the freeway and after making a couple wrong turns down dead end streets I finally made it back to my route and finished the run. I ended up having to run an extra 2.5 miles so instead of my 5.9 mile run I ended up going 8.4 thanks to the fat construction dude, but I guess it all ended up okay. The moral of the story: watch out for road construction! It can totally change your run.

April

With less than two months to go before my first event in Salt Lake I decided going into April that I really needed to pick it up with my workouts and start increasing my efforts in order to get in shape. April was a good month for me and I feel like I was able to take some big steps of progression. I was able to get in over 50 miles of run training, doubled my swim, increased the bike by a little too, and incorporated weight lifting into the mix also. Lucky for me I have no social life cause otherwise all this would be affecting it. On a typical workout day I spend around three hours training, which feels really good to know that I'm actually doing something again. With any other sport like baseball, football, or anything you easily spend that much time training so I felt like I wasn't doing enough when I would go run for 30 minutes and be done, but now that I've got a good base and can do some serious training sessions I just feel good again.
Yesterday I ran the farthest I ever have at any one time, running 9.4 miles. I did it at an 8:39 min/mile pace taking me 1:21:30 and felt really good, lately though I've had this pain when I run on the inside of my left ankle, while running yesterday it would sometimes hurt but wasn't that bad....I should have iced it but didn't so it hurts pretty bad today and is kinda swollen. Really though I'm not too worried about it as it doesn't seem that serious.
I'm excited for the races I have that are coming up and hope I'll be able to do well in them. I'm not too worried about the sprint because I know I'm already in shape for it and that it will just be a matter of working out the kinks and nerves of never doing a tri before. The whole not having a bike issue has got me a bit nervous I'm really not sure how I will deal with that yet, and I still need to find a wetsuit to swim in....which I've never done before, I don't know how it will affect my stroke. All in all though I feel better about it all now than I did before April.

Fear

I've decided that I've going to be doing the Portland Marathon this year and because of that I'm started running on a more frequent basis, but the last couple of runs I have noticed a little pain in my left ankle. I really don't think this is anything to be too worried about as the pain comes and goes and in never that intense, just to be safe though I took the day off and have only stretched the ankle and haven't really put any stress on it, tomorrow I'll try it out for 6 miles and see how it goes. Like I said I'm not really that concerned about it but it makes me think and leads me to my biggest athletic fear, what if I actually get injured while working out and it sets me back weeks? I really don't have that kind of time to recover and rebuild. I guess there really isn't anything I can do if it happens but it's definitely one of my fears. Another fear is that I will come down with some kind of sickness at some point with only weeks or worse days before an event. That would basically have the same effect as an injury.
Then there is the ever present "super-virus" fear. First let me explain what the super-virus is. Genetically Doug (my brother) seems to be plagued and I managed to catch it in a foreign country. Basically its when you get diarrhea for no apparent reason at all. Laugh or gag all you want but this is a legitimate fear. If this were to happen in the middle of a race what do I do? Odds are it won't happen but odds are that planes won't crash either but it happens. One such experience happened to me yesterday in fact (not a plane crash). I had about half a mile left on a 6 mile run and was feeling pretty good when all of the sudden my stomach starting turning for no apparent reason. With 50 yards to go it was as if someone hit the emergency release button and I was serious trouble and now pain. It took all I had left in me to luckily make it to the restrooms that were located at the park I had ran from, but what if this would have happened about a mile earlier....not pretty. So you can see why this is an actual fear for me.
Well I guess if something happens whether torn something or something less sanitary I'll just have to deal with it when it happens....life's kind of that way.

Just some quick stats

After all I'm a baseball fan so here are some of my running stats
Miles ran:
February 20.4
March 30.0
April 25.3
Total 75.7
I bought a pair of running shoes March 11th and they cost me $92, so they have really cost me $1.81 per mile. Unfortunately I haven't done as good of a job with my swimming and biking stats but they basically would reflect the same thing, increasing monthly. I expect my running total for April to be at least 40 miles.

Still Here

So its been quite a while since my last entry but that doesn't mean that I haven't been working out and training for triathlons. In fact I've been doing some pretty decent workouts and I really feel like I'm making some progress. Today I actually signed up for two triathlons: the Stansbury Park Sprint Tri and the Burley Idaho Annual Spudman, which is an Olympic size race. The Stansbury Park is on May 23rd and consists of a 750 meter swim in open water in a man-made lake, 20 kilometer bike ride, and then a 5 kilometer run. This will be my first time at an actual race type triathlon and just thinking about it makes me kind of nervous, but I'm really looking forward to it. Some challenges I have to face besides actually doing the race are, what I will use for a bike, and what I will use as gear for the event ie: wetsuit, ect.
The Spudman is the last Saturday in July and consists of a 1500 meter downstream swim in a river, 24.9 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run to kill you off at the end. By July I hope to be in really good shape and kind of have a decent idea as to what I'm doing.
I haven't really decided yet but I think I'd really like to do the Portland Marathon this year too, I just have to see if I can fit training for it and the actual race into my schedule. But those are my plans so far, the two tri's are a go already.

Getting there...kinda

Well it kind of feels like I'm starting to get to where I want to. I had some really good swims the last couple of days and my running times have actually dropped too. However the bike is really taking second to the other training, I hate riding stationary bikes and that's really my only option. All in all though I think I'm doing okay considering I have no idea how to properly train for one of these things.
Since spring break has started I've been able to focus a little bit more on training and its been good, I also went out and bought some food so that I could eat a little better. In all honesty I would say that the biggest challenge that I face right now for keeping me from competing in a triathlon would have to be that I don't actually have a bike to either train on or compete on.

I need to eat better

I decided to take Friday off from everything even though it was suppose to be my bike day; there's just something about biking in a 20 x 20 room all by myself that is just not that exciting for me. Yesterday I ran just over 3.5 miles and did it at about an 8 min/mile pace. The run felt really good and everything felt pretty loose. I was also running with someone so it was a lot easier to push myself. I've found I'm a pretty competitive person and I really need someone with the same goals as me to train with out here.
Today I went for a run too but it was brutal. I had planned on doing a 6 mile run and felt great going out. Before the run I did some sets of push-ups and abs, but still felt good when I left the house. The first 2 miles of the run felt really good, I was holding around a 8.5 pace and was really loose and doing fine. From mile 2 to 3 I started getting tired and knew that I was in trouble because this run I do is fairly flat and easy for the first half and then I have to climb 2 long steep hills and down another steep one on the second half. At three mile I hit the first hill and it totally killed me. About 200 yards after the hill I was hardly even moving, taking baby steps and breathing really hard, my legs seriously felt like lead. I was also getting really really hot with my black cold gear Under-armor sleeves on, it was almost 60 out there today. So I walked until I caught my breath and then took my sleeves off and started running with them in my hand, however this was really annoying so I stopped again and hid them in somebodies bushes. I made it maybe another mile before I was dying again, just before I was about to go up the second big hill so I stopped again. About that time I decided the run wasn't worth it and took a short cut home that cut off a good .75 mile from my run and totally avoided the hill.
I actually ended running a 9:05 pace (averaged out that is) and managed to run that last mile or so back to my truck pretty hard, but what happened out there today?
Well I think it has a lot to do with my eating habits. Lots of days I'll only eat one meal around 2:00 and that's it. On other days I'll eat noting but cereal and PB & J sandwiches. If I'm going to get serious about doing triathlons or even just getting in decent shape I need to eat better more balanced varied meals, I need to get some kind of eating routine and stick to it. On that note a good sleeping pattern probably wouldn't hurt either.

its been a while

We dad mid-terms last week at UVU and it really affected my workout schedule as well as my blog writing. I did manage to go running one day and get a swim in too. This week though I've been doing pretty good. Sunday I ran just short of 4.5 miles at a 8:30 pace. Monday I swam 2000 meters mixing between kick and freestyle in about 45 minutes. Tuesday I biked for 30 straight minutes at a pretty good pace but I have no idea how far I went cause it was a stationary bike in a gym....very boring. Wednesday I ran 5.9 miles in 50 minutes, just faster than a 8:30 pace. Today I plan on getting another swim in, hopefully a little more than 2000 meters but its hard because there is no one to push me or anything and its really boring.
I went ahead and got some new shoes from nike. I got the nike free everyday shoes, I found them to be really comfortable for being brand new shoes though I did get a pretty nasty blister on the inside of one of my arches. Yesterday's run felt pretty good and I didn't really realize how tired I was until I got home and sat down and just fell asleep. During the run I was full of energy but totally dead afterward, that's what I get for taking a week off. Today I woke up and could hardly walk! My left knee is killing me, its very tender and feels like someone smashed it with a football helmet. I'm hoping that it will heal fast and won't affect me during my next run which won't be for a couple more days.
Back to my running shoes, they are really ugly but I like em. They are white with gray trim and then the whole back is a fluorescent yellow. It kind of hurts your eyes to look at them but as long as I run fast and blur it all together maybe people won't notice. But really running shoes don't have to look nice....they're running shoes.

Hooray

Okay so yesterday I took the day completely off. I was kind of sore from the previous outdoor workouts and I had a bunch of other stuff to do. So I had planned on having a pretty good workout today to make up for the lost time. I'm really liking running right now so the biking has been put into reserve and the swimming has been non-existent since Christmas break. Today after work i embarked on the longest run that I have ever attempted. I ran 7.44 miles today, and i realize by some people's standards that this isn't very far, but you have to remember I don't have much of a cross country background or even a track one for that matter. Running over 7 miles for me is quite the feat.
It was a good run though with a couple of hills and I look forward to doing it again in the future. My goal this week was to really up my mileage per week. I'd like to get it up to around 25 miles, and this week I've done fine where I'm already at 17. The trick is going to be holding at 25 miles while adding in other aspects of the triathlon. I feel I can do it, i just need to make sure my diet and water consumption are okay and the biggest factor is going to be time management and discipline.

Runner's World

A few days ago I got pretty bored...so I started looking at Laurie's running blog. No, just kidding Laurie, but I was looking at her blog and she has a link to the Runner's World website and I clicked on it. I have to admit its a pretty good site and I really like it. There are all kinds of good video and relative articles too. You can also track the progress you make in your workouts and it stores all your running info on there too. If you haven't checked it out you really should. Even though I only started using this week, I think its going to help me stay focused and motivated to continue training. Just click here to check it out.

Death to Treadmills

I've been doing pretty good at getting some kind of workout in everyday of late. I did take Saturday completely off but apart from that I've really been doing well. Yesterday I went for my first outside run that I've gone on in months. The sun was out and it seemed like a good idea. I used google earth and mapped out a 6.3 mile run. I started out and actually felt pretty good. Everything was going great on the run until I realized that what I thought was a road on google earth was actually a path through someone's backyard! Well even though it was snow covered I decided to forge through it and ended up coming out their driveway. I don't think anyone saw me though so it was okay.
Something that was very apparent during the run though was how my legs felt very different than they do while I run on a treadmill. The treadmill simply works different muscles and after some careful considreation I've decided that a treadmill is basically worthless. While a running on a treadmill seems to protect my kness from being sore later, it also makes my shin mucscles and calves tighten up and cramp pretty badly, where as during my run on the road they felt fine the whole time. Its also about a million times mentally easier to run outside because you actually move and there are things to look at and take your mind off of the annoying pain you feel. When running on a road times just goes faster too. I get really frustrated on a treadmill because I feel like time stands still and i end up just watching that stupid clock they have on your dashboard to let you know how slow you're really going. Let's just say I'm ready for the warm weather and am really happy that I've been able to run outside the last couple of days. Today I ran 3.88 miles at a pretty slow pace but with a couple brutal hills to make up for it.

Ok Back in the Game

So I took a few days off from any cardio; until tonight I hadn't done any since last Friday. I did end up adding some lifting into my workout plans though and really only had off days on Sunday and Monday. I really wanted to get some work in on Monday but homework took longer than I thought it would.
Tonight I got in a pretty good cardio and leg workout by just doing some cycling. I rode for 20 minutes getting a pretty good workout, then did one leggers for 2 min each. I then did hill climb or standing riding for 5 minutes. The workout took about an hour and I felt pretty good during and after the workout.
One thing interesting that I'm beginning to notice is that I can't lose this stomach pooch that I managed to gain in the mission eating all that super greasy food. But I can't help but seriously ask myself, "I'm I seriously to that point in my life where I can't put off that 'extra' weight?" I mean my legs are in the best shape they have been in for a long time, if not their best shape, my arms are ok and really I'm in decent shape except for this little gut and some back fat! How do you get rid of that? I'm only 23, Laurie is almost 30 and has had three kids and seems to lose it every time, and I'd imagine having a kid puts more fat on than a mission. So come on Laurie what's the secret?
I know one thing that I need to research and get some info on is nutrition. I really don't know where to find any. On the internet there is too much info and its just a waste of time looking unless you already know the site you want. Then the other problem I have run into is that there are so many different opinions, whose right? Or are any of them? (I suddenly feel like Joe Smith) So if anyone knows of some good sights or just wants to send me some good info, do so please!
My running shoes are starting to die too. I'm thinking that part of my next paycheck is going to have to go to some new ones. Traditionally I've bought Adidas and like them quite a bit but I've been looking at some Nike's lately. So what I'd like to know is what kind of shoes do you guys have and why do you like or dislike them? Please leave your comments!

AM's

Last night I went and worked out pretty late around 8:30 and didn't even get done until around 10:00. I biked for 20 minutes then I ran two miles. During and after the run my calves and shin muscles were really tight and killing me. I don't know if this was due to the biking before the run or a lack of proper stretching, but it hurt. I think as I get older my body doesn't respond as well to the stress of a workout, and it just kind of hurts; now I really am starting to feel bad for the old man. I did a few sets of push-ups as well. 12, 10, 8, 8, max (I got 45).
Last night Blake Vogt and I also decided that we were going to start working out in the morning. So this morning I managed to get myself out of bed and be in the gym by 5:30. I have to admit it's going to take some getting use to, I've been going to bed around 12:00 and getting up sometime around 8:30. It was a good workout today though and I really would rather workout in the mornings and get it out of the way. Today I did some light weight high rep sets of bench, incline dumbells, decline bench, and then ran 2 miles at an 8 min/mile pace. I'm tired!

....I miss you!

So after I made that post last night i actually did lace up the nasty Adidas and I went for a 3.5 mile run. I just went to the gym and ran on the treadmill but I ran pretty hard and ran it in 28 minutes or in other words at an 8 min/mile pace. I took a long time warming up and stretching though because my calves were so tight. Really what are tight are the Achilles tendons, my calves are actually okay, I guess from all the running, but that was the first time I had ran stairs in like 3 years.
Today I just did a really quick workout after work and then tried to get home to do some much needed homework (which I have yet to touch). I ran 2 miles at a little slower than 8 min/mile and then just did three sets of low weight high rep curls and called it a day. I just wasn't feeling very motivated at all. That's why I really need to find someone to do these triathlons with me. So that way we can motivate each other and working out won't be so boring.
On another note I was looking at the UVU Baseball website today. I really miss baseball, there really isn't anything a whole lot better than a warm day and a baseball game. I really need to find some kind of a hardball league and get playing a little bit again...or at least find a batting cage around here and go hit some balls. I miss you baseball.

Freakin Stairs from Hell

So like I mentioned in my last entry I ran those stairs at BYU and I had thought that I would probably be a little tender from doing so...well it turns out that it just about killed me; I don't think that my calves have ever been so sore in my life. You need to remember that I've been doing sports since age 6 or younger, I've been through some pretty intense workouts before and trust me I've been pretty sore before too. This though, I have never felt. I seriously could hardly walk today. I'll stretch them out (which hurts horribly) then two minutes later they are as tight as ever again, its killer.
As a result of my tenderness I talked myself out of doing anything athletic yesterday and haven't done anything today either. I did just watch Cinderella Man though and I feel "inspired" to go for a little jog. It is almost 9:00 pm though, thankfully Gold's Gym is open 24 hours a day though! I don't have class until 9:00 am tomorrow so what the heck? Why not?

Oh the stairs

Running on a treadmill can get extremely boring...and it is. Due to the unfortunate circumstances with the weather the treadmill has been my main source of running workouts. Tonight however I thought it would be a good all round workout to run some stairs, as this would work my lungs, heart, and quads. I figured that stairs would be good for all three events. So I went to the indoor track on BYU campus and ran the bleachers for quite a while. It was actually a pretty good workout and I'm sure I'm going to be a little tender in the morning from it. I also got a short jog in on the track. Let me just say that it is so much better to run on a track and actually move than it is to run on a machine. Mentally its just a million times easier when you can actually see the progress that you are making instead of having to look at some number on a screen! Not only that but while running on a track you get to pass all the people that run slower than you and that just feels pretty good.

Another blog?

Well yes it's another blog...by me. In this one though I'm only going to write about my preparing for swimming, cycling, and running events; or all three at once. So you won't be getting many rants or hearing about how my social life sucks in this one...just athletic stuff here.
I've been trying to jump start my body into shape by doing a number of things since I got back from Guatemala a year ago. When I first got home I seriously couldn't handle any kind of physical workout, I had zero stamina. However once I moved to McMinnville, OR I began doing short runs; just 1 mile runs up to around 3 miles on a good day. These runs were sparatic at best and I made slow progress, but by the end of July I had got myself in good enough shape to be running over 4 miles in under 9 min/mile's. At that time I was running between 4-5 times a week and rotating between 3 to 4.25 mile runs.
I then moved back to Klamath Falls, OR where I'm originally from and ended up running only 2-3 times per week and doing about the same miliage or a little less. I now live in Orem, UT and have recently started working pretty hard once again. I was swimming steadily through December but let that get away from me as school has now began and my time is crunched for workout. But I've rededicated myself withing the last couple of weeks and though I haven't been swimming still since Christmas I've picked up a decent workout with running and cycling.
Today, Monday, I only ran, but it's the most I've ran in quite a while; today I ran 6 miles in 50 minutes. Not a bad pace I say but if I'm going to start doing triathalons (which is the ultimate goal here) then I'm going to really need to fully dedicate myself to this and incorporate the other two events more thoroghly into my workout plan.