Arriving at the gym later than normal, I had a plan. I started out by running as hard as I could on the treadmill for 3 minutes. Not long at all, but wanted to get started on the next part. After this little warm up, I started one a circuit. I did 100 steps on the stair climber. After this, I went over to the hanging crunch support and did 10 of those as well. I then walked over to the chin up bar, but it was a pretty special machine. I had never really used this before, but the machine is weight assisted. For example, I weigh 205. If I set the weight pin on 100 pounds, it adds that much weight against the weight of my body. By doing this, my body weight actually lifts that much weight by pulleys, and when I pull up, the 100 pounds pushes me upwards, allowing me to use the chin up motion to work my arms and back when it is still difficult for me to lift my full weight. This is what I decided was enough, so I started back on the stair climber. After 45 minutes of shoving myself as hard into this circuit as possible, I was almost finished. A few minutes later, I completed my last chin up. Total, I had finished 1000 steps, 100 hanging crunches, and 100 pull ups with assistance. As I walked into the house, I commented to my wife that I couldn't feel my shoulders. She responded with, "well, you look like hell..."

I'm still taking that as a compliment.

-brad

Being my third night here, I was feeling much more comfortable. I went down around 11:00pm and swam a few laps to warm up. My arms and chest were feeling sore, so I took some time to sit and started at 11:20 with a long swim. I made it about 25-30 laps before stopping, but took another small break and started a 5 lap circuit. After 10 sets of this, I wandered into the showers and hit the gym. I completed 30 minutes on the elliptical again, but at much lower intensity than Sunday. I also did some more free weights and got onto the bike again for about 20 minutes. Once back in my room, I looked in the mirror. I knew I had been losing weight, but after the past few days I had not really thought about it all that much. I could definitely see the progress when I looked at my stomach from the side, and from the front, I could see the beginnings of definition. I felt way more excited about this.

So I made it down gym in the hotel, kind of excited because there was some information in the room about the Precor machines that were recently added to the gym. They looked nice, so I started with 30 minutes on the elliptical cross-train machine. After this, I did about 20 minutes of work with free weights on my arms and took a few minute break to check out the other stuff in the room. Then I started my 30 minute trip on the stationary bike. All in all, the programs I selected went really well on machines, and I felt great. According to the workout summary on the machines, I burned about 500 calories total. While the machines didn't seem to live up to the hype of the information left in the room, they were pretty sweet.

- brad

I got lazy. Not at exercising, but at posting about it. Damn. I swore I wouldn't do that, so now I'm going to make sure I keep posting but this week has been a little weird. I did get to the gym Tuesday and Wednesday morning, but Thursday was a rest day. I have lost a total of 20 pounds so far since I started this exercise regimen, and that is pretty damn good. I also made it in to the gym with a few coworkers on Friday right after work. I did 1000 steps on the stair machine and sets of pull ups, along with row and crunch intervals in the middle. About 2 hours after leaving the gym, I headed to the car to drive for a day or two. Minnesota, here I come.

- brad

Monday I went to the gym in the afternoon.

I did a circuit type workout, starting with 10 minutes on the elliptical machine. From there, I went to 200 steps on the stair climber machine. Back to the elliptical for 5 minutes, then 200 more steps. One more time on the elliptical for five, and 200 more steps.

This was the original plan, followed by some weights and going home, but a friend suggested if I did 600 steps, why not 800. He was leaving the gym as I was starting the last 200, so I decided he was probably right, but why not 1000.

I then did 5 minutes on the recumbent bike, and back for 200 more steps. Repeating this process, I did 5 more minutes on the bike, then 200 more steps. I thought that I had plenty of time left before I needed to be home, so I went over to the other side of the gym. I figured I would continue the circuit type workout, and started with 10 hanging leg lifts. I then did 10 crunches. After 10 more leg lifts, I tried 10 reps on a machine that is basically being seated and then using the lower back to push back the rear of the chair, similar to a row but using more lower back. I have no idea what this is called. 10 more leg lifts and 10 more crunches. 10 more leg lifts and 10 more reps on the mystery machine, then 10 final leg lifts. I left the gym for the house feeling stronger than when I arrived, mostly due to being energized and ready to get to work on this health stuff. I also was finishing up my antibiotics, so the medicine was taking care of the chest pain, and using my inhaler much more regularly. This week was going to be hell in the gym, because I was going to make sure it was. I planned out my next two days on the ride home, thinking about arms and upper body on Tuesday and repeating the circuit on Wednesday.

Saturday morning at 8:30am I made my way to the old high school in town. I grabbed my paperwork from the front table. Looking around for a few friends that would be meeting me, I dropped my shirt from the race in the car and took a quick puff from my inhaler. After some light stretching and discussion with a few people, I went up to the start line. I was in pain, mostly from the respiratory infection. As the race started, I headed down High street in the middle of the pack. I wasn't concerned with place nearly as much as time. I was doing great for the first mile, right on pace. The second mile took me through the cemetery and up a rather large hill. This definitely took the wind out of me, and I slowed behind pace. The third mile seemed to drag on forever, but I remember looking back with a few blocks to go before the mile mark and seeing two people near me, then at the three mile mark they were still in the same spot. I found out later that they were closer, but moving much slower, and I had decided that I didn't want them to catch me. I finished the last .1 of a mile, rounding the corner into the school. The time was horrible. I was slower than the last 5k by about 20 seconds, even though I'd been training much harder. How could this happen? Then, more pain in my chest. I grabbed the inhaler out of the car and walked around the parking lot. After wandering into the school, I found I wasn't the only one who had done worse than expected, but that I still placed in my age group. I sat around for a while and then walked up to get my medal. Third place, men 20-29. Not bad, I guess...

I took Thursday evening off so that I could spend some time with my son. We went swimming and played around the pool for a while. Friday afternoon was looking like I would be heading to the gym, but a sudden downpour brought some cool weather out and I thought it was a good opportunity to run the course that I would be running on Saturday. This was my "dry run" but it was more than a little wet. I was aiming for a 27 minute run. That would work out to about 9 minute miles the entire way. With no one running on the course other than me, I knew I would be a little slow, and I came in at 31 minutes. I think tomorrow will go better though. In other news, I also went to the doctor this morning and found out I had a slight upper respiratory infection. Antibiotics should take care of it, but running tonight and tomorrow may be made much more interesting by it. I plan on loading up on the cough syrup before the race, mostly because I have been coughing to the point of vomiting, but hopefully this will be out of my system soon.

Today was a rushed workout day. I left work and headed straight to the house - changing and jumping right back into the car. I arrived out at the gym by car due to time constraints. On my way in, I found an old friend in there, lifting. I worked my way to the elliptical for a 10 minute warm up. After that, I worked on arm and upper body lifting in order to continue the work my way to creating an opportunity for myself in the first third of the race. If I can strengthen my lats, my abs, my core, and my arms, I can swim faster (in theory). My legs will carry me through the bike and run, but my upper body has to finish the first leg before that can happen.

In other news, I learned today that the team for the mini tri relay in September is set. Two coworkers will be on my team and we will be sporting jerseys of a small business from nearby Chillicothe known as Tinklebelts, which is footing the bill for the entry fee so far. This is awesome because I wasn't so sure about it, but our swimmer also happens to be the owner of said small business, so advertising it as much as possible is definitely in her interest. Being part of a team has just become a huge motivation. Look out for upcoming plans for jersey designs and plans for this race!

I rode the 2 miles out to the gym again today. I felt great on the way there and spent a few minutes wandering around after I got there. I made my way first to the elliptical in order to build up a decent base of a workout. 30 minutes later, I was sweating up a storm and ready to collapse. I had burned 379 calories according to the little computer on the thing. I then worked on my legs, doing leg lifts and presses. I was feeling great and excited to be consistent in making it to the gym two days in a row.

Using Mapmyride.com to figure out distances, I came up with a plan for this week. I biked the two miles to the gym on Monday evening and went in. I spent 45 minutes going from machine to machine, lifting with a combination of my arms and back. My theory is that this will not only allow me to trim precious minutes off my swim time as I get my core muscles built up, but that I will feel better and be more rounded in my exercise as well. I then finished with the two mile ride home, feeling weak but confident. This week was going to turn out great!

I felt like crap for a few days. Sunday I squeaked out a bike ride to the next town and back - about 25 miles total. I was dying on the way back, mostly due to fatigue from the days before and general activities. The next day, I felt destroyed. My arms, legs, and back hurt in a ridiculous manner and then I was coughing up a storm. To top that all off, I was attending a conference for my job on Wednesday and today, which set me up to be out of town at least one night, and after a conversation with my boss I found out that it meant camping nearby the conference site. I took an extra pair of gym shorts and shirts, plus some goggles and all the mp3 stuff I could find. Of course, the camp site was too far away for us to pick up wireless.

After the first day of meeting and such, the students were going nuts about wanting to play basketball, which I wasn't up for, but I did head to the campus pool. I swam about 10 laps, then walked upstairs and hit the stationary bike. After about 5 miles, I gave up. It was completely uncomfortable compared to the bikes at my normal gym, or my actual bicycle. I got off of that and started jogging on the indoor track - but only finished a mile. The weirdness of running on a track that takes 15 laps to get a mile seemed to overcome my desire to exercise. Part of this was probably due to being in a different situation as well.

On Thursday, I was taking part of a crew to a work site for a service day at a national park. We were scheduled to dig a ditch, one foot wide and one foot deep, along a handicap accessible trail that goes from the park HQ to the nearby bird blind. I ended up grabbing a pulaski and cutting away at the ground even though there were plenty of people helping. It seems like a heck of a tool, so I worked with these kids from about 8:30 in the morning until we were supposed to eat lunch around 11:30. After lunch, we worked until we were supposed to go on a tour around 2:15, but since we had been on the tour before, we took a 20 minute break and started back up until 4. My arms are definitely feeling it now that I'm back home and sitting on the couch. Taking off for the 4th weekend, but may pull off a bike ride on Sunday or Monday...

- brad

I planned on riding today, then swimming in a local lake. This plan went to crap as soon as I woke up. Fairy Fest needed signage, so I was put to task of putting up signs pretty quick. Around 8:30, mom and I worked on finding signs and putting them up. That did not go so well, and I ended up back home around 9. Riding a bike was still an option, but I had bought a few things to put up outside the house and needed to get some work done. This afternoon, the festival starts, so I have to work at it. Tomorrow it is important that I get in a good workout, and my motivation lessens each day I take off. 49 days until the race, and I have to keep motivated. I also run the risk of over training and burning my self out. I don't think this will happen, but that is a possibility.

On Friday, I went to work just like normal, and was prepared for a day of craziness. GOBA was coming to my little town for an overnight stay, and that meant that the whole town was turned on end for this event. It also meant that there were a large number of cyclist out, so it shouldn't be so rough to get out onto the road and ride. At the end of the work day, I wandered back to the house and got my bike out. I headed North on 93 to the old track, then walked up to it. After a quick drink, I started riding on the track, lap after lap, and then down the steep hill and back into town. I rode down to the middle of town and saw what was going on before heading North again and looping past my parents. After this, I came back to the house and prepared to go out and watch the festivities. Mapping it out, I did about 5 miles on the road and 4 miles on the track, so I made a good 9 mile ride out of it. Hopefully getting some decent rides in this weekend in preparation...

- brad

Starting late on Thursday, went for a 5k bike ride, then rode down to the pool. Tried out some new goggles that I was given to use by a coworker. If that was not cool enough, I got to try out the waterproof mp3 player I was able to borrow also. It is a Finis Swimp3 player, which is actually pretty cool. I only swam about 250 meters, but it felt good and I was a little concerned about it being too dark out. After a quick ride home from the pool, I started doing some math and decided that tomorrow I could definitely get a decent workout in. The plan is for a 10-20k ride before work, then a 20k ride after work with a quick swim in a nearby lake (about 400-600 meters). This will set me up for an evening of break, then I can hit it hard on Saturday morning and get a great weekend workout in. Counting down the days to the big event - 51 days. Excited as crap and ready to push myself way past my comfortable limits.

- brad

I definitely did not make the biking trip this morning. It was a rough night and this morning went by very very fast. I overslept until 7:00 and had to be ready for work at 8:00. I planned on trying to ride tonight, but when I left work and parked at the house, the bumper was hanging down off my car and I assumed someone must have hit it today at work. I was prepared to call the police, but couldn't find clear marks where someone had hit it. Figuring they would write it off as me smacking a parking bar or something, so I called my father instead. I drove over to his place and we bolted the bumper back up on, then adjusted the position of the headlight. After this, I had very little time before I had to get home so my wife could go to dance class. I decided that an upper body workout was better than no workout, so I grabbed a change of clothes and headed out back. After a few minutes of stretching, I grabbed a chainsaw and took on a rather tall cedar or pine looking thing right by the fence. This was not so bad, so I kept going, but then picking up piece after piece and throwing it onto a trailer definitely set my arms to work. Another part of this is that I am not exactly good with a chainsaw, so there were many large chunks. I also am sort of lazy, so I took it upon myself to heave these large chunks of wood about 10 to 15 ft. onto the trailer instead of walking over. By the time I finished an hour and a half later, my arms were burning and I was ready to fall over. I was once told that finding ways to integrate some exercise into everyday activities was the best way to keep at it and break up the monotony. After this evening, I can definitely attest to that.

- brad

Work went less well than planned today, and that happens from time to time, but I made it through the day. I wandered home a short time before I had to go get Dyl, then drove up to the old track. If you've been to a Vinton County High School meet there, it is on top of a hill off of a highway, but there is nothing else around. Even more than that, with a new track around the football field, this one has become an abandoned memory for most of the people here. I remember this track so well. I ran there for the first two years of track when I was in school, then for the next four years we had the new track while I was in high school. I was always a fan of the old asphalt track. Something about it made it seem great, even though it was rather basic. There was an advantage, in my mind, because the asphalt made such a loud clicking noise when spikes hit, and a runner could learn to tell how close someone was by sound, more than by vision. I pulled in and dropped my phone by the 200 meter mark (as it was the closest to the car).

There is something special about being the only one out running. Being alone on the track, or being out earlier in the morning than anyone, makes it special. I began jogging the track and instantly felt a little sad. Most of that comes from remembering the talent I had as a young man when I ran well in the very same spot. After thinking of that, I immediately felt shame due to the way I have allowed myself to stop exercising for such a long time. Toward the end of this run, I felt strong, powerful, and confident. I found myself following the some of the same patterns that I have since I was a young kid, such as counting down by every 100 or 50 meters or doing math for no particular reason. I know that tomorrow morning will come early, and I'm hoping for a 10k bike ride before work at least, possibly 20k if time is going well. Will update more then...

- brad

Being Monday night, I feel I posted this late, but that is okay. Over the weekend, I tried many things to help myself become better prepared for the upcoming events. After a day at work on Friday, I stopped by my parents and swam a few laps at the pool. This wasn't too much other than a little bit of a teaser swim. The first race is a 750m swim with a 20k bike and 5k run, a typical sprint triathlon.

Saturday morning was the first shot at it all. I got to the pool around 8am and changed into some trunks. Being my parent's backyard pool, it is only 33 ft across. I worked this out to around 76 trips across, which seemed high. I started the timer and ran down the steps into the water. After what felt like forever (but really was only about 20 minutes) I was out of the water and into my "transition." This meant grabbing running shorts, running to the shed, changing inside, coming out, then putting on shoes and getting across the yard to the bike. I was out onto the road after a few minutes and heading South on 93. I turned around at my designated halfway, heading back North into town. As I rounded the corner into the old high school parking lot, I checked the time. I was still doing rather well, it seemed, at about 1:28. I locked the bike up and threw the phone in the bag, then took off on the 5k route that I raced in May. Felt great until I hit the hills in the cemetery, but toughed it out and got back to the school. I was so excited to have finished the whole thing, and so I grabbed my bag off the bike and checked the time.

Nothing was on the screen relating to time. Nothing at all. Just a little phone symbol and a "missed call" screen. Shit...my sister had called. Went into the menu, but no, the timer was back to zero. I have no idea how fast, but I completed it.

Sunday went by without much exercise, just a few races in the pool with my niece. Dylan, my son, was sleeping, and my wife was doing homework, so I decided to go for a bike ride. After some wandering around the house and neighborhood, I headed out on 93 until I hit US 50. Once I got to 50, I turned and headed East. 15 miles later, I came to a rest at the edge of 32 outside of Albany. I turned there and headed back toward town. It took a long time, and the ride West was much more difficult due to the other sides of hills, the bright sun coming down, and the lack of preparation on my part. I had failed to put any water in the carrier or even brought a wallet so I could buy something on the way. I made it back to the house around 7:35 that evening, but since then, my legs have been jello.

Next week, I plan on trying another swim, and maybe a few bike rides, but the swim will be in a lake so I can get used to open water and prepare better.

- brad

I've written blog posts plenty of times, but this is just an honest and straightforward log of what I'm doing now. I am an overweight guy. I turned 24 a few weeks ago, and was still at 225 lbs. I was more than just overweight, I was lazy. When I was younger, I ran between 4-6 miles a day, and competed in everything from regional competitions for OHSAA to running in the Walt Disney Invitational several times. I was a running machine, but once I got into college, I became busier and spent a lot of time on the couch. After a wedding and the birth of a child, I decided I would get back into shape, but was working way too many hours to do so. I changed careers, and one day was lecturing a student on the importance of setting goals and having something to work toward when he turned around and said "Hey man, what's your goal?"

We discussed a few options, so I set a big goal - I would enter the Toughguy race in England. Hoping to do this by January 2011, I had given myself a year to train. Little did I know what this would turn into.

A few coworkers got involved, and we basically spent the next few weeks running several days a week together, then training on our own as well. I agreed to enter a 5k race (something I hadn't done since high school) on the first weekend of May. I had an okay day, but finished with around a 30:00 time and was definitely anything but happy with it. I kept training, and now in June I am preparing for a much bigger race. I committed to signing up for the Vermillion Harbour Triathlon. After this, I plan on signing up for the entire Wheelie Fun series in 2011. I also have had a few conversations with friends at work about a team triathlon at Deercreek State Park in Mt. Sterling. The ultimate goal of this is to move from a lazy couch potato to completing an Ironman by 2014.

I have made some drastic changes, from working out more often and eating healthier. I also have given up soda and am working on cutting back on sweet tea. I have already seen many changes in my health (I feel better, my blood pressure is lower, etc.) and expect to see more in the future. This blog will be the log of my transformation from fat to fit, and from lazy to competitive. I will be posting workouts, gear reviews, and schedules of races here in hopes to inspire some other lazy guy or gal to get into multi-sport competition.

- brad