Friday, March 30, 2012

Biometric Screening 2012

Last year we had a "Prevent Event" contest that we are doing again this year.

Basically they are trying to increase your awareness of your health and gather information for insurance purposes... They will have a drawing for some very nice prizes for people who get a biometric screening or physical, and fill out a health assessment survey through our insurance provider.
Here's last years:

  • 2011 Results:
  • Blood Pressure: 111/69 - Normal is below 120/80 so that's good!
  • Total Cholesterol: 204 - 'Desirable' is anything below 200 - Closer!
  • HDL: 42
  • Triglycerides: 116 - Normal is below 150 so I'm really low on that
  • Glucose: 89 - Normal is 70-99
And this years:
  • 2012 Results
  • Blood Pressure: 111/56
  • Total Cholesterol: 214 - went up a bit! Due to my current diet I'm not that surprised - but I'm not worried
  • HDL - 32 - according to today's science this should be optimally between 40 and 60, so I'm low, and probably not good that I am 10 lower than last year!!
  • Triglycerides: 97 - Dropped even lower. TRG's are the baddest according to some, so that's good that it is down
  • LDL (again gotta find last years results) - 163 - according to CW (conventional wisdom) this should be below 100, so I'm on the HIGH end which supposedly isn't good.
  • Glucose: 90
  • Heart Rate: 62 beats/minute
Overall from what I can tell I haven't changed that much.
My Diastolic Blood Pressure went down a bunch, I have NO idea what that means.
My Total Cholesterol went up which probably isn't good - but "I'm not dead yet!" I need to find last years HDL (*Update: Found*) and LDL (Still need to find) for comparison.
My Triglycerides went way down - that should be good...

My ankle is still recovering so I won't be able to go to Crossfit today. I'm sad about that. However it is doing significantly better today compared to yesterday - so hopefully it won't keep me down too long!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Looking Forward...

There are quite a few things I am very excited about over the next 7 months.

Unfortunately they are all too far away! (especially the one in 7 months!)

Here they are:
Running with Ed - May 19 - Last Year we had a lot of fun, this time my wife will be joining us! I also look forward to the accompanying week vacation I'm taking at the same time! Also I will try harder to not get fried.
The Dirty Dash - June 2 - Last year I did it with a work team in October - this year I'm slopping through it with my gorgeous wife and whoever else we can get to run with us!
Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay - June 15-16 - Last year we had a family van - 6 people - this year we are trying to field a full team! (but we are also trying to split the team so that another team does 2 van 1's, and we have 2 van 2's...)
Tough Mudder - Oct 13 - I'm really excited to be doing this - but it seems SO far away!! I feel like I need to train most for this one too - as I've already done the others before so I know what to expect. I'm not worried about doing this - but I want to not have to struggle too much during the actual race. Plenty of struggle before!

Waitaminute - I've got a break of almost 4 months between the Wasatch Back and Tough Mudder!?!

Better find something to fill that "void"!

Maybe my employer will do a couple Utah Marathon Relay teams again this year.  That is usually in September... so that still leaves July and August with nothing.

A new interesting race called "Cahoots" will be in town in August...

Another I've tried scaring myself with is the Bairgutsman which is also in August.

Why does everything have to cost so much money!?

Between now and then hopefully I'll be trim enough that I'll look ridiculously ripped if I run shirtless in any of these races...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy St. Patty's Day!

This morning we drove up past Park City to the beautiful town of Heber City to participate in the first annual St. Patty's Day Family Fun Run put on by my wife's brother, who has a chiropractic clinic up there.

Beautiful run today. The temperature was nice, but the WIND was NOT nice or fun.
Still I was able to keep a good pace and finished 2nd place. I was a bit disappointed that my boys dragged my wife down in the 5k so she didn't really get to run much! She was still the top finisher for the Women's division! Go babe!

There should be more pictures from this race in a few days! Yippee!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The BAIR is Quite a Beast

Bair Canyon

Home of the infamous Bairgutsman 10 mile trail race of ridiculousness...

My brother and I watched the kids while our beautiful wives went on their run, then we headed out to the same place we started last weeks run.

I suggested that we go up the canyon because I've never done it before (my bro ran the race last year - did a good job too! But he is much stronger on trails than I am! Probably most other surfaces as well...)

Bair canyon trail is beautiful, and might be worth hiking up with my kids in the summer. Being that it is mid March there is still snow on parts of the trail, but it was BEAUTIFUL. I even took my shirt off for a minute at 5,400 feet! (side note: Primal Benefit - feeling comfortable stripping my shirt off pretty much anywhere! Okay not ANYWHERE... but in the right situation)

Ended up doing 2.5 miles with a gain of almost 1,000 feet! Yow, my legs are going to feel that in the morning.
As of this moment they are a bit tired, but not as bad as expected, which is a good sign!

Pictures!
Shin-deep in Shnow!

Brothers! Yup - two! er... Peace!

Nice view here... I think I might...

Take off me shirt!!



Normally I look forward to doing a run like that and then Crossfit tomorrow - but because we are having a birthday party for my 7 year old (with his friends) I have to come home early so I'm going to miss it. Gotta think up something else to kick my trash, eh?

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Saturday 5k!

I ran a 5k with my 2 sons today. Currently 9 and 6 years old, the younger will be 7 soon!

We actually ran 3.26ish miles in 55 minutes! Probably my fastest ever! :)

It was fun to have them with me and teach them a little bit about sprinting, form, breathing, etc. I'm a bad parent... they should know this stuff already.

Had to do some Mayurasana on the bench! The boys demanded a 'checkpoint' to rest...

Still we had fun and now they know that they CAN go 3 miles if they want to.

Which is especially useful since they will be doing another 5k next weekend for St. Patty's Day!

Run little leprechauns, run!

Friday, March 9, 2012

More on Friday

I probably should have just waited on my earlier post to add this - but oh well here I am now!

Crossfit instructor was out of town doing RKC Certification (Kettlebells) and all the other main crossfitters left or something.

So 3 of us that didn't get the memo decided to do Cindy.

I did BAD this time. Tired. Still got a good workout and I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow - but I did 14 rounds, although it is possible I did more.

My legs are feeling the squats mostly - but I'm sure my back and forearms will be complaining tomorrow!

Finally, according to my pedometer I'm wearing for a work contest - I've gone over 10k steps today, which is right around 4.5 miles! Not bad! (Yes I wore it while doing crossfit...)

Friday Fun

Monday we had a new Yoga Teacher. She kept things really simple which is probably a good thing to do occasionally.

I've decided that you really shouldn't (and can't properly) judge a teacher based on your first experience together. You need to try at least 2 or even 3 (and sometimes even more!) before you can really decide whether or not their teaching style meshes with you. As far as Yoga is concerned - I do think you can learn something from just about anybody if you are open to it.

Lots of BEEF this week and I've felt GREAT!

Last night I went for an evening run with my younger crazy trail-running maniac brother.

We only went 3 miles, but the first half mile was very steep up! My legs didn't like that, but as soon as we flattened out and got moving, the next steep spots were a lot more manageable - just that first bit was OUCH!

Here we are halfway through. We don't look THAT much alike but wow can you tell we are brothers?


There was actually a very beautiful sunset over the lake behind us... but you can't even see it! Oh well. Fun run!

I'm supposed to be doing Crossfit today - but the trainer is out of town so if it happens it will be led by some of the other crazies. We'll see what happens!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Crossfit - Payback for my Leap Year 'Joke'

Warmup:

  • Run up and down the stairs 10 times (about 30 stairs)
  • 10 pushups and 15 squats
  • 10 pushups and 15 squats again
  • Run 3 laps around the gym
  • 10 wall-runs and 15 kettlebell swings
  • 10 wall-runs and 15 kettlebell swings again
The Workout:
  • 5 sled pushes (1 rep the width of a basketball course - sleds are weight plates on carpet sections)
  • 10 Double Thrusters (Squat, Squat Thrust above head)
  • 20 Burpee Plus + (add an extra pushup per burpee)
  • 30 V-ups
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 30 V-ups
  • 20 Burpee Plus +
  • 10 Double Thrusters
  • 5 sled pushes
I caught a mean head cold sometime over the past couple of days and it reared its ugly head last night. I made myself do crossfit anyway - we'll see if that was wise or not tomorrow I'm sure!

 Yeah... I took a picture of the board because I didn't trust my foggy sick-brain to remember anything afterwards!