Preparing for Running Season

Wow 11 days with no update! And it's less than a month until the start of RACES!

Here is some of the fun!

Sledgehammer fun!

Birthday Mountain Run with my Brothers!

Further Trail Exploration Runs!

Bloodshot Eyes from Crossfit! and my untrimmed mustache!

The Crossfit Workout

 

Pretending to climb! (I was a few feet off the ground)

Mayurasana on the Mountains

Hey, I'm a big deal up here!

 Runnin with Ed, Dirty Dash and Ragnar! They're all coming up and I'm getting excited!

Weekly Trail Runs and Yoga Poses

I missed yoga today because work is getting WAY too busy.

Still was able to get some Yoga pose practice in AFTER our Weekly Ragnar Preparation run! Even got some pictures doing Astavakrasana with my beautiful wife, which I've wanted for a while now.
Yay!

Ran just over 3 miles with my brother and brother in law - very cool trail right behind his house that eventually makes it up into the mountains near where we've been running lately. My brother has been excited to find it since it's a great starting point rather than driving up to the Baer Canyon trailhead - he can run there in 1.5ish miles - and I know I'd be much more ready for that climb from there after that.

Anyway so afterwards as final dinner preparations (our weekly run involves dinner after, it's great!) were underway, I asked my sister to come take some yoga pictures!

Astavakrasana with my true love!

Eka Pada Koundiyanasana II

Flying Crow (need to fly that back leg a bit more!)

 Too fun. I need to really do Yoga more than I have. 1 time a week isn't enough... I feel like I am no longer progressing.

Friday Fun

This was our crossfit workout today.

Pretty brutal!

I decided to do B, C, A, as I am normally refreshed by running portions of these workouts, and figured I could finish really strong. Guess my ankle was upset with me about the weighted walking lunges and clean and jerks! Less than a quarter mile in and the ankle I twisted last week was very unhappy.

I'd better take it easy on it again for a while if I want it to heal right!

Easter Saturday

Yesterday my ankle was well enough to do Crossfit.

Really the only time it hurts now is when I'm kneeling down directly on it. If my foot is flexed and I'm on my toes it's fine though. Strange.

Anyway back to yesterdays Crossfit Workout:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-01 Dumbbell Burpees
01-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Dumbell Front Squat
2 lengths Sled Push

Do the 10 burpees, 1 squat, then 2 lengths sled, continued in that order until you do 1 burpee, 10 squats, and 2 sleds to finish up.

I finished in 14:22, using 25 lb dumbbells.

I was the 4th person done, nobody who finished before me had weights equal to or heavier, so that made me feel pretty good.
The crossfit beastmen (awesome guys) had 40 and 45 lbers and they were last ones done. That would have been MEAN with heavier weights.
I would have been dead last for sure.

Afterwards since I was one of the first ones done, I started carrying 45 lb plates and random dumbbells up the stairs to clean up. My quads were feeling it on those stairs! Finally did 10 pullups just to see if I could. I have a long ways to go but it is nice feeling stronger

Today was BUSY and I have sore legs and back/shoulders from crossfit, but I decided I needed to go for a run. This was also after playing with my kids at a park and doing some muscle-up training and parkour moves with the kids!

 So I ran 3.4 miles up in the mountains - great run up and down and around all sorts of crazy trails above a park near my house. Ran over near some of my stompin' grounds when I was a kid and spent most of my free weekends roaming the mountains. After I got back to the park where I had parked my car, I did some more muscle-up practice and ten pullups while cooling down.

Who left this up here?

Then after I got home I grabbed the hammer to hit the tire! (along with flipping them a few times to get some of the water out that accumulated there from yesterday's SNOW!) In looking at the pictures of the momentous occasion I realized I make a really funny face while hammerin' the tire... Makes me wonder if I look as ridiculous while doing crossfit. Yikes.

I'll be sore tomorrow! Woohoo!

Yay! TIRES!

So a friend of mine mentioned that his Saturday workout included swinging a 10 lb sledgehammer at an 80 lb Tire 100 times.

I've been wanting a tire for a LONG time so I mentioned I needed a tire to go along with my 16 lb sledgehammer.
He said "I've got a big ole 80 lb tire that is perfect. I picked it up for free from Les Schwab. They let me rummage around their trash trailer."

So on the way home from work I stopped by and asked if I could have some. "Sure take whatever you want from our trailer out back!"

Went back and saw a HUGE tire that wouldn't fit in my car. "Hey can I take this one here on the ground?" "That one won't fit in your car and it's REAL heavy!" "Oh I'll come back for it."

So I grabbed one that BARELY fit in my trunk and rushed home. Took the back seats out, grabbed my wife and 2 of my kids (the other two were at friends) and went and got the monster plus another to match the one I brought home.


OH YEAH! I'm excited!

 Could you tell?

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!

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...