QuadFather’s BodyBlog

I am taking my family on a cruise on January 7, so it is time to button down and get ready for shirtless days.  I have been slacking for the last 3-4 weeks, claiming that work has gotten in the way.  With the holidays coming and the vacation, it is time to get serious again!  As someone else said on here winners make goals, while losers make excuses.  No more sleeping inrather than getting my 30 minutes of cardio in in the mornings and no more blowing off the gym to work through lunch.  Kicked this thing off today with a 1 hour and 45 minutes session in the gym.  Time to keep it going!

I had the race today.  Those of you that have read the blogs know that there were three "horses" from my group at the office entered in the 5K.  Due to my procreative abilities, I was dubbed The BabyMaker, while the younger horses (9 years younger than me) were Tunalicious and Tulsa Tornado.  About a month ago, I heard Tunalicious was stepping up his training because he could not handle losing to the "old guy."  Well today came, and I had fish for lunch!  I had set a goal of finishing the race in 24 minutes, and I squeaked by with a 23:53.  I could have done better, but I was way to conservative on the hills since all of my training was on the treadmill.  I had plenty of gas in the tank at the end and sprinted the last 100 yards…would have liked to have spread that energy over the entire race.  The good news is that I beat both of the 26 year olds.  Tulsa Tornado came in at 24:40 and Tunalicious came in at 25:35.  It was a great event, and I am looking forward to the next one…whenever that is.  Last year, there was an event in the area called the Pump and Run 5K.  The idea being that you bench 80% of your body weight as many times as you can.  Each one deducts 15 seconds from your run time.  Would be interesting to see how that evens the playing field with the paper thin runners that seem to always win.  Hopefully, they will hold the pump and run again sometime soon.  Sounds like a great event!

My first 5K.  Been training hard for 2 months for it.  My original goal was to complete it in 24 minutes.  I have done far better than that on the treadmill recently…21:33 is my best 3 mile time.  It will be interesting to see if I can get close to that time running outside versus the treadmill.  Weather forecast is perfect…no rain, low tonight of 46 and a high tomorrow of 74.  Race is at 11:30, so I imagine temps at that time should be between 65-70.  Let’s see how it goes.

I have been consistently improving my time over the last month and a half.  On August 8, I ran 3 miles in 26:44.  Since then, I have been cutting 20-30 seconds of the time each run.  As of today, I am down to 22:13.  I never would have thought that I could improve my time that much in that short of a period.  At this point, I honestly believe I have a chance of beating the 25 and 26 year olds from my team running this event with me!

So yesterday I wrote about me, the old man, in the 5K with the guy from the office that is 9 years younger.  Well today, I got more motivation.

So three of us from my group at work are entered into the 5K on 10/1. The rest of the group started a pool today and is betting on their "horse" in the race. The name they gave me was "The Babymaker."  Guess that is to be expected when you are the dad of 6 kids! We have a whiteboard tracking the fit status of the contestants. There is talk of getting wife beaters for the race with our horse name on the back…it’s getting out of hand!  The cool thing is that the guy that was talking trash yesterday received the longest odds from the “oddsmaker” today!  Should be all the inspiration I needd to help me keep improving my time.  My time this morning beat my previous best from last week by about 50 seconds…I need to have them call me the old man every day!

So over the weekend, one of my old friends from high school (that I have reconnected with over Facebook) sent me a message asking for advice on diet and workouts after he had been watching my updates over the last couple of months.  That bumped up my motivation a bit.

Then yesterday, I worked though lunch so I could duck out of the office for a mid afternoon quad workout.  As I was going to my car, one of my co-workers was coming back into the office and asked me where I was headed.  I explained that I had worked through lunch so I could hit the gym.  Well, this morning, he stops by my office and asks how often I go to the gym during the week.  This guy is a very focused worker, so I am thinking he has a concern about me heading out mid afternoon.  Turns out, he wanted to know because he wants to start going with me so I can help motivate him and show him how to do some exercises properly.  Motivation bumped up a bit more!

Then the ultimate motivation….I have been training for my first 5k run that will be on 10/1.  Me and guy about 9 years younger than me in the office (26 years old and also works out a lot) decided that we’d both enter it and try to motivate each other.  We decided to set a goal of completing the run in 24 minutes.  So just before lunch time, a different guy drops by my office and said he heard that we were running the 5 k and thought that me and the other guy needed to have a friendly wager on the outcome.  Come to find out, he learned of the race after my running buddy told him that he was stepping up his training because he did not want to lose to the old guy…that being me!  Needless to say, my motivation is through the roof!  By the time October comes, I may be doing the 3k in 20:00!!!

I have been working 2 jobs for the last 3 years.  Yesterday was the last day for my second job.  It was so nice to sleep until 7:30 this morning.  Have not slept past 6:00 AM in a long time!  Looking forward to a lot more time with my family and a also adhering more strictly to my workout schedule!

Interesting day today…first of all…rocked the quads today..added weight on all exercises!

Had a f/u appt. with the doc about the headaches I have been getting.  He discussed my negative results on the MRI, and then I told him I am still getting headaches, especially when doing any exercises over the head (shoulders, incline bench, etc.).  He felt my neck and shoulders and said my muscles were all knotted up and asked if he could give me some shots to relax the muscles.  I said sure, and he proceeded to give me 10 shots…5 on each side..starting where the neck and traps meet and going up an inch or so each time until he was half way up the back of my head!  Painful shots…muscle cramped every time he injected and neck is sore now.  He said it should pass in a day or so, though.  He prescribed an oral muscle relaxer and suggested I see a chiropractor.  Good news is that he thinks I may be fully healed in a couple of weeks if I see the chiro and focus on getting ample sleep each night.

So I hit the treadmill hard this morning to pay for my weekend of eating badly.  I did 3 miles in record time…26:15 including a 2 minute warmup walk.  The good news was that when I hit the scales this morning, my weight was the same as it had been Friday morning despite all the burgers, BBQ, cake, and biscuits I ate over the weekend.
This afternoon, I hit the gym for a back and trap workout.  Got a great complement when a strong guy that regularly works out there came up to me and asked me how to get rid of his belly.  It was great being able to give pointers to someone that can lift heavier weights than I can!

It started Friday when I did not leave myself enough time to finish my workout…calves didn’t get worked at all.  Then Friday night came around…had been good diet wise for the week, so I let myself have a burger.  The problem was that I forgot my buddies were throwing me a party on Saturday…BBQ, buffalo wings, cake.  Plus, I ended up missing my workout completely yesterday.  The one good thing was that I did manage to hit the treadmill this morning and then worked abs for about 10-15 minutes.  Diet has been better today, but not perfect.  Tomorrow is a new day and will be time to get back on track!