jacked in MI’s BodyBlog

Well, the challenge between a few fellow BodySpacers that started on September 1, 2007 has come to an end as of November 30, 2007 with solid results achieved by all.

Even though I did not hit all of my goals, I am satisfied with what has transpired so I am looking forward to setting new goals. A special shootout is in order to tswills, PulgasStrongMan and jimf for keeping me on my toes and giving me that needed push once-and-awhile.

I had my first training related injury this past week. Tendinitis between my left shoulder and arm made itself known on Monday.

I wrote this as a reply to a blog post by ninjabill but I though I would share it also with others.

I returned home from a business trip to St. Louis today and flew Southwest, the airline that lets you pick your seat when you board the plane. Anyway, I get on the plane and find a window seat open with a slender lady already sitting in the aisle seat. So I take the window seat and start thinking that this is going to be a nice flight home with the center seat open. I’m thinking since the flight is not full no one is going to want the center seat

Well low and behold and to my surprise this fellow steps on the plane, probably 6′ something and carrying some weight decides to take the center seat of all places! I though that the aisle seat lady jaw was going to hit the floor. This smuck thinks that he’s going to take space advantage from these two “smaller” people. But let me tell you that he was in for a surprise

I maybe 5′6″ but I do have some broad shoulders to keep my seat space secure. I also noticed that the aisle seat lady was not giving up her space either. So this poor fellow who thought he found the perfect seat for his size ended up getting stuck with his hands on the seat in front of him and also with a slight leaning forward so that he could sit just in his seat space. Occasionally, he would try to expand his left elbow into my space but I would intercept it. He must have been pretty sore after this flight.

The joy of flying

Keep movin’ the iron everyone! -Jeff

Headed up north, here in Michigan, for a weekend mountain bike get-a-way with a couple of friends. One of the guys has a cabin about an hour from the Mackinac bridge so we though a change in scenery was needed for our trail riding.

 The weather on Saturday was perfect to hit the trails and put some serious miles on the bikes. Well, at least that was the plan.

Instead of a lot of fun on single tracks with serious mileage behind us, the trail we picked ended up being mainly a cross country skiing wide trail with a lot of sand and not much more. As you know, walking in sand is tough but trying to ride a bike through it is hardwork. It felt like I was carrying an additional 100 lbs riding through this $hit. We were able to complete 19 miles in just over three hours but we were seriously worn out.

The end result, a lot of cardio and not much else. There is a 22 mile single track and very technical trail with in a quick drive from my house that we are going to hit to make up for this weekend’s not so adventure.

Keep training strong everyone!

-Jeff

For the past few days my weight has been at 175 +/- a few tenths of a pound. So I can officially say that I have achieved my weight goal. Woohoo!!! Now, if it continues to drop while I work on shedding my body fat to 10% that is fine. But I set a weight target over 9 months ago and I hit it

One thing I have also noticed is that my body is an equal opportunity distributor of body fat. I’m stronger and my muscles are fuller but I need to revise all of my body stats because the measurements are coming down.

Well, I’m off to the gym shortly to train arms. Today is my last day of supporting the afternoon shift at Windsor Assembly so I will be back to evening workouts come Monday. If you are in the market for a minivan, I must say that the new Chrysler and Dodge minivans are very nice.

Keep training strong everyone! -Jeff

My wife and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary tonight by going out to dinner at a Mongolian Barbeque type restaurant with our daughters. We all enjoyed dinner, my girls especially liked using  chopsticks, and I got to keep my carbs in check  

Seven years ago, we thought getting married on 7-7-Y2K was cool but now we are celebrating our 7th anniversary on 7/7/07. 

How time flies… 

-Jeff

My mountain bike outing today with my buds was simply awesome!

For my first ride of the season, I tore up the trail. Even one of my buds who has been riding for the past month was impressed with the speed and my ability to recover quickly on the uphill climbs. Those kinds of comments really go a long way to reinforce that the 5AM cardio and evening trips to the gym have been and will continue to be worth it.  I had so much energy after riding today that I washed and waxed my wife’s car

All in all, a great way to end a beautiful weekend here in Michigan.  -Jeff

A few buddies and I are hitting the mountain bike trails later today for a run through some technical areas. I’m excited to get back on the trails since it has been nearly 6 months. WOW! we sure had our share of crappy weather. This should be an interesting ride.

To make the ride even more interesting, I trained/punished legs yesterday so let just say that my quads and calves are feeling good today. So again, this should also make the ride interesting.

Enjoy your day everyone…

-Jeff