workoutSD’s BodyBlog

I don’t have the official time, but that’s what my friend got and I started a couple minutes after him and finished a few minutes after him.  I’m not even too sore today, of course the legs are a little bit tender and I’ll lay off cardio for a couple days, but really the only body parts that are sore are my right and left heels and my calves a little bit.  The left heel is sore mostly because I stepped on a really sharp rock while walking to the swimming start.

I’ll post up the official times and some pictures when I find them out.  They post them online after a few days.  I know that my biking and running were amazing, however, the swimming was REALLY ugly.  For those of you who don’t know, triathlons go in this order: Swim - Bike - Run

• The swimming was a 500 meter swim in Mission Bay - like I said this was ugly at one point one of the life guards asked me if I was alright because I was “drinking a lot of water” (yuck!).  I swim great in pools, but the ocean is WAY different!  It was like I stepped in the water and forgot how to swim, I don’t know why but I just couldn’t breathe for swimming the normal freestyle.
• The biking was great, a 15K ride (9.3 miles) I was one of the only people on a mountain bike in the race, and my bike could have definitely used some adjustments or a tune-up.  But whatever, I excelled anyway, I was passed by those who had clearly spent upwards of $5,000 on racing bikes, clothes, etc.  but…whatever, they are in their own league, I feel like they weren’t really competing with the regular people.
• All I have to say about the running is I am so grateful I spent the $100 on high quality, good fitting running shoes.  Worth every penny!  I ran fast, and I kept my endurance full throttle the whole time, I must have finished the 5K (3.1miles) run in about 25 minutes.  I can’t wait to see my official time, because I passed almost everyone, I had no idea I could be that fast.  I know I can attribute this to one factor… stretching the F*#K out of my hamstrings for two months, I have very long legs, having long, flexible hammies allows me to use my legs to my advantage instead of toting around these big heavy dead weights, LOL

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I didn’t place, and I hope I’m not writing to fish for compliments, but I just wanted to share my experience.  If I can do this, anyone can.  I just wore my normal gym shorts and a tank top with my mountain bike, you don’t have to spend a lot of money, all you need is a drive to succeed which is your heart and mind! (I know corny)

Anyway, looking forward to start lifting again… Keep lifting out there!

-Jeff

I’m really excited that this week-end is the triathlon, I’m really nervous and excited!  Yikes!  I’ll write on monday and let everyone know how it goes, hopefully I’ll have some pictures too!

On monday (9/24) I was lifting my chest and Bi’s because I was super-setting opposing muscle groups so one could rest while the other was working, hence make the entire work out really effective and also an efficient use of my time.

Anyway… I had left my lifting straps on and I was doing a wide grip decline bench.  I wasn’t using them for that exercise because I was pushing rather than pulling so I just left them hanging around my wrists.  After my last rep I set down the weight and I couldn’t move my hands. I was like, "what’s going on?"  Then I tried to wiggle out of them, no luck.  After about 30 seconds I looked over at a random person next to me and said, "excuse me, ummmm…. I’m stuck can you help me?"  So the guy stepped over and lifted off one side of the bar at a time and I pulled my arms down and broke free.  Fortunately, there wasn’t much weight on the bar and we had a little laugh about it.  But that was obviously my last set of the day

Keep lifting, and be sure to work out around other people in case you get stuck!  Although, I don’t think very many people are as air-headed as me, LOL

OK, I felt really crappy yesterday because I broke my 2 1/2 year streak of not being sick.  I caught a cold and took the afternoon off work, went home took a nap and felt great afterwards.  So I said, "awesome, I’ll hit up the gym" and I did have a great chest/bicep workout but alas, I had a relapse and the cold came back worse afterwards.

Anyway, I had a great lift with the increased weights for bi’s and chest.  I didn’t to abs and I haven’t really done cardio since Saturday.  However, I’m not going to start tonight because I don’t want to make the same mistake and have ANOTHER relapse.  As much as I hate taking days off from working out, I have to or else I will be stuck in this miserable cycle of feeling crappy.   So tomorrow, I will hopefully be able to get back into it.  This really worries me because the Triathlon is in 10 days!

I hope I have some better news tomorrow.

Keep training hard!  -Jeff

Hello hello!

Wow, yesterday I had an amazing workout.  Every once in awhile you just are completely focused, in a great mood, have tons of energy and lots of time to get it done.  Yesterday was one of those days.  Anyway I was really sweaty and I did a ton of Abs and although I just did the normal legs, I did it with a passion where I will be moving up in weight for the next workout.

Here’s what I did yesterday:

• Leg Press (increasing next time)
• Squats (i’m very scared to increase weight on these because my form isn’t 100% perfect yet and it one can easily hurt themselves on this)
• Swiss-ball hamstring curls
• Calf-Raises (increasing next time)
• Abdominals were super-sets in between “rest” from the legs

1. Weighted decline sit-ups
2. leg “pulse ups” (where you move your hips up)
3. Bridges
4. leg raises
5. weighted swiss-ball crunches
6. cable crunches (form was questionable on this)

I also bought some Universal Torrent for post w/o nutrition.  I hope it tastes good and doesn’t make me gain weight.  I decided to buy this based on the recommendation of some other friends from the site.  I am almost out of Cell Mass Creatine and this supplement combines the esterfied creatine and protein to (theoretically) provide the complete post-w/o nutrition with one supplement.

Unfortunatley, I’m not feeling very well today.  I woke up with a sore throat and took a pack of emergen-C.  But it didn’t help much, I think I will use today as my rest day.  This works out perfect because Monday’s are the best rest days for the following reason(s):

1. I usually have a case of the Mondays and I’m re-cooping/adjusting from the week-end
2. The gym is unbelievably busy on mondays!  I am friendly with the Front Desk girls and the confirmed that Monday is a great day to take off because it is indeed the most crowded.

Ok, I guess that’s only 2 reasons but that’s good enough for me.

Someone tell me what they think the Torrent will make me fat!  I hope not..

Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow and able to workout again, I’m sure I’ll update you unless I’m too busy at work doing actual work.

Keepin’ it real -

-Jeff

OK, so… I got some good ideas from the man known on the internet as only "Kilmer" LOL, he gave me some good ideas and encouragement on working out the abs.  So, yesterday I did it up right with the working out and lifting and eating.

There is only one huge caveat to the eating, I was absolutely jones-in’ for some pizza more than a stoned teenager yesterday.  So I was at Costco and I caved and bought 2 slices of cheese, but hey at least I burned it off and at it could have been way worse, I think they had pepperoni and sausage & pepperoni.  I know that adding only those toppings adds an additional 150-250 calories per slice, so it was the lesser of 2 evils I suppose.  So, I’m sure it won’t be the end of the world.

Yesterday’s workout:

AM Cardio: 30 minutes of swimming focusing on increasing lung capacity by alternating breathing from every 2 strokes to every 4 strokes.  It was pretty tiring, but it needs to be done to improve swimming for the triathlon, which is coming in 2 weeks!!!

PM Weight Training:  Super-setting biceps and chest, i moved up in weight for most of the exercises which is encouraging.  I also stepped-up the Abs to the following:

• Weighted Decline sit-ups with  25lb plate 3 sets x 20
• Leg Raises 3 sets x 20 (increased from 3 x 15)
• Cable Crunches 3 sets x 20 (45lb, 60lb, 80lb)
• Bridges 2 sets (1 min, 1/2 min)

Keep lifting!

-jeff

haha, good thing i’m not a real writer, huh?

yesterday I had a great leg workout, I also had a great ab workout.  I was definatley in the zone last night, which was awesome.  I am taking a day off today, although I wanted to swim this morning I had trouble getting up.

I also added dead lifts into the routine last night.  They are tough, but I wanted to start doing them because they are such a great full body pump.  I’m pretty grouchy today, so I guess it’s good that i’m taking a day off, this way I can be sure not to have any caffeine late in the day and hopefully get a good night of rest. A good night’s sleep is amazing, nothing beats it, LOL

Anyway, keep lifting strong!

-js

Yesterday I worked out the back and tri’s and I’m excited that most of the workout seemed too light, so I am moving almost everything up in weight by a minimum of 10 pounds.  So that’s exciting to see progress like that.  Based on some opinions I got about my routine, I am planning on making the following changes to my routine:

• decrease the amount of milk in protein shakes by 1/2 to reduce the carb intake, this will decrease my total daily caloric intake by 180 just doing this.
• Changing to White flood pre-w/o and Universal Torrent as post-w/o

well…ok… I guess there’s only 2 changes, LOL.  BUT… I’m ALWAYS open to any suggestions or advice.

oh yeah, and yesterday for one of my tricep exercises I did 10 reps of 100 pound dumbbell in a behind the head skull-crusher.  RAWR!!!

I decided I want to change up my supplements and when I’m taking them.  Based on the advice of others I found some new ones I want to try.

Here is everything I’m doing for training and nutrition except for the actual workouts themselves:

• 6:00 AM - wake up and eat 1 banana, 1 tablespoon of organic peanut butter, 1 cup of coffee with splenda and 2 oz of milk (sometimes I have 2 cups of coffee if I’m really tired, LOL)

• 6:45 AM - start cardio as one of the following: 15K of Biking, 5K of Running, or 700 meters of swimming.  Each one is around 30 minutes.
• 7:45 AM - drink a protein shake (8oz. milk, 1 scoop of whey, 32g protein total)
• 10:30 AM - meal 2: 1/2 cup oatmeal sprinkled with 2 tbsp of flax meal, protein shake
• 1:00 PM - meal 3: actual food, LOL.  usually a turkey sandwich (7-grain bread, 6 oz. of turkey, 1 oz cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion) or chix and broccolli
• 3:30 PM - meal 4: protein shake, apple or other fruit, 1 oz. of almonds
• 6:00 PM - meal 5: PBJ on whole wheat bread (organic PB and organic spreadable fruit) and cottage cheese flavored with pineapple.  Sugar-free popsicles or no-sugar-added, low fat ice cream for desert.
• 7:00 PM - creatine serving
• 7:15 PM - pre-w/o energy.  I’m on SuperPump 250 but I’m not enamored with it, I think I will be switching to White Flood.
• 7:30 PM - weight training at gym, almost always superset with abdominals
• 9:00 PM - post workout creatine serving  ***I’m thinking I want to switch to Universal Torrent because it contains both protein and creatine together so I can just take this right away after weight training and make life a little simpler.
  
• 9:30 PM - MEAL 6: protein shake, but this one has more umph to it.  8 oz. of milk and 1/2 scoops of whey so about 44g of protein and 15g of carbs.
• 10:30 PM - BED, but sometimes I’m too amped up from the pre-w/o drink I take melatonin to help sleep.

So this is what I have been doing.  Please give me your honest feedback and if you think I’m doing something glaringly wrong and give me any suggestions.

Thank you!

The weather has cooled off quite nicely in Sunny San Diego, so sleep is much easier to come by and consequently I was able to get up and do some swimming this morning before work.  I only swam for about 20 minutes before my shoulder started to bother me, so I switched to freestyle only for 5 minutes and it seemed to be fine.  I’m not really sure what’s wrong with it if anything, it probably just needs more rest, but that’s not really acceptable to me.  So I am just doing stuff that doesn’t aggravate it at all.

Yesterday I got in my supplement order and it took a long time to receive because i didn’t order it from BB.com.  This place was cheaper, but it took a week to receive where BB.com usually gets it to me in 2 business days.   I got some SuperPump 250 Fruit Punch, Cookies n’ Creme ON Whey, and some lifting hooks.

I hope the SuperPump Fruit Punch flavor tastes better than the orange I bought previously.  I think the orange tastes like a punch of vitamin C tablets, it’s gross!  I’ve tried 4 flavors of ON Whey: Vanilla, Chocolate Mint, Strawberry, and Cookies ‘n’ Creme and Chocolate Mint is easily the best tasting (in my opinion).  I thought the cookies n creme would be more choclatey tasting.

Anyway, the lifting hooks came just in time.  They are supposed to be the same as the traditional lifting straps but more convenient to put on and remove from the bars.  I’m looking forward to my back workout tonight because I needed these straps for quite some time, I was having trouble with my grip last time i worked out my back, I hope these help.

Has anyone else had any experience with the lifting hooks versus the straps?  Does anyone else have an opinion about the supplement flavors I spoke of above?

Here is what I did yesterday:

• Took SuperPump, Cell Mass, and Protein shake mixed with mostly water.
• Worked out the shoulders
• 2nd serving of Cell Mass
• Biked for 30 minutes (I did the distance of the tri in 28 minutes)
• Protein Shake (40g pro, 20g carbs from milk)
• Stretching legs

Happy Lifting!