8 Days to Go. Yikes!

Okay, I just realized that I only have 8 more days. So I wrote out a schedule of rides and runs to get my mileage completed. It’s going to be a busy next 8 days for the most part. I might be able to make some of the early rides and runs a bit bigger to ease my load, but I’m not counting on it. I guess I’m the one who got behind so I’ll just have to take up the slack.

I have 136 more miles to ride and 13 miles to run. I have a 3-day weekend, so that should help, but I have at least one birthday party to go to, so that won’t help. Here’s the plan that I’ve got in my head.

Tomorrow is Wednesday August 29th. I’m going to ride 30 miles.

Thursday August 30th: Run 4 miles.

Friday August 31st: Ride 15 miles (very easy miles).

Saturday Sept. 1: 46 miles on the SingleSpeed.

Sunday Sept. 2: 20 mile bike ride.

Monday Sept. 3: 5 mile run.

Tuesday Sept. 4: 25 mile bike ride.

Wednesday Sept. 5: 4 mile run.

This schedule will have me meeting my goal exactly, so I guess it’s what I’m going to need to now. No questions anymore about what I should be doing. Now I know and I just need to get it done.

Wish me luck.

Day 36 of my 46th Birthday Challenge

I’ve had a good week since my last update. I’ve been pretty consistent on the bike, got 3 runs in, done all my pull-ups, done another 46 mile bike ride and added another vegeterian day. I’ve also seen one venomous snake and another non-venomous snake as well as one snake that was food for a red-tail hawk.

Thursday Amber and Levi went to Disneyland and Amber’s Mom was watching Haven. This meant I had a free afternoon. I took advantage of it to get some bouldering in. I headed to Airport Rocks and started climbing. It was a hot day and I was sweating profusely most of the time.  This included my feet. Since I had new shoes with red leather under the heel I ended up with a lot of red dye on my feet. Thankfully it wasn’t as painful as it looked at first glance.

Sweat and new red leather means red feet.

By the time I got close to finish I was feeling pretty tired, but the bigger problem was how much my feet hurt. I haven’t climbed in a while, so my feet were not used to climbing shoes and I’ve blown out all my comfy high-mileage shoes, so I had to use newer shoes that I haven’t broken in that well yet. But I did finish and it was a nice day on the boulders. I’m hoping it will be a good tune-up for bouldering season. I’ve been doing my pull-ups which should help my fitness some and make it easier to start bouldering when it gets a bit cooler.

After the bouldering I changed into my running shorts and shoes and headed out for a few miles in the desert. I was planning an out and back route on some nice singletrack that runs near the bouldering area. About 1 mile in I hear this buzzing noise and start jumping sideways seemingly at the same time I realize it’s a rattlesnake. Once I figure out where the snake is my heartrate starts to come down some.  I check it out for a bit. It’s about a 3-foot long Mojave Green. Just 3 days earlier I was telling someone I had seen lots of other rattlesnakes but only one little Mojave Green. I guess I jinxed myself. Looking at my footprints it looked like I was about 2 feet from him, which is about how far they can strike. I’m glad I didn’t test whether I was close enough to hit or not. I didn’t want to run past that area again, so I turned around and ran back to the Jeep.

This pic stolen from the web, but he looked about like this.

Saturday morning Amber and I did a mudrun. It was the first time we’ve done something like that together since we’ve had kids. It was nice to get out and do something without having to worry about where Levi was running off to.  They had a lot of cool obstacles to climb over, a couple hills to run down, a big pit filled with ice water and guys with firehoses wetting you down in places. It went well and I got another 3 miles in. Yes!

My 46 mile ride on my Full suspension mountain bike was planned for Sunday morning. I didn’t get up too early, but I tried to get moving relatively quickly. Not one of my strong points. I rode from home and took a long trek out to Sycamore Rocks via way of Bell Mountain. I hit a few different trails at Sycamore Rocks and then headed back to Bell Mountain. I rode to my parents house and got there at about mile 32. I fueled up and headed out for another loop of Bell Mountain and headed home. I was pretty tired at the end, but had managed to ward off any cramps, so it felt like a total success. Now I just have the 46 miles on the single speed to go. I’ll be doing that next weekend and am expecting it to be a long day on the trails.

I’m a little behind on my running and riding, so hopefully I can pick that up a bit in the next week. Only 10 days to go.

46th Birthday Challenge. Day 29

So today is Day 29 of my challenge and a clear pattern has developed. I’m totally committed to the riding and the running and the pull-ups but am a bit behind on both the bike and the running. I’ve done almost all the pull-ups but I had one day I didn’t do any and another where I missed about 20. I don’t seem too concerned with the abs or the push-ups and I think it’s because they are a little too easy, so it’s hard to motivate myself.

I’ve exercised for at least 45 minutes on 26 of the days, missing 3. Hopefully I won’t miss anymore, but time will tell. I’ve only had one vegetarian day and no whole food days, so we’ll see whether I meet those goals or not. Don’t hold your breath. I’ve taken 3 Mulligans for the drinking so far, so I think I’m good there, but I could see just deciding I don’t want to do that part of the challenge anymore and stopping. Of course, Amber would give me endless grief about it, which is probably the only reason I’m still doing it.

Today I did 46 miles on the fixie. I switched out my seat before the ride and the new one was way better. I was still pretty tired of sitting on the bike by the time I finished but it was better than far shorter rides leading up to this.

46 miles on the fixie. No problem with that.

Saw a cool red-tailed Hawk while out on the ride. He took off out of the desert a ways ahead of me. Then as he circled back towards me I could see that he had a snake in his talons. Very cool.

Friday we had torrential rains, heavy winds and thunder and lightning. It was very cool. Levi got a chance to play in the yard after the storm and had a blast running through the puddles and playing in the mud. When it was time to come in he got stripped down and taken straight to the shower. He’s lucky I didn’t just use the hose. He was pretty filthy, but very happy.

Levi missed swimming lessons so had to settle for Lake Backyard Puddle.

16 more days, 200 more miles on the bike and 26 running. I better pick up the pace.

Birthday Challenge, Day 16

Okay, I guess I’m 1/3rd through my challenge, although I probably have more than 2/3rds left to do. So it goes I guess.

For the record I’ve ridden 108 miles and should be at 160 miles. I’ve run 10 miles and should be at 16. I’ve done a 46 mile ride on my road bike and still have to do 46 mile rides on my single speed, fixie and full suspension bike. I’d like to get 2 more of those out of the way before I go back to work next week, but I don’t know if I’ll make it.

I’ve done 46 minutes of exercise every day except one. I also counted shoveling dirt as exercise yesterday, so that might be tweaking it a bit, but so it goes. It’s my challenge so I make the rules as I go and change them as I feel like it.

I’m not going to be doing any ocean stuff I don’t think. We were supposed to go camping at the beach near my friend Bob’s place and he was going to be a huge assist for that stuff. The trip got cancelled and I’m probably not going to make it happen another way.

I am going to add 46 laps on my pump track, but that means I have to finish it first. So that’s why I was moving dirt yesterday. I don’t think it will take too much time, but it will take some time and effort to get finished.

I’ve been doing my 46 pull-ups every day. In fact, I just did a set between paragraphs. At first I thought that number felt alright. But then after about 10 days it started to feel harder. I can do the pull-ups without any real issues except that I’m feeling some pain in my forearms and elbows. Nothing too severe, but not perfect either. The push-ups are pretty easy and I think I’m getting stronger. The 46 ab exercises is a non-issue, really.

I’ve been alcohol free except for one Mulligan day when we went out with my parents to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. I’ve got four more Mulligans and know at least one occasion where I’ll use another one. Then I guess we can take it by ear.

Yesterday I was moving dirt and Levi wanted to join me, but was on the other side of the fence. Next thing I know he’s on top of the fence trying to come join me. Yikes!

I’m sure he would have made it over, but I’m not sure how he would have landed.

Cheers,

~Reed

46th Birthday Challenge

In 46 Days I’ll be 46. So this year my challenge is going to be 46 days of challenges. Some will or course be bigger than others. I’m still working on some of the details, so consider this a work in progress, but the gist should be pretty close.

I will ride my bike 460 miles and run 46 miles during the 46 days. I will exercise for 46 minutes every day. I will do 46 pull-ups, push-ups and ab exercises every day. I will ride each of my bikes 46 miles at least once during the 46 days.

I will paddle a paddleboard 4.6 kilometers and try to catch 46 waves. I will eat vegeterian for 5 days and whole foods for another 5 (rounding up to 5).

I will drink no alcohol during the challenge, but I will have 5 mulligan days so that I can imbibe with friends on occasion.

I want to do a 46 boulder problem day and either a 46 route day or a 46 route weekend if it’s not going to work out in a day.

I know there’s more, but this is a good start. Let the fun begin.

~Reed

Why Exercise?

I exercise to do sports, to be outside and use my body as best as I can. Given the opportunity I’d much rather just do the things I want to do outside as my main source of training. But that’s not the path I’ve gone down. I’ve got a job and a family and I would have to neglect them some to spend as much time as I want outside. Besides, I love them and like spending time with them, so I’d be missing something greater.

So instead of playing outside all the time, I work out inside a lot. But the good thing I notice is that a lot of the exercise I do inside helps me outside. When I started Asylum in the fall of 2011 I got faster at running and better at climbing without actually doing any running or climbing. Obviously there’s a point where that won’t happen, but I’m not there yet. So for now I’ll continue with this phase of Asylum and get my mountain biking, running, hiking, etc… when I can.

Here’s a couple pics of a recent mountain bike ride. We had to wind around a mountain and then eventually hike up to the top of a ridge with our bikes. We stopped and hit some jumps and stunts along the way and rode a fantastic downhill as the reward for our hike-a-bike. Thanks to P90X (what I was doing at the time) I was able to hike up the hill with minimal problems. That’s cool.

This was a fun little jump that I found. It’s always cool to show other people your stuff.

This is the hike-a-bike part. I’ve only done this twice, but it definitely didn’t seem as bad this time. I think I’ll keep training.

I also rode a couple new trails in Honda Valley. It’s not my favorite place to ride, but the new trails are adding more fun features so I’m sure I’ll hit it up more often than I normally do. One trail had this cool obstacle on it. It doesn’t look too scary in the photo, but riding up to it is a different story. I eventually did it, but it took me quite a few tries before I committed.

I’d like to say I’ll be playing outside tomorrow, but I’ll probably be working out in front of the computer monitor. That’s alright, I know I’ll be stronger the next time I do go outside.

March Update- 6 months down, 6 to go.

Back in September I did a pretty good Birthday Challenge and then challenged myself to lose 45 pounds during the course of the year. Since then I’ve been trying pretty hard, working out a lot and trying to eat better. I’m definitely way more fit than I was then, but I still have a long ways to go.

Here’s what I look like today

And this is what I looked like during that Birthday Challenge

I know it’s not the best photos for comparing but for some reason I didn’t take  a pic then of myself standing in my house with no shirt on. I thought I did, but I can’t find it, so this will have to do.

Since that day the majority of my exercise has been inside with one program or another from Beachbody. My buddy Steve works for them and has helped inspire me to use their products to try to get back into the shape I had in years past. I started with “Insanity, the Asylum.” It’smy favorite Beachbody program so far, but I haven’t tried them all, so that could change later. I’ll talk more about that later. Then I followed up Asylum with a full 90 day cycle of P90X. That was totally different and really increased my strength. Now I’m starting another round of Asylum and am planning on following that up with P90X2, which is Beachbody’s newest program.

I’ve been pretty good with the exercise, but I haven’t done enough with my nutrition. I’ve been pretty good the last 3 months, but I’m going to try to do even better during this round of Asylum. Hopefully that will help make my results even better.

So far here’s how I’ve done:

Weight – I’ve lost 16 pounds.

Waist – I’ve lost 3 inches off my waist.

I’ve lost 2 inches off my hips and an inch off my chest.

My biceps have increased about a half inch and my thighs are about an inch and a half smaller.

I’ve lost about 4% body fat.

I’m pretty happy with these results, but I would like them to be even better. So that’s some of the motivation for trying to kick my diet into gear. Hopefully it will work.

I also signed up to be a Team Beachbody Coach to try to help others get into better shape as well. I’d also like it if I made a little money doing it, but that’s secondary. My first goal was to make enough of an improvement on myself that people would be inspired to work with me as their coach. Hopefully that is happening.

Winter, New Years and a New Baby

It’s been a real mild winter and I’ve been enjoying the warmer than normal days. With the addition of Haven to the family I haven’t gotten out as much because she has taken some of our sleep and some of our extra time. I did get a good collection of rides in right around New Years and that was awesome.

Here’s a few photos of Haven and Levi

He loves his little sister.

 

New Year’s Eve was a mellow family evening. We had a great sunset here and then went over to my parent’s house for dinner and to spend some time with my sister and her son before they had to head home to Oregon.

I did get to ride my bike some. I was out with a couple friends and we were exploring some new rocks and looking for fun lines. We found a few good ones.

 

We also got a day out on the rocks. Pat was there with Chad, Laura and Morgan and Amber surprised me by joining us with Levi and Haven. Amber was cranking, just one month from having Haven via C-section. Impressive.

I’ve been continuing to workout and although my weight hasn’t changed much I am fitter and my clothes are fitting looser. In this pic you can see that I’m starting to gain some definition in my back, although there is still a bunch of flab there.

Cruxing out in the warm December Weather

 

 

Photo Fitness Update

I have been training pretty consistently since September of this year. It’s now almost 4 months later and I’ve lost about 12 pounds and some inches here and there off my body. The other day I was bouldering with some friends and took some photos to try to compare what I looked like then with what I look like now.

These two were back on September 13, 2011

Tubby Showing his From in Sept.

These photos were taken December 27th, 2011

Can you see a difference? I can and I like it. But I’m far from content and the big goal is still 45 pounds by September 6, 2012. I’m finishing week 4 of P90X and am hoping to take any fitness I gain from it straight into P90X2. That will take me to the end of May and then I can work on whatever I want to do next to help me towards my goal.

Fall Fitness Update

My last post was about my Birthday Challenge. That was a couple of good days of exercise and a lot of fun. Since then I’ve had a number of good days on the bike and done a couple of runs. But almost all of my exercise has been a couple of Beachbody programs. I’m using these programs to get more fit and to lose those 45 pounds I want to lose by September 6th, 2012.

Here’s what I looked like then:

Feeling Dead

I started doing Asylum in mid-September. I tried to be as consistent as possible. Part of my plan was to do the workouts at school after work to ensure that I got them in. I find that if I wait until I get home I have a hard time getting the workouts in. There are just too many other distractions and limited space for everyone to share at the same time. The best time is before work, but i have to get up between 5 and 5;30am in order to work out before work and that’s often too hard for me to do.

Levi helping me doing my Asylum

I did about 20 Asylum workouts over 6 weeks. I was also riding my bike 2 or 3 times a week during this period. I really enjoyed the Asylum workouts and I could feel myself getting fitter. I was faster on the bike, I could do more pull-ups and my mile times came down. All of those improvements were with almost no real training apart from doing Asylum.

Unfortunately I injured my knee a little bit doing something silly at work. I was feeling pretty springy from Asylum and started jumping around one day and tweaked my knee. After that I didn’t feel like I could do Asylum as effectively and switched to the classic Power 90 for a while. A big advnatage of Power 90 is that it’s shorter which makes it easier to do before work because I don’t need to get up quite as early. I could feel my strength continuing to grow while doing Power 90 and my clothes were starting to fit a bit looser.

Amber and I were expecting our 2nd child at the end of November and that combined with some other issues made November a month with a little less exercise. That’s alright because those things happen, but it didn’t help my fitness goals. On November 27th Haven Angelina Bartlett was born. We are very excited to have a daughter and have been enjying this next step in the adventure of life.

 

It took about a week before we were home and relatively back on our routine. On the 2nd of December I started a round of P90X. So far I’m on Day 9 and have done all the workouts. I’m sure I’ll miss some at some point, but I’m trying to be very committed so I can get the best results possible. In the past I’ve strruggled more with P90X than I am this time. It’s not easy, but I’m doing noticeably better than in the past. I atribute this to the 3 months of Asylum and Power 90 that I did before starting P90X.

How I look right now:

Today I did some measurements to see how things have changed in the last 3 months. I’m a little disappointed that the results aren’t more significant but I’m happy with my progress so far. I’ve lost 12 pounds, going from 235 to 223. I’ve dropped an inch from my waist and 2 inches from my hips. My thighs have lost about an inch, as has my chest. My biceps have gained a half inch on the left and an inch on the right. So nothing huge, but it’s improvement and as long as it continues I’ll be fine. I’m about a quarter of the way through the year and I’ve lost about a quarter of the weight so I’m on track. I go back to work tomorrow so hoepfully I’ll be able to continue to workout and make progress.