22 sept. best burger

i realized today that best burger does one thing right that i never noticed...they put the lettuce, onions, ect. below the meat patty. you see, heat rises and cold sinks. therefore, the vegetables remain crispy and fresh resulting in a masterpiece of taste from the first bite to the last. http://www.flickr.com/photos/32233400@N00/2302172701/ there is another joint that does it the same way and their burgers are also fantastic: In and Out. all those restaurant hamburgers be shamed, they have no idea how to do it right; chili's, red robin, tgi friday's, and so on. even though Best Burger has bigger hamburgers, In and Out is right up there as far as taste and quality. i know this is an outlandish statement, but i'm making it and if you have any doubt...you need to try it. in any case, the double-double is to die for. the fries are most likely better for you at in and out. seeing how they are fresh-cut right behind the counter.
the whole point of this entry is to illustrate my lack effort on working out and eating right. but hey, if you can't enjoy your vacation...?

utah - 19 september

after i let andy know that ogden is one of the top 50 cities in america for adventure (you can see for yourself in National Geographic Adventure Magazine September 2008 issue p. 79) i jumped on a plane and headed out. however if you are trying to regain a workout schedule...it can be bad. well, not all that bad, but less disciplined. i did have a bbq pork sandwich at the grill in the Honolulu airport; really amazing! the flight wasn't bad, the lady next to me must have been really tired cause she just layed right out. the in-flight movie was something with a miss pettegrew in the title; not worth seeing. however, i am currently breathing the cool fall air of one of america's most adventerous cities. wish you were here.
my work out for the last day or two has consisted of sitting on airplanes and forgetting to sign out on leave...oh well, what are they going to do, bar me from re-enlistment?

weights - 18 sept. 08

yesterday i hit the track and the weights. i ran for 30 min. and lifted weights for about 45. running was pretty basic, ran until i got somewhere then turned around to come back. my weightlifting consists primarily of free weights (cause that's all we have in the barracks). i started on the bench with the bar only and worked my way up slowly to pushing up 2 plates (135 lbs.). i do sets of 10 reps at each different weight and then sets of 7 reps. then i move to curls and tri's. it's pretty awesome, the first couple times my arms were pretty sore the next day, but it goes away after a schedule is established. i'm not trying for body mass, just tone to help me with my running and overall ability. as far as my diet goes, there isn't a lot to say. i eat boston market tv dinners, yogurt and cheese for breakfast and a pb&j for lunch. pretty simple...every day.

back at it - mon 16 sept 08

running 30 min. weight lifting 45 min. yesterday i only worked on the bench. last week i went running twice and hit the weights every day; i won't give you the details because it was a little off the wall with planning. as far as the weight lifting is concerned i start with the bar only and do one set. i gradually work my way up by adding more weight each set until i reach 135 lbs. (that's 2 plates). i do a few sets at 135 and then work my way back down to just pushing the bar alone. running...i just run until i'm tired and then i stop. it's generally a few miles and no less than 30 min.

Hawai'i is indeed the killer

i would have to agree with shane on this one, we do suck. i for one have barely worked out since i started my language training. however that ended last week and today i took the listening portion of version 5 test. in my defense, if i even have one, i feel that language training was benificial and i worked hard; we'll see the fruits of my hard work and hopefully it'll pay off. but more to follow on that. my current batallion has an exemption policy and i made it with a 300 on my last pt test. for the first time ever i stopped when i had reached the maximum in push-ups and sit-ups to save energy for the run. it payed off; i ran a 13:12 which is the fastest 2 mile i've run since leaving california. however, it's still a full minute over where i want to be. so i have something to work for. anyway, i'm making a resolution to post A LOT more often. so i'll see you around the bend.

We suck

I think after we went to Hawaii we stopped training hard (or at least keeping detailed records of it). Andy and I went to Hawaii for work for a month or so, and Mike moved there. And that was the beginning of us not posting.

I'm going to Iraq soon so I have other priorities besides training, but I still want to get a good workout regimen while I'm there, if I can.

Week 9, Days 1-3

Ok so I skipped week 8 almost entirely. I did, however, work a 70 hour workweek. And I did a 2 mile time trial I think on Wednesday to see where I was at - just under 15 minutes. Hopefully when I take my PT test and it's 20 degrees warmer I'll be able to do a 14:00 2 mile.

So here's what I've done so far this week:

Sunday - 7 mile run in 58 minutes outdoors. It was relatively warm (which basically just means barely above freezing), so I did a loop around the airfield on post. Also tried out a new jacket that I intend to take backpacking - it stops wind and snow pretty well.

Monday - 21.4 miles on stationary bike, 800 calories burned in exactly 1 hour. Immediately afterwards, I did weights for about an hour, including a few sets of squats that nearly made me pass out. Which was kinda awesome.

Tuesday - Went to buy some stuff instead, since all retail stores and the gym close 2 hours after I get off work here. But the sun set at 10pm today, which means that I can start running outside whenever the hell I feel like. Oh, also, I had Burger King for breakfast this morning. Because when I'm only given 30 minutes for breakfast, and it takes me 10 minutes to drive between home and work, I really don't have that many options.

Andy and Mike need to get back to updating. It's been like 3 weeks.

Week 7 - Shane

Sunday - 5.7 mile run described here.
Monday - 2 mile run as a diagnostic to see where we are for this month's PT test. I ran it in 16 minutes. When it comes time to do it for real, I expect 14:30 or faster. I won't be wearing long pants and a jacket, the trail won't be 50% ice, and I will not have run 5.7 miles the day before. Also, broke my diet for all 3 meals since we were at work the entire time. Again.
Tuesday - No workout
Wednesday - 10.5 miles on stationary bike in 30 minutes, 30 minutes of run sprints afterwards.
Thursday - shortened weightlifting session. I benched 3 sets of 155 lbs at 12/10/8 reps, and squatted 3 sets of 12 reps each of 155/165/175lbs. I can't remember what I did on the row or fly machines.
Friday - Time trial for a sprint triathlon. Times:
750m swim - 17:00
transition - 6:00
20k (12.4mi) bike (stationary machine) - 37:20
transition - 1:15
5k (3.1mi) run (treadmill at 1.0% incline) - 28:02
Total - 1:29:37
Also on Friday I had pizza for lunch with coworkers. No real reason, just that peer pressure and conformity still influence my behavior.

Week 7 distance totals:
Swim: 750m
Bike: 22.9 miles
Treadmill: 3.1 miles
Road running: 7.7 miles
Total run: 10.8 miles

In case you haven't noticed, I've been kinda lazy, and kinda not sticking with my diet, and not really doing afternoon workouts. But I'm also ridiculously busy with work. And I think I'm not the only one of the 3.

Next week, starting Sunday, I'm going to try to start sticking with a specific schedule each week (morning workouts will be with the unit and dependent on whether we stick to our own published schedule):

Sunday - Long, slow run.
Monday - speed, agility type stuff with the unit in the morning, and a long, slow, bike in the afternoon.
Tuesday - powerlifting for an hour, then 30 minutes of abs in the morning, and a long, slow swim in the afternoon.
Wednesday - speed, agility type drills with the unit in the morning, and speed intervals on the bike in the afternoon.
Thursday - either weights or sports in the morning (we alternate every week), and speed intervals in the pool in the afternoon
Friday - Long run in the morning, some super-intense workout in the afternoon, probably incorporating 2 or 3 of the triathlon sports.

Mar 30 - Shane

I wasn't going to run today, being hungover and dehydrated when I woke up to watch the Texas/Memphis game this morning. I was trying to find the motivation to just get to the pool to at least do some flip turn drills, but then I watched this awesome commercial during the game, and went running afterwards:



I covered 5.7 miles in 52 minutes. Not that fast, but the ice was pretty bad for some stretches.

Week 6 - Shane

Ok so I didn't do any afternoon workouts for the rest of the week. I did morning PT with my unit, though.

On Friday morning we ran uphill for 3.1 miles for an elevation increase of 550 feet. We went back to pick someone up, so I'd say that it was a total of 3.5 miles for like 650 feet elevation increase. We ran the mile or so down the ski slope, though, which was far steeper but also much shorter.

So totals:

Running: around 4.5 miles, plus about an hour of sprints and 90 minutes of basketball
Biking: 18 miles
Swim: 0

What a weak week.

Andy Mar 26

Exercise- Ran 3 miles this morning and swam approx 750m in the afternoon.

Diet:
Breakfast- Cheese omlete with mango salsa topping
Lunch- Fully loaded shredded pork burrito from Burrito Heaven
Dinner- Chicken Breast with mango salsa on top of basmati rice.

Andy Mar 25

IM BACK!

After a week of ridiculousness, uncertainty, minimal exercise, and indulgences I'm ready to start fresh again. My shoulder is at 85% now and I'll be working hard to stay on track this time.

Exercise- This morning I ran to the gym which is about .75 miles away and biked for 30 min. Afterwards I ran back. After work I played in a volleyball game. I planned on swimming afterwards but the pool was closed...

Diet:
Breakfast- V8
Lunch- Congee
Dinner- 2 Spicy chicken sandwiches and a rodeo cheeseburger (I thought I was going to swim... my bad)

March 23, 24 - Shane

3/23:

Workout - 60 minutes on the bike, random hill function on the bike to mix it up. I ended up hovering between around 120 watts and 260 watts, and ultimately did 700 calories and 18 miles in 60 minutes. Obviously less efficient than a steady pace/resistance, but I'm trying to build up power/speed as well.

3/24:

Sprints for 30 minutes, then pushups/abs for 30 minutes with the platoon. Then I worked a 17 hour workday so I didn't get any time to work out. Also, the platoon ordered pizza so I broke my diet spectacularly with many slices of pizza and 2 cups of Sprite. But screw that, working till 11PM gives me an excuse. It'll just build up glycogen for tomorrow's workout.

Laziness and week 5 - Shane

I haven't posted all week because I haven't really been working out. I've been eating all right, but haven't been doing afternoon workouts, with the exception of Thursday. All the other days I've just been doing standard PT stuff with my platoon in the mornings.

Thursday I biked about 30 minutes, 9 miles. Then I also swam 2.5k in an hour. And that was the extent of my triathlon training this week.

I blame the purchase of the PS3 last weekend. Plus doing quasi-real work now at work for the first time pretty much since I started the triathlon training.

Congrats to Mike on finally getting out of TRADOC. It's been a long 30 months, eh?

one more for the pile - Mike

i found this guy's flickr page when i was looking for pictures of the hawaii ironman. pretty impressive.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54973866@N00/

Summary of last two weeks - 18 March - Mike

well, i'll say this for the ftx, it was fun. i actually had a great time, which was a little predictable because i heard so many horror stories i had really low expectations. however, i was suprised by good training and the opportunity to shoot people while blowing stuff up, it was pretty cool. anyway, as you may know, i didn't eat anything but MRE's for a few days last week, so i spent most of monday and tuesday carb loading with pasta and gatorade. i think i slipped into a gatorade coma at one point. then last weekend i pretty much "celebrated" with the people from my class and the korean class that was with us. papa johns and root beer. needless to say i ran yesterday for the first time in nearly two weeks, and it was a fun experience. i ran with alpha group, and inspite of sucking wind the whole time, i was able to keep up. which is good cause i have had this nausiated feeling i haven't been able to shake for the last two weeks. along with it's friend the headache, i've been pretty cranky to say the least. i'm almost positive it's from not training or working out for the last two weeks. for some reason, our DS decided that we didn't need to do pt with the company while we were on weapons immersion. i guess it's a necessary evil with the ftx and trying to train up for that, but i'm really looking forward to getting back on some kind of a work out schedule. next week i'll be in georgia with jess and the baby, which is fantastic, cause jess has to work, and if we don't send the baby to day care for at least half the day we'll lose his spot in the day care. and the waiting list is pretty long. so i'll have nothing to do but work out in the morning. jess says that ft. gordon has a pretty good gym and pool, so i'll start swimming laps again, which is good. i haven't swam laps since i worked with the special olympics in monterey last year. coincidently, i went and got some new board shorts for surfing...and swimming laps.
the vegitarian cheese tortilini is the greatest MRE main dish ever, EVER!
and it feels good to finally have an MOS. only took 2 1/2 years.

Week 4 summary

I missed a few days, but I'm not too worried about it. Totals:

Treadmill: 6.2 miles
Stationary bike: 20 miles
Swim: 3450 meters

Mar 14 - Shane

Workout: Did the following workout at the pool -
250m warmup
3 minute rest
600m in 11:55
3 minute rest
600m in 12:30

I would've done more, but I cut my thumb earlier, and my bandage was less waterproof than advertised, and I quit after 2 reps because my bandage loosened up and I didn't want to bleed into the water.

Post-workout meal: Ramen and 3 hard boiled eggs, then lasagna and wine. It's hard to say where the post-workout meal started and ended, since I just kept eating all night after I came home.

I get the next 24 hours off so the beer I'm drinking doesn't count.

Mar 13 - Shane

Morning workout: 3 sets of bench press and 2 sets of squats before we got called into work early, cutting off our workout.

Post-workout meal: 1 bosc pear, 3 hard boiled eggs.

Afternoon workout: 20 miles on the bike in 1 hour at around 180-200 watts, 730 calories burned. Then 10k on the treadmill in 1 hour, about 880 calories burned. Yes, that brings the total over 1600 calories burned in 2 hours. I was exhausted to the point of wanting to fall asleep on my drive home. Easily the hardest workout I've ever done in my life.

Post workout meal: A double sized bowl of oatmeal and peanut butter, 1 bosc pear, 3 oz chicken breast, 1 string cheese.

Edited to add: Oh yeah I had about 2 or 3 glasses of wine last night.

Andy Mar 12/Mar 13

March 12

Exercise- Yesterday we had a weak indoor physical training session. I planned on going to rugby practice at night, but was asked to go to the basketball game.

Diet:
Breakfast- Kashi Go-Lean cereal with a few pieces of banana and soy milk.
Lunch- The rest of my whole wheat pasta.
Dinner- Imitation crab meat steak and egg fried rice.

Indulgences- A small bag of shrimp flavored crackers.


March 13

Exercise- This morning we went to the pool and I swam laps for the first time in my life. Swam around a total of 500m and was dead. I realized today that as of now this is my worst even by far. I will start trying to swim at least every other day to get my body adjusted to that kind of torture. I also need to work on my form and breathing, wish me luck... After work I ran 3.6 miles and I'm about to go to my volleyball game.

Diet:
Breakfast- I was completely exhausted after my morning swim so I ate a big breakfast, I also read that if you eat a bigger breakfast you will eat less throughout the day... anyways I ate 2 small bowls of congee with dried pork, 2 eggs and pickled radishes.
Lunch- Ate some more of the fried rice that I made yesterday.
Dinner- Finished the fried rice I made yesterday.

Indulgences- A bag of shrimp flavored crackers with my lunch.

Mar 12 - Shane

Exercise: Sprints and other speedwork for 90 minutes. Significant ankle pain was involved, but it's definitely getting stronger.

Post-workout meal: Peanut butter and oatmeal.

No afternoon workout today because I had some personal stuff to take care of, but I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Mar 11 - Shane

Pretty standard day, back at work after a weekend of too much eating/drinking and too little training.

Morning workout: Olympic powerlifting, chest and back weights, and core exercises on stability ball.
Post-workout meal: Peanut butter sandwich, 3 hard boiled eggs
Afternoon workout: 2k at the pool, done in 250m intervals. Each interval was under 5 minutes, except for the 5th one that I did in 5:02. I hope to be able to do 1k in under 20 minutes by the end of the month.
Post-workout meal: Ramen and a can of sardines. Yes, awful, but I went grocery shopping afterwards so it shouldn't happen again.

From now on, I won't really post other food I eat - just know that I'm eating plenty of legumes, tree nuts, some fruit, a lot of dairy, about 3 eggs, probably around 2-4 servings of fish per day, 1-2 servings of other meat, and a lot of leafy or fibrous vegetables like spinach or celery. Basically it's a diet very high in unsaturated fat, medium in saturated fat, very high in fiber, and somewhat low in carbs. My only carbs will come from legumes, whatever traces show up in my dairy intake, and fresh fruit and vegetables - with the obvious exception of my high carb post-workout meals (to restore glycogen and encourage muscle growth with insulin). I'll be eating cottage cheese before bed most nights for the casein. I eat whatever is on the above "allowed" list until I'm full - feeling hungry is for suckers.

I will still completely avoid trans fats, white carbs (potatoes, white pasta/bread, anything with breading), refined sugars, juices, and most processed foods. It's hard without a stove or oven, though.

If I deviate from those I'll still post the junk food and alcohol I consume. If this diet doesn't work for me - either I am seeing detrimental effects on my performance or I have trouble sticking to it, I'll change it and post it here.

Andy Mar 11

Exercise- Started off the day with a 40 lbs. ruck march, approximately 3 miles. After work I contributed a minute and a half to our basketball game.

Diet:
Breakfast- Kashi Go-Lean cereal with soy milk and a few pieces of bananas.
Lunch- Made some chicken and tomato pasta sauce and ate it with whole wheat spaghetti.
Dinner- Ate some more of my spaghetti and sauce.

Andy Mar 10

Exercise- Played in a basketball game, took a break then went to an open rugby practice.

Diet:
Breakfast- Kashi Go-Lean cereal with soy milk.
Lunch- Beef and broccoli with basmati(thought it was brown rice when I bought it) rice
Dinner- Beef, bamboo, peppers and broccoli with basmati rice.(Made by my roommate)

Andy Mar 9

As I expect whenever Shane visits, I ate very bad today. On top of eating bad I had no time to exercise because I had to entertain my guests. But I'll try hard to stop making these lame excuses and be more motivated.

Diet:
Breakfast/Lunch- "The heart attack plate" at Snow City Cafe.
Dinner- We went to Simon & Seafort's Saloon and Grill for dinner. I started out with the classic sampler which included roasted garlic prawns, teriyaki tenderloin, hot King crab and artichoke dip, which was accompanied by a white wine. For my main course I had some kind of macadamia nut crusted halibut stuffed with lobster, I think thats what it was can't remember the exact name of it, but it was delicious. For dessert I had their cheese cake drizzled in chocolate and with strawberries on the side.

Indulgences- Pretty much everything I ate today and a few beers here and there.

Andy Mar 8

Exercise- Indoor soccer game

Diet:
Breakfast- Kashi Go-Lean Cereal
Lunch- King burrito from the Taco King
Dinner- A delicious halibut sandwich from F Street Station

Indulgences- A lot of beer, and a shot of Jameson.

Mar 8 and Week 3 summary - Shane

Exercise: 20 miles and 800 calories in 60 minutes on the bike. Average about 200 watts. Afterwards I did 2 miles on the treadmill in about 17 minutes.

Food didn't matter. It was my day off. But much beer and fried food was involved, and I vaguely remember ordering a decent pork porterhouse after midnight, and wishing I had ordered lamb instead. I'm told that one of my buddies didn't finish his lamb so I took a bite of an untouched portion. I'm so classy.

Week 3 totals:
Outside run: 4.5 miles
Treadmill: 4 miles
Total running: 8.5 miles
Stationary bike: 51.2 miles
Swimming: 1700 meters

Expect the swimming/running totals to move up slightly over the next few weeks.

Mar 7 - Shane

Pretty late getting this up - I was on the road for 6 hours yesterday, which also explains the no exercise. Therefore no post-workout meal.

Food:
3 hard boiled eggs
2 cups spinach
4 olives
3 tablespoons feta cheese
1/2 avocado
2 cans sardines
1 lb curry chicken salad from store - includes a few dried cranberries
1/2 lb edamame salad, with eggplant, red and yellow bell peppers
2 pints of a red ale - seemed sugary and was over 6% alcohol.
10" pizza

Not a great day, but I'll probably work out today (my off day) to make up for it.

Andy Mar 7

Its a day of celebration, I got the results back and I did well on the tests I took yesterday and today. So... I didn't exercise today...

Diet:
Breakfast- After missing my normal breakfast due to some military obligations, I stuffed down a blueberry and a chocolate muffin right before my test this morning.
Lunch- Sitting around my room waiting for the results was killing me so I went to a Hawaiian restaurant with my friend and got a mixed meat plate. (BBQ Chicken, BBQ steak, BBQ spare ribs all served with mac salad and white rice.
Dinner- Haven't eaten dinner quite yet, but Shane is driving down right now and when he gets here we're going to the Moose's Tooth where I'm going to murder a celebratory pizza.

2+ 2+ !!

24/5 day 5 - Mike 7 March

for the last day of 24/5 weapons immersion for the week, i am glad to be free of my weapon. i keep checking over my shoulder because i'm still not sure if i should have it or not, so i keep looking for it. we started the day at 6am, like usual, and went out to the mount site. we practiced mount drills all morning in our gear. it was really cold at first, but as the sun came out we warmed up a bit. the good news is that i have less than 2 weeks at goodfellow. so i less than an month i'll be in hawaii working for the man. in essence, i did no organized pt again today. tomorrow i'm planning on going to the gym and biking for a while after i run a few miles. the last real pt i did was the 10k ruck march, so i'm looking forward to stretching my legs out.

Breakfast: 2 hard boiled eggs, bowl of peaches and honeydew, 2 strips of bacon, english muffin with margarine and jelly, 4 oz of OJ.
Lunch: PBJ on wheat bread, bowl of cottage cheese with cantalope, glass of milk, small bowl of multi-colored pasta with the white sauce.
Dinner: no dinner but i had 2 pieces of pizza after training around 5pm and i'm getting hungry.
Indulgences: a handful of reese's pieces. i've been drinking a ton of water lately. i was concerned i wasn't drinking enough so i went to the commesary and got a case of it.

Congrats to Chang on his DLPT score.

Mar 6 - Shane

Morning workout: sprints dragging a tire with a harness through the snow for 250m intervals, culminating in dragging a tire with a 190lb person sitting in it. I was pretty exhausted at the end.

Post-workout meal: Peanut butter and oatmeal

Afternoon workout: 10 miles on the stationary bike in 33 minutes. I was pretty weak after this morning.

Post-workout meal: Peanut butter sandwich, 3 hard boiled eggs

Other food:
About 3 tablespoons hummus
1 cup baby carrots
1/2 cup almonds
3 string cheese
1 medium pizza
4 glasses of wine

Yeah I really wasn't supposed to have that stuff towards the end. But I'll be better next time.

Andy Mar 6

Exercise- Just played a volleyball game.

Diet:
Breakfast- Bowl of Kashi Go-Lean cereal.
Lunch/Dinner- Half a Tombstone pizza and half a Digiorno pizza.

Indulgences- Peanut butter cup ice cream... a lot of ice cream. Test day today and tomorrow so I kind of got out of hand with the food and lack of exercise, but hopefully it will help my morale for my tests.

24/5 day 4 - Mike 6 March

Idle hands are the Devil's workshop. it's the truth i tell you. expecially if you get let out of training early and you can't do anything but go to the barracks cause you are on weapons restriction. i'll just break it down for you.
Breakfast: pancakes, two eggs, and two strips bacon.
Lunch: PBJ, corn pops, skim milk.
Dinner: 7 pieces Papa John's pizza, 1 IBC root beer, and i was stuffed.
Indulgences: pretty much everything i ate today.
so there you have it. we couldn't do too much for training today cause there was rain, thunder and lightening. which is pretty cool, but it makes for a pretty useless day cause there is only so much you can do in the classroom when you are supposed to be doing hands-on training. bad day for healthy eating, but i'll tell you this, the pizza was good. i'll just have to be good this weekend and count today as my splurge day for the week.

Mar 5 - Shane

Morning workout: About 2.5 miles with the platoon, which was pretty painful with my ankle. Then a 20 minute ab workout.

Post-workout meal: Oatmeal with peanut butter, 1 apple.

Afternoon workout: Swam 1100m with about 5 one-minute breaks, then treaded water for 10 minutes. I'm getting better at pacing and rhythm, compared to yesterday.

Post-workout meal: 2 sandwiches made from Orowheat 12-grain, mustard, ham, salami, feta cheese, avocado, and lettuce. Also, another apple.

Other food today:
2 salads worth of spinach
8 olives
3oz chicken breast
3oz skirt steak strips
1 avocado
1 can black beans
1/2 cup shredded colby/monterey jack
1/2 cup cottage cheese

My ankle is all sorts of colorful with bruising today. There's actually more dull pain today than yesterday, but it hurts less when I move it. The rest of my body has that good kind of slight tiredness from swimming, and it's awesome.

Andy Mar 5

Exercise- Ran just about 6 slow miles with my platoon this morning, and played a little basketball after dinner.

Diet:
Breakfast- Ate a bowl of Kashi Go-Lean cereal with soy milk.
Lunch- Small portion of my imitation crab meat pasta.
Dinner- Two chicken breasts toped with mango salsa eaten with sticky rice.

Indulgences- Pack of Oreo cookies that were staring at me in the waiting room.

24/5 day 3 - Mike - 5 march

awesome day today. started it all off with 10k ruck march and averaged a little less than 15 minutes a mile. not bad, but i hear that's airborne pace. and also, no blisters. after the ruck our DS gave us a little time to go back and fix ourselves before the day of training, so i missed breakfast at the dfac. but we trained in the sun until about 1700 and i was pretty tired and dripping with sweat for the second time today. it felt good to be outside all day instead of being inside. speaking of outside, texas is getting warm. which means the barracks are also pretty warm, and the CO wants us to all sleep in pt's. probably not going to. anyway:
Breakfast: missed breakfast so i ate some lucky charms i ganked from the dfac.
Lunch: 2 egg rolls, glass of milk, bowl of multi-colored pasta with marinara sauce, glass of apple juice.
Dinner: plate of spaghetti, green beans, and i was still hungry so i got some corn pops with skim milk.
Indulgences: 2 cookies at dinner, a few lemon heads from my wife, and 2 32 oz. bottles of gatorade.
Side note: i was sharing stories from basic today with some others and when i said i went to knox all eyes turned towards me. one soldier was in bravo when we all got there and the only thing he could remember about the knox boys was nye leaving his pt top in his fridge. we had a good laugh. but there still isn't anyone with better basic stories than us. i guess the low crawl pit at leonardwood is a grassy field or something. so i mentioned the saw dusty, football field sized low crawl pit with berms like waves of the sea we got to crawl through. remember? it's where we all saw williams cry the first time.

Andy Mar 4

Went to sleep at 5:00 pm last night and still didn't feel rested at 5:45 am.

Exercise- We snowshoed approx 3 miles with a light rucksack on today

Diet:
Breakfast- Bowl of Kashi Go-Lean cereal with soy milk.
Lunch- I ate whole wheat pasta with a homemade sauce made with imitation crab meat, onions, garlic, tomatoes and an assortment of spices. My roommate bought a bunch of muffins and offered one to me so I had that while I was cooking my pasta.
Dinner- Slept through dinner.

Indulgences- Apple cinnamon muffin?

Mar 4 - Shane

Afternoon workout:
2.1 mile ruckmarch (40 lbs on back) in 30 minutes. Not good, but my ankle still isn't 100%. I'm also saving myself for a platoon run tomorrow morning.
Also, swam for the first time since I started training - 100m x 6 times = 600m. Each 100m trip was between 1:55 and 2:02. I'll probably see very quick improvement as I tighten up my form and learn to get a good breathing rhythm. I also expect to see some improvement in my pushup numbers, because tonight I found myself unable to do even half the pushups I normally can.

Post-workout meal: Oatmeal, peanut butter

Other food today:
3 hard boiled eggs
2 large plates of salad
1/2 cup black beans
1 cup shredded cheese
2 string cheese
1 bosc pear
1 can sardines
1 can chunk light tuna in water
3 oz skirt steak strips
3 oz chicken breast strips
about 10 olives
1 avocado
1 cup baby carrots, raw
1/4 cup hummus
1/2 cup cottage cheese
handful of almonds

No indulgences. But I think I eat too much.

24/5 day 2 - Mike

i came to a realization today; a revelation if you will. i think that i may be crazy. i realized today that i think everyone around me is retarded. so the way i see it is that either i am crazy, or everyone else is and i'm the only sane one. i've posed this question to shane before, and i know his response.
class graduation was today. it was pretty cool. i found out that i'm going to miss STRAC by 1%, but don't worry, "94% is still a pretty good accomplishment." so anyway, crappy day.
Breakfast: none, we had class graduation all morning from 0645.
Lunch: bowl of pasta, PBJ, glass of milk with two chocolate chip cookies,
Dinner: cheeseburger, fries, corn dog, bowl of cantalope, and two glasses of water.
Snacks: pomegranate juice, gatorade, cashews and chex mix.
training is going great, no pt today because of graduation, but doing a 6 mile ruck march first thing in the morning.

Andy Mar 3

Exercise- Ran 3 very slow miles with my platoon in the morning. Planned on running more in the afternoon, but it didn't work out.

Diet:
Breakfast- Toasted peanut butter and honey sandwich.
Lunch- Spicy tofu, pork and mushroom dish with brown rice.
Dinner- The rest of my spicy tofu, pork and mushroom dish with brown rice.
Snacks- A few cheese sticks in the afternoon, and some pistachios after dinner.

Mar 3 - Shane

Ok I'm kinda back on track. My ankle is healing pretty well, but I still can't run, and it hurts to walk on the slippery ice. The pool has been closed for the last two days - I didn't really expect it to be closed on Monday, too. So I went ahead and biked instead.

Exercise: Stationary bike, 21.2 miles for 60 minutes at level 13. Stayed around 100rpm the entire time, but dialed down to level 11 towards the end. 780 calories burned.

Post-workout meal: Peanut butter sandwich

Other food today: 1 avocado, 4 olives, about 70g spinach, a cup of cheese, 1.5 cups black beans, 1/2 a chicken, 1/4 cup of almonds, 1 can sardines, 3oz serving of skirt steak strips, 1 bosc pear, 1 string cheese.

Indulgences: Burger King for breakfast, 1 croissandwich and large hash browns. This was more a function of having a short breakfast break because of work issues than anything else.

In other news, I was discussing gear requirements (bike, wetsuit, etc.) with my college buddy, Kevin, who's also training for a 70.3 triathlon this year, and I pasted a link to this picture and item:



His response was simple:
(07:55:37 PM) Kevin: lol jesus
(07:55:39 PM) Kevin: are u going to do that
(07:55:48 PM) Kevin: cuz if so u can go on ur own kthx

24/5 day 1 - Mike

today is the beginning of the final phase of AIT for this kid. i must admit that i am very excited to get going. tomorrow is air force class graduation which should be a lot of fun. there is only 7 army and the rest are AF of a class with 30+ students. awesome! anyway, today was a good day for eating and working out. i started the day with ability group runs. i got set up and stuck in the alpha group with the 1st sgt. but so did a lot of kids that weren't used to running with him. he basicall took all the 15:30 and below runners, which i don't think he was really excited about. but we ran a little over 3 miles and he released us half way through and then ran up ahead of us and lost us. i guess he got bored of us. anyway, here's how the food broke down:
Breakfast: two strips of bacon, two hard boiled eggs, fruit loops with skim milk and water.
Lunch: two italian sausages (i really like these, it's like having brats for lunch) with a glass of milk and a small bowl of cottage cheese.
Dinner: Mashed potatos, probably a 10 oz ribeye steak (in the dfac), glass of OJ and corn pops with skim milk.
Other foods through out the day: pomegranate juice (my latest fixation), cashews, gatorade, and a small handful of skittles at graduation practice. oh, and lots of water today.
ps. the graduation coordinator (air force tech sgt) is a complete idiot, and we aparantly got a new instructor...today. i think she is supposed to piggy back my current instructors, but she is...do you remember the movie "Cone Heads?" now do you remember david spade's character? well, she acts like that. irritating. but we are graduating soon, and that makes it all worth it, so i can say with a smile on my face that today was a decent day.

Andy Mar 2

I took the day off because starting tomorrow I will being exercising twice a day.

Diet:
Breakfast/Lunch- Brown rice congee with dried pork and pickled radishes
Dinner- Cheese steak sandwich from a diner with a side of potato salad.
Snacks- 2 cheese sticks throughout the day.
Indulgences- Finally cracked and had some Twizzlers at the Semi-Pro movie, and with my dinner I had a vanilla milkshake. My bad...

Andy Mar 1

Exercise- Played basketball for 4 hours. I've decided that I'm a Dennis Rodman type player for my team, all defense not much offense.

Diet:
Breakfast- Brown rice congee with 3 eggs, dried pork, and pickled radishes.
Lunch- 2 spicy chicken sandwiches and 1 whopper Jr. (I felt really guilty, but it was before basketball so I think i burned most of it off.)
Dinner- A super bowl of pho (It was literally the biggest bowl of pho I have ever eaten in my life) I ate papaya salad with sticky rice as an appetizer.

it's a beautiful morning, 1 march 2008 - Mike

well, at the end of the week, i can look back with joy. class is over! it makes me so excited to think about that i just blush. anyway, with the end of class also comes weapons training. which, as i'm sure you both are aware, means i get to walk around all day with a ruck, weapon and TA-50. which is acutally proving to be quite the workout. i was having a conversation with my room mate the other day about how much of a difference we have noticed in our health. carrying all that junk around is like working out all day long. So i am still hitting 8~12 miles a week during pt, as well as carrying around my TA-50. so i feel like my workouts are doing pretty good. However, i haven't had any time in the pool. mostly because i don't think the people here know what water is, so i haven't bothered to ask anyone where to go. anyway, here's how my diet is breaking down over the last week:
Breakfast: two hard boiled eggs, water, 2 strips of bacon, an english muffin with grape jelly, and either corn pops or cheerios. i gave up on the total, it started to get bland; only took 2 1/2 years.
Lunch: approx. 1 cup of cottage cheese with a cherry tomato or 2, sometimes a PBJ, and sometimes another bowl of cereal, but not both. also, another glass of water, and often times a glass of milk.
Dinner: a meat, a starch, and a vegetable. whatever is served at the DFAC that day. sometimes it's chicken, and sometimes it's roast beef. but it's always not that good. unless they have spaghetti. i eat the spaghetti for the morning runs.
Snacks: cashews, peanut snack bars, and a crap ton of gatorade (2 32 oz. bottles at the px for a dollar, i stocked up)
Indulgences for the week: Buffalo Wild Wings on tuesday night, i ate 8 wings (4 honey bbq and 4 parmesian garlic) and drank 3 root beers. Last night i went to San Angelo's only sushi bar. it was okay, but i think they tried to hide their lack of fresh product with lots of cream cheese, avacado, and fruit; plus the wait was over an hour after we ordered our rolls. and then "marble slab" ice cream after. (i thought to myself, marble slab? must be a Cold Stone knock-off, but my room mate, who is from texas, says it's the other way around. who knows?
the good news is that i got my computer back so now i'll be able to blog every day!

Week 2 Summary and Being Crippled - Shane

I sprained my ankle playing basketball Thursday morning, so I haven't been training since. Yesterday I could barely walk, much less move up and down stairs or do real exercise.

I've also been eating pretty awful. At first it was the social outings I had to go to, and then my frustration at my ankle injury. Fried chicken, many sodas, fries, beer, and hamburgers were involved.

Anyway, here are my week 2 numbers:

Treadmill: 3.1 miles
Outside run: 7 miles
Total running: 10.1 miles
Stationary bike: 20.4 miles

Tomorrow, at the beginning of week 3, I'll be swimming for the first time in years. Hopefully it doesn't put too much strain on the ankle.

Andy Feb 29

Exercise- Took the day off.

Diet:
Breakfast- Brown rice congee with an assortment of condiments.
Lunch- Went out to eat with my Persian Farsi class because it was our last day of class. I had a burger and fries from Red Robbin.
Dinner- 3 chicken thighs and brown rice
Snacks- Few cheese sticks throughout the day.

Andy Feb 28

Exercise- Today I played in an indoor soccer game and afterwards I played in a few volleyball games.

Diet:
Breakfast- 2 egg, pickled radish, and dried pork sandwich. Tastes a lot better than it sounds.
Lunch- 3 chicken thighs. 2 made with salsa, 1 made with soy sauce and garlic
Dinner- 2 chicken thighs baked with salsa and eaten with brown rice.

Feb 27 - Shane

Weak day.

Exercise: 1.8 mile run outside. I made it out .9 miles when an MP (military policeman) pulled up alongside and asked me why I was running without a reflective belt. I told him that I didn't know we needed them during the day, but he told me to run back to my place if I wanted to continue running. I didn't really argue because 2 years in the Army have taught me that questioning authority is ineffective here and because I was starting to get cold. Turns out it's a bad idea to run in shorts when it's 6 degrees out.

Food: I ate crap today. Oatmeal for breakfast, 2 slices of pizza at lunch, 3 things of string cheese throughout the day, a bacon cheeseburger, 2 beers, and some fries for dinner. Bleh.

Indulgence: see above.

Tomorrow and Friday won't be any better with food, since I've committed to certain social events for dinner, but whatever. I'll make it up with actual intense workouts.

Andy Feb 27

Exercise- No bike or run today because I thought I had a basketball game, instead we just played ball for 2 hours.

Diet:
Breakfast- 3 egg and cheese sandwich
Lunch- Monster portion of whole wheat pasta, pepperoni and Ragu
Dinner- Toasted peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Alright I got a little carried away today, but my body hurts and I've been exhausted. I figured I wasn't getting enough food so I had to try something. I'll be better tomorrow...

Feb 26 - Shane

Kinda busy this week with a few things from work, and I've got $400/month riding on what happens between tomorrow and Friday. Plus some people are leaving this week so I'm not going to be eating/drinking all that great either.

Exercise: Olympic powerlifting for 30 minutes, chest and back weightlifting for 30 minutes, core exercises on stability balls for 30 minutes. No run, bike, or swim today.

Post-workout meal: oatmeal, peanut butter, and 3 hard boiled eggs

Other food today: 1 can black beans, 12 ounces of chicken breast, 2 cups raw spinach, half cup colby and monterey jack, 1 can sardines, 1 avocado, 2 sticks string cheese, 1lb package edamame, 1 bosc pear, 1/2 lb of raw carrots, 1 cup cottage cheese.

No indulgences besides the relatively light exercise day.

I got my swim goggles in the mail today. All I gotta say is that if you're in the military and you're receiving a package from Speedo USA, expect to be made fun of by the mailroom guys. Oh and Andy, your watch is badass - I'm supposed to be the numbers nerd here. I'm gonna have to get one of those soon.

Andy Feb 26

I got my new watch today that tracks my distance, speed and heart rate so I went on a 3.4 mile run to test it out. Here are my results... I'm slow...

Exercise

After a little break I went and played a few pickup games of basketball.


Diet:
Breakfast- Bowl of Kashi strawberry cereal with soy milk and a cheese stick.
Lunch- Medium portion of my beef and broccoli with brown rice.
Dinner- Small portion of my beef and broccoli with brown rice.
Snacks- Maybe a cheese stick or some cottage cheese after dinner, I'll let you know.

Feb 25 - Shane

Ok my power went out last night, so I couldn't post then. But I did get over 8 hours of sleep instead.

During the afternoon I heard from a college buddy that he was registered for a 70.3 triathlon (half ironman) in July. I'm not ready to let some civilian be in better shape than me, so that motivated me to spend a little more time working out in the afternoon.

Morning workout: running sprints with the platoon for 30 minutes. I personally focused on increasing my rate of turnover while keeping my stride relatively short.

Post-workout meal: Oatmeal with peanut butter

Afternoon workout: 60 minutes on the bike, 20.4 miles. I did 25 minutes at around 180 watts, then 5 minutes at 220 watts, 5 minutes at 100 watts, 20 minutes at 190 watts, and 5 minutes trying (but mostly failing) to keep it above 200 watts. Total calories burned on bike were about 740. Afterwards I ran a slow 5k on the treadmill in 29 minutes; about 520 calories burned.

Post-workout meal: Peanut butter sandwich, 2 salami/pastrami/ham/provolone/lettuce/tomato/mustard sandwiches.

Other food: 2 string cheese, an apple, a can of black beans, half an avocado, a can of sardines, about 6 oz chicken breast, 2 cups spinach, a handful of olives, and maybe half a cup of shredded cheese. 1 cup of cottage cheese before sleeping.

Andy Feb 25

Exercise- Today I biked 11 miles first which made the run a lot harder, but i managed to run 3 miles.

Diet-
Breakfast- Bowl of cereal with soy milk and a cheese stick.
Lunch- My classmate insisted on treating me to lunch so I ate a regular chicken sub from Charlie's.
Dinner- Cooked myself some beef and broccoli and ate it with brown rice.

Feb 24 - Shane

Ok posting this a little bit late.

Exercise: 5.2 mile run in 50 minutes out in the snow at around 10 degrees. Running in snow is harder than I thought. Plus I hate running with long pants.

Post-workout food: Big bowl of oatmeal with peanut butter.

Other food: Half avocado, can of black beans sprinkled with cheese, 2 cans of sardines.

Many Indulgences: Uh, bacon cheeseburger with a half pound patty and fries at a local restaurant. And 2 beers. But it's not my fault - my buddy's getting out of the Army this week and moving back to his hometown, so I had to go out. And drink 2 beers.

Andy Feb 24

I took the day off and read Dean Karnazes book "Ultra marathon man, confessions of an all-night runner" Easy and great book to read.

Diet-
Breakfast/Lunch- Went to "Pho #1" and had 2 spring rolls, a bowl of Pho, and half a bun mi sandwich.
Dinner- Ate the remaining two pieces of pizza from yesterday.

Week 1 Summary - Shane

Week 1 was Feb 17 through 22, with the 23rd off.

I put the week 0 + week 1 totals in parentheses, since those two days of week 0 don't really go anywhere else.

Treadmill: 4.6 miles (10.6 miles)
Running outside: 7.7 miles (7.7 miles)
Total running: 12.3 miles (18.3 miles)
Stationary bike: 43 miles (63 miles)

Andy Feb 23

Exercise- Today I played in a soccer game, took a little break and then ran 6 miles. The new shoes were great.

Diet:
Breakfast- 2 egg and cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread.
Lunch- A peanut butter and cheese sandwich.
Dinner- I was invited to a birthday party for my friends wife so I had to go eat pizza at the Moose's tooth. Half Thai pizza (Bean sprouts, carrots, chicken, and cilantro, all over peanut sauce) and half shrimp and pineapple. I behaved a little by only ordering the medium.

Indulgences- I have to admit I ate two cheese sticks and some chips and salsa before the pizza got there too, but whatever I exercised a lot today.

23 Feb - Mike

toady is saturday, and thank goodness.
yesterday:
workout: 5 mile run with the company around the parimeter. then walking in a circle for 30 minutes waiting for everyone else. Lt. Li is not as fast as he thinks he is.
Breakfast: i ate breakfast really fast. mainly because i don't have any time with all this weapons immersion nonsense. so i end up rucking most of the day as well. you guys know, you did it. anyway, water, cantalope bits, bran cereal, and skim milk.
Lunch: the usual, peanut butter and jelly sandwich with milk.
Dinner: Texas roadhouse. 8 oz. serloin with baked potato(e) and (obviously boiled) vegetables.
Indulgences: the carnival. had a funnel cake with a lemonade. then went and rode some rides and watched the end of the rodeo. the funnel cake had me tossing in bed until about 3 am, when i got rid of it. going to be avoiding the funnel cakes for a while. which brings me to today...
23 Feb
woke up finally at 8am after the funnel cake incident and forced myself into my shoes and out onto the track. 45 minutes 100 and 400 meter sprints, with one mile warm up and cool down.
two granola/peanut bars, gatorade and water is all i've had today, not much of an appetite.

Feb 22 - Shane

Morning workout: 1.5 mile run with the platoon. The 7 mile run was postponed, so we ran to eat breakfast. It was glorious.

Post-workout meal 1: 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, and 2 slices of cheese on a hoagie bun, with black coffee. It's not my fault; it was a platoon function.

Afternoon workout: 60 minutes on the stationary bike (660 calories, 18 miles) and 15 minutes on the treadmill (250 calories, 1.6 miles).

Post-workout meal 2: Peanut butter sandwich, one package of Shin Ramyun and 3 eggs.

Other food today: Whopper with cheese at Burger King with side salad and about a tablespoon of ranch.

Indulgences: Pretty much every meal listed above doesn't quite fit into my training meal plan. Oh well - it's Friday and I did over an hour and a half of cardio today.

After 7:30pm, I started my off day and drank about 6 or 7 pints of Guinness, and came home and ate half a chicken. Tomorrow I will sit around and do nothing. Maybe snowboard, but that's unlikely.

Andy Feb 22

I just got my pair of Arnuva 50 Boas(North Face running shoes) today and I wore them during my workout. They were really comfortable right out of the box and the boa technology rocks. After the run my feet felt great in these shoes and I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

Exercise- Ran 3 miles around an indoor track and biked 9 miles on an exercise bike.

Diet:
Breakfast- I had a bowl of strawberry Kashi cereal with soy milk.
Lunch- Two whole wheat tortillas with beef, an avacado, and tomatoes. I used organic ranch dressing to top it.
Dinner- Bread and butter then Fettuccine (Fruit de Mer) Variety of seafood in Alfredo sauce.
Snack- Ate a bowl of ramen and two eggs after my workout today.

Andy Feb 21

Exercise- My exercise today consisted of a volleyball game. I'll count this as my off day.

Diet:
Breakfast-Bowl of my organic strawberry Kashi cereal.
Lunch-A pita and a whole wheat tortilla filled with spinach, tomatoes and beef topped with ranch dressing.
Dinner-The rest of my eggplant/tofu dish with brown rice.
Snacks- A few cheese sticks throughout the day and I'm about to go eat some cottage cheese before I call it a night.

Feb 21 - Shane

Exercise: Weightlifting with chest/back/legs, pullups and variations, and medicine ball exercises for about an hour and a half this morning. No afternoon workout because I'm saving my legs for a 7 mile platoon run over icy hills in the morning, and I'm having a little bit of lower back pain. Maybe my body's not ready for 2 a days yet.

Post workout meal: 3 servings oatmeal, 3 tablespoons peanut butter, 3 eggs.

Other food: 2 salads today - one with half a chicken, one with no real protein (except the scattered goat cheese). A can of black beans, 3 things of string cheese, an apple, and a glass of milk. Also, I made myself a sandwich for lunch today, violating my soft rule on no grain products except directly after a workout.

Indulgence: If you count the bread I had at lunch, then bread.

21 Feb

my posts are sporadic at best, but i don't have a computer anymore. it's in the shop in utah and it should be done by the end of the week. they will mail it back to me, but it'll take a little time cause they ship ground. oh well, i'll continue using the event center and associating with all the young zoomies while they check their myspace accounts. not bad kids, but the age/maturity gap is a little problematic. Haug sends his best, by the way.
Breakfast: 1 cup rasin(spelled wrong) bran cereal with half pint of skim milk, half cup of cottage cheese, two hard boiled eggs (i bite off half with the yoke, then squeeze the rest of the yoke out of the other half), two strips bacon.
Lunch: more cottage cheese, glass milk, glass water, peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Dinner: cup of pasta, baked chicken breast, fried ocra (whatever that is. kind of like zukini tampura, not good), and a few bites of a chocolate/peanut butter cake from Companio's that my wife sent me for valentine's day. i've been eating small portins of it each day so i don't get sick all at once.
Now: i'm drinking a gatorade rain berry flavored. it's not that good, and it tastes like syrup. but i always remember to shake the electrolytes up before i drink it.

Andy Feb 20

Long day today...

Exercise- Today I ran three miles at an indoor track and chipped ice around my apartment for 2.5 hours.

Diet:
Breakfast- Bowl of Kashi strawberry cereal
Lunch- 2 Pitas filled with beef, spinach tomatoes, and organic ranch dressing
Dinner- My tofu/eggplant dish with brown rice
Snacks- Ate a few cheese sticks throughout the day and today I had two spoonfuls of cottage cheese before bed.

Indulgences- Nope

Feb 20 and blood stats - Shane

2 weeks ago, I had some lab work ordered for a physical unrelated to any of this triathlon stuff. I got the results back and decided that it was excellent timing, since it was taken right before I started this triathlon craziness. Note: I couldn't get the HTML to cooperate with me so I just screenshot what this chart is supposed to look like, and posted the picture here:



We'll see where my stats are in 6 months. I figure a much improved diet and increased cardio should bring my LDL to healthy levels. Ok, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Exercise: PT in the morning with the platoon - sprints, pushups, and abs for about an hour, then ran 2.2 miles outside in about 20 minutes.

Post-workout meal: 3 servings of oatmeal with about 3 to 4 tablespoons low sugar peanut butter. No other sugar or anything added.

Other food today:
2 salads (see here for salad ingredients and portions)
1 can sardines
3 eggs
1 apple
1 pear
3 string cheese
1/2 cup black beans with some shredded cheese
3 chicken breasts (disgusting, not buying this microwave crap again, and it probably has trans fat in it)
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 entire package of edamame.

No afternoon workout since the morning PT was mostly running. Oh, and I bought these goggles online today. I should start swimming next week when they come in. Stupid tiny city and its lack of stores.

Andy Feb 19

Finally got back on track today as far as the exercise portion goes.

Exercise- Today I ran 2.5 miles around an indoor track and pumped out 5 miles on an exercise bike. Setting was random level 12. Afterwards I went to volleyball practice and ran around a bit more.

Diet:
Breakfast- Bowl of Kashi organic cereal with dried strawberries. I used soy milk with my cereal which i heard is good for you.
Lunch- I took a small portion of leftover rice and made congee. I ate it with roasted eel, dried pork, and pickled radishes mmmmmm.
Dinner- I bought some brown rice because its supposed to be better for you than white rice. So... I cooked up some Scheczuan style tofu/eggplant with pork and onions and ate a plate of it with my brown rice. The brown rice actually wasn't too bad but then again the tofu/eggplant dish was pretty ferocious.
Snacks- During lunch I ate two cheese sticks and throughout the day I drank OJ and V8. After dinner I manned up and ate a spoonful of cottage cheese, it wasn't as bad as I remembered, maybe I will eat more tomorrow.

Indulgences- Proud to say, none!

Week 1, Day 3 - Shane

Morning workout: Did PT with my platoon - Olympic powerlifting (cleans, snatches, presses, etc.), various chest/back weight machines, and a very basic 10 minute core workout with the rubber balls.

Post workout meal: 2 servings grits, 3 eggs, an apple.

Evening workout: 15 miles in 52 minutes on stationary bike. It was a different machine, so I'm not sure that this is really comparable to the previous stationary bike sessions.

Post workout meal: 2 sandwiches (see my posts below for what I put in sandwiches) and a bosc pear.

Other food today: A salad (again, see posts below for a description of this week's salad), half cup of black beans, 2 cans sardines, 2 things of string cheese. I'm also likely to eat a cup of carrots and a half cup of cottage cheese before bed tonight.

Went grocery shopping today, too. I hate resorting to microwavable precooked chicken breasts, but I don't exactly have a kitchen and this might be the easiest protein I can eat. Eggs and sardines will drive me crazy. I might go back to canned tuna for a while, mixed with avocado for the fat/texture. Also, tomorrow I'll probably begin snacking on edamame all day - I just bought some at the grocery store.

Week 1, Day 2 - Shane

Got 10 hours of sleep last night. It was glorious.

Exercise: 35 minute core workout using the big bouncy balls at the gym. Ran outside for the first time in months - temperature was up to 40 degrees, a full 90 degrees warmer than it was last week. I covered 4 miles in 36 minutes over ice, gravel, snow, and mud - some stretches were a bit like running in the sand on a beach.

Post-workout meal: Peanut butter sandwich, 3 eggs, and an apple.

Other food today:
3 sticks of string cheese
1 can of sardines
about 1 cup each of celery sticks and carrot sticks with 2 tablespoons bleu cheese dressing
4 cups of edamame beans (including pods, so actual edamame might have been about a cup)
2 servings of chicken pot pie, which had a fairly starchy filling (and had potatoes as well as a white flour crust). We'll call that an unnecessary indulgence, but I couldn't be rude - I was at a friend's house for dinner.
1/2 cup cottage cheese will be my pre-bed snack.

Indulgence: Aforementioned chicken pot pie

Tomorrow I'll start my 2 a day workouts, since I'll be doing PT with my unit in the mornings during duty days.

Meanwhile, for some reason my mom is insisting that I don't know how to swim. My older sister says she'd rather do Iron Chef than Ironman, which, to be honest, sounds like it would be awesome too. Oh, and I'll close with an IM conversation I had yesterday that amused me:

(02:41:03 PM) me: well i did 10 miles on the bike today
(02:41:14 PM) me: and a 5k (3.1 mile) run after that
(02:52:52 PM) adam: huh
(02:53:00 PM) adam: thats worse than before
(02:53:06 PM) adam: you were at 6 mi
(02:53:10 PM) adam: and now you're half that
(02:53:16 PM) me: yeah but...i biked 10 miles too
(02:53:23 PM) adam: no that doesn't count
(02:53:32 PM) me: whatever - the biking is harder for me than running
(02:53:36 PM) adam: you might as well drive 50 mi and add that too

Andy Feb 18

Exercise- Went to go run/bike at the gym but it was closed today. Honestly...

Diet:
Breakfast- Sticky rice
Lunch- Sticky rice
Dinner- Sticky rice

I just went shopping for healthier food so my diet should improve very soon.

Week 1, Day 1 - Shane

I will consider today my official Week 1, Day 1. It's the first Sunday since I started, and I will be taking Saturdays off from exercise while I eat and drink whatever I feel like.

Exercise - Biked 10 miles in 27 minutes, then ran 5k (3.1 miles) in 24:05 (EDIT for clarification - this was on a treadmill; I'm not actually that good). I really was trying to get my time under 24 minutes for the run, but it kinda got away from me.

Post-workout meal - One peanut butter sandwich on whole grain, 2 salami/pastrami/ham/provolone sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, onion, lettuce on whole grain. Not the best of all possible meals, but good enough for now.

Other food throughout the day -
Salad consisting of 2 cups spinach, 3 hard boiled eggs, 2 tablespooons goat chevre, half an avocado, 5 olives, and a few slivers of red onion. No dressing because the fats from the avocado, cheese, eggs, and olives give it a good enough texture to eat plain.
3 sticks of string cheese.
2 servings each carrots and celery, with about 3 tablespoons bleu cheese dressing (sue me, I'm not giving up the bleu cheese).
1 can sardines
1/2 can black beans, with about 1/4 cup of shredded Colby and Monterey Jack
1 apple
1 handful smoked almonds

Other - Got new running shoes (Mizuno Wave Rider 11) and borrowed a friend's copy of The Triathlete's Training Bible by Joe Friel this weekend.

There was nothing else going on today, so I went ahead and tweaked the layout of this page a little bit - what was supposed to take an hour at most took around 4 hours. But I'm happy with the results and I hope to never touch CSS or XML again.

Andy Feb 17

Today I let my body rest, and it was great.

Diet:
Breakfast/Lunch- Congee with a variety of toppings.
Dinner- Sticky rice

Indulgence- None

inspiration

as promised, here are the links of team hoyt:
http://www.teamhoyt.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRvsO8m_KI
so there you have it. you can.
as for my diet, i had a really good day. but not as far as the diet. i'm with my family in utah. i had a bowl of tricks this morning and a plate of cookies for lunch. but i did have a coca-cola zero as well. that's got to count for something. it's okay, i'll be on my own tomorrow and back in texas. nothing else to do but take care of myself. until next time. oh, and my computer is in the shop, and i dont' know when i'll get it back. so my posts for the next week or two will be sporadic. hopefully i'll get a little extra time from here on out, i just got out of the most difficult section in my course. Isiah 6:8

Andy Feb 16

I was really bad today...

Exercise- Another indoor soccer game that we won

Diet:
Breakfast/Lunch- Leftover Thai lamb dish with a large portion of rice
Dinner- Halibut ceviche with 3 kinds of empanadas for my appetizer. For my main course I had an assortment of Columbian style meat as well as a few glasses of wine.

Indulgence- Few glasses of wine with dinner, shot of absinthe, 3 shots of everclear, a crown and coke, pint of Alaskan amber, and a bottle of Modelo. All this followed by a McKinley Mac meal at McDonald's, but I had water with the meal so it was all OK. Right?

first blog

it's mike, and i'm signing in for the first time. i'm the only white guy in the picture, but i speak chinese if that helps. i'm the only married one in the group, and i have a new baby boy. the ironman is the ultimate test of the human body, i have always wanted to do this event, and over christmas break when i was flying i saw a guy in the airport with a t-shirt that simply said in small black print, "ironman finisher." i knew i wanted one of those shirts; i had to have one. but it's not the shirt that is the quest, it's to stand on the top of the mountain, to see the sunset from where the eagles do and to breathe the cold, crisp and thin air on top of the world. for me, the ironman is the top of the mountain. couldn't be in better company either. anyway, enouth of that.
my normal breakfast consists of water(no kidding), three hard-boiled eggs, total bran cereal with 1/2 pint of skim milk, whatever fruit is at the salad bar, and marching.
lunch is sporatic at best with a salad, some kind of meat, and some kind of starch, usually bread. the peanut butter and jelly kind. during dinner, i eat casually, if i'm going to be running the next morning, then it's pasta, if not, it's grilled chicken somekind of non fried meat. running is awesome.
that's it for now, my wife is waiting for me.
oh, and my inspirstion is dick and rick hoyt. i'll add link later.

Andy Feb 15

Exercise- Today my workout consisted of winning our indoor soccer game.

Diet:
Breakfast- Beef udon with 2 eggs
Lunch- Few pieces of sushi from a local fish market
Dinner- Nam Tok (Thai beef salad) with sticky rice and a Thai lamb dish with rice. I ate way too much.

Indulgence- My dinner

February 15

Exercise: 20 simulated miles on a stationary bike at resistance setting 12, whatever that means. It took me 56 minutes and the machine tells me I burned 560 calories. I have no idea how accurate that is, but I guess it'll have to do until winter is over and I buy myself a training bike.

Food: Breakfast was 2 servings of grits with half tablespoon butter, 3 hard boiled eggs, and 2 slices of toast with peanut butter. I hear you're supposed to get a high carb post-workout meal, so that's what I'll be doing. Lunch was 2 servings of black beans, about 4 cups of raw spinach, 2 tablespoons goat chevre, an avocado, olives, and sardines. Yes, it sounds disgusting but the beans and sardines were separate - everything else was a salad with no dressing.

Indulgence: It's Friday afternoon, so the next 24 hours will be my "doesn't count" day of the week. Tonight I'm probably going to drink too much wine, eat way too much lamb with a sauce with too many carbs, and eat a bunch of high glycemic starchy sides. Also I may or may not smoke a cigar, and may or may not drink some scotch. If I'm only going to have one day per week where I'm allowed to do this stuff, I better make it worth it.

Injury report: Still hurts to walk or run, but I did fine on the bike this morning. Maybe I'll stick with low impact stuff until the ankle swelling comes down.

February 14

Exercise: This morning I ran 6 miles in 53 minutes. No swimming or biking today. (EDIT for clarification - this was on a treadmill)

Food: Post-workout I had low sugar peanut butter on whole grain toast. Lunch I had 2 sandwiches (ham, salami, pastrami, provolone, mustard, lettuce, tomato, onion, Orowheat 12 grain bread) and an apple. And 2 pieces of California roll a coworker didn't want. After work I had some celery and peanut butter. Dinner was, uh, an entire baked chicken and a half cup of black beans. At night I had 2 things of string cheese.

Indulgence: I had one beer after work.

Obviously the focus for me is going to be on just going out and doing exercise, not necessarily worrying too much about the times I'm running or about eating perfect. But I'm probably going to let my diet improve naturally as I get rid of the bad foods I own.

And in other news I twisted my ankle by slipping and falling on some ice. Ridiculous.

Andy Feb 13, Feb 14

Intro- In the picture at the top of the screen I am the tough looking Asian to the left of the flagpole. After debating whether or not I should undertake this ridiculous challenge, I have now fully committed. I will be documenting my progress in this blog with information including my weight, diet and workout regiment. Enjoy my agony.

Current stats:
Age- 24
Height- 5'9''
Weight- 215

Day 1

Exercise- I started my training yesterday by running 2 miles on a track and biking 15 miles on a machine. I plan on starting slow in order to give my body time to adjust and later on I will have a more solid weekly schedule. As for my diet I need to finish whats in my refrigerator and then I will be open to suggestions. Yesterday I ate:

Diet:
Breakfast- small bowl of cereal
Lunch- large portion of chili mac
Dinner- large portion of Ma pao to fu with rice

Indulgence- None

Day 2

Exercise- Today I played a little indoor soccer and afterwards ran 2 miles and biked another 2 miles. Took it a little easier today because I have soccer games on Friday and Saturday.

Diet:
Breakfast- small bowl of cereal
Lunch- medium portion of ma pao to fu with rice
Dinner- large portion of ma pao to fu with rice

Indulgence- None

Introduction - Shane

In the photo at the header of the page, I'm the guy in the middle hiding behind the flagpole. We're just 3 Army buddies who've decided that it's going to be time to complete an Ironman triathlon once we can synchronize our schedules.

So we're starting off on this training, so I guess I'll give my current stats to give a baseline of where I am.

Age: 24
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 180 lbs

I'm the slowest and weakest of the three, but, uh, I'm the tallest so that's gotta count for something.