Day 2

Another morning of going to bed at 12:30 and getting up at 5:45, although today was a lot easier than yesterday. The weight was a bit better than it was yesterday, today is was 173.8 with a 19.4% body fat. Today the focus was on Chest and Triceps. Supersets Push-ups (3x10xBW) Dumbbell Fly (3x10x20) Incline Dumbbell Press (3x10x30) Dips (3x10xBW) Machine Chest Press (3x10x70) Tricep Pushdowns (3x10x110) Treadmill 20 minutes, 0 incline, 7 mph (2.32 miles) Heart Rate after was 154 Swim was a little shorter tonight, most likely because they saw how tired I was after last nights swim. But did finish the swim in a little under an hour. 300y warm-up (100y free - 100y Kick - 100y pull buoy) 4x75 (50y free + 25y Tarzan) :20ri 3x100 pull buoy 4x75 (25y kick + 25 Popov + 25y free max) 4x100 (record times - 2:00, 1:59, 2:04, 2:02) 100y cool down 1700y - total distance Tomorrow is a needed day off, or as Emma says....my favorite day of the week.

Day 1....or What I consider Day 1

Waking up at 5:45 after going to bed at 12:45 is fun sometimes, but this morning was not one of them. My weight was 179.2 (yes it was a long weekend full of drinks and bad food) and my Body fat % was 20.2, which is the highest it has been in a while I made my way to the gym after Jackson got on the bus and was able to start my workout at around 6:45. Today the main focus was Back, Biceps and Abs. Supersets Lat Pulldown (3x10x90) Bicep Cable Curls (3x10x35) Medicine Ball Crunches (3x20xbw) Pull ups (3x20x55-resistance) Row Straight bar curls (3x10x40) Sitting Cable Rows (3x10x85) Reverse Cable Curls (3x10x30) Cable Crunches (3x10x42.5) Stationary Bike - 30 minute ride at average of 110 rpm (9.13 miles) Treadmill Run - 10 minute run at 7.0 mph (1.15 miles) Swim lasted for a little over an hour today and focused on working with the pull buoy 300y warm up (100 free, 100 back, 100 free) *Ms. Vicki said that it was the worst she had ever seen 400y pull buoy 2x200y pull 30 sec rest 4x75 pull 20 sec rest 4x50 kick on side - no board 200y free 50y free drill speed 50y free max speed 200y free cool down 2100y total

Why?????

In November of 2012 I was in the worst shape of my life and it only compounded when I was required to go to the local Quest Diagnostics and get all of my vitals signs taken. Yes, the regular things like height and weight, blood pressure, etc., but as I stood on that scale and it read 203 lbs, I wondered.....what in the heck happened to me. I came to the conclusion that my pants were either not as loose as they were before, or didn't fit at all. But it was all part of growing older right? Well I guess that is what I had spent the last 4+ years of my life saying to myself.....I am getting older and my metabolism isn't what it used to be. Totally avoiding the fact that I ate Wendy's 4 days a week, would have my share of drinks on the weekend, and the only true physical activity that I had was walking from the golf cart to my ball a couple of days a week. In the fall of last year, a friend of mine, invited me out to play ice hockey with him in the local league here in Pensacola. That is where my initial motivation to get in shape came from. The first couple of weeks, I was gassed after 3 or 4 shifts during a game and by the last week of the season in April, I could tell that I was getting into better shape each and every week. I am very thankful for Mike to push me to get out there on the ice with his group of friends. Over the course of 35 - 40 games I was able to cut my weight down to about 185 and feel pretty good about doing it. But once the season ended, and some things were happening at home and at work, I realized that I have a lot of things that I want to accomplish in my life and probably should get a start on doing them while I still can. At 34 years old, I feel like I am about 23, minus being able to drink until all hours of the morning and still function the next day.....I guess if that is the only negative then I am on the right track. When thinking about all of the things I would want to do a couple came to mind; skydiving (Jill still says that she doesn't want me to do that), running a marathon, playing in a professional golf event (still high on my list, but after reading the book Paper Tiger, it is going to be a long haul) and the last one finishing an Ironman. After looking at all of the others, I figured that this would probably be the most fun to try to do in 2014. So as I started to get deeper into committing myself to signing up for an Ironman, I realized first and foremost I don't know how to swim and second I don't own a bike. Those are probably two major issues! Swimming was the biggest problem, you can always go out and just buy a bike right....luckily Jill while looking for things for the kids to do this summer came across a swim class at NAS Pensacola for the kids and while checking out their website I saw that they had a "Master's swim class" for adults. Not knowing what Master's meant I called and they told me it was for adults that wanted to swim on a regular basis with some sort of structure, just show up when you want to and swim what is on the card's they give you. Right before Labor Day, I decided to go out and give it a test run, you know, show up and see how I like it. When I got to the pool, the best part was it was only 5 foot deep....it would be hard for me to drown here. As I get ready to get in the pool with my brand new Nike goggles, a man in his 70's approached me and introduced himself as Tim and wanted to know if I knew how to swim. My immediate answer was "I can survive if I needed to in the water, but usually have a drink in my hand when I am trying to swim. He asked if I could make it down and back of the 25m outdoor pool. I smirked and said I hope so. Well let me tell you, I made it down and back but as my hand hit that wall, Tim immediately said "You sure do look tired" and Ms. Vicki the head of the program I imagine was thinking to herself, that we might need to hire more lifeguards. Over the course of the last 6 weeks in the pool, I think my skill has increased. I started off doing 1600m swims in an hour and last week was doing 2100y sets with so 300y intervals in there. Granted it isn't 2.4 miles and the 11-17 year old kids that practice alongside of me are flying by me like I am standing still, but I have a lot more comfort in the water than what I did 6 weeks ago. It is also helpful that our kids are swimming at around the same time that I do, so it has turned into a family affair for us to be at the pool together. The other two disciplines that I am working on getting better at, biking and running, are all taking place at the gym right now. Ideally I would like to have a bike to ride on but I think that I need to at least be able to ride at a decent pace for a decent amount of time before I choose so spend a couple of thousand dollars on a bike that I might only use for one 116 mile journey. All of my running miles are taking place on a treadmill in order to keep my knees working up until the time when we are 30 weeks out from the Ironman and start putting a lot of miles on them in a short period of time. So over the course of the next 10 months, I will be updating my journey on a regular basis, and using this website to keep track of miles that I am putting in and the thoughts that are going through my head while doing it. Hopefully when the time passes and I finish my first Ironman I will be able to look back on this and see exactly how I was able to accomplish my goal and more importantly hopefully my kids will see how much work that I put in in order to achieve a lifelong goal for myself.