Well, not exactly catching up from the weekend because I didn’t really do anything. Unless you count hours of walking around Michigan Ave. which should count for something.
Yesterday was 34 minutes on the treadmill.

This morning’s swim was:

W/U: 200sw/200pu

6X100 on the 1:50

50 drill

6×100 on the 1:50

C/D: 100 pu

Weights this evening proved to be annoying as people tended to linger on the weight machines making it hard to have any sort of rhythm. I didn’t complete the workout. Annoyed.
But in good news my weight is starting to come down.

I have to keep this up, but I’ve now worked out seven times this week!

Total I got in:

Three treadmill workouts, three pool workouts and a weight session.

Pool workout this morning was:

W/U – 200sw, 200pull

Set – 12×100y on the 1:50

C/D – 50 pull

I added two more 100s to the set just because I was feeling pretty good. I still have a long way to go, but this is a fantastic start.

One of my favorite swimmers is Jason Lezak. He of the fastest 100 split time ever swam….which just happened to be in the final leg of the 4×100 relay at the 2008 Olympics.  When I decided to start lifting weights a few months ago I went and found a workout used by Lezak for sprint swimmers.

I did the upper body section of that  tonight and managed okay. The weight section of the Galter is nice, albeit a little cramped.

Okay, I may be a little behind on this, but I think it’s really cool. The new gym has treadmills that…….woop, quick diversion…yes...I am wayyy behind on this..2007? Really?…..you plug your ipod/iphone into. While this isn’t exactly startling new technology, I found it to be new to me. What’s better is you can play videos on your iPhone through the touch screen interface. Goodbye boredom!

The wife has an affinity for TV shows on iTunes. So thanks to iTunes home sharing I am currently transferring every TV show she has ever downloaded to my iTunes account which I’ll load onto my iPhone when I get home. From there I’ll have a stock pile of days of shows to watch while working out. And don’t forget video podcasts. This is going to be very cool.

I was at the hospital until 8:15 on Tuesday and had to be there at 7:00 am yesterday morning so I bagged the Tuesday evening and Wed. morning workout.

I was back on the treadmill yesterday afternoon for a 31 minute workout.

5 Minutes – 4* Incline @ 3.4mph

16 Minutes – 8* Incline @ 3.6mph

5 Minutes – 12* Incline @ 3.5mph

5 Minutes – 4* Incline @ 3.4mph

Then again this morning..

5 Minutes – 4* Incline @ 3.4mph

17 Minutes – 8* Incline @ 3.6mph

5 Minutes – 12* Incline @ 3.5mph

5 Minutes – 4* Incline @ 3.4mph

I’ll continue adding a minute to that 8* portion of the workout until I get to 30 minutes. From there I’ll be where I want to from a cardio and joint standpoint to start running again.
Plan is for weights this afternoon!

Quick workout in the pool. Gotta get to work!

200y slow W/U

10×100y on the 1:50

50y C/D

My heart rate was fine throughout, my muscles were still a little sore from Sunday’s work however.

Workouts continued today at the Galter Life Center with a fun workout. When I first started my first workout regimen some three years ago in Dallas. When I joined the Landry Fitness Center I took a fitness test (F) and the personal trainer hooked me up with a beginner plan for cutting fat and increasing cardio fitness. I did that for a month and,combined with some swimming, rapidly increased my fitness level.

The workout took a half hour and was easy. It’s a watered down interval run with some incline work thrown in.

5 Minutes – 4* Incline @ 3.4mph

15 Minutes – 8* Incline @ 3.6mph

5 Minutes – 12* Incline @ 3.5mph

5 Minutes – 4* Incline @ 3.4mph

Swimming in the morning.

It has been a long time since I woke up and got in a workout before noon.

I had set out to work out 14 times during February…I made it to the gym 3 times. Meh…win some lose some.

Today’s work out:

W/U 200 swim/200 pull

5×100 on the 1:50

100 pull, 100 IM

5X100 on the 1:50

C/D 50 backstroke pull

I can come up with 1000 reasons why I haven’t worked out in the last five months. The one about wedding and honeymoon doesn’t fly anymore however. So today I signed on at the Galter Life Center at Swedish Covenant Hospital. It’s four whole blocks from the house. It’s on the way home, parking is great, the facility is wonderful and the classes are what I need. No more excuses.

Workout:

200 swim/200 pull

10X100 with 10 sec rest

The wife changed our non-plan evening plans tonight to head out with a friend, so I got to be a little creative cooking for one. We’ve recently taken up boiled and broiled potatoes as our side of choice for the time being, so I whipped those up and stuck them in our new toaster oven to cook. Then I got started on an amazing cheeseburger.

I decided to use up the last of some bleu cheese we used to cook last week and make some bleu cheese burgers. At our neighborhood market, HarvesTime I picked up some ground chuck and, on a whim, some McCormick’s Chili Seasoning. Back the apartment I dropped the chili mix, the crumbled bleu cheese and beef into a bowl and mixed it up. Made some thin patties and dropped them on our griddle grill.

At an internal temperature of 140, I turned off the griddler and let it sit for just a minute more. A little ketchup and honey dijon on the bun and what you have is this. It’s not the best burger I’ve ever had but it is the best burger I’ve ever cooked myself. Simply awesome.

About this time three years ago I decided to get back in shape after 10 years of general unhealthy living. I accomplished that after hooking up a triathlon training group in Dallas. I managed to lose about 30 pounds and complete a handful of 5K and 10K races as well as two triathlons and a duathlon. It was awesome.

Since leaving Dallas I slowly fell back into some bad habits. I was still generally healthy, not as active, but I kept in shape. But six months ago, my fitness became a total after thought. Wedding, travel, moving, life, other were my main focus. Along the way I gained a considerable amount of weight.  The wedding (both mine and that of friends) occupied so much of me and Millie’s time that we chose to spend what little free time we had doing anything but working out. I had so little time during the week and rarely had a weekend where we weren’t traveling, I made the choice to rest and recuperate rather than work out….and eat pizza.

That changed today with my first swim in nearly seven months. It was hard and equal parts frustrating and exhilarating. Frustrating because I once could knock 1000 yards as a warm up but exhilarating as I was reminded what it’s like to be in the water. I love it. I love the pool so much more than the treadmill. I’ve promised myself I’ll get back in shape.