The Countdown to Christmas

Christmas is approaching at an alarming rate. We're 2 days away and I'm not ready! The boys' presents are stashed away, but unwrapped. Tonight I guess I'll do some wrapping. Also on the agenda is more house rearranging. Last night I started the process of switching my living room with my dining room. Yeah, probably not the best time to do it with the hectic Christmas stuff going on, but I decided it was a good time to make the change. I only did a little bit of moving before going out last night. So my house is now in disarray, I have at least an hour of moving furniture planned and I have to wrap presents before going out again tonight. The kids are home tomorrow so time is running out. What a crazy, yet fun time of year!

Busy Weekend

This weekend was lots of fun.
First off, on Saturday I had my second of two personal training sessions. This time we did legs. If the first session was any indication what was in store over the next few days, I'd struggle to walk by Monday night. hahaha. Funny, but oh so true.
Saturday night it was a night on the town. We had a good time and ended up watching Dallas ruin the Saints' hopes for that perfect season. I loved it.
When I awoke on Sunday morning, my legs hurt but it was only one day later so they true soreness had not set in as of yet. My plan was to use my legs all day to work out the soreness before it set in. How did I plan to do this? Well, by golf and basketball of course!
I joined friends at Lexington Country Club for a round of golf. I had never played there before and was looking forward to it. Rob suggested that we walk it and since that is just what I needed, I agreed. We had such a good time. My score was definitely nothing to write home about, but we enjoyed ourselves. After the round and a little food it was time to head home. Unfortunately, I only had about 15 minutes at home before heading out to play basketball. I play pickup ball on Sunday nights. Well, recently I have. I'm still one of the "new guys" and I've been trying to find my shot. Last night was my best showing yet. Still a little rusty, but I was able to do most of what I wanted to on the court and my teamed fared very well. After 2 hours of ball following the 4 hours of walking the golf course, I was spent. I had achieved my goal of working out my legs, but was now totally beat.
I made it home in time to watch my Vikings get beat up on by a bad Carolina team. Not a good day for my teams. Green Bay and Minnesota both lost. An unfortunate item for me in what was otherwise a great weekend. Now it's off to a short work week before Christmas. Still have presents to wrap and presents to buy. It will be a busy few days!

Oh My God!!!

I've always said that 2 days after a hard workout is the worst. How in the hell did I forget that fact?! Yesterday my shoulders hurt. Today I would swear that someone stabbed them repeatedly... so much pain... better lead to so much gain!

Personal Training

Wow! What can I say? I showed up last night for my personal training session. Remember, this is was my freebie for signing up at Gold's Gym. Actually, I found out last night I get 2 free sessions, the first of which was the one that I used last night.

A few thoughts I had before showing up.
(1) I've been in and out of the gym my entire life, so I hoped to gain insight into some new exercises that I had not done before more than I wanted a "workout guideline".
(2) Many of those that sign up for the free sessions have never really worked out before and so their sessions tend to be more of an introduction to the gym. Having already been in decent shape before showing up, I assumed my routine would be quite different than most.
(3) To continue the sessions would be expensive and I have no intention of doing more than the free sessions.

I walked in to find Tony, whom I had originally scheduled with. He walks over with a huge smile on his face and said, "I actually have a conflict so I've asked Bobby to handle your session. I told him that he can't wait to see you because you are in phenomenal shape and that he should really be able to break you down pretty good and show you some new stuff." Excellent! That is what I wanted to hear, although I disagree about the phenomenal shape compliment. I consider myself just somewhat fit. Also, if I were the trainer and I was trying to sell personal training to someone, my lead in would probably not be "hey, you are already in phenomenal shape!" ha!

So I sat down with Bobby and talked about my goals and how we could vary workouts to keep my body confused so that I would have continual gains. Meanwhile I'm realizing that although Bobby knows what he is talking, so do I. Due to my past experiences I already know everything he is telling me. Of course it's nice to have it reiterated to you. Oh, back to the subject of my goals. I would love to put on some muscle but not get too bulky because that would conflict with my competitive running. So my ultimate goal is to get shredded, totally cut up. Also, I want to focus on building my shoulders. Even back when I was pretty big and strong during my football days, my shoulders lacked the size I wanted. In addition, I'd like to get my body fat back down in the single digit range. I've only been there once in my life and would love to achieve that once again.

We continued talking and he measured both my weight and body fat percentage. This is key for me because it will give me a basis for comparison. I'll note this and come back every few months to see what progress I've made. For the record, I currently weigh 221 lbs and have 18.7% body fat. Not good by any means, but also not bad. About two years ago I had over 26% body fat (and in men, over 25% is clinically obese!). I'm definitely headed in the right direction!

Then it was on to the gym floor. The plan is to do 30 minutes of weight training and 30 of cardio on an average day. Yesterday was no average day by any means. It took much less time to totally annihilate my muscles.

Since this was a first assessment, he said we'd do a mix of upper and lower body, focusing on shoulders. When he walked up with 15 lb dumbbells I almost laughed but knew what was in store. I wont go into details of the super-sets, but it will suffice to say that rotating multiple exercises, having little to no rest, and doing high reps was brutal. Before I was done, I had dropped from 15 lb dumbbells to 5 pounders. Wow. After multiple stations with almost no rest my arms were spent so we did some leg extensions and lunges. That was it. 25 minutes of weights and I felt like I had completed 2.5 hours. Did it work? Well, I'll tell you this; my shoulders are extremely sore today. I may have been broken off yesterday but today I'm reaping the benefits. Oh, and I did 20 minutes of cardio as well. That was plenty!

In addition to having a great (and quick) work out, I was introduced to some new exercises. I couldn't be happier about that fact since it did address my original intend. Now I have some new items to introduce into my workout routine. I am going back on Saturday for my follow up session. I hope to learn much more!

Oh, one more thing. They gave the sales pitch for future sessions. VERY EXPENSIVE. If you don't know what you are doing or if you lack the drive to make yourself stay in the gym it's probably worth the expense, but in my situation it's just not worth the money. I'll talk to them every few months to get a feel for my body fat percentage, but that's about it.

All in all, yesterday was a great session!

Gold's Update

Working out is going well and it really feels good to be getting back in the groove! I've been a member of the gym for 6 days, and have been in for 3 workouts. Not bad considering I was out of town for part of the weekend. After only a few visits, this is what I see:
(1) After years of half-ass workouts, I feel both invigorated doing the real thing again and blown away by just how weak I've become!
(2) I can see already that my body is responding. Give me 6 weeks and I'll be a new man. That's 3 weeks this year, and three weeks in the crazy January New Year's resolution craze.
(3) 5:30 is a crazy time to work out. Yesterday was my first visit at that time. Not only did I struggle to find a parking spot, but the free-weight area was jam-packed. Wow, I can't imagine how it will be in January.
(4) The future is bright!

Not only do I feel slight signs of progress already, but I also have my free session with a personal trainer tomorrow. That came free with sign-up and I figured, "hey, why not?". I, like many, fall into ruts and do the same routine nearly every visit to the gym. I figure this free session will shed some light on areas of my body that I neglect as well as give me an introduction to the parts of the gym that I don't use often. In reality it's only been a few days, but I'm excited about my progress to come!

Starting Anew

Perhaps you see the title of this post and assume I'm going to be talking about Starting anew after 9 years of marriage. Not the case. This is about something much less significant.
I'm talking about working out. Two years ago we switched gyms to join JCC. Why? Well they do have a pretty decent facility, but the real reason we joined was to get a huge discount on their summer camps for the kids. My joining we received the discount and we also gained a gym, which I fully intended to use. Guess what? I was just like a large majority of those with gym memberships; I hardly used it. In the two years, I bet I used the gym 10-15 times. Ridiculous.
Two items prompted my change. First off, the family membership we had a JCC was no longer right for me. I needed a personal membership somewhere. Secondly, I've been watching the new Gold's Gym go up for the past few months. I had full intentions of checking it out when it opened. Well, I passed by there on Tuesday and saw a "now open" sign so I called to checked it out. As it turns out, they were actually opening on Wednesday morning. Excellent!
Wednesday I had the day off from work to play in a golf tournament. This left the morning open as the perfect opportunity to check out the new facilities. I took the tour and was blown away at how much they had available at that location. It was so much better than what I was used to; many more machines, many more free weights, many more options included 160 classes per week. I think I'm going to check out an ab class first, but I digress. I immediately signed up and got in a quick workout before golf. That turned out to be a bad idea in terms of my golf game, but I couldn't be more happy about the new gym membership.
Now the big question: will I use the membership? You're damn right I will. I'll tell you many reasons why:
(1) the gym is right around the corner from my house so it's much more easily accessible
(2) it's top of the line. I was a member of Columbia Athletic Club a few year back which is close, but they didn't have the availability of weights and machines, so this will be much better.
(3) I already have a decent fitness base with all of the running I've been doing.
(4) I've said for years that if I were a single guy, I'd be a gym rat. Guess what? My current situation has provided me the opportunity to prove that I meant what I said.
(5) after so many years away from real lifting, I've gotten soft! I used to warm up with the weights that I struggle with now and that is very disheartening, and equally motivating.
(6) relating to #4, I have the free time to pursue the fitness that I've wanted for years.
(7) very important - when the kids are with me, they have an awesome facility for them too. Cool movie area, Nintendo Wiis, and actually stuff to do to keep them busy and have fun.

All that being said, I'm totally pumped about my new gym. After so many years of not working out like I should, getting back in it now is like starting anew, and I cant be more excited about it.

It Does the Body Good

For years while I participated in athletics I stayed banged up but really never had to sit out of competition or practice. Why you may ask. Well, the truth is that I frequented the Chiropractor. It's amazing not only how much better your body feel, but also how much better it operates when:
(a) you feed it healthy foods
(b) you exercise
(c) you ensure that your body is properly aligned

Many times I read in magazine articles or on websites about the importance of nutrition and exercise, but seldom to you see emphasis on body alignment. I will tell you the truth, if not for chiropractic appointments I would have sat out many a practice in pain. Many people don't give chiropractic work the credit it is due and give more focus on "fixing something" that may not be the root cause... which often ends up leading to pain killers and/or surgery. Luckily I have a family that has always believed in the body possessing much of what it needs to heal itself... but this only works when you take care of your body. I am digressing but I think you get the point. If you have proper alignment, your body works better, feels better, and heals itself better.

After I ended my collegiate sports career I no longer had the strong dependence on chiropractic. Basically I had aches and pains but nothing like when I was banged up from football. That being the case, I quit going. I always wanted to go back, especially when I'd have nagging pains come back, but I was... for lack of a better term, lazy. I didn't make it a priority. If you've been following my blog long, you've heard me mention my hip pains that flare up when I run a lot. Well, those pains, as well as some back and neck stiffness, finally prompted me to return to chiropractic. I went on Wednesday for my first time in years and man did it do the trick. I left feeling so much better and I fully intend to stay committed to going. I owe it to myself to take care of myself. Nutrition and exercise only do so much.

The visit was not just a quick crack or two. It consisted of x-rays, stem therapy on my neck, stretching and cracking all up and down my spine and a discussion of what is needed. Two big items came up. First, my pelvis is rotated. Bang! That is what is causing my hip pain when I run. That issue is what we're going to work on in the coming weeks, attempting to get it rotated back and get full movement rotating both ways. This alone will be worth getting in there.

Also, the doctor noted on my x-rays that I have an old football injury. Many with neck pain from car accidents are familiar with problems with their C5 vertebrae. This is the most common neck injury from vehicular accidents. It just so happens that it is also one of the common injuries to football players due to the repeated head collisions. Anyway, my x-ray showed that this vertebrae was misshapen and causing disc issues. It was not so far gone that it is a huge concern, but it was way too far deteriorated for a 32 year old man. Scary. I had never been aware of this and although there is nothing I can do to revert the injury, I can avoid too much deterioration now that I know about it. I am so happy that I made the leap to get back in there and look forward to a happier, healthier future due to it.

If you've never ventured into chiropractic, it could be very well worth your time to check it out.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Last night was an eventful night in many ways. I'll go into a little detail about three of the items and yes, you guessed it... good, bad, and ugly.

First off is the good one. I cleaned up my middle room in the house and designated that the Christmas tree room this year (since that room was basically empty at this point in time). I climbed up to the attic and retrieved all of our Christmas decorations and after dinner the boys and I put up the tree and decorated it. They had a blast, telling stories about the ornaments they made and previous years. It was very fun and they loved it. I took a few pictures but my camera is at home so pics will have to loaded later.

Next, the bad. A while back, October 5th if I'm not mistaken, a roofer had to fix a leak in our roof. Since then all has been well... that is, until last night. The torrential rain was too much and the leak sprung yet again. I found a small puddle in the kitchen and the ceiling was wet. Unfortunately I did not find this until the rain had stopped and I don't know where the leak is, but the roofing company WILL be coming back to fix it.

Moving on to the Ugly. In this transitional period that I'm in, I've tried to make work on the house a little, making it my own. Although that is great, I've yet to do some of the standard items like get the place straight! I have moved furniture around, but the place is a total wreck. This morning I realized how bad it was. Tonight I'm attacking it and eliminating the ugly!

So there it is; the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Until next time,
O

Winds of Change

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. Life throws changes your way all the time. The changes themselves aren't necessarily good or bad, however our perceptions of them tends to be. You can take an unforeseen change as an awful occurrence and let it ruin your outlook for some amount of time or....you can accept it, make the best out of the situation and use it as an opportunity. Such is the case with me right now. I did a little of both.
Life threw me a curve ball and I took my medicine. I took it hard at first, but then accepted it. I've spent the last few days using it as an opportunity. This may be somewhat vague, but I intended it that way. Things are changing but I'm OK with it and looking forward to a bright future. Hopefully all those affected will do the same.

Concert Time

It's been a while since I've been to a concert. Actually, the last one was my first blog post... so that was June of 2008. Although that Pearl Jam concert was awesome, this one had to top it.



We headed to Charlotte last Sunday afternoon to hear Metallica live. I really wanted to catch them twice already, but as life tends to pull us many different directions at once, I was unable to see them perform with Godsmack and with Linkin Park. I'm sure both of those bands would have been incredible live as well. This time around Metallica had two bands I've never heard up opening for them. No biggie. I was there for Metallica anyway.

I went in knowing that they have such a catalog that they could fill a few hours with all great songs and I'd still have a few favorites that they missed. At the end of the night I was blown away. They rocked all night, with both their old and new tracks. It was obvious that the crowd favorite is Seek and Destroy. I wouldn't rate it in my top ten, but experiencing live is pretty awesome. My personal favorites of the night were Sad but True, and The Day that Never Comes. I would not have expected The Day that Never Comes to be a favorite, but they totally rocked it.

I hope to hear them again one day. If that kind of music is your thing and you've never seen Metallica live, I highly suggest to get out to see them!

Big Baby

I cant believe it. My baby is 6. Jackson is getting old way to fast. There is no way his little brother, the baby of the family, should be six years old. Time is flying! I dont know what else to say.

For his birthday he wanted to take a second trip to the fair so we did that. Also, we stocked him up on art supplied: crayons, markers, paper. He loves to do art, so he was very happy about new tools to work with. Also, we gave him his own basketball and he later told us that was his favorite present. Nice thought by Stacy to add that into the mix.

After getting the ball on his birthday, the following day he added to the stash. Within 20 minutes of arriving at the fair, both Alex and Jackson won mini-basketballs. That was awesome except the part about me carrying them for the next 3 hours. Not to mention an hour later Jackson won another, full sized basketball. The Owings' house is now fully stocked for basketball season!

Happy Birthday to Alex, my very BIG baby.

The Final Countdown!

No, not the eighty's hair band Europe's big hit. I'm talking about Stacy's training countdown. Back in April training began. She skipped the half marathon and jumped in with a crew from Tampa training for the Marine Corps Marathon. It has been a huge goal in her (and our) lives for the past 7 months. All that training has finally came to fruition! The race is this Sunday morning. Three days and counting!

I have no doubt that she'll do great. I've been shocked at not only how many long runs (as far as 22.5 miles) she has run in preparation, but also the ease that she seemed to do it in. I'm sure it wasn't easy but she tackled it like a champ. I have all expectations that she'll do awesome. I cant wait to talk to her afterward and hear all about it. Although I'll be awaiting that post-race call, I wont have to wait until then to see how well she performed. One of the coolest things about this particular marathon is the ability to track runners progress. All long races may have this, but this is the first I've heard of it. Anyway, I signed up, so I'll receive both emails and texts of her progress every 5K of the race. I cant wait. If I'm this excited, I cant imagine how excited she is!

Oh, and once more, 3 days and count. It's The Final Countdown!

The Fair

The Fair was another great time this year. We did the family trip on Saturday morning. They didn't have the pay-one-price deal that day (wrist bands), but they did have buy-one-get-one, which basically means the boys could both ride for the price of one. They rode for about 2 hours and had a blast.

Since Alex just turned 6 on Tuesday (hurray Alex), he said that he wanted to go back to the fair. Last night we headed back. Stacy had to do some last minute packing for her trip (first marathon. Go Stacy!), so I took the boys. It was a pay-one-price night so we got wrist bands and had a blast. I kept up with it and they boys rode so much that it covered the price of the wristbands 3 times over... and they enjoyed every second of it. Only the first line was long. After that we realized that there was a backlog of people near the entrance. Once we ventured farther away, they flew from one ride to the next... for 3.5 hours. Also, a small milestone; they rode their first adult ride. They insisted on riding "the spaceship". They were both tall enough so I let them give it a shot. By the way, the spaceship is the Gravitron. I was hoping they wouldn't come out of it looking like the one guy I saw that probably had a few too many beverages before entering. The mix of his late night drinks and the spinning ride made his attempt at walking hilarious. But I digress. The boys came out having a blast and screaming for more, so I let them do it once more. Isn't it fun to be a big boy!

Also, a trip to the fair is never complete without stuffing one's self with fatty foods. The boys and I split a foot-long corn-dog and a turkey leg. They were both spectacular. Also, we hit up the fried dessert stand on the way out. Fried Snickers for me and fried Oreos for the boys. If you've never heard of fried desserts, as crazy as they sound, they are incredible. They freeze the candy bar and dip it in donut batter and fry the thing up. By the time you eat it you have a donut stuffed with a melty candy bar. Incredible!

Dam Run Results

Not a bad race. It turned out to be a great day for a run. It had rained all night, but cleared off before the race. It was cool and slightly misted both before and after the race.
I fell short of my goal, but I knew up front that my goal was a tough one. I'm still happy with my time. Rather than averaging 6:59 per mile, I achieved a 7:09 pace for a 44:21.
At this point, I'm enjoying all of my runs but I see them all as practice for the Bridge Run. One day I'll venture into longer events, but for now I'm really enjoying the 5Ks and 10Ks that I've been doing.

Oh, for the record, here were my splits:
Mile 1: 6:30
Mile 2: 6:49
Mile 3: 7:10
Mile 4: 7:06 (still nearly 25 seconds ahead of my goal at this point)
Mile 5: 7:35 ( It was obvious @ mile 4.5 that I didn't have enough left in the tank)
Mile 6: 7:25
last .2: 6:10 pace

Dam Run

Tomorrow morning is the Dam Run. I feel unprepared, but I'd still shooting for a goal. I broke the 7 minute mile pace for my last 5K. It's time to shoot for that pace in a 10K. To reach a 6:59 pace, I'll have to post a 43:23. That is no easy task, but goals aren't supposed to be easy now are they?

Wish me luck!

* results to come after the race.