Hong Kong

We had such an amazing time. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go to Asia. I never thought I would ever go to such a place. If I had a pick of anywhere to vacation overseas, Hong Kong would have probably been last on my list. But what an experience!

We flew from SLC to Portland, and from Portland to Narita (Tokyo), Japan. Ben's friend, Erik, met us in the airport, since he had been in Tokyo for business. We took the same flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong.
This was at the market on the first day of our trip. It reminded me a lot of Mexico. Tons of stands with all sorts of exotic fruits and vegetables. Plus a good variety of assorted animal partsThen it was into the city for some city experience. Massive sky-scrapers everywhere.They have a very efficient mass transit system. We rode these double-decker buses everywhere. And when we weren't on the bus, we were on the subway, on a ferry, or in a taxi.

back to the gym

This week has been brutal. It's amazing how hard it is to get back into working out after taking 2 weeks off. This is what I did on Tuesday of this week:

40 squats with upright row (12 lbs--20 on each arm)
30 second run on treadmill as fast as possible
40 jump squats
30 second run
40 ABX hamstrings
30 second run
40 weighted lunges (35 lb bar)
30 second run

I think did this nearly 2 times...second time through I got as far as 20 of the lunges.

Today's workout looked like this:

20 sumo high rows
20 hanging abs
20 squat thrusters
20 back extentions

Every 5 minutes I had to stop and do 10 burpees. I think I got through nearly 4 sets of this. (Didn't do the last set of back extentions.)

Tonight we're running the 5K for South Ogden. They do a kid's K to begin with. The little ones are going to participate in that. Buddy, Ben, and I are going to do the 5K. I hope I can do it after these workouts--I'm sore!

Hong Kong

Vacationing in Hong Kong...I will post some pics later when I get home. We've had tons of fun touring around. It really is amazing how many people live here...how big it is for such a small piece of land. Incredible. Post more later.

Catch up posts

I've fallen behind in recording my workouts. And I've already forgotten one workout which included something called a "sprawl" which is similar to a burpee, but you don't do the push up. Then it was followed by some punching/boxing, which is always fun. Anyway, here are the workouts that I had written down, just not typed up, yet.

.25 mile run
25 thrusters (12 lb. weights)
25 abs (alternating between jack-knife abs, and sit-ups)
25 back extentions (using incline bench)

All of this was done as quickly as possible. I was able to get 5 total sets done in about 30 minutes.


25 box jumps
3 pull-ups (strict--which means controlled and slow on the way down, until arms fully extended)
25 upright row (with 35 lb bar)
3 pull-ups
25 sumo squats (with 35 lb weight)
3 pull-ups
25 hanging abs
3 pull-ups
25 triceps (on bench lying on back)
3 pull-ups

So, the pull ups were in between every move. This really made my back and shoulders sore. I can't remember if I had to repeat this (seems like I did it twice, and got through 1/2 of the moves the third time), as I didn't write that part down.


This week, Tuesday was the first day back since I had caught a nasty cold, which is still lingering. But I took a week off of working out while I tried to recover.

100 ski squats*
50 sit-ups
10 push-ups

Each following set, take 20 off of the squats, 10 off the sit-ups, and push-ups remain same. I did sets. This is what the following sets looked like:

80 s.s., 40 s.u., 10 p.u.; 60 s.s., 30 s.u., 10 p.u.; 40 s.s., 20 s.u.; 10 p.u.

*This is where I am holding weights on the machine--with a pulley--and I squat with the arms out, and as I stand, I pull arms in to chest with elbows out. This works the shoulders and back.


Today I did a fit test where I was timed to see how quickly I could do this:

1 mile run
150 squats
75 pull-ups
50 push-ups

I had to run the mile all at one time, and then I could break the other moves up into sets, as I felt was easiest/fastest. I did 75 squats, 30 pull-ups, 30 push-ups; 75 squats, 25 pull-ups, 10 push-ups; 10 pull-ups, 10 push-ups; 10 pull-ups. My time was 21:36.

Half marathon

The half marathon was this past Saturday. I apologize for not blogging it earlier. I couldn't find the camera for a couple of days. Ben took this video of me crossing the finish line. I was not in good shape at this point. Luckily I recovered quickly, but I was nearly in tears after I crossed.

The Wednesday night before the race I came down with a stomach bug. It was one of those kind where your stomach is in knots and you know it is coming, but not sure which end. I took a Zofran for the nausea, and luckily was able to keep everything down. But for 2 hours I was up that night, rushing to the bathroom. The whole time I was thinking, I can't run a race feeling this way! I never get the stomach flu...last time I had any tummy issues was probably 5 years ago. And it hits me 2 days before a race I've been training for 4 months for? Anyway, I was feeling better by Friday, although my stomach was still cramping most of that day.

Friday night, I couldn't fall asleep, because Ben hexed me. It was about 1:30 before I finally was able to. And then we had to get up at 4:20 so we could catch the bus to take us up to the start. We got up to Eden sometime around 5:45, and then huddled up under a blanket to wait. The race didn't begin until 7:00. It was beautiful watching the sunrise over the mountains. When it was time to begin, we took off our sweatshirts and pants and made our way to the start. Of course, Ben took off right away. He is competitive when it comes to racing, so he took off near the start.

I felt great, my pace was good, and the worst part of that course (a gradual uphill) is near the start, so with that behind me, it was mostly downhill. I had to shed a couple layers of clothing (I kept a jacket on, and my running tights over a pair of shorts), but I didn't want to drop it in the clothing boxes because then I'd have to wait until the end of the marathon to be able to claim my clothes. So I tied both jacket and pants around my waist and looked like I was smuggling a tire in to the finish line.

The run was beautiful coming down the canyon, with the Ogden river right there. At about 2 miles left, I started to feel tired, but plugged away. Then for the last stretch, with only 1/2 a mile to go, I started to hit a wall. It was only about 4 blocks long, but I kept having to stop and walk a bit. I was so tired and hungry. I hadn't been able to eat a whole lot the day before, and I had eaten only a banana and some grapes the morning of the race.

Anyway, I crossed at 2:19:44...a full 10 minutes ahead of the runner who won the full marathon. (At least he didn't pass me!) I fell onto the grass, and my hands and feet felt all tingly like they do when they're asleep. My calves started cramping up, too, which is something that never happens to me. I never get cramps like that while running or right after. I think it had to do with lack of calories or something. I went over to the Great Harvest table and got a piece of bread. Then went and had a couple of bananas, and met Ben outside. I was just wanting to go home, so we found our stuff that we had left at the start line, and made our way home. By the time I got home I was feeling a lot better.

Overall, given the circumstances of being sick, and little sleep the night before, I did okay on my time. I had figured from my training runs that if I came in under 2:30 I would be happy...and I had that beat by 10 minutes. I keep wondering what I would have been able to do on that course feeling 100%. Anyway, I am considering the new Layton half marathon in October...either that or the Spanish Fork one that Ben runs every September. We will see.

Very bad photos of me can be seen at Zazoosh.

more weighted lunges and squats....ouch

Today was a treat at the gym. I had a bar that weighted 45 lbs. I had to heft the thing up and over my head, so it was on my shoulders, at which point I did 15 squats. Then I had to bring it back over my head, and do 15 over head presses with it. Then, still holding the bar, arms straight down front, 15 dead lifts. And to finish it off, I had to heft it back up overhead onto my back and do 15 lunges per leg. I finally was able to set the bar down--given that I could get it back up over my head--and rest for about 45 seconds. Then I started over again. I did 4 sets of this. Those lunges are torture. I had butt cramps and I thought for sure my knees were going to give way.

Catch up post

On Monday I ran a quick 2 miles, because my training schedule said to run between 15 and 30 minutes. Ben has been doing a lot of reading on barefoot running lately, and they all say to start with only 5 minutes for the first couple of weeks, until you condition your feet more. So, for the last half mile or so, I shed my shoes and ran on the road. I quickly learned why you are to not land on your heels. I came down hard on a rock, and had a bruised heel for a couple days, but it is feeling better now. I also got a couple blisters on both middle toes, but they are not bothering me now.

Tuesday I was at the gym. And because I had a day last week (before my long run) that was all arms and abs, we did nothing but legs. And my hiney is feeling it. This workout was called "how low can you go?" Here's what it included:

weighted squats (I'm unsure how much weight was on the weight rack)
weighted jumping lunges (with 10 lb. weights)
box jumps
calf raises

I started with 18 reps of each of these things. Then went to 17, 16, 15, etc. (I made it to 13.) The goal was to see how low you could get in the half hour time slot. She assured me that I would not be getting all the way to 1, so I was taking a bit more time on the box jumps. Those things freak me out lately, I'm afraid I'm going to trip up it when I'm jumping, so I had to hold her arm for the last 3 sets or so.

Yesterday I was supposed to run again for 15-30 min, but I did not make it out. So this means, tomorrow is a run day and then Saturday is my long run, which isn't as long as last week's. (Only 5-6 miles this time.)