Awesome Milkshake

Summer is coming. It may not feel like it right now (mid 30s), but when it comes, it'll be hot. When you workout you'll be even hotter. You'll sweat, so hydrate even more then... but that's not the point of this post. This post is about an awesome milkshake. You may be thinking: "Aren't milkshakes bad for fitness?" That depends on your milkshake. If you use ice-cream, then yes, it'll be semi-bad for you. If you use this recipe I got online, it won't be unhealthy. First, freeze a banana. Once it's frozen, put 1 to 1-1/2 of milk in your blender, then two scoops of chocolate Whey protein. Blend that for a few seconds, then take your frozen banana and break it up and throw it in. Blenderize that for a few minutes (or until the banana is completely blenderized). You should then have 2-3 chocolate-banana milkshakes!

Now, you may not be a fan of bananas. If so, that's too bad. They're loaded with potassium! Oh, and if you don't add them to the smoothies, it won't be creamy, or as cold. A non-creamy cool (not cold) smoothie is lame.

What if you don't freeze the banana? Well... have you ever drank a warm milkshake? Not very good... and it won't even be creamy! Don't ask me why, but the frozen banana makes it creamy.

These protein shakes (2-3) total at about 400 calories, 60 grams of protein, and about 1000 milligrams of potassium! Not to mention, they taste grand...

Maine....is Weird

The title says it all. Maine is just plain out weird. Two weeks ago it was in the 40s and we had snow banks. The next week (last week) was is the 60s, 70s, 80s, and briefly in the 90s (only in the sun). Pretty much all the snow melted. It stayed like this until Friday and Saturday. It was then down to the 50s, 40s and upper 30s. Not too bad...but now, it snowed. It was in the upper teens during the night and in the 20s, 30s, and sometimes the 40s during the day. That's literally the temperature from last week, halved. Sometimes colder!

What brought this insane drop in temperature seemed to be some extreme winds that hit us a fee days ago. Gusts as strong as 40 miles per hour, so says my weather app on my iPhone. I believe it. A huge tree fell across our road, taking out the power lines and our power for a few hours.

So, that's Maine for ya. 80s to 30s in one week!

Feeling Better

Yup. Most of my joints are feeling better! My knee is recovering with the light running we're doing in track, my ankle that I re-twisted a few weeks ago is pretty much better. My hip which felt almost out if joint from playing Ultimate feels pretty much back to normal. My wrist is feeling better. I'm off the wrist brace. Sometimes it gets irritated, but some stretching, rest, ice (sometimes) and massage helps. I'll get to strengthening sometime soon.

As for my shoulder, that is not better. I've taken 2 1/2 weeks off from exercising it. After first it felt worse, then in the beginning of the second week is felt great! Then I slept on it wrong once. Now it's still a little painful and tight in the morning. I did a few pushups yesterday at track for a workout, but that didn't do anything. No matter if I exercise or not, it's tight in the morning and I need to stretch it to relieve the strain I feel. I'm going to try and avoid upper body exercise still, even though taking time off doesn't seem to do much. Oh well, maybe with the light upper body work I do at track with all the rest I'm taking will help it heal.

So it Begins

Yesterday was the first day of track. We have a new coach. She seems like a pretty good coach. Strict, which is good... but she has an odd rule or two that I don't like. She also seems like a very good distance runner coach. Not super sure about sprinting. My old coach was extremely into sprinting, and helped me greatly improve my speed. This year's coach I think will help more with my endurance. I can't be sure though, because I gathered all this just from the first practice. If all else fails, I'll train on the side once my injuries recover.

So it begins; sprint training. Also known as track. Hopefully it will improve my Ultimate skills! Oh, and I really want some PRs (personal records) this year! Last but not least, I hope my team improves as well!

Semi-Quick Post...

I could write a lengthy post about the HOME convention, but I don't have the time, because track starts today! Instead I'll just write a quick post about my weekend...

So, Mom, Colleen, Dad and I went to the Samoset Resort late Thursday afternoon. By the time we got there pretty much everything had ended for the day. We saw Caleb Reed (a Deerwanderer) briefly as he was leaving. That night Colleen and I just hung out. Mom and Dad went to a supper only for people 'in the loop', you could say. Colleen and I ordered a pizza from Dominoes for our supper. We ordered it a little late, so by the time we got it, we both were very hungry... and thus ate the whole large pizza. That night I slept on the floor.

The second day there Colleen and I hit the gym early. I only did abs, while Colleen pretty much did a light, full body workout. After our workout we ate and got ready for the day. Throughout the day we went to presentations and hung out Anna, the Reeds, the Gartoffs, and some other various friends! The Reeds, Colleen, Anna and I walked/jogged a little the breakwater during the lunch break. Colleen and Anna stopped part way so Anna could eat. The rest of us continued on. It was high tide and very windy. Once we got more than halfway out the waves were splashing over the breakwater a bit. We reached the light house at the end, slightly wet from the knee down. We then headed back and ran into Anna and Colleen on the way. They turned around with us.

For the rest of that day Colleen, Anna, Elisha and I hung out. Ben, Sarah, Caleb and Sam joined for a bit off and on. That evening the Simmlers and our family went out for an early supper at KFC. The funny thing was that there was a miss communication between families of who was bringing Anna to KFC. It ended up that no one did. So one of the Simmler boys headed back and picked up Anna.

After that evening's presentation our friends all left (they all commuted). I went to bed pretty early that night. I didn't sleep much the night before.

The next and last day (Saturday) I woke up, did some ab work again, and then had breakfast and showered. I then went downstairs and had a second breakfast. After my breakfasts the Reeds showed up. So I hung out with them for most of the day, once again. Anna and Colleen were buds again and joined us guys for a lot of the day.

That day we went out to the breakwater again. This time the Estes, Mr. Stuart, Rebecca and Elizabeth (Anna didn't, we forgot to tell her we were going) joined us as well. It was much nicer weather that day: much less wind, no water splashing over. It was a bit chillier, but that was nothing compared to the wind chill of the day before.

It was a fun but short trip. The Estes, Mr. Stuart and Rebecca couldn't stay long. After they left, we all just hung out and went to seminars for the rest of the day. When it ended. We did a little cleaning up and everyone left. Us Clarkes visited the Hughes that night for supper. It was a superb supper, and great fellowship! After the visit with the Hughes we headed home... Quite exhausted. We arrived home around 11pm, and went right to bed.

On Sunday we went off to church. After church we had some fellowship time, and then headed home and rested until home group. At home group we watched a video that we bought at the HOME convention: How Big is God? It was quite impressive, and made you rethink, how huge God is. He's huge...

After the video we all fellowshiped until about 7, and the younger Estes came over. Kenan and Mr. Estes hung out for a bit. The younger Estes spent the night and are still visiting/being babysat. That brings me to now. Lunch time!

I kind of failed making this into a 'quick post'. It didn't go into much detail, but still turned out long. Oh well!

Weather and the HOME Convention

So, I'm just going to note this awesome weather. It's in the 70s and 80s during the afternoon and 60s and 50s in the evening and morning. It's beautiful! I'm loving it! I already got a little sun burnt. Only problem is that the timing of my injuries isn't letting me do much physical activity during this great weather. Hopefully I'll heal up before track starts up next week. Even though it's supposed to be 20-30 degrees colder next week, I still want to run with my team.

Now, on to the HOME Convention! The HOME Convention starts tomorrow. We'll be heading up there then. I'm not sure if I'll be blogging tomorrow or not because of that. I know I won't be blogging for the rest of the week after the convention starts. So that's why I won't be blogging for the rest of this week. I'll be writing more about the convention next week...

Just Some Injury Stuff

So, I haven't been too careful with my working out. Pushed a little too hard, used bad form here and there which have me annoying injuries. I injured my rotator cuff (not only from working out). I also got tendinitis in my tight wrist. This isn't only from working out, but dozens and dozens of pull-ups without trying to strengthen my grip didn't help.

As for my rotator cuff, I've spent hours researching it. I found some exercises I'm going to use once my shoulder is pain free. I also plan not flat bar bench press and over head press again for a long time. The bench press and head press are two exercises that greatly increase chance if injury in the rotator cuff if not balanced out with other exercises. I balanced mine, but I still won't do them just because of the strain the rotator cuff receives. Another exercise I researched which could be hazardous to the rotator cuff is the pushup! That is, if done wrong. Doing them fast puts much more strain on the tendons, and much less strain on the muscles. So doing almost any upper body exercise slower is better for your tendons, and harder for your muscles, which is good! That's not the only problem with bad pushups. Everyone who does pushups knows that putting your hands wide is easier. Little do they know, putting your hands much wider than your shoulders puts strain on the rotator cuff! I didn't know this. So I was cranking out tons of pushups this way. That way I can have high reps to boast about. I once said I'm enjoying the after effect of food more than the instant flavor. I now have to use that logic in my workout. Less, better reps>tons of bad reps.

Now, this post may scare you away from trying bench press, pushups, or over head press. Don't! Bench press is great! Just be careful with it and balance out your muscles. Over head press? Well, that one is pretty good, but always seems to hurt my tendons more than my muscles. I prefer the straight arm raises. Burn the shoulder, require less weight, and don't put much stress on the rotator cuff! Some variations actually help repair the rotator cuff. This exercise (with others) will replace my over head press. As for the pushup? Don't you dare take that out. If you only do them wide, mix it up. Don't completely stop them wide. It's not that bad for your rotator cuff. I'd recommend doing them shoulder width (or a few inches wider) for safety's sake. Also, it's a better workout. Going wide used more chest than anything, while doing them shoulder width balances the usage of triceps and chest equally. It won't feel like this, your triceps will probably feel weaker and give out first.

Pushups are kind of like chin up and pull ups. Chin ups are easier and more people do them, but can hurt the joints if done too much. Pull ups are harder, but give you less of a chance of injury. That doesn't mean just do pull ups! Use some chin ups! Same goes for pushups, mix it up some!

Another thing that goes along with all these injuries are poor warmups. I am guilty of this. I never knew you had to warm up your wrists for pull ups. After all, those tendons never feel warm even when warmed up. But if you don't want wrist pain: warm them up! Make wrist circles, put your hands together and do more circles, stretch them out a little, do light weight wrist curls, etc... Make them warm before you use them for awhile, or if you're going to strain them with something like pull ups. That includes typing and writing.

Stay warm and keep injury free!

Frisbee Time!

First off, I'll just let you know that I was miss informed about track. Track starts next Monday, not this Monday (today).

On Friday

So this past Saturday was our church's first youth group thing. Before it started I went on a bike ride. It was 5 miles in 20 minutes, which felt pretty awesome... Anyway, for the youth group thing we all just played games, talked, threw the frisbee around and ate snacks at our house. We were outside most of the day. It was extremely nice out! I think it was in the 50s or 60s all afternoon. It was a ton of fun! I realized how much I missed the nice weather and Ultimate.

The next day (Sunday), we went to church. It was even warmer than it was on Saturday! So after the church service I talked outside with a few of my friends until we decide we wanted ice-cream. We actually got three of the bigger families (one of those is us Clarkes) in the church to go. So it was nice to have a church fellowship with some awesome ice-cream.

When we were finished with our ice-cream went headed home, changed into athletic clothes, and picked up out Pastor and his son to go to an Ultimate game in Topsham that a church was putting on. We happened to know quite a few of it's members, hence why we were going. The game was pure fun. I love playing Ultimate! Even if I'm really rusty and my cardio wasn't ready. I'm used to running the entire field for almost 2 hours straight. I couldn't do that right now. Just another reason to run more! The game was extremely close. In the beginning my team was winning by a little, then got ahead by 3 or 4 points... but the other team slowly caught up. The game ended with a score of 16 to 17, the other team won.

During that game got myself quite a few blisters, felt like I dislocated my left hip, and I started with a sore ankle. It was totally worth it though! My hip already is feeling somewhat better, I might even go for a bike ride or run today, depending on how it feels. I can't wait for more Ultimate games!

Biking and Birthday Party!

Yesterday wasn't that warm, but I wanted go bike anyway. I really wanted to bike far. Five miles was becoming pretty easy and boring. Usually bikers increase their milage by 10-20% per week. I was feeling crazy and felt like increasing mine by 100%. So that's what I did. I decided to do a 10 mile loop. I've never rode my bike there, I've only been driven in a car on the loop. You don't notice missive hills when you're in a car. So I was thinking it wasn't going to be very hilly. I couldn't have been more wrong. Luckily there was only two massive hills and a bunch of smaller hills. On the second, larger massive hill I was already tired from the past 7 miles of biking. I barely made it to the top. At the top I saw that it was flat ground with a slight decline, so I changed to a higher gear... but I was not the only thing strained, and I was going too slow to change gear. So I heard a few clunks and clicks which were followed by a dragging sound and no resistance on the peddles. My chain came off. Luckily it wasn't that hard to put on. It took me a few minutes, but I was back to biking in no time. By this time I pasted all the notable up hills. So it was easy cruising from then on. When I arrived home I looked at the clock. It took me 45 minutes. Guess I went faster than I thought on the down hills! I was expecting 60-75 minutes. Despite the last huge hill and chain issues, I had a great ride! I think I'll be doing that weekly until track is over if I'm not too busy.

Now, on to something more fun! Last night was Tucker's birthday party. He turned 17 yesterday. I met him when he was 8. So I've known him for more than half his life! That's pretty cool.

Before the birthday party and after my ride, I made some homemade hamburgers. I don't mean to brag, but they were really good. Maybe it was because I haven't had a ham burger in months, and that's why it seemed good.

Anyway, at the party was my family (besides my older siblings), Mr. Sturat, and the Donahue family. We had omega usual greeting of hugs, but because it was Tucker's birthday I had to pick him up and spin him around while saying happy birthday. Once we got settled in we played Trivial Pursuit; Chocolate Addition. Which pretty much meant if you got all the questions right, you get to eat the chocolate which the questions were on. Let's just say not many chocolates were eaten. After getting frustrated with that game, we decided to eat desserts that don't require questions to answer to eat. While we ate we all just joked around until we decided to play Imagine Iff. The game's max player limit was 8, we had 9 people at the table. Because I'm not a huge fan of that game I decided not to play. I just helped some players and laughed with and at the players.

Before they could finish the game we had to leave. We gave gifts to Tucker, and then did a round of hugs and were off. Overall, I'd say it was a grand night! Thank you Tucker for inviting us!

Abbey has left... but more fun is around the corner!

Yesterday was Abbey's last day up here in Maine for her spring break. She left our house at 11am. It was sad to see her go, but I think I'm finally getting fully used to her being away. Doesn't mean I still miss her!

Something fun also happened yesterday: Jenna, Jolie and I went to the gym. First time we got Jolie to go. She claimed to have enjoyed it. She also said it was enjoyable mainly because of the company. So I guess to get her to go, we'll just need to bring fun people!

Now, what is the fun around the corner? I was notified from a fellow track team member that track starts on Monday! I'm so excited! Going to see if my lifting helped me out or not! Oh, and because of all the time spent on running, I'll probably workout my upper body less. Which will probably be good for my shoulder and forearm. A couple months of little lifting can go a long way!

Insert Humorous and Joyed Title Here

Yesterday was (and probably will be) the best day of the week. That's saying a lot because of how great Monday was. I'll write a little about yesterday, because it was just that awesome.

First off I got up at 5. My alarm clock is/was messed up. It goes off an hour early, even though the main clock is on time. Instead of bumming around and falling asleep, I started my school and drank a green smoothie. I did school (and ate serval other things in the mean time) until 7, then I made breakfast for 7:30. Not many family members liked this. They thought it was too early. Anyway, after we finished breakfast I continued my school. Thanks to starting my school at 5 (and having a pretty light workload that day) I finished by 11:30. I then did chores until lunch... this is where the fun begins!

After lunch I finished off my chores and went outside for a plyometric workout on the small patch of dry dirt we have. Usually plyometrics are just hard and annoying, but doing them in the sun with a temperature of about 60 made it extremely enjoyable. Once I finished I took a breather and then did some ab workouts in the sun. That's when I found out that the dirt was not completely dry... but it still was awesome! When I was finished with all my semi stationary exercises I went for a bike ride. I figured that because my hip flexers were sore from hill sprints from the day before, and that I did plyometrics that day I would go much slower than my last bike ride around the same loop I did last week. This time I went around the opposite direction. The hills were much more spread out, making it easier... but to my surprise I did loop almost 15 minutes faster this time. Either those hills be spaced out helped a ton, or I'm gaining strength and endurance!

Now, that was extremely fun, challenging and enjoyable, but it wasn't quite the best part of the day! After I showed and shaved I helped clean the house for our soon to come guests: Casey, Jenna, and the Donahues.

Most of them were late (Casey wasn't). Which was ok, because if they were on time I might have started cooking too late. Because I had to cut up all the meat and most of the veggies. I was serving 15 people. Two of which were young(er) men, so that's actually 17 people. I made a ton of stir-fry, some rice, and steak fries. It was all just cooking through when the Donahue girls and Jenna arrived (which was around 5 or so). Mr. and Mrs. Donahue were coming around 6. We all hung out until then, just laughing, talking, and stirring the stir fry once in awhile. When Mr. and Mrs. Donahue arrived, the party started: it was time to eat!

I don't want to brag, but the fries were really good. A little too much 'zing' for some weaker mouthed people, but I love the extra 'zing'... I even added hot sauce to mine. The stir-fry was ok. I've made better, but it was pretty hard to make it all really good when it barely fit in our largest frying pans.

After everyone was bloated, we talked and laughed for hours. We pulled up sharpies (and some of my large pens) and drew tattoos. Corrie drew detailed ones, but I liked my idea the best: a bull's eye on someones arm. Which Jolie drew on Jenna. Then we started throwing markers at her. It was fun for everyone... but Jenna.

Eventually the side of the room I was on calmed down a little bit, but then Shannon and Casey (the other side of the room) got to fighting. They always seem to have tons of energy that they release along one another, giving entrainment for everyone else.

Slowly but surely everyone was realizing that they should head home soon... and so the party ended around 11. It was a great evening spent with awesome people... and that sums up my grand day!

I said I was going to write "a little" about yesterday. I guess I kind of lied... I didn't get into much detail though; I didn't want to make all of us sound dumb because we were pretty overtired. Thus I 'kind of' wrote "a little" about yesterday...but 'kind of' "a lot" as well.

Day of Food

That's what yesterday felt like! I had an ok breakfast, but then I have Thai food with Abbey, Calvin, Mom, and Shannon for lunch! The food was amazing! I ordered a 'spicy stir-fried bamboo with duck meat'. There was a bunch more in it, but it was just part of the stir-fry! I was going go stuff myself and eat it all, but then I thought to myself: 'I'm going to the gym in less than an hour... stuffing myself with spicy Chinese food sounds like a really bad idea.' So I decided I'd take a box and eat it for today's lunch.

Colleen, Jenna and I went to the gym around 2. At the gym I tried a new chest exercise. It was intense. Burned the chest real fast... it pretty much was like throwing a punch, but with a cable resisting your punch. I'm going to be using that more often now!

On our way home I had a protein shake, which Is Pretty filling... When we arrived at our house we relaxed a little bit, then walked to one of the steeper hills on our road. I put on my 20 pound vest and then did 5 hill sprints. The girls did one. Then we walked back, and had some more protein via protein shake and peanuts. Jenna had to leave when we got to our home.

That night we decided we were having steak. I love steak. Dad told me that I should make steak fries and veggies and he'll make the steak. So that's what we did. Dad already found a steak fry recipe. I followed it, but it called for some pre-made brand spice that we didn't have. Because I didn't have time to find a new recipe I looked up the ingredients for the spice. I found two common variations. Knowing me, I decided up combine them. As I was making it, I realized that about 1/3 the ingredients were actually kind of spicy. Not that spicy for me, but for everyone else. I made it anyway because I was already late in making it. So after I cut the potatoes into wedges and coated them with olive oil and spices, I put it into the oven. While it baked I fried some green beans and boiled some corn (with a little butter). The whole meal was ready by 7:05. We all sat down to eat. Calvin and I ate a ton. Everyone else just ate until they were pretty full, and some had ice cream later. I loved the steak and the steak fries! The fries were a bit too spicy for everyone else, but I added habanero sauce to my ketchup for extra flavor. I plan on making those again (with less spice for everyone else's sake) for Jenna, the Donahues and maybe Casey who are coming over tonight for supper. I also plan to make stir-fry.

Why did I call this post: Day of Food? Because yesterday seemed to revolve around out grand meals we had... and I ate a ton of food.

On another, not-so-awesome note: I think I developed a slight forearm splint from too many pull-ups with a weak grip. Luckily, the pull-up is pretty much the only exercise effected from it... sadly, that is one of my favorite exercises. I learned from shin splints that I should rest. It's not worth the pain. I researched forearm splints over this weekend when I had time, and it turns out I can still do chin-ups without effecting the forearm splint. I didn't believe it. So I tried it. I had no forearm pain! So I guess taking 2-3 weeks off of the pull-up won't be that bad!

We are Party Animals.

Well, kind of. This past weekend we had two parties. One at our house for Shannon's birthday, and one was the cast party. But before all this happened, Abbey came home for a visit because she has spring break. So does Calvin, so he's spending the week with us as well.

Anyway, back to the parties. Saturday afternoon Tim, Angie, Gabe and Addie came over to celebrate Shannon's 19th birthday. It was a nice relaxed party. Pretty much hung around, talked, ate snacks and cake, opened gifts, etc... Around 4:30ish Tim, Angie, Gabe and Addie decided to leave. After they left we got ready to head over to the cast party. Then, of course, we headed over there. The cast party was huge. Two casts+their families+some older SMASHers=over 100 people in not-the-largest-building-of-all-time. It was a grand time to hangout and see all the SMASHers. Sadly, it was too short and too chaotic to hangout with everyone I wanted to hangout with for as long as I wanted to hangout with them. That just means I'm going to have to plan things and work on my biking.

A few highlights of the party were a preview of the show on DVD made by Adam Simmler, tons of salad and pizza, Ninja, Do You Love Your Neighbor?, and just plain old hanging out. Another thing that made my day was that about 1/3 of the cast wanted dragon or heart tattoos drawn by Corrie thanks to her amazing job drawing mine for the play. I saw this and decided to have a unique one. So I got a snake coiled around my left bicep/tricep. Yup, some people wanted one afterwards, but I don't think they got any.

Overall, the two parties were amazing! I had a grand time!

Just a funny note... the time change threw my phone off more than me. Yesterday the alarms just decided not to go off, thus making me almost not make breakfast in time for church. Then this morning it decided that because I made my alarm before the time change, I wanted it to go off an hour early. It went off at 5am. Hence this early post. My phone has a death wish...

Beach Weather!

Yesterday was awesomely hot! Yesterday's high was about 63 degrees! That's beach weather in Maine! If it weren't for ice and ice cold water, I would have gone swimming. Instead I went biking... In a muscle shirt and shorts. It was awesome! So much fun! I biked about 5.5 miles and talked to a friend midway threw the bike ride for a nice break.

I can't wait to go biking again... I might even bike today if I can't get a different workout in.

Yesterday was kind of a funny biking trip, so I'll write about it. To start off I was planning on doing a leg workout and then go biking, that's what I did. First I did 5 sets of 5 squats with my barbell (only 60 pounds on it, because I don't have a rack, so much more is dangerous). Then I did 5 sets of 5 dead lifts with 90 pounds. Dead lifts are a back and a leg workout... both of which have the largest muscle groups, so 90 pounds was actually quite easy. To finish it off I did 30 calf raiders with two 20 pound dumbbells (which I don't recommend, I almost fell down the stairs, I'm thinking the weighed vest would be better for that). Then 30 more normal calf raisers, and finished with 15 one leg calf raisers on each leg.

So my legs were already kind of tired before I began my bike ride, and I had an adrenaline rush... and didn't pace myself, so I started off quickly climbing the gears until I reached gear 21, the top gear. That's some pretty heavy resistance, but not bad when you're going at least 20 miles per hour. Then my bike lock slipped and started touching my tire, which in a short time could destroy the tire. So I braked, stopped and fixed it. Not that bad... but I was still in gear 21, and it's bad to change gears while you're stationary. So the first 20 feet starting back up were tough, then I was cruising again for about another half a mile... Then I was done with flat ground. Hill time. At first the hills were small, then after a mile or so when I reached N Hatch 'Hill' Rd, it got tough. I went down to gear 6 (a very low gear on a 21 gear bike) for about 1 mile of steep hills. My quads and hamstrings were tired when I got to the last hill, but I was excited for the the peak, because I was about to go cruising! But halfway up the last hill the the wind was no longer blocked by trees or hills. It was powerful, and against me. I'm not sure what it's speed was, but I'll tell you that after I got past the peak, I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. If I wanted to keep a decent pace I'd have to peddle in a high gear down the slight hill. That's what I did. Then the hill slowly became steeper, and I went faster! Now I was going at least 30 miles per hour! I remembered that there was a turn coming up, so I slowed down to about 20 miles per hour. Then I saw my friend Sam in his driveway, so I went down to talk to him for a few minutes. It was great to talk to him... haven't seen him on almost a year. When we finished talking I finished the the decent of the hills, then cruised to my house, biked an extra 1/4 mile, and then biked home. I googled my ride, and that's when I found out I did about 5.5 miles of biking.

Over all, I'd say I had a great workout and a great ride! I can't wait until I have the endurance to bike 10-20 miles easily!

First Run!

Yesterday was my first run of the year. The weather was amazing! It was 47 degrees out when I ran (for any southerns reading this, that's warm for Maine)! My run was very slow (for me at least), but then again, who's first run of the year is fast? I ran 2.2 miles in 18 or 19 minutes. Right now I just plan to build endurance. I'll do a bunch of slow long runs with a mix of hill-runs this month, then track should start and I'll work on my sprinting.

Today is supposed to be even warmer. Highs of around 60 degrees people! That's beach weather! Sadly, the lakes are still pretty icy, so I'll stick with biking today!

One last thing I'd like to mention: I've been researching an exercise. I've read that's it one of the best weight lifting exercises. It's called the dead lift. There are ton of variations of how you can do it. I plan on using it more for my legs rather than my back and I'll do it slower and more controlled then the classic lift-really-fast-and-drop style. I'll write more about it after I actually do it a few times!

How to get up to a Pull-up

Pull-ups... probably the best back and bicep exercise. This is true, but what if you can't do a single pull-up? How do you train to do one, without being able to do one? Hopefully this post will help.

First things first: why can't you do one? Do you have too much fat? And/or are your muscles too weak?

If you have too much fat, you have to burn it. Cardio and eating healthier will do this for you. Doing just cardio and eating better will get boring and isn't the only thing you'll need to do. You need to strengthen the muscles used in a pull-up.

Here's a workout you could do 2-3 times a week to do a pull-up! If you don't have the equipment, try to improvise. For example: if the exercise works the biceps more find a way to work your biceps. Same goes for the rear shoulder/back (lats). Remember to do cardio 3-5 days a week if you need to burn fat!

This workout will need a pull-up bar, a chair, and dumbbells or barbells if possible.

To start off you should work on negatives. I will describe a better negative than I have before: place a chair under the pull-up bar. Step on to the chair and grab the bar. Let your arms extend so that you're in the down position of a pull-up. Take one leg off the chair, don't let it touch the ground. Now, do a pull-up, but use the leg left on the chair to help you up. Make sure you go slow. Once you reach the top (chin at or over the bar), take your leg off the chair. Then slowly go down to the lower position of a pull-up. Get off the bar and repeat. Switch legs every time.
Do that 8-12 times. Do 3-7 sets. Rest 1-4 minutes between sets. Don't think you can? Use your leg more. If you are at a gym, use their assisted pull-up machine. Use a weight so that you almost fail at 12 on the first set.

Bicep training. Rest 2-5 minutes after doing the negatives before you do this exercise. Do bicep curls. 8-12 reps, 3-5 sets. Rest 1-3 minutes between sets. Go slowly. Barbells are better, but if you don't have one, then stick with dumbbells.

Lat training. Do rows. Don't remember how? Find a bench, a low bed, or a low chair. Put padding on it so you won't hurt your knee. Put your left knee and left hand on the bench(or whatever it is). Place your right foot out wide (not a split, but wide enough to stabilize your body), grab your dumbbell (should be more than you can curl, or your max bicep curl), then pull it to your hip/waist area. Remember, go slow! Repeat 8-12 times. 3-5 sets. Switch sides every set. Doing both sides once, is one set.

This should really exhaust your lats, forearms, and biceps. Try testing to see if you can do a pull-up every or every other week. Once you can do one, do that pull-up, then minus one pull-up from your negatives and continue those. Try to build up to at least 5 pull-ups. 10 is a good number. If you're really hardcore, go for 30 or 50. That will probably take a few years if you can only do zero to one right now. Keep at it and pull-ups will become easy!

Smoothies.

Smoothies are cool. I love smoothies. They also can be very healthy. I haven't yet learned the basic skill of green smoothies (even healthier), but I've become pretty good at what I call protein-berry smoothies.

I've been having some of my protein-berry smoothies at least every other day. On the days that I make them I usually have 1-3 glasses, because I make extra incase I have friends or family that want some.

I'm a pretty fit and healthy guy... but because of my weak immune system I started eating much less sugar. One of the ways I did this was by having my sweet, yet processed-sugar-free smoothies. After less than a month I lost 5 pounds. In that month I only had two or three cardio days. I did some weight lifting, but not a lot. I highly doubt I lost muscle mass, so I believe I lost fat. Much thanks to eating probably 1/7th the sugar I used to eat.

I could go on a rant about eating no sugar is awesome and such, but many of you aren't dedicated enough yet or don't have the need to eat nearly no sugar. If you I you should, but can't yet, just cut down one thing at a time... For example if you have a dessert every day, cut down to every other for a month of so, then cut off your supply to soda slowly. Then cut off more desserts for a month... continue on until you are having dessert only once a week and almost no soda. Replace desserts with protein or fruit and veggies. As for soda, water, milk, orange juice, or something much more natural than soda.

Anyway, I'm getting off the main topic: smoothies. Maybe I'll rant some more on a different post about sugar... just not now.

So, what do I put in my smoothie? I usually put in blueberries, strawberries, yogurt, milk, protein powder, honey, and a banana. Once I learn more about green smoothies, I'll make those more. They have a bunch of cool stuff in them.

As for my current smoothie skills (the berry-protein kind) I mainly drink mine for the berry healthiness (berries), the potassium (milk, yogurt, banana), the protein (protein powder, yogurt, milk), and the awesome flavor (honey sweetens it up some while boosting your immune system).

It's quite filling. When Colleen has a full glass she eats half (or less) as much as she usually would for a meal (or doesn't finish the smoothie), I cut off probably 1/5th of my meal, most of which I cut off is sugar. So because of it's filling-ness (I just made that word up), it makes you eat less. Thus, aids in weight loss. It had protein, thus aids in muscle gain and repair. Its all pretty healthy, so that also helps lose weight.

So if you want to find easy ways to lose a little weight, try adding smoothies to your diet. The nice thing about them is that you can change it greatly every batch you make! Beware: if you enjoy fruit greatly, you may become addicted... as have I.

Just a little note, if you don't exercise, then take some of the protein out. You don't really need it. Then again, if you don't exercise, don't expect much weight loss, because you won't get much weight loss without it. My logic is to lose weight: eat healthy, run/bike/swim, and sleep with regular hours, as in 6-10 hours while hitting the sack before 11pm.

End of SMASH

This past weekend was the end of SMASH. Cast B finished their performances. They did amazing! I watched all of them. Sadly, they only had two. A snow storm cancelled the first show. I will probably post pictures when I find the time and the bored-ness to find a few good pictures to put on here.

I will miss all of the SMASHers, but I plan on biking to their houses this summer and spring (if track allows). I'm very excited for our cast party, which is coming up this Saturday! I'm only hoping that they don't decided to use the cast party to dance. That'd be pretty lame for us non(and don't want to learn)-dancers.

On a different note, I found a program that supposed to eventually bring you to 30-50 pull-ups! I've retested my self on pull-ups, I got 25. I think I was cheating by using my momentum before, now I plan to not cheat anymore. Going slower and more controlled builds more muscle anyway! I can't wait to follow that program. It will take months to build up, but that's better than having no plan and never achingly my goal of 50 pull-ups!

The pull-up program is for someone of any fitness, even if you can't do a pull-up. Your goal could be ten! If you want to do it with me, just let me know and I'll send you the site. It's awesome. If you can't do a pull-up (or every few) they start you on negatives. From what I've seen it looks like a great program.

It is Friday!

I said I was going to write about body weight workouts on Friday as much as possible. I'll write a little bit about abdominal exercises. They're are tons of ab exercises you can do. I mean, tons! So instead of listing them, I'll just tell you a good yet basic plan to follow with ab workouts. Choose 3 ab exercises. Do all of them together 10-50 times each (depending on their difficulty and your strength). I'd say do 1-3 sets of each. Do this 2-3 times a week. Should only take 4-10 minutes. This means very little rest, which is good. Short but intense workouts are usually better than relaxed long ones. Remember to strengthen your back, not just your abs if you want good posture and spine health!

An Idea...

So, I like plans and order. So I think I might make a plan for my blog. I usually write a post on every weekday. So, I figured I'd write up a plan for everyday on my blog. This way I won't be spending half my time thinking about: "What I am going to write?" If I can't think of anything for that days plan, well, then I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

Here's my plan idea, incase you prefer workout posts, cardio post, or just posts about my life:
Monday: Life stuff/goals reached
Tuesday: Weight loss/cardio
Wednesday: Weight training
Thursday: Food/life stuff
Friday: Body weight training

This is subject to change. I highly doubt I'll follow this to the letter.