2nd annual Gridley Family Bike Race

I've mapped the route and plan on doing this in 21 minutes (20 mph average)



I did the 7 mile race in 19:53 with an average of 21.1 mph. Dad ran over some glass only about a mile into the race and was walking home with his bike when I was near the finish line. I passed Eric about 200 yards into it and Mom and Cathi (who had a 200 yard head start) about 300 yards into it. I went about at about 90%

Next year I'm sure the competition will be a little more intense. Eric bought some new pedals and some shoes which he will be well used to by the next race. I suggested to Dad that we do three races per year. Next one should be 14 miles and then a 50 mile challenge (Ride from Dad's house up to Syracuse over to Antelope Island and back to my house. Then I could drive everyone back to Salt Lake with their bikes. That would be fun!

Early morning racquetball again

Since yesterday's eating blowout, I decided to get up early again and meet Shawn at SDRC for some racquetball. I played doubles with him and was winning 14 to something and he came from behind and won.

Then Lamar came and I played singles against him and won. Then we played two cutthroats. Shawn won both. I almost won the second, but couldnt' finish. Then Shawn and I played two more and he won both of them. I had him on many points and should have won both of them, but wasn't able to finish out the last point for 15. I wasn't frustrated too badly though cause I was playing good and was making Shawn sweat.

Went swimming for a bit. Total time playing - 2 hours, 40 minutes swimming.

Racquetball with Dad

Spent the night at Dad's since I worked late last night. Got up at 5:15 and carpooled with Dad to SDRC. We were there at 6:00 am sharp and none of the other guys showed up yet so we played a couple games. I won both.

Then Eric showed up and we played cutthroat. Eric won. Then played cutthroat with Shawn. Shawn won. Then played a couple games of cutthroat and Eric won again. I was getting ticked cause I was making mistakes and so was Dad. I like singles better. Eric took off so I played Dad three games.

Beat him bad the first one and so he wanted a handicap of 10 points. I conceded and still won. Then he took 11 the next game and won 15-14. Poor Dad's ankles are giving him trouble and it's been several years since he last played.

Elliptical and lift

Elliptical Training: 20 minutes

Jeff Ivie came in and he usually always does Elliptical so I stopped at 20 minutes to let him on. I did 10 minutes of ab work and went lifting:

Legs up Bench Press:

20 @ 135, 3 x 15 @ 155, 20 @ 135, 25 @ 115, 30 @ 95, 35 @ 75, 40 @ 65, 45 @ 55

Pretty good burn and time was up. 1 hour total. Back to work!

Birthday Bike Ride

Today it rained all day except for a couple of hours where the wind blew probably 15 mph with gusts over 20. All coming from the south. When it quit raining I played BB with Austin and Jacob for a game to 11. I barely won 7-11. They are both pretty good shooters.

At 4:00 pm I got on my bike and headed South to Woods Cross to Eric's house for my birthday party. It was an 18 mile ride and I did it in about 1:15. It was tough cause of the headwind. Had a fun party and ate too much. But it's my birthday and I'll eat what I want to. The annual Gridley bike race is this coming Saturday morning. Should do much better than last year. Here's the picture from last year.

Energetic Racquetball

Today I played much better than normal. I made better shots and when I did hit the ball I hit it hard. Played doubles with Tom against Eric and Dan. We won. Then played with Eric against Tom and Dan, we won. Then played cutthroat with Eric and Shawn. Shawn does well in a cutthroat/doubles game. He won both.

I then played Dan two singles matches. Killed him on the first one and the second won was a well fought match until I gained some momentum and won the second one. I had a ton of energy today and felt great! Went swimming.

No running shoes = lift for an hour instead

Took the FrontRunner this morning to work and didn't bring anything in with me, so I didn't have my running shoes. Just my goofy Dr. Scholls shoes that I can lift in. So I did:

Deadlifts: 10 x 8 @ 185
superset with
Abs (Rotating between 50 crunches, 50 shoulders up flutter kicks, 10 straight leg Captains Chair)

Good workout. The deadlifts were tough. Might be sore tomorrow.

Elliptical Training

Worked straight through the day except for a 10 minute salad break.

At 4:15 I went down and did the Elliptical for an hour. Good work.

Chest

Legs up Bench Press: 15 @ 135, 15 @ 155, 2 x 15 @ 185, 15 @ 135
Decline Bench: 15 @ 135, 15 @ 145, 15 @ 165, 10 @ 155, 15 @ 135

100 Crunches
50 Pushups

Need to step it up on the exercise and diet. Stuck at 200 (or a couple pounds more).

Ogden Marathon - 3:50:25

No, I didn't run this. Wish I had the stamina. Cathi did this marathon early this morning. I stayed up late last night and made Cathi this poster. I finished it around 2:00 in the morning and then went to bed. Cathi got up two hours later (0400) and left for her Marathon while I slept for a few more hours.

At 7:30 I got up, got the kids all ready and hustled them into the car while we drove up to the Pineview Dam to meet Cathi at the 17.5 mile mark of the marathon. We were there about 30 minutes early. I setup the chairs for the kids and gave them each a donut and some juice. Then we saw Cathi running across the Dam. I ran back and got Oliver and Sam out of their portacrib and we all gave her a high five as she passed by. She was there earlier than we thought. This was a good time for her.

I told Bill and Roceil that they should hurry down the canyon to the finish to try and catch Cathi without waiting for me. They took Lucy, Jonas and Isaac. I hurried with the other kids to the van and we rushed back over through Mountain Green to get back to the the Ogden Memorial Garden's where the finish line was. When we got there it was 3:30 so we made it!
I put Jacob up in a tree to look ahead and look for Cathi. I didn't see Bill and the kids, or any other relatives for that matter.

Then I saw Cathi about 50 yards from me running towards me. It was only 3:49! She was going to slaughter her old personal record! We were about 200 yards from the finish. When she crossed she stopped her personal watch which she started when she crossed the start line. It read 3:50:25. Great new record!

We met Cathi back at the park where all the runners were waiting to meet up with their loved ones. We looked all over for Bill and Roceil and the kids but nothing. We had the guy at the stage page them. Waited. No show. Then paged "Lucy Gridley". Nothing. Figured I must have misled Bill with directions in how to get here and that he was pretty frosted at me for telling him 2550 S and 2 blocks "west" of Wall, rather than "East" which is where the finish line was. We waited for probably 45 minutes after she met us in the park. We went home and were worried when they weren't at our house, and no message on the machine.

Found out later they were in the bleachers and didn't see Cathi at all and figured she must have hit a brick wall on the way down the canyon. Aunt Kathy and Diane were there too. They were in the bleachers under the HOT sun. I felt bad that it turned out the way it did. They totally missed the finish. She just flew right by.

I'm so proud of Cathi! She finished strong and killed her old time of 4:05 which she set just 2 months ago in the Salt Lake Marathon. We checked the Boston Marathon qualifying time and to qualify for W 35-39 she needs to get 3:45. So she would only need to improve her time by 5 minutes. She cut her time this marathon by 14. So 5 more shouldn't be too much of a stretch, especially considering she didn't take my advice of taking a caffeine pill at the starting line.

I had a great experience with the 5K yesterday and attribute a certain degree of that success to the caffeine supplement I took. She planned on taking it, but left it home accidentally she claims.

Great job Cathi! When Cathi qualifies for the Boston Marathon, we will definitely plan on doing it.

Bluff Ridge 5K race - new PR (23:58)

Today is the 5K race. I haven't done a 5K since May of 1996. My time was 33 minutes or so. My goal for this afternoon's race is under 30 minutes. My 5K personal record was set in the seventh grade where I did it in 25:25. Easy number to remember. I don't think I'll come close to that, but would like to be able to run the whole thing without walking.

I wasn't able to sleep very good last night. Last time I looked at the clock it was 12:15pm. This morning I was feeling very groggy so I took a caffeine pill. I also read recently that Caffeine has a positive effect (barring any side effects) on distance races. The pill was taken at around 10:00 am, so I plan to take one more pill around 2:30 in order to get an even more enhanced affect for the race. They're 200 mg pills, so it should pump me up pretty well. Similar to about 80 fl oz of Mtn Dew without the calories. The key thing though is to not turn into a regular user. After today, no caffeine until a triathlon or something.

Will update this blog with the results tonight....

OK I just got back from the race. I am totally excited. I got a new PR! I did the 5K in 23:58 which shatters my old 25:25 time in 7th grade. That is a 7:48 min/mile pace. Which for me is awesome. I kept the goal of not walking except for the two times when I took water at station 2 & 3. I only walked as long as it took to drink 4 fl oz and splash 4 oz on me. Total walking time was only around 15 seconds.

I was breathing like an old man at the end, but I had enough energy to go back about a mile and get Jonas and run with him to finish and fireman carry him about 1/2 of that last mile.

Jacob took second place in his group, and Cathi took second in her division (18-39 yr old). Cathi's time was 25:40 and Jacob's time 24:10. I took first in the family. Granted Cathi was pushing the double stroller with Sam and Oliver and it wasn't going straight so she had to keep lifting the front wheel to correct. She would have probably cut a full minute without the stroller.

I took fourth place. Had I known I would have sprinted harder at the end. I caught up to the guy in front of me and at the end he sprinted when he saw that I was. I wasn't in the race to compete against anyone really, just to get the time I wanted so I let him stay just in front of me. Had I known there would have been a medal to win I would have definitely beat him. Oh well, I'm still very happy about the time.

In fact I'm going to look for a couple other 5K's this summer and try to beat that time. That means I'll have to train more. I didn't have any knee or back issues at all. Cathi rubbed out the huge knot in my back before the race which was a huge help, and the caffeine pills I took really got my wired.

Now I'm off to WFTTC with Austin. Cathi is running her Ogden Marathon early tomorrow morning too.

Racquetball

Hit snooze a couple times this morning without really realizing it. Rushed off to the SDRC and got there at 7:00 and played cutthroat with Dan and Shawn. Shawn kicked butt of course. His shot is to hit the side wall about a foot after hitting the front wall and that takes all the forward motion out of the ball and it just drops to hit twice real fast. I hate that shot, but its a good one for the guy who makes it.

Need to practice that one.

Then played Steve. Met him for the first time. He lives in Orem and commutes up here to play. Now that's dedication. Anyhow I beat him 15-0 the first game. Then we switched out Shawn's red ball for my purple one which was totally charged up. It was about twice as bouncy as Shawn's. We played another game and I won 15 - 4. Then I was gonna go swim, but that would've left Steve alone so I played another. This time I didn't play with nearly as much energy or drive and Steve won 15-14. Then I went and swam.

Long bike ride this morning

Left the house at 6:40 am to bike to work. Still need to figure out how to work the computer. Only can clearly understand the current speed and cadence. Need to know how to reset the tripometer and read average speed, etc..

Realized halfway there that I left my lock and cable at home. So I stopped at Mom's in Rose Park to see if she had one. She didn't so I borrowed her car (so I wouldn't have to leave my bike in front of the store) and went to Smiths real quick to get one. Then I rode the rest of the way to work. Its about 33 miles and I did it in 2 hours not counting the stop at Mom's.

That's about 17 mph average which is not good. I didn't have much wind or hills to deal with. Would like to get my average over 20 mph sometime soon. I plan on taking the Frontrunner back home tonight.

Going for the Tom Cruise look

Ever see someone who has a relatively normal upper body, but biceps that are disproportionately large? I call that the Tom Cruise affect. Tom Cruise has massive biceps for his tiny frame. No other muscle group on him is very impressive, except for his Biceps. Even his forearms are tiny.

Well some guy in my ward has a Tom Cruise look and while I accept it for what it is, it still make me self conscious about my own arms which lack any real "peak". So I worked on arms today:

Preacher Curls: 18 @ 70, 15 @ 75, 4 x 15 @ 80
Alternating DB Curls: 6 x 15 @ 30
Concentration Curls: 3 x 15 @ 25
Armblaster Preacher Curls: 3 x 15 @ 75

10 minutes of crunches (good burn)
1 minute pushups (88)

First Antelope Island Ride

Yesterday evening I had my Scout patrol camping out on Antelope and we invited the patrol to bike home (14 mile ride). I took my new bike and rode slowly for most of the boys but when it was down to just one boy and his Dad (The rest put their bike in the trailer when they got tired), I took off at a normal speed and just went home at my own pace. I had a fun time and wanted to go more, so in the afternoon I hooked up the trailer and the train to my Mountain Bike and took the whole family on a 4 mile easy ride.

Total miles = @ 18 miles

No other stats sorry.

Suffering and cussing

Had troubles keeping my mouth clean when playing Eric. We played four games and I only won the first one. He made several errors on the first game which I benefited from, but the next games he got several good bounces and also did well on the short game. Basically Eric has a better shot selection that I do. My strategy is to just pound the hell out of the ball most of the time and try and get the opponent out of position. Eric is a great hustler though and is able to get many shots that fat people wouldn't be able to. He has a deadly forehand off the back wall so I have to avoid that spot.

I then played Shawn and had a better game, but still lost. Then went and swam 1 mile. I think I pulled something in my lower back. It's giving me hell.

New Personal Record - 100 push ups in a minute

During the last two weeks while on vacation I have been working on fast pushups. Try to do as many as possible in a minute. I did 80 - 90 while on vacation. While today while listening to this song I decided to break a record and go for 100. I did it! 100 exactly in one minute. That's pretty much going fast the whole time and not stopping at all.

Here's the whole workout:

45 minutes Elliptical - 520 calories burned
10 minutes ab work
Pushups in one minute: 100