Ride from Murdock Chevrolet in Woods Cross

Played 1:15 of racquetball at Layton Surf N' Swim with Lavar, Wendell, Shawn and Keith. I played well even though I lost a couple matches. I could have done better, but I played hard.

Then took the van to the Murdock Chevrolet dealership in Woods Cross, then rode to work.

16.5 mile round trip.

Ride to Mt. Harrison in Albion

I read about this ride from mapmyride.com

We went up to Albion park to campout at the Anderson reunion. I went to bed and planned on going up to Mt. Harrison early on Saturday morning. It took me 3 hours to get up there, and 40 minutes to get back. It was a 34 miles exactly for the round trip. Here is video of the trip:


This was the most fun bike ride I've ever had! It was so fun. I am looking forward to doing it again next year. This was a challenge that has given a sense of ownership. It's difficult to explain. But I feel like I have a connection with that place now that I've conquered it. Yesterday I was feeling a little depressed because I missed the place and wished I could do it again.

Robby Boyd said he would go with me next year. I'm planning on it for sure.

Good ride in to work and back again

This morning after my swim with Cathi, I rode in to work. It was a good ride. Not stuck at every light which seems to be the case alot. Was able to maintain a 18.3 mph average which includes a few lights and stopping at Vosen's bakery for some bread. Here are the stats:

Distance: 25.0 miles
Max Speed: 32.1 mph
Moving Time: 1:21
Moving Avg: 18.3 mph

Things were slow at work so I decided to leave just a little early and head home on the bike. Here are the stats:

Distance: 30.5 (Its longer since I'm going all the way home rather than to Layton Surf N Swim)
Max Speed: 30.8
Moving Time: 1:45
Moving Avg: 17.4

Great racquetball day

Started out playing singles with Shawn and was up 14 to 9, but he came back to win! Then played cutthroat with Shawn and Lori and won twice. Then played cutthroat with Shawn and Wendell and I won both again. I'm getting better at those "girly shots" that Eric loves. Real soft touch you know?

2 hours of hard running racquetball. Great!

Table Tennis Results

Austin took the gold medal in the 14 and under Division as well as the 17 and Under Division. Not bad considering he just turned 12. He had to play against several older players and was able to go the day undefeated.

Then we played Doubles. We beat Bryce Parkinson/Matt Pugmire team. That was tough. They had us 2-0 and we came back to win three in a row. Then we played Bruce and Dale Majors and lost all three, but they were all 2 point loss games.

Then we played Unsicker brothers who are also from Syracuse. We won 3-1. Then we played Doug Hansen and Jeff St. Clair and lost 0-3. Not bad.

Didn't have a camera, so I'm waiting to get pics from Dale on Austin on the stand with his gold medals.

On Saturday Austin and I played our Singles matches. I played Bryce Parkinson in the ladder for determining whether I would play in the A division or the Open (The highest division). I beat Matt 3-2 to make into the Open Division. This took alot of stress of of me, because in the Open, there is nothing to lose. Every player in that division is ranked higher than I am. I am the underdog so I went out playing very well. I took one game off of every single player in that division. No shut outs, except from George Majors who also took the Gold for the Open division. I lost to Carol Davis which was a disappointment. I usually beat her, but I was impatient with her chops and made risks that just didn't deliver. I did beat Doug Hansen 3-1 which was a shock. He's rated over 100 points above me.

Austin lost his ladder match to Eric Holje which put him in the B Division. He was a little disappointed with that. Personally I was relieved, because it meant that he would be in a division where he would be able to really do well. He also was in the same division as Matt Pugmire, which is the closest player to Austin ranking wise. In the Utah Open, Austin lost to Matt which was his goal. He cried that day. So I helped him get a little more motivation to beat Matt and offered him $10 if he could beat him. He was able to do it. He went undefeated in his division and beat out 8 other people to take Gold.

Here is the medal breakdown:

Gordon - 2 Gold
Cathi - 3 Silver
Austin - 3 Gold
Jacob - 1 Gold, 1 Silver

Here is the whole family after picking up the two that were left in Salt Lake with Grandma Gridley.

Jonas, Lucy and Jacob's Track results

Lucy, Jonas and Jacob all had to compete in the 10 and Under division which made it tough for Lucy and Jonas who are 7 and 6. Jacob took Silver in the 400, Gold in the 800 and tomorrow has the 1500.

Here is a fantastic video of their day.


Cathi ran one event - the 5K. She took the Silver medal. She did it in 24:14.42. That is a fantastic time!

Got bike back early

Called yesterday to see if my bike was done getting serviced and it was done one day early so I had Cathi pick it up for me and I rode in to work today after a short swim.

Here are the stats:
Distance: 25.1 Miles
Total Moving time: 1:28
Average Speed: 17.1 mph

My stupid water bottle stopper thingy that covers the humongous hole fell out several time while going over train tracks. After the third time I just left it. I'll have to figure out a new way to cover the hole without the cover falling off. I also looked down and my handlebars and aerobars were very loosely connected to the front fork and I adjusted it, but I need to borrow an allen rench today to tighten that up. It freaked me out how loose they were. Needless to say, 17.1 mph sucks. I definitely didn't really push it today. My knee is sensitive from yesterday's run and while it didn't really give me grief during the ride, I didn't want to push it. I really should be tapering, not expending alot of energy, but I haven't been on the bike in over a week thanks to it being in the shop, so I was eager.

Got antsy to ride again so I rode home rather than taking the FrontRunner. Stats:
Distance: 30.4 miles
Time: 1:47
Average speed: 17.07 mph

Carried laptop home. Made for a sore back.

Don't forget the knee brace!

Today I needed to run at lunchtime so here is the run I did:


Although I ran/walked 50% going to the turnaround point. On the way down I planned on doing 80% or so of running, but then my right knee on the outside started feeling a sharp pain. Went away when walking, but running was very painful so I walked the rest of the way back. 5.15 miles in 1:10. Not good. Next time I need to wear a brace. It was a good workout, especially going up the hill in Memory Grove.

My Goals for Ogden Valley 2008 Sprint Triathlon

Swim: 11:30 (1:32/100 yds)
Bike: 41:25 (18mph average)
Run: 30:00 (9:39 mph average)

Transition 1: Under 3:00
Transition 2: Under 1:30

Total time: 1:27:25

Getting better at Racquetball

This morning I got there at 5:45 and nobody was there yet. Shawn Bell showed up and we played a singles match. I won. Then Wendell and Lori showed up. I played Wendell and lost 15-8. Then played singles with Lori and won. Wendell had to leave so Lori, Shawn and I played cutthroat and I was ahead most of the time, and made alot of great shots and hustle moves, but Shawn came from behind and won. Lori and I were 13.

Good workout. Recorded my heart rate once at 150. Not bad.

Yesterday for Father's Day we met at Low's. I ate good but then didn't stop, so I ended up overeating quite a bit. If I had stopped after the second plate of fruit I would have felt great about it. But there was just so much stuff!

Finally a win!

Today I arrived at SDRC and the only person there was my Dad! I played him a couple games spotting him 10 points, then 11 and won both. Then Shawn showed up and we played some cutthroat. Shawn won both of them. Dad told me he order the new Ektelon Copper which is the same racquet that Shawn has. So Shawn let him play with it today.

After the two cutthroat games, Dad had to leave so I played two singles matches with Shawn the first one he won, and the second I won! First time I've beaten Shawn. I played much better today. I played shorter shots when up front rather than pounding the crud out of the ball. I also had alot of energy and was able to run and get around on the court very fast.

2 hours of racquetball. Good stuff.

First Week Weigh In

Here are the results for this week:

Great job everybody! Don't feel overwhelmed if you didn't get the results you were hoping for this week. It's a new week and you get to start fresh. I hope we can carry on last week's challenges of water, not eating after 8pm and an hour of exercise a day.

This week's challenges are:
1. Do some weight training each day, or pushups/situps
2. No sugared sweets

Let's have a great week. Remember exercise and diet both will get you where you want!
Click the graph to see detailed view.

Early morning bike ride

After swimming 2 miles early this morning I got on the bike and rode from Layton Surf N' Swim to work. I was tired and didn't really push it. There were several hilly places so my average was low:

18 mph average
25.1 miles total
1:28 elapsed time

Racquetball and ride

This morning I had a hard time getting all my stuff together. I also couldn't find my GPS. I found it in the van. I was able to ride over to racquetball at Layton Surf N' Swim and start play at around 6:00. I played with Keith and was doing well, but then Wendell came in so we cut that came short. Played cutthroat with Wendell and Keith where Keith played much better and Wendell won.

Then played doubles with Wendell against Keith and Shawn. Shawn's knee was in a brace, but he didn't appear held back from last Thursday's injury and Wendell and I lost.

Keith went off to work and I played cutthroat with Wendell and Shawn. I played much better and was leading for a while, but Wendell came back and won.

Played singles with Shawn and I didn't play good. I really need to focus on short corner shots!

Biked to the train and then biked to work. Total miles: 7

Hours playing racquetball: 1.75

Long ride

After the party we threw for the guys visiting Tomax from India, I left to ride to Mom and Dad's party at 6pm. I modified the route nicely to avoid the goofy angled railroad tracks in Woods Cross. I left at 5:09pm and got there a little at 6:40pm. It was 31.7 miles and my average speed was 19.7 mph. I really want to hit 20 mph average on a long ride. Its the slowing down part for intersections that really gets my average down.

Felt good about that ride. However near 2300 N and 2100 W I wasn't concentrating. I put my head down and swerved off the road into a small ditch on the side of the road. I was going 20 mph when I went in. I couldn't swerve back into the road, it was about 6 inches higher than the ditch so I just road threw it for about 25 feet and then was able to then swerve back in when the road and the ditch were the same height.

My heartbeat went up probably 20 bpm. I thought I was gonna wreck but I was able to stay on. Scared the crud out of me.

Racquetball cut short

Got to SDRC a little late (6:30am) and played two cutthroat matches with Eric and Shawn. Eric and I were up in the teens with Shawn at 1. He came back and won!

The second game Eric won. Then Eric had to leave for work and I played singles with Shawn. I had him 10 - 5 when I did a high ball which bounced over Shawn and reached a high arch over him. He jumped for it missed and came down. Didn't look like he landed weird and he even walked back into position to receive my serve when he looked like he was in pain standing there.

His knee was giving him trouble when it was straight. We stopped and let him stretch it out. It appeared to get a little better but we stopped for the day since we are playing tomorrow and also didn't want to make it any worse. So I only got one hour of racquetball in today.

Did 60 minutes of Elliptical at lunch (636 calories) which was pretty tough again.

Tough Elliptical for an hour

Did one full hour of Elliptical work. Tough stuff. Sweat a ton, and my toes get tingly I think cause their not getting enough blood for some reason.

Great workout.

Elliptical and calisthenics

55 Minutes Elliptical training (Burned 611 calories)

10 minutes abs
1 minute timed push-ups (93)

Sweat like crazy. Hoping to be down to 200 by next Wednesday. Weighed in yesterday at 207.

Start of Cathi's June Challenge

This morning I got up as Cathi was walking out the door to run. I biked to Layton Surf N' Swim and played Racquetball with Shawn, Keith and Wendell. I played better than usual, but still didn't win any cut-throat matches, but Wendell and I won both our Doubles matches. Then I biked to the train station at 7:50. If I do this on Monday and Friday and then on Tuesday and Wednesday and Saturday (when possible) come and swim, I should be doing good!

I'll bike to work on Thursdays (and back) with a stop at SDRC for Racquetball.