Racquetball isn't good for my arm

Had some major pain in my right bicep which I had last Friday too. The arm band isn't helping very much some days. Played for 1.5 hours with Shawn and Eric. Won twice and lost twice. Not bad. I need to practice the short corner shots which Shawn is fantastic at doing.

Good workout

Got to SDRC at 6:05 and the whole crew was there. I saw Eric practicing by himself in the challenge court so I played three singles matches with him. He won all three. I was ticked. I did get a good sweat in, but Eric had several good shots and won.

I then played two singles matches with Wendell. I had him 14-8 and he came back to win which was frustrating. After that he won the second match easily.

I then played two doubles matches with Blair as my partner and we won both. Then played cutthroat with Steve and Dan and Dan won it. I didn't play very well today, but I did get a good workout. Played for 2.5 hours which went by way too fast! I could play Racquetball all day! Here are some pictures:


Dad playing Wendell, Eric practicing his pre-serve bouncing, Blair giving a quick lesson, Steve, Dan and Steve playing cutthroat game.

Tough Ride

Today at lunch I went downstairs planning to only ride for 30 minutes and then do the elliptical machine for 30, but Randy came in and took the elliptical in the middle of my ride so I ended up just riding for an hour. Did 10 sets of 6 minutes, easy to very difficult.

I sweat a ton and drank a liter of water which I had to ration at the end since I was going through it too fast at the start. Very good ride. Got my heart rate and breathing up there.

Slept in

This morning I was too tired to get up at 5:00 am as planned. I slept in an hour later. Did 50 minutes of racquetball at Layton with Shawn and Eric. Played two games cutthroat. I won the first one and Eric the second. Then played singles with Shawn who was very exhausted and I won that one. Now that the tournament is over, it's time to really hit the cardio work. No more table tennis at lunch. It's going to be biking, elliptical, jogging and lifting.

Also once daylight savings kicks in, I'll be biking to/from work a couple days a week. I also plan on swimming on Mon night, Tuesday Morning, Wednesday Evening, Thursday Evening and Saturday morning. I've had enough time out of the water to get beyond the Blahs.

It's going to be a tough two weeks now, but I think it'll really kick my metabolism into shape.

At lunch I did 2.25 m on the treadmill: .75 @ 6.5mph, .25 @ 3.5, .75 @ 6.6, .25 @ 3.5, .25@6.7 All at 2.5-3.0 grade

then did 20 minutes on bike followed by 60 pushups straight.

Results of 2009 Western Open

Last Friday morning, Austin, Jacob and I drove to Sacramento. The drive was long and the boys just watched movie after movie on the laptop which I had hooked up to a power converter in the car. When we got there I was surprised at how big Cathi's house is. Very roomy. Nice neighborhood and she made us some delicious Spaghetti and rolls. Watched Madagascar 2 with them.


The next morning we got up at 5:00 and drove 85 miles to UCBerkley where the tournament was. We immediately saw Yau-man Chen when we got there. He's our favorite all time Survivor.
We knew he played table tennis and got him to sign a ball for us. We also got Ethan Chua to sign a ball for us as well as Ariel Hsing. Austin and Jacob both played in three events. Austin played 10 people total, he won 5 and lost 5. Jacob played 9 people total. He lost all nine, but he looked like he was having fun. Probably too much fun. He wasn't getting into it and not very serious in his play. It's good to see that he isn't playing as emotionally as Austin (who sometimes appears to be on the verge of crying in the middle of a game), but it's also frustrating to see him nonchalantly serve and return the ball and miss most of them. I think I'll pull him out of competition until he can take the game a little more seriously.


I only played one event (1550 and Under). I beat everyone in my group (three people). I was the second seed by a hair in the group. I then played in the first single elimination round and lost (all the games were deuce games except the third). I played well defensively, but only made a few shots offensively. I need more confidence and consistency to play offensively. The control box for our robot should get here this week and I'll be practicing more on it. So my overall win score was 3 wins, 1 loss.

I think I might have gained just a couple of points is all, if any. Austin may have the same kind of result. While Jacob is still rated so low even though he didn't win anything probably wont lose any points.

On the way back to Cara's we stopped and had pizza at Round Table Pizza. We had a fun time on this trip and hope to do this again next year. We'll bring Lucy next time so she can stay and play with Makayla. Cara sure has some cute kids!

Getting pegged

This morning I got up and made it to SDRC by 6am. Played two singles matches with Shawn and got beat. I was frustrated because I was playing well, but his shots were very well placed and unreachable. Then played doubles and cutthroat and did well there. Won a few.

I was teammates with Steve Olson who was pegging people with the ball left and right. I got hit a couple times, not bad though. Hit myself in the face with the ball hitting off the wall 5 feet from the front. Duh.

I had alot of energy and played well. I used a piece of rope to tie around my forearm. Blair gave me a band that was designed just for that. It worked great. I didn't have any issues with pain in my arm. Thanks Blair!

I noticed my strings are already fraying. They better not break soon or I'll be ticked. That's about $30 a pop.

Long day at work

Today I had a long day at work. I slept in and didn't get to work till 9am, but I worked all day without much of a break at all clear until 7pm. I did get what I wanted done though just before 7pm. Tough stuff.

I immediately went downstairs and did 30 minutes on the bike, 30 good minute on the eliptical, and 12 minutes on the treadmill (.25 run (6.5mph), .25 walk (3.5), .25 run (7.0), .25 walk (3.5) = 1 mile total. Not very impressive on the run, but it's something and a first stab at getting back into running.

Had some thoughts about yesterday's fireside and went up and blogged about it.

Good timing

Got up early this morning and drove in to Tomax. Noticed a sign saying all lanes of traffic were closed on I-15 in NSL so I took Legacy in. It was snowing pretty good too. Had I took I-15 I would have been in to work at 8am. Plus because it was so early Legacy was at freeway speed so it was a decent commute.

Did 30 minutes on the bike, and then 30 minutes on the elliptical. Then did 75 pushups straight. Good workout.

In the evening after the fireside meeting with Austin, I did another hour on the bike at home while watching my favorite show, The Biggest Loser. It didn't seem like an hour while I was spinning away. Nice workout.

I had to laugh when I read that my Brother Russell watches the same show while eating ice cream. C'mon man! That's sad!

Bad day for hitting people

This morning I woke up really tired at 5:30am. Went over to Surf N' Swim and played two singles matches with Blair. Went 1-1. Then played Cutthroat with Shawn. I think I won one game, but can't remember for sure. I hit Shawn once and Blair once with the ball. Blair had to work today (so do I) and took off and I had time for one more with Shawn.

He served and it came around my left and I had to swing around in a desperation to get it. I flicked it pretty good and it hit Shawn right in the face as he was looking back. It knocked his glasses off. It was a pretty hard hit. His boys were there and he said "See, that is why we wear glasses on court". I could see it was red where the ball hit him. I felt bad and apologized. Today wasn't a good day for playing very well, or for not hitting people. I guess it's my turn next time to get pegged a few times. I deserve it.

I'm exhausted

Did eat dinner last night cause I got home late from work. I woke up this morning at 5:10 am and had a cup of Grape-nuts and went to SDRC to play racquetball. I played cutthroat with Dad and Eric for 5 games (I only won one game which was frustrating). At 8:00 they took off and I played a singles match with Steve Olson. I barely won that game. I played for 2 1/2 hours and burned alot of calories. I'm so tired my arms are shaking. Need to get the weight off!

Another hour

Another hour on the bike. This time at Tomax in the basement. Typical 10 x 6 min sets. Good sweat. Cathi has me on the bandwagon now. If only I could quit making excuses for getting in the pool!

Biked another hour

Came to Tomax early and did one hour on the bike. Kept to the plan:

10 x 6 min (1 m super easy, 2m easy, 2m moderate, 1 m hard)

Good workout.

Back on the trainer

Cathi and I were late getting the kids to bed and missed the threshold for going to the pool to swim. So we went downstairs and watched the news while I rocked out on my MP3 and did 1 hour on the bike. My goal was to get over 16 miles in one hour and I did it in 59:40. Talk about cutting it close.

While 16 miles in one hour on the road would get me really depressed, in the shape I'm in right now 16 mph is pretty good on the trainer. I'm still not convinced its the same as riding on the road. I need to get another DVD player for downstairs so I can go back to riding to Coach Troy.

I got my racquet back from getting restrung and it looks good. I'm eager to play on Thursday.

Broken String

This morning I went to SDRC for 2 hours of racquetball, but only was able to play for 30. Halfway into my second game my string broke on my good racket and I had to play with my old one with has terrible vibration when hit with any decent power. Good thing is I won both games I played. Cutthroat with Dan and Spencer (a new guy who I felt bad for cause he was so new), and then a singles match with Dan. Was behind most of the game and then had a good couple rounds of points to come back and steal it from him. He clocked me pretty good in the right ear from three feet away. But didn't get bugged by it even though had he called a hinder would have been more courteous.

I'll get the racket restrung this evening on the way to Bountiful Temple at the Sports store on 500 S. Came to Tomax and rode on the bike for 10 minutes (planned on 30, but lost my steam and desire) followed by two minutes of abs. Kind of a crappy day, but hoping that my dieting today makes up for it. Will play table tennis for an hour today at lunch.

Getting there....

Getting back into the good diet and lots of exercise routine. Almost back under 200. Today I did 1 hr table tennis practice at lunch along with 4 sets of bench press 15 @ 135. After work I did 1 hour on the bike pretty intense.

Racquetball this morning

This morning was awesome. I was moving around the court like lightning and was making Blair and Shawn move around. I was doing some pretty good short shots and some devastating power shots. I sure like Bountiful better for those though. That top back wall is nice to have. Worked up a good sweat for 1.5 hours.

Need to ride the bike today and plan on doing table tennis at noon today. The Evanston Chinese New Year Tournament is this weekend and I plan on doing well even though I didn't do so hot last Friday at the club. I'm trying to execute shorter movements on my forehand to avoid the bad form I've been using.