I feel like I was hit with a Brick!

So Triathletes call it a 'Brick' when they do two of their sports back to back. Swim, then run. Bike, then run. Run, then eat ice cream. I did a brick of sorts last nite.

My son and I attended our second Japanese Swordmanship class. I call it Kendo, but I'm not sure if that's quite accurate. It's basically grown men (insert joke here) playing swords with bamboo (Shinai). Last nite for two hours I got whacked in the right knee a dozen times and in the right hand and thumb even more (insert joke here). Note to self: go to Sports Authority and buy a cup for Tyler and me.

That's bruising from not keeping my hands low enough when I was supposed to be protecting my right elbow from being severed. If I ever meet a Samurai on the streets of Phoenix, I'm dead. We also learned some techniques to remove a knife from a deranged individual. All in all, it was a painful class.

Tyler drove home (learning to drive) without crashing into anything or anyone. I then swapped my Samurai clothes (shorts and a tee) for my running clothes (shorts and a tee, but sweat resistant) and headed out at 9 pm for my version of a brick. The first thing I noticed was that after being whacked in the knee for two hours, you can feel the pain when you run. But, only for the first mile. My first mile was done in 10:52 and I was shooting for 11 minutes.

My splits:

10.52 mile 1
11.23 - mile 2
13.37 mile 3
13.15 mile 4

I ran 85% of the time and for the first 2.5 miles. I am consciously trying to stretch my run times out. It's still hot here, but I know this will increase greatly once it's cooler (read below 90). I think it was in the high 90's when I ran last night.


I stepped on the scale this morning to see a reading of 222.5. The lowest I've been since I started running. There was a great quote on "The Biggest Loser" the other night from Kim, the trainer. They were talking about diets and she said, "If your body is burning sugar, it's not burning fat". In other words, watch what you eat. When you're running you want to be burning excess fat, not the ding dong you ate last night. I want to lose some serious weight during season 4 of "The Biggest Loser". You can call it the home version of the show.

Pictured above is the program from my senior year in high school. Aiken HS v. St. Xavier HS. We tied 10-10. St. X is the #1 catholic high school to go to in Cincinnati. There's an entrance test that I took when I was in 8th grade. I passed it, to my surprise (and everyone else's). But, I didn't go there, I went to the city school that was free.

Anyway, I got a bit off topic there. You can see my next to my name is 5-10 and 182 pounds. Which means, I've shrunk and enlarged at the same time. I doubt I was ever 5-10 and I am no where near 182 (which is puny for a lineman today). So, can I get back down to my playing weight?

Yes, I can!

One more thing . . . Here's another thing you can do with your ipod and a blender.