The schedules in retail are not condusive to training in the least. One morning your opening at 830am. The next your closing at 930pm. Actually the early and late shifts are ok because you can train before or after work. Then you throw in the 945am-615pm and 1045-715pm shifts and you can see how hard it is to get a consistent training schedule worked out.

The other thing I'm having trouble with is my nutrition. I just can't seem to eat enough! Yeah. yeah. I can just hear it. "I wish I could eat more!' It truly is hard to eat enough calories to sustain and build muscles without putting on a ton of body fat. Plus Ive never been a big eater anyway. If I can get this eating thing down then I'll be good and I'll be that much closer to my goal of 212lbs.

I'm looking forward to Sunday! The mountain bike race at Harvey Bear should be a lot of fun. We're working the aid station and it should be pretty warm. I'm sure we'll be a welcome site for the riders because it's a pretty tough course. ;)

Last but not least, congrats to Patricia on her new baby! How exciting!

I'm putting on a decent amount of muscle but I have to be careful now of becoming too "musclebound". My cardio and agility still needs a lot of work. My back is getting stronger but still doesn't feel "solid." It's hard to explain but my core just doesn't feel stable yet. For example: I'm back to chest pressing 100lb dumbells but I'm having a heck of a time carrying them to the bench or even picking them up off the rack!! I'm slowly deadlifting again, which probably looks funny to the other gym members. They see a guy pressing a ton of weight yet can't deadlift over 100lbs! Haha!

Work is going as well as expected. I'm working in retail selling women's shoes at Macy's in Monterey. It's a grind, and it's your typical "shark-like" sales atmosphere, but it's paying the bills. It's a good thing I'm training Greg and Debbie about once a week, it's keeping me sane! Greg's doing awesome with his Triathalons and Debbie is taking to training just fine. I do feel bad she was so sore last week though!

I've been thinking about my employment and career choices and need to come up with some decisions soon. I do have some ideas but I'll get into those at a later date. More to come soon...

Things are starting to improve on the job front as well. I still have an offer to work in Comcast Cable's billing department (not my field of study) and I have a couple of good leads with the San Jose Mercury News and a company named RS Medical. Out of the three, the Mercury job looks the most promising and is right in my field of study. I'll keep you posted!

Today's training is going to consist of running to the gym and then teaching my spinning class. Im not sure the distance to the gym from my house but it should be no more than 2.5 miles. 

I picked up my training last week because I made it official with my entry into the Pacific Grove Sprint Triathlon. Believe it or not but I was actually a bit nervous signing up! I haven't competed in awhile and I'm pretty excited about it.

I need to step up my swimming! My cardio is doing better but I'm having trouble with the breathing during the swim. Im having trouble with the timing of when to exhale and inhale. I might have to change my strategy after swimming for the first time in Monterey Bay. It was so cold I never really did catch my breath and the kelp just wears you out. Its so thick in some areas you literally have to pull yourself through the plants! 

We ran the full sprint distance of the course and we did pretty well. I had an issue with my lower leg on the run but that should get better as I get more miles under my belt. It was a good test to see where I was at though.

I'll keep you posted on how everything goes!

Greg ended up doing the swimming section as well which was good because it gave us both confidence. Greg said it's harder to swim in the pool than it is in the ocean because of the bouyancy. There was a lot of kelp and it's thick enough that you actually have to pull yourself through. I plan to start training in the pool over at the Aquatic Center with Greg during lunch and I will probably end up renting a wet suit for the race.

Overall it was a good training morning and our total on the bikes was 25 miles. Greg is doing the full race distance and I plan on doing the sprint distance which is one swim lap (1/2 mile), two cycle laps (12 miles), and one run lap (approx. 2 1/2 miles).

I'm looking forward to the race! 

I graduated from college with a marketing degree last November and have been searching for a full-time position since. I figured it would take some time to find a new job but I didn't realize things would be this slow! I've had some really good interviews and leads but just haven't found that right fit. I have a couple of interviews this week with a couple of medical supply/surgery center outfits that will hopefully turn out positive. I'll keep you posted.

As far as working out goes, I've taken a couple of weeks off of weight-training in order to let a couple of nagging injuries heal but I have been pretty consistent with cycling and other cardio. It helps that I have a couple of cycle classes I teach per week. I need to backtrack a bit and record my last couple of weeks of cardio and I plan to track my weights when I start back up, which should be later today or tomorrow.

It's good to get away and see my family for awhile. My little sister is too cute and she has been permanetly attached to my hip since I got here. Tomorrow I'm going to search the area for a good gym. I looked on the web and found a couple of possibilities. I'll keep you posted...

I had to laugh after watching the sports highlights last night. The Sharks beat the Ducks in the final minutes 3-2. I'm starting to wonder if I am bad luck to the Sharks... The last four games I've gone to they have lost!

The "Inwithfitness" web site is coming along nicely! The site looks great and I feel it captures a specific "fitness" niche of the web. I'm looking forward to seeing how the site takes off and it will be exciting to watch it grow! 

The web site cards that were made up specifically for the site look good and I will pass them out tonight at Extreme and I will make up an email list as well.

Tomorrow is the first day of Greg and I's new strength program. Unfortunately I won't be able to go heavy for a couple of weeks until I finish rehabbing my shoulder. I will be acting as Greg's strength coach until the shouder is strong enough. Once again, we will be trying to hit each body part twice a week in order to stimulate more muscle growth and strength.

Tomorrow's program is as follows:

Chest: Flat Bench (Pyramid Sets), Incline DB Press (4x8), Flat DB Flyes (4x8), Close-Grip Bench (Pyramid Sets)

Triceps: Skull-Crushers (Pyramid Sets), Cable Pressdowns (4x10)

Happy New Year!

For example, day one would consist of Chest and Triceps. Three to four solid exercises per bodypart is to be expected. Reps will be done with pyramid scale sets and six-rep sets to achieve overall mass and strength.  Weights will be heavy and to failure.

The next chest workout will be more endurance and shaping consisting of high-rep sets. Sets will usually consist of 15-20 reps of lighter weight.

Cardiovascular workouts will be done 3-5 times per work and will last at least twenty minutes per session. The types of cardio will not matter as long as the heartrate becomes elevated to the proper levels.

Speed work will be added into the workouts as well. This will be determined at a later date.