TGIF????

 I took the day off from work..not from phone calls or e-mails but from work. I started out at the gym with a 2.5 mile run and then back to the house for a power breakfast of oatmeal and protein powder. Around 11 or so I was bored as all get out and decided to go for a bike ride......as they said in the frontier days "Go West young man, go West" so I decided to heard for the "River of grass"....the Everglades. Growing up in South Florida I spent a bunch of time milling around in the "Glades", fishing, air-boating

and just general growing up. There's a dike that separates the "Glades" from the town and it goes on for miles and miles. I bet it's been 30 years since I'd been out this way..........I rode down the dike for 7 miles...nothing but exotic birds, a few gators and one noisy air-boat. 14 miles later I was back at the car and hungry......nothing beats a 6' double meat Turkey sub from Subway.

Later that evening we went and walked a few miles at "Relay For Life" in honor of my Father. The weather was perfect as the setting sun framed the cancer survivors as they walked the first lap. I'm really astounded by the number of folks who have been touched by cancer.
We grabbed a late dinner at Buffalo's to round out a day off from work.

 

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Wordless Wednesday

Changing It Up This Morning

I got up this morning planning to get in either a bike ride or a run but alas it was raining...I had lifted last night so a resistance session wasn't in order...so I broke out a Bob Harper DVD that I picked up off his site several months ago for $5.00.
As I unwrapped the DVD I was thinking how tough could this really be? Well damn, It was all I could do to last 30 minutes before I had to take a break...it was tough, my quads and glutes were on fire, even after several hours I could still feel the fire.
Not an easy workout by any stretch of the means and well worth the $5.00/

Eating My Way Across The Top Of The Gulf

Took a 6:00 AM flight out the other morning heading for Panama City, FL.....no not "Spring Break 2012" but for business in Mobile, AL. A road trip with a couple of colleagues and that means one thing and one thing only.....a Gulf Coast food tour.

By Tuesday evening we were all suffering from our early flight so when the subject of food came up it had to be something quick and some place that served beer. The decision reached was hot dogs (rock, paper, scissors can solve most any major decision). We asked "Siri" where we could find hotdogs and she found us a place just a few miles away, halfway to paradise, now for the beer part. A phone call to the restaurant and the question asked..."Do you serve beer?" "No"..Sad Face...then we heard these magical words...."but feel free to bring your own!"....what, seriously...I love Alabama!....We wheeled into Mike's Smokehouse Market six pack in hand with our focus set on hotdogs and beer, but the focus quickly changed when we were greeted with samples of pulled pork and smoked chicken (marketing 101)...so two meats, coleslaw and "Mac-N-Cheese" (a vegetable) and out on the patio for a BBQ feast. We were served a selection of sauces, mustard based, vinegar based, ketchup based... you name it, it was there. Mike even came out to visit us while we ate, we offered him a beer but he turned us down saying something along the lines of "If I start now I'll never make it back into the kitchen", Mike I appreciate your honestly and it left us with one extra beer. Meal 1 complete......

 

The next day for lunch we headed out for Firehouse Subs but we ended up at Cheryl's Cafe & Market and good thing we did. As soon as we opened the door we could smell all of the home cooking and see all of the homemade deserts.
I settled on the Reuben (hold the dressing) with a side of fresh fruit...amazing and one of the best sandwich's I've ever eaten and I'm a "sandwich guy" (225lb 5'8" do the math). If you are ever in Spanish Fort, AL it's worth the stop....Meal 2 complete.

 

 

The last stop  Original Oyster House.....when we pulled in I was thinking to myself "I wonder how many Original Oyster House's there are n the world?" because I bet I've eaten at three of them. The meal started with a large Yuengling, fried green tomato's with a side of fried pickles.....I never said it was a healthy trip. My dinner choice none other than Shrimp and Grits...wow as my taste buds delighted....the grits were not to cheesy and the shrimp not to blackened......The portion was just right we all left full but not suffering with that "I'm stuffed" feeling......Meal 3 complete.

You don't get great road trips every week, hell my arteries couldn't handle it, but when you do it's nice.....and yes I ran a 5k one morning and hit the gym the other so at least in my mind those two events erased all the fine Southern food.

Rituals

Rituals....I don't really have many, I'm no where near OCD, for the most part I go with the flow.
But.......when it comes to shoes I do have a ritual. I usually buy a pair of shoes and then they sit in their box for a minimum of 48 hours, then I finally break them out for their initial wearing, in today's case it was a trip to the gym, then I return home sit on the bed, unlace them and put them nicely on a shelf and return to wearing the older shoes, which have now been demoted to "Everyday" shoes (i.e. worn while washing the car, cutting the grass..etc...). I go over in my mind that these are my "NEW" shoes and I plan to wear them for only exercising in......fast forward three weeks and I'll be kicking these babies off without unlacing them and where ever they land they'll stay till I need them again.....yeah I don't have many rituals.

Another Month In The Books

It was a month of trips...Atlanta GA, Jacksonville FL, Charlotte NC, Baltimore MD and then back to Jacksonville FL.....with that being said the swimming and biking suffered but all in all I was somewhat pleased with my numbers.

For March I'm planning to do
Swim - 4000 yds
Bike 25 Miles
Run 25 Miles
and also including several hours of strength training.

The Winter 52DC finished up this week as well......my numbers.

CE: 93/104/90 (103.33%)

RT: 13/10 (130%)

CT: 10/10 (100%)

PG1 (Cycling): 10/10 (100%)

PG2 (Swimming): 15/7 (214.29%)

48 exercise sessions over 52 days, I can't say that I'm disappointed in that number. I'm still loving cycling and swimming and hopefully as the weather warms the hotels will begin opening up their pools.