The Brett Favre of blogging

Guess who's back?  Back again, Jamo's back, blog to a friend...guess whos back, guess whos back, guess whos back....bonus points for naming that terrible song.

So no I never claimed I was retiring from blogging, but twice now I've made the mental commitment to begin blogging again and completely failed (Favre).  This isn't a New Years Resolution (I don't believe in them) because it is still 2010.  Either way this Christmas was one to inspire me to get back into running more/blogging.  The family made off with about 34 hours of child labor worth of Nike gear (tasteless yet true.)  Hopefully the wages have been improving because I thoroughly enjoy all things Nike.

Anywho, my lovely sister Sweatonceaday got me a Garmin 305 for xmas...legit right?!?  Added to yak tracks, head band, gloves, hoodie, shorts, tech gear I probably have no excuse to not get out and run right? So although I haven't been running, I have been getting my swell on.  I took a month break from athletics after my May marathon, and had a nice eating span of "it's fine, I just ran a marathon"  like 6 weeks worth of post-26.2  SOOO I needed to reshape up.  I've been hitting the gym, and hard for a while, but I've been avoiding running, why?? Good question.  Laziness? I dunno, but it is so expensive/hard to keep lean muscle on, and run, the two just don't go hand in hand.  "Hi yes I'd like to burn 600 calories a day running, another 400-500 lifting, and also be putting on a pound of muscle every few weeks or so while working full time." Unless my nutritionist is Dr. Steroid it is probably not going to work out.





So today I threw on some new gear and went for a nice run with my recently injured sister.  Which was advantageous because we did 3 miles @ 9min/mile.  (I haven't run in well over a month)  My triceps have been looking delight though. (Taken Christmas morning, wait til a Wed. (Arm Day))

My Life As A Giant

All my life I've been dealing with the difficulties of being a larger than average person, and no I'm not even that tall.  I'm 6'3" which is tall, but I'm not a 7 footer.  So when I had my first car, a Volvo station wagon, I would accidently kick the door compartment everytime I got out of it, and only this past summer have I upgraded to a roomier spacier Ford Escape.  The vehicle on the right is a version of my car, but not my actual automobile.  (I wanted an offroading picture to illustrate manliness)  So anyways onwards with the story, and how it relates to physical activity.  I was smart and got a warranty with my "Ape" (EscAPE, ye you get it) and the deal is, if the vehicle must be held overnight for repair, I am given a complimentary rental vehicle.  So I decided to pick the rental the morning after my car was housed, just so I could drive it to the gym to do my back day (top 5 favorite workout days of the week...I only work out 5 days/week).  So being that I was getting a free rental to go to the gym, it seemed stupid to have a roomie/friend drop me off, SOOO I decided to run to pick it up.  It is just a few miles away and on the way to the gym.  I talk to a guy on the phone, oddly enough also named Jameson, and he says yeah come by whenever.  So I run there and there is a great sign on the door "HERTZ Rental be back ASAP"  great, so I stretch out on this busy road and hang out waiting.  The other Jameson explains how the basic rental is what comes.  Last time I rented a car, the basic rental was a Jeep Compass.  SO anyway, he tells me yeah this Chevy, leather seats etc etc...cool cool, it turns out to be a Chevy Aveo, See pictured below.  I only had the car for about 8 hours or I would have taken pictures of myself driving in it or preferably it being run over by a small truck (it is just that small)  I had the seat alllll the way back and I was still scrunched up.  Of course there were 3-4 in the parking lot, and I'm given the BRIGHT red one, like Marilyn Monroe lipstick red.  Such is life.  YEah pretty much same color as below.  I had to laugh the whole time I was in it, I must have looked absurd.  So point in case, what is up with people picking on the poor tall people?  I guess I cant complain, a free rental is a free rental.  But it happens other place, I was playing basketball in Boston a little while ago, and I was picked first because of my height, I wasn't the best player, don't get me wrong I'm silky smooth, but the real talent was picked after me.  One of these days the world will even out.

I really am TRYING....mancave

Bloggers,

Slowly getting back onto the blogosphere.  Been super busy with work/training so yeah.  Besides RUI's, running under the influence... I've been working out a lot, running with a training client, and making my personal mancave/workout room in my house.  The roomie and I put up a heavy bag in the middle of the room, brought a nice stereo down, brought in an easy bar, and adjustable dumbbells with over 200 pounds in plates so we're pretty set there.  I had an exercise ball and purchased another.  We also have a SHAKE WEIGHT!  Amen that the roomie got that for his birthday, because a mancave/workout area would NOT be the same without it.  I've been on a consistent workout routine for the past month and a half and I'm finally beginning to be pleased with it.  All I can do now is keep on training and hope for more results.  Ive been working for www.racevermont.com helping out at triathlons, which has been quite an experience.  More on that in a future post.  For now, here are photos of my roommate and myself training, aka flying/dragon kicks.  You never know when we are going to be attacked and the only solution is to leap into the air to kick an attacker down.  As you can see I created two sneaky exercise ball holders, aka string, that keeps them out of the way.  We have to throw a big shoutout to Walmart, where we purchased our decorations.  Ironman posters, transformers posters, boondock saints, nikesoccer poster was commandeered a while ago.  Of course we have a map of the world because we are YoPros, aka Young Professionals.  Side note, I'm in the blue, roomie is in the white, his head isn't in the photo because he jumped so darn high.

Where has Jameson been?

Holy Crap, it has been so long since I blogged, it is about time I at least ATTEMPT to get back into the swing of things.  I wanted to write another post before three months of no blogging.  So after my marathon I said heck no to exercise, and heck yes to greasy food and adult beverages.  So since I went on my bar binge and eating competitions I fell off the blogosphere.  So I wanted to kind of give an overview of my last 3 months.  Basically I moved out of the motherland, aka BTV and settled in the outskirts.  What this means is that after the bars I can no longer walk home.  What it does mean is I can run home.  So to do that I would go to a local pizza place at about 2:30 AM, carbo load with bbq chicken, and then by 2:45AM I was ready to run home.  As a personal trainer and seasoned runner I know this is the correct way to carbo load.  So I made sure to include pictures of me at the bars.  This is how I roll, making tiger claws/faces.  And then I would jog home in jeans.  Because I am just that smart.  Soon I learned to wear my running shoes TO the bars, what a thinker I am.  So along with running to the bars and carbo loading, I finally have gotten back on top of strength training, something I neglected during marathon training.  Esp. important because in my month of saying "Its okay I just ran a marathon" I'm pretty sure I put on anywhere from 10-20 pounds.  So I soon realized I needed to get back on the exercise train.  As you can see in my jetskiing photo (first time, loved it) I was looking a weeee bit scrawny.  More updates to come soon of training/and as my mom would hope, less of drinking.

I am now a Marathon finisher

I think the best way to do this post is a play by play.  First off, I apologize for the lack of photos/posts in general recently, the poll for personal training name ended in a tie, oops, we'll figure that one out. 

Wednesday May 5th Jameson runs 17 miles, foot tendonitis acts up, only runs a meager 2 miles after this before Marathon (May 30th), bikes to work every day until May 25th to crosstrain.

Friday May 28th 2:30 AM, Jameson asleep squating in friends apartment... "lets f*** with Jameson."  Deep sleep=over for next 2 hours when soccer balls come flying into the room and Jameson anti-rests for marathon.

Saturday May 29th, Jameson is moving stuff into new apartment and is anti-resting for race on Sunday, eats baked Ziti, loads on carbs.

Sunday May 30th, Mile 0, Jameson listens to dubstep at start line and gets jacked up.

Mile 1.23ish Jameson finds mom and decides to run with her for oppurtune possible photo moments. 

Mile 3.67ish Jameson tells mom "I'm gonna flirt with pace and go ahead for a bit"

Mile 4.3 Jameson finds cute girl in blue and decides he may as well keep pace with her.

Mile 6 Jameson sees pace improving judging by clocks, excitement comes

Mile 8 blisters from hell come

Mile 9 Feeling great and still hanging around girl in blue, batwoman is also running nearby

Mile 10.4 find boss at water station and give her a sweaty hug, amazingly she smiles

Mile 12.2 Man this is easy, and I'm under a 4 hour pace, sweet.

Mile 13.1 "Jamo want me to run with you"-Emily "No its cool, I feel great, I'm crushing I'll definitely be under 4"-Me  "Ye you look good keep it up."-Emily says excitedly as she takes off down the crisp bikepath towards the inevitable finish of her soon to be PR. (How dumb is that sentence)

Mile 14.2 Girl in blue is sneaking away, crud

Mile 15ish, Taiko drummers are within hearing distance, the ominous Battery St hill is next, around the corner Jameson sees Taiko drummers and hears beyond vividly, Battery St is lined with screaming spectators, Jameson feels chill and numb as he experiences the best runners high of his life!  He begins to crush the hill and the 4 hour pacers sneak upto him. 

Mile 16.5ish Jameson's legs seize and he must stop to walk and he is at his lowest of lows.  Foot tendonitis kicking in hard, Jameson wished he had the ability to have run in the past 3 weeks, but he decided to be smart and not injure himself prerace, he saved it for during the race.

Mile 17-19 Jameson goes back and forth between walking and running, never out of breath, just angry and cursing himself.

Mile 20-25 Jameson debates quitting and has to walk more than he can run because his legs are just so mad at him, he watches the 4:15 pacers, 4:30 and then the 4:45 pacers pass him.

Mile 25 after making the goals of finish under 4, then under 4:20 and then just try to run a mile here and there, Jameson has saved up energy and it is time.  Legs engaged, no more walking, Jameson passes the 4:45 pacers and is running as hard as he possibly can.  All he wants is for the race to be over so he can go and eat chicken tenders.  Pounding across the finish in around 4:45 Jameson has successfully completed his first marathon.  He realizes it is the hardest physical thing he has ever done and probably the hardest emotional thing to do too.  Not being able to run because of legs at mile 17=stop, cry and wait for the Wahmbulance to take u back to the family, somehow Jameson overcomes this urge and has to walk by people he knows after initially saying he would never walk.  Jameson completed a marathon and came in 1000 something out of 3000 something.  Team "crush it" feat. Emily and Jameson, came in 35/210 for mixed gender half marathon.  Next year I may focus on just the half and maybe crush it goes for the win!

We have a poll

Be sure to vote, there is money riding on this for somebody, I will accept late names to jhalnon@gmail.com, but they have to be pretty epic to be accepted late...

NAME

I expected more entries than I've been seeing, update me with a possible name for my personal training business, remember there is a prize involved.  I thought prizes were more appealing, come on guys.  Regardless, gimme a name, it doesnt even have to be that creative.

Contest Confession!

Okay there's no confession, I just like alliteration and the contest is still ongoing.  Again, we're looking for a name for my personal training business/website.  So again we're talking about personal training, fitness, strength, my name is Jameson, I like running, cycling, skiing, basketball, LOVE the color blue (not relevant to logo name), I live in Vermont.  I repeat Jamuscleson has already been taken.  Well, I've already come up with it at least.  Also, if you know how to incorporate something that can use tiger stripes let me know.  Although a logo with a tiger on it with a impala leg in its mouth might not scream "Jameson the gentle giant"  but hey you can't win them all.  So ye oh yes...prize... the prize is a $10 gift certificate to http://www.eastbay.com/.  If the winner has no love for shoes, clothing and athletic gear we can always change it to something else, as the giftcard will be send via email...but what are you doing on my fitness blog if thats not the case??  So the first round is to submit the name to me via jhalnon@gmail.com, one entry per day, enter as many times as you want.  Brownie points if you suck up to me or get more followers.  If your title is "Jameson's Training" welllll you didn't win.  I'm sure some of you have some creativity.  So after all submissions have been taken, I will have a place to vote for your favorite name.  So you decide who wins in the end.  And yeha...sorry but I had to post a picture of me flexing...a few of you have been asking, and yes I am about to kiss my right bicep.  His name is Benjamin Franklin.

Contest Alert!!

Thats right ladies and gentleman!  We have a contest here.  What comes alongside a contest?  Losers!  Just kidding, well there are losers.... but, there will also be a winner.  Now this is going to be a two stage thing.  But, let me explain the contest first.  So basically, as I get moving along with my personal training and do more off-site training/grow in general, I need to have a name for myself.  So to que you in I'll give you background to kind of help you come up with creative names.  So my name is Jameson, I'm based in Vermont, I run, bike, eat junk food, drink beer, lift weights.  My specialties include core, stability, strength, weight loss, sport specific and I use a mix of humor/positive encouragement to really push my clients.  So give me names, we're talking for my website (to be made by a friend/client) business in general, etc etc... Sooo I don't want Jameson's Training, to be one, and for those who were thinking it, I've already used Jamuscleson as a pickup line, so you can try to stick muscle into my name....but its been done.  So give me some creative ideas.  Thats phase 1, phase 2 will be the judging.  So I will select 4-5 or however many I end up really liking and make a voting section.  Everyone will vote, the number 1 vote-getter wins.  So what makes it a contest...the prize.  A $10 giftcard to www.eastbay.com   So to actually submit a name, send me an email, one per day to jhalnon@gmail.com.  Give me a business name to that email, and you will then be submitted, secret bonus If you get people to follow me and tell me so in my comment section, I will probably read you 2-7 word names much more intently.  Also anything that I can put tiger stripes on for a t-shirt would be cool.  Look how excited I can make people!  Lets continue the trend!  So what's nice about this gift card is I can email it to you, so nothing sketchy with home addresses for those of you who are nervous as to whether I'm an axe murderer or not.  Also feel free to email me with fitness questions in general and hopefully I can help out!!

Distance

Last week I set the world record of Jameson in distance running. I ran a whopping 17 miles, which was a personal best. This made me feel good that I have finally run such a long ways, I'm hoping to run 20ish this week, barring my foot lets me. so for my 17 mile run I parked along the 7 mile Burlington bike path. So when you go to the end and back, its a total of 14 miles. So I was parked around the 5 mile mark and went to mile 0. So when I got to my car the first time I had gone 10 miles, time for some Chocolate Outrage Gu, I'm getting ready to order that stuff in bulk. I went to the opposite end which is the 7 mile mark, and then went about a half mile farther. So when I went by my car the SECOND time (mentally almost impossible) I had gone 15 miles, I continued another mile to North Beach and turned back. I was so close to wanting to stop and walk, but I never did. I wanted to soooo bad. This run was more grueling mentally then it was physically. Not that my legs weren't really tired and lame, but this really tested my mental endurance/will as well. My breakfast was a slice of the pizza you see below. I made it on a whole wheat crust, we have turkey pepperoni, onion and peppers loaded with a 5 cheese blend. YUMMY!! So this piece along with the chocolate outrage lead me to crushing this beast of a run. The picture of me post-run, is also post-shower as well. I wish I looked this good right after finishing the grueling run. But it was not the case. I also made a stuffed bread with turkey pepperoni/tomatoe sauce and mozz cheese in the middle. This was for after I ran my bootcamp on Friday, the one where I almost puked while instructing...yes I whoop people's butts. How delicious does this look?!? Also I biked to work 3 times in the past 2 days (I work odd shifts) for a total of about 58 miles, also today I biked to work for only 1/2 hour of work, that took willpower. All I wanted to do was call in and say sorry dudes, no can do.

Randomness

Basically going to do a post on random facts about myself...and questions for you to answer...why? Because I'm on hour 12 of my 13 hour day, and all I have to do is guard this front desk. (earlier hours were more difficult, had to guard a bigger desk, AND attempt to make my elderly client laugh, easier than expected, he was from NY and wearing a Red Sox t-shirt. ZING! Too easy...but no seriously, this man had the poker face of the century)



Facts:

1.I was kind of editing my blog the other day, and noticed today that the coloring matches the colors of my BRAND new bike (before I bought it) Blue and yellow, match made in heaven? With red accents....somebody is on to me...



2.Although I have a new bike I miss the bike I built last summer, 26 in. mt bike frame, custom paint, BMX cruiser handlebars and a single speed built for hilly VT...also no brakes (dont let the brake lever confuse you) foot over the rear tire was the way to go. Not built for performance, but pretty eh?


3. My first marathon is 26 days away, I'm behind on miles and nervous.


4.I have secretly been planning out
my post race meal, onion rings, chicken fingers, cupcake, fresh chocolate chip cookies (anyone need my home address for May 30?)


5. Any recommended cycling shorts from anyone? Been looking at Ibex, but the wool part is confusing me for cooling, damn you smartwool.


6.If there are checked bag fees because the plane's weight needs to balance, why don't people have to pay tickets based on weight? (not counting those who have to buy 2 seats)


7.I am secretly addicted to Lady Gaga. (so catchy...are you kidding me?)


8.I have ideas for a sweet contest/giveaway so keep checking in to see when this pops up, HINT: Its going to be soon.


9.If you like techno/house/dance etc...and maybe are into dubstep, check out Panty Raid-name of band doesn't reflect harsh lyrics, parental discretion not advised, bass discretion-bump the subs.


10. I'm designing a possible 5k training program/running club at my local gym. May help me force myself to workout if others are paying to do it...similar to my bootcamp, getting paid to workout as hard as I can is awesome. Otherwise I can lose motivation.


11.Isn't it funny that some personal trainers need personal trainers?


12. I respect any and all who can wake up @ 5AM 5-6 days/week and just CRUSH fitness.


14.I skipped 13 cause its unlucky.


15. Give me some inspirational words to make me really get my butt in gear for the marathon!

16.As I was rereading this for editing I realized my marathon was 26 days a way! 26 miles... .2 26 days?? coincidence? maybe.

17.And my mountain bike frame was 26 inches...I either need to stop editing or just run this darn race.

Bike lovers-read

Saturday I woke up bright and early 7:00 am, mind you I also went out the night before, carbo loading on bud lights and switchbacks. Either way, I went to the skirack bike swap which opens @ 900, everyone told me to wake up @ 6 if I even wanted a decent bike. I walked down, stopped to get a coffee and was there by 7:30, second in line. I thought I had the wrong date or something. I met a guy named Doug, who at one point owned 13 bikes at once...nice. People filed behind us, looking for a variety of kids bikes, road bikes, wheels, tri-handlebars etc...when the doors opened I was finishing my second cup of coffee and was overwhelmed. I get to all the used bikes that people had brought in...okay whats the size of that, is that too expensive etc....by the time i had developed a method i had watched some beautiful treks, specialized etc... run away from me, granted they all look to be a tad bit too small. I'm looking for 60 CM, and thats not a very common size. I'm getting discouraged, I'm ready to buy just about anything, because I want a road bike darn it. So I stumble upon this yellow and blue beast... I look it over, and I start to notice a few things. I realize I'm looking at the opposite of a junker. This epic Serotta was to be mine. How did nobody else find this in the first 13 minutes?? God I lucked out. I walked the bike around and various employees and fellow bike seekers drooled over my new whip. I paid 700 for the bike, and 60 for pedals and shoes. The frame itself is worth more than double what I paid for the whole package. Today I rode it to work, 10 miles, then ran 5 miles, trained a client, and then biked the 10 back. So since Saturday I've put on about 40 miles, not a lot, but considering i dont have cycling shorts, a helmet, or a waterbottle holder attached yet, I figure its not bad. I WILL TAKE BETTER PHOTOS SOON!!

LSD v. Speed

So in my marathon training I feel like I've worked my body into pretty good shape. I feel comfortable pushing myself in various areas, because I feel like I can handle it. Obviously for marathon training though I've mostly been doing LSD and yesterday I tried speed for the first time in a while. I thought I was going to die from this. Trying to push myself up a 1 mile run to the cliffs of Bristol after a mile warmup was harder than I thought. I was unable to run up the entire mile, as you can see its all uphill, and its rock hopping as much as anything else. Oh, and I probably should clarify, speed=speed workout and LSD=long slow distance (high school cross country). This was also one of the first times I ran while carrying my camera in my hand, not so bad, but I still want to get an arm pocket so I can store things, including cell phone in case a catamount attacks me...although cell phone probably won't save my life in that situation. This picture is of Bristol Cliffs from my parents house. I drove to a point a mile from the bottom of the trail to give my legs a little warmup. The second picture shows just how "user-anti-friendly" this run is. I don't know if you can judge grade, but this is decently steep (i'm taking these on the fly, no time to stop)

I goofed around with my camera and tried to take pictures of my legs running (downhill part) which was equally as grueling. Imagine how sore your quads get when you walk back from a hike, now try to push yourself down, after having just run/climbed 1 mile up.

My 4.1 mile loop total was about 46 minutes total. Which gives me an average pace of about 11:12. My first mile was 8:12, my second mile (all incline) was 14:48, my third mile (decline down sketchy rocks) was 13:27, and my last 1.1 was at a 8:50 pace. I can honestly say I don't remember the last time my heart rate was so high compared to the first .25-.5 uphill where I tried to push as hard as I could before I took a climb break (not calling it a walking break because it wasn't relaxing or slow paced) My calves are on fire today, and its convenient that I decided to take today off, because....it has been snowing since 8:30 this morning, it's not sticking where I live, but in the hills it is absolutely accumulating...crazy stuff.

Jamountainson

So lately I've been doing my best to crush some peaks in VT. Not many are all that impressive, last Tuesday I did Mt. Hunger with my friend Kat. It is a decently grueling climb. Not rock wall steep, but some difficult parts, i.e. where the snow was still 18 inches deep. I didn't take any pictures of this, maybe because I was wearing old running shoes with no grip and I was more concerned about survival and not breaking my leg (seriously) Whenever I stepped through the snow my foot would become jarreded in between some rocks, or land in a stream I didn't know was there. The top was beautiful, the climb down was equally scary. Snow/ice on rocks=not safe. (duh) The picture of Kat walking on the top doesn't do justice to the amount of snow. Because when we were in the woods, where trees shade the snow from melting, it was brutal. I am getting excited to do a lot of climbing this summer, it is good cross training while I plan banks to rob to buy myself a road bike.

Sunday I dragged my friend's Alaina and Dusty along to go and conquer Camel's Hump. Apparently the trail was closed....ye ye we saw the sign, but we also saw 19 cars in the parking lot, so we figured it

was one of those, go at your own risk Simba and Nala may eat you. So we get about 2/3 of the way up, and the spokesman forYour Day is Gonna Suck magazine told us the trail was closed and we had to turn around...rats. Well I was wearing the same old shoes that almost killed me on the previous mountain, and we were jussssst getting into the snow, so in the end probably okay. But, I got zero pictures of the epic views from there. Instead I have a picture of Dusty dangerously falling off a cliff, and then Alaina and Dusty mid hike. Notice anything odd about Alaina's hiking attire? "pink" shirt and gucci sunglasses. The mountains of Michigan reallllly prepared her for this journey.

Boston Marathon Spectator Report

Boston Marathon was epic. It was a ton of fun, and my sister did great. She qualified 3 times in what seemed like a week. Every other day was a text or email about her qualifying... again. Either way I am very proud. It was a ton of fun! Here she is with my mother after the race. We had a ton of fun watching and had a great bunch of people around us to cheer with. We would cheer for their friends and vice versa. I was fully decked out in bright colors so there was no way that she could miss me. I stand at 6'3 and was wearing these threads and our friend the Condor is 6'7 and impossible to miss. So we were able to find Emily over the rest of the world. I also had numerous people comment on my outfit. Apparently my hoodie was considered outrageous...you got me on that one. And the yellow sunglasses: giantvintage.com it is filled with tonnnnns of epic sunglasses for under $20. But back to the race, so we witnessed a course record in mens elite at 2:05, we saw wheel chair racers finish in the 1:20 range (insane) and saw thousands of people push their way to the finish which we stood just a hundred or so yards away from. It made me really excited for my May marathon, but also really nervous, esp. training wise.... but regardless, congratulations Emily!

Blog Name Change

SOOO I think I may change my blog title from Crush til it Hurts to Overtrain til it Hurts, and the title of Everydayiscrushday to Everydayisovertrainday...or undertrain. So In the beginning of my training, I pushed too hard and hurt my foot, made myself wait, recovered and now I may have pushed myself into a hip injury. I'm going to kind of take it easy...as easy as instructing a bootcamp and watching my sister run in BOSTON can be. The watching a race will be easy, other I don't know. So the worst part about my darn hip injury (maybe injury) is that it was feeling, okay kind of tight after my 13.6 and then today to enjoy my last day of sun before 8 days of rain I went and hit some golf balls on the driving range (preteens were chipping further than I can drive) so to say the least I suck. Golf isn't for me, who wants to WALK around to all the holes, maybe if running was involved i'd like it more, not who can swing the club the fewest times per hole, but who can get the ball in the whole, the fastest, running with clubs in a competition with others...not dangerous. Sounds fun. So despite my claims of overtraining, I've been undertraining in my pushup challenge. So I'm going to post an old picture of me from the top of Half Dome in 2008 (love using yosemite pictures) Here I am doing a pushup looking down 1000's of feet... crushing, thats what I do...when I train correctly. My form isn't great there, but sorry if I was concentrating on the eagles soaring below me (altitude joke) and not my hips and knees. But regardless, if I injured my hip because of stupid golf. p.s. Good job Phil. then man oh man am I gonna be livid. I will update on my hip status soon. Im 98% sure its tendonitis... which sucks because it means slowing my training down, and then overtraining again....hmmm am I learning my lesson here?? Clearly not.

Breaking records

Wowza, I am failing hardcore at keeping up with my blog. I have been getting my milage up, which is awesome, and am feeling pretty darn good. I ran the longest run of my life at 13.6 miles on Sunday, my previous record was 13.1 (VCM half last May) So every long training run up until/including the marathon will be a new record breaking run for me! So yes I am breaking records every week or two.

I've also had a big life change. I can't help it I am a believer! Officially converted and preaching. http://www.guenergy.com/ I love gu, it is epic, and the chocolate flavor that tastes like brownie mix, epic. I used gu first for my 10 mile run, and then Sunday for my 13.6 mile run and loved it both times. It is just glorious and I think it does give me energy so I love it, also it tastes like chocolate heaven. So I am excited for the marathon which is coming up ohhh so soon. I also need to work on my beach body. That is me (the male) in Arizona last March (not VT weather.) So sometime soon I need to get a good consistent workout program going, despite running and lifting 5-6 days a week I just feel like I'm not where I want to be. I was lifting 4-5 days/week last year and running 3-4 and just felt great all the time. I think it might be tough that when I'm at my gym working, even after my shift I don't really want to workout there cause well...its my work. Eating the same food isn't the same when you're at work or home, and same with working out. I need to get over this and make myself get on a 3 day consistent set, but no guaruntees. I keep finding myself working out and wandering aimlessly around the gym doing exercises with no meaning or relevance. I constantly have members talking to me and asking questions (when im not getting paid to do so) and despite my warm heart, deep soul and giving hands, sometimes I just want to grunt and throw some weight around... is that so wrong of me? When I wanna crush some fitness I'm gonna go crush, not help somebody decide if they want to take 8:45 spinning or 9:00 Zumba.

So my training took another little dive. I went on a mini-bender. (mom stop reading here) so basically starting last thursday I celebrated pretty darn hard for my birthday. Well the celebration for the bday was thurs, and then friday was 90's night and saturday I went to Boston to visit an old roommate/hopefully future roommate somewhere down the line. This photo was taken at a club called Sanctuary, it had 3 floors, heaven, earth and the basement, well that was hell, and had stripper poles with fat guidos all up on them. We did not spend much time in hell. Heaven was fun the bartenders bought us drinks (must have been my saucy looks) and it was nice, until my Boston friend ditched the rest of us and told us to meet him somewhere. Well I dont know where anything is, we took a taxi there so for all I knew I was in Shanghai (wasnt) eventually we met up with him, but not before buying some 8 dollar street meat (boston greasy version of philly cheese steak....sort of worth it?) Then we had to stop at 7/11 for some french bread pizzas to cook, and I bought a powerade to ward off the hangover (im a smart drunk) So after 2 am I consumed god knows how many calories of fat and grease...that will help me get my goal time. (Mom start reading again here) The next day we went to the Boston Celtics game, they were playing the Cleveland Cavaliers. So of course Lebron was there, we got there early and watched him warmup from courtside...absurd. SOOO GOOD I dont remember him missing a shot. The game started, the cavs were getting blown out, Lebron had 10 points in the first half, and somehow finished with 42. A quiet 42, which means he was unreal. Sadly our seats were nosebleeds, but whats nice about the garden is all seats are pretty good. The game was epic, my training was nil on saturday and sunday due to traveling, so I got a 6.6 mile run in today at around an 8:30 pace, which I figured was okay considering my head felt just....dumb. I may do a second post about Boston later this week, either on the cab drivers or playing basketball with some interesting kids.

Fooled ya

So I turned out to be an April Fools baby, and the point of this post isn't too get bday wishes (but they're allowed.) So I have been the butt end of plenty of April fools jokes, esp since its my bday... empty presents, big presents with small gifts (annoying when your a kid) etc etc... Or the classic, "Hey Jameson, happy birthday have a good day...April fools hope your day sucks!!" Anyways point in case, at one of the gyms I work at I do the closing shift, so whenever other people have birthdays I get to polish off the Ben and Jerry ice cream cakes or finish a few fresh cookies, so my reputation as an eater has grown at my gym. (I'm realllly trying not to eat sweets but I find excuses all the time, like running, lifting, or just being in a mood where I think I deserve it.) So at this said gym people write their birthday's on the calender and then they tend to have food brought in for them, so obviously I did this.... I get into work (20 minutes ago) and I've been having a good day, tons of bday texts, phone calls etc etc...and my boss and this girl are talking about their sugar high. Apparently they had gotten some fancy cake, and so my boss goes, oh well ya know what inspired it actually, and he points at my name on the calender under birthday. He says "Ye, we saw that you played an April fools joke on us so we figured we would get some cake in your honor." WELL the cake gotten in my honor was finished before I got here, so his only response was "April fools" as in we bought you a cake and ate it all. He was convinced it was NOT my birthday, cmon man I filled out a W4 didn't I?? So birthdays are always interesting... So this is a photo from my birthday 3 years ago...horrendous goatee, I weighed 215-220, I dropped down to 175 before putting muscle on which brought me back to around 190. So I can't complain about the positive changes I've made in my life the last couple of years. Below that picture is a semi-recent one of me and my sister. Although I may look a lil goofy (damn you 2 dollar switchbacks) (slash I love you 2 dollar switchbacks) I must say I look a lot better than in the previous picture. If you guys disagree...then yikes I have a problem. Also, my sister and I are super gangster.

M-ILL-E (emily) not a big deal. So to keep this fitness/running related yesterday my client surpassed her 2 week goal by 2.5 pounds, so due to our agreement she got to train me for 15 minutes (otherwise it was tyson squats for her for a lonnng time)...apparently making her do countless squats and step ups, planks, crunches etc etc... has paid off, she learned how to be a trainer...pretty much, she made me do 22 of everything (eve of my 23rd bday) and was even making me drop my knee right down to the floor on my lunges. Today my shoulders are SORE! Which I just don't get, I've been doing cleans, deadlifts and shoulder exercises all the time, but this woman made me do nonstop exercise for 15 minutes, and she made me do things that apparently just ripped my shoulders/traps. Maybe I'm TOO mean of a trainer. All the rows and lat pulldowns hit me deep. So that means I was too sore for my pushups. After work this morning. 8-12, and 5-9, great bday shifts... I decided I wanted to run a fast 3 miles....sooooo nice out! So I did 3 miles in about 22 minutes, or around 7:20 pace, so I was happy. I'm sick of these training runs at 8:40-9 pace. I'm not a super fast person, but I love pushing it for 2-3 miles. Either or, its been a great bday and I like where I am going compared to just a few years age.

Rain Run

I had BIG aspirations for the day, well not too big, but I wanted to go to a spin class, lift, and run 6-7 miles. Well I slept in for the first time in weeks, I was in bed til 9:30, epic. I didn't have to work til 5 so I figured what the heck. So I got up, ate some breakfast, relaxed and decided I was gonna go for a run, then my roommate told me it was even colder today and raining, great. So I ended up getting my taxes done, which I'd been putting off...big time. I also decided to suck it up and run I had an excellent relaxing run of about 8.5 miles and I did it in a little under an hour and 15 minutes (I really need a garmin instead of a cellphone) I was wearing ski tights and a raincoat, I looked ridiculous I'm sure. I still got soaked, but at least my ipod stayed dry! As you can tell from the photo my vision was limited to say the least. Thanks Burton for the extra big rainjacket, but very light! I had to pay extra attention crossing roads because I had horse blinders on with that giant hood. In the second photo, you can see just how wet I gotish, and I would say I wasn't sweating that hard, my face was soaked. I'm often lazy about going contacts vs. glasses (necessary for rainy runs) and I'm really glad I did it this time. My socks got soaked, I hit a giant puddle about .05 miles into my run, making me decide I probably should have just given up from the beginning on bothering with the rain coat. I didn't do my pushup training yesterday so I may do it when the gym closes tonight. Also when I look at this second photo I see why I love post-college housing, a draft special poster, and in the background my roommates Nike Soccer banner from playing at UVM. I also have realized from reading around blogs lately, that runners are just alcoholics with a hobby. Esp Jamoosh. Nothin but love for the guy though, esp if he sends me some of his homemade brew. So all in all today was good, I ran further than I wanted and it felt good!

Thanks mom

Everybody can thank my mom, she did it. Got me a camera (my bdays thurs, but she let me have it earlier...yay!) side note-she bought herself the exact same one. I went for a GREAT run yesterday, my overall pace was 9:14, but this may have to do with the fact that from .3-1.6 miles I was climbing straight up. I borrowed my mom's garmin. AWESOME, god I need one, and I watched my pace go as low as 12 min/miles, this hill was steepppp and long, and on the way back around the much gentler slope/flats I was able to go as low as 8:40, 8:20 and 8:50 for my last 3 miles, of my 5.5 mile run. I figured that was a pretty good turn around considering my first 2 miles were over 10 min/miles, and I had drank a myriad of White Russians and Labatt Blue's the previous night. Both foreign drinks...eh? Both delicious, and the labatts were enjoyed with some grilled steak, sweet potatoes, salad and homemade garlic bread. Holler. It was a pretty good weekend. So I have a few promises that are camera related to fulfill. I talked about posting running pics, bench pressing girls, and pushups with small animals on my back. Well I only did one of those can you guess which one??

OF COURSE I did pushups with small animals on my back. My mom's look may be confusing, but it is one that

shows how astonished she was that I was able to do SOOO many pushups with a cat on my back, thanks Rocko. My 100 pushup training is tough, Friday I had to do 5 sets, the numbers were 22, 30, 20, 20 and for the set where I was supposed to max I did 34. So thats 128 pushups in under 8 minutes, after an hour spin ride in a class where the instructor is running around with a drum and telling you to "grrr" (freaken awesome, I had my doubts) so I was excited, after this next week I have to retest my max, last thing I knew I was at 50, but I haven't checked since I began the program...so we'll see and I will update! Hope everybody is doing well.

Smile, buy me a camera

Three days in a row oh my god! So my blogging friends, there are few of you, but hopefully I can be entertaining for the 14 of you who appreciate me so far. My birthday is coming up, April fools Day, always fun to get big boxes with nothing in them. Ha fricken ha! POINT that I am trying to make, is I asked for a digital camera for my birthday (mom you follow this blog) SOO if all my followers could post a comment in support of me getting one, I will be able to add *current* photos of me running, doing awesome exercises (pushups with small animals on my back) bench press where I replace the barbell with a sexy and or hefty girl, depending if I'm going for glamour or glory. The road to 100 pushups is being crushed. Workout number two today. 5 sets, 25, 20, 15 15, and then 39 for my last! I was very excited because I didn't expect to be able to max more than 10 (I was beat) I had done an hour spinning class before. Whooped my lil hiney. But in the theme of sans camera I will not be posting any photos or videos(remember comment to get her to get me one, or tell your friends to follow me, or comment on her blog.) MY MOM And p.s. I'm not spoiled I'm asking for a very cheap minimalist one. But no photos today. Once *knock on wood* I have one, I will definitely be including videos of me doing my mike tyson jump rope workouts. If thats not a selling point...then I don't know what is.

Jameson, Sir!

Vermont's jokes about the weather continued. I drove to work this morning in cold cold rain, and when I came back I was planning on running, but I opted for Toasted Oh's instead (ate a whole box, 2 bowls for breakfast and 2 for lunch.) I decided to finally go for a run at about 3:30 before I went back to the gym for work. I was lazy and wore my glasses because it wont rain...well it did, and wet glasses=blind, so I take my glasses off=blind. (Always wear contacts when running) Point in case I got wet. The picture is roughly how wet I got from running the past 2 days. Actually thats a picture of my dolphin impersonation from a few years back when I jet myself out of a pool. But the point is it was miserable...weather wise. The run was great, I did a 4.5 mile loop and made myself do a huggge hill at about the 3/4 mark. It was probably a half mile or so. The song I WANTED to come on came on during the hill so I crushed it.

That song may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it helps push me for sure. So running quality was actually pretty good in the end, felt good then and I feel good now. I had done deadlifts earlier too so I wasn't sure how my legs/back would hold up. Pretty soon I will be the Desperate Housewives of Vermont's drill seargent. I am going to be doing a bootcamp program Friday afternoons for 6 weeks, if it picks up it will continue. So people had better address me with authority. (Power trip, can't wait!) Tomorrow I wake up and do a spin class before work, and lift after I train someone, then a break and then it's time to work again. 100 pushups here we come!

Yikes

Holy neglecting my blog. So apparently I havent blogged since last Tues...whoops. I guess theres a lot I could be updating people on. The main things are of course fitness related. My leg/achillies is feeling a lotttt better so I ran 3 days in a row last week and took the weekend off and ran again today. So thats pretty, pretty awesome. I was driving to work today and it got cold again so I was blasting my heat and by the time I got close to my work I was like man this car is still freezing! I had forgotten that 2 days ago when it was high 60's I was too hot so I had switched from heating to cooling. What a difference. Last time I ran it was shorts and with sunglasses, today it was sweatpants/sweatshirt a winter hat and a prayer that the winds and rain didn't get me sick. I also stumbled across an awesome challenge that I have decided to partake in. Dangle The Carrot is holding a 100 pushup challenge over the course of 6 weeks, and having recently told my blogging friends that I was up to 50 pushups, I was like...yes I will. Today was my first day of training and it involved doing 5 sets of pushups in with 60 seconds of rest in between. The sets were supposed to be 14, 18, 14, 14 and then max for my last set. (I'm starting at week 3, cause I'm that badass) I rounded up and did 15's and 20's and then for my max I cranked out a screaming 35 pushups. It was hell. I really like this challenge, next I'm going to push myself for a pullup challenge (hate doing pullups.) No better way to get results then to make you do stuff you hate.

Get Some!

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What a GREAT DAY!!! I was outside and it was simply glorious. I hung out on the waterfront in Burlington and it was epicly gorgeous out. I had run an easy 2 miles earlier in the day and I was satisfied, I'm going to do 20-30 minutes of jump rope after work with some strength training as well. I'm trying to catch up with loss time (not too much, don't need to re-reinjure myself. But when its nice out like this I dont know if I can stop myself from running regardless. Here's a picture of some of my buddies from senior week last year. This is on a trip to the waterfront, and this picture about sums up how gorgeous it was today. The highlight of my day, besides the epic weather, was a young man training for....something. I was walking down to the waterfront with my friend Kat and this guy ran by us, saw a rock stepped on jumped off and continue running. Sleeveless shirt, basketball shorts, and questionable running shoes. We went on without thinking and we reached the boardwalk and saw our bud again. He was in a TRACK START POSITION, and ran a solid fast sprint (25 yards max...6 seconds probably?) Horrible pace, and he was hysterical looking. After that he ran over to a tree jumped up and as he swung he did one pullup...that was all (not the strongest or sexiest tool in the shed (his vert sucked too.)) He was heading over to a bike rack and I got giddy with excitement. "This guy is gonna do dips on the bikerack." Correction: Dip, uno, one. At this point I'm dying with laughter and kicking myself for not bringing a camera (we had already discussed this just because of the weather, long before we saw young Hercules.) He looked like the fellow with the chinstrap off to the left...give or take a few pounds, sans chinstrap, and a MUCH more intense workout face. As a personal trainer perhaps it is my right or DUTY to help this guy out, but all I could do was stare and laugh (hello gates of hell). I respect people trying to get in shape, but when you are making a fool out of yourself in front of 20-30 people doing exercises to show off that aren't impressive...well you're on your own. I mean after every sprint this guy was making noise like he had just won the Olympics, Vermont 2020!! Man that'd be sweet, maybe someday. God I love spring, brings out the best and worst of the winter shutins.

Sunday Funday

So all in all it has been an interesting past few days. College basketball has stolen most of my time so I neglected running, and since I got tickets to the UVM/ Boston University game I ended up drinking in the morning to prepare (sorry mom). So Saturday was good, I hung out with some kids who I graduated with and hadn't seen in a bit and we drank classy beers like Labatt Blue Light and Busch. We brought our friend Morgan to the game, he is a great captain afterall. So UVM ended up winning the game, we ended up rushing the court, and I had several people tell me they saw me on national t.v. and I ended up seeing myself when I watched sportscenter that evening. Probably the main reason I was lucky enough to be on it would be due to Marcus Blakely.

I can't try and tell anyone that

this is the first time that Marcus has made an opponent get on their knees and bow to him. Either way, if he hadn't have dunked and kept something replay worthy for sportscenter, my hopes and dreams go down the drain.

Those videos are a taste of what Marcus does to embarrass people.

Back to me though, so I felt pretty worthless today, so when I woke up and cleaned it was a good start, I made a bbq cheeseturkeyburger pizza with peppers and onions...yum, and I went for a run in the rain which was actually very satisfying, I stopped by my gym for some quick repetitions of the old iron. I used the speedbag, did some endurance work, and crushed 50 pushups (last 2 were questionable.) So all in all it was a good day in the end.

Yellow and green hat, would be yours truly, not a shot of my beautiful face, but take what you can get!

Trading

Who remembers elementary school? Does anyone else besides me remember trading? Someone had some oreos somebody else had some goldfish...boom-trade. Sick of your power ranger toy? Jeff has a ninja turtle...well there ya go. Those times were awesome, you aren't paying for new things, but you are trading something of yours for something else thats new! Well I have been tackling the trading market lately (no not stocks.) I am aware that I lack flexibility so I was interested in trying out Yoga, so I traded a personal training session with a super nice yoga instructor for an introductory lesson. Both were fun and it didn't feel like work. That was wicked cool. Last week the massage therapist from one of my gyms was heading out of town, I walked her two adorable yellow labs and played catch with snowballs, I got my first ever professional massage for walking two dogs? I probably would have paid to do that. Also she is my running coach and she is awesome. Look at that picture! Is walking those guys worth a massage, if you answered no you are 1.a robot 2.a cat or squirrel 3. afraid of cute creatures or 4.you are married to a swiss male/female world renowned masseuse, and even then you prob want to walk these guys. Well anyway, trading talents has been awesome for me in the past week (walking dogs isn't really my talent.) So I guess all thats new is my week has been relaxing, despite working til 9 PM 4 nights a week, and starting work @ 9 am 4 days a week, I get a break but yeah, its interesting, and I work 6 days a week...god I had short shifts, by what I just posted you would think I worked 60 hours, wrong, I'm just hovering around 40 hours. I have been craving Ben & Jerries ice cream cake! I started creating a remix today (yes if it is hot fire I will post a link.) This has a lot to do with my 24inch imac I purchased on tax free day. So take-away message for the night? If you have a talent, go trade it to save both of you money, you get something out of it, and you are helping somebody else. (No sexual jokes please, okay fine, I'll probably laugh.)

Son of a female dog

Today was a success, as in I ran 3 miles FINALLY. It has been far too long since I ran anything, and I know its gonna be a little bit before I'm back on my marathon training schedule...aka prob not until after the marathon. I am participating in the Global Warming My Ass 6.66 Mile Run I was hoping to win, but I had a problem with my running today (besides an injury) I decided to take my friend's dog Cora for a run. She isn't slow to say the least. she is pretty darn fast in fact. When you take her for a walk, you are pulling with all your might to hold her back, and her owner even has a special collar that makes it uncomfortable when she pulls (terrifying without it) so yeah shes a pretty athletic dog. She is a pitt/boxer mix and as scary as she looks to some people she is a sweetheart. Well anyway this b*tch (female dog) is super athletic and I was like hey I'm gonna run a personal best for 3 miles. She towed me down a couple of hills and then I found her other big trait-curiosity, and no shes not a cat. Every squirrel, fellow dog, or cat that we saw, resulted in an abrupt change in direction that almost knocked me over several times, and by the time I had her back on course some other dog would appear with its owner ready to tango. I should add, those hands in the picture are mine, and NO I'm NOT choking a dog. Not that this machine of a canine would feel it... Anyways she went from pulling me down hills to pulling me towards squirrels 2 parking lots over, so overall I would say my run was more like 4 miles and I got in a great upper body workout trying to maintain this beautiful beast. She is fairly small, I dont think she weights anything more than 35-40 pounds, but pound for pound (ONLY MUSCLE) she is probably matched up to any dog out there. Side note- all things weight lifting/personal training are going great. 3 miles-30 minutes, at a 8:30 pace...how is this possible?? Just ask the dog...