I just heard about the cold water/ice bath soaks. I'll start doing that next week.

For now, I have to go (try to) run 50k. Feeling a little looser...

Are you still alive?

Yup. Finished in 9:18:48. I was shooting for 8 hours but I spent about an hour and a half sicker than hell. I was doing so bad I laid down at an aid station for ~30 minutes.

But I finished my first ultramarathon and I couldn't be happier. Looking forward to my first marathon in Portland this October.

Congratulations! That's really fantastic!

Awesome! You must feel great about your accomplishment!

How long was your ultramarathon?

I do! It was 50k.

Amazing accomplishment PW!

Well done! Hope you recover quickly.

Thanks :)

I feel surprisingly good. I've been way sorer than this before. Though they say sometimes it doesn't really hit you until the second day.

I'll probably go for a bike ride today, just to loosen up the body. I'll run my "happy loop" Monday.

Still on cloud 9...

the free weights beckon - mainly because I know them. The machines seem to be a little intimidating. that and the workout is better on the free-weights (as I understand), because rather than targeting specific muscles on the machines, free weights cause other muscles around them to work because you're controlling the weights and the way they work and move

On the other hand, the machines are a bit safer. Better than dropping a 25 pound weight on your toe (which I did once), or getting stuck under the weights doing a bench press. Mark Frechette died that way, although he may have had some help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Frechette

Anybody remember the movie, and the orgy scene at the end?

Going with some friends/acquaintances to run across the Crazy Mountains on the 29th. 20 steep miles. I'm pumped.

So, I have been a SWB (skinny white boy) my whole life. As much as alot of you would probably hate to hear this, I could spend a weekend sitting on the couch, eatting food and playing video games and at the end of the weekend, I would have lost 3 lbs.

I have always wanted to get myself into shape, but found it hard to motivate myself into going to the gym or working out.

A few months ago I was devistated by the girl who I was planning on spending the rest of my life with leaving me. So, I used that sadness to make me a better person.

Since May 5 of this year I have been going to the gym 5 - 7 days a week. I was also mountain biking in conjunction with that, but decided to start running instead to put more stress on my knees which are messed up from snowboarding injuries.

So, I go to the gym for an hour, then go running for down to the lake, where I take my shoes off and run a mile on the sand, which takes another hour. The whole loop is about 4 miles.

Im still skinny, but definitely losing some fat and gaining muscle.

I try and do push ups in the morning when I wake up, and in the evening before I take a shower. Also, usually a few sets during the day.
When I started I could barely do 20 push ups. I can now do 60 fairly easy. I didnt start doing bench press until just recently, I was doing pect butterflies, but I estimate I could bench somwhere under 100 lbs when I started. I am now benching my weight which is 140 lbs. When I started, I could do about 50 sit ups, I am now doing 50 sit ups on an incline bench with a 45 lbs weight on my chest.
When I first started running, I was doing the same distance. The first few days of it, I could barely walk after running. I was so sore, that I had to walk down stairs sideways. Now the run is something that I come to enjoy. I run to the beach, throw sticks off the dock for my dog to jump in and get, the run home.

I estimate I will be in the shape that I want to be in by the end of this year. It is still hard for me to gain weight. While I do work out regularly, my metabolism is still so high, and I have to eat and eat and eat to keep weight on. But I am still in the best shape of my life, and want to continue with it.

Don't worry, give it a few years and you'll gain weight easily :lol:.

More stress on the knees is a good thing? first I've heard.

well, that's what people tell me, but my father doesnt put weight one easily, and he doesnt really eat the best. He was an alcoholic, and he eats alot of processed foods. I was raised vegitarian, and today I will only eat chicken and fish.

Normally, stress on the knees is bad. I have some torn ligaments though, and the mountain biking wasnt cutting it. I needed something that placed more stress on the knees to strengthen them, and the running is working. Its not alot of stress, but it is enough that now my knees feel secure, whereas before if I stepped wrong my knee would buckle and swell up.
Same reason I started doing the push ups. I have AC seperations in both shoulders. My right shoulder is a 4th or 5th degree which I did a few years ago, and the left shoulder is a 1st degree which I did in April. I had been wanting to strengthen my shoulders for awhile since the injury was something that bothered me. I would have trouble doing certain motions like sweeping or shoveling. When I did the other shoulder, I knew I had to do something about it.

Ligaments are tricky. If you stretch them further than 17% of their lenght, they will tear, and most doctors will tell you that they arent bad enough for surgery. Which is what they told me for my knees and shoulders. So, the only other option is to work out the muscles around them.