Annual Physical

I had my annual physical yesterday and the results were very good.  My doctor was happy to see the weight loss, the improved diet, and all the great lifestyle changes.  Some highlights from the exam:

Blood Pressure 108/64
Pulse: 64
Fasting Glucose: Down from 104 to 95 *Should be 100 or less.  I went from Prediabetic into the normal range!!!!
Cholesterol: Down from 149 to 126  *Should be less than 200
Triglycerides: Down from 91 to 78 * Should be less than 150. 3 years ago this was in the 160-170 range for me
HDL(Good Chol.): UP from 32 to 42  *Should be 40-65, genetically I'm at risk for low HDL, Thanks Dad :)  This was the number I was most worried about a year ago, and the number I was happiest with yesterday.
LDL(Bad Chol.): Down from 99 to 68 *Should 130 or less, 100 or less is optimal.
LDL/HDL ratio: Down from 3.09 to 1.62, *Should be 2.5 or less
Chol/HDL ratio: Down from 4.65 to 3.00, *Should be 5 or less

All in all a very good review.  However, he did run a s-TSH test to check my thyroid levels.  It was slightly elevated, and he scheduled me to return in 2 months for a follow test.  We'll see what it shows, he didn't seem too concerned at this point, but we'll know more before RAGBRAI gets here.

Chicago!

So my training took a major hit this week..... Of course it was worth it.  Lisa and I took a trip to Chi town.  We hit the Sears Tower, ughmmmm I mean the Willis Tower, on Thursday night.  We got there at the perfect time.  The last school group was coming down as we went up, so we didn't have to wait in line and it wasn't crowded at the top.  They have added clear boxes that jut out of the building so when you stand in them you can look straight down 103 stories.  The first step out onto the boxes was pretty scary but after the initial contradiction it was pretty easy to move around.

On Friday we got up very early and hit the road at 6am to drive into downtown.  We parked the car at Navy Pier, purchased a transit card and took the bus into downtown.  We ate breakfast at this little place called Yolk, I had found it online and it had great reviews.  The reviews were correct it was delicious!   We then bused down to the Museum of Science and Industry.  We walked through the whole museum.  We skipped the UBoat tour and the IMax, but we went through their new special exhibit, the Green House.  It used a lot of green methods and materials and was pretty interesting.  We ate lunch at the Brain Food Court in the museum before heading back to Navy Pier.

We walked up and down Navy Pier for a couple hours while we killed time before dinner.  I had made dinner reservations in the Signature room on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Building.  Dinner was EXPENSIVE, but it was very good.  We had seats right along the window.  The view was wonderful, and it was a great end to the day.  We then bussed back to Navy Pier and drove back to Bolingbrook to the hotel.  We had a drink with Ryan and Pam and then headed to bed.

Saturday was the big day for Ryan and Pam the wedding was at 2pm, so we got to sleep in.  Once we got up we headed over to the mall across the street, got Lisa a cardigan to wear that night at the reception, and walked around the outdoor mall.  We ate lunch at an Irish Pub, nothing beats curry fries and guiness for lunch!  Then it was back to the hotel to change for the wedding. 

The ceremony was nice and there was a 2 hour break between the ceremony and the shuttles leaving the hotel for the reception.  We spent the time taking a nap in the room.  The reception was at Narnia Estate, the place was GORGEOUS.  Ryan and Pam had a Wedding Singer, they had a great DJ, amazing food, and we had a blast at the reception.  After the reception we crashed because we had an early morning planned for Sunday.

We grabbed bagels, thanks again to Ryan and Pam, and headed back to the Lakeshore.  This time we hit the Shedd Aquarium, we saw the Fantasea show, took in a 4D experience of Happy Feet, and got to see the other tanks and exhibits at the Aquarium.  When that was finished we headed over to Portillo's for Chicago Style Hot Dogs and Cheese Fries for lunch.

We ended the weekend at Lincoln Park Zoo.  Its free admission, and parking wasn't too expensive either.  We wandered the park, saw most of the animals and then started making our way home.  We got back about 6:30 last night which gave us enough time to unpack, unwind, and head to bed. 

Needless to say all the sight seeing led to NO workouts over the weekend, eek, the tri is 3 weeks away, gonna have to hit it hard this week.  I've got a busy week too, Chiro tonight, dentist tomorrow, annual physical wed.  On top of that I need to dig up one of our down spouts because it appears to be clogged and backing up.  We should have pictures up on Facebook sometime this week from the trip/wedding.  And the clock is ticking on planning our own wedding.  We've been putting those plans on the back burner for quite awhile its time to buckle down and get some more things checked off the to-do list.

Hope you all had a great week, and hope this week is even better.

Finishing Touches

So the first week of the weight loss push wen really well.  I weighed in last night down almost 2.5 pounds!  I achieved that even though we went out to eat 3, THREE! different times over the weekend.  We've compiled a list of local restaurants we want to try and we crossed 3 off our to-do list, two of which made the for sure we'll go back list, and one made the not bad, but not top of the rotation list.  In the process we added 3 or 4 more restaurants to the list. 

I got a really great bike ride in on Saturday, I headed North out of town and rode for an hour, I made it all the way to where I work and another 2 miles back towards home, before Lisa caught up to me and picked me up.  Once I got out of the city I rode at about 23 mph.  I did have a little bit of a tailwind, but it felt great to just spin for an hour.

I picked up my quick laces on Saturday afternoon and got those into my bike and running shoes.  They should help speed up my transition times at the Tri.  I also decided to get a wetsuit, so I drove over to Iowa City yesterday and rented one from the University Outdoor Rental Center.  It was $10 a week for 5 weeks, which is less than most places I found online charge for 1-2weeks.  I'll get some good practices in with it which should make a big difference come race day.

I got through 3 sets of sprints so far.  I'm running way faster than my desired pace.  Yesterday was 8 sets of 300m with a 100m rest.  The 300m was supposed to be 66second pace.  I ran them in 54-56 seconds.  Tonight is my first brick, I'll be setting up a transition area, biking 45 minutes, returning to the transition, switching to running gear and running for close to 3 miles.  We'll see what the first practice brings. 

Meanwhile we've got most of our early season yard work complete, we have another couple hours of weeding to do, and Lisa will be spending Saturday and Sunday planting flowers with her mom.  Happy Mother's Day! 

Wedding plans are coming along, we're planning a trip to San Diego at the end of August to meet with vendors and finalize our plans.  We have a trip to Chicago in 2 weeks for a fraternity brother's wedding.  We're gonna make a vacation of it and do all the touristy things like Navy Pier, Sears Tower, etc....  Should be a blast. 

That's it for now, I'll be back, maybe later this week with transition information and wetsuit updates.  Have a great day.