Swimming a Mile and Shooting Hoops with Kids

Friday I took the day off. Don't be jealous. I still woke up at 5:30, and once the wife and kids were out the door, I went to the pool. With all of my extra time, I spent fifty-six minutes in the pool and swam one mile. That's 1.022727 miles if you're counting, and I am. Eighteen hundred yards to look at it another way. And yes, that's the longest distance I have ever swam.

I have to honest, however, I did take little breaks every 400 or 500 yards. What? Did you want me to drown? There was a life guard there. She looked to be about seventeen and a half. I'm sure she rolled out of bed and went straight to her job of saving lives. She literally wore her pajamas to the pool. She clearly did not expect to have to get into the water. Thankfully she didn't have to pull me out of the water and get her PJs wet. I did end up interacting with another young girl later, but more on that later.

The swim went well. Obviously I have a lot of room for improvement. I need to do that much faster come September, but psychologically it helps to know you can swim that distance without keeling over. My left ankle got just a little tweaked three quarters of the way through. I assume it was saying, "Take it easy, we don't usually do this." At the end of that 36th lap I sat on the edge of the pool and re-evaluated my life.

That was fun, but afterward I went over to the gym to run. It was chilly and windy outside and I didn't feel like messing with that, so I decided to get on the treadmill, where I ran for thirty-five minutes. As I was running I eyed the basketball courts and decided to shoot some hoops.

So I get done running, get a basketball, and find a hoop that no one is shooting at. But then this young girl, I judged her to be the age of my daughter, comes over and starts shooting with me. There was at least one other hoop not being used, and I don't know why she didn't decide to use that one.

I've never been accused of being overly outgoing or social. I'm not the kind of person who's never met a stranger; I meet strangers daily. Sometimes I meet the same strangers several times.  And so I really thought about going down to the other hoop, but the girl was tossing me my ball after I'd clank it off the rim. Once she even chased it down after it bounced underneath the bleachers. At one point she was saying something, so I was forced to take out one of my earphones so I could hear. Finally she left. I think her mom called her. I figured she is just like my daughter in that doing something with someone, like shooting hoops, is better than shooting hoops by yourself. I think they call that extroverted.

So after all of that I was quite beat for the rest of the day, but there is no rest for the weary. I have a diabetes walk, two birthday parties, and a soccer game on Saturday. Oh, and my wife is out of town. I need a nap.

Garmin Forerunner 305

From time to time I see that someone comes across this post asking, "Can you swim with the Garmin Forerunner 305?" The answer is, no. The manual says do not swim with it on.

At the beginning of this decade, and I'm quite pedantic, so to me this decade began January 1, 2011, I bought a Garmin Forerunner 305. Here it is:

What is it? It's a GPS training device that you wear on your wrist. It keeps track of your run, including your pace, speed, distance, heart rate, etc. So far, I'm quite pleased with it.

In the past I had no way to tell how fast I'd run a route save noting how many degrees the sun had moved across the sky from the time I started until the time I stopped. That didn't work on cloudy days.
My 305 has solved that problem, and so much more.

It's evident by now that I don't really know how to write a review, or indeed, write. Let me start by just saying what I like about my highly evolved stopwatch:

• It monitors your heart rate. You wear a strap around your chest which communicates with your device through some sort of witchcraft. Knowing your heart rate is important if you plan to train by it, of course. Besides, it's just neat to know.
• It keeps track of your speed, pace, heart rate (I said that), distance, and elevation while you're running. The display is customizable, so you can pick and choose what you'd like to see while running. It also minds your calories burned, but it doesn't tell me how many calories I sink into my facial orifice.
• Once you run a route, you can download it and save it to the device as a course. You can then re-run that course against yourself. More about that later.
• You can custom program any kind of workout you like. For instance, run a 8:30 pace for 2 miles, then run at a 7:30 pace for 3 miles. Or, train in a certain heart rate zone, or mix and match with heart rates, speeds, paces, etc. It's pretty nifty. I have not gotten real creative with this feature yet. All I've done is set up certain distances, like 5 miles. Then I go run, and it keeps track of the distance and tells me when I've completed the distance. Once I find a route I like at the distance I want, I set up a course.
• You can race against yourself using the Virtual Trainer. Once you've run a course, the next time you run it you can compare your progress with the last time you ran it. Awesome. On an earlier post I wished someone would invent such a thing. It was already done! Thank you Mr. Garmin. Of all the features, this is the one that makes me run faster each time.

There are a bunch of other features, including a compass, a Go To feature, and other navigational tools. The ones listed above are what I use the most.

When you open the box you have to download the software to your computer, and then hook up the device to your computer via the usb cable. It needs to charge for a little while.  After your workouts you hook it up and your stats are downloaded to the program where you can view them. You can set up some of the workouts and courses right on the device, but it is way easier to do it on the PC and then download them to your device.

The logs its creates are just OK. They are not as versatile nor customizable as I'd like, but they are usable. Here's a view:

As much as I like this fancy watch, it did let me down once. I was running a 5K course and was nearing the end. I kicked it in hoping to get a good time, but right then the 305 lost the course. I continued to where the finish line should've been, but it said I was off course. That was inconvenient, but it hasn't happened any other time I've run a saved course.

So what else can I say? It can keep track of your laps, you can strap it on and go without worrying about complicated set up, or you set up a very complicated workout. There is a cycling setting, and another setting for "other" sports. There is also a piece sold separately that you attach to your bike which then monitors your cadence and strokes per minute.

Of course none of these features will do you any good unless you go outside and use them.

Swimming with My Pants Off-Well, Half Off...

Who doesn't like to get up at 5:30AM just to subject yourself to a possible death by drowning? I know I don't, but because something is wrong in my head I do it. Swimming, or controlled drowning as I know it, is my Achilles heel. If you knew how bad I am at riding and running, then you'd know that is pretty bad.

This morning as I stumbled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen, I couldn't find my regular swim shorts because my wife put them away. How dare her! I had to grab my orange swim shorts, the ones that don't have a draw string. They're supposed to just ride on your hips. I don't have a lot of hips, so these particular shorts are always on the verge of taking a dive.

So once I got in the water and heading down my lane, I could feel the shorts getting lower and lower. It doesn't help your time when you have to stop and pull up your pants at each turn. Very un-Michael Phelps like. It was embarrassing, but I was already over there and in the water; I wasn't going to stop just because my bahootie (as my kids call it) was high and dry. It wouldn't have been so bad, since there's usually one other old man and older lady (don't tell her I said that, she's swam over a 150 miles at our pool) there while I am, but this morning every lane was full, and at one point I had to share a lane.

When I got home I found my blue shorts, the ones that stay up. I'll wear those tomorrow.

At any rate, I've already logged more swims this March than last March, and I'm determined to swim better this year. I'm sure I could move up a few spots if I could just get out of the water sooner. Yet I keep telling myself that I suck at swimming. I'm sure that is not helping.

Coolest Sport Ever!

Those jumps off the plywood ramps are sick!

Thankful of It

Today I helped a patient out to her car by pushing her wheelchair. Well, she was in it, so I pushed her and her wheelchair. It reminded me of the time I was thirteen or fourteen. My friend Steve used a wheelchair, and while hanging out in a lobby on campus, he got out of it and sat on the couch. I asked if I could try out his chair, and he said sure. So I got in and wheeled around, but then I decided to go outside. This was 1985 or so, and they didn't have those buttons that opened doors back then. So here I am, sitting in the wheelchair trying to push a couple of glass doors open enough to get the wheelchair out. This gentleman saw me from outsite and came running up and opened one of the doors. I thanked him as I wheeled past, way too embarrassed to tell him I could walk.

Pushing that patient across the parking lot also reminded me of how thankful I am to be able get outside and participate in the things I like to do. In second grade, after I broke my arm, they put a cast on it. They told me I couldn't go out for recess for a while. On my first day back to school, all the other kids went out for recess, and the teacher told me to stay in. But then she left the room. I sneaked outside, started playing soccer, and promptly fell and broke my cast. They had to cut it off and re-cast it.

I don't worry about it a lot, but I really don't want to get hurt or injured and not be able to get out, never mind the pain. Each day of being healthy is a blessing. Thank you, Lord, for my health.

Images From My New Favorite Run

Saturday morning I went for a run, and because I rock the Garmin Forerunner 305 I'm able to go wandering and still know exactly how far I go. So wandering I went. There's a park on the edge of town that borders some wetlands. The whole area floods frequently, I assume that's because of Truman Dam a few miles downstream.

Here's the entrance to the park. In the background you can see the local armory. Immediately after entering the park I turn right onto some abandoned roads. Again, I think the roads and the accompanying bridges had to be abandoned once the area started flooding. However, the abandoned roads make great trails on which to run or bike. When I go back there I rarely see anyone else, and that's how I like it.

So on Saturday morning I turned down a path I hadn't noticed before and found a road I'd never seen. I stopped to take several pics. Here they are:


The surface is perfect for your mountain or hybrid bike.



Some (unfortunate) wildlife.



Old bridge.

You can't see them here, but like some guys insist on saying when you're playing softball, there's ducks on the pond. These are the same guys that say things like "that'll play" and "foot wedge" while playing golf.

The flood washed up a telephone pole or the SEALs dropped one.

Yes, that's a dinosaur in the treeline.

3.34 miles out.

This was the end of the line. I decided to turn around and head back at this point. On the pic above there are, again, some birds you can't see. They looked to me like guinea hens, except that they were in a flock of about 15, and they were black. Then they got in the water like ducks. I think I discovered a new species of bird.

It was here that I paused my new third favorite Extreme song on my iPod Nano and took in the silence and just marveled at God's creation. A marshy wetland when everything is still brown from winter may not seem that amazing, but when you're out there all alone it really is quite beautiful. Oh, and then I took a pee. There's nothing like peeing out in the open that makes you feel free and like a drunk all at the same time.

I'm sure when we get to Mars there will be beer bottles lying around. Here we go.

I think the guys that drank those beers made this sign.

My view as I headed back.

Pedaling Pedals

It's easy to get carried away buying equipment you think you need, like a new driver that Tiger uses (or do we like Nick Watney now?), a $229 fishing pole that better fishermen than you use, or one of those ShamWows that Vince Shlomi uses to wrap around his hand before he hits people. It's all very tempting, but thankfully they don't advertise triathlon gear on TV. Most of the triathlete's gear has a little red sticker that says, "As Not Seen on TV".

However, I still felt compelled last week to buy new pedals and shoes for my bike. Why? For performance? I wish! No, the biggest reason I got the pedals was to look the part of a triathlete/cyclist. I am nothing if not a slave to image. Well, that's not 100% true, but we'll get to that.

Here is a picture of the pedals that came with my Lotus when I bought it in '91 or '92:

That strap thing that goes around your foot is a clip, evidently. These pedals are a little tricky to get into, especially after you've completed your first ever swim in your first ever triathlon. At any rate, when you have these kind of pedals on your bike you look like a total dork. I am not kidding. This is a kin to jamming out to Good Vibrations, Marky Mark's Funky Bunch version, or just jamming in general. Actually, these pedals are worse than that, because no one even uses these in an ironic retro sort of way.

So I went out, online, and bought "clipless" pedals. That's totally confusing to me, because a clip is exactly what these pedals have to put your shoe in, see:

You can "clip" you foot into either side of these pedals. After seeing so many other cyclists using these, and talking with several, and by "several" I mean two, I decided to get them for my Lotus. I realize it's like getting a Prius and putting flames on it. It doesn't make my bike look cool, but maybe I'll save some energy. Maybe. That's the idea. Your pedaling becomes more efficient because your foot is attached to the pedal and more energy is transferred to the pedaling stroke. Are you buying that?

When you use clipless pedals, you have to have shoes that attach, see:

They attach with a cleat that you fasten to the bottom of the shoe. The cleats generally come with the pedals, but if you're shopping for used pedals on ebay, you have to read the description carefully to see if they're really included. The cleats wear out, so it may be best just to get new cleats if you're buying used pedals, I don't know.

I ended up getting a set of new pedals because the price was good. About thirty dollars with shipping. I realize these are not top o' the line pedals. My shoes were a little more, but I offset that with some money I'd earned from my insurance company.  Here's the bottom of my shoe and the cleat:

Now, here's where I'll still look like a dork at a triathlon: I got mountain bike shoes and pedals. I know, it's like wearing my flip-flops with my suit. The mountain bike shoes have a recess where the cleat attaches, which makes it easier to walk around with the cleat affixed. I'm not sure what's different about the mountain bike pedals. I knew I still wanted to do more cyclocross races this year, and you definitely need a shoe you can walk in for that, so since I didn't want to buy two sets of pedals and shoes, I decided to use these for both.

I put it all together last evening and rode around a little. They're not as tricky to use as I thought they'd be. I've heard stories of people falling over at intersections because they couldn't get their foot out, but I practiced a little in the garage, and didn't have any problems on the road. Will they help my performance? Probably not as much as training and riding will.

So there you have it. I got the pedals, the shoes, and now since I've taken my kickstand off, I'm starting to feel like a real cyclists.

Time to go riding! C'mon, C'mon, C'mon!

Entry Fees-Make It Worth It

I was speaking with a fellow at the gym the other day. He said he planned on competing in fifteen triathlons this year. I said something about entry fees and he said that the bank where he works sponsors him and covers his entry fees. That's good for him! The rest of us have to go to the bank and withdraw some of our own money to cover the entry fee.

Actually, the entry fees I've paid seem quite reasonable to me. When you factor in the number of participants and the risks involved with putting on this type of race, $60 to $80 doesn't seem unreasonable. The Branson 70.3 race is a little more, but I can stomach that since it's a real Ironman event. However, even with those prices, I can't do it every weekend until the not-for-profit hospital where I work starts paying my entry fees.

Part of getting in on USAT sanctioned events is buying a one day USAT license. It helps cover the insurance. Or, you can buy an annual license, which is $39 I believe, and then you don't have to pay $10 for the one day license.

For me, signing up early and paying the entry fee helps me get committed. I can say that if I hadn't already paid for the 70.3 in September it would be a lot easier to procrastinate and put off training. But dang it! I paid my money, I can't back out now.

You may have a lot of reasons to not sign up for a triathlon, but don't let the entry fee be one of them. Paying it may be what gets you motivated to train.

High Cost of Triathlon

Before I talk about Triathlon, look at this:

It costs $229. Do you know what it is? It's a fishing pole! The reel is not even included! I don't even know if that's the most expensive one; I randomly picked a price tag to look at.

Saturday I went to Bass Pro in Springfield with my father-in-law. It's a great store and I covet everything in there. I barely know how to fish with a bobber, let alone fly fish, but I want a fly fishing pole!

As a non-fisherman, I find $229 for a fishing pole that is not made out of gold a bit excessive. However, later that day, we went to a bike shop. I again randomly turned over a price tag and it read $1500! And the pedals weren't included!

You should know, I find $1500 for a bike quite expensive, but I wasn't surprised. I've priced bikes before, and $1500 is on the lower end. You can spend whatever you want on a bike. And then there's pedals, shoes, and helmets. My father-in-law said he saw a helmet for $260.

Do you need an expensive pole to catch a trout? I doubt it. I saw my friend Chris once catch a very nice bass with a little Mickey Mouse rod and reel. Do you need an expensive bike to finish a triathlon? I hope not. I ride a Lotus that I bought in 1991 or 1992 for $250.00. I'll let you know how it goes.

Ouch! That Hurts!

Morning workouts aren't my cup of coffee. First thing in the morning is my least favorite time to do a workout. I prefer to workout about mid-morning, after I've had coffee and my breakfast has a chance to sit for a while. Unfortunately most mid-mornings I'm at work or church. That leaves one mid-morning to do it my way.

Swimming is a problem when it comes to my schedule. The only time the pool is open for lap swimming is first thing in the morning. They open at 5AM. So if I'm going to swim before work, I have to get over there by 5:45AM. [Excuse Alert!] Because it's so hard for me to get over to the pool is why my swimming is so weak.

Now I have another reason to not like working out first thing in the morning. At about 5:30AM the other day, I lifted the curl bar and it felt like someone stabbed me in the back. I promptly blamed it on the time of day. It probably had more to do with not warming up, at all, but come on! Curling should be done when the sun is up.

You really do need to schedule your workouts. You'll find...Hey, why are the Beastie Boys playing in my son's bedroom? OK, just got back. He found it on the radio, No Sleep Til Brooklyn. It's funny what he gravitates towards, and he didn't get it from me. I don't mind the Beastie Boys (though I'm certain they're not appropriate for 10 year old boys) but a couple of years ago when he won the spelling bee, for his reward he picked the Metallica Guitar Hero game. I like a few of those popular Metallica songs, you know, the ones where they sold out, but he prefers that pre-Black Album stuff. The other game out that year was the AC/DC Rock Band game. I guess if he's going to listen to one of those bands, I'd prefer Metallica. Their lyrics seem so esoteric that I don't even know what they're talking about. AC/DC, not so much.

Hey, where was I? Oh, yes. Schedule your workouts. Find the time that is best for you. If it's first thing in the morning, thoroughly warm up first. Keep in mind, however, your workout is probably not the most important part of your life, so schedule accordingly.

iPhone Lust

i do lust after the iPhone. i hope to get one some day.

But you're a PC man! What the heck?

i blogged earlier this week about recording your workouts. i made a form on Excel, which i print and take to the garage with me when i exercise. There i simply write my numbers onto my form.

That's all well and good, but i realize that it would much more efficient if i could record my numbers electronically directly into whatever software i am using. Right now i transfer my numbers into my log on beginnertriathlete.com. It's a manual process, and it's a little tedious. It's free, so i'm not going to complain about it, but the reporting is a little limited. There is a subscription service you can buy, which i assume would come with more reporting features.

However, i've been reading about some of the fitness apps on the iPhone. A couple of them seem pretty cool. They even let you record your food intake so that you can calculate your calorie usage. i would like to monitor my calories, but i refuse to carry a notebook and pen around, writing down everything i eat just to turn around and transfer it into some program. These apps would let me record my workouts and calories on the fly, and would make it immediately available for reports. Sweet.

The ease of recording your runs is what's nice about my Garmin Forerunner 305. i strap it to my wrist, go for a run, and when i get back i sync it up with 305 software on my PC. It records speed, heart rate, pace, distance, etc. Again, i'll review it more fully at some point, but overall i'm very pleased with it.

And if i ever get one of those iPhones, i'll review one of those fitness apps as well.

Run with Dogs, You're Going to Make Friends

Though the title may suggest it, I don't own dogs. Indeed, I do not own even one animal, unless you're a naturalist, then I have four animals that I live with, one of which I call my wife, but it's kind of gross to think of it that way.

When I run through the neighborhood, every once in a while a dog of some sort will find me and decide to run with me. These aren't always stray dogs, either. Some I'm sure belong to someone because they sport a collar.

Now, just because I don't have a dog doesn't mean I don't like dogs. Fact is, I do like dogs and I always try to make friends with the ones I encounter, unless it's during a run and I can help it. When a dog starts running with me, I actually try to discourage any kind of friendship the dog wants to foster with me. I'll give verbal commands like, "Get!" and "Go home!" These dogs rarely speak English, so they keep running with me. I've had them follow me for a mile or two before.

Once a little tiny fluffy white lap dog started following me. He was surprisingly fast for such a little dog. I'd planned on doing a loop that day, but I got to feeling guilty about leading him so far from home, so I decided to make it an out an back, and turned around to lead it back through his own neighborhood. On the way back it got distracted and peeled off. I can only assume he found his way home.

That's what happens a lot of times when dogs are loose. Generally the dogs are penned up in their yard, and they decide to bark at me as I go by. I'll interpret their barks:

"Hey, don't come in our yard. Don't you dare. Yeah, that's right, you keep right on running, punk!"

Occasionally these dogs will be loose and they'll come out on the street to challenge me. Here I'll call their bluff and try to make friends. Sometimes I'm able to and they'll let me pet them. The less friendly ones will back off and not let me get close. I've never been worried about getting bit.

I'm more worried about looking stupid. I hate it when a dog comes out of nowhere and surprises me with a bark. I'll be going along listening to some podcast or other, when all of a sudden, "Woof, woof, woof!" I do my best not to jump, but I have rapidly changed course. I'm sure the dog owners take great delight in seeing a jogger jump out his Asics.

One more thing about four legged running partners. People always assume the dog is yours. I run on the left side of the road, approaching traffic. The dog runs out in the middle of the street. Any time a car comes by I feel like I have to tell the driver, "Hey, it's not mine." There's really no good way to say that while you're running. Do I shake my head and shrug? I'm sure that gets interpretted as, "I don't know why my stupid dog runs out in the middle of the road." That's not what I want to say. Thankfully I haven't seen any of these dogs get hit. Talk about feeling guilty.

Consistency-I Always do That

Think of activities you perform every day. Activities like, eating, sleeping, drinking, peeing. If you stopped doing even one those there would be terrible consequences, up to and including a hospitaliztion with a breathing tube, IV, and catheter. That's not what you want, is it?

In my previous posts over the last couple of days I talked about the importance of recording your workouts. Today I'm talking about the importance of recording those workouts consistently.

If you're recording your workouts, it's very easy to look back and see how consistent you are, or how consistent you are not. If you're not making the gains you expect, perhaps you need to workout more often.

Philosophers argue over whether or not we always do what we most want to do. You say you want to run a sub 7 minute mile, but you never get off the couch and run. I think it's apparent that you really don't want to run a sub 7 minute mile. Your actions prove it.

Being consistent not only means logging enough workouts, but recording consistent gains. You record a run three times every week, but your mile is at 10 minutes every time. Perhaps you need to exert yourself to find those gains, even if it's just one second each run. If you run slow on a regular basis, you'll get really good at running slow.

Keep in mind, it is possible to record too many workouts. Virtually everyone recommends rest. You have to give your body time to recover. You don't bench every single day. By logging your workouts, you can look back and find patterns. You may find that you make your biggest gains with four days of rest between bench days instead of three days. You might run better week to week by running four times per week instead of just three.

So consitently working out and consistently logging it work together. It may even pay off. I've been recording my workouts for awhile, but I recently learned that my health insurance plan pays out rewards for exercising. I go to their website, log in, and record my activity. They assign a certain amount of points to each activity, and after accumulating so many points, I can receive a gift card to any number of businesses, including a cash debit card. So far this year I've earned $50, which I put towards some cycling shoes on Amazon.com.

(You can see the above image, and others like it, here.)

Time out: Bob Knight just cussed on ESPN. Is he allowed to do that?

How Hard Should I Try? Let me See the Spreadsheet

Yesterday I talked about a relatively easy way to record your workout. Paper, pencil, and that's it. I said I use Excel to create a form which I print, and fill in by hand. Here's a piece of it:

Why is it important to look up and see what you did at your last workout? There may be several reasons, but an important one is to know how much effort you need to put into this workout. You give maximum effort every single time and you don't need a number to tell you what to do? Good for you. For the rest of us it helps to have a record.

Here's what I mean. You're on your way to benching 200 pounds. At your last workout you did four sets lifting 115 five times and one set of only lifting it 4 times. Your intermediate goal is to do 5 sets of 5 reps at 115 pounds before moving up to 120 pounds. You begin your workout, and you're not feeling it. The reps are coming harder than you expected. But you know that you almost got over the 115 pound threshold last time, so you buckle down and try that much harder, and before you know it you got your 25 total reps at 115 pounds. That's how gains are made, by exerting yourself.

This concept applies to several disciplines. I find that it's very easy during a run to believe I'm running faster than ever, but my actual time says I had lead feet. I heard Michael Jordan say once while he was still playing that each day he wanted to get a little bit better. If that's your goal, you're going to need to know what "better" is. In other words, you need an intermediate goal that is slightly heavier, faster, etc., than your last goal, and knowing what the goal is helps you get there.

If you don't use past performance and intermediate goals to motivate yourself, what do you use?

Gettin Nerdy with It-Record Your Workouts

Do you use an Excel spreadsheet to workout? No? You need to check your formula because it's a good idea.

If the point of your workouts is to make gains, like getting faster or stronger, you're going to need some way to measure your progress. Unless you've got the memory of Rain Man, it'll be very difficult to remember from workout to workout exactly what you did last time, and what you need to do this time to improve.

Let's look at a very simple example. You want to bench 200 pounds, and currently you bench 100 pounds. The ultimate goal is 200 pounds, but you'll need several intermediate goals to get there. You start off with an intermediate goal of lifting 110 pounds 5 times. The first time you put it up 3 times. The next time you put it up 4 times, but then you stall, and the next time you only lift it 4 times again. The next time you workout you remember that you're still at 110 pounds, but you can't remember how many reps you did. You can see that over several iterations of this it'll be difficult to remember what you need to add to stay on track, especially when you add in additional sets and exercises, like with a real workout.

So where does Excel come in? I find that it's easiest to record the workout as I'm doing it. When I get up from the bench, I immediately write down the reps and the weight. I write it down on a page I print from Excel that has my workout laid out, including the exercise, reps, and weight. Here it is:

I find it easier to print this and fill it in with a pen or pencil in the garage as I'm working out. At the next workout, I can easily see what I did last time, and try to improve on it. I suppose if you have a laptop or some other portable computing device you can take that with you and record your workouts directly into the software. I understand there are several iPhone apps created to record workouts in a similar fashion.

Is it absolutely necessary to use an Excel spreadsheet for this? No, but I'm used to using Excel so it was natural for me to create a log like this. You can draw one up by hand it you need to, just so it's something that is clear to you. If you already  record your workouts, how do you do it?

I'll talk more later about how recording your workouts like this can help you make gains.