Having a bit of trouble staying within the confines of the strict diet that the "Total Solutions: Thin & Healthy" program has me on. Its not like I'm not seeing improvement. I now weight less than I have ever since I've been with Becca, I'm nearly down to my military weight (which shows just how sad it was in there), and my stamina has definitely improved. I've started rock climbing again, running faster, and fitting into my clothes better, yet the bad foods still manage to find me when I'm weak.
Stats at the moment:
Weight: 240
BF: ~36% (by measurement, the electronic meters always put me lower)
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Friday, December 24, 2010
Catch up time
Well, lets start this thing up again. So much has happened since last time I actually wrote on here. My girls are another year older, I've joined a weight loss program thats actually helping this time, and... oh yeah... I've moved back to WA state! I'll begin with the last one.
The factory in WI, where I was working third shift, slowed down severely last year. Nearly all of the third shift staff, and much of the 2nd shift staff was laid off, with the down time so long most have found other jobs. Since the factory was in such a bind, they really didn't need 3 AI's on a full time basis. I'd like to say with fore-thought, but I'd been planning it since I joined the company, I started training for transfer into the nuclear side of the business. There weren't really an job openings on that side either; however, I had to take a bit of a leap of faith at the time. As it so happened, as I was finishing up my training, a job opening came open; one that most interested before I started. The only nuclear power plant in WA state was in fairly desperate need of a full time ANII, ever since the last one quit. Long story short, I ended up taking the job. I was unable to sell the WI house, but through friends, found renters, and that saved us from foreclosure. Its still a fairly scary risk for us, and both Becca and I feel like we're living in a house of cards. Any small thing could take us right back to the brink. Its frustrating to say the least.
But that's not what this blog is all about. I'm looking at doing another triathlon, or even series of triathlons next year, and at the weight I was 2 months ago, it wasn't going to happen. I reached a peak of 274 lbs! That's crazy! Well since November 17th both Becca and I have been in the Thin & Healthy program at the local gym, and so far I'm down 30 lbs from that point. I've started rock-climbing again, running, spin classes, and even swimming when I get the chance. I seem to be on my way, but have a ways to go yet.
I'll keep in touch
The factory in WI, where I was working third shift, slowed down severely last year. Nearly all of the third shift staff, and much of the 2nd shift staff was laid off, with the down time so long most have found other jobs. Since the factory was in such a bind, they really didn't need 3 AI's on a full time basis. I'd like to say with fore-thought, but I'd been planning it since I joined the company, I started training for transfer into the nuclear side of the business. There weren't really an job openings on that side either; however, I had to take a bit of a leap of faith at the time. As it so happened, as I was finishing up my training, a job opening came open; one that most interested before I started. The only nuclear power plant in WA state was in fairly desperate need of a full time ANII, ever since the last one quit. Long story short, I ended up taking the job. I was unable to sell the WI house, but through friends, found renters, and that saved us from foreclosure. Its still a fairly scary risk for us, and both Becca and I feel like we're living in a house of cards. Any small thing could take us right back to the brink. Its frustrating to say the least.
But that's not what this blog is all about. I'm looking at doing another triathlon, or even series of triathlons next year, and at the weight I was 2 months ago, it wasn't going to happen. I reached a peak of 274 lbs! That's crazy! Well since November 17th both Becca and I have been in the Thin & Healthy program at the local gym, and so far I'm down 30 lbs from that point. I've started rock-climbing again, running, spin classes, and even swimming when I get the chance. I seem to be on my way, but have a ways to go yet.
I'll keep in touch
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Okay Fatty, lets try this again...
In an effort to try and micro-manage this thing, and in keeping with some "good" advice I got online, I'm implementing the following rules on myself:
- Wake up to water. (ie: Drink at least 16oz of water when I get up in the morning)
- Eat Breakfast (No Denny's Lumberjack slam or anything; 500cal max)
- Review goals over breakfast
- Pack a lunch and only eat the stuff I've packed in my cooler. (Fruit, sandwich, cheese, & protein shake)
- Exercise right. (I'm thinking the Urban-athlon Training Program is right up my alley and I'm going to give it a shot) The scorpion push ups, row in push up position, and burpees with a side order of pull up look crazy!
Also trying the 365 day challenge, 1 portrait a day. I guess that's a good way to track it.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Damn that Ego...
Argh! Didn't like my run tonight very much.
When I woke up things seemed to be going somewhat well. I admit that after 7 hours, I felt like I hadn't slept more than 2, but it didn't last too long. I took my resting heart rate around then, and got a shock! 69 bpm! Holy cow! I don't think I've ever seen it that low!
On the other hand, I've heard that an abnormally low RHR is not necessarily a good sign, and could just be signaling that I've been over-training. Hope not. So with a good measure of optimism, I decided to go for my scheduled run. I mean if my RHR was 15-20 beats below normal, maybe I'd have a better run. Er...not so much.
I knew something was up after about 5 min. I hadn't reached my normal 5 min point of the course yet. That's odd. My HR was right where it was supposed to be, but I seemed to be a little slower than normal.
Okay, no problem, I'm training my heart and not my legs anyway, right?
I started my run about 7:30 in, right where I normally do, and at the normal HR, so I was beginning to think it was all just a fluke when I look down at the monitor and see it well above where I should be. Not cool.
I started to adjust, and managed to keep in just in check (after a slight malfunction with the HR monitor) with a relatively slow pace. Good enough. Then I get on the trail and some guy there effectively laps me. Well, that did it for me. Enough of this slower pace stuff, I want to run, so I pushed myself a little harder than I should have and paid the price. About 2.5 - 3 miles in I was ready to stop and walk. In fact I did end up walking at one point when my HR neared my upper limit despite my efforts to slow down before then.
All in all, I didn't finish much faster, didn't have a better time, and could've hurt myself by not following my schedule, all because my ego wouldn't allow some college kid 15 years my junior to show me up on an otherwise empty trail. And I'm supposed to be the passive one!
When I woke up things seemed to be going somewhat well. I admit that after 7 hours, I felt like I hadn't slept more than 2, but it didn't last too long. I took my resting heart rate around then, and got a shock! 69 bpm! Holy cow! I don't think I've ever seen it that low!
On the other hand, I've heard that an abnormally low RHR is not necessarily a good sign, and could just be signaling that I've been over-training. Hope not. So with a good measure of optimism, I decided to go for my scheduled run. I mean if my RHR was 15-20 beats below normal, maybe I'd have a better run. Er...not so much.
I knew something was up after about 5 min. I hadn't reached my normal 5 min point of the course yet. That's odd. My HR was right where it was supposed to be, but I seemed to be a little slower than normal.
Okay, no problem, I'm training my heart and not my legs anyway, right?
I started my run about 7:30 in, right where I normally do, and at the normal HR, so I was beginning to think it was all just a fluke when I look down at the monitor and see it well above where I should be. Not cool.
I started to adjust, and managed to keep in just in check (after a slight malfunction with the HR monitor) with a relatively slow pace. Good enough. Then I get on the trail and some guy there effectively laps me. Well, that did it for me. Enough of this slower pace stuff, I want to run, so I pushed myself a little harder than I should have and paid the price. About 2.5 - 3 miles in I was ready to stop and walk. In fact I did end up walking at one point when my HR neared my upper limit despite my efforts to slow down before then.
All in all, I didn't finish much faster, didn't have a better time, and could've hurt myself by not following my schedule, all because my ego wouldn't allow some college kid 15 years my junior to show me up on an otherwise empty trail. And I'm supposed to be the passive one!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Too much lounging around
Okay, I know this already, but I have to say it again. Taking, almost, a week off of training is bad.
Yeah, it wasn't the brightest spot in my life, and completely avoidable, but nevertheless I missed a few workouts while I was away on business. In fact from the long run last weekend till my long bike ride this weekend I only ran ~1.5 miles. Pretty pathetic, and I'm paying for it now.
On Saturday, I did another long bike ride around 20 mi. I can't say that it really went well though, since for the first 5 miles or so, I was already breathing hard and legs tired. After that I seemed to settle more into a rhythm and just kept pace. Recovered yesterday, then rode into work tonight, much to the complaint of my quads, who up until this point really didn't have much to say about the whole deal. Oh well.
As for this week, the plan is to run Mon, Wed, & Fri, with an Interval, Regular, & Long run respectively, and then bike to work as often as I feel the need, probably at least every other day.
Yeah, it wasn't the brightest spot in my life, and completely avoidable, but nevertheless I missed a few workouts while I was away on business. In fact from the long run last weekend till my long bike ride this weekend I only ran ~1.5 miles. Pretty pathetic, and I'm paying for it now.
On Saturday, I did another long bike ride around 20 mi. I can't say that it really went well though, since for the first 5 miles or so, I was already breathing hard and legs tired. After that I seemed to settle more into a rhythm and just kept pace. Recovered yesterday, then rode into work tonight, much to the complaint of my quads, who up until this point really didn't have much to say about the whole deal. Oh well.
As for this week, the plan is to run Mon, Wed, & Fri, with an Interval, Regular, & Long run respectively, and then bike to work as often as I feel the need, probably at least every other day.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
CCCCCCombo-breaker!!!
Whenever I seem to be settling in on the right track, everything goes sideways. I was doing so darn good too! Running every other day, closing in on a long term goal, losing weight, the works! But then the stuff hit the fan, rolled downhill, however it splattered, it happened.
On Monday, I got a phone call from my Supervisor dropping the bombshell I knew had been coming for quite a while. Secretly I had hoped that it would all blow over before reaching my doorstep, but apparently, that was not to be. The factory I've been working at, as a resident contractor, for the last 3 years decided that they didn't need a 3rd shift person here, at least for qtrs 3 & 4. I was under the impression that when this did happen, I'd just be traveling all over the place like so many others in the company. Unfortunately, my supervisor said that he'd been struggling to do that already, and I was just another mouth to feed in that case. I went to the nuke supervisor, and oddly enough, he did have some availabilities, so it may be I'll just switch for a while/permanently. (There's an Eastern WA position that I've had my eye on for a while. ;-) )
Why is all this on my Tri blog? Well this job/region shift means that all the upcoming triathlons we had been planning, are now no longer practical. On the plus side, I get to do the triathlon I had wanted to do in the first place. Cool.
On Monday, I got a phone call from my Supervisor dropping the bombshell I knew had been coming for quite a while. Secretly I had hoped that it would all blow over before reaching my doorstep, but apparently, that was not to be. The factory I've been working at, as a resident contractor, for the last 3 years decided that they didn't need a 3rd shift person here, at least for qtrs 3 & 4. I was under the impression that when this did happen, I'd just be traveling all over the place like so many others in the company. Unfortunately, my supervisor said that he'd been struggling to do that already, and I was just another mouth to feed in that case. I went to the nuke supervisor, and oddly enough, he did have some availabilities, so it may be I'll just switch for a while/permanently. (There's an Eastern WA position that I've had my eye on for a while. ;-) )
Why is all this on my Tri blog? Well this job/region shift means that all the upcoming triathlons we had been planning, are now no longer practical. On the plus side, I get to do the triathlon I had wanted to do in the first place. Cool.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Long run day
Well it was a long run day for me.
I tried to make one of my long term goals today; run a 10k within my training heart rate zone. Although I made it and stayed in my zone, I don't think I can count it this time. First off I started like I always do, gradually coming up to my training zone, so for the first ~7 min I was walking. Second, I walked on the route twice. Both times were very short, once to keep in my HRZ at the beginning, and once to get a drink of water, but I think that disqualifies me this time around. It did rain on me a few times this morning, but I don't think that counts either. ;-)
On the positive side of things, I think I'm right about level with where I was in March/April before my first triathlon. Its comforting for me to know that if I really wanted to, I could survive the Pigman Sprint right now, and I still have a little over 9 months to go before my next tri! (Siouxperman sprint tri, 5/1/10) Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to reach my running goals by then. I'm working pretty hard at it.
Back to my run this morning though... I tried something a little different. Although I spent most of the run right where I wanted (My training HRZ is 150-170, but I try to keep it between 150-155), I decided to find out just how fast the upper end of the zone would allow me to go. So, on a long flat section on the run, around 4 miles in, I kicked it up to between 165-170. It really didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard. I could definately feel it, but I think I could have kept it up for about 1.5-2 miles before it pushed about my limits. In any case, I was running about 11:45 min/mi then. Its been a LONG time since I've done that. I still have a ways to go though to meet my other goal of under 10 min miles for a 10k, but I'll get there. (By the way my best Navy PT pace was ~8.5 min/mi, and I'm hoping to break that too. I know thats not even close to Becca's (~6:30 min/mi), but I have to run my own race)
I tried to make one of my long term goals today; run a 10k within my training heart rate zone. Although I made it and stayed in my zone, I don't think I can count it this time. First off I started like I always do, gradually coming up to my training zone, so for the first ~7 min I was walking. Second, I walked on the route twice. Both times were very short, once to keep in my HRZ at the beginning, and once to get a drink of water, but I think that disqualifies me this time around. It did rain on me a few times this morning, but I don't think that counts either. ;-)
On the positive side of things, I think I'm right about level with where I was in March/April before my first triathlon. Its comforting for me to know that if I really wanted to, I could survive the Pigman Sprint right now, and I still have a little over 9 months to go before my next tri! (Siouxperman sprint tri, 5/1/10) Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to reach my running goals by then. I'm working pretty hard at it.
Back to my run this morning though... I tried something a little different. Although I spent most of the run right where I wanted (My training HRZ is 150-170, but I try to keep it between 150-155), I decided to find out just how fast the upper end of the zone would allow me to go. So, on a long flat section on the run, around 4 miles in, I kicked it up to between 165-170. It really didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard. I could definately feel it, but I think I could have kept it up for about 1.5-2 miles before it pushed about my limits. In any case, I was running about 11:45 min/mi then. Its been a LONG time since I've done that. I still have a ways to go though to meet my other goal of under 10 min miles for a 10k, but I'll get there. (By the way my best Navy PT pace was ~8.5 min/mi, and I'm hoping to break that too. I know thats not even close to Becca's (~6:30 min/mi), but I have to run my own race)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
