Sunday once again and time for the weekly update.
Not much to tell this week. Kept eating about as normal, the benefits I've attributed to the flaxseed oil have kept up, as has my supplementation with it.
My weight has been trending slightly higher this week, but my body fat has been trending lower so I'm not concerned. Haven't done quite at much running as could be hoped, but what I did was good quality runs. Picked up a dehydrator online that should show up later this week which will help with the 50+ pounds of apples I got yesterday. Dried apple rings and apple leather are in my future, and plenty of other wonderful dried fruit options as well. Not to mention the jerky related potential.
Well, that's honestly most of the update I have this week, I won't bore you by rambling further. So what does the scale tell me this week? 209, which is where I've been shooting for the past month or so. Body fat down as well, meaning most of that weight I gained was muscle just as I've been shooting for. Until next week, be the you you want to be.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 84)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Simple week this week, work continued along it's chosen path, my diet choices were slightly less good than they might have been but still good overall. So what are the lessons this week showed me?
Firstly, my flaxseed test has been going better than expected. By Wednesday my lower back pain, which has bothered me for large portions of the past year plus, has disappeared almost completely. Previously it had improved with changes in my work/non-work split, which is as much as I can tell related to how much time I spend in regular shoes vs barefoot/vibrams, and when I had switched mattresses to one both bigger and made of memory foam. This is the first time I can recall that my back pain cleared up so completely. I attribute it to the flaxseed oil, because the flaxseed is high in Omega-3s which help reduce systemic inflammation, which is likely one of the root causes of my backpain. Since the only major change I made to my diet in the past week was the introduction of the flaxseed I think it's safe to say that is highly likely to be a major contribution. In addition to that my gums have improved in color and tenderness, and my toe is both less swollen and in less pain. It's enough that I'm going to continue with the flaxseed for the foreseeable future.
The other thing that I've decided this week is that I need to focus more on my speedwork if I'm going to get to my goals for my race in January. As a result my training for my long runs is going to shift, instead of being strictly based on mileage I'm going to be working on increasing my speed and distance in tandem each week until I hit my target pace, and then focus on making sure I get where I need to be in terms of distance. Which is not to say that I am in doubt about my ability to complete the distance, the doubt is that I can finish it in a time that I'm not ashamed of. That and the continuation of my weight training are the goals for my fitness for the near term. Long term I'm hoping strongly to be able to get back to doing some martial arts in the future, we'll have to see what I can find for that though.
So, what does the scale have to say this week? 208, same as last week. Staying nice and steady, and I'm ok with that. I'm feeling better now than I have in a very long time, and that's the most important thing. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Simple week this week, work continued along it's chosen path, my diet choices were slightly less good than they might have been but still good overall. So what are the lessons this week showed me?
Firstly, my flaxseed test has been going better than expected. By Wednesday my lower back pain, which has bothered me for large portions of the past year plus, has disappeared almost completely. Previously it had improved with changes in my work/non-work split, which is as much as I can tell related to how much time I spend in regular shoes vs barefoot/vibrams, and when I had switched mattresses to one both bigger and made of memory foam. This is the first time I can recall that my back pain cleared up so completely. I attribute it to the flaxseed oil, because the flaxseed is high in Omega-3s which help reduce systemic inflammation, which is likely one of the root causes of my backpain. Since the only major change I made to my diet in the past week was the introduction of the flaxseed I think it's safe to say that is highly likely to be a major contribution. In addition to that my gums have improved in color and tenderness, and my toe is both less swollen and in less pain. It's enough that I'm going to continue with the flaxseed for the foreseeable future.
The other thing that I've decided this week is that I need to focus more on my speedwork if I'm going to get to my goals for my race in January. As a result my training for my long runs is going to shift, instead of being strictly based on mileage I'm going to be working on increasing my speed and distance in tandem each week until I hit my target pace, and then focus on making sure I get where I need to be in terms of distance. Which is not to say that I am in doubt about my ability to complete the distance, the doubt is that I can finish it in a time that I'm not ashamed of. That and the continuation of my weight training are the goals for my fitness for the near term. Long term I'm hoping strongly to be able to get back to doing some martial arts in the future, we'll have to see what I can find for that though.
So, what does the scale have to say this week? 208, same as last week. Staying nice and steady, and I'm ok with that. I'm feeling better now than I have in a very long time, and that's the most important thing. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 83)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
This week has been a nice one for me diet wise. Did some shopping last weekend and as a result didn't eat out at all over the course of the week except for ordering pizza friday night. That was even mostly because it was getting late and I just didn't feel like going to the trouble of cooking at the time. So with all the homemade food I've been feeling better, cleaned up my diet of the processed sugars and carbs. With the exception of some slight hunger between meals, which I am confident I can clear up with some changes in meal volume and macronutrient ratio, I've been more energetic and satiated throughout the day.
Been sleeping pretty well, though a couple days this week I didn't get much sleep due to scheduling. My workouts are the thing that really slipped this week. I started off the week well with a couple runs, and some good resistance workouts. Thursday onward I basically fell off the wagon with my workouts due in part to said scheduling and a diminished recovery from my resistance workout on Wednesday as a result.
Today I decided to start using flaxseed oil to supplement my dietary Omega-3 intake, and to see which of the reported other benefits actually played out. The first tablespoon went down alright with a slight aftertaste, but the second didn't behave so nicely. I'm going to try mixing it into my morning smoothie this week and see how it works out that way.
So, what do the numbers have to say this week. 208, same as last week, but my body fat is down nearly a percent, so things are moving in the right direction. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
This week has been a nice one for me diet wise. Did some shopping last weekend and as a result didn't eat out at all over the course of the week except for ordering pizza friday night. That was even mostly because it was getting late and I just didn't feel like going to the trouble of cooking at the time. So with all the homemade food I've been feeling better, cleaned up my diet of the processed sugars and carbs. With the exception of some slight hunger between meals, which I am confident I can clear up with some changes in meal volume and macronutrient ratio, I've been more energetic and satiated throughout the day.
Been sleeping pretty well, though a couple days this week I didn't get much sleep due to scheduling. My workouts are the thing that really slipped this week. I started off the week well with a couple runs, and some good resistance workouts. Thursday onward I basically fell off the wagon with my workouts due in part to said scheduling and a diminished recovery from my resistance workout on Wednesday as a result.
Today I decided to start using flaxseed oil to supplement my dietary Omega-3 intake, and to see which of the reported other benefits actually played out. The first tablespoon went down alright with a slight aftertaste, but the second didn't behave so nicely. I'm going to try mixing it into my morning smoothie this week and see how it works out that way.
So, what do the numbers have to say this week. 208, same as last week, but my body fat is down nearly a percent, so things are moving in the right direction. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 82)
Sunday once again, and time for an update.
Not all that much to update with this week, though a couple observations will of course be shared.
My Zeo sleep training program the past week or so has been working on relaxation to try and get to sleep faster, strangely enough it's made my time to sleep higher on every time I've tried using the audio tracks they suggest. This result seems a bit surprising on it's face, but really I don't have too much trouble getting to sleep generally.
Started supplementing Omega-3s again, and my overall health seems to be improving as a result. Once my chewables run out I'm probably going to switch to Flaxseed Oil, as it's a good source of Omega-3, and a reasonable amount of data from the self-experimenting community suggests that Flaxseed oil specifically improves balance, inflammation (which Omega-3 generally is great for), and possibly even reaction time. I'm not sure how much improvement I'm likely to see in most of those categories, but that's the point of testing theories on yourself right? Always testing new things means an ever expanding knowledge base on the way to the ultimate expression of myself.
In that vein I started tracking water consumption and mood this week using a couple of iPhone apps I found. The mood app is nice because it will randomly ping me for input 4 times a day, so that I don't only have readings from times when I feel extremely one thing or another. It's also nice because it will attach a location and tags to my updates so I can track surroundings influence on my mood. The fluid tracker is nice because not only can I track water consumed, but also soda, alcohol, and caffeine. The combination of those makes for a nice tracking app to make sure I'm not dehydrated, or drunk as the case may be. More data for a more complete picture of me.
So what about the weight? 208 this week, up a pound from last week. Bodyfat stayed the same, so that suggests things are moving in the right direction. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Not all that much to update with this week, though a couple observations will of course be shared.
My Zeo sleep training program the past week or so has been working on relaxation to try and get to sleep faster, strangely enough it's made my time to sleep higher on every time I've tried using the audio tracks they suggest. This result seems a bit surprising on it's face, but really I don't have too much trouble getting to sleep generally.
Started supplementing Omega-3s again, and my overall health seems to be improving as a result. Once my chewables run out I'm probably going to switch to Flaxseed Oil, as it's a good source of Omega-3, and a reasonable amount of data from the self-experimenting community suggests that Flaxseed oil specifically improves balance, inflammation (which Omega-3 generally is great for), and possibly even reaction time. I'm not sure how much improvement I'm likely to see in most of those categories, but that's the point of testing theories on yourself right? Always testing new things means an ever expanding knowledge base on the way to the ultimate expression of myself.
In that vein I started tracking water consumption and mood this week using a couple of iPhone apps I found. The mood app is nice because it will randomly ping me for input 4 times a day, so that I don't only have readings from times when I feel extremely one thing or another. It's also nice because it will attach a location and tags to my updates so I can track surroundings influence on my mood. The fluid tracker is nice because not only can I track water consumed, but also soda, alcohol, and caffeine. The combination of those makes for a nice tracking app to make sure I'm not dehydrated, or drunk as the case may be. More data for a more complete picture of me.
So what about the weight? 208 this week, up a pound from last week. Bodyfat stayed the same, so that suggests things are moving in the right direction. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 81)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Smooth week this week, nothing really to report overall.
There was one thing that struck me today while I was at work that I felt deserves mention here. I realized today that I've managed to succeed in retraining myself in terms of my food cravings. I can't recall the last time I had a craving for soda or chips or various other junk food, instead I have cravings for a steak, or fish, or last night when we went out to pick up food so I could get a salad. Sure Lara gave me some crap for going out on a lateish at night food run so I could get salad, but you know what? I'm happy with that choice, though I do wish we actually had what I needed at home to have made it and not gone out at all, but baby steps I suppose.
It's a big sign of progress to me that I have cravings for healthy, primal even, foods rather than junk food or processed stuff, similarly it's nice that when I think of things to do to fill time at work practicing pistol squats comes to mind. I've come a long way on my journey so far, and I've got plenty of places to go yet before I've uncovered the ultimate expression of myself, but I'm excited to see where my exploration takes me.
So what does the scale say this week? 207, same as last week, though my bodyfat is apparently down a half a percent. Progress is progress, no matter what form it takes. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Smooth week this week, nothing really to report overall.
There was one thing that struck me today while I was at work that I felt deserves mention here. I realized today that I've managed to succeed in retraining myself in terms of my food cravings. I can't recall the last time I had a craving for soda or chips or various other junk food, instead I have cravings for a steak, or fish, or last night when we went out to pick up food so I could get a salad. Sure Lara gave me some crap for going out on a lateish at night food run so I could get salad, but you know what? I'm happy with that choice, though I do wish we actually had what I needed at home to have made it and not gone out at all, but baby steps I suppose.
It's a big sign of progress to me that I have cravings for healthy, primal even, foods rather than junk food or processed stuff, similarly it's nice that when I think of things to do to fill time at work practicing pistol squats comes to mind. I've come a long way on my journey so far, and I've got plenty of places to go yet before I've uncovered the ultimate expression of myself, but I'm excited to see where my exploration takes me.
So what does the scale say this week? 207, same as last week, though my bodyfat is apparently down a half a percent. Progress is progress, no matter what form it takes. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 80)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Pretty smooth sailing this week. Hit the gym for some weights a few times throughout the week, which I hadn't done the previous two weeks, so feeling the wonderful soreness that happens as a result of that. Not been quite at my calorie goals sadly, but I'm managing to make at least some progress on cleaning up what I'm eating.
Light on the content this week as well I'm afraid. I've really not had all that much new stuff to talk about for a while so they may stay short for the foreseeable future. What I do have to say is that my mileage seems to have stalled a bit. My long runs haven't been getting much longer the past few weeks because I've been having to cut them short due to concerns of injury. Working on slowly but surely pushing the distance up to where I want it, thankfully I've got plenty of time before my race date to get into shape.
So, what does the scale have to say this week? 207, down a pound from last week. Not good in the short term, but in the long term I'm holding pretty steady really so I'm ok with that. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Pretty smooth sailing this week. Hit the gym for some weights a few times throughout the week, which I hadn't done the previous two weeks, so feeling the wonderful soreness that happens as a result of that. Not been quite at my calorie goals sadly, but I'm managing to make at least some progress on cleaning up what I'm eating.
Light on the content this week as well I'm afraid. I've really not had all that much new stuff to talk about for a while so they may stay short for the foreseeable future. What I do have to say is that my mileage seems to have stalled a bit. My long runs haven't been getting much longer the past few weeks because I've been having to cut them short due to concerns of injury. Working on slowly but surely pushing the distance up to where I want it, thankfully I've got plenty of time before my race date to get into shape.
So, what does the scale have to say this week? 207, down a pound from last week. Not good in the short term, but in the long term I'm holding pretty steady really so I'm ok with that. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 79)
Sunday once again and time for the weekly update.
Not much to say this week really, all been going pretty smoothly.
Got a new piece of tracking tech this weekend, the Zeo Sleep Coach I'd been after for a while. Tried it out last night and it seemed to work pretty well, though it'll be a few days at least before I have any sort of truly useful data on habits. I've also been looking at the data from my daily measurements of my resting heart rate and noticing a few patterns I'm going to try to monitor more closely. Namely, when I go more than a couple days without exercising my resting heart rate goes up, a beat or two the first couple days and then a larger jump on about the third or fourth day. When I go for another run, it drops back down by most of the difference again. I was expecting to see a downward trend in the measurement over time as a training effect, but I wasn't expecting the variation to be that noticeable on a scale of days rather than weeks. Always good to see things working better than I'd expected. I'll keep posting updates on some of my non-weight measurements as I find interesting things to post.
So, speaking of my weight, this week the scale tells me 208, the same as last week, body fat has stayed the same as well. Steady as she goes I suppose. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Not much to say this week really, all been going pretty smoothly.
Got a new piece of tracking tech this weekend, the Zeo Sleep Coach I'd been after for a while. Tried it out last night and it seemed to work pretty well, though it'll be a few days at least before I have any sort of truly useful data on habits. I've also been looking at the data from my daily measurements of my resting heart rate and noticing a few patterns I'm going to try to monitor more closely. Namely, when I go more than a couple days without exercising my resting heart rate goes up, a beat or two the first couple days and then a larger jump on about the third or fourth day. When I go for another run, it drops back down by most of the difference again. I was expecting to see a downward trend in the measurement over time as a training effect, but I wasn't expecting the variation to be that noticeable on a scale of days rather than weeks. Always good to see things working better than I'd expected. I'll keep posting updates on some of my non-weight measurements as I find interesting things to post.
So, speaking of my weight, this week the scale tells me 208, the same as last week, body fat has stayed the same as well. Steady as she goes I suppose. Until next week, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 78)
Sunday yet again and time for a brief update.
This week was pretty packed due to Harry Potter week so not much to talk about.
What brilliant revelations do I have this week? Eating popcorn in large amounts for as one of your primary meals of the day is not good for your nutrition, 4 hours of sleep a night is not really enough, a week of no training leaves you not fully equipped for your long run to be longer at the end than it was at the beginning.
Not all that revelatory, but whatever, I needed something to fill the space with.
So what do the numbers tell me this week? 208, up a pound from last week. So despite my terrible food this week I didn't do too bad, and my body fat stayed about the same as well so I'm really not too much worse off for wear. This week I'll do better. Until next week, be the you you want to be.
This week was pretty packed due to Harry Potter week so not much to talk about.
What brilliant revelations do I have this week? Eating popcorn in large amounts for as one of your primary meals of the day is not good for your nutrition, 4 hours of sleep a night is not really enough, a week of no training leaves you not fully equipped for your long run to be longer at the end than it was at the beginning.
Not all that revelatory, but whatever, I needed something to fill the space with.
So what do the numbers tell me this week? 208, up a pound from last week. So despite my terrible food this week I didn't do too bad, and my body fat stayed about the same as well so I'm really not too much worse off for wear. This week I'll do better. Until next week, be the you you want to be.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 77)
Sunday once again and time for the weekly update.
Not much to talk about this week so it should stay pretty brief.
Was pretty bad about doing any cooking this week sadly, and next week won't be much better since every night I'm going to be at the movies instead of home. Picked up some protein powder at the store today so that should at least improve the fractionation of my diet a bit.
Decided to do my long run on the treadmill this week. This had a few consequences. I lost more to sweat this week in absolute terms than I have before, despite being inside, which was to be expected really. The treadmill offers me a few nice benefits over running outside. For one, my run ends at the right place every time, no guess work to make sure that I finish my desired distance when I'm back at the apartment instead of half a mile off. As a result of that I also have more freedom to decide while I'm on the run that I feel good and can do another mile or some such, as happened today. It also allows me to focus more on my heartrate than on my pace. Once I find a pace that I can hold for the duration at about the right heart rate I'm set and I can just do my run and hit the zone. Runkeeper does not yet have truly robust support for heart rate sadly, I'd love to see them add better audio cues for heart rate, and the ability to key coaching off of it. The treadmill also let's me take the time to calculate my turnover, which is a number I like tracking to help keep my form in good shape among other things but which is hard to get on an outdoor run without a cadence sensor I don't have.
Treadmill runs do have a couple limitations though. Firstly, The treadmill can only go for so long it would seem. Today my run lasted so long the treadmill stopped being able to track the time and thus shut itself off. Luckily there is a second treadmill I was able to make the migration to and finish my run. The other benefit that outdoor runs have over treadmill running is moving air. As you run outside you get a lot of air moving past you that helps with your cooling and keeps your clothing that little bit drier. That little bit can be important sometimes, and long runs are one of them. (The squeamish should consider to skip this segment) About 7 miles into this run I ran into some problems with jogger's nipple, leading to a small amount of blood loss. Nothing serious of course, just annoying and unexpected. Picked up some roll-on anti-chafing product from RoadRunner down the street and hopefully that should prevent any further issues.
So anyway, what about the numbers? 207, down a pound from last week. Bodyfat about constant so no worries there, no worries just facts of life. Hopefully in a week or two when I can actually get back to my weight training that'll improve more, sadly due to an injury my training partner wasn't able to make it so I stayed content with my running this week to help her recuperate from her burn. Until next week keep being the you you want to be.
Not much to talk about this week so it should stay pretty brief.
Was pretty bad about doing any cooking this week sadly, and next week won't be much better since every night I'm going to be at the movies instead of home. Picked up some protein powder at the store today so that should at least improve the fractionation of my diet a bit.
Decided to do my long run on the treadmill this week. This had a few consequences. I lost more to sweat this week in absolute terms than I have before, despite being inside, which was to be expected really. The treadmill offers me a few nice benefits over running outside. For one, my run ends at the right place every time, no guess work to make sure that I finish my desired distance when I'm back at the apartment instead of half a mile off. As a result of that I also have more freedom to decide while I'm on the run that I feel good and can do another mile or some such, as happened today. It also allows me to focus more on my heartrate than on my pace. Once I find a pace that I can hold for the duration at about the right heart rate I'm set and I can just do my run and hit the zone. Runkeeper does not yet have truly robust support for heart rate sadly, I'd love to see them add better audio cues for heart rate, and the ability to key coaching off of it. The treadmill also let's me take the time to calculate my turnover, which is a number I like tracking to help keep my form in good shape among other things but which is hard to get on an outdoor run without a cadence sensor I don't have.
Treadmill runs do have a couple limitations though. Firstly, The treadmill can only go for so long it would seem. Today my run lasted so long the treadmill stopped being able to track the time and thus shut itself off. Luckily there is a second treadmill I was able to make the migration to and finish my run. The other benefit that outdoor runs have over treadmill running is moving air. As you run outside you get a lot of air moving past you that helps with your cooling and keeps your clothing that little bit drier. That little bit can be important sometimes, and long runs are one of them. (The squeamish should consider to skip this segment) About 7 miles into this run I ran into some problems with jogger's nipple, leading to a small amount of blood loss. Nothing serious of course, just annoying and unexpected. Picked up some roll-on anti-chafing product from RoadRunner down the street and hopefully that should prevent any further issues.
So anyway, what about the numbers? 207, down a pound from last week. Bodyfat about constant so no worries there, no worries just facts of life. Hopefully in a week or two when I can actually get back to my weight training that'll improve more, sadly due to an injury my training partner wasn't able to make it so I stayed content with my running this week to help her recuperate from her burn. Until next week keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 76)
Sunday once again and time for the weekly update.
This week has seen me testing out some fun things, and making a few changes to the routine to accommodate scheduling. Scrapped the Wednesday run since I had to be at work early, and had been out late for a midnight movie with friends, switched my Tuesday treadmill run out for a VO2max test, and my Friday Tempo run out for a Maximum Heart Rate test. Both of those went well. Today I had to scrap my 9-miler due to weather conditions not cooperating with my plans, and I'm working on backup plans for future runs to ensure that I can still get my training miles in even if the weather doesn't want to play nice.
The running is only one aspect of my workouts though, and this week I promised a more detailed explanation of the new resistance training plan I'm working on so here it goes, broken down by the day.
Sunday is abs and full-body circuits. My ab routine goes 1x10 myotatic crunches, 1x10 TVA contractions, 75 two-handed kettlebell swings with a 20 pound kettlebell, and 30-seconds of plank in the pushup position, and on each side. After that my full-body routine is 2 circuits of 20 squats, 10 pushups, 20 lunges (10 each side, alternating), 20 dumbell rows (10 each side), and 30 jumping jacks. Once I get through one round of that I go through a second round, in both cases with as little rest as possible between exercises. Fridays I do the same thing as Sundays to finish off my week.
Monday is Arms/Shoulders, 3x5 of each of modified dips (don't have anything the right height to support me so for now it's basically pushups but facing up instead of down), lateral dumbbell raises (aka Shoulder Flys) superset with bicep curls, and finished off with a machine shoulder press. Wednesday is Legs day, as it's the furthest away from my long runs and I don't have a run on Thursday in my regular rotation. 2x10 of each of squats, lunges, stiff-leg deadlifts, and machine leg curls. The squats and deadlifts here are being done with dumbbells instead of barbells because the equipment I have access to is dumbbells and a weight machine. Thursday is my Chest/Back day, 3x5 each of pushups with my feet on an exercise ball (adding an extra stability element compared to regular pushups and putting more emphasis on my chest than on my legs), pectoral/chest fly, machine chest press, and supinated lat-pulldowns.
Weeks one and two are being used for working out the kinks in the routine and for figuring out appropriate starting weights. After that I'm either going to increase every week provided I hit my rep count, or making the last set of each exercise "to failure" and increase the weight if I can get at least 2 more than the previous sets of the exercise. I'm not sure which option I'll be taking yet but either way the point is clear, keep the weight increasing. When I reach the limits of my equipment I'll have to figure out where to go from there, but when possible it's likely to be toward making the exercises more difficult through leverage disadvantage. Trick will be making sure I keep whatever I do safe.
For now I think that's all I have to say. If you have feedback I'd welcome it, either way it's time for the numbers for today. 208, up a pound from last week and back to where we were sitting for the weeks preceding. Bodyfat is still stabilizing after my measurement recalibration and I'm feeling pretty darned good these days. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
This week has seen me testing out some fun things, and making a few changes to the routine to accommodate scheduling. Scrapped the Wednesday run since I had to be at work early, and had been out late for a midnight movie with friends, switched my Tuesday treadmill run out for a VO2max test, and my Friday Tempo run out for a Maximum Heart Rate test. Both of those went well. Today I had to scrap my 9-miler due to weather conditions not cooperating with my plans, and I'm working on backup plans for future runs to ensure that I can still get my training miles in even if the weather doesn't want to play nice.
The running is only one aspect of my workouts though, and this week I promised a more detailed explanation of the new resistance training plan I'm working on so here it goes, broken down by the day.
Sunday is abs and full-body circuits. My ab routine goes 1x10 myotatic crunches, 1x10 TVA contractions, 75 two-handed kettlebell swings with a 20 pound kettlebell, and 30-seconds of plank in the pushup position, and on each side. After that my full-body routine is 2 circuits of 20 squats, 10 pushups, 20 lunges (10 each side, alternating), 20 dumbell rows (10 each side), and 30 jumping jacks. Once I get through one round of that I go through a second round, in both cases with as little rest as possible between exercises. Fridays I do the same thing as Sundays to finish off my week.
Monday is Arms/Shoulders, 3x5 of each of modified dips (don't have anything the right height to support me so for now it's basically pushups but facing up instead of down), lateral dumbbell raises (aka Shoulder Flys) superset with bicep curls, and finished off with a machine shoulder press. Wednesday is Legs day, as it's the furthest away from my long runs and I don't have a run on Thursday in my regular rotation. 2x10 of each of squats, lunges, stiff-leg deadlifts, and machine leg curls. The squats and deadlifts here are being done with dumbbells instead of barbells because the equipment I have access to is dumbbells and a weight machine. Thursday is my Chest/Back day, 3x5 each of pushups with my feet on an exercise ball (adding an extra stability element compared to regular pushups and putting more emphasis on my chest than on my legs), pectoral/chest fly, machine chest press, and supinated lat-pulldowns.
Weeks one and two are being used for working out the kinks in the routine and for figuring out appropriate starting weights. After that I'm either going to increase every week provided I hit my rep count, or making the last set of each exercise "to failure" and increase the weight if I can get at least 2 more than the previous sets of the exercise. I'm not sure which option I'll be taking yet but either way the point is clear, keep the weight increasing. When I reach the limits of my equipment I'll have to figure out where to go from there, but when possible it's likely to be toward making the exercises more difficult through leverage disadvantage. Trick will be making sure I keep whatever I do safe.
For now I think that's all I have to say. If you have feedback I'd welcome it, either way it's time for the numbers for today. 208, up a pound from last week and back to where we were sitting for the weeks preceding. Bodyfat is still stabilizing after my measurement recalibration and I'm feeling pretty darned good these days. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
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