Growth and Rebirth

Been quite a while since I've posted anything in this space. Had some thoughts on the run this weekend that it might be time to change that a little.

So Sunday morning started as my Sundays often do with a run. This Sunday saw me, again as I often do, climbing the hill north of the apartment which has Talliesin West, fancy house made by Frank Lloyd Wright. As I was running up and down the hill in the morning air I had some thoughts. I am not the man I once was, nor am I the man I thought I would be. I'm better.

Years ago I participated in a charity walk up South Mountain for cancer research, a noble cause and something I'm glad I did. Someone affiliated with our group ran up the mountain that day and I remember saying to him after the fact, by way of congratulation, "I could never do that". For the longest time I thought that was true. That there were some things that I just wasn't able to do because that's not who I was. I'm happy to say that I've managed to prove me wrong. I can do that. While I've not done that specific event or run I've done that. I've run a half marathon, two of them even, I managed to just run 14 miles on Sunday because I could (and I almost certainly could have gone further had I bothered to bring any water). I've done things I literally used to think I'd never be able to do. I'm a better me than I used to think was possible.

I've realized through my life experiences that many of the limits that I've taken without question in my life were self imposed. Things I never thought I'd do, foods I didn't like, things that didn't interest me. Many of them were only foreign to me because I'd either decided I wanted them to be or just decided that's the way things where. It's only when I've begun to question those notions of what my limits are, what things I've never tried might be fun or tasty or possible, that I've been able to find my way past my assumptions into unexplored and amazing territory.

While up on the mountain as it were I was struck with some inspiration. Not just about the running, which I do because I love it regardless of how beneficial it may or may not be to my overall health and fitness, but also about some goals and some plans for achieving them regarding my general training. Firstly I came back reinvigorated with a desire to work on gymnastics/bodyweight skills as a way of improving not only my strength but my body awareness and my flexibility. As a result, and most likely with some help from the wonderful nerds over at NerdFitness I'm gonna be putting together a new training plan, and you all know how much I love designing training plans. So far I'm thinking 2 parts pushing, 2 parts pulling, and 1-2 parts legs done about 3 times a week with the other days being filled with some skill work and some core work. That plus my running should help give me a decent base of fitness to enable me to accomplish most things that get in my way.

So with a general format for a training plan in mind what the hell are my long term goals? Well thanks for asking! Firstly a running goal, I'm gonna finish a marathon, and beyond that I'd really like to try and run a sub-3:00 marathon at some point. That's a really long term goal though so for now I'm gonna set my goal as finish and my not-goal as do it under 4:30. Really that's my only specific running goal and I'm ok with that for now. Eventually it'll probably expand to include a HM PR shooting for 1:55 or something but that won't be happening for a while yet.

That leaves me with some strength goals next. I'd really like to be able to do a muscle-up for a couple reasons. First it's a really impressive looking skill and being able to do one is therefore pretty sweet. Secondly, and a little more helpfully, it would actually come in handy for me at work from time to time to be able to grab a platform edge over my head and be able to lift myself up onto it. It's also a skillset that should transfer to rock climbing which is something I'd like to get into doing more often because it's always been fun when I've done it in the past. Second strength skill I'd like to master is the pistol squat and it's close cousin the weighted pistol. I'm already making some really great progress on this front and should hopefully be there within the fairly near future. The increased leg strength seems already to have helped my running slightly and I'm hoping that the practice will help further in injury proofing my body if not in increasing my speed or endurance. The third strength related skillset I'd like to master is back related. I'd like to be able to go from a standing position into a bridge and back to standing (also from the bridge into a handstand would be nice but that's a separate goal path). Again I'm making some pretty good progress already just need to focus in a bit on it. My work on this one over the past months seems already to have helped with some back pain I was having and not unlike the muscle-up this skill is a neat party trick. When people see me press up into a bridge from the floor it's pretty impressive so I'd imagine it's only more so to be able to get there from a standing position. Being a cool-looking skill is a good reason to make something a goal right?

So there's a brief list of goals for the next little while and some ideas about how my training might look. It's not completed nor is it a perfect plan but it's something and it's something I like and that I can work toward, and more importantly inform my training. So there you have it, a revelation from the mountain top about the path that has led me to be the me that I am, and which will lead that me to be the me I can become.

Until next time, be the you you want to be especially if it's a you you never thought possible.

Changes

So it's been another rather long gap between posts, and this one is where I announce some changes going on over here.

As some of you who follow me on twitter may have seen/heard I'm currently working through a Whole30 challenge. This limits my food choices to things which are health promoting and eliminates things which are not health promoting. That's a pretty big simplification but it's all the detail I feel like getting into here, if you want more feel free to look into the information available at the website of the challenge authors, Whole30.

As part of it I'm abstaining from weighing myself for the duration of the challenge, in using it as an opportunity to stop tracking most of the other things I have been tracking for so long, body fat, mood, calories, water, sweat rate while running, body temperature, heart rate while running, all of these things are going out the window for at least 30 days, possibly longer. The only things I'm still tracking are my daily mileage for walking and running, my workouts, my sleep, and my resting heart rate (and that's not really being logged so much as measured to protect against the mild chance of overtraining as I ramp things up toward my half marathon on Labor Day Weekend).

At the start of the challenge I was sitting at around 205 pounds and a not terrible body fat percentage, and there is good chance the challenge will improve that, but that's not the point. The point is about becoming healthier in my life, my relationship with food, and with my body. So far I'm doing alright with it and hoping to continue to do so. While I'm still highly interested in improving myself and hopefully providing a useful template for others I'm not sure what avenue that will take going forward and what it will look like. I'm going to continue working to improve myself and offer advice and well researched opinions to anyone who seeks them.

In the meantime, take steps today to be the version of you you wish was staring back at your from the mirror. If you want to lose weight, do something to make it happen, if you wish you were stronger, go lift something heavy, if you want to be faster, go run faster. If what you've been doing isn't working try something else and see if maybe it does. Take matters into your own hands and make sure that you do something today, right now, to make yourself into what you wish to be.

Life after Work

Been quite a while since my last post, life has been busy.

Got a promotion at work to a very different position which has me working more hours and at somewhat odd times in some cases. As such it put a rather large cramp in my usual workouts. As a result I ended up taking nearly a month off from running with only minimal strength training either. I've since gotten back on the wagon and started running again and increased my resistance work.

I've learned a couple important lessons from this incident though. Firstly I've learned that I need to relax a bit and not stress about getting out for a run every day. Any running is better than no running, and missing a day because work is just not lining up right or my body is just not in condition for it that morning doesn't need to be a big deal. One day off can be just that and not snowball into a week or more without any running at all. Starting back in slow, 10 minutes or so a day, and as often as I can manage, with a day off when scheduling or recovery demands, and building up the time from there. Hoping to get to a point where 30 minutes a day can be reasonable with more on weekends (up to as long as 2-2.5 hours perhaps). The real trouble is soon going to be weather, as things start warming up either I'm going to need to be out earlier or move inside.

I've also learned that with frequent application of gravity the body can become surprisingly stronger in a short amount of time. While I did not reach my goal of unassisted pistol squats, I did manage to improve my ability, and move closer to that goal, using doorway assisted squats. I've also started playing with some inverted work, headstands for now but eventually handstands are a goal. Also made good progress on my pushups and bridges as well. Leg raises and pull-ups have sort of stalled but I'm sure they will progress again shortly, if after a bit of tweaking to bust the plateau.

In terms of my diet of late I've been having some interesting opportunity to experiment on that front. My food choices still leave some room for improvement, but my timing has been changed up a bit. I've been finding myself unable to get much chance for a decent breakfast, so I decided to use my new schedule as an excuse to finally try some intermittent fasting. Instead of the normal 8-12 hours of not eating that comes from sleeping after dinner and before breakfast I've been not eating lunch until 1:30-3 which, given my usual habit of ending my feeding window around 9-11 in the evenings an average of 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating a day. So far I've not been having any issues with excess hunger or rapid weight loss so I'm not concerned with the ramifications at present. It'll be interesting to see how things progress over time as I refine my plan.

So there you have it, a summary of my last month or two. In the next interval I'm hoping to continue progressing with my cardio and my resistance. Here's hoping things keep going as well as they've been going the last week or so.

So what's the weight looking like. 203.6, up around 2 since last time. Overall, I'm not really bothered by that. A little weight fluctuation isn't abnormal for me, I'm still feeling and looking good. Anyway, until next time, keeping being the you you want to be.

February Training Wrap-Up

Here it is a nice Monday in early March and time for a post I think. This time around a summary of how my training schedule has looked since the Tinkerbell Half just over a month ago.

So first let's do this by the numbers. February saw 89 miles of running logged, up from the 73 miles I logged in January. I ran every day in February for at a minimum of a mile and on most occasions at least 2 or 3. This month was the first half of my aerobic base building on this training cycle, consistent mileage at a slower pace every day. I feel like I'm better prepared for my mileage than I have been before and the second half of that base building this month should leave me in still better shape as I progress up to daily 5 mile runs by the end of the month.

Also this month I started to kick up my ancillary work by adding a warm-up and expanding my cool-down on my runs throughout the week. I've added in a Lunge Matrix (from Jason at Strength Running) before each run and will likely be expanding that to a couple of other warm-ups as time goes on. Adding more core work to my routine has helped strengthen my running if only in the subjective range. I've also been doing some work on increasing my turnover rate on my runs, another thing that seems to have met with success last month.

So where do I want to go from here? Well more running of course, but more importantly expanded ancillary strength work and further work on my turnover. I'm planning in the next month to expand my static gymnastics style work to help try and expand my exercise options to handstand work and planches, and continue working my l-sit and various other strength exercises. I've been making good progress lately and hope to continue it. Hoping by the end of the month that I'll be able to manage a pistol squat on each leg (just the one will be an improvement I'm happy with), and a successful frog stand at least (possibly further on my way toward inverted work). That and keeping my diet clean should keep me on track toward my long term goals.

So for those interested how's my weight doing? 201.3, down 2 from my last update. Doing alright on that front, just have to make sure to keep the progress in the right ways.

How Waiting In Line Can Get You In Shape

So for a while now I've been tossing around this idea for a blog post, which you'll see today, and then I saw, through a link from Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness I believe, to a post titled How Waiting In Line Can Get You In The Best Shape Of Your Life. It's not quite the post that I was intending to write but it's something useful all the same. While the linked post is about waiting in line as a metaphor for getting in shape, the various stages of being in line compared against the stages of fitness. What I have in mind is something a little more literal, getting in shape while waiting in line.

This post was originally going to be called The Disneyland Workout as that was the major inspiration for my writing it, but it applies not only to waiting in line at the parks, but also anywhere else you might find yourself waiting around wanting to fill some time. This post will be short, but hopefully at least a little inspirational and useful to at least some of you.

So you're stuck somewhere and you need something to do to feel better about yourself? You've come to a good place for advice my friends. Bodyweight exercises are a great way to work on your fitness no matter where you are, and even when I'm not stuck anywhere they are my go to resistance training exercises. So what makes them perfect for when you are stuck in line? There's no equipment, they usually don't take much space, and they are just easy to do. Heck, if you are at Disneyland or some other theme park you may have picked up your own added resistance for the exercises over the course of the day in the form of merchandise, or might be lucky enough to have a nearby child to use for even more resistance (I'd recommend restricting that to your own children or those of trusted friends as most strangers to not take well to their children being used for your workouts).

So now that we've covered the whys how about what, what should you be doing to fill all this time? Well, resist the urge to fill it with pulling out your phone and catching up on twitter or Facebook, though in some of these situations you can likely do that too, and do something active. Most of the suggestions here will be for lower body exercises as those involve the least deviation from the expectations of being in line, but if you have the room feel free to drop and do some pushups. So what shall we do then instead? Well Squats are a personal favorite, great for the legs and they involve multiple joints so they strengthen your entire lower body complex in some fashion or other. Lunges take up a bit more space but work the lower body in different ways and, as I've been finding out recently, involve a lot more work on balance than Squats. A personal favorite of mine is to take stairs nice and slow and let my ankles drop below the level of the stair to stretch out my lower leg. That particular move is one of my favorites because my running leaves my achilles tendons stiff many days, and this helps stretch them back out again.

So what about the upper body? Well your options there are more limited, unless you don't mind looking absurd to random strangers, but you're working out while waiting in line so clearly the opinions of strangers are not as important as your fitness (though shy should they be?). My go-to is dips on the turnstiles at rides like Big Thunder or Space Mountain. Simply place your hands upon turnstile and remove the legs from the ground, hold for a nice static workout, or lower and raise yourself for some more dynamic upper body work. If there's a nice bar or something overhead pull-ups are a good option as well. If you are really daring handstands and handstand presses are wonderful, but they are not so easy to do in a crowded line. There's presses involving small children or merchandise of course, though past that I'm about out of ideas. If you have more ideas put them in the comments.

So there you have it, the Disneyland Workout, or how to stay in shape absolutely anywhere.

So there's the post for you, let me know what you think of it. While I'm here though let's update my postings of my weight. This week it's at 203.3, down 2.1 from my last post. Until next time, be the you you want to be, even if it means doing something slightly embarrassing to get there.

Race Weekend Recap

Well it's been nearly a month since my last update and it's been a pretty busy month, so my apologies for the lack of updates. Today I am bringing you an update from my recent weekend trip to Disneyland for the inaugural Tinkerbell half marathon weekend. I've got some pictures, some fun commentary, and hopefully some stuff you'll find worth reading, and if not you won't know til you did anyway so I guess I still win. So without further delay, here we go.

Got up and loaded the car at around 4am on Friday and headed right on over to California. Stopped for breakfast in Quartzite, and did our best to pretend we didn't just get fruit when we hit the border, and then headed straight for the hotel. After checking in and dropping our stuff we went to the parks. Paid the race expo a visit to pick up my bib, shirt, and some inaugural race loot (toothpick holder anyone?) and then headed to the parks. We visited Bengal Barbecue for dinner,

Lara and I at Bengal Barbecue

and then popped over to DCA for a couple rides and some ElecTRONica fun. Finally turned in around closing time and went back to the hotel for the night. All told we did about 11 miles of walking over the course of the day.

The portal opening at ElecTRONica 

 Saturday we were at the parks from around 8 to 9, hit up all the best rides and stopped by ElecTRONica again before meeting up with Amanda to get some food and go back to the hotel and crash early in preparation for the race the next morning. Best advice for food that I came away with for that day is that both the Hungry Bear restaurant in Critter Country Disneyland and the Lucky Fortune Cookery on Pacific Wharf in DCA are quite excellent. The first provided sweet potato fries which were delicious, and the second had both edamame and stir fry with a choice of sauce, we tried the spicy korean this time out but I'm likely to go or the thai curry next time we visit. Did about 13 miles Saturday, though can't be perfectly sure as the data from my Fitbit never made it online, more on that later.

The next morning started early, about 4am to be exact. Got dressed and headed out to the starting corrals.

Me in the starting corral.

As I was placed into corral E due to my lack of a qualifying time and various other factors it was 24 minutes from the starting gun before I managed to get to the starting line.

Talking heads at the start line, with Minnie and Daisy

And then the race was begun, at first with the density of the starting area I was stuck in my starting position and not able to move at anything close to a pace I was happy with, a moderate jog more than anything, but as the roads opened up a bit and people spread out enough I was able to get a bit more clear and my pace improved to something a little more comfortable. After the first couple miles we entered the park and were made to feel like beloved guests.

See the pun up there? It's only the first Disney pun in this post.

The course went through the backlot before it got into the public areas of the park around where the above shot was taken, then went around the matterhorn and past pixie hollow and through Tomorrowland past the Innoventions carrousel back to the backlot. We emerged near the gates to Main Street USA and went up toward the partners statue and the castle.

Following the leaders through the castle

From there the route went up through Fantasyland, where the Lost Boys had taken over King Arthurs Carrousel supervised by Captain Hook of all people, and then around the back of Big Thunder Mountain, perhaps the wildest curve all race. From there it was around the Rivers of America and through New Orleans Square up toward the Haunted Mansion. The cadaverous pallor of some of the runners betrayed an aura of foreboding, almost as though they were apprehensive about the rest of the race.

Only ~900 male runners this year, but there's room for 1000.

A quick jaunt through Critter Country and we paid another visit to the backlot before leaving the park for Downtown Disney and one of the first sets of spectators that weren't the very friendly Disney Cast Members. Downtown was also were I ran past the cheering Lara and Amanda who snapped this picture.

Keeping upbeat and smooth.

After passing the Disneyland Hotel and assembled Red Hatted Ladies we left the Resort property behind for the greater Anaheim area. Up from the park a few blocks to a nice spot to cross the freeway puts us at mile 6, which was when I noticed that I no longer had my Fitbit. Sadly it disappeared between the start of the race and this point. Still holding out some small hope it will get turned in but whatever, if it's gone then it's gone.

Thinking of wonderful thoughts is cheaper than Red Bull

Lots of wonderful sites in Anaheim to see, and a number of school bands and cheer squads to help us keep our spirits up. Over down by the GardenWalk and that brings us to about my next photo at Mile 11:

Just keep running, just keep running...

Crossed back across the freeway to get to the side by the park again around here and headed back toward the parks for the run through DCA. We could see the Tower of Terror a while before we actually got to the park, but the suspense finally gave out and we dropped in for the final stretches of the race.

Haven't lost a guest since last time.

We entered the park around the Tower and then headed up the Hollywood Studios lot toward the construction of Buena Vista Street.

Electrify the boys and girls

After passing through Condor Flats and around Grizzly River we hit the boardwalk briefly on our way to a Bug's Land. After that it was back into the backlots of DCA and around behind Monument Valley and Cars Land as we made our way around to the Simba Parking Lot and the finish line.

You gotta turn with the curve

I finished the race having run the whole time, excepting water stations which slowed me down even if I wasn't drinking at that one, and my splits only improved over the course of the race. My final time was 2:10:17, a time I'm rather happy with for a debut half. Next time out I'm planning to break the 2 hour mark, perhaps a little better than that if I can manage it. After a short recovery at the finish area with some much needed stretching, we went back to the hotel and I took a sorely needed shower. Went to the parks for the day and had plenty of time to ride rides, enjoy some pizza and pasta at the DCA Boardwalk, and participate in a twitter fueled scavenger hunt in the parks that was a lot of fun, though I think perhaps the race medal had started a thirst for more glittering gold.

Don't look into the eyes though, for your safety

It was a bit of a long day, I seem to recall we turned in around 9 or 10 after probably putting in 12 miles at the parks after the race, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I ran my first half in a time I'm not ashamed of, and I actually ran the whole thing. Taking a bit of rest to reset things and get myself back into the right place to start up my next training cycle and see what I can do with what I've learned. And for those of you interested, yes I did the whole race in my Vibrams and all 3 days at the park as well, though Sunday post-race was done in my Classics and not my Komodo Sports as those were in dire need of a wash.

The odor from the other shoes was quite a bother

Last but not least, my weight update. At the start of the race I was at 206.6, down 3 pounds from my last post and 76 from when I started tracking my weight a little over two years back. When I finished the race I was down to 205.4 after having taken in about 82oz of water between seeing the scale, and also that little matter of running 13 miles. So there you have it, a nice race update. Look for another blog update in the next couple weeks I'm tentatively calling the Disneyland Workout. Until then, be the you you want to be.

Words to live by for the new year

Well hello there anyone who's reading this and welcome to the new and, hopefully, improved format of my blog. I'm diverging from my previous mostly weekly updates further than ever before and decoupling these updates from my week count on my journey. The posts will still likely end with a week, a weight, and a change for the next little while but I'm going to see where things go.

So what will I be posting? Well hopefully it'll be training updates, life updates, and random inspirational things. I'm gonna try hard to get at least a post every two weeks but we'll have to see how things go as the new plan develops. So without further delay, here's the first post.


Citius, Altius, Fortius; it means Faster, Higher, Stronger. Not faster than anyone else, just faster. It's the Olympic motto, something strikingly similar to this introduction is what opens the film Without Limits (well worth watching for those that haven't), and it's a motto I hope to live by this year. It's about the constant quest to improve oneself. Faster than you were the last time, higher than you've managed go before, stronger than ever before. Applying this to my life is something I've been doing for a while, running faster, shooting higher in my goals, working to constantly be both physically and mentally stronger than I've ever been. It's a pattern I intend to continue through this year with gusto. I've got my first half marathon coming up at the end of this month and I'm confident that while I may not finish with an amazing time by objective standards but I'm determined to finish having run the whole way with head held high.

Two years ago when I started down this road I wouldn't have been able to finish a mile long run with anything close to a respectable time. Now, though I haven't done a full tilt mile for time, I'm confident I could finish it somewhere between 6-7 minute pace, possibly better. I can do 2 sets of 16 pushups with good form where I wouldn't have been able to complete even a single set of 5 before, a pull-up seems a reasonable activity instead of something laughable, the list really goes on and on.

This isn't something that just suddenly happened it is the evidence of a large body of research and experimentation to find what works for me. At first there was a lot of benefit to be had from simply restricting calories but eventually that won't really take you far due to hunger. You have to transition to not just eating a better amount but eating better. Quality food is not only better for you but I've found it fills you up better as well. I've also transitioned slowly away from processed foods as much as possible, another trend to continue in this new year, and am committing to cooking more at home. I'm down now to a weight around 210 from my peak at 283, and at a much more favorable body fat as well. I look better, I feel better, and I'm confident that there's room for even better results as time goes on.

Once I'm done with my race I'm gonna take a little time to recover from that and head right into the new training plan I've been working on. More emphasis on strength work than before, not only my convict conditioning program but adding in some gymnastics inspired work and some plyometric drills to help round out that portion of my training. My running may come with a slight decrease in mileage at first but an increase in my intensity. Sprints to help build cardio-pulmonary systems, strides to work on form, tempos for lactate threshold, and a long run to help keep up endurance capacity. Tying this all together should lead to a faster and stronger me with a higher amount of overall fitness than ever before (see what I did there?), and I look forward to seeing where that takes me. Until next time, be the you you want to be.


Week 102: 209.7, down .5 from my last post.