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.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 98)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Got back into the resistance work this week and feel better for it. Also, despite missing a day and having to reduce mileage on another, I ran the furthest today that I've run in a couple months. Making good progress toward my goal for my half next month.
Not really a lot of change in life this week, workouts continue basically as planned, getting Lara into the spirit of exercise isn't easy but she's warming to it and will get there in her own time. Got a new pair of shoes to run through my rotation today. A pair of Vibram Komodo Sports. I'll put together a "review" when I have worn them a bit and have some useful things to say. Sometimes I feel like I'm running out of things to say in these posts, and then other times I have plenty to say, so I may start reducing the frequency of these posts to only happen when I have interesting things to say, we'll have to see how that goes.
So what does the scale have to say about my week? 210, same as last week. So not too bad. Hopefully next week will see it go back down a bit.Until then, keep being the you you want to be.
Got back into the resistance work this week and feel better for it. Also, despite missing a day and having to reduce mileage on another, I ran the furthest today that I've run in a couple months. Making good progress toward my goal for my half next month.
Not really a lot of change in life this week, workouts continue basically as planned, getting Lara into the spirit of exercise isn't easy but she's warming to it and will get there in her own time. Got a new pair of shoes to run through my rotation today. A pair of Vibram Komodo Sports. I'll put together a "review" when I have worn them a bit and have some useful things to say. Sometimes I feel like I'm running out of things to say in these posts, and then other times I have plenty to say, so I may start reducing the frequency of these posts to only happen when I have interesting things to say, we'll have to see how that goes.
So what does the scale have to say about my week? 210, same as last week. So not too bad. Hopefully next week will see it go back down a bit.Until then, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 97)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Back into the swing of things with the running this week. If I can put up with a sprint session this week then things will be nice and back to normal. Eating stayed pretty well in line with things I'd like despite Thanksgiving. Had some good time with family and friends this week.
So what about the future? Lara's going to be starting up on some more working out now than she had been doing previously, which is good for her and means I can start having a local workout buddy for some of my workouts now. Start her off easy and then see where life takes us. Also going to be trying to further clean up our diets from what they are now by doing the majority of our food production at home. We've been doing better with that recently but there's still plenty of room for improvement over the longer scale. Liking where the future is heading in so many areas of our lives these days.
So what about my numbers? 210 this week. Same as last week. Holding steady is good but I'd like to be down a bit from where I am right now. We'll just have to see what happens as the future unfolds. Until next week, keeping striving to be the you you want to be.
Back into the swing of things with the running this week. If I can put up with a sprint session this week then things will be nice and back to normal. Eating stayed pretty well in line with things I'd like despite Thanksgiving. Had some good time with family and friends this week.
So what about the future? Lara's going to be starting up on some more working out now than she had been doing previously, which is good for her and means I can start having a local workout buddy for some of my workouts now. Start her off easy and then see where life takes us. Also going to be trying to further clean up our diets from what they are now by doing the majority of our food production at home. We've been doing better with that recently but there's still plenty of room for improvement over the longer scale. Liking where the future is heading in so many areas of our lives these days.
So what about my numbers? 210 this week. Same as last week. Holding steady is good but I'd like to be down a bit from where I am right now. We'll just have to see what happens as the future unfolds. Until next week, keeping striving to be the you you want to be.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 96)
Sunday once again and time for my weekly update.
Missed last weeks update, was busy with life and didn't get around to it. So this week here we are.
Finally back to running in my Vibrams after the toenail procedure. I'm definitely down a bit in terms of my overall fitness but I seem to be regaining it steadily. Hopefully within another week or two I should be back to full and working on increasing my fitness beyond it's recent peak. My sleep has been improving of late as well which is always a bonus. Hoping to increase the rate at which I'm complying with my planned resistance workouts by moving them from Monday and Friday to Sunday and Thursday, so that in coincides with as few other recurring events in my life as possible.
So what else have I been up to? Today it was cookery. Trying to find some replacement options for the smoothies we've been doing for breakfasts. Made up a batch of the Primal Energy Bars I've done a couple times before, playing around with things trying to find a good match. Also tried out two new recipes, some Primal sausage balls and some hash brown omelette "muffins". Both of them seem pretty decent so we'll have to see how things pan out. For the sweet tooth we whipped up something a bit odd, cookie stuffed brownies, chocolate chip cookies contained within fudge brownies. Those were indeed rather delicious.
So what does the scale have to say? 210, up a pound from last time. Gonna cut back a little and try to get that back down a bit. Bodyfat holding pretty steady. So until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Missed last weeks update, was busy with life and didn't get around to it. So this week here we are.
Finally back to running in my Vibrams after the toenail procedure. I'm definitely down a bit in terms of my overall fitness but I seem to be regaining it steadily. Hopefully within another week or two I should be back to full and working on increasing my fitness beyond it's recent peak. My sleep has been improving of late as well which is always a bonus. Hoping to increase the rate at which I'm complying with my planned resistance workouts by moving them from Monday and Friday to Sunday and Thursday, so that in coincides with as few other recurring events in my life as possible.
So what else have I been up to? Today it was cookery. Trying to find some replacement options for the smoothies we've been doing for breakfasts. Made up a batch of the Primal Energy Bars I've done a couple times before, playing around with things trying to find a good match. Also tried out two new recipes, some Primal sausage balls and some hash brown omelette "muffins". Both of them seem pretty decent so we'll have to see how things pan out. For the sweet tooth we whipped up something a bit odd, cookie stuffed brownies, chocolate chip cookies contained within fudge brownies. Those were indeed rather delicious.
So what does the scale have to say? 210, up a pound from last time. Gonna cut back a little and try to get that back down a bit. Bodyfat holding pretty steady. So until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Weekly Weigh-In (Week 94)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
For some reason it seems my update from last week didn't post. Nothing of real value missing though, mostly just a plan for recovery from the toenail repair I had done last week. Didn't quite stick to that plan but it was good to have had one. Wasn't able to do any real running last week, though I did get in some cycling and a couple walks instead. Hoping that by the middle of this week I'll be able to do some running in addition to some walking I plan to add to my routine. At least in part due to wanting to get into better condition for walking around the parks at Disneyland before and after my race. That and the walking is beneficial to my mental state I've found, in ways that are similar to if not the same as my running but some experimenting will help hammer that out.
Anyway, what's the numbers this week? Weight at 209, same as last week and the week before, BF down from previous two weeks, RHR up a little (but still only at around 50). Everything's going pretty well with my fitness, and that's just the way I want it going into the Fall. Until next time readers, keep being the you you want to be.
For some reason it seems my update from last week didn't post. Nothing of real value missing though, mostly just a plan for recovery from the toenail repair I had done last week. Didn't quite stick to that plan but it was good to have had one. Wasn't able to do any real running last week, though I did get in some cycling and a couple walks instead. Hoping that by the middle of this week I'll be able to do some running in addition to some walking I plan to add to my routine. At least in part due to wanting to get into better condition for walking around the parks at Disneyland before and after my race. That and the walking is beneficial to my mental state I've found, in ways that are similar to if not the same as my running but some experimenting will help hammer that out.
Anyway, what's the numbers this week? Weight at 209, same as last week and the week before, BF down from previous two weeks, RHR up a little (but still only at around 50). Everything's going pretty well with my fitness, and that's just the way I want it going into the Fall. Until next time readers, keep being the you you want to be.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 92)
Still Sunday, if only barely, and time for another update.
Good week on my feet this week. Logged the most miles I've yet logged in a week, crossed the threshold for most runs in a week, and most runs in a month, had my best average pace for a week, and just generally kept in good shape with my runs all throughout the week.
This week though I'm gonna talk about what I've been doing for resistance training. It's much reduced from what I was doing a month or two ago with the weights, but it's meshing rather well with my running and it's progressive so I can keep working at it until I manage to see the results I'm looking for or nothing happens.
So what is it? It's a progressive bodyweight program derived from the book Convict Conditioning. A strange name sure but it makes a lot of sense, in prison you don't have a lot of gym equipment to work with, and in many cases you get your body and your cell. Now I have no intention of going to prison but the kinds of lessons from people who have can help me with my own strength work in terms of keeping things simple and natural, and in terms of making sure that my workouts are not tied to any specific equipment or location.
The program consists of 6 basic movement progressions, pushups, pull-ups, squats, leg raises, bridging, and handstand pushups. Each of the 6 movements has 10 steps that go from complete beginner to things like 1 arm pushups, pull-ups, or handstand pushups, 1 legged squats, and hanging straight leg raises and stand-to-stand bridging. Each of the 10 steps has goals for beginner, intermediate and advancement ratings so the goals are always very clearly laid out. Right now I'm working on the pushup, pull-up, squat, and leg raise progressions, the bridging and handstand progressions are recommended against until you reach set levels of some of the other exercises and I'm going to work within that restriction for now to see what kind of results I get following the program as directed.
I'm not sure how this program is gonna work in the long run but so far it seems to be going rather well for me.
The other thing I've been trying out recently is trigger point therapy on my legs using a lacrosse ball. Essentially you just push the ball into areas of tightness in the muscles, ligaments, and fascia and activate the muscles. Doing so is supposed to help relieve the tension in the muscles and help loosen your joints and prevent injury. It's another situation where I don't yet have any proof of whether or not it doesn't what it is supposed to, but as with the resistance training, the best way to find out is to try it.
So what does the scale tell me whit sweet? 209, up a pound from last week. Bodyfat staying about the same. Al this is about what I expected, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Good week on my feet this week. Logged the most miles I've yet logged in a week, crossed the threshold for most runs in a week, and most runs in a month, had my best average pace for a week, and just generally kept in good shape with my runs all throughout the week.
This week though I'm gonna talk about what I've been doing for resistance training. It's much reduced from what I was doing a month or two ago with the weights, but it's meshing rather well with my running and it's progressive so I can keep working at it until I manage to see the results I'm looking for or nothing happens.
So what is it? It's a progressive bodyweight program derived from the book Convict Conditioning. A strange name sure but it makes a lot of sense, in prison you don't have a lot of gym equipment to work with, and in many cases you get your body and your cell. Now I have no intention of going to prison but the kinds of lessons from people who have can help me with my own strength work in terms of keeping things simple and natural, and in terms of making sure that my workouts are not tied to any specific equipment or location.
The program consists of 6 basic movement progressions, pushups, pull-ups, squats, leg raises, bridging, and handstand pushups. Each of the 6 movements has 10 steps that go from complete beginner to things like 1 arm pushups, pull-ups, or handstand pushups, 1 legged squats, and hanging straight leg raises and stand-to-stand bridging. Each of the 10 steps has goals for beginner, intermediate and advancement ratings so the goals are always very clearly laid out. Right now I'm working on the pushup, pull-up, squat, and leg raise progressions, the bridging and handstand progressions are recommended against until you reach set levels of some of the other exercises and I'm going to work within that restriction for now to see what kind of results I get following the program as directed.
I'm not sure how this program is gonna work in the long run but so far it seems to be going rather well for me.
The other thing I've been trying out recently is trigger point therapy on my legs using a lacrosse ball. Essentially you just push the ball into areas of tightness in the muscles, ligaments, and fascia and activate the muscles. Doing so is supposed to help relieve the tension in the muscles and help loosen your joints and prevent injury. It's another situation where I don't yet have any proof of whether or not it doesn't what it is supposed to, but as with the resistance training, the best way to find out is to try it.
So what does the scale tell me whit sweet? 209, up a pound from last week. Bodyfat staying about the same. Al this is about what I expected, and I look forward to seeing where things go from here. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 91)
Another late update this week, sorry about that.
Increased the bar on my running yet again this week with increased paces, mileages, and days. Days will probably peak next week at 7, if all goes as planned, but mileage and pace will hopefully keep increasing for a while. Need to map out a hilly route in this area so that I can reintroduce my hill training. I've recently decided to add some mobility work based on things I've been picking up over at MobilityWOD and Strength Running. Increasing my mobility and working my joints daily should hopefully help keep me injury free as I increase my running to prepare for my race and beyond. I'm also increasing my strength training overall, though not really my lower body disproportionately to my upper, more on that next week. Sadly my stats will take a bit of a dip after I get this ingrown toenail taken care of, but that should only hinder me a few days.
So how about my weight? 208, same as last week. Staying rather constant throughout is fine with me. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Increased the bar on my running yet again this week with increased paces, mileages, and days. Days will probably peak next week at 7, if all goes as planned, but mileage and pace will hopefully keep increasing for a while. Need to map out a hilly route in this area so that I can reintroduce my hill training. I've recently decided to add some mobility work based on things I've been picking up over at MobilityWOD and Strength Running. Increasing my mobility and working my joints daily should hopefully help keep me injury free as I increase my running to prepare for my race and beyond. I'm also increasing my strength training overall, though not really my lower body disproportionately to my upper, more on that next week. Sadly my stats will take a bit of a dip after I get this ingrown toenail taken care of, but that should only hinder me a few days.
So how about my weight? 208, same as last week. Staying rather constant throughout is fine with me. Until next time, keep being the you you want to be.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 90)
Monday and time for a delayed update.
Set a new record for most activities on Runkeeper in a week last week with 5, my steady increases in mileage are continuing rather well. Been setting some pretty blazing paces on some of the more recent runs and I'm hoping I'm not overdoing it with tacking on the speed. In addition I've been tweaking my strength routine to help increase my overall strength and will be throwing in more running specific strength work as time goes on.
I'm really liking where I'm at with my fitness of late, and we've been making an effort to both cook at home more and try out more recipes we've never done so all in all I'm pretty happy with where my diet has been heading too. Right now I just have to take precautions to make sure that getting my toenail fixed in a week or two doesn't set me back too far, but I'm not too worried about that as my cardiac system seems to be improving steadily (resting heart rate is down to the low 50s now, making steady progress in the direction of the 40s), and my respiratory system seems to keep up pretty well to longer runs. That combined with my strength training should allow me to keep up a sufficient pace over the distance to meet my goals.
So how's the scale treating me this week? 208, same as last week. Body fat is down slightly but pretty much just holding steady, and that's fine by me. Until next time, keep on being the you you want to be.
Set a new record for most activities on Runkeeper in a week last week with 5, my steady increases in mileage are continuing rather well. Been setting some pretty blazing paces on some of the more recent runs and I'm hoping I'm not overdoing it with tacking on the speed. In addition I've been tweaking my strength routine to help increase my overall strength and will be throwing in more running specific strength work as time goes on.
I'm really liking where I'm at with my fitness of late, and we've been making an effort to both cook at home more and try out more recipes we've never done so all in all I'm pretty happy with where my diet has been heading too. Right now I just have to take precautions to make sure that getting my toenail fixed in a week or two doesn't set me back too far, but I'm not too worried about that as my cardiac system seems to be improving steadily (resting heart rate is down to the low 50s now, making steady progress in the direction of the 40s), and my respiratory system seems to keep up pretty well to longer runs. That combined with my strength training should allow me to keep up a sufficient pace over the distance to meet my goals.
So how's the scale treating me this week? 208, same as last week. Body fat is down slightly but pretty much just holding steady, and that's fine by me. Until next time, keep on being the you you want to be.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 89)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Been a really busy week this week. Due to careful planning we actually cooked most of our meals at home this week which is an improvement over recent weeks, and also a trend I hope to continue.
Didn't end up doing quite as much running this week as I'd planned, but I got a few good quality runs in. I also managed to get in a bodyweight routine every night for the last week, pushups, squats, vertical pulls (a precursor to pullups), and knee tucks (a precursor to hanging leg raises). Soon I'm hoping to add some bridging and handstand work to that routine as well. Making good progress so far on these workouts and hoping to continue doing so. Honestly not a lot of new developments this week otherwise.
So, what the scale got to say today? 208, same as last week. Even with that being the case I look better in a mirror now than I did two weeks ago, and that's worth more than any change on the scale right now as I'm fine with my weight, and to the stage of working on my Looking Good Naked factor. So far so good. Until next week, be the you you want to be.
Been a really busy week this week. Due to careful planning we actually cooked most of our meals at home this week which is an improvement over recent weeks, and also a trend I hope to continue.
Didn't end up doing quite as much running this week as I'd planned, but I got a few good quality runs in. I also managed to get in a bodyweight routine every night for the last week, pushups, squats, vertical pulls (a precursor to pullups), and knee tucks (a precursor to hanging leg raises). Soon I'm hoping to add some bridging and handstand work to that routine as well. Making good progress so far on these workouts and hoping to continue doing so. Honestly not a lot of new developments this week otherwise.
So, what the scale got to say today? 208, same as last week. Even with that being the case I look better in a mirror now than I did two weeks ago, and that's worth more than any change on the scale right now as I'm fine with my weight, and to the stage of working on my Looking Good Naked factor. So far so good. Until next week, be the you you want to be.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Weekly Weigh-in (Week 88)
Sunday once again and time for an update.
Big changes in my fitness plans this week that I'm really liking already.
Firstly, this weekend Lara needed some new jeans so like a good bored husband I went along to help. While out I realized I have only one pair of jeans so I might as well try some on. Turns out, I now wear a size 34. I cannot actually remember when I last wore a 34, the other pair I have is old, from a couple pants buying generations ago, and was a 38. I've dropped 8-10 inches from my waist size in these past 88 weeks, and I feel pretty good about that.
So what else have I been changing this week? Well, last week I mentioned that I'd probably be picking up a pull-up bar, and Sunday afternoon I did. So this week I actually worked out every evening after work with some squats, pushups and pullups. My arms are not liking the pullups, probably because I tried to go straight into full pullups without much lead-in, so I'm going to be pulling back from that and working on progressing toward pullups a little more gradually. I've also been working on increasing the range of motion on my squats and improving my technique on my pushups. I'll likely be adding a couple more exercises into my newly rekindled bodyweight workout fixation in the coming weeks. Handstands and eventually handstand pushups come to mind, leg raises as well (enabled at some stage by the pullup bar). I've found some interesting reading material on progressive bodyweight training recently that I've been going through and hopefully I can start putting it in practice in my workouts and see what kind of results it will get me. I will say that my upper body seems to have gotten a lot of increased definition for a weeks worth of time, so I'm hopeful.
The other big change in my workouts this week was that I started getting up early pretty much every day and going for a run. Some of them had to be adjusted from my plans going into the week, and due to issues with my work-sleep interaction and the water at our apartment I had to skip two of my planned runs, but 5 of the last 7 days have seen me out for a run and that's an improvement I'm proud of. Hopefully I can improve on that in the coming weeks.
So what does the scale have to say this week? 208, down a pound from last week. It seems to be nearly equal measure fat and lean if my bodyfat readings are correct, which I'm never really all that sure of. One of these days I'm going to upgrade to the Withings scale and then I'll have a little more confidence in them. Anyway, until next week, be the you you want to be. No matter what you have you can make it happen.
Big changes in my fitness plans this week that I'm really liking already.
Firstly, this weekend Lara needed some new jeans so like a good bored husband I went along to help. While out I realized I have only one pair of jeans so I might as well try some on. Turns out, I now wear a size 34. I cannot actually remember when I last wore a 34, the other pair I have is old, from a couple pants buying generations ago, and was a 38. I've dropped 8-10 inches from my waist size in these past 88 weeks, and I feel pretty good about that.
So what else have I been changing this week? Well, last week I mentioned that I'd probably be picking up a pull-up bar, and Sunday afternoon I did. So this week I actually worked out every evening after work with some squats, pushups and pullups. My arms are not liking the pullups, probably because I tried to go straight into full pullups without much lead-in, so I'm going to be pulling back from that and working on progressing toward pullups a little more gradually. I've also been working on increasing the range of motion on my squats and improving my technique on my pushups. I'll likely be adding a couple more exercises into my newly rekindled bodyweight workout fixation in the coming weeks. Handstands and eventually handstand pushups come to mind, leg raises as well (enabled at some stage by the pullup bar). I've found some interesting reading material on progressive bodyweight training recently that I've been going through and hopefully I can start putting it in practice in my workouts and see what kind of results it will get me. I will say that my upper body seems to have gotten a lot of increased definition for a weeks worth of time, so I'm hopeful.
The other big change in my workouts this week was that I started getting up early pretty much every day and going for a run. Some of them had to be adjusted from my plans going into the week, and due to issues with my work-sleep interaction and the water at our apartment I had to skip two of my planned runs, but 5 of the last 7 days have seen me out for a run and that's an improvement I'm proud of. Hopefully I can improve on that in the coming weeks.
So what does the scale have to say this week? 208, down a pound from last week. It seems to be nearly equal measure fat and lean if my bodyfat readings are correct, which I'm never really all that sure of. One of these days I'm going to upgrade to the Withings scale and then I'll have a little more confidence in them. Anyway, until next week, be the you you want to be. No matter what you have you can make it happen.
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