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Saturday, December 31, 2005
Exercise-677
Friday, December 30, 2005
Exercise-0
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Exercise-805 Getting back into control and eating cleaner. It's like kicking a bad habit through sugar detox though.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Exercise-1112
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Exercise-1231 Ugh!
Monday, December 26, 2005
Exercise-456 My intake is dropping a little. There's hope and the pastry is just about gone out of the house and hopefully stays out. My weight jumped up 7 pounds with this 6 day foray. It will take about one month to get back to where I was. One month to correct behavioral results from 6 off days. Looking at the math:
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Exercise-902 The last 2 days have been losing hands for sure. Will power is an illusion. It does not exist. Self-imposed structure does exist but has to be created and then maintained.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Exercise-799 Enough food to feed a village plus mountains of homemade pastry. I could have easily eaten more today. There's not much positive that can be said here except that hopefully Christmas comes but once a year. I'm hoping to be better than this Christmas day. My sleep is down and that definitely is not helping matters. I did get in about 2:30 of exercise (1:45 on resistance, 0:30 in a rev class and about 0:15 in stretching) but it's no where's near enough to combat this much intake. I'd have to run 35 miles in addition to what exercise I already did to burn the excess calories I ate today.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Exercise-1212
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Exercise-0
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Exercise-1035 Swam a mile today in the pool (1800 yards). It felt pretty good. I then followed up with an aerobic 60 minutes on the Arc Trainer for about 2 hours of steady state aerobics. Followed that up with 8 home made chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon. Pretty good day. Thursday is a rest day.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Exercise-575
Monday, December 19, 2005
Exercise-1253
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Exercise-674
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Exercise-802
Friday, December 16, 2005
Exercise-0
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Exercise-477
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Exercise-1136
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Exercise-642
Monday, December 12, 2005
Exercise-928
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Exercise-0 My intake has been over by 20% the last 2 days which is fine. Monday will be a 60 minute swim workout plus a 90 minute resistance workout and I'll need the extra calories.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Exercise-508 This is pretty mundane business but it doesn't take long to do, 10 or 15 minutes a day, and it works. It just works. It's not glamorous. It doesn't even have a cool sounding name but by doing it you constantly know where you stand with your intake and you begin to see the relationship between carbs, fats, proteins, fibers and other nutrients. I can typically judge portion sizes now to within 2/10ths of an once just by looking at the portion. You stop fooling yourself. I was craving carbs today and went over by 600 calories eating a couple of bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios with skim milk. Had their been pastry in the house I would have finished it off. That 600 calories translated into 2 pounds Sunday morning which tells me my glycogen was probably running low and that I tanked it back up along with some water. I've seen my weight increase as much as 4 pounds in 1 day by eating an excess of 1500-2000 calories. At 3500 calories a pound that would be 14, 000 calories to gain 4 pounds so I can anticipate that it will settle out over the next few days. This was also a taper week for me concentrating on recovery and rest. Monday starts the next 4 week build period cycle in my off season base training program. I experimented with having a personal trainer who's specialty is triathlons set a plan up for me. After the first 4 weeks I can say that it has been highly effective. If you are interested contact Kurt Maw at Comprehensive Training Systems. Kurt spent a couple of hours with me discussing my goals, doing some fitness assessment exercises and then came up with a custom plan that addressed my weaknesses and goals. Kurt and Todd Crumb both compete in the sport of triathlon. I went Cross Country Skiing today for the first time this season and never got winded and had absolutely no muscle soreness which is a pretty good testament that what I am doing seems to be working.
Friday, December 9, 2005
Exercise-826
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Exercise-0
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Exercise-636
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Exercise-334
Monday, December 5, 2005
Exercise-637
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Exercise-668
Saturday, December 3, 2005
Exercise-381
Friday, December 2, 2005
Exercise-542 VERY happy with my swimming today. I'm starting to see some glide. There seems to be way less struggle and way more ease. I hope today starts a new trend.
Thursday, December 1, 2005
Exercise-574
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Exercise-445 Birthday cake and ice cream tonight, about 1300 calories (2 helpings), but my weight is stable and I may run a 5K race on Sunday so it won't hurt to have my fuel tanks topped off.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Exercise-907
Monday, November 28, 2005
Exercise-448
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Exercise-670 Still good legs today to do 90 minutes on a stationary bike. I tried some one legged pedaling to gauge my left leg recovery to my right leg and it seems back to normal. Between yesterday and today I can say that my legs seem 100 percent recovered from the marathon of six weeks ago.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Exercise-1002 Rigorous workout today. Six mile treadmill run with a 5 minute interval followed immediately with a 90 minute resistance workout. Drank 1 bottle of Gatorade in between. It was definitely an endurance test. Good legs today.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Exercise-636 The last of the pie, now back to normal for 3 weeks before the next food events.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Exercise-0
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Exercise-1219
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Exercise-334
Monday, November 21, 2005
Exercise-1052 Good workout today. I had done the stationary bike Sunday night for 75 minutes, then swim practice this morning for about an hour and then about 90 minutes later a 55 minute run so it was kind of like a stretched out triathlon. In speaking with several swimmers everyone who was previously aerobically fit seemed surprised that that land aerobic capacity doesn't seem to transfer very readily to the water when they first started swimming.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Exercise-766 Well, I never thought these next words would come out of my mouth in a million years. I was a participant in a Master's Swim Meet today. I tried the 50 (0:55), 100 (2:02) and relay (2:34 group). I think I was the only one that started in the water and not the blocks but I've only been in the pool 4 times and hours. By the next one I hope to be jumping off the blocks and turning properly and swimming with less drag.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Exercise-713
Friday, November 18, 2005
Exercise-636 A VERY productive week.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Exercise-336
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Exercise-1097 In order to make my workouts easier for me to review and track I've started a Workout Log that is separate from this thread.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Exercise-588
Monday, November 14, 2005
Exercise-734
3.5 days of vacation added 7 pounds on the scale this morning and that's
being careful of my eating and exercising (walking) everyday and eating out only
1 meal per day. It's no wonder our culture is so heavy. We are surrounded by
food.
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Exercise-436
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Exercise-949
Friday, November 11, 2005
Exercise-766
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Exercise-444
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Exercise-887
I joined a Master's Swim Team today. I think they can teach me to swim. They
meet 3 times a week plus a 4th day for technique drills. It felt good to be back
in the water.
Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Exercise-855
Monday, November 7, 2005
Exercise-838
This is the first time I've done my leg weights since September 26th. I went light so as not to pull anything and test my muscles for recovery from the marathon. They are feeling pretty good and just about back to normal. Next week my weight program should change (finally!) with more of a focus on flexibility, balance and core work. I was very happy with my intake today and hope to keep it going over the next 3 days.
Sunday, November 6, 2005
Exercise-434
My intake was over this past week by about 6000 calories and the last 2 weeks by about 8500 calories. Not a good trend. That's about 2.4 pounds and the scale is showing an increase of 4 pounds in 2 days. I really need to focus on getting my intake back under control. From now through the next 7 weeks or so are some of the worst eating tests of strengths for me. I'll need more effective strategies than what I'm using now. I continually show extremely poor self control when it comes to any kind of pastry buffets. If dessert is served as a single portion I'm fine but not the buffet. For the buffet I'm better off not to even take that first bite. That first bite just leads me into temptation and then I lose control. It's as simple as that. I have no will power after that first bite. So..."if there's a pastry buffet I need to walk away"...ah, my knew mantra.
Saturday, November 5, 2005
Exercise-1115
A family cookout with more pastry than a bakery shop and I rose to the occasion unfortunately. It was close to 70 degrees and it was great to get a bike ride in with summer attire and I tested my legs on some hills and climbs.
Friday, November 4, 2005
Exercise-829
Good legs, good course, good weather, great run!
Thursday, November 3, 2005
Exercise-0-Rest Day
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Exercise-948
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Exercise-610
My legs are improving slowly but surely.
Monday, October 31, 2005
Exercise-918
Really good workout today. Eating and appetite seemed back in control. Swordfish and Tuna for protein, 155 grams total for the day. I've been testing some new software that's compatible with my Polar XTrainer Plus HR monitor which is now over 8 years old and I really like it. It's called CrossTrak Fitness Software.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Exercise-1063
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Exercise-602
Nice run. Saw two deer cross the road in front of me. My legs are starting to feel better during the run. The first 5 miles they felt strong and the last 7/10 mile they seemed to be fading and I was noticing sensations. It was a bad calorie day. I stayed up late and had a feeding frenzy. All good stuff, though and fat was 24% with protein at 16% and 180 grams. Carbs were 718 grams so I'm pretty tanked up.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Exercise-497
My left leg seemed to be more recovered today and close to equal in strength to my right leg.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Exercise-709
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Exercise-1010
Check out the differences in the two HR graphs. The first is a perfect recovery workout for me and the second is a perfect lactate threshold workout for me. Both excellent workouts with different purposes.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Exercise-919
Monday, October 24, 2005
Exercise-446
My appetite has been up but I've been going along with it thinking it may be needed for recovery. But I'm definitely watching it.
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Exercise-559
You got to know when to
hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, Now ev’ry gambler knows
that the secret to survivin’ I'm abandoning the Cape Cod Marathon for this year. Too many things are not lining up including work, recovery, time constraints and my specificity of training. I'm new to running. I have not yet developed the neuro-muscular pathways specific to running and I'm still in the process of building new capillaries and mitochondria. In doing the stationary bike today I did some 1 leg drills and my left leg is recovering slower than my right leg resulting in an imbalance for the moment. I had planned only to run the MDI Marathon partly and try for an under 4:30 time at the Cape Cod Marathon. I hit my goal earlier than anticipated and the risk is too high to attempt 2 marathons 2 weeks apart without the proper development and recovery of my running specificity. Sometimes it is a stronger response...in the long run...to pull back and live to race another day. George Washington was a great general not so much for his ability to win battles but for his ability to retreat when outnumbered and out maneuvered in order to live to fight another day. So from now until the end of the month I'll continue to recover doing some light cross training then formulate my training strategy for 2006 and begin implementation. My goals for the 2006 year are:
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Exercise-501
Argh! I never drank any water yesterday and my sleep was on the short side. The weather took a turn to the cold and raw side and I only drank coffee all day. By the evening I was out of control with my eating and resorted to binge eating. Luckily there was no pastry in the house and my ratio of fat, protein and carbs was good but I must remember to drink water even when it is cold!
Friday, October 21, 2005
Exercise-592
Easy run today more to see how my legs stood in the recovery process. They clearly replied that they could stand a couple more days of rest at least so I'll hold off until Monday and do another 5.7 mile test then.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Exercise-990
Tempo and interval workout. I did about 10 intervals while maintaining recovery at 140-160 BPM in between more as a HR test to gauge my recovery. My resting HR was in the 40's today so I figured to give it a go.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Exercise-557
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Exercise-981
The after effects for me of running a marathon, none that I'm aware of. I took a hot bath shortly after I finished and did some careful stretching and have been stretching a couple of times a day. I had 2 Advil about 3 hours after the race and that was it. My legs felt good Monday and even better today and I've not noticed any fatigue. My legs feel about 90 percent ready to go again. I'll continue to baby them and give them a chance to repair and get stronger. As I hadn't planned to finish MDI I wanted to still get a whole marathon in this year if possible so had registered for the Cape Cod Marathon in 12 days. So now what? I didn't push at MDI and tried to stay within myself because I didn't know what to expect so I'm thinking of that as my last long training run and planning to taper from there. I don't care if I only do a partial Cape marathon so I'll jump in and if I notice fatigue or any other maladies I'll err on the side of caution and quit. However, if I feel up to it then I'll add some more base miles and marathon experience. I'd like to see my pace drop to about 9:30 for the Cape but I'll just have to wait and see.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Exercise-0 Recovery day.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Exercise-2875
Windy, wet and wild!
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Exercise-0
Friday, October 14, 2005
Exercise-482
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Exercise-802
Breezy, wet and wild and a balmy 52 degrees, a great day for a run! This was the route I was so afraid of two weeks ago. It seems like a cakewalk now, even in the rain.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Exercise-603
48 degrees, cloudy, grey, wet, dreary and breezy to blustery...perfect day for a run. All systems go! Running is probably one of the few activities you can do outdoors in this inclement weather and we are having a streak of it.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Exercise-821
Surprisingly my legs felt great today. No aches, pain or stiffness from yesterday's run. Talked to another fellow today who has run 26 marathons and lots of shorter races (He won the 5 mile Charlton Old Home Day Race I ran in on September 5th with a time of 28:04 and a pace of 5:37 and there were three significant hills!) and he gave me some marathon tips (start out slow; run-walk cycles) and speed tips (increase turnover; run 200 full out - walk 200, repeat several times).
Monday, October 10, 2005
Exercise-1773
52 degrees, cloudy, grey, cold, intimidated and uninspired. That's how I started. Then about 50 minutes in on my third climb it started to rain. This was a tough run. About 20 hills and climbs. (see my HR graph above), cold, grey, wet day. About the only time I smiled was when I passed a church and read the marquis that said, "Have you tried to walk on water?". Well yes. For about 7 miles up to that point. I let the intimidation sit there and it came along on the run. I couldn't shake it and didn't even try. I fell into a rhythm after the second climb and that was about it. Around 12 miles I started to dig deep. I needed hope, some perspective perhaps and thought of Dick and Rick Hoyt. I had just finished reading their book that I bought from them at the Boston Triathlon in September. I thought of Rick. On the cover of the book is a photo of Rick with his arm held straight out, fist clenched while his dad pushes him in his chair. I thought of the times they ran marathons in the pouring rain after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles also in the pouring rain and I stayed my course with a new resolve. I was only running 17 miles, less than 3 hours. One step at a time. Whenever I need to dig deep I think of the Hoyts. Nobody has had to dig deeper than those two. Every other effort pales in comparison. I knew that had Team Hoyt scheduled a training run or a race they'd be out there. I knew that neither of them would be complaining either and I thought it's only a few hills, a few hours and a little inclement weather and I focused on my form and posture, on cotton and steel, on my foot strike, my pace and my hydration and I'm glad I did. After I wrote this I checked the Hoyt's web site. They are in Kona, Hawaii and will be leading the Ironman parade on Tuesday.
Sunday, October 9, 2005
Exercise-0 Rest day. Took in a movie, carbed up, and rested. Mentally prepared for Monday's run.
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Exercise-614
The only other jogger on the road today was a Bullfrog and he was just taking it in. 71 degrees, balmy with a light to medium rain. Perfect running weather and the leaves were spectacular. Sunday will be a rest day and Monday, I will explore new frontiers in honor of Christopher Columbus, 17 miles of them.
Friday, October 7, 2005
Exercise-442
Just enough to stay loose and limber. My legs feel great after yesterday's run but I need to let my glycogen build back up. It looks like Saturday's run will be on the treadmill as it's supposed to be a deluge. If not I'll hit the streets. Sunday or Monday I'll be looking for 17 miles. I think I've got my legs half convinced that they can do it.
Thursday, October 6, 2005
Exercise-1108
Met up with a fellow marathoner today who was training for the second marathon I'm participating in this month. Says he's run both the marathons I'm doing. The word hills came up several times so it was perfect that I was doing some hill work today. I stayed with him for a half mile and then we took different routes. I speed up and I'm sure he slowed down. Looking at my HR it was actually going up as we ran down a hill, LOL. I looked up his times. He's a serious runner. He did the hilliest marathon in 3:05:00 and has done the other one in 2:58:00. His pace runs between 6 and 7 minute miles depending on the race. He was in a lot of races. We are getting some beautiful colors coming in now and it was overcast, hazy and 66 degrees out. It was really a perfect day to run and I enjoyed the experience and was happy to be out there. My HR recovery was excellent and my legs felt better than I thought they would have. Tomorrow is another rest day and I'm hoping Saturday to get in a short 6 miler. That will give me a good week and if I'm recovered enough on Sunday or Monday I may attempt a 15-16 miler then taper and rest up.
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Exercise-607
I had a good tempo run and my legs felt recovered and I felt like running a little faster. My focus was on kick, hip rotation and stride length and arm swing. I hadn't planned to run fast. It just happened. I used an older third pair of shoes that are not made for my pronation and arches but they felt good and the tenderness I had on the bottom of my left foot was alleviated.
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Exercise-474
My legs felt really good today but I took a rest day from running anyway. The recumbent cardio workout was to warm up for the weights and to keep my legs loose. I'm going to hold off on the lower body weights until November when my running slows down. Right now my legs need all the resources available to them. I found a really cool web site that I can map my runs out on and it gives me exact mileages and calories burned and calculates my pace based on the run time. I would think it could be used for cycling also. I checked the distance against a route I had mapped out with the car and they were exactly the same.
Monday, October 3, 2005
Exercise-843
Today should have been a rest day to allow recovery from yesterday's long run. I knew that. But I wanted to see how my legs reacted to a partially recovered state, to flirt with over reaching. It's just the way I'm made. So I did. I felt the sensations, noticed my form needed constant correction and tried to be as cautious as a fool can be. My cadence was 90 throughout and seemed very slow to me and stride length was kept short. I doubled up on my socks as the bottom of my left foot was tender and fluids were 14G and 20W. Rationally I know there is not enough time to prepare prudently for a marathon but I wanted to leave the possibility open. The mid October marathon I know will be a training run, that I will bail about mile 13-17 and then 2 weeks later I have another shot to either finish a marathon (respectfully) or get in a final training run and live to come back next year better prepared. Patience! PS: I've thought and reflected a little more since I wrote the above. I’ve hit my limits and my increases now will be in the 5-10% range max. The marathon finish may take one more year and that’s ok. I’ll run a couple part ways this month to feel them out, test my hydration and nutrition and get a couple of nice training runs in. Next year I’ll be better prepared. My original goal was to run a half marathon distance this year and it occurred to me that I've accomplished that. Ironically I had forgotten why. I was interested in doing the Firmman 1/2 Ironman 2006. I had tested the waters for the swim and knew I could complete that segment but hadn't tested the run. Thus so far I've tested 2 phases and will test the bike for a 56 mile ride next year. If the bike works out then I will consider putting all 3 together and attempt a 1/2 Ironman.
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Exercise-1612
My resting HR when I started the timer was 51 BPM. Weather was perfect. I found the limits of my accelerated training mileage and time today and it's 14.2 miles and 2 hours and 15 minutes. From here on in my increases will be lucky to be about 10%. My splits for 10K-60:00, 20K-58:21 and my time for the 13.1 half marathon distance was 2:03:09. HR recovery was excellent. Physical recovery is ongoing. By evening I felt like I had played football against the New England Patriots and lost. My cadence from start to finish was 95 and I wore a Fuel Belt and drank 20 ozs. of Gatorade and 20 ozs. of water plus 1 liter of water at the finish and 10 ozs. of Gatorade before heading out (approximately 84 ounces total). Hydration seemed perfect. My pace was a little better than my 11 mile run a week ago which was a 9:49 so 21 seconds per mile faster.
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Exercise-0 Rest day in preparation for Sunday's run. I've got a 14.2 mile run scheduled for Sunday morning and I'm looking forward to it. There's a mile long hill (not steep but a steady incline) at 10K that I'm looking forward to and I'm interested to see how I do running that distance. For hydration I'm planning on 20 ozs. of water and 20 ozs. of Gatorade sipping from a fuel belt along the way.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Exercise-580
My heart rate finally came back down to normal this morning in the mid 40s and I even saw a 41 at one time. It was 44 degrees at the start of my run around 8:00 AM so fall is definitely here. Fun run, easy pace more to just bump my weekly mileage up to 40 miles. My recovery was excellent and fast. Within a couple of minutes my HR was back in the 90s. Saturday is a rest day and Sunday I'm hoping to get 14-15 miles in at about a 10:00 pace.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Exercise-1089
I had a lot of anxiety about this route today. The hill was steeper and longer than what I had attempted so far and so I told myself I didn't need to do the stupid thing and could just do my regular 5.75 mile route. So at 26 minutes in I felt my right shoulder dip and my legs hung a right and we lit into 'er. It turned out to be only 5 minutes to the top with a max HR of 160. As I descended on the way back I noticed the descent to be much longer so I will have to run it in reverse next time. As my HR shows this is a fairly hilly route but I could have kept on running at the finish today and didn't feel tired at all. My recovery was excellent. It seems the mental game is every bit as challenging as the physical game when it comes to running. The temperatures were great and there was a refreshing breeze. My cadence stayed at 95 through out the run.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Exercise-429
I had some time constraints this morning but was leaning towards a shorter run anyways. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm planning a very hilly 8.5 mile course that's an add on to my 5.75 mile route with the addition of a long steep hill at mile 3. At 44 degrees I experimented with long sleeves (good), mountain biking pants (too bulky but warm) and a hat (good). My hands were cold the first 2 miles but thawed out on the last 2 miles so gloves or socks next time.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Exercise-980
About half way through my run my quads started to notice we were running (possibly because I had asked them to leg press 640 pounds and then squat 225 pounds just 15 hours earlier) so I focused on relaxing them as I ran and they seemed to comply. My hip feels fine now. I've changed to my other running shoes, Brooks Adrenaline 5, and am wondering if the New Balance 1220's caused the hip soreness. I have to really work harder doing the weights in the evening. I seem to have about 10 percent more strength in the mornings.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Exercise-762
I felt rested and recovered from yesterday's run and concentrated on form. My hip feels much better. That's the only issue I've had so far since starting out running. When I push to the next longer distance my hip rebels and then acquiesces after a few days. This seems to be my base route and I run one day clockwise and the next day counter clockwise. This gives me a pretty diverse terrain with good up hills from fairly steep to fairly long and when reversed the same with the down hills. I'm still focused on maintenance with the weights so am limiting to once per week and am not increasing loads. Lower body one day and upper another. Core work on both days but hitting separate areas. I may stay at that rate until January and then go back to twice a week and building until June.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Exercise-1143
My longest run yet. It was 55 degrees and sunny heading out then went to 60 and cloudy. Perfect running temps. I wore a hat for the first time today. Recovery was excellent and the only discomfort afterwards was my right hip which seems to adjust to the mileage after a few days. The stretching seems to help too. Other than that my legs felt fine.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Exercise-428
My appetite seemed back to normal today. I'm going to try and increase my run time and my days to 5 next week. My goal for Sunday is about 10 miles at a slower pace, at least 1.5 hours and then another 8 mile hilly run mid week or so and the rest 5.75 runs. I'm hoping to hit 30 miles this coming week. I definitely want to get up to a 15 miler before the half marathon. I have a good route picked out already. I have 2 more weeks and then my taper week. As slow as my running seems to be building I'm still very pleased with the progress I'm making. It's dealing with the small incremental changes that is the hard part. I'd love to be able to go out and run 15 miles but I have to crawl before I can walk I suppose. I can feel my legs changing and coming around more though. I just wish they'd hurry up.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Exercise-606
I had a carb attack in the evening so my carb intake ended up at 667 grams for the day. My guess is that my glycogen was low and it triggered a response mechanism but that is just a guess. I seem to get one of these every 3 or 4 weeks and I then work to contain it to low fat carbs and some additional protein.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Exercise-1337
My legs felt recovered from the morning run by the evening while walking and playing golf. I'm real happy with the results I've been getting utilizing the "Chi Running" techniques I've been able to incorporate thus far. My heart rate was only elevated about 5 beats this morning instead of the 10 it had been and my cold seemed to be 90 percent gone. I was able to maintain consistent cadence from start to finish and kept my stride on what felt like the short side. The fuel belt works great. I take 14 oz. of water and 14 oz. of Gatorade and alternate my hydration. I finished the 28 oz. by the end of the run and then had about another 24 oz. of water immediately afterwards. I drink an additional 8 oz. of Gatorade before I head out. This seems to keep me at about the same weight when I finish as when I started. I changed the battery in my heart rate monitor yesterday and also reset my upper zone from 153 to 160. The results from my interval training suggest to me that I can maintain the 160 if I want to without fading so I'm thinking that 160 is closer to my actual lactate threshold now. My max heart rate I changed from 179 to 180. I also changed the sampling from 15 seconds to 5 seconds so the graphs are a little tighter now.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Exercise-888
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Exercise-599
Monday, September 19, 2005
Exercise-752
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Exercise-805
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Exercise-437
Friday, September 16, 2005
Exercise-918
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Exercise-377
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Exercise-805
Today starts my 1/2 marathon training for an upcoming marathon in mid October
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Exercise-762
Monday, September 12, 2005
Exercise-784
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Exercise-2040
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Exercise-863
Friday, September 9, 2005
Exercise-531
Thursday, September 8, 2005
Exercise-703
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Exercise-591
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Exercise-785
Monday, September 5, 2005 (Labor Day)
Exercise-Charlton Old Home Day 5 Mile Road Race-Placed 76th out of about 264.
Sunday, September 4, 2005
Exercise-1108
This may seem like a small thing but it was a consideration I had. I have only done one ocean swim and that was 2 weeks ago and the experience left me a little uneasy so today's swim being a deep water start meant I had to jump in and tread water until the gun went off. I watched the good swimmers dive in doing graceful moves and others doing some cannonballs. I had no idea if I would bob back up to the top (I nearly drowned as a kid doing a slide into a pool...couldn't swim and my friend pulled me up and over to the side) so I went down the plank, looked for an open spot, held my nose and jumped. I bobbed back up rather quickly and the water at 67 degrees is rather cool.
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Exercise-857
Friday, September 2, 2005
Exercise-407
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Exercise-622
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Exercise-668
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Exercise-711
Monday, August 29, 2005
Exercise-1014
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Exercise-1461-Journey for Sight Triathlon, Chicopee, MA
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Exercise-392
Friday, August 26, 2005
Exercise-425
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Exercise-1254
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Exercise-584
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Exercise-987
Monday, August 22, 2005
Exercise-792
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Exercise-1223
The 3 Webster boys at Jamestown, RI Wild Dog!
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Exercise-407
Food issues. First a wedding with old style cooking with everything drenched in oil but I didn't do bad there. It was the after party where there were only fat laden foods to eat. Ironically I never felt satiated until I got home and had some of my usual fare that was much, much less fat. I did well to hold the damage to 2194 calories over and it took some restraint to do that. Outside of a small piece of wedding cake no pastry was served, lucky for me.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Exercise-605
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Exercise-643
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Exercise-688
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Exercise-971
Monday, August 15, 2005
Exercise-784
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Exercise-983
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Exercise-507
Friday, August 12, 2005
Exercise-989
Registered for my 7th triathlon this year. Four down and three to go!
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Exercise-788
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Exercise-931
Tuesday, August 9, 2005
Exercise-931
July 2005 Statistics
Monday, August 8, 2005
Exercise-1224
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Exercise-1469
Excellent tri! I came in 47th out of a field of 145 total for all ages and 3rd out of 8 in my age division!!! A well run, well supported tri at a fabulous venue. Great bike course with good pavement and a covered bridge. There was an international distance going on also.
RESULTS
Saturday, August 6, 2005
Exercise-576
Friday, August 5, 2005
Exercise-784
This was supposed to be a taper day but check out the heart rate intensity. I felt good so I went hard. I'm using drop down sets on tri push downs, standing bicep curls and shoulder raises. It's giving me a much deeper lactic acid burn. Very happy with the results!
Thursday, August 4, 2005
Exercise-851
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Exercise-1088
I could smell touches of fall in the air on my bike ride this morning. I altered a familiar course to add a few more hills. My swim is improving...I think.
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
Exercise-887
Had a really strong workout today with several intervals on the arc trainer staying between 150-200 rpm's for the duration. My legs were still strong for the weights and I'm up to 630 pounds (14 plates) on the leg press X12 reps superseted with 150X10 pound leg extensions and 105X10 leg curls followed by 10X225 pound squats then some dead lifts 195X10.
Monday, August 1, 2005
Exercise-603
Ate a few too many homemade chocolate chip cookies yesterday and today.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Exercise-851
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Exercise-1702
What a huge event this is. It's great to see people from all across the country come to Webster to compete and challenge themselves. The bike racks go on forever. This is a first class event and a fund raiser for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 2100 women are registered.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Exercise-872
Practiced a new stroke that felt more like swimming to me. It definitely uses different parts of my muscles and I think my time came down a minute on my 1/2 mile distance at a moderate HR. I also felt that I'll be able to speed up the stroke once I get used to the pattern.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Exercise-775
With only 5 hours of sleep last night this was a tougher workout than if I had gotten 6-7 hours of my usual sleep. I struggled somewhat but kept a positive focus and mental imagery which I think helped. I even increased a few reps here and there surprisingly. I had planned on swimming tonight but was tired so took the night off and will swim on Friday hopefully with more vigor. I think my run is getting better, not by leaps and bounds but by small increments. Had I been more rested I could have run at 8.0 MPH I think. I'm trying to avoid going anaerobic this week and this is basically a taper week.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Exercise-444
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Exercise-1548
Monday, July 25, 2005
Exercise-523
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Exercise-1045
WOW! What a great Tri I had today (Littleton Appleman). I came in 169th out of a field of 379. Final time was 1:22:59 The weather was perfect, I was rested and my legs felt the best they have so far at one of these events. I was more relaxed and it felt like I had done about 6 so far and not just the 2. I'm planning to finish 3 more this year for a total of 6. I picked up some swimming instruction after the tri (THANKS Dave!) and not surprisingly my technique is all wrong. I'm hoping to improve my technique over the next couple of weeks. I got bumped, thumped, kicked ,hit and tangled up with a buoy during the swim which was a GPS measured 1/2 mile so I now know what the reference is for the 1/2 mile for my training swims. The run was great, paved roads, tall grass fields and single track through the woods and up inclines kind of like mountain biking again. The bike was great on an undulating course with good pavement. No really steep hills but plenty of rollers. I'll be doing 3 more triathlons in August and I've already registered. On the bike route I was passing this small person about half way through the bike course and as I passed I said, "You are doing great!" and this approximately 12 year old boy who was screaming on his small bike turns to me and says, "You're doing great too!". Then as I'm almost done the run I see a fellow just in front of me who looked like he could be in my age group so I close the gap to check his age written on his calf. He was 68 years old and finished 5 seconds behind me and was first in his age group. He looked as if he had just started out. There were men all the way up into the 70-74 age group and women up into the 60-64 age group. Many of these men and women come to these events on their own with no other support, just a love for fitness and athleticism, the outdoors, and the camaraderie of other like minded individuals. Equipment ranges from very simple old road bikes with toe cage pedals to several thousand dollar time trial specific machines like the pros ride.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Exercise-Golf-712 calories burned
Friday, July 22, 2005
Exercise-761:
What I have noticed on the last 3 full moons is weight gain that settles out after the full moon passes. I gained and lost 4.5 pounds over this last full moon while maintaining a normal balanced intake.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Exercise-969:
The bike felt really good this morning and I went a little harder than planned in a couple of spots but then came back to about a 150 BPM HR as I caught myself. My bike is a late 80s lugged steal Columbus SLX tubing Derosa with down tube shifters and nothing aero. I love the ride, the handling and the simplicity and uncluttered design. My swim was excellent and my time was 2 seconds faster than yesterday (20:20 for the 1/2 mile or 3 laps of the buoys) but my heart rate was 5 BPM slower and conditions were about the same so my efficiency seems to be improving. I'm estimating 18 minutes for the GPS measured 1/2 mile swim on Sunday. 20 minutes swimming without stopping seems more like 45 minutes to me when I'm in the water.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Exercise1190:
My technique on the run seems to be improving. I've noticed I'm kicking up my heals more and this seems to propel me a little better. The hills are fun to do after running the treadmill and I am getting used to the varied surface irregularities. This Sunday's triathlon features a run through some fields, over stone walls and possibly some muddy areas. Sounds like a mountain bike route and should be fun and offer a change of pace from the drone of the pavement. I'm keeping my HR in check this week and staying below 85 percent max for my taper but I'm keeping my tempo up through Friday. That means I have to back off the intensity somewhat. My swim technique last night also felt really good. I'm getting my nose down in the water more and my rhythm feels like my run pace does now. Hopefully that will continue. My times haven't seemed to improve but I'm not pushing the intensity either so it's hard to say. Sunday's swim course is a GPS measured half mile so that should give me an accurate assessment of my half mile time that I can then compare to swimming the buoys at Memorial Beach. I've been estimating that 3 lengths of the buoys is about 880 yards or 1/2 mile based on pacing it out by walking the beach.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Exercise-827:
I had plenty of energy for the morning's workout from my food fest Monday night. After my 45 minute warm up I was able to increase the weight amounts on my leg presses. Seated leg press is now maxed at 330, Adductor is maxed at 220, same for Abductor and 45 degree leg press where you push up is 590, squats free weights 205, dead lift 195 with the bar you stand inside off, leg curls 105 and leg extensions 150. I do 2 sets of 10-15 reps. I add in a set of 50 crunches on an incline bench to finish off and then stretches. I wait for my heart rate to drop to about 115-125 then hit the next set.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Exercise-560:
(Written Tuesday morning) First the exercise. I'm finding it takes 4 days to fully recover from an aggressive weight resistance workout at my age (54). Yesterday's workout was 3 days and my reps dropped on a couple of chest sets. Everything else I was fine. On the chest sets I did what I could at my previous weight then dropped the weight and did a second set with higher reps to exhaustion. Other than that I had an excellent workout. Second, my eating. The full moon is Thursday and I have noticed the last couple of full moons that my weight climbed 2-3 pounds then went back to normal after the full moon passed. Maybe it's coincidental but this is the third time I've seen this happen now. After dinner last night I couldn't stop eating. I was tired and perhaps a little "off" from my normal routine. Luckily there was no junk food to be had in the house. I looked as I had cravings. If there had been junk food I was on a roll but luckily we only had nutritious food to eat so I had 3 cups of Honey Nut Cheerios, 3 tablespoons of natural peanut butter on 2 whole wheat bread, a pear, non fat yogurt and 3 strawberries, 2 cups rigatoni with butter and parmesan cheese, 1 oz grilled chicken, and 1.5 cups of some more Honey Nut Cheerios. The binge breakdown:
|
 | Intake-3425 |
| Burned-3549 |
| Deficit-124 |
Exercise-1194:
| Bike/run brick-15 mile bike, easy pace, average 17.0 MPH, immediately followed by a 5.75 mile run at an easy pace. |
| Intake-3128 |
| Burned-3035 |
| Over-93 |
Exercise-858:
| 18 holes of golf walking and carrying |
| Intake-3284 |
| Burned-3143 |
| Over-141 |
Exercise-879:
| AM-Recumbent warm up at gym with 5 intervals-30 minutes |
| AM-Upper body weight resistance workout-60 minutes |
| PM-Lower body weight resistance workout-35 minutes |
| Intake-3053 |
| Burned-3079 |
| Deficit-26 |
Exercise-762:
| AM-60 minutes on my recumbent bike attached to a track stand easy to moderate pace |
| PM-30 minutes freestyle swim approximately 2/3 mile or 1100 yards moderate pace |
| Intake-3324 |
| Burned-3056 |
| Over-268 |
Exercise-698:
| 6 mile run on the treadmill |
| Intake-3202 |
| Burned-3764 |
| Deficit-562 |
Exercise-1494
| AM gym-Arc Trainer 35 minutes, 2 intervals, 464 calories |
| AM gym-lower body weight resistance 35 minutes, 224 calories (immediately following Arc Trainer) |
| PM bike ride-25 miles, 95 minutes, average 15.7 MPH, HR average 120 BPM, 806 calories |
My legs were very fatigued at the end of the day. Recovery meal after the
bike ride was 205 grams of carbs and 51 grams of protein to replenish glycogen
stores. I ended up with a deficit of 562 calories which is one 2 scoop ice cream
cone which I'll reserve for a future date. 
Tuesday's exercise was a double which is different than a brick. A brick is two back to back exercises say a bike immediately followed by a run or a swim immediately followed by a bike or run. Both are good but I think a brick forces systemic change a little more.
I burned a few more calories today than Sunday doing the tri and this was good conditioning for a tri. I'm hoping to do 5 triathlons this summer. Two down and three to go.
| Intake-3122 |
| Burned-3067 |
| Exercise-803: weights 50 minutes, cardio 30 minutes, cut lawn 45 minutes |
| Over-55 |
This is very typical of my average day over the last 3 months or so.
Dietary intake is the bane of achieving proper weight goals and body fat composition. You would think that by doing a tri that I could eat anything I wanted. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Intake has to balance with calories burned. So I have to track each event, swim, bike, and run and estimate calories burned taking into account the intensity. I've gotten pretty accurate at this by gauging my heart rate to determine intensity. So my estimates in calories were:
| 20 minute swim-212 |
| 45 minute bike-573 |
| 45 minute run-549 |
| total exercise burned-1334 |
Now the breakfast cookies that were free afterwards and that some took 5 or 6 of were 300 calories EACH! I had 2 bananas, 2 Gatorades, 1 Gu (yuck). My pre event breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal about 187 calories with the total AM intake of 786. Lunch was 1036, dinner 720, nighttime snacks1073 and some mints 68 for a total of 3683. Total burned 3679. I was over by 4 calories.
My weight Monday morning was up 0.4 pounds from Sunday morning's weight. My hydrated weight consistently stays between 162-164 pounds for my 5' 7.25" height. This morning after my workout but before breakfast it was 163.7. The weight I post in FitDay is my waking weight when I'm not hydrated, a 2-4 pound difference depending upon the ratio of cardio vs. weight resistance exercise I do in the morning. At this weight and height the body mass index teeters between overweight and normal at around 25.0 plus or minus a little.
Today was my second tri in Holliston, MA at Stoddard State Park, .5 mile swim, 15 mile bike and 5 mile run. I was up at 4:00 AM to be there by 6:15 to register and set up. Race started at 8:00 AM. The temperature for the day was to reach 86 degrees but it was windy and shady at the start and I was freezing and shivering.
My warm up was too short and when the race started the swim was a struggle. The wind was causing each stroke of my hand to hit a choppy wave and splash into my face. I never found my rhythm and the viscosity of the water seemed thin so creating purchase seemed futile. It was like that the whole swim and I was discouraged so took my time at T1.
The rest of the race was great! I had a good bike and my main worry was the 5 mile run which I ended up enjoying just running my pace of about 8.5 minutes per mile. It was a nice shady run and the people were all friendly. My over all time was 1:51. I recovered well after the race so hadn't pushed too hard which was the plan. I was interested in using the event for conditioning purposes and my next tri is in 2 weeks and I plan to "race" in that one aiming for a top 5 finish within my age group.
The race stats showed me as 6th in my age group today and had I pushed I could have placed 5th and even perhaps 4th but the goal was to just have fun today and enjoy the experience which I did. I finished the day with a great nap and an ice cream cone, 2 scoops.
On June 26, 2005 at 54 years old I completed my first sprint triathlon with a 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike and a 3 mile run. When I first thought of doing the tri I had taken a sign up form home from the gym on a Friday, thought about it over the weekend, recalled I hadn't been in the water for about 30 years or better and that when I used to swim it was about 10 yards at most. So I threw the sign up sheet away and immediately felt better.
By Monday June 6th I wondered how bad I really couldn't swim so I went down to the lake Monday night and swam out to a buoy about 25-30 yards away and that was as far as I could go. I rested, swam back to shore, rested again and repeated the process doing my first swim workout for 23 minutes. I left exhausted and slept well that night. I realized I really could not swim. The following day June 7th I signed up to do the tri thinking maybe I was crazy.
I kept going to the lake, purchased a wet suit which gave me some floatation and had a swim lesson from a friend of my daughter's in our kitchen one night. I had hope. I found out what a great workout swimming is and practiced 11 times before my first tri. My swim time was 13:56 and the course was estimated at about 170 yards short of .5 miles which was fine by me.
Swimming alone was not the same as the event where I got squeezed by 2 guys at a couple of buoys, splashed, fogged up where I couldn't see and bumped. The swim was a lot further out than I had been and with all the commotion I had my head turned towards shore to breath better but the people looked so small and far away. Not knowing if that would alarm me I turned to my opposite side to breath and there was Dick Hoyt, at 65 years old, pulling his son in an inflatable raft further out than everyone else so as to stay out of everyone's way.
I watched Dick swim one stroke at a time pulling his son in the raft and somehow knew I would be ok on my swim. If he could do that certainly it should be no big deal for me so I stroked onward towards the final turn buoy at my own (race) pace. I ran to shore through the timing device and ran to T1 about 1/4 mile away for the first transition. My helmet went on very tight and it wasn't until about 2/3rds of the way through the bike that I could feel the skin of my forehead being pulled up and realized my swim hat was still on under my helmet. Newby mistake one.
T2 or my bike run transition went very smooth until I had run for about a minute and noticing the returning runners had numbers and I didn't. Not wanting to be DQ'd I turned around and ran back to get my race number which was affixed to a belt to make things easier. Newby mistake two was that I put the number face down on the towel under my shoes and it wasn't noticeable to me at a high heart rate and a heated rush.
I'm not a runner. In fact I had only run about a dozen times this year and nothing for the previous several years. On the final 1/3 of the run it occurred to me that this would be my first and last tri and I couldn't wait to see that finish line. As soon as I had that thought I looked down to see my time. I was hoping for a 1:30-1:35 time overall and a miracle time of breaking the 1:30. I recalled losing my 2 minutes going back to get my race number. Forget it I thought.
When I saw my time it occurred to me that if I ran faster I just might break 1:20!!! My heart rate was at about 163 beats per minute and I kicked it up for the run home. I crossed the finish line at 1:19:27! My bike time including T1 and T2 was 41:31 (actual 36:43 or so) and my run including the 2 minutes for turning around to get my number was 23:58.
Tomorrow, Sunday July 10th I'm doing my second tri and my third tri is on July 24th. Stay tuned!
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