Thanks Google, Picasa, and blogger

You lost my pictures and then marked my blog as spam and deleted it.  You really are awesome!

Weight Gain

I hate where I'm am right now.  I feel so defeated with my weight and I know how stupid it is but it really is getting the best of me mentally.    I'm 15 lbs up from my low and essentially haven't made any progress since Mid January.  How is that possible?  How can I be eating in a deficit and not lose weight?  Scientific anomaly?

A few weeks ago I started hitting the free weights and I've been doing very basic workouts.  Upper body: Bench Press, Shoulder Press, Rows, Pendelay Rows, Barbell Curls, Preacher curls, French Press.  Lower body: Barbell Rack Squats,  Romanian Deadlifts, Barbell Rack Lunges, Calf Raises.

My body is sore all the time and I feel like I cant run. which is killing my run training.  But I know I need this badly.  Additionally this weightlifting seems to be the cause of my weight gain.  Which if its muscle then Yay!!! But if its not muscle then....

I really dont think I could have put on 6 lbs of muscle in 2 weeks.

I want to run and get my distance back up to over 10k but my ass hurts to even walk!

Proposed Race Schedule

Date	Race	Distance
16-Apr	Rubber meets the road 8K	8K
28-Apr	Drake Relay Half	13.1
20-May	Bluff Creek Triathlon	Sprint 500/15.5/3.1
JUNE	OPEN
8-Jul	Tri in july	super sprint
14-Jul	Warrior Dash	5k obstacle
12-Aug	Hickory Grove Triathlon	Sprint 500/15.5/3.1
19-Aug	Perigrine Charities Triathlon	Sprint 500/15.5/3.1
	OPEN
2-Sep	Hy-Vee Triathlon	Olympic
21-Oct	Dsm IMT Half	13.1

Here is my current proposed race schedule for this season.  As I was writing this I see that I missed the Jacob Krumm Trail run I like so Ill have to add that in there as long as it doesn't conflict with a date.   I'm sure I might throw in some other runs through out depending on scheduling.

Im a little afraid of an Olympic the swim is what is scaring me.   I'm not entirely sure about the half marathons either I just feel doubt about my abilities right now.  I need to get back into a more positive place.  Posting this  I hope is my first step.

Compromising your metabolism?

Training and losing weight is a double edged sword.  Eat enough to fuel but restrict my intake enough to lose.


In Jan 2010 I started and I weighed-in that day at 297 I had been over 300 lbs easily. I lost 22 lbs in the first 9 weeks. I was exercising everyday for at least 30 min of hard cardio. I was trying to hit a caloric goal of 2300 calories which was a 500 calorie per day deficit. I wasnt eating my calories back that I burned during exercise. I continued to lose.

By Oct 2010 I was down to about 225 and over the next couple months it seemed to me that it was harder for me to lose weight. If I missed a workout I wasnt losing so I had to be very strict. I still was not eating my exercise calories. 


In reviewing my diary now, I was taking in roughly 1200-1600 calories a day and exercise burning 450 - 1100 calories a day. There were some days where my net caloric intake was less then 200 cals Net after exercise. I was starving myself.  How long had I been doing this?


 I never ate back my calories. 


Feb 2011, I was at my lowest weight yet. 197 lbs Woohoo! From over 300lbs to 197lbs I felt and looked amazing. I hurt my knee running and was layed up for 6 months. Because I couldnt do cardio I did upper body strength training and Kept my calories low. I managed to maintain and only inched back up to about 205. By the time I had recovered and I was back to training for my triathlon. I was 198 the day of my race. But I couldnt lose anything more. I was trying hard I was eating very carefully. Burning 1000+ cals 4-6 days a week and eating about 1500 total. This had gone on for months. All of 2011 I essentially stayed the same or gained 5 lbs.


As the 2011 holiday season approached and triathlon season ended I relaxed my diet and my exercise as I was mentally spent from the constant grind of not making progress for a year. The fat fell off of me all through 2010 but in 2011 It was all I could do it shave 5 pounds. 
Jan 2012 I weighed-in after abandoning diet and exercise for 2 full months. Scale was 221 lbs. I dropped 7 lbs in 2 days (water). I had to get back under I started again doing what I had done again.... Nothing 1 lbs loss ... a single cheat meal. 3 lbs gain for 4 days (not just water). That continued... I was up down, up down, up down.


Everyone was telling me..."Massive, your not eating enough! You are starving yourself!" I bought a BodyMedia Fit about a month ago and basically what I've found is that my daily TDEE is at or exceeds 3000+ Calories a day without exercise. So If I'm only eating 1500 calories a day my body, without exercise, is at a 1500 calorie per day Deficit, add a 1000 calorie workout in there and your looking at some serious nutrition issues. A week before I got my Bodymedia fit I started eating a total of 2000 cals ( or trying to make sure I ate that minimum) That wasn't my net but just a total


Is starvation mode real?  I think it is I definitely wasn't eating enough to properly fuel my body.  Its hard because quite honestly it scares me to eat lots because I'm actually afraid to eat to much and gain the weight back.  I dont ever want to go back to where I was and eating calories in excess really scars me so I'm still struggling with it.  I'm trying harder to make sure I eat 2000-2400 cals on days I workout so I'm taking in 1500ish total.  According to estimation If I did No workouts My maintenance calories should be around ~2200 calories/Day.  so by my estimation I should be at a 600-900 calorie deficit.   a little more then normal but everything is an estimate anyway.   I do calorie load when I do long bikes and runs so I take into consideration my caloric needs based on activity levels.


Eat more to lose weight Crazy!  I've dropped almost 6 lbs since trying this approach.


Starvation mode Myth?  - interesting  read

Running Form and why I changed

The Once and Future way to Run


Expensive shoes: A waste of money?

Late last year I read Born to Run - Christopher McDougall.  Not only was it an amazing story line but the theory and information presented by Christopher was incredibly well done.   I would strongly recommend reading the book.  But I wanted to share these two articles that are directly related to the book and have some fantastic info.

I started out a heel striker and last last year after reading I changed my running style to a mid/fore foot strike.  It improved my speed, distance, and endurance immediately.  After doing so I ran my first sub 30 min 5k.

I do not run barefoot but I might try it this summer.

New Shoes

A while back I got some new shoes.

Triathlon specific shoes.  For all of my running career I've used Asics mostly with one pair of Nike shoes.  Up until late Sept I had been a heel striker.  I made some changes to my running style based on reading a book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.   I'm not going to debate heel striking vs Mid or fore foot or Shoe vs Barefoot.

I could see a pretty clear argument for a change to my running style not because one was right or one was wrong but because one was better for me and my application.   This isn't a book review however maybe I will do one :)  It was a great book.   The point is I took a chance on a sort of hybrid/minimalist style shoe and I'm not unhappy with it.   I've done about 6 treadmill runs with them and it is a little different feel.  I cant wait to get a chance to try them outside.

the shoe fits like a sock/slipper and is quite comfortable for running.  It is a very different feel and not somethign I would just jump into.

To make a long story short.  I got a new pair of shoes :)  SEE! *Points*

Paying it forward

If you have followed my progress at all then you know that I started doing this while I was morbidly obese.  I wanted to run.  Unfortunately because of my excess weight I had to move into running very slowly and use cycling and elliptical workouts as my primary cardio.

In 2007 I was working for a little Bleeding "Edge" Technology company and doing support for them.  I had gotten this bug to start running my at that time 275 lb body around in an attempt to become a "real" runner like the kind you see in Nike commercials.  FYI Real runners look like all kinds of different things. I ran with no plan and no diet changes for about 75 days.  Some of it is even documented in some of the first posts of this blog.   A coworker found out and began encouraging me.   We talked several times about my training.  I really wanted to run bad but I hurt my knee because I was too heavy and too determined.   While I was off mending I lost motivation.  2.5 years later I get my head out of my butt and lose a bunch of weight and in the process get recommitted to running and pursuing my goals.

My coworker friend pushes me to Tri... and that's all it took to get me in.   This last year I became a Triathlete with a lot of struggle and injury healing time off I got 2 races in.    The reason for this post is not to recap my past start.  Much of that can be found in other posts on this blog.  The purpose is to take a moment to show how much a friendship and a hand up can help another aspiring runner, cyclist, swimmer, duathlete, or Multisport athlete Whatever you are.

A few weeks ago I had come off of the post holiday season and realized that I had some work to do and I needed to get my head back in the game and prepare for the upcoming season.   I knew I didn't have a ton of cash to throw around but I had some items I needed to purchase to be more competitive this season and just do things right.   I reached out to my Triathlete friend hoping to just get a boost of motivation and help me pull myself together.  What I got was far more.

She sent out a email blast to the Tri Community and found the stuff I needed on the cheap.  We decided to meet up for a trainer ride and we had a very good talk.  She is a super amazing friend.  You couldn't be luckier to have a friend in LittleRachet.  She cheered me up and lifted my down spirits and then surprised the crap out of me with all kinds of gear I could use!  That night I picked up a trainer, shoes, pedals, and great coach. She is pretty amazing and really shows how much helping out an aspiring athlete can make a huge difference.  I owe her so much.  One day I hope I can repay her or at least pay it forward to someone else new to the sport.