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!

A new year and a look back

Many of you may have heard about Ben Does Life and if you don't know about him its quite likely that you have seen his amazing transformation video .

I first watched that video when I was just getting started on my journey and it is incredibly inspiring. Thanks Ben!
Anyway I was reading his Tumblr site and he did a very cool idea albeit not with the results I expected but I'm going to do my own here.
Ben Does Life - 2011 Brag on yourself

Name 11 things you did in ‘11 that make you proud.

1. I learned a lot about myself and racing/running/cycling/swimming
2. I improved my running/cycling/swimming form
3. Ran further then I ever have 7.4 miles
4. Set a 10k PR of 1:02:31
5. Sub 30 min 5k in a race
6. Set a 5k PR of 28:38
7. Maintained my weight and fitness despite injury and downtime
8. Improved my 5K time by 15min 29 sec from my first ever 5K in Apr 2010
9. Living History Farms Race w/ My wife
10. Ran a trail run with my daughter. (She was first overall female!) I got 3rd OA male (2nd in my AG) the same trail run    improved my time by 5 min from last year.
11. Became a Triathlete (It wasnt Pretty but I did it)

I did a lot of great things this year and I had a lot of struggle and disappointment.  But most importantly I'm still here and I'm still moving forward.  My goals for this year will be more focused and with a little luck and proper planning I hope to make great strides both in my weight loss and my fitness levels.

Some of my general goals for 2012.

1. Get my weight down to 170
2. 25 min or less 5K time
3. 55 min or Less 10K time
4. Improve my swimming 
5. Half Marathon
6. Olympic Triathlon
7. Full Marathon - finish
8. Swim more

What I've been doing.

To be perfectly honest...nothing.  I'm ashamed of what I haven't done.  I'm ashamed of what I have lost and what I have gained.  I lost serious focus friends.  I lost the kind of focus that changes a persons life.  I lost focus in a way that I thought I would never lose focus again.

See I thought I had changed my life.  I thought that after 14 months of intense life changing rehabilitation that inside I wasn't really a fat person anymore.  I was wrong.  I still have those cravings and I still subconsciously struggle with getting up every morning and making an active choice to NOT be Lazy.

Its so easy to allow your self a little slack in your routine.  If you aren't very careful that slack will gain more and more of your rope until your slack is on the wrong end and your days are spent thinking of how much pie you can eat and how to make excuses to avoid running 10k in 28 degrees F.

I made those Excuses...Lots of them. I've been slacking for 3 full months. But I really let it go in the last month and a half. I convinced myself that it was pointless to watch my intake over the holiday and in turn there really wasn't a reason to keep exercising as it was just a a waste since I was going to eat badly.   Last year I went through the holiday and ate and exercised and I think I gained 1 lb. the only reason that happened is because I kept exercising and I was aware of my eating.  I lost my focus and stopped caring.

I realized that I can't do that.  I have told 100's of people this was a lifestyle change for me.  This wasn't a diet.  I let that slip away for a moment.  I realize the mistakes I've made.  I realize what I have gained and lost and I want back what I had 3 months ago.

So its confession time.
I started slacking after my race.  I managed to maintain no more then a 5lbs gain and the last time I weighed in was mid November.   I haven't exercised consistently in well over 6 weeks.

Yesterday I weighed in and I had gained 15 lbs.  You aren't perfect and the daily struggle is forever.  Never forget how you got there and how hard it was to get where you are.

Its not worth it!

An accomplishment a long time coming

Friday morning I ran 5k in Madison WI. inspired by all the collegiate cross country kids in my hotel. Friday night I did 2 miles of sprint intervals and felt pretty good about myself.  My whole body was sore with DOMS by Sat afternoon from the effort I put into the sprints.  

Sunday I decided that I would run long.  My goal was to do 10k which I have never done.  I mostly run 5k and have been focusing on speed.  So my runs are generally 3-3.6 miles always in that range and always in a 28-33 min time frame.

Lately I have felt like I haven't really been pushing myself to my absolute limit and I feel like I'm cheating myself by not making progress.  Why or how I got into this rut I don't know but I'm set on getting out of it.  The sprints were one way and me pushing to do faster and faster miles and faster 5K times is another.  Sunday I got this crazy Idea that I had the ability to do 10K so I did.

I felt pretty good starting out a little sluggish mostly from poor diet.  After the first mile I had settled into a pretty good rhythm and was keeping a careful eye on my pace to make sure I wasn't trying to go to fast my first time.

I did start out a little fast but managed to get things slowed back down to my "safe speed".  I brought a water bottle with me and was glad I had.  Running 5Ks without water is fine but I didn't want to run twice the distance without anything.

At the halfway I was feeling awesome which was good but I figured by mile 4.5 or 5 is where I would feel the hammer.    I just kept spinning my legs with keeping my head up and tried to focus on my form so I didnt get tired from running inefficiently.   Mile 4 came and went without even a twinge of fatigue.  As Mile 5 ticked by I felt invigorated by the distance and the thought that I was actually going to get this done.  I did catch my pace slowing but I think it was more from not being "aware" of my slow down more then anything else.


As mile 6 clicked by I was beaming.  My smile must have freaked people out who were driving.  I felt awesome and actually considered continuing just to see how far my body would let me go but decided since I normally only go half that distance I didnt want to strain anything. 

I ran a total of 6.4 miles in 1:10:08  Actual 10K time was 1:08:01

Broken scales and Deadwood, SD

This post has nothing to do with Deadwood, South Dakota. I just thought it made for a catchy title oh and I kind of feel like a piece of deadwood without cardio.

So because my knee is on restricted duty I have decided to attack strength training in hopes to build some lean muscle mass in th next 3-5 weeks. I know its a short amount of time but every little bit helps plus I think my fitness level is at just the right point where my body will respond positively to weight lifting.

Sunday I started with a pretty intense circuit. I wanted to get all cylinders firing. I did Arms, Shoulders, Chest. With and extra attention on Arms with dumbbells. When I was done my forearms were bulging It was the coolest thing ever! My body felt great and seems to really eat up the training. Last night I did Back and Core. Today forearms and biceps are still sore.

Oh and My stupid scale decides to quit working just when need to monitor my weight the hardest. Fine I just wont weigh in for 3 weeks.

The past week

Well I behaved all last week and did nicely with my diet. I do feel like my losses are becoming more stagnant. I'm not sure If I'm shorting my cals or if I'm just not bringing it. I do feel like I'm not feeling soreness anymore I guess I'm not pushing myself hard enough but I should still be burning calories

So this past week I found a friend who was telling me about HIIT workouts and after doing some reading I thought I could easily implement a HIIT type workout into my running days. In fact I thought you know this will probably help with my speed.

So last night I did my first HIIT workout before my 3 mile run. I did 20 sec full speed sprints followed by 1 min of fast walking. I did that for 6 sets. As this was my first one I will probably change things up a little. Rather than walk I will being jogging slowly on the cool downs and I will do a little longer 30-45 sec. Additionally I'm going to try to do 10 sets.

So how did I feel. Well for starters I haven't dont much if any full sprints for a long time. YOu would think that my previously spry 300 lbs body would easily be able to sprint around all over the place. You would be incorrect. Ive never felt agile enough until recently and when I have tried they hurt my shins severely. Its been several months since I last tried. Last night I got right up on the balls and was leaning forward into the run really driving with my quads I could feel it burning as I pushed off. It felt great!! After the 6th set I could feel muscle soreness SO I quit at 6 I dint want to injure or over do it. I walked a couple of laps and then set off to finish burning.

I finished up with a 28 min run for 2.25 miles. I gotta say my legs weren't used to the sprinting before hand. I'm sure this is going to help me!

I did my Hundred push ups sets (I'm up to 75)when I got home.

This morning my shoulders and legs Sore Good!

Workout Changes

So over the last year I did a few races and the biggest thing that I learned was that I struggle with hills and speed. Since the accident I have not done much running and have strictly focused on cycling alone. Sadly I haven't done any real distance running since probably November when I started that boot camp class. I was running on the off days and it was just too much stress. My shin splints started to come back so I had to quit the off day runs. Now I'm feeling very stressed about my Swimming abilities and I want to pick back up on running and I know that my running has suffered.

In the coming weeks I'm going to transition to a new workout routine.
M,W,F 5-5:30 Swim. I will be trying to work on my stroke to get more comfortable with it and my breathing. 5:30-6:15 I will be Picking back up on C25k at an advanced pace to get back where I was. Once I hit the 5k mark again Ill transition to Bridge to 10K program. Wednesdays I will be doing increased incline on my runs.

T,TH 5:30-6:30 Ill be doing Track runs with 2 sets of stairs every lap. At the bottom of each set of stairs I'm alternating Push ups, Jax, Mountain climbers, Wall sits etc... Ill do that for 20 min then finish with 40 min of cycling.

Also I went back and looked this morning. I've lost 8.4 pounds since the beginning of this year. I'm really feeling like I'm on track and could potentially hit 199 by Feb 1, 2011. Awesome!

Push up Challenge...85 baby!

I have a good friend on Myfitnesspal.com who challenged me to a Pushup challenge. To assist me in this challenge I acquired an app for my iPhone "Hundred Pushups" it helps you build up to 100 push ups in sets.

Anyway when I started this journey in Jan I was humiliated to realize that I could only do 1 single man push up. On top of only doing one I actually hurt myself doing it.

To get to the point last night I did a total of 85 push ups in 40 min and 55 of them were in a span of 10 min. All of them were full body Man push ups. Getting better at push ups has been one of my major goals ever since my first night. Night after night of girlie push ups just getting to the point where I could eek out 5 normal push ups took a long time.


Why push ups are important Make sure you check out the links within the article too.