Year End Wrap ... or 2 for 4 ain't bad!

Well, it's been five months or so since my last post, and I wanted to get going back here. 2011 was an amazing year for my health and fitness; despite three injuries related to exercise, I managed to drop 61 pounds in 12 months, and 71.6 total since September 2010. I'm very proud of that, and thanks to Jim Balcom for keeping me moving and to my wife for listening to me talk about it all year!

Now, going back to my goals that I set in March of this year it's important to see how I did. These are the goals as stated:

1. Weigh no more than 200 pounds by June 14, 2011.
2. Be able to do 10 unassisted overhand pull ups by December 31, 2011
3. Join the NY Road Runners Club and run a 5K road race by October 31, 2011
4. Swim a mile in under 45 minutes by July 31, 2011.

The truth is I delivered on only two of the four goals, numbers 1 and 4. Unless something miraculous happens by the end of the year and I just bust out the pull ups, I don't see it happening. Pull ups are very hard and I managed to only get TWO out in a row. I see why the USMC uses them as a benchmark for fitness ... However, the swimming was key and I am very proud of what I did in the pool. I intend to get swimming again in the spring after Scottsdale. On the running side, I don't feel so bad, either. Despite my three leg injuries I managed to keep up with my fitness, and except this week, I've not faltered.

For the other two goals, I intend to carry them over from 2011 to 2012, and I will add a few more. Specifically, I want to be able to do 100 push ups. I'm up to 20 on a good day, and I will get there! Also, the NYRR Gridiron Classic is on 2/5 and I'm all registered, so as long as my leg strength holds up, I should be good.

So, what about weight? I think I am going to target staying at 176 going forward. That's a BMI of 24 and pretty much where I want to be. I think it's easily achievable with good exercise and an eye on diet ... and of course a little help from Lose It!

Anyway, that's it for 2011 ... unless the pull up miracle goes down next week!

2500 yards!

From Fitness

Will keep the posting brief, but I wanted to let everyone know what a great swim I had with Jim Balcom at the West Side Y. It's the first time I've swam with someone else and it was great to have some company. I did 2500 yards in 54:25 (38:15/mile pace). Not a PR on time, but this is the furthest I've swam in a single session since Water Safety Instructor training in 1989.

Thanks for the Day Pass, Jim!

Breaking 8's!

As I've been working to heal my fibula (PT, rest, etc), the Concept2 ergometer (or indoor rower) has been a real bonus for me. I've been working hard to get my times down, and in about two months, I've rowed indoors nearly 30 times at lengths between 2K and 10K. I've got a variety of workouts that I do depending on how much energy I have and I'm proud to say that I hit a key milestone yesterday in part of my Monday double-header.

I managed to row a 30 minute piece on the erg at an average pace of 1:59.9s / 500m. This got me over 7500m for the time and was my best pace by far to date. I'm not ready for an indoor regatta quite yet, but I was happy that I ranked in the top 41% of rowers in my age group with that piece ... so here's to great rowing!

Swimming goal met!

I think I set a goal a little low for my swimming target as I completed the mile swim In under 45 minutes after just four swims this year. I only swim breaststroke right now, so I think the time is pretty good, but I will use this as a baseline and try to shave a few mins off. More to come, but swimming is turning out to be a pretty fun way to get exercise!

From Fitness

Deadline Day!

On the eve of my 40th birthday (6/14) I'm pleased to post that I hit my stretch target to "weigh no more than 200 pounds" by this day. In fact, I blew it out of the water clocking in at 193.6 today. This was due to six months of rigorous dieting (<1800 calories per day) and lots of exercise (running 5k's, rowing 10k's, and cycling, cycling, cycling). It's been awesome getting into shape, really for the first time in my life; I'm really looking forward to setting new goals and keeping it going!

I have to thank Jim B for the exercise encouragement all along the way, Scott and Christian for keeping me motivated on Lose It! and of course Tina for supporting the diet and exercise regimens (and listening to me blubber on about this all year). It's been a great run (that's still going!) and I'm thrilled to have reached my lowest weight in at least 15 years.

Below is a picture of the scale at the NBCU gym that I've been pacing on for the past six months. This weight actually includes the 0.2 pounds for the Blackberry which has not been counted all along, but I'll leave it in for fun.

From Fitness

There will be more posts, but I am going to shift the focus to exercise goals and fitness ... Next goal is to finish rowing 120,000 meters by 6/22 and to get my foot repaired so I can meet my running goals as planned! Until next time ...

From Fitness

Here is the weight trend since September 2010 when I was at my heaviest. The red line was the slope I had to hit to achieve the stretch goal of 195 lbs. On 5/15/11, I started using the ergometer (rowing) at work and it helped push the weight loss right when I needed it to hit the stretch goal. That means that even my stupid injury helped me get to the goal!

I made it

I'm extremely happy to report that after 131 days of rigorous diet and exercise, I've achieved my goal weight! I weighed in on the gym scale at just under 195 (194.8) pounds after a vigorous workout on the ergometer. I will post about the erg later, but I did want to put a bulletin up here that I hit my mark. The real test will be if I'm still there on the big day a week from now, but I'm confident that I will be.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement, especially Jim B for keeping me moving and Tina for putting up with my constant talk about fitness!

From Fitness

Long Run in Central Park

First time trying out a long run today and it went great. Tina and warmed up by walking from our place to the gym on 56th and 6th; about 2 miles at a moderate walking pace. Considering we walked down Madison most of the way, we made good time and didn't get caught at too many lights. On our way downtown, we noticed lots of people walking around with race numbers, and I realized that today was the UAE Kidney Health 10K. Hopefully all those runners had a good day out there and raised some awareness for kidney health. I know how bad a kidney stone feels, for sure!

Once we arrived at NYHRC, I made a quick pitstop in the locker room to drop off our stuff and then I headed up to Central Park.

The Run

Today's run was a big deal for me. I'd been planning all week for it, and it was going to cap off my week of running 20 miles. I ate a good meal of roasted chicken and quinoa (with a little gravy!) and for breakfast I ate homemade oatmeal with apples and cinnamon. It was excellent and I was properly fueled.

From Fitness

I started out with a quick stretch at the 6th Avenue entrance to the park where all the horses line up for a drink. I felt like I had it easy compared to them. For a moment, I was considering running the the "correct" clockwise direction in the park, but then chickened out because I felt like I needed to run the parts that I "knew" so I had some grounding on this trip.

I started out at good 9:30 pace toward the museum and found that there was a lot of traffic on the road, including the horse drawn carriages and tourists walking around the park. Before I knew it I was at the 69th St entrance where I think the Israel Day run is starting and where I've done the loops twice before (including Friday). I kept 9:30 up Cat Hill and past the museum and reservoir to the 102st transverse and down into Harlem Hills, which felt just fine. But I was deliberately running slowly to save some fuel for the West Side, which I was fearing the whole time.

Once at Lenox Avenue, I hit the first uphill I had not really seen before. I slowed down to 10:43 and just cruised along with a few others in the same boat as me. What was surprising, though, was that as I ran up the hill, it was not too hard to just keep going; my heart rate felt fine, I could have carried on a conversation if I had been running with someone, which I've read is a good sign. The big surprise for the day was that after the uphill way uptown, there's a huge downgrade back to the transverse. This felt nice, even though I held the 10:40 pace.

I picked up the transverse and made it up the main hills to W90th St nice and slow. After heading back toward the 72nd St. transverse was all the detritus from the morning's race, all accompanied by a garbage truck that was passing me and stopping so I could pass every 300 yards or so. Yuck! After 72nd St. I was in new territory again, but it seemed flat and easy. I even managed to pick up the pace and finish mile 6 at 9:57, which required a little pickup in my step.

All in all, a very successful long run. I'm going to try to do it again next week tacking on a mile extra (thanks Jim!) to officially make my long run seven miles. I'm really happy about how I could vary my pace and keep my heart rate reasonable, all with limited pain in my lower legs.