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.

Four Miles in June (or #100257)

I took a few minutes the other day to review the fitness goals I set out for myself in March after a month of losing weight with LoseIt! My target was to weigh less than 200 pounds on 6/14/11, my 40th birthday. In addition, I set out that I would join the NY Road Runners and sign up to run a 5K race by the end of the summer.

So in reverse goal order ...

On Sunday of last week, I joined NYRR and they have accepted my $40 and granted me member number 100257. I like that number; I'm just 257 people over the 100K mark, which I think is an elite group. On the very same day, I signed up to run in the "Salute to Israel" 4 mile road race in the park. It follows the loop I practiced last week, and I will try to do it twice more before race day.

I'm also tracking well to hit the 200 lb mark for my birthday. I've attached a weight trend chart and it shows that at my current pace, I should be fine to hit 200, and I might get closer to the 195 stretch target that I set. I'm just repeating to myself, "keep doing what you've been doing" and you'll get there. Good words to live by, I think, as long as the vector is one you groove on.

From Fitness

Somewhat related update.

Just a quick check in to talk about my recent trip to the NBCU Gym. Today I hit a personal best on the treadmill; I ran 4 miles in 36:27 and it felt easy on the heart, lungs, and legs.

I did the first three miles at 7.0 on the TM which read about 7% less on the CX405. By the end, I was getting a little tired so I dropped the pace to 6.2 (or 9:53 on the CX405) and finished it up. If I had more time, I would have tried to do another mile.

Overall, I'm feeling more and more confident that I can do the race on 6/8/11 and I think I can hit my target of under 38 minutes. I did it today, so why not in month!

Central Park in the AM!

Today I had a nice run in Central Park. I did the run at just under a 10:00 mile and it felt pretty good. This is the best run I've ever done (lots of personal bests this spring!) and it was thoroughly enjoyable.

Here's the Garmin file:

And a look at the route from Google Earth because the GF was not complete. The route starts in the lower left of the picture at "A".

From Fitness

Today's conditions were cool and quite humid. About 30 minutes after I got home, a big thunderstorm broke out, so you can imagine the conditions.

I started out just south of the bandshell at 69th and East Drive. Tina dropped me off on her way to work at about 7 a.m. and I walked to the start point of both the Japan Day and Israel Day road races (more on this in moment). The route runs East Drive north, and immediately the Central Park rolling hills start. It's actually a great way to start the run and to get the heart moving. By mile .75, I was feeling it. The first milestone is the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and I had a nice flashback to our visit there a few weeks ago to see the guitars.

The route flattens out a bit to the east of the Jackie O reservoir, and mile two is not bad. I ran this route on Sunday and it was the end of mile two that I took the wrong turn and headed toward 110th St. Not so today; this time I made the correct left turn on Central Park Driveway and cruised to the west side. This was where I started to slow down a little and feel the previous two miles ... but the tough part was yet to come.

Mile three is basically when you head south on West Drive and climb all the way to the 80's. It was hard and my pace showed it ... but I didn't walk! I just followed a couple other dudes about my age who set a 10:10 pace who I followed for a while up the hills. Not too bad but I felt it at the end of the mile.

The last leg was the easiest ... nice gentle down slopes to finish it up. My pace doesn't show it, but I felt really good toward the end and could have kept going if time and inclination had been in my favor.

As a final thought, I think that late April and early May is the nicest time in NYC. The park is in bloom, it's not too hot, not too many tourists are here yet and generally the vibe is "happy post winter". On the run today, I felt very much in sync with that vibe and I think it's going to be a good first step to train for the race in June with some outdoor runs as part of the regimen.

A real (LACK OF) pain in the leg

On the leg

It's been a while since I checked in here so I thought I'd do a very quick update. After a regimen of Aleve for three weeks (twice per day), and a bit of a scrambled schedule at NAB in Vegas, I feel like I'm nearing the end of aggravation in my right adductor group. There's still mild pain, but I've been running 3 miles per day three or four times per week for a few weeks ... so I'm encouraged.

On weight loss

I'm also progressing reasonably well on the weight goal, though it's not clear if I'll get below 200 by June 14th. I'm at 208.2 right now, and still progressing, but it's not a done deal. With eight weeks to go, I should get there, but it's going to require real food discipline and continued exercise. I've averaged 1.5 lbs per week for the past four months so I should be good, but it's a struggle every day.

There are two more weight-related topics I would like to cover in future posts that I'm writing here so I don't forget.

1. I realize that I need a new goal for weight after June 14th. I think I'm going to set it to be 175 pounds by June 14th, 2012, and I'm really going to try to control that with diet. However, I'm think I'm going to test my weigh maintenance first, meaning, I will try to stay at 195 for two months without fluctuating more than 2 lbs in either direction. That will be tough for sure, but I need to see the cause and effect.

2. The other issue I'd like to write about is Gary Taubes. He's a pretty interesting physicist-turned-nutrition-writer who has a very low-carb-centric point of view. His thesis is that carbohydrates cause increased insulin levels in the body and insulin causes the body to retain fat. He also argues that exercise (as well as net calories strategies) doesn't help with weight loss. I have been thinking about my own experience since Jan 26, and I just can't agree ... at least on the loss part. As I started to get to above, I'm concerned about my ability to keep off the weight for the long-term (read: the rest of my life).

More to come.

Amended Goals

So, today I learned there is a difference between chin-ups and pull-ups. While pull-ups are a better goal because they require more strength, I think it's only realistic to expect to do 10 unassisted *chin ups*. That's what I'm working toward, and I think it's still a pretty cool goal.

This article was a pretty interesting discussion on the topic. I enjoyed the guy's bluntness on how to train for this, even though I'm doing the exact opposite.

http://stronglifts.com/how-to-do-pull-ups-and-chin-ups-with-proper-technique/

PS, today I ran my best time on the treadmill for a 5k, coming in at 31:50, which was nearly sustained running at 6.3 ... just two quarter mile rests at 4. I'm getting there!

A real pain in the leg III

As a final post to the leg issue, I'm pleased to report that there is little pain today after serious stretching yesterday along with regular doses of Aleve. The fitness director at NBCU suggested that I use Aleve twice a day for THREE WEEKS in order to get it in blood stream. He said that the anti inflammatory effects are actually good for you during exercise. I'm going to try to run again today and see how I feel.

The good news is that I'm almost half way done with my April distance goal and I'm hoping to do more of it running. Today, I'm going to calibrate my footpod to the treadmill at work and see if I can get a little better accuracy. Unlike most 405CX users, it makes sense for me to have this thing work on the same scale as the treadmill I use all the time rather than to my outdoor cadence.

More to come on that topic after I do the calibration today. Have a great day!

And I ran ...

For the first time in my 39.75 years on earth, I ran, sustained, for 3 miles. I completed the loop around the Jackie O reservoir twice in about 33 minutes. My leg felt fine during the run, but it's been a little sore since.

http://bit.ly/fmnnUK

Needless to say, I'm proud of the run and I'm looking forward to more once the pain goes away!

Until next time.

A real pain in the leg II

Since we vacationed at the Sanctuary on Camelback earlier in the month, I've run only once on the treadmill. That was two days ago, and so far things seem OK. I iced my leg that night and it's still a little sore. I'm afraid that the only way to get the pain to dissipate entirely is to stop exercising altogether for two or three weeks. I'm not sure I'm ready to do that and I think I can live with the soreness by icing and taking the occasional Aleve.

Today will be a visit to the elliptical with group 1 strength training which should keep the load off the adductor for the most part. I'm also going to try to swim on Saturday AM, but that still remains to be seen.

More to come!

New sneaks!

Going for the third workout with these today! More to come ...

Ice, Ice Baby

So I've decided to try to take some action on getting the soreness in my right, lower, inner thigh to go away. It's been a few weeks since the pain started, and I think I've got a program to get it to stop. The program consists of icing the sore muscle after exercise and to stay off it for running for a few weeks. I'm getting a pretty good workout on the elliptical (600 calories cooked in 45 minutes) and keeping off the leg during strength training.

I got turned on to the application of ice by our tennis hitting partner yesterday. After we finished playing a somewhat vigorous 90 minutes of doubles, Bobby saw me rubbing my adductor longus and offered me a bag of ice. I applied the bag of ice for about 30 minutes and, bam! the pain subsided. It felt pretty good all afternoon, so I'm sold. Let's see how things go today as I've been applying an ice pack for the past hour and I'm about to go out and see how it holds up.

A real pain in the leg

Well, after two days of not going to the gym, I'm going a little crazy. When I started this regimen a couple months back, I ignored the one piece of advice on every fitness website, piece of equipment, gym wall, gadget, and cocktail napkin when considering starting a new fitness routine: consult a doctor. I mean, who actually does that? I suppose I should have, considering my current situation.

When I started running on the treadmill in earnest in February, things felt great at first. After a while, the lower muscle on my right inner thigh began to get sore. I figured it was just me being out of shape. However, after a trip to the spa that consisted of a lot of tennis, swimming, and gym time along with a nice massage, I'm hurting a little more than I was before. My diagnosis is that it's a strained adductor longus. That's my diagnosis anyway.

So today I'm going to try some light work on the elliptical and I'm going to do some strength training just to cook off a few calories and to try to stay limber. I'm playing doubles tennis on Saturday ("V shift! V shift!") so that will be a test of the adductor. I think I'll try to pickup a thigh compression wrap/sleeve before I workout today. Hopefully that will be an adequate substitute for a doctor today!

First post

This is going to be the site where I post my progress on getting fit. I've been at it since last year, but really I kicked it all up in January 2011, coincidentally the same year I turn 40. Classic entrance into midlife, I know, but it really is time I got serious about this.

So, as a result of a Facebook post by @MarkShandrow a few months ago, I joined Lose It! The site is pretty good, and one of the things that I really liked about it was that it focused on transparency of progress and accountability through active tracking of food intake and exercise, coupled with peer support. So with this in mind, I thought I would add to the transparency and put up a blog that outlines my overall progress and serves as the forum where I discuss my experiences with trying to get fit.

I will end this post stating my fitness, weight loss, and diet goals that I'm attempting to achieve this year. They are as follows:

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

Until next time ...