I’m Buying A Bike!

It’s almost that time to pick up a road bike for the triathlons this summer.  There’s a bike expo in town this weekend (advertising “1500 bikes on site and ready to ride home!”) and I’m going to check it out and quite likely purchase my bike.

I’m staying on the lower end of the price grid (no need to drop five grand on a bike right now).  The bike I’m leaning towards is a 2010 Trek 1.2 road bike.  My only concern is that there are a number of good bicycle brands like Felt and Gary Fisher that I just don’t know anything about.

Does anybody have a preference towards a Trek, Gary Fisher, Felt or some other brand of road bike out there?  I’d really be interested in getting other opinions.  I’ll probably be looking to drop the hammer on a purchase on Thursday or Friday.

Developing Power For The Swim

Yesterday was another big day on the treadmill.  I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do speedwork or run for distance.  So I did something right in the middle.  The result was a 3.25 mile run in 25:39.  That works out to a 7:54 mile pace – a new best at that distance for me.  I’m a happy camper!

I also did this run without any type of knee support.  It turned out to be about 80% the right decision as I did experience some stiffness in my left knee during the last mile.  It wasn’t enough to make me feel like I wanted to stop but it was enough to tell me that I still need to keep a close eye on it going forward.  Some good stretching right afterwards, a short easy stretch on the bike to “unload” the legs and an ice pack later in the day all seemed to be the cure as my knee is feeling fine again.  I never would have guessed that staying loose and pain-free would be so much work!  Maybe I’m getting old.

The Vitals

My employer has been offering free health and wellness screenings for employees this month so I jumped on the chance to get everything checked out.  While I’ll never be a fan of the pin prick to the finger, it’s a necessary evil to really see where you’re at.

My weight, body fat and BMI should be no surprise since those get measured every week at the gym right now but here’s how the rest of the bloodwork came out…

Weigh-In Results – Week 9 (Hitting The Wall)

Hey everyone!  Another week.  Another weigh in.  Let’s jump right into it.

For last week’s weigh in, I came in at 195.8 lbs. and 18.6% body fat.  I made a prediction yesterday that I felt I would crack into the 194s based on how I felt the week went, periodic weigh ins at home and my eating log for the week.  Turns out I jinxed the whole operation.  This week?  195.8 lbs.  The same number for three straight weigh ins.  Body fat came in at 18.5% which was down 0.1% from last week.  I’m officially hitting the wall.

I’m guessing that my problem is 20% exercise / 80% diet.  I say that because I think I’ve been able to have better luck managing and dropping weight where I had regular running incorporated into my routine.  I think I’ve been able to do about four runs total in the last month or so that were longer than one mile due to my knee so that piece has definitely been lacking.  But the greatest cause has to be from diet.

To My Arsenal I Add Yoga

Happy Friday everyone!  Our favorite day of the week is finally here!  Except for maybe Saturday.

Had another great session with my personal trainer yesterday.  We (or I should say “I”, she didn’t do any damn work!) did another 7 minute spinning circuit (great workout if anybody was wondering), followed by ab circuits and arms/shoulders.  We seemed to really hit the legs and abs hard yesterday which I never complain about.  It’s probably the areas that will continue to need the most work in order to make through these future races.

My Guilty Fitness Pleasure

I’ll get to what that is in a minute.  And I use the term “fitness” here a little loosely.

Back to the gym yesterday with my first visit to the pool in about three weeks (the pool was under repair for most of that time….it wasn’t necessarily due to me just staying away from it).  It took a little getting used to once again but all in all it didn’t turn out too bad as I finished a 500M swim in about 50M chunks.  My plan was to follow the format of the 0 to 1650 game plan while modifying it a bit to account for my lack of experience swimming.

I did the swim in 50M increments stopping at the end of each lap for 12 to 15 controlled breaths (in through the nose, out through the mouth) before proceeding to the next lap.  I can tell that my lung capacity is growing which is a good thing.  Before when I started I was struggling to finish a 25M leg.  Now, I’m finishing 50M legs in fairly good shape.  There’s still a long ways to go to adequately finish a roughly 400M swim involved in a sprint triathlon or a roughly 1500M swim for the Olympic distance but I think progress is being made.  I just need to hit the pool more often.  And get a pair of goggles!

Monday Morning Odds And Ends

Good morning,

Just wanted to get on here early today to give a few thoughts for the morning and plans for the week ahead.

• Weekly weigh-in this morning.  I’m wondering how my irregular workout schedule will affect the numbers later today.  My diet felt pretty good this week but due to sickness and schedules I wasn’t able to work out as much as I’d like to.  I think my weight will be up a hair this week but that’s just a gut feeling.

Weekend Workouts

Hey everybody.  Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend!

I’m feeling a little under the weather today so I’m not sure how today’s workout is going to look.  I’ve seemed to develop a chest cold that’s causing me to cough quite a bit so I’m thinking that running or biking may be out today.  I haven’t focused as much lately on flexibility and stretching so this may be a good day to refocus on that.  I have a book that I enjoy using called “Ultimate Flexibility” by Sang Kim.  It’s a book that focuses on stretching appropriate for martial artists but really offers stretches that can benefit anybody.  Every exercise is broken down based on what muscle group is targeted and rates each stretch whether it’s low, moderate or high difficulty.  Even when I don’t feel good, I always feel like a good stretching session makes a solid alternative to a full workout.  Give it a try!

Check Out The Exercises and Resources Pages

I’ve slowly started updating the “Exercises” and “Resources” pages that can be found by clicking the links at the top or at the left.

The “Exercises” page demonstrates some of my favorite exercises that I use regularly doing my workouts while the “Resources” page provides links to all sorts of imformative websites that assist you with all things fitness, food, training and health.

Be sure to check them out often as I’ll be adding to them on a regular basis going forward!

USA Today’s Weight Loss Challenge

Hey everyone,

I came across this article in this morning’s USA Today.  It comes from their 7th annual Weight Loss Challenge and has all sorts of good stuff including tips, links, recipes, and weight loss advice.  It’ll be going on all week and you can find links to of their articles by following this link.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2010-01-04-diet-tips_N.htm

Enjoy!