Went to the club to run this evening because it was getting sort of late to run on the roads. The parks trails close at dusk. I don't have a good route on the surface roads, and there are safety considerations. Not just cars and the like, but stepping in potholes or whatnot.
The run was a good one. I was hoping to do 5 x 1 mile repeats at 12, 10, 10, 10 and 12 min/miles. I was able to do it. I won't say it was easy, but it wasn't all that bad. Not like I was gasping on the last 10 min repeat or anything.
Heart rate is up around 154-160 on the 10 min/mile repeats. That's smack dab in the middle of my Lactate Threshold training range.
So, as embarassing as the pace is, that's what my speed limit should be for a while. In fact, I shouldn't do that workout every day.
Trying to compare this to the last time I got in shape, and frankly, I'm probably comparable. I wasn't that fast for a long, long time. Plus, I weighed a lot less. Right now, I'm training at roughly 195, and back then, I was more like 175-170. So, if I can get the rest of this weight off, I should be okay.
Yesterday, I hadn't slept at all the night before, worrying about payroll. We did manage to get 1 check today. It was from an adjuster who was supposed to send 2 of them, but I was happy just to get the one. With any luck, the other will show up tomorrow.
Thanks to that 11th hour reprieve, I'm able to do crazy things like make both the house payments I'm responsible for. It was a hellish week and day before that check came in, believe me.
With any luck, the logjam will be broken and the incoming accounts receivable will pretty much set everything back to relative normal. Granted, it'll be the lower side of normal, but much better than things have been in a little while.
I've been terrible about my diet lately. I'm a stress eater and with everything going on, the diet went right out the window. Still, after my run, I weighed myself in my soaking wet shirt and came in at 197. So, I'm still doing pretty well.
Now that I've reached this first semi-goal of getting into the mid 190s, I can feel a little bit of a letdown.
I'm still tinkering with the diet, though. I am trying to find more convenient ways to eat the oatmeal. It doesn't take long to cook, but it takes a long time to eat a bowl of oatmeal. It's just not a dish that lends itself well to being wolfed down.
I mixed a half cup of oatmeal with about a cup and a half of almond milk. Threw in the flax seeds and a scoop of protein powder. It was okay. The biggest problem I have with it is that probably 1/3 of the flax seeds and 10% of the oats just stick to the sides of the glass. So, I threw in another cup of almond milk and shook it up. That got the bulk of the stuff off the sides.
It wasn't the greatest, but it went really, really fast. I think that's probably a darned good meal replacement, actually. It's relatively nutritionally complete. I should probably try to have the components on-hand at work and other places so I can drink that if I'm trying to eat in a hurry, versus hitting the drive-thru.
I think I'll feel better after another night's sleep. Logan starts school tomorrow. We might hear from the Mavs selection committee at the later part of this week. Though they've told us not to expect anything for another couple of weeks. There's always the hope more checks will come in. I can devote the lion's share of them to lowering the credit card balances that got so totally out of hand while we were waiting for the adjusters to do their jobs. (And with the exception of 1/2 of the committments one adjuster made to us, we're still waiting.)
There's a quiz on Thursday in Arabic. I'm pretty far ahead of the class at this point. The quiz should be pretty darned easy.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
The most nerve-wracking week of my life...
Didn't sleep at all last night. It's astounding the degree to which things are just different than they've ever been, before. Not just for my company, but for whole swaths of the economy. In the macro sense, things will take years and years to get back to where they were.
I thought, when this whole thing imploded, that it would take 5 years to be fully back to where we were in mid 2008. Now, that's looking awfully optimistic. I'm guessing more like 10 years. In the macro-sense, we'll be recovered, but plenty of businesses will go away, never to return.
Small business really is it's own discipline. I worked for large companies for 13 years (17 if you count the US Army, which is a large company in and of itself.) Small business? You really lay it all on the line.
The day I opened this business, I put in everything I had to show for over two decades of work. If this thing goes down, I start all over again, at age 45. However, I'll be starting in the hole, not with the clean slate I had when I was 17 and shipped off to basic training.
A year ago, we were in awesome shape, still. We had savings, we had credit. Now, that's all gone. It's literally been 12 full months of bleakness. Actually, more like 13 or 14.
Last payroll, I had to scramble around at the last moment to get cash advances on what little credit I had remaining on what few credit cards I had that weren't already completely maxed out. I am, literally, completely out of money and completely out of credit right now.
We have another payroll due in a few days. Now, we've got assurances from 3 adjusters that they're finally going to pay their bills. Trouble is, we had those same assurances 2 weeks ago. When the checks didn't arrive, I was running around spastically trying to scrape every loose dollar of credit available to me.
We have, literally, over $100,000 due to the company right now. We have never had that kind of A/R hanging out there. Not even when we were a million dollar a year business. Yet day after day, week after week, we call the adjusters who all say, "Oh, I just cut that check", or "I'm cutting that check today", or "Oh, yeah, soon as I get back to the office I'll cut that check."
We've been hearing that for 2 months. Things continue to get nasty in this industry, pretty much like most industries. We're not recession-proof, no matter what some folks may say or think. We're subject to the same macro and micro economic conditions as any other small business.
It looks like payroll is going to be on the smallish-side. So, I dunno... I can probably scrape up enough to get us through this week, but I'm not sure I can do that AND make my house payments, too. It's that bleak.
It's axiomatic in business that you can be a perfectly profitable company, but you go bankrupt due to cash flow issues. We just haven't collected much money in the past few months. It's all accumulating in A/R.
It's entirely possible that if we don't see at least one of these checks this week that the business will be forced into liquidation. I'll keep one or two employees to sell off the assets and wait for the A/R to come in. (I think it will come in... the question is when?)
I'll be able to get my original investment out. In the grand scheme of things, it could be worse.
However, this is a sickening feeling. I've got every credit card I own loaded to the gills right now. (12 months ago, they all had zero balances.) I just can't live like this for much longer.
I guess this is what it feels like when it all comes down in a heap. I heard somebody describe this type of disaster as happening "slowly, for a long time, then all at once." This just blows.
So, in the mean time, cross fingers for me. If the checks can come before the bills go overdue, I'll be right as rain in a month or two.
If not, I'll probably have to liquidate and volunteer for deployment and try to rebuild my finances.
I thought, when this whole thing imploded, that it would take 5 years to be fully back to where we were in mid 2008. Now, that's looking awfully optimistic. I'm guessing more like 10 years. In the macro-sense, we'll be recovered, but plenty of businesses will go away, never to return.
Small business really is it's own discipline. I worked for large companies for 13 years (17 if you count the US Army, which is a large company in and of itself.) Small business? You really lay it all on the line.
The day I opened this business, I put in everything I had to show for over two decades of work. If this thing goes down, I start all over again, at age 45. However, I'll be starting in the hole, not with the clean slate I had when I was 17 and shipped off to basic training.
A year ago, we were in awesome shape, still. We had savings, we had credit. Now, that's all gone. It's literally been 12 full months of bleakness. Actually, more like 13 or 14.
Last payroll, I had to scramble around at the last moment to get cash advances on what little credit I had remaining on what few credit cards I had that weren't already completely maxed out. I am, literally, completely out of money and completely out of credit right now.
We have another payroll due in a few days. Now, we've got assurances from 3 adjusters that they're finally going to pay their bills. Trouble is, we had those same assurances 2 weeks ago. When the checks didn't arrive, I was running around spastically trying to scrape every loose dollar of credit available to me.
We have, literally, over $100,000 due to the company right now. We have never had that kind of A/R hanging out there. Not even when we were a million dollar a year business. Yet day after day, week after week, we call the adjusters who all say, "Oh, I just cut that check", or "I'm cutting that check today", or "Oh, yeah, soon as I get back to the office I'll cut that check."
We've been hearing that for 2 months. Things continue to get nasty in this industry, pretty much like most industries. We're not recession-proof, no matter what some folks may say or think. We're subject to the same macro and micro economic conditions as any other small business.
It looks like payroll is going to be on the smallish-side. So, I dunno... I can probably scrape up enough to get us through this week, but I'm not sure I can do that AND make my house payments, too. It's that bleak.
It's axiomatic in business that you can be a perfectly profitable company, but you go bankrupt due to cash flow issues. We just haven't collected much money in the past few months. It's all accumulating in A/R.
It's entirely possible that if we don't see at least one of these checks this week that the business will be forced into liquidation. I'll keep one or two employees to sell off the assets and wait for the A/R to come in. (I think it will come in... the question is when?)
I'll be able to get my original investment out. In the grand scheme of things, it could be worse.
However, this is a sickening feeling. I've got every credit card I own loaded to the gills right now. (12 months ago, they all had zero balances.) I just can't live like this for much longer.
I guess this is what it feels like when it all comes down in a heap. I heard somebody describe this type of disaster as happening "slowly, for a long time, then all at once." This just blows.
So, in the mean time, cross fingers for me. If the checks can come before the bills go overdue, I'll be right as rain in a month or two.
If not, I'll probably have to liquidate and volunteer for deployment and try to rebuild my finances.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Surviving the Great Depressing...
Business, for about the past 12 months, has just sucked donkey balls. Part of it is that the weather has been exceptionally mild, other than hot Summer temperatures. Part of it is the economy. We're doing enough business every month to keep afloat, but right now, the insurance adjusters we work with have been absolutely horrific about cutting checks.
If there is one thing I could advise a person shopping for insurance for their home or auto, it would be that the cheapest policy is probably the cheapest for a reason. You want to save money, but the reason you have insurance is so it'll be there when / if you need it.
There's a vast difference between insurance companies on how they handle claims. So, what does that mean for a policy holder? It means that your insurance company may demand that whoever repairs your car or home does a crappy job just to save the insurance company money. It may even mean that they'll decline your claim, altogether.
Now, demanding substandard repairs is illegal, but frankly, it happens every day. I work on houses and I have an uncle who owns a body shop and works on cars. In both cases, on a regular basis, adjusters will demand discounts, will instruct us not to perform complete repairs, etc. Yes, it's against the law: the law requires that the adjusters pay reasonable and customary rates for necessary repairs.
They get away with it because scrupulous businesspeople like my uncle and me will not do a substandard job just because an insurance company demands it. We do the full job. Trouble is, we only get paid for the crappy job the adjuster was demanding.
So, if you're lucky, you hired somebody like us who will do quality work for the cost of a slipshod repair. If you're unlucky, the company or shop you hire will do only what they're being paid to do and you'll have problems with your house or car.
For whatever reason, the difference in adjusters is astounding. Some companies are great about paying claims. They still look the bill over and will ask for adjustments (hence the name "adjusters"). But for the most part, they settle the claim quickly and fairly.
However, a lot of insurance companies don't. They're just flat out bullies, criminals and I encourage people to file complaints with your state's insurance commissioner when they start pulling their crap.
We have a lot of adjusters who, 30 or 60 days after they have been given all necessary information, still aren't cutting their checks. Their usual excuse is that they're too busy.
That works for everybody, right? You just chose not to pay your bills when you're busy. Or if you're behind in your job, you just start missing deadlines left and right because you're busy?
In any event, it's causing problems. Lots of problems. If they don't start paying their bills soon, I honestly don't know what I can do other than shut my doors. We have more outstanding A/R than we ever have in the history of my business, including times when we invoiced twice as much overall volume.
Part of this is that when insurance companies' investments don't do so well, they start paying a lot slower and slash their payouts as much as possible. Again, technically illegal. Not all companies do it. Just like individual citizens, you have some who are highly ethical. You have some who do what they have to do to meet their legal obligations. Then, you've got a lot of them that will break the law as much as possible and screw people over as much as they can if they can get away with it.
So, again, as a consumer, I'd advise that you shop carefully for policies and find the companies that have the best track record of paying out quickly and fairly on claims. Otherwise, you might save a couple hundred bucks a year, but when something bad happens to you, your car won't get fixed (or it'll get fixed badly), or your house will be hosed while some adjuster wakes up every day trying to decide whether you can force them to obey the law or not.
Again, it's not all insurance companies. There are insurance companies out there who are a dream to deal with. They're the ones I have my policies with. Also, one of them is one of the lowest cost in the industry. The other is on the pricier side, but I've dealt with their adjusters and they're the ones I want to deal with if the fit hits the shan.
Honestly, I can't think of much else these days. Like a lot of small business owners these days, just staying in business has been a trick. I still farging hate that we bailed out the bankers who ruined us, and that all they did was use the money to cushion their nests, leaving the rest of us to rot. I hate our pansy president who came in on a platform of hope and change and who turned out to be another "save the rich" jerkoff who isn't interested in anybody who doesn't work on wall street or belong to a union. I also honestly wish they'd start revoking insurance licenses for insurers who are not living up to their obligations to their policyholders.
I'll feel better if this A/R ever comes in. God only knows when that'll happen. Profitable businesses go out of business every day due to cash flow issues. Thanks to lazy, dishonest and unscrupulous insurance adjusters, I don't ever get to have a good night's sleep.
If there is one thing I could advise a person shopping for insurance for their home or auto, it would be that the cheapest policy is probably the cheapest for a reason. You want to save money, but the reason you have insurance is so it'll be there when / if you need it.
There's a vast difference between insurance companies on how they handle claims. So, what does that mean for a policy holder? It means that your insurance company may demand that whoever repairs your car or home does a crappy job just to save the insurance company money. It may even mean that they'll decline your claim, altogether.
Now, demanding substandard repairs is illegal, but frankly, it happens every day. I work on houses and I have an uncle who owns a body shop and works on cars. In both cases, on a regular basis, adjusters will demand discounts, will instruct us not to perform complete repairs, etc. Yes, it's against the law: the law requires that the adjusters pay reasonable and customary rates for necessary repairs.
They get away with it because scrupulous businesspeople like my uncle and me will not do a substandard job just because an insurance company demands it. We do the full job. Trouble is, we only get paid for the crappy job the adjuster was demanding.
So, if you're lucky, you hired somebody like us who will do quality work for the cost of a slipshod repair. If you're unlucky, the company or shop you hire will do only what they're being paid to do and you'll have problems with your house or car.
For whatever reason, the difference in adjusters is astounding. Some companies are great about paying claims. They still look the bill over and will ask for adjustments (hence the name "adjusters"). But for the most part, they settle the claim quickly and fairly.
However, a lot of insurance companies don't. They're just flat out bullies, criminals and I encourage people to file complaints with your state's insurance commissioner when they start pulling their crap.
We have a lot of adjusters who, 30 or 60 days after they have been given all necessary information, still aren't cutting their checks. Their usual excuse is that they're too busy.
That works for everybody, right? You just chose not to pay your bills when you're busy. Or if you're behind in your job, you just start missing deadlines left and right because you're busy?
In any event, it's causing problems. Lots of problems. If they don't start paying their bills soon, I honestly don't know what I can do other than shut my doors. We have more outstanding A/R than we ever have in the history of my business, including times when we invoiced twice as much overall volume.
Part of this is that when insurance companies' investments don't do so well, they start paying a lot slower and slash their payouts as much as possible. Again, technically illegal. Not all companies do it. Just like individual citizens, you have some who are highly ethical. You have some who do what they have to do to meet their legal obligations. Then, you've got a lot of them that will break the law as much as possible and screw people over as much as they can if they can get away with it.
So, again, as a consumer, I'd advise that you shop carefully for policies and find the companies that have the best track record of paying out quickly and fairly on claims. Otherwise, you might save a couple hundred bucks a year, but when something bad happens to you, your car won't get fixed (or it'll get fixed badly), or your house will be hosed while some adjuster wakes up every day trying to decide whether you can force them to obey the law or not.
Again, it's not all insurance companies. There are insurance companies out there who are a dream to deal with. They're the ones I have my policies with. Also, one of them is one of the lowest cost in the industry. The other is on the pricier side, but I've dealt with their adjusters and they're the ones I want to deal with if the fit hits the shan.
Honestly, I can't think of much else these days. Like a lot of small business owners these days, just staying in business has been a trick. I still farging hate that we bailed out the bankers who ruined us, and that all they did was use the money to cushion their nests, leaving the rest of us to rot. I hate our pansy president who came in on a platform of hope and change and who turned out to be another "save the rich" jerkoff who isn't interested in anybody who doesn't work on wall street or belong to a union. I also honestly wish they'd start revoking insurance licenses for insurers who are not living up to their obligations to their policyholders.
I'll feel better if this A/R ever comes in. God only knows when that'll happen. Profitable businesses go out of business every day due to cash flow issues. Thanks to lazy, dishonest and unscrupulous insurance adjusters, I don't ever get to have a good night's sleep.
Man, I'm craving... and neurotic...
2 days in a row with a Big Mac, which, although it isn't much of a problem as far as total calorie count, is just a bad idea from a nutritional standpoint. I'm just stress eating because of Logan's tryouts.
Also, I think yesterday's run was a really hard one and my energy level is low today because of it. Ran today. Did a slow run since yesterday I ran some hard intervals. Still, I feel sorta drained. Probably half because of all the fat running around in my system and half because I'm tuckered from yesterday and today's workouts.
I feel like I should go get some ice cream to motivate me to do my abs/shoulders workout. I also need to just have some recovery time in here.
My scale is really inaccurate, too and its hacking me off. I don't know what the deal is with it, but it'll change weights pretty drastically before settling in on a weight. Even then, I'm not sure the weight it eventually settles in on is accurate. I end up weighing myself 5 or 6 times until the thing tells a consistent story. Oh well. All in all, it's probably accurate to within a few pounds. It's not the exact weight that's the issue. I just need to be steadily losing weight over time.
I just hope I don't end up stress eating all week this week. Funny, though, if I follow the rest of my diet and get in a run, I can pretty much have one really bad meal a day and still come in with a calorie deficit. So, literally, I can have a value meal every day if I want. I'm sure it's not doing my cholesterol any good, but from a purely caloric standpoint, it works. Also, the rest of my diet is so low fat that even the fats aren't all that bad, really. Sodium is high, but when you sweat as much as I do, that's probably not so bad at all.
Still, I really would like to drop another 10 pounds. At that point, I figure my visible belly fat will all be gone and I'll be essentially solid. It should put me at under 10% body fat, which is exceptionally fit.
My cholesterol should be positively impacted. My running should be faster. More importantly, I'd save wear and tear on my knees. That's a consideration as I get older.
So, I could do without stress eating for 2 more weeks.
Last year, they mercifully announced the team early: on Thursday. They've prepared us by telling us that they won't announce the team until mid September.
Near as I can tell, Logan put in a solid performance, but again, a lot of baseball is subjective. It's not enough to put in a solid performance. You have to put in a solid performance that the guy assessing you notices.
Today was a scrimmage. He didn't get anything hit to him when playing outfield. He made a perfect play at 3rd base, though. Fielded cleanly and a hard, accurate throw to first. Really one of the better defensive plays of the day. At the plate, he didn't have a great day. Beat out a lot of not so hard grounders. Got thrown out twice and beat the throw on the 3rd.
Though, I hope the guy doing the judging notices that the pitching wasn't very good today. It was sort of strange. There were the kids who played Mavs with Logan last year. I wasn't going to have Logan pitch in the scrimmage because he didn't get any experience at it last year. Most of the kids doing a lot of pitching, though, were kids who didn't play Mavs, and frankly, they couldn't pitch. So, it made it really hard for Logan to get a good pitch to work with.
Again, that's where the subjectivity comes in. One guy could look at Logan's plate performance and say, "Well, he made contact every at bat, but they were all weak hits. 2 to the SS and 1 to 3B. He only reached base once."
Another guy could say, "They were throwing a lot of junk his way and he put a bat on the ball every at bat and beat out a throw on one of them. Hard to get hard, clean hits with pitching like that."
I make myself crazy with this sort of over-analysis. The reality is, it'll be whatever it's going to be. All the speculation in the world is pointless. We'll get a notification that he either made it, or he didn't.
In the mean time, the Big Macs will be calling to me this week for sure.
Also, I think yesterday's run was a really hard one and my energy level is low today because of it. Ran today. Did a slow run since yesterday I ran some hard intervals. Still, I feel sorta drained. Probably half because of all the fat running around in my system and half because I'm tuckered from yesterday and today's workouts.
I feel like I should go get some ice cream to motivate me to do my abs/shoulders workout. I also need to just have some recovery time in here.
My scale is really inaccurate, too and its hacking me off. I don't know what the deal is with it, but it'll change weights pretty drastically before settling in on a weight. Even then, I'm not sure the weight it eventually settles in on is accurate. I end up weighing myself 5 or 6 times until the thing tells a consistent story. Oh well. All in all, it's probably accurate to within a few pounds. It's not the exact weight that's the issue. I just need to be steadily losing weight over time.
I just hope I don't end up stress eating all week this week. Funny, though, if I follow the rest of my diet and get in a run, I can pretty much have one really bad meal a day and still come in with a calorie deficit. So, literally, I can have a value meal every day if I want. I'm sure it's not doing my cholesterol any good, but from a purely caloric standpoint, it works. Also, the rest of my diet is so low fat that even the fats aren't all that bad, really. Sodium is high, but when you sweat as much as I do, that's probably not so bad at all.
Still, I really would like to drop another 10 pounds. At that point, I figure my visible belly fat will all be gone and I'll be essentially solid. It should put me at under 10% body fat, which is exceptionally fit.
My cholesterol should be positively impacted. My running should be faster. More importantly, I'd save wear and tear on my knees. That's a consideration as I get older.
So, I could do without stress eating for 2 more weeks.
Last year, they mercifully announced the team early: on Thursday. They've prepared us by telling us that they won't announce the team until mid September.
Near as I can tell, Logan put in a solid performance, but again, a lot of baseball is subjective. It's not enough to put in a solid performance. You have to put in a solid performance that the guy assessing you notices.
Today was a scrimmage. He didn't get anything hit to him when playing outfield. He made a perfect play at 3rd base, though. Fielded cleanly and a hard, accurate throw to first. Really one of the better defensive plays of the day. At the plate, he didn't have a great day. Beat out a lot of not so hard grounders. Got thrown out twice and beat the throw on the 3rd.
Though, I hope the guy doing the judging notices that the pitching wasn't very good today. It was sort of strange. There were the kids who played Mavs with Logan last year. I wasn't going to have Logan pitch in the scrimmage because he didn't get any experience at it last year. Most of the kids doing a lot of pitching, though, were kids who didn't play Mavs, and frankly, they couldn't pitch. So, it made it really hard for Logan to get a good pitch to work with.
Again, that's where the subjectivity comes in. One guy could look at Logan's plate performance and say, "Well, he made contact every at bat, but they were all weak hits. 2 to the SS and 1 to 3B. He only reached base once."
Another guy could say, "They were throwing a lot of junk his way and he put a bat on the ball every at bat and beat out a throw on one of them. Hard to get hard, clean hits with pitching like that."
I make myself crazy with this sort of over-analysis. The reality is, it'll be whatever it's going to be. All the speculation in the world is pointless. We'll get a notification that he either made it, or he didn't.
In the mean time, the Big Macs will be calling to me this week for sure.
Sunday Morning Notes
We leave for Logan's 2nd day of tryouts today. I think he's done well. So much of a baseball tryout is subjective, though. Not every ball is fielded cleanly. Not every hit is a hard hit. The coaches who are doing the evaulations are the High School coaches here in the city. So, they've seen a lot of baseball and should recognize, for instance, that Logan drove one into the outfield and pulled 5 hard line drives towards third yesterday, even though none of his hits were that spectacular.
This is where people do complain when their kids don't make a team, or don't get enough playing time, etc. Baseball isn't like track and field where a stop watch determines who is better. In baseball, you can't really accurately judge a player based on what you see on one day. You can make macro-level assessments: that kid is awesome. That kid is terrible. Mostly, though, the bulk of the kids in the middle aren't that different. Trends take a long time to develop. Plus, some kids naturally turn it up a notch at game-time.
Logan was that way last year. He practiced middle of the pack, but game-time, he was money. Other kids are phenomenal in practice and horrible in games. A lot of it depends on how they're managing their nerves.
In any event, I ran a couple of buckets of balls through the pitching machine, and he has plenty of time to warm up his arm before the tryout.
I just have to resign myself to whatever happens will happen. If he makes the team, he makes it. If he doesn't, he doesn't and we'll work on plan B.
Yesterday's run was a great one and very encouraging, but for the mean-time, I'm only going to do it once a week. Based on my heart-rates, I was right at Lactate Threshold / Aerobic Threshold, and those workouts should be done probably once a week for a 5 day a week runner like me.
It did take something out of me. I've been sweating pure amonia for the past 12 hours. Plus, my achilles tendons felt it. I ran 5 x 1 mile repeats in 12, 10, 12, 10, 12 minutes per mile. (Yes, I know, we'll just pretend that those aren't embarssingly slow for the moment, shall we?)
Next week, I'll see if I can do all 3 middle mile repeats at 10. Let my body adjust there.
This type of training produces the most dramatic training effects. It takes a long time to build endurance, but Lactate Threshold improves pretty remarkably and it doesn't take forever to make it happen. An improvement in LT should mean that, for instance, instead of hitting a heart-rate of upper 150s by running 10 minute miles, eventually, I won't hit that heart rate until 9s or so.
I am really looking forward to a Spring Marathon, mostly for the speed burst that happens afterwards. I did run one marathon before, and basically walked another one (at the end of an Ironman). I still regret not setting some 5Ks after that marathon to see just how fast I got. Might have stood a chance at 20:00 minutes.
In any event, 10 years older, all bets are off. I don't know how fast I'll get. I just know it'll be faster after a marathon.
Never did get in my weight and ab workout yesterday. So, I've got that to look forward to today.
It's a glorious day, though. So, I'll probably drive down to the trail to run. The weather up here is usually terrible. (Though this year has been an exception, much to the chagrin of my business.) So, I don't want to burn out on the treadmill unnecessarily.
Unfortunately, since we can't use the high school track in this town (how bogus is that?) I'll probably do all my interval work on a treadmill, though.
This is where people do complain when their kids don't make a team, or don't get enough playing time, etc. Baseball isn't like track and field where a stop watch determines who is better. In baseball, you can't really accurately judge a player based on what you see on one day. You can make macro-level assessments: that kid is awesome. That kid is terrible. Mostly, though, the bulk of the kids in the middle aren't that different. Trends take a long time to develop. Plus, some kids naturally turn it up a notch at game-time.
Logan was that way last year. He practiced middle of the pack, but game-time, he was money. Other kids are phenomenal in practice and horrible in games. A lot of it depends on how they're managing their nerves.
In any event, I ran a couple of buckets of balls through the pitching machine, and he has plenty of time to warm up his arm before the tryout.
I just have to resign myself to whatever happens will happen. If he makes the team, he makes it. If he doesn't, he doesn't and we'll work on plan B.
Yesterday's run was a great one and very encouraging, but for the mean-time, I'm only going to do it once a week. Based on my heart-rates, I was right at Lactate Threshold / Aerobic Threshold, and those workouts should be done probably once a week for a 5 day a week runner like me.
It did take something out of me. I've been sweating pure amonia for the past 12 hours. Plus, my achilles tendons felt it. I ran 5 x 1 mile repeats in 12, 10, 12, 10, 12 minutes per mile. (Yes, I know, we'll just pretend that those aren't embarssingly slow for the moment, shall we?)
Next week, I'll see if I can do all 3 middle mile repeats at 10. Let my body adjust there.
This type of training produces the most dramatic training effects. It takes a long time to build endurance, but Lactate Threshold improves pretty remarkably and it doesn't take forever to make it happen. An improvement in LT should mean that, for instance, instead of hitting a heart-rate of upper 150s by running 10 minute miles, eventually, I won't hit that heart rate until 9s or so.
I am really looking forward to a Spring Marathon, mostly for the speed burst that happens afterwards. I did run one marathon before, and basically walked another one (at the end of an Ironman). I still regret not setting some 5Ks after that marathon to see just how fast I got. Might have stood a chance at 20:00 minutes.
In any event, 10 years older, all bets are off. I don't know how fast I'll get. I just know it'll be faster after a marathon.
Never did get in my weight and ab workout yesterday. So, I've got that to look forward to today.
It's a glorious day, though. So, I'll probably drive down to the trail to run. The weather up here is usually terrible. (Though this year has been an exception, much to the chagrin of my business.) So, I don't want to burn out on the treadmill unnecessarily.
Unfortunately, since we can't use the high school track in this town (how bogus is that?) I'll probably do all my interval work on a treadmill, though.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Crazy Diet! Crazy Treadmill!
I will never, for the life of me, figure out why, for instance, I can eat a baked potato, chicken breast and a handful of yellow and orange pepper strips and feel totally bloated. Yet, I can eat a big mac value meal and a gas station hot-dog for lunch and I'm ready for more, more, more food.
I'm zeroing in on perfecting this diet. Today, despite eating said big mac value meal and gas station hot dog, the only problem with today's diet was fat (133%), saturated fat (102%) and sodium (226%).
Obviously, eliminating the Big Mac and hot dog component of the diet takes care of all that pretty easily. Hey, I'm a stress eater, and my son is trying out for Mavs. I went a little off the deep end, there.
The good news is that switching to the low-sodium V-8 gave me another step towards nutritional perfection. It apparently has more potassium to begin with. I added some, and now my potassium is hunky dory.
So, the diet continues to be dialed in towards perfection. Calories aren't such an issue for me. On exercise days, I'm burning about 2,700 a day. Even on a "off the deep end ordering off the value menu" day, I only consumed 2,300 calories. Very, very bad calories, perhaps, but it's still a calorie deficit. I'm not worried.
I am turning up the speed on the treadmill in an effort to shorten my workouts, time-wise, without shortening them, distance-wise. It's not like I'm going fast or anything, but I've amped up my warm-up and cool-down pace to 12 min/miles and am trying to get 2 of my 5 miles at 10 minute pace.
Ordinarily I might not care so much, but I am actually about to be evaluated on how well I run and I need to run about a 10 minute pace to pass. It's been about 2 months since I started back on this whole fitness thing.
It's not like I'm cranking it down to 8 min/miles or anything. So, I don't see this as being so bad. Eventually, I'd like to work my way up to running my warmup and cooldown at 12 min/miles and doing all 3 main-set repeats at 10 min/miles. Once there, I'll change up the workout somehow.
For all the things that suck about a treadmill, one of the coolest things is that it absolutely forces you to run a pace. It's got it's place in the training arsenal.
In the mean time, I really need to find religion about this diet again. I've really not followed it very well this week and although I might have lost a half a pound or a pound, I need to stay serious until I'm at my goal weight in the 180s. 10 pounds lighter than this would feel great.
I'm zeroing in on perfecting this diet. Today, despite eating said big mac value meal and gas station hot dog, the only problem with today's diet was fat (133%), saturated fat (102%) and sodium (226%).
Obviously, eliminating the Big Mac and hot dog component of the diet takes care of all that pretty easily. Hey, I'm a stress eater, and my son is trying out for Mavs. I went a little off the deep end, there.
The good news is that switching to the low-sodium V-8 gave me another step towards nutritional perfection. It apparently has more potassium to begin with. I added some, and now my potassium is hunky dory.
So, the diet continues to be dialed in towards perfection. Calories aren't such an issue for me. On exercise days, I'm burning about 2,700 a day. Even on a "off the deep end ordering off the value menu" day, I only consumed 2,300 calories. Very, very bad calories, perhaps, but it's still a calorie deficit. I'm not worried.
I am turning up the speed on the treadmill in an effort to shorten my workouts, time-wise, without shortening them, distance-wise. It's not like I'm going fast or anything, but I've amped up my warm-up and cool-down pace to 12 min/miles and am trying to get 2 of my 5 miles at 10 minute pace.
Ordinarily I might not care so much, but I am actually about to be evaluated on how well I run and I need to run about a 10 minute pace to pass. It's been about 2 months since I started back on this whole fitness thing.
It's not like I'm cranking it down to 8 min/miles or anything. So, I don't see this as being so bad. Eventually, I'd like to work my way up to running my warmup and cooldown at 12 min/miles and doing all 3 main-set repeats at 10 min/miles. Once there, I'll change up the workout somehow.
For all the things that suck about a treadmill, one of the coolest things is that it absolutely forces you to run a pace. It's got it's place in the training arsenal.
In the mean time, I really need to find religion about this diet again. I've really not followed it very well this week and although I might have lost a half a pound or a pound, I need to stay serious until I'm at my goal weight in the 180s. 10 pounds lighter than this would feel great.
First Day of Tryouts Concluded...
Day one of "nervewracking travel sports parents anxiety maker" is done. Logan did fine, but there were a few new faces in the crowd this year that I didn't recognize. There are over 40 kids trying out for about 24 spots. So, roughly, the top quarter will be on the heavy travel team (the one Logan made as a U9), and the next quarter will make the light team.
This year, they made a rule that parents were not allowed between fields during the tryouts. (Basically, they wanted us to go far away from where we might influence the kids' tryouts.) The rationale is that some parents can cause the kids to have the jitters.
That, frankly, didn't make any sense to me. They'll be practicing and playing in front of parents all next year if they make the team. Still, I watched the tryouts from beyond the home run fences.
Tomorrow is the 2nd and last day of the tryouts. They're going to have the kids scrimmage so they can observe them under game conditions.
I did see a few kids who didn't play on the team last year who look like they are good enough. Overall, I'd say it's slightly more competitive this year compared to last.
The suspense is the hardest part. They say they will let us know in a couple of weeks. Last year, though, I think they sent out the notifications on about Thursday.
Fortunately, I still need to put in a run today. That should mellow me out. I also have an ab and shoulder workout due.
This year, they made a rule that parents were not allowed between fields during the tryouts. (Basically, they wanted us to go far away from where we might influence the kids' tryouts.) The rationale is that some parents can cause the kids to have the jitters.
That, frankly, didn't make any sense to me. They'll be practicing and playing in front of parents all next year if they make the team. Still, I watched the tryouts from beyond the home run fences.
Tomorrow is the 2nd and last day of the tryouts. They're going to have the kids scrimmage so they can observe them under game conditions.
I did see a few kids who didn't play on the team last year who look like they are good enough. Overall, I'd say it's slightly more competitive this year compared to last.
The suspense is the hardest part. They say they will let us know in a couple of weeks. Last year, though, I think they sent out the notifications on about Thursday.
Fortunately, I still need to put in a run today. That should mellow me out. I also have an ab and shoulder workout due.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet
Baseball...
On the baseball front, Logan's tryouts for the Mavs are tomorrow and Sunday. I'll be very, very glad when this is all over and we get the letter saying he's on the team. I think he has great chances of being on the team, but a 2 day tryout is tough. If he just has a couple of bad days, voila.
There aren't all that many great young baseball players in our town, and most of them were on Logan's team last year. They played and worked a lot harder than the rec league kids. However, you never know. A few kids played travel for other teams. The rec still has a good player here and there. If they all show up, it's conceivable that Logan might make the light travel team.
In a way that might be good, though. The reason I say that is that Logan has worked a little on pitching the past few weeks and really, really shows a lot of promise. One of the other kids on the team, who I would call the solid #4 in pitching, was throwing yesterday with Logan. That kid's Dad had been saying that Logan throws every bit as hard, and with just as much accuracy. I didn't quite believe it until I saw it.
They had a little velocity ball (has a digital readout that approximates the speed of the throw). Logan was throwing just as hard as the other kid, according to the ball. Granted, that's not an accurate measurement, but it's fair to say Logan is in the ballpark.
The reason it may not be bad for Logan to make the light travel team is that on his current team, he'll be fighting to be the #5 pitcher. On the light team, he'd be their ace.
There's downside to making the light team, too. With any luck, I won't need to rationalize anything and Logan will have a good tryout and make the heavy team again.
The old team has been getting together the past few weeks for informal workouts. That'll give Logan an edge. He's also been working with a pitching and hitting coach, which will give him an edge. Will it be enough? No way to know until the tryouts actually happen.
Though it is very, very nice to see all the old kids at the workouts. I really grew to like them. I wasn't really part of the coaching staff. I was the team's statistician, but I was inside the dugout in a shirt and hat and got to know each and every one of the boys pretty well.
It'd be good to spend time with them all next year.
Enough about that before I make myself crazy.
Hot dogs and apple pie...
The diet continues to work really well. I continue to tweak it to add nutritional completeness. I think I'm going to give up coffee altogether, other than social occassions. I just don't feel the need for caffeine anymore. That's a pretty big shocker from a guy who used to drink as much caffeinated drinks as I did.
That'll wipe out half the need for artificial sweetener. Other than a little bit on my oatmeal, that's all I'll be consuming throughout the day. I'm also more tolerant of drinking plain water, versus Crystal Light these days, too.
I'll be going to low sodium V-8. V-8 is good stuff. Not many calories, but lots of vitamins and other nutrients. It's just too high in salt. I'll probably stir in some No Salt, which will enrich it with more potassium.
Using the caloriecount.about.com web-site, I am really dialing in my diet. I threw in the towel years ago on ever having a balanced diet, but these days, frankly, it's pretty awesome.
I'm within a few pounds of my goal. So, I'm a little less strict on the diet. It doesn't help that I'm in school, now, which horks up my diet twice a week, too. Still, I'm keeping the calorie count good and it's possible, if I can stick with my diet through lunch, to have a dinner that consists of a big slice of pizza, a hamburger and tater tots, and to hit all my calorie goals and the only nutritional goal I blow is sodium.
All systems go, there. The running is going well. The weight training is going well. I drop a pound or two every week, which is exactly what the experts advise. My diet is more balanced and sensible than at any other time in my life. This really couldn't be going much better.
Chevrolet, or other signs of American Economic Decay...
I have to admit that this is the worst time of my entire time in business. We're doing business, but nobody is paying on time. So, we're profitable, but our cash flow is killing ,me right now. Eventually, those payables will come in and I'll be able to breathe again. However, this is also the start of our slow season. Oh well. You do what you can. Worst-case, if I can get some cash in, I'll at least be able to get my house worked on.
Some retail therapy would make me feel better, but right now, I'm skint. Once I get a pile of money in, though, I may go out and get a rowing machine for the house. We'll see. Other than that and getting Logan some skis (only a couple hundred bucks), that's all the big purchases on the horizon.
On the baseball front, Logan's tryouts for the Mavs are tomorrow and Sunday. I'll be very, very glad when this is all over and we get the letter saying he's on the team. I think he has great chances of being on the team, but a 2 day tryout is tough. If he just has a couple of bad days, voila.
There aren't all that many great young baseball players in our town, and most of them were on Logan's team last year. They played and worked a lot harder than the rec league kids. However, you never know. A few kids played travel for other teams. The rec still has a good player here and there. If they all show up, it's conceivable that Logan might make the light travel team.
In a way that might be good, though. The reason I say that is that Logan has worked a little on pitching the past few weeks and really, really shows a lot of promise. One of the other kids on the team, who I would call the solid #4 in pitching, was throwing yesterday with Logan. That kid's Dad had been saying that Logan throws every bit as hard, and with just as much accuracy. I didn't quite believe it until I saw it.
They had a little velocity ball (has a digital readout that approximates the speed of the throw). Logan was throwing just as hard as the other kid, according to the ball. Granted, that's not an accurate measurement, but it's fair to say Logan is in the ballpark.
The reason it may not be bad for Logan to make the light travel team is that on his current team, he'll be fighting to be the #5 pitcher. On the light team, he'd be their ace.
There's downside to making the light team, too. With any luck, I won't need to rationalize anything and Logan will have a good tryout and make the heavy team again.
The old team has been getting together the past few weeks for informal workouts. That'll give Logan an edge. He's also been working with a pitching and hitting coach, which will give him an edge. Will it be enough? No way to know until the tryouts actually happen.
Though it is very, very nice to see all the old kids at the workouts. I really grew to like them. I wasn't really part of the coaching staff. I was the team's statistician, but I was inside the dugout in a shirt and hat and got to know each and every one of the boys pretty well.
It'd be good to spend time with them all next year.
Enough about that before I make myself crazy.
Hot dogs and apple pie...
The diet continues to work really well. I continue to tweak it to add nutritional completeness. I think I'm going to give up coffee altogether, other than social occassions. I just don't feel the need for caffeine anymore. That's a pretty big shocker from a guy who used to drink as much caffeinated drinks as I did.
That'll wipe out half the need for artificial sweetener. Other than a little bit on my oatmeal, that's all I'll be consuming throughout the day. I'm also more tolerant of drinking plain water, versus Crystal Light these days, too.
I'll be going to low sodium V-8. V-8 is good stuff. Not many calories, but lots of vitamins and other nutrients. It's just too high in salt. I'll probably stir in some No Salt, which will enrich it with more potassium.
Using the caloriecount.about.com web-site, I am really dialing in my diet. I threw in the towel years ago on ever having a balanced diet, but these days, frankly, it's pretty awesome.
I'm within a few pounds of my goal. So, I'm a little less strict on the diet. It doesn't help that I'm in school, now, which horks up my diet twice a week, too. Still, I'm keeping the calorie count good and it's possible, if I can stick with my diet through lunch, to have a dinner that consists of a big slice of pizza, a hamburger and tater tots, and to hit all my calorie goals and the only nutritional goal I blow is sodium.
All systems go, there. The running is going well. The weight training is going well. I drop a pound or two every week, which is exactly what the experts advise. My diet is more balanced and sensible than at any other time in my life. This really couldn't be going much better.
Chevrolet, or other signs of American Economic Decay...
I have to admit that this is the worst time of my entire time in business. We're doing business, but nobody is paying on time. So, we're profitable, but our cash flow is killing ,me right now. Eventually, those payables will come in and I'll be able to breathe again. However, this is also the start of our slow season. Oh well. You do what you can. Worst-case, if I can get some cash in, I'll at least be able to get my house worked on.
Some retail therapy would make me feel better, but right now, I'm skint. Once I get a pile of money in, though, I may go out and get a rowing machine for the house. We'll see. Other than that and getting Logan some skis (only a couple hundred bucks), that's all the big purchases on the horizon.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Arabic, Running... or Running in Arabic...
I slept a whole lot last night. Might have been because I didn't get enough sleep the night before, but the workouts at the gym are getting a lot harder. Other than overall toning and body shaping, I think my main fitness goal is to improve my ability to do chinups/pullups. I'm terrible at them.
Chinups are one of the military exercises that could be measured should I ever deploy with the Marines. Because Marines are Marines, they can't do things the way everybody else does, so they don't do pushups as a measured exercise on their fitness test. They do chinups/pullups instead.
The other typical measured events are pushups (which I should be able to max out with little difficulty) curl-ups/situps (which I think I may be able to max out this time) and running.
The run? I'm working on it. In fact, working on it about as hard as I possibly can. Still, progress is slow. I ran on the trail yesterday (a paved, multi-use trail), and as could be predicted, I ran faster than normal. I also ran a full 5 miles, which is maybe a quarter mile further than the treadmill workouts. My legs are a little stiffer than normal, today. I can see that I'm going to need to take advantage of those two rest-days during the week for recovery.
In the mean time, it's a struggle for me to run and the plantar fasciitis is flaring up a little bit in my left foot, now. I'm retiring my current pair of trainers to casual wear. That should help a bit, not only because I'll have newer trainers for running, but better cushioning in my daily wear shoes. (I wear sneakers pretty much every day.)
Arabic class is going well. So far, I'm ahead of the class, and I think this is something I can do. There's a professor of German in the class. Also, a lot of people from Arabic families. I think I have a shot at being first in the class, though.
Arabic is sort of nice in that it's a vocal language, and the phonemes are all easily pronounced by a western speaker. Personally, I found Korean hard to speak and learn. It developed independently of all the influences that created English and although there were sometimes analogs to our language, it was an entirely foreign tongue.
I never really learned to speak it, other than a handful of phrases. I also only got to where I could understand a handful of words. Oddly, I did basically master the alphabet, and that helps with Arabic.
Not so much that it carries over directly, but that I know what it means to learn a foreign alphabet. It is charming to see the kids in the class ask the same questions I did when I was 18: "What is the letter for 'b'? What is the letter for 'c'?"
As anybody who has studied a non-latin based alphabet can tell you, the answer is basically, "there isn't a letter b, per se. However, the letter 'ba' indicates a hard 'b' sound."
I don't believe that excessive transliteration, or trying to find english equivalents is a good way to learn a language. Trying to learn Korean that way was probably my biggest mistake. You have to stop thinking of 'ba' as 'arabic B', and start thinking of it as 'ba'.
Of my mountain of regrets in life, one of them is that I wasn't a military linguist. Honestly, I didn't know the option existed. The story of how I picked my job is a long one that I might go into in a different blog post, but for the most part, the guys in the military who studied the hardest languages (arabic, russian, chinese, korean) were the brainiest guys in the military. I had respect for all of them.
My goal in all this is to take the Defense Language Proficiency Test and score a 2/2 (a measure of proficiency). In that way, I can call myself a qualified military linguist.
A lot of people think I'm a bit of a jingoistic, America-first, America-only kind of guy and I can see where that opinion comes from. However, I've always been a person interested in world affairs and other cultures. It's just that when I think our culture is superior, I'll say so. However, I can easily name ways that England, Canada, France, Korea, Japan and Germany are superior to the US.
I think a person can't ever speak too many languages. I'm essentially monolingual, but I have a basis in French and Korean and if I spent a year in France, I'm sure I could attain good proficiency. I took it for 3 years in High School and can still speak, read, write and understand very simple phrases.
It'd take me longer in Korea and I would probably need some instruction, but I probably have the equivalent of half a semester of Korean under my belt.
Fortunately, I speak English, which I consider one of the hardest languages to learn for a foreigner. However, even there, I only learned it when I was 3 or 4 years old. Prior to that, I spoke Korean.
So, it'd be nice to officially gain proficiency in one other language. The more I look at the issue, when it comes time to mobilize, I may have to request Iraq, since they speak Urdu and Pashto in Afghanistan. In Djibouti, they speak French and Arabic, which would be interesting, since I'd have a smattering of a basis in both of them. However, the primary language spoken there is Swahili. So, I don't think I'd get the immersion I'd be looking for to bring my Arabic or French into the "proficient" category.
This is a bit of a renaissance period for me. I'm trying to improve both my body and mind. Also, I get my military ID card replaced today. So, I can get back to studying for my DAWIA certifications. (Defense acquisition certifications.)
The other aspects of my life: Logan is getting ready to try out for Mavericks this weekend and I'm sure I'll be more nervous than he will. He's looking really sharp, though. I think he'll do fine.
The business is going, but we're entering our slow season. We have a ton of A/R, but a lot of slow pays. Once all the money comes in, we'll be okay for a while. I am sure hoping that the weather is a lot nicer to us over the next 12 months than it was over the previous 12.
Enough blogging myself... time to go run.
Chinups are one of the military exercises that could be measured should I ever deploy with the Marines. Because Marines are Marines, they can't do things the way everybody else does, so they don't do pushups as a measured exercise on their fitness test. They do chinups/pullups instead.
The other typical measured events are pushups (which I should be able to max out with little difficulty) curl-ups/situps (which I think I may be able to max out this time) and running.
The run? I'm working on it. In fact, working on it about as hard as I possibly can. Still, progress is slow. I ran on the trail yesterday (a paved, multi-use trail), and as could be predicted, I ran faster than normal. I also ran a full 5 miles, which is maybe a quarter mile further than the treadmill workouts. My legs are a little stiffer than normal, today. I can see that I'm going to need to take advantage of those two rest-days during the week for recovery.
In the mean time, it's a struggle for me to run and the plantar fasciitis is flaring up a little bit in my left foot, now. I'm retiring my current pair of trainers to casual wear. That should help a bit, not only because I'll have newer trainers for running, but better cushioning in my daily wear shoes. (I wear sneakers pretty much every day.)
Arabic class is going well. So far, I'm ahead of the class, and I think this is something I can do. There's a professor of German in the class. Also, a lot of people from Arabic families. I think I have a shot at being first in the class, though.
Arabic is sort of nice in that it's a vocal language, and the phonemes are all easily pronounced by a western speaker. Personally, I found Korean hard to speak and learn. It developed independently of all the influences that created English and although there were sometimes analogs to our language, it was an entirely foreign tongue.
I never really learned to speak it, other than a handful of phrases. I also only got to where I could understand a handful of words. Oddly, I did basically master the alphabet, and that helps with Arabic.
Not so much that it carries over directly, but that I know what it means to learn a foreign alphabet. It is charming to see the kids in the class ask the same questions I did when I was 18: "What is the letter for 'b'? What is the letter for 'c'?"
As anybody who has studied a non-latin based alphabet can tell you, the answer is basically, "there isn't a letter b, per se. However, the letter 'ba' indicates a hard 'b' sound."
I don't believe that excessive transliteration, or trying to find english equivalents is a good way to learn a language. Trying to learn Korean that way was probably my biggest mistake. You have to stop thinking of 'ba' as 'arabic B', and start thinking of it as 'ba'.
Of my mountain of regrets in life, one of them is that I wasn't a military linguist. Honestly, I didn't know the option existed. The story of how I picked my job is a long one that I might go into in a different blog post, but for the most part, the guys in the military who studied the hardest languages (arabic, russian, chinese, korean) were the brainiest guys in the military. I had respect for all of them.
My goal in all this is to take the Defense Language Proficiency Test and score a 2/2 (a measure of proficiency). In that way, I can call myself a qualified military linguist.
A lot of people think I'm a bit of a jingoistic, America-first, America-only kind of guy and I can see where that opinion comes from. However, I've always been a person interested in world affairs and other cultures. It's just that when I think our culture is superior, I'll say so. However, I can easily name ways that England, Canada, France, Korea, Japan and Germany are superior to the US.
I think a person can't ever speak too many languages. I'm essentially monolingual, but I have a basis in French and Korean and if I spent a year in France, I'm sure I could attain good proficiency. I took it for 3 years in High School and can still speak, read, write and understand very simple phrases.
It'd take me longer in Korea and I would probably need some instruction, but I probably have the equivalent of half a semester of Korean under my belt.
Fortunately, I speak English, which I consider one of the hardest languages to learn for a foreigner. However, even there, I only learned it when I was 3 or 4 years old. Prior to that, I spoke Korean.
So, it'd be nice to officially gain proficiency in one other language. The more I look at the issue, when it comes time to mobilize, I may have to request Iraq, since they speak Urdu and Pashto in Afghanistan. In Djibouti, they speak French and Arabic, which would be interesting, since I'd have a smattering of a basis in both of them. However, the primary language spoken there is Swahili. So, I don't think I'd get the immersion I'd be looking for to bring my Arabic or French into the "proficient" category.
This is a bit of a renaissance period for me. I'm trying to improve both my body and mind. Also, I get my military ID card replaced today. So, I can get back to studying for my DAWIA certifications. (Defense acquisition certifications.)
The other aspects of my life: Logan is getting ready to try out for Mavericks this weekend and I'm sure I'll be more nervous than he will. He's looking really sharp, though. I think he'll do fine.
The business is going, but we're entering our slow season. We have a ton of A/R, but a lot of slow pays. Once all the money comes in, we'll be okay for a while. I am sure hoping that the weather is a lot nicer to us over the next 12 months than it was over the previous 12.
Enough blogging myself... time to go run.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Weighing Myself
Today is an off-day from running. I can tell I'm really in the swing, because taking an off-day really bothers me. However, at this level of fitness, taking 2 rest days a week is pretty much exactly what I need to do. My tentative schedule is to run Sat-Sun-Mon, take Tuesday off. Run Wed-Thu, take Friday off.
I still have the 3 or 4 strength sessions during the week. I'm thinking of moving the recumbent bike somewhere where it'll be more convenient to use. (In front of the TV in the cabin house is what I'm thinking at the moment.) I know that weightlifting constitutes a second workout, but I like having two different aerobic activities as part of a workout regimen.
So long as you pick activities that are sufficiently different, they hit different muscle groups, improving strength and balancing your muscles out.
I can't afford a rowing machine just yet, but until I do, I think the recumbent bike is fine. It's a meaningful workout that is on the easier side. I'll probably try to do that 5 days a week as well. Maybe I can talk my brother into helping me move the thing this week.
The tough part of taking days off is that it gets harder to hit a calorie deficit. I don't agree with folks who think that if you're running, you can eat whatever the heck you want. I think you can run and still gain weight. However, burning 700 extra calories a day really does give you some wiggle room. Honestly, you could eat a big mac, and from a caloric standpoint, the 700 calorie burn from a run negates the calories of the Big Mac and then some.
(I don't advise this, though. The glycemic load, the sheer volume of unhealthy fat, etc., mean that a Big Mac is a lot worse for you than the calories, alone, suggest. A Big Mac has fewer calories than 4 ounces of almonds, but the almonds are nutritionally beneficial. There's nothing beneficial about the calories you get from a Big Mac.)
Today, I also have Rotary, which means the catered lunch they usually have. They always have a salad. So, I'll get some lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. However, the rest of the thing reminds me of a wedding buffet. It'll be stuff like mashed potatoes and pork chops. It's hard to eat healthy at the buffet. I could skip the meal, entirely, but for the most part, I am trying to make a diet fit my lifestyle, not vice versa.
So long as I don't dive off the deep end all the time, my diet can survive the Rotary Buffet.
Got some VERY encouraging news today when I stepped on the scale.
I have 3 distinct weights throughout the day. The first is the "step on the scale after peeing in the morning". This is my 2nd lowest weight of the day.
The next one is my "dehydrated, after my run" weight. This one is tricky because I don't want to avoid drinking water just to get a low post-run-weight. So, I have to make a rule for myself that I still need to drink normally throughout the run. Really, though, as much as I sweat, it's almost impossible for me not to lose water weight while running.
This weight is generally 2-ish pounds lighter than first-morning weight.
The last weight is my fully-hydrated, evening weight. Usually in the few hours before I go to bed. Typically, it's about 5-ish pounds heavier than my first-morning weight.
So, that's a swing of as much as 7 pounds or so throughout the day, due to mostly just to hydration.
The weight I keep track of is my post-run-dehydrated weight. It's consistent. So, I know I'm comparing apples to apples.
I try to keep track of the low points. For instance, I'll hit 193.5. I know that I seldom will lose weight the next day. In fact, next day almost always is a heavier weight. However, eventually, it breaks through to a new low and after a week or so, it hits 192.5, for instance.
Today, though, I hit 193 on my first-morning weight. That's an all-time low (this time around... I weighed less than this 10 years ago, and when I was in my teens and early 20s). Pity I'm not running today because I would almost certainly hit an all-time post-run low.
I ran a huge calorie deficit yesterday, though. So, this isn't surprising.
I have Arabic class this evening, and Rotary for lunch, though. So, it's going to be darned hear impossible for me to have a good day today, especially since I'm not running. I'll track it all in calorie tracker, but I may not be able to run a calorie deficit for the day. We'll see.
I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's run. So, my brain finally switched over. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get into this frame of mind for a long time, now. I think getting the trainer and hitting the gym is what did it for me. I needed a little boost to get going, and that's what did it for me.
I still have the 3 or 4 strength sessions during the week. I'm thinking of moving the recumbent bike somewhere where it'll be more convenient to use. (In front of the TV in the cabin house is what I'm thinking at the moment.) I know that weightlifting constitutes a second workout, but I like having two different aerobic activities as part of a workout regimen.
So long as you pick activities that are sufficiently different, they hit different muscle groups, improving strength and balancing your muscles out.
I can't afford a rowing machine just yet, but until I do, I think the recumbent bike is fine. It's a meaningful workout that is on the easier side. I'll probably try to do that 5 days a week as well. Maybe I can talk my brother into helping me move the thing this week.
The tough part of taking days off is that it gets harder to hit a calorie deficit. I don't agree with folks who think that if you're running, you can eat whatever the heck you want. I think you can run and still gain weight. However, burning 700 extra calories a day really does give you some wiggle room. Honestly, you could eat a big mac, and from a caloric standpoint, the 700 calorie burn from a run negates the calories of the Big Mac and then some.
(I don't advise this, though. The glycemic load, the sheer volume of unhealthy fat, etc., mean that a Big Mac is a lot worse for you than the calories, alone, suggest. A Big Mac has fewer calories than 4 ounces of almonds, but the almonds are nutritionally beneficial. There's nothing beneficial about the calories you get from a Big Mac.)
Today, I also have Rotary, which means the catered lunch they usually have. They always have a salad. So, I'll get some lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. However, the rest of the thing reminds me of a wedding buffet. It'll be stuff like mashed potatoes and pork chops. It's hard to eat healthy at the buffet. I could skip the meal, entirely, but for the most part, I am trying to make a diet fit my lifestyle, not vice versa.
So long as I don't dive off the deep end all the time, my diet can survive the Rotary Buffet.
Got some VERY encouraging news today when I stepped on the scale.
I have 3 distinct weights throughout the day. The first is the "step on the scale after peeing in the morning". This is my 2nd lowest weight of the day.
The next one is my "dehydrated, after my run" weight. This one is tricky because I don't want to avoid drinking water just to get a low post-run-weight. So, I have to make a rule for myself that I still need to drink normally throughout the run. Really, though, as much as I sweat, it's almost impossible for me not to lose water weight while running.
This weight is generally 2-ish pounds lighter than first-morning weight.
The last weight is my fully-hydrated, evening weight. Usually in the few hours before I go to bed. Typically, it's about 5-ish pounds heavier than my first-morning weight.
So, that's a swing of as much as 7 pounds or so throughout the day, due to mostly just to hydration.
The weight I keep track of is my post-run-dehydrated weight. It's consistent. So, I know I'm comparing apples to apples.
I try to keep track of the low points. For instance, I'll hit 193.5. I know that I seldom will lose weight the next day. In fact, next day almost always is a heavier weight. However, eventually, it breaks through to a new low and after a week or so, it hits 192.5, for instance.
Today, though, I hit 193 on my first-morning weight. That's an all-time low (this time around... I weighed less than this 10 years ago, and when I was in my teens and early 20s). Pity I'm not running today because I would almost certainly hit an all-time post-run low.
I ran a huge calorie deficit yesterday, though. So, this isn't surprising.
I have Arabic class this evening, and Rotary for lunch, though. So, it's going to be darned hear impossible for me to have a good day today, especially since I'm not running. I'll track it all in calorie tracker, but I may not be able to run a calorie deficit for the day. We'll see.
I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's run. So, my brain finally switched over. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to get into this frame of mind for a long time, now. I think getting the trainer and hitting the gym is what did it for me. I needed a little boost to get going, and that's what did it for me.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Diet and Fitness - VERY eventful day
I really like that calorie counting web-site. Not only does it make calorie counting darned easy, but it also lets you enter your fitness activities for the day. It's doing a great job of helping keep track of calories in vs. calories burned. Of course, it's not perfect. It's basically working off of estimates, but it's far better than nothing and practically speaking, it's as good as it needs to be.
I also like that it analyzes your diet for nutritional completeness. In yesterday's blog, I posted that the thing said my diet is basically perfect, except that it is low in potassium. I went to the store and bought a bunch of potassium rich foods (bananas, etc.) and added a baked potato, V-8 and OJ. Caused my calories for the day to go through the roof and still didn't meet the web-site's guidance of 4,700 mg a day.
I considered a potassium supplement, but was still mulling over my options.
When I went to the workout today, they took measurements. They're supposed to do it every 2 weeks, but I changed trainers, etc., and this is basically the first time in 4 weeks they've done it.
He asked about my diet and I told him about the program. He asked about sodium consumption and I said it's high. My blood pressure isn't perfect, but it's good. (Typically somewhere between 130-85 and 120-80.) So, I figured sodium wasn't a big problem.
He said that sodium was causing me to retain water, and that I'd probably lose 3 pounds pretty much immediately if I just took sodium out of my diet. Then, he suggested a product called "no salt".
I wasn't that interested. I already use Splenda on my oatmeal, and am not that excited about a bunch of chemicals in my diet. The less, the better as far as I'm concerned.
Then, he said, it's essentially 100% potassium. I had to laugh. Friggin' perfect. It takes sodium out of my diet, which I get more than enough of. It puts potassium in. In fact, the stuff is so loaded in potassium that I won't have to make any extraordinary efforts to get enough in my diet. Between the tomatoes I eat and the potassium in other foods, this will be more than enough potassium.
Win-win-win-win. Add the potassium. Lower the sodium. Probably get a heart-rate that drops from pretty-good to excellent. Drop a few pounds that will make running easier, faster, and less stressful on my knees.
That, alone, would make for a very eventful and exciting day for me. In this quest for a perfect diet, I find myself getting excited about things like, for instance, ground flax seeds when I discover them.
Next, he did measurements. Some progress. Some parts bigger, some parts smaller. It all seemed in order.
Then, he did the skin-fold caliper measurements. I came in at 13.-something percent body fat. Granted, these measurements aren't the most accurate, but that's still pretty encouraging. I think I started out with 18-something. I was 16-something at the last measurement.
Considering I lost about 6 pounds, a 3% drop in body fat is right on the money. Means that almost every pound I lost was body fat.
He's thinking that in the next couple of months, I should be down to 10%. That'd basically be another 6 pounds.
That would put me in the high 180s, which was my first fitness goal.
Okay, so that's two good things. The third is that I told him I didn't think we were hitting pecs hard enough. So, he really, really put me through a workout. Like I said, I switched trainers a couple of weeks back and I think they don't like to go too crazy on their first few sessions because they're evaluating what you're capable of, and how much pain you're willing to endure.
Today was, by far, the hardest workout I've had so far. We hit chest and triceps. I haven't been this muscle fatigued at the end of a workout yet so far. Personally, I'd like to have more of my sessions end up like this.
So, overall a great day. Got great news on my measurements. Found a source for the potassium. Will probably be lowering my blood pressure and letting go of some excess water weight.
I am anticipating a lot of lost weight due to fat burn in the next few weeks now that my mileage is up to 4.75-ish a day. Running that distance feels a lot better. My glycogen stores are depleted after 2.75 miles, and that gives me 2 miles of primarily fat-burn. It also feels better to run while burning fat.
I also like that it analyzes your diet for nutritional completeness. In yesterday's blog, I posted that the thing said my diet is basically perfect, except that it is low in potassium. I went to the store and bought a bunch of potassium rich foods (bananas, etc.) and added a baked potato, V-8 and OJ. Caused my calories for the day to go through the roof and still didn't meet the web-site's guidance of 4,700 mg a day.
I considered a potassium supplement, but was still mulling over my options.
When I went to the workout today, they took measurements. They're supposed to do it every 2 weeks, but I changed trainers, etc., and this is basically the first time in 4 weeks they've done it.
He asked about my diet and I told him about the program. He asked about sodium consumption and I said it's high. My blood pressure isn't perfect, but it's good. (Typically somewhere between 130-85 and 120-80.) So, I figured sodium wasn't a big problem.
He said that sodium was causing me to retain water, and that I'd probably lose 3 pounds pretty much immediately if I just took sodium out of my diet. Then, he suggested a product called "no salt".
I wasn't that interested. I already use Splenda on my oatmeal, and am not that excited about a bunch of chemicals in my diet. The less, the better as far as I'm concerned.
Then, he said, it's essentially 100% potassium. I had to laugh. Friggin' perfect. It takes sodium out of my diet, which I get more than enough of. It puts potassium in. In fact, the stuff is so loaded in potassium that I won't have to make any extraordinary efforts to get enough in my diet. Between the tomatoes I eat and the potassium in other foods, this will be more than enough potassium.
Win-win-win-win. Add the potassium. Lower the sodium. Probably get a heart-rate that drops from pretty-good to excellent. Drop a few pounds that will make running easier, faster, and less stressful on my knees.
That, alone, would make for a very eventful and exciting day for me. In this quest for a perfect diet, I find myself getting excited about things like, for instance, ground flax seeds when I discover them.
Next, he did measurements. Some progress. Some parts bigger, some parts smaller. It all seemed in order.
Then, he did the skin-fold caliper measurements. I came in at 13.-something percent body fat. Granted, these measurements aren't the most accurate, but that's still pretty encouraging. I think I started out with 18-something. I was 16-something at the last measurement.
Considering I lost about 6 pounds, a 3% drop in body fat is right on the money. Means that almost every pound I lost was body fat.
He's thinking that in the next couple of months, I should be down to 10%. That'd basically be another 6 pounds.
That would put me in the high 180s, which was my first fitness goal.
Okay, so that's two good things. The third is that I told him I didn't think we were hitting pecs hard enough. So, he really, really put me through a workout. Like I said, I switched trainers a couple of weeks back and I think they don't like to go too crazy on their first few sessions because they're evaluating what you're capable of, and how much pain you're willing to endure.
Today was, by far, the hardest workout I've had so far. We hit chest and triceps. I haven't been this muscle fatigued at the end of a workout yet so far. Personally, I'd like to have more of my sessions end up like this.
So, overall a great day. Got great news on my measurements. Found a source for the potassium. Will probably be lowering my blood pressure and letting go of some excess water weight.
I am anticipating a lot of lost weight due to fat burn in the next few weeks now that my mileage is up to 4.75-ish a day. Running that distance feels a lot better. My glycogen stores are depleted after 2.75 miles, and that gives me 2 miles of primarily fat-burn. It also feels better to run while burning fat.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
3rd post today, the potassium post...
Interesting, but that site I posted on my calorie counting page has a calorie calculator.
You can enter your physical activity and then your calories and it really is a nifty little thing.
http://caloriecount.about.com/
Better than that, it analyzes what you eat and lets you know whether you're getting the right amount of nutrients or not.
The analysis of my diet says I get too much sodium. That's almost certainly true. It says 104% of the recommended amount, but I know I get more than that because of the salt I put on everything.
It says I need more vitamin A and iron. I'm only getting 91% of the vitamin A I need and 72% of the iron. However, I take a multivitamin. So, if the multivitamin is doing it's job, I'm fine on those two.
The last one was that it says I needed more potassium. I'm getting less than half of what the program recommends.
I have no idea what to do there, other than a potassium supplement. Even if I ate a baked potato, drank a glass of orange juice and ate a banana every day, that wouldn't even get me close to what they recommend.
Not sure what to do here. I guess I'll look for symptoms of potassium deficiency and monitor the situation.
The foods rich in potassium are almost all things I like. Potatoes, oranges, orange juice, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomato juice.
Sheesh, just when I thought I had this whole thing down. I can get all the potassium I need, but that pretty much blows the diet. I'll have to give this some thought.
On the workout front, I'm doing fine with the new mileage. 4.75 miles, 5 times a week is what I'm shooting for. Might go for 6 days if I feel good. However, just to keep from overtraining, I'm putting my treadmill incline at 0 for a few weeks.
Will bump it up a half a degree after every few weeks until it's at 2.0. At that point, I'll be ready to bump up the intensity by dropping the speed a bit.
As for weight loss, it'd be nice to just wave a wand and be done with it, but so far, this is going perfectly. I'm losing a pound or two every week, which is pretty much considered ideal. My diet has improved considerably.
It'll take a while, but even if I lose a pound every 2 weeks from here on out, I'll be at my goal weight before the new year.
So, all systems go on the workout and diet front.
You can enter your physical activity and then your calories and it really is a nifty little thing.
http://caloriecount.about.com/
Better than that, it analyzes what you eat and lets you know whether you're getting the right amount of nutrients or not.
The analysis of my diet says I get too much sodium. That's almost certainly true. It says 104% of the recommended amount, but I know I get more than that because of the salt I put on everything.
It says I need more vitamin A and iron. I'm only getting 91% of the vitamin A I need and 72% of the iron. However, I take a multivitamin. So, if the multivitamin is doing it's job, I'm fine on those two.
The last one was that it says I needed more potassium. I'm getting less than half of what the program recommends.
I have no idea what to do there, other than a potassium supplement. Even if I ate a baked potato, drank a glass of orange juice and ate a banana every day, that wouldn't even get me close to what they recommend.
Not sure what to do here. I guess I'll look for symptoms of potassium deficiency and monitor the situation.
The foods rich in potassium are almost all things I like. Potatoes, oranges, orange juice, cantaloupe, watermelon, tomato juice.
Sheesh, just when I thought I had this whole thing down. I can get all the potassium I need, but that pretty much blows the diet. I'll have to give this some thought.
On the workout front, I'm doing fine with the new mileage. 4.75 miles, 5 times a week is what I'm shooting for. Might go for 6 days if I feel good. However, just to keep from overtraining, I'm putting my treadmill incline at 0 for a few weeks.
Will bump it up a half a degree after every few weeks until it's at 2.0. At that point, I'll be ready to bump up the intensity by dropping the speed a bit.
As for weight loss, it'd be nice to just wave a wand and be done with it, but so far, this is going perfectly. I'm losing a pound or two every week, which is pretty much considered ideal. My diet has improved considerably.
It'll take a while, but even if I lose a pound every 2 weeks from here on out, I'll be at my goal weight before the new year.
So, all systems go on the workout and diet front.
The Challenge Pages
Other than mulling over a Spring marathon, I have some specific fitness goals.
Ultimately, I'd like to max the Navy PRT. That's no small feat. For an old guy like me, this would involve:
83 curl ups
68 push ups
9:33 in the 1.5 mile run
Of those 3, I can manage the 68 push-ups. I've done more than that on several occassions in my life. It is, by far, my strongest event.
Curl ups? 83 of them is a tough, but accessible goal.
The 9:33 in the 1.5 mile run is going to be hard. Really, really hard. That is about a 6:20 pace. This would pretty much equal the very fastest I've ever been in my entire life. It's a stretch goal to be sure.
My other goal is a little odd. There's the possibility I could deploy with the Marines and because they're Marines, they have to do their own thing. They don't do push-ups, which I excel at. They do chin-ups/pull-ups, which I suck at. In all honesty, I can probably do one.
So, I was going through some Runner's World forums and came across a guy who listed these pages:
http://hundredpushups.com/index.html
http://www.twohundredsitups.com/
http://twentypullups.com/node/1
http://www.twohundredsquats.com/
I don't really need the pushup guidance. Like I said, I can max that without much drama. Just need to keep up barbell presses on a flat bench.
However, situps? If I could do 200 of them, I could probably do the 83 of them required to max the PRT in 2 minutes. I don't run out of time on this event. My abs just give up after a minute or so. Typical performance on this event is about 51 in a minute. If I could just keep going for the full two minutes, I could max the event.
The twenty pull-ups is a great challenge. That's a respectable number and one I could be proud of.
Running? Well... that's just going to take time. I could probably run a 6 minute mile after my first marathon, but that was 10 years ago, when I was in my 30s. I think the first step to getting faster is completing a marathon. I know that's not the perfect way, but it is probably the most focused and best motivational way to build the aerobic base required for hard interval training that improves speed.
Just thought I'd point these out to anybody who might be interested. These challenges are great fitness goals.
Ultimately, I'd like to max the Navy PRT. That's no small feat. For an old guy like me, this would involve:
83 curl ups
68 push ups
9:33 in the 1.5 mile run
Of those 3, I can manage the 68 push-ups. I've done more than that on several occassions in my life. It is, by far, my strongest event.
Curl ups? 83 of them is a tough, but accessible goal.
The 9:33 in the 1.5 mile run is going to be hard. Really, really hard. That is about a 6:20 pace. This would pretty much equal the very fastest I've ever been in my entire life. It's a stretch goal to be sure.
My other goal is a little odd. There's the possibility I could deploy with the Marines and because they're Marines, they have to do their own thing. They don't do push-ups, which I excel at. They do chin-ups/pull-ups, which I suck at. In all honesty, I can probably do one.
So, I was going through some Runner's World forums and came across a guy who listed these pages:
http://hundredpushups.com/index.html
http://www.twohundredsitups.com/
http://twentypullups.com/node/1
http://www.twohundredsquats.com/
I don't really need the pushup guidance. Like I said, I can max that without much drama. Just need to keep up barbell presses on a flat bench.
However, situps? If I could do 200 of them, I could probably do the 83 of them required to max the PRT in 2 minutes. I don't run out of time on this event. My abs just give up after a minute or so. Typical performance on this event is about 51 in a minute. If I could just keep going for the full two minutes, I could max the event.
The twenty pull-ups is a great challenge. That's a respectable number and one I could be proud of.
Running? Well... that's just going to take time. I could probably run a 6 minute mile after my first marathon, but that was 10 years ago, when I was in my 30s. I think the first step to getting faster is completing a marathon. I know that's not the perfect way, but it is probably the most focused and best motivational way to build the aerobic base required for hard interval training that improves speed.
Just thought I'd point these out to anybody who might be interested. These challenges are great fitness goals.
8-22-10: My struggle...
Seems like I've got a lot of struggles these days. Being that Strebler is a German name, maybe I should write about them and give them a good German-sounding title... like "my struggle" or something... wait... turns out that's a really, really bad idea.
Weight is at a plateau right now and frankly, I have only myself to blame. With the trip to Jacksonville and a few cheat meals throughout the week, I haven't been all that diligent about my diet. In the long run, though, I think this is probably how it will go. I don't see that it'll always be practical to follow the diet 21 meals a week. I'll do what I can, and every now and then, I'll eat real food like a normal human.
It's still so much better than my old eating habits (I am reluctant to call them a "diet") that it's incredible.
Somebody mentioned gluten-free diets on a Runner's World forum, and I noticed that my diet appears to be pretty much gluten free. I don't know if that's on purpose or just coincidental. So, my diet is dairy-free and gluten-free. Low trans-fat, high protien, high fiber, with cholesterol control thrown in for good measure.
I still feel like this is one I can stick to for quite a long time. If I can eat mcdonald's, 3 meals a day, I can eat this 3 meals a day. It's certainly no more monotonous than the golden arches. Less convenient? Yep, but not more monotonous.
Jack Lalane once said that he started eating better by picturing the damage that bad foods were doing to him. So, for instance, when he though of red-meat, he'd try to picture gruesome images of them clogging his arteries and giving him a heart attack. He tied negative mental imagery to bad foods. Likewise, he envisioned good foods doing good things for him.
I'm going to make an effort to do more of that.
The 4.75 mile daily distance is proving to be a challenge. I think I need to plan 2 rest days during the week. It's not as hard as it was to run, say, 3 miles when I was starting out, but I can feel the strain. Need some time to build up all the systems involved.
I'm going to give this distance the full 6 weeks to go through my system. That means that I'll stick with 4.75 mile slow daily runs until the first part of October. The only thing I may do is increase from 5 runs a week to 6 during that time.
I think with weight lifting at the gym, I may start to forego leg training. It's not really what I want.
I'm glad I got a trainer. However, the trainers at this gym are bodybuilders, despite their claims of training all sorts of athletes.
I don't want to be bigger. I just want to be toned and fit. I DO want to be a lot smaller, in every way. I want to weigh less, and I want to be physically smaller. I'm not sure that these guys can even comprehend this goal. It's not part of their vocabulary. It doesn't exist in their universe.
I wasn't sure at first, but now I am, that they're adding bulk to my chest, arms, shoulders, etc. In fact, my trainer was instructing me to use shorter range of motion. He said that guys with longer range of motion are strong and fit, but they just look toned, not bigger.
Ummmm... that's exactly what I want. I'm not going to enter any bodybuilding competitions and I WANT functional strength. I also don't want to be any bigger. I want to be smaller.
I guess I could work the math after a body-fat measurement to figure out how much lean muscle mass I've added. However, I would guess maybe 2 or 3 pounds. For overall strength and appearance? Fine. For improving my running? Not so much.
Although I'm eyeing a Spring marathon, my real fitness goal is to improve my NAVY PRT (Physical Readiness Test) results. I was really close to being able to max pushups. In fact, I think I've done it, twice before.
Curl-ups can be improved without adding bulk. And additional upper body weight actually works contrary to achieving that goal. I can get a respectable score on them with virtually no training. So, now that I'm hitting abs pretty hard once a week, I would think my score would improve phenomenally.
My disgraceful event is running, due to the time off I too for plantar fasciitis. I can barely pass the event. So, I want to see my biggest improvement in running ability and adding a lot of upper body weight also works against this goal.
I'll stick with the personal training until the sessons I bought expire. They've been a great way to get jump-started back onto the road to fitness.
Adding the muscle, now, isn't a bad thing per se, and I can tweak the results when the sessions are done. I've learned a lot about proper lifting technique and my overall strength and appearance have definitely improved.
Then, though, I'll probably guide myself through my workouts. I've got specific goals in mind.
I'll probably have the trainer guide me through "back and arms" or "back and abs" on my 2nd workout session, instead of legs.
I'll let running take care of the lower body conditioning. If I end up adding rowing or some other activity, that'll suffice.
I have short, bowed legs. I want them to appear as lean and toned as possible. I don't want them to bulky in any way. I'd look like I was walking around on chicken drumsticks.
Though lifting weights might have some positive impact on my running ability, I think it also has the potential to harm my running more than it helps it.
The other odd thing is that I don't think the trainers are hitting my triceps and pecs as hard as I'd like them to. Those are muscle groups that are pretty strong from my history of push-ups and bench press. I'll talk to the trainer about it on Monday. The last thing I'd want is my push-up ability to decrease during this training regimen. All it took in the past to max the test is 2 months of once or twice a week flat-bench barbell presses.
Abs are going fabulously. I'm only hitting them once a week, but using the incline bench is working wonders. There are 6 incline settings, from barely inclined, to really inclined. The other week, I tried doing 12 curl-ups at each setting. (Sit ups with arms in front, hands touching opposing shoulders, elbows in close). I think I made most of the settings, but didn't do all the reps on the hardest setting.
Yesterday, I did 20 at each setting, but 10 on the two hardest, for a total of 100 reps. I am seeing the start of a six-pack these days. I still have belly fat, but it's really gone down towards my waistline instead of being all around my trunk. I'm still muffin-topping, but the definition on my abs is starting to poke through the fat. You can see the top 4 of the six pack pretty well. The bottom 2 are obscured by the spare tire.
Pull ups? Yeesh... the bane of my exercise existence. I'm using the lat pulldown bar, which is really frustrating and embarassing for me, personally. I really can't do pullups or chinups without kipping or kicking during the exercise.
Maybe I should go back to what I used to do: just doing chinups at the warehouse on the chinup bar. I'll give it a few more weeks, but I absolutely am not getting the improvement here that I want. Oddly, this gym doesn't have a good chinup bar. Go figure.
I'll stick with this until the end of October or so. Not sure what I'll do after that. I'm pretty motivated right now. (Reminds me of when I got on the fitness jag that eventually resulted in an Ironman finish.)
So, I could do self-directed workouts right now with a good result. I think a rowing machine in the house, in addition to a chinup-bar and moving the free-weights there would be pretty much all I need if I combine it with running.
I may also join a crossfit gym. My only reservation are any exercises that involve a LOT of weight. The body-weight exercises with high reps make perfect sense to me and fit my fitness goals exactly. Pushing a prowler around the parking lot is pretty much the farthest possible thing from what I want.
In any event, the plateau is discouraging. As I recall, I was at one at about 198-ish, and then finally broke through. Right now, I'm probably 195-ish (can get down to 193 after a run due to dehydration), and it's been that way for a week.
I'm getting SOOOO close to my first goal, though, of being in the high-mid 180s. Maybe that's it. I'm within strking distance and it's hard to be patient and just lose the weight a pound or two per week for the next month.
Well, a few more minutes and time to hit the dreadmill. I think these 4.75 workouts will get easier. I just started them. However, I know I ramped up mileage a tick too early. Didn't give my body enough time to adjust to the previous mileage level. So, I'll make a point of only doing 5 days a week of this until I feel better about it.
Weight is at a plateau right now and frankly, I have only myself to blame. With the trip to Jacksonville and a few cheat meals throughout the week, I haven't been all that diligent about my diet. In the long run, though, I think this is probably how it will go. I don't see that it'll always be practical to follow the diet 21 meals a week. I'll do what I can, and every now and then, I'll eat real food like a normal human.
It's still so much better than my old eating habits (I am reluctant to call them a "diet") that it's incredible.
Somebody mentioned gluten-free diets on a Runner's World forum, and I noticed that my diet appears to be pretty much gluten free. I don't know if that's on purpose or just coincidental. So, my diet is dairy-free and gluten-free. Low trans-fat, high protien, high fiber, with cholesterol control thrown in for good measure.
I still feel like this is one I can stick to for quite a long time. If I can eat mcdonald's, 3 meals a day, I can eat this 3 meals a day. It's certainly no more monotonous than the golden arches. Less convenient? Yep, but not more monotonous.
Jack Lalane once said that he started eating better by picturing the damage that bad foods were doing to him. So, for instance, when he though of red-meat, he'd try to picture gruesome images of them clogging his arteries and giving him a heart attack. He tied negative mental imagery to bad foods. Likewise, he envisioned good foods doing good things for him.
I'm going to make an effort to do more of that.
The 4.75 mile daily distance is proving to be a challenge. I think I need to plan 2 rest days during the week. It's not as hard as it was to run, say, 3 miles when I was starting out, but I can feel the strain. Need some time to build up all the systems involved.
I'm going to give this distance the full 6 weeks to go through my system. That means that I'll stick with 4.75 mile slow daily runs until the first part of October. The only thing I may do is increase from 5 runs a week to 6 during that time.
I think with weight lifting at the gym, I may start to forego leg training. It's not really what I want.
I'm glad I got a trainer. However, the trainers at this gym are bodybuilders, despite their claims of training all sorts of athletes.
I don't want to be bigger. I just want to be toned and fit. I DO want to be a lot smaller, in every way. I want to weigh less, and I want to be physically smaller. I'm not sure that these guys can even comprehend this goal. It's not part of their vocabulary. It doesn't exist in their universe.
I wasn't sure at first, but now I am, that they're adding bulk to my chest, arms, shoulders, etc. In fact, my trainer was instructing me to use shorter range of motion. He said that guys with longer range of motion are strong and fit, but they just look toned, not bigger.
Ummmm... that's exactly what I want. I'm not going to enter any bodybuilding competitions and I WANT functional strength. I also don't want to be any bigger. I want to be smaller.
I guess I could work the math after a body-fat measurement to figure out how much lean muscle mass I've added. However, I would guess maybe 2 or 3 pounds. For overall strength and appearance? Fine. For improving my running? Not so much.
Although I'm eyeing a Spring marathon, my real fitness goal is to improve my NAVY PRT (Physical Readiness Test) results. I was really close to being able to max pushups. In fact, I think I've done it, twice before.
Curl-ups can be improved without adding bulk. And additional upper body weight actually works contrary to achieving that goal. I can get a respectable score on them with virtually no training. So, now that I'm hitting abs pretty hard once a week, I would think my score would improve phenomenally.
My disgraceful event is running, due to the time off I too for plantar fasciitis. I can barely pass the event. So, I want to see my biggest improvement in running ability and adding a lot of upper body weight also works against this goal.
I'll stick with the personal training until the sessons I bought expire. They've been a great way to get jump-started back onto the road to fitness.
Adding the muscle, now, isn't a bad thing per se, and I can tweak the results when the sessions are done. I've learned a lot about proper lifting technique and my overall strength and appearance have definitely improved.
Then, though, I'll probably guide myself through my workouts. I've got specific goals in mind.
I'll probably have the trainer guide me through "back and arms" or "back and abs" on my 2nd workout session, instead of legs.
I'll let running take care of the lower body conditioning. If I end up adding rowing or some other activity, that'll suffice.
I have short, bowed legs. I want them to appear as lean and toned as possible. I don't want them to bulky in any way. I'd look like I was walking around on chicken drumsticks.
Though lifting weights might have some positive impact on my running ability, I think it also has the potential to harm my running more than it helps it.
The other odd thing is that I don't think the trainers are hitting my triceps and pecs as hard as I'd like them to. Those are muscle groups that are pretty strong from my history of push-ups and bench press. I'll talk to the trainer about it on Monday. The last thing I'd want is my push-up ability to decrease during this training regimen. All it took in the past to max the test is 2 months of once or twice a week flat-bench barbell presses.
Abs are going fabulously. I'm only hitting them once a week, but using the incline bench is working wonders. There are 6 incline settings, from barely inclined, to really inclined. The other week, I tried doing 12 curl-ups at each setting. (Sit ups with arms in front, hands touching opposing shoulders, elbows in close). I think I made most of the settings, but didn't do all the reps on the hardest setting.
Yesterday, I did 20 at each setting, but 10 on the two hardest, for a total of 100 reps. I am seeing the start of a six-pack these days. I still have belly fat, but it's really gone down towards my waistline instead of being all around my trunk. I'm still muffin-topping, but the definition on my abs is starting to poke through the fat. You can see the top 4 of the six pack pretty well. The bottom 2 are obscured by the spare tire.
Pull ups? Yeesh... the bane of my exercise existence. I'm using the lat pulldown bar, which is really frustrating and embarassing for me, personally. I really can't do pullups or chinups without kipping or kicking during the exercise.
Maybe I should go back to what I used to do: just doing chinups at the warehouse on the chinup bar. I'll give it a few more weeks, but I absolutely am not getting the improvement here that I want. Oddly, this gym doesn't have a good chinup bar. Go figure.
I'll stick with this until the end of October or so. Not sure what I'll do after that. I'm pretty motivated right now. (Reminds me of when I got on the fitness jag that eventually resulted in an Ironman finish.)
So, I could do self-directed workouts right now with a good result. I think a rowing machine in the house, in addition to a chinup-bar and moving the free-weights there would be pretty much all I need if I combine it with running.
I may also join a crossfit gym. My only reservation are any exercises that involve a LOT of weight. The body-weight exercises with high reps make perfect sense to me and fit my fitness goals exactly. Pushing a prowler around the parking lot is pretty much the farthest possible thing from what I want.
In any event, the plateau is discouraging. As I recall, I was at one at about 198-ish, and then finally broke through. Right now, I'm probably 195-ish (can get down to 193 after a run due to dehydration), and it's been that way for a week.
I'm getting SOOOO close to my first goal, though, of being in the high-mid 180s. Maybe that's it. I'm within strking distance and it's hard to be patient and just lose the weight a pound or two per week for the next month.
Well, a few more minutes and time to hit the dreadmill. I think these 4.75 workouts will get easier. I just started them. However, I know I ramped up mileage a tick too early. Didn't give my body enough time to adjust to the previous mileage level. So, I'll make a point of only doing 5 days a week of this until I feel better about it.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Food Diary
Not really for public consumption, but I'm trying to keep track of what I've been eating.
Weight loss has been pretty slow lately, and I bet it's because I'm sticking to the THINGS on my diet, but haven't been paying any attention to the calorie count. I mean, you can get fat on white rice and fish if you eat enough of it. There are fat people in Asia. Granted, not many, and certainly fewer than we have here, but if you eat too much, even of good calories, you'll gain weight.
It's amazing how accurate this stuff is once you start paying attention to it. These formulas really do work.
Other than downright cheating on my diet, which I've done a lot of this week, the other big problem is almonds. Love them. Never used to like them that much but right now, I like them more than I like peanuts.
Used to be I liked peanuts a lot and didn't care for almonds much at all. This diet changes the way things taste, though.
Trouble with almonds is that, although they're relatively healthy for you, you can't eat many of them because they're just tiny little calorie bombs. Unreal. Granted, if it came down between eating a bag of potato chips or a bag of almonds, you should go with the almonds, but if I had any willpower, I'd only eat maybe an ounce of them a day. That's 28 almonds. That's not even a warm-up event in my book.
You can see from my diet today that I ate between 1/3 and 1/4 of my daily calories in almonds, alone.
I may need to eliminate them from the diet, entirely. They're just too much of a temptation and I don't have the willpower to eat them in moderation.
Other than that, the rest of my diet looks pretty solid. Still tweaking to account for trying to lower cholesterol, though. I will probably start eating sardines twice a week, along with eating two tablespoons of ground flax seeds a day, for no reason other than to try and lower cholesterol.
The other thing that's tough is that some things aren't so much good for you, they're just better for you than what you're probably eating instead. For instance, olive oil is basically good for you. But you're supposed to use it to replace UNHEALTHY THINGS that you're currently eating. So, if you're gaining weight on your current diet, if you ADD olive oil and make no other changes, you will end up in worse shape.
Same with the almonds. If you use them to replace potato chips, you come out ahead. If you eat all the same stuff AND eat almonds, you are basically worse off than if you ate no almonds at all. Yeah, you'll gain some polyunsaturated fatty acids (which are good), but the extra calories will more than offset any benefit of eating more beneficial fats.
There's a concept I've formed, but that I haven't heard described by anybody else. I've called it "additive nutrition" and "displacing nutrition".
Here's what I mean. Additive nutrition means you eat something and it actually helps you. For instance, flax seeds. Even if you did no other changes to your diet, eating some flax seeds every day would give you additional fiber and Omega-3s. It adds to your health. There'd be a few extra calories, but the additional fiber and Omega-3s would probably put you far ahead.
Displacing nutrition means that the value of something is not so much in the value of the thing, itself, but in the fact that by eating that thing, you aren't eating something else. For instance, white rice or a baked potato.
Not particularly great, nutritionally, but chances are you won't eat a mound of white rice, then go get a super-size order of french fries.
The rice doesn't do much other than give you some clean carbs to work with, but it displaces something that's very, very bad for you.
Most good foods are a combination of the two. For instance, oatmeal provides clean carbs and lots of soluable fiber. That's additive nutrition. But if you eat a half cup (uncooked) of oatmeal, chances are you'll be too full to eat a sausage mcmuffin with egg. The oatmeal displaced a very, very bad food.
I've basically displaced all the bad stuff in my diet. Other than days when I cheat on the diet, I really don't eat anything that's bad for me. Trouble is, I've probably been eating too much of what's on the "nice" list. Sometimes you don't have to go to the "naughty" list to get in trouble.
Today's food diary tells me that without a doubt, this diet would be a smashing success if I could just moderate or eliminate the calories from Almonds. So, that's my next goal.
For those who don't follow me on Facebook, I weighed in at 193 the other day (post-run, dehydrated weight) for a total weight loss of over 10 pounds in about a month.
Running has improved and I hope the plantar fasciitis stays in control. I'm running about 4.75 miles a day, 5 or 6 times a week. Total workout time, about an hour.
Yes, I really, really am running that slow right now, but that's the price I pay for a decade of slacking. Unfortunately, that's what the HRM says is probably the exact pace I should be running until I build some aerobic base. Yes, I'm embarassed.
I'm also hitting the gym for weight workouts 3 or 4 times a week. (Chest and shoulders on one day, with trainer. Legs another day, with trainer. Abs, arms and back on my own.)
Starting from zero (again) sucks.
For those who stumbled across this, you can use this web-site to find out the calories of various things:
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-peppers-sweet-yellow-i11951
8-21-10:
Oatmeal
2 x Protien Shake
2 x V-8
2 x Apple
2 x Flax Seeds
2 x Rice
Chicken Breast
4 x Almond Ounce
1/2 Yellow Pepper
1 Can Sardines
Weight loss has been pretty slow lately, and I bet it's because I'm sticking to the THINGS on my diet, but haven't been paying any attention to the calorie count. I mean, you can get fat on white rice and fish if you eat enough of it. There are fat people in Asia. Granted, not many, and certainly fewer than we have here, but if you eat too much, even of good calories, you'll gain weight.
It's amazing how accurate this stuff is once you start paying attention to it. These formulas really do work.
Other than downright cheating on my diet, which I've done a lot of this week, the other big problem is almonds. Love them. Never used to like them that much but right now, I like them more than I like peanuts.
Used to be I liked peanuts a lot and didn't care for almonds much at all. This diet changes the way things taste, though.
Trouble with almonds is that, although they're relatively healthy for you, you can't eat many of them because they're just tiny little calorie bombs. Unreal. Granted, if it came down between eating a bag of potato chips or a bag of almonds, you should go with the almonds, but if I had any willpower, I'd only eat maybe an ounce of them a day. That's 28 almonds. That's not even a warm-up event in my book.
You can see from my diet today that I ate between 1/3 and 1/4 of my daily calories in almonds, alone.
I may need to eliminate them from the diet, entirely. They're just too much of a temptation and I don't have the willpower to eat them in moderation.
Other than that, the rest of my diet looks pretty solid. Still tweaking to account for trying to lower cholesterol, though. I will probably start eating sardines twice a week, along with eating two tablespoons of ground flax seeds a day, for no reason other than to try and lower cholesterol.
The other thing that's tough is that some things aren't so much good for you, they're just better for you than what you're probably eating instead. For instance, olive oil is basically good for you. But you're supposed to use it to replace UNHEALTHY THINGS that you're currently eating. So, if you're gaining weight on your current diet, if you ADD olive oil and make no other changes, you will end up in worse shape.
Same with the almonds. If you use them to replace potato chips, you come out ahead. If you eat all the same stuff AND eat almonds, you are basically worse off than if you ate no almonds at all. Yeah, you'll gain some polyunsaturated fatty acids (which are good), but the extra calories will more than offset any benefit of eating more beneficial fats.
There's a concept I've formed, but that I haven't heard described by anybody else. I've called it "additive nutrition" and "displacing nutrition".
Here's what I mean. Additive nutrition means you eat something and it actually helps you. For instance, flax seeds. Even if you did no other changes to your diet, eating some flax seeds every day would give you additional fiber and Omega-3s. It adds to your health. There'd be a few extra calories, but the additional fiber and Omega-3s would probably put you far ahead.
Displacing nutrition means that the value of something is not so much in the value of the thing, itself, but in the fact that by eating that thing, you aren't eating something else. For instance, white rice or a baked potato.
Not particularly great, nutritionally, but chances are you won't eat a mound of white rice, then go get a super-size order of french fries.
The rice doesn't do much other than give you some clean carbs to work with, but it displaces something that's very, very bad for you.
Most good foods are a combination of the two. For instance, oatmeal provides clean carbs and lots of soluable fiber. That's additive nutrition. But if you eat a half cup (uncooked) of oatmeal, chances are you'll be too full to eat a sausage mcmuffin with egg. The oatmeal displaced a very, very bad food.
I've basically displaced all the bad stuff in my diet. Other than days when I cheat on the diet, I really don't eat anything that's bad for me. Trouble is, I've probably been eating too much of what's on the "nice" list. Sometimes you don't have to go to the "naughty" list to get in trouble.
Today's food diary tells me that without a doubt, this diet would be a smashing success if I could just moderate or eliminate the calories from Almonds. So, that's my next goal.
For those who don't follow me on Facebook, I weighed in at 193 the other day (post-run, dehydrated weight) for a total weight loss of over 10 pounds in about a month.
Running has improved and I hope the plantar fasciitis stays in control. I'm running about 4.75 miles a day, 5 or 6 times a week. Total workout time, about an hour.
Yes, I really, really am running that slow right now, but that's the price I pay for a decade of slacking. Unfortunately, that's what the HRM says is probably the exact pace I should be running until I build some aerobic base. Yes, I'm embarassed.
I'm also hitting the gym for weight workouts 3 or 4 times a week. (Chest and shoulders on one day, with trainer. Legs another day, with trainer. Abs, arms and back on my own.)
Starting from zero (again) sucks.
For those who stumbled across this, you can use this web-site to find out the calories of various things:
http://caloriecount.about.com/calories-peppers-sweet-yellow-i11951
8-21-10:
Oatmeal
2 x Protien Shake
2 x V-8
2 x Apple
2 x Flax Seeds
2 x Rice
Chicken Breast
4 x Almond Ounce
1/2 Yellow Pepper
1 Can Sardines
The Scrabble Bully learns Arabic
Arabic class is going very well. It is hilarious to be in there learning the Arabic equivalent of the ABC song, though. My impression of Arabic as a nice, orderly language, relative to English, still seems to hold true. Granted, pretty much every language is nice and orderly compared to English.
Although I'm not nearly there yet, I am starting to see how words written in Arabic make sense. I can see how I'll be able to decipher them someday.
The last time I did something like this was when I studied to become a Scrabble bully. This is an episode of family lore that most people consider best forgotten.
My father is very verbal. I probably inherited that trait from him. His father before him was a crossword puzzle whiz. It's something that runs in our family.
He loved to play Scrabble. If a few family members were around he'd hustle up a game. I'd never seen the game until a few years ago when he showed me how to play.
I had heard about Stephen Fatsis' book, "Word Freak" that detailed the sordid world of championship Scrabble. Something few people know is that there is a bona-fide, step-by-step method for getting better at the game. Just like there's Suzuki method for violin, there's a set of steps you can use to take yourself from being an everyday hobbyist in Scrabble to being a tournament level player.
So, after reading the book, I bought another book called "Everything Scrabble" by Scrabble champion Joe Edley. He spells out the method. I followed it.
Things like, for instance, memorizing the list of playable 2 letter words reminds me a lot of, for instance, memorizing the Arabic alphabet. There aren't a lot of ways to do it, and for me, the way that works best is just to take a pad of paper and a pen and write the list over and over again until it's committed to memory.
I didn't complete the entire method. Just enough that I felt I was good enough to beat my Dad.
I kept it a secret. My big mouth sister in law told him in advance, but apparently, he was entirely too dismissive of my Scrabble Jedi training and when we met again, he asked if I'd like to play.
My intention was to get consistently better than him, but to still make it fun and challenging. Sort of like bringing a bigger pillow to a pillow fight.
The actual result? It was more like bringing a shotgun to a pillow fight.
I was regularly beating him by scores like 400 to 50. Where, in the past, nobody had really ever played a bingo word (using the entire rack), I was throwing down 2 or 3 per game. It was an utter annihilation.
We tried everything. Me spotting him a few hundred points, whatever. Didn't matter. I had become a Scrabble bully.
I digress. Learning Arabic reminds me of those days of memorizing things for Scrabble. I'm optimistic because our instructor seems to indicate that students can function somewhat in the language, even after just 2 or 3 semesters. I don't know how long I'll be able to study this, but chances are that when I'm done, I will be going somewhere where I can immerse myself in the language for the most part. I just want a solid foundation to build on. Without that, it's too hard, even with immersion, to gain any proficiency.
Although I'm not nearly there yet, I am starting to see how words written in Arabic make sense. I can see how I'll be able to decipher them someday.
The last time I did something like this was when I studied to become a Scrabble bully. This is an episode of family lore that most people consider best forgotten.
My father is very verbal. I probably inherited that trait from him. His father before him was a crossword puzzle whiz. It's something that runs in our family.
He loved to play Scrabble. If a few family members were around he'd hustle up a game. I'd never seen the game until a few years ago when he showed me how to play.
I had heard about Stephen Fatsis' book, "Word Freak" that detailed the sordid world of championship Scrabble. Something few people know is that there is a bona-fide, step-by-step method for getting better at the game. Just like there's Suzuki method for violin, there's a set of steps you can use to take yourself from being an everyday hobbyist in Scrabble to being a tournament level player.
So, after reading the book, I bought another book called "Everything Scrabble" by Scrabble champion Joe Edley. He spells out the method. I followed it.
Things like, for instance, memorizing the list of playable 2 letter words reminds me a lot of, for instance, memorizing the Arabic alphabet. There aren't a lot of ways to do it, and for me, the way that works best is just to take a pad of paper and a pen and write the list over and over again until it's committed to memory.
I didn't complete the entire method. Just enough that I felt I was good enough to beat my Dad.
I kept it a secret. My big mouth sister in law told him in advance, but apparently, he was entirely too dismissive of my Scrabble Jedi training and when we met again, he asked if I'd like to play.
My intention was to get consistently better than him, but to still make it fun and challenging. Sort of like bringing a bigger pillow to a pillow fight.
The actual result? It was more like bringing a shotgun to a pillow fight.
I was regularly beating him by scores like 400 to 50. Where, in the past, nobody had really ever played a bingo word (using the entire rack), I was throwing down 2 or 3 per game. It was an utter annihilation.
We tried everything. Me spotting him a few hundred points, whatever. Didn't matter. I had become a Scrabble bully.
I digress. Learning Arabic reminds me of those days of memorizing things for Scrabble. I'm optimistic because our instructor seems to indicate that students can function somewhat in the language, even after just 2 or 3 semesters. I don't know how long I'll be able to study this, but chances are that when I'm done, I will be going somewhere where I can immerse myself in the language for the most part. I just want a solid foundation to build on. Without that, it's too hard, even with immersion, to gain any proficiency.
Saturday Morning This and That...
I had a bad dream last night. My grandmother is 92. I dreamed that she moved into a nursing home. She still lives by herself these days. Something about her being in a nursing home was just so sad to me. I need to go visit her, soon.
9 years ago, when my boy was born, I would joke about her longevity by telling folks that she would outlive us all. Unfortunately, that isn't usually how things work.
I don't know why, but I am one of those people who can't just live in the moment. My entire life, I'm trying to see around corners. Sometimes, it's helpful. For instance, when running a business, the ability to anticipate what's coming down the pike is a big advantage.
Sometimes, though, I think it just makes me anxious and unable to enjoy life in the present.
In any event, I need to go visit my grandma here, soon. When I got into that Fort Worth Navy unit, she was sad because I had been drilling in Cleveland. The Navy would have paid for a hotel room for me, but I just stayed with her.
I always wondered why that was something she seemed to enjoy and look forward to. It wasn't like I spent MUCH time with her. I'd visit with her, but mostly, I was working. I think she just enjoyed the company. She liked not having to sleep in an empty house.
My son is gone to West Virginia with his mother right now. The house is empty, except for the dogs. Man, dogs are a pain in the butt. Never was much of a dog or cat person. Dogs are great because they're so affectionate and loyal. However, owning a dog means you're pretty much tied to your house (or houses of people who want somebody else's dog to visit) and you're going to pick up poop all the time.
I digress... having the empty house sort of sucks. Logan is at an age, now, where he doesn't want to play with me all the time. In fact, we don't play all that much anymore at all. He has friends. It's not like he doesn't enjoy time with me, but it's more fun to associate with kids his own age, at a peer level. It's also more important for his development.
It's just that I want to be around him. To see him here and there and interact with him in little ways. That's probably all my grandmother wanted out of my visits.
From the moment my son was born, I was acutely aware that he was only in my life for a short time. In a way, that's not true. If the natural order plays itself out, he'll be a part of my life until the day he buries me. However, he could move across the country for college or a job. He could take a job that takes him halfway around the world. This close interaction is a gift that I only get to enjoy while he's home.
So many regrets in my life. Wasted opportunities. Times when I didn't realize the preciousness of the things I had, or the people around me. I'm fortunate that I learned enough lessons not to take my boy for granted.
Grandma is only in my life for a short time, too. She's been part of it since I was 3 years old, when I went to live with her and grandpa. Nearly half a century. Still, my time with her, like my time with anybody, is limited. Best not to take it for granted.
Logan has travel tryouts next weekend, but the weekend after that, I need to go see her.
When Logan was very young, maybe 2 years old, we took him to the zoo. I was pulling him in a wagon. After we finished seeing one exhibit, he got back in the wagon and I went up to grasp the handle to pull him. I didn't look back to check on him before I pulled.
Tessa and I had pulled him miles upon miles upon miles in that wagon without incident. It was just an ordinary kid's play wagon, with no seatbelts or anything else special about it.
I think what happened is that after he climbed in and I turned around, he sat up, on the back fence of the wagon, because he saw other kids, in other types of wagons that were built for the kids to sit up higher. When I pulled, I heard a sickening thud.
I turned around, heard people gasp, and saw Logan lying down on the concrete behind the wagon. He had landed pretty much entirely on his head.
I picked him up, we contacted medical personnel and immediately took him to the hospital.
Turned out he was fine. No concussion, nothing. God protects idiots and small children. Little kids are pretty resilient, physically. They take a lot of bumps and bruises, and most of the time, they come through unscathed.
The other day, for some reason, Logan kept talking about that day. He claims he remembers it, which I doubt. He probably remembers the story. Though, it's not one I really tell. It's just become family folklore over the years.
He kept asking about details and telling me what he thought he remembered of the incident. He described the woman who was standing over him. It was, and still is, very hard for me to talk about that day.
I told him, "that was one of the worst days of my life."
He's too young to pick up the cue that this is an adult's way of saying they're not really enjoying the topic of conversation. He was still cheerfully asking questions about it.
It dawned on me that it hadn't been as bad for him as it was for me. I'm glad. To me, it was a horrible failure: careless parenting that resulted in my son being injured. To him? Less traumatic, due to the passage of time, than, say, when he tried to field a line drive that took a bad hop and hit him in the lip.
So strange that something I feel so bad about doesn't bother him at all.
I'm part of that segment of the population that worries, though. I'm not a good person when I'm carefree and footloose. I've tried and it just doesn't work for me. Either I take things way too far and act a fool, or I spend the whole time with half of me thinking, "oh, that looks like trouble".
I find people who can just live in the moment to be fascinating and inspiring. That's just not me, though. I'm the guy who is thinking, "Okay, but what will happen tomorrow? Next week? Next year?"
I hardly ever drink. I never drink to excess. Not that I never did, but frankly, I never liked the way it made me feel the next day.
So, here's to the obsessive nerds who worry too much. Maybe we'll have well-deserved peace in our twilight years as a reward for the overly obsessive diligence that took so much fun out of our younger years.
In the mean time, I have to get Logan ready for travel tryouts. Then, I need to go visit my grandma.
I really, really needed a rest day from running. So, I went whole hog yesterday. In fact, I think I ate a whole hog. I'm eager to get back to it, today. Realistically, at this level of fitness, I should probably be taking 2 days a week off, but I think I'll be fine with just one. We'll see.
I found my old copy of the Daniels Running Formula and it came at the right time. I was thinking of doing one lactate threshold workout per week (at about 90% of max heart rate), but the book reiterated that it would be inappropriate at this point. So, I'm sticking with slow, easy distance for the next several months.
I will be bumping out my distance to 4.75 miles, though. (The 0.75 is the warm-up and cool-down.) Then, 4 x 1 mile repeats, with a 1 minute recovery between if needed... lately, I haven't needed them much.)
Daniels reminded me that it takes 6 weeks to get the full effect of a new training stimulus. So, the 30 mile per week training plan should probably be something I don't change until the first week of October.
I actually enjoy this aspect of training: mapping out the plan, anticipating the physical changes that come from new training stimulus, etc.
The last time I did this was a decade ago, and it was easier. However, today I have the benefit of wisdom and experience. So, I won't be making a lot of the same mistakes I made back then, either.
So, I'm carbing up with my oatmeal and will hit the dreadmill when the food has sufficiently digested.
Slowly but surely, I'm committing to the idea of a Spring marathon. I think it'll be a grind, but training for a marathon is probably the fastest, best way to get fast.
After the first marathon I ran, I came out faster than I'd ever been in my life. I wish I'd ran a few 5Ks, because I might have stood a shot at breaking in under 20 minutes. However, I was ramping up for an Ironman triathlon just a few months later, so the training plan didn't have much room for flexibility.
I was hit by a car while riding my bike, 10 days before the Ironman attempt. Then, I ruptured my achilles tendon 3 months after that. By the time the achilles had recovered, I started a new job in Toledo and wasn't able to train like I should have.
I did, however, manage to shuffle across the finish line in Ironman New York, 2000. 2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike. 26.2 mile run.
So, although belatedly, after monumental setbacks, and much slower than I would have been a year earlier, I did, finally, earn the title of Ironman.
I don't know if I'll ever do an Ironman again, but like I said, I'm starting to commit to the idea of a Spring marathon. It feels good to be getting back in shape after all these years.
9 years ago, when my boy was born, I would joke about her longevity by telling folks that she would outlive us all. Unfortunately, that isn't usually how things work.
I don't know why, but I am one of those people who can't just live in the moment. My entire life, I'm trying to see around corners. Sometimes, it's helpful. For instance, when running a business, the ability to anticipate what's coming down the pike is a big advantage.
Sometimes, though, I think it just makes me anxious and unable to enjoy life in the present.
In any event, I need to go visit my grandma here, soon. When I got into that Fort Worth Navy unit, she was sad because I had been drilling in Cleveland. The Navy would have paid for a hotel room for me, but I just stayed with her.
I always wondered why that was something she seemed to enjoy and look forward to. It wasn't like I spent MUCH time with her. I'd visit with her, but mostly, I was working. I think she just enjoyed the company. She liked not having to sleep in an empty house.
My son is gone to West Virginia with his mother right now. The house is empty, except for the dogs. Man, dogs are a pain in the butt. Never was much of a dog or cat person. Dogs are great because they're so affectionate and loyal. However, owning a dog means you're pretty much tied to your house (or houses of people who want somebody else's dog to visit) and you're going to pick up poop all the time.
I digress... having the empty house sort of sucks. Logan is at an age, now, where he doesn't want to play with me all the time. In fact, we don't play all that much anymore at all. He has friends. It's not like he doesn't enjoy time with me, but it's more fun to associate with kids his own age, at a peer level. It's also more important for his development.
It's just that I want to be around him. To see him here and there and interact with him in little ways. That's probably all my grandmother wanted out of my visits.
From the moment my son was born, I was acutely aware that he was only in my life for a short time. In a way, that's not true. If the natural order plays itself out, he'll be a part of my life until the day he buries me. However, he could move across the country for college or a job. He could take a job that takes him halfway around the world. This close interaction is a gift that I only get to enjoy while he's home.
So many regrets in my life. Wasted opportunities. Times when I didn't realize the preciousness of the things I had, or the people around me. I'm fortunate that I learned enough lessons not to take my boy for granted.
Grandma is only in my life for a short time, too. She's been part of it since I was 3 years old, when I went to live with her and grandpa. Nearly half a century. Still, my time with her, like my time with anybody, is limited. Best not to take it for granted.
Logan has travel tryouts next weekend, but the weekend after that, I need to go see her.
When Logan was very young, maybe 2 years old, we took him to the zoo. I was pulling him in a wagon. After we finished seeing one exhibit, he got back in the wagon and I went up to grasp the handle to pull him. I didn't look back to check on him before I pulled.
Tessa and I had pulled him miles upon miles upon miles in that wagon without incident. It was just an ordinary kid's play wagon, with no seatbelts or anything else special about it.
I think what happened is that after he climbed in and I turned around, he sat up, on the back fence of the wagon, because he saw other kids, in other types of wagons that were built for the kids to sit up higher. When I pulled, I heard a sickening thud.
I turned around, heard people gasp, and saw Logan lying down on the concrete behind the wagon. He had landed pretty much entirely on his head.
I picked him up, we contacted medical personnel and immediately took him to the hospital.
Turned out he was fine. No concussion, nothing. God protects idiots and small children. Little kids are pretty resilient, physically. They take a lot of bumps and bruises, and most of the time, they come through unscathed.
The other day, for some reason, Logan kept talking about that day. He claims he remembers it, which I doubt. He probably remembers the story. Though, it's not one I really tell. It's just become family folklore over the years.
He kept asking about details and telling me what he thought he remembered of the incident. He described the woman who was standing over him. It was, and still is, very hard for me to talk about that day.
I told him, "that was one of the worst days of my life."
He's too young to pick up the cue that this is an adult's way of saying they're not really enjoying the topic of conversation. He was still cheerfully asking questions about it.
It dawned on me that it hadn't been as bad for him as it was for me. I'm glad. To me, it was a horrible failure: careless parenting that resulted in my son being injured. To him? Less traumatic, due to the passage of time, than, say, when he tried to field a line drive that took a bad hop and hit him in the lip.
So strange that something I feel so bad about doesn't bother him at all.
I'm part of that segment of the population that worries, though. I'm not a good person when I'm carefree and footloose. I've tried and it just doesn't work for me. Either I take things way too far and act a fool, or I spend the whole time with half of me thinking, "oh, that looks like trouble".
I find people who can just live in the moment to be fascinating and inspiring. That's just not me, though. I'm the guy who is thinking, "Okay, but what will happen tomorrow? Next week? Next year?"
I hardly ever drink. I never drink to excess. Not that I never did, but frankly, I never liked the way it made me feel the next day.
So, here's to the obsessive nerds who worry too much. Maybe we'll have well-deserved peace in our twilight years as a reward for the overly obsessive diligence that took so much fun out of our younger years.
In the mean time, I have to get Logan ready for travel tryouts. Then, I need to go visit my grandma.
I really, really needed a rest day from running. So, I went whole hog yesterday. In fact, I think I ate a whole hog. I'm eager to get back to it, today. Realistically, at this level of fitness, I should probably be taking 2 days a week off, but I think I'll be fine with just one. We'll see.
I found my old copy of the Daniels Running Formula and it came at the right time. I was thinking of doing one lactate threshold workout per week (at about 90% of max heart rate), but the book reiterated that it would be inappropriate at this point. So, I'm sticking with slow, easy distance for the next several months.
I will be bumping out my distance to 4.75 miles, though. (The 0.75 is the warm-up and cool-down.) Then, 4 x 1 mile repeats, with a 1 minute recovery between if needed... lately, I haven't needed them much.)
Daniels reminded me that it takes 6 weeks to get the full effect of a new training stimulus. So, the 30 mile per week training plan should probably be something I don't change until the first week of October.
I actually enjoy this aspect of training: mapping out the plan, anticipating the physical changes that come from new training stimulus, etc.
The last time I did this was a decade ago, and it was easier. However, today I have the benefit of wisdom and experience. So, I won't be making a lot of the same mistakes I made back then, either.
So, I'm carbing up with my oatmeal and will hit the dreadmill when the food has sufficiently digested.
Slowly but surely, I'm committing to the idea of a Spring marathon. I think it'll be a grind, but training for a marathon is probably the fastest, best way to get fast.
After the first marathon I ran, I came out faster than I'd ever been in my life. I wish I'd ran a few 5Ks, because I might have stood a shot at breaking in under 20 minutes. However, I was ramping up for an Ironman triathlon just a few months later, so the training plan didn't have much room for flexibility.
I was hit by a car while riding my bike, 10 days before the Ironman attempt. Then, I ruptured my achilles tendon 3 months after that. By the time the achilles had recovered, I started a new job in Toledo and wasn't able to train like I should have.
I did, however, manage to shuffle across the finish line in Ironman New York, 2000. 2.4 mile swim. 112 mile bike. 26.2 mile run.
So, although belatedly, after monumental setbacks, and much slower than I would have been a year earlier, I did, finally, earn the title of Ironman.
I don't know if I'll ever do an Ironman again, but like I said, I'm starting to commit to the idea of a Spring marathon. It feels good to be getting back in shape after all these years.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Diet
One final note on the diet. At first, it seemed odd, but now, it's really got some simple rules.
1. No bread.
2. No dairy.
3. No processed sugars.
4. Stick to very, very lean meats, like turkey breast, chicken breast, lean cuts of beef, fish, etc.
5. You can eat carbs, but they need to be relatively simply prepared. So, at lunch and dinner, a plain baked potato (I add salt to mine) or some rice (salt and Wyler's chicken flavoring), is fine. French fries are not. For breakfast, oatmeal (steel cut oats are the best, but I buy the instant oatmeal in the large round can. Cooks in less than 2 minutes.)
Other than that, it's just common sense stuff. Seriously, if you need a special diet to tell you that potato chips and sour creme and chive chip dip is bad for you, you should go back to remedial nutrition.
The no-bread part is probably the hardest part. I've always had bread in my diet. We're a society that has a sandwich as the cornerstone of most of our diets. Yeah, it's obvious a Big Mac isn't what you're supposed to eat. What's not so obvious is that a turkey and cheese on wheat only has 1 thing, out of 3, that you should be eating.
There are some wierd things that I have adopted. For instance, cooking up egg beaters in the morning and having almond milk and protien shakes around the house. The almond milk isn't that much of an adjustment. I used to drink soy milk. The switch to almond isn't a big deal at all.
I keep V-8 for days when I was too lazy to go to the store to get vegetables to eat. I don't eat much in the way of leafy salads. Other than spinach salads, most of them are negligible in nutritional value. I do eat peppers and tomatoes, instead.
The two tweaks I've got for the diet are OJ and flax seeds.
I keep orange juice on hand. It's an easy drink to fortify with vitamins. I think the one I buy is fortified with A and D, as well as being a great source of vitamin C. I only drink OJ right before or right after running, though. It's got a lot of sugar and a lot of calories. So, unless I'm priming myself for a run or recovering from one, I don't want the insulin spike that would result from that much sugar hitting my bloodstream without getting burned off right away.
I will be switching to higher pulp versions of OJ. They are higher in fiber. (I bought the non-pulp versions because that's what my son likes. So, I'll probably have some no-pulp for him as well as high-pulp for me on hand.)
The only other tweak is flax seeds, which I'm doing because I have high cholesterol and would really like to control it without the need for meds. There's not a lot of cholesterol in this diet at all.
(Edited to add Sardines on 8-21-10)
Third tweak is adding Sardines, preferrably packed in virgin olive oil, twice a week. This replaces chicken breast in one meal and is also primarily for cholesterol control.
Beyond that, the other thing I like is that from day one, this diet has cheat-meals built in. So, for a person like me who doesn't always have the luxury of getting the stuff I SHOULD be getting, this is a realistic accomodation.
It also allows you to go off the deep end and eat something you want to eat without feeling like you've abandoned the diet, entirely.
The other thing I may try to do, again for cholesterol management, is to introduce some olive oil to the diet. Probably as a dressing for the tomatoes and peppers, when combined with vinegar.
1. No bread.
2. No dairy.
3. No processed sugars.
4. Stick to very, very lean meats, like turkey breast, chicken breast, lean cuts of beef, fish, etc.
5. You can eat carbs, but they need to be relatively simply prepared. So, at lunch and dinner, a plain baked potato (I add salt to mine) or some rice (salt and Wyler's chicken flavoring), is fine. French fries are not. For breakfast, oatmeal (steel cut oats are the best, but I buy the instant oatmeal in the large round can. Cooks in less than 2 minutes.)
Other than that, it's just common sense stuff. Seriously, if you need a special diet to tell you that potato chips and sour creme and chive chip dip is bad for you, you should go back to remedial nutrition.
The no-bread part is probably the hardest part. I've always had bread in my diet. We're a society that has a sandwich as the cornerstone of most of our diets. Yeah, it's obvious a Big Mac isn't what you're supposed to eat. What's not so obvious is that a turkey and cheese on wheat only has 1 thing, out of 3, that you should be eating.
There are some wierd things that I have adopted. For instance, cooking up egg beaters in the morning and having almond milk and protien shakes around the house. The almond milk isn't that much of an adjustment. I used to drink soy milk. The switch to almond isn't a big deal at all.
I keep V-8 for days when I was too lazy to go to the store to get vegetables to eat. I don't eat much in the way of leafy salads. Other than spinach salads, most of them are negligible in nutritional value. I do eat peppers and tomatoes, instead.
The two tweaks I've got for the diet are OJ and flax seeds.
I keep orange juice on hand. It's an easy drink to fortify with vitamins. I think the one I buy is fortified with A and D, as well as being a great source of vitamin C. I only drink OJ right before or right after running, though. It's got a lot of sugar and a lot of calories. So, unless I'm priming myself for a run or recovering from one, I don't want the insulin spike that would result from that much sugar hitting my bloodstream without getting burned off right away.
I will be switching to higher pulp versions of OJ. They are higher in fiber. (I bought the non-pulp versions because that's what my son likes. So, I'll probably have some no-pulp for him as well as high-pulp for me on hand.)
The only other tweak is flax seeds, which I'm doing because I have high cholesterol and would really like to control it without the need for meds. There's not a lot of cholesterol in this diet at all.
(Edited to add Sardines on 8-21-10)
Third tweak is adding Sardines, preferrably packed in virgin olive oil, twice a week. This replaces chicken breast in one meal and is also primarily for cholesterol control.
Beyond that, the other thing I like is that from day one, this diet has cheat-meals built in. So, for a person like me who doesn't always have the luxury of getting the stuff I SHOULD be getting, this is a realistic accomodation.
It also allows you to go off the deep end and eat something you want to eat without feeling like you've abandoned the diet, entirely.
The other thing I may try to do, again for cholesterol management, is to introduce some olive oil to the diet. Probably as a dressing for the tomatoes and peppers, when combined with vinegar.
Off Day From Running
Doing a longer run yesterday was a bad idea one day after my leg workout. I was walking funny the rest of the day and today my legs are still pretty stiff. I needed to schedule a rest day from running and this is probably a big clue that I should take it, now.
In formulating my workout for next week, I think I'll try a 6 day training schedule per week. 4 normal distance/recovery days and with LT workout day and one longer distance day.
Today, Logan and his mom go to West Virginia to visit some of her relatives. So, that gives me a lot of time over the weekend. I have 3 weight workouts to go. I'll try and do at least two of them today, or maybe knock out all three.
Diet? I had a turkey sandwich, soup and ice cream yesterday. I feel like crud this morning. It's funny how you don't realize how bad for you stuff is until your system is cleaned out. Every time I've gone off this diet so far, I've actually looked forward to going back on it.
Adding flax seeds has been interesting. There doesn't seem to be a good way to eat them that doesn't involve baking them into something. So, I have been taking them like medicine: taking a spoonful and washing it down with a glass of water. The other parts of the diet are things I can see as life changes, but the flax seeds? I don't know about that one. I'll just have to see how my cholesterol numbers work.
Best case, next blood draw, my numbers will be so low that I'll ask if we can try diet alone and see how that works. I won't know about that for another 5 months, though.
In other news, it's one week until Logan's travel tryouts. The old team has been working out, preparing for the tryouts. Honestly, the advantage they got from playing last year is so huge I think the team will probably look identical. They were the most talented 9 year olds, and they'll be among the most talented 10 year olds. The season of travel is very apparent in how well these kids play.
When they were playing U9 baseball, I was amazed at how talented these kids were. Now that they're moving up to U10, it's even more remarkable. I honestly can't think of much that I do as well as these kids play baseball. Maybe piano, probably guitar, but other than that, nada.
In formulating my workout for next week, I think I'll try a 6 day training schedule per week. 4 normal distance/recovery days and with LT workout day and one longer distance day.
Today, Logan and his mom go to West Virginia to visit some of her relatives. So, that gives me a lot of time over the weekend. I have 3 weight workouts to go. I'll try and do at least two of them today, or maybe knock out all three.
Diet? I had a turkey sandwich, soup and ice cream yesterday. I feel like crud this morning. It's funny how you don't realize how bad for you stuff is until your system is cleaned out. Every time I've gone off this diet so far, I've actually looked forward to going back on it.
Adding flax seeds has been interesting. There doesn't seem to be a good way to eat them that doesn't involve baking them into something. So, I have been taking them like medicine: taking a spoonful and washing it down with a glass of water. The other parts of the diet are things I can see as life changes, but the flax seeds? I don't know about that one. I'll just have to see how my cholesterol numbers work.
Best case, next blood draw, my numbers will be so low that I'll ask if we can try diet alone and see how that works. I won't know about that for another 5 months, though.
In other news, it's one week until Logan's travel tryouts. The old team has been working out, preparing for the tryouts. Honestly, the advantage they got from playing last year is so huge I think the team will probably look identical. They were the most talented 9 year olds, and they'll be among the most talented 10 year olds. The season of travel is very apparent in how well these kids play.
When they were playing U9 baseball, I was amazed at how talented these kids were. Now that they're moving up to U10, it's even more remarkable. I honestly can't think of much that I do as well as these kids play baseball. Maybe piano, probably guitar, but other than that, nada.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Workout Changeup...
I was going to take a rest day today because my legs are pretty much toasted. Ran my 3.8 miles yesterday and then went through a leg workout at the gym. I could feel my hamstrings cramping when I was watching "the Expendables" in the theatre last night.
I considered taking today off, entirely, from running, or maybe just running 2.8 miles.
Trouble is, I'm in a workout frame of mind. People know I can do pretty much anything... unless it involves moderation. So, I can slack, but I can't slack just a little bit. I go whole-hog. That's part of the reason I'll say things like, "I don't like vacations." Too easy to shift into those gears and too hard to shift out.
Right now, I am looking forward to daily workouts. One thing I know, with my compulsive personality, is that when I have a virtuous compulsion, I need to go with it and feed it.
Logan's Mom had to work today and I'm home with him all day. (Except for my Arabic class where I'll hire a sitter.) So, that means here in the house, with three productive activities at my disposal: studying Arabic, doing the P-90X "Ab Ripper X" workout, and running on the treadmill.
Being that I'm stuck here, I'll probably do exactly the opposite of a rest day and go ahead and do a long run day. "Long", by the way, is a relative term.
My daily runs have been 3.8 miles. I'm going to introduce a Lactate Threshold workout, which will be 3.8 miles, but at a faster tempo. I'll also introduce a long-run day, which will be 4.8 miles instead of 3.8.
I may introduce a few easy days of 2.8 miles. (The .8 is because of a .4 mile warmup and .4 mile cooldown.) Not sure about that, though. Personally, I'd like to keep the recovery days at 3.8 miles, just do them slower.
It's hard sometimes for me to put together a realistic training plan, because my brain is still back in the mode of where I was after my first marathon. At that point in my fitness, a 6 mile daily run was the norm. If I only got in 4 miles, I felt like it was a very short workout and that I couldn't do that very often.
Also, my splits were much faster. For the most part, easy daily runs were sub 8 min/miles. That's important to note because it's not just the total distance that's a factor, but also the time you spend on your feet.
Sorry, but if you hold the heart rate constant, a person with lesser fitness who runs 10 minute miles is working a LOT harder to do a 6 mile training run than a fitter person who runs 7:30s. One of them is done in 45 minutes while the other is pounding pavement for an entire hour.
Ultimately, I like the 6 mile distance for a daily training run. For one thing, it allows you to do a proper warmup and cooldown. For another, you're splitting your training routine almost evenly between glycogen metabolism and fat-burning. So, you're training both systems, both of which are necessary for distance training.
It also serves as a good foundation for true long-distance days since you add an 8 miler, then 10, then 12, etc. If you're only covering 4 miles a day, like I'm doing, now, that's just not enough foundation for distance training.
I'm slowly, but surely committing to the idea of training for a marathon. Maybe in the Spring, provided my plantar fasciitis doesn't re-appear.
So, today, I'm going to do a distance day of 4.8 instead of taking the day off or doing a light day. I'm in the house most of the day, and there's not a lot else to do.
I'll also find the P90X Ab Ripper X workout and hit that as well. That'll just leave me with running, plus arms and back for the rest of the week.
I considered taking today off, entirely, from running, or maybe just running 2.8 miles.
Trouble is, I'm in a workout frame of mind. People know I can do pretty much anything... unless it involves moderation. So, I can slack, but I can't slack just a little bit. I go whole-hog. That's part of the reason I'll say things like, "I don't like vacations." Too easy to shift into those gears and too hard to shift out.
Right now, I am looking forward to daily workouts. One thing I know, with my compulsive personality, is that when I have a virtuous compulsion, I need to go with it and feed it.
Logan's Mom had to work today and I'm home with him all day. (Except for my Arabic class where I'll hire a sitter.) So, that means here in the house, with three productive activities at my disposal: studying Arabic, doing the P-90X "Ab Ripper X" workout, and running on the treadmill.
Being that I'm stuck here, I'll probably do exactly the opposite of a rest day and go ahead and do a long run day. "Long", by the way, is a relative term.
My daily runs have been 3.8 miles. I'm going to introduce a Lactate Threshold workout, which will be 3.8 miles, but at a faster tempo. I'll also introduce a long-run day, which will be 4.8 miles instead of 3.8.
I may introduce a few easy days of 2.8 miles. (The .8 is because of a .4 mile warmup and .4 mile cooldown.) Not sure about that, though. Personally, I'd like to keep the recovery days at 3.8 miles, just do them slower.
It's hard sometimes for me to put together a realistic training plan, because my brain is still back in the mode of where I was after my first marathon. At that point in my fitness, a 6 mile daily run was the norm. If I only got in 4 miles, I felt like it was a very short workout and that I couldn't do that very often.
Also, my splits were much faster. For the most part, easy daily runs were sub 8 min/miles. That's important to note because it's not just the total distance that's a factor, but also the time you spend on your feet.
Sorry, but if you hold the heart rate constant, a person with lesser fitness who runs 10 minute miles is working a LOT harder to do a 6 mile training run than a fitter person who runs 7:30s. One of them is done in 45 minutes while the other is pounding pavement for an entire hour.
Ultimately, I like the 6 mile distance for a daily training run. For one thing, it allows you to do a proper warmup and cooldown. For another, you're splitting your training routine almost evenly between glycogen metabolism and fat-burning. So, you're training both systems, both of which are necessary for distance training.
It also serves as a good foundation for true long-distance days since you add an 8 miler, then 10, then 12, etc. If you're only covering 4 miles a day, like I'm doing, now, that's just not enough foundation for distance training.
I'm slowly, but surely committing to the idea of training for a marathon. Maybe in the Spring, provided my plantar fasciitis doesn't re-appear.
So, today, I'm going to do a distance day of 4.8 instead of taking the day off or doing a light day. I'm in the house most of the day, and there's not a lot else to do.
I'll also find the P90X Ab Ripper X workout and hit that as well. That'll just leave me with running, plus arms and back for the rest of the week.
Small Business Ownership...
There are usually three things a person is seeking when they open their own business.
The first is usually money. Folks have different goals, here. Some would be happy making enough to live on. Others would actually be willing to live on LESS money to be captain of their own ship. Others want to advance, financially, farther than they could by working a job.
The second is freedom. People want the ability to take vacations when they want. To set their own schedule. To have greater ability to dictate how they are going to live their lives.
The third is for the chance to spend more of their working lives doing something they love, and to spend less of their working lives doing things they really don't like doing.
Owning a small business has been great along all three of those dimensions for me. However, the one area where it has been head and shoulders above being employed is freedom. Specifically, I have a lot of time to devote to my son.
He started playing travel baseball last year and I attended every game, travelled to every tournament, and assisted in every practice.
When I worked a job, the hours I kept in the office would have made that impossible. If I left at 6:00 p.m., I thought I was doing good, and it wasn't that unusual to leave at 7:00. A half-day on Saturday was generally a good thing if I wanted to keep my head above water.
Logan's mom works unpredictable and sometimes long hours. So, it's helpful that I've got a life that lets me stay home for the day on short notice.
Those are the types of experiences you can't really put a price on: quality time with children. I have held every moment with my son as precious. He'll be out of the house in 9 more years. Judging by how quickly the last 9 have gone, it'll feel like it passed in the blink of an eye. After that, any unfufilled longing about how I wish I would have raised my son will just be a pile of regret.
I do believe in that adage that nobody ever got to their deathbed wishing they'd worked harder at the office and spent more time away from their family. The time we have with the people who are important to us is life's most precious gift.
That's why, even if I didn't do THIS small business, chances are I'll always own a small business of one sort or another, for the rest of my working life. When Logan is gone, I want to be able to visit other people I don't see enough of. When he has children, I want to be able to spend time with the grandkids.
Maybe someday, I'll hand the reins of the business over to him and enjoy a quiet retirement. In the mean time, I hope to build a lot of fond and positive memories to sustain me in my golden years.
The first is usually money. Folks have different goals, here. Some would be happy making enough to live on. Others would actually be willing to live on LESS money to be captain of their own ship. Others want to advance, financially, farther than they could by working a job.
The second is freedom. People want the ability to take vacations when they want. To set their own schedule. To have greater ability to dictate how they are going to live their lives.
The third is for the chance to spend more of their working lives doing something they love, and to spend less of their working lives doing things they really don't like doing.
Owning a small business has been great along all three of those dimensions for me. However, the one area where it has been head and shoulders above being employed is freedom. Specifically, I have a lot of time to devote to my son.
He started playing travel baseball last year and I attended every game, travelled to every tournament, and assisted in every practice.
When I worked a job, the hours I kept in the office would have made that impossible. If I left at 6:00 p.m., I thought I was doing good, and it wasn't that unusual to leave at 7:00. A half-day on Saturday was generally a good thing if I wanted to keep my head above water.
Logan's mom works unpredictable and sometimes long hours. So, it's helpful that I've got a life that lets me stay home for the day on short notice.
Those are the types of experiences you can't really put a price on: quality time with children. I have held every moment with my son as precious. He'll be out of the house in 9 more years. Judging by how quickly the last 9 have gone, it'll feel like it passed in the blink of an eye. After that, any unfufilled longing about how I wish I would have raised my son will just be a pile of regret.
I do believe in that adage that nobody ever got to their deathbed wishing they'd worked harder at the office and spent more time away from their family. The time we have with the people who are important to us is life's most precious gift.
That's why, even if I didn't do THIS small business, chances are I'll always own a small business of one sort or another, for the rest of my working life. When Logan is gone, I want to be able to visit other people I don't see enough of. When he has children, I want to be able to spend time with the grandkids.
Maybe someday, I'll hand the reins of the business over to him and enjoy a quiet retirement. In the mean time, I hope to build a lot of fond and positive memories to sustain me in my golden years.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Fitness Update 8-18-2010
I should probably take a recovery day sometime soon. I thought I'd miss a day or two while in Florida, but it turns out I got in a run every day. So, it's been a while since I had a down day.
I don't think I'm overtraining, yet, but we'll see. Other than running, my muscles are getting plenty of recovery time from the weight workouts.
Next week, I'll be increasing my daily distance from 3.8 miles to about 4.8. I might plan a recovery day once a week when I do that. I'm tempted to try and run faster, but my heart rate is right at the top part of the range I should be shooting for right now. Speed is built on a foundation of endurance, and endurance is built by long slow distance. I've got the "slow" part, now I need to add the "long" part.
If I did 5 miles, 6 days a week, that'd be a weekly total of 30 miles per week. That's a respectable distance for anybody to cover and is more than what is required for basic general fitness. After a few months of that, I may look into a marathon training program, but enough of that for now.
I really want a rowing machine to give me a 2nd workout (actually a 3rd, if you include weight training), but I'm skint at the moment. Might be able to get it next month, though.
Some muscle groups are best hit by weight-training. (Biceps and pecs come to mind.) Others are easy to train with exercises that hit multiple groups. Rowing machine would mean I wouldn't have to do certain back exercises and I'd already have worked out my quads and glutes. Running hits the hamstrings. (And should I decide I am a masochist, I could get a glute-ham-developer bench... you have to see the insanity to believe it.) A few calf raises, and I wouldn't need a leg day at the gym at all.
I'd also sort of like a spinning bike to park in front of the TV, too. Of course, I could use my recumbent bike for a 2nd workout. I might do that, too. It's in the office at work. I may use the living room in my house as a workout room in addition to the Rock Band video game room it is, now.
Diet-wise, I've tweaked it recently by adding flax seeds. Supposedly, you're supposed to add them to your diet gradually. I'm doing about 2 teaspoons a day and will keep adding until I'm up to maybe 2 tablespoons. I've found the easiest way to eat them is just to take a spoonful in my mouth and then drink a glass of water.
My main purpose with the flax seeds is to try and lower my cholesterol.
I hot a new low after my run today. Came in at 193 lbs. Granted, it was after the run and before I rehydrated. However, that's pretty much how I used to weigh myself last time I got in shape, too. Over a long enough period of time, you can detect a trend. I'm getting close to breaking into the 180s for the first time in a decade. That should be pretty exciting.
I'll be re-evaluating my fitness and diet program once I'm down in the mid 180s. That's nearly 10 pounds away, though. Not sure if I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, or whether I'll join a crossfit gym, or perhaps train for a marathon. That can all wait. Right now, my goal is to vastly improve my performance on the Navy fitness test.
I've maxed the push-ups before. Crunches will be a challenge, but I am working out abs for the first time pretty much in my life. The run would take a lot of work. I'd basically have to run six minute mile pace for a mile and a half. I'm not sure I was ever that fast, and it may be out of my reach, but we'll see.
The battery on my old heart rate monitor died, and I just ordered another one. They're pretty cheap. You can usually get a new watch and chest strap for the cost of a replacement chest strap.
So far, really, I can't complain about how the new fitness routine is going. It's been a little over 5 weeks and I'm halfway to my weight-loss goal. If I can make similar progress over the next 5 weeks, life will really be good.
I don't think I'm overtraining, yet, but we'll see. Other than running, my muscles are getting plenty of recovery time from the weight workouts.
Next week, I'll be increasing my daily distance from 3.8 miles to about 4.8. I might plan a recovery day once a week when I do that. I'm tempted to try and run faster, but my heart rate is right at the top part of the range I should be shooting for right now. Speed is built on a foundation of endurance, and endurance is built by long slow distance. I've got the "slow" part, now I need to add the "long" part.
If I did 5 miles, 6 days a week, that'd be a weekly total of 30 miles per week. That's a respectable distance for anybody to cover and is more than what is required for basic general fitness. After a few months of that, I may look into a marathon training program, but enough of that for now.
I really want a rowing machine to give me a 2nd workout (actually a 3rd, if you include weight training), but I'm skint at the moment. Might be able to get it next month, though.
Some muscle groups are best hit by weight-training. (Biceps and pecs come to mind.) Others are easy to train with exercises that hit multiple groups. Rowing machine would mean I wouldn't have to do certain back exercises and I'd already have worked out my quads and glutes. Running hits the hamstrings. (And should I decide I am a masochist, I could get a glute-ham-developer bench... you have to see the insanity to believe it.) A few calf raises, and I wouldn't need a leg day at the gym at all.
I'd also sort of like a spinning bike to park in front of the TV, too. Of course, I could use my recumbent bike for a 2nd workout. I might do that, too. It's in the office at work. I may use the living room in my house as a workout room in addition to the Rock Band video game room it is, now.
Diet-wise, I've tweaked it recently by adding flax seeds. Supposedly, you're supposed to add them to your diet gradually. I'm doing about 2 teaspoons a day and will keep adding until I'm up to maybe 2 tablespoons. I've found the easiest way to eat them is just to take a spoonful in my mouth and then drink a glass of water.
My main purpose with the flax seeds is to try and lower my cholesterol.
I hot a new low after my run today. Came in at 193 lbs. Granted, it was after the run and before I rehydrated. However, that's pretty much how I used to weigh myself last time I got in shape, too. Over a long enough period of time, you can detect a trend. I'm getting close to breaking into the 180s for the first time in a decade. That should be pretty exciting.
I'll be re-evaluating my fitness and diet program once I'm down in the mid 180s. That's nearly 10 pounds away, though. Not sure if I'll just keep doing what I'm doing, or whether I'll join a crossfit gym, or perhaps train for a marathon. That can all wait. Right now, my goal is to vastly improve my performance on the Navy fitness test.
I've maxed the push-ups before. Crunches will be a challenge, but I am working out abs for the first time pretty much in my life. The run would take a lot of work. I'd basically have to run six minute mile pace for a mile and a half. I'm not sure I was ever that fast, and it may be out of my reach, but we'll see.
The battery on my old heart rate monitor died, and I just ordered another one. They're pretty cheap. You can usually get a new watch and chest strap for the cost of a replacement chest strap.
So far, really, I can't complain about how the new fitness routine is going. It's been a little over 5 weeks and I'm halfway to my weight-loss goal. If I can make similar progress over the next 5 weeks, life will really be good.
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