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.
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