Monday, September 25, 2017

Back on Track and Making Progress.

As my title indicates, I am back on track and making progress. My dietary habits have been rock solid for the last five weeks and I have been getting regularly back into the gym albeit with a little break after my trip to Ohio.

In addition I have been getting in a lot of bike riding and walks as part of my overall weight management strategy. 

My sprints, that I do after my long runs, have been going very well with both my range of motion in my stride and my stride cadence being quite good. I am optimistic about competing in some track and field at the very latest next spring and possibly an indoor meet or two this coming winter. 

I have been somewhat optimistic about competing in a bodybuilding event or two in November, but I'm not quite sure but I am on target for doing something that soon. I probably could make weight, but would likely do so at the expense of my training intensity and quality.

Competition leanness can be obtained with a calorie deficit that does not negatively impact training quality, but it is a slow process and I am not sure if you can be obtained by early November. I will do a reassessment on the last weekend of October.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Long Time No Write

It has been a very long time since I made my last update. It has been a difficult time for me because my workout habits have not been nearly as consistent as I would've liked. I have simply not yet established a morning workout routine, but have been able to maintain my physical activity and a good weight management diet over that time.

I have been fairly gentle with myself, knowing that my efforts will eventually lead to the kind of habits that I know are required to achieve my athletic goals. I seem to have reached a new equilibrium when it to comes to getting myself out of bed, so I'm a bit more confident as I move into autumn.

I have not lost any muscle size, that I can tell, my weight has stayed pretty much exactly the same, and my physical conditioning seems to be about the same place. 

My real downfall was when Lisa and I took a 16 day vacation in New England during the latter part of June and into early July. I took a set of dumbbells with me, intending to work out every morning, but just could not maintain consistency. We did walk and/or the ride our bikes nearly every day, and I watched what I ate, and so was able to return to home in decent shape. I did, however, put on a few millimeters of body fat around my lower back and obliques which I'm still working on reducing.

I'm going to try to get ready for a couple of November bodybuilding contest, but the weight-loss needed to make it to contest condition maybe not be doable. We'll see. I am guardedly optimistic. Will provide an update much sooner than this last break from writing.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

A New Blogging Tool

I'm using a new blogging tool on my iPhone. Hopefully by having it available to me wherever I go, I will be able to update my posts a little more frequently.

This morning's workout went fairly well. I worked back, biceps, and rear delts. I also threw in a couple of sets of abdominal work. I have not worked my abdominals in many years other than the peripheral action I get from many other exercises. I have found that the heavy work that I did decades ago in college has sustained my abdominal size, and it's merely a matter of contest prep to make them sharp.

I am going to include them from now on because I find that it assists with my sprinting work, allowing me to more easily drive my legs as I accelerate. That's a somewhat new phenomenon for me, prioritizing performance over aesthetics. But, as I try to become a more well rounded, and overall, athlete, I will be doing more and more of the same.

All for now. Just wanted to try out this new blogging app.


Friday, May 12, 2017

New Habits are Beginning to Take Hold


Progress has been good. I've been getting up and getting either a run or a run and a workout at 
the gym most days of the week. If I find I'm staying out late to attend a concert or some other 
gathering, I may sleep in periodically. But, it hasn't been very often. 

Most importantly, I'm not finding it so much of a chore to get up in the morning and I have a level of 
confidence that I can continue to do so that hasn't really been there as of yet. Although I said I 
wasn't going to, I have started to incrementally ratchet up the intensity in the gym, just a bit. 
I think it's starting to show in muscle shape and density, especially since my workouts were so
light and easy over the past 6 to 8 weeks.

I'm also spending a lot of time in the afternoon on my skateboard. I'm not very good but it helps to 
keep my proprioceptor's sharp and that will then translate into more rapid progress when
snowboarding season starts again. 

I have been doing quite well with my diet and nutrition, and I am actually starting to see progress 
towards a bodybuilding competition condition.

So, although I don't really have any words of wisdom to offer today, I wanted to provide a little bit of a
progress report. 

I think I'll take that back. The words of wisdom I have to offer today is that with patience and
determination and by being gentle with yourself you can create new habits, the habits that will
take you where you want to go.

Monday, March 20, 2017

Daylight Savings Led to Mixed Success

Well, the experiment of trying to increase the frequency and regularity of my workouts by decreasing 
their intensity, and create for me a whole new set of routine habits, has had mixed results over the last 
two weeks. 

I was able to get nine workouts in a row after my last posting, and then we did the whole 
spring forward Daylight Savings thing. Somehow that extra hour in the morning made it really hard to
get up and I missed a full week of workouts.

Now, over the last two days I have been able to get up fairly comfortably and get in my warm up
run and a decent work out, albeit, as I had planned, with fairly light intensity.

I really did not think it was going to be this difficult to establish a new routine. It has been a struggle,
and I often lay awake in the early morning debating whether I want to get out of bed and work out.
It's just not an automatic got to do it kind of thing yet.

I can tell that my strength and muscle endurance has been decreasing a bit since I retired, but I'm
trying to be gentle with myself as I again, try to establish a whole new set of routines.

One of the saving grace is is that I have been able to be fairly disciplined with my nutrition so I am
not really gaining any weight.

Not sure what the competition schedule will look like this year since I am in the midst of such
change, but I'm not taking everything off the board yet.

Friday, March 3, 2017

I Missed Three Workouts This Week

You absolutely cannot over estimate the power of habit in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and consistent training program. Over the past week I missed three workouts. That's actually more but I missed in the entirety of last year and it's all due to trying to establish new habits

Whereas pre-retirement, I always used to hit the gym immediately after work, I now am trying to get up and get my primary workout in before breakfast. This is just not easy to do and it is not yet an established habit. At the same time, waiting until later in the day to get a workout in, is just not working either. If I wait until later, I always find something else that I would rather do. So, early mornings is the most viable time, but that habit is just not yet established.

My current plan, is to continue to try to get up early, take a brief run to get my core temperature elevated, and then hit the gym. The secret will be to ease back on the intensity until the habit is firmly established. In that way, I think I can get myself out of bed and get to the gym without any feeling of dread or trepidation. If I can maintain that habit for 4 to 6 weeks, I think I can then try to up the intensity.

To date, I've been able to get 2 to 3 weeks of study workouts in before I fall back into wanting to sleep in. But, I think it's because I've upped the intensity too soon and I just can't force myself to get out of bed to face those heavy weights.

I'll report back in a few days and tell you how it's going.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Feeling a bit Guilty

I'm feeling a bit guilty today.  There was a GS race at Whitetail yesterday. I had been eyeing it for months and intended to participate, hoping to both win my age group and crack the top five overall.

But, with the seventy degree heat all of last week and the loss of snow, I lost all enthusiasm for driving out for the race.  I was even thinking that they may have canceled it, but with heroic efforts by the grooming crew, they were able to set up a nice venue. So, bad on me.

If I intend to attain my stated goals, I need to start taking scheduled competitions a bit more seriously.

To make things worse, this was likely the last weekend that the local resorts will be open.  Now if I want to get any racing in this season, I'll need to travel North or West and with the way my days are playing out, that seems unlikely.

We shall see.  Things just don't always go the way you plan or intend.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

New Life New Routines

It's hard to believe that it has been over two months since last I wrote.  A lot has happened during that span, which is my excuse for not writing.

As planned, I retired from Federal service on 31 January and the resulting change in lifestyle has resulted in a significant change to my daily fitness and training routines.

The walking, stretching and stair climbing that used to be a part of my workday are no longer part of the equation.  Whereas I used to automatically head to the gym after finishing my work day, I now get up early to get in my primary workout of the day.  I find that if I don't get it done and try to leave it until later, I can easily talk myself out of it.  The time must be a habit that I automatically respond to.

On the down-side, I find early morning workouts to be much more difficult.  My joints do not feel as fluid as mid-afternoon and my strength levels are noticeably reduced. I'm giving myself 3-4 months to acclimate and get my weights back to where they were, pre-retirement.

During the eight weeks since my retirement, I have been steady with the scheduled workouts, missing only a ten day stretch when I was recovering from a minor shoulder injury suffered while snowboarding.  Even then, I only missed the gym.  I still got my days on the snow, so all is good.

Nutrition has been more problematic, particularly pre and post-workout feedings.  Since I workout before my official breakfast, I was unsure how much to eat and whether or not I would need any caffeine to make it through the workout.  The answer has been, a pre-workout shake made with milk, whey, creatine and BCAA's has been sufficient and I don't need the coffee before I finish and shower.

All-in-all things are pretty much on track.  More on upcoming competitions in future postings.