MEN Only -- A.I.M Challenge: Labor Day Challenge OPEN

This is a Motivation/Challenge designed for Men.  This is a continuation of the April Fool's Challenge and the July 4th Challenge for men started by pinksalmon.

Pick your personal goal: Weight Loss, Increased Fitness, or Fat Burn.  Post it and commit to it.  This forum is here to challenge you to meet your goal.  The Purpose of the AIM Challenge is to provide:

1.  Accountability:  Weekly check in to update your progress.  Weigh in each Wednesday Morning. 
2.  Information:  We will share our experiences, what is working to get into shape, nutritional suggestions, fitness advice, and best practices for results.
3.  Motivation:  Encouragement to make and continue life changes that lead to burning fat, increased fitness, and overall health.

Challenges follow a quarterly time frame and are open to any men willing to commit.  Do you want it?  We are getting it DONE!

AFC Result:  277.5 lbs and 971,250 calories burned off
J4C Result:  172.6 lbs and 604,100 calories burned off
2008 combined total: 450.1 lbs and 1,575,350 calories burned off

Check out our previous challenges here:
http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/post/716 05.html

Want your current BMR?  check out Phord's BMR page 

Check out our results:  AIM Challenge Results

I wish I'd seen this group earlier.  I've been tracking my weight since mid-July and making some good progress, but a group like this sounds like a good one to keep each other motivated (and accountable).

As it turns out, I've got a long way (weigh? LOL) to go, so maybe I can jump in on the next group when this one gets done. For any that are interested, here is what I've done so far.

Starting Weight (July 21): 273.5

Current Weight: 257

Goal Weight: 195

ledgehanger

Welcome aboard and the holiday checkpoints are just way to keep things interesting but the overall benefit is sticking with the our small "Band of Brothers".  The new members the last few months have brought much needed new life to the older pack.

Read through all the posts and links to old April fools challenge (Dec - April) as was originally 30 lbs in 4 month challenge.

Think of your short/longterm goals and I am sure we will probably roll into a Turkey Day challenge or x-mas (err - winter holiday for politically correctness).

17 lbs in less than a month is pretty good, maybe a little two fast as 2 lbs or 1% (2.5 in your case) a week are recommended max as after that burning muscle and not fat.

Rk1

Go Buckeyes! ... College season only a few weeks a way... third times a Charm for the Scarlet and Grey this year!!! 

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Yeah, 17 punds in a month is too fast for a long term, sustained loss.  I actually started very fast and have since slowed down to a more reasonable level (~ 3 lbs per week).  I've managed to do it without starving myself (~ 2200 calories per day intake, and not really ever being hungry), and with a pretty fast start on trying to exercise regularly (about 80-100 minutes a day on the elliptical at about 70% max HR, 6 days a week), so I think I'm at a fairly sustainable level now.

Good luck with your Buckeyes this year.  I've never been a big college football guy... so go Seahawks! 

WOW what a week.  Everyone is headed in the right direction! I will be gathering our reports and adding them to the public record tonight. 

ledgehanger: Welcome to the challenge.  In this challenge it is never too late to join.   I will put you down for a 6 lb burn.  Given your training that seems like a reasonable goal for the next three weeks.  Let me know if you want that adjusted.

As we get close to the end of this challenge, let me know where you draw the line for the next one.  Three options, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.  That will get us to one full year. 

We have had a lot of running chat on this thread, which is great, but what else is going on?  Who is having success lifting, interval training, cycling etc.  If it is working for you then share it.  We need to hear it.

ww

Original Post by wiliwigi:

As we get close to the end of this challenge, let me know where you draw the line for the next one.  Three options, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.  That will get us to one full year. 

 

I vote for Turkey Day Challenge, Halloween is to short.  Thing that was good about AFC was longer term and gave people time to make up ground and not get discouraged of not meeting goal in a short time (its a marathon .. not a sprint and as new members join they get into longterm groove of lifestyle change instead of shorterm burn and forget).

Things are nuts over Holidays (One could then argue perfect for challenge ending point), but I say TDC then a maintenance period over Holidays and then AFC II and we will be ready to pick up all the post holiday resolutioners!!

I'll second rk1's reasoning.

Thanks Giving sounds good.  Would you be refering to the US November 27th date? Here in Canada Thanks Giving is Oct 13th because we can't wait that long due to the cold. hehe.  

Welcome ledgerhanger.

If we want to really challenge ourselves during a challenging time (might be good for me...), what about having the last weigh-in be just after Thanksgiving?

LW: 283.5
TW: 280.5 (current)

Short term goal: 275
Long term goal 185

I had a pretty good week, other than eating some foods I normally wouldn't have when we went to Disneyland last Sunday.  My weight spiked up for couple days but went back down with some exercise and drinking a lot of water.  I'm hoping to make more progress the rest of this week.  I took an extra 1hr kettlebell class last night which should help.  Those workouts are really exhausting!

Warrior Diet has been going good.  I eat fruits and veggies during the day if I am hungry for them.  I am getting more used to the 'main meal' at night, starting out with a good sized salad with organic vinigrette salad dressing.  For now I am staying away from higher carb foods and am focusing on protein and healthy fats for fuel source.  It's not hard at all to follow, I feel like I have a lot more energy and I know its something I can maintain long term.  So.. so far so good.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. =)

Kv

Completed w4 of c25k today, onto w5 on Sunday! Had to go to gym and use treadmill because of severe thunderstorms. Only problem was there seemed to be some hrm interference and it had my hr at 166 during the 1st 3 min run. That exceeds my measured max! I don't think my conditioning has improved max hr that much. Besides its probably not possible to get that high with the drugs I'm on. The machines hrm didn't read right almost the whole time,so I'm thinking it was the machine messing up my f4.

New 29 yr low weight this morn - 163.4. Last seen in transit in late '79 during first "growth" period from mid 150's on way to 180's. Feels great. Most of my wardrobe is getting to large to wear any longer.

Busy weekend ahead, community dinner, wedding, and birthday party, as well as OT so I'll have to watch the eating for sure. Will get w5 in Sunday for sure, even if I have to run around the building I work in. We have showers in some trailers and I can clean up before heading for my desk.

ledgehange: Great idea! Last weigh in after thanksgiving! I'm for that!

We have three weeks to go in this phase of the challenge.  I hope everyone is feeling fine.  Some real work is being done on these goals. 

10LB Club
bubbaluffagus

5LB Club
dybo70
bobev
jharris32

Everybody else is coming close or maintaining well during the summer.

For those of you joining this merry band of fools (April Fools Challenge) has dropped a combined 485lbs. since beginning in January.  As you join in you add to this legacy of health and life change.  Our results may not appear so dramatic this time because of the shortened lenght of the challenge, but get ready.  As we approach the autumn, it will be time to burn.  Thriteen weeks is a real challenge.  It is reasonable to plan for a 25 to 30 lb loss in that time.  Who is ready to start the new year as a new man. 

Actually, I'm hoping to start the new year as only half the man I used to be...

(Okay... 3/4, but that doesn't roll off the tongue right.)

Ok guys,  has anyone done Tai Chi?

I am thinking about signing up this fall at a local community centre.  I understand it helps with strength, flexibility and balance.  Would like to hear of other people experiences.

I used to do Tai Chi at lunch 1x/wk with a co-worker instructor. It was a more aggressive form with more explosive moves than standard Tai Chi. Worked up quite a sweat. I loved it. The instructor got transferred and we didn't know enough to keep it going. I found it helpful in increasing flexibility and balance.

10 mile Race update: (apologize for what willbe lengthy post)

Well all in all very pleased with race!  The time is less than I would like to run ( < 1:30) but was almost exactly what I planned to run (1:36:12 v 1:35:00 target) and was my 1st successful race in regards to strategy.  I actually ran pretty even splits for 5 mile (47:59) and 2nd 5 (48:13) and ran negative split 9:00 miles the last 2 miles.  Did not really Taper for race, nor could afford extended post race recovery to expect 100% effort for this race,as need to keep focused on Marathon 10/19 

Race started at 7:30AM with near ideal weather for mid august day (actually really cool) with race temp in mid 60's and around 70 by end of race.  Field was 410 runners whom most by signs of past race shirts for this event, repeat runners.  Noticed last year results and the 10 miler seems to draw more experienced runner as 10 miles generally is not a recreation goal to meet such as 5k, 10k or even 1/2 of full marathons.

Plan was to run within myself and finish strong as last few races have been sort of flame outs and hang on at the end.  Race had timing chips so decided to start near back of pack and took time to start only to realize no start Matt ... which defeats the purpose of the chip, was behind 18 secs on the clock but luckily had my watch /HRM (will talk about later).  Wanted to average 9:30 min/mi to get 1:35:00, which based on past races, targets for 1/2 and full marathon (< 4:30:00) this about where I should be to judge my training.  Was planning short walk breaks at Water stations, which were to be at every 1.5 miles @1.5, 3.0, 4.5, 7.5 (planned on skipping 9.0), so plan was 9:15 mi with maybe losing :15 on the walks.

First mile as expected went fast with the crowd, felt really good with a easy 8:30 mile.  I decided to wear HRM to try to control effort and experiment with HR under race conditions, which had its +/-'s.  Going in I felt that I wanted to maintain 145 - 150 HR as felt that was all I could sustain for 10 miles.  Second mile  backed it down to 9:00 pace but HR was still high so backed down even further (this was bad part) as turns out i can maintain 155 - 160 HR so ended up too slow in middle miles.  This over caution looks like it cost me the 1 min i missed goal by.

The race course was a bit messed up with water stations not as planned, which I based my splits on these to time with walk breaks.  That combined with watch off 18 seconds and then HRM started screwing up.  Just started to try to run and not think too much between miles 3 and 5.  Crossed 1/2 way (5 miles) in 47:59, which was about 2:30 more than last 5 mile race a month ago (which I was spent and could not have gone another 1/4 mile).  Looking back online at time splits at this section of race was in 323 out of 410 and was running steady as not a lot of runners as seemed between the "real racers" and the "beginners".  In retrospect letting mind wonder in miles 4 - 8 hurt as did not realize probaly slowed pace to near 10:00 (even though I felt good) when running with slower runners you appear faster. 

I felt good and decided to plan to pick up the pace at mile 8 (figured I had a 2 mile finish in me).  At 8 miles I was in 320 at 1:18:00 (9:45 overall pace).  Well I knew two 6 min/mi to reach 1:30 was out of question, but figured to shoot for two 8:30 min/mi (which a 1:15 min pace increase was pretty big) to still reach 1:35 target.  The next two miles I passed up a net of 14 runners and finished in 306 place (No one passed me), overall from 5 miles I looked and moved up net of 17 places (passed 19 runners and 2 passed me), I am fairly sure they started late as 1 young runner I checked her splits and ran 2nd half 10 min faster than 1st half and the other guy passed me so fast at mile 7 that I thought he was a bandit runner just running a short distance.

Course was real whinding with many turns at end and screwed up kick when I saw what i thought was the school that the race finished on track and kicked up a hill... oops thats the middle school not H.S. ... 1/3 mile to go (plus 1/4 mi on track) Jackass!  Slowed down a bit and planned kick again but due to "false start" on kick only felt had enough for the 1/4 on the track, then entering track they shout out "only 100 yds left" as no final lap .. so now kick is late, but still pass up 3 runners in last 100 yds (All be it wom2n and an old guy ... but hey they were beating me for 9.95 miles!). 

overall I felt like I really ran my first distance race correctly, and was pleased to come within about a 1 min of planned time.  If I did not plan my kick the last 2 miles to meet goals, I believe I had a respectable 1/2 marathon in me and will be planning for 2:05:00  9/7/08 (3 weeks a way).  Logic would dictate to shoot for 2:00 but again looking for the lng term goal of 4:30:00 marathon.  I am pumped for training as see the progress paying off, I am know 100% confident in 1/2 marathon and maybe 70% for full marathon 10/19.  Based on suggested training I should have no business running marathon as most suggest 1 year of running before even beginning the 18 week training plan ( I had about 4 - 5 months of very beginner running).  but like the little train said "I think I can .... " and hoepfully will go from couch to Marathon in < 10 months.

in retrospect probably could have gone faster but wanted to have a solid race and experience for longer races coming up.  Another thing that surprised me is how fast the time went.  My first 5K 3/2/08 that 27:35 was the longest 27:35 of my life, where if I was in a time vacum without expectations/tracking of time I would have guessed this race was much shorter than the  hour and a half (Heck someone could have watched a Movie).

Walk / Run strategy - 

Ended up taking much shorter walk breaks and really just slowed down to make sure I was drinking full cup of water / power aid at every stop.  Ended up taking less than 30 secs and although now a proponate of the walk/run strategy of training as by off on same progress and quicker recovery, etc., I think will stick with "only walk enough to adequately hydrate" and the 30 sec break is a little mental break but only brought down HR like 5 BPM (155 to 150) where traing 1 minute walk I get from 145 to 120.

For 1 thing the Walk/run training did not hinder me in the race.  This 10 mile run was a new personal distance, with only two runs over 8 miles the last 2 weeks (8 and 9 last 2 sundays).  Will approach probably same pace , water break strategies for 1/2 mary but try to be more consistent in middle miles.  In Full Marathon will have to probably expand water /walk breaks to 1 min.

9 weeks left till 10/19 marathon

Thanks for listening

Rk1

Congrats on a great accomplishment, RK1.  Sounds like you did very well, even if you were off your goal pace just slightly.

Well done!

I'm still holding steady at 210.  started doing my cardio, not on a continuing basis but still trying.

I still have the pain and now they want to burn the nerves. and to do this I would have to be awake as they touch the nerve just to make sure there hitting the right one.

I am now looking for a secound opinion. 

Abner

Way to go rk1.  Great post.  I am working on my first marathon and really apreciate hearing about other peoples experiences.  Theory only gets you so far, real life experience is what makes you get better that this great sport.

You mentioned water and power aid, but did you take on any food during the race?  What are your food plans for the 1/2 marathon?   

I can't wait to hear how it goes on 10/19.  

mullenrob Welcome aboard. This is an open challenge. The more the merrier

rk1: way to go! I can't wait to do my first race, even if it is a 5k!

I forgot to post that I finished W5D1 of c25k yesterday and didn't have a problem, so its onto the 8 min jogs of W5D2. I'm not worried about it as much as I was worried about the 90 sec jogs of w2!

Dr changed my meds today. Dropped evening bp med so that my bp doesn't drop so low after morning meds. We discussed my training and he flipped out when I said my long term goal was a full mary! He said "Forget about it" I almost thought he was a New Yorker like me! Basically, I shouldn't do more than a 10k, and maybe not that before talking to my Cardiologist again. I bet they'll wanna do another stress test and when they do my hr max will be higher than before. Heck it was only 2 wks from heart attack city when I passed the last one! I'm taking it slow and easy and monitoring hr all the way, so I am not concerned.

We can do this guys! No turning back, never give up!