alevin's Journal

Sedentary week, workout weekend

Jan 11 2009 21:28

Last week I worked late on Monday for a Tues am deadline, then had 3 evening events on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The events were at 7ish so I would have time in theory to finish work, work out, and go to the event. But I didn't. In every case I continued to work or decompressed after work til about 6:30 and then left for the event. Taking 4 days off was starting to make me nervous. It would be a fine thing to be able to squeeze a workout in before a 7pm event.

So this weekend was workout weekend. Friday weights, Saturday 15 mile bike ride, Sunday weights and intervals.

Counting calories was driving me batty, and there was something *just wrong* with the fact that I was feeling hungry all the time. So I'm trying to eat intuitively and figure out what's the right pattern that will keep me from feeling hungry without over-eating.

I would like to have a lower body fat %, but not enough to suffer for it.

"speed"

Dec 30 2008 07:10

One of my goals this winter is working on speed. I am a middle distance critter. I like running 3-6 miles, could conceivably work up to 1/2 marathon but have no interest in full. I like cycling 15-50 miles, and I'm not that interested in centuries. I have brothers who've been competitive cyclists and swimmers, they got the speed genes in the family. I'm slow (did the running part of the danskin triathlon, and another 5k, at about 10.5 min mile) The benefit is that there is plenty of of room to improve!

The first thing I did was added short intervals, 30 or 60 seconds sprinting. I've been doing 6 intervals, starting with a higher incline and going lower, like 7%, 5%, 3%, flat. Yesterday I did 4x.25 mile instead, at a sub-8 minute pace which is slow, but an improvement for me. I'd like to alternate the hill sprints and .25s for a while, and then add an occasional .5 mile/1 mile pace. After I have a baseline for those I can look into v02 max and other more complicated training protocols.

NROLW Stage 3

Dec 30 2008 06:39

I've done the first two workouts of NROLW stage 3. Workout A was hard. Don't have the book with me, loved one-arm explosive dumbell lift. I'll get the book and write more about what I liked. I did the bodyweight matrix a day later and it kicked my rear in a good way.

Workout B was weird. I hate barbell rows all the time, and the RDL to barbell row combination is bizarre - the weight isn't heavy enough to do anything for a deadlift, and I can't do barbell rows fast enough to make it metablolic. Instead of the book's HIIT I did .25 mile intervals at a sub-8 minute pace, which is very slow for fast, but progress for me.

Taking a week off from weight lifting and 3 straight days off from formal exercise over Christmas was fabulous. I felt great and much less draggy. Recovery is good!

Not sure what to do today. Gyms have truncated holiday schedules and there don't seem to be any evening spin classes on the peninsula!

nrolw stage 2 A3

Dec 12 2008 06:12

Haven't posted here in a while. The 5 lbs from the first month of NROLW is gone, I'm 1 lb up and that could in theory be muscle.

Good workout yesterday all told. The limiting factor on the squat to push press was my wrists and forearms. I did less weight than otherwise might but more reps.

Still 15 lbs on the stepups. 20 is too big an increase. Can't remember if I did 15 or 12 lbs on the first set of lunges and on the dumb bell one point row. Balance on the one point row is much better. Gradually improving on the planks.

Slight deficit (maybe 100 cal). The lowfat mocha was comfort food; call it pre-workout nutrition. In general I feel better if I have more calories before the workout and regular dinner after. I've managed to cut out the sugar in morning coffee, doing lowfat milk only this week.

Good news, didn't have dinner out at british bankers club at the work shindig, had eggs, chard and small potatoes at home.

Today is the night ride again, and I'll be able to afford the bbc pub food calories.

I'm actually looking forward to the body weight matrix in a bizarre way. I think I'll need to do fewer of the lunge jumps. Not sure which version of one legged squat I'll do - pistols are really cool, I'd love to build up to those.

Run like a person, NROLFW stage 2

Nov 30 2008 08:45

On Friday I ran 5.8 miles including a nice 1-mile hill. LSD, 12 min miles. This is spitting distance from the 10k. I live about mile and change from foothills, it is great to be able to get in a run that includes the hills. Next goals are 1 and 3 mile speed.

Yesterday my quads were sore so I rested. Today I'm going to do the first workout in stage 2 of new rules of lifting. Here's hoping that my experience of phase 2 is more like the reputation of the program for fat loss.

I actually liked spin class!

Nov 25 2008 20:11

Thought I would hate it. I love riding outdoors, alone and with a group. I was rather dreading rising indoors with an instructor barking orders. But it was challenging and fun, and a good workout. Im in good enough shape that I wasn't "suffering", just working hard. Once I get used to the power meter, I'll have another metric to kick up. So, rainy season cycling accounted for.

squats are good for climbing

Nov 23 2008 22:05

So, I'm taking a week off between Stage 1 and Stage 2 of NROLW, and decided to go indoor climbing with some friends. I hadn't been climbing since the spring when I started doing more tri training. I think the squats really helped. I did 4 climbs, and 3 of them were harder than ones I had done before, despite zero practice. It was much easier to lift my body essentially from a one-legged squatting position on the wall. I think that getting to do a pullup later in NROLW will take things to the next level.

I'm at the stage with climbing where I was with cycling a year ago, LOL. I'm too advanced to take the beginner course, not experienced enough to take the next class, and not quite good enough to go out with a friendly, noncompetitive intermediate group.

So here's what I should do. Get a book on basic climbing. Go with the friends I know on rainy weekends. Then maybe get a private lesson or two, to get up to the level where I'd benefit from group classes and have fun with climbing meetups.

After climbing, I biked home via the Belmont farmers market, where I picked up a few things. Fortunately, the happy chicken eggs made their way to Menlo without incident.

nrolw 8 rep deadlift

Nov 21 2008 23:42

Deadlifts, 90 and 100

Overhead press, 20x2x5 and 15x2x12. Pulldown, 65x5 and 60x8.

Lunges. bodyweight, 8x2x8 and 15x2x8.

30 minutes, treadmill uphill walking and ergometer.

Some protocol adaptations to try and avoid the weight gain - if not up for running, then walk (uphill is good) to burn calories. On non-lifting days, run, bike or walk. Exercise 5 days per week again.

This week I've been keeping a 200-400 cal deficit, but haven't lost anything.

NROLW 8 rep squat day

Nov 20 2008 00:29

65 and 75 lbs on the squats with good form

10+10+9 pushups

15 x 8 stepups

Treadmill intervals, 6 sets, 7, 5 and flat incline, plus .25 miles and 9.5 min pace for kicks

Resting for two days was a good idea, I felt less crispy

400 cal deficit, listed the food in the food thread.

Deadlift PR and incomprehensible scale results

Nov 16 2008 17:20

Today was NROLW stage 1 10 rep deadlifts. I did two sets of 85 and 95. And then tried 5x100 for kicks, which is a PR, yay! Nice round number.

Overhead press, 20x2x7 and 15x2x15. Pulldown, 65x10 and 60x10.

Lunges. My form on these is finally getting solid. I did three sets, bodyweight, 8x2x8 and 10x2x8. I'm still doing walking lunges for balance, but I'm not falling over, knee wobbling, or feeling a crazy stretch.

I wore the HRM to see what the burn was, to try and figure out the crazy non-results from NROLW. About 200 calories from lifting and post-lift walking. And about 300 cal from cycling transportation and errands.

The scale says 155 lbs. That doesn't make any flipping sense. Yesterday was a rest day, so it can't be post workout muscle water retention. I didn't have particularly large amounts of sodium. I could have maybe gained 1 lb of muscle in the last month. I surely wasn't eating enough of a surplus to gain 4 lbs of fat in 4 weeks. That would be over 600 calories surplus per day and I wasn't eating that much.

Grrr.