Ok, so technically, today was only half a vacation day, but nonetheless, it posed a serious challenge to my workout routine. Between working in the morning, packing and running several errands in the early afternoon, I only had about half an hour to do any workout at all before I had to pick up the rental car. So here is the workout I squeezed in:
1. Hammer curls, 10 reps, 2sets, 30 lb dumbbells.
2. Regular curls, 10 reps, 3 sets, 30 lb dumbbells.
3. Overhead triceps extensions, 10 reps, 3 sets, 30 lbs.
4. Tricep kickbacks, 15 reps, 3 sets, 10 lbs.
And that's it. It only lasted about 15-20 minutes. So tomorrow morning, I'm going to try to get in the hotel gym and workout. I'll try to get some photos for you guys too! Moral of this story: I'm human, and I just couldn't bring myself to go to the gym at 11:30 pm after driving for 345 miles.
Maybe one day....
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Rest isn't just for Sundays
Like I said yesterday, I felt like I had to make up for Sunday, but today demonstrated why that might not have been the best idea. Rest, it's not just for Sundays. Our bodies, or at least mine, need a break in order to rebuild and recuperate. I ran 2.3 miles for time (a lousy 20 minutes) last night, so for me, that was a fast and tough run. And I felt the effects tonight when I ran my 3.64-mile loop: mostly in my knees.
Just so everyone knows, I'm not a slouch. For my Physical Training (PT) test in Kuwait, I ran the 2-mile test in 13:23. I think that's pretty awesome! On top of that, I managed to do 77 pushups and 79 situps, each in only 2 minutes. I actually earned the Army's Physical Fitness Badge for it:
Just so everyone knows, I'm not a slouch. For my Physical Training (PT) test in Kuwait, I ran the 2-mile test in 13:23. I think that's pretty awesome! On top of that, I managed to do 77 pushups and 79 situps, each in only 2 minutes. I actually earned the Army's Physical Fitness Badge for it:
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/armymedals/a/ptbadge.htm
But then that was in '03, and I weighed in at 173 lbs, 20 lbs less than I weigh today! (Oh, yeah, I weighed myself today and I'm down to 192.8! So in the past month, I've lost over 7 lbs.) So, here's what I'm thinking. While I absolutely hated PT tests, they are a clean, subjective standard on which to compare my fitness. I have years worth of PT tests, complete with reps, scores, times and weights. So I'm going to use them as a guide to see where I am. Over the next three months, I'll try to do one PT Test per month and post the results. I'm going on vacation this week, starting Wednesday, so at some point, I'll try to set up my own PT test and we'll see what happens. Stay tuned!
Today's workout consisted of me running my 3.64 mile loop around Cumberland. Thankfully, we're seeing some cooler temperatures at night, so it wasn't too bad. It took me 40 minutes to run. That's a dismal 11-minute mile. At that rate, it will take me about 2 hours to complete the Tough Mudder course at Wintergreen. So that's just not acceptable. I just don't want to be running for 2 hours. So, I've got to pick up the pace. My PT tests will hopefully improve that.
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Before Pictures (try not to judge)
OK, so here they are, the dreaded Before Photos:
So today, I just felt like I had to make up for my "Day of Rest", so I lifted weights AND ran. My wife keeps telling me that I should give specific examples of my workouts, so let's see how this goes:
1. Dumbbell One-arm shoulder presses, 25 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
2. Dumbbell Lateral raise, 10 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
3. Standing military press, 50 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
4. Dumbbell Shoulder shrugs, 35 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
5. Lat machine pull down, 100 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
6. Incline Oblique crunches, 10 reps, 3 sets.
7. Crunches, didn't count.
8. I also ran 2.3 miles in 20 minutes. I have to improve on this, especially if I'm going to run 10 miles in any kind of respectable time.
If you're like me, you have no idea what half of those exercises are so I found this website called BodyBuilder.com. It breaks the exercises into muscle group, equipment, name, and rating. Each exercise comes with a corresponding video that demonstrates the proper way to do each exercise.
1. Dumbbell One-arm shoulder presses, 25 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
2. Dumbbell Lateral raise, 10 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
3. Standing military press, 50 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
4. Dumbbell Shoulder shrugs, 35 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
5. Lat machine pull down, 100 lbs, 10 reps, 3 sets.
6. Incline Oblique crunches, 10 reps, 3 sets.
7. Crunches, didn't count.
8. I also ran 2.3 miles in 20 minutes. I have to improve on this, especially if I'm going to run 10 miles in any kind of respectable time.
If you're like me, you have no idea what half of those exercises are so I found this website called BodyBuilder.com. It breaks the exercises into muscle group, equipment, name, and rating. Each exercise comes with a corresponding video that demonstrates the proper way to do each exercise.
Resting
With all of the training, exercise, dieting, etc, sometimes we can lose sight of something that is just as important as all of the above: rest. I personally think rest is essential to a good exercise routine. And apparently there are others who agree. Check out this article at Runners World.
For my money, there are different versions of rest. My rest days are Sundays, because if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for me. But that doesn't mean I don't do anything. I used to do P90X, and the "rest" day often involved yoga or stretching. If you're training for a marathon, a short, easy jog is a good way to continue your fitness routine, but still offer your body the time to rest and recuperate. Or you can just do what I did and brave the heat to do yard work.
Or you can do nothing at all.
On my rest days, my plan is to drink lots of water, rest, and allow my body to rebuild from the week's training. I feel like my joints really benefit from the rest periods as well. After the trail run around Lake Habeeb, my knees needed a break. So, judge for yourself what kind of rest your body needs most. Or be a lunatic and run for 30 years in a row, every day of the year.
For my money, there are different versions of rest. My rest days are Sundays, because if it's good enough for God, it's good enough for me. But that doesn't mean I don't do anything. I used to do P90X, and the "rest" day often involved yoga or stretching. If you're training for a marathon, a short, easy jog is a good way to continue your fitness routine, but still offer your body the time to rest and recuperate. Or you can just do what I did and brave the heat to do yard work.
Me smashing hornets with a 1x2.
Filling the hornet's nest with water.
Or you can do nothing at all.
On my rest days, my plan is to drink lots of water, rest, and allow my body to rebuild from the week's training. I feel like my joints really benefit from the rest periods as well. After the trail run around Lake Habeeb, my knees needed a break. So, judge for yourself what kind of rest your body needs most. Or be a lunatic and run for 30 years in a row, every day of the year.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Trailrunning Training
Tough Mudder is part obstacle course, part mini-trail-running marathon. The course I'll be running/climbing/swimming/crawling on is ten miles long. Conveniently enough, just ten minutes from my house is Lake Habeeb, part of Rocky Gap State Park. Coincidentally, the trail that loops the entire like is....5 miles long! So while I haven't gotten up to 10 miles yet, I could, in theory, run the lake twice, and somewhat simulate a Tough Mudder course. So now all I need is a good solid thunderstorm to turn it into a mud bog, a few monkey bars, and a couple of people to Taser me (Warning: expletives abound in the video, but you'll see why) as I run to get the full effect. But we'll work up to that.
In all seriousness, this loop is actually a great trail to run/bike/hike. Here's me carrying my son in a baby backpack yesterday morning. We did about an hour and a half, maybe 2.5 miles, before it got too hot to really have a toddler out.
After dropping the family back off at the house and fueling up with a PB&J (my son's, which he refused to eat) and a few pieces of fruit, I headed back out to the Lake for my first full run around it. By the way, unless you're living in a cave, you know that it's still really hot out:
In all seriousness, this loop is actually a great trail to run/bike/hike. Here's me carrying my son in a baby backpack yesterday morning. We did about an hour and a half, maybe 2.5 miles, before it got too hot to really have a toddler out.
After dropping the family back off at the house and fueling up with a PB&J (my son's, which he refused to eat) and a few pieces of fruit, I headed back out to the Lake for my first full run around it. By the way, unless you're living in a cave, you know that it's still really hot out:
www.weather.com
But the trail around Lake Habeeb is pretty well shaded, and I brought one of my Camelbacks filled half with water in a liquid state and half with it in solid state. So I ran. And honestly, while it was really tough, it just didn't seem as hot as the other night. I did have to stop and walk a few times, but once was because some friends called from out of town- they were passing through town on their way to vacation and wanted to stop in for a few minutes. The rest were because I was exhausted. I think the heat just really takes the energy out of my legs. Normally, I can just run and run, but man, the last two runs have been in this heat and it's just brutal. Luckily, Tough Mudder seems to relish the cold and my event is at the end of October, so hopefully it will be kind of cool.
So my plan is to keep running around the Lake, and maybe sometime soon I'll throw in a swim across a portion of it to simulate the water obstacles in TM. So stay tuned for that!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Diet of a Tough Mudder
I've been training for over a month now, and this week has been my most consistent week to date- with me working out over the last five days, and today makes six in a row! Obviously, my main goal has been to train for Tough Mudder, but I signed up for TM as a reason to get fit and do something insane for my 30th year. So, while losing weight wasn't necessarily the first thought, it was probably thought number 2 or 3.
At 6'2", I started this process weighing in at 200 lbs, the heaviest I've ever been. And if that were muscle weight, it wouldn't be too bad, but well, that wasn't where it was coming from. Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE Coca-Cola. I would get an IV drip of it, except then I couldn't taste it's deliciousness. Sometimes (and I'm embarrassed to say this) I would drink nothing but Coke, all day, every day, for weeks. No water, no juice, just Coke. So I had to do something.
I didn't quit cold turkey, because I've tried that before and it would usually last maybe a few days, a week at most. Usually until the next time I went out to eat, anywhere. So I eased myself off, and I'm not down to a soda maybe once or twice a week. That's still not too good, but for someone who looked at a 2-liter like most people see a 20-ounce, it's progress. And better than that, I'm seeing results. My gut is shrinking, my stomach bothers me less, and my skin, which is usually my arch nemesis, is generally cooperative.
So now that I've made that leap, it's probably time to make some more disciplined changes to me diet. As I've said before, I'm not a nutrition junkie, but maybe it's time to start paying more attention. So, with that in mind, here is my first "recipe". It's a breakfast sandwich- pretty simple and quite tasty.
1. Scramble eggs. I used two eggs, but that nearly maxed out the English Muffins I bought, so I might just do one egg from now on. Or maybe not. I cooked them with just a drizzle of olive oil in the pan, until they were fully cooked- I hate runny eggs.
2. While the eggs are cooking, toast an english muffin. I don't have a picture of that, because ultimately, it would just be a picture of a toaster. Just imagine it.
3. Once the one side of your eggs are done, fold them over to finish cooking. Conveniently, this makes enough room for some good old, Canadian Bacon! Put whatever you want, bacon, sausage, etc. I used this because it wasn't too heavy, but provided an extra flavor. If you're gearing up for a workout, sausage or greasy bacon may not be the best idea- at least it isn't for me.
At 6'2", I started this process weighing in at 200 lbs, the heaviest I've ever been. And if that were muscle weight, it wouldn't be too bad, but well, that wasn't where it was coming from. Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE Coca-Cola. I would get an IV drip of it, except then I couldn't taste it's deliciousness. Sometimes (and I'm embarrassed to say this) I would drink nothing but Coke, all day, every day, for weeks. No water, no juice, just Coke. So I had to do something.
I didn't quit cold turkey, because I've tried that before and it would usually last maybe a few days, a week at most. Usually until the next time I went out to eat, anywhere. So I eased myself off, and I'm not down to a soda maybe once or twice a week. That's still not too good, but for someone who looked at a 2-liter like most people see a 20-ounce, it's progress. And better than that, I'm seeing results. My gut is shrinking, my stomach bothers me less, and my skin, which is usually my arch nemesis, is generally cooperative.
So now that I've made that leap, it's probably time to make some more disciplined changes to me diet. As I've said before, I'm not a nutrition junkie, but maybe it's time to start paying more attention. So, with that in mind, here is my first "recipe". It's a breakfast sandwich- pretty simple and quite tasty.
1. Scramble eggs. I used two eggs, but that nearly maxed out the English Muffins I bought, so I might just do one egg from now on. Or maybe not. I cooked them with just a drizzle of olive oil in the pan, until they were fully cooked- I hate runny eggs.
2. While the eggs are cooking, toast an english muffin. I don't have a picture of that, because ultimately, it would just be a picture of a toaster. Just imagine it.
3. Once the one side of your eggs are done, fold them over to finish cooking. Conveniently, this makes enough room for some good old, Canadian Bacon! Put whatever you want, bacon, sausage, etc. I used this because it wasn't too heavy, but provided an extra flavor. If you're gearing up for a workout, sausage or greasy bacon may not be the best idea- at least it isn't for me.
4. After you've warmed the bacon, put it all together. To add a little sweetness (and finish out the food pyramid) I spread on a little bit of raspberry jam, that I had canned myself with my mom. My wife seemed a little put off by that, but it's not a deal-breaker.
And the finished product! Tasted pretty good and didn't sit too heavy either. We went on a hike for about an hour and a half, and I felt great.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Weightlifting and Gatorade 03
My routine today involved chest, biceps, and triceps. I did three sets of each exercise with 10 reps each. This is the fifth day in a row that I've exercised and it feels great. Sore, but great. As I said in my About Me post, I'm not much of a gym rat or nutrition nut, but I do know I need to build up muscle. So I started looking into protein shakes and the like. I hate the taste of protein whey, and have tried to do things like mixing it in chocolate milk, over cereal, in ice cream, etc. And none of them really hid the taste enough. So when I saw a bottle of Gatorade 03 on the shelf in Walmart, in its clear, lime-green goodness, I thought "This has to be decent."
So, after one of my workouts, I came home and started to drink it. At first, all I noticed was a strong lime taste, but after the first gulp the sour taste of whey hit me. It was all I could do to get halfway through the bottle. And just in case you need another source, see what this guy has to say.
http://300twentydays.blogspot.com/2011/02/gatorade-03-recover.html
So, after one of my workouts, I came home and started to drink it. At first, all I noticed was a strong lime taste, but after the first gulp the sour taste of whey hit me. It was all I could do to get halfway through the bottle. And just in case you need another source, see what this guy has to say.
Running in bath water
Today's high was 100, and as I'm writing this at midnight, it is 86 with 72% humidity, so it feels like 96. So let's say for argument's sake that when I started running tonight at 9 p.m., it was hot. Now, I've run a two-mile PT test in Kuwait at about 105 degrees in 13 minutes and 26 seconds, but it just didn't feel as hot as it was tonight. It was a dry heat- you don't sweat. I sweated tonight.
It was only my 3.64 miles circuit, but I had to stop a few times to just walk for a bit. All told, I probably walked a quarter of a mile out of the whole run, but that's not something I normally do. It was just really, really hot. And the temperature isn't what really got me. It was the humidity. You know the indoor swimming pools that a lot of hotels have? You walk from their nice, air conditioned lobby, with it's clean smell and quiet atmosphere, into the pool room: a sauna filled with the cacophonous sound of children playing and the overwhelming smell of chlorine. Well, exchange the chlorine for cigarette smoke, and the sound of children playing with couples fighting about who is going to watch the kids while one of them goes off to jail; and you have my run through Cumberland tonight.
Honestly, with all the training I had in the military about heat injuries, I should have known better than to run on a night like tonight. But I have worked out three days in a row, and I wanted to keep the momentum going. So, I ran through the smoke and haze, and finished it all off with a few gallons worth of ice water, complements of my supportive wife.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Starting Out
So, I really started training for Tough Mudder(TM) on June 21, with a 2.5 mile run that took me half an hour to complete and confirmed the reality that I needed to spend the following four months training hard for TM. According to my log on GetLeanTulsa, over the past month (crap, it's already been a month), I have run 26.44 miles, biked 76.28 miles, and worked out in the gym twice. I wasn't kidding about not being a gym rat.
But I rejoined the gym at work (they fortuitously require three month memberships from contractors). So I am on my way to a consistent, weekly workout routine. I figure if I do strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and then some sort of cardiovascular workout on the remaining four days, I should be in reasonable shape in three month's time. My longest run in the past month was 8.1 miles in 1 hour, 15 minutes. So, that has to count for something. At this rate, I've have run over 100 miles, biked over 300, and worked out at least 8 times in four months. But seriously, I'll hopefully have far eclipsed all of those benchmarks. Here's hoping I don't hurt myself.
But I rejoined the gym at work (they fortuitously require three month memberships from contractors). So I am on my way to a consistent, weekly workout routine. I figure if I do strength training on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and then some sort of cardiovascular workout on the remaining four days, I should be in reasonable shape in three month's time. My longest run in the past month was 8.1 miles in 1 hour, 15 minutes. So, that has to count for something. At this rate, I've have run over 100 miles, biked over 300, and worked out at least 8 times in four months. But seriously, I'll hopefully have far eclipsed all of those benchmarks. Here's hoping I don't hurt myself.
About this Blog
OK, so I want to start out with a few provisos:
1. I'm not a personal trainer, professional athlete, coach, fitness guru, yogi, or whatever.
2. I'm not a gym rat, a weight lifter, calorie counter, or nutrition nut.
3. What I am is a fairly normal guy who turned 30 this year and wants to do something abnormal; some would say, insane: Tough Mudder.
For many out there who don't know what Tough Mudder (TM) is, here's a link: http://www.toughmudder.com. Check it out, it's awesome!
I'm writing this blog to chronicle my journey over the next three months as I prepare for the event on October 23, 2011. The course I'll be running is here: http://toughmudder.com/events/virginia/. I'll write about my successes and inevitable failures along the way. And hopefully, at the end of three months, I'll be trained and ready to participate and complete the event.
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