The races are self-evident. I believe that staying in races keeps me focused on my goals. Once the race directors of the world start looking forward to 2005, I’ll have a better idea of what races I want to do. Jay Challenge 1/2 marathon is high on my list (they require you to do the 1/2 if you’ve not done any of their challenger races). Nipmuck might be another marathon. 7 Sisters in Western Mass. One with Marshall. Probably an adventure race or two.

The book is a self-help/memoir about my experiences with fitness and nutrition since August 2003. It will be my take on self-esteem, self-improvement, and what I did with the life I gave myself.

The test? That’s something related to my interest in being overall fit. Now that I’m eyeballing adventure racing, this might even come in more handy. It involves:

*Run 1.5 Miles in 9 Minutes.
*Swim 1000 meters in 20:00.
*Swim 25 meters underwater.
*Pullups: 20 (No time limit, but must stay on bar).
*Pushups: 100 in 2 minutes.
*Situps: 100 in 2 minutes.
*Flutterkicks: 100 in 2 minutes.

As I can’t do _one_ chinup at present, and as I am only managing about 30 pushups, this will require a fairly intense strength gain. I’m up to the challenge, and I’ve read a few resources for getting me to those numbers. The rest will be sweat and determination.

The skill? I’m not sure. Either orienteering or rock climbing. Or maybe both.

This list is subject to change, with notice. I’m sure it’ll be updated as I go along. Especially as 2005 unfurls with new opportunities.

Who’s next?

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Superhero Stuff

In my continuing efforts to build myself into a functional superhero, I’ve found a weightlifting routine from the military’s pararescue groups that promotes functional strength and agility over bigger muscles. I’ve had a few email conversations with a guy who runs a website based on this stuff, and have read several interesting documents on the topic. I love this kind of learning, because I feel like it’s forward motion in my quest to be a much more fit overall kind of guy.

One area where I need to improve myself is stretching. I’ve pretty much abandoned my flexibility for other goals, especially after a recent rash of studies that say stretching isn’t exactly great for you. (Yes, there are several counter studies as well). I’ve decided that I’m either going to find a yoga class for cheap, or maybe martial arts (something like Tai Chi, which is flexibility based). I’m leaning towards yoga, because it’s less expensive, but I’m open to either. But man, yoga. I’ve read REAL MEN DO YOGA, but I’m still not convinced. Ah, my own bag.

I haven’t really settled on my goals for 2005. I’m leaning towards more adventure-based races, but not “adventure racing” per se. That sport is expensive, and heavily based on gear. It might just get to the point that I do races for fun, and craft my own “adventures” separate to those. Not sure yet. I’m seriously considering doing a triathlon or two this season, as well. But only in the dead of summer, so I can avoid getting a wetsuit, and only if I can use a cruddy bike or a rental or something for the cycling.

I’m on track for losing another 1-2 pounds this week. Today’s scale reading is two pounds lighter than yesterday, and I feel confident I can preserve that balance as the week goes on. It’s not the pounds. It’s what I’m going to do with an even leaner body.

I’ll post my 2005 goals by the end of this week.

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Well Hello…

I’m back from our little jaunt. Kat and the kid and I traveled with my parents to stay in Stamford, Connecticut for a day, and then onward to New York City, for a quick jaunt down to rendezvous with my inlaws, who were down from Canada to see some Broadway shows. We ate Thanksgiving dinner in our hotel rooms, courtesy of the only restaurant open in all of Stamford (for the record: The Court House Cafe). I split a greek chicken affair with Kat and the kid. My folks had grilled chicken caesar salads. The restaurant was run by Bulgarians, and I watched a snippit of some action film starring The Rock and some weasel boy. Yes.

Friday in New York City was interesting. We went to the Hotel Pennsylvania in downtown Manhattan, met up with the inlaws, and exchanged a few holiday gifts. My daughter had a great time, and acted like she hung out all the time with her grandfather, who she rarely gets to see.

We spent a little of Black Friday (biggest shopping day of the year) at Macy’s and Toys R’ Us, just to see the animals. It reminded me in both cases of being at an Anthrax concert, only without music, and fur coats instead of leather. Biggest mosh pit in the world.

On the whole, New York City was just surreal. I kept ticking off things I’d only seen on television: Times Square, MTV, HBO, The Late Show with Dave Letterman, Radio City Music Hall, and that kind of schtuff. The only thing I purchased while there (not counting food) were diapers. Three doors down from a fistful of porn stores, I’m buying Pampers Size 4 for my daughter. I did sneak into the comic book store nearby to see a real giant New York comic store, but as the experience came about 16 years later than it would matter, I was only impressed, and not especially moved to buy anything.

I weighed in this morning at the same weight as last week, which is fine, considering I worked out less, ate more, and generally did what people do on vacation times. This morning’s post-workout weigh-in was 3 pounds lighter than pre, and that’s usually an indicator that I’m going to lose another 1 or 2 pounds this week. Whatever. At this point, I’m not counting up the weeks as much as I’m pushing the program forward.

How’s things with you?

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Incommunicado

I’ll be offline until Monday the 29th. Lucky for you guys, eh?

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Celebrate Your Success!

I’m a fan of Experience Life magazine, published by the folks at Lifetime Fitness. This issue was entitled Rejoice (they are all themed). So, I want to take a page out of their book (not literally) and talk about our successes.

What did you do in 2004 towards your own goals? What got better? What brought you closer to your future dreams?

I’m interested in hearing all the good stuff. I want to know what made you a superhero this year. Tell me all the amazing things that spun your life around, even in the smaller scale. What brought you closer?

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Pounds for Turkey

I lost 6 pounds since last week. This was the first week of Operation Streamline, my winter training regimen, that will hopefully drop a sleek, 210 pound runner on the trails come spring. (If I were in the mood to cheat, I’d tell you I lost 8, because I lost 2 pounds from before the gym to after the gym, but that’s water).

Part of the reason I lost the weight was because I changed up my eating a bit. I carved out a few calories here and there, especially in my choice of monster foods. But the real reason, I think, that things changed, was that I dove into a fairly intense weight lifting program, and started repeatedly banging out 500 calories worth of work on various cardio machines.

Bodies are tricky. Mine wanted lots more food when I was throwing more miles at it, but now, with my fitness level still going up, but my endurance level probably diminishing a bit, I’m back to burning more fat and calories. Does it know? Is this like how a thermos is smart?

All I know is that a major component to my successful weight loss is tricking my body and throwing more of something new at it. That’s how I broke through every plateau I ever experienced. (Three: one at every 20 pounds I lost, four if you count the one where I gained 10 pounds back during marathon training).

I am CRAVING pumpkin pie, so Kat’s going to make me one before we head off to NYC to see the inlaws. Make me some pahhhhhhhhhhh! : )

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Reason 44,051…

Reason # 44,051 why I married Kat is that she is great at challenging me. I mentioned that I’d surfed something like 30 fitness or weight loss blogs, and only found 1 good one. I started to gripe about how many of those blogs say the same thing: “I’m going to start tomorrow,” and “This time, it’ll be different,” or “I’ve stopped working out, but I’m going to keep up on…”

And that bugs me. Really gets me going.

Kat says, “So why are you doing that? Why are you surfing through all those blogs over and over?”

I said, “To get to the one good one.”

She said, “Bull. That’s your addictive behavior.”

Me. Silent. Oh yeah. It is. I’m out there surfing for the “fix,” the one good site where someone raises my spirits. Just like any other addictive behavior. Whoops.

Thanks, Kat.

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Now That Felt Good

I jumped on the scale this morning and found I’d knocked four pounds off since Monday. Then, I got back from the gym, and I guess I sweat another 2 off. Whewww! Ain’t weight loss funny? (These numbers don’t mean diddly, really).

I’m doing these really weird lifts at the gym. One’s the one-armed snatch (shuddup, beavis), which looks fairly stupid, but works lots of diverse muscles. The other is called loading (I said, shuddup, beavis!), and that involves something that looks like picking up your suitcases and throwing them into the overhead bin on the plane. What I’m doing are exercises from the back of this month’s Men’s Fitness, a magazine I don’t really endorse, except for these workouts.

Then, I jumped on the treadmill for an experiment (I see Richard leaning closer to the screen). I ran a 5K based solely on heart rate. I did it so that I had to keep my rate between 131 and 152 (which on my HRM is the 70-80% range). I ran at 6.0, but dropped to 4.2 for a fast walk when my heart went past the threshold. I’d pick up running the moment it went down below 131.

Turned out, I got 500 calories burned and a finishing time of 38:30 with what felt like minimal effort. In fact, I felt a little ashamed of how that all worked out. And yet…

Men’s Health, which I do endorse, had a little tidbit saying you should try burning 500 calories in cardio, and then challenge yourself to get there faster each time you try. At least, it made things entertaining.

The best gym in my area, by the way, also plays the best music for me. I came in to Static X, and it just went all over the place from there. : )

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Feeling Linky Today

New Study: Humans were born to run.

Shuddupayerbrucesongs! (BTW, runners have the worst musical taste, normally).

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Can I Get a “Hell Yeah!”

A dude in Maine (my heartland) lost just shy of 500 pounds without gastric bypass. Holy cow-no-more!

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