SlimCache

I've found myself a little in the dumps this week. I was really happy with my three pound loss during the last weigh in. You may even say I got a little overconfident. I've only got three pounds left to go in six weeks, so it's in the bag right? That was my thought when I went out to lunch Sunday afternoon. So I ordered myself a big beer or three, and even though I opted for a veggie wrap at lunch, those veggies were tempura fried and served w/ Thai peanut sauce and fries. After that I proceeded to the my favorite local craft beer store and picked up a 4 pack of Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron of which I had 3 when I got home. Dark, delicious, decadent, calorie laden Palo Santo. I was really living.

That seems to have opened the floodgates. I started emotionally eating at the beginning of this week, and by Wednesday found myself up 11 pounds from Sunday's weight. Shame spiral ensued. I've spent the better part of this week beating myself up. It took me a long time to realize that this likely wasn't the end of the world. I'm incredibly lucky to have such a supportive spouse who knows me well enough to know just what to say to put these things in perspective and get me back on course.

With that in mind I headed into the gym today, understanding that it was time to knuckle down. If I'm to lose weight this week, maybe even just break even, I can't continue to lay down. I wallowed enough earlier this week and this was my first workout since Saturday. I need to make them count. I've decided that it's possible for me to get over 15 miles in before the end of the week. It starts now. 6 miles done on the treadmill today plus some time on the elliptical. No more excuses. I've not got much farther to go. It's crunch time.

Snowshoeing is certainly nothing new, but new to me. Today I tried it for the first time and found that I absolutely love it. Thanks to my company's wonderful health and wellness department I attended an hour long workshop of sorts introducing me to the sport. Afterward I had to fight off the urge to go out and buy a new set of shoes on the spot.

It was a relatively short jaunt, probably only about a mile, behind our warehouse. We wound around a short walking path, across the train tracks, and into a nearby field where clay shooting and other outdoor discovery programs are held. The snow was deep and untouched along the path. I felt terribly awkward as I clumsily punched through the crusty snow. My form needs work. A few of the attendees were experienced in the sport, and were a massive help to this noob. They told me to shorten my stride, widen my stance, lift my knees more, and brace for my footfall thereby softening my impact. It's a somewhat different motion to get accustomed to, but I think with more experience I could get it down.

I realized that this could be extremely liberating. I knew there was a trail there, somewhere underneath the foot of snow, but the trail no longer mattered. The trail is now everywhere. The idea of a trail somehow now seems limiting. With this new tool I can blaze my own trail.

I guess I'm over my little downer from earlier this week. Some poor decisions over the past weekend and early this week just got me depressed a little, but I'm feeling optimistic. It's amazing the emotional roller coaster an undertaking like this can put you on. Thankfully I've felt more up than down and this week I'm feeling strong for weigh in and getting 'back on the horse' so to speak.

A really great run yesterday afternoon lifted my spirits. I took off down the beach and ran until I hit a wall. I headed north up Old Orchard Beach and ran until I hit a literal barricade. A pile of stones marks the end of the beach, actually in Scarborough, and the outlet of the Nonesuch River. I then turned around and ran straight back up the beach into a headwind and the crazy glare of the sunset. All in all I ended up doing about 6.4 miles. Running is a fantastic way to clear out the cobwebs inside one's brain. If you're considering taking up running for fitness benefits please also consider not only the physical effect, but the amazing peace of mind it can bring as well. Your mental fitness is important too.



Having already taken three days off this week I figured it was pretty important to get a workout in today as well. Into the gym again, and while I do regularly find the place excruciatingly dull, today wasn't bad. I took it a little easy. I figure I'll hit up another run tomorrow and set my mind on a race on Sunday. I'm not sure I've mentioned the Jimmy the Greek's Frozen Four Miler. The race is to benefit the Old Orchard Beach Summer Camp Scholarship program and runs right past my home. Figured I would be a fool for not running a race that ran right past my house, so I'm game.

Details from today's workout are available below thanks to Buckeye Outdoor's embedder. I spent some time on the elliptical today as well as the recumbent bike. I've heard reference to being in 'bike shape'. I figured being a runner would put me in the optimal shape to take on anything but damned if biking still doesn't take it out of me. Great lower intensity cardio workout today though.

It's been a super long time since I've posted something from the fitness room. Actually today is a bit of a jumble of a lot of information since I haven't posted for a bit and wanted to catch up a little. I've had a lot of things on my mind lately regarding running, resolutions, and the online community.

First lemme say, I'm quite proud of myself today. I managed to do my quickest 5K today and while it was on the treadmill rather than the road, I'm happy I finally broke 30 minutes with 29:49. It's not as much of an effort to rock those faster paces now. In addition I also hit the cross trainer for 40 minutes. Coincidentally that distance was also 3.1 miles, hence the hokey title of this post. I needed to get something in today. I've been feeling very lazy lately since I can't get outside. I COULD get outside but am a little weary of it since SteveRunner's recent mishap on icy roads, which are the same icy New England roads I run on. I'm sticking to the treadmill a little more. I just couldn't face 7 miles on that dreaded machine today so I decided to make it a fast cardio burn instead w/ a tempo run. That worked out great I think. Consider it a 'last chance workout' a la Biggest Loser. Looking forward to weigh in tomorrow. Here's today's workout:

29:49 5K on Treadmill, 0% incline
40 minutes Cross Trainer, Cross Training setting #2, Resistance 12, 120 strides per minute

Average heart rate : 147 bpm Maximum heart rate : 178 Percentage of cals burned from fat : 45% Kcals burned : 750

A little on the running community. You're aware that I'm on Twitter, Facebook, and Map My Run, but I found a couple other social networking and media pages to waste my time on. I've signed up for Buckeye Outdoors, a training site that I'm now logging my workouts on. The page also features training plans for every need. I am thinking about possibly doing a half marathon this fall and plan on utilizing Buckeye to plan my attack. The other is the Running Blogs Superfeed, a feed aggregator put forth by Nigel of Running From the Reaper to which I've submitted this blog for inclusion. Please visit both sites to show your support.

Good luck to all those running the Walt Disney World Marathon tomorrow. I'll be following Gordon of Running to Disney via tweets, but wish all the best to everyone else participating. Well wishes are reciprocal you know, and I hope some of you runners will be thinking of me and my weigh-in tomorrow with your fingers crossed. See you all then.

I have been woefully lazy. I mentioned earlier that I was a little indulgent at the beginning of this week too. These things along with a lack of free time have amounted to a setback for the week. If I intend to lose weight this week, or break even for that matter, I need to get to it. Today was back into the gym. I can't squander the good progress I've been making lately.

It's amazing how I've come to be able to feel these less than healthful foods moving through my system. For the last several days I've experienced an absolutely wretched feeling brought on by the greasy foods I consumed earlier this week. I'm only just now starting to feel as though they've finally run their course through my body, and honestly, I haven't felt much like working out until now.

So today I knew I had to make it count. I decided to run 5 miles on the treadmill, which I accomplished in about 55 minutes even making it up to an 8 minute/mile pace at one point. My conditioning has gotten to a point where a 12 minute/mile pace is much easier to handle. It doesn't seem like too long ago that I was unable to hold that relatively slow pace without wanting to die. Now I can do it and hold only about a 140 bpm heart rate while doing so. Progress for sure. I can't wait to see what I accomplish in the spring.

5 miles Treadmill, 0% Incline, Successfully achieved a 8 minute/mile pace!
30 minutes Cross Trainer, Cross Country setting #1, Resistance level 8, 120 strides per minute

Average heart rate : 150 bpm Maximum heart rate : 176 Percentage of cals burned from fat : 40% Kcals burned : 979

God was I anxious to get back to things. The notable loss from this past week was still fresh in my mind, and I feel as though it breathed new life once again into my ambitions. I didn't know going into the gym however that I would actually harness that vibe to drive on to a new benchmark.

So what if it wasn't the open road? I did my fastest 5K ever today on the treadmill. Does that still count as a personal best? I managed a 30:39. I ranged in pace from an 8 min 57 sec mile to just about 10 min 22 sec miles. My speed is improving. Fartleks during my practice runs are paying off. I've been doing a lot of tempo runs lately too. I really need to get into a more organized plan to help further this. I'm doing ok on my own, buy my routine lacks discipline.

Aside from that it was back to the elliptical as usual. I've been using the cardio settings lately and those have really been taking it out of me, in a good way. I was extremely tired but gratified when all was said and done.

30:39 5K on Treadmill, 0% incline
40 minutes Cross Trainer, Cardio setting #4, 90 strides per minute

Average heart rate : 157 bpm Maximum heart rate : 181 Percentage of cals burned from fat : 35% Kcals burned : 845

Illness is the body's way of telling you you've pushed too hard. Slow down. Advice that I should have heeded today. I was feeling pretty down though having not worked out in any regard since last Monday; the run that landed me in this mess. I wasn't really aware that I would barely be able to get the energy to get in a half hour session on the cross trainer.

I wanted to do more, but halfway through the session I realized I probably shouldn't even be doing this. I'm tired of downtime. With the half hour I had though I think I managed to get a pretty decent burn on. I did the cardio program on level 6. Rough stuff. Cough not completely gone yet and so I kinda had to chuff my way through it best I could while maintaining a heart rate in the 160s.

Average heart rate : 151 bpm Maximum heart rate : 168 Percentage of cals burned from fat : 40% Kcals burned : 328

I've decided that next week I'm going to repeat week 1. I was a little disappointed that on the last set of the week I only managed to do 4 when I was supposed to do 5 reps. The program does suggest though that if you encounter any difficulty or struggle that you should either repeat the initial test or repeat the first week. I don't see it as starting over from scratch though. I do feel strengthened by my first week and suspect it will be easier next time. It was a minor setback but progress nonetheless.

4,5,4,4,4 (last set was supposed to consist of 5 reps but fell short) resting 2 minutes between sets

Felt pretty good doing this today. Soon I'll be crushin' 'em like this guy.

Today was a sort of landmark day. I'm all about small victories. If I'm going to accomplish anything it's going to come one step at a time. Recently I've been trying to improve my pace while running. I've been comfortable running about an eleven minute mile recently, but am trying to break out and get going just a little bit faster. I've been applying intervals while running out at places like Crescent Beach a few weeks ago, also on a recent run at Mackworth Island, trying to get a pace going and sustain just that little bit longer.

I've been clocking my intervals, with the help of the treadmill at work, at 9:22/mile. Up until now the most I've sustained at that pace is for two minutes. Not much of an accomplishment for those who have been running for a while, but to me those two minutes felt like an eternity, and I was extremely proud of myself for pushing that hard for that amount of time albeit short. Today I managed to sustain that pace for 8 minutes and felt great while doing it. My heart rate never climbed above 170. Good considering that during my first race my average heart rate was about 173 and I ran a minute and a half slower per mile then.

I'm stoked! Like I said, a small victory but goes a long way towards my conditioning and training. I only did cardio today in the gym but am planning on doing day two of the Hundred Push Up Program later this evening. I'll post on that later, but for now, here's my day.

30 minutes Treadmill, 0% incline, 10:30 pace for most of it, 9:22 for the last 8 minutes!
40 minutes Cross Trainer, Cross Country setting #1, resistance level 13, 114 strides per minute

These readings are probably way off. Monitor was all over the place today. The cross trainer registered that my HR was about 157 while my watch was reading in the 120s.

Average heart rate : 137 bpm Maximum heart rate : 174 Percentage of cals burned from fat : 50% Kcals burned : 681

It's all the rage right now, and I totally bought it. I've embarked on the 100 Push Up program. I've been doing a few push ups lately but want to step it up. Ultimately I've only been able to do about 5 in a go, putting me in the lowest bracket of the 100 Push Up training. Day 1 consists of 5 sets with 1 minute rests between. The number of reps is as follows : 2,3,2,2, ending with as many as you're capable of but at least 3. For me it turned out to be 4. I'm looking forward to engaging in this program.

If you're a fellow cacher you probably already know about Podcacher. Well I gotta give some credit where credit is due because if Sonny and Sandy had never mentioned the 100 Push Up program I may have never found it. There is also a lengthy thread chronicling everyone's progress with the program in the Podcacher Forums. Nik and Dan also mentioned it on their show 4 Feet Running. Please check out both of those shows. They are interesting, entertaining, and well produced. Cache on, run on, and churn out some push ups too!

I'm getting some great results from some bumped up cardio lately. Last week would appear to me to be proven results of a more intense cardio routine. Having run a bit more than usual and upping the resistance on the machines in the gym seemingly jogged my body in a way it needed. I've decided to try to follow the same formula this week.

In doing so however I do feel like I've ignored strength training. I want to continue to strengthen and tone but am not sure how to go forth doing so. I'm kind of in between things. I got tired of my old strength training routine but haven't yet defined a new one. I've been kicking around a few ideas. I've definitely enjoyed training using my body weight and would like to further develop that. Just like everyone else I've jumped onto the 100 Push Up program bandwagon. I think next week I'll jump in on that, and if anyone else has any recommendations on a well-rounded routine utilizing body weight, I'm all ears.

Here's today's workout sans strength training.

30 mins. Cycle, interval training program, resistance levels 7-9, 60 rpms
40 mins. Cross Trainer, Cross Country setting 2, resistance level 14, 120 strides per min.

Average heart rate : 137 bpm Maximum heart rate : 156 Percentage of cals burned from fat : 50% Kcals burned : 713

In trying to reestablish momentum I've decided to blog all of my workout sessions this week, whether they be in the gym, on the trail, with Nordic poles, or with running shoes. Today it was back into the fitness room. Perhaps 'back in' isn't an apt descriptor. I've been going all along, just not logging it here. Maybe part of my problem with motivation comes from the fact that I've lost the sense of accomplishment I get when I reflect on the efforts of the day and write them here.

Today was a new start (how many is that now?) and I treated it as such when I entered the gym. I decided to push hard and not give up. That meant serious cardio for long stretches. All in all I ended up spending just over two hours engaging my body today. I've never felt better. I've gotten to a point where raising my heart rate and sustaining it isn't as torturous as it once was. If anything my conditioning has gotten to a point of greater comfort, and sometimes the struggle is to raise my heart rate above 145 BPM. Once I pass that threshold it is also much easier for me to maintain a higher heart rate without taxing myself greatly as before.

My 1.5 pound loss this past week kinda bummed me out. Although a loss, I still can't help but feel I can do better. I've issued a challenge to myself to beat that this week though I haven't determined yet by how much. Somehow I feel that 'how much' isn't nearly as important as just trying harder. Expect big things this week as I will be expecting the same from myself.

40 mins. Cross Trainer, Cross Country setting 2, resistance level 9, 120 strides per min.

This is to be an condensed update for the last 2 days. Been unable to post due to connection issues so I figured I would post both now while I had the chance. I've been keeping to a pretty rigorous schedule in order to make up for past transgressions. I've decided to keep with the concept of outlining a schedule for the upcoming week and then keeping to it religiously.

Thursday was a gym day. I may have mentioned that I've gone to a more time compressed circuit training schedule. It's more focused though and I think it's pretty much doing the trick. I love the chest presses on the ball and have actually enjoyed going back to the machines for my rows and lat pulls. In addition I did 28 minutes on the cycle at weight loss level eight, and 40 minutes on the elliptical at weight loss level 10. I ended up spending about 2 hours in the gym all told. I felt fantastic afterward! Average heart rate was 134 bpm and maximum heart rate was 165 bpm. I burned 938 calories! That day's good workout really helped exorcise any bad feelings I had about the previous weigh in.

In preparation for this weekend's race, I've fit another run in on the beach this week. I've decided that running is not that much unlike geocaching in that the goal of both is to get you outdoors, and now that I'm using mapmyrun.com, to be able to see new places I may not have gone before. It made my day to see some straggling visitors to our now relatively quiet town playing bocce out on the beach during my run. The sandpipers are constant company as well. I've really been feelin' the beach lately if you can't tell. It's good therapy.

I extended my run on Thursday to 4.4 miles just to see if I could do it. It was great. I plotted my run, again on mapmyrun, to determine just how far I had gone after I got home. I impressed myself. Average heart rate was 161 bpm. This number is possibly skewed since my monitor also told me my maximum was 219 bpm. Anyway, another 727 calories down and the gratification of knowing I can actually run four and a half miles! A great day! Next post is race results!

It's important not to get discouraged by minor setbacks. It would have been easy to have been derailed by yesterday's weigh in, and yes, I did some emotional eating. However, I think my self-image has improved to the point that even though I experienced a gain this week, I'm not questioning my worth because of it. Plus I've worked too hard and come too far to give up over something so piddly. It would be an insult to my efforts thus far.

So with that in mind, I'm back at it. I'm visiting my brother-in-law and his wife who just had their first child. I'm an uncle! To give the new parents and baby some much needed space, we're staying in a nearby motel (the one mentioned in the title of this post). I was excited to discover their on-site fitness room for the use of the guests. Have they always had these? Maybe I overlooked them because I was too busy watching free cable and ordering Chinese food in, the latter of which was a repeat offense last night.

My point is that I could have let this beat me, and give up on it just like everything else I've ever done in my life. Instead I turned all that frustrated and resentful energy into an hour long cardio exorcism of that angst. I'm glad I did. Here are the results.

30 mins Elliptical, Hill interval setting level 8

I found out a few things about myself today. Like that I'm capable of bouncing back after being knocked down, and that the encouragement of others REALLY means a lot to me. The highly complementary comments I've received here, through Twitter, or on PodCacher and LiveStrong.com, have thrown fuel onto the fire. Today was the proof.

I was back into the fitness room with a vengeance today. I went in on Tuesday as dictated by my self contract for this week, but I can't say it was especially productive. I didn't even post it here. I had forgotten just how hard the gym could be, how unforgiving. With the encouragement of the SlimCache readers as ammo, I reloaded, and made a second run at it for this week, with encouraging results.

I'm looking at this time for a more compact workout. I need something that's quick but focused and thorough. With Eric's help we tweaked a little, finding a shorter routine that could be done in the gym. A few other exercises will be done at home in a circuit workout, on cache days, to supplement my efforts in the gym. Today I did one set of each of the following.

15 reps/70 lbs Row/Delts
15 reps/20 lbs Chest Press with stability ball
15 reps/20 lbs Deadlift/Curl/Press with hand weights
15 reps/120 lbs Lat Pull Down
15 reps/15 lbs Squats with hand weights @ sides

This was followed by cardio which was invigorating today.
30 mins. Treadmill 2.3 miles
30 mins. ARC/Elliptical, weight loss program level 8, 128 strides per minute

Average heart rate during today's workout 147 bpm with a maximum of 168. 45% of the 679 kcals burned were from fat.

Thanks again to the very supportive readers of this page. You're encouragement is appreciated far more than you'll know. You keep me going.

Due to a constantly tightening schedule, I was under a bit of a time crunch today. I've been having to get creative. My session was broken up today and it's a schedule I feel like I could get used to with a little time. I did a half hour on the treadmill during my lunch break. In preparing for my race I'm hitting the treadmill a little more often. I've even found that my speed is increasing, and that I'm now able to handle 5 mph +. During my lunch session I averaged a heart rate of 141 bpm and maxed at 171 bpm. 50% of the 273 kcals burned during this period were from fat.

After work I also managed to cram in another half hour on the elliptical. This was kinda hard to bring myself to do, as it was the end of the day and I was feeling a tad run over. Once I got into it though I felt much better. I ended up pushing harder than I have been lately on this machine, and am really satisfied having pushed myself in for a second session today. Average heart rate for the second go 'round was 145bpm and my maximum was 156 bpm. 292 cals were burned in the second session of the day, 45% of which were fat cals.

So that brings my calories burned for the combined sessions to 565. Going into the day I wasn't even sure how to get any time in today, but thankfully I found out that with a little creativity it is possible, and some activity is absolutely better than none at all.

Good day today. I've been in the mood to get back into the fitness room. Seems like I haven't been there in forever. Maybe I'm just feeling bad for slacking this weekend. Since my run on Friday I hadn't made any real type of effort. It's amazing how back in the day I used to spend weeks on end sitting on my can, but now if I take 2 to 3 days off I feel anxious and lazy. A lifestyle change has taken place, and I think it would be really hard to go back to that way of life at this point.

28 mins. Cycle, weight loss program level 9, 60 rpms
15 reps/120 lbs Lat Pull Down
15 reps Push ups with workout ball
15 reps/30 lbs Single Arm Row
15 reps Squats w/ 20 lb weight
15 reps/20 lbs Bicep Curl/Shoulder Press
15 reps Supermans
15 reps Crunches
15 reps Bicycle Kicks
15 reps/120 lbs Lat Pull Down
15 reps Push ups with workout ball
15 reps/30 lbs Single Arm Row
15 reps Squats w/ 20 lb weight
15 reps/20 lbs Bicep Curl/Shoulder Press
15 reps Supermans
15 reps Crunches
15 reps Bicycle Kicks
40 mins. Arc Trainer/Elliptical, weight loss program level 9, 110 strides per min.

Average heart rate for the day was 144 bpm with a recording glitch of 180 bpm maximum recorded. 1001 kcals were burned hence the title of this entry. 45% of those calories were burned in fat cals. I'm back with a vengeance, and I intend to take advantage of my spare moments this week to get some decent work in. I've even been doing push ups, supermans, crunches, bicycle kicks, and squats at home in the evening. I'm on a roll and am not looking back.

Most of the time I try to get in a solid hour and a half workout. Unfortunately today my wife had an appointment that required me to get home so she could take the car, thus cutting my workout short. When it came time to go into the gym I was thinking to myself 'What's the point of even going in if I can't get a full round in?'. Of course that's ludicrous, and I realized it shortly after. I would have to go in and hammer out what I could with the short amount of time I had, not take the day off. What I ended up doing was a pretty truncated version of what I have been doing recently.

My trainer was in the house today so he was helpful in getting me motivated to just get in there. His opinion is that even a half an hour is a positive and so reluctantly I agreed. There was also discussion on getting ready for my race in September and series of lectures and discussions put on by Peak Performance that I would like to attend. They have clinics on topics of nutrition, cycle maintenance, race preparation, and tips from experts on swimming, cycling, running, triathlon, and Nordic skiing. Check the schedule at www.mypeakmultisport.com.

20 mins. Arc Trainer/Elliptical, weight loss program level 8, 119 strides per min.
15 reps/110 lbs Lat Pull Down
15 reps Push ups with workout ball
15 reps/30 lbs Single Arm Row
15 reps Squats w/ 20 lb weight
15 reps/20 lbs Bicep Curl/Shoulder Press
15 reps Supermans
15 reps Crunches
15 reps Bicycle Kicks

Short day indeed but I did get my heart rate up to an average of 136 bpm and a maximum of 158 bpm was reached. I burned 344 kcals in about 40 minutes, 50% of which were from fats. Normally I would like to see more burn than this, but worked with what I had. It beats the alternative of going home and sitting on the couch to accumulate calories anyway.

Wow. I guess I just felt in the mood to kick my own ass today. I had it coming. After all I did take the better part of the last couple weeks off because I overdid it early on. I wasn't really ready for what was coming either. I'm planning on this being a really positive week. With a lengthy run yesterday, caching tomorrow, and another gym day on Thursday I'm set for some major progress for next weigh in.

I guess what really tired me out today was the circuit training stuff. I'm not yet accustomed to this (again) newly formulated plan. I think I got a little doughy from the downtime too. I don't remember the Supermans being so tough. Maybe I was just doing them wrong before.

30 mins. Treadmill Avg. 4.0 mph 0% incline