Pheidippides’s BodyBlog

I’m ready to set my New Year Resolutions in writing, having given them more thought than they probably deserve.  My goals, all to be achieved by my 44th birthday in June, are:

• Train for and finish an Olympic-distance triathlon in under 2 hours 30 minutes.
• Get my weight down to 165 (currently 175).
• Reduce bodyfat to under 14% (currently around 21%).
• Achieve modest strength/weight lifting goals, which I’ve put on my Bodyspace page.
• Heal my Achilles tendon so I can run regularly again.

Realistically I won’t achieve these goals without a carefully drawn out schedule.  I plan to achieve my strength and weight lifting goals first, while reducing my weight and bodyfat just a little bit.  Once my strength goals are achieved I will shift into triathlon training and fat loss, and will concentrate on maintaining strength while losing weight and improving aerobic capacity, endurance, speed, and skill in cycling and swimming.

Went to gym today:

6 minute warmup on elliptical machine

Light weight-lifting workout

Capt’s Chair 12

Dumbbell bench press 45 x 8

Leg Press 270 x 12

Leg curl 115 x 12

Lex extension 130 x 12

Calf Press 250 x 12 each leg

Barbell Bench Press 140 x 7, 140 x 6

I didn’t want to tire my muscles too much before swimming, so I didn’t really push myself too hard on the weights.
Next, swam about 2500 yards in a little over 45 minutes. This time, instead of swimming entire length at continuous pace I mixed up the paces and swam some laps of breaststroke.  I concentrated much more on form elements — extending the forward arm to keep body long, keeping arms in the front quadrant, rotating the body a lot, pressing the chest down, breathing on both sides, and more flip turns.  I did some faster segments but did not keep track of time really carefully.  I also did some laps concentrating on the number of strokes per 25 yard length — average when I concentrated was around 21-22.

I had thought about doing 3000 yards, but I’m glad I kept it at 2500 because I feel weary right now, and I have quite a bit of work to do the rest of the day.

Yikes.  Weighed over 175 yesterday — 3 pounds more than when I started this about six weeks ago.  At least a good chunk of that is muscle.  Didn’t bother weighing myself this morning.  I’m just not getting serious about limiting my portion size yet.  I am being pretty good about my food selection, except at social gatherings.

Resting HR this morning in bed:  50 bpm

Moderate workout.  Tied high on bent over barbell row.  Near high on barbell bench press.  Did not try to reach high this time on squat — I took it easier and will try next time.

37 minutes on stationary bike 6 minute warmup, spent the rest of the time at level 10 - 167 watts or more, up to level 13 — 223 watts.  HR at 167 w was about 141 sustained, went up to around 155 at 223 watts.  Breathing at 223 watts was hard but not quite ragged, probably sub but not far from threshold.  I didn’t record how many calories I burned but it must have been over 420.  Also had 6 minute warmup before weights on elliptical, burning 100 calories at moderate easy pace.

I should try to make time this weekend for  a bike ride of at least  1 hour 15 minutes and also a swim of at least 50 minutes.  I need to work on technique for, say, 500 yards, and then maybe do a 500 yard time trial to see if I can sustain 23 second/length pace over that distance.  I have sustained 25 second pace, or close to it, for 1760 yards, so I should be able to do 23 seconds/length for 500 yards.  That’s 92 seconds per 100 yards.  With flip turns it should be doable.

I definitely feel more muscular — significantly more so — than six weeks ago, but I don’t really see it in the mirror because I haven’t yet shed the fat.  I won’t worry too much about weight just yet.  I’ll spend a few more weeks building strength and muscle while also building aerobic base in swimming and cyling, while trying to hold weight steady or reduce just a bit.  Then I’ll concentrate on reducing consumption a bit to shed some fat.

I had never thought of eating as an act of violence until I waddled away from the dinner table last night, trying to keep down the chocolate pecan pie and ice cream I had just downed, thus concluding a seemingly endless day of orgiastic face-stuffing.  I’ve been full before, but I don’t think feeling so full had ever felt quite so bad to me. That’s what trying to set higher standards for yourself will do to your perspective.
I did not bother to weigh myself this morning.  I’ll wait until tomorrow.  Ugh. The prospects of achieving my initial weight loss goal (get down from 172 to 168 pounds by Dec. 31) are virtually nil, unless I fast for the rest of the year.
So, anyway, today begins the diet to accompany my 2008 strengthening and triathlon preparation program.  Went to the gym this morning and had an easy-moderate workout:

Warmup on elliptical — about 6 minutes and 100 calories burned.

Quad/leg extension easy set — 130 x 12

Hamstring/leg curl easy set — 100 x 12

Decided to take a day off of the squat and all exercises that involve pushing of the feet to rest my ankle and Achilles.

Bench press: 140 x 10, 140 x 7, 140 x 5.  Going up 5 pounds has reduced the number of reps I can do and reduced the "1-rep equivalent" that shows up in my stats.

Bent over barbell row:  went up to 125 pounds from 120 pounds, reducing reps.  125 x 9, 115 x 10

Crunches - 20

Dumbbell biceps curls 40 x 5 each

Bbell overhead press: went up to 90 pounds from 80 pounds and managed 7 of these, but my shoulders were weaker from the bench press.  I could have achieved more reps had I laid off the bench press.

35 min on stationary bike, started around level 9 - 147 watts, usually sustaining 90-105 rpm.  After about 10 minutes I would ratchet it up a level, keep it there for a few minutes, then take it up again. Sustained over level 11 - 185 watts for around 18 minutes, getting up to level 13- 224 watts.  HR @ 224 watts = about 151.  HR @ 185 watts = from 135 to 145.  I estimate level 13 — 224 watts is close to lactate threshold, but I’ll need to take it up again to see.

Just finished a ho-hum weight lifting session at the gym.  Some sets of squats, bench presses, bent over barbell rows, dumbbell curls, triceps curls, stiff leg deadlifts, and some crunches and pullups.  No PRs, or attempts at PRs.  Planned to spend 33 minutes on stationary bike but I cut it short after five minutes because of a twinge in my ankle.  I feel a little bad about not doing any cardio between Saturday (my first swimming session) and Wednesday (I’m not doing any exercise tomorrow!), but I think I need to give the ankle/tendon a bit of a rest.

I’ve finished skimming Friels’ Triathlete’s Training Bible, and am thinking about the chapter that discusses identifying "limiters" — aspects of one’s overall skill and conditioning level that impede one’s ability to achieve the best performance.  Thinking about this very quickly, I’d say my chief limiters are:

- Poor swimming technique.  I obviously don’t swim as efficiently as more experienced swimmers I see in the pool.

- Mediocre swimming power.  Although my weight lifting has helped with strength, I can tell I don’t have a lot of swimming strength.

- No open water experience.  I have to expect open water swimming will be slower than pool swimming because of all the strange environmental factors — particularly swimming in a crowd.  I don’t even like swimming with lots of people around me in other lanes.

- Inexperienced cycling technique.  I’ve never raced.  Ever.  A year and a half ago I biked about 35 miles in a couple of hours on the bike trail, other than that I have little experience cycling for any distances.  For all I know my bike may not be fitted quite right.
- Poor lactate threshold on bike.  I’ve noticed that I feel the burn in my legs at a relatively low HR.  I need to push that way up.

- Weak achilles tendon.  Not sure if I can fix this by June or not.  I plan mostly not to run for the next couple of months and then ease into it.  If my ankle is strong enough to give me 8 weeks before the race to really train for the 10K, that will be enough to do it in under 45 min, maybe well under that.

Perceived strengths:

- General aerobic condition — this is fine at this stage of training if I want to achieve my goal of a 2:30 time.  I have plenty of time to boost it.
-  Overall strength — I don’t need a lot of weight lifting strength to race a triathlon, and I’m already near the load goals as set forth in the TTB.  I want to get 1-rep equivalent in squat up to around 290 by end of February.
- Running technique — Probably my greatest strength.  I know how to stay loose and economical while I run.

Some things to work on, immediately:

- Swim technique.  I have Terry Laughlin’s Total Immersion  swimming book and am going to work on the techniques in it.

- Cycling power and lactate threshold.  I can do this on the stationary bike; need to concentrate on getting wattage level up just below lactate threshold and then holding it for 20 minutes.  Some shorter, faster intervals may boost leg power and strength.
- Cycling technique. I need to get out on the bike trail, or on nearby roads, for this.

- General swim endurance.  50 minutes plus workouts two times a week need to become a habit right away.  I already did 45 minutes so jumping to 50 shouldn’t be too hard.

Need to sign off and get to work.  It’s a short day today before going home for the holiday.

Swam 2500 yards today, the first time I’ve been swimming in about three months (I think).  I was trying to keep a very steady pace that I thought I could keep for 45 minutes without being too exhausting.  Swam the first 1000 yards in about 19:45.  Swam the first 66 lengths (just over .932 miles — the length of the swim leg of the Olympic triathlon) in 29:25.  I swam the entire 2500 in 45:30 — 27.5 seconds per length.  It wasn’t very fast, and I noticed most of the other people doing laps around me swimming faster — some swimming quite a bit faster (although most of them were starting and stopping and I did not stop for the entire 45 minutes).  My form is obviously mediocre, and I was slowed down by the fact that after the first 15 lengths or so I got lazy and stopped doing flip turns.
My goal is to finish the swimming leg of 1.5 K or .932 m in under 25 minutes. In a pool that’s a pace of 22.7 seconds per 25 yard length or  about 26.8 minutes/mile.  If I can get my 1 mile time down to a 25 minute mile (21.3 seconds/length), then I can swim .932 miles in 23:18.  Since I swam 1.42 miles at a 27.5 sec/length pace it seems reasonable that in six months with intensive training I will be able to swim one mile at a 21.3 seconds/length pace.  I will have to discount for (a) the fact that in a triathlon I cannot swim the swim leg all out, and (b) the swim leg will be in open water surrounded by a few hundred other swimmers thrashing about.  On the other hand I tend to perform much faster in a race than I do in training (well, based upon a grand total of two running races).  If I can swim one mile in under 25 seconds in the pool then maybe I can swim .932 miles in 25 seconds in the triathlon leg.

After the swim session, I put on my gym gear, headed over to the gym, and, notwithstanding feeling a bit light headed from the swim, spent 15 minutes on the stationary bike.  I kept it at level 11 (185 watts), and my HR was pretty steady at 135.  I think I’ll be able to start making some calculations about my fitness level and what I need to do to attain my race time goal in June.  I will need to figure out max HR.  I assume it’s around 180 or so but I’ve never tested it.
Today I realized that I hit my March 31 goal for the squat yesterday.  My goal was a 1-rep equivalent of 260, and my 12 reps at 185 was good for a 1-rep eq of 267.  So it looks like my goal  wasn’t ambitious enough.  I’ll up it to 300 for February 28.  By the end of February I am not going to be focusing on weight lifting  goals but will be focusing on endurance training instead.  At that point my weight lifting will be in maintenance mode.

I’m going to focus on trying to put together a training plan for the first half of 2008, with goals (to achieve by my 44th birthday on June 8 ) of (a) beating 2:30 in the Olympic triathlon, (b) getting bodyfat to about 12%, and (c) reaching all my not-that-ambitious weight lifting goals.

The last five weeks of weight lifting definitely have yielded some progress in strength and muscle growth.  My arms have grown from 1/4 to 1/2 an inch — big progress for me.  This morning I reached a new high in the squat (12 reps of 180 pounds, the one rep equivalent of which, according to Bodyspace, is 267 pounds, over 90 pounds more than where I started five weeks ago.  I also reached a new high in the bent over barbell row of 12 reps of 120 pounds, or the one rep equivalent of 173 pounds, up 19.3%.

Of course, right after I finished my squats an older member of the gym approached me, unsolicited, and recounted the story of a young man who recently had been doing squats without a spotter (like me), had let the bar slip out of his hands, and had broken his back.  Thank you, sir, for that information.  I will be very careful.  Now please go.

I did almost no cardio today — only 6 minutes warmup on the elliptical machine, burning 100 calories to get my blood moving.  I’ll do a major aerobic workout — maybe I really will hit the pool — tomorrow.
The one thing missing so far is diet.  I’m not eating badly — my food selection is pretty healthy, and I’m keeping junk and processed food to a reasonable minimum (although I did have a scone the other day).  But I’m eating too much.  As a result I have lost no weight in the last six weeks. If I can get through the holidays, though, putting on some muscle, gaining some strength, and keeping my weight to around 172 until about the new year, that’s not so bad.  I figure I’ll lose weight when I ramp up the triathlon training and start swimming and cycling in earnest.

I went ahead and signed up for an Olympic triathlon in June.  It’s actually on my birthday — June 8 — rather than two days later, as I had thought and written.  It seems like a good way to celebrate my 44th birthday.

I’m starting to put together a training plan, but I have yet to do much.  I haven’t swum a lap in about two and a half months or so.  I have been spending time on a stationary bikes at the gym, and I can tell my cycling fitness is improving mildly, but I’m still no great shakes on the bike.  My running fitness is down because I can’t run much right now, but I could still probably manage a 46 minute 10K right now without much more training (my lungs and thighs would be up to it but I wouldn’t do it right now because it would kill my Achilles tendon).  The bottom line is it will be a big challenge to achieve my goal of a 2:30 time, with rough splits of 25 minutes 1.5 K swim, 75 min 40K bike, and 45 min 10K run, plus an extra 5 min for transition, mistakes, and buffer.  I have no idea what I’m doing, and that’s part of why I’m so excited.

The immediate plan is to continue gaining muscle and strength through weight lifting and to gradually incorporate swimming and cycling workouts into my training to build an aerobic base in those disciplines over the next two months.  Then sometime in February I’ll ramp it up.  I’ll need to spend some time over the next month evaluating the current state of my swimming, cycling, and running fitness level.  I’m guessing at my current fitness level I could swim the 1.5 K in under 30 minutes, bike 40K in under 1:25, and run 10K in under 46, but I have no idea if I could approach those times running those distances together in one race.  I’m going to need to start doing 45+ minute swimming training sessions and 90+ minute cycling training sessions soon.

I had been hoping to achieve a couple of PRs in my weightlifting workout this morning, but it was not to be.  First, the squat rack was occupied by assorted personal trainers and their clients, so I couldn’t squat. And when I tried the bench press, I just didn’t have it.  Did O.K., just nothing special, and definitely not my best.  Same thing with the biceps curls.

My body definitely needs more than a couple of days to rebound from and improve upon a tough workout.  I think I will try to do some aerobic activity, maybe swimming, tomorrow, and then try weights again on Friday.  Maybe I’ll have more luck then.

Workout consisted of middling sets of bench press, leg press, planks, biceps curls, bent over barbell rows, some crunches.  I would describe it as a maintenance workout.
Spent 35 minutes on the stationary bike at about 167 watts most of the time, burning around 380-390 calories, then was on the treadmill for 11 minutes, very briefly running at around 7:20 min/mile pace just to test it out.  No problems but the tendon still is not right.

Good news is that despite some of the bad holiday eating I’m almost back down to 172, despite the fact that I have without question gained in strength and packed on some muscle over the last month.  The bodyfat scale doesn’t seem to reflect any progress but I am rapidly losing my confidence in its readings.

I rewrote my goals for 2008 to reflect my decision to train for a triathlon in the summer.  They are more focused than before.

I will continue to focus on weight lifting and trying to improve muscle mass and strength through February 2008, while simultaneously increasing aerobic activity and in particular incorporating regular swimming and cycling into my workouts to improve my aerobic base and basic skills in those activities.  After that I will have to de-emphasize heavy lifting somewhat and focus more on endurance training and improving speed and skills in cycling and swimming.  I hope to achieve most of my weight and fat loss by the end of March, because I cannot focus on losing weight as the triathlon approaches.