OK, I will admit it, I was a little discouraged about the 0.2 pound weight loss recorded on Wednesday. Here is the weirdness about the whole thing... I really wasn't in the FLU program to lose weight as a primary motive. I wanted to get my nutrition habits under control and also work on heart zone training. Weight loss was an added benefit. For the first time in my life, I can say that I am pretty happy with where I am at weight-wise. I was a chubby kid (not like the kid on biggest loser chubby but a little bigger than the others growing up) so it does seem odd to finally be at a place where I have a good body image.
With that said, having your weight tracked up or down each week takes you back to those days where you feel like the chubby kid again. There is something about seeing the number on the scale going down that that makes you instantly feel like you achieved something. Seeing the number barely tick down felt like a failure on some level which is sooooo ridiculous for me to feel that way. It is some kind of issue with my mind - maybe a female thing since we are so weight conscious in general as a gender.
The scale at home is going down, I can see changes in my body shape so the program is working. There is something to the idea of working in the proper zones to burn fat versus sugar. Tosha, one of the FLU leaders, did my fat measurements today and I am down 1% body fat in the last 4 weeks. I'll take it! We would have done overall body measurements again but didn't have time. I will get that done next week as well as another 30 minute endurance test to see how my endurance and speed have improved thus far. Can't wait!
I mentioned I was having issues with one of my family members this week which has occupied so much time, work has also been insane times two this week which added up to very limited time to get a work out in. Last night I got home around 9:30, tossed some clothes in the wash and made dinner. In bed around 11:00. Awake like a light bulb went off in my brain at around 6:00 am. I had intended to try and sleep in but to no avail. I needed to get 14 miles in (you know, Hal Higdon's plan...) so decided to hop up and get her done. The downside is it pretty much poured here all day and is supposed to SNOW tomorrow (we almost never get snow!). I ended up trudging through 14 miles on the treadmill at the gym. Can you imagine? I thought it would be pure torture but ended up not being that bad. I worked on my zones, two minutes in zone two, two minutes in zone three, that kind of thing and then listened to a book on my IPOD and it was not nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I was afraid it would take all my willpower to avoid stepping off the treadmill out of boredom.
Post-run, I had promised to help Tosha recruit new members to the FLU group as they are kicking off another program after we graduate. Basically, they were just trying to catch people as they were coming in to workout. There weren't many people interested in stopping to hear about it so I was recruited to work out on the Pilates reformer they had set up as a demo to get people interested in trying it out. I got a free 15-20 minute workout on that which was fun and the price was right!
and after that.... I had a frantic call from the tournament director at a tournament that needed some volunteer help. They originally said they didn't need help and then changed their minds late last week when the rain appeared to be rolling in. The director needed me at the club ASAP. Haul booty over there to be told they didn't need me until tomorrow - YAY! Naptime! And that is what I have been doing ever since... :)
Tomorrow I will be working at the tournament from sunrise until sunset and then some assuming it isn't snowing or raining (I am secretly hoping it gets rained out as I have a lot I should get done at home - sorry tennis players!). Sometime between now and then I have to pack up to go out of town for work next week. I am going to California until thursday then flying back to Daytona Beach for a brief stop at bike week (motorcycles, not the pedaly kind) and then headed to Orlando for the Princess half at Disney and back at work on Monday. Whew! I am most looking forward to the long plane ride to Cali to catch up on some sleep!
Have a great week :)
OH! p.s.... I realized this week that my first tri of the season is inching closer and closer by the day and I have not even dipped my toe in the pool this year. GAH! Must figure out when to fit that in....
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
weekly weigh in
Let me just say I am sooooooooo tired. I have literally slept 6 hours in the last 2 days. Long story involving a family member and health issues that would fill my blog for weeks to come but I will spare you.
Just wanted to pop in for a quick update.... THE WEEKLY WEIGH IN! I know you were anxiously awaiting my result. Drum roll please! According the the official FLU scale, I have lost: 0.2 pounds. What the? seriously... so I did what any self respecting weight conscious person would do and stopped by Wendy's on the way home for my cheat of the week. sigh.....
More details later. :)
Just wanted to pop in for a quick update.... THE WEEKLY WEIGH IN! I know you were anxiously awaiting my result. Drum roll please! According the the official FLU scale, I have lost: 0.2 pounds. What the? seriously... so I did what any self respecting weight conscious person would do and stopped by Wendy's on the way home for my cheat of the week. sigh.....
More details later. :)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
woo hoo! 52:07!
Normally, I wouldn't all this excited over a PR *but* getting a qualifying time for the Peachtree is a pretty big deal because you are closer to the front of the 45,000 people running the race. This is the first time I actually qualified so that adds to the excitement. I have always been right on the edge missing it by a minute or two. My last personal best for a 10k before today was 55:53 at the Peachtree last July so I shaved close to 4 minutes off that and my time at this same race last year was 57:28. YAY!
The race today was a point to point race so you park at the finish and take a shuttle to the start. It was 29 degrees when I left my house so was prepared for a chilly run. The nice thing about this race is you can kill time in the church gym while waiting for the start instead of freezing your arse off outside. A little before the start, I spotted 3 of my friends from tennis and stuck with them for the start. Three of the four were shooting for a sub-55 finish so we were trying to pace each other more or less.
The race started at 7:45 and I started the typical weave through the crowd trying to find my pace and some open space to run. I have spent so much time over the last two weeks monitoring my heart rate and trying to stay in specific zones, it was nice just to go and not focus on anything but running. I wasn't sure how my legs would do, they were feeling pretty tired from the effort in boot camp and all the other zone work this week but was hoping for the best. Once I got into the race, I didn't notice them at all.
I passed mile marker one at 8:23. Let's just pause and reflect on that - wow... I am a 9 - 9:30 girl. Another cool thing about this race is the majority of people there are trying to get a qualifying time so under the clock, there are signs that tell you what time the clock needs to say if you are trying to qualify for X time group. Surprisingly, I managed to maintain around the 8:30 pace for the entire race. I felt great for the first 5 miles and then around mile 5.5 I was starting get tired from maintaining a faster pace than normal. I did feel ready to stop at the end but was proud to be able to keep that pace for the 10k distance. I passed the 6 mile clock at exactly 50 minutes which is significant because that is the cutoff for time group 1A. (55 is the cutoff for time group 1B). Darn! A new goal... sub 50 :)
All in all, sooooo proud of my time (Can you tell?) I wonder how much of the improvement is the zone training and how much was just determination to reach that goal time of under 55 minutes? I had a great time seeing my friends get their goals as well! We were all within a couple minutes of each other on the finish. I might get friend of the day today since they parked their car at the start instead of the finish thinking there was a shuttle back to the start. ooops... the shuttles were only pre-race. Post-race, you are on your own. I became their shuttle driver which worked out perfectly and saved them from having to walk 6 miles back to their car! :)
Next stop ... Disney Princess Half!
The race today was a point to point race so you park at the finish and take a shuttle to the start. It was 29 degrees when I left my house so was prepared for a chilly run. The nice thing about this race is you can kill time in the church gym while waiting for the start instead of freezing your arse off outside. A little before the start, I spotted 3 of my friends from tennis and stuck with them for the start. Three of the four were shooting for a sub-55 finish so we were trying to pace each other more or less.
The race started at 7:45 and I started the typical weave through the crowd trying to find my pace and some open space to run. I have spent so much time over the last two weeks monitoring my heart rate and trying to stay in specific zones, it was nice just to go and not focus on anything but running. I wasn't sure how my legs would do, they were feeling pretty tired from the effort in boot camp and all the other zone work this week but was hoping for the best. Once I got into the race, I didn't notice them at all.
I passed mile marker one at 8:23. Let's just pause and reflect on that - wow... I am a 9 - 9:30 girl. Another cool thing about this race is the majority of people there are trying to get a qualifying time so under the clock, there are signs that tell you what time the clock needs to say if you are trying to qualify for X time group. Surprisingly, I managed to maintain around the 8:30 pace for the entire race. I felt great for the first 5 miles and then around mile 5.5 I was starting get tired from maintaining a faster pace than normal. I did feel ready to stop at the end but was proud to be able to keep that pace for the 10k distance. I passed the 6 mile clock at exactly 50 minutes which is significant because that is the cutoff for time group 1A. (55 is the cutoff for time group 1B). Darn! A new goal... sub 50 :)
All in all, sooooo proud of my time (Can you tell?) I wonder how much of the improvement is the zone training and how much was just determination to reach that goal time of under 55 minutes? I had a great time seeing my friends get their goals as well! We were all within a couple minutes of each other on the finish. I might get friend of the day today since they parked their car at the start instead of the finish thinking there was a shuttle back to the start. ooops... the shuttles were only pre-race. Post-race, you are on your own. I became their shuttle driver which worked out perfectly and saved them from having to walk 6 miles back to their car! :)
Next stop ... Disney Princess Half!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
My new fit life... week 2
I would love to dazzle you with numbers of how much weight I lost and how much fat I have trimmed from my bones this week but God intervened. He did. Wednesday is the night the FLU group meets. Depending on how you look at it, the gym is conveniently located close to work (literally 1/4 mile away) or inconveniently far from home (about 40 minutes). In the morning it is great, I can shower and get dressed after my workout and still make it to work by 8:00 assuming I don't get distracted by the call of Panera or Starbucks. I guess there is another reason this FLU thing is good, it helps me get to work on time because I no longer need to stop at those places. Anyhow, back to my story...
My Wednesday basically shapes up like this:
5:20 AM - leave the house
5:58 AM - arrive, squealing tires, into the Lifetime parking lot
6:00 AM - Boot Camp
7:55 AM - drive the 1/4 mile to work
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM - work my fingers to the bone (or at least give that appearance)
5:05 PM - drive the 1/4 to Lifetime
5:15 PM - step on the treadmill for workout #2 (since I have to be here anyhow)
6:15 PM - head to the locker room to wash the sweat off
7:00 PM - FLU Meeting
9:00 PM - HOME! One looooooooong day :)
Luckily not all my days look like this one now, just Wednesdays. When I was heavy into tennis, my tennis days looked like this more than a few nights a week. So... last night I made it to the afternoon treadmill workout. There are all sorts of tornado warnings on the TV but nothing really in my immediate area so wasn't all that concerned about being there. I was actually more concerned about Rick being at home because the path of the warning was right over our house. I was about 60 seconds from the end of my workout and getting ready to hit the cooldown button and the power goes out at Lifetime. (In case you are wondering, I did not go flying off the back of the treadmill, it spun to a stop - ha - someone in the locker room asked me that...). One of the employees came around and told everyone they needed to go the first floor. I assumed maybe there was a tornado warning but had been watching the TV so it seemed odd. I thought maybe next they were going to line us up like in school in the hallway with our heads between our knees. We always did those tornado drills and never had to use them. I just followed the mass of people downstairs and went to the semi-dark locker room to get my belongings and tried to decide if I should wait for the power to come back on since the meeting was at 7:00 or just go home. Before too long, we were told that everyone had to leave so the decision was made for me. It turned out it was a blown transformer. I never saw any real stormy weather around the gym. We had some near our house, there were lights out for a couple of blocks around a major intersection close to home but, thankfully, I didn't see any wind damage in our neighborhood.
The short version of all that is I did not weigh in yesterday and got to go home early and get some much needed sleep :) Since I did not officially weigh in, I will have to do a self assessment. Try to contain the excitement.
My goal this week was to lose 0.75 pounds. I know. It isn't much. My overall need to be part of this program is to get on track with nutrition and trying to figure out what to eat, when and how much as part of my triathlon training. Overall, I am looking at losing 6 pounds in 8 weeks and 4% body fat. The funny thing about my weight is up until the last year I could have told you on any given day how much I weigh. Part of my morning ritual was to step on the scale. Since I get ready at the gym in the morning, I rarely weigh myself. Given that, I am not sure if I lost or not. I have continued to stick to the eating plan. I did have a few more "cheat snacks" this week - if you can even call them that - they really didn't amount to much. I ate out a couple more times this week than last so was kind of interested to see how that worked out on the scale.
I am surprised that I have done so well sticking to the food structure of getting in certain amounts in each food group. I really don't find that I am craving things that aren't on the list all that much. I did have an internal conflict today at Wendy's when I knew I should order a chili and my evil twin wanted a single with fries. The chili won out. I have random cravings for apples, brussel sprouts, things like that - how kuckoo is that? I'll take it, I would much rather be dealing with that than wanting ice cream and having to fight the urge to buy it at Publix.
The other thing I have noticed this week that was different from last is that I feel more hungry. I am not sure why. My exercise level is about the same from this week to last week but am feeling hungry quite a bit.
On to the workouts... the heart rate workouts are going great. Despite being on a treadmill, they really aren't boring. You get pre-occupied with monitoring your heart rate and going between whichever zones you happen to be working on so it keeps me entertained. One bright side is that the workouts are forcing me to get my mid-week runs in which is something I was lacking in my marathon prep for Disney. I also think I can tell that I am getting stronger in my running even in the last two weeks. I am covering longer distances each time and am requiring a slightly faster pace on the treadmill to get to the target heart rate. Maybe there is something to this thing.... :)
I managed to meet the goal for last week's challenge - woo hoo! The challenge was to stay in zones 1 through 3, 97% of the time last week and burn at least 2500 calories. I ended up burning 4,935 calories for the week and came in with just enough in zone 4 to be legal. YAY!
The next challenge is 15 good form pushups in one minute, 50 squats in one minute and plank for two minutes. I am faithfully doing the hundred push up program. I am pretty sure I can do the pushups and plank. Fifty squats seems kind of fast for a minute but will do what I can to knock them out.
So there is my self assessment.... on to week 3!
For the weekend, I am doing a 10k in hopes of getting a good qualifying time for the Peachtree. My goal time is under 55 minutes which will be a personal best and will get me in time group 1B for the Peachtree. I think I can make it happen - I just need to start near the front and haul booty!
My Wednesday basically shapes up like this:
5:20 AM - leave the house
5:58 AM - arrive, squealing tires, into the Lifetime parking lot
6:00 AM - Boot Camp
7:55 AM - drive the 1/4 mile to work
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM - work my fingers to the bone (or at least give that appearance)
5:05 PM - drive the 1/4 to Lifetime
5:15 PM - step on the treadmill for workout #2 (since I have to be here anyhow)
6:15 PM - head to the locker room to wash the sweat off
7:00 PM - FLU Meeting
9:00 PM - HOME! One looooooooong day :)
Luckily not all my days look like this one now, just Wednesdays. When I was heavy into tennis, my tennis days looked like this more than a few nights a week. So... last night I made it to the afternoon treadmill workout. There are all sorts of tornado warnings on the TV but nothing really in my immediate area so wasn't all that concerned about being there. I was actually more concerned about Rick being at home because the path of the warning was right over our house. I was about 60 seconds from the end of my workout and getting ready to hit the cooldown button and the power goes out at Lifetime. (In case you are wondering, I did not go flying off the back of the treadmill, it spun to a stop - ha - someone in the locker room asked me that...). One of the employees came around and told everyone they needed to go the first floor. I assumed maybe there was a tornado warning but had been watching the TV so it seemed odd. I thought maybe next they were going to line us up like in school in the hallway with our heads between our knees. We always did those tornado drills and never had to use them. I just followed the mass of people downstairs and went to the semi-dark locker room to get my belongings and tried to decide if I should wait for the power to come back on since the meeting was at 7:00 or just go home. Before too long, we were told that everyone had to leave so the decision was made for me. It turned out it was a blown transformer. I never saw any real stormy weather around the gym. We had some near our house, there were lights out for a couple of blocks around a major intersection close to home but, thankfully, I didn't see any wind damage in our neighborhood.
The short version of all that is I did not weigh in yesterday and got to go home early and get some much needed sleep :) Since I did not officially weigh in, I will have to do a self assessment. Try to contain the excitement.
My goal this week was to lose 0.75 pounds. I know. It isn't much. My overall need to be part of this program is to get on track with nutrition and trying to figure out what to eat, when and how much as part of my triathlon training. Overall, I am looking at losing 6 pounds in 8 weeks and 4% body fat. The funny thing about my weight is up until the last year I could have told you on any given day how much I weigh. Part of my morning ritual was to step on the scale. Since I get ready at the gym in the morning, I rarely weigh myself. Given that, I am not sure if I lost or not. I have continued to stick to the eating plan. I did have a few more "cheat snacks" this week - if you can even call them that - they really didn't amount to much. I ate out a couple more times this week than last so was kind of interested to see how that worked out on the scale.
I am surprised that I have done so well sticking to the food structure of getting in certain amounts in each food group. I really don't find that I am craving things that aren't on the list all that much. I did have an internal conflict today at Wendy's when I knew I should order a chili and my evil twin wanted a single with fries. The chili won out. I have random cravings for apples, brussel sprouts, things like that - how kuckoo is that? I'll take it, I would much rather be dealing with that than wanting ice cream and having to fight the urge to buy it at Publix.
The other thing I have noticed this week that was different from last is that I feel more hungry. I am not sure why. My exercise level is about the same from this week to last week but am feeling hungry quite a bit.
On to the workouts... the heart rate workouts are going great. Despite being on a treadmill, they really aren't boring. You get pre-occupied with monitoring your heart rate and going between whichever zones you happen to be working on so it keeps me entertained. One bright side is that the workouts are forcing me to get my mid-week runs in which is something I was lacking in my marathon prep for Disney. I also think I can tell that I am getting stronger in my running even in the last two weeks. I am covering longer distances each time and am requiring a slightly faster pace on the treadmill to get to the target heart rate. Maybe there is something to this thing.... :)
I managed to meet the goal for last week's challenge - woo hoo! The challenge was to stay in zones 1 through 3, 97% of the time last week and burn at least 2500 calories. I ended up burning 4,935 calories for the week and came in with just enough in zone 4 to be legal. YAY!
The next challenge is 15 good form pushups in one minute, 50 squats in one minute and plank for two minutes. I am faithfully doing the hundred push up program. I am pretty sure I can do the pushups and plank. Fifty squats seems kind of fast for a minute but will do what I can to knock them out.
So there is my self assessment.... on to week 3!
For the weekend, I am doing a 10k in hopes of getting a good qualifying time for the Peachtree. My goal time is under 55 minutes which will be a personal best and will get me in time group 1B for the Peachtree. I think I can make it happen - I just need to start near the front and haul booty!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Run the Reagan
Run the Reagan was somewhat uneventful. I woke up this morning to the sounds of rain falling. I knew I would run the race either way but would prefer a light rain as opposed to the downpour I heard. Luckily the rain passed rather quickly. I live just around the corner and had picked up my number already so felt blessed to be able to leave the house around 7:15 as opposed to some of the bigger races that require crazy departure times.
This race is run on a local highway that is blocked off to traffic for the day. It is a low key event, not huge numbers of runners as compared to the ING or Peachtree and LOTS of things for significant others with kids to do while waiting for their runners to cross the finish line. There are 4 races in all - a half-marathon, 10k, 5k and one mile fun run.
I love that the race is not too crowded. I got out of my car at 7:40 and made a short walk from the Tar-jay parking lot to the porta-potties. At 7:52 at the front of the line... 7:55 making a fast walk to the start line and still have a couple of minutes to chat up fellow runners before the start. How great is that? I am not certain how many runners were participating in the half, the numbers were from 1 to 600 but am not sure they actually had that many. I was 433 so I suppose it is possible.
The challenge for me during this race was to keep my heart rate in zones 1-3. Even though it is a "race" my FLU challenge for the coveted points is to stay out of zone 4 (they can check your heart rate monitor so they will know...). Knowing this, I treated this as a training run with my 500+ friends. Based on my experience at Stone Mountain, I knew keeping out of zone four would be a challenge. For the most part, I found that I had to slow down to a snail's pace on the uphills and then could make up time on the downhills as my heart rate tends to fall on the downhill slopes.
I will say, I will be glad after tomorrow when this zone challenge is over as it is very difficult to hold back. On the flip side, I did feel like I had a lot of energy at the end of the race which I would assume is from keeping the pace down. I am not certain of my time but think I was running around 10:30 minute miles - normally I am in the 9:15 minute range. The last four miles are a slow steady uphill so had to fight to stay in zone 3 (I would not allow myself to stop and walk, I am hard on myself that way). At the end I just gave up and ran my normal pace for the last mile. In retrospect, that was so stupid. If I was going to give up on the challenge at the end then why not just run the whole race at my normal pace? Oh well :) We are given a 3% grace period on total calories burned in zone 4 as compared to the other zones so I should still make it. I only ran one mile which would be around 100 calories.
The race course itself isn't all that scenic. It is a highway after all, which I did think it was cool to run on the highway with no cars in sight. It is just an out and back with water stops and not much else. Don't get me wrong, it was a challenging, well planned run and all, I just like to have distractions along the way. A few marching bands or cheerleaders or interesting scenery. Perhaps if I didn't take this particular Parkway every single day of my life to work and the gym it would not seem so familiar. For you locals, to give you some perspective on the distance, the race was from the end of the Parkway at 124, past Hwy 29, almost to Pleasant Hill where the Parkway ends.
It started raining lightly several miles into the race and was misty all the way to the end. For some reason, I had decided not to wear a hat and am not sure what I was thinking so I was pretty much a wet, wind blown rat by the time I got to the end. I only wish I had a photo to show you of how glorious I looked (or not) :) Since I do not have a picture of my glorious bird's nest hairdo post-race, I will insert a pic of the medal. I really like the design..
Fun morning, fun race. Another training run in the books! Tomorrow, I have a bike workout followed by strength training and then I am going to try and see Confessions of a Shopaholic. I LOVE the series of books, I hope the movie is just as funny!
My new love...
In honor of Valentine's Day, I have to tell you about my new obsession. THE DAILY PLATE. I can give you many paragraphs about how cool this site is but you really have to go to the website to appreciate it. The Daily Plate is part of the livestrong website and what I love about it is you can track everything you eat and it gives you your calories, proteins, carbs, etc. for the day. They have just about every food item known to man loaded in their database, you just search on whatever you ate (i.e. Wendy's Chili), click on it and add it to your "plate". LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. it.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Week One Results!
File this under, "how did that happen?". Wednesday night was the weekly weigh-in of Fit Life University (FLU). I think everyone in the group had the nervousness equal to that of any competitor on the Biggest Loser. Perhaps not quite as much worry as there are no threats of being sent home to the real world or the possibility of losing out on $250,000 and, thankfully, we do not weigh in wearing spandex and a sports bra like they do on the show. We have our pride at stake and points which will ultimately lead to fame and fortune, personal training, massages and other prizes so there are carrots dangling to lead us to our goals. At this point, a pizza, coconut cake or Bruster's butter pecan ice cream might be more appealing than a carrot but I digress... Pardon me while I wipe the drool off the keyboard.
I have been diligent all week which is a lot for me. I.love.to.snack. I only had ONE cheat food item all week! All week I have felt like I was eating a lot of food so Wednesday morning as I contemplate how little I will have lost and whether or not I might make my goal of a little less than a pound, I glance at the label on the chocolate milk I bought a few days back at quik trip and am now drinking. Wow. This is some good chocolate milk. Let me preface this to say I *DO* know how to read labels. I do. I know the label is the serving size and there can be a zillion servings in the whole container, blah, blah, blah. I clearly remember looking at the label at the QT. I saw the main ingredient as nonfat milk and somehow in my head calculated a serving as 100 calories or so. I didn't study it but I got the idea (or so I thought). Must have been in a hurry. As I am enjoying my cup of lovely, oddly creamy and fatty tasting milk. How can this taste so good? I decide to read the ingredients. 1. Nonfat milk. 2. CREAM. What the? I look at the calories again and realize I had that all backwards. It was more like 220 calories a serving. Oops! A lesson in being more careful with my label analysis. Ha.
The Wednesday night weigh-fest basically goes like this... Al (co-head honcho) arrives and plops the scale down in the middle of the room. From there we take turns weighing in while Tosha (other co-head honcho) reviews our food logs and either gives us a check mark which translates to points or tells us something like we need to work more protein in or veggies or whatever is lacking in the food log. Basically, the idea is to eat well balanced and within the recommended calories based on your goals. Even if it seems like you are eating a lot, trust the system and make sure you don't under-eat. Conversely, they are also checking to make sure no one went crazy and fell off the wagon. There are points at stake for following the food plan as well as your weight goal.
The first lady gets up and weighs in, 2 pounds lost. Woo hoo! She is pretty excited, apparently had been plateaued out for a little bit. Second lady up, also 2 pounds lost. She had been burning it up in the gym but had not been taking in enough protein. My turn. Have I mentioned I felt like I had been eating A LOT this week? Not a lot in terms of junk food but just feel like I am constantly eating. By the time I finish my meal, it seems like 2 hours have passed and it is time to fuel up again. By the end of the day, I often am still short of servings in certain food groups so I have to cram those in at night. The point is, I have been eating A LOT but A LOT of recommended foods. Going into the weigh in, I really didn't feel like I had lost anything. I was wrong. Step on the scale. Clickety, click. Wait for the number. Four pounds lost. Are you kidding me? Honestly, it was a shocker! My goal for the week was to lose 0.75 pounds. I'll take it. :)
The educational segment this week had to do with the zones. So, what is the deal with the zones anyhow and why go through this whole process and not just train as hard as I can? Here is the short version:
Zone 1: 50 to 75% of threshold. The recovery zone. Essentially used to recover from intense training. Creates blood flow and enhances coordination.
Zone 2: 70 to 90% of threshold. Training in this zone builds aerobic efficiency, increases stamina and trains the body to burn fat at a higher caloric rate. These are mostly long, slow distance workouts.
Zone 3: 90 to 100% of threshold. Training in this zone will eventually allow you to exercise longer at aerobic intensities, enhance conversion of lactate to fuel, delay fatigue and push your threshold up. Typical training is long, moderate intervals and base building.
Threshold: The line in the sand between aerobic and anaerobic.
Zone 4: 100 to 110% of threshold. Training objectives in this zone might be increasing tolerance to lactic acid or to exercise longer at anaerobic intensities.
Zone 5: 110% of threshold to peak HR. Has anyone ever been in zone 5? Of course but not for long. Training in this zone is used to develop speed and power. Think sprinting. Very intense exercise, very uncomfortable.
My random bits of wisdom learned this week:
1. Unless you do cardio for 45+ minutes you aren't tapping into fat burning. Twenty to thirty minute bouts of cardio are only going to burn sugars.
2. Strength training is not a fat burning activity. As you are doing reps, your glycogen stores are being used up. Resting in between reps allows them to go back up.
I am excited to have a three-day weekend! It is great to work for a bank and get all the banking holidays :) Tomorrow, I am doing the Run the Reagan race. Pretty cool, low key race. I did it last year as a 5k. This year I am doing the half marathon. It is cool because they block off one of the highways to traffic and we run on the parkway. As I picked up my race number this afternoon, I overheard a first time racer asking these questions to a very patient volunteer:
1. When she was handed her race shirt, she asked "do we have to wear this during the race or are we allowed to wear something else?"
2. She asked if there would be water at the race. The volunteer replied that there would be water stops every 1.5 miles. "is it free or should I bring money to buy it?"
I don't recall being that naive ahout racing but it did make me smile :)
Have a great weekend!
K
I have been diligent all week which is a lot for me. I.love.to.snack. I only had ONE cheat food item all week! All week I have felt like I was eating a lot of food so Wednesday morning as I contemplate how little I will have lost and whether or not I might make my goal of a little less than a pound, I glance at the label on the chocolate milk I bought a few days back at quik trip and am now drinking. Wow. This is some good chocolate milk. Let me preface this to say I *DO* know how to read labels. I do. I know the label is the serving size and there can be a zillion servings in the whole container, blah, blah, blah. I clearly remember looking at the label at the QT. I saw the main ingredient as nonfat milk and somehow in my head calculated a serving as 100 calories or so. I didn't study it but I got the idea (or so I thought). Must have been in a hurry. As I am enjoying my cup of lovely, oddly creamy and fatty tasting milk. How can this taste so good? I decide to read the ingredients. 1. Nonfat milk. 2. CREAM. What the? I look at the calories again and realize I had that all backwards. It was more like 220 calories a serving. Oops! A lesson in being more careful with my label analysis. Ha.
The Wednesday night weigh-fest basically goes like this... Al (co-head honcho) arrives and plops the scale down in the middle of the room. From there we take turns weighing in while Tosha (other co-head honcho) reviews our food logs and either gives us a check mark which translates to points or tells us something like we need to work more protein in or veggies or whatever is lacking in the food log. Basically, the idea is to eat well balanced and within the recommended calories based on your goals. Even if it seems like you are eating a lot, trust the system and make sure you don't under-eat. Conversely, they are also checking to make sure no one went crazy and fell off the wagon. There are points at stake for following the food plan as well as your weight goal.
The first lady gets up and weighs in, 2 pounds lost. Woo hoo! She is pretty excited, apparently had been plateaued out for a little bit. Second lady up, also 2 pounds lost. She had been burning it up in the gym but had not been taking in enough protein. My turn. Have I mentioned I felt like I had been eating A LOT this week? Not a lot in terms of junk food but just feel like I am constantly eating. By the time I finish my meal, it seems like 2 hours have passed and it is time to fuel up again. By the end of the day, I often am still short of servings in certain food groups so I have to cram those in at night. The point is, I have been eating A LOT but A LOT of recommended foods. Going into the weigh in, I really didn't feel like I had lost anything. I was wrong. Step on the scale. Clickety, click. Wait for the number. Four pounds lost. Are you kidding me? Honestly, it was a shocker! My goal for the week was to lose 0.75 pounds. I'll take it. :)
The educational segment this week had to do with the zones. So, what is the deal with the zones anyhow and why go through this whole process and not just train as hard as I can? Here is the short version:
Zone 1: 50 to 75% of threshold. The recovery zone. Essentially used to recover from intense training. Creates blood flow and enhances coordination.
Zone 2: 70 to 90% of threshold. Training in this zone builds aerobic efficiency, increases stamina and trains the body to burn fat at a higher caloric rate. These are mostly long, slow distance workouts.
Zone 3: 90 to 100% of threshold. Training in this zone will eventually allow you to exercise longer at aerobic intensities, enhance conversion of lactate to fuel, delay fatigue and push your threshold up. Typical training is long, moderate intervals and base building.
Threshold: The line in the sand between aerobic and anaerobic.
Zone 4: 100 to 110% of threshold. Training objectives in this zone might be increasing tolerance to lactic acid or to exercise longer at anaerobic intensities.
Zone 5: 110% of threshold to peak HR. Has anyone ever been in zone 5? Of course but not for long. Training in this zone is used to develop speed and power. Think sprinting. Very intense exercise, very uncomfortable.
My random bits of wisdom learned this week:
1. Unless you do cardio for 45+ minutes you aren't tapping into fat burning. Twenty to thirty minute bouts of cardio are only going to burn sugars.
2. Strength training is not a fat burning activity. As you are doing reps, your glycogen stores are being used up. Resting in between reps allows them to go back up.
I am excited to have a three-day weekend! It is great to work for a bank and get all the banking holidays :) Tomorrow, I am doing the Run the Reagan race. Pretty cool, low key race. I did it last year as a 5k. This year I am doing the half marathon. It is cool because they block off one of the highways to traffic and we run on the parkway. As I picked up my race number this afternoon, I overheard a first time racer asking these questions to a very patient volunteer:
1. When she was handed her race shirt, she asked "do we have to wear this during the race or are we allowed to wear something else?"
2. She asked if there would be water at the race. The volunteer replied that there would be water stops every 1.5 miles. "is it free or should I bring money to buy it?"
I don't recall being that naive ahout racing but it did make me smile :)
Have a great weekend!
K
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