Posts filed under ‘Goals’
My 2008 Goals
Here are my 2008 Fitness Goals:
- Exercise 365 hours – an average of an hour a day. It is my personal dedication to Sweat365.
- Have a 35 inch waist. By waist, I mean as measured around my belly button – where it’s the biggest. Currently my waist is 43 inches.
- Blood Pressure consistently at 120/80 or better. Currently running around 135/85.
- Lift using 225 pounds for 12 reps on Back and Chest.
- Climb Mt. Shasta June 26 to 29 (Over 14,000 foot, in Northern California).
- Complete RAW Bike Tour August 3-9 (visit 4 volcanoes, over 30,000 feet elevation gain).
Workout Summary – January
January is always a tough month for me. It is usually one of the busiest times for me at work, and their always seems to be a lot going on. It is also the darkest, rainiest, coldest month as well.
Translation: I didn’t work out as much as I hoped I would. I ended the month with roughly 20 hours of exercise, and I was shooting for an hour a day. I also didn’t do as much high intensity workouts as I had planned. Nothing to panic about, I have plenty of time to get it together.
2008 YTD Activity
The Courage Classic – August 4-6
My next big ride is August 4-6, when I will be riding the Courage Classic. The Courage Classic Bicycle Tour is a 3-day, 172-mile ride that travels over Snoqualmie, Blewett and Stevens Passes. Although they don’t give out the details of total elevation gain (we might not do it if we knew what we were getting ourselves into), my guess is that it will be around 15,000 feet of total gain.
To Read more click here
Tour de Blast – Done!!!
Mark and I completed the Tour de Blast on Saturday. This was one tough ride. Basically it’s 84 miles, climbing one 4,300 foot ridge, and a 3,800 foot ridge – and oh yeah, you do the 3,800 foot ridge TWICE. All told, it was over 7,000 feet of climbing for the day.
The day started for us at 4 am. We got up, threw our things in the car, and had to drive 140 miles to the starting line. Yes, it would have been easier to stay at a motel somewhere close the night before, but I decided it would be a good idea to save some money before I leave my paying job. Probably would rethink that next time.
We got to the starting line at around 8am. Another interesting bit of news was that Mark didn’t really feel that well (Mark is my uncle who is going to be 58 in a couple of months – he also happens to be my best friend). His stomach had been bothering him all night, and he was afraid to eat very much. Not what you want before a long, hard, ride.
Tour de Blast – Unfinished business
My next event is on Saturday. I am riding the tour de blast. It will be an 82 mile ride (that’s 135k for you metric fans out there); and it will have over 6,000 feet of elevation gain.
The ride is at Mt. St. Helen’s. Here is what their website says about the profile:
Elevation gain/difficulty
The elevation gain from the start line at Toutle to Elk Rock (27 miles into the ride, elevation 3,800 feet) is approximately 3,300 feet. From there, the highway descends 1,270 feet over five miles to Coldwater Lake(elevation 2,530 feet). Then riders will begin a nine-mile climb of 1,670 feet to the Johnston Ridge viewpoint and turnaround. A rider going all the way to Johnston Ridge and back to Toutle will climb a total of 6,240 vertical feet over 82 miles (135K) including the climb back up the eastern side of Elk Rock.
This is a ride I have done once before, in 2003. I was riding with Mark and Mitch. The weekend before had been in the mid 80’s. The forecast said that the day of the ride would be in the high 60’s to the mid 70’s. All of us wore fingerless gloves, cycling shorts and jerseys, and light rain jackets. Bad idea!!!
Konamoxt’s first 10 days
Konamoxt just passed it’s 10 day live mark. Yes, it’s still in Beta, and that means a lot of bug fixes and improvements are still on the way (thanks Brad and Jeff!!!). But overall, I’m very happy with the first 10 days.
Most important – I want to thank all of you who have visited, signed up as members, given us feedback, posted problems and improvements, and supported us in many other ways we probably will never know about. Konamoxt would be nothing without all of you.
We have received a huge amount of positive feedback on our integrated workout logs and blogs. We are glad you like it. There are many, many ideas we have to make it even better; and there are many, many ideas you all have to make it better. We want Konamoxt to be a place where people have the tools they need to fulfill on their goals – whether it’s to compete in an ironman for time, or to lose a few pounds and run your first 5k fun run.
We also see that many people have viewed our articles and training plans. These are more tools to help you reach your goals. A big thank you goes to Lisa, who has taken the lead on writing and accumulating these tools. Our long term goal is to involve the community in contributing articles as well. We know that the collective knowledge of the community will always be better and more diverse than the knowledge of a small team.
For me personally, I am most happy about seeing the beginnings of our dream being fulfilled. We want Konamoxt to be a place where people come to support and inspire each other. That’s what transforms a place into a community. We are seeing the support in the way people are reaching out to each other – whether you are a new blogger, a seasoned athlete, running your first marathon or tri, getting into shape for the first time, or even dealing with a slightly excitable horse (love your blog Kim).
As fitness minded people and athletes, we could have life be just about ourselves – and there would be nothing wrong with that. But we could also contribute to others as they start their journey as athletes and fitness minded people – and thereby change the world. For me, that’s an even more interesting game to play.
So many blogs I see in other domains are about disagreeing with each other. Ours is about agreeing with each other. I like that better. It is special, and it is rare. You all make that happen.
Thanks again for your support.
Phil
Weekly Weighin
I am up 3 pounds from where I was on May 23rd – when I reached 20 pounds lost for the year.
I’ve noticed that for me, my eating habits are sort of like the ocean – best not to turn your back on it. I relaxed after the 23rd, started compromising on things I hadn’t been eating the prior month. I had ice cream a couple of times, pizza a couple of times, went out to dinner a couple of times. Next thing I knew, my weight was back up.
Problems with water and commuting
So far this week my new renewed commitment to eating healthy has been working very well. On Sunday I weighed 233, and although I don’t “officially” weigh in until Sunday, I know I’m already under 230. Amazing how eating sensibly takes care of things.
I have run into a problem, however. As part of my commitment, I’ve taken on drinking a lot more water. I’m shooting for half my body weight in ounces, although I don’t think I’ve made it on any given day. But I’m drinking A LOT of water. And hence the dilemma.
It’s too far to my home during rush hour for me to make it without a pit stop – if you know what I mean. I either need for Seattle to resolve it’s commuting problems fast (and judging from how our light rail project is going, I’m not holding out hope any time soon); or I need to find a strategically located place to stop on my way home.
I know that cyclists in the peleton are talented enough to take care of business on their bikes, but on a motorcycle you need both a throttle and a clutch hand, and besides, I don’t think the other commuters would be nearly as understanding as cycling fans apparently are.
Hopefully my body will get use to the water thing soon, or I lose enough weight so I don’t have to drink quite as much…
Getting Back to Eating Healthy
For May, I have re-dedicated myself to my beginning of the year goals. Last week I got my exercise back on track, and ended up cycling 66 miles. This week I already have cycled 45 miles, and I am riding the 62 mile ride for the Skagit Classic on Saturday, so I should easily pass 100 miles this week.
What I want to focus on next is getting back to basic, healthy eating. The last couple of months I have been putting anything I want in my face, and it is starting to show on the scales (and probably the mirror as well- but I’ll stay in denial for that). Here is how I want to focus on eating:
- Eat oatmeal every day – but now give up the sugar oatmeal and start eating the organic healthy stuff (suggestions on how to make it taste good are appreciated).
- No eating 2 hours before bedtime. I have keep this practice faithfully, and it probably has saved me from gaining even more weight the last six weeks.
- Drink half my body weight in ounces (daily) - water of course. Now that I am cycling more, I notice that most of the time I am dehydrated. I want to stop that practice – plus I hear drinking water is good for weight loss.
- Give up sugar and highly processed food. Everyone knows this stuff isn’t good for us, so enough said.
- Eat more natural, organic, and whole foods.
- Eat 6 or more times a day – smaller portions of course. This accomplishes two things – by eating more often I can focus on more realistic portion sizes (a huge problem for me), and eating more often is better for revving your metabolism.
That’s my game plan. I’ll let you know how it goes…
Back on the Exercise Band Wagon
After a disastrous month of April, I am back on my exercise program. In April, I only lifted six times and walked ten times. No other exercise. To make up for the lack of exercise, I ate poorly all month. Ughhhh….
Now, I’m back. Yesterday Lisa and I lifted weights (she tortured me with Kettle weights – her latest fetish). This morning, I got up at 5:30am (okay – actually Lisa got me up), and I rode the spin bike we now have in our downstairs family room. It was an easy 30 minute ride with an average hr of 124 and a max of 148. I just wanted to get my legs warmed up.
Here is what I learned from my month in exile. If I’m not 100% intentional about exercising and healthy eating, I won’t do it. I get too distracted by everything else in life. I started the year exercising every day and counting calories. I lost 13 pounds in the first six weeks.
Then I tried a more zen approach. I didn’t worry about it so much. My motto became, “go with the flow”. My exercise has since fallen off the table and my weight is back up 5 pounds. Go with the flow is still a great motto in life, it just doesn’t happen to work for me with exercise and eating right. I’m not making it mean anything more than that – I seem to be the kind of person who needs to have a plan and a schedule in order to make fitness a priority. Other people are like Lisa, who doesn’t have to think about it so much. For her, missing more than a day or two in a row is simply intolerable. I seem to tolerate it just fine. 
So – I am going back to paying attention to what I eat and trying to get in some exercise EVERY DAY. I’ll treat these things as “to do’s” that I fight to get checked off every day. I know I’ll still need rest days periodically, and I know there are times when I will allow myself to splurge on food (ie birthday coming up). No worries, the next day I’ll get back to checking off the boxes.
One last thing. There are always consequences to our actions. Other than now having to re-lose the 5 pounds I just gained back, I also have a 62 mile bike ride scheduled for May 12th. I asked Lisa what I should do to train for it. Her reply – train however you want because basically you’re screwed and you are going to suffer…
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