Turkey Leg!

Thanksgiving morning...

14°

It was SO COLD.



And I wore Vibram Five Fingers to a 5k Turkey Trot.

My toes on the left, my bros on the right

Felt like little stumps of senseless ice stuck there on my little footsies.

Once the race started things warmed up real quick



I was able to keep up with my brothers until the last quarter mile.

BAM asthma attack! I think the Albuterol that I inhaled before the race hindered more than it helped. No more of that.
I was struggling. Still finished with a decent 22:13 and frozen feet.

It's interesting to see that since the Vegas Ragnar my running stamina has really improved. I've been able to run right around 7 minute miles for a while now, but being able to consistently stay at that pace... that's new. My brother in law who runs a LOT more than me has said he's improved a lot since the Vegas Ragnar as well. Maybe it did something!

This was a great family outing - a 5k on Thanksgiving morning with almost my entire original family (i.e. my parents and siblings) minus one sister and one brother, and a bunch of spouses.


I couldn't feel my toes. So I tried using my weird flexibility to warm them up on my face while updating Facebook at the same time. It helped a little!

3 Months!!

I like to blog.

However I get nothing out of it other than personal satisfaction of having chronicled my adventures in the world of Fitness or whatever.

And while personal satisfaction is definitely an important thing, when life invades with higher priorities (working and children) blogging gets left behind. I wish working to provide was simpler thing that didn't interfere with the things I enjoy. Even better if it WAS something I really enjoyed.

So. What's happened since my last entry? (*Warning! Long post!*)

As I mentioned we were preparing for a trip to Canada.

Canada was beautiful, we spent a little under a week with the wonderful relatives of our new Sister-in-Law. They were VERY hospitable, but I think they tried a little too hard to get us to realize how GREAT small town life is in Canada.

Dune Buggy!

Trying to get some sun... Didn't work well, but IF does!

Sadly after Canada we were not able to continue Insanity. Sleep is a bit more important at the moment (there are some (lots actually) cases where it is appropriate to sacrifice sleep, but taking care of a nursing baby is not one of them!

After we returned home and school started, I continued Yoga at work. The instructor is great and thankfully they have hired her to start full time at the beginning of the year, and she is continuing great hour long yoga classes every Tuesday and Thursday. Even better is that Tuesday and Thursday are my IF days, so I am able to get a GREAT workout while fasted.

In September I ran in the Utah Marathon Relay with a bunch of coworkers. Great little 5.24 mile run, my knees didn't really bother me too much so it was also great training for the Vegas Ragnar.

We had four awesome teams - mine was 2nd fastest. We ALMOST caught our 'fast' stacked team!

Finishing my leg!

I was satisfied with my pace, but it really wasn't great. I ran the 5.24 in just under 45 minutes, so 8.5 minute miles. Dang knees. Notice my Brooks shoes - nice little track flats. I think they might be part of my problem.

Next up, the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay! The Ragnar Relay is a GREAT event. Lots of fun, and pretty tough too! I had 3 legs again, just like the Wasatch Back, but this time I had what is now the 'infamous leg 24'. 8 miles on a trail that is more a 4 wheeler track in the middle of the night. There was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that night! I think I would have enjoyed the challenge except that less than 300 yards in my knee started acting up BIG time. Yeah I wasn't mad at the trail... I was mad at my knee.

Yeah that was easy...

What?!

I thought everybody was supposed to be a Pirate!

Yarr all Pirates have iphones I promise!

What a good lookin' buncha Pirates!

We still did better than expected.

Just last week I ran in a Work sponsored 5k, our annual Turkey Trot. I was feeling pretty good although I hadn't run since the Vegas Ragnar... so I was a bit worried about my knee. I decided to wear my Vibram Five Finger Sprints. That was a good choice.

My knee didn't start hurting until after the race (so there still needs to be some adjustments made), but I came in THIRD place with a time of 21:57, so just over 7 minute miles. Nice! I probably can improve on that too, which is amazing since I haven't run that fast since Jr. High... Now I've known I can run a just barely sub-7 minute mile... but doing it for 3? Didn't know I could do that still. Now I know. So now I've got to. The $25 gift card ("Turkey Voucher") was a nice bonus as well!

Today in Yoga I held Crow pose for longer than I ever had attempted. It felt great! I impressed the other newer yoga attendees too, which while not very important is still nice. Nobody else even tried it.

I'm pushing myself harder, because I know I can do more. It feels great!

Insanity and the Abs

This morning I started the second week of my second Insanity cycle.

On top of that for some reason I feel like I should keep going to Yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays here at work!

It is extremely tough to do both, but at the same time I think the extra yoga stretches help my body recover somewhat from the morning's insane workout.

Hopefully it will help with my goal to get ridiculously good abs! Unfortunately with the end of summer and the craziness that entails (work, stress, home for sale (hopefully soon), trip to Canada, work conventions) - nutrition and healthy eating takes a bit of a dive!

I've also stopped doing the ab workouts I was doing, but hope to re-incorporate those as soon as I can!

Insanity and Intermittent Fasting

Yesterday was the 2nd day of my second round of the Insanity workout program. That program really is quite tough!

On top of that, it was my first day of Intermittent fasting while doing the program. I was a bit nervous! Especially since I'm in the middle of figuring out what's wrong with me (allergies anyway) - and I was surprised that I wasn't shaking or miserable all day because I had done an intense workout without feeding my body before or after.

I wanted to do another little run before eating, but I was unable to because of work and timing.

I also cheated a bit with some candy that I picked up at the Allergy Clinic... but it wasn't enough to affect the fasting from my point of view.

One of the main reasons I 'm doing Intermittent Fasting is because while I don't normally care about food so much (eat to LIVE not live to EAT, etc) when I DO eat I really want to enjoy it and it is amazing how much more I enjoy my food! Plus it gives you more room for error when you are letting your body use up every little bit that's left in there instead of adding new calories and nutrients to process.

I even worked late because I got to work pretty late, and it wasn't a problem at all!

I weighed myself yesterday after Insanity and last night before bed - right now I'm hitting between 162 and 165.

Later today or tomorrow I will post the 'before' pictures that I took yesterday - I'm happy with my progress, but still have QUITE a ways to go.

A Little Motivation from Rocky...

(via RossTraining)

Insanity - Round TWO

Earlier this year I did Insanity which my wife had given me for Christmas.

It was a GREAT 60 day program that I felt had pretty dang good results, but probably not as good as I could have achieved if I had made a few more changes along with the program.

This morning I did the first fit test with my wife - she is starting it (really starting it!) for the first time and I'm going to do it with her because I need it myself, and hopefully we can motivate each other to keep strong with it.

It was interesting that in some ways I did WORSE than my very first fit-test, even though I am in better shape now than I have been in a long time - including when I finished Insanity back in March.

This is a good fit test - but honestly I think to do well in the fit test can mean more that you are better at those particular exercises and not necessarily fit. Basically what I really want to see is what my final numbers are compared to my final numbers from last time. :)

We'll try to take our 'Before' pics today sometime and I'll probably post them soon with more Insane updates.

My one concern is that my allergy issues that I'm still looking into will be a roadblock. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen.

I got up before SIX AM this morning to do this! So it's ON!

Intermittent Fasting

A lot of people I talk to don't get this Intermittent Fasting (IF) thing I'm doing

Why would you STARVE yourself?

Well it's not even close to starving, since the body can certainly do with a lot less food than we as a civilization shovel into our mouths every meal.

I started IF off and on before the Relay race in June, but really started my no eating breakfast and lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays schedule AFTER the race.

Remember how I lost 10 pounds of water weight the day after the relay? 2 weeks after that I weighed the same as I did the day after the race. I'd lost 10 pounds just from IF, and you could tell by the smaller excess in my lower abs. Suffice it to say I'm pretty pumped!

So until I make the time to write a more comprehensive post on how I look at IF, check out these awesome blogs with information on Intermittent Fasting:


Lean Saloon Simple Lessons from IF

Mark's Daily Apple IF How-To

Lean Gains IF Primer
Lean Gains Eat Stop Eat review
Brad Pilon
Eat Stop Eat

The IF Life

Some of them are looking to sell their product and I haven't had the chance to purchase any of them.
I am also not affiliated with any of them. So do whatever you would like to do!

Yoga!

It has certainly been a while since I did any yoga!

I figured that with a new fitness intern at work starting a Yoga class Mondays and Wednesdays, it would be a good time to get back into it!

Gives me a good workout for two days a week (although that won't be all I'm doing those days) and I think it corresponds pretty nicely with my running/abdominal workouts that I'm doing on my fasting days (and Saturday).

Hopefully work won't interfere too much to make me miss too often, because then it wouldn't be very helpful now would it?

It was very nice to have a yoga session that didn't make me angry. It didn't wake me up though - I am ridiculously tired today.

Maybe it relaxed me too much!

The First Goal - The Six Pack

 

Goal: The Six Pack

So I've decided that after 2 weeks of not running it was time to get back into running to prepare for the Vegas Relay I'm doing in October, and to work on my first goal. The abs.

warlordblade's Activities | RunKeeper

There has been a lot said about the value of abdominal exercises versus diet in six-pack visibility - with the clear winner being diet every time. However I feel that adding ab exercises a few times a week along with cardio and Intermittent Fasting (IF) I will achieve the results I am looking for.

Just for an idea - here are some not-so-exciting pictures of my abs while I was running almost 3 weeks ago.

I can definitely benefit from a lower Body Fat %

I think since then I've already seen a change due to IF along with the exercising I have been doing.

I've been reading some wonderful fitness blogs for a while now, and recently I've read these great ab workout entries which have helped me decide to start this now:

"A Simple Guide to Rockstar Abs" from Zen to Fitness: Part 1, Part 2
"The Manly 'Pelvic Muscle' That Drives Women Wild!" from Fitness Black Book

Today after running my 2.5 miles, I limped inside (forgot about a blister that was NOT happy with me) and did 10 Negative Chin Ups, a whole bunch of Stomach Vacuum exercises (those are painful in a way that feels like it will help, seriously!) a rough 2 minute plank, followed by a quick 25 pushups and some pullups to wrap it up.

It felt GREAT.

This is the first time since I've started my Tuesday/Thursday IF schedule* that I've done a REAL workout before eating, and I was amazed at the amount of energy I had throughout the run and the workouts after my run. It was awesome!

So I am very excited to see some progress.

I WILL achieve my goal.

(*Basically I don't eat Breakfast or Lunch, drink a good amount of water, and cheat with chewing gum!)

*Update* Found this great Stomach Vacuum Explanation - very easy to change this exercise around and almost do it anywhere! Nice!

A New Beginning

What a lame title for the first post in this, my attempt to better document and ruminate on my fitness goals and exploits.

Back on my other blog, I'm going to try to talk a little less about my fitness pursuits, as soon as I have this one going a bit I'll inform whoever cares on that blog what I'm doing here.

A little about my fitness background. I've always been what I call a fitness enthusiast. I enjoy working out, I enjoy reading about fitness, and while working out, I enjoy pushing myself to do things harder and faster. On the other hand - I am LAZY so sometimes it takes a bit to get myself going, but once I am going, I love it!

I have completed both Beach Body's P90X and Insanity programs and loved them, however I don't really consider myself a big fan of Beach Body as a whole. They have some really great products, but something about their business model I'm not a huge fan of.

I work for a Multi Level Marketing company specializing in Nutritional Supplements, and while there are many such companies who offer wonderful products and services - I could not be a distributor myself, and I think that's my main issue with Beach Body.

I may still document further rounds of P90X and/or Insanity here though, as I'd like to see what results I can achieve mixing it up a bit.

Speaking of achievements, what are my ultimate goals in physical fitness?

First there are the Aesthetic Goals:

1. Six Pack
2. Bigger Biceps and Pecs
3. "Shrink-wrapped" look (visible tight muscles) but not body builder

(Basically I want to achieve a look similar to a Lightweight to Welterweight MMA Fighter, such as Melvin Guillard, Roger Huerta, Georges St-Pierre, which in some(or many!) ways I realize will not be possible, as everybody is unique in many physical ways. Still an ideal to strive for can be a good thing)

Then there are Functional Goals:

1. Lower Body Fat %
2. Injury/Pain-free Movement
3. Ability to MOVE (Parkour/Free Running type stuff)
4. Improved Posture

There will be more.

But for now - this is the beginning!!