Catch up

Didn't get a chance to post on Friday so jotting this down now.  Hit the gym on Thursday evening for a reasonably light session.  15 mins running, 20 mins on the bike.  We'd left it too late when we set off for the gym to put the 10-20 additional minutes we'd have like to but that's life. 

The new trainers were great on the treadmill.  No slippage, brilliantly comfortable, good feel through the material.  My calves and tendon felt fine at the time but I was feeling an ache kick into the toes.  From what I've read this is normal as you develop strength to these areas, so I'm not worried.  The following day or so my calves were very noticeably bust up in the best of ways, so that's good.  Ate clean for the rest of the day.

Friday to Sunday I had off, though we did a fair share of trooping around shops on Saturday.  On Friday it was nothing but fruit and yoghurt for me till dinner, so far so good.  Then my first sweet, sweet beer of the weekend.  Following that was maybe 4 more beers, glass of white wine, half a bottle of red, drop of brandy.  Oh dear.

Saturday was more restrained on the booze, but as it's coming into Christmas season I had a couple of mince pies with cream, approx 300 calories a pop.  Ouch.

Sunday slipped a little on the booze (1 glasses of red, 2 glasses of mulled wine, glass of home made high strength cider, yum).  More mince pies.

So today will be clear execept I will be having a mince pie today and tomorrow.  I'm not tossing em out, not a chance in hell.  But otherwise diet will clean up.  I suspect I won't have time for the gym today so I'll look to do it tomorrow, hopefully go for a short run in the morning if we don't go to the gym till after work.

I will post stats later today if I remember.

Three days in a row

Three days in a row, impressive no?  No, right. 

Went to the gym last night, 45 mins endurance training on the bike.  I'm guessing 400kcals but as the bike stopped registering kcal burn for 20 mins I'm not sure.  DW, fix your equipment!

Eating wasn't bad.  Yogurt and honey, cherry juice, grapefruit, protein shake for breakfast.  Tuna sandwich for lunch.  Apple and banana in the afternoon.  Slice of bread with peanut butter pre-workout, protein shake after.  Dinner was a spag bol (home made, of course.  Heavy on carrots and mushrooms) with a glass of pomegranate juice.

Calorie wise it'll only be a small deficit, but as I'm also looking to improve all round strength slowly it's the trade off.  With the heightened metabolism to handle the rebuilding of muscle as well as the burn while working out, it should keep it on the right side of intake to keep a slow drop in weight.

As I'm having two protein shakes per workout day, one per none workout day if I'm still aching, I'll go to water as the base for the whey.  It's not nearly as tasty as with milk and it also cuts the nutrient content, but as I am looking to cut the weight, it's something I can do for now.  When (if..) the weight approaches my target region I'll swap back in with the milk.

No gym this morning but I'll try go this evening.

The new trainers, Merrel Barefoot Trail Gloves, are feeling great when on foot but they don't have a thick enough base to make standing on the pedals of the spin bike comfortable.  I might mix it up a bit and hit the treadmill again to see what they're like there.  I did intend to do that last night, but my pecs hurt like buggery when they bounce due to the dips earlier this week.  I know it's sad, but I'll get better if I can keep up this level of attendance.

Good day

Yesterday I had the day off, as BT were supposed to be installing a new line to my house (they previously had activated someone else down the street - stupid new build address).  But it did mean that a) I could go to the gym for a decent session, b) eat fairly well and c) sign for my new Merrel Barefoot Trail Gloves...

I'll give them a review shortly.  They came after my gym session and I couldn't persuade the wife into a second in a day session.  So far though they seem like they will be good - plenty of room in the toe box while the heel to ball of foot section is so snug (but not constricting) it feels like a second skin, so I'm expecting near zero shearing.

So my day went like this -

Breakfast - Yoghurt and honey, small portion of cherry juice
Mid-morning snack - Apple
Pre-training - Slice of seeded wholemeal bread with peanut butter
Post-training - Whey protein (with water)
Lunch - Tuna sandwhich, same seedy wholemeal bread
Late Afternoon - More whey protein, this time with milk
Dinner - Roast sausage and winter veg (roast cumberland sausage, carrots, parsnips, onion and garlic all roasted in the juice and zest of one orange, served with mustard mash), followed my fresh mango and lemon juice.

Not bad at all for me. 

Exercise - 30 min walk to the gym, 15 mins hard sweating on the exercise bike (emphasising speed over power, I use the spin bike for the latter), dips (8 free weight, 5 dips with 5kg add, 5 with 10kg added, then a decline of 2 at 10kg, 2 at 5kg, arms like jelly, good good), straight legged deadlifts (8 at 20kg, 8 at 30kg, two sets of 8 at 40kg) and finally lateral pulldowns (yeah yeah I'll work back to pull ups when I'm feeling a little stronger.  10 at 25kg, 8 at 35kg, 8 at 42.5kg, 8 at 42.5kg, 8 at 30kg), then back on the exercise bike for another 15 mins hard pedalling, then a 30 min walk back home.

Also went out for a walk in the evening.  And actually was asleep by a little after 11.

If every day was like this I would be melting the fat off me in no time.  Sadly, I have a job (shouldn't say that in this climate..) so day's like this are few and far between. 

As for today, well I slept right through the alarm so I'll be hitting the gym after work but it does mean that the session can be longer than it would have been.  Food wise doing fine now, but then it is only 10:30am.

Keep moving forward.

R&R

Well that was a whole week of training before I took a whole week off and pretty much drunk every night.  Not productive.  Not really budged the scales but pretty depressing loss of opportunity. 

More positively, got a session in this morning.  Spin bike, 400+ kcals.  USN Protein bar.  Grapefruit.  Will later be eating an apple and a tuna sandwich.  Dinner will be pasta pesto.  Training will recommence tomorrow morning.

No numbers yet, no time, will try remember tomorrow.

Baby steps

Thursday morning - crawl out of bed.  Coffee.  Gym, 23 minutes on spinning bike.  USN Pure Protein bar and a little protein shake (bugger all left in tub which is why I bought the bar).  Forgot towel.  Come to work, sweating like a beaver. 

So the 23 minutes sounds lazy but it was all I could fit in since I took too long getting out of the house and traffic was piling up on the main road to the train station.  Additionally, given the lack of towel situation I'd rather of not been dripping head to toe in sweat when I got into my suit.  As it was that was fine, but walking quick from the station to the office in too heavy a coat for the morning has me trying to avoid colleagues.

Hopefully my legs will be better tomorrow and I can put more effort in.  I have the day off from work so I'll put a good session in, less limit on time.

As for the rest of yesterdays food, - well lunch was the beef stew, afternoon was milk and handful of almonds, dinner was prawn stir fry.  Not too bad really.

Today should be beef stew again, almonds, milk, banana, fish cakes with mash and veg. 

I'm thinking I should take a full range of measurements on Monday morning so I can start tracking it again properly, only avoided doing it so far just so this weeks work could get rid of any water weight held on.

Legs of lead

My legs are absolutely killing, and from really quite tragically low weight.  Got up again yesterday early to hit the gym.  Rowed (10 mins), squats (5xbar,5x40kg, 3sets x 5 reps x 60k), military press (warm up, increasing to 3 x 8 x 35k), leg curls (warm up, increasing to 3 x 8 x 35k), ab work, stretches, 5 mins more rowing while waiting for my wife to come out of the shower.

So yes, as I said, pretty damned low numbers to be this painful for.  Returning to squats is always a reminder you've been out of the gym too long, they really punish you.  Additionally, this was still on an empty stomach so not sure if the low energy meant I had to work harder.  Could be interesting to test that out.  On the flip side, no protein ready immediately for repair :(  Got home, protein shake (EAS at the moment, will be changing shortly), greak yoghurt and honey.  Had a beef stew for lunch (with bone stock, thanks Bova for introducing me to this).  All was going well untill I spotted the leftover sweets from Halloween.  Oh dear.  Munched my way through a bunch of them. 

Dinner was a pumpkin and steak risotto (more beef!). 

Resting today while the legs get a chance to recover. 

Early mornings

So today is the first time I've went to the gym before a normal workday.  Kept it swift, 30+ mins on the spin bike, race setting, 450kcals.  10-15 mins calisthenics (squats, press ups, abs work).  Did it on an empty stomach (barring the half a coffee).  Got home within 30 mins, had protein shake (whey).  Now at work, bought some whole milk to have cups of if lunch isn't sufficient.  I've got some grapefruit here for my mid morning snack and tuna sandwiches for lunch.  Not sure what dinner will be tonight but I suspect it'll be a steak and pumpkin risotto.

All in all I feel pretty good for it.  It wasn't hard getting out of bed, the session felt great as I was fresh.  Now I can just come home after work and flop out knowing I don't have to be straight back out again.  Feel a bit sweaty mind - body overheating all morning.  Cold shower going forward, might take the edge off.

Good start, let's see if I'm in there again tomorrow.

This time, I swear it...

Hello everyone.  And by everyone, I mean one, taking a look at the stats.  Surprising there are any hit's these but it looks like my review of the Spartan Health Regime is keeping up the passing trade.

So my commitment failed again last time.  In between I took up running in the morning for, oooh let's see, a good week and a half.  Quite tragic.  Also, I had a bit of a scare when the scales we're nudging 15 stone.  I really shouldn't be comparing in weight to my rugby playing brother in law.  That has slipped back down gradually through no particular effort of my own just good fortune in what I've done in my day to day activities.  Now, checking the skills this morning, I'm just tipping over 14 stone again.  Better than 15 at least, but I shouldn't be comfortable at this weight.

And I'm not.  I may have lost some weight through coincidental calrorie drop but I've lost tone.  I'm looking a little, for lack of a better word, slack. 

So it's time to start again.  Again.  Hit the gym last night, 30 minute blast on the spin bike, 400 kcals (according to the machine at least).  And you know what?  It felt damned good.  It makes me think why on earth has my attendance dropped off? 

Time to draft yet another plan (so many plans, so little action so far).  I'm not going to throw myself too heavily into training.  I am going to keep it enjoyable.  I will not regiment my training so it feels like a chore, instead I will stick to some simple rules.

• I will walk to and from the train station to work.  Come rain or shine, I will walk the 20 minutes.
• I will not eat crap snacks.  If it's during the day, I will go for fruit.  If I am desperate for something more junk like I will get exactly what I want, not just grab "something" I can find.  If I don't find what I want, or can't decide that I really want something specific, I won't get it.  If I must eat crap I will enjoy it rather than feel unsatisfied about it.
• I will only eat when I'm hungry, not because I'm bored.  If I need something to consume out of boredom black coffee will suffice.
• I will not use bread as a staple food.  No week of sandwiches at work.
• I will try to make soups using bone broth for some of my work lunches each week.
• I will use my supplements daily, but won't beat myself up if I miss them
• Finally, I will hit the gym 3 times a week.  It doesn't matter if the sessions are short 30 min blasts or 2 hour stretches.  I will get myself into the habit of the gym again.

I am also looking at going back to lau gar.  I'm not sure if I can afford to do the gym and lau gar properly, so if after a few months of doing kung fu once a week just isn't sufficing I may have to drop the gym to increase my hours kicking ass.

Also, from next week I'm looking to get the gym sessions in on the morning before work.  This will get it out of the way, set me up for the day, buring energy on an empty stomach and not give me the "oh it's been such a hard day at work, screw the gym it's beer time".  Till then it'll be the evening or daytime at the weekend.

Okay, so wish me luck.

Mmm, more salad please

Day 1 went a tad awry but no big deal.  Banana and orange for breakfast, Salad Nicoise for lunch, pineapple chunks in the afternoon, half a bag of peanuts pregym, raw egg and milk, tropical pork and peppers (diced pork chop, pineapple, loads of peppers, stock, spices).  20 minutes HIIT training.  Standing military press (30kg x 8, 40kg x 5, 2 sets of 45kg x 5), straight legged deadlifts (warmed up, training on 45kg 3x 8 reps).  2-3 min rests between sets.  Overall opinion - well the nuts were overboard but I was starving by that point facing a gym session.  Both exercises could be bumped up in weight a tad.

Day 2, learned from mistake and took extra fruit.  2 bananas, 2 oranges, more salad Nicoise, rest of the nuts, dinner was chicken breast marinated in piri piri with corn on the cob, green beans, carrots and a little morrocon cous cous.  Really didn't need the nuts but hell my muscles need fuel from the weights training.

Not too unhappy with my progress so far.  My hunger is reducing, right now it's 4:15 and I'm fairly full on 2 bananas, 2 oranges and 1 apple.  Sleep also better, getting a little more and feeling much better for it.

Not training tonight as the Worcester Warriors play off is on and it's an important one.  Might even have an ale or two.  2 whole days without beer...jeez what stamina.  I'll limit it to two, I promise.

...

The road less travelled

Time is up.  No more messing around.  I have 2 months left to get in shape.  I have gotten fitter over the past months (despite my woeful lack of posting) however I have not lost any fat.  This is for one reason alone.  Diet.  It's time to do this properly.  It's time to go Spartan.

I have mentioned the Spartan Health Regime before.  It is good.  It is effective.  It is once again to be taken up by myself.  I have often taken it up temporarily with success, but laziness and conveniance have always broken me.  No more.  I have been through a family tragedy very recently and it has woken me up.  I do not always have tomorrow to get started.  If I want to do something I should not forever be putting it off for tomorrow.  And thus I will be taking up the SHR once again.

First of all a disclaimer to readers.  I will be doing my best to keep the details of Bova's SHR off the blog.  I have no interest in stripping Bova of the rightful rewards he deserves for all the effort he has put in over the years to produce this.  I will aim to keep what I reveal here to be what is already in the public domain, such as Bova's videos.

Now to the details.  I will be cleaning up my diet.  This drinking bit isn't Spartan but it is my personal exception...  I will only drink Friday evening through to Sunday.  I will limit what I drink.  I will not drink crap.  I will only drink what I want to drink and I will not give in to pressure (internal and external) to finish drinks if I no longer want them.  I will not drink sugary crap.  I will try drink real ale or wine instead of other stuff.  I will cut down on bread.  I will cut down on potatos.  I will cut down on pasta.  I will up my fruit and veg intake significantly.  I will not eat refined sugar.  I will not eat dodgy oily products (bye bye crisps).  I will aim for a nutriet rich diet.  And while I will not obsess over calories, I'll be aware not to overeat generally.  The only acceptable exceptions to these rules are celebrations and eating out with family.  Neither happen often so it won't kill me, whereas not eating and drinking on these occaisions has pretty good odds of doing so.  Rugby 7's at Twickers is coming up and I will be making fine friends with the Guinness family. 

Exercise - I will get up early in the morning for light bodyweight training during the week.  I will go to the gym 3 times per week, where I will run hard and train hard.  I will not succumb to crappy machine weights unless I have to; I will stick to compound movements on free weights unless I have to wait too long to get onto the equipment.

Lifestyle - Ahh here is often the harder change...I will try get a good nights sleep.

So that's the outline.  What have I done so far?

Well, I made a fresh salad Nicoise for lunch, I've had fruit for breakfast and snacks.  This past weekend I've made a bone broth for stock which I'll use for next weeks lunch.  Tonight I'm at the gym.  As soon as these cod liver oil tablets are used up I'll get the extra high strength seven seas stuff in a bottle.  It may be vile tasting but it is much more nutritionally dense.  I may look at making a liver based dish once a week for lunch if I can find a none disgusting way to take it.  I will also be having raw eggs with milk for my post training nutrition, with whole milk when the semi-skimmed stuff runs out (can't get raw milk locally unfortunately).

That's it for now.  I'll update tomorrow.

The Fyrdman

Someone has stolen my wagon

I woke up on Thursday morning to find I was no longer on the fitness wagon.  On Friday morning I realised not only was the wagon missing but I was stranded in 'Monstrous Hangover Village'.  Only on Sunday did I finally catch a glimpse of my very battered cart.

Okay, so I broke last week.  Thoroughly.  Drinks on Wednesday night meant hunger through the morning sated with bacon sandwiches.  That evening was the works pub quiz, which led to numerous pints of Kronenburg and Becks.  Friday being Friday also involved drinks, as did the rugby led Saturday and Sunday.  Dear oh dear.  Scales showing no damage but lost training time is damage of it's own.

Finally hit the gym yesterday for a short session, rowing and running to get myself moving.  Tonight I'm having dinner out so no time for gym either :(  This week I'm looking at Tuesday, Thursday and either Friday & Saturday/or Sunday.  I'm just posting these now so I'm committed to at least 3 sessions this week if not 4.

Never going to hit my goals if this is going to happen every other week.

Sweating buckets

Good session last night.  Rowing, spinning, brief bodyweight training and stretching.  All hard, all good.

On the rowing machine I'm getting better and better.  A couple of weeks ago my personal best for the 2k row was 8:14.  Then I cut that to 8:13.  Last week I got it down to 8:06.  Last night?  7:57.2  I maintained an average of over 1000 kcals/per her.  I thought that was pretty damned good.  Of course I had to look around the web to see what was a good time.  Hmm, it seems people at rowing clubs do it under 6:25.  Dicks.  However I did check out the world records and I am faster than anyone in the over 85+ category.  Go me.  I did spend few minutes checking out the records on the rower itself though and couldn't see anyone in the past few weeks doing better than me, so I'll content myself with being the fastest rower at my gym.  To have used that machine.  In the last fortnight.

Mrs. Fyrdman wasn't feeling great at the start of the session so I decided to go for a race day on the spinning bike, 30 mins.  480+ kcals in 30 minutes, according to the machine anyway, so I'm happy with that. 

As I say, topped off with a mix of bodyweight exercises - squats, bicycle crunches, more squats, reverse plank, more squats, stretching. 

Yesterdays eating was pretty much identical to Mondays except for dinner and that I had a few chinese snacks (two prawn toast, 2 spring rolls and some weird parcel thing, all tiny versions) as a pre-gym snack to stop me falling over.  Dinner was stir fried veg with honey and sesame seed chicken.  Oh yeah, and a handful of grapes.

All in all, not bad.  Not bad at all.

Day 1's eating

First day's are never that difficult.  Still flush with enthusiasm it seems a breeze and you wonder why it ever falls apart.

Breakfast

Scrambled Egg on Toast, two eggs on 1 slice of Warbutons Seeded Batch (half loaf size), toast buttered with a little Lurpak.  Salt and pepper.  1 cup of tea.

Mid-Morning

1 Orange, small portion (no more than 20g) of Tesco's trail mix

Lunch

Salad Nicoise - Well my own anyway.  Half an iceberg lettuce, half a red onion, 1 grated carrot, handful of rocket, tuna, 1 boiled egg, 1 tablespoon of damned good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Afternoon

Apple.

Coffee, 4 Galaxy counters.  Okay it's chocolate but that's pretty restrained so no worries.

Dinner

Noah's Ark with Chantenay Carrots.  Oh yeah, that's the stuff, I could eat that till I die.

Tea.

That's it.  I was hungry this morning but it's not too bad and now it's time for lunch :)

Statistics

Date: 22/02/2011
Weight: 14 stone / 196lbs / 88.9kg

I'm hoping to have this down to 13 stone/182lbs/83.5kg by Friday 13th May.  12 weeks, 14lbs.  That's under 1.2lbs a week.  This should be doable.  If I stick to my training plans and a healthy diet frankly I'd expect to batter that target to a pulp.  On the other hand, Easter is in that time frame which means family gathering and plenty of wine.  I'll up the training a little either side of then to try and balance it out so I should stay ahead of the game. 

Later today I'll update this post with some measurements if I can find the tape...

New to the Blogroll

Just a quick post to bring to your attention a couple of newcomers to the blogroll down on your right.  One of them, Guido Fawkes blog, was a terrible ommission by yours truly when setting this site up.  His Westminster gossip is always informative, infuriating and most importantly very, very funny.

The second is Joe Abercrombie's blog.  For those unfortunate enough to have to yet read any of his work I cannot strongly recommend him enough.  His characters are familiar but corrupted archetypes from fantasy, blending classic Tolkein-style worlds with a harsh dose of reality and humour.  His blog is pretty good too, but it's there as much for notifying me for when his future books or book tours will be up and coming.

One of things I like so much about Joe's work may also be how very quotable some of his characters are, and I'll leave you with a couple of my favourites:

"A man sleeps through most of his life, even when awake. You get so little time, yet still you spend it utterly oblivious. Angry, frustrated, fixated on meaningless nothings. That drawer does not close flush with the front of my desk. What cards does my opponent hold, and how much money can I win from him? I wish I were taller. What will I have for dinner, for I am not fond of parsnips? It takes a moment like this to jerk us to our senses, to draw our eyes from the mud to the heavens, to root our attention in the present. Now you realise how precious is each moment. That is my gift to you."   Shenkt, Best Served Cold

"Once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than live with the fear of it." Logen Ninefingers, pretty much all of The First Law Trilogy

Heure de reprendre

Well, here I am again.  I had made good progress over time, cutting down by 10lbs in nearly two months.  It might not sound much but I was happy.  This was always going to be a slow, manageable drop.  And then, when I last piped up on this blog, I wasn't feeling well.  In fact, I felt like crap.  I lost about 6lbs in two weeks.  Not good.  And then, well Christmas started kicking in and I still wasn't particularly well.  I say all this as not as an excuse but as a reminder to myself that I was derailed by understandable causes so not to get disheartened; there is always time to get going once again.

January...less justifiable.  I think I went a grand total of 0 times in January.  I'll not bore you with why but that let's just say it was more than avoidable.  On the plus side what was also avoided was those gym packing, New Year's Resolutionaries who make training a misery.  They will sit with their friends going at a snails pace for an hour without breaking a sweat, monopolising kit that could be far better used.  Alternatively, they will fiddle with the equipment for ten minutes, be on it for two and then move on to the next one, again without a drop of hard work besmirching their foreheads.  Ahh well, they are gone in six weeks, and they are a necessary evil in order to effectively subsidise the regular users sessions. 

So now it's late February and I can't waste any more time.  And thankfully I haven't entirely anyway.  I have been re-engaging this month bit by bit.  Two sessions in the first week, then three, and last week four.  Last week also commenced the beginning of the diet improvements.  Cut out the rubbish while at work, drinking limited to Fri-Sun and moderated at that.  I've treated this all as a build up, to wake up my legs so they don't collapse into a pile of blubber after one good session.  And it seems to have done the trick.  On Saturday and Sunday I hit the spinning bike for an hour (Saturday) and 45 mins (Sun) after to mins of treadmill/rowing respectively.  Pushed hard each time, dripping with sweat, good stuff.  And today I don't feel so bad, only a few aches and pains.  Tonight is a night off (though planning on a long walk) so I should be good to go again tomorrow.

That's enough of the past, what's in store for the future?  Well as I have a holiday in Argeles, France this July I have a pretty damned convenient target.  It's a reasonable time frame and a motivating goal to keep in mind when I feel like slacking.  For those who haven't had the pleasure of going there, here is my favourite view...

Those are the Pyrenees mountains from the French side.  By July the place is as hot as a pasty Northerner like me can bare.  Good food, tennis, sun, boat rides to medieval towns, what more could I want?  Oh yeah, phenomenal quantities of wine, beer and pastis.  Heaven.

As I'd prefer to more fit than fat when I get there I have to get me arse in gear now.

So, what is the plan?  Highly boring I know but it'll be much like last years as that was proving effective.  I'm thinking cardio and core training until May/Mid-May then dropping the cardio to 20-30 mins a session and doing some solid compound training aiming for strength.

I'm also learning French for the first time since 2001 and have been using the brilliant Collins French with Paul Noble.  I've learned, and retained, so much in a short space of time with this set and frankly without all too much effort.  If any of the two readers left of this blog are looking for an efficient method of getting a really solid grounding in French, I couldn't recommend it enough.

Okay, advert over.  I'll come back tomorrow with actual stats and p'raps pictures too plus the deathly dull details of what I have eaten.  I'm sure your all on the edge of seats in anticipation.

I hear the sound of distant drums....

I hear a rumour of my sluggish return to the gym.  Stay tuned.