Today’s run: 7/15/2013

Distance: 6.3 miles (total)
Pace: varied
Conditions: indoor on the trendy 1% incline

So much for running everyday last week. A lot went on that kind of derailed my fitness agenda (like funerals and sinus infections & other miserable things) but I won’t get into that here. I’ll recap it on Sunday in the week 5/6 summary for my lean out fitness challenge (sorry for the lack of update/pics this past Sunday…but really more important things were going on). Anyway, yesterday was Monday and on Monday I work arms. I also knew I needed to do a bit of running to work off that repast cake that I ate on Saturday. I ended up doing 4 x 1mile repeats before  strength training. The goal for each repeat was to be well under 10min/mile pace. What actually ended up happening was phenomenal…I got 9’53” / 9’28” / 9’24” / and 9’21” for each mile. Booooyah!

I then did my lift which was brutal considering I was already kinda pooped from the mile repeats. Luckily it was only an arm day because my legs couldn’t have lifted a feather.

After lifting I went back to the tready and set it on ‘custom intervals’ to complete 90sec of 5.5mph pace and 30sec of 8.0mph pace. This was about 2 miles. Toss in my 0.3 mile warmup jog and we have a great day of running!

It’s supposed to be hot this week so I’ll probably be doing quite a bit of treadmill running. Trying to stay spot on the diet and fitness this week so that I can make some serious progress and make up for a few of the chuckholes life sprinkled on my road this month.

Hopefully life cooperates.

Today’s Run: 7/8/2013

Distance: 2.04 miles
Pace: 9’38″/mile
Route: Indoor on the tready
HOT AS HADES IN THE GYM!

I’ve decided to commit to running at least 2 miles every day this week to make up for a semi glutinous week of 4th of July vacation (by glutinous I mean I ate probably my maintenance calories or better for a few days without watching my macros). Enter the 2 mile Monday jog. I had plans to go to spinning class, then lift (arms), then jog 2 miles. However, something was going on with the spin bikes and all of the displaced spinning folk were monopolizing the treadmills so I decided I’d lift weights first.

When I lift upper body I do arm circles and arm swings to lubricate the joints a bit. I also do a few 30 second jump rope intervals to warm up my body and let my muscles know that we’re about to get working. My arm workout was brutal since I have increased the weights and am now bicep curling and doing tricep kickbacks with the 17.5lb dumbbells for 5 sets of 15 reps. After the arm workout, I moved grabbed an open treadmill (the spinners were still at work, so I was lucky to grab one) and did the 2 mile run. I had taken most of my pre-workout drink during my lift (planned to take it towards the end of spinning to get a pump for lifting), so I was starting to feel a little bit of an adrenaline buzz. A simple 2 mile jog was not going to cut it anymore. I decided I would run the first mile at a moderate pace and run the second mile a bit faster. I ended up going 9’47″/mile for mile 1 and 9’28″/mile for mile 2.

After the run, I hopped on the stair climber for 15 minutes @ level 5: // left side sideways for 2 minutes (to target the hips, inner thighs/adductors) // right side sideways for 2 minutes // forward for 7 minutes // left side sideways for 2 minutes // right side sideways for 2 minutes //

Between the stairclimber and runnign I was a sweaty mess…but I still had 25 minutes on the elliptical to get a total of a little under 1hr of cardio.

I think that dropping almost 10lbs of fat/fluff/water weight has helped me to pick up the pace quite a bit for my runs. From lifting, my legs are definitely stronger (I lift legs 3 times/week) so that helps a bunch. Also, because of my fitness goals, I’m focusing on shorter distance runs (1-5 miles) as opposed to the longer runs because my goal is to be able to do quality speed play and efficiently torch calories vs. work on muscle endurance. I just got a notification about reduced pricing for the Cleveland Perfect 10 miler though…so maybe I’ll make an exception just to get some racing miles in this year.

We’ll have to see.

Week 4: jersey shore without funnel cake :(

My goodness this past week flew by way too fast. I was on vacation in New Jersey ( then fan lives there and I’m too poor for a vacation to a real desirable destination). My boyfriend and I drove down (7-8hr trip) and stayed them whole week.

It is beyond difficult to maintain a healthy diet if you rely on restaurants and travel centers. On the trip there I packed protein (17egg whites), meal replacement bars (cliff builders in peanut butter) and a bag of romaine lettuce (for something crunchy). Now when I say a bag of romaine lettuce please know that I mean I washed 3 large romaine hearts and stuck them in a bag. Classy.

I stuck to my macros for the first 4 days of vacation. My parents (who are the typical concerned, often overbearing parents who had modern American nutrition habits) were very concerned by my eating. The fact that I needed to eat every few hours, the fact that I wouldn’t eat rice, or chips or cakes. When we got there my mom had prepared chili, rice, corn bread and collard greens and asked me in a concerned voice ” you can’t eat chili?” We’ll, I can, but I’m sure she added 80/20 chuck instead of 93/7 turkey as the meat, and I’m sure it was high in sodium.

All in all it was great to be at home with my family. I got to see my grandmother any my cousin. My boyfriend had a good time as well. I was able to secure us a gym to workout for 20$ for the whole week so we got all of our workouts in. The highlight for me was that on chest day I hit 115 on the bench for 1 (I did this at the end of my workout so I wasn’t fresh) my boyfriend spotted me for negatives too so I actually did 1 rep +a forced rep. I love being strong…well stronger than yesterday.

My diet broke down on the 4th of July when I decided not to log calls or macros no just live a little. I avoided junk food (no cake no pop no candy etc) but I did have some BBQ (chicken and ribs) a few plain tortillas with salsa, and fruit. I kept this loose diet until Saturday so basically I had 3 days where I ate over 1300 calories and have no clue what my macros were. Typically I’d feel guilty about all of this but I was still pretty clean and that guilt only brings about negative habits for me so I’m just going to move on.

I was super proud of myself though because on Friday, my boyfriend and I visited Seaside Heights and walked the boardwalk. I have amazing childhood memories of is place. Sadly, fun town is competent destroyed (there was a gaping hold still in the boardwalk in that area…thankfully they ha e taken the roller coaster out of the ocean). The rest of the boardwalk has been rebuilt though for the most part. Shout out to Michele Obama for nailing in that crucial board (:~p ). One of the best things about the boardwalk is the junkfood. Funnel cake, salt water taffy, candy apples, gargantuan slices of pizza, Italian hot dogs. I had none of this. I watched as my boyfriend ate a slice of pizza. I brought 3 candy apples for my mom, dad and brother. I practiced self control. I felt good.

On Saturday we drove back to Cleveland and I subsisted on protein bars and chicken. On Sunday I got in my bonus leg workout and meal prepped. I decided that since the week was off a little, I’d skip progress pics but I did take measurements:

Weight: 138
Neck: 14
Waist: 27.8
Hips: 38.9
Body fat %: 27%

I plan to hit this week hard. I am going to do mostly running and spinning classes for my cardio and try and get at least 2 miles of running in everyday and 60 total minutes of cardio. I also have quite a bit of work to do for school this week. I’m in the process of wrapping up my phd research and prepping for my public dissertation defense. This means I have to finalize my dissertation document, make sure that I have everything ready for returning to the clinical portion of my training and somehow box up and archive 5 years of research notes, data, protocols and reagents in the lab. It’s a busy time, but exciting also…and it’s certainly much more pleasant to do it in a body that I’m growing to love. 🙂

Till next time, eat clean, train mean!

That time I hired a personal trainer…

Over the past few years I’ve been frustrated with my lack of commitment to fitness and staying on top of my weight loss goals. I’ve yo-yo’ed up and down hovering around 140lbs +/- 5lbs for the last year and a half (save the Bikram yoga 60 day challenge when I lost about 10lbs and ended up @125…my lowest weight since starting medical school. I gained that back in about 2-3 months so I’m betting most of it was water and my BF% actually went up during that time, so I’m sure I lost muscle.

Well…I can’t play with my yo-yo anymore and the way I see it, you can either do something about your frustrations or sit around like a turd complaining. Turds are gross…and turds with weight and yo-yo diet issues become F-A-T. If fat is your thing, cool…it’s not mine.

I thought back to the times when I have actually seen big fitness goals through. Running th Cleveland half marathon and completing the Bikram yoga 60 day challenge. During both of those times I saw the whole thing through mostly because I was invested…financially. As a poor graduate student on a fixed income, anything that I pay money for is something I’m going to probably end up using and getting the most out of because money is a limited commodity around these parts.

So here’s the leap of faith that I took. I dropped a couple of benjamins on a personal trainer. The trainer I picked is Dave Liberman. He trains out of Titan’s Gym in Mentor, Ohio and so far he’s been awesome. He wrote up a nutrition and workout plan for me and I plan to train 1-on-1 with him every 2-3 weeks. Poor guy has already answered about a thousand questions from me and spent a good 2+ hours with me during our first training session. My quads still haven’t quite recovered.

Starting point:

After looking @ my pics, Dave says “you have some muscle there you just need to change the way you train and eat to lean out a bit” I’m taking a leap and posting these before pics as my starting point. As you can glean from the pics, I’m bottom heavy and slightly overfat (read: soft) for my 5’3 frame.

Stay lean starting point

Numbers wise, I’m 147lbs and 29% body fat. That means 104lbs of lean mass and 43lbs of butter…eeeew. My neck is 14.5in, my hips are 40in (BABY GOT BACK), and my waist is 28in.

Goals:

My I goals are the same as they were when I started the blog. I want to lose fat without losing a crap ton of muscle. I remember walking in the supplement section of whole foods ine day and seeing a woman with phenomenal arms. Visible full muscle bellies, very little fat, a little bit of vascularity. I was moved to tell her how fab her arms were…and I never talk to people in whole foods. I looked at this woman’s arms and could tell that she worked out; it wasn’t just genetics and she wasn’t just a skinny minnie. THAT’S WHAT I WANT. Not the public acknowledgement per se, but I certainly would like to go sleeveless and feel like I project an image of fitness and healthy eating. I want to look healthy.

Numbers wise: I’m looking to lose about 27lbs (goal weight =120lbs); about 4in from my waist (goal waist = 24in); about 6in from my hips (goal hips = 34in – baby will still have back). Using these numbers my body fat will be in the low teens.

Resources:

I can’t share my training and nutrition programs just out of respect for Dave. Since I pay him for his help it would be inappropriate for me to provide his product for free on the interwebs. What I will do however is point you in his direction. So far he’s been awesome and he does purely online training/coaching. Any routines that I come up with, I’ll continue to share 🙂

I use measuring tape to estimate my body fat. I use the us navy method that takes into account waist, hip and neck measurements. I also have a scale that has an electrical impedance body fat measure, but i just use that when i weigh myself daily to make sure that I’m moving in right direction on the progress scale. The link is here.

Today’s Run(s): 5/15/2013

Distance: 2 miles

Pace: 9’30/mile average (speed intervals)

Location: Campus gym, indoors and HUMID AS ALL GET OUT

 

Today I did double duty workouts. I did leg day in the morning (heavy power lifts mostly like squats/deadlifts and some accessory stuff like leg extensions and leg curls). Then I worked back/biceps and shoulders in the evening. After my evening workout I did 2 miles of speed intervals where I ran at 6min pace for a minute and then cranked it up to as fast as I could handle for 30 seconds. During a few intervals I got up to 10mph but as the legs started to turn to jello the speed started to decline. (No reason flying off the back of a treadmill).

My love hate-relationship with the treadmill continues…

Today’s Run: 4/22/2013

Distance: 5miles

Pace: 10’30”/mile

Route: Cleveland Metroparks

50 degrees, windy, sunshine

Early morning run through the Metroparks. Thank God the sunshine is gracing us with her presence at earlier times and the weather is turning. Spring is finally springing…and it’s about time! Took it easy pace-wise. No pain in my tendons.

Today’s Run: 3/14/2013

Distance: 3.17

Pace: 9’50″/mile

Cleveland Metroparks

Outside, Sunny,  but cold.

I’ve been in a funk for the last 2 days –  just general frustration with the way that life is going right now. I feel I play the role of “fixer” in all of the relationships that I’m in (friends, family and whatnot). If people have problems, need money, need a place to store their shit, need a person to interrogate about random medical problems that I haven’t been trained to deal with yet, need someone to help them design their clinical trial or troubleshoot or plan experiments, need an inappropriate target for their misplaced anger…they call me…otherwise, my phone doesn’t ring. I wish I could say that I was exaggerating…and maybe in hindsight, I’ll look back on this time and see things differently but right now…that’s just how I feel.

Anyway, the problem with being the  resident “fixer” is that all these well meaning people that dump their crap on you seem to be absent or worse…insensitive when you have an issue of your own. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have listened to someone complain about their problems for years only to find that when you go to them with their frustrations that they say things like “Oh, but you’ll be ok.” Well duh I’ll be ok eventually, but right now I want you to show me the same level of empathy that I show you. I want you to act as though you understand that in this moment, I feel like this thing that I’m going through is the end of my world. I want you to acknowledge that I’m frustrated, sad, angry, depressed…whatever the emotion. I want you to realize that dismissing my feeling with an, “Oh, but you’ll be ok” says, in my moment of anguish, that you don’t care – even though I know you’re probably intending to merely acknowledge my feigned strength and resilience.

1….2….3…..SIGH

Anyway, I am thankful for the ability to exercise through my funk. For 2 hours every day during my workouts I feel like a whole person. I feel strong capable and in-control…it’s totally worth the DOMS, the fatigue, and the tortuous ice baths to have just a moment, however fleeting of peace. I wasn’t supposed to run today but given that last night was the equivalent of the titanic hitting the iceberg and I’m a huge nerd and today is Pi day and Albert Einstein’s birthday I decided I would at least get 3.14 miles in. I ran at rocky river which is my favorite place in Cleveland to run. It’s so peaceful out there…a winding 26+ mile riverside trail of trees. The run didn’t change my life at all…and frankly, it didn’t even alter my perspective on things. I’m still the fixer and I still need to be fixed my damn self…but 30 minutes of endorphins and beautiful scenery did make me feel better. Exercise is my drug, I guess.

Happy Running!

Happy Birthday Albert Einstein!

Happy Pi day!

Today’s Run: 2/23/2012

Distance: 6.35 miles

Pace: 9:55/mile (negative split run)

Route: Around the neighborhood out and back

Outside, Friggin Cold and headwind on the “back”

Ran outside for this morning’s 6 mile effort. It’s so friggin COLD but I guess I finally grew a pair…and by that I mean I’m so bored with treadmill intervals for workouts longer than 3 or 4 miles. I ran this route with positive splits for 6 miles into a headwind:

mile 1: 10’53″/mile ; mile 2: 10’12″/mile ; mile 3: 9’48″/mile ; mile 4: 9’35″/mile ; mile 5: 9’33″/mile ; mile 6: 9’31/mile. Jogged it home for the final 0.35.

I also did about a mile warmup and cool down before and after my back/bicep and shoulder workout. 7+ today. Iced my knees this evening and they are feeling awesome. Might run again tomorrow…but also thinking about trying a ‘1000 reps workout’…just because it seems crazy hard and who doesn’t love a challenging workout.

 

Today’s Run: 2/21/2013

Distance: 3.65 miles

Pace: 9:00/mile

Route: Campus Gym, Treadmill 1% incline

 

3.1 mile run + 0.5 mile cool down after chest and triceps workout. Not much to add other than that. Another day another workout.

Today’s run: 2/16/13

Distance: 10.08 miles

Pace: long slow steadystate

Outside, light dusting of snow underfoot and SO COLD

Route: Around the neighborhood

I didn’t have the heart to take my long steady state cardio talents to the treadmill this morning so I ventured outside into the frigid temps and cranked out 10 miles. It wasn’t snowing during my run but there was a nice dusting of untouched powder on the ground and it was about 20 degrees. The route was uphill for 6 miles and downhill for 4 miles…very gradual hill-age so it’s not as bad as it sounds. I actually ended up with a major positive split (did the first 5 under 50 min and the second 5 took me a little over an hour). The reason for this is that the downhill really was aggravating my IT band today so I ended up stopping frequently to stretch that bad boy out. My 10 miles were up about 1.6 miles away from home (when I started out I intended to go for a 20k/12miler) so I ended up doing a leisurely recovery walk back. And by leisurely I mean…COLD!

*Unsolicited digression* – So most of the time I make up a running playlist for my ipod when I run with music but today I decided to just push random and see what comes up. I have the oddest and most deliciously awful taste in music (Imagine a mashup of Top 40, Prince, 1990s Outkast, Linkin Park, Coldplay, and The Roots sprinkled with a little Adele and Priscilla Renae….yea it’s weird). Anyway as I started my last mile the song Numb by linkin park came on and it just made me laugh out loud…because I was at that point (with the exception of an occasional twinge in my IT band) NUMB. *End unsolicited digression*

I thawed out with 30 min of foam rolling in front of my heater. Might take a rest day tomorrow instead of running just so I don’t have ITBFS issues again….ain’t nobody got time for that!