Training Log

For those that have stumbled onto this blog, I am a little scattered and not very good at keeping up with it. I rarely flag anything and when I did there was more traffic. But seeing that I am not doing this for the traffic, who cares

If I put in my head that this will be a record of my training with some of the other stuff mixed in then I'll probably do better so here we go.

I am still working on Z2 or as it used to be called LSD. Today was an early morning trip to the gym to use a treadmill. Since the treadmill in my house is worn out and the motor won't stay constant, I've given up on it an head to the gym. Maybe I should look into fixing it seeing that my wife won't let me replace it because it works for her. With that aside, back to the workout. I planned on 40 minutes of Z2 cardio and was tooling along fine until the 26 minute mark. At that point my right knee began to bother me so I called it at 30 minutes. The problem I've run into in the past is that I over do it and these little nagging injuries keep me from making any real progress. So to stay in it for the long haul, it was better to end it at that point.

On the food front, yesterday and last night were good. I didnt' overeat and what I did eat was well balanced. Not as many vegetables as I wanted at lunch but I think dinner made up for that.

For dinner it was a green smoothie. My son helped to make it and chose what ingredients we would put in. We started with a blender full of spinach, added a banana, some cherry tomatoes and apples. He loved watching the blender shred things. I tried to get him to lick it, but that didn't go over well. By the time he stopped running I had already poured it into a bottle. We did end up with a little extra fiber in the smoothie due to being over zealous with a wooden spoon. Needless to say the spoon is shorter and I am sure I've ingested the majority of it.

Breakfast has been oatmeal and some Fig Newman's again, only enough to curb the appetite. Now to just keep it up.

I was just thinking about my moods lately. In the past, co-workers would ask me why I was in such a good mood and my quick response was always the same thing. "Today I am going to change the World". That response was because I believe that even very small contributions can make an impact on the world. Recently I haven't been living with that type of attitude. That was until I heard someone describe the participants in the Boston Marathon as people that "Live Beyond The Ordinary". that phrase immediately struck a cord with me and I had to write it down less I forget it all together. I like it so much that I plan on designing a T-Shirt with it and hopefully will have a poster in each of my boys rooms with that on it.

Okay back to real life and time to stop rambling.

Go out and make a change today and remember "LIVE BEYOND THE ORDINARY"

Back At It

Just a quick post. I can't believe that this is my first post of the year and that I only posted twice last year. Let's change that by makeing them quick and as short as they need to be. Who know's maybe I'll just ramble until they are as long or longer then before......

After going I got in bed the other night, I felt a pain in my chest. A very minor pain but a pain nun the less. This was after I had stayed up late that night to watch a hockey game and I was the last one to go to sleep in the house. This was one of those moments where you come to realize that something must change.

With two young boys, I want to be around awhile. My last physical was good, but my cholesterol was a little high. With heart desease running in my family something has to be done about this. In the past I've relied on excersise to get my numbers down and I plan on the same thing but I also plan on getting my diet in order.

The young boys aren't making it easy to clean up the diet. They are fussy eaters so the menu is limited. If I am going to do this I must break away from the family and eat my own food.

Here's the plan. I want to change the balance of food on my plate. Instead of a hearty portion of meat or protein, I plan on substituting vegitables. I am also looking to eliminate wheat from my diet. This means the elimination or the replace my beloved plain pasta with gluten free varieties. The holes and questions I have are; Do I give up beer? Should I eliminated Dairy and Wheat completely or just limit the consumption of them? For now, I am just going to limit them and see how that goes.

The other part of the plan is going to be the old tried and true activity of cardio excersise. I haven't completely stopped my cardio workouts, but life has gotten in the way recently and I've fallen off the wagon. I started the year out good and was making progress. That progress is gone. Normally I would just start back in where I left off, but I need to change something about my cardio or I'll just let life get in the way again and stop. So this time it is back to the basics. LSD or Z2 training is where it is going to be. That means that today for my half hour cardio workout, I kept my heartrate down in Zone 2. This ment that I only was able to walk at a brisk pace. I am good with that for now. In the near future that may not be the case but it is good now. Some people say limit your workout to the point where you question the value of it.

I am also going to change when I workout. It's been relatively easy to get a half hour in at lunch time, but I would like to stretch that out to an hour. To do that it looks like I'll need to head out of the house early in the morning and hit the gym and if I am needed at home to help get the boys off to school then I'll need to run home after my workout. If I start early enough than that shouldn't be an issue.

So in summary the workouts are going to be longer and early in the morning. The diet is going to change to become a majority of vegitables if not completely. I really want this to work for me and my family, So Wish Me Luck.