Friday, January 21, 2011

Weight/Weights/Steelers

This morning I had my lowest weigh in since I started (late November). Which is good. I’m still not caught up with the curve on the graph tho’. I knew when I started that I wasn’t likely to get much ahead of the curve. I can definitely say being behind the curve has been a bit frustrating but this week I allowed it to become a motivator. I have had a few really low calorie days this week, as in 1500 calories on days with workouts. I just wasn’t hungry. This was not by plan. Looking at my nutritional balance on those days, the protein/fat/carb balance is nearly the same as it always is. The difference was likely the lack of simple carbs. Instead of having my sweet potato/black bean lunch, I had salad. Also, going into a workout, I’d eat a GU if I felt there was no way I was going to survive the workout without it. Otherwise I’d skip the energy bars/gels.

I’m not convinced that was the difference maker. Sometimes I feel the body fights to hang on to the weight, so you are at a plateau of sorts. Then suddenly it realizes it can’t hang on, it changes how it’s processing everything and you break through.

A purist would say calories in vs. calories out. Which is what it all boils down to. It’s just that we try to understand all the nuances of our diet so that we can properly fuel and fine-tune the machine. (I can’t help but think about Shawn’s nutrition for his first Tango swim. Not sure that was ever documented)

Obviously there are a ton of variables. The biggest hurdle in losing weight in my opinion is the “feel factor”. Nobody likes to feel hungry, or weak because of a diet. Those messages from the body can be pretty intense. I find it odd that I often miss those signals during a swim workout. If it’s a speed workout with short rest, I sometimes find myself feeling pretty jittery once I’m done and out of the pool.


I am 13 weeks into the training schedule and I think I can say I no longer dread the weight lifting workouts. They have become routine. It’s really hard to see my improvements on the bike and run right now. With the weights, the improvement is easy to see, also I can just feel the improvement, which is nice.

There are two exercises that I have to be cautious with. Pull-ups: this is the one where I messed up my bicep last year. So I do multiple sets with very few reps. I still feel a strain on my left forearm near my elbow but my bicep has not been an issue. I’ll admit on nights when I’m feeling strong, I have to fight the urge to do a max set to see how many I can do. After doing 3 or 4 sets of low reps. I then do a few sets of negatives (start at the top and lower slowly).

The other is the bench press. My right wrist doesn’t seem to like pushing a bar. Last night I took 20 pounds off of what I had been doing, just to see if it would make a difference. It didn’t. I’m now considering removing bench press from the list and replacing it with push-ups. My wrist doesn’t seem to have a problem doing push-ups.

I’d like to figure out what I need to change/improve so I wouldn’t have to modify the workout. Unfortunately, the answer could be “I’m old”. So I’ll be happy with the modifications and hope to stay injury free. As Dirty Harry would say “A man’s got to know his limitations”


New York is all fired up about the Jets/Steelers game this weekend. They even had a rally in Times Square for them. Did any of the other teams do this in their cities?

For those who don’t know, I’m originally from western PA. So I’ll be rooting for the Steelers not the Jets. Even tho’ I work in NYC. It has the potential to be a good game here is how I see the matchup.

Looking at both team’s offense and defense, I think the Jets Offense is the weakest link. Unless they get help from their Special Teams and Defense giving them good field position. The Jets offense won’t put many points on the board.

The only concern I have for the Steelers is turnovers. Typically not an issue, but the Jets D will be fired up. (They are talking shutout. Ha!) I feel that with both Defenses being as good as they are, this game could be won with as few as 17-21 points.

I have yet to watch an entire game all season. I’m looking forward to Sunday!

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