Florida Trip

We flew down to Tampa to visit my Dad for his 70th Birthday last week. The weather was 50/50 for us in terms of being warm but it was 100% fun. Kennedy Space Center, Golf, Tampa Brewery, spending time with family, what's not to like?
As a result of that trip. I had a couple of light weeks in terms of training which was fine. I also ate as if it was a holiday and enjoyed all of it.

When I got back, I drew up my training calendar all the way to IMMT 70.3 in June. Looking at the training schedule all at once made me realize just how much work goes into doing this. Not only the physical effort but the hours out of your week/month/year. Maybe this is the wrong attitude, but seeing just how much is planned kind of makes me feel better about missing a few here and there. It's basically a part time job, one that pays you in fitness. Heck, doing half of what's on that schedule is still pretty good!

Unfortunately for me, getting the workouts done is only part of the battle. The part of the whole fitness thing that I struggle with is keeping the calories down. It wasn't long ago that I was 230lbs, so most people look at me at 190 and say I look super fit. The reality is that 175 should probably be the high end of my range. I'm not certain of the low end. I don't think I've been there.

Fortunately, I'm pretty good at getting stuff done when there is a deadline. So once again, I've created a calendar with my weekly weight goals on it. That helps me keep my expectations realistic. It's too easy to get excited when you lose 4 pounds the first week and too disappointing when you gain 2 the next. When the truth is you've lost 2 in 2 weeks and that's pretty good.

Then I was thinking of what I could print up to post on the refrigerator. The first thing that came to mind was "Bring It!" which would be a bit of a twist to JFord's dedication to giving it his all during his workouts. My dedication would be directed towards my diet. So I've decided I'll write my end of month weight goal with that. Hopefully that will help keep me on track.

Oddly enough, on the train yesterday there was a new advertisement posted. It was a program/app from the American Cancer Society to help people quit smoking. I thought this was pretty clever and it's sort of what I need to keep me on track for my diet. Anytime I'm going to get something to eat, I'd launch the app and instead of telling me not to have a cigarette, it just needs to tell me "170 Bring It!"
(Their app is more clever than this) (I also don't own a smartphone).

I swam all 3 days of the 3 day weekend. 3000, 3500, 3000. Initially I thought it might be a bad idea. Surprisingly enough, I felt noticeably better each day and the times were there to prove it.
Also I'm enjoying the weight room workouts. I missed 2 while in Florida and I'm actually itching to get back to lifting. After golfing in Florida, I'm also itching to get to a driving range. (Can I fit that into the schedule?)

I also added a new tab at the top listing the books I've read. I read a bunch so I figured I'd throw that on here as well.

Hope to see a Marathon Race Report on here from Jim soon....