Locked Back

School break means short lunch hours and a change in workouts. I was prepared to spend my short lunches walking at the wellness center. Monday was lunch with my boss - no workout. Tuesday I forgot my shoes - no workout. Wednesday, I was sitting on the floor with Aerna at the daycare and my back locked up. I barely made it to my office and then to the chiropractor 3 long hours later. Ice, tylenol and some anti-inflamatories have made great improvement but I am still sore. Hopefully, by Monday I will be able to take care of Aerna again.

It just brings back how much I need to stretch. I am not 25 any more.

Body Composition

I have a electrical impedence body fat scale (tanita) that I like very much. It has one settings for athlete and adult. Unfortunately, I fall somewhere in between so neither is quite accurate. I still like it for reference but once and a while I like to get a real body fat test.

The Wellness Center on campus has a BodPod which is like a water displacement test but it uses air instead of water. It is pretty cool. I will spare you the rant about my difficulties trying to schedule the test with the Wellness Center. Anyway my percent fat was 27.9%. My scale was 31% on the same morning. Lean mass is 105.938 lbs.

I won't spare the rant on the BMI. Many BMI calculators merely give a number and say you are overweight. The BMI is not meant for individual assessment and classifies healthy muscular people as overweight. The "healthy range" for my height according to the BMI calculator is 107-141 lbs. At a 141 lbs I am about 25% body fat - but at 107 lbs, I am 1% body fat. Hardly healthy. In fact women should not be under 15% or, for me, 124.6 lbs. Imagine the damage that could be done to someone suseptable to an eating disorder with this garbage!

Training Over Lunch

Success is dependent on training on the days that you would really like to skip. Today was one of those days but thankfully, I persisted and had a great workout.

Working out over lunch is tough. I have been using the iTrain 20 minute podcasts to get an intense workout in a short time - I pad them a little for a 25 minute run. That and some 35 minute runs have been successful so far. I know that I am going to have to add some longer runs but I haven't figured out where that time is going to come from yet. For now this is working for me.

I have been trying to get a body fat test from the Wellness Center. Customer service is not their strong suit. That coupled with some equipment failure has delayed the test but I am hoping to schedule it next week. I have a tanita body fat scale but I would like some independent confirmation before I get serious about goals. It has been high in the past but I am not as athletic as I once was.

I have lost a couple of pounds since starting at the Wellness Center in September. I don't notice it in my clothes much yet but it is encouraging to see the scale go down instead of up for a change.

Catching up

Such a long neglected blog. In September, I joined the gym on campus. I run on the treadmill over my lunch hour. It is better than nothing but it is very rushed and I am frequently late getting back. On the plus side though, I can already see improvements in my fitness. The first time I had difficulty I couldn't do 3 miles at an 11 minute pace but now I have cut it down to around 10:20 on good days. I look at old running logs and I see some sub 9 minute runs. It would be great to get back to where I could complete 4 miles in the 35 minute treadmill time.

I am also making use of the iTrain podcasts. The ones that I have been using are 20-25 minutes long - perfect for a lunch hour. I have only done the beginner workouts but they are quite challenging for me.

The pushups and squats have gone by the wayside. I plan to get back on the push-up horse soon. I really like the way it makes me feel - and the way it makes my arms look.

adding 200 squats

The 100 push up challenge continues. I am repeating week one and I may do so again next week. I am not in a hurry to complete the program. I don't even care if I make it to 100 - but I would really like to be able to do 50 pushups in a set.

I did the test for the 200 squat challenge. I was pleased that I could do 40. That puts me in the advanced column. I will have to have Ben check my form but I am looking forward to adding this to the workout.

After the squat test I went for a walk (2.2 miles around campus). My legs felt week starting out but I quit thinking about it as the walk progressed. I am looking forward to 1 hour lunches so that I can get to the wellness center and try running. I will start that in September. In the mean time the walks are going well and I have been pretty regular with them.

I am still stuck at 149+ pounds. Not worried though. The combination of exercise and proper eating will pay off in wellness if not skinniness ;-).

100 pushups

I am back into active training mode now that Ben's class is over until September. I started the 100 push-up challenge (http://hundredpushups.com) which I am logging at the push-ups logger (http://www.pushupslogger.com). There is such a wealth of training tools online.

I had been slowly but steadily losing weight but woke up Monday morning as heavy as I had ever been (152 lbs). Drastic measures have been taken. I am now "on the wagon" as we say, logging all of my food at FitDay (www.fitday.com) and walking on my lunch hour (1/2 hour for summer). When we go to regular hours, I plan to join the wellness center and expand my workouts to running and rowing.

weight note

149 lbs 32%

no formal workouts

I haven't had a formal workout in some time. I get off at 4PM for the summer so Aerna and I have been more active. Monday was a holiday and I took Thursday and Friday off to clean the basement. Tuesday and Wednesday rained so we didn't even bike to school. Oak Grove is open now and Aerna likes to go there and "ride the slide" or swing. It is a nice walk - according to Gmaps Pedomenter it is about .65 miles each way. Not much but it is better than sitting on the couch.
Thursday 149.5 lbs 33% BF
Friday 148.5 lbs 33% BF (recorded here because MySportTraining is still on my work computer.

stroller rides

Aerna love stroller rides - bless her. We went on two yesterday for a total of 5.2 miles and 80 minutes. Every little bit helps. Rode the bike in this morning. I should have a tail wind coming and going. Just the opposite tomorrow though. We are on summer hours now and I didn't pack my lunch.

back form the dead

I deleted this blog only to resurrect it again out of frustration with my workout routine. Rowing has been completely derailed. First with a flood that had me exhausted from sandbagging followed by a very bad cold. Finally, housework and family was short changed when I was rowing. I promised not to row in the evenings when my spouse was going to school.

So there it is. My new schedule is to do chores until 9PM and then relax a bit before bed. Not much room for exercise. On the plus side Aerna and I ride the bike and sidecar to work most days. I am walking 2 miles on my lunch hour a couple of times a week. Next week we go to half hour lunches so the choice will be walk, eat or see Aerna. I hope to walk 3 times a week.

I thought the weight loss was going okay this week but today my weight is as high as ever (152 lbs).

less vitamin M

There is surprisingly little to write about my rowing program. I have continued the program set up by row pro and completed most of the rows on time. My neck and shoulders have been very sore. I have survived with motrin (vitamin M) and a hot pack. It is getting better now. Tonight rowpro crashed 5 minutes into the row. I could recover the row off the log card and discovered that I could upload the meters from my warm-up and cool-down. A little boost to make 1 million meters.

I have only lost a pound or two but thankfully I have stopped gaining!

On the bright side

The goal of the rowing program was to get in shape and loose a few pounds. Have have gained 2 pounds. On the bright side I am getting better at rowing. 2:30 for 500m was about as well as I could do. Tonight I did a 20 minute row and averaged 2:22.8 sec/ 500m. Now, this doesn't even get me to the 50th percentile for rowing as ranked on the Concept 2 web site but it is good progress for a little over a month of rowing.

Not so good week

The wheels fell off my training plan this week. I made up my Tuesday workout on Wednesday but tutored a friend in physics on Thursday and missed another workout. Saturday I spent some much needed down time with my spouse. Sunday I said to hell with it and did Sunday's workout. There is no way I can make up the two that I missed. I did a 30 minute row which I ranked just for fun. I am 163rd of 230. It is a start.

Continued Progress?

I am one day behind on my training program but I hope to catch up before next Monday. My efficiency is up but so is my weight. I am going to have to supplement with some other activities if this is going to be a weight loss program. I have said for a long time that 300 minutes a week is what is required. Right now I am around 100 minutes a week. I the trick is where do you squeeze another 3 and a half hours out of the week without short changing somebody. My toddler is sleeping better so perhaps that will provide a few extra morning or evening minutes.

introductory rows done

I see now why RowPro gives 2 weeks of introductory rows in the training program. I have learned quite a lot about stroke rate and how to row. Now the real work begins.

on the Rowed

I missed rowing yesterday but made up the workout tonight. I was looking at a video of rowing technique and apparently I am still not doing it correctly. Legs, arms, arms, legs. I am releasing my legs to early. I am not sure what difference this will make but I am trying to get the rhythm. Tonight I think I exaggerated the other way.
Concept 2 has a nice page on rowing technique.

Stroke Rate

I rowed last night despite some unplanned projects. It is a good thing I am still on the short rows in the training program.

I am experimenting with the stokes per minute (spm). There is a video on CrossFit explaining that there is an optimal stroke rate for each individual. Too fast and you are essentially braking yourself. I am trying to row at a slower rate which is not as easy as it sounds. My speed actually increased. Rowing is deceptive. I looks so simple but there is a lot of technique to learn for optimal performance. CrossFit exercises page is a great source for technical information.

Rowed to Fitness

After my daughter was born, I knew my trips to the gym would be few and far between. I bought a Concept 2 rowing machine because it is the most efficient indoor equipment available. I figured 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, getting back into shape would be no problem. Ha! 10 minutes is time pick up the living room; 20 minutes - do the dishes.

My baby is 16 months old now and I am recommitted to making workouts work. I am only a few pounds heavier than when I got pregnant. I actually lost all of the pregnancy weight and more the first 9 months of breastfeeding but it has been creeping back.

The goal is to get back to "fighting weight" (under 63KG) and more important regain my cardiovascular and muscle fitness. I ran the Fargo Half Marathon in 2006 and had hoped to repeat in 2009. That is looking doubtful now but I want to be in that kind of shape by summer.

I bought RowPRo and set up a training program. So far so good but the demands have been very low.