Startin' the week propa'

Weighed in at about 196 today. That's after breakfast. i expect i'm doing some crazy glycogenoneogenesis...'specially after yesterday. And i'm ok with that. If i've gotta' have weight, then that's the weight i need. Still have plenty of lard to lose to get me below 190.

Yesterday i dragged out m' cycling gear and i actually did an hour on the ol' QR. That is what i was made for! i'm afraid i have not fulfilled my purpose in life. There is just no pain i get off on quite like that. In fact, i'm not sure there is any other pain quite like that. Nothing torches yer quads and hams at the same time quite like clipless pedals up a stiff hill. Yeah, it occurred to me during the ride that i could not remember the last time i'd activated any of my quadriceps in a coordinated, forceful effort. It was a perfect day, and the wind was outta the north, so it was a very encouraging first ride. It amazes me every time i go out how hard it is for me to get my butt on the saddle and out the door compared with how much i love life when i'm out there. Anyhow, hopefully i can pick up a regular habit of it and get in shape for it before it's too cold to be barely getting in shape.

Then i went in and lifted. Started out well enough, but halfway through deads i got into a conversation with a feller about politics, and that consumed all my time. i'm hoping to get back in today for the rest of it. Otherwise, i might figure out how to replace everything i've been doing with my rings. Except for the deadlifts. i think it'd be possible to mimic deads on rings, but it'd be frightful hard. So today: more back work (and hopefully a stealthy spell of climbing.)

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Personal Note:

Did get that climbin' sesh in. Couldn't boulder worth a crud, so i got on toprope and (supposedly) flashed a .10 and a couple of .11s. i don't think any of 'em were rated correctly, but i'll take what i can get for my puny ego.

i think i'll have...ummm..the eggs, please. And some vegetables.

So i climbed yesterday (which i mentioned), but i went to the irongym and worked chest instead of running. i'm starting to get a li'l broken down. Did flat and incline DB bench, and my right shoulder had that ice-pick-in feeling again. Not that it was a bad workout, only i just can't do much with it. i warmed up long and carefully, but it still hurt. Tried doing dips after that to see if i could shift the vector onto some more amenable bit of the capsule, and i clipped off maybe five before i wanted to cry. Anyhow, i got two workouts in yesterday. Planning on going climbing again today with a friend--hopefully to do a bunch of toproping--and maybe i'll get that run in. The weather's 'bout as perfect for running as it gets.

Oo, and Yank-n-Yard is coming up Oct. 16 if you wanna shin up here and compete. Ought'a be just in time for me to have a beer afterward. And hopefully i can be down in the 180s weight-wise, and be healed and strong. That'd be mighty fine.

Holding pattern

Weighed again today. i'm holding at 192lbs. But i'm ok with that, cuz i still think my spare tire is deflating a bit. Plus i've had to back off on the two-a-days since i'm back in school ('cuz the pointy haireds above keep jacking with the schedule). But i've still managed to workout in some form or another pretty much every day, which is a very important change from the earlier days. Lessee...i think i posted on tues. Ended up doing a 45min run that evening. Yesterday, i actually did get up and swim. Got beat in a 50 by a guy in swim trunks doing butterfly, but he was a strong swimmer. Got in 1200m-- wu/cd: 600; bi'ness sets: 300/100/200 on no particular interval. i'm slow (it's my second swim in maybe 5 or 6 months), but i did notice i felt way better with more distance than the last time i swam. i wanted to climb yesterday, but they shuffled our schedule, so i had two hours of lunch. However, i took the rings with me and threw 'em over an I-beam in the school. That was a good time. Amazing how much those things destabilize a brutha'. If i can get strong on those things, methinks i shall be strong indeed. Then i got sucked into throwing a football with some guys (if you can picture me throwing the ol' pigskin) and i managed to jam a finger. Soon i'll be climbing with my left hand in a cast. Ah well: if i do, i'm gonna glue some Stealth rubber to it.

i'm gunna try to sneak out for an hour-ish today and get a li'l climbin' in. Then i'm going to try to get a run in after class. It's funny: every time i run now, Annie wants to go for a training run afterward. So we'll go to the park for some laps and sprints. That li'l chick is so fast it's scary. we'll be running along and she'll decide she wants to go, and she can fully out-accelerate me. Can't beat me over any distance of course (yet), but it's like there's no limit to how high she can take deltaV in about 1sec. Maybe i'll have the next Johanna Ernst. Vamos a ver.

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Later that day:

Got that climb session in. Not too shabby, but i'm definitely outta shape. Got six v3s. wanted seven, but my right hand was playing out at the top of the last one. i'm not sure i've ever actually done that many v3s in a session--and it was in about 1.25 hrs. Very nice workout, really. Good for the endurance bones. i have nearly none.

One week in

Well. i couldn't drag me out of bed this morning in time to swim, but i plan on either a swim or run after class this evening. i did, however, weigh this morning before i got dressed, and i'm down to about 192 on the br scales. So i've lost at least 10lbs in the last week, even if my scales are not terribly accurate. Now, granted, that's almost certainly mostly water weight, but it's water weight i've needed to lose. And if i have to lose 12 more lbs of water to get down to 180, then i'll still be climbing v7. Gravity, in my estimation, doesn't care what the mass is made of. But i can also pinch a lot less blubber, and that's encouraging. The rings came in yesterday, but i haven't had time to set 'em up yet. i'm kinda' amped 'bout that. A video came with it made by these Romanian guys--one of which was a world champ rings guy in '03ish--and it convinced me that i will soon be doing handstand pushups on the rings. Even though i can't do one up against a wall. i'll get a record for being the fattest guy to ever do an iron cross. Nice rings though. Gotta say the whisky in the pantry and the beer in the fridge call to me, and the homemade ice cream and chocolate give me pangs of lust occasionally, but i am digging feeling as good as i do, and i'm digging seeing some results on the weight loss front. i am gonna have to figure out how to make big parts of my meals ahead of time though. Shouldn't be hard; i just haven't had to do it yet. But i was late to class this morning, so i'm gonna hafta work that out.

Last day of freedom

Start back to schoo' tomorrow. i've made a li'l headway in this last week. After that last post on sat. i went climbing, and things went much better than they did two days prior. i at least pulled down some v3s, and i sent several 5.10s on the autobelays. So there's a light at the end of the tunnel i've dug straight down into the ground. i've been making a point to exercise in at least some form every day, and on a few days i've squished in two workouts. Don't know if i'll be able to keep that up so easily with this next quarter coming, but i'm gonna try. Today (sun) i got in to the irongym for back/abs again. i felt better than i did a few days ago when i tried it, but i have lost a lot of strength. Wasn't pretty; but it was progress under the circumstances.

And my integrity with the diet has been tested the last couple of days too. Last night we went to a party for a friend, and they made burritos and nachos. That was painful to avoid the cheese and beans. But i found the bowl of shredded lettuce for garnishing, took 2/3 of it for a salad, and dumped tomatoes and taco meat on it. Today we went to the bro-in-law's and had steak and some good greens. But then they made homemade ice cream with some kind of pralines and amaretto in. That hurt a little bit too. i have been craving carbs like a dope fiend craves crack. So i've had a couple of bananas, couple of apples, a peach, and a grapefruit today. If i set back the fat burning 'cuz i ate too much fruit, then them's the breaks: i'm trying to whittle out a lifestyle here--not just lose a bunch of weight in a month. Plus, i think that's been a problem with my workouts. The glycogen stores have been a hair low. And i have no interest in losing weight Adkins style: don't wanna go pseudo-DKA, and i don't just want to pee off a bunch of water. i'm going to try to get up and swim tomorrow if i can force my butt outta bed. Ooo, and the gym rings supposedly shipped, so we'll see if i can design a cool-guy workout with those bad boys. There's an interesting workout brewing in my imagination.

Abendsbrot

...and dinner:

Had some steak, asparagus, cabbage, red and yeller bells, and jalapeno. Obviously i'm not too sticky 'bout the strictly green veggies. i'm trying to design a lifestyle here. Cut me some slack.

Did manage to go run for nearly 40mins. Holy moly i'm outta shape. i felt good at first, but the last ten minutes, i felt like i usually do after a 3hr run. i have a feeling i just pretty much bonked from low glycogen stores. i ate a banana before i went, but that wasn't enough. So i got home, slammed a highball of water, then quaffed 22grams of carbs in Accelerade. i don't think that's cheating. In fact, i don't think i can do long runs without taking some carbs with me henceforth. That sucked. At any rate, i followed that up with a big green salad with sliced turkey, a pear, salt, pepper, rosemary, balsamic, and flax oil on. In case you're tempted to follow a hard workout up with that combo in the future, it felt like i was hit in the epigastrium with a warhammer.

Then Annie wanted to go to the park and train for running. So we went and ran a bunch. i had her do some form intervals. That li'l chick is gonna be crazy fast if she keeps that up. She beat some ten y/o boys at her homeschool group in a race, and now she's obsessed with making sure they stay beat. That's my girl. }-)

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Saturday Tack-on

The bathroom scales this morning tol' me i'm down 5lbs. That's in four days. Now, i don't know how accurate my br scales are, but i'm taking it. And to be fair, i can pinch a bit less lard on the spare-tire, and i'm hungry an hour after i eat. And i feel a lot less bloated. That's a cool thing. i think i've gotten so used to being swollen that i haven't noticed it. Now if i could figure out how to completely heal my flipper-offer-finger tendon so i could crimp again.

yet another omelette

Here's breakfast: Got a two egg saffron omelette stuffed with red and green bell, jalapeno, broccoli, spinach, sprouts, garlic and capacolla. Sauteed all that (excepting the sprouts) with cracked black, fennel, cardamom, turmeric, li'l caraway, and salt. Half an avocado on the side. Not too shabby, really, even without cheese.

Gonna try to go for a run today. No other muscles in my body work well enough to exercise. Vamos a ver.

Three days in

i'm super curious to know how i'm gon' feel here in another week or two. This diet thang has got me mighty motivated, and today i did another two workouts. Did chest, etc., at the irongym, then went to the climbgym for a "workout". The diet's interesting 'cos i'm stuffing myself on greens and meat, and i'm still always hungry. Energy-wise i haven't felt much different than before, except that i don't feel full all the time, and i've been sleeping way better. i've no doubt that the sleep is a function of laying off the bottle and the toxic crap. For one thing, i don't have a reason to stay up so late, seeing's i can't have a beer anyhow. i think the not feeling full bit is--well i definitely notice i don't just cram stuff down my maw all the time, and i think i've just never noticed how calorie-dense cheese is. As far as the not cramming extra stuff down goes, i definitely have no temptation to munch while i'm cooking or when i just get bored since everything i'm allowed to eat is either (initially) raw beast flesh, or else some breed of boring vegetable. Snacking requires cooking (or chewing on raw bell peppers), so i'm generally just fine going hungry. It's amazing how having no "sit-and-chill" calories available kills the desire to sit and chill. i can't really eat anything out of a bag, bottle, handy plastic container, etc. And it's been eye-opening how used i am to doing so. i start working on a meal, and i go through the fridge and i'm like Nope, can't have that, or that, or that...or those. And i've just stopped bothering opening the pantry. Nothin' in there i can eat. i'm so used to coming home ravenous from a workout or school or so, and opening a bag/container of whatever's easiest, and packing shit in 'til my duodenum is getting it whole. Gotta say there is no temptation whatsoever to come in and hit the Ziploc of raw ground turkey or mixed baby greens. i have been eating a lot of fruit. i make a point to do so only around workouts, and i hope i'm not shooting myself in the foot; but i can't do a three hour workout without some carbs.

Went in, as i mentioned, to the irongym. It'd been probably nearly three weeks since i'd done chest. i did dumbell bench instead of barbell. Been a good long while since i've done those. Those things really take more muscles to push. i like 'em. Worked up to 70s after a nice long warmup, and did a couple of sets of 6. It highlighted the fact that i have no triceps. Pretty much floundered around for the rest of my workout, as i'd no functioning triceps left. Ooo, and i saw an article in Muscle and Fitness on doing the perfect bench press. Interestingly, the article was on powerlifting form, and it was by some record lifting dude.

Then i went to the climbgym. Couldn't pull down v3s that i'd done before and didn't actually think i could fall off of. 'Fact i fell off of some v2s. So i finally called it a day, went and got my harness outta the car, hooked up to the auto-belays, and did all the 8s and 9s i could find--maybe 10 or 12 routes. That was torture...good workout. But dude: i fell off of a 5.9. Couldn't do it. Looking at the thing, i knew i could do it with pneumonia and cataracts; but no! i got shut down. i definitely have a way to go to get back into top shape, but i'm reeeeal  motivated.

a very deep hole

Finals are over. i'm confident i passed everything. It took a few years off of my life to get 'er done, though. So some mates and i went for a camping trip o'er the weekend. we went to Las Conchas. It was the first time i've been there that i did no climbing. Only drinking. And i had a couple o' cigars. That was, without a doubt, the most boring, exhausting camping trip i've yet been on. But it was only hair o' the dog for the prior two month's indiscretions. i'm expecting the DTs going cold-turkey off'n the sauce and dip.

Today i've tentatively started a squidgy version of the Green Faces diet. In reality i want to treat it like an exclusion diet for ruling out food allergies. i want to see how i feel after cutting out the soy, legumes, grains and dairy. And ETOH. This is all going to be tricky. i went to Sam's yesterday and bought a bunch of meat. That was repulsive. i had this cart full of sundry beast parts...gack! i actually got a li'l nauseous. i went to the veg section finally, and it was like HappyLand. But dude: sausage, several packs of steak, turkey burger, hamburger, fish, cold cuts--so many dead things just to feed li'l me. And with no cheese or bread. But so far it's going ok. Had an omelette with spinach, sausage, and bell pepper this morning. Big salad with jalapeno, more green peppers, broccoli, avocado and turkey meatballs, with oil and vinegar. And a pear while i climbed. pretty tasty.

Speaking of climbing, it's a little bit hard for me to believe i have deconditioned that far in a month or so. i did a nice warmup, cranked out 20 solid pullups, stretched, and actually fell off of a couple of v2s. It was like i was trying to climb with my high-school hands. my brain knew how to do the climbs, and scoffed a li'l in disdain; but my wuss-bag fingers opened up on some big crap. Totally ridiculous.

Anyhow, it lit a fire under my butt. i was kinda' non-committal about this diet this morning ('specially since i still have half a bottle of scotch and a few beers in the fridge), but now it's on. i'm gonna try to go run tonight a bit. And i want to get in to the irongym. It's been--what?--5, 6 weeks since i've worked my back now. That might'a' had something to do with my showing on the plastic today. i will lose 20lbs.

Ooo, and lookey there: here come the UPS dude with m' Optimus Primes freshly resoled with Vibram XS grip 5mm on. Nothin' like shelling out a bunch of loan money on toys to motivate a brotha'.

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Yesterday Tack-on

Managed to go to ye olde irongym yester's evening. i have lost some serious recruitment. i can say it went better than i expected. Pretty much did half of my normal set progression on everything. Partly i just didn't have it, and partly i wanted to be healed enough to get the workout in again this weekend. i'm hoping to go in for chest/shoulders this afternoon sometime.