Exercise and Fitness - Because sitting on your ass all day long is boring ;)

[baxus]

Started rowing again, my ankle is still not at 100% but it's good enough to train without problem.

 

Did a short 45 minute double-sculling session.

Sculling is not my favourite, and we were stuck in this river branch that's closed off due to very low water levels so we rowed in circles (a bit under a mile long) which was a bit annoying.

My body showed all the signs of a month long break, and my forearms ached a bit, as did my lower back.

Still, I quite enjoyed being out in the boat.

 

Added some slow running on top of that and went home happy.

 

I've signed up for a 10k "We run Belgrade" event that's taking place this Sunday.

Plan is not to go all out, but rather to make it a nice group run and finish it in 50-55 minutes.

6000 people have signed up until last Friday, though the number is probably a total for 5k and 10k races that will be taking place.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make it to the start since I have some family things later that day.

[Whitestripe]

Slightly annoyed. The pool has listed hours of 7-9 am for lap swim. When I got there at 7.20, there is music blaring and the entire swim team is practicing. There are also about 4 people doing water aerobics in the diving well, so I can't swim there either. Oh well. To the office I go. I'll come back at noon. I'm just wearing swimsuit under my dress, I'm not showered and I haven't had coffee! (And I have to meet a student today at 11!)

[aceluby]

Have decided not to have an argument here on whether it's possible to gain muscle while at a deficit with the right kind of food intake.  All I'll say is that it's possible, and for me the results have been life changing.  YMMV.

 

Had a rest day on Tuesday; yesterday I did a strong set of chest, back, biceps, and triceps; and this morning I did some HIIT with weights.  Still hovering around 195, but I can visibly see that I'm adding muscle in my chest, back, and legs, and have lost a couple inches around the waist in the last month; so I think my LBM is increasing while my fat % is decreasing.

 

I'm realizing that the big reason I was never able to have significant gains from lifting in the past was that my diet wasn't suited for it.  After making some significant changes I'm seeing that my body can make the gains I've wanted my whole life.  The whole '80% diet' thing is so incredibly true.  

[Iskaral Pust]

Tuesday was a rest night, last night was a 2m run and then shoulder press, wide lat pull down and upright row.  All went pretty well.  My legs have felt sluggish during my runs lately, but I'm still running a strong pace.

 

I've resumed walking to and from work.  I got into a lazy habit of my wife dropping me off and picking me up most days.  It's only 0.7 miles each way, but it takes 20 minutes door-to-door by the time I wait for elevators at either end, crossing signals, etc.  But with our current heat and humidity, it does mean arriving at the office already damp with sweat.  It's unpleasant but I really should just be in the habit of walking.

 

My sleep is improving slightly.  I'm getting 5-6 hours a night this week.  The carpal tunnel is still bothering me but receding slightly.

[aceluby]

Isk, walking is a really good way to get a bit of extra calorie burn during the day to get to that fat% goal.  I've been integrating 2-4 20 min walks every day during the week and feel it's helping a ton.

 

Also, that's awesome to hear about the sleep.  Since getting my fitbit I've realized that I only need about 6-7 hours to function properly.  Anything less than that and I'm pretty much worthless.

[Iskaral Pust]

I got 7 hours of sleep last night. It felt great. I hope it means this carpal tunnel is abating.

I just finished an early evening workout in the gym. I rowed a fast 5km in 21:13, which I think is a new PB. Then a good session of leg weights. It's less challenging and less gratifying without squats, but necessary to avoid further carpal tunnel.

I'm feeling good.

[3CityApache]

Today we made a great family run around the National Stadium in Warsaw. Just 3 km, so both our girls have made it, 6 year old included (all four of us got medals and all that). After the main event there was a run for 1 km for adults only, my wife finished eighth (for about 50 starting women), and I've made it in 4:24 minutes, which is quite a good pace for me (my PB for one km is 3:50, but that was a downhill run as far as I remember). It was great fun.

[ljkeane]

I've sort of given up on running further than the about 6km run I do because longer runs are a bit of a pain in the neck and I can't see myself bothering to keep it up. So instead of running further I've just started to time that run and see if I can improve it. The app on my phone breaks it down by kilometre so I can see what time I'm doing for whatever distance.

The time I've been doing 5kms in was about 25 minutes which I was thinking wasn't amazing but not too bad. Yesterday I was speaking to my friend who's been doing some 5km runs and he's encouraging me to do it with him so I asked him what sort of time he's doing it in. 20 minutes 32 seconds was what he did in his last one. Bollocks to that.

I had my first league game of rugby today. We won 43 to 10 away to a side who beat us pretty comfortably last year so I was pretty pleased with that. We're having our games filmed and stats compiled this year though, with video sessions and graphs and stuff on a Tuesday. Which is a little strange and slightly concerning for a forward like me who likes to take the odd break on the blindside of rucks.

[3CityApache]

Twenty and a half minutes for 5 km is a pretty good pace for an amateur runner and no mistake. Public street races for five km are usually won with the time of about 15 minutes. Personally I haven't been able to make it below 25 minutes so far.

 

Tonight I improved my PB for 10 km to 55:34 minutes. But I know I need to prepare for the time improving my results won't be so easy anymore.

[baxus]

Great job, 3CityApache!

I'm glad you and your family had fun.

 

My personal best was 3 sets of 3km each in 12 minutes flat.

It was part of my half-marathon training way back in 2011, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't count anymore :D

 

More recently, I've done 8.7km at an average of 4'53"/km and I don't feel the need to improve on that much.

 

Tomorrow, I'm running a 10k race.

Weather forecast says it will be 17-18ºC, cloudy and dry.

That can still change easily, but I hope it won't. :)

[Merunka is the Fury]

I ran the Spartan race yesterday. Long story short, disappointed. I'll elaborate later. I need to train more before I attempt another. :(

[Iskaral Pust]

Sorry Merunka.

Running and upper body weights for me tonight. Good workout.

My sleep is getting a bit better and I've cut back on desserts for the past two weeks. Another few months and it will be an ingrained habit.

[ithanos]

Was on holiday during the last 2weeks of August where I indugled various beers of the far too easy to drink variety. Good times. Whenever I return home from overseas its usually via a long-haul flight, and this last one was a 14hr flight. A big issue I have is the tendancy to retain water and bloat, particularly in the legs, when returning on such long flights. Of course it doesn't help that I'd been drinking liberally in the lead up days. So when I got home I checked my weight and sure enough I was carrying excess. In the following days I tapered down the alcohol consumption, hydrated well and resumed my usual weekday nutrition plan. I checked my weight 6 days later and found I had dropped 4.5kg/10lbs to about where I was before going on holiday. Now getting back into exercise.

 

I had signed up, some months ago, for a half marathon on the 1st of November thinking I had ample time to get conditioned for an honest attempt. Was in a good (running) condition back in July but then work issues and the holiday came round and have lost most of that conditioning. I need to be realistic about my expectations for this run. I'm a terribly pedestrian runner at the best of times - my best min/km rate of 7.5min/km would have me finishing the half at about 2hrs 45mins. I'm thinking I need to consider under 3hrs 30mins as a realistic target to best. With less than 8weeks to go I have a training plan to follow that should get me up to speed. I will post in the coming weeks as I need the advice from the experienced runners here.  

 

[baxus]

Did a 10k run yesterday.

The morning was rather chilly and cloudy, so I didn't bother with the sunscreen which turned out to be big mistake.

Clouds dispersed a bit before the run started and I got a bit sunburned.

The worst part is that I was wearing sunglasses (which I still have to do because of the eye surgery) and now look like I'm wearing a mask :D

 

Still waiting for the official results but I timed my run at 49:05.

[Red Tiger]

Have decided not to have an argument here on whether it's possible to gain muscle while at a deficit with the right kind of food intake.  All I'll say is that it's possible, and for me the results have been life changing.  YMMV.

 

Oh it's definitely possible.....at first. It gets a lot tougher after your body gets used to these changes.

 

Havent been training for a week due to bad sleeping and sickness. Im gonna start focusing more on upper-body strength.

[ljkeane]

Even though I knew my friend was going to be faster than me, I've known him for about 20 years and he's always been faster than me, because I'm competitive it's been irritating me that he's that much faster than me. Because I was running 6km anyway so I was pacing myself for that distance and it's a bit hilly by my house and I'm going to assume it wasn't where he was running and, er, I wasn't really pushing myself to go as fast as I can. So, yeah, that's definitely why he did 5km faster than me. Yeah, definitely.

 

So today I just ran the 5km and I really pushed myself and improved my time.....to 24 minutes 31 seconds. So, er, yeah, still about 4 minutes slower than him. :leaving:

[3CityApache]

Baxus, congratulations, it's a great time!

 

I'm running my first 10k race on Saturday and I'm a bit worried by the weather as well. Just a few days ago it was about 30 degrees, and now it's no more than 14-15, a lot of rain past few days and a constant, strong wind. Not particularly encouraging for exercise. And I need to do intervals tonight. Ugh.

 

On top of that, I feel pain in my knee for the last few days. Not the one I had a surgery on, the other one.

[baxus]

Baxus, congratulations, it's a great time!

 

I'm running my first 10k race on Saturday and I'm a bit worried by the weather as well. Just a few days ago it was about 30 degrees, and now it's no more than 14-15, a lot of rain past few days and a constant, strong wind. Not particularly encouraging for exercise. And I need to do intervals tonight. Ugh.

 

On top of that, I feel pain in my knee for the last few days. Not the one I had a surgery on, the other one.

Thanks.

 

I would recommend against interval training and any kind of intense training in a week before the race since it should be used for recovery.

Usually, I do some light running during recovery weeks just to keep at it and not break the workout schedule and routine.

The purpose of that is that you get some active rest, and let your body recover from the effort you put in until that point so you're fresh and rested for your race.

 

When I trained for a half-marathon, every forth week was a recovery week and that worked great for me and pretty much everyone I was training with.

I suggest you try it, if you're not doing it already.

 

Good luck on Saturday! :thumbsup:

[aceluby]

Did hot yoga for the first time on Sunday and ended up doing it again yesterday.  Holy mother of god is that a workout.  I'm not 'sore' per se, but I can tell my muscles have fatigue and a lot of it are muscles I don't really concentrate on.  Today is a MUCH needed rest day before hitting the weights again tomorrow morning.  I think I'm going to add this to my weekly routine and try to get 2 in per week.  My heartrate is absolutely blasted during these sessions, plus they are a lot more fun than doing yoga videos at home.

 

Hit another milestone over the last week too.  Down to under 190 lbs for the first time since college!  I'm feeling great and looking better than I have.... basically ever.  I want to lose another 5-10 lbs of fat and then start doing some heavier weights and bulking with my brother for a couple months.  Hopefully it will get him motivated to lose some of his weight as well.

[Iskaral Pust]

Rowing and leg weights last night.  Good workout but bad sleep afterward.

Today will be a rest day.