Changing Focus: Part 2

So, in a month and a half of ignoring the scale and just trying to do the right thing we found

I gained a couple pounds.

that sucks. So, we're trying something new. I signed up for an online food diary(myfooddiary.com) that tracks everything you eat, records calories, and you can "earn" more calories to eat by exercising (put in the type of exercise you do and length and it calculates how many calories you burn). It's the accountability that my simple online spreadsheet has, along with a ton of nifty number crunching features (including body size/changes, exercise graphs- how many days you exercised in the past week/month), a chart for weight, pounds to go, etc).

I'm totally digging it and I hope it keeps me on track for the winter. I definitely need to drop some weight (duh) and, after talking with my trainer at the gym, nothing else will improve my performance better in the pool/on the bike/on the trail than losing weight.

I think one of the problems I've had is a focus on being a better cyclist/swimmer, which unfortunately leads to eating a lot of food (carbs and otherwise). Fancy biking and swimming workouts make me faster/stronger, but haven't had much, if any, affect on weight.

So the current plan is to track everything I eat (so far so good), eat less calories than I burn, and exercise 5 or more times per week. Exercise is going to primarily be weight training, with jogging/biking on occasion.

Back

So I'm back.  

San Francisco and the bay area has 8 million people on bikes, most helmeted.  There were people all over riding, tons of bike lanes, bikes for rent (by the Golden Gate Bridge) and tons of runners.  On Wednesday night we went down to pier 39 (and Ghiradelli square) and saw at least 4 different groups of runners.  I never see groups of runners out here... maybe 1 or 2, but you don't see a pack of people running together somewhere.

The conference and meet & greets were great.  Being cramped in a plane was not.

Next week Biking Brady is hosting another Bunyan to Bob's ride-- fall colors.  Anyone want to go with me?  We should carpool and stuff.

Read more here

Travel

I'm off to glorious San Francisco for the rest of the week. No rides til saturday - I'm bringing swim and run clothes and hope to see something cool. If my hotel is close to the golden gate bridge I will have to run across it.

This past weekend was the margarita ride in vermillion and the sanford breast cancer ride in SF. Kari and I went to verm and had a blast- it was raining so we took the 30 mile route as Kari had never ridden in wet conditions before. We were teamed up with fellow sioux falls folks (Jody, mayor, Barbara, John-surf shop) and had a nice pace, good conversation ride. When we got back we had time to kill so we rode over to Bunyan's for a root beer/beer bomber. When we got back we had our margarita and tacos then rolled back to SF.

In SF we stopped by Spoke to chat and hear about the SF ride. Apparently it was crazy w crashes, broke bikes and hospital visits. We met recent ironman Jon G who was shopping for a new tri bike. Then it was home for naps and bike cleaning.

hellimatbikes.blogspot.com

Armstrong out of retirement!

Read it here

I have no idea if this is accurate, but it's (of course) really exciting to me. I didn't get into cycling until after Lance had retired-- it'd be crazy fun to watch him in the big Tour (and, it looks like, a bunch of the U.S. races).

Beer and Pizza and 36 laps

Who else thinks that beer and pizza taste far, far better after exercise?

Who would like free beer and pizza after exercise this coming Saturday, Sept 6th?

Kari and I move from Brandon to SF on Saturday. A few fine folks have offered to help, but we could use more assistance. Here's the plan

1:00pm - meet in brandon at the duplex. load trucks with furniture first, boxes second. Hopefully the trailer will be filled with boxes.
1:30pm - first couple vehicles leave Brandon and head to SF. The new apartment is roughly 100 yards West of Sertoma park. Exact details will follow.
2:00pm - Unloading begins. If you don't have a truck/can't help at 1, ride your bicycle over at 2. Carry stuff to apartment. Continue carrying stuff.
3:00pm - eat pizza, drink beer.
3:30pm - go for a bike ride

I should point out that the FAB Helmet Hut will be on Saturday as well. I think a couple fine folks are planning to be at the helmet hut, then bike over for food and weight training. This would be an excellent idea IMHO :)

In other news, my finger (poor, poor swollen finger) has continued to heal. It still hurts gripping things (hence the bike has not gotten any love) but swimming (with a minor hand modification) is bearable. I spent yesterday in the pool at lunch working on speed-- after some warmup laps I'd sprint 50 yards, cool down, then do it again. Today I hit the pool with the plan to swim a mile nonstop. I got in the pool, start swimming, and didn't stop for 36 laps (1mile). That was one of my goals I set a couple months back and I'm happy to say I achieved it.

My time, for those interested, was 41 minutes. A bit slower than I'd like, but I'm totally happy being able to do the distance. I want to work it down to 36 laps in 36 minutes by the end of the year. Moving next door to the gym and pool will certainly help.

busted finger = no triathalon

so, in a completely, utterly, brain dead move thursday I managed to slam my finger in the car door. It's swollen up to double size but, and the x-rays confirmed, it's not broken.

The downside is it hurts to touch, type, move. I tried swimming (way too painful), tried gripping the handlebars (way WAY too painful) and it throbs when walking (so running sounds worse).

guh.

Oh well, more time to prepare for next year (altho I'll be out of the water/weights/bike for a few weeks while this heals).

In other news, we're moving back to Sioux Falls. A quick search of apartments and we found one in the location we wanted (across the street from Sertoma Park). Good school for Taylor, great location (gym, park, bike trail), close to work, close to grocery store/mall. We move this coming week.

changing focus

I decided to give up on weight for a little while... I still want to lose weight, definitely eating good (or great), tons of veggies, tons of lean meat. I'm just not going to obsess over the scale.

I will obsess over what I can control, and that's biking, lifting, running and swimming. Those activities definitely work for losing weight-- or more importantly, losing fat and gaining muscle. Because in the end it doesn't matter what you weigh, but what you look like. If, by some crazy stretch of the imagination, I end up covered in muscle and heavier than I want to be (for going uphill) then I'm certain I can lose muscle weight.

So, I've already been recording things like miles biked, I'm just going to be a little more diligent on the swimming/running/lifting. That's now prominent in the "about me" section, and easy to update.

In a month or so I'll hop on the scale and see where things are at.

A few updates on friends

one friend's daughter has my sister for a teacher
another friend was back at the gym (and in the pool) the other day
another friend got engaged
another friend broke 2 bones (rib, collar) and won't be competing in his Ironman
another friend has been ring shopping

and finally, there's some travel in my future. I'll be running in California in a month :) Details later.