A couple weeks to go and I am ready to run the Back on My Feet Marathon Relay for the 4th consecutive year on Sept. 22.

It’s a great organization that helps to combat homelessness through the power of running, community support, and essential employment and housing resources. Thank you for any assistance you can provide.

Every little bit helps!

Always Training,

Brian

It’s amazing how work can get in the way of a good blog post…or even a bad blog post. It’s also amazing how a month and four days can go by in a flash. That being said, I’m still on track and being consistent in my training.

I’ve settled into a rhythm of MWF with a 2 mile run followed by a 45 minute spin class for two of those days. On Wednesdays I lift for 30 minutes before spin. This schedule seems to be working for me as far as consistency.

In the past month I’ve had to tweak the schedule a bit for a work trip, another trip to New Orleans for a fun weekend, holiday gatherings, and some dissertation work, but otherwise the MWF schedule is on point for my needs and keeps me well rested to be effective at work and to hit it hard for the workouts.

This morning I did try a new circuit workout with dumbbells, albeit off schedule. I found the circuit on men’s health…I’m always trying new workouts. I have to say that I like it and I am confident that 1) I will be sore tomorrow. 2) Spin class will be less fun tomorrow as a result. and 3) I’m going to figure out a way to do this circuit twice per week possibly replacing my usual Wednesday lifting time and then perhaps adding a day. It took me 50 minutes to complete the entire session, which is a full body workout, plus 20 minutes of walking. I walked before and after the circuit of which I did three sets today. My muscles are shaking and my core is done so I know it’s a good workout…plus I was sucking air a couple times too which is always a good indicator.

I’ll get into the specifics of the circuit on the next post…maybe even before Xmas!

Happy Training,

Brian

Monday I was still feeling wiped out from the previous week’s vacation, travel back home (13-hour drive), and the weekend plus I had 120 emails waiting for me in my work inbox (I deleted the “junk” while on PTO) so I decided to sleep in Monday morning and focused Day 1 of the week on my diet. I have two personal mantras that I live by in regards to diet and exercise.

1. “Numbers don’t lie.”
2. “You can’t outrun your fork.”

With the help of myFitnessPal I track calories through the day (it’s a good habit to track caloric intake). On Monday I successfully had a calorie deficit when I went to sleep that night with little exercise for the day save for walking my dogs. That being said, I still took in ~1,640 kcals and had zero hunger through Day 1. Add that to being well rested and I’ll call that a success for Monday!

Tuesday I kicked in the new training schedule with a full-body lifting session plus 30 minutes on the elliptical. I again focused on my diet and came in around 1,535 for the day. This is actually a little low for caloric intake considering I burned 343 kcals on the elliptical alone, but my protein needs were met, I hydrated well, and again I had almost no hunger cravings until I was about ready for bed at 9:00pm. I resisted the craving, had a glass of water, brushed my teeth, and went to sleep a short time later.

Today, Wednesday, I hit the gym again and walked a bit before running a little over a mile on the treadmill. After the treadmill I did some core training and focused on glutes as well. I finished with a 45-minute spin class which ended up being closer to 37-minutes due to a broken clip on the spin bike pedal.

I will admit that it was a bit of a challenge getting out of bed this morning, but I prevailed against that voice in my head that was adamant that I needed to go back to sleep…he can be a jerk sometimes. My diet is going well for the day so far. Two small meals are finished already and I have lunch planned as well. I’m having leftovers from last night…baked chicken with red and Klondike potatoes from our garden, and a bit of broccoli. I’ll probably add some applesauce as well to up the calories a little.

I’ll check-in again before the weekend and probably weigh-in as well. When I am honest with myself and look at the numbers, cause numbers don’t lie, then I see gains and losses as I should much more often than when I fudge the numbers or ignore them.

Happy Training,

Brian

Yesterday I turned 42. Yay me. What better time to start a new health experiment than on Day 1 of my 43rd year.

The longer I train myself and train others the more I am convinced that our habits have the greatest impact on our health and fitness including our ability to manage our weight, our level of flexibility, our endurance, our sports performance, and really our overall wellbeing.

I look at habits as what we consistently do either each day or just on a regular basis. We have exercise habits, eating habits, sleep habits, relationship habits, thought habits, and so on.

So today I embark on a more intentional long-term plan focused on healthy habits. Consistency will be key on this journey. I rededicated myself starting this morning with an easy 5K run followed by a 45-minute spin class. Once I was at my desk this morning I sat by my sun lamp for a bit which has been helping me sleep better at night (sleep health).

I hope to share parts of my journey here as a part of my healthy habit of regular journaling.

Here’s a to a good 43rd trip around the sun.

Happy Training,

Brian

This past week on Thursday my alarm went off at 4:30am as usual and I felt like a freight train had hit me. You know when you are in that really deep sleep and when you awaken it feels like gravity is at a x3?  Yeah, it felt like that. This wasn’t surprising as I had hit Spin Class on Monday and Wednesday, lifted weights the past 7 days straight and had been back to the elliptical machine earlier in the week as well. So I made a game time call and decided it was best to get the extra 2 hours of sleep for recovery.

Of course that meant I still needed to do my workout at lunch and Thursday was a busy day at work. My lifting schedule called for chest and quads. I only had about 30 minutes including travel time. So I changed, hit the decline chest press machine for 4 sets of 10 then switched to the leg extension machine for 4 sets of 10. I still had a few minutes left so I hit one more set on the decline machine then switched back to the leg extension for a 5th set. I took minimal rest between sets (30-60 seconds) to up the intensity of the workout.

So, in the wake of having an excuse to skip a workout I instead shortened it greatly and upped the intensity to make up for the lower volume. By the way, I could feel a twinge of lactic acid soreness in my quads the next day so the work completed was enough to get the job done.

Note that I had been going non-stop on training for over a week. These sleep-ins don’t happen often, but it’s fine when they do as long as you have a back-up plan. In this case I suggest listening to your body. Just make sure your body isn’t telling you to sleep in and skip the workout three days a week.

I had just enough time to get something in which turned out to be just enough. In this I stayed consistent with my training.

Happy Training!

Brian