The Weight Issue

For me, weight seems to be a constant struggle. I took up triathlon (some time ago now) because I (That’s 280lb for my American friends OR 127 KG for my continental fiends). I was fat, unfit and on the short route to a heart attack.
was a fat lazy blob, tipping the scales at almost 20stone.

Since then I have brought my weight down to a respectable level. Nevertheless, it always seems like a struggle. Like a yo-yo journey of loss and gain. Never quite getting there.

Just a couple of weeks ago I weighed in at 13stone 10lb (192lb / 87kg). This was the slimmest I have been in approximately 25 years.

Nevertheless, this was short lived. 2-week holiday in the Lake District put a sharp end top that.

Even though I did plenty of hiking, a bit of lake swimming and a little running in that 2-week period, I still managed to put on a chunk of weight…

... 10.5lb in fact ...in 2-weeks … not good.

I know it is down to me. I know it is because I like my food and my drink … more so when away from it all. 

Therefore, it’s back on the roundabout. Time to grasp that yo-yo string and with luck drag it back down again ... 

Feeling Fat 

Will 

Two Months In …

Things are going well at the moment. I am managing to maintain consistency. I am enjoying my training. I am still varying my training due to it being my off season. And I am improving (a bit).

As stated above I have been varying my training.  This includes the use of pieces of gym equipment that I rarely go near. This includes the Versa Climber and the Concept 2 Rower.  I normally go on these bits of kit after a spinning session and set myself the target of, by Christmas, managing to do an hour on each. Well I managed to achieve this target this week: Monday I got up to the hour on the Versa and Tuesday an hour on the rower … well chuffed with that :)

On the weight front I have now lost a total of 15lb … this is making a massive difference on the bike. I am averaging higher speeds … getting close to the magical 20mph average for my 60mile ride. And climbing much better … something I never thought I’d hear my self say (or type in this case)

The Stats...

WEIGHT	197lb	(14st 1lb)(89.5kg)	Total Loss = 15lb
BODY FAT	16%	Combination of Scales and Calipers	Total Loss = 6.7%
WAIST	34.25in	(86.9cm)	Total Loss = 2.25in

Finally, my better half has decided it would be a good idea to enter me into a Marathon next month. All arguments to the effect that I have not been training for a marathon falling on deaf ears … so the 28th of October … I will be running a marathon in Newcastle … All good fun.

WW

4 weeks In

Well, it has now been 4 weeks since I initially weighed in and set off on the journey to try and get myself in better shape. In that time my training and general exercise regime has become more varied. Plus I have attempted to improve my diet.

When I talk about diet, I am not talking about going on a particular diet, as I feel these are all fads and unsustainable, but instead I have just considered what i put in my mouth.

For example

• I really like lucozade original, but found I was having a bottle every day, so now I only have 1 bottle in 2 weeks.
• I was drinking 10+ cups of coffee each day all with milk and sugar, now I'm down to 2 or 3
• I was having a can of coke each week day with my lunch, now stopped all together
• I was eating ready meals for lunch, now fresh salads
• Also I had a pint of Guinness with my dinner each evening through the week, now I have lime and soda

All these little things have added up to help me move closer to my goals. I don't want to give up the things I like; otherwise life would be too dull. 

Now for how things have gone

I had hoped to lose a half stone in the first 4 weeks and a couple percent of my body fat. To my delight I can report that I have exceeded these targets with a weight loss of 9.5lb and a drop of over 4% on the body fat.

This now looks like this

WEIGHT	202.5lb	(14st 6.5lb)(92kg)	Loss = 9.5lb
BODY FAT	18%	Combination of Scales and Calipers	Loss = 4.7%
WAIST	35.25in	(89.53cm)	Loss = 1.25in

Looking Forward

Over the next 4 weeks, I would like to drop 6.5lb and get down to 14st and drop another 2% on the body fat front, this should allow the shape of my abs to start to show ... well that's the plan   :)

WW

Somewhere to Start

As I stated in a previous post elsewhere, I have set my self the goals of becoming slimmer, faster, and fitter by the time I add another candle to my birthday cake.

To do this I need to know where I am starting from. One of the easiest things to track will be my weight and related statistics. I am just back from two weeks vacation after the Outlaw triathlon and weighed in, details were as follows: -

WEIGHT :	212lb	(15st 2lb) (96.4kg)
BODY FAT :	22.7%	(according to my scales)
WAIST :	36.5in	(92.71cm)

All in all not good – I thought I had been feeling fat and bloated for some time and theses statistics confirm things. That and the fact that my jeans are starting to cut me in half. So now is a good time to get things going. After all I don’t want to end up looking like I have a loyalty card for McDonalds.

I intend posting an update on these statistics every four weeks or so. Plus I may add other measures from tests etc I take as things progress.

WW

Cycling Physiological Assessment (Part 2)

Interpreting the results …

Having all that data is one thing but understanding what it means and how to make use of it is another, the output from the assessment was a personalised 13 page report, which took a few days to prepare, that combined my results with my sporting aims (endurance as opposed to sprint) but briefly here are some points that came form the report …

Firstly my training zones: -

ZONE	HR	GUIDELINES
1	to 112bpm	Used for recovery purposes. Early winter training, or as a training zone if you build up extensive miles (6 hours/day)
2	114bpm -147bpm	Foundation of endurance training. Develops lactate removal capabilities and extensive overload on the mechanisms of aerobic respiration. The level where training induces performance improvements.
3	148bpm -162bpm	This is intensive training. This will bring your form forward to a peak. It is probably easier to do this type of training in an interval format, as it is simply difficult to maintain this intensity for long periods without the ‘racing’ motivation. The level three training sessions will be quite short.
4	162bpm +	Intensive intervals to top your form off. Monitoring of heart rate is usually not needed. Can be developed to enhance sprinting and time trialling.

Next my weight, as can be seen I an quite a bit heavier than the elite or age grouper (although taller) so I could do with dropping some weight, this will not improve my cycling but will help improve my power to weight ratio (currently 3.06W/kg) my aim is to drop about 6kg which by itself will help me realise a .25W/kg improvement and help with my climbing (which has always a problem)

Improving maximum power and oxygen consumption (and helping push up my VO2max) will be a case of training mid to longer training sessions in Zone 2 with mid (upper mid) zone having the most benefit and save most of the Zone 3+ work until after base training. To ensure control over this factor the use of turbo / spinning bike will be adopted in the off season

My strength is not very good (283w max power) so that is another area I need to work on during the off season and this needs to be both cycling specific and generic.  The cycling specific work will be taking the form of hill reps and be complicated with some off season gym work focusing on strength endurance this will help me push up my wattage and therefore improve my cycling weight to strength ratio.

So that is what my plan is based on at the moment and I will be going back to get retested in the new year to see what effect my training is having and this will co-inside with me commencing a specific Ironman training program.

W/E : 10/01/2009 (Week 1)

A good first weeks training for me and im glad to be back into it, the weeks training looks like

MON	_	_	REST DAY
TUE	AM	00:40:00	RUN: 4 Mile Easy Paced
TUE	PM	00:30:00	BIKES: 9Miles Spinning (RPM31)
TUE	PM	00:30:00	RUN: 3miles Brick after spinning
WED	AM	01:10:00	RUN: 6.5miles in deep snow with Scotty and dog
WED	PM	00:35:00	BIKE: 10.5miles Spinning (RPM31)
THU	AM	01:02:00	BIKE: 19.5miles Spinning (RPM 31 & 34)
THU	PM	00:30:00	RUN: 3miles Snowy off road night run
FRI	AM	00:45:00	SWIM: 2000m easy paced
FRI	PM	00:52:00	BIKE: 15.1 Miles Spinning (RPM34)
SAT	_	_	REST DAY
SUN	AM	01:01:00	RUN: 6miles off road with my Wife an the dog

SWIM:	00:45
BIKE:	02:49
RUN:	03:51
TOTAL	07:35

On top of this i have also lost 6.5lbs this week and now weigh in at 14St 7.5 lb