Injuries Suck! and other crap

So, this past Saturday, my planned workout was swim 1000m then run for an hour. Got the swim done, no sweat, however, 15 minutes into the run, I started to feel a tightness in my left rib cage. Turns out I displaced a rib for like the hundredth time. Which meant ZERO training this week.
Sitting on my ass is VERY frustrating for me. It drives me batty. I can't just sit and not train. Drives me insane. However, I know that if I push it, I won't be able to run my triathlon next week.
So, instead of working out, I'm having to adjust my diet. I was enjoying eating a ton of carbs all day when I was burning off 1500-2000 cals a day. Now I'm forced to cut WAY back.

Bummer, I know.

But I'm just over a week from my first triathlon.
Here's the equipment I have for it. It's a ridiculously long list.

Trisuit (sexy)
Swim goggles
Timing chip strap
Swim cap (to be provided by the tri)
Cycling shoes and pedals
Aero bars
Softride bicycle
Helmet
Garmin 305 GPS watch
Clif Shots for nutrition
Water bottle filled with gatorade
Vibram Five Fingers outfitted with Yankz shoe lace system
Number belt
Headband or Visor (Haven't decided yet)
All this tucked neatly into a cool transition bag

Can you believe all that? For just an hour and a half of work... WHEW!

Anyway, I'm hoping to start training people next year for Tri's. So, let's hope this goes well!

Image from http://www.oddee.com/item_96906.aspx

Triathlon training

So my next challenge for this year has been training for the Naperville Triathlon. I'm about halfway through the second week of training. It's AWESOME! I never thought I would be one to enjoy swimming, but I've been looking forward to my swim/run workouts. Tough stuff but I'm getting better. After the first day where I panicked and couldn't figure out how to breathe, I've come MILES forward. (Literally almost).

Strangely enough, cycling has been the one where I feel like I'm going to be weakest. I'm ordering aero bars this week hopefully which should help a little, but of the three disciplines, I feel like I'm behind on cycling. Running is fairly strong (hoping it's going to top off a bit by race day) and swimming gets better everyday.

So to show you all my training schedule so you can see how much suffering I'm doing...

 WEEK 1: The first week of training is designed to get your body comfortable with logging consistent time and distance in each sport.

MONDAY: off Always use Monday to let the body recover and rebuild. This is your only day off every week, so don't feel obligated to cross-train.

TUESDAY: swim 500 meters, run for 30 minutes

WEDNESDAY: ride for 1 hour, weights/strength training

THURSDAY: swim 500 meters, run for 30 minutes

FRIDAY: ride for 45 minutes, run for 20 minutes right after bike session

SATURDAY: ride for 1.5 hours, weights/strength training

SUNDAY: swim 750 meters, run for 45 minutes

* WEEK 2: The distances will increase only for weekend workouts. Hills and speed training are added during the week.

MONDAY: off

TUESDAY: swim 500 meters, with 5x25-meter sprints; run for 30 minutes, with 3x sprint work on a short, steep hill

WEDNESDAY: ride for 1 hour, 20 minutes moderate intensity, 20 minutes hard, 20 minutes moderate; weights/strength training

THURSDAY: swim 500 meters, with 5x25-meter sprints; run for 30 minutes, including 5x1-minute hard intervals with two minutes of easy running in between

FRIDAY: ride for 45 minutes, with 3x sprints on a hard hill; run for 20 minutes easy right after bike session

SATURDAY: ride for 1 hour 45 minutes, weights/strength training/strength training

SUNDAY: swim 1,000 meters, run for 1 hour

* WEEK 3: Continue to build on previous workouts and increase speed training.

MONDAY: off

TUESDAY: swim 750 meters, with 10x25-meter sprints; run for 30 minutes, with 4x short, steep hill sprints

WEDNESDAY: ride for 1 hour, with 25 minutes of hard effort in the middle; weights/strength training

THURSDAY: swim 500 meters, with 4x50-meter sprints; run for 30 minutes, including 4x2-minute hard intervals with two minutes of easy running in between

FRIDAY: ride for 1 hour, with 3x hard hill runs; run for 20 minutes right after bike session

SATURDAY: ride for 2 hours, weights/strength training

SUNDAY: swim 1,000 meters, run for 1 hour

* WEEK 4: This is race week, so drop off on your training intensity as the big day approaches.

MONDAY: off

TUESDAY: swim 500 meters, with 5x25-meter sprints; run for 30 minutes, with 5 minutes of fast-paced running in the middle

WEDNESDAY: ride for 1 hour, with 10 minutes of fast-paced riding in the middle

THURSDAY: swim 500 meters easy, ride for 30 minutes easy, run for 15 minutes easy

FRIDAY: off Always take off the training day two days before the race

SATURDAY: run for 10 minutes, ride for 20 minutes, swim 300 meters Easy, short training sessions in each sport to loosen up for the next day's race

SUNDAY: Race day

This weekend I have a brutal 1 hr and 45 minutes bike and a 1000m swim/ 1 hr run on the other day... BUSY weekend.

Since starting, I've dropped 10 pounds. I've completely changed my diet. Protein is now only about 15-20% of my diet with about 60% carbs and the rest fat. Big change from what I'm used to. Swimming is doing wonderful things for my shoulders, abs and chest, btw. 

So, I hope if anything, my workouts provide you some motivation to get out and get active. Not everyone is going to do a triathlon, but find something to shoot for.

Competition and GOALS!!!

Let me real quick take you back to January of 2010. I was 260 lbs. I was fat... fat fat fat fat fat!!!
Walking up the stairs at my office job was absolutely awful. I was exhausted going up a single flights.
So, I decided I needed a change.
I needed to make a goal. First goal was to run further than a mile without having to stop. Done.
Then I decided to run a 5k. My only goal was to finish it without stopping. Did it, even though my calf cramped up.
Then, it was to do a Warrior Dash. Did that last year.
Then to finish Spartan race. Done last year as well.
This year, I had to set new goals. A sub 23 min 5k. Done.
Competing in a Half Marathon. Done.
Then finishing in the top 10 % of Warrior Dash competitors. Done.

The point is, every time out I try to set a goal for myself to smash.

New goal is to compete in my first ever triathlon in August. I also plan on running Spartan Super Sprint, and possibly two more Half Marathons and a duathlon.

If you're not setting goals for yourself, you're stagnating. Even if today's goal is simply to run a 1/4 mile, make a goal, and get after that finish line!!!!

Warrior Dash and the Competitive Spirit

Warrior Dash was this past weekend. It was my second one that I've done. I know it's on the easier side of these adventure runs, but I love challenging myself and I prefer this to some of the Spartan obstacles as I feel like this race flows a bit better.

I displaced a rib about 10 minutes before running as I was warming up. Seriously, I can't get hurt doing anything cool, it's something very basic that always gets me. Once the race started, though, I was good to go and didn't feel it. I made a mistake starting about halfway in the back of my wave. No more of that. Too much traffic that I had to run through. Afterwards, that rib injury kicked in and I was on the floor. Holy crap... But my friend Vicodin was there... Thanks for that Laura.

My final time was 30:40. That's 5 minutes better than last year, and I felt like this course was harder. When I got done, I was jacked. I wanted to do something else, right away. I just felt so good about myself and my fitness level.

This is a stark contrast to my competitive nature from about 20 years ago. Before college, I didn't care and didn't work hard at anything. And in fact, I really didn't train at all in college unless you call binge drinking training. I just played hard when it came to sports. Now, however, I train hard for my events. I bust my ass and try to PR every time I can.

It's funny that as I've gotten older, I've wanted to compete more. Whether it was fights, or running, I want to win. Of course, when I say win, I mean I want to beat myself. I try to outdo myself each time. Try to find something new and challenging that I haven't done before.

I believe I'm going to do my first triathlon in August. I started bike training this week and I'll start my swim training next week hopefully. I'm way excited about it.

Thanks to Jerry, Andrea, Ray, and all my F'NRC peeps... Had a great time making some new friends.
Anyway, find something new and challenging for yourself this week. Try to make yourself a little better. No one is a tougher opponent than yourself.

Till next time!!!

Burpees!!!!

Burpees... I love them... And I hate them. My workout on Monday was simple. 300 burpees. Took me a bit to do them around my clients, but it was quite awesome.
The burpee is the single best fat burning exercise ever. When I get done, my calves hurt, my feet hurt, my ribs ache, etc etc etc. It hits almost EVERY single muscle in your body.


I often prescribe them for my clients as their homework, which generally angers them :)

Anyway, a simple way to increase your calorie burning and what not is to add burpees to whatever you're planning on doing workout-wise.


I've been doing them for a while, so when I want to really add some work, I'll simply churn out 100 of them.


But here's what you can do if you're new to these. Simply do 1 today. Then, 2 tomorrow, 3 the day after, etc, until your last day where you do 100!!! Sounds like it's ridiculous, but trust me, they get easier... Well, not easier, but manageable.


Here's how to do a PROPER burpee.

So, give it a shot... let me know how much you hate me afterwards :)

Obesity and American Eating Habits

Today, I'm including an article from Bodybuilding.com on obesity.
Obesity in America!

Along with this article, I'm including my own viewpoint. I got an opportunity to wrestle over in Portugal back in 2007. Some things that I noticed.
1) It's almost impossible to find meat for breakfast over there. Lot of pastries. For someone that eats 6 times a day and has a high protein diet, this was an issue for me, but I was able to find something eventually.
2) Portion sizes are WAY smaller over there. A large coke at McDonald's is still 20 oz (Remember the 1980's in America?). You just can't find the huge pigout meals that are commonplace in America. A Large fry was equivalent to a Medium fry here.
3) Condiments are a rarity as well. No dunking your fries in 10 lbs of catsup.
3) People didn't seem to be as sedentary and many people were out walking, biking, etc. Part of this is due to the price of cars over there as a Renault Cleo (Essentially the size of a Mazda 3) was somewhere around $38K. No big vehicles either.
4) All this said, supplements were massively expensive. A jug of protein that would be maybe 30 bucks here was around 75 over there.

So, I didn't see more than just a few overweight people across the pond. At the same time, you don't see the few really ripped and muscular women and men that you can see in the states. There was more of an average size. In fact, I was one of the larger people in Portugal in regards to muscle size.

The main thing to take from this article is portion control, portion control, portion control. Eating small meals and taking your time with them will keep you from overeating. I know everyone is busy, but instead of scarfing a Big Mac, maybe look at just a 6 inch subway sandwich on wheat and hold that mayo!

Excuses, excuses, excuses

Excuses... You know the saying. Everyone has one...
My goal is to explain away these excuses... Get you to look past them and realize they're not this huge obstacle.
First excuse (my favorite...): I don't have time. Yes, you work 8 hours a day. Yes, your kid has baseball games. But it's not like you need to put away 3 hours a night, 7 days a week to workout. You need 1 hour, 3 to 5 times a week. If you have time to go drinking on a Friday night or write a blog, or go to dinner during the week, you can workout. Same saying goes for food preparation. You can spend 20 minutes on a Sunday night to get your food together for the week.
Second excuse: I don't have the money. This is also a favorite as I ALWAYS here this one, then watch said person post on Facebook about going to McDonald's, partying, or smoking. Come on. Priorities, people!
Third: I'll come train after I get in shape. Ok, ya know what? These are all my favorites. This one though, is mind blowing. I had a person TWO years ago, tell me she wanted to train with me, but wanted to wait till she was in shape. I'm still waiting. Look, why would you wait to get into shape? If you could get into shape on your own, you wouldn't need a trainer, right? It's an excuse for "I don't want my legs to be sore that first couple weeks". Get over it, and get in there with your trainer!

The main point, is that if you REALLY want something (like a new body, the ability to wear a bikini, not being able to break a chair when you sit in it, the ability to get into those new jeans, break your best mile time, run a half marathon, etc) you will work at it and go for it. If you don't, you'll find a way to concoct an excuse and a year later, you'll be wondering why you look exactly the same.

PEACE peeps!

Oh, btw... here are some Mom's that have the same excuses you do, but still get in shape... Lora Coalson, Kim Dolan and Michelle Kyman. And if I had her pic, my son's mother is also in tremendous shape, works full time and goes to school full time... NO EXCUSES!!!

Changes

Yup. Those pictures are me. Amazing change in just over 12 weeks of work. So, I wanted to share my experience with you and also dispel some myths and excuses.

First of all, let's discuss what I did differently. I spoke with a fellow trainer, Alexia Besbekos about my diet so she could kind of tighten up the way I was eating. Generally, I did eat healthy before. However, there was no consistency and I was pulling in WAY too much sugar.

The attack plan was fairly simple. I was shooting for 185 g of protein a day, less than 50 g of sugar, 1 gallon of water and around 1800 calories a day. I was also shortening up my portions, especially when it came to pasta and meat. I was the type of guy that often would go for seconds at each meal. I immediately stopped that and stuck to the serving size on each package.

So what was next? Shopping. I drive a lot, so I needed to make sure I had food I could readily heat up and eat.

Here's what my shopping list consisted of and pretty much stayed the same each week.

- Grilled and Ready Chicken Chunks and Chicken Breasts

- Steamfresh veggies and pasta

- Eggs

- Pure Protein Whey Protein

- Natural Peanut Butter

- Sugar Free Preserves

- Whole Honey Wheat Bread

- Whole Wheat Pasta

- Fresh Fruit and Spinach

That's pretty much it. Every morning before leaving, I would take a steamfresh pack out of the freezer and heat it up for about 5 min. It might be chipotle rice, thai rice and veggies, stirfry, potatoes, etc. Almost all these packs are 2 servings each. I took the bags and divided them up in between a couple Tupperware dishes. Then dropped in some chicken chunks. Usually, just about a handful is the correct amount. Seal those up, and pack them for the day. Also, dropped in my bag some fruit and depending on the length of my driving that day, a baggie of protein powder and a shaker cup with water in it.

The next key was timing of my meals. I eat EVERY three hours without fail. I get up at 4:45 some days, eat at 5, 8, 11, 2, 5, and 8. That's six meals. The chicken and the veggies usually end up being around 250- 300 calories. Sometimes more, sometimes less. The fruit are around 80-100 calories each. Keeping track of what I'm consuming was also key. Myfitnesspal is a great app for this.

I set a goal of a gallon of water a day. I usually recommend that each person drink half their bodyweight in fluid ounces. So, if you weight 184 lbs, you're shooting for 92 oz of water. I didn't always hit my gallon, but I was usually close, which shot me in the 110 oz of water mark. Which is perfect. Hydration is important and water will actually help you burn calories.

Workouts. This, I didn't really change from what I had been doing. If anything, I felt like I worked out less. I had a friend once remark that it "Must be nice to have a job where you can work out 8 hours a day." True, I could do that. But I don't. 9 times out of 10, I workout for less than an hour. For today example... 27 and a half minutes. It was doing swings and burpees, but still under half an hour.

A lot of the excuses I hear and have heard from current and former clients are the following

"I don't have time to eat right or workout right"

- I travel as much as the next person if not more. Preparation is key. It takes me less than five minutes to prepare all my meals for the day and get them loaded up in my bag. It's not that hard kids. As for workouts, an hour a day max is all that's needed. You can find that time, even if you have a little one at home. You can bring yours with you to workout or keep them at home and workout there. I've done it.

"Eating right is expensive." 

- Not really. I spent less on my good food than I ever would buying bad things like Doritios or headed in to a fast food joint. Generally, I was spending about 30 bucks a week, if that.

"I'm not giving up my pizza and bad food or beer"

- I still gave myself a couple cheat meals a week. On days that I cheated, I made sure that I ate those meals at one of my designated times. This had two effects. One, it made sure I kept all the rest of my meals to keep my metabolism going. Two, because I was eating at my scheduled times, I was never starving and thus wasn't taking in 3 cheeseburgers. If that's still not good enough for you, I offer you this. If you want an amazing body, you may not get to eat amazing food. It's all about what you want.

I didn't find this as hard as I thought it would be. It's all about preparation and just a change of mindset and any of you can do it.

My starting weight was 218 lbs with a chest of 46 in and a waist of 41. I finished at 192 lbs with a chest at 41 and my waist at 36. Overall, I lost 26 lbs and 15 inches. The pictures speak for themselves. I didn't do anything crazy, I just decided to make a change.

Now the question. Are you willing to make a change?

Pushing Past That Plateau

So for the past year I've been stuck at right around 212-218. Had some hills and valleys, of course, but just couldn't quite make the progress I wanted. So it was time to sit down and figure out what I was doing wrong.
Of course... it was my diet.
I was not getting in enough protein and taking in too much sugar. And of course eating out FAR too often. Sometimes, you just need someone else to take a look at what you're doing and get you out of your rut. So, I contacted a friend who rocks when it comes to nutrition and asked her to help me out.
So here's what I changed.
1) Gallon of water EVERY day. a gallon a day will burn up to 200 extra calories. It also prevents injuries... SO DRINK THAT WATER!
2) Preparing food a day or two in advance. I make my egg whites up to four days at a time so I ALWAYS have a healthy breakfast without stopping at McDonald's for a breakfast burrito.
3) Cutting out protein bars... They're TOO high in sugar. I try to stay under 8 g of sugar a meal. I do eat greek yogurt from time to time, but I limit myself to only 60 g of sugar a day.
4) 185-200 g of protein a day. No more than 45g at one sitting. I shoot for just under 1g per lb that I weigh because I'm trying to lose some weight.
5) WAY more veggies. I eat around 4-5 servings of veggies every  day. Good carbs for you!

So what's been the result? A loss of 15 lbs in just over 4 weeks. 3 inches off my waist. 2 inches off my chest. 1/2 an inch off my arms (yet they look way more muscular).
I'm able to work out harder now, too. Putting up 6 miles at a time running is no big deal.
Speaking of which, signed up for my first half marathon on March 18th.  Should be quite interesting.
That's it for now. I'll be attempting to blog more from here on out...

Fall Races and Goals

So this past weekend was the start of my Fall Race Season. I have three weeks in a row of 5k's then a 30 mile Bike Trip followed by Spartan Race.
Certainly very busy.
Why am I sharing this? Because they were all goals of mine. When was the last time you ran a 5k? Doesn't matter if you place. The goal is to get yourself.. well, a goal.
I try and set a goal for each race.
This past weekend I aimed for a top 3 in my age group along with getting a Personal Record. Nailed both of them.
Goals are VERY important. If you don't have a goal, then why are you working out?
So sit down, look at your calendar and pick an event to compete in. Whether it's a 5k, Half Marathon, a Mud Run or a Triathalon, pick something out, work towards it, then complete it.

That's it for now!
See ya soon.