Wednesday, 30 July 2014

Wednesday Weigh-In 30 July

Did you miss me?

It has been a bit of a prolonged absence from the blog. More than 50 days away and probably lots of questions about what has been going on. In that time there has been the World Cup, a trip with the family to Disneyland Paris, the start of an interim promotion at work, a birthday, a wedding, my eldest finishing Reception Year at school and my youngest deciding that partial lower limb paralysis was not going to stop him getting vertical.

Who is a clever boy then?
I've not spent a great deal of time thinking about my weight. Until the last few days I've done very little exercise either, with my 6 week gym membership expiring with little usage. All the while my wife has been very proactively dieting and doing incredibly well. I'm very proud of what she has achieved to date thus far and only wish I had been more supportive in recent weeks.

I wouldn't say that I've been in self-destruct mode, but I've definitely not been at my best on the eating front. I'm carrying a bit more lumbar than a few months back but things could have been a whole lot worse. I briefly touched 15st a couple of weeks ago which I can't say was a tipping point, but has prompted some corrective action. Spending a few days with Mickey Mouse certainly helped as there is a hell of a lot of walking involved going round the park day after day. The prohibitive cost of food meant I was restricted to the picnic prepared every morning, cutting out top up snacks. The walking and hot Parisian sun certainly helped to burn the calories.

This week I've started to turn my attention back towards exercise. I signed up some time ago for the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October and it has dawned on me that it won't be long before that comes around. Barring a handful of sessions on a treadmill in my short lived gym experience, I had not run since my half marathon back in March. Knee and back injuries, apathy and the lazy lure of summertime have put paid to my fitness levels, and when I embarked at the weekend on my first parkrun since February it showed. I recorded my second slowest time over the 5k distance and it was one hell of a struggle.

Slow Slow Slow
Still, it was a starting point to move forwards from. My first meaningful run in months, exhausted from the week away. Probably a bit dehydrated. Lots of excuses I could draw upon, but ultimately down to my inactivity in recent times. With the cobwebs shaken and the body given a rude awakening to the concept of exercise, I felt better for it. Last night I went for another run and it was easier. Still a lot of mileage to cover in the next couple of months to get me race fit.

Tuesday night action
So where do I sit on the weight front. Better than expected to be honest. I'm approaching my 6th wedding anniversary and I'm virtually 1st lighter than the day I got hitched. The 14st target remains aspirational and not altogether out of sight, and with the upcoming surge in training I should be able to shift a few lbs without having to starve myself in the process.

Content
Onwards and upwards then. 73 days to go until I run this  Plenty of work needed to get me to the finish line.




Monday, 9 June 2014

Hour of Power?

A selfie too far?
Hello everyone. Hope you enjoyed the sunshine over the weekend. It was nice to spend a bit of time in the garden with the boys, particularly playing football with my eldest who seems to be really getting into just ahead of the World Cup. Unfortunately while the weather was pretty good, my appetite for the unhealthy showed now sign of abating, despite my lovely wife doing brilliantly with her diet plan. Lots of secret snacking and not being as supportive as I really should be.

So today it was important to get the week off to a good start as a means to move forward, and with only a couple of hours left it is a question of so far so good. Weetabix for breakfast, salad for lunch, avoiding buying anything supplementary when I popped to Tesco to buy some bits and bobs, plus a pasta dinner this evening.

The photo at the top of the page says quite a lot too. Firstly, I am clearly not cut out for being the focus of selfies. Second, I'm in desperate need of a haircut, and finally, I've spent a bit of tonight down the gym. Just over an hour in fact of cardio split between treadmill, cross trainer and reclined bike. Seeing as I've not yet quite got the diet back on track, the way forward in the short term is to build up a sweat.

I certainly did that tonight before being blessed with a refreshing summer shower on the way back to the car. My knee and back are still holding up, and there were far fewer complaints from my body about being put to work than there were on Thursday when everything felt extremely tight. Apparently I have 124 days until the Royal Park Half marathon, and that will come around in no time at all. The focus for the next few weeks is going to be on general fitness, trying to lose the extra lbs I've acquired in the last couple of months. I've another 8 gym sessions to use from my pass which will take me up nicely to my holiday. After that, August and September will be about getting miles in my legs and building up towards race fitness for October.

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Thursday, 5 June 2014

Deal of the Day

When I woke up this morning I feared for another long unproductive day. 5.51 was not the time I had set on my alarm to get me up, but the little man decided it was good enough for him. Not the best way to start the day and hardly the ideal way to get me out of my recent slump. However, shortly after waving goodbye to my wife and youngest, I saw something on my phone that caught my attention.

I signed up for a Groupon account a few years back, but have made a grand total of two purchases from them since. Every morning, I go through a daily ritual of deleting their emails, mostly without even bothering to open them, but today there was one that merited a second look. There was a deal offering 10 gym sessions at LA Fitness for £19. Having given up my gym membership last August, and not found a way back into my running gear since March, this offered me a different route back to fitness.

It's a gym on trading estate - glamorous it is not
I double checked to make sure that my local gym was included in the deal and upon confirmation that it was, I signed up. This evening after putting the boys to bed, I 'enjoyed' a 45 minutes cardio session consisting of treadmill, exercise bike and step machine, which I had foolishly mistaken for a cross trainer. It is pretty clear that a few months off have seen my fitness levels drop sharply, but I'm hoping that these 10 workouts will help get me back into an exercise rhythm before I start focusing on training for my next half marathon in October.

As I write this, I feel a little weary. Partly due to the early morning alarm call, partly from making use of muscles that have forgotten what it is like to be used.  Little man permitting, I'll sleep well tonight knowing that I've taken the first steps to arrest my recent slump and can look forward to workout number 2.