February recap

Darn short months. February wasn't as good as January was, but it's still cold and wet outside... as it warms up, I'm sure things will improve.

1) 21 hours, 10 minutes, 23 seconds. Behind scheduled pace of 25 hours / month. However, February is 2 days short... figure an hour a day... B+

2) Down about 5 lbs for the year. Slow but steady progress. C+.

3a) ran 48.5 miles. Again, this will be higher in the warmer months when I can get outside and make daily runs more like 6 miles on average than the 3-4 I manage on the treadmill most times. Again, I'm giving it a solid B.

3b) biked 48.4 miles. Pitiful, even for February. D-, and barely that.

3c) Did weights 3 times, but group fitness 9 times. That's 12 total. I'll give it a B. I need to get in the gym on my own more.

3d) Didn't swim at all. None. Fail.

Time to pick up the pace for March. February was just bad.

I gave up milkshakes for this?!

Okay, to be honest, I will still have the occasional milkshake. But it's more like one a month tops, rather than one or two a week. What am I having instead?

Zach's Peanut Butter Smoothie:

1 banana
1 cup ice cubes
1/2 cup chocolate milk
1 handful baby spinach (about 1/2 cup)
1 big spoonful of peanut butter (probably about 2 TBS)
A squirt of honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Blend and enjoy. Yum.

428 calories
20 grams fat
52 grams carbohydrate
35 grams sugar
6 grams fiber
13 grams protein


Compared to my usual chocolate PB milkshake:

969 calories
62 grams fat
83 grams carbohydrate
6 grams fiber
29 grams protein

I think I'm coming out ahead!

Here's another of my favorite smoothie recipes:

Zach's Citrus Smoothie:

1 banana
1 cup ice
1/4 cup diced pineapple
1/2 cup orange juice
1 handful baby spinach
1/2 tsp vanilla
squirt of honey

211 calories
1 gram fat
51 grams carbohydrate
4 grams fiber
3 grams protein
158% of your daily vitamin C

Good stuff. Have a favorite smoothie recipe? Include it in the comments!

Shameless contest entry

I really want one of these cool body composition scales, and it just so happens that a certain triathlete is giving one away on his blog. Check it out.

January's progress

So my annual goals, broken down by month, average out to:

1. Exercise at least 300 hours. That's 25 hours per month

(Goal 2 is long term. I will say that I lost about 2 lbs in January, or so it appears.)

3a. Run 800 miles in 2011. That's 66 miles a month.
3b. Bike 2500 miles. That's 208 miles a month.
3c. Get in the gym 100 times, or 2x / week avg. That's 8.3 (call it 9) times a month.
3d. Swim. At least some. Yeah.

-----------------------------------

So how'd it go? Well...

1) 26 hours, 15 minutes, 52 seconds. Ahead of scheduled pace. A+

3a) ran 45.5 miles. This is going to be higher in the warmer months when I can get outside and make daily runs more like 6 miles on average than the 3-4 I manage on the treadmill most times. So whereas that's only 68% of the pro-rata goal, I'm giving it a solid B.

3b) biked 149.2 miles. That's again going to be lower in the winter months than the summer months anyway, so even though here it's only 71.7% of the average goal total, I'm going to give it a solid B+.

3c) Did weights 7 times. 7 of 8.3 per month is 84%, or a B. However, my employer has also started a "wellness program" that includes weekly group fitness classes. These generally aren't killer workouts and end up being more aerobic than strength, but I'm counting them towards this goal... and that means I'm going to have to modify this goal, since I get to go to 3-4 of these per week. So for now, I'm sticking with a B.

3d) Didn't swim at all. None. Fail.

So overall, I'm going to give the month a solid B to B+ average grade. On to February!

Who Am I?

I've come to the realization that I need to decide what my goals are, long term. I work with a guy who runs the Wasatch 100 every year. He's the ultimate endurance junkie in our office. He's not über fast or anything, but he can go all day, that's for sure. He and I often workout at lunch together. The other day I was doing a weights workout, and he, knowing that I like to run marathons and have been eying some cycling road races and even contemplating long course triathlon, said something that caught me a little by surprise. I don't remember it word for word, but it was something to the effect of "Be careful with all that weight lifting. You don't want to pack on a ton of muscle that you'll have to haul around during a marathon (or an ironman)."
Now the truth of the matter is I already have plenty of extra weight to haul around. I need to lose a good 20 lbs or more to be at a good "racing weight." But I need to think at what my long term end-all be-all goal is. Do I want to be an efficient marathoner and triathlete and cyclist? Is that my ultimate goal, to see how fast I can get, see if I can qualify for Boston or finish an Ironman standing up? Is my goal to become a Cat 3 or maybe even 2 cyclist, and win some races and compete in the Masters division(s)? Or is it something else?

I think I started running mainly to lose weight and get in shape. I was tired of being left behind on group hikes and mountain bike rides. I know I began mountain biking for the sheer fun of it, and its fitness benefits were just gravy. But running, and consequently distance running, and marathoning, and then triathloning and biking all evolved from the desire to not look like I was pregnant. Not too long ago the "When are you due?" jokes began at a family party, and they were directed at one of my wife's cousins. At that point, I realized that it's been a long time since someone's made that joke about me, and that made me happy. I want to look good with my shirt off at the swimming pool. So, do I worry about how packing on extra muscle is going to effect my endurance sport performance?

Like I said, at this point, I've got enough weight to lose that putting on muscle will only help in that effort, so for now, I'll keep exercising and building muscle and hopefully shedding fat. Yeah yeah, I know there's the whole diet/nutrition component. And I'm working on that, slowly. Baby steps.

I think my goals can be summed up, at least in part, by this quote from Teddy Roosevelt:


“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.”

2011 fitness goals

Okay, after much thought and deliberation, I give you my goals for 2011:

1. Exercise at least 300 hours. This would be 55h 54m 05s more than last year, and 31 h 11 s over my all time high in 2009. How to get there: 6 hours per week average, or 5 hrs / week in Jan - Mar and again Oct - Dec, and 7 hrs / wk in Apr - Sept. Or so. That will fluctuate, of course.

2. Get BMI down below 25. Currently at 27. This one should come easily-ish. How to do it: Eat better. Less snacks. More good stuff. Smoothies instead of shakes. Method: food journal 80% of the time.

2a. Get body fat below 16%. Currently 19%. This and BMI will happen simultaneously, since I'm not getting any shorter.

3a. Run 800 miles in 2011. 2010: 359 miles. 2009: 1000+ miles
3b. Bike 2500 miles. 2010: 2408 miles. 2009: 1000 miles.
3c. Get in the gym 100 times, or 2x / week avg. 2009: 46 times.
3d. Swim. At least some.

4. Do some races and feel good about it, but more on that later.

End of an era... or just 2010.

So now that 2010 is drawing to a close and we prepare to ring in the two-zero-double-matchsticks, I figure it's time to reflect on the year gone by and set a goal or two for the 365 to come. I didn't set too many goals in 2010, other than to eat better and get more sleep. I think I did alright on the eating better. I've all but eliminated red meat and white grains from my diet, except for tortillas and occasionally white rice. So that's a step in the right direction. There's still major room for improvement, however. As for more sleep... meh, don't even mention it. Didn't happen.

Here's a summary of fitness activity for 2010, to this point (still got a couple days to go!)

Running

• 359.4 miles
  
• 61 hours, 43 minutes, zero seconds
  
• 81 runs
  
• avg 4.44 miles per run
  
• avg 45 minutes, 42 seconds per run
  
• avg pace for the year: 10:18 per mile
  
  Cycling
  
• 2384.3 miles
  
• 145 hours, 2 minutes, 33 seconds
  
• 121 bike rides
  
• avg 19.7 miles per ride
  
• avg 1 hour 20 minutes per ride
  
• avg speed for the year: 16.44 miles per hour
  
  Weights
  
• 45 occurrences
  
• 27 hours, 8 minutes total
  
• avg 36 minutes per occurrence
  

I also played a little basketball and swam a little, but not enough to really be of note.

Not a bad year! Total logged healthy activity/exercise time is 241 hours, 50 minutes, 55 seconds. And like I said before, I'm not done yet. I'll add 2 or so hours to that over the next 2-3 days. That's 10 days and change of working out/exercising 24/7, or just over 6 forty-hour work weeks. Sounds like a lot. But it could be more. I didn't train for or run any marathons this year. In fact, I only got in one double-digit run the whole year, and that was New Years Day, 2010. I did, however, do one triple-digit bike ride (the Ghost Town Century in May), and 5 other rides over 50 miles in length. And I did 2 short but fast criterium races.

For 2011, I haven't set any fitness goals yet. I'd like to run at least a half marathon with my wife, and I like to run at least one full marathon as well. Also, I want to keep up with the cycling and do several RMR criteriums and a couple of road races -- specifically the Bear Lake Classic in May and the Sanpete Classic Road Race in August. And of course, the 4th of July triathlon... maybe. Those should help me get close to 1000 miles of running, maybe, and perhaps get close 2500 miles of cycling again. Time, indeed, will tell.

A non-fitness related goal I have for 2011 is to log every book I read. I read a ton of books in 2010, but I don't know how many or which ones. I plan on continuing to make frequent use of the local library, and to continue to sacrifice sleep to read. Ya just gotta, ya know?

What are your goals for 2011?