mtriguy

I know, I've been terrible about documenting this. I'm still covering for a DBA at work (that's not my regular job) in addition to doing my job and my wife has been travelling for work meaning I'm handling everything at home. Yesterday, for instance, including over 100 miles of driving to and from summer camp, school supply shopping, getting locker assignments, decorating lockers, lawn mowing etc and more. I have not, however been neglecting my other challenge responsibilities. Last Week Numbers: Strength Workouts: 3 Running Workouts: 4 (!) Fast Food Meals: 1 So far, so good. As to my solo bass piece, I've had to change it. My hands are just too small to pull off Portrait of Tracy. Jaco's hands were enormous and he made use of that fact. I've switched it to "Dixie" by Jeff Berlin.

So yesterday after turning around to get my gym bag on my way to work, I was stoked. Lunch time comes and I'm ready to hit the gym. Just then the boss walks over and informs me of an emergency that needs to be taken care of immediately: "customer has a short window of time/apparently caused by a failed restore you did yesterday..." Weird, because I had no failed restores yesterday. I did stay late to do some because someone else tried to act like a hero and do my job and he screwed up royally. I spend my lunch hour investigating the "issue" and it turns out that things are working exactly the way they're supposed to, it was a misunderstanding of a status message. Fine, it happens. But who told my boss I screwed up some restore the previous day? Turns out it was "The Hero". He wants to work in my position and somehow thinks that by making my peers and myself look bad it will help him. He's like a cliche from a bad movie. Anyway, when I got home I had lots of family/kids things to handle. I did get a strength workout in at 9pm. It was with too little weight because I don't have a full set at home, but it was better than nothing. Got it done. Today is a 4 mile run when I get home.

So far so good. My clothes are actually starting to feel less tight. Sorry I haven't been participating much, I'm covering for someone on vacation at work and my internet time has been almost non-existent.

Proud of myself. Was ten minutes into my commute when realized I had forgotten to grab my gym bag so I turned around and got it. Would have been easy to just keep going. Cool.

Excellent run with a good friend last night. 4 miles at a good pace on a great trail. We hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks, when I walked in his house the first things he did was grab my bicep, say "damn" and then said "you've lost weight". That felt great. Work has been enjoyable too for the first time in months so my stress levels are way down.

Weekends are typically when I overeat so I'm weighing myself on Fridays to stay motivated. This morning's weight: 190.0 That's good. Getting under 190 is a milestone I've wanted to reach for a while so this is definitely a kick in the ass to keep disciplined over the weekend.

No, it was the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Our 14th year straight.

Strength Training accomplished. It was a good one. I'm doing a whole body routine 3x per week: Chins, Squats, Bench press, Shoulder press, Deadlifts, Rows, Pullovers. 1 set each of 8 to 12 slow reps to failure. When I can do 12 reps without failure, increase the weight. I've got most of my weights dialed in, I only have deadlifts left. Prior to this week, I wasn't lifting to failure, I was use weights I could do 12 fast reps with. After slowing down, focusing more on form and using weights I can only do 8-12 with I'm definitely working harder now. I can feel the difference after each workout.

This is so true. Another thing that applies here is a great quote by Bill Gates: "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction". He was discussing business and technology but if you replace "years" with "months" or "weeks" it easily applies to personal fitness as well.

Back from camping at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Got a couple of decent runs in and two body weight workouts. Yesterday was back to work and Planet Fitness. Got a great strength workout in. I've been doing some reading and my workout consists of one set of eight strength exercises done very slowly (4 secs. up, 4 secs down). Ideally, each set is eight reps done to failure. The next session is nine reps. When I get to twelve, increase the weight. I'm still working on determining the loads to use but I'm getting closer. Yesterday's workout was definitely the hardest I've done in a long time. Was planning on running this morning but I decided to sleep in instead. I can run after work and consistently getting enough sleep is one of the best things I can do for myself. 9:00 PM Mission accomplished. Ran 3.3 miles. Ate pretty well.

Getting sick happens, don't worry about it. And as far as the indoor bike goes, it can be a great workout and it's still riding. I made a big batch of pulled pork in my crockpot last week. SImple as can be, it can be eaten for any meal and it's pure protein.

Got back from the family camping/music festival trip late last night. Went well all things considered. Got in two runs of 3 and 4 miles and two body weight workouts, so I'm on track with the challenge. Only measurement taken is weight from this morning: 192 lbs. Exactly what it was going in, so I'll take not gaining any weight as a victory.

Hi, I'm mtriguy aka Mike. I recently joined the NF community and started my first 6 Week Challenge. I've had a training/fitness blog in the past that I posted to very regularly so with my recent attack of motivation I've decided to try it again. It's a good way to stay motivated, stick to a plan and get my thoughts straight. The Challenge is off to a rough start, but that's life. You can't count on ideal days for sticking to a fitness plan. They'll happen, but you have to go in knowing that for the plan to work you have to expect a lot of days where there won't be time to work out and eat right. But you find the time anyway. That's why I like the idea of the 6 Week Challenges. For my first challenge I have 3 Goals: Run a minimum of 3 miles 3x per weekStrength train 3x per weekEat fast food no more than 1x per weekIt's odd having such basic goals, but in the past couple years due to a combination of injuries and major stressful events, I've really let my fitness deteriorate. Then again, I have a really good chance at meeting them and they'll be good to build on. So, yesterday was day one. I had an excellent strength training workout and then my wife brought home Taco Bell for dinner. Thankfully, she got me a bean burrito which is about the least worst thing you could get from there. I had to eat it. She's having her own struggles with weight poor eating habits so if I had said I wasn't going to eat it, she would have started to feel bad about making that decision and the night would have gone downhill from there. I'm waiting for the right time to talk to her about it. Like I said, she's having her own struggles. She's trying and having some success and she needs positive support, not criticism. This week is also our annual family camping trip to a music festival. It's a long drive, so eating while on the road will be a challenge, but once we're there it'll be fine. I've made a big batch of pulled pork and done some solid menu planning. Plus there are some great vegetarian and organic food vendors there. Running and strength training won't be an issue. I'll get in a strength session before we leave, and do body weight exercises on one day. The other days I'll run. It's a beautiful area to run. I probably won't be able to post for another week or so but this will definitely help keep me on track during the trip. Another beginning. Onward.

Regarding your first tri here are what I consider to be the most important things to remember: 1- The swim : If this is an open water swim, you need to do at least one training session in open water prior to the race. Can't stress this enough. It's completely different from swimming in a pool. Start off much slower than you think you should. Your going to be full of adrenalin and a bunch of fast, experienced people are going to take off right from the start. Don't try to keep up with them. Just go slow and steady. 2- Practice your bike to run transition a few times. Race day is not the time to do something for the first time. 3- On race day, don't be afraid to tell people it's your first race and ask questions. You may get a random jerk but most triathletes are really happy to help a first-timer. 4- Don't use everything up on the bike. Go easier than you think you should. Same thing on the first 2 miles of the run. The last mile of the run is the time to let it all out. 5- Have fun, but go for the best time you can. If you cross the finish line and think "that was easy!", you did it wrong. 6- Thank every volunteer you see. They're giving up their time for free so you can race.

Something I forgot to mention: the family and I are leaving on a camping trip from Wed. to Sunday so you probably won't hear much from me until next Monday. Keeping up with my goals shouldn't be too tough, although avoiding fast food might be tough while we're driving. Doing this challenge will definitely help with that though.

Cool, thank you. I'm taking my time getting to know the site and how to use it to it's fullest, but I will definitely check it out. If you have enough money, I play anything. Seriously, mostly rock but also jazz, funk, etc. No classical. I'm leaning towards choosing Donna Lee as the solo piece. I haven't spent much time playing fretless in a while.

I'm in, thanks for the invite KingLeeroy. I've never seen an episode of Buffy, it's on my "to watch" list, but I am a fan of Joss Whedon. I'm mtriguy, here's my first Challenge thread. I'm taking a slow approach to the NerdFitness thing, although I like everything I've seen so far. I've already run into my first bump in the road, my daughter had a mini-meltdown leaving the house this morning and I forgot to bring my gym bag to work. No strength workout at lunch. So I'll commit here to getting an abbreviated one in at home this evening in the half hour I have between getting home and having to go out again for the night. A short workout is better than no workout.

Depends what you're trying to do. Either Wordpress.com or Wix.com will suffice for almost all basic needs of someone looking for free hosting.

Starting measurements Weight: 192.0 BF%: 27.2 body measures to come after the Myotape gets delivered later today.

Thanks for the welcome and the advice.

Background: At age 38 I quit smoking. I was very out of shape. I weighed around 165 and was flabby but at 5'8" it wasn't too bad. At age 39 I started running and strength training a bit. Lost some weight, felt pretty good. At age 40 I started training for a sprint triathlon. Barely finished, loved it, lost a bit more weight. For the next nine years I participated in many road races and triathlons, doing a dozen half marathons, one marathon, 8 half-iron tris and a lot of Sprint and Olympic tris. At age 43 I ran a sub-20 minute 5k. My diet, weight, RHR, blood pressure etc. improved dramatically for the first few years of doing triathlon and stayed that way until about six years in. Then a series of stressful life events hit over the course of a few years and all my good habits slowly disappeared. My weight crept up and up. I now weigh 192 lbs, and have a body fat percentage of 27%. My eating habits are bad, lots of fast food. I've been running a little and strength training 0 to 3 times per week with no consistency in my exercise patterns. Most of my clothing no longer fits. Main quest: Lose the fat and fit comfortably fit into 32" waist pants. The plan: Do a full body strength workout 3x per weekRun a minimum of 3 miles 3 times per weekEat fast food no more than once per weekI log my exercise on SportTracks.mobi but I like the daily thread/blog format for keeping motivated and maintaining accountability so I'll post daily in this thread regarding what I did/didn't do towards my main quest. Motivation: I've dealt with depression my whole life and I want to avoid another major depressive episode. I've experienced a couple during the past few years. I know that regular exercise and good nutrition habits are key to this. There are other things I can do, but for now I'm going to focus on getting back to regular exercise and eating better. Life quest: Play a technically demanding solo bass piece flawlessly I need to pick a piece by 7/28. Portrait of TracySpend at least 30 minutes 4 times per week working on itStarting Measurements Weight: 192.0 BF%: 27.2 BP: 140/100 RHR: 74 Bicep: 13" Thigh: 22.75" Shoulders: 48.25" Hips: 37.5" Waist: 38.75"