First challenge

[jimmie65]

It really is a self correcting problem (unless, of course, you're a complete masochist or imbecile, and you strike me as neither).

Not complete.

[Jaksavage]

lol

[jimmie65]

Update:

Pull-ups this morning - 1st set did 10 chin-ups!! (But those don't count) 2nd set was 9 pull-ups and a half; almost got the 10.

Sprint mini-challenge - 15 mins of sprint intervals for 1.8 miles.

Cancelled this morning's long bike ride due to gastric issues.

[Librarian of Doom]

Just caught up on your challenge and I am super impressed!!! You have inspired me to try to move from ring rows to the bands so I can work up to a pullup!!!!

[FalseLikeCresid]

Pull-ups this morning - 1st set did 10 chin-ups!! (But those don't count) 2nd set was 9 pull-ups and a half; almost got the 10.

Coming from someone who can only do half chin-ups, I would say that they totally count. Congratulations in your progress! You'll hit this goal in no time.

[jimmie65]

Great job! I can't do a pull up to save my life. Or my boyfriend's life. Or my imaginary dog's life. I simply don't have the arm strength. I'll be working on that during the next 6-week challenge though.

Just caught up on your challenge and I am super impressed!!! You have inspired me to try to move from ring rows to the bands so I can work up to a pullup!!!!

Coming from someone who can only do half chin-ups, I would say that they totally count. Congratulations in your progress! You'll hit this goal in no time.

Thanks, everyone. This has been a long time in coming. 4 months ago, I could barely do 1 chin-up and no pull-ups.

[cline]

Awesome. Think of all the pullups in your future!

[LordOfTime]

You're kicking this challenge's ass!

[KeXioLi]

Quick update:

Goal 1 Pull-ups - Switching up the training a bit. Kept my sets to 4 each this morning so I can do more sets this evening.

Goal 2 30 min 5k - Yesterday's run was 1.5 miles in just under 13 minutes. Too fast; I was burned out at the end. I need to slow tomorrow's down a little bit.

Goal 3 60 miler - Long ride weekend after this one, though I will try to slip in 20+ miles at the beach Saturday.

Goal 4 - Still working on changing habits. We ended up going out to eat last night. I ordered smaller amounts and nothing with flour, but still had corn tortillas. My wife ordered sopapillas and I managed to resist those. 47 years of bad eating habits are hard to break: off diet 2 days in a row, though still eating better. Call it 78% to date, 7/9 meals and no problem with snacks.

Don't sweat it when you don't quite make your eating plan. Studies have shown that the biggest indicator of weight loss success is a food diary--any type of food diary (paper, app on your phone, whatever). Really paying attention to what you eat (and especially the apps that show you the calories/fat/carbs/protein for everything you enter) makes a huge difference. I've got one I love, Lose It, that even let's you put in Mom's old recipes and you can see the nutrition info for them, as well. I've learned that those refried beans aren't as bad as I thought they were, but that Mexican rice beside it is all calories and no nutrition. And sour cream has a lot fewer calories than you think it does. Lots of stuff we "know" is bad really just ain't when you stop an look at it.

[Samunwal]

Update:

Pull-ups this morning - 1st set did 10 chin-ups!! (But those don't count) 2nd set was 9 pull-ups and a half; almost got the 10.

Sprint mini-challenge - 15 mins of sprint intervals for 1.8 miles.

Cancelled this morning's long bike ride due to gastric issues.

Gastric issues?!?!? A REAL man just carries extra TP and finds a little-traveled road....

Great job on the pull-ups!

[Artemis Wolf]

Don't sweat it when you don't quite make your eating plan. Studies have shown that the biggest indicator of weight loss success is a food diary--any type of food diary (paper, app on your phone, whatever). Really paying attention to what you eat (and especially the apps that show you the calories/fat/carbs/protein for everything you enter) makes a huge difference. I've got one I love, Lose It, that even let's you put in Mom's old recipes and you can see the nutrition info for them, as well. I've learned that those refried beans aren't as bad as I thought they were, but that Mexican rice beside it is all calories and no nutrition. And sour cream has a lot fewer calories than you think it does. Lots of stuff we "know" is bad really just ain't when you stop an look at it.

I use LoseIt! It's really helpful, and like you said, it's pretty stinking nifty to be able to put in recipes and see the nutritional value. If you have an iPhone, Livestrong.com has an app called MyPlate which is also pretty good but it costs a couple dollars if I remember correctly.

[Kuiken]

Hit some sprints at lunch today; just over a mile total but did 1 min sprint, 1 min jog/walk. Amazing how sore the legs get from 10 minutes of running when you sprint.

WOO! Way to go! It doesn't seem like much when you think "oh I'll just sprint for a 1 min", but it adds up quickly! Good work on contributing-I think it's going to be a close call!

And CONGRATS on 9.5 pull ups!!!! Plus 10 chin ups which I'm pretty sure more than equal that last 0.5 pull up. I may have to go back to pull ups for the next challenge-I miss them!

Gastric issues?!?!? A REAL man just carries extra TP and finds a little-traveled road....

Between this and the pee break mortar dodge on CD's thread, I can't help but think of you as the Bear Grylls of outdoor bathrooms. I'm equal parts impressed and grossed out, but I must tip my hat to you sir (or maybe leaving the seat up would be a more fitting gesture?).

[Samunwal]

Between this and the pee break mortar dodge on CD's thread, I can't help but think of you as the Bear Grylls of outdoor bathrooms. I'm equal parts impressed and grossed out, but I must tip my hat to you sir (or maybe leaving the seat up would be a more fitting gesture?).

My poor wife is probably cringing as she reads this as the possible responses are pretty much unlimited and mind-boggling, but I'll behave (mostly), and just point out that when the entire Great Outdoors is your latrine, there ARE no seats to leave up or down...

[jimmie65]

Sorry I've been MIA the last couple of days. Spent Saturday getting my wife out of her funk (her mom is having medical issues) and then my daughter was in town. But stayed on course.

re food logging: I'm bad about this, but I try. I've got a Google spreadsheet I try to record everything on.

re pooping in the woods: My planned ride was in way too populated an area. I did get over 20 miles in once the stomach calmed down.

Goals:

1. Ten pull-ups in 1 set +3 Str: DONE!!! Knocked out 11 first thing this morning, followed by 8 chin-ups, 7 pull-ups, 4 chin-ups, and 5 pull-ups. Now to get 15.

2. Running: Loved working on the sprints last week. Since my 5k goal is done, I'm going to focus more on intervals and barefoot running. I did a 15 minute run this morning with 4 min run/1 min walk intervals and hit an 8:59 pace.

3. 60 mile bike ride +3 Sta: I tried to talk my wife into the 65 mile Tour de Gruene, but she's only willing to do the 35 miler. I need to set aside a Saturday and ride to either New Berlin or Seguin and back.

4. Diet: Did OK, maybe 85-90%. My issue right now is more portion size. I'm going to focus on that this week, while staying semi-Paleo (found one site that calls this Meso, so going to start using this term).

Tried a green smoothie this morning. Not ever going to be a favorite, but not bad.

5. Find at least 3 new places to explore over the next 6 weeks. 1/3. I did find 2 more tiny parks on my ride Saturday but I don't think i can count those. If next weekend's schedule permits, I think i'll try the veloway in Austin: http://www.veloway.com/. 3.1 miles of paved road for bikes and skates only.

I'll try to catch up on everyone else's progress before I head to work.

[EmCee]

Meso? Primal? Paleo? So many terms!

Great job so far - trying to catch up on everything. What's your goal for the bike ride? A lot of my friends are obsessed with doing 100mi. bike rides.

[jimmie65]

Meso? Primal? Paleo? So many terms!

Great job so far - trying to catch up on everything. What's your goal for the bike ride? A lot of my friends are obsessed with doing 100mi. bike rides.

For this 6 weeks, just 60 miles.

[jimmie65]

Pull-up goal: DONE! 11 this AM.

Diet goal: Doing good, 100% the last 2 days.

Biking goal: Commuting most days this week. Thinking about the 65 mile ride on the Tour De Gruene, if they'll get back to me on the time limit. I'm estimating, based on the hills and my normal speed, it will take me at least 6 hours. If that puts me over the limits, I may just do part of this ride on my own and add some other distance (I'm not enthralled with a 20-mile leg of this race, as it's a boring area to ride.)

Mini-Challenge: Jumping rope is not my thing. 400 yesterday total.

[EmCee]

At least you're participating

I didn't realize that you were referring to a race - I thought it was just a well-known bike trail or something. D'oh!

[jimmie65]

At least you're participating

I didn't realize that you were referring to a race - I thought it was just a well-known bike trail or something. D'oh!

It's actually a recreational tour. Me and my mountain bike are too slow for racing.

[EmCee]

It's actually a recreational tour. Me and my mountain bike are too slow for racing.

So what's up with the time limit? You would think they would let you do it at your own pace...

[jimmie65]

So I don't fill up threads with long lists of my workouts, I'm logging them to Google docs now (Click here)

Anything logged past today is my plan. I'm adding in lifts (my current numbers suck) and moving strength to M-W-F, runs to Tu-TH, and leaving Saturday open for whatever feels right that day. Looks like we're not joining a gym after all, so I'm using that money to pick up some more equipment off Craigslist (more weights and an incline bench to start).

[jimmie65]

So what's up with the time limit? You would think they would let you do it at your own pace...

They may. I dropped out of a ride in Corpus partially because the time limit was 5 hours (and partially because it sucks to ride down the park road in Port Aransas).

[CyningaDena]

Dude, how do you keep that up for six days a week? That is seriously not physically possible for me. That's some serious commitment! And great job knocking down your goals one by one! You're looking strong.

[jimmie65]

Dude, how do you keep that up for six days a week? That is seriously not physically possible for me. That's some serious commitment! And great job knocking down your goals one by one! You're looking strong.

Thank you. Sometimes, I don't keep it up all 6 days but I try. It helps that it's just me and the wife now, no kids at home.

[Samunwal]

They may. I dropped out of a ride in Corpus partially because the time limit was 5 hours (and partially because it sucks to ride down the park road in Port Aransas).

Sometimes these are due to permit requirements, sometimes to spare the volunteers manning the routes.

Congrats on the pull-ups! Insanely jealous of your 11!