Week 6: 23-Aug-2019
Weight: 236 pounds
Starting weight: 254 pounds
Weekly loss: 0 pounds
Total loss: 18 pounds
23-Aug-2019: 1922 calories
Farmers market day today which we’ve been looking forward to since we missed last week. Made an awesome lunch with everything either from the market or homemade.
Grilled shiitake mushrooms with local bucheron cheese and onions on a fresh baguette with some homemade dill spears. I don’t eat much bread but this was totally worth it. I probably should have waited and had this for dinner with a glass of pinot noir or sauvignon blanc which would have gone awesome with it.
It wasn’t too bad nutrition wise:
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24-Aug-2019: 1678 calories
Too much wine and not enough protein, but otherwise good.
Also I forgot to log an ounce of onions when I posted at lunch, but added them after.
25-Aug-2019: 1601 calories
Rowed 5000 M in 24:57.1 (PR) and beat my first try by 1:41.
I’ve decided I’m going to follow the Pete Plan - Beginner which is a 24 week rowing plan. I suck at following plans, but this one has 3 sessions per week and then 2 optional sessions which sounds reasonable enough. I plan to do the 3 required sessions every week, and then some of the optional sessions while occasionally using an optional session to test my 500 M and 1000 M times. I’ll be doing lots of 5000 M sessions during the plan, and eventually some 10000 M sessions, so I’ll use those to establish and compare my times.
After looking around the web my current times suck, but that’s ok. Most people are probably younger and probably also not taking a medication which actively keeps the heart rate from increasing, which makes it impossible right now to push my heart to maximum levels.
The Pete Plan uses times (including splits during interval training sessions) to guide the splits for future sessions, so it actively pushes you not only to gain an endurance foundation but to keep improving on times as well.
I really want to make it through all 24 weeks and then see what my times look like compared to now, so I’m going to keep track of my first effort at each distance.
Best Rowing Times So Far:
500 M: Not tested
1000 M: Not tested
2000 M: 10:01 (1st effort: 10:58)
5000 M: 24:57.1 (1st effort: 26:41)
10000 M: Not tested
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I would love to jump rope but it’s literally too hard for me right now. Like after a few minutes I can’t continue lol.
26-Aug-2019: 1581 calories
Had 8 hours of meetings today and only managed to get out for a 15 minute walk.
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27-Aug-2019: 1518 calories
Walked 30 minutes but I’m not sure of the distance – probably 1.5 to 1.75 miles.
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I guess it’s too late to edit my last post, but I realized it was early and I felt pretty good so I did one of the week 1 optional sessions in the beginner Pete’s plan. 20 minutes of easy rowing concentrating on efficient strokes. The plan said to tackle this at an easier pace than the 5000 M week 1 required rows, so I aimed for 2:40 splits and hit it on the nose. Funny thing was when I got to 2000 M I realized at this easy pace I had beat my first timed attempt at a 2000 M from a few weeks ago. I think this means I’ll be taking huge chunks off my current times as the plan goes on. At least in the first couple of months or so. Or maybe I’m seeing a benefit of the reduced metropolol already.
Tomorrow is my first interval training session on the plan.
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28-Aug-2019: 1384 calories
Rowing workout W1R2 (Week 1, Required session 2): 6 x 500 M intervals with 2 minutes rest between intervals
I thought about trying to do the 500 M splits at 2:00 which would correspond to an 8:00 2000 M but decided that would be too much at this point since my best 2000 M so far is 10:01. So I did my splits at 2:15 instead. Glad I did because I was pretty fried at the end. A few of these sessions along with the distance work on the erg should help me dig another good chunk from my 2000 M time.
29-Aug-2019: 1424 calories
Walked about 3 miles at roughly 3.5 MPH.
Week 7: 30-Aug-2019
Weight: 233 pounds
Starting weight: 254 pounds
Weekly loss: 3 pounds
Total loss: 21 pounds
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30-Aug-2019: 2047 calories
Drinking wine tonight so a little large on the calories. 1 bottle down and 1 to go (sharing with my wife).
Rowing workout W1R3 (week 1, required session 3): 5000 M row at same pace as W1R1.
This beginner plan is kicking my ass. Did this 5000 M row in 24:57.5 which was within .4 seconds of W1R1 which was the aim. Now as each week goes on I need to add 500 meters to the two long rows while maintaining the same split times (time per 500 M), so it only gets harder. Thinking about maintaining this pace at 8000 M or 10000 M seems daunting, but I’m going to take each workout one at a time, give my best effort, and see what happens.
I’m going to hike about 10-12 miles with a couple of summits on Monday so next week I’ll probably just hit the 3 required rows without getting in any optional rows. But maybe I’ll squeeze one in.
Right now I’m moving on to a glass of 2008 1er Cru Burgundy to celebrate hitting the 20 pound milestone.
Had an awesome low calorie and filling lunch. Spiraled summer squash with foraged wild mushrooms (chicken of the woods) sauteed in EVOO, pasta sauce, kalamata olives, Portuguese hot sauce, and Romano cheese.
426 calories but a little light on protein compared to my normal meals with only 14 grams.
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31-Aug-2019: 2395 calories
Walked 3.1 miles on an easy trail at about 3.5 mph.
I should have ordered a garden salad for an app at dinner but I got a baby spinach salad that ended up something like 650 calories once I logged my best estimates of the ingredients. That and a 3rd glass of wine pushed me over 2000 for the day. No biggie, but Monday is also going to be a little high on calories so tomorrow and then the rest of the week I’ll need to aim for some low days.
01-Sep-2019: 1644 calories
Rowing workout W2R1 (week 2, required session 1): 5500 M row at same pace as W1 5000 M row.
I was sort of dreading this row as the 5000 M row I did on Friday kicked my ass and I had to add 500 M and maintain the same split times. However, it actually ended up being a breeze and I could have easily completed another 1500 M maintaining the same pace. I might bump up the pace for future long rows, but first I’m going to wait and see how I do with the second required 5500 M row I need to complete this week just to make sure today wasn’t a fluke.
02-Sep-2019: 2027 calories
Hiked 9.4 miles with 3000 feet of elevation gain. I turned back about 0.25 miles from summit as it was raining hard all day and I was soaked and cold and basically fried at that point. I probably would have stuck it out but I’ve been on this summit 4 times before so didn’t care so much about that, and already had a successful training day all things considered.
Great news from my doctors appointment today. I’m out of the prediabetes zone and back to normal. Also, my bad cholesterol dropped over 40 points while my good cholesterol stayed the same.
Additionally, she agreed to reduce my metropolol prescription to 25 mg, which is down from 100 mg when I started this log and 200 mg from when I first got on it. This is moving much faster than I had hoped. It’s possible I’ll be able to drop it completely in January at my next appointment.
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I’m feeling a lot better with more energy and alertness and less anxiety. I’ve gone down 3 belt notches now and will need to purchase a new one soon as I’m all out of holes. The first round of new clothes is probably 4-6 weeks out. (I’m expecting to do this 2 or 3 times on the way to my goal weight.)
The best thing is that I’m almost 8 weeks in and this isn’t feeling like an ordeal or a chore at all. I don’t feel hungry or like I’m depriving myself at all and it seems like this should be sustainable.
The biggest risk is not having the time to put in the meal planning and preparation, as I’ve been sinking a lot of effort into those activities. But it’s been fun and not a chore at all and hopefully I’m forming a habit that will continue indefinitely. It’s also been good that my wife and daughter have also gotten into eating more healthy and we’re visiting the farmers market and farm stands together and doing a lot of meal prep together. I am spending significantly more money on food sourcing tons of stuff locally, but it’s worth it.
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03-Sep-2019: 1398 calories
Apparently overdid it on the hike yesterday and have serious DOMS today in my quads and calves. I hope this doesn’t screw up my plans to row W2R2 tomorrow, but I think it might as I can barely walk right now.