Day 45: Running and Music

February 22, 2012 by

I haven’t talked about music yet on my blog, but music is a big part of my life. I love, love, love music. All kinds of music. My mom started teaching me piano lessons when I was 5. I played the oboe in middle, high school, and college. I was in the drum line for the marching band in high school for 2 years, and marched the sousaphone for 2 years. I also picked my dad’s guitar in high school and he taught me my first few chords that I learned (the chords to Puff the Magic Dragon). I then proceeded to learn some Candlebox and Weezer (yes, I was in high school the early 90s) and have been dinking around on the guitar off an on since then. I’m actually about to head over to band practice. I’m in a band and we have our first live performance this Friday night – woohoo!

How does this relate to running? I have to listen to music when I run. It is what drives me. It gives me energy. When doing my standard 21 minute interval run, the toughest part of it is the last 5 minutes before the 2 minute cooldown (minutes 14-19). Right now I’m at 5 — 6.2 — 7.4 — 8.6, and then for the last minute the sprint at 9.8 before cooling down at 3.5 on 19-21.

Years ago Nike partner shipped with Apple and came out with the Nike + iPod system to track your runs. I used it a while ago, but now I use Runkeeper to track my runs. There is a very cool feature of the Nike + iPod system: the Powersong. The powersong is the song that you put on when you need a boost, generally at the end of your run to pump you up. I still use the concept when I’m doing my interval running at the gym, but I just do it myself. My powersong changes from time to time. I like to pick one that has a beat that is around 160 bpm for my footsteps. Sometimes the song is in 4/4 and is actually around 80 bpm, but if so I’m stepping twice per beat (on the downbeat and upbeat). That seems to be the perfect speed for me to have good long strides as I ride out the last part of my run. Right now for my power song I’m doing Linkin Park’s “Somewhere I Belong”. It is 3:34 and I time it so that it ends right as I’m done with the sprint. So, when I’m at 15:25 (it takes about a second to queue up the song and start playing), I hit play on the song. It finishes exactly at 19:00 after the sprint and then I cool down for two minutes. Here is the video for the song I’m using:



Linkin Park is one of my favorite bands. I love their combination of heavy guitars, singing, and rapping. What is your powersong?

Filed Under: Body For Life, Technology, Workouts Tagged With: ,

Day 43: Protein after Workout

February 20, 2012 by

After working out with weights, you are supposed to consume protein within 30 minutes in order to ensure that your muscles can grow to their full potential. The more muscle you have, the more fat you burn. I have been trying to eat protein as soon as possible after a workout, but I’ll be honest – sometimes it isn’t within 30 minutes. The gym is only 5 minutes away from my home, but by the time I walk out to my car, head home, sometimes stop at the grocery store, get a call from work, then cook some egg whites or make a protein shake when I get home, it has sometimes not been within 30 minutes of my workout.

The other day as I was leaving the gym, I saw a guy getting his stuff out of a locker and he had a protein bar in his locker. Why haven’t I ever thought of that? Bring a protein bar to the gym – then you can immediately consume protein right after your workout! When doing weights 3 times a week, I’m going to try for the next little while to bring a protein bar to the gym so I can consume protein immediately after doing weights (for me Mon, Wed, Fri). We’ll see if it makes a difference in my muscle gain.

Our printer finally died in our office and it was time to get a new printer. I left the gym today and went straight to Fry’s Electronics to pickup the printer that I had ordered online for in-store pickup. Btw, I will never buy another “brother” brand printer again! Horrible driver, not very compatible with Mac and Linux, and just all around gave us problems. I went back to my bread and butter – Samsung Laser Printers. I’m not a fan of ink jet printers. I prefer a solid basic black and white laser printer. If I really need something in color (which is like never), I can print it at Kinkos, or if it is a photo use one of the many sites online or upload it to Costco or Walgreens. My laser printer toner will last for several thousand pages compared to several hundred for an ink jet. It’s much more economical and looks way better. I generally buy a very basic laser printer, and have had really good success with the basic Samsung Laser Printer. It was only $69.99 at Fry’s! You really can’t beat that, especially considering it was $95 at Newegg, which is usually the cheapest place online for computer stuff. Our last Samsung that we had before the brother lasted us for years. Oh, and I saw a sign at Fry’s today that said they match internet prices…hmmm. Good to know when I need something tech related in a pinch, but don’t want to pay local store prices.

Oops – got on another techy tangent. My bad. I have a tendancy to do that sometimes….back to my blog post – so I went to Fry’s to pickup the printer, and ate my protein bar while driving in my car on the way there to ensure that I got the protein in my system immediately following my intense lower body workout.

Rocky Road Brownie

Btw, this brand of protein bars is quite yummy, and on par with the Body For Life recommended EAS brand of protein bars in regards to protein/carb balance. Not all protein bars are necessarily good for you. I’ll probably do a blog post soon about that my new discovery of these protein bars.

Filed Under: Body For Life, Nutrition, Random, Workouts Tagged With:

Day 41: Week 6 Weigh-in

February 18, 2012 by

I’m almost halfway done with the 90 day Body For Life challenge. Last week I had planed and was still 162. This week weighing in at 159. That’s a total of 11 pounds in 6 weeks.





Today’s post is going to be mainly pictures. Being almost halfway through the 90 day program, I took a lot more pictures and I also have some new starting pictures that I haven’t shown before. For starters, let’s do the standard front and back pictures that I’ve been doing each week:





The scale is not the only thing that shows success. At some point, I may even start to put some weight on once I’ve trimmed all the fat and am primarily building muscle. The best way to show yourself progress is by seeing how your clothes fit. There is a pair of jeans that I used to wear but within the last year have outgrown and no longer fit in them. These jeans were one of the things that inspired me to do Body For Life this year. It was a sign that I was putting the weight back on. At the beginning of Body For Life I tried them on and I could hardly fit into them. I used to wear them all the time and they were not tight on me. I could barely even get them buttoned. Here are the pictures from both the front and the back – before and after 6 weeks on Body For Life:





The pictures from the back really show the difference in my body. You can tell that I’m trimming the fat off. Before I started Body For Life, I’ll be honest — I didn’t look horrible. I hid my roll fairly well under a t-shirt. My wife Allison said to me – “I don’t know why you’re doing Body For Life – you don’t need to lose any weight”. After seeing these pictures at week 6, she said to me today that she didn’t realize how fat I had gotten. She had one word for the pictures – “inspiring”. Now, for a close-up view from the back (click to enlarge):

Now, my day off wouldn’t be complete without some sort of splurge. We went to dinner tonight at our favorite Tex Mex restaurante, Chuy’s….mmmmmmm



I ordered a steak burrito, and it was delicious!

I’m truly amazed at how much progress I can already see at the halfway mark. Doing a weekly weigh-in and photo shoot has really helped keep me motivated. Looking back at the progress I’ve made helps to keep me on track during the week.

Filed Under: Body For Life, Pictures Tagged With:

Day 39: Healthy Sausage Wrap

February 16, 2012 by

Eating is a big part of Body For Life. 6 times a day, protein and carb each time. Workouts are important too, but you only have 6 workouts per week compared to 42 meals. It definitely takes some planning to make sure you always have a healthy carb and protein for each meal.

One very easy, yummy meal is — believe it or not — a sausage wrap. First off, buy some lean smoked turkey sausage. I tried Jennie-O the other day and it was delicious.

lean and tasty
It only has 3g of fat per serving. For a wrap, I eat the equivalent of 2 servings, so that is still only 6g of fat in the sausage. Next, use a whole wheat tortilla. I like the Mission Whole Wheat Tortillas:

Carb Balance
You can fry the sausage in a pan, but I think it tastes better if you have a grill. I threw it on our gas grill and it didn’t take any longer than cooking it on the stove. After pulling it of the grill, I cut 2 servings worth. The entire link is 7 servings, so I just eyeballed it.

2 servings

Wrap in wheat tortilla and add some mustard. Mustard is great because it has virtually no calories (3 in 1 teaspoon), as opposed to the alternative of maybe a BBQ sauce full of sugar, carbs, and calories. Plus, I just really like the taste of mustard on a sausage wrap. If you’re not a mustard fan, it is good for your health to try to start liking mustard in favor of bbq sauce, mayonnaise, or ranch dressing on wraps, sandwiches, etc. Doesn’t it look yummy?

with mustard

mmmmm

For less than 300 calories, around 8g of fat, and 21g or protein, it makes a great, healthy meal. Now, you know how I can easily generate the nutritional information for the meal, right? fatsecret.com, of course.

Nutritional Information:

Nutritional Information

Breakdown:

Nutritional Breakdown

Filed Under: Body For Life, Nutrition Tagged With: ,

Day 37: Second Interval Increase

February 14, 2012 by

Thanks to everyone who stopped by from my lovely wife Allison’s blog today. I picked up a few readers and am excited to have you with me as I go through this journey. Thanks for your support!

Today was my 2nd increase in the intervals for my running routine since I started Body For Life a little over 5 weeks ago. As I mentioned 2 weeks ago when I made my first increase, my eventual goal is to get to four reps of 5 — 6.5 — 8 — 9.5 on the treadmill. My first increase two weeks ago was by .1 to 5 — 6.1 — 7.2 — 8.3. It was a little difficult at first, but after two weeks of that I was ready for an increase today. I increased .1 again and did 5 — 6.2 — 7.4 — 8.6. I went from 2.17 miles to 2.22 miles – an increase in .1 miles total from the beginning (I started at 2.12 for the 21 minute plan).

increased intervals
It was a challenge, but I can tell my heart is getting stronger. I’ll probably do this for two weeks, then increase again by .1. If I keep this pace up, I’ll reach my goal by the 10th week.

And now, for a totally random picture – I saw this at Academy while getting soccer equipment for my son’s soccer team:

wow

I was so excited to see that Academy now carries chicken poop! I went back and forth on whether I needed some more right now, but when I saw that it is from free range chickens, I was sold!

Filed Under: Body For Life, Random, Workouts Tagged With: , ,
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