Knock some posts out of me.

“…Man this feels good. …fast, smooth, smile… Come on pops, Keep going… You can do it!… Fast, smooth, smile… I’m cruising today.  FAST, smooth,smi–Oooowwww – Thunk!”

Thoughts of Scott while cycling Tuesday, Aug 10

Wow, It took a nice nasty crash to knock a blog post out of me. Yes, after owning a bicycle since March 2010, I finally crashed. I have a hybrid bicycle that’s more of a road bike with skinny tires. Those skinny tires sure do not like to take packed gravel turns too fast. I came up on some loose gravel while trying to fly/ride home to get to my son’s T-ball game on time. I was riding what felt fast for me on these types of trails, but I felt in control. Then my wheels just slid out. I felt my legs scrape, man hands braced the fall. I’m kind of glad I chose not to buy cycling shoes this year. I think it could have been much worse.

I’m also terribly glad I had my helmet on. My head hit the ground really solid. In fact, I broke my helmet. (Do these things have warranties?) Right now, I’m trying to keep my computer clean from my scraped up hands.

I’ve neglected blog posting this summer a lot. I’ve been active on twitter and I still read tons of blogs through google reader and instapaper.  While reading, It seems like I’m not the only one in a funk:

I saw that Sean is having the summer malaise.  I’m right there with you with summer burgers and ice cream.

I see that Steve said he was struggling, but looks like he’s about to get his workout on!

I see that Andrew is having the issues.

Even Mac hasn’t been his steady blogging self. Although, he’s having a banner year when it comes to goal achievements!  Excellent Work Mac!

About the only dude fitness blogger not going through this summer funk is: Ryan.  He’s been a blogging / twittering machine. Yet, he reminds us not to compare which is exactly what I’m doing right now.

Why is it that the women fitness bloggers seem so prolific in their sharing of food and activities, but us guys just seem to be going through funks?  Does it have anything to do with the female fitness and food bloggers are more a community?  I don’t see guys chatting and hanging out much on twitter talking about fitness.  Is fitness really a female type topic?  Or, am I just not following and interacting properly on twitter?  Then again, if you look at who I am following on twitter, many of them are tech guys who may or may not be writing code as we speak.

For me, this has been a year of action.  I’ve been working out a ton.  I’m two and half weeks away from my Olympic Distance Triathlon.  I feel good.  I feel rather nervous especially since I haven’t really followed a specific workout plan.  My plan has been and is to swim, run, bike as far and as fast as I can as often as I can while throwing in some weight workouts on those rainy days.  Of course, I listen to my body and take breaks when I feel I need it.  I’ve been good for a minimum of 3 days a week.  Many weeks have been 6 workouts a week.  Recently, its been more like 4 days a week.  Running is just not my strong suit these days.  I can do it.  I run about 5.5 miles consistently at 8:40 minutes/mile.  I’d just rather be biking or swimming.  Swimming is fun, but I am probably about average speed.  I know next year (Doh! – did I just commit to doing Triathlons next year too), I’m going to have to work on my speed interval workouts.

While I have been very active, I have to admit, my eating habits have not improved.  All my exercising just gives me more freedom to eat what I want when I want it. Of course, with all the exercise I’ve been doing, I have lost a little bit of weight.  I’m averaging about 176 pounds a day.  Which is great considering at the beginning of the year, I was over 192 pounds a day.  I feel my waist is thinner since my jeans are too big, and my belt needs to be as tight as I can make it, but I still have some belly fat that many of the experts say is so detrimental to our health even if you exercise.  I know it is directly related to my eating habits.  I’d like to lose about 16 more pounds.  We’ll see if I can reign in my eating habits.

So, I’m still in a blogger’s hide out for a while.  I will write more.  I’ll definitely do some follow-up after I do my triathlon. I have some thoughts on triathlon preparation.  I just want to stay active, get sleep, and be action focused!

4 lessons learned from a triathlete in training

I know in my last post, I promised an article on smiling. I still plan on publishing that article, but I decided to postpone it for a bit due to the heavy research lifting required.

This post is short and sweet. I’m still training for my Triathlon in August. It is fun. Lessons I have learned so far:

1. Rigid training schedules do not mix with full-time work schedules, work at home dad duties, wet and cold spring weather. I just can not bring myself to swim, bike, or run on the exact days the rigid training schedules require. I’m going to require a more flexible training schedule pronto. The rigid schedules make it difficult to plan a life. While I search for a more flexible schedule, I continue to workout, but I just don’t do it on the exact days the schedule requires. Here’s my average workouts for the past couple of months:
   • two 40 to 60 minute swim sessions a week, (Wed & Sat)
   • one 60 to 75 minute bike ride a week, (Thursday but not always)
   • two 35 to 60 minute runs a week. (Tuesday and Friday, but not always. It depends on the biking days.)
   • two to three 20 minute circuit strength training a week. (Mon, Wed, Fri?)
2. Exercise alone will not generate weight loss, but it might change your body structure. I’ve been exercising regularly now since Groundhog day. Since the beginning of the year, I have lost 10 pounds. When many of my fellow weight loss bloggers are losing 2 to 3 pounds a week, I’m totally not losing that much. However, I have noticed my belt needs to be tighter than normal, my shirts feel a little bigger, and my pants are starting to fall down without a belt. I think my body is gaining muscle. Yet, why am I not losing weight? My eating habits have not changed. I still eat food I know is not good for me such as fast food hamburgers, french fries, ice creams, chocolate candies, and all sorts of other no-no’s on any diet. I guess I’m just happy I’m not gaining weight.
3. The more I exercise, the better I feel about exercise. When I first start running, swimming, biking, or weight lifting, I think of all the other things I could be doing with that time. I think do I really need to be doing this exercise. I think isn’t there another way to get physically fit? Then, after I go for a little while I settle in and exercise is tolerable rather than unbearable. Then when I’m finished, I feel good. Still, there are often times, I complain about my muscles being sore. I whine to my wife asking her if running ever actually feels good, because now I don’t feel it. Give me a mountain or a trail to hike, and I go for hours, but running not so much (yet).
4. I salivate over gear. There are so many triathlon, running, swimming, and biking gear that I could spend all sorts of money. I try to resist the urges. I don’t want to be that guy with the billion dollar golf clubs shooting 130 on the golf course. So, I resist the urge to buy new gear for now as I try to identify if I’m into triathlons for the long haul.

So, as you can see with all my exercise, combined with my busy technology consulting and training business and my fatherly duties, blogging and side projects take a back seat. I’ll keep posting when I can, and I’ll make some progress on a new design for Simpleweight sooner or later, but my physical fitness comes first these days. Its my priority action.

What have you learned from your habit of exercise and diet?

Smiling… Part 1 of 2. Happy Opening Day of Baseball.

Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd…

A short post for tonight.  Tomorrow is opening day of baseball.  If you read this early enough, you can catch the WFMT 98.7 in Chicago (or steaming live over the internet).  WFMT is a classical music station in Chicago.  I never much was a classical music listener.  I do have eclectic listening tastes.  I’m an avid Jazz listener, Flamenco, all sorts of Pop, Rock, even Hip-Hop, Country, Blues, and R & B.  I’ve played a bunch of classical music in symphonic and concert bands, but I never was much a listener.  That changed when I moved to Chicago.  I stumbled across 98.7 WFMT while commuting, and it offered a reprieve from the traffic.

Now, every year I make sure to listen to WFMT on Baseball’s opening day.  They play all sorts of baseball themed classical music and stories.  Its so fun.  I know this is not fitness related, but listening to WFMT makes me smile.  I love when they play James Earl Jones narration of Casey’s at the Bat.  Smile.

Smiling is important!

It is late, and I have some early work to do tomorrow.  So,  I’ll save the rest of the post for later this week.

In the meantime, tune in Monday 6:00 AM – 9:00 AM CST, listen in to WFMT to hear some baseball classical music.  I sure hope they do not change the schedule on me, and don’t play it.

Does it really matter?

Your weight. It is just a number. Does it really matter?

2010, a year of action for me. I could also call this year, a year of reflection. I’ve been very thoughtful about what I want. What’s my legacy? How am I doing raising my kids? What are my passions? What do I offer as a fitness blogger, technologist? Where do I go? What do I do?

Today, has brought that even closer. A co-worker of my wife died unexpectedly today. She was young in my book, 33. She leaves behind her husband and a two year old son. Life is short.

I often live thinking I have plenty of time. I say to everyone that long lifespans run strong in my family. I have good genes, and I am taking steps fitness and nutrition wise to help get the most of my good genes. This thinking of plenty of time to go often means I waste time. I know I shouldn’t, but I do.

Now, I did not know the lady who died. I may have met her once, but I really don’t know if I could pick her out. I’m sure there is more to this story that I do not know. My own human selfishness and ego makes me think of myself and my family. How blessed I am and grateful to be given such great gifts. I have two wonderful kids, a wonderful wife, family, and friends. We often take each other for granted. We take ourselves for granted. I implore you. Don’t!

So, your fitness, your nutrition, your weight. Does it really matter?

We can go two ways:

1) We can say to ourselves: I’m going to die soon anyway, I must as well live it up, eat what I want, like pizza, ice cream, cookies, cake, french fries, etc. Do the actions I want like waste time on the internet or watching TV.

-or-

2) We can say to ourselves: I’m going to die soon anyway, I should take care of my body to extend my usefulness. Extend my legacy. Extend the help I can give to others. Cherish the minutes we have together. Treat your body as a cherished gift that is borrowed and must be returned to the Maker.

Does it really matter?

In science, I have found if you are between two hypothesis. Often times, the combination of the two is the answer.

So. I should live it up. Eat what I want. Do the actions I want. Yet, how can I do the actions I want if I stuff myself with unhealthy food? How can I live it up, if I eat so much that I won’t even be able to walk around with my kids or ride bikes to the park, or do any number of things that people would classify as live it up.

How do we live it up? We must build our own self-discipline to live in moderation. Sure, you can eat cake, you can have ice cream, pizza, french fries. You just have to do it in moderation. We can’t eat that way for every meal. In fact, eating like that every meal makes all those treats less of treats.

Back to Why does it matter? This past month, I have gained two pounds, and my trend has started to creep up despite my increased exercise efforts. I know my diet and nutrition must change.

Add to that my constant inward look at myself and recent events.

I ask myself:

Does it really matter?

At fitbloggin, Roni gave the speakers some nice silver boxes with this quote from Winston Churchill

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Let’s give another example:  there is this theory in Personal Finance, that the more you give away, the more you get back in return. So, if you give 10% of your income, you will receive that money back more than you will ever think.

The same can be said for our own self-discipline and weight loss. By cutting back on what we get (eating), and increasing what we give (our actions and exercise), we will improve our individual lives ten-fold both physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Does it really matter?

It only matters if we think it does. We decide. Its a decision. Its our life. We can do and think what we want. That’s part of what makes us Human.

I’m saying a prayer tonight for the 2 year old boy without his birth mother and the husband without his mate. Raising children with two parents is difficult enough much less losing one’s partner.

Some links that recently reinforced my current reflective thoughts:

Watching this talk from Ben Dunlap on a passionate life

Derek Sivers writing that a real person is behind that computer.

Sean Wilson losing weight and breaking a weight milestone.
[Sean keep it up!  You'll make your goal sooner than later! Thanks for the inspiration.]

Mac talking about Beating Exhaustion.
[Mac you Rock too!  You have achieved more than what many people talk about doing.  Listen and Live.  You'll keep going.]

Does it really matter?

Sometimes we need to stop, listen, and enjoy.

Maybe we achieve goals, and we’re elated. Other times, we feel exhausted.

Life is a roller coaster. The higher the highs, the lower the lows. Without the lows, there would be no highs.

Live your life! Be passionate! Find something anything to motivate you!

No matter how difficult it is for you to lose weight, gain weight, exercise, or achieve whatever fitness goal you have. Remember. Its your choice. Your life is a gift. Cherish it. Move!

Does it really matter? You must decide!

Birthday Bicycle Bash. Six steps to purchasing a bike.

Today, March 28, is my birthday. My wife and kids took me out to have a wonderful lunch today.  I had some carne asada.  it’s in my top ten of meals.  Yesterday, I had my brother and his family over with my parents for a Turkey Dinner.  Thanksgiving Turkey is another one of those top ten meals in my book.  In fact, if I listed out all the top ten meals, I’d probably talking about top 100 meals.

I don’t know where time flies.  I still call myself a young’un, but I’m sure many of you in the blogosphere would not call me that.  In fact, on some levels, I know that I’m not terribly young anymore, but I also don’t feel old either.  I love birthdays though.  Growing up, my family always made everyone feel special on birthdays.  I am happy to say my wife and children have carried that tradition on.  Between little surprise gifts, sweet hugs and kisses from my kids, or just plain time to relax, Birthdays have not really been full of anxiety, they’ve been full of joy.

Well, I don’t really get a big gift for my birthday every year.  However, with my triathlon training, I decided it would be very difficult to complete a triathlon without a bicycle.  So, I am now a proud owner of a Trek 7.3 Bicycle.

What Steps did I use in order to buy a bicycle?

1. Determine how much money you want to spend?  This is more a personal financial decision.  What can you afford in your budget. Don’t forget all the accessories (bike helmet, bike lock, water bottle cages, water bottle, bike rack, new components)
2. Determine what type of bicycle riding will you actually be doing.  Road Riding?  Off-Roading?  A little of both?  Be honest.
3. Research the bikes online. Don’t forget you can buy a used bike. I did not choose this route as I’m not really the best mechanic in the world, and bicycle maintenance is not something I want to learn at this time.  So, I wanted a new bike to give me the best possible smoothest beginning.
4. Visit some bicycle shops to survey the landscape.
5. Take some test rides. How smooth is the ride?  Do the gears shift easily?  Will it hold up for the types of rides you’ll be doing?  Its difficult to tell when you’re a newbie when you’re just riding it around the bicycle shop parking lot.  Try to ride it in the way you will.
6. Make a decision. Sometimes, you just have to make a decision.  Decide what’s good enough and go with it.  Don’t look back, and don’t second guess.

Since, I am a tri “newbie”, and I wasn’t sure if training for triathlons was going to be a passing fancy or a new hobby.  I wanted to find a bike that I could use in multiple ways, and that was between $500 – $1000 including all the accessories (bike helmet, bike lock, bike rack, etc…)

Here’s what I plan on doing:

• a Swift, light racing bike that can withstand the training and speed necessary for an Olympic distance triathlon
• a Commuter that I could use to ride the 2 miles I have to go to some of my consulting gigs in the local industrial park.
• a Trail Bike.  I want to be able to ride on gravel, wood chip, and grassy trails in the areas forest preserves and state parks.
• a Bike to ride with the kids.

Now, I really wanted a mountain bike, but I realized that the knobby tires and the heft a mountain bike is not conducive to the type of biking I will do.  I like the idea of doing off-road trail rides and light jumping, but until Mr. C and Miss M, my kids, get old enough.  I just don’t think I’ll be doing that type of riding.

As many of you will do, when you make a purchase, I did some research.

• Read online Reviews
• Read triathlon training books to see suggestions
• Asked Twitter friends
• Asked the Trek Twitter and the Cannondale Bikes
• Asked friends

There’s just so many choices of bicycles.  I’ve been thinking about buying a used bike for a while now.  In fact, I’ve had my heart set on a Cannondale bike for a long time.  For some reason though, the Trek just felt better.  It seemed right.  I like that both companies are American, but I was a little disappointed when I found out that the bike was made in China.  Nothing against China, I just think the U.S. could be doing some more manufacturing at home.  Regardless, I’m super excited.  I took a ride on the bike immediately when I picked it up.  I rode about 6 kilometers.  Wow, I was surprised how, literally, my butt was sore.  I might need to invest in a new bike saddle.  Although, the bike store told me that I might just get used to it.  We’ll see.  I have a long way to go before I do 40 km bike rides combined with 1.5 km swims and 10 km runs.

Check-in

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been doing a very good job at building my habit of exercise.  I have lost about 10 pounds.  However, for the past month, my weight has stayed constant since my initial weight loss.  I’m not surprised as I have not really concentrated on my diet at all. I also went on vacation and had tons and tons of work to do.  I’ve been totally focused at getting into a workout routine. I wanted to cement the exercise habit before I began working on the nutritional habit.  I think I have a pretty good ingrained desire to exercise now.  Although, I definitely would call it a tenuous weak habit that will need greater and greater reinforcement. My next task will be adjusting my diet for peak performance and weight loss. I know what I need to do, but I just need to build the mental toughness necessary to achieve my goals.

In addition to my personal diet challenge, My next thought I have is what training plan should I use in order to prepare for my Olympic distance Triathlon on August 29.  I have to build enough endurance to swim, bike, and run.  How do you do that?  I have felt often that I’m over-training, but my Certified Trainer wife says that I have probably not gotten close to that yet.  Questions I still have:

• How do I know what training is too much?
• How important is rest in cardio workouts?
• What workouts do I need to do in order to build enough endurance to not only complete a triathlon, but feel good afterwards?
• What training plan can I do? Does it have to be so complicated with this type of swim this and this type of run here, and this type of bike here?  or can it be more simple like swim this many minutes.
• What habits can I create in order to destroy my over-eating habits?
• How can I make swimming in cold water with hundreds of others comfortable?
• How can I bicycle on busy streets and still be safe?

A word from my sponsor

Anyone want to sponsor a triathlete this year?  If so, please contact me.  :)

Otherwise, let me know what we can do help you achieve your fitness goals.