It's pretty annoying to change time, well to be honest springing forward is annoying, and it feels like it's happening extra early this year. It's a little less than appealing because I have my first race of the season on Saturday and then clocks go forward that night. Yuck.
With that, it's time to talk about what's been going on and how things are looking here. I felt February was another "good" but not great month. It was great to get a bike again, and I even got an upgrade to an EX5s-22, so I've been back on the bike pretty regularly. Lots of bootcamp classes in my preferred time, so I'm getting a fair bit of off-bike exercise and I even got my century day in. Running has been less than ideal because it feels like such a drag, but I've started going every week and I want to maintain that but there's a few things that haven't been so ideal. Let's go over that:
As always, here were my goals for February:
- Maintain weight
- Ride 500 miles
- February Apple challenge
- Weekly bootcamp workout(s)
- Perfect Month in Apple
- Gold in my February challenge
- All the bonuses in #mc50
- Weekly Row
- Weekly walk and run
- Scuba Certification
- Swim 1000 yards twice this month
Weight Results:
- Starting Weight: 220.30
- Ending Weight: 221.00
Exercise Info:
- Number of rides: 75
- Time on exercise: 4:23:11
- Distance on rides: 490.35
- Number of runs: 2
- Distance running: 6.24
- Number of walks: 6
- Time walking: ;:00:17
- Distance walking: 11.28
- Number of rows: 5
- Time rowing: 1:02:13
- Distance Rowing: 13396 meters
- Number of swims: 1
- Distance swimming: 500yd
- Weight Workouts: 2
Results:
I'll go over the good stuff quickly, and I've already mentioned some of it. Apple challenges done and dusted. Bootcamps? No problem, I get at least one or two per week. I had a full month in #mc50. Felt great to be on the bike and while I didn't get 500 miles, I was only ten miles short, and counting in the distances from the distance challenge I exceeded 550 miles, so I hit my original goal. I also did plenty of walking and a little running and even got in a swim and a gym day. On top of all that, I've been regularly stretching and using the foam roller, which seems to be making a difference.
Ok John, what are you unhappy with? Glad you asked. I'm disappointed with my weight. I came back from vacation and got right back to where I wanted, but I've begun to see notifications that my average weight has been higher, consistently in the 220's instead of 210's and I almost saw 230 on the scale. Now I don't want to be focused solely on my weight, because there's a lot more than that to watch, but I do need to be mindful of it. Merinda thinks I've been putting on muscle, and I feel lean, strong and hard but some clothes felt snug, and I didn't work this hard for so long to get fat again. I've just been struggling with snacking late at night and I think that's why my weight popped up a bit. I felt pretty lethargic on my run last night, yes Monday is usually a rest day, but with a work trip, and the race on Saturday, I wanted to get one more in before the race. Hopefully, it was just a case of tired legs instead of fat lazy John. I also once again forgot I have a rower, but that's been a little more "schedule hell" and max distance for the MDC. I'm hoping to get that back weekly after this week.
Ok, so, instead of beating myself up, I'm just going to work hard this coming month, and do my best to cut out the crappy food. The Dunedin triathalon is 2 months out, and I need to get ready for that. Withg that, what do I have planned for March:
- Get below 220 pounds
- Ride 550 miles
- March Apple challenge
- Perfect Month in Apple
- Gold in my March challenge
- All the bonuses in #mc51
- Weekly Row
- Weekly walk and run
- Swim at least twice this month
Optional:
- Scuba Certification
I'm going to use this month to get myself back on track, and by that I mean apply some will power to my food consumption. I want to get back around 215ish, so that will mean a lot of lean protein and less junk. Maybe some more endurance focused workouts instead of HIIT. We'll see how to make that happen. I've been doing more morning workouts so I don't seem to double as often, nor do I get endurance/low impact as often so I might need to adjust my schedule. I don't know how this will work into riding 550 miles either, but we'll see how that goes. I just might need to lower that across the board if I want to run and row regularly, and I'll be away the last weekend of the month. The good news is the distance challenge is coming to an end this coming weekend, so I won't have the pressure to rack up distance at the expense of other exercise, but that comes with a tradeoff when I set high mileage targets. I've also made a soft commitment to go to the dive shop on pi day, yes I have that day off, so I should finally start that process.
It felt like a lot to talk about this month, but was a little shorter than I expected. Yes, I'm being hard on myself, but that's how it goes sometimes. Someone has to be the taskmaster and it's going to be me. As a FYI, I will include all the distance conversions through the end of the challenge, but once that's over, I'll probaby stop adding it in. It's just too much work, and if I can't make the distances I set, I'll lower them, but for now lets stick with 550 miles for the month and I'll revisit it around the 15th.
Ok, enough griping, it's not all bad. Apple made this month's challenge pretty simple so I won't be frantically trying to finish it. Look for some update after the Shamrock Shimmy. Talk soon!
