Stats from IMUK

Heart rate (I left the watch on for a couple of minutes at the end before I remembered to turn it off):-

Run stats:-

Run course:-

Bike stats:-

Bike course:-

Bike course profile:-

Bike course temperature profile - peaks at 27C:-

I aten't ded

4,495kcals of exercise this week and I'm not dead.  Nothing like the week I first started to cycle to work which had me exhausted by the weekend, though I did bike to work and back 4 days that week.  This week I "just" did 2 gym sessions, 3 two-way commutes and a medium ride today, but it was enough for a post-race week :o)  I've been eating less carefully than usual, and having more than a couple of drinks; last night we had veal escalopes for dinner in a roasted garlic, lemon, mustard, shiitake mushroom and cream sauce with bashed new potatoes and broccoli, as an example of a pretty good meal, but then there was the day I had a packet of crisps in the morning -and- takeaway pizza for dinner, plus I've had beer a couple of times and wine a couple of times too.  It'll take a while for any adverse effects to show in terms of either weight or fat gain and with a non-standard week next week it won't exactly be clear after that.

Next week is a lowish exercise week as there's a wedding to go to and I need to work around that whilst not overdoing it on the other days.  So, the plan is:-

Mon - cycle to work, weights session at lunchtime, cycle home
Tue - cycle to work, cycle home
Wed - swim at lunchtime (less to pack than gym kit), head to wedding
Thu - wedding/rest day
Fri - late finish/rest day
Sat - weights session
Sun - run

And that leaves one final week of actual proper cycling and weights before the taper week into the final TTT race, then 3km open water swim.

Last week:-
Exercise count: 11
Exercise time: 08:01
Exercise kcals: 4,495
Kcals difference from loss for the week: +3181
Kcals difference from maintenance for the week: -319
(+ is excess vs. quota, - is deficit below quota) 

Since 15th June 2009:-

Exercise count:326
Exercise time: 223h
Exercise kcals:122,033

Day		Quota	Exercise	Total	Consumed	Difference	Difference for Week
Mon		1297		1297	1757	460	460
Tue		1293	782	2075	2417	342	802
Wed		1287	402	1689	2240	551	1353
Thu		1292	730	2022	2665	643	1997
Fri		1300	1018	2318	2710	392	2388
Sat		1296		1296	2224	928	3316
Sun		1288	967	2255	2119	-135	3181
Total		9053	3899	12952	16132	3181

Weekly roundup

Last week...  it was always going to be a heavy week due to tapering and carb loading and recovery.  So

Day		Daily	Exercise	Total	Consumed	Difference	Difference for Week
Mon		1299		1299	1750	451	451
Tue		1292	369	1661	1970	309	760
Wed		1287		1287	1881	594	1353
Thu		1287		1287	1710	423	1776
Fri		1284	370	1654	2015	360	2136
Sat		1280		1280	2386	1106	3243
Sun		1285	691	1976	3599	1623	4866
Total		9014	1430	10444	15310	4866

So I was1366kcals over maintenance for the week, which could translate into about 200g weight gain in the overall scheme of things.  Pretty good for a pre-race week really.

Weekly roundup and sensible planning

This week was a complete mess, as you can see.  If I'm going to cycle this much, I have to work out how to sort out my nutrition to match it properly.

Last week:-
Exercise count: 10
Exercise time: 07:41
Exercise kcals: 4,408
Kcals difference from loss for the week: +2594
Kcals difference from maintenance for the week: -906
(+ is excess vs. quota, - is deficit below quota)

Day		Quota	Exercise	Total	Consumed	Difference	Difference for Week
Mon		1285	1214	2499	2890	391	391
Tue		1289		1289	1564	275	666
Wed		1296	1155	2451	2147	-304	362
Thu		1295	733	2028	2018	-10	352
Fri		1292	762	2054	1959	-94	258
Sat		1285		1285	3318	2033	2291
Sun		1296		1296	1599	303	2594
Total		9038	3864	12902	15496	2594

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 312
Exercise time: 212h
Exercise kcals: 115,881

What's weird is that my lovely blue M&S silk&linen dress was pretty loose yesterday even though the scales are saying "umm... you're eating less than you're expending are you? really?".  I can't do a body fat measurement to see if there's something else going on because I'm retaining water like a so-and-so today.  Everything is just totally in flux, too many changes at once, I need to look after myself in order to take part in the Thames swim next Sunday, and I need to re-think how I approach the next 5 weeks.

So.

Next week I'm focussing on the Thames swim on Sunday.  This means the following:-

• winding back the cycling to probably zero (over 100km in a week is a bit much right now)
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Monday I'll do a weights session
• on Tuesday, I shall take the 3rd open water training session
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Wednesday, I'll do a weights session
• I have a deep tissue massage on Thursday at which I shall ask for focus on my thighs
• -IF- my groin feels OK on Friday, I'll do a weights session
• I will aim for roughly maintenance kcals throughout the week
• I will carb load on Saturday, which -will- involve going over maintenance kcals for that day
• I will enjoy late lunch out on Sunday after the Nokia Thames swim in the morning
• I will be 1lb heavier on Sunday and Monday than I am on Friday, mostly due to carb loading

 Then from the week after, I will wind up the cycling again, keep the weight training in place, but aim for roughly maintenance kcals over the week for the following 4 weeks, trying to keep it even throughout the week rather than bulges and holes.  The 4th week, I will taper exercise down for the final Thames Turbo Triathlon of the year.  Once that's over I can start to re-focus on fat loss.

Weekly roundup

(as inspired by Laura)

It's been a while since I posted the weekly numbers roundup, probably since before we went skiing and I had a couple of months of enforced rest and wasn't feeling like shouting about it.  So, given that my current crusade is still to get back on track from when my weighing scales broke back in June of last year it's time to start finding more ways to help keep myself on the path.  That problem with the scales was quite a blow to my maintenance and getting back the 5kg that I'd put on without knowing it (mm, that's how much the old scales were under-reporting by!) has been slow work with a couple of set-backs along the way.  I'm almost back to where I thought I was before I discovered the scales were broken, but I want to finish getting there and work on body fat loss so the last remaining wobbly bit stops being quite so wobbly.

Here goes...

Last week:-
Exercise count: 8
Exercise time: 07:14
Exercise kcals: 3,856
Kcals difference from loss for the week: +185
Kcals difference from maintenance for the week: -3315
(+ is excess vs. quota, - is deficit below quota)

Day		Quota	Exercise	Total	Consumed	Difference	Difference for Week
Mon		1291	286	1576	1602	26	26
Tue		1285	821	2106	2388	282	308
Wed		1291	482	1773	1867	95	402
Thu		1289	374	1663	1427	-236	166
Fri		1290	850	2140	1880	-260	-94
Sat		1290	502	1792	2128	336	242
Sun		1288		1288	1231	-57	185
Total		9024	3316	12340	12525	185

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 301
Exercise time: 204h
Exercise kcals: 111,160

It's been a slightly disappointing week.  I've not seen the results I should have given the numbers above.  I have been honest (god knows, I know how important that is, go see my article on how to lose weight)  and I've actually done more exercise than I'd usually do.  Normally, I'd do 3x weights, 1x swim or run during the week and something at the weekend.  This week I've done 3x weights, 1x big swim and 4x cycles.  So, the lack of loss may well be due to the fact that I've been eating more (still keeping pretty much to the quota allowed for loss, including the kcals earned through exercise) so there's more in transit when I'm weighing in the morning.  this means I -should- see a comparitive loss next week of the correct amount (i.e. 500g or 1lb) as there'll be roughly the same amount in transit but I should have lost the right amount of fat.

Today goes like this (a rest day, the only one this week!):-
B - toasted wholegrain seeded Food Doctor bagel with Marmite and a poached egg
L - salad; tuna, mango, chilli, lime and iceberg lettuce
S - half a banana and strawberries
D - salad; chicken breast, new potatoes, plum tomatoes, romaine lettuce and  boiled egg

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1312 1788]
Protein (g)	111.1 (35.1%)
Carbohydrate (g)	143.1 (42.4%)
Fat (g)	31.7 (22.6%)
Fibre (g)	16.6
Fruit & Veg	7.1

Still with the DOMS then

Pecs, shoulders, arms etc. all still DOMSy since Friday's session.  Must've really given them something to think about :o)  I did do a bit of gym yesterday, some rubbish cardio which earned me naff all kcals and naff all enjoyment, though it -was- fun gymming with Mr TOTKat and I did do some weighted lunges at the end (I figured my current routine isn't legs heavy so it wouldn't be -too- bad to work them a bit the day after a weights routine).

Rest day today and a sarnie for lunch; I do tend to have bready lunches at the weekend for a nice change, though it's not white bread - today's being roasted spinach falafel, cream cheese, lettuce and tomato relish on wholemeal granary bread.

Waitrose are doing some really protein-rich yellowfin tuna at the moment (line-caught) so I got some in and we had it for dinner - 31.5g protein per 100g and the steaks are 140g, so that's a whopping 44g protein in the fish alone!

I had hoped to use one of my home-grown chillies this evening, but they're still not quite ready to harvest even as green chillies just yet.  How much longer, I wonder?  I was feeling a little short on fruit and veg today, so chopped some mango and banana to have with greek yogurt, with a sprinkle of mango on top... still not sure about maca really, it is quite bitter and harsh as flavours go, despite smelling like caramel and tasting a bit that way too.  There's the same amount of banana and mango in a tub for a morning snack tomorrow (maaaybe I'll add some yogurt in too as it's a pre-gym snack).

Having found my old personal trainer's measurements sheet again, I ran through some stats (weight, waist, chest, hips, butt, thigh, knee and arm measurements) in Excel and decided to put in some measurements for today just to catch it up a bit.    I braved the body fat measurement machine (full body bio-impedance jobbie) and was pleasantly surprised to see that I'm only 0.5% up on where I was in March.  I could claw that back in a month if I wanted to and hopefully lose the sofa-button look for the next triathlon; though I did say that if I did the last one in less than 1 hour 29 minutes, I'd buy a new all-one-colour tri-suit which would be more flattering than my current one.  I can't really justify that until August's pay packet as I'm really skint at the moment, but selling my Joggler and getting my fee from the Daily Mirror for the article last year will cover a new tri-suit, so I just might treat myself. 

Not buying anything at all over 3 months might be a touch hard, though I've done that kind of thing before.  (I do plan to spend up to £15 on a pair of shorts from New Look, but that's about it.)  But, it is really good to look back and see what I've achieved in transforming my body shape with exercise since I started going to the gym - 7% total body fat loss is not to be sniffed at!

Yes, there's a little upturn at the end, which is due to some excess around many recent triathlons and celebrations and a 4 week hiatus in exercise after my skiing injury.  I'm still pretty pleased :o)  The question now is where to go with it all next.  Focus on the final triathlon and the Thames swim training, or on body fat loss.  I don't know and I don't have long to decide, really.  Time for a think!

B - toasted Food Doctor wholegrain seeded bagel with butter, Marmite and a poached egg
S - fruit and nut bar
L - Waitrose spinach falafel, Philadelphia Light and lettuce with Discovery tomato relish on Hovis wholemeal granary bread
S - banana and mango with yogurt and maca
D - tuna steak with lime and chill on wholegrain rice with peas and sweetcorn

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1609 1789]
Protein (g)	100.4 (25.8%)
Carbohydrate (g)	185.4 (44.7%)
Fat (g)	51.1 (29.5%)
Fibre (g)	23.4
Fruit & Veg	4.2

Round up round up

Not done this for a while... mostly because of the shameful weeks while I was recovering from injury.

Last week's numbers:-
Exercise count: 3
Exercise time: 03:39
Exercise kcals: 2,170

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 249
Exercise time: 160h
Exercise kcals: 87,563

It looks like I won't hit 100,000kcals in a year; I possibly could have done had I not had pretty much 2 months off due to injury.  Hey ho!

Final catch-up before skiing

Thursday was a rest day:-

B - greek yogurt with1 scoop, fruit compote and grape nuts
S - skinny latte and a banana
L - salad: lettuce, sweet pepper, celery, capers and chicken breast
S - carrot and houmous
S - Dorset Cereals extra high fibre bar
D - pasta with tuna, sweetcorn and low-fat cream cheese

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1736 1789]
Protein (g)	152.5 (36.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	209.3 (46.6%)
Fat (g)	32.0 (17.1%)
Fruit & Veg	9.6

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 225
Exercise duration: 133h
Exercise kcals: 74,011

While I'm away, I'm going to wear my HRM while skiing to see what the burn is like, but there's no food logging (data roaming charges are just silly) and no daily checks and balances so let's see what the state of affairs is when I've been off-piste, so to speak, for a week!  I won't be posting, but expect photos etc. when I get back.

And today (a bit of a guesstimate, given dinner out):-

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop, blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
L - Chicken and Egg Noodle soup from EAT
S - cherry tomatoes and a latte
S - tangerines and beef jerky
D - out at an Italian down the road (probably beef carpaccio, followed by monkfish with pureed white beans and fresh veg and some wine)

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1796 1783]
Protein (g)	136.6 (31%)
Carbohydrate (g)	134.9 (28.7%)
Fat (g)	46.3 (23.7%)
Alcohol (g)	41.6 (16.6%)
Fruit & Veg	11.2

Weekly roundup (boring stats)

This week... ohboy!

This week:-
Exercise count: 6
Exercise time: 05:20
Exercise kcals: 3094

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 200
Exercise time: 113h
Exercise kcals: 62,821

First run of the year

With not very many weeks to go to the first triathlon of the year, it was about time I hauled ass outside and did some running. So, suited up in semi-cold weather gear; long running tights, t-shirt, hoodie, hat and gloves, I headed out on a familiar just-over-5km route; thinking "this is going to be horrible". As I crested the first little hill (over the railway line), I looked at my HRM and it was flashing "180". That's BPM. And I tend to keep it 170-178 running, or rather I was doing when I was running at least once a week. I felt fine though. Odd. Hey ho. So I kept on trucking at the same pace and checking on my heart rate every km or so. I felt totally and completely fine and it was staying at or just above 180 all the way. Usually I feel a bit rough if it stays up there and if it stays over 182 for more than a couple of minutes I feel pretty sick. But not this time. Nope. Fine. Well, I'm not arguing, so. Pace was 9:14/mile, or speed of 10.45km/h which is slightly faster than I was doing in the 10K race last year. Yes, quite pleased indeed.

Nommy chocolate orange shake post-run and a hot bath.

Lunch today - pea and ham soup (made with a tin of mushy peas and chopped ham :o)) with rye bread:-



Snack - beef jerky and an apple ('cause they're so nice I can't resist them!):-



Dinner- chicken in spicy black bean sauce (more commonly known as BEEP) with noodles:-



Exercise - 5.35km run (HRmax 185, HRavg 179)

B - toasted wholemeal seeded bagel with Marmite
S - banana
*run*
S - 1 scoop chocolate orange whey in semi-skimmed milk
L - pea and ham soup with rye bread
S - beef jerky and an apple
D - chicken in spicy black bean sauce with noodles

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1797 2151]
Protein (g)	153.5 (35.6%)
Carbohydrate (g)	213.6 (46.4%)
Fat (g)	34.4 (17.9%)
Fruit & Veg	7.5

Totals this week:-
Exercise Count: 6
Exercise time: 03:55
Exercise kcals: 2,392

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 184
Exercise time: 103 h
Exercise kcals: 57,259

The last 6 months

...since I bought my heart rate monitor, I've racked up 102 hours of recorded exercise (there were a few sessions that weren't recorded, but that's just tough). That's 3 hours 55 minutes average per week. And there's 56.5K kcals (56.5 million calories!) recorded too (the odd session recorded with time but not kcals burned, but again that's just tough). That's an average of 2,200 kcals burned per week.

I'm pretty pleased with that.

I'm more pleased with the results of taking on weight training as the major part of my weekly exercise as that's had more palpable results; shape change and body fat % drop. Of course, the festive season set me back a little, but I'm almost back on track and ready for a routine change which always shakes things up a bit. Targets set, locked and loaded. Here's to the next 6 months!

Weekly roundup (boring stats)

Totals this week:-
Exercise count: 5
Exercise time: 03:20
Exercise kcals: 1,894

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 176
Exercise time: 99:35 <- uh oh! Gonna go over 100 on Monday!
Exercise kcals: 54,744

And for today... I made a chicken Vindaloo for dinner (took a Jamie Oliver recipe and tweaked it a bit :o))



Exercise - rest day

B - toasted wholegrain bagel with Marmite and a poached egg
S - yogurt with fruit compote
L - spicy butternut squash soup
S - toasted rye bread with ham, sliced tomato and mustard
D - Chicken Vindaloo (totally home made) with rice, peas and sweetcorn
S - 1 scoop whey in semi-skimmed milk

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1728 1798]
Protein (g)	122.3 (29.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	219.3 (48.6%)
Fat (g)	40.8 (22.1%)
Fruit & Veg	7.1

Little run up...

...to get me back into the hang of doing this posting food & exercise lark. Tomorrow is the start of sorting out the macro ratios, there's not enough brain-cells to make all of the changes at once today.

B - Cheerios with semi-skimmed milk
L - Roasted tomato soup with creme fraiche, topped with toasted flaked almonds
S - Fruit and nut mix
S - A huge pear
S - 2x oat cakes
D - Beef chilli with mashed sweet potato, carrot and a bit of potato.

Exercise - rest day

Calories (kcal) [Kcals to maintain weight	1350 1819]
Protein (g)	59.1 (17.9%)
Carbohydrate (g)	155 (44.1%)
Fat (g)	54.6 (37.3%)
Fruit & Veg	11.2

This week's totals:-
Exercise count: 3
Exercise duration: 03:29
Exercise kcals: 1,887

Totals since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 169
Exercise duration: 96:02
Exercise kcals: 52,701

New routine (and numbers rollup)

Warm up - 1km rower

Prone leg curls - 20kg 3x10
Assisted pull ups - 35kg 3x10
Cable lunges - 20kg 3x10
Seated row -21kg 3x10
Overhead throw on Swiss Ball - 10kg 3x10
Cable bicep curls - 20kg 3x10
Twisting woodchop - 15kg - 3x10
Double crunch on Swiss Ball - 3x15
Bosu leg lowers - 3x15

Cool down - 10 minutes cross trainer

Numbers...

This week:-
Exercise Count: 5
Exercise Time: 02:52
Exercise kcals: 1,644

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 161
Exercise Time: 88:36
Exercise kcals: 48,604 (minus a few times I forgot my strap and/or transmitter)

Weekly round up

Numbers numbers numbers... I'm starting to wonder what happens when my total exercise time goes over 99:59:59 as there aren't any more digits on the watch to display 3 digit hours. 80 hours in 5 months so I should find out some time in January.

Weekly numbers:-
Exercise count: 5
Exercise time: 03:08
Exercise kcals: 1,819


Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 146
Exercise time: 79:37
Exercise kcals: 44,307

Numbers and figures

I've lost 16cm since my last PT session. More than usual. That's surprisingly not all that pleasing and I'm not sure why. Body fat is down 0.5% to 27.1% now. Slowly slowly going down. I may well be putting in the exercise (though not so much the last two weeks) but I'm definitely not in kcal deficit by 500kcal per day so I'm not on target by any stretch of the imagination. The thing is, I'm not in a hurry. As long as things are going down even slowly, I'm content.

I'll go better once I move to a closer gym to work. Soon soon.

Last week's numbers:-
Exercise Count: 4
Exercise Time: 02:18
Exercise kcals: 1,431

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise Count: 137
Exercise Time: 73:43
Exercise kcals: 40,625

Boring numbers

Nothing to see here today, just some totals and stuff. We did go for a run on Sunday though, 10.3km in heavy rain (not a problem, I like running in the rain) but it was also very windy in places and that made it quite tough going. An hour and a minute running time with a couple of road-crossing stops, averaging out at 10.1kph including the stops. Not bad overall.

Low exercise count for the week last week, but then it was birthday zone, so. This week will be limited as well due to working from home on a day I'd usually do weights and the gym still being too far from the office to be comfortable going for cardio work on the alternate days. Bit of a bugger when I see my trainer on Monday for a measure and new routine. I really wish HR would get the info from the closer gym about corporate discounts, but the gym are insisting that she goes for a visist and to be honest she's too busy for that so it's stalemate at the moment by the looks of it.

Last week:-
Exercise count: 3
Exercise time: 02:30
Exercise kcals: 1,550

Since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 130
Exercise time: 70:33
Exercise kcals: 38,878

Belated stats

67.3kg this morning. Protein counts getting better due to non-exclusively vegetarian lunches.

Having done a test run from the new office to my local gym, it's a teensy bit far to get things done in the "lunch" hour. I am now contemplating the phenomenally expensive gym at the end of the alley where our new office is. More than twice the monthly fees, but it has a small pool, you get towels etc. But still, twice the monthly fees is pretty extortionate. And I'd need to get a new trainer. I dunno.

Last weeks numbers:-
Exercise count: 6
Exercise time: 03:37
Exercise kcals: 2,189

All time figures since 15th June 2009:-
Exercise count: 124
Exercise time: 65:43
Exercise kcals: 35,860