Eliminating Daytime Distractions

I've fallen into a nasty habit and today I'm taking measures to stop it. You see, I spend a fair amount of time in the gym every week day. While my employer is supportive of this, my responsibilities are slowing increasing and with that comes increasing demands on my time. That means, if I don't want to impact my gym time I need to make sure I stay as efficient as possible when I'm not in the gym.

So what does that mean exactly? Well, there is a great video from Merlin Mann about Time and Attention. In it, he highlights the "time vampires" that just suck the productive hours out of your day. We all have them. For some people it's that stupid Minesweeper or Solitaire game that ships with Windows. I see others looking at Craigslist, eBay or my employers internal classified ads. Still others are using employer work time for writing blog entries. For me, its a combination of Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader and Gmail. Along with all the automatic notification crap that goes with them.

Thats right, I'm turning them off during the work day with one minor exception. Sorry. These things don't get me to where I want to be and only marginally produce anything thats truly worth while. Tough love here, but my life is more important to me than you think yours is to me. In other words, no I most likely haven't seen your latest tweet or Facebook status. Deal with it.

What's the one minor exception? Anyone who knows me will tell you my short term memory sucks. So the exception will be logging into Facebook to record my running/walking/biking into an embedded app called Voomaxer. Thats it. And no, I won't be commenting on other people's status when I do this.

I'm also going to become brutally efficient in Goggle Reader. I have 4 levels of RSS feeds, all sorted on relevant importance to me. Every night the unread count is going to zero in one of two ways. If I read everything by the time I get off the bus ride home or I hit "MARK ALL READ" when I get off the bus. So no, I may not have read your latest blog entry. Again, deal with it.

I'm already a fan of In-box zero so that practice will continue... both for gmail and work mail.

Now, my job does involve a fair bit of mass transit and walking from building to building. During those times and if not accompanied at lunch I plan to use my lovely iPhone for catching up on all this loveliness that people will inevitably tell me I'm missing out on.

One could ask about Instant Messaging. But one thing I've learned is that instant messaging can be a huge productivity booster when used properly. So I plan to leave it turned on for the time being. It can be an incredible time sink, so if I detect I'm in a rat hole of a conversation that really doesn't matter one wit to the outcome of my life... Don't be offended if I politely tell you I need to focus on something else. It'll prolly go something like this.. "Fascinating discussion but I need to work on something right now. Laters."

Speaking of which .... this has been a fascinating blog post but I need to go work on something else now. Laters......

News from the Infirmary

Its been a full three weeks since the Throwdown at the Shamrock and the recovery continues. I had intended to post an update last week but I simply wasn't in the mood. Admittedly, digging out of this hole had me a bit down.

Tuesday, the 17th, was the first full day without the air cast and 24hrs later I was trying out a stationary bike. I limited the time on the bike to 20 mins and made it almost to 4.5 miles. I also hit my target weight of 180 pounds that day. Thursday was a rest day to evaluate how the ankle felt. It was sore but not nearly as stiff. I still had a very pronounced limp. Friday rolled around and I unfortunately didn't get a workout in due to other family commitments. Following my usual fitness regimen I took the weekend off.

This past Monday I was moving around pretty good. I no longer needed meds for inflammation or pain and the limp was pretty much gone. I decided to give the elliptical a go and made 2.4 miles in 25 minutes. I could definitely feel some tenderness in the ankle but it was very manageable. Tuesday I gave it a day of rest but had to make the painful decision on if I would be ready for the Med City Relay. The decision to not run hurt and I'd be lying if I said it really didn't bug me. My heart so wanted to run in that relay, but logic seemed to point to me not being ready. The other team members needed to know they had a team that was going to be there on game day and I just couldn't make that promise. On Wednesday I logged 2.41 miles in 25 minutes on an elliptical machine and felt pretty good. Thursday was somewhat of a rest day. I actually did four sets of the Randy Couture workout. Friday a head cold had started to set in (and I hurt like hell from Thursday's workout) but I still made it to the gym and logged 2.49 miles in 25 minutes on an elliptical.

Yesterday the head cold was pretty tough in the morning. But by the time my lovely wife went out for a night on the town with her friend, I was back to feeling all right. This morning I felt even better.

Monday will be another day on the elliptical as a prelude to Tuesday. I have some time restrictions on Tuesday so the plan is to just utilize the treadmill for the first time since the throwdown. I don't plan to be running but I'm going to push the walk as fast as I can. Wednesday will be more elliptical work and back onto the treadmill Thursday - again at a walk. Friday will be more elliptical. I've been looking at some footwork exercises that I think I'll introduce next week too. I'm supposed to have a BodPod check on Wednesday, but I think I'll post pone that until later in the week as the head cold introduced a couple bonus pounds I want to shed.

Writing out load here, but I think I'll flip that routine the following week - elliptical (T, Th) and treadmill (M, W, F). All at a walk. The week after that I'll flip it back only the treadmill work will be at a run. If that holds true my first running attempt will be April 16th. A full five weeks since the run at the Shamrock. There will be an adjustment to my diet that week as I introduce Creatine supplementation to my diet which should help fuel my muscle growth.

Am I taking it slow? Sure. But my doctor (and several other runners) have told me if this isn't managed correctly it will be a nagging thing for quite some time.

Why do it?

The last two Mondays I've outlined the changes I've made to my diet and the amount of physical activity I do. The next logical question is why put yourself through this?

Flashback to last year ('08). At the time I felt my life was a mess on every aspect and level. I was in such fear of getting laid off, I worked crazy and insane hours. Of course when you do that you neglect other things like: those close to you, your personal finances and your own personal health. Basically your life gets out of balance and falls apart. I was there. Rock bottom.

At certain times you just have to pick yourself up off the floor and say I need to get this mess cleaned up. You have to tell yourself, I'm an adult and no one has to come and save me from this mess (despite what the US Congress might say). So I did. I started looking for an employer that would appreciate my efforts and didn't have a human "resource" policy that made "resource actions" so routine that they no longer had to comply with the WARN act. (Did I just write that out? Yeah, I did. Felt great.) I eventually found my current job which I find very fulfilling. In the process, I had to get my finances in order for me to be able to make such a leap. After making the leap, I suddenly had a life again and was no longer ignoring those who were close to me.

Shortly after starting my new job, my employer came out with a incentive plan that would help reduce my health care premiums. All I had to do was complete a health assessment and find out what my cholesterol levels were at. The opportunity just happened to hit at a time where I was trying to improve every aspect of my life and so I followed through with. It was the incentive (that I shouldn't have needed) to start the journey of taking care my body. After the health assessment I followed it up by joining my employers fitness facilities and the rest is as they say, history.

I realize now that my life could have gotten a whole heck of a lot worse and I really wasn't at rock bottom. But that really isn't the point is it? The point was I acknowledged my life had gotten out of control and I did something about it.

Still Recovering

One week following my lost to The BiggTree, I'm still on the mend. Its been painful at times and with the recent nice weather spell - annoying. Monday morning I hurt like hell. Honestly, I'm not sure how I managed to make it to work. But, I figured if I can run the last half mile on this bum wheel, I certainly owed to my co-workers to get my ass into work. Lets face it, I work at a hospital and I was going there regardless. So I called my Primary Care Physician and got a series of x-rays done along with an exam. The x-rays didn't revel any fractures, although a stress fracture wouldn't show up at this point any way. So for the time being we were treating it as a very severe strain of the right ankle.

My doctor had given me strict orders not to work the ankle in anyway. That meant I was forbidden to run/walk on the treadmill, elliptical, and even biking was out of the question. She didn't say I had to stop weightlifting though! So Wednesday I was back in the gym doing my usual upper body weight training. I could tell the run had taken a lot out of me as I simply couldn't push the weights I was used too. Friday's workout was even worse.

Friday was a check point day. If I hadn't improved somewhat , we planned on having the ankle re-imaged to look for a stress fracture. Friday came and I was was feeling better, although it was nothing to write home about. All week long I was icing the ankle 2 to 3 times a day , taking large amounts of Ibuprofen and wearing an aircast (even while sleeping). After an exchange of emails, my doctor and I decided to give the ankle another week. If by then I'm not feeling significantly better we would setup an appointment with Orthopedics.

Yesterday I completely crashed. I really hadn't had a lot of recovery time since the race. Prior family commitments resulted in going to bed past ten in the evenings and getting up at six for work had taken its toll. So I missed out on a trip to the Minnesota Zoo with my wife and son. I don't think I got out of bed until 1:30 or 2pm. Even after a shower and a good meal, I really never got the cobwebs out. While I waiting for them to come home, I spent the afternoon trying to walk correctly. All week long I had been hobbling along without really bearing weight or flexing my right ankle. This was resulting in my leg below the knee to begin to stiffen up. After a dinner out with my wife, I went to bed early.

Today, my body woke up on its own around 7:30 am. The right ankle had stiffened over night but I feel a quite a bit better than I did on Friday. I've been spending the day catching up on some reading and concentrating on walking with the correct form. Tylenol has really helped today and now I'm starting to think about getting on a stationary bike late in the week (even if its only for a few minutes).

The silver lining to this mess is, it's allowed me to concentrate on my weight lifting. I've notice some form flaws in a couple of my exercises that I've since corrected. I'm also thinking about changing up the routine a little to mix in more compound movements (chin ups and parallel bar dips) over the targeted exercises I had been doing.

The Workout Regimen

In a previous post I outlined my diet. Today I'm going to show you what my workout schedule is like, so lets gets started.

With the exception of Tuesdays, every week day is a cardio and weight lifting day. Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays are my upper body workouts. Thursdays are my lower body workouts and Tuesdays are reserved for Yoga. Some people will tell you that this is unbalanced and that the upper and lower body should be worked equally, or even that the lower body should be worked harder than the upper (for weight loss). They could very well be right. But at this point, just moving and doing any kind of physical activity is a good thing. Let's face it, I'm a guy and what guy doesn't want to be sporting a 6-pack and "18 inch pythons". If you don't get that last reference, your obviously not a child of the 80's who grew up watching the WWF .. WWE

My upper body workout consists of three sets of the follow exercises with 12,10, and 8 reps and increasing weight: Bench Press, Lat, Seated Row. In addition to those, I do the following: Should Press, Shrugs, Bicep Curls, and Pushdowns. For those exercises I do three sets all at the same weight and 12 reps. For my forearms, there is a strap that is attached to a bar at one end and a weight at the other. You simply roll the strap up on the bar resulting in the weight being lowered and raised. It sounds easy, but it burns like hell. The final exercise is something a friend of mine showed me and is what I call triple 7s and I do 3 sets of them. For this you take a bar you would use for the bench press and grab it with both hands using an underhand grip. Lower the bar in front of you until it just about touches your body. This is the starting position. Now raise the bar until your arms form a 90 degree angle. Lower the bar back down and repeat the motion six more times (total of seven). On the seventh rep pause at 90 degrees and then continue raising the bar until you've brought it all the way up to your chest. Lower the bar back down to where your arms form a 90 degree angle. Raise the bar all the way back up and repeat six more times (total of seven). After the seventh rep, lower the bar all the way back down to the starting position and then raise it all the way back up to your chest. Repeat this another six times (total of seven). By the end of this routine, my upper body is so burned out that its actually difficult for me to wash my hair because I can't get my arms over my head.

My lower body workout consists of three sets with 12, 10, and 8 reps and increasing weight for the following exercises: Squats, Hamstrings, and Stairs. For my calves, I do a three set break down exercise of 15 reps and decreasing weight.

I don't mention specific weights here as thats not the important part, although I do track it. What is important is that I try to take each exercise to complete muscle failure. When I fail to complete a set, I give my body a couple of minutes to recover and then complete double the number of reps I failed to complete. Trust me, its a great motivator to have to do that. If I complete the set before failure, I try to squeeze out a couple more reps until I just can't go any further. I'll also increase the starting weight I use next time.

I do work my abs every Monday,Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Monday's are 3 sets of crunches performed on a stability ball. Wednesdays are oblique crunches on a bosu ball. Thursdays are "one leg drops" - laying on your back and extending one leg at a time straight out while the other is raised above you. Fridays are more stability ball crunches.

For Cardio, I usually do one of two things, treadmill or elliptical. My favorite is running on a treadmill. Monday and Wednesday I usually just try to target a heart rate range for 30mins. Thursday is usually my distance day in which I try to push the distance I run as far as I can. Fridays I again target heart rate but this time on an elliptical machine, usually because I'm sore from Thursday and the elliptical isn't as hard on the joints. The elliptical, for me at least, provides recovery time while still getting in some exercise.

You'll notice I don't mention Saturdays or Sundays here. I usually take Saturday and Sundays off as "recovery" time. Although that will be changing soon as my distances increase.

I mentioned that Tuesdays are reserved for yoga. At this point you might be asking how does that fit in? For me it helps to stretch me out and does provide significant stress relief. And lets be real here, although there are no weights involved Yoga provides a very good workout.

Well, thats pretty much it. Its definitely hard work and there are definitely days when I reeeeally don't want to do it. Even on those days, by the time I get done there is never a regret and I come out feeling much better (both physically and mentally).

Homefield Advantage

First, congratulations to a very worthy opponent. Biggtree, you ran a great race and I promise you'll get your rematch. First I'll have to heal up and dig myself out of the huge training hole I've now put myself in.

BiggTree has already told his side of the story and now I shall share my own. But lets back up a bit as it will help you understand what transpired today. Word of warning, this will be a VERY long post.

Training 1 week out

Contrary to what has been written it was actually I who was challenged -- I just happened to take it to the next level and the result was a classic blog post by BiggTree. It was the perfect bulletin board material. As soon as the challenge was accepted the wheels started turning on how to beat a big lumbering stick. He had a fairly significant height advantage so I automatically assumed this would mean he would be able to out sprint me if it came to that. So the attention turned to could I simply just outpace him? Now, we had been sharing training data via Voomaxer and it appeared that if I could run a 9 flat (average of 9 minutes per mile over the course of the run) that I would stand a chance of winning or at worse not getting completely embarrassed. So off to the gym I went to see if I could run a 9 flat. On Monday (3/2/09) I was all amped up and made my first attempt and to great relief I found I could run that fast. I wasn't willing to rest my entire strategy on a single data point. So after a day of rest, I made my second attempt. Probably more amped up than on Monday. I'm about a half mile into the run and as I perform my normal body scan I notice my legs haven't loosened up, especially my shins. At two miles into the run my shins began to feel like they were going to shatter, by two and quarter it was simply determination keeping me on the treadmill. At two and half I made the decision to shut it down thinking it best not to jeopardize Sunday's performance. Unfortunately, the pain in the shins was now so great it was difficult to simply step off the treadmill. At the time, my ankle really didn't hurt. I suppose it was because of the pain in my shins. I log my run details into voomaxer after lunch and because of the shins never even thought of listing it. Looking back I should have mentioned it but oh well. I took the next day off but I was icing my shins every hour and stretching. Two days after the accident I was back on the elliptical machine and felt pretty good. The thing about elliptical machines is they are lower impact, so while the ankle was hurting it felt like it was something that medication would allow me to run through on Sunday. At this point I was still icing the ankle and now using heating pads as well. Even during the evening hours.

The Day Before

Having not run for 4 days I figured I better test it. So I took the dog with me as I knew she would hold me back. She did her part of the deal and together we finished a 1 mile run. My ankle was tender but over all not bad. I considered my strategy options: 1) Out pace him at a constant rate , 2) Out pace him using a series of inner run sprints, or 3) Out sprint him at the end. It was at this point the strategy was set. I would let him set the pace the first half mile as my body warmed up, but never allow him a lead. I would then try to out pace him using a constant rate. I tried to take a nap but was too amped up. I managed to force down a very late lunch at around 3pm. Gonna sound silly but by dinner time, the nerves had gotten the best of me and I was sick to my stomach. Just way over amped. By the time I landed in "Enemy Territory" I was back to feeling ok and loosened up as I hung out with BiggTree. We decided we would get up around 8 the following morning. We hit the hay around 11:30, which with daylight savings time change was really half past midnight.   

The Morning of the Race

At around 6am I woke up for a trip to the bathroom. I tried to go back to sleep but really just tossed and turned for the next two hours. At 8, I took the four ibuprofens I had set out the night before, dressed, and started heating the ankle with the heating pad I had brought with. It was stiff and a little achy but manageable. After about 15 minutes, it was time to head up to breakfast. I brought *most* of my usual breakfast with me - oatmeal. I forgot to bring my usual whey protein for a protein shake. Oh well. Pretty soon it was time to go to registration. We got to registration with plenty of time and got our first glimpse of the course we would be running. Looked like a standard loop with one small section that doubled back on itself. BiggTree did comment that it wasn't the route he thought we would be running but this would work. Little did I know he'd actually run a critical part of this course before. After signing up we hung out in the VFW with the other runners. The race had a pretty good turn out and as a result the VFW was packed! One funny side story here was that I needed to use the restroom and of course the women's restroom had a line a mile long. The men's had no wait, as the last gentleman came out of the men's room, I was approached by a young lady who begged and pleaded to for me to guard the door while she used the men's room. I eventually agreed. Ok time to head outside for the race.

The Race

Ah the moment we have all been waiting for. Now, BiggTree and I knew we wouldn't be setting any land speed records. So according to runners etiquette we knew we shouldn't line up at the very front of the group. As it turned out we lined up almost at the complete rear of the group, at the corner of Water St. and 7Th.

BANG! The starter pistol cracked, signaling the start of the race. To be honest, it really caught both me a BiggTree off guard. I had barely loaded my playlist on my iPhone and had to hurriedly start RunKeeper Pro. If you'd like to follow along with the story the telemetry from my run can be found here. (BTW Don't trust the data on there 100% as my GPS signal wasn't the best). Luckily the sea of bodies had barely started flowing. It occurs to me at this point that the crowd represents an opportunity and a problem. See this is what's called a "Fun run". A large number of people in the sea of bodies could give a rip about where they actually finished. So some of these individuals are in no hurry. The risk here is I could get caught in a jam of people and BiggTree could end up with an early lead. I couldn't let that happen, so some manners went out the window. I wasn't rude, but if I saw the slightest crack between two bodies, I went through it. I think if asked BiggTree would agree that I did the better job of navigating through what felt like an endless sea of humanity. So much for the 1st part of my strategy.

I had a moment of free running space as things opened up at Niagra and 8th Ave. I knew BiggTree was behind me in the mess. Then suddenly out of the corner of my left eye he comes sprinting up. He'd caught up.

Another body of people were in our way as we made our way to 9th Ave and Broadway. Again, I used the crowd to my advantage and opened up a lead. We turn left onto West Grand Ave. Finally the course opens up! Then I see it. A big freakin hill that starts on the opposite side of the river. As I started climbing the hill, who should happen to sprint up on my left, but BiggTree. Now going into the race my mentality was to never ever let him have the lead. I wanted to lead wire to wire. Not because I wanted to say that, but because I feared if he ever got the lead I wasn't getting it back. So with him by my side, I said to myself -- "DO NOT LET HIM PASS YOU ON THIS HILL!!" about a thousand times. Luckily I didn't have to increase my pace to make that happen. Three quarters the way up the hill he began to fade. Ahhhh. 1st major challenge thwarted. I say first as the previous time he caught me he seemed more interested in just staying shoulder to shoulder. It never occurred to me that this was part of HIS strategy.

We make the right onto Carson Park Drive. Its covered in ice! Had to be very careful not to wipe out. During this stretch I get my first glimpse of the race leaders as they are coming back from the turn around point. At this point I would say I've moved to the middle of the pack. At about the 1 mile mark I do a check of the body. Breathing, heavy but not labored. Legs, loose.. feel ok. What about the Ankle? It sore but manageable. At this point we've now crested the hill so I decided to use the down hill side as a chance to recover from the climb up. I'll be giving back ground but I need to recoup some of the energy I've spent. I even let my pace drop below 10 flat.

At the turn around point I made the decision to look for BiggTree. I'd lost the feel for where he was. I knew he was behind me, just not how far. I come around the point and there he is about 50 yards back. Not the biggest lead but acceptable. Then I realize -- "Crap, I just came off the crest of this hill and now I'm going back up it!". "Ok... don't panic.... focus. Just pick a point at the top of the hill and get there." And I did. At the point where West Grand and Carson Park meet up, I glance over my shoulder to see if I've extended my lead. In my estimation I did. I think to myself -- "Ok, your going down hill use it your advantage." Turn on the jets and extend it a little more". And that was probably my fatal mistake.

Interlude

Flash back to last Wednesday when my shins felt like they were going to explode. I was running on the treadmill and during the course of that, running very close to the control panel which is just about directly over the front of the tread. Days after the injury I looked around to see how others were running and those that were running close to the control panel tended to planted their foot with their toes first. Those further back on the treadmill planted their foot heal first. Now this is all theory on my part, but I wonder if running that far up on the treadmill prevents one from fully striding out and there by putting undue pressure on the shin and ankle. Its just a theory.

Back to the Race

Back to the race now and as you'll recall we are now coming down Carson Hill and I'd made the decision to turn on the jets. The speed went up to 7.1 miles per hour. This was uncharted territory for me. I had never tested this speed before, but it was game time. Now because it was slick, guess what, I wasn't striding out. It was more like a rapid succession of little steps. All of them landing toe first. The two mile marker is pretty close to the bottom of the hill and also represented another time to perform a body scan. Lungs: Labored. Legs: Loose.. feel great. Ankle: HOLY MOTHER OF ... you get the point. It hurt. Alot. Now image taking that inventory and at that precise same moment realize that your opponent caught you while you turned on the gas! After the race BiggTree did tell me there is a certain technique to running down hill I wasn't aware of and he'd used it to great advantage.

It was gut check time. I knew we still had about a mile to go. Just stay with it another 9 minutes. Don't look back from here on out. Now a good friend of mine is reading the book "Unleash the Warrior Within" (mental note to self - read this before throwdown #2) and in it the author has a catch phrase --- "Not Dead, Can't Quit". From this point, to the finish line, I'm screaming those words in my head. NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT! NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT!

We turn onto the railway. I was wearing a Polar FS1 Heart rate monitor during this event. I look down at the read out on my right arm and it confirms what I already know. My heart is at 188 beats per minute. There are two things I know at this point. 1) That rate can't be sustained for long and 2) it's really not safe in the first place.

NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT! NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT! Now, I had the volume low enough on the iPod that I could hear people's footsteps. BiggTree's had faded. Ahhh. Major attack #2 thwarted. Focus. But as I tried I could hear him gaining ground. I'm screaming to myself, PUSH IT!! YOUR 6 MINUTES AWAY! I look to my left arm and the speed is now at 7.2. This is insane! I'm way ahead of my personal best time at this point. The footsteps fade again as I hear the crowd start cheering at the finish line for the race leaders.

NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT! NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT! ..... and then my body invoked executive privilege and over ruled the brain. Between an excessive heart rate and the excruciating pain in my right ankle, my body decided it was time to bring things to a halt by going through the motions of vomiting. I'd maintained 180+ beats per minute for about a half mile and a hurting ankle for much longer. When it happened, my first thought was do it fast. You can make up the lost ground. You can still win this. Two quick heaves and I tried to mount the comeback. My ankle on the other hand had other designs. It would no longer flex and pushing off was excruciating. The race was lost.

I kept moving, walking at first. Probably about 50 yards and then this older guy grabs my upper arm and says "Lets go. Your almost there!" We latter figured out that this was the same guy that BiggTree mistook for me earlier in the race. Weird how life plays tricks like that.

So I gathered up what little was left of my pride and said "I will not let BiggTree see me walk across that finish line" and it was back to the NOT DEAD, CAN'T QUIT! chant. Albeit now at a 10 flat pace. But I finished it at a run.

Post Game Commentary

Am I disappointed I lost? You bet. Am I disappointed in how I performed? A little bit. I wish to hell I would have been able to push through that wall at mile 2.51. But it just didn't happen.

I am proud of the fact that I finished. There are tons of people in this world who can't. I can.

I am proud of the fact that despite the problems I had along the way, I still set a personal best for average pace at this distance.

I am proud of the fact that my opponent had to run a personal best , to beat me.

The Throwdown at the Shamrock

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(PA Newswire) - Paul "The Bigg Tree" Buenger has defeated Mark "mumblingsages" Parry by 1 minute and 8 seconds. Mark "mumblingsages" lead the first 2.51 miles before fading to abdominal wrenching and an ankle that will need medical attention. Telemetry data is suggesting that up until that time the competitors were running about at about 8:45 to 8:50 mins per mile. Both athletes completed the race at a run and both set personal bests for a 5K event.

Pretty sure this was my "opponent" last night

Its hard to tell in the video, but I'm pretty sure this was my opponent at his tennis match last night. I have nothing to fear.

'Sages Speaks Smack

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(PA Newswire) - Reporters out side the home of Mark "mumblingsages" Parry were treated to a rare comment. In response to a reporter's question about the "Running FAIL" blog post by Paul "The Bigg Tree" Buenger he said, "Look, I'm trying my best not to give the guy bulletin board material. But damn it, that was funny. It's what I've come to expect from a guy who sits around the house all day swilling MGD 64, eating cheesy poofs while folding laundry and watching of Days of our Lives."

Tale of the Tape

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(PA Newswire) - Tale of the Tape

	Bigg Tree	mumblingsages
Hometown	New Brighton, Mn	Rochester, Mn
Organized Runs	5ish	1
Age	36	35
Weight	187.0	183.6
Inseam	36	32
Best Indoor 5K (m/min)	I’m too good run inside	9:00
Best Outdoor 5K (m/min)	9:25	9:34
Sponsor	Would Like One!	Would Also Like One!

The Peanut Gallery

As I stand here on the field of my virtual stadium, my senses pick up on a audible sensation I've never heard before. I pause my training, straining to make out the sound. I see nothing. I see no one around. Yet I know it is there. I pull the ear buds from their canals. The driving beat that propels me now gone, I now know I am not alone.

I look around the sweat stained track...No one. Finally, I look into the stands. Looking higher, then higher. Only then do I see the source of my aggravation. It is them. They think they know my every move. My every mis-step magnified a thousand times in their jeering. The nay-birds, the jay-birds, the Vultures of Sloth. Oh how I know them well.

Their perch perfectly formed to their talons from years of immobility and ever increasing weight. Patiently they sit, searching for that moment of weakness. Their cries louder with each mistake, with each error. Wanting nothing more then to swoop in and pick on the bones of the fallen.   

They dare not step on the field of the trained while their prey still stands. Neigh, they shall stay on the sidelines of life. For they are full of fear. Fear of the pain that accompanies the thrill of that which is only attainable by the elite. For they themselves do not have the drive, nor the desire. No, they have let themselves slide. Accepting of the life less full-filled.

Injuries Plague Competitors?

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(PA Newswire) - Injuries appear to be creeping up on Sunday's Throwdown at the Shamrock competitors. In a recent blog post, Paul "The Bigg Tree" Buenger acknowledges suffering a back injury lifting a couple of ATVs out of a snow bank. 

Meanwhile there are reports surfacing that Mark "mumblingsages" Parry may have suffered an injury as well. While unconfirmed, it is believed he had to stop his treadmill routine earlier today, complaining of pain in his shins. 

In other related news, the offical weigh in for The Throwdown at the Shamrock has been set for the morning of Friday March 6th. 

Lose It!

Back in December I started a series of posts about software that I think is just awesome. Well, I'm back with another installment and today's application is for all my iPhone pals out there. The program is called Lose It! and is probably the single most important tool I have in my battle for weight loss.  

My diet is pretty simple. Number of calories in the mouth has to be less than the number of calories I burn in a day. This app makes it brain dead simple to keep track of that. The application comes initially loaded with a fairly substantial food database, but adding new foods is straight forward. Actually, adding new foods is integrated right into the logging portions of the application, and if you find an excuse for not entering a new food --- your not really ready to change your life. Its really that well designed. One tip - although it has an extensive database of foods , including popular restaurant chains, you may still need a website like XXXX or XXXX for that occasional item it doesn't have.

What I really like about the program is its built around the same approach I take to dieting. To that extent it initially populates your calorie allowance based on your RMR and Mifflin Equation information. What is even cooler, is it allows you to adjust this in case you've had your RMR actually measured (as was my case).

Tracking daily and weekly calories counts is really easy and presented in a very graphically pleasing format. Speaking of graphically pleasing, the "goals" section has a awesome graphical display of your weight over time. Let me tell you, its one heck of a motivator especially if you monitor your weight daily.

The application is available now on iTunes and is, get this ... 100% free. It's not even ad-supported! People, trust me. This is a flat out steal!!! I'd easily pay $15-20 for this application. I think its awesome and I'm sure if you have an iPhone and are trying to lose weight, you will too.

Mumblingsages mum as he enters gym

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(PA Newswire) - Reporters posted outside the gymnasium where Mark "mumblingsages" Parry worksout were denied access on Monday as he prepares for his epic battle with Paul "The Bigg Tree" Buenger. 

He refused to take questions and appears to be deadly focused at this point time. He did however update his Facebook status at one point to "Mark knows the opponent he has on Sunday is the one in his head." Clearly a shot at his nemisis.

Big Tree Calls Sages 'Doughy'

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(PA Newswire) - In his most recent blog post Paul "The Bigg Tree" Buenger has said "Mercury stands not before me. Tis but a man." in reference to the opponent he faces on Sunday in The Throwdown at the Shamrock. He continues the verbal tongue lashing by calling him "doughy" and "marinated in scotch". 

Mark "mumblingsages" Parry was not available for immediate comment but a spokesman had this to say, "My condolensces to the Buenger family. If [The Bigg] Tree gets a tooth dislodged from a verbal challenge, he'll hurt himself trying to hang with 'Sages. They'll find him alongside the Chippawa floating with the rest of fishes. We'll make sure search and rescue is notified."

The Diet

Back in August of last year ('08) I started a new job. One of the "perks" of the new job was that they had fitness facilities on-site and encouraged employees to make use of them. Membership costs were insanely affordable, making it a no brainer to take advantage of it. In fact, if you care about yourself in the least little bit your stupid not to take advantage of this.

One of the features of the fitness facilities is free access to the on-site BodPod system. This system gives you amazing insight into your body composition, including estimated metabolic rate information. This information was the basis from which I created my diet.

Now, I love the television show The Biggest Loser. And one thing I've learned from watching that show is that skipping meals and eating ridiculously low levels of calories is extremely counter productive. You have to eat at least what your body burns at complete rest or it will slow down your metabolic rate, reducing your energy levels. I've also learned that in addition to burning fat, your losing lean muscle. This results in additional metabolic losses, making future weight loss even harder to accomplish. So given the estimated metabolic rate from the BodPod I was able to determine I needed to eat a minimum of 1554 calories per day.

The next step was determining what the maximum number of calories I could consume to maintain my weight. Again this is dependent on estimated metabolic rate. To calculate this you take your metabolic rate and multiply it by an activity quotient. To find the appropriate quotient google 'Mifflin equation'. For me it turns out my net maximum calories per day was right around ~2300. I say net because you can actually eat more than this number and so long as you burn the excess off with exercise.

There are 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat, so to loose 1 pound a week (I'm in this for the long term) you need to reduce your caloric intake by 500 calories at day. For me this means I'm allowed a maximum net calories of ~1800 a day. Again keep in mind this is net calories. Some days I go over, other days I'm under. The thing to remember here is its just a guide.

Now I'm a firm believer in weight loss being a simple matter of calories consumed must be less than that expended, regardless of the source of the calories. In other words, I don't give a rip about the number of carbs or the grams of fat I consume so long as my daily caloric intake is less than what I burn. I do not deprive myself of simple comfort food either. That being said, if I eat a double quarter pounder with cheese with a ton of french fries from McD's for lunch, I'm not eating much the rest of the day.

I'll be writing about my workout regimen in a later post, but for this next part you need to know that it involves some fairly vigorous weight lifting 4 days a week. Because of this I do monitor and supplement the amount of protein in my diet. Most days I'm drinking 2 to 3 protein shakes a day in addition to the protein I get in my diet. I try to consume about 160 grams of protein on my really heavy lifting days (M, W, F) and around 110 the rest of the days.

The only other thing dietary item I strictly control is caffeine. I'm a strong believer that caffeine will be my generations nicotine. Don't ask me why, I just am. That being said I'm just as addicted as the rest of the country, but I do limit my intake. In the morning I have no more than 20 ounces of black coffee. After that the only caffeine I get is through what is naturally occurring in what I eat. In other words, if I have a soda its decaffeinated. I've even given up my beloved green tea. For the most part, I just drink a lot of water now.

To keep track of all of this, I use an excellent little program on my iPhone called LoseIt which has replaced my pen and paper approach. I'll be writing about this application in the future as well.

I'm thinking of adding a couple of other elements to my diet but for now this is what I do.

If you've read to this point, I'm guessing your wondering if its working. So is it? You bet. To date I've lost 28.6 pounds and have roughly 5 more to go to reach my goal weight. I've gone from needing to (but not actually) wearing a size 40 jean to a size 36 and I probably could fit in a 34 if I wanted to. Keep in mind though, I've accomplished this with diet AND exercise. I'll be writing about my exercise routine soon.