Stepping Out
I haven’t written much in this category (Training), and that’s mostly because…. well, I haven’t done any. But that changed today.
Having bad knees, and lots of things to do makes it easy for plenty of excuses not to get out and get moving. Keira herself even provided an excuse, given that it’s not always easy to take an 11-month old along while hiking and mountain-biking. This time I think I’ve devised a decent game plan though. The evenings after work while I’m watching her, she simply get’s packed up in her backpack and we go for a hike. All the other evenings, I go mountain biking. Rain might be the only issue when she’s in the pack, but I’ll gladly mtb in the rain.
Keira and I enjoying today’s hike in our local woods
Today we walked at a nice pace for nearly an hour, so I’m estimating that we covered approx 1.5 - 2 miles. That would be a typical speed and the trail was mostly flat. When I ride that same trail with my mtb I’ll check the odometer to see just how far it was. Of course on the mtb I can go even farther and take some side “single track” trails.
This was a good start. But in the upcoming weeks I’ll have to push farther, faster and locate some areas that can offer some additional hill climbing too.
Just doing some quick calculations; I’m at 210# now, and I want to be at 170# (which was a ‘fit’ weight for me when I was rock climbing and mtb’ing in my 20’s) by the time we go on Historic Strides. So, with an average safe weight loss of 2# per week it’ll take me 20 weeks to lose the weight and it’s 26 weeks to Historic Strides. JUST enough time, whew.
Your story inspired me to start getting back in shape as well. I started out at 220 when I first read this post, and have gotten down to 193 today! I still have another 10 or 15 to go… how has your effort gone? I’ve been mountain biking a lot (if you can call it that when you live on a sand bar).
Comment by Comyn — August 6, 2007 @ 7:08 pm
That’s fantastic!
It’s going all right but I’m not making as much progress as I’d like.
I’ve really been able to increase my daily energy level and stamina but I’ve only been able to lose 10# (I was at 210 and now I’m down to 200).
The thing that I have to keep in mind is that it took me over 6 years to go from 170 to 210, and now I want to take it off in MONTHS.
Comment by Gobae — August 8, 2007 @ 8:25 am
Besides the increase in exercise made easier by warmer weather, I have limited myself to no more than one beer a day, *no* junk food (an absolutely nothing but water after dinner), and more sensible portions at dinner time. I haven’t changed the kinds of food I eat, but the wife is a great cook which helps in that regard. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Comyn — August 9, 2007 @ 7:10 am