Weekly Recap 4-23-12 to 4-29-12

Well, another successful week culminating in a fantastic 5K race Saturday morning and then some much needed yoga stretching this afternoon.  I also tried an interesting new thing for dinner tonight, which I will blog about tomorrow.  My mileage was a little lower this week since the race was only a 3 miler.  I’ll be bumping up my mileage the next two weeks in preparation for my 10K on May 12.  Here’s a look at the numbers.

Starting weight: 263
Monday – Spinning – 50 minutes
Tuesday – Run – 3 miles
Wednesday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Thursday – Run – 3 miles
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Race – 5K
Sunday – Yoga – 70 minutes
Ending Weight –  261.2 (1.8 pounds loss)

Kinda surprised to see another solid weight loss this week, as I’ve mentioned before my 4 pound loss weeks always seem to be followed by a gain, but that big loss was also coming off a month long plateau, so maybe that helped keep the downward trend going.  I should hit 255 (100 pounds lost) right around my birthday at the end of May.  That will be a nice birthday present to myself.

Weekly Recap 4-16-12 to 4-22-12

This was a fairly uneventful week, but not in a bad way.  Getting everything done, doing my homework, didn’t have to skip anything.  Great Saturday morning run with Jen to cap off the running for the week and then a nice yoga practice this afternoon to relax on a rainy, dreary Sunday.  Very nice weight loss this week, tempered somewhat by the fact that some of it is the same couple pounds I’ve been gaining and losing for the last month, but not all of it.. lost some extra on top of that.

Starting weight – 267.2
Monday – Spinning – 50 minutes
Tuesday – Run – 3 miles
Wednesday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Thursday – Run – 3 miles
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Run – 5 miles
Sunday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Total mileage – 11 miles
Finishing Weight – 263 (4.2 pounds lost)

So the weight loss is huge, and hopefully finally broke out of the 265-267-265-267 cycle I was on there for a couple weeks.  But this is also a significant weight because 265 marks 90 pounds lost.  WOW.  I’ve lost a small child.  Or a big child I guess.  Depending on the age of said child.

Yoga Progress

I was thinking a little bit after last nights practice how far I’ve come in my yoga practice in a little over 4 months.  When I went to my first class (Dec 1,2011), I felt kinda silly, didn’t know what I was doing and was the only guy in the class.  But I stuck with it, went back a second week and then when we did the hamstring stretches it dawned on me, this is why my running friends swear by it.  I’ve been going back ever since, and recently started going two nights a week for extra stretching.  Here’s what I’ve noticed that has changed, some physical, some mental.

Increased Confidence: I don’t feel goofy in yoga any more.  I am happy to go, and I look forward to it, and I know even if I mess up a pose and look silly, someone else in the class is doing the same thing and the point is we are TRYING.  I lift my arms and my shirt rides up and my belly hangs out, but that doesn’t embarrass me (although it does annoy me, and the shirt problem has yet to be figured out).

Increased Flexibility: At the beginning of the class in forward fold, I can almost touch the floor with a slight bend in my knees.  Towards the end of class when we are warmed up I can touch the floor with my finger tips, with a slight bend in my knee.  When I was stretching before a run last week I could reach out and grab the toe of my shoe.  This has not happened before.  (In a quirk of standing vs sitting, I can’t even get remotely close to my toe while sitting).

Challenging Myself: About halfway through my half marathon training (I believe in January).  The Wednesday night yoga class at the Y switched from being Yoga 1 to Yoga 2.  With my training schedule fixed, Wednesday nights were the only nights I could do yoga.  I debated between dropping it or continuing on, but I stuck with it.  Now I continue in Yoga 2 and don’t have any problems with it.  It was a rough transition, but that’s ok.

My Breathing is Better:  Yes, the cardio has a lot to do with it.  You get used to it after a while.  But I don’t huff and puff like a dying whale when I run anymore.  And maybe yoga doesn’t have anything to do with my lung’s endurance (10 mile runs usually help with that) but yoga has taught me to THINK about my breathing.  And use breath to push through hard parts and so when I get to a tough part of a run and start huffing real bad I will slow down (my breathing, not my running) and take a couple big deep breathes and refocus and keep going.

My Balance is Better:  This is one of those things I don’t notice so much in real life, but notice it a lot in yoga practice.  It’s a lot easier to get into the balance poses and a lot easier to hold them.  On our hiking trip, I held Tree Pose for a very long time while Gray took multiple pictures with both his iPhone and my camera.  Granted, I was wearing boots on very soft ground, which gave me a very nice base to sink into, rather than barefoot on a hardwood floor with just a quarter inch thick mat, but I held it for a fairly long time in the last class as well.

I can do things now I couldn’t when I started:  This is just basic overall progress.  When I first started I had to drop my knees to Kneeling Plank during the sun salutations, now I can hold myself in Plank, and I can slowly lower myself to Chattaranga, rather than just plopping down.  It seems like every class I go to we try something new, so I’m constantly learning new poses, but also re-learning old ones, learning to do them the right way without the variations.  There’s nothing wrong with using a variant, but it’s nice to do a pose the way it’s intended.

And with that, I wish you Peace and Blessings, Namaste.

Weekly Recap 3-26 to 4-1-2012

I’m not currently training for anything, but I wanted to continue the habit of doing a weekly training recap.  If nothing else it gives me something to write about once a week when I may not have other things to write about.  I’m about to add some new classes and cross training to my regimen because I just felt like I wasn’t doing enough.  Here’s what I did this week (new daily format)

Starting weight – 265.4
Monday – Rest
Tuesday – Run – 3 miles
Wednesday – Yoga – 60 minutes
Thursday – Run – 3 miles
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Rest
Sunday – Run – 4 miles + Yoga  – 60 minutes
Total Mileage – 10 miles
Ending weight – 267.0 (1.6 gain)

First off, I’m not at all surprised to see a gain this week, in fact I expected it.  For two reason, first because my huge losses (4.6 lost last week) almost always seem to be followed by a small gain, just the way my body adjusts I suppose, it never fails.  Second, I suspected I was eating too few calories during my couple of weeks of not logging, but I had no way to tell, so I assumed I would gain a little as I increased my intake to get back on my plan and my body will have to adjust again to it.  Small loss or hold pat next week and then maybe start losing again I hope.

I’m adding a second day of Yoga to my workout schedule, I feel like I’m ready that I can handle that and also help with the extra stretching.  I’m also going to add a cycle class  on Monday’s for cross training.  A lady in my Wednesday Yoga has been trying to convince me to come to cycle, so I’m gonna give it a shot.  Hopefully I can keep that up.  Here’s what my schedule will hopefully look like with the new classes:

Monday – Cycle
Tuesday – Run
Wednesday – Yoga
Thursday – Run
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Run
Sunday – Yoga

I am also going to start running on the greenway midweek cause I am sick of the treadmill, so while it’s worth it for the  yoga alone, the extra classes will also help me feel like I am getting my money’s worth out of my YMCA membership.