It wasn’t supposed to be easy. It wasn’t

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, training, working out

If it had been easy, he wouldn’t have called it a challenge.

The 81-day Athlete Training Centre Challenge is all but over. It was harder than it looked, but easier than some thought. I’ll let that contradiction ricochet around your mind for a while.

The brain child of Athlete Training Centre boss trainer Richard Clark, the challenge was meant to push us physically, challenge us mentally (in terms of exceeding our own perceptions of our boundaries) and stimulate us intellectually to fully understand the implications of our food choices on ourselves and the environment.

That’s my interpretation. Others may have heard other messages. The rules: no alcohol. No dairy. Meat only four times a week. A minimum of five one-hour workouts per week. Just do it. And have fun. No bitching.

The physical challenge seemed a success for many of us “adult athletes.” I lost more than a dozen pounds, I lift more weight and I’m stronger, I hit new lows in body fat readings, improved my cardio to the extent that I could actually run six kilometres, and made a lot of the new clothes I bought last fall feel a little baggy.

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Work through it

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cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, hockey, kids hockey, training, working out

Dinner time conversation in our house.

(Fade in, scene of someone opening the Advil.)

G: Knee?

L: (Getting ice pack for knee) Knee.

(G takes the Advil, opens it again, with heating pad on elbow.)

L: Elbow?

G: Elbow.

Both: We’re falling apart.

L: Stay home or work through it.

G: Work through it. I’ll get you wine.

L: There’s sparkling water in the fridge.

(Fade out as theme music for House of Cards rises . . .)

– – –

One year

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness

It was one year ago today that I looked in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw. And later that day at lunch with our CFO – a very fit, active guy – I said “that’s it. I’m making changes. I’m going to get fit.”

As of this morning (after I shoveled snow for a workout because the gym was closed!) that conversation was 366 days and 68 pounds ago. It hasn’t always been easy but the truth is, it’s not that hard, either. You just have to want it. And I did.

I started walking on the treadmill every night and as the weather improved I took it outside. In July I joined a gym. The last calendar year has been nothing but change for me and I have had moments of elation, despair, failure and success. But I know I’ve changed.

I was way overweight. My diet wasn’t horrible (at home it was quite good) but it wasn’t terrific overall. Like many people I had fallen into a rut of a couple of beers after work every day; some easy, comfortable snacks before dinner and on weekends and no exercise. Empty calories and bad, lazy habits, and generally self-destructive living.

I’m not trying to sound dramatic but candidly, I was on a path to something bad happening. (Something bad could still happen but now it’s more likely to be from a dumbbell falling on my foot or getting crushed by a truck on my bike. At least now I’m trying.)

For a lot of reasons it doesn’t feel like a stand up and cheer moment today but I’m sharing the anniversary for a couple reasons.

Caution: men thinking

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AUS Hockey, cycling, dalhousie tigers, diet, exercise, family, fitness, hockey, training, working out

Only 10 more weeks to go in the New Year challenge at ATC.

Only.

Week three of the eat-better, get fitter challenge is upon us. Assuming people stick with it, April 1 is an ocean away.

I’m not certain how success will be defined at the end of this and whether everyone who started out two weeks ago will still be involved at the end. Actually, I think I know the answer to the second part of that statement – not everyone is going to hit the tape at the finish line. Some are falling off already – or in fairness, perhaps they were never really volunteers to the cause.

But the group enthusiasm is there for now. The 6a class continues to bring in about 20 people on weekday mornings in spite of the cold and dark. And people are in a decent mood, considering the time of day. The tempo of the workouts has changed with much more focus on strength. We’re lifting heavier weights to build muscle, taking advantage of the new diet regime of less meat, more plants.

We still do cardio – Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday still feature fairly intense spin sessions. But the emphasis is on strength. Some respond better than others but I feel it after a “lift” day. Today was front squats (barbell rest on front shoulders and then full squat with progressively more weight.) Wednesday is dead lift. Friday is bench.

I excel at precisely zero of these but that doesn’t stop me from showing up and doing what I can. Richard told me I’d be “shredded” by April 1 so, that’s the deal.

Five for Friday: Vol IX

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cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, hockey, training, working out

The five for Friday lazy blog is back. As we hear at the gym, pitter-patter let’s get at ‘er.

–

We have a bunch of our out-of-Toronto managers in to head office for a couple days of meetings as we do annually. I was told this morning that in my absence from one gathering it was decided an intervention was needed to get me off my training regime.

All in jest of course, but it does highlight at least a little what is considered “normal” in our society and what isn’t. And a guy who takes a pass on drinking with co-workers (subbing Perrier for beer) or opts for the vegetable ragu over a steak and fully loaded baked potato is going to become a target.

I’ve been at this long enough now that my efforts are not news. But people now react with “are you STILL doing this?”

It’s mostly good natured but there’s no doubt it makes some people … well, uncomfortable isn’t the word, but it does leave them a little off centre.

Live and let live, say I. If people ask what I’m doing, I tell them. The physical changes in my appearance are significant enough that colleagues who haven’t seen me since July ask.

Otherwise, I just do my thing.

Hey look! Progress

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, training, working out

A quick catch up for readers interested in my daily torment.

Wednesday was running, today was a spin preceded by hand weights and metabolic punishment. It was a grueling day today. We took a vote. We agreed. Challenging, which I guess is at least part of the point of the challenge.

Plans by our leader Wednesday to benchmark and record our efforts in the punishing 300×3 shuttle run suicides eventually were abandoned. But I did run my heat twice and proudly finished last (out of five runners) in each.

I don’t honestly care. A few short months ago I was not able to run a single 50-metre length of the indoor turf. So to run it six times in succession, twice, enduring the stopping and starting is progress even if my splits could be timed with a sundial.

The challenge and the challenged

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, general, kids hockey, training, working out

We started a new challenge at ATC this morning that is intended to change the way we think about and manage our diets as much as address our fitness.

I won’t bore you with endless details but the highlights are it’s a team concept – Coach Dave and I co-captain one of the five teams – and each of the seven members of the team can contribute points by adhering to rules like filling out a diet diary, not drinking alcohol (at all), only eating meat four times a week, eating no dairy products at all and showing up at the gym and working out, among other things.

You can get bonus points for doing extra challenges – which might be additional pullups or pushups or a long spin. We don’t know yet.

Most of the first two days this week are devoted to benchmarking where we all are so we can (hopefully) see how far we have come by March 31. Weight loss is not a vital component but it should be an inevitable result of working out regularly, eating lower fat diets and more vegetables, and cutting out beer/wine/etc.

March 31 is a long way off but I will declare some goals that can be mocked later if I don’t reach them (I will make them, trust me) – first, I’m going to weigh 214 pounds on or before March 31, and I’m going to be able to do 35 pushups, and I will move my visceral (belly) fat to 5 (from 7).

I have no clue what life is like in your world but I have tendinitis in my elbows so getting to 35 pushups will be some work — about double where I am now. I tried to do pullups today and it was ugly after the first one. I did one (1) in textbook fashion. After that, searing pain and I hung on the rack like so much meat on a hook.

Five for Friday, Vol VIII

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diet, exercise, family, fitness, hockey, training, working out

The first five for Friday of 2016. Save your noise makers for something more worthy.

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We have started the post-holiday period by getting back to eating better at home. By better, I mean healthier. And normally I add that by “we” I mean “me.” But in this case, it’s “us, mostly me.”

Laura is being patient with me while I move to more plants and less meat, which she is all for — it’s all a challenge for me, really.

You can’t just eat a lot of fruit – too much sugar if you overdo it. And prepping healthy stuff to keep handy at work may only seem like a little bit of work but it’s the organizational effort that grinds me down. Typically I’m not home from work until close to 7p – after leaving the house for the gym at 530a to start my day.

That’s a long day. When I get home I have to do my laundry from the gym, organize my clothes for the next day (trust me, this is not a task to be done on the fly at 515a unless you’re indifferent about having underwear, socks or a shirt or belt), make sure my water bottle is filled and my pre-workout snack is ready to eat in the car.

Leaving any of these things to be done in the morning risks it not being done at all. Actually, what it does is ensure disaster. So, adding snack prep to that list … I’m not there yet.

Welcome to 2016

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competing, cycling, diet, exercise, family, fitness, hockey, training, working out

Happy New Year. At least, I’m hoping.

We all went in separate directions for New Year’s Eve but Laura and I did something we never do on Dec 31 and had a nice dinner out. Then we barely made the counting in of the new year before we crashed because we are a wild party. Chris was out with friends, Pad was out with the hockey team in Halifax. And now it’s 2016.

Some people will make resolutions for 2016. I’d like to start the 2016 work year by being warmer than I am today. Everything else should fall happily into place after that. The -25 windchill was a bit jarring this morning when I left the house at 530a for the gym. It was my first early-morning outing since before Christmas and I did not enjoy the sensation.

Back to work after two weeks is tough enough. Back to work preceded by a 6a return to the gym is tougher. And the temperature, darkness and Monday malaise piled on top of me like a blizzard.

But the workout was fun. It almost always is – even at 6a.

Looking for the sweet spot

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christmas, diet, exercise, family, fitness, training, working out

I’m off for a couple weeks,  a personal tradition that dates back to when the boys were little and the excitement leading to Christmas was more fun than the day itself.

I suppose that is still true, but the boys are older, rise later and disappear earlier so it’s a little different now. Personally I’m no less excited to have them home than I was then. They’re just bigger.

So we do different things. A little shopping. A little this. A little that. And I’m just pecking away here to let you know I’m still alive.

On Monday, Chris came with me to the gym. I think I will summarize by saying he came away with a new appreciation for what his old dad goes through virtually every, single day.

I know that because at the end of the workout — and because I was off work we went at noon, not 6a — he said “You do this EVERY day?”

Yep.