My head is absolutely buzzing with thoughts and motivation and plans - I can't hardly sit still. It's near enough impossible to put it all in writing, but I'll try to just stick to the very basics.
First - that's the end of week 13 of 2015, and my weigh-in today was AWESOME. :-) 3lbs this week, taking my total weightloss to 27.8lbs, very very close to 2 stone (12.6kgs). It shows that everything I've been doing is absolutely working perfectly for me, for now. No room for complacency, though, I have to keep going, and keep focussing and re-focussing as I go. :-)
Fitness test at the gym this morning, re-testing a bunch of tests I did in January, for the first time. For some things I hadn't improved, but for a couple of things, I was GREATLY improved. I can't stop grinning about my 1km row, for example. Seriously, seriously pleased with that. Today I did it in 4:10.5 - which is about 20 seconds faster than January, and actually 6½ seconds off my all-time PB!! It's the first time this year that I've gone above what I was capable of in 2011-13, and I'm absolutely bouncing off the walls in excitement about that. In thinking about why I'd improved in some areas but not others, I only need to think back on my training. My personal trainer designed a programme to meet my needs: lose weight. And you can't fault him for that - it's working brilliantly. The weightloss has come about as a combination of a few things, some related to my mental state and approach, some to very detailed food tracking and decision-making, but also related to the training I'm doing; lots of tabata and circuits, lots of higher rep sets of resistance work, lots of core training, and then I'm supplementing that with some running. So, my fitness test this morning showed huge improvements in the aspects that I've been training regularly - press-ups, rowing (I've not been doing 1km time trials, but I've done a lot of interval training on it, which trains me to do high intensity intervals and 'learn' effort and speed again...), plank, crunches, and so on. The areas I fell a little short on this morning were the strength work - leg press, chest press, lat pulldown - I haven't been training for heavy strength work, so it really shouldn't come as a surprise.
Basically, it comes down to this: mainly, today tells me that focussing on dropping weight, eating well, exercising 5 times a week, and ‘expecting’ performance to improve across the board simply as a result of that – is wrong. It depends HOW I’m exercising, not just that I’m doing something. Now of course my main goal for the year is weightloss, so really, what the hell does any of this matter, because I'm smashing that goal... but it DOES matter, because the whole point of this year is to lose weight and have the confidence in myself to help me KEEP IT OFF, and building confidence requires me to to see improvements in what I’m doing, and see benefits of training, and push myself outside my limits, and so on.
Which brings me to the next thing - I was listening to the brilliant Barbell Shrugged podcast yesterday, and a great episode interviewing John Broz, where he explains why he gets his weightlifters to squat every day. Every day. He says (and I'm slightly paraphrasing) - if your goal is to add 50kgs to your squat, how often would you squat? Well, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week? How about if your wife and kids were held captive at gunpoint, and would only be released if you could add 50kgs to your squat? How often would you train then? Every day, right?? (Note - he's not saying max effort every day! this is not a train-yourself-to-injury type thing.) - you have to think about your goals, and then think about how much you want them, and what you will have to do to get there. It's back to the Charlie Spedding thing again - the runner who wrote the excellent book "From Last To First"; in that book (if you're a runner, and haven't read it, do so now) he explains about the day he sat in a pub in Newcastle with a pint of beer, a notepad and pen, and wrote down the three questions. "What do I want, why do I want it, and how much do I want it?" - cutting the story short, it focussed his mind, and he went on to get and Olympic medal in the Marathon.
Anyway, I'm proper blethering on now.... I think what I’m saying is I really think I need to train more, be smarter about it, and focus my training on a much wider territory. Work out where I WANT to see improvements, and then do the work SPECIFIC to get each of those improvements. What am I prepared to do, to reach my goals, and why aren't I doing it?? :-)
I'm so excited!!!!
Well done on your PB on the rowing machine.
ReplyDelete4% faster since January test for a non weight bearing exercise suggests that your aerobic power output is probably around 4% better. This means your cardiovascular systems has all tuned up nicely.
To show just how impressive improvement you are seeing, my own training has gone really well this year, more runs and more miles than ever before and my fitness markers based on HR for a given pace has improved by 2.6%, which is quite a bit less what you've achieved. So you are doing really well.
This is just comparing on a non weight bearing exercise, which factors out much of the weight loss that you've achieved. When you look at running, it's weight bearing, so your higher aerobic power output multiplied by the weight-loss ratio will give roughly give you your potential race speed improvement. My guess it'll be around 20% better than it was at the start of the year.
This is equivalent of going from a 42min 5k to 35 min 5k. Which if I'm not mistaken is not far away from where you've got to with your running ;-)
The reason why I've done this little analysis is to illustrate how everything is connected with your fitness. The rowing machine test is a great illustration that it's not just weightless is why you are running stronger. 3 months is not a long period to improve aerobic fitness, keeping up with training will ensure that it keeps improving steadily, you have to be patient though. Keep up with the weight loss and you'll running performances will see this double whamy effect where your aerobic fitness and weight-loss combine.
I don't believe it'll be too long before you start knocking off PB's in not jut your rowing but other aerobic exercises, particularly with running. Of all your tests you can do running will be the one that will show off combination of improvements in cardio-cascular health and weight-loss the best. If you want to set yourself new SPECIFIC goals that sit well with the main goal this year of weight-loss and long term fitness, then your running ones may well fit best with this.
With the strength tests, not seeing improvements is not at all surprising. You've undergone a huge weight-loss, your body has been catabolized for fuel each day - most of this will be from your fat cells, but some will be from breaking down muscle. As you are so much lighter now you don't actually need so much muscle to move around comfortably, the fact that you haven't lost strength shows that the training in the gym has retained muscle mass despite your bodies reduced need for muscle mass, and the catabolization that has happened to your fat cells. This shows you have bucked the normal weight-loss trend, and you aren't just lighter now, you actually proportionally stronger, fitter and healthier.
And that's the big thing you have done, you have made HUGE improvements to your overall health. These PB's are just glimpses of the inner improvements. Every cell in your body has to be thankful for that (:-D) (my best attempt at cell smiley!)
Wow great observations :-) Thanks for posting this Robert x
DeleteThanks so much for this, Robert - really useful seeing the stats laid bare like that! :-) x
DeleteA much shorter reply: Yay! Well done! And, like you say, keep going - so much more is achievable than you ever imagined...
ReplyDeleteI like "Yay" too!! I'm feeling very Yay, cheers Andy. :-) x x
DeleteSarah - I'm so excited for you. I loved that podcast too - lots to think about. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see you in Edinburgh, now wondering if I will be able to keep up with you :-)))
ReplyDeleteLol, somehow I think you'll be all done ageeees before me!! Thanks Paula, can't wait to see you again too. x x
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