ZappoMan.com - Fitness Blog

Mini-update… running, swimming, strength training.

February 13th, 2007

I have had a pretty good start to the week, and seeing how this is a big week (14 hours on the schedule) it’s good I’ve gotten a jump on it. I’ve been busy with work again, and so blogging has taken a back seat again. Although I’ve been making a point of reading more blogs and commenting on them, then writing my own posts.

It’s kind of interesting that this blogging experience is really a two way street. I feel like I get a sort of cathartic healing from writing about my training and fitness experiences, but I also get this sense of community from reading all of your posts. Some days I feel like I need one more than the other, and I guess lately I’ve been getting more energy from reading about all of you and not writing much about myself. But tonight I thought I’d write a little…

Anyway yesterday I had a great 7 mile run, really feeling mellow, and rounding out a nice steady 7:30/mile pace. I also took my youngest daughter to the pool and did a swimming lesson with her for about 45 minutes. We were both pretty chilly afterwards. She had a good swim, she is so eager and self-confident, she doesn’t have a lot of patience to practice a particular “drill” or lesson. “I know how to do that Dad, I want to swim!”… of course swimming isn’t exactly swimming as much as it is grabbing onto Dad. But she is making good progress. Working on TI drills fro sweet spot, and “hand in pocket”, and we moved her up to doing some face down swimming and then rotating to float on her back to breath. Although, she really had my arms under her at all times on that drill. She’s making progress. There was a Dad there with his 5 year old daughter wearing arm floaties… and he was really impressed to hear that Zola was only 4 yrs, 8 months.

Today, I swam laps. I swam for 1 hour, and did 1.5 miles. I guess I know that I’m not a “real swimmer” because I measure my progress in miles not yards. One time I did a track (running speed) session with Lisa and her friend Michelle, and after several intervals and about 4 miles of total effort, they said “Ok we’re done for the day” and I was like… “Hey, we have to keep running, I wanted to run for at least an hour.” They both reacted with “Uh, I guess you are an Ironman if you measure your training in hours.” Hmmm… well, 14 hours this week means I need to average 2 hours a day… so I’m behind already… on to the next workout.

Tyler came over tonight to lift weights. As I mentioned before, I’ve pretty much slouched off on my strength training routine. I am down to 2 or 3 times a week instead of something every day. The good news is that today I realized I haven’t really gotten sore from weight training in about a month. I am assuming I’ve “pushing myself” enough because I am adding more weight each week, and have definitely increased my strength and muscle tone, plus I’m running Tyler into the ground.

But Tyler and I started talking about being sore… he’s been really sore after our workouts, but he hasn’t lifted in years. Although he used to lift very regularly, and he’s definitely a more muscular guy than I am. Tonight we did “heavier” weights and he asked me if I thought I would be sore in the morning… my prediction is no… why? Am I just that well conditioned? Or am I not really pushing myself.

Now, I am kind of asking this question rhetorically, because I don’t feel like my routine is broken… but if anyone has an opinion on this, please feel free to share it. Before you read this, I know that I am not lifting nearly as much as people like Phil (from Fitness Over Forty) or Neil (from Waistloss). But I’m also only 5′4″ and 140lbs, and I don’t want to gain any overall weight… so I’m trying to be careful about only toning my muscles, and converting body fat to muscle, as opposed to putting on a bunch of muscle mass. With that in mind, here is the workout I did tonight…

1) Dumb Bell Bench Press:

• “warm up” - 20 reps x 35lbs (in each hand, so 70lbs total)
• “main set” - 4 sets x 8 reps @ 55lbs (in each hand, so 110lbs total)
• “burn out” - 25 reps @ 25lbs (in each hand, so 50lbs total)

2) Dumb Bell Flies:

• “warm up” - 20 reps x 25lbs (in each hand, so 50lbs total)
• “main set” - 4 sets x 8 reps @ 40lbs (in each hand, so 80lbs total)
• “burn out” - 25 reps @ 20lbs (in each hand, so 40lbs total)

3) Decline Barbell Bench Press:

• “warm up” - 20 reps x 70lbs + bar
• “main set” - 2 sets x 10 reps @ 90lbs + bar, 2 sets x 8 reps @ 100lbs + bar
• “burn out” - 25 reps @ 50lbs + bar

4) Triceps Pull Down

• “warm up” - 15 reps x 20lbs
• “main set” - 4 sets x 12 reps x 25lbs
• Note: this was too easy, but Tyler was really complaining about how weak his triceps were… I don’t know why I let that effect me. Maybe I felt sorry for him.

5) Dips

• 12 forward facing dips + 10lbs
• 4 backward facing dips + 10lbs - couldn’t muster any more…

6) Attempted some pull-ups - 1.5 maybe…. I’ve can’t seem to do pull-ups… ever… but certainly not after the above workout.

7) 21’s (bicep curls with barbell)

• 4 sets x 7 lower half curl +7 upper half curl +7 full curl reps x 20 lbs + bar

Dumb bell bicep curls

• 3 sets x 12 reps (per arm) x 20 lbs

That’s it… ok, so my arms were shot for sure after the 21’s, I could barely do the DB curls… but that was my goal. Again, I feel like this is working for me, and the weights might not seem that heavy, I’m not bench pressing 300lbs like Neil… but it’s certainly more than I’ve ever done before.

So, what do you think… is this crazy? Am I wasting my time? Am I running the risk of getting into this and getting too big? I don’t think so, but since Gary said he thought I might be lifting too much, I have been aware of it. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Entry Filed under: Fitness, Triathlon, Diet, Weightloss, Swimming, Ironman, Running, Marathons, blogging, Strength Training, Flexibility