Week 126 Update

I got up at 05:15 and stepped on Mr. Scale. He said, “183.5 pounds!”

I definitely feel like I am getting back to normal finally! I averaged 49.50 points per day this past week and I averaged 184.64 pounds for the daily weigh-ins. I can’t complain about that! My back has been feeling much better, and I have to credit my consistency in going to the gym for that. My treadmill times are getting better and the weights seem to be going well. I even had to move the resistance up on the arm bike on Friday because it was getting too easy at my old resistance. I have had to do some fairly heavy lifting recently and my back has not complained!

Eating and Weight - I started off the week at 187.0 pounds, right at the top of my range. So, on Saturday I only ate 44.5 points. I also was allowing the results of the pain medications to work their way out of my system, and on Sunday the scale dropped to 185.5. I ate 51.5 points and Monday the scale dropped again to 184.0. I had a very long day at work that day, and I got home too late to eat a normal dinner, and I didn’t have any snacks that evening. So, my total points for the day were down to 40.5. However, the scale still held steady on Tuesday. I added a few points to make sure it didn’t drop any more by eating 62.0 points. On Wednesday I weighed 184.5. I ate 43.5 points and the scale moved up to 186.0 on Thursday. I knew that was water weight, and so I was not too concerned. On Thursday we went out to eat and I ended up with a high point day at 64.5 points. The scale dropped to 185.0 pounds on Friday morning. I was busy on Friday and only ended up eating 40.0 points for the day, which led to the 183.5 weigh-in this morning.

Exercise - On Sunday I went to the gym at 04:30, just a few minutes earlier than my normal time during the workweek. Dotti and I have plans for Friday, so I thought I would stagger my gym days to Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday and keep Friday free. I tried to meet the challenge of the obnoxious music at the gym by wearing earplugs, and it helped. But they had the music up so loud that I still had to focus on something else to block it out. I don't understand why they think they have to do that. And the jerks never play Mozart or Beethoven, or even some easy listening music. The most of the garbage they play isn't fit for human consumption. Still, the earplugs helped.

I did my 10 minutes on the arm bike and my normal weights (3.0 aerobic points) before jumping on the treadmill. Since it was Dotti's birthday, she was safe and sound sleeping in bed, enjoying her day to the fullest, so I had all the time I could use to tackle something bigger on the treadmill. I set out to do the Larch Mountain hike. I kept my speed down with the incline set for 15%. At 15% I had to go 5.2 miles and then I had to go another 1.6 miles on the flat after that in order to get the elevation increase and the distance for that particular hike. I did the first mile in 21:11, and I hit the top of the modified Multnomah Falls hike (1.2 miles) in 24:37, significantly slower than I did on Friday. However, I wasn't worried about that. I was saving myself for the rest of the hike. I hit 1.6 miles in 34:00, and 2.0 miles in 40:42. Half way up Larch Mountain would be 2.6 miles at 15% and 0.8 miles on the flat. I was debating about ending it at the halfway point since I was feeling tired and was sweating up a storm. But I didn't feel too badly, and when I hit 2.6 miles in 52:18, I thought I could make it the rest of the way to the top. Then at what I think was 55:00 minutes, the treadmill reset itself and went into an automatic cool down. It killed my display and all the numbers were lost. I was so angry that I wanted to rip the display off and beat the rest of the machine with it. I hit the kill button and restarted the treadmill moving again from scratch. I decided that I would just go for the half Larch Mountain walk, and I put the incline at 0% and walked off the 0.8 miles, which took 10:17, and since I was already so close I went ahead and finished off the mile in 12:41. I average 4.73 mph on the last mile, and was up to 5.2 mph for a while. So, for the Half Larch Mountain Hike, I went 3.4 miles in 1 hour 2 minutes and 35 seconds. That was an overall pace of 3.2 mph and it took 18:24 per mile on average. The 2.6 miles at 15% incline, simulated an increase in elevation of 2059.2 feet, and I covered that in 52:18, for a rate of 2.98 mph or 20:07 per mile. My aerobics points calculator gives me 4.155 aerobic points for a walk of 2.6 miles in 52:18. However, at 15% incline Dr. Cooper says that you double the value for your aerobic points, and so that gives me 8.30 for the incline work. A mile walked in 12:41 is good for 2.73 aerobic points. (Doing them together like I did, actually adds in a couple of extra points, but I did not worry about that this time out.) That brought my treadmill aerobic points to 11.03, and when the 3.0 points for the arm bike and weights are added in, it came to 14.03 for the day.

When I got home from the gym, I had the added pleasure of stepping on the scale and seeing it say 183.0 pounds.

Monday was not scheduled to be a gym day this week, but I did have a 12-hour day at work, without a lunch break. I was really tired at day's end, and I was too sore to go to the gym on Tuesday morning, which was when I was scheduled to go. So, it threw my schedule off. I didn’t want to have to do a gym day on Friday, but the best laid plans...

On Wednesday morning, I got to the gym a few minutes after 04:00 and did my arm bike and weight set, with plenty of time left for the treadmill. I decided to try the one-third Larch Mountain Hike to see how it would work into a weekday session, and then how well I would feel that day at work after doing it. I gave some thought to attempting the half LMH but I decided to go conservative today and maybe do the longer one next time if I have time. I played with the speed some today and I had it up to 4.5 mph at 15% incline for a while, and at 5.5 mph at 0% for a short time. I changed the pace quite often to keep it interesting, and to work my heart hard and then give it a bit of a break. In the end my times were:

Start at 15% incline
1:00 mile - 17:25
1.20 miles - 20:09      End of MFH
1.71 miles - 28:38
End 15%

Start 0% incline
2.27 miles - 35:21     1/3 LMH
End Hike

Even though I was pacing myself for a little longer hike, my MFH time was only 14 seconds off my personal record time. I was happy with that. The entire 1/3 LMH took less than 36 minutes, which I should be able to fit into most of my gym days, and hopefully I will be able to work that time down some and make it even more doable on weekdays. If I can work it down enough, I may be able to start sliding in a half LMH in the morning and that would be something I would be very happy with. But even the 1/3 LMH is a good stretch of the legs in the morning.

For the treadmill I earned 8.89 aerobic points, and when the 3.0 points for the arm bike and weights are added in, it came to 11.89 for the day.

Friday morning I went to the gym a few minutes after 04:00. Even though I had the day off, and have several things scheduled to do, I woke up without an alarm, and got going to the gym. Habit can be your friend as well as your enemy.

I once again did my arm bike and weight set, which is my primary motivation to go to the gym, since it is required to keep my back in shape, and then moved on to the fun part: the hiking!

I decided to do the 1/3 LMH (Larch Mountain Hike) again. If hadn't of had some hiking plans in place for the weekend already, I would have gone for at least a half LMH, and maybe slowed things down and tried for a full LMH. But I had to save my knees for the weekend, and that made up my mind for me. With the incline set to 15%, I started off very quickly and moved the speed up to 3.8 mph early on. I held it there until I got close to a mile, and then I bumped it up to 3.9, 4.0, 4.2, and 4.4 for the last part of the MFH (Multnomah Falls Hike). I hit one mile at 15:56 (average speed to that point: 3.77 mph), and then completed the MFH (1.2 miles) in 18:47 (average speed to completion: 3.83 mph), which shaved more than a minute off my previous best time. The last 0.2 miles I averaged 4.21 for my speed.

To complete the 15% incline portion of the LMH I needed to go to 1.71 miles. I lowered my speed back down to 3.8 after hitting the "top of Multnomah Falls" and got settled in to feeling comfortable there, before I started to work it back up towards the end of the incline work. I hit 1.71 miles at 26:45, averaging 3.84 mph (15:37 per mile) for the part after the MFH was completed, and 3.83 mph (15:40 per mile) overall, the same rate that I had for the MFH portion of the hike.

At that point I had the speed at 4.5 mph, and I lowered the incline to 0%. I worked the speed up to 5.0 mph, and then 5.2 mph. For the last 0.12 mile I held it at 5.4 mph. I completed the final portion of the walk (0.56 miles) in 6:34, at a rate of 5.12 mph (11:44 per mile). My overall time for the 1/3 LMH (2.27 miles) was 33:19, at a rate of 4.09 mph (14:41 per mile). If I can work myself up to being able to hold that pace for the entire Larch Mountain Hike (6.8 miles), I would be able to hit the top in 01:39:57! (Our real LMH went from the top down to 1.7 miles from the bottom, and then back to the top. It took us nearly 7 hours to complete! (Our total distance was 11 miles - 3.2 miles farther than a walk from the bottom to the top - but half of it was downhill.) At this point there is no way that I could hold that pace for the entire 6.8 miles, but it is something that I hope to do someday!

Start at 15% incline
1:00 mile - 15:56
1.20 miles - 18:47     MFH
1.71 miles - 26:45
End 15%

Start 0% incline
2.27 miles - 33:19     1/3 LMH
End Hike

I earned 9.98 aerobic points for the walk, and 3.0 for the weights and bike exercise for a total of 12.98 for the day. That brought my total for the week up to 38.90, which is well over my goal of 30.0! I also got in my three gym days, although it was a bit harder than last week because of the demands of my job. All around I am very pleased with how the week went for exercise! Also, each day when I got back from the gym, I weighed 183.0 pounds on the Tanita scale. That was pretty consistent.

Water - Every day but Friday I did well. Due to the busy day we had on Friday, I didn’t get my water in. However for the week I averaged 58.29 ounces (7.28 cups) per day, which is well over my minimum goal of 6 cups per day.

A diversion...

I posted the following on the message board on Wednesday October 8, 2003, and felt like I would like to remember the event, so I am including it here.

Driving in to work this morning, as I was approaching my exit on the freeway, off to the right, all at once I spied an arch shooting up into the sky. It appeared to be the support for a tremendous vaulted ceiling; an arch that was ribboned with color. The clouds behind were painted orange with the sunrise, and they contrasted in a very unusual and beautiful way with this rainbow’s end. Looking off to the left, towards the other end of the rainbow, the intensity of brightness and color of the bow increased dramatically. There was also a second bow visible there that created the feeling of driving down a huge tunnel with arched supports to be passed in regular order. Leaning forward so that I could see up through my windshield, I found that the entire 180 degrees of arch from end to end was visible. The feeling was eerie with the orange of sunrise marking the clouds, and the bright colors of the rainbows standing before them. The rain was coming and going in misty playfulness.

When I hit my exit, and I made a full left turn, where off to the left, I could see the top half of the sun just clearing the horizon, shooting out its rays like arrows around it. Immediately above it was the cloud cover that for some reason was broken right at the horizon, creating a window for all of the visual effects to be projected through. As I drove a half mile or so south I watched the sun ascend, as if it were climbing a ladder up into the attic, where it disappear completely behind the clouds. Before it completed its trip however I was able to watch the end of the rainbow shoot along the ground, dragging its golden pot along with it, I must assume. It appeared to be only 100 yards away or so, because the barn and other buildings and trees that were not much farther away than that, all appeared to have the bow passing in front of them as it moved at the same speed that I was moving. (About 55 mph.) When the sun reached the attic, the bow naturally disappeared, and then the rain intensified. When I pulled into the parking lot the wind was really starting to blow and the rain was splattering against my windshield. I grabbed my coat, and my computer bag, and walked into the building with a big smile on my face. It was worth coming to work just to see that show! Not a half hour after writing the above I was back on the road heading east, to a location on the other side of town, not 20 minutes from where we live. If I had been told before I left for work today where I was going to be working, I could have saved the long drive over to the west side of town, only to return to the east side. When I got to my destination, which is near the mouth of the Columbia Gorge, the wind was really whipping by, as it often does at this locale. During the summer, the land east of the gorge is quite a bit hotter than it is on the west side. This difference in temperature causes a difference in pressure and the winds blow east through the gorge. In the winter, the eastern lands are colder than the western area where we live. Then the wind starts blowing towards us through the gorge. Today it was still warmer on the east end of the Gorge, and at Pasco, Washington situated there, they have wind warnings up today for generally 20 to 30 miles an hour, but locally… "near 40 miles an hour with gusts approaching 55 miles an hour."

Although the flags at the customer site had been taken down, due to the high winds, I heard the flag pole ropes whipping against the metal of the pole. The clouds were flying by at such a rapid pace that I was reminded of the movies where they create those artificial time-lapse effects of rapidly moving clouds. The clouds today were moving very quickly, and the weather was changing from rain to overcast to sunny and back again, over and over all day long. At lunch I went to my car and read some more in the book Seabiscuit as I ate my lunch. I had to put on my sunglasses because it was so bright. As soon as I got back inside, the sun disappeared and the clouds were racing across the sky again. It was one of those days where if you didn't like the weather, all you had to do was to wait a couple of minutes, because it was going to change completely.

Overall I was very happy with week 126, and am looking forward to the upcoming week!

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/183.5/185±2/BMI:22.94/WK-126
Weight Loss Graph/Maintenance Graph/Success Story