Quick Gym

I had planned to go to the Gym last night, but after a super long day, all I had the energy to do was eat scrambled eggs and watch Homeland...

So tonight was the night - but I had to fit it in, between leaving work and 7.30pm conference call.. it was close!

Run
1.5 miles - 12.18 min

Chest Press
58.5kg - 7 - 7 - 3
52kg - 8

Leg Press
100kg - 10 - 10 - 9

Chin Up
4 - 3 - 3

Inverted Sit Up
30 x 20 x 30 x 20

Plan for the rest of the week = run tomorrow, ultimate on thursday, friday = rest day.

Rain day

Last night I was in manhattan when I got caught in tropical type storm. Still about 18-20 deg C, but HEAVY rain. Since then the rain has not stopped, so no long run today, or Ultimate.

Gym time.

Run

2.5 miles 22min 04.

Chest Press

58.5kg - 7 - 7 

52kg - 10

Chin Up

5 - 4 - 3

Leg Press

100kg - 10 - 10 

(didn't get a chance to do more, as there was a guy hogging the machine next to this - and sadly you can't use the two machines at the same time..)

Leg Extension

52kg - 12 - 12 - 12

Inverted Sit Up

34 - 40

Ultimate

Rather than running or going to the gym, I went to an Ultimate Frisbee pick up game last night in Norwalk. There a few teams in the area, but only one actually IN Norwalk.

Good fun cardio.

If you don't know what Ultimate is (like my work colleague didn't, see my very quick and simplistic explanation to her below). I have posted about this before in January - but here is a further explanation.

Ok so here’s the deal. It’s a big college sport here, so surprised you’ve not heard about it at all!

A pitch the size of an American football pitch, maybe slightly wider, with 2 end zones (like American football).

7 people on each team (2 teams)
No running with the disc (Frisbee) – like netball, and if you drop it, or it touches the floor whilst your team is in posession - it's a 'turnover' and the other team get posession.
You score a point, by moving up the field by throwing to your team mates who are running into space (away from their markers) and eventually throwing it to your team mate, who catches it in the opponents end zone. (bit like American football). Your opponents are trying to intercept it the whole time, or stop you from catching it.

It’s Non-contact, self refereed.

Best way for your to understand is watch these youtube clips - it’s a pretty high intensisty sport.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhUays2ehyI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbIFg1cTX4Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOqYYo0GuU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq3pg0JcJSI

And then read this: http://www.whatisultimate.com/

The evidence against soy

I find the nutritional side of training semi-interesting. I like eating healthy, and I can always tell by how my body feels if I spend too long eating 'crap'. I am a massive believer in exercise lots, eat (relatively) healthy and you'll do fine. Think high protein and complex carbs = me.

But then there are the 'specially good for you' food and drink items that you're meant to ingest. Superfoods, high anti-oxidants, metabolism boosters... etc etc. Some of these supposedly 'good' food and drink items taste terrible, but I get through that and can tell the difference. For example - I drink 6-8 large cups of green tea a day (not including decaf green tea in the evenings..), I hardly drink plain water due to the high consumption of tea. When I first started drinking green tea I hated it - but now I love it - and I can really tell the difference from when I used not to drink it.

However Soy milk is something I could never get into - according to this article, it may have been a good thing: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/10/07/the-evidence-against-soy.aspx.

Wednesday

9.2km 47 min. Not that far off normal pace, much better.

Inverted sit ups

40x20

Chin ups

4

Left over chili from last night, delicious!!!

[update] Just noticed my atrocious spelling of bananas in the title of the post below. I can only apologise.. (corrected!).

Are bananas as bad for you as cookies?

http://blog.massivehealth.com/infographics/bananas_vs_cookies



Great infographic - click the link above to see and read the whole thing.

Lift more weights, run more miles and eat fish, beef, eggs and all-bran. Works for me!

p.s not sure why they didn't include chicken & turkey in there...

Monday night gym night

Whilst attempting to regain my run run, I still wanted to go to the gym, so will switch it around this week and go running more than the gym, but still do both

Run 1mile 8min 16

Chest Press
52kg x 10 x 10 x 8 x 4

Chin up
4.5 x 4 x 3

Leg Press
93kg x 12 x 15 x 13 x 13

Front plank 65 seconds
Right side plank 60 seconds
Left side plank 60 seconds

The gym was busy and I was not able to get to any sit up equipment - need to do that asap!

American Dietitus

Having now been in the US for over a month, a few variables have all come together to result in a mild case of American Dietitus.

- No weekly 5-a-side football (I've looked but no local clubs need any players - boo!)
- More weights and less cardio work - I'm spending time in the gym, but not enough running, as routes round here seemed less than ok.
- Lots of dinners and drinks with colleagues and other HRLPs, have lead to an increase in beer consumption, and more burgers and hot dogs than I can remember..

SO! Back to it. Less beer, and less terrible food!

It's really nowhere near as bad as I'm making it sound, but really what has suffered is my cardiovascular fitness. Therefore I have been concentrating on more road running the last week. However you will see below what I mean about american dietitus - I must try harder!

Wednesday
Ran 7Km down to the very tip of South Norwalk (main town area) and then straight back again.  Given fitness had suffered, I did stop a few times to walk - but not so much that the time suffered massively.



Thursday
We had a day - long work out at work which meant that someone ordered pizza for lunch.. It did come with chicken salad, but I still ended up eating 2 large slices of pizza. So back to the gym!

Run: 1 mile, 8min20
Cross trainer: 6 min, no hands, level 10.

Chest Press
58.3kg x 7
52kg x 8 x 8

Chin ups
4 x 3.5

Leg Press
93kg x 11

At this point I decided it would be better to run more, so went for a quick 3km run - however the pizza really gave me very little energy and it took 17min!

Friday
Rest day - met up with HRLPs for after work drinks and dinner. Ate possibly the hottest burger ever at http://www.gingermannorwalk.com/ - A great evening!

Saturday
Given that I'd had beers and burger the previous evening, and that I was shortly off to see the Yankees at Yankee Stadium - I ran a 26.59 min 5.1km with a very similar route to the route above.

Sunday
Given Id spent the day eating hot dogs and drinking beer (it had to be done - it was the baseball!) - I set out this morning for a longer run. Same route as previously, but with the aim of going down further into South Norwalk (achieved). 9Km in 48 min. I'm actually quite happy with it, despite that it looks like it was a bad time. I had to stop a couple of times to drink water in the shade as it was HOT - which is why the avg pace looks so bad. The average moving pace is better.


Aim to run at least 10km this working week, and the gym at least once as well. Best case scenario, I manage to make it to the Norwalk Whalers Ultimate Frisbee - if they don't cancel this time!

Pounding the pavement

The beauty of Manhattan is that you can walk EVERYWHERE, and with the US city grid system, it couldn't be easier (honestly - it really couldn't) to navigate.

Easter Friday (off work) with L visiting we hit some of the main attractions in NYC including Battery Park, Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall, China Town, Little Italy, Chelsea Market, Broadway, Madison Square Gardens, Times Square, Central Park, 5th Ave, Rockafeller Center etc etc etc... ALL of this was walked which when mapped amounts to 13.45 miles. Good walking.

Saturday, back into NYC for a boat cruise and somewhat less walking, but (without mapping) probably still about 8-10 miles.

Sunday was mainly sleeping due to previous two days walking! Once L had got the shuttle back to JFK - a quick 3.5Km round the block.

Love NYC - possibly my favourite city!

MUST get back onto running though!

UKs a visiting

With L visiting tomorrow through sunday evening, I'm not going to get any gym/running time - so I knew I needed to get a session in tonight. Especially since I'm starting to feel the onset of the common american-dietitus.

Unfortunately I was knackered from work so it ended up being a smaller workout than I wanted.. but still good!

Run
1mile 8m02s

Chin up
5 x 3.5 x 2.5

Leg Press
93kg x 12 x 12
100kg x 15

Chest Press
52kg x 11 x 9 x 8

Sit ups
45

Back to the apartment for a massive rib-eye steak with the best home-made peppercorn sauce. Recipe: Cook the steak first, take out to rest. Add peppercorns with a bit of ground pepper. After a few seconds of roasting, add worcester sauce (copious amounts), and then low fat creme fraiche (or low fat sour cream - depending on what continent you're on..). Vary both ingredients until it's a brown colour, and a little bit more runny than you'd expect for a sauce. Pour in the juice from the rested steak. Stir over a medium heat to reduce the sauce. Put the steak back in at the last moment, to absorb some of the sauce, and plate.

Delicious.

Monday routine

After a week at West Point and a weekend in the City - I needed to get back to a routine and get in the gym properly! Wanted to get a run in first though!

Run

5.75km 27min

Bench press

58.6kg x 5

Chin up

4 x 3.5

Sit up

40

Press up

27

Update

A quick update. Thursday, 8km run round west point. Sunday, 2 mile run, 5 min cross trainer, 4 pull ups