Too lazy to start off a fresh blog on Health and Fitness
First thought -- working from home was the best thing to happen... back in 2020
Restriction, lockdowns followed...all of that didn't affected me much
However, I did have a problem with ... The Mirror. Or more precisely what I saw in it
80 blobbing kilo of unfitness staring back at me! drooped emaciated shoulders and a rounding 34-35" middle.
DAMN!.
Few of us chatting online then was joking... we could either come out of this pandemic Fit or Fat... I was thinking... no need to wait, I'm already the latter even if some may not agree... In fact it's worse than being outright obese having this bloody dad-bod shape taking place in front of my eyes...
...and that's where all the running started. First one only 3-5km. 1-2x a week. My thoughts were that its kind of pathetic compared to the time I was doing ultra-marathons.
Tried a half-hearted resistance training session with the weights lying at home... gave up. The memories of a much fitter and leaner younger self is- but just memories.
Eventually only the running gotten more regular.
At least it was off to a good start which all began on 13 Apr 2020, a week after starting to work from home.
And the more I run-- the more I began to run. Mileage quickly chalked up, couple of months later it was 10-12km/ daily and eventually 15-18k a day with a long 25-30km on weekends became regular affairs.
Eating wise was good. We hardly eat out even before the pandemic and much less so with the restrictions during this period. Cooking exploration and looking hard and good at proper nutrient intake became almost an obsession with the Missus. It's already rather clean before all these started, but now more so as we started looking at lower carb meals plus various other stuff too. A big bowl of salad for dinner becomes a daily affair. Dressings were replaced with self made concoctions of plain yogurt and nuts etc or simply nothing at all...
 |
| Salads, salads and more salads.. refined carbs are cut and reduced over time. White rice, the staple carb for my entire life is "diluted" with soba, whole grains, sometimes starchy but unprocessed carbs from veges like corn or potatoes and quinoa etc. |
|
The only added sugar in my day is in the one cup of strong morning black coffee. I still can't live with a sugar-less black brew... it just taste like water after rinsing an ashtray.
All was good and the only bad habit was some night snacking... but those were replaced slowly over time with nuts. Cut out the chocolates by now and hardly had ice cream so the worst of it is off the list at least......
... ... Apr - Nov 2020 -- Total distance of 2860km! 90% of the days were calories deficit. Out more than In.
Then routines was mixed with more cycling as there is only so much before wear and tear sets in. Doesn't matter how good I was by then with low impact Chi running style... you can minimize but cannot completely remove attrition rates with such kind of running mileage.
And all good until I hit a bout of monotony from all the running and cycling by mid 2021 which was when I got my first "fitness watch"
All the heart rate monitoring and other fitness parameters tracking began... together with tracking rest/ sleep data etc..
Prior to this I was tracking only basically with my cyclometer for riding days and manually logging the distances for my daily run with the online mapping site-- Plotaroute
It was tedious to say the least... but also meditative as each route was re-traced with the mouse on the labtop in the evenings... recalling at various points how the run felt...taking notes for further improvements and fine tuning my running from the collective experiences.
But with the watch-- everything was easy and had more more data which I linked to my Strava. An app used to death by others now but which I only downloaded on Jun 2021...
Around the same time I came up with some weird framework of fitness SMARTGOALS. After refreshing up on age related metrics and more on best max heart rates and differences to target based on various HR zones... Came up with my own 10/9/130-Goal.
Basically that meant 10km distance at a pace of 9km/h or more and remain under an average 130 heartbeat/ min for the entire duration based on moving time.
I started out with an average of around 145 beats per minute... and it seemed almost impossible to achieve the set goal of 130 at that pace. But slowly the improvement came as I learned to conserve energy and be the most efficient while moving. All kind of things were roped in.. holding 2 ice pack when running, palms down as some claimed that helps to lower a beat or 2 and more...
But the most significant thing I realize is the WEATHER. Difference between a cool run after rain and evening on a hot day is about 4-5 beats per minute.
By the way, from age metric calculation, in 2021 my recommended 80% max heart was 135beats/min. So setting 130 is lower and after a while I find that this combo with the pace target set is actually quite respectable if achieved.
Occasionally when I don't monitor the heart rate when doing "2.4km IPPT" runs-- I definitely can still go a lot faster.
But fitness watch or not... when these auto logging started.. I was running lesser than in 2020. Down to maybe 150-180km per month (from a high of 350 in 2020)
~4.5 months went by-- and one day it just happened... Yes.. I hit the 10/9/130 Goal finally on the 7th Oct 2021.
But telling myself it could be a fluke.... Next few runs were shorter but if extrapolated-- it would be consistent with the goal settings. Then came a second time on 11 Nov 2021 with again another 10km distance at a 9km pace for an apple to apple comparison.
Ok-- the "R" in SMART for Realistic-- which I also added my own "R" for Repeatable" is on track...
The next day I could remember distinctively because it was hot like hell... and here is where I concluded how a few degree between cool and hot days made the difference of ~3-5 beats on average... there were much more of these numbers now on my tabulations to back up this observed trend.
My biking timings were getting better too. Could finally do the
30km/hr average in those little rabbit looping around the estate. Not too shabby, considering using my trusty single-speed with a 53/18 gearing
for a 25-26km ride each time. Trimmed of any unneeded weight like racks and fenders.
Those who know can mentally weigh it
based on the gear-inch-ratio and understand what I'm saying here based on the cadence and estimated speed ratio.
But it the first 30km avg over a shorter ride that was memorable. On the same singlespeed but with only a gearing of 48/18 and still lugging the heavy racks and all the resistance from full metal fenders earlier in Jun 2021... Yes I set my riding goal of these averages with seated pedaling... no standing to punch out.
Apart from aerobic fitness-- biggest obvious gains were in my
calves!. Something that is never a strong point of mine but I was also
beginning to feel the lack in upper body strength. Freaked out when I
started struggling with 20 push ups and can hardly even do any proper
pull ups.
Something was not right... but I left it
for a few months and basically just staring at the pair of
adjustable Nuobells that I got from Tiny.
 |
Manual plotting in MS Excel of running data with splicer points on avg and max HR since the use of the fitness watch. Yellow = max HR of each run. Grey = average HR
|
By now my runs are mostly 6-8km daily rather than longer...and pared down to 2-3 times a week instead of 5-6x. My weight since Apr 2020 till Apr 2022 was down 12.5kg at the lowest weighing...@ 67.5kg! after 2 years. But that was after a 125km ride.. Normal time I reckon I was probably around 68.5-69. Still a significant reduction from 80.
Finally decided to wake the fuck up--- Hit my first weight session seriously in ~mid Apr this year. Almost wanted to give up immediately. I was feeling literally Weak As Fuck!.. but persevered.
Slowly after 3 weeks or so, my grip came back and then all those important things in weight training years ago started to re-surface in my memories..
Yes, having the grip when hefting up considerable weight is key... Though much older now but working with science.. eating right and adding the right kind of supplements to diet.. no no, no roids or anything like that... have to say results are much better than expected so far.
 |
Before: ~ Mar 2020 @ 80.0kg, After: present ... Jun 2022 @ 72.5kg
|
Target-- 74.5kg RIPPED and hopefully can do 20 pull ups again by then and yes I'm also working on calisthenics now--so it will be planche, handstand pushups and hopefully do some muscle-ups by then ............. Target: Sep 2022
