Santa Cruz Tri Geek

Progress

Weighed in at 207.7 today, with the BF at 15.1%.  Definite progress.  Now lets see if it holds for a week.

Today was technically an off day, but my PT made sure that I worked hard.  Running with proper posture is, how shall I say, difficult.  I felt like a one legged duck.  But at least things didn't look that freaky in the mirror.  Good news on that front, I get to do a 1-2 mile interval run, testing out the new posture.  Guess that will have to be Wednesday night; Tuesday is booked...dance lessons.  Eeek.

The Weight

As some of you know, when I started this triathlon odyssey, I tipped the scales at 230 and change.  That dipped to a low of 201ish, late last year.  This year's goal was both to complete my first Olympic distance tri (first tri ever, actually) and compete in my age group, not as a Clydesdale.

While the former goal is still within reach, it appears I'll be a Clydesdale for a while yet.  My weight has been hovering between 209 and 213 for the past few weeks.  Although leaner overall, I've definitely added some denser bulk through training.  No complaints here however.  Who doesn't like increased power to weight ratios and better fitting clothing?

Masters Rocks...Posture is Rocky

I managed to join the 6 AM masters crew at the pool again this morning.  My fiance slept in, anticipating a run with our group that evening (I'm still on the running shelf for another 3 weeks...more on that later).  It was endurance day and I knocked out 6x400m, in various permutations.  Just two sessions with Coach Heidi and I can already feel my stock improving.  I may move from the really slow lane to the slow lane if I keep this up.

On the flip side, my PT has me doing a new set of exercises for my hip.  They are postural correction exercises, designed to get the ball of my right femur to rotate correctly back into the socket so its not rubbing the hip bone when I walk/run.  This is the theory of the month for the cause of my various hip/back issues.  He says I can run train again in 3 weeks if I continue doing my therapy.  I'm doing my therapy; if I can run in three weeks w/o pain, he gets a nice bottle (or three) of wine.  The down side of posture stuff is that my back is tired all the time now from sitting and walking how I should have been sitting for the past few years.  I suppose things will adapt; in the meantime, I look like the tin man.

Nutritionally, things are going well. I'm consistently hitting 22-2400 calories a day in intake.  Contrast that with a BMR around 2100, plus somewhere between 500 and 1000 in exercise burn (not counting post exercise metabolism boosts).  With any luck, I'll be able to lean up a bit despite not being able to run right now.  This should make my return to the pavement even more enjoyable.

Things that make you go hmm....

Apparrently the ball of my right femur sits too far forward in my hip socket and this is the root of all the evil that plagues me these days.  So says my new PT.  I don't know if he's right or not, but he uses a tablet PC, so that's instant geek cred in my book.  No running for at least three weeks and lots of goofy exercises to undue the "damage" I've done over the last decade and a half.  We'll see if he knows his stuff or not.  I told him I was doing my Oly race, even if I have to walk the run portion.

Otherwise, morning training went well.  Did 30 min in the pool, working on the new stroke technique.  Its awkward, but I didn't drown, so I consider it a good workout.  2231 cals in yesterday; looking at round 2k today.  Nutrition tracking seems to be working well.  Now if I can just make it to spin tonight, it'll be a good day.