two weeks: 186.0
last week: 186.8
this week: 186.0

I'm shocked. Really and truly. I've been under a ridiculous amount of stress over the last couple weeks, and it's not going to let up any time soon. I also haven't had time to run. AT ALL. Making matters worse, I've been working during hours when normal people sleep, giving me more opportunities to eat. I fully expected to weigh in at 190+.

I don't get it. I guess I shouldn't be complaining, though.

Hang in there this week, guys.

We kick off the holidays with a party at our place tonight. My wife has been cooking and the house smells great. A foreshadow of things to come. We're headed to my parents house tomorrow which further throws off exercise and eating routines.

I guess I'll shoot for moderation, avoiding sugar, and trying not to drink too much as my goals.

I like running out at my parents place, but my challenge on this round of training has been finding time for strength and stretching routines (usually performed on my TRX). This morning I finished off a 5 mile run with a 30 minute TRX routine. It takes extra time and discipline to do the strength workout after a run. I know it will pay off in terms of rehab and injury prevention, but it stretches even "shorter" workout days to over an hour and a half.

I run a half marathon in Dallas a week from Sunday. That one kind of crept up on me.

Hey gang,

Wanted to share a resource for everyone.

crossfitdurham.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Travel-WODs.pdf

The link above is a PDF with 75 "Travel WODs (aka: Workout of the Day)." These are 75 different workouts that rely only on body weight exercises (pushups, sit ups, air squats, etc). No gym equipment necessary, other than a jump rope for some.

Great way to keep up your workouts if you're traveling and away from your home gym.

I let my 7yo help. I tell, him, "pick a number between 1-75." Makes the workout random for me, preventing me from cherry picking routines that work to my strength. He loves it because he gets to tell Daddy how he's going to burn himself up this morning.

Last week: 239.5
This week: 236.5

3 lb loss during a holiday weekend?! Hell-to-the-YES!

Got to keep it in perspective though. That 3lb loss brings me back to square one when we started this phase of the challenge.

Still a nice motivator.

Be strong all.

363.3
24,513 steps

Bad week for walking. I'm not even getting close to the halfway mark for the daily goal. Travel and working on business plan stuff has complicated everything more than the weather. We'll see if I can make something happen this week. I hate thinking that I need to wait until January and the gym membership to get things moving.

192

Pretty much flat from last week -- which is a good result.

Ran a pretty fast 10k (48 mins) Turkey Trot. It was the first time I've broken 10 minute miles for any distance since my injury. The knee held up well -- much credit to my BRD brace. My motivator -- trying to keep up with my very fit brother-in-law.

I also ran a 10 miler as a warm up for the White Rock Half Marathon I'm running in next weekend in Dallas. My knee was a little sore on that one, but nothing dramatic. I'm looking forward to the race because I run with High School buddies at a leisurely pace. It's a well run race.

Felt a twinge in my achilles during a surprisingly tough TRX workout on Sunday. Today is a rest day, but I'm a little nervous to see what goes on down there during my next run.

Also a bit nervous about how fast the miles are ramping in my training. It's a result of choosing a short training interval (just 15 weeks). I should have seen this curve coming, but it's a little intimidating. Lots of 6-run weeks coming up.

Congrats to @krellpw for keeping the discipline over the holidays. Hang in there @ben.

A reminder that the kids are watching -- and that we are very important in modeling good health and fitness habits.

These days, after my shorter runs I do a 3 circuits of 6 or 7 exercises on my TRX. Stuff that emphasizes lower body and core. Mostly to stretch and strengthen and avoid injury. All part of the marathon plan.

This morning, when my run was done, my oldest son joined me for the TRX portion of the workout. He set his alarm 30 minutes early, and came dragging, frazzle-headed, into the gym. My 8th grader! He has been pretty dedicated about getting up early 3-4 mornings a week to do extra workouts. This is partially motivated by a school counselor who suggested it might help with his fidgetiness in class, and may have something with a new-found interest in girls, but I was so proud of him.

Some of the moves are easy for him (lower body), some are really hard, but I was proud that he never gave up, even when I suggested lower intensity moves. It wasn't a big macho thing. We were both just working to get better.

At one point he got a little discouraged. "I have no upper body strength," or something like that. I asked him who else had the discipline to be up at that hour working out (the school gym was empty). I told him THAT was the important strength. The rest would come.

For any TRX geeks reading this. Here is an example of the circuit:

Squat
Pistol Squat (single leg)
Hamstring Curl/ Hip Raise
TRX Situp
Hamstring Curl/Hip Raise
Atomic Pushup
TRX Power Pull

15-20 reps each, minimal rest between moves, 1 minute between circuits

190.4

Starting to see a little progress in weight loss. The more I lose, the less likely I am to get injured as the miles ramp up. Which they are starting to. I'd like to be 180 when the gun goes off for the race. A pound a week with marathon training mileage does't seem unreasonable.

My high school buddies bailed on me for the Dallas White Rock Half marathon this weekend. Just as well. The weather was miserable, and I could stick with my program.

Gear updates: Local running store temporarily closing for remodel had a 70% off sale. I picked up a pair of Mizuno Wave Runners for a song. Big stability beasts compared to the New Balance Baddeley 890s I'm training in now. Should make for an interesting contrast.

Struggling to import my workout data from Nike+ to MapMyRun. I want to like the local guys and appreciate the ability to have all workouts, not just runs, in one place, but the import has been shaky.

And a question:
Massage, a luxury or a training essential?

last week 236.5
this week: 236.5

Kind of blah about that. I suppose given my wife and mother in law began the holiday cookie baking marathon this weekend, I should be thankful.

@Daddy Clay congrats on the progress on your weight loss. Nice pick up on the gear too. I'm planning on asking Santa for gift card to my local running store to replace my Innov-8's after the first of the year.

Re: Massage...Personally, I wouldn't pay for it. So from that point of view, I would view it as a supreme luxury.

Having said that, I've learned some great foam rolling techniques from folks around the gym to help me roll out my own kinks. I take breaks every couple of hours every day to tease out knots and sore spots. My kids think it's hysterical to see me on the floor or up against the wall rolling a lacrosse ball between the wall and my back like some deranged bear trying to reach a nasty itch. So in that respect, I guess I consider massage a necessity. How's that for helpful?

Weight unchanged.

I'm now into uncharted territory with running. Last week logged 36 miles, 42 on tap for this week -- the most ever for me. I feel pretty good, overall, though I'm having some odd sensations in my heel (a problem area) that I'm hopping a BRD ankle brace (on order) will shore up.

Two challenges with the increased mileage -- finding time for strength workouts and enough sleep. 42 miles means roughly 400 minutes of road work. Almost 7 hours. The alarm is going off earlier and earlier, but still struggling to get to bed earlier. And the runs are now long enough that tacking on a TRX workout afterwards makes or a long morning. I know that strength training in the #1 way to avoid injury, but it takes a lot of discipline to go looking for a second workout in a day.

And I despise the foam roller. And by avoiding it, I'm putting myself at injury risk.

Finally, an amazing run on my favorite route this weekend -- Town Lake. Even saw Erica there. Twice! Way to go, girl.

Current weight: 236.5
Unchanged

I'm gonna be honest, if I get clear of the holiday season without adding weight, I'll be reasonably satisfied and proud of myself.

Great work on the milage Daddy Clay! Keep up the great work.

With regards to finding time for TRX and running: is it reasonable/beneficial to scale the TRX back a bit to accommodate the increase in running? I would think saving both the time and wear and tear could pay dividends. Is that something you could discuss with your coach?

Why are you not a fan of the foam roller? For me it falls into that category of "hurts so good." I keep one lacrosse ball at my office, one at home and one in my bag which travels everywhere with me just to ensure that I can break one out an roll out the kinks at any given moment.

Side note: I volunteered at our gym's crossfit competition this weekend. I watched an 84lb woman deadlift 185lbs (2.2x her own body weight) 45 TIMES over the course of a workout. In fact, that was the third of four workouts she completed on the day! Want to know the scary part? She didn't even make it up on the winner's podium at day's end! Part of me thinks, "man, I'd love to commit to competing in that event in 2 or 3 years." The other part keeps looking going, "get real! You'd have to turn your life upside down."

@krellpw

I agree that maintaining over the holidays is a good goal. Looking at all the dinner parties and entertaining (my in-laws are coming to town this week-end) we are doing, I'm having the same thought.

I've decided that boiled eggs are going to be the key. I may use them for a replacement for a serving of fruit. Try to stay a little less hungry and easily tempted. 2 dozen for $4.30 at Costco. Already boiled and peeled! Sea salt and cracked pepper. Yum. How long to boiled eggs keep in the fridge?

As far as TRX, these are relatively brief, core and legs workouts that are suggested by my (virtual) coach and designed to specifically accompany marathon training. I usually do them immediately post-run. They represent a distinct roll-back in terms of strength training from my off season preference for 3-4 1-hour boot camp sessions a week.

I really feel like they are helping bring some strength back into my injured leg though. Happy with the progress there. I really do need to find your discipline with the foam roller. Just seems like straight-up torture to me, though I can tell it does tons of good. If I had a lick of sense I'd be using it nearly every day.

Been a rough couple of weeks. But yesterday was brutal.

I haven't been able to weigh in because the scale's in the basement, near the TV. So wen Monday morning comes around and the boys just want to play upstairs, I'm not going to force them to have TV time just so I can get on the scale. I need to fix that.

I'm hoping to get some motivation worked up. I've completely failed the walking challenge put on by the local health system. The goal was to increase your average weekly step count by 2500 over a baseline week. Well, I have yet to come within 10,000 steps of my baseline week. Two big walking days in that week skewed the "baseline". So, I'm still reporting, but unmotivated to keep it up. However, I still have the HealthMiles deal. If I can get 6 or 7 days in with more than 7000 steps, I'll get $25. It's not much, but I'm that close to this reward, it would be a shame to miss it by a few points.

Good luck to everyone.

@Ben -- don't be too hard on yourself, friend. Your health and fitness are on your mind and you're working at it. Take pride in that and draw confidence from it.

Every day you wake up and decide to go one step farther than you did the day before is progress. It may not be explosive dynamic progress, but it is improvement and that counts.

Last week 236.5
This week: 237

Basically unchanged, but I definitely don't want to see that creep up any further next week.

I'm battling myself to not over indulge in the thousands of holiday cookies that my wife baked. So far so good.

Great week at the gym last week. Hit some new personal records that really surprised me. Still so much to learn and accomplish.

I'm getting serious enough about the crossfit now that I'm entertaining the idea of investing in olympic weight lifting shoes. Anyone have experience/knowledge about them? I've been asking around my gym and getting good advice/recommendations, but would welcome all input. The challenge is in my area, Durham, NC, there doesn't appear to be a brick and mortar store where I can go and actually try some on to see what I like.

Holidays 1, Daddy Clay 0

Up a pound after a visit from the in-laws occasioned a round of feasting. Amazing stuffed pork roast on Saturday, lamb chops last night. Wines. And with guests in town, there will be no light snacking through the day like I ordinarily do. Even a veggie burger at Austin's beloved Hut's restaurant is a caloric bonanza. And more on tap tonight...

Even a hilly 12 miler on Saturday and a 4 miler followed by a boot camp yesterday could not counteract the chocolate torts and holiday goodies galore.

@krellpw congrats on the progress. I'm not sure what the properties of olympic weight lifting shoes are, but my favorite gym/TRX/bootcamp shoes are New Balance Minimus. I love mine because of the grip they get on the gym floor and the slim profile make them easy to get in and out of TRX loops. My trainer wears them, too, and he swears by his.

@Daddy Clay - lifting shoes tend to be more firm around the body of the shoe. Most importantly, they have a solid platform of a sole so that when you plant your feet, you stay grounded and stable.

I love my Innov-8's for most of the Crossfit work I do, but for the straight lifting portions of our workouts, as I'm increasing in weight, I'm finding my feet roll around in that very soft shoe. Last thing I want to do is roll over an ankle with an extra 275lbs on my shoulders during a back squat.

Hope everybody is having a great holiday. Maybe taking a break from the regular discipline. I was at my parents' house, and couldn't weigh-in on Monday. Probably just as well because I also took a couple days off from training.

But still feeling pretty good overall.

Get ready for the onslaught of the Resolutionaries at your neighborhood gym!

Take care, guys.

Happy New Years, Dads!

Hope everyone had a safe, festive and restful holiday.

Last weigh in: 237
Today: 236.5

Met my goal to get through the holidays without losing any ground. I'll consider that a personal success.

I got in 4 workouts the week before Christmas (my standard routine). Got 3 the week after -- allowed myself an extra rest day because one of those work outs the week prior left me limping for days.

It sounded so simple. Do 200 air squats for time. I got them done in 7:34, but spent the next three days limping up and down stairs. I literally couldn't go from one step to the next in a single stride. I had to two foot every step.

Very excited about fitness in the new year. My family bought me one of the New Balance gym bags. So sweet.

Also got a couple of great cycling jerseys to encourage me to get back on my bike.

Here's hoping it's a fantastic new year of fitness, health and peace of mind for all.

My New Day's Resolution is to get new batteries in the "nice scale". It's not nice in that it complements me and randomly takes away weight each day, but it has those calculator things that make you think you'll one day be electrocuted. It looks nice and fits in our bathroom.

Today, my wife began our membership to the fitness center at the employee recreation center. For $20 a month, we'll not only get adult access to the fitness center and reduced fees for leagues, when it gets warm, we'll have unlimited mini-golf, boat rental, access to the swimming complex and driving range balls. How sweet is that? I could up the ante and join the Cricket league! But I won't.

I'm hoping I'll have a membership card before Thursday so I can tell you all about it.

I missed my pedometer goal by about 200 points out of 12,000 points. I'll reach it easily this time since I'll have all year. I only had it for 6 months this year. But I still need to get moving with it. The gym will help a lot.

Have a great start to the new year, fellows. When's this big marathon thing?

Happy New Year, guys.

Missed yesterday because I was wrapping up the holidays with a little staycation with the wife -- a night at a hotel downtown, a couple nice meals.

Now back to work!

Current weight: 189.6

I stuck with the marathon training prescription, and even threw in a few additional boot camp workouts, so don't feel like I lost much ground. This is a big mileage week featuring a 12 miler tomorrow and a 16 miler Saturday.

Next week will be even tougher because I'm on the road the whole week.

At the risk of jinxing myself -- I feel really good. Knee is holding up well thanks in large part to the BRD brace and lots of strength training. My heel and achilles are pretty much pain-free.

Feeling so good that I put my name in for the lottery for the 2012 NEW YORK MARATHON! I find out if I've gotten a race number in April, the race is in November. Fingers crossed. That would be a bucket list event.

@krellpw I hope you like your bag as much as I've liked mine.

@Ben That fitness center sounds amazing. And our marathon is Sunday, February 19th.

Gents sounds like the new year is off to a good start.

A nasty heel injury put a spoke in my training the past month and the only thing that worked was complete rest. I think I went too fast, too soon and the 44 year old feet didn't respond like the 20 year old feet used to. Pain is much better but I haven't finished a long run since Thanksgiving so a February marathon goal is now scaled back to a half. I am hopeful that calf rolls, weighted toe lifts and ton's of stretching will stave off future injury while a I build a more gradual base.

@Danny and I will swill gatorade and scarf breakfast tacos and cheer on @DaddyClay for the final 13.1 miles in a few weeks.

Surprisingly with all the Holiday food and lack of training holding steady at 173 but still a bit doughy. Need to introduce upper body strength training to my schedule.

Onward!

The backslide has been bad. It's kept me away from this thread. I've been ashamed. I'm back, though, hoping for better success in the new year.

12/26/11: 191.0
01/02/12: 189.8
01/03/12: 189.2

Anyone else interested in becoming "app friends", i.e., following each other on stuff like RunKeeper, Fleetly, Hundred Pushup Challenge, etc.? If so, post links to your account pages for folks to friend. I'll do so with the accounts I have, and others can do likewise.

BTW, I'm using an Android app to track my weight that folks might like. It's called Libra. If you have a Withings scale (I don't, but I wish I did), the app can interface with it.

@Daddy Clay -- Great news on the pain free training. Hope this week goes well too. The new bag is awesome, but dangerous...I'm looking for all kinds of new gear to fill it. The NY marathon? Whoa! Good luck with the lottery.

@Ben -- I second Daddy Clay. That sounds like a fantastic facility! Have fun with it.

@Daddy Brad -- Sorry to hear about the injury. Hope the recovery isn't too long.

@Funky Dung -- Don't sweat the slide too much. It happens. Good luck going forward in the new year. As for app friends, I really don't use any.

The fitness center really isn't all that great from what I've seen. The rest of the facility is really cool, though. Because my wife works at Cummins, along with 20% of the people in town, we get a standard membership to the place (it's owned by the Employees and Retirees) and then can purchase deeper access like this. Not having to pay each time you want to rent a canoe, play mini golf and whatever is great. But free to use are the archery, rifle and skeet ranges, RC Airplane field, full-blown go-cart track (as long as you bring the go-cart) and a number of other things. There's a full-service campground and they had a concert last summer headlined by Tonic.

But the Fitness Center is pretty dated. Not that I need much. Just a place to drip some sweat. I'll learn more on Thursday, I hope. It's about 8 miles (15 minutes) from preschool, so if I do it perfectly, I'll have 2 hours to spend there twice a week. I can start there and try to negotiate additional times with the "family" after a few weeks.