The Wife Weighs In...Week 40

Happy Friday, GHMIW fans!

I think I can officially say that I am back on track, and it feels great! This is my third week of at least three workouts a week. Hurray! I’ve been alternating between strength training and my C25K program, and I feel great! I’m hoping this is the beginning of a new “downward trend!”

Funny thing. After at the end of my treadmill session this morning, I made a big discovery. I’m not running fast enough! In fact, I think that increasing my speed from might even make running easier…something I’m going to try as part of my next session.

And now, my big announcement of the week…(drum roll, please!).

After 19 weeks of slugging it out, the number on the scale has finally hit a new low point! Granted, it was a difference of only two-tenths of a pound, but it is my first week of forward progress since before we went on vacation! This is a huge deal for me, psychologically. Really, truly, gigantic.

Now, I’m ready to keep the momentum going. One more pound lost and my BMI drops to 29, making me merely overweight and no longer obese. That’s big stuff. Here’s hoping we have a reason to celebrate next week!

Have a good weekend!

(a.k.a., Elle Tee Jay)



8/1/08: 186.0
8/8/08: 183.0 (a loss of 3 pounds!)
Total loss of 45.4 pounds
1.0 pound(!) to next mini-goal of 182.0


P.S. Good luck to Sister Sarah on her 5K this weekend! I'll be there to cheer you on!

The Weigh-In Week 60

216! That's what it said on the scale this morning. A loss of 1.4 pounds!

So far "Operation: Eat It" is a big success. I had another one of those crazy, unpredictable weeks though and I could feel "Operation: Eat It" slipping off the tracks a little, so I am going to work extra hard next week to kept on top of things.

The other big news this week is 10K training. I officially started my 10k training on Tues. and I am realizing this is going to be a great challenge. I think the 10K itself will come a lot easier than I thought. Don't get me wrong a lot easier than I thought is still a lot of hard work... but it is not impossible work, which is what my initial impression was.

There are parts of the training though that look like they are going to be killers. Some of the speed work has me a little nervous and the long runs actually stretch out to 9-miles towards the end of the training! That is a lot farther than I ever expected to run in my life.

You can see the whole training schedule here.

I had a great training day yesterday. I ran 4 miles in 37 minutes! As part of that run I ran 3.16 miles in 27:15. A pace right around 8:30/Mile. That is the fastest I have done a 5K in a long time.

Which hopefully bodes well for my 5K race on Sunday. My best official time in a race so far is 26:55. I am secretly hoping to beat that time this weekend. I haven't been training for speed or distance these last few months so beating my time is a long shot, but yesterdays run gives me hope.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Tony
08/7 216 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
8 lbs. to go

Guess How Much I Weigh Contest Week 60

Step right up, step right up.
Guess how much I weigh and win a fabulous prize.

To Recap:
Every Thursday I give you my stats for the week and you guess what you think the scale will say on Friday morning. The winner is the first person who guesses my weight / weight loss for the week without going over or the person who is closest without going over. Go ahead and click on comments at the bottom of this post and leave your guess.

I will post the winner when I post my weight on Fri. morning. If we get ten or more guesses I will have a prize for the winner.

Stats for the week of May 19th.

Calories Consumed: From Monday morning through Wed. night I have consumed aprox. 8052 calories.

Calories Burned: From Monday morning through Wed. night I have burned aprox. 11739 calories.


Let the guessing begin. Good Luck!

Tony
08/7 217.4 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
9.4 lbs. to go

p.s. Don't forget you can subscribe to the e-mail edition of Guess How Much I Weigh . Simply enter your e-mail address in the space to the right.Tony

Race Wrap Up 2

Thanks to my Father-In-Law's egale eye, quick finger, and fancy camera, I got some great pictures of the race....and some more cool time lapse action shots.

Just finishing the swim.

The start of the bike. Time lapse style.
I am so glad I drove the course the night before so I knew what I was in for. It would have been a rude shock to get out there with all those hills and not be mentally prepared for it.





Nearing the bike finish. This picture makes me look a lot more relaxed than I was. My legs were burning!!!


Starting the Run...Time Lapse Style.
Laura told me after the race that the look on my face at this point made it look like I was hurting...and I was. It could also be a little fear looking at the hill I had to climb. It was 1/2 mile of straight gradual incline and you could see it the whole way.







Sprinting for the finish line.
After the turn at the top of the hill, I managed to settle into a great pace. Going down hill helped I am sure. I felt really good coming into the chute. I was hurting but not nearly as much as I had been in my first race. As always my loving family was there to give me the encourgment I needed to kick in the extra speed right at the end.





Hanging out with my number one motivation!
After both races all three of my girls have rushed to congratulate me. That part of the race is even better than crossing the finish line. It will live as one of my most cherished memories.


There is a pretty good chance this was my last Triathlon for the season, and I am surprised at how sad that makes me. But I have lots more 5K and 10K races before the snow starts falling and I plan to do plenty more Tri's in the coming years.

Tony
08/4 217.4 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
9.4 lbs. to go

Race Wrap Up Part 1

The second Triathlon was another huge success.

Once again I could not have asked for a more perfect day. It was cool and sunny with just a little breeze. Perfect racing conditions.

This course was a much tougher course than my first Tri. The course was a little longer and a lot of the bike and half the run were up hill, so while my time is 11 minutes slower than my first race, it is 5 minutes faster than what I thought I would be able to do. I am really proud and a little amazed at how well I did this weekend.

Here are the results:

Total Time: 1:15:39

Overall Place 173/ 386
Gender Place 103 / 177
Division Place 16 / 26
Swim time 12:19
Swim pace 2:06/100 Yards
Swim place 111
Bike time 34:54
Bike mph 17.7
Bike place 180
Run time 23:19
Run pace 9:20
Run place 244

Here's how things compare to my first race. Since the courses are so different, the easiest way to compare is based on ranking and pace data.

I'm not so good with the HTML so you'll have to scroll down to see the times.

RACE INFO	HEART OF THE LAKES	BREWHOUSE
Overall Place	148/388	173/386
Division Place	21/33	16/26
Gender Place	99/180	103/177
Swim Pace	1:58/100 Yard	2:06/100 yard
Bike Pace	19.9 MPH	17.7 MPH
Run Pace	9:36/Mile	9:20/Mile

My swim pace was only 6 seconds slower. Not bad considering I only swam once since my last race and I started right at the front of the pack. I spent most of the race getting swam over or swimming over other people. It was a whole different experience than the first race.

My bike pace was way slower, but I knew that would be the case with all the hills. Amazingly I kept up a 19MPH Average for the first 6.5 miles. Then I hit the really big hills.

Here is the real shocker, despite using up so much energy busting hills on my bike and having to run half the course uphill, I managed to shave 16 seconds a mile off of my run pace! Woo-Hoo! That may be the biggest accomplishment of all from this race.

I am also really happy to see that I finished in about the same place in my age group and in the overall male rankings for both races, which says to me I wasn't the only one slowed down by those hills.

My overall place is a little lower then Heart of The Lakes, I am pretty sure that has to do with how fast the ladies were in this race. There were some really, really fast women passing me up on the bike course.

Stay tuned for race day pics.

Tony
08/4 217.4 lbs
NEW GOAL: 208
9.4 lbs. to go