Update Nov 4th

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Just a short update on how things have been going.

The last two weeks, I haven’t been quite living up to the 4 workouts a week standard; more like 3 workouts. And some of these have not been true runs, as I’ve been traveling and have had some ankle pain. But I did manage to get in a few runs here and there, including a nice 4-mile run through Prospect Park in Brooklyn. It was beautiful to see the leaves changing color.

This week I plan to do the following workouts:

Tuesday – 2 mile run, intervals

Thursday – 4 mile run, outdoors

Friday – 4 mile run, outdoors

Saturday – 2 mile run, outdoors

First week of the new plan

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Managed to work out four times this last week, not quite the workouts planned but I did:

  1. 3 mile run on Oct 9th – Outdoors (involved some walking…)
  2. 2 mile run to a nice dinner at Hot Zushi in Haight on Oct 11th (with the girlfriend)
  3. 3 mile run on the treadmill on Oct 12th (at work)
  4. 2 mile run on the treadmill on Oct 14th (at home, Sunday night trying to get that run in!)

So, in total, I got in 10 miles of running, less than the 15 I had planned. But overall I’m happy, since I felt I would have been pushing it to do more. I also went rock climbing for the first time and got a bit of a workout out of that.

For this week, I’m hoping to get in a similar number of miles.

The new schedule

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I kicked off my new schedule (see previous post) with a 3-mile run today. Or should I say “run” because I walked part of it? Again, it’s amazing how much fitness can degrade even when one is still running occasionally.

The good news is that I’m back to taking care of myself in terms of exercise. My plan is to get in a 3 mile run with intervals either tomorrow or Thursday, then do a longer run on Friday. However, given that I’m just getting back into running, I might need to reduce my mileage this week to ensure I don’t get injured — which is fine.

Gearing up for the Santa Run in just 2 months!

Running in 2018

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I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from running for a variety of reasons, but I’m hoping to start back up more seriously. This week I ran 3 x 2 miles, and boy, am I tired! I even had to walk some of it. It’s interesting how much the body can get out of shape relatively quickly (as I was running here and there since I last posted…).

My current goals include getting back up to (say) at 15 mile/week run volume and running a 5k. (It’s always fun to go to a competition.) That 15 miles per week can be something like:

  • Monday: 3 miles, outdoors
  • Wednesday: 3 miles; speed work on treadmill
  • Friday: 5 miles long run, after work
  • Saturday: 4 miles, hills

Will update with more details of whatever run I end up doing!

First bike in SF

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SF Bike Map

Routes with bike lanes in SF

Today, I did my first bike ride in SF since moving here.

The prep

I looked online for a list of good routes. Most pages I found seemed to be about good routes outside of the city, which wasn’t very helpful to me. I live near the center of the city, so I needed to know how to get out there. I found this map showing roads with bike lanes to be very useful, and I’m going to try to explore the main ones in the future to see which ones I like best.

The route

I eventually settled on commuting up and down Polk Street, a main N-S road in the city. The path unfortunately reminded me of Massachusetts Ave a bit — a road somewhat in need of paving with plenty traffic lights and stop-and-go traffic. You could easily spend 45 minutes getting across SF with this route, with a not inconsiderable amount of danger (there is a decent amount of hoping that people won’t open their car doors). However, all in all, things weren’t that bad — there is, in fact, a bike lane through the entire road, which you can’t say about many places.

The bike

Took my Specialized Allez out for the ride. This is my road bike, and the one of my two bikes that has been repaired — my Fuji tri bike needs some serious love, but I still haven’t decided what to do with it (maybe will sell it and get another tri bike that is higher quality/fits me better).

The fit of the bike was noticeably bad — I was putting nearly all my weight on my hands, rather than on the seat. That made it hard to control the bike and also to safely take my hands off the handlebars to signal turns, etc.

Was the fit always this bad? Possibly — during my half ironman, my hands started going numb. And I’ve always found it hard to balance on, and signal from, this bike. Possibly it’s simply too large for me, and so to reach the handlebars I have to move my center of gravity far too forward.

The plan

Biking during the work week is probably going to be too time-consuming, so I’ll keep it as a weekend activity.

I’ll also probably take the bike back to the shop to get it properly fitted, that is, if I can improve the fit much myself fooling around on my trainer.

My new diet

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I try to avoid grains and foods with added sugar now. This diet, in conjunction with some new ways of thinking and exercise, has helped me lose around five pounds.

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Today’s hotel breakfast of yogurt, orange, and coffee.

I’m still allowed to eat meat, eggs, fish, dairy, vegetables, fruit, fats/oils, and legumes (although the only legume I would seriously consider eating is soybeans, since I’m not a huge fan of most other beans). So it’s not terribly restrictive, although there are many cases where I’d love to have a nice bowl of teriyaki chicken over rice.

Some of the benefits of this diet:

  • Proteins and fats tend to be higher-satiety foods than starches
  • Cutting out foods with added sugars removes many “hyperpalatable” foods from my diet. Hyperpalatable human food tends to override our natural weight-regulation mechanisms
  • By reducing the variety foods I eat, I run into diminishing marginal returns more quickly and get bored of the foods I have available.

Another useful tip I have used in conjunction with this diet has been to eat only when I’m “actually hungry,” which I test by asking myself whether I’d be interested in eating an apple or piece of grilled chicken. If the answer’s “no,” it’s likely that I’m hungry only because some hyperpalatable food is in front of me.

A typical day for me is:

  • Breakfast: Soylent (bland enough that even though there are carbs in it, I don’t tend to overeat it)
  • Lunch: salad with chicken, bacon, and cheese; no dressing
  • Dinner: generally I would get delivery, and it might be Indian food (tandoori chicken!) or Thai food (without rice). Of course, I always eat healthier when my wonderful girlfriend cooks something from scratch!

Snacks tend to include yogurt, string cheese, fruit (apples, bananas, and tangerines), and tuna fish (in oil).

Many of these ideas are due to this post.