Hi everyone!!!!
My name is Chris and as you can probably guess I'm twenty years old and currently a sophomore in college. On January 24 I got serious about getting in shape and did two things at one: signed up for my local gym and registered for a triathlon on June 1st, 2008 (I've tried to get somewhat serious about my health from time to time but lose motivation or make excuses for myself, now that I have money on the line hopefully I'll stay the course)
So let's get down to business. In the past 2 months the heaviest I've been was 190 and I'm currently at 180.1 standing tall @ 5'11". My whole life I've just been on the heavier side of normal (currently 25.1 BMI). What I'm looking to do is trim fat and get leaner possibly around 165 which is a 23 BMI, and of course being a guy throwing on as much muscle as possible isn't something I'm going to run away from.
I've been a pretty decent endurance runner and last summer participated in RAGBRAI (a bike ride across Iowa) which really got me into cycling. For me attempting to complete a sprint triathlon seemed like a decent first step to altering my lifestyle. What I'm really hopeing to get form this forum is help/guidance in my exercise and dieting (being a poor college student I don't have the time or money to get a trainer or nutritionist) and obviously inspired and motivated by all the wonderful people that I've read about so far.
Ok so maybe some background into my current exercise and diet is the next logical bit of information. I've broken up my routine into 3 different workouts (Day A, B, & C). I try to split each routine into two halves; cardio & weight training.
Day A I run at least a 5k (3 miles or so) at 7.2 mph (roughly an 8 minute mile) for my cardio on a treadmill. Then I focus on my legs including leg curls, sitting leg presses, and another machine that works quads that I can't remember at the moment.
Day B I bike 25 minutes at 90 RPM or roughly 20mph on a varying resistance fat burner routine, and then when I'm done with that I immediately jump on the treadmill and run at the same speed as mentioned above for about 15 minutes. I was told that doing workout transitions like that are good to get used to for triathlons. For weight training I focus on my chest and biceps doing different dumbell routines and benchpress.
Day C I just bike at the same speed and routine for 45 minutes or longer. Then for weight training I focus on triceps and core. By core I mean different ab routines and pack exercises. I basically rotate these routines and take one day off a week whenever I feel tired or just can't find the time around homework and my job.
As far as dieting goes I have a meal plan at the food court at school so my food is kind of limited. I usually try to stick to some sort of meat (either grilled chicken, a plain turkey sandwich, or some type of lean red meat). Besides that I stick to fruits and vegetables such as apples, melon, carrots, pineapple, corn, peas, and grapes. I know this is bad but I have never been a breakfast person or a morning person for that matter so I basically eat twice a day which is perfectly fine with me because I dont get hungry too often and try to stay hydrated as much as possible all day long. (oh and I take a daily multivitamin)
So thats ME!!! I feel like its too much information but hopefully it will allow people to leave constructive comments and answer some questions along the way. I'm considering taking a protein supplement but have near to no experience picking stuff like that out. So if you're reading this then THANK YOU for reading my thread and I hope to get some picks up soon!
My name is Chris and as you can probably guess I'm twenty years old and currently a sophomore in college. On January 24 I got serious about getting in shape and did two things at one: signed up for my local gym and registered for a triathlon on June 1st, 2008 (I've tried to get somewhat serious about my health from time to time but lose motivation or make excuses for myself, now that I have money on the line hopefully I'll stay the course)
So let's get down to business. In the past 2 months the heaviest I've been was 190 and I'm currently at 180.1 standing tall @ 5'11". My whole life I've just been on the heavier side of normal (currently 25.1 BMI). What I'm looking to do is trim fat and get leaner possibly around 165 which is a 23 BMI, and of course being a guy throwing on as much muscle as possible isn't something I'm going to run away from.
I've been a pretty decent endurance runner and last summer participated in RAGBRAI (a bike ride across Iowa) which really got me into cycling. For me attempting to complete a sprint triathlon seemed like a decent first step to altering my lifestyle. What I'm really hopeing to get form this forum is help/guidance in my exercise and dieting (being a poor college student I don't have the time or money to get a trainer or nutritionist) and obviously inspired and motivated by all the wonderful people that I've read about so far.
Ok so maybe some background into my current exercise and diet is the next logical bit of information. I've broken up my routine into 3 different workouts (Day A, B, & C). I try to split each routine into two halves; cardio & weight training.
Day A I run at least a 5k (3 miles or so) at 7.2 mph (roughly an 8 minute mile) for my cardio on a treadmill. Then I focus on my legs including leg curls, sitting leg presses, and another machine that works quads that I can't remember at the moment.
Day B I bike 25 minutes at 90 RPM or roughly 20mph on a varying resistance fat burner routine, and then when I'm done with that I immediately jump on the treadmill and run at the same speed as mentioned above for about 15 minutes. I was told that doing workout transitions like that are good to get used to for triathlons. For weight training I focus on my chest and biceps doing different dumbell routines and benchpress.
Day C I just bike at the same speed and routine for 45 minutes or longer. Then for weight training I focus on triceps and core. By core I mean different ab routines and pack exercises. I basically rotate these routines and take one day off a week whenever I feel tired or just can't find the time around homework and my job.
As far as dieting goes I have a meal plan at the food court at school so my food is kind of limited. I usually try to stick to some sort of meat (either grilled chicken, a plain turkey sandwich, or some type of lean red meat). Besides that I stick to fruits and vegetables such as apples, melon, carrots, pineapple, corn, peas, and grapes. I know this is bad but I have never been a breakfast person or a morning person for that matter so I basically eat twice a day which is perfectly fine with me because I dont get hungry too often and try to stay hydrated as much as possible all day long. (oh and I take a daily multivitamin)
So thats ME!!! I feel like its too much information but hopefully it will allow people to leave constructive comments and answer some questions along the way. I'm considering taking a protein supplement but have near to no experience picking stuff like that out. So if you're reading this then THANK YOU for reading my thread and I hope to get some picks up soon!
