By the Numbers

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LaMaria: In that case, thanks again. Spice took the photos and culled anything other than cute. He's a very contented guy so his parents get a kick out of the sad or pouty poses since they contrast well with 'cute'.

Day 22: Nearly 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, most of it deep according to the Garmin which finally has a strap repair thanks to an additional borrowed screwdriver. HRV: 10, BP: 112/71 -59, 108.1 Kg.

Harvey said off to the vanity vortex and I performed the planned workout.

Rower: 1:57/500 m rate for 2560 metres.
Bike: 80 RPM, incline 3, gear 2/6 for a displayed 326 Watts power and 2.7 K distance. Curiously the bike heart rate graph 10 minute portion remained entirely under the average line for the 30 minute workout. There's definite room for another increment next week.
Elliptical: Same as day 1.

These are all still steady state, get up to speed quick and cruise aerobic exercises, though I do breath pretty hard with the first and last. There will be intervals in the future, but I'm still biding my time. I did the upped resistance but will add the bird dog in the evening for the time being. The heart rate graph averaged 144 with a 161 peak and 58 HRR. Once my peak drops below 160 for a few days, I'll increase the Elliptical rate the following week. Two days after racquetball I was aware of some stiffness in my right forearm and in flexing the bottoms of my feet. The downside of racquet sports is they tend to be asymmetric activities. When my son was younger, or against less practiced opponents, as a right hander, I have played left handed and, if it's uneven enough, I'll also give the other player two bounces. It makes an otherwise boring game reasonably challenging. Spice would probably qualify as she does play tennis but hasn't had much encouragement for this sport. It's fun sometimes to play another player where both play with their weaker hand. Being able to do things with your less dexterous side can be very worthwhile skill to develop.

Sunday lunch just didn't happen. Late breakfast and later workout led to me just plain forgetting to eat. I don't recall having any appetite for anything. I brought our leftover cheesecake to my folks place and had a piece there, a chocolate cookie and two slices of a lemon loaf to go with 2 cups of coffee. On my way home I picked up a couple of beef donairs for dinner. The diner is a hole in the wall dive but with a stellar reputation going back several decades. Among the least expensive donairs in town as well. I'm not sure, but I think there must be over 1/2 lb of beef in every one. These have white onion, tomato, a slice of cheese and some donair sauce on them. Having had cake, I cut mine in half and had a full belly.

All this meat in the past few days has cut into my fruit consumption but the proportionate increase in protein is probably a good thing.
 
I had a little sleep tracking app on my phone but I just felt dejected when I saw how little deep sleep I was having so I haven't used it in a while. Maybe I'll try it tonight just to see.
 
Good job on the steady state cardio. Cardio is the hardest part for me. The resistance stuff is fun, cardio - very boring.
 
I really like the very logical way you approach exercise. It's very meticulous and well thought out.
 
Em: I assume the phone needs to be in your bed. I don't think I could do that. Mine is wrist watch based and interprets steps and arm flapping to make some guesses. It's not terribly accurate and I'm not sure how it can rate levels of sleep. Sometimes it thinks I'm sleeping when I'm in front of the television. I often adjust the numbers given by the watch. At least it's accurate about nocturnal bathroom breaks.

Jenni: I can do cardio for hours. In fact, I used to do an hour on each machine every day and it got tedious enough that I set up the projector. Cutting it down to 3 consecutive 10 minute sessions keeps me much more involved in how I am doing and eases the time burden. I got to that point by taking my outdoor bike by car to about 10 miles from work and putting in 45 minutes to and from weekdays. It's much easier when you've got it as a functional part of your day, like walking a dog, provided the weather doesn't go to hell. I've biked all seasons here down to well below 0 F and had only two minor bumps due to ice.

Cory: Given your educational background, you would see the logic of controlling a few variables. Aren't you going to tell me off about not counting calories though? Feel free to disagree with me about anything. I'm just an old obstreperous curmudgeon who is quite satisfied with being just that. I'm not looking for converts. The only skin I have in this game is mine, and it's thick enough that neither praise nor scorn are going to change my trajectory.

FG: Concept2 D and E models are the staples of crossfit stables. I managed an hour for just over 15,000 m last year on a D. The WaterRower is not directly comparable. I have mine filled with an extra half litre of water over the usual, but not at the max allowed and that makes the overall resistance tougher in a way that the Concept2 can't be made harder. The damper setting on the D is more like picking a gear on a bicycle for a race whereas the water level is a bit more like having a slightly steeper continuous grade. Even so, I believe that a 1:56/500 on my WaterRower is similar to a 2:00/500 on the Concept2. I'm breathing pretty hard at the 10 minute mark so I've got a long way to go.
 
Day 23. HRV: 6, BP: 115/73 - 56, 108.1 Kg. I hit the sack earlier than usual but that didn't translate to a lot more sleep than 7.5 hrs.
This is my 4th consecutive day of 108.1 Kg. On my Excel graph, the expected interpolation for today was 107.95 so a simple 150 gram (0.15 Kg) water retention could account for that. I've checked this scale out by comparing it with the readings from two rec centres and the absolute numbers are really close. If you want to play Sesame Street: One of these things is not like the other - the odd scale is one of the rec centre ones and it's within 0.2 Kg. I've also checked my weight plates, alone and carrying them so that I could account for dumbbell stacking variations. I have a pair of 10 pound plates where one is 1/4 lb light and the other as much heavy. Bottom line, I find the repeated readings suspicious but ultimately I have a good basis for confidence in the numbers.

I didn't really feel like spending time in the hurt locker this morning, but Harvey was insistent. What to do?

Rower: 2561 m at at 1:57/500 rate. I'm just not seeing significant progress here yet. It's a good pace and my heart rate is high enough to be more than a mediocre effort plus I'm breathing pretty damn hard. Some kind of intensity intervals will probably be required.
Bike was as planned but I goofed on the Elliptical. I realized as my time was running out that I was going to exceed 660 revs and noticed that I had the metronome set to 66 rather than 65 pace. The metronomes are cheap enough that I could get one for each machine. They keep the pace setting between power cycles so it's worth considering. I'm currently adjusting it from bike to elliptical tempo and it's adding seconds to the machine transition time. Maybe next time I make an Amazon order.

The Garmin graph yielded an average heart rate of 150 and a peak of 167 with HRR of 57.

I tried out the Bird Dog last night with 3 ten second 'poses' each side. If felt pretty easy, but unfamiliar movements can sneak up on you. I added one set of 3 ten second poses to my resistance work this morning and will keep that level for a week before adding reps, time or sets.

Lunch yesterday was about 310 ml of tomato basil bisque soup, the 1/2 tub leftover from last week, with an apple and an orange. Spice is well aware of my posting food here so she decided to get creative for dinner. She made 6 bowls with layers of rice in coconut milk, 1/2 avocado, shrimp, edamame beans and sesame seeds with a touch of red cabbage with some of the carrot/onion reinforced miso soup and a chunk of french bread garlic toast. I know what's for dinner tonight. I had a mug of licorice spice tea in which Spice dropped about 10 goji berry 'raisins'. I'd never had goji which tasted a lot like apricot flavoured raisins. I recall a bunch of overblown hype about them being a super-food a few years back, but of course, that was all marketing nonsense.
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I had a typical oatmeal melange this morning with 1 coffee with some 2% milk. Most week days I also have a few cups of coffee at work but as they only have 10% cream or sweetened whiteners, I've been going black. Just another day in paradise.
 
I love to bike and can't wait for the new house so I have a safe place to bike in the neighborhood. My town is not bike friendly and it can be dangerous if you are not used to it. The eats look delicious!
 
Hale, you do you man. To be honest, I wish the world had more curmudgeons. I feel like the world would be a less sensitive place. :p

Not counting seems to be working for you. You might have converted me to track more things, at least possibly my recovery. I'm not good about taking rest days when I need them. Where can I find a Harvey?

As usual, your food looks gorgeous.
 
Jenni: I've loved biking for the longest time. I have really bright front and rear blinking lights, a bell for pedestrians and a 140 decibel piercing warbling electric horn for cars. I am seriously considering buying an airhorn that you fill with a bike pump called Airzound since it commands attention from vehicle drivers. I do fine in traffic and take the left turn lane with the cars. I rather dislike the half baked bike lanes in our city. I prefer all or nothing and all isn't in the cards. I follow all the traffic laws when there are any vehicles about and keep clear of all sidewalks unless they are designated for bikes or sharing with bikes.

Cory: Harvey, heart tate variability, can be done with a smartphone app and a heart rate measuring device that can detect the electrical impulses that trigger the heart muscles. Most chest strap monitors will work. My Garmin watch has a downloadable app that works directly without a phone but development was discontinued and support was poor. You were on your own. Few phones can read the Ant+ protocol used by Garmin wireless devices so I bought a Polar strap that cost double what the Garmin did that uses BLE, a low energy BlueTooth approach that works with nearly any smartphone. I use the 'Elite HRV' app which is free for the features I use. There is a ton of info on the web if you Google 'heart rate variability'. I have a 3rd strap for my German VDO bike computer that cost a mere $20 US that would have been suitable but it uses some undefined wireless protocol.

At the volumes of work I'm doing it may be redundant though it has flagged onset of colds and poor sleep. I suspect it may be more useful to someone who works out at your volumes.
 
Day 24. HRV: 6, BP: 108/71 - 57, 108.3 Kg on 8 hrs sleep, over 50% of which was rated deep in my watch-phone app. Weight is up a hair but well within tolerances. It may be a sign of a temporary plateau through a metabolism adjustment. One thing for sure, I'm not scrimping on food and I take a photo of anything that's going in my mouth other than coffee so there isn't even a mint not accounted for. I'm going to wait until the end of this week, week 4, before I consider any changes to the food non-plan.

Spice is celebrating a birthday and I've taken a day to run errands so I had a less hectic morning. Harvey sentenced me to a half hour in the catacombs and I did my penance.

Rower: 2635 metres at a 1:53/500 pace. The HRV suggested laying off just a bit but why not. I'm hearing about other rowers in the threads so felt obligated to give it a more serious go.
Bike and Elliptical were per plan. The bird dog set hasn't caused any noticeable new soreness so that will be getting a bit bigger increment next week, and otherwise, the mini resistance routine was followed.

Maximum and average heart rates for the cardio were 162 and 149 with an HRR of 62. Again, the entire bike effort below the average. The bike is reporting as many calories as the elliptical so it must exaggerate even more. Bottom line is that the bike will definitely get another cadence increase next week.

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Lunch yesterday was the 1/2 donair leftover from Sunday dinner with an apple and small orange. At least I didn't have it all Sunday...
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Dinner was a repeat rice shrimp bowl from yesterday. I had forgotten to mention that it included daikon radish. Today it had some added organic watermelon radish and peanut sauce but there was no soup or French bread with it.
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Left feeling a bit peckish later, Spice proposed a snack consisting of a tin of oysters and some crackers. I read the numbers and worked out that I should have had about 200 calories evenly between the two ingredients. There were 6 oysters sandwiched between pairs of crackers and 2 crackers alone for each of us. 200 calories, if converted purely to fat should be a bit less than an ounce, or under 30 grams.

Since I was staying in this morning, Spice decided to whip up breakfast. One egg, two strips of 'lean' bacon, 1/2 apple, small orange, butter croissant, spinach, tomatoes and a hollandaise sauce from a mix with water and fresh squeezed lemon. She took a photo of me tucking in. Since it was after 10, there will probably be a minimal lunch. The hollandaise is much brighter yellow than shown but it succumbed to some photo 'enhancements'.
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Jen: Was delicious.

Day 25. HRV: 4, BP: 107/68 - 58, 107.0 Kg on about 7.5 hours of a slightly restless sleep. I woke up too early while my mind was doing gymnastics.

I've got 5 'yellow' HRV days out of the past 7 which is most likely attributable to underemployment stress. Good thing exercise is a stress buster.

Harvey, ever the intractable task master, invoked his authority and sent me down to the rock pile.

Rower: 1:55/500 m rate for 2604 total metres. Bike, Elliptical and resistance all were in accord with targets and netted a 150 average and 165 peak heart rate with 59 HRR. It felt like I had to push myself a bit harder than usual on the rower. HRV doesn't directly correlate to performance capacity but because it is below my usual trend, it may indicate that I need a bit more recovery time. My plan is to wait for a 3 or under to trigger a day off so I'm not there yet. Today's 30 minute cardio was at 90% of my max at an average of 82% of max which is higher than conventional cardio and I'm definitely breathing pretty hard in the first and last 3rds of the typical session, but I know I have done an hour and more at these same percentages in recent memory. Also, my average HRV was higher for the first couple weeks since I started this process so I'm just going to take it in stride.

Given the late brunch yesterday, lunch went by the wayside. Dinner was a shared platter put together by Spice. Grilled pita bread with garlic, beet and regular chickpea humus both drizzled with balsamic vinegar, grilled shrimp, watermelon radish, a green Granny Smith apple and an avocado. I had more than half as Spice had her fill before 50%. Latter she brought out the pistachios she had bought before Xmas and I had 10 of those.

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Today's breakfast was none other than my oatmeal medley.
 
Day 26. HRV: 9, BP: 112/69 - 58, 108.0 Kg on 7.5 hrs sleep.

Harvey said, "To the Bat Cave.", so who was I to argue.

Rower: 2595 m at 1:56/500 m pace. I felt reasonably energetic, despite the weather which can be a downer, and despite a bit of an anomalous food day yesterday. I felt I put in quite an effort but neither the heart rate nor the pace confirmed my feeling. The balance of the workout was according to plan and yielded a chart with a peak of 161 and an average heart rate of 144.

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Good thing I have winter tires. I had one of the cars serviced last week and they provided a video link to the live inspection. During the video the said they were going to rotate the tires and I had to call them to tell them not to do so. I rotate them myself as the weather dictates. They also failed to inform me to have the nuts retorqued so I pulled the wheel covers off the winter rims as a reminder to do it myself this weekend.

Spice had a birthday and my folks dropped by before noon and my son and family came by for dinner. With my folks coming by, we made a sortie to a local bakery and put out a dish with iced cinnamon buns and peanut butter cookies. I wound up having one cookie and two quite tiny pieces of cinnamon bun in lieu of a regular lunch. It was certainly less calories and less nutrition value than had I had a regular lunch. On a related note, I mentioned that we don't own a salt shaker, similarly we haven't bought sugar in about 10 years. The last time, we purchased some cane sugar cubes and they were gradually consumed by guests over about 5 years. Spice subsequently bought some Stevia for guests but I've never tried it.
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Spice ordered in. She wanted to try some East Indian food from a local eatery so she selected a big variety of different things that will result in leftovers for several days. There were samosas, vegetable rice, saffron rice, tandoori cauliflower, a spicy chicken dish that wasn't just curry and goat in another spicy sauce, naan bread and some kind of savory potato 'disks' and a variety of sauces I knew not. The food was fun and I did the variety thing as usual. I have no idea how one would go about estimating calories but am pretty confident that I was in normal ranges. We had coffee after and the morning goodies were on offer for the guests. The balance will probably wind up at afternoon coffee at my folks place on Sunday.

Typical oatmeal mix for breakfast today.
 
Cory: I agree on the platter. But it went well beyond looks.
Jen: All I could see for miles was snow.

Day 27. HRV: 9, BP: 104/67 - 51, 107.2 Kg. About 8:15 good sleep.

Harvey was to the right of 12:00 on the scale which is more where I have found myself in the past. The other numbers are closer to where I like them so it is progress. Also the pulse pressure, the difference between systolic and diastolic is in a really good place as well. Generally it climbs with age as the aorta gets stiffer and less compliant and absorbs less of the 'shock'. Too low is not good either but mine generally runs between 35 and 40 so I'm thinking that's a great place to be. Stress is always down a bit for the weekend and that may be a factor in the good numbers today.

Rower: 2624 m at a 1:55/500 m pace. Bike, elliptical and the rest were according to plan. For the machines, I averaged 147 and peaked at 162 heart rate with a 57 HRR. Given all the other great numbers, I was thinking I might get a slightly better number - more is better in this case.

Lunch yesterday was one of the 6 rice/shrimp/avocado/radish/sesame seed... bowls Spice had made up last week and dinner was leftover saffron rice, chicken and veg rice. I passed on a cookie desert and had a couple cups of tea. My sister got several family members gift cards to Cora's which I understand is a breakfast restaurant. We will have a get together for brunch so I just had a Granny Smith apple to tide me over until then.

Tomorrow is my rest day and my 4 week take stock/re-evaluate/plan update day. So far, the schedule involves another racquetball hour with my son and likely missing cake and coffee to go by Spice's sister's place instead.

Just another day in paradise here.
 
This sounds like a pretty positive day. I'll be interested to hear your plans after re-evaluating!
 
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