The Journey Begins - Training for the Men's Health Urbanathalon in 2009

[kcnychief]

With all the positive change going on in my life right now, I have decided to go after something I have wanted to do for about a year now. I'm going to train for the Urbanathalon that is sponsored by Men's Health, and do my darndest to compete in September of 2009. I'm not anywhere near where I would need to be for this year, and am hopeful a year will give me enough time.

For those not familiar, here is their site -

http://www.menshealthurbanathlon.com/

Today I started training, with actually more of a "detox" than anything else. I plan on making drastic changes to my diet mostly, and slightly tweaking my already existent on-again-off-again workout routine. I have worked out on and off since 1999, and now need to step it up.

My current stats - 6 foot 1, 229 pounds and a body fat of about 28%. In my peak condition over the years, I was at 198 or so and at about 11%. That is a lot to lose in a year body fat wise, but I'm going to shoot for about 15% as a goal. I plan to knock off around 1% per month, which will be hard.

If no one cares, hey that's great - but I think this is something that would be great for me to do as a lifestyle change instead of a drive for one event.

I won't be weighing myself daily or weekly, I'll step on the scale and measure my body fat on the 1st of each month and then post here with how I'm doing.

I think there was a thread about working out once, but can't seem to find it. One of the motivational tools I'm using is that I took a picture of myself at my heaviest, and I'm placing that as my wallpaper on all the computers I use, all around my house and on the refrigerator. I am by all means not fat at all, I think that percentage is a little misleading. But, I definitely could be healthier.

Here's to a drive - one year from now should be a heck of a difference! More about changes to my overall lifestyle to come...

 

[Moonwraith]

Good man. As long as you're sure you can stick to it, I wish you the best of luck. Got someone to be training with btw? Makes such a thing much easier to keep up? Should make it a guild thing with weights being posts every month 😛

I'm roughly 6 foot 2, and I keep an eye on my body fat % every now and then, so 28 isn't too bad at all, but getting it down to 15% will be tough, I know that for a fact. Think I got mine down from 22 to 16 a while ago, but I was gymming 4/5 days a week and took enough supplement to kill a horse. on that note, going to be taking anything to help with the fat loss? or going the natural/healthy/REAL route? 🙂

Once you're tweaked your work out plan, chuck it up here, I'm very interested in that kind of thing. And damn I need to find a gym since I've moved 🙁 and now you've made me feel lazy with your plans 😛

Anywho dude, good luck I say. Keep us updated

 

[synical33]

Why only in NY & Chi-Town!!!! They should bring that to LA then I would join in a heartbeat...oh well I guess they might have something out here similar to that...good luck CHIEF

 

[Johnny]

That looks cool. I'll have to look into it some more.

 

[kcnychief]

I go mostly early mornings at 5AM and have to get in what I can before I need to go to work. I haven't worked out with a partner in awhile because it tends to slow you down with rotations and being social and stuff. It's not too bad - as long as you know your limits and workout carefully, you don't really need a spotter either.

I'm really tweaking the heck out of my routine, but will definitely post it when I'm happy with it. I have had a pretty good week exericising most every day. I have a few other things in mind too - I'll probably have some good info here in a week or so.

 

[greentea]

That's sounds exciting to me.

 

[falconguard]

This might help
http://hundredpushups.com/

 

[Sazar]

Hey Derek, spend less time in front of your computer, you'll automatically lose a buncha weight :smoker:

28% is pretty high dude, get it down to 15% or so and make the missus work out too. BoSox baby deserves fit parents tbh :smoker:

 

[kcnychief]

Mini update - my body fat test was way off. Getting my own measuring device so hope to have better stats for that soon. I know I need to lose a little, but was really shocked when it said 28.

My strength has gone way up, probably at one of my strongest levels of my life so far which includes on-again-off-again working out since like 1999 so I'm happy about that. With my drastic increase in strength, which means lean muscle, I have also dropped 6 pounds since Sept 1. This probably would have been a bit better but I spent a weekend in AZ and ate and drank WAY too much but oh well 🙂

 

[madmatt]

Saz makes a good point - BoSox baby deserves a healthy Daddy. But that doesn't mean you have to eliminate all the pleasures in life. But, I commend you for trying to better yourself.

 

[kcnychief]

That's a big part of it actually - I figure even if I don't quite make it to the phenomenal level of shape I'll need to be in to do all 3 legs of the race, getting close should put me through a lifestyle change. Just need to keep it up - feeling great these days actually. Energy is much higher, sleeping better (not as much though).

 

[Grandmaster]

Hey Derek, that's an awesome decision to make! It will not only help improve your physical condition, but the mental benefits (increased energy, less anxiety, etc) are great too.

Two little tips that were huge for me (I was 6'1, 245 pounds around December last year, now I hover between the 197-202 range):

1) Commit to working out at least 3 times a week, and STICK TO IT. No excuses. Each session should be at least 30 mins long, no longer than 60 mins.

2) Have a "eat as much junk food as you want" day. For me, that's Saturday. It'll keep you sane the rest of the week, and ensure that you're metabolism won't slow to a crawl.

Good luck 🙂

 

[kcnychief]

Thanks GM, my goal is to do 4 days on with 1 day off, so theoretically 6 days a week of varying intensity.

Loving it and feeling great so far, hope to keep it up!

 

[falconguard]

I played ball at 6'2" 245 and people thought I was skinny, so BMI's are in my case a gross distortion of health. Although, they are okay for most people, for athletically built or muscular people the BMI are not something to base health on. Same thing for Body fat. You have to go by health level and BP.

There are so many, variables to health, that what you should measure is the fact that you can do more, than you could do before. Your stamina and energy level will be the true signs of overall health.