About
“Training is the symbolic glue that holds the rest of my life together.”
The last year has been an emotional roller-coaster for me, and various events in the Spring of 2009 finally pushed me over the edge into complete apathy. It seemed nothing I did made any difference, I couldn’t change the outside world. As a result, I ended up spending most of the summer just laying on my couch, watching television. This only amplified my downward spiral – I just didn’t care any more. I was a man of action without a purpose or plan, and I floundered.
Rather than sit down and seriously think about where I wanted to go with my life and what I wanted to do, I would just drink beer and feel happy for the moment. Besides the obvious risks I was taking with my health, the depressant nature of alcohol was only serving to exacerbate my lethargy… I was feeling down, down, down, and noticed a few negative behavioral changes starting to occur. I used to be a confident, happy, positive person, but had turned into a big sourpuss. I was pissed off at myself for losing control, for doing nothing, for wasting my life away.
One sleepless night, as I lay in my bed pondering existence, I came across the quote at the top of this post. It rang so true! That’s what had been missing from my life. I knew that I just needed to get training to break my funk, but couldn’t find the motivation to overcome the inertia. That quote struck a chord deep within me… I identified with it, connected with it on some primal level. I had been searching for an answer all summer, and there it was.
My mind recalled another memorable quote, this one from The Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” I knew I didn’t want to die, so I made the decision to stop wallowing and take back control of the things I could control – my body, my health, and my perspective.
Over the last few years, my primary method of staying in shape has been road cycling. While I found it both very rewarding as an experience and an effective way to stay in shape/lose fat, as I leaned down to 195 pounds from 210 I started to miss the feeling of having “big” muscles. I have always been a pretty big guy, though due to having a super-tall father, never truly realized it. (I’ll always look up to you, Dad)
Since I had been focusing so much on my cycling the last few years, I had not been putting in time at the gym. While I liked being lean, I realized I missed my bodybuilding roots. In 1992, prior to a serious motorcycle accident, I had 17.5″ guns, a 48″ chest, 28″ thighs and a 36″ waist. Now my guns were only 14″. I know some would kill to get even 14″ guns, but I could only see them as small.
It was time. I was ready. I took out my fitness/nutrition books and magazines, seeking to refresh my knowledge and find some inspiration – whatever it took to overcome my inertia and get me excited about something again – and it worked!
This place will serve as the journal of my experiences as I continue on this lifelong journey… if it is useful to you, I’m glad. If not, go someplace else. I do this for me.
There is no finish line.
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I have been studying training and nutrition for over 25 years, and the vast amount of information out there can be overwhelming. To complicate matters, some of it is misleading or just plain wrong. I will be posting my training and diet logs, reviewing the supplements I take, and offer my no-nonsense opinions about fitness, training and supplementation here on FitBob.
The purpose of this site is primarily to serve as a personal log of my training and eating as I strive for fitness. While I have extensive experience in this arena, I am not a certified nutritionist or trainer; posts are for informational purposes only. Every body will respond to training differently – what works for me may not work as well (or at all) for anyone else, so keep that in mind when reading. I am not sponsored by any one, products I talk about here are the ones I use because I have found them to be effective.
As always, be sure to consult your doctor before beginning any exercise program.
Tsup man? Just found your blog. Good stuff in here. Curious what are your HR zones? Do you tend to post most of your rides? Good ride the other day BTW!
Good ride – looking forward to the next one! I post most of my workouts, tho running a bit behind – should be able to catch up soon.
As for HR zones, I haven’t checked ‘em lately but IIRC historically my LT seemed to be 175ish, max HR is 209, resting HR is/was 42. If I’m doing recovery rides/off days I try to keep HR under 140 (SO tough for me – I’m all fast twitch, not small, and I like to gogogo!
, ‘normal’ rides will keep me around 160 (I prefer to stay in the high end of my aerobic range), and I’ll easily pop into the 180s when climbing – but more than a minute or so up there and I pop. I’ll post the detailed HR/Cadence/Power/Elevation charts from the Sunday ride and my last DAM loop when I update.
How about you – what are your zones? Does your HRM allow data downloads?
Can’t believe you’ve hit 209 and didn’t die!
During the offseason, these were my zones but it’s getting a bit outdated. Gotta do a field test this Sat or Sun to find my current LTHR so I can recalculate.
z1 <137
z2 137-150
z3 151-156
z4 157-167
z5a 168-171
z5b 172-177
z5c 178+
LT=170
Resting=56
Max=195
And no unfortunately my Polar doesn't do downloads. Gotta manually log.