LIVESTRONG Day

October 2nd, 2009 No Comments

Today is LIVESTRONG day. 13 years ago today, Lance Armstrong, was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer. And today I reached my fundraising goal of $3000 in my LIVESTRONG Challenge, Austin campaign.

Thank you to ALL my teammates who donated. The last two weeks have shown strong giving in response to my Twitter and Facebook campaign during which I challenged folks to give specific dollar amounts to reach my goal. When I started the campaign I was a little less than $1500 away from my goal.

I am especially grateful for all the generous folks that I have either known for many years or just met. Thanks to my coaches at Breakaway Training for sharing my campaign with the entire team. Breakaway Training donations represent close to 15% of all my donations to date.

You can still help with donations, of course. Donate online to fight cancer.

Now it’s time to focus on the ride. I can’t wait. Austin, here I come.

The Quest for Ironman Begins

August 20th, 2009 No Comments

Now that I’ve achieved my goal of the Triple Crown in 2009, I’m shifting my focus to 2010 and beyond.

In the long term, I would like to complete an Ironman race in 2011. I’m thinking of one of these:

  • Ironman Cozumel (November 2011)
  • Ironman Florida (November 2011)
  • Ironman Hawaii (if I get in through the lottery, October 2011)

The Ironman race is 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and 26.2-mile run (full marathon) for a total of 140.6 miles. Sounds crazy? It is.

During the year that I do my first Ironman, I definitely want to do Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, as well as run a couple of full marathons (like Carlsbad in January 2011 and maybe the NYC Marathon in November 2011).

In the near term, I plan to have only two or three A races in 2010, all focused on the half-Ironman distance:

As the name implies, the half-Ironman race is 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run (half marathon) for a total 0f 70.3 miles.

If my training is going well, I may do:

  • Wildflower (long course), April 30 – May 2, 2010
  • Ironman 70.3 Hawaii (in Kona), June 5, 2010

Bring it!

The Story of Running and the Triple Crown

August 16th, 2009 No Comments

Today I completed my first Triple Crown. When I take a step back to think about it, I am amazed, especially when I recall that I have only been running since October 2008.

I started running because my personal trainer at LA|FITNESS recommended that I try it, just to mix things up. I had been “stuck” in the gym lifting weights. My spinning had already drastically decreased because of my cycling on the road.

I’ll never forget my first training run on October 12, 2008. I wanted to turn around and go home after the first 15 seconds. My muscles were so unused to running. I was amazed at how out of breath I was given that I had recently achieved a level of fitness that allowed me to complete a 100-mile bike ride. Despite the initial pain of learning to run, I didn’t give up.

A few weeks after I started running, a co-worker suggested that I run a half marathon. I politely declined. I was satisfied with just short distances like 5Ks and 10Ks. She then told me about the Triple Crown and the cool medal you get when you complete it, and the rest is history. I made that my main goal for 2009.

And so that is how today fulfills a goal I set for myself 10 months ago.

Riding for Team Tuma

July 6th, 2009 No Comments

Last week I learned that the wife of a very close friend has ** cancer **. Even though I haven’t been a big part of Dennis and Vivien’s lives since my college days with Dennis, I feel the weight of this sad news very deeply. Dennis is more than a brother to me. He played a big part of my life while I was at UCLA, helping me grow in my new faith as a Christian. For those short years at UCLA over 20 years ago I learned a lot from Dennis about life and living it as a Christian. Needless to say, Dennis is one of two mentors in my life; he’s more like a dad and brother than a friend.

So I grieve with Dennis and Vivien today as I have learned that her cancer is in Stage 4.

  • Follow their journey.
  • Please pray for healing and comfort for Vivien, Dennis, and their family of six kids.
  • Join my LIVESTRONG team and donate to a great cause. Any amount is worthy for helping to find a cure.

In honor of Vivien for the rest of the summer triathlon season, I am dedicating all my hours of training, all my races, and the LIVESTRONG Challenge in October to Team Tuma. I hope to meet my fundraising goals for the ride as well as raise some additional funds to get a special jersey designed for Team Tuma.

Why Tri

June 17th, 2009 No Comments

When I first started running last October 2008 I attended a Beginner’s Triathlon meeting at B&L Bikes last year. I was so turned off by how anorexically skinny and frail the speaker from the Triathlon Club of San Diego looked that I vowed I would never do triathlon because I don’t want to look like I survived captivity at Auschwitz concentration camp. Also, the idea of swimming in shark-infested waters with a wetsuit was not very appealing. My shark phobia was reinforced by the local Solana Beach man who was eaten by a great white shark a few weeks after this meeting and bled to death.

However, as I continued to improve my running and cycling, the idea of triathlon kept popping into my mind. Even my personal trainer at LA|FITNESS, Murray, kept talking it up. Another triathlete at the gym, Darren, was telling me I should give it a whirl. So at the beginning of February 2009 armed with a Beginner’s Training Guide from Triathlon magazine, I began my 12-week training regimen in preparation for the Spring Spring Triathlon on May 3rd. I planned to race in the Super Sprint event, AG 40-44: 200-m swim, 6-mi bike, 1.5 mi run.

I really loved the training regimen: the variety, frequency, and intensity. I began working out twice a day: usually weights or running in the AM with swimming and cycling in the PM and weekends. Waking up at 4:00 or 4:30 AM to get to the gym by 5:00 AM so that I could be at work at a decent time just motivated me even more. It fueled the discpline inside of me.

But I have to confess the number one driving force behind all the work was the promise of one shiny gold medal for the first place finisher in the Super Sprint race. Unlike most other triathlons where typically three or five medals are awarded to the top five finishers in each age group, the Super Sprint only puts one person on the podium, the first place finisher. As I trained day in and day out, I daydreamed of that medal around my neck. I envisioned myself crossing the finish line ahead of all the others. That’s what kept me going every day for twelve weeks, training while working full-time, and operating on 4-5 hours of sleep every night.

The story of what happened on race day is for another time.

How I Did It

March 8th, 2009 No Comments

A friend of mine asked me to share my diet and exercise plan that helped me to “lose weight”. What follows are the tools, resources, dietary, and exercise principles that helped me to accomplish my health and fitness goals.

Number One: Your Why

You need to figure out your why. What is the motivating force behind why you want to do this. It has to be so compelling that you won’t give up like all the other times that you’ve tried to do this. My why is my family. I want to live longer so I can have more time with them.

Overarching Goals

First of all, my journey is not about losing weight. Excess weight and obesity are simply visible results of an unhealthy cycle of overeating and a sedentary lifestyle. When I started my journey, I wanted to not just lose weight, but also shed excess fat as well as be physically fit. These goals cannot be achieved by diet alone. I believe diet without exercise is simply a waste of time.

Tools

  1. Suunto t3c heart rate monitor
    * Tracks calorie burn during exercise
    * Helps monitor heart rate during exercise
    * More practical than Polar heart rate monitors because the batteries are self-replaceable
  2. MyFoodDiary.com
    * Food database
    * Calorie counter
    * Assists you in determining how many calories you can eat with a given amount of exercise
    * See my review of this great tool
  3. Gym membership
    * LA Fitness
    * 24HR Fitness
  4. Personal Trainer
    * Personal training membership at LA Fitness is a monthly financial commitment for one year
    * Personal training at 24HR Fitness is purchased in groups of sessions, no monthly commitment
    * Costco and costco.com sell a 2-year 24HR Fitness membership at a great price, equals about $12/month

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Review: MyFoodDiary.com – Features

November 8th, 2008 2 Comments

Background:
Back in March 2008, I had been in a weight-loss plateau for three months, weighing in at 193 pounds and having a body fat percentage of 15%. Despite my intense exercise routine, I was not able to lose the desired remaining weight consistently; however, my body fat percentage was also decreasing slowly. I suspected that I had been eating too many calories for weight loss, and was simply maintaining my weight. I knew that if I wanted to go below 10% body fat, I could lose about 20 more pounds.

Results Summary:
I started using MyFoodDiary.com (MFD) on March 31, 2008 and reached my goal of 175 pounds and under 10% body fat on August 6, 2008.

What is it?:
MyFoodDiary.com is a web-based calorie counter and exercise log designed to be used as part of a weight management program. Most users of this online service use it to assist with weight loss. The site tracks calorie intake (diet) and calorie expenditure (exercise). Then based on the user’s physical statistics and goals, it calculates how many calories must be consumed and/or burned to either lose one to two pounds per week, maintain weight, or gain weight. Users can monitor on a daily basis two factors involved in weight management: food intake vs exercise. MyFoodDiary.com supports the basic weight loss premise that one must consume less calories than the calories expended. For example, in order to lose one pound per week, one should create a calorie deficit of 500 calories/day. Over the course of seven days, the deficit would be 3,500 calories, which is approximately equal to one pound of weight loss. You can watch a video overview here.

Target audience (Who is it for?):
MyFoodDiary.com is best suited for the disciplined person. Ideal users are those who are willing to record what they eat on a daily basis (using the site’s online database of over 50,000 food items), record nutritional information for the foods not in the database, and record calories burned through activity and exercise. Users should be goal-oriented, motivated, determined, and persistent. The service is best applied by those who want to change to a healthy, active lifestyle. I would not recommend this service to people looking for a quick fix to their weight problems or those who just want to change their diet without exercise because losing weight in a healthy way is not just about food or “starving yourself”. Additionally, I believe the service works best in conjunction with the use of a heart rate monitor during exercise to monitor the exact number of calories burned.

Overview of how it works:

  1. Set goals.
  2. Record food intake daily.
  3. Record exercise activities daily.
  4. Generate daily summary and/or reports on personal progress.
  5. Adjust food intake and/or exercise activity levels to reach goals.

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From Fat to Freedom

October 11th, 2008 No Comments

***** Adapted from “About Me” originally posted on October 11, 2008 in the IntoFitness section of whatsbruin.net *****

In the summer of 2007 I decided to step on a scale just for the heck of it. The number I saw shocked me out of my sedentary life of obesity that was leading me down the road of cardiovascular disease and an early death. On August 30, 2007 I purchased a personal training membership at LA|FITNESS and have never looked back.

About 14 months into fitness

About 14 months into fitness

Before - circa June 2006

Before - circa June 2006

My name is Gerry, and I have been overweight most of my life, except for maybe 16 years (ages 0-6, 14-24). Those years were when I was a young child and when I was a competitive tennis player. But even during those lean years, food and overeating, as well as a yo-yo pattern of gaining and losing weight, were the physical issues that plagued me for as far back as I can remember.

At the age of 34 in May of 2000, I was denied a lower premium on my life insurance policy so I decided to get a physical to find out why. The routine physical showed no sign of disease; however, the blood work forecasted a grim future:

  • Glucose = 92 {normal 70-110}
  • Triglycerides = 1084 {normal < 200}
  • Cholesterol = 257 {normal 100-200}
  • HDL = 21 {normal = 35-60}
  • Other cholesterol ratios were too high to be calculated.

My doctor said:

Gerry, if you don’t make a change in your life, you will contract Type II diabetes, and will most likely have to be on high blood pressure medication for the rest of your life. This will lead to cardiovascular disease and wide array of medications. You will die of either a heart attack, stroke, or complications from diabetes.

The fear of that conversation produced a change in my diet and exercise for about a month. My subsequent blood work improved over the next five months. But eventually the fear wore off, and I went back to my old habits of overeating and not being active. My doctor suggested follow up blood work and regular physicals, and had scheduled another round of blood tests for me, but after seven years, I still had not gone back for those tests or physicals.

Before - circa July 2007

Before - circa July 2007

In July of 2007 at the age of 41, my father-in-law underwent heart surgery. While we were visiting him in the hospital I noticed that the other cardiac patients were of varying ages. One in particular was in his 30s and extremely obese. Upon my return from that visit, I vowed never to end up in the cardiac ward. I was tired of that nagging pain in my knees as I walked up the stairs. I was weary of the pain in my ankles as I walked the short distance from my bed to the bathroom every morning.

So that’s when I decided to weigh myself.

My stats that summer were:

  • Weight = 250+ pounds
  • BMI = 37
  • Body fat = 33.4%
  • Waist = 44 inches
  • Pants = size 44 (tight)

The brand new LA|FITNESS gym in my neighborhood was having its Grand Opening event. I wanted to get a free t-shirt, which was the only reason I planned on going on August 30, 2007. But during the evening ofAugust 29th, I had a very vivid dream that I was working with a personal trainer, and I was really fit and buff. I took the dream to be an omen, and the next day I listened to a sales pitch about the benefits of personal training. I bought a membership because I knew I needed to lose almost 80 pounds… and yes, I did get my free XL t-shirt, which barely fit.

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