Consistency Wins

Happy Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:37:00 +0000

"Specificity works, and it works really well. But everything costs something. Focus requires exclusion. What are you willing to pay?" @gymjones

box jump squat 10 x 12
DB row 90lb x 10 x 12

Thought provoking article about disordered eating and weight obsession in runners.

Even if you think you are training hard, you could always be training harder. Check out this guy's ironman training logs. 7 hour 45 minute brick workouts? Wow.

This video is of my friend Oliver's recent fight in California. He had never boxed in his life, but he started training a few years ago and has now fought two masters fights (he's 2-0). He is fighting for a masters world championship belt next month. He trains 15-20 hours a week. His success is a great example of the things you can accomplish if you truly commit to achieving your goals.

Lots of Good Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:57:00 +0000

run 10 miles

I've been seeing a ton of great quotes on twitter lately. I have so many archived, I thought I would post a few of them today:

Renato Canova has his athletes spend an hour a day visualizing to not fear hard workouts. That's how you become a champion. @trackty

Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. @zenmoments

"The secret of efficiency lies in an ability to combine two seemingly incompatible states. Maximum activity and maximum relaxation." @firmfitness99

Most people who succeed in the face of seemingly impossible conditions are people who simply don't know how to quit. Robert H. Schuller

90% of what’s stressing you today will be irrelevant in a year. Get over it. Move on and enjoy your life. @terranceJ

Good Stuff Today

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:16:00 +0000

"Training is preparation. Without a task, without an objective, training is just exercise. Do what you need not what you want." @JohnFrieh

box jump squat 10 x 10
DB rows 90lb x 10 x 10

Very nice workout this morning. I'm trying more plyometric/light weight stuff for the lower body, and today was just the right level of lactic acid buildup that I was looking for. For these box jumps I use a 12" box, squat to parallel on the ground, jump on the box, squat to parallel, and then jump back down. So two body weight squats for every rep. In theory this stuff should help my mountain running this summer. I could have done more, but I am running 10 miles tomorrow and I want to make sure I can walk in the morning.

The dumbbell rows are working well too. I've finally given up on my right elbow and am now using lifting straps for the heavier weight work (the same type of straps the guy is using in the video below). Hopefully this will give my elbow a break, and it does allow me to lift much higher volumes of weight, so that is probably a good thing.

Love this. Excerpt:

You want to maximize health and achieve optimal fitness? We’ll tell you exactly how to do it.

Eat foods that makes you healthier, every meal, every day. Eat foods that makes you less healthy infrequently, if at all. Eat just enough to support activity levels and goals.

Exercise. Work hard. Harder than you are now. But more importantly, work smart. Too much volume, intensity and frequency is just as bad as too little.

Recover. Devote as much effort to recovery practices as you do to training. This is not optional. Most fall miserably short in this category.

Sleep 8-9 hours a night, in a cool, dark room. Make time for this. You can get away with less, but only if it’s summertime.

Manage your stress. Deal with it in a healthy fashion. Stress will undermine all of the above.

Do this, day in and day out, for years and years and years, as consistently as you can.

Thi is really impressive...

Lots of Effort, Little Direction

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:34:00 +0000

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." Anais Nin

med ball squat 40lb x 4 x 25
DB row 90lb x 5 x 5, 60lb x 2 x 25
run 10 miles

My back is near 100%, but I'm still taking it a bit easy. While hobbling around this weekend I had some time to ponder what they heck I'm trying to accomplish with my weight training and how my current approach supports that.

No matter how hard I try to find a more defined direction, I still seem to end up being pretty aimless with the weights. I don't really have a long term solution, but it does explain the random nature of my weight work lately. I am enjoying lifting though (I look forward to it more than running) so I'll just keep working hard and see what happens.

Does running form explain injuries (i.e. are minimalist shoes better)?

Nice photos from Brandon Fuller in Colorado. Real trail runners run in snow like this. P.S. I am not a real trail runner.

This photo of a new, huge windmill in the Fairfield area in California. It's hard to get the scale from the picture, but this thing is massive (those are houses in the background). It's kind of amazing to look at, but I have to say visually it just destroys the landscape - very ugly. Hopefully this isn't a trend...

S.F.

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

run ~3 miles Marin Headlands
incline bench 50lb DB 3 x 8
DB row 50lb x 3 x 25, 15, 10
treadmill 2 miles 5 incline 25:14

Jen and I are in San Francisco for the weekend. We got out early for a quick trail run in the Marin Headlands and then I went to the hotel "fitness center". My back is still pretty thrashed, so I had to take it easy.

Here are some pictures from the run.

Misc. Friday Links

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:55:00 +0000

"Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility...In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have." Lisa Twight

DB squat 90lb x 10 x 5
DB press 20lb x 25,20,15,10
medball squat 40lb x 5 x 10
DB shrug 60lb x 25, 75lb x 25

Seriously tweaked my back on the 11th set of db squats. I'll be paying for that for a couple of days.

This is good - Seven Laws of Leanness

This is good too. This article proves that fatigue is mental, not physical.

The amount of sugar in various foods, as expressed in sugar cubes. I got this from here.

Nice Washoe Valley Pic

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:02:00 +0000

"There's no greater reward than helping someone achieve something they previously thought was impossible." Matt Owen

treadmill 5 miles 44:20

Legs really sore from the squats (which I am totally fine with). But that (plus the snow, ice and freezing cold temps) make it a bit less motivating to run. Got some slow miles in on the treadmill, though my heart wasn't in it.

Soda (including diet soda) is bad for you.

Washoe Valley, NV. Early morning just as the sun was hitting the mountain.

It's All Mental - Really

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:46:00 +0000

DB squat 90lb x 20 x 5

Today's example of "you can do anything you set your mind to", is my wife Jen. She signed up for the Napa Marathon a few months ago. For a number of reasons she hasn't trained much. So since November 28, here is a list of all of her training runs:

3-4 miles - 4 times
12 miles (two weeks ago)
21 miles (last weekend).

That's it. 39 miles in 6 runs over the course of the last 2 1/2 months. Admittedly, she isn't killing these runs. She will probably run a couple more short runs before the race, and show up and run a sub 5 hour marathon.

I imagine that if she was in peak shape she could probably run a 4:10-4:15 or so. Her half marathon PR is 1:56 set last October after again, very little training (a few 4-5 milers and one 8 miler).

For most of us, if you love running and want to perform to your maximum ability you should run 5-6 days/week and put in at least 30-50 miles per week to perform closer to your potential. But there is no requirement that you do things this way. Jen likes to run, but not a ton, so she does it on her terms. She does plenty of gym work and enjoys that.

Her mental tenacity is impressive, and she is a great example that you don't have to "follow the book" to accomplish amazing things.

Last year at this time I competed in the California indoor rowing championships. You have to zoom in on the picture, but you can see that I rowed a 6:58.5 for 2000 meters. In the world of indoor rowing, sub 7 separates the men from the boys. I was pretty proud of this.

Adapt

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:51:00 +0000

"Stop competing with others. Start competing with yourself." @lisatwight

DB squat 90lb x 20 x 5

Looks like I need to shift from farmers walks to just straight squats for awhile. Since my last 2000 foot farmers walk session my left pinky finger has been pretty numb. I'm guessing holding the heavy weights for so long was a bit rough on the nerves there. It's nice to know that aging hasn't made me any smarter.

On the squats my legs give out before my grip, so my hand and elbows have felt better the last few days. Dumbell squats are probably more supportive to mountain running anyway. It will be a nice experiment since the trail running season is just ramping up. I have a few thoughts on the crossfit endurance concept of distance running on very few miles that I will be working on the next few days that fit well with this program change. I'll start by talking about my wife's experience tomorrow.

Adapt and advance. Adapt and advance.

Sweet pictures.

Now this is dedication. Gym in the bedroom (source)

8 slow miles + misc. interesting stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 15:10:00 +0000

treadmill 8 miles 1:07:22

I had to get a run in before 6:00 am because Jen needed the morning to run 20 miles.   It gave me time to ponder why running on a treamill is more boring for most folks than running outside.

The reason I oftern hear is that its because you aren't going anywhere on a treadmill. I think the reason is because you can get off the treadmill anytime you want. If you are running an out-and-back 8 miler outside, once you hit the turnaround point you have to run 4 miles to get home. You have no choice. On the treadmill, you can get off anytime you want.

So I spent the morning thinking about the friends I have who are putting in long runs this morning to prep for the Napa marathon.  Jen, Caitlin and Theresa are all going 16-20 miles this weekend. The least I could do was do 8, even if my heart wasn't really in it.

Fact of the day: You need to run 2 miles to burn off the calories in a bottle of Coke. (source @davezinczenko)

Off topic from training, but the Japanese sure know how to get things done. This is a link to a bunch of pictures from the tsunami that focuses on their clean up efforts. Amazing.

Got this picture from @bobbymaximus. It reminds of a quote I read recently --"My ancestors didn't spend millions of years fighting their way to the top of the food chain so I can eat lettuce."

40

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:38:00 +0000

DB press 35 lb x 3 x 12
DB squat 90lb - 5, 10 x 4, 5

Hit the big 40 today. I was really sick last night and didn't feel so hot today, but I had to do something. I have a rule that on my birthday I try to do some sort of blowout workout to prove to myself that I'm not old. While that wasn't going to happen today, I just had to do something. The dumbbell squats were solid, I'll incorporate them more in the routine in the future.

I read somewhere that a guy was turning 40 and his friend asked him what he was going to do for his 40th birthday. His response? "I'm going to be twice as awesome as people half my age"

Yup.

Just Another Day

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:30:00 +0000

run 10 miles

George says I should write more posts like I have been doing the last couple of days. I continue to struggle with the concept that I have anything interesting to say, which is why I tend to just link to other people's stuff. For instance, I love the simplicity of this post. (also via George's blog). I aspire be that insightful in so few words.

I do appreciate the interest and support and will see if I can keep it up.

Loved this picture. I got it from someone's avatar on twitter, but I can't find it now to give them credit. Oh well, the odds that person is one of the 10 readers of this blog is fairly low anyway.

Training Program

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:16:00 +0000

DB press 35lb x 4 x 12
farmers walk 90lb x 2000 ft

After all of my BS yesterday about exceeding self imposed limits, I thought I better do something to back it up. So I went an extra 500 feet on the farmers walk this morning. I got the 90lb dumbbells 5 days ago, started at 1300 feet on Friday and got up to 2000 feet today. Took me 50 minutes. Had to put the weights down and pick them back up about 35 times.

And if you happen to think you are working hard, compare yourself to my friend Oliver. He is 40 years old and boxing in his second masters fight on Friday. He has trained 7 days per week, twice per day, 1 1/2 hours per workout, for the last month. That's 21 hours a week of sparring, mitt work, speed and heavy bag work, running and high intensity weight work without a single day rest for a month. He also dropped his weight from 178 to 165 during this period. Trust me, you can always work harder.

As far as my training program and goals, here they are:

I forgot to mention yesterday that a new rule I have been following has been to try and never do the same type of workout two days in a row. This has been great both physically and mentally. I have been alternating running and weight lifting days and it has been working out great - very high motivation levels and very few aches and pains. I plan to keep that up.

So I'll break my training thoughts up into two groups, running and weight work.

Running

As far as running, I used to be fairly competitive about my times and placing at races. Not that I was fast at all, just competitive.  I would race 6-10 times per year and spend hours analyzing the results and thinking about ways to improve my times and my placing. This was for all distances, 5k up to 50 miles.

Now that I have spent more time trail running, I have very little desire to run road races. The thought of fighting back the lactic acid and lung fire the last mile of a 5k just isn't appealing to me right now. I would rather be exhausted after 6 hours of hill climbing during an ultra.  I also very much like the vibe of the ultras I have participated in (all 2 of them at this point). It is a much more fun, laid back atmosphere that I really enjoy. Plus, if you stick to 50k's, then you can say you're an ultramarathoner, but you are actually only running 5 miles more than a marathon. There is an ego boost there that's kind of fun.

I tried a 50 miler once, and believe me the extra 19 miles between a 50k and a 50 miler is no joke. I'm not writing off longer distances for good, but for now I will stick with the ultrarunning junior division distance.

So my race calendar for 2012 looks like this:

March - Way too Cool 50k
May - Silver State 50k
July - Tahoe Rim Trail 50k
December - North Face 50k in S.F. (maybe)

I'll probably throw in a couple of road races here and there if Jen is doing something or I have a bunch of friends show up somewhere. But otherwise, I hope to spend a ton of time on the trails this year. I have plans to hit a few more mountain peaks in the Lake Tahoe and Yosemite area in the summer. I'm actually as excited about that as I am about any race I might be running.

As far as training, I like the three day/week program. I also like the fact that this race calendar requires no tempo runs or speed work, so I can just putt around on my runs at whatever pace I feel like going.  My current plan has been working well - a 5-6 miler on the treadmill on Tuesday, a 10 miler on Thursday and a longish run (anywhere from 10-20 miles) on the weekend.

Weights

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I really like lifting weights. But I am starting to pay for 20 years of it with some nagging injuries. I could do a well rounded program of heavy powerlifts like bench press, squats, deadlifts, etc. combined with a bootcamp style high intensity bodyweight program of pullups, burpees, plyometrics, etc.  But I've done a ton of that in my life, and I'm not too interested in that right now.

My goal is to exhaust as many of my muscles as I can at once, with the least stress on my joints and tendons. I believe that if you stress your entire nervous system with heavy weights, your entire body will grow (see here for related info).

Squats are considered the best exercise for this, but they are just too hard on my body. That brings me to the farmer's walk. I've been very impressed with how my body has reacted to that work. What's more natural than picking up a weight and carrying it? If my body can't do that for years, I've got serious issues. Plus, it makes me think of my Grandpa on the farm, and that makes me happy.  I've gained a least 5 pounds of muscle just in the last month doing this and feel strong right now.

So, the proper thing to do would be to build a well balanced program of weights and bodyweight workout with an intelligent periodization program. Screw that. I'm just going to carry heavy dumbbells around until I get sick of it.

So the goal for 2012 is simple. Carry my bodyweight (two 90lb dumbbells) for a mile. Just for clarification, I don't mean walk for a mile and never put the weight down - this means walk as far as you can, put the bells down, pick them back up, walk more, etc until I cover a mile.

Lessons Learned

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:22:00 +0000

"Discipline requires the ability to consistently choose perpetual benefit over fleeting temptation." @inngroup1

treadmill 5 miles 39:41

None of this is terribly insightful, but in no particular order, here are some thoughts on things I've learned about training and diet:

- Training is much more of a menntal game than any of us typically think. You are definitely capable of far more than you think you are, even if you have been training for years. For some reason our culture is very limit oriented. We are often being told what we should be doing and what we shouldn't be doing. As soon as you let go of your self imposed limitations, you increase your performance. Set out to do something stupid like run a half marathon on no training, add 20 pounds to every lift from your previous workout, take an hour to do 100 reps of a heavy lift, etc. You will be shocked at what you can do.

- if you are interested in changing how your body looks, don't waste your time on exercise -- it's all diet. If you are interested in how your body feels, that's where exercise comes in. We would like to think that if we run 3 days per week and do 10 minutes of ab exercises we will get a six pack. You won't. Trust me, if you want to get skinny, eat less candy. If you want to exercise, then go to the gym. There is less correlation between the two than you think.

- speaking of diet. Crash diets and extreme diets are pointless. You will never stick with it. Pick a diet approach that is an actual healthy lifestyle change that you will stick with for 10 years. Otherwise you are just temporarily fooling yourself. Also, remember that a better diet will initially involve suffering until your body adapts. If a perfect, healthy diet was easy, you would already eat that way.

- simple diet plan - eat less calories, add more protein and don't eat processed sugar.

- my grandfather (the farmer) ate 4 eggs and bacon every day of his life and red meat 3-4 times per week. He ate fruit and vegetables from the farm, and very little processed food. He lived to be a very healthy 98 years old. Just saying...

- having said that, if you aren't dieting or exercising as much as you think you should, you're just saying you're not motivated enough to do it. Ask yourself, if you were paid $50 million per year to get six pack abs and run faster, would you?

- great diet advice I heard from Jason. Eat naked in front of a mirror. That will cut the ice cream consumption down a bit.

- every workout doesn't have to be a sufferfest. Mental (not physical) burnout is real - depending on your motivation level. Pick exercises and programs you like, otherwise you will eventually quit. Very the effort level. Push yourself, but have fun! No one is paying you to do this stuff (in fact you are probably paying money to do it). Enjoy yourself.

- you aren't overtrained, your body is just adapting to the new training stress and you are tired. See this guy for much more.

- don't worry about doing a ton of different weight exercises to work different bodyparts. Just do a few, heavy compound movements (i.e. squats, deadlifts, farmers walk, sled pushes and pulls, bench press, pullups, etc) and everything else will take care of itself. Trust me. My triceps are plenty large for a guy my size, and I have not done a triceps exercise in 15 years.

My Training History

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:20:00 +0000

DB press 35lb x 4 x 12
farmers walk 90lb x 1500 ft

While I use this blog primarily as a workout log, I usually just post what I did and don't spend much time talking about it. I primarily post other things that motivate or interest me, and frankly, my own performance isn't that inspiring. As a result, I try not to spend much time talking about myself.

But if you've been reading this blog for awhile, you might be wondering if there is any purpose to my training (I wonder that myself). So I thought I would write a couple of posts describing where I've come from as it relates to training, share some thoughts about what I've learned along the way, and talk a little bit about my current focus.

Just for the record, I'm 5'10", weigh about 180 and I'll be 40 years old on Friday. I played baseball in high school and began lifting weights then. I have basically never stopped doing some sort of daily training since that point. So for what it's worth, I have over 20 years of experience trying nearly every exercise approach you can think of. Bodybuilding type workouts, bodyweight only stuff, crossfit style work, heavy weights, short and long distance running, indoor rowing, kettlebells, you name it, I've done it.

My primary training motivation has centered around the example set for me by my Grandpa. My grandfather was a very important person in my life (see a post I wrote about him just after he passed away here). He was a farmer his whole life and he was one of the hardest working and most physically fit people I have ever seen or heard of, well into his 90's. That example of daily, hard work and consistency and integrity is a key motivator to me.

My grandpa was working his farm and climbing steep hills and hunting deer well into his 90's, doing things that people 70 years younger than him would struggle to do. He passed away two years ago just before his 99th birthday. I think about him every single time I do a workout and on every run I do. He loved the mountains, and long trail runs are one of the ways that I stay in touch with him.

There are of course other factors that drive me. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment of working hard. I like to accomplish things other people think are difficult or impossible to do, I can get competitive from time to time, I like my body to look a certain way, etc. But at it's core, my training has largely been driven by my desire to live up to my Grandpa's example of hard work and sacrifice.

I am admittedly an exercise generalist. The one key theme is I typically enjoy working hard. I can honestly say that after the majority of my workouts in my life I have been exhausted. That has its pros and cons, but it's just my style.

All of this generalist work has enabled me to put up some decent numbers in various activities, but not be a top tier competitor in anything. In my life I've been able to row sub 1:30 for 500 meters and sub 7:00 for 2,000 meters on the concept 2 rower, run a sub 5:45 mile, run an 8k in 33:29, finish a 50 mile race in 9:30, run a marathon in 3:27, do 30 strict dead hang pullups in a row, do 70 pushups in a row, do 100 burpees in 6:17, bench press 250 pounds and clean and push press 75 pound dumbbells. These are not heroic numbers by any means, and to a number of people they aren't even very impressive, but it's a fairly decent range of fitness for some dude working out in his garage.

One aspect of my training approach is I like to keep things simple and efficient. This has two effects. The first is relatively short workouts. I have never seemed to have enough time or interest to spend two hours per day exercising. Most days I would rather suffer for 45 minutes and be done (though that has been changing a bit in the last year or so). The second impact is I am a big fan of single exercise workouts. Why? I just like it. While it may bore other people to death, it's how I prefer to do things. I like to just zone out doing a single movement per workout and not be distracted by switching weights, etc. It's probably not the optimal way to do things, but it makes be happy. It also makes it easier to work out at home, which maximizes my time because I don't have to spend time getting to and from the gym.

Like most folks, I have my share of nagging aches and pains. I have never been truly sidelined due to injury (i.e. not training for 6 months straight or something like that), but I have definitely had to switch things up to work around various aches and pains.

As I approach age 40 I spend a lot of time thinking about aches and injuries. Are sore joints just a by-product of 20 years of training? Do I just need to accept it and train through them? I actually don't mind that as long as I don't eventually get some kind of crazy arthritis or something (and even then I honestly might still train anyway). I'm not sure of the answer here, and I will have some more comments on that later, but regardless, my approach up to this point has largely been to work around serious joint pains instead of push through them.

Not to sound like a whiner, but a listing of my major ache related issues has some relevance to my training comments (in a future post). My biggest issue are my elbows. I got golfer's elbow (tendonitis on the inside of each elbow) from doing too many pullups and golfing too much about 12 years ago. Tendonitis sucks and is really hard to get rid of. It has bothered me on and off ever since, especially if I do much upper body work. It's not super painful anymore (I used to not be able to pick up a grocery bags sometimes), but the ache is definitely there if I work it too hard. My other injury aches are more minor. If I do too much pushing work (i.e. pushups), my right shoulder bugs me all day. Also, if I do any serious squat work (either with very much weight, or higher rep bodyweight style) the ligaments in my right knee click like crazy during the workout and bug me the rest of the day. There isn't a lot of pain there, but it doesn't seem like too good a thing long term.

Again, I'm not complaining. I have a friend who is a very competitive amateur boxer who has trained 12-15 hours a week on a torn ACL for the last 3 years. My grandpa had three fused vertabrae in his back for 40 years and he never complained. Everybody has got stuff like this. But the injuries or aches do give context to my current training program, so I thought it made sense to inventory them.

Next post - some lessons learned

Exercise is good for you

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:33:00 +0000

"When you move beyond your fear, you feel free." Spencer Johnson

run 12 miles 1:37:17

Photo set from Tough Guy 2012 in Britain. Judging by how many people have told me they want to do the U.S. version of this, I am thinking this is the next craze (fad?) in endurance sports (via @pkedrosky).

Just in case you were wondering, this is why you exercise (via Joe Friel) :

New Toys

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:39:00 +0000

"It's ok, you will probably just pass out, not die" Misty Sereno

DB press 35lb x 4 x 10
farmers walk 90lb x 1/4 mile

Because my wife is cool, she got me 90lb dumbbells for my 40th birthday. I've been doing a ton of farmers walks lately, as I've found it to be a very effective way to work my entire body. I couldn't wait to try the 90 pounders out this morning (I weigh 178, so I am carrying bodyweight with these dumbbells).

It took me nearly 40 minutes to cover 1/4 mile. I could make it 50ft at a time before putting the bells down, mostly because my grip is the weakest link at this point. Near the end my legs were so tired I had a hard time picking the dumbbells up to start again. Best workout in awhile. Sweet...

Carbs are Killing You

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:32:00 +0000

run 8 miles

Click through to the source for a bigger version. (source: The Big Picture)

More Diet Info

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:32:00 +0000

"The best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep." E. Joseph Cossman

DB press 35lb x 4 x 10
farmers walk 75lb x 1750 ft

Want to lose weight? Eat less.

Summary:

A new diet study just out from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition went to a lot of trouble to prove the obvious. When it comes to weight loss, how much you eat matters more than the proportion of fat, carbohydrate, and protein in your foods.

Researchers at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center got volunteers to eat diets that were supposed to differ in proportions of fat (40% vs 20%), carbohydrates (35% vs. 65%), and protein (25% vs. 15%).

The results of the study are consistent with the findings from many previous studies:

•The major predictor for weight loss was adherence to the diet.
•People on all of the diets lost weight by six months, but regained some of it by two years.
•The study had a high drop-out rate (hence the importance of adherence).
•It was hard for people to stick to the diets, especially those at the extremes of one dietary component or another.

In my day job I spend a lot of time understanding how framing decisions affects behavior. Its an issue with diet too. If you tell people that something has a lot of calories in it, they don't care. If you tell them that it will take 50 minutes of exercise to burn the calories from that can of soda, they skip the soda.

Mt. Rose this morning

Training vs. Activity

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:59:00 +0000

"Trying to lose fat? The feeling of hunger is ok. It's to be expected. Our comfy lifestyle/diet industry has made hunger feel alien." Matt Shore

treadmill 5 miles 42:15

Miles run in January 2012 - 85. Miles run last January 2011 - 53. I'll really get a lead on last year in the next couple of months, as I ran 21 miles total in February and March 2011.

I worked out in a hotel gym yesterday. It reminded me that "exercise" can fall into two categories - training and activity.

Usually when I stay in this hotel and hit the gym I am the only person there. But there was some conference at the hotel and the gym was packed (about 25 people).  While it may seem like I am criticizing these folks, I'm not. Good for them for being in the gym at 5:30 am, regardless of what they were doing.

Based on my observations, I am fairly confident that very few people in the hotel gym had their heart rate above 130. No one that I could see broke a sweat (I was there for about an hour).  It didn't matter if people were walking on the treadmill or working on the weight machines, the effort level, time between sets and amount of BS'ing going on was no different than a conversational pace jog or a brisk walk. It reminded me that our society has evolved so much that now many people consider exercise what our parents and grandparents considered just daily activity.

I have no problem with this. Again, good for them for getting out of bed and doing something. We should all be active every day. But my messsage today is one of expectations. What many people consider "working out", is simply an hour of activity. Better than nothing, but you're not going to get six-pack abs or finish a marathon that way. Training your body to meaningfully improve performance, muscular definition and fat content is hard work. You have to suffer, sweat and be sore for months and years on end. You have to maintain an intelligent training program and consistently implement it. And your effort level has to be hard enought that it hurts. Sometimes so much so that you dread the workout before you even start.

There is no right answer. Training hard and suffering has its issues as well (burnout, injury, etc). But be sure you know which you are doing. If you are training hard, expect results. If you are staying active, don't expect to look like the model on the cover of the fitness magazines. Just be sure your expectations match your effort level.

Las Vegas Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +0000

"The hardest thing to do is one thing at a time.". Paul Timmons

DB power clean 70lb x 4 x 4
farmers walk 70lb x 2000 ft

Picture of Red Rock outside Las Vegas:

Las Vegas strip from the air:

Man My Diet Sucks

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:37:00 +0000

"Always remember that the future comes one day at a time." Dean Acheson

run 10 miles 1:20

I wasn't going to run this long or fast, but the weather was so nice and the run felt effortless, so I just kept going. Had to work that breakfast off.

I'm starting to think the only way I am going to eat clean is to not eat at all. Clearly I just don't want it bad enough at this point. Will have to change that soon.

This is what it takes to compete with the best in the world.

Did I eat this french toast for breakfast? Yup. Am I proud of it? No.

Don't Eat Food Advertised on TV

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:34:00 +0000

"Don't count the days, make the days count." Muhammad Ali

DB push press 75lb x 2 x 2, 75lb x 18 x 1
farmers walk 75lb x 750 ft

What happens when a man tries to eat only food advertised on TV for a month? It's not good. (via @pkedrosky)

According to this, dynamic stretching is useless. My favorite part of this is the control group for this study engaged in "quiet sitting". As opposed to noisy sitting?

Google thinks I am an old man. Click to see how Google profiles you based on your web activity.

Peavine Peak near Reno

Various Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:08:00 +0000

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw

run 10 miles 1:23

This lady kicks ass.

Navy SEALS kick ass

90 year old ultrarunner who didn't start until he was 57

Pre-sunrise this morning:

Stuff from the Archives

noreply@blogger.com (Ken Lambert) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

"Nothing tastes as good as lean feels." (@firmfitness99)

DB push press 75lb x 20 x 1
farmers walk 75lb x 500ft - 5:43

The quote above needs to be my new motto for the year.

I have a ton of interesting stuff that I've posted in the past before anyone read this blog. Since I have a lot more readers now, I thought I would re-post some stuff from the archives

More on endurance fatigue being psychological, not physical

David Goggins motivation

Push your limits, do something totally out of the box today

This picture is a reflection from a puddle in Central Park, NY. (via @davidblaine)