The Third Weigh-In

Stats: 202 lbs (down 26 pounds since start); chest 44 (down 4 inches); waist 37 (down 5 inches); about an inch off thighs, calves and biceps. Body fat is down from 27.5% to 20% and my goal weight is about 172-177. Slowly getting there. One more week of torture. Then it is time to figure out what to do at home which is going to include zone chefs for food, much training for that damn Ironman in Nov and finally finishing that off.

End of Week 3

This is the end of week three, and this week was not as horrible. I think I am getting used to the different venues, and my intensity was ratcheted down due to a hamstring injury. Suspect my weight loss will not be as impressive as the last two weeks, but tat is to be expected. I do believe I will be under 200 before I leave. Took this PM off to rest the legs and plan for one more hard week before returning home. No new pictures today as whoever is reading this has seen most of the venues. Will try to tie things together over the next week. Also will attempt to get before and after pictures to post after I leave. Will reflect on this month after I leave.

Look at the monkey climbing the wall. This is from the playground that was near the Ritz. As you can imagine, we spent quite a bit of time there. What an improvement in her comfort in the water! She had a great time jumping in and swimming back!
Here is the proof that she actually DID put her face in the water and did a little swimming.
And she even started to get comfortable with being in the water without her goggles.
We are now settled back at Angelica's. Faye and Melo actually keep an eye on your Mom. She has lost her sun glasses so I had to pick up a new pair. I am not sure it matters that they are not prescription. Hope you are having fun!

The New Facility

We moved into the new facility on Monday of this week, and it was a bit of a logistical nightmare, although a big improvement. You can see the warehouse style we now exist in and one of the abs classes. I threw in a picture of Big Al, who despite how he looks claims he is not a wise guy. He has been here the same time I have and had a great first week, but then started hitting the town at Spago's and other fining, and his second week was less productive. Don't thing Big Al gets it! There are many like him, who are perfect for the first 9 hours of the day and then resume the binging, eating and other crazy shit that got them here. I hate em al'.

Week Three Part 1

Here are the trainers. There is "Fat Tim", Areligh in the black, the taskmaster Greg in the Grey Sweat Suit and Blair in the yellow. IT does not really matter who you are dealing with they find a way to make you work, other the Fat Tim who is new and an underling. Week Three started off with a weigh in seeing me having lost about 20 lbs to 207.5. Lost some inches and my waist is 37.5, chest 46 and the rest does not matter, but about a half inch off hips, thighs and arms. So it is working, and now less then two weeks. This place sucks.

Miammmi!

We arrived at Angelica's at about 2 in the morning but the next day, E was up by 8 and eager to get in the pool. Of course she insisted in having the pool skimmed of leaves before getting in ("Do you ever clean your pool?"). The water was a titch cold but that did not deter E or Coco, the deaf chocolate lab.


Your mom got up a little later than E and looked a little shell-shocked.
At about 1 pm we left Angelica's and drove over to Key Biscayne. We checked in and then checked out the pool and the beach. E is not too enchanted about getting sand all over her, and the waves definitely freak her out. Hopefully she will get used to them as the week goes on.

End of Week Two

Two more weeks of this torture! Tomorrow is weigh in number 2, and I am starting to feel a bit different. Have not had a drink in 14 days which is the longest time without booze since 2002. Also, feeling a little leaner, so we shall see what the scales say tomorrow. My brain is waking up thankfully, and the doldrums of my thinking may be lifting. I am getting some ideas :) always dangerous. The pictures here are of a park where we have done some training. Very nice community of Manhattan Beach.

Day 13

What you see here is from Day 11, and is done every Friday, known, appropriately, as "The Dunes." Basically ride your bike to the Dune and go up and down as many times as possible in one hour. These pictures do not quite give the truce grade which is very steep. Another form of torture at Camp Technique.

Day 10

This is day 10 and a few things have happened since my last post. First, weight in on Monday was successful with a drop of 12.5 lbs down to about 215, my lowest weight since last 2005. This is a good start. Also, chest down to 46 from 48 and waist from 42 - 40. Little change on calves, things and biceps as those did not seem to accumulate the fat, as is typical in men, as the waist and chest. These suggests I maybe able to get home under 200 lbs. The days here continue to be brutal, long and unrelenting. Definitely miss all you beasts in MN and look forward to coming home in 2.5 weeks. Today brings the usual torture. I am less sore through the day, but the nights and morning are no picnic. This really is a boot camp and there is always the next things to do. Never again will I resort to this.

Here are a few pictures from our MOA trip on Sunday. You should be proud of me. I am using my photo card reader on the computer at work. I tried to get E to smile for you in the next picture but of course she looks goofy.
The next couple are pictures that E took. She apparently got a hold of the camera and had a good time. My favorite is the hot dog. And I didn't want you to forget what your mother looks like:

Here we are organizing our yarn stashes. This is when she told me we ought to split the yarn equally.
Hope you get a laugh out of these! We are going to have a quiet night, early to bed after a long bath. E hasn't bathed in about 4 days (and you were worried about your mother!). Miss you!

End of First Week

Overall this was a fairly brutal week where I was perpetually tired and sore and still am. For me, Saturday was kind of a rest day since my injured hamstring kept me from the super intense stuff the camp was doing and I really did a lot of Zone 2 work. Sunday is a supposed to be a light day, but I did the bike-hike-hike-bike as a nice weekend training session. I and the group you see pictured rode the 11 miles past Venice Beach and Santa Monica and climbed the mountain at the end of the ride, these are the views seen in the picture (unfortunately a smoggy day). One guy and I did the hike twice and it was fairly brutal. Week two coming up. Weight in and measurements tomorrow. It is obvious who the two trainers are and who the two campers, but each of them have lost around 35 pounds and, despite me being a lightweight compared to most of these guys, they are easily as fast as me up these hills (and they are 25 years younger), but by the end of my four weeks they won't even be close.

Here are the graduation photos. There are more at http://www.flickr.com. Elizabeth took th epics of my graduation and did a good job!

Elizabeth brought her finished journal home from school the other day. I tried to download the pictures yesterday but encountered technical difficulties. I am a TD magnet! I also can't get E's Ipod to charge. I have to work on that today.
BTW, in thinking about the Miami trip, I was thinking it was time to get another portable DVD although, when I was at Best Buy yesterday it occurred to me that an Ipod that plays videos might work as well, for a smaller price. What do you think? I thought I would get on I Tunes and see if they have movies available for download.
I like the waffle in this picture!
Next will be the pictures of the graduation! If you are feeling sorry for yourself today, just remember it is a frigid 2 degrees here in MN!

Day 5

I started this day unable to walk, and wondered what I would be able to do. I warmed with a 2 hour zone 2 bike to Manhattan Beach. This was followed by 1 1 hour boot camp, but I was 50% at best still so sore in the legs that each step was pain. Then was a lecture, and I started feeling better when I did 60 min on the elliptical, still zone 2. Had a nutrition meeting to plot my course to 177 lbs and 6% BF. I will be about 1/2 way there by the end of this 4 week block. The last thing of the day was a partner workout (i.e., one trainer and two people). This was moderate in intensity and good for this day. Very sore right now as I write this and we have a solid day of training from 9 - 3, then I have a massage at 6 to cool down. Sunday is a light day/rest day and then weight in on Monday where not only weight, but body fat, and measurements are taken. We shall see. The goal is 7 - 8 lbs.

Day 4

I do not have any interesting pictures today, but will be biking to the beach tomorrow so will try and get some. However, today was brutal for me, but only because I dd something I have not done for 20 years. The day started with a 3.5 mile run done easily at 8 min/mile. Then went onto 30 minutes of core/abd followed by the pool. I felt great in the pool doing 2000 m of various intervals. I was again stomped by Fern. Following the pool was a nutrition session and then the trouble began. They have a game here called TBA, and it is a combination of flag football and ultimate Frisbee. The movements are all short and explosive, and not the long endurance predictable stuff we usually do. Hence, I could not walk after the game (1.5 hours of playing) as my quads and hams were broken. I was too miserable to eat my late afternoon meal and could only stomach a protein shake before boot camp, where I could only walk up and down Admiralty Park.. Came home, soaked in the hot tub and called it a night. Tomorrow is brutal. hope I can walk.

We're still here.

No pics today. The printer can't read my memory card--it must be damaged. We had a little 'incident' yesterday. Elizabeth helped herself to an extra fruit snack pack while Mrs. Anderson wasn't looking yesterday. Her reason--"I knew she would say no". As a result she lost Hannah Montana. And then the tantrum ensued, complete with hitting, kicking and tight holds, although as Elizabeth pointed out later, it did not last as long as usual. So then I missed Karate, and then I had some red wine. Or maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, no HM doll until the end of the school year, provided there are no other 'incidents'.

Arwen no longer howls for you. The house is quite peaceful actually. Paula has been doing a great job keeping up with the laundry and keeping the kitchen clean which is a big relief when I come home at night. Maybe she could be our housekeeper as well as dementer watcher. It snowed here yesterday, just an inch or two but enough to make the morning commute miserable. My clinic morning was absolutely hideous, but the pm was better as I was the preceptor for the residents. In L&D all day and it promises to be a busy day.

I am going to try a different memory card, so hopefully there will be pictures later. Hope you have a good day!

Day 3

Today started out with a beautiful ride to the pier on Manhattan Beach. Took about two hours total. Following that there was two training sessions, one group and the other individual (arms and back). I was then supposed to do 60 min of cardio on my own, and had about a half hour of free time and promptly fell asleep for 90 minutes. Missed the cardio, but no worries. Spent 1.5 hours at a boot camp in the sand running suicides. Massage was part of the day, but, unfortunately, in the middle so I could not totally relax. Holding up alright, although calves are a bit tight, but not cramping. The pictures include a small view of the houses overlooking Manhattan beach, and their cost is probably in the 10 M range. The next is the pier i biked to and the ranger station, the water was dotted with dozens of surfers.

More sites

Here we have the little office/break room where we hang out between sessions(and a view from the outside) and gobble a meal or a shake. The second picture is Admirality Park, right behind our apartment where some of the boot camp takes places. It is constantly filled with bikers, joggers and dozens of dogs.