Extreme Makeover - Home Edition

I've been doing a lot of deep thinking and soul searching lately. I've been working on my inner dialogue and trying to work out what is really important to me, what I really, really want. It's not been easy and it's not been perfect but I think I have a handle on it.

I want:

• To finally lose these last 25 lbs and reach my desired goal weight.
• To be able to "race" and not just participate in tris. It would be nice if I could place in my age group once in a while.

These are what I really, really want as far as my health and fitness go. It's that simple, and it's that hard. So, mulling these around in my head for a few days I think I've come up with a plan that will take me where I want to go. Over the last couple of months I've gotten into the habit of training and eating right , so I think I'm ready to take it to the next level.

Weight Loss:

I know how to do this. I know what to eat, when to eat, and how much to eat. For the past few weeks I've been losing at WW, slowly but losing none the less.

I eat mostly whole foods, you would be impressed if you saw my daily foods. I've moved into the thinking where I try to eat a food in as close to it's natural state as possible. That means lots of fruits and veggies, meat, whole grains. I try to avoid processed foods in any way shape or form. I do allow myself 1/4 cup ice cream at night (not every night). I go out to eat at least once a week and order well. And of course there is the occasional beer :)

Now it's time to tweak the diet. I want to lose this last 25 lbs. so it's a matter of making a good diet better. I read somewhere that diet is 95% of weight loss and it makes perfect sense to me.

It's also time to get real serious about weight training. I've been doing it sporadically for the past couple of months. Time to kick it up a notch and really make it work for me.

Racing:

I have learned a lot over the past few years about training. While I am in no way an expert, I think I can develop a program that will work for me.

My tri is in 12 days. After that I'm totally revamping my training. I will begin with building aerobic capacity for 12 weeks. During this period I will do a lot of slow, extended training. This will serve a twofold purpose. I will build aerobic capacity and it will help me burn fat.

Then I will have periods of building distances and speed. I'll have to work out the details later.

I'm building, ultimately, for Honu 70.3 in June 2007 - that will be my A race next year. If I could break 6 hours I could conceivably qualify for Kona, wouldn't that be a hoot!!!!! Anyway, that's where I'm aiming.

I will be doing some sprint tris the rest of this year and probably early on next year just for the experience, not to really race.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be working on things; my sweat rate, max HR, baseline fitness, things like that. I have to have something concrete to measure and compare to see how I'm improving.

My tri is on 7/23. I will take the week after that as a recovery week and I will begin my new program on 7/31. I will perfect my program between now and then.

Okay, I'm really looking forward to this new part of my journey but now I have to work :(