Monday Fat Stats

I kinda forgot (conveniently some might say), that Monday is of course fatness (as opposed to fitness) stats day.

So, here they are - with a quick comparison to last week's:

Weight: 11 stone 10 pounds (down 1 pound)
Body Fat Percentage: 20.4% (up 0.6%)
Visceral Fat Rating: 7 (same)
Basal Metabolic Rate: 7189kJ/1718 kcal (down a bit)
Muscle Mass: 8 stone 11 pounds 6 oz (down about 3 pounds - eh?!)
Body Water Percentage: 55% (down 0.5%)

Well, let's start with the positives. I've lost a pound, which doesn't seem like a lot, but is actually exactly the amount that my training bible suggests you aim at. I guess I'm aiming at being 11 stone or maybe a tiny bit less by the time of the Etape, and so I'm still on schedule for that.

Body fat percentage up a bit, but not a significant amount. Basal metabolic rate and muscle mass are a bit disappointing really. They should both be up after a good week of training, but I guess these are the ones that are probably most susceptible to measurement error, because the Tanita body compostion monitor I'm using is having to make a number of assupmptions to work these out. I almost believed that myself when I wrote it....hopefully it sounded convincing.

The Honeymoon's Over

There's been a small hiatus, in both blog and training terms, because my sister got married last weekend. Despite my best efforts, I didn't get a chance to throw in any gym sessions, because there was lots going on, but lots of fun things happened anyway.

First and foremost, my new bike (Felt F55 2008) arrived last week. I had an inkling that it was going to be good when I helped the delivery driver take it round to the back of the house, because even in the box it was much lighter than I expected it to be.

When I finally got it open, I was even more thrilled. She (for she's definitely a 'she') looks absolutely beautiful and is stunningly light. You really can lift her up with one finger, and every extra bit of weight I can trim will make a massive difference over the distance of the etape.

I also took delivery of a new Garmin Edge 705 - the GPS/heart rate monitor that I mentioned in a previous post. The kind people at Garmin have let me have one for review purposes, and I intend to make full use of it to track my training in as much detail as possible.

Unfortunately, I haven't yet had a chance to take the bike out, because I've been so busy, and indeed will be for the rest of the week. I've got an assignment for the Creative Writing Course I'm doing at the moment, which has to be handed in on Friday, and I've not got very far with it yet. Hopefully, I'll finally get out on Sunday and have a decent ride.

I did go to my usual Wednesday morning Yoga class this morning, and after that I did a solid 30 minutes on one of the exercise bikes. I basically did 8 minutes at effort level 6, followed by a couple of minutes recovery at effort level and then repeated that.

From now on, I'm going to try and take as many positives out of my training as possible, and the nice thing was that my legs didn't really feel tired during any of this stint - I just got very sweaty - which made me feel uncomfortable, rather than particularly fatigued. I also got a second wind after about 15 minutes, and managed to put out more power, at a higher cadence, over the second half of the session. That's reasonably encouraging I think.

I popped into work this evening, to check if there were any more details from Sky about the Etape, and indeed there were. The most important thing was the first month of our training programme, which has been put together with some of the coaches from British Cycling.

The headlines are that in the next month, I should be aiming at 6 hours of bike work in week 1, 6 again in week 2, 8 in week 3 and then down to 4 in week 4.

The work is split up into three key areas - Conditioning, Strength and Technique - with the initial focus being on Conditioning. Within each area, there are a number of different exercises. It's all very clearly set out, and all seems to make sense. At the moment, I've been placed at the "beginner" level, which suits me just fine I think, although because I have a bit more time off than most people, I think I will aim to do a bit more time on the bike than is suggested.

It did remind me that I probably need to get hold of a turbo trainer so that I can do work at home without going to the trouble of going out, particularly when the weather's bad, and I can also measure my performance a bit more accurately. More gadgets...mmmm.

On the science front, I took delivery of a Science in Sport starter pack of energy bars/gels/electrolytes/recovery drinks etc. which I wanted to try out, in order to see which flavours I like. Will be interesting to see if I can feel the difference, particularly with the electrolytes and stuff that are for drinking when you're doing exercise. Anything to help with the endurance side of things will be very useful.

Last but not least, I managed to get "starting point" figures for my weight, water percentage, muscle mass etc. from my Tanita scales on Monday, under reasonably controlled conditions. I'll try and get those details every week so that we can hopefully track the improvements.

Here they are anyway:

Weight: 11 stone 10 pounds

Body Fat Percentage: 18.4%

Visceral Fat Rating: 6

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7380KJ/1764Kcal

Muscle Mass: 9 stone 1 pound

The Visceral Fat rating is basically that fat that is in the internal abdominal cavity, surrounding the vital organs. Men tend to "lay down" more fat in this area, particlarly as they get older, hence the "beer belly".

The Basal Metabolic Rate is the minimum level of energy your body needs when at rest, to function effectively. The higher the rate, the more calories you burn - so I think it's better to have a higher BMR, although I'm not sure as yet how much this can be altered by training. We'll see I guess.

Encouragingly, all those readings seem to be pretty much slap bang in the middle of the "healthy" ranges. The only one that's a little out of kilter is the body fat percentage, which is towards the top of "healthy", but there's plenty of time to work on that.

Shock and Thaw

After finishing my blog entry yesterday, I discovered that my new Tanita Innerscan Scales had arrived. I haven't really weighed myself for ages, because for a long time I managed to comfortably maintain a weight of ten and a half stone. I knew I'd acquired a little bit of excess baggage lately, but I wasn't really prepared for how much. It turns out I now tip the scales at 12 stone. It turns out that I will have to watch what I'm eating after all.

I'm comforting myself that all the other indicators - BMI, body fat etc., were in the "healthy" range, but it means I AM going to have to be careful about what I eat after all. I probably need to lose about a stone to get down to a good fighting weight.

I'll do all my weight measurements etc. properly and under "controlled" conditions when I get a bit more time. You're supposed to not do the measurements too soon after eating or exercise, but also not too soon after waking, so at the moment, I'm not sure when exactly is an appropriate time!

That was the "shock". The "thaw" was the marked improvement in the weather over the last couple of days, which meant my lungs and legs felt a lot looser on the commute to work today. I shouldn't be aiming at getting instant results I suppose, but I was glad that I was turning bigger gears and achieving faster speeds (17-18mph average) today. Hopefully that improvement will continue as I put more work in.

I actually woke up feeling very tired and headachey, and it would have been very simple just to take the easy option and jump in the car, but I toughed it out and got on my bike, and felt much better for it. I haven't really got the luxury of missing out on any possible training time over the next five months.

I was doing a bit more research on Heart Rate Monitors today. At first glance, the addition of a GPS to a heart rate/cadence monitor seemed a bit excessive, but the more I look at the Garmin Edge 705, the more I'm tempted. As well as helping me to plan routes to the Surrey Hills say, or out towards Windsor, which would be along unfamiliar roads - it would also help me accurately measure and track loads of useful training data. There are lots of glowing reviews about and I think it would really fit my needs. Definitely one for the possibles list that one.