New house.
New journal.
New haircut.
New rower.

I've been a very busy boy in the past year, and have let the fitness side of things go almost completely. My weight has remained roughly the same, but my fitness levels have dropped away.
I've come to the conclusion that I don't really have the time to devote to a gym, so have taken the first steps to implementing the home-gym thing.

I have a new toy in the house, still in it's box, waiting till I have time to unwrap and assemble it.
It's a Concept 2, model D rowing machine, the one you'll have seen in the gym, and I'm dying to set it up and get started.

I've a personal best of 6' 52.8 for the standard 2000m, which is actualy pretty reasonable for anyone. My goal is sub 6 mins 30, a long way away fitness wise.

I'll hopefully do better with this journal than the last one, which lasted all of the inital post!

Andrew.

At last, online at home again.
We moved house 2 weeks ago, and it's taken till now to get broadband sorted, set-up and installed. Able to browse where and when we want, without the NSFW police breathing down your neck.

The house

http://www.propertynews.com/search/index.cfm?Fuseaction=propertydetails&PropertyID=182051&showMortgageCalculator=True&CFID=6414866&CFTOKEN=72720537&ImageNo=1


My study is twice the size of our old one, and there are no eaves to annoy me, so that the effective floor space is probably tripled.

I'll be assembling the erg later tonight, and intend to be a fitter, healthier specimen in the near future.

Work is going fantastically well. I spent 6 months (Aug to Feb) working for an absolute cock, and have moved to a different boss (usually we train with everyone in the specialty over the 6 years of the programme) since then. What a change. I almost failed my last assessment, but that has since been discredited (ie the other bosses know that my previous boss is a cock) and I've gone from strength to strength. In the past 2 weeks at work I've done 3 complete cases (all coronary bypass surgery) and that's more than the whole of the prior 6 months combined. I've not improved that much, but it's great to be working with humans again.

However, I'm a heart surgeon proper now. I can do the thing.
Still sweat a river though!

Andrew.

Well, I did 2000m, and I'm buggered. It took me 7:48.9, and that's abysmal compared to my previous. At least it can only get better..

Andrew.

Good job with rowing. I have the Waterrower as opposed to the Concept 2. BigDog has the C2. Rowing helped me a good deal with the cardio, and as soon as I've sorted out my current squat goal, I'm going to go hard after some rowing.

You can check some rowing in my journal. BigDog has a journal too.

Well, it's not just going to be an expensive ornament in the corner.

5000m on the erg tonight. Took me 20:46.7.

Nowhere near my previous, but I haven't been on a C2 for at least 6 months. Thanks for the comment Zen, I had a wee peruse through your journal, and the variety in your workouts is splendid. All functional stuff too. You're the guy to lift the car off someone in an emergency then...
Thanks for the lead to BigDog, another journal I had a wee look through. I've quite some time to go before I can crank out an 'easy pace 10k' in 38 minutes, however.
.
Andrew.

Welcome back Doc!

I've quite some time to go before I can crank out an 'easy pace 10k' in 38 minutes, however.

I can relate. Remember, BigDog is, um, "big". Rowing is a tall man's game.

My best 10k is 37:58. And it did not fall in the "easy" category.... More like "within an inch of puking up blood".

But we don't do it because it's easy, right?

I'm considerably bigger than BigDog (123.7kg as of this morning) at 195cm (6'5"), so I've a long way to go to get to my potential.
Ta very much Badgolfer.

Andrew.

5000m took me 19:47.7.

A minute better than last night, but I'm not relatively soon after food. Last night was accompanied by considerable discomfort, but as I've vowed to get my money's worth out of the expensive thing (always a good motivator!), the piece had to be done.
Tomorrow's a quieter day in work, so I hope to get home at a more sensible hour (I'm currently on call, and might have to go back in, and it's 11:40pm), and do a bit of interval work, perhaps a 10k, or a series of 2ks.

Andrew.

10k tonight, took 41:22.7.

Not too bad. I took it steadily to ensure I didn't fall apart towards the end, and therefore managed a negative split. I probably could have managed a slightly quicker time, but long runs the fox, so to speak. I'll be faster soon.

I didn't manage anything last night, as work got in the way. I didn't get home till 11pm on Monday night from work, and was on-call. Got to bed at about 1ish; then was phoned at 2, 4, and when phoned again at 4:30, had to go into work for an emergency. I use my mobile phone as my alarm clock, and there's nothing more depressing than being in the middle of an operation and having your morning alarm go off. I ended up getting home for a few hours sleep during the afternoon, but had to go back in to see my patients for today's procedures. I came back home and went straight to bed.

Today was much more sensible.
On a lighter note, my boy has gone from 3 to 5 teeth in the past 2 days. He's just over 1 now, and will be a big chap like his da.

Andrew.

I'm considerably bigger than BigDog (123.7kg as of this morning) at 195cm (6'5"), so I've a long way to go to get to my potential.


But when you get there it will be pretty serious for rowing.

Just got my first row in for a long time, and it was my best 2K so far. Just goes to show that the weights and running help the rowing.

That's the way I see it too ZP. Cool new avatar by the way.
I have a time in mind for my 2k that I think would be attainable for someone of my proportions who's fit and a rower. In the meantime, I think that a 6:30 is within my grasp. To do that, I've to shave 22.8 seconds from my best (5.7 from my 500m split). In my favour, I have never been in anything other than bad or average fitness since I started erging more regularly. I intend to be averaging over 1,000,000 meters per year on the erg, and hopefully over 2M (that's only just over 5k per day actually).

Over the next wee while, I will post my times/distances for the 'standard' pieces (max pull, 100m, 500m, 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, 30mins, 1h, half marathon, marathon), the marathon I think I'll leave for the longest however!

I've been on-call over the weekend, and it's been busy. I got very little sleep on Friday night, and a patient died on us last night, so I can't wait to go home to bed this afternoon. Jack and Rowan are at her dad's for his easter dinner, so the house is mine! Peace and quiet, and perhaps a DVD I want to watch.

I'll probably do a few intervals on the erg later, as I have been doing mostly longer pieces to get me back into rowing. It's odd to think that to increase your 2k pace you have to be doing lots of longer distances, but, think a wee bit more, and it's obvious. To get a better 2k time, you have to be working above your anaerobic threshold. So there are 2 ways to get that time down:-
1 Have a better tolerance of lactic buildup
2 Increase your aerobic capacity.

The first is harder, and gives less of an advantage, so you have to get the lungs working.
I see my weight as an advantage at the minute. I'm heavy, and have about 20kg of fat to lose (at least). Without even building any muscle, I'll be considerably better with that weight off. Having to move that weight around will be promoting the big muscles too (legs, low back, lats, hip flexors and abs).

Anyway, enough talk.
Homeward......

Andrew.

That's the way I see it too ZP. Cool new avatar by the way.
I have a time in mind for my 2k that I think would be attainable for someone of my proportions who's fit and a rower. In the meantime, I think that a 6:30 is within my grasp.

Heh. I have been thinking about my time. I think I can do 6:40 for sure, and 6:30 is what I'm toying with. The way I felt after a 6:51.6 from a cold start without having rowed for weeks makes it seem doable. I rowed the 6:51.6 really badly - I went out way too fast, having completely forgotten that I was trying to get under 7 minutes as opposed to under 6 minutes (which is what I'm trying to do with my running mile). Duh? So I was limping through the last four minutes but still got in faster than ever. I figure if I paced myself sensibly I'd surely get under 6:40.

The thing about times is that it's only a yardstick, and an incentive to row. The real value is what the effort does for our fitness.

I've been on-call over the weekend, and it's been busy. I got very little sleep on Friday night, and a patient died on us last night, so I can't wait to go home to bed this afternoon.

I'll probably do a few intervals on the erg later, as I have been doing mostly longer pieces to get me back into rowing. It's odd to think that to increase your 2k pace you have to be doing lots of longer distances, but, think a wee bit more, and it's obvious. To get a better 2k time, you have to be working above your anaerobic threshold. So there are 2 ways to get that time down:-
1 Have a better tolerance of lactic buildup
2 Increase your aerobic capacity.

The first is harder, and gives less of an advantage, so you have to get the lungs working.

So you are a physician? That could give you an inside track on exercise physiology.

As to your approach: I agree completely, but I think over the long term, training should address both points, because the lactate processing limits how long you can go at the higher aerobic rate. As far as I know, hard interval training increases both as long as you vary the interval lengths.

So you are a physician? Yep, I'm a cardiothoracic surgery registrar (senior resident in the US), so I'm pretty happy with my understanding of cardiovascular training/fitness, but probably have less of a clue about the whole sports medicine thingy than you'd expect. It's a depth versus breadth thing.

6:51.6 from a cold start Excellent time, impressive given your height and age.


The real value is what the effort does for our fitness.
True, but I'm a person who likes targets. My frequent missing of those targets is another thing. I'll be happy to see the weight drop off, but watching the times inch down, shaving seconds or tenths off will give me a great kick.

Tonight was pretty good.
5mins to warm up. 1100m rowed.
x6 intervals 1:40 on, 20s rest. 2653m rowed.
15mins warmdown (ended up with a negative split, oops!). 3676m rowed.

Total 7429m rowed, and peak HR was 182.

Tonight's my last call night for nearly 2 weeks, and tomorrow's a public holiday (Easter), so it's one of those lovely times where I can go to bed without setting an alarm. I'll be up at 6:30 with Rowan, but the fact that I don't have to rise for work is fantastic.
I'm off to try our ensuite shower for the first time now. We didn't like the tiles, so the retiling got finished yesterday, and the silicone sealant is nicely dry. Can't wait.

Andrew.

Pretty good day all told.
I had 2 cases today, and thought that I'd get to do bits of each. I ended up doing my first valve replacement!!
Better still, the patient was woken up 4 hours following his procedure (usually it takes till the next morning, about 18 hours), and is doing very well. I'm really really chuffed. I expected to reach this stage in about 2-4 months time, so reaching this step today is a feather in the cap. I can't wait till my next assessment. I'll have my say this time, and have a point to prove.

Some rowing tonight.
5mins warm up. 1185m rowed.
2k in 7:20.4 . A considerable improvement.
5k warmdown in 20:15.0.
8185m rowed in total. Peak HR was 185 a the end of the 2k, and I didn't feel well at all.

Meal, shower, bed.

Andrew.

On erg tonight.
5000m took me 19:29.4
10mins cool down (ended up a bit faster than that). 2462m rowed.

Total 7462m rowed, with peak HR 184.
Times will continue to improve as I get fitter, and my technique comes on. Roll on 18min 5k, 37min 10k, and a 6:30 2k.

Glad it's the weekend. A few beers, and a lie in perhaps.....

Andrew.

On erg tonight.

5000m in 19:15.1, peak HR 185.

Just this tonight, as I had intended to beat my last time. Since I made it by nearly 15 seconds, I decided to call it a day, and go shower. I'm on call over the weekend, and volunteered to do Monday also (it's a public holiday, and I'll get a day off in lieu) as a favour for a colleague. His elderly parents are visiting from India (their first trip across the border), and he intends to take them away to Donegal for the weekend. It means that I'm on duty for 105 hours straight, but it shouldn't be too bad. I'm due a quiet weekend. In case it isn't, a few minutes sleep could come in handy.

My next target is 19 minutes, probably at least 2 attempts away.

Andrew.

On erg tonight, a little consistency...

10000m in 39:46.7, peak HR 184.
Again a faster time than the last 10k, hopefully I'll get below 39:30 next time.

My first night of call has begun well. We have to do an evening ward-round in intensive care, and nearly all the time, I haven't got home for dinner, instead am still neck-deep in things to do till 9pm. Pleasingly, I'm sitting here at home at 8:50pm, just off my erg following a bracing workout, about to have a lovely home cooked meal, then pop in for a quick spot of work. Home just in time for a lovely early night. Excellent. And I got to help bath the wee man.
Top weekend so far.

Andrew.

On erg tonight, a little consistency...

10000m in 39:46.7, peak HR 184.

Top weekend so far.

Nice row. Are you in for the new waterrower group challenge? (see Fitness challenges).

250k in a month will probably be beyond me, but I'll give it a whirl.

I've been looking through my old rowing times and have figured out that I'm pretty far behind where I'd been just a year ago.

My personal bests..
2k . . . . 6:52.8
5k . . . . 18:34.5
10k . . . . 39:46.7 (I only started doing 10k recently)

Comparing these first 2 with my recent bests (2k 7:20.4, 5k 19:15.1) shows that there's considerable improvement to come. My stated interim goals are 6:30, 18 and 37 respectively.
Since I'm going to try for the challenge, then I'll be doing long, steady pieces for the next while. It'll be interesting to see the effect that distance training has upon my ability at the shorter pieces.
As today is the last day of April, I'll hopefully do some of the shorter distances to get a few benchmarks (low pull, 100m, 500m, 1k), then cap it off with 5k. The hopefully comes from the fact that I have a load of work to do in the garden, moving a very large mound of stones up onto a different level of the garden (6-8 ft higher). A leg, back and shoulder workout, with built in cardio ++. Tomorrow will hurt.

I'm also going to put a list of my bests up in the study beside my C2 to give me a bit of motivation. Like I've said before, I'm target driven to some extent, and chipping away will boost the confidence.

Andrew.

250k in a month will probably be beyond me, but I'll give it a whirl.

I've been looking through my old rowing times and have figured out that I'm pretty far behind where I'd been just a year ago.

My personal bests..
2k . . . . 6:52.8
5k . . . . 18:34.5
10k . . . . 39:46.7 (I only started doing 10k recently)

Since I'm going to try for the challenge, then I'll be doing long, steady pieces for the next while. It'll be interesting to see the effect that distance training has upon my ability at the shorter pieces.

Those are pretty good bests. If you go for the challenge it will probably help your shorter times too. (There is a saying "mileage makes champions" which is true up to a point.)

Well, it started raining, so we couldn't complete the garden yesterday. Now, I'm not afraid I'll melt or die from a bit of water, but the job needs 2 people, which means supervising a 13 month old at the same time. Can't really let him crawl about in the rain, so I get to tackle it again when I go home from work later.
Today's a public holiday, but I'm still on-call. Into the 90s now, but, truth be told, I'm having a reasonably quite time so far (jinxed now of course). I can't wait till the next holiday weekend (the end of the month actually, there are 2 in May), as we are going to have our housewarming party. Our last housewarming was combined with a New Year's Eve party, as I moved in in late December. It was a formal party, with the ladies in slinky dresses, and the chaps in tuxes. Brilliant fun.

Andrew.

I felt like I'd been beaten all down my back yesterday with all the lifting and carrying of stones, so didn't erg last night.

On erg tonight

60 minutes, 14474m covered, peak HR 182 (in last 500m, I had a bit in reserve).

I'm really pleased with the distance, as I had planned a 2:05 split, and slipped under that. Added to that, I had to field a phonecall from work for 5 minutes (rowing 1 handed to keep the PM3 ticking over), and subsequently had to play catchup for 15 minutes. Next time I'll aim for a 2:04 split.

Work was a bollix today. I had planned an early exit today, around 4-4:30ish. At 3:45, I get a few things to do, and then it snowballed. I was walking out the door at 7:45. I didn't get the wee fella down to sleep till about 9, and that's not really fair on him.

Andrew.

great journal so far :tu:

I have just started rowing more regularily due to running knee impact injury so it is good to have some similar folk I can aim to match !

current best 5k is 19:16 on my gym's c2's

I have yet to really clock my 2k and 10k times but usually at the 40 minute mark for the 10k.

hope the waterrowers challenge goes well ! :)

Ta Fraser, good to see another soul interested in erging. Your gym will probably have model D C2s, so if you use the same one every time, you should be able to re-row your previous pieces, and race yourself. Saves the bother of trying to work out what your split times are too.

On erg tonight

48 minutes, 11120m covered. Peak HR 159.

Was motoring along fine, till I got a call from work (I'm on-call tonight, hence a slightly shorter piece tonight), and had to trundle along for 5 minutes. I had been keeping to 2:04.5 splits, and it wasn't too big an effort. I'm actually a bit surprised I could keep to that split, without my heart rate being faster. Fair enough, my overall split was about 2:09.5 due to the enforced wee rest, but I pushed a bit to get my average split back down.

Work was a bit frustrating today. I was operating all day, then we had to reopen a patient in ICU for bleeding. I didn't get home till about 10pm, it's 12:30am now, and I'll have to ring in in about half an hour to check up on a few things. Thankfully tomorrow is quieter, although that has gone horribly wrong before more than once.

I'll have to get a tyre repaired tomorrow too. I noticed yesterday evening leaving work that my left rear was a bit down, checking the pressures at a garage on the way home revealed it was down to 18 psi (from 32). A quick scan of the tyre, and there the culprit is, a screw embedded in it. Since the tyre lasted at least 12 hours (the time it sat in the carpark yesterday, I decided to risk it today. Leavng work tonight, it's still fine. I'll check it in the morning, as I have a portable compressor (runs off the cigarette lighter), and it'll be enough to limp me to a tyre place. Apart from oil and petrol, this'll be the first thing the car will have needed in 10 months. Not too bad.

Andrew.

I find I mind interruptions to rowing more than any other interruptions - I think it's because it's the only exercise I do for time that lasts more than about 15 minutes.

On erg tonight

5m warm up. 1176m rowed.
5000m in 19:05.7, peak HR 182.

I pushed on, aiming to beat my last, and shaved nearly 10 seconds off. Pretty pleased with that, but have further to go.

Andrew.

On erg tonight.

6000m in 23:08.9.
10m cool down, 2469m rowed.

Total 8269m rowed, peak HR 182.
Pretty pleased. That's my first 6k, and I'm only one second behind my best 5k pace.

I'm off out tonight. A friend had a baby son a few weeks ago, and we're off to wet it's head. Possibly messy...

Andrew.

I've been in work for 14 hours now, and there's no end in sight....
My big plans for having an hour on the erg before bedtime are shot out of the water a bit. Even if I get home soon, I'll have multiple phonecalls tonight, I'm sure. Sometimes that's just the way it turns out.

My weight hasn't really changed much over the past 3 weeks since I started erging, but I've been asked a few times if I'm losing weight. Most people I know know me as a bit of a yo-yoer weight wise. With a bit of luck, this'll be the last time they see me change.

Andrew.

On erg tonight

90 minutes, 21478m covered. Peak HR 175 (right at the end).

I'd decided to do a long slow row tonight, so knew that I'd do 60 mins or more when I strapped my feet in. I was a bit surprised to see myself type in 90 minutes, however. I made a conscious decision to decrease the drag factor prior to my row, and dropped it to 120 from 140 for my previous pieces. I did notice a fair difference in my heart rate. Far slower to rise, and I was able to keep to a 2:05.7 split overall. At least a second if not 3 faster that I think I'd have been able to do at 140. I'm now anticipating a crack at my other times/distances to see if I can knock a chunk off each.

As a side point, I covered just over half-marathon distance (21098m). Doing the sums, that gives me a time of 1:28:24.5 for that distance. I'm going to take that as a PB, since I'll be doing such long pieces pretty infrequently, and it's so very close anyway.

Hands are pretty sore, as I don't wear gloves, and there's a soggy puddle on the floor beneath the slide. Tasty.

Andrew.

Chafed armpits are quite unpleasant, I'll have you know...

Friday night's 21km was too much. I've been reluctant to go near the erg for the past two days. Anyway, got back on tonight.

5m warm up. 1241m rowed
2k in 7:07.8
15m cool down. 3687m rowed.

Overall 6928m rowed, with peak HR of 182 at the end of my 2k. I shot my bolt with the first 1000m. I went out too fast, with splits just below 1:45, and died on my arse over the last 600m. If I had paced myself properly, I'd probably have just shaved under 7:05, but as I had thought 7:00 was possible, I found out the hard way it wasn't.

I've a busy next 2 weeks. Two colleagues have their exit exams (final professional intercollegiate surgical exams) next week, so both will be off studying for virtually all of the next 2 weeks. Therefore the other 3 of us have to pick up the slack. Good for cutting opportunities, bad for getting home on time. We also have our house-warming party this Saturday, so Sunday is a complete write-off.

We have booked a holiday for the last week of June. My parents, Jack, Rowan and I are off to Menorca (Spanish island in the Med) for a week, basking, relaxing and recharging the batteries. Therefore need to be on the bloody erg most days so that i don't get attacked by errant Norwegian whalers.

Andrew.

Friday night's 21km was too much.

Probably not too much, just took you a few days to get back up to it.

When I do big workouts, I tend to eat up some carbohydrates a bit in advance. Anything longer than an hour and I also tend to add some food in right before, during, or right after.

That, along with hydration, makes a huge difference for me.

Now I'm not saying you should expect to pop 21km every day, but once you get the hang of what eating you need, and you are in good shape, you can do those a few days in a row.

It's probably your work schedule more than anything that keeps you from getting the kind of workout schedule that you like. Once you start taking big blocks of time for rowing, and then you need them to interact with rest and eating, it gets complicated. At least that's one of my big problems.

Work and life have been getting in the way a bit, so I've not been on the erg till tonight.

5m warm up. 1282m rowed
5k in 18:53.0.
5m cool down. 1221m rowed.

Total 7503m rowed, pear HR 193 at the end of the 5k. That's a recent PB, chipping 12.7 seconds off my last time, and getting me to within 18.5 seconds of my all-time 5k best. It was hard work though, as the HR attests to.
I'm on call this weekend, so have very little planned except taking it easy when work allows. A nap here and there, on the erg at least twice (hopefully) for steady pieces, as I'd hate to be the person getting operated upon if I had to come in following a heavy training session, busted from my efforts. It's mostly concentration and decision making as a surgeon, far less dexterity and deftness than you'd expect (though they do help).

Andrew.

Quiet day so far in work, so I got the car washed, and got on the erg.

30 minutes, 7599m covered. Peak HR 174. Enjoyable, steady pace, and a pleasingly speedy recovery afterwards.

My car's 2 years old soon, and so is due it's yearly service. I noticed a few spots of corrosion on 5 of the added accessories (strakes both sides, and crest), and all 4 alloys are showing signs of bubbling. I'd expected these problems, as there are frequent reports on the owners club website. In a way, I don't really mind, as the accessories will be replaced under warranty, and I should get 4 new alloys. That's especially good, as I have kerbed the front offside one (showing off, as usual).

Andrew.

The weekend on call was one of the quieter ones, thankfully, and since today was a bank holiday, I got to have a lovely day out. We went to a local forest park, and had a picnic and a long walk with the boy. Lovely.

On the erg tonight.

5k in 19:21.8
5k in 19:46.2

Steady pieces, so peak HR only 175 during the first, and I tried to stay below 170 for the second, peaking at 171.

Back to the grind tomorrow, to shower, then bed I think.

Andrew.

A quiet weekend thankfully, but I've been crap at going to bed, so I'm a bit tired.

On the erg tonight.

5m warm up. 1310m rowed.
5k in 19:13.5.
10m cool down. 2554m rowed.

Total 8864m rowed, with peak HR 182 at the end of the 10m cool down, because I was pushing a bit to keep my splits below 2:00, even though I was a bit tired, and the effort required was getting steeper and steeper. Peak HR in the 5k was 180, and that wasn't a big effort 5k. My fitness is coming on a bit.

Sadly I have to still go into work later, so shower, then out the door.

Andrew.

My fitness is coming on a bit.

Isn't that part great? I know as a cardiologist, you know all about how this works, but the feeling is still the feeling.

but the feeling is still the feeling.
That's so true.

One of the strange parts of my job is the way that the occasional death is positive. With confidentiality etc. I can't give too much detail, but there were 2 patients stuck in ICU for ages (one just over, one just under a month), one of which was from my firm. Both sadly died over the weekend, and in many ways, that's the best thing that could have happened to them. The one I was involved with looking after had sustained a severe brain injury, and it looked likely that he would never regain much meaningful cognitive function. He suddenly died, and whilst it's shitty for his family, I think that it wasn't a bad way to go. The other chap had terrible lungs, and he slipped away over the course of the weekend, despite maximum vent. support. Again, probably better than lingering for months here, then dying. Certainly less tough on the family.

The other positive thing is that there is now a bit of slack in ICU, so we can do more work (ICU staffed beds are always the bottleneck), and provide a better service for the community. I work in the only cardiac surgery unit in N. Ireland, so what we do is the total for the country, and there are always more needing operations than actually receive operations.

I'm on call tonight, and hope to get out of work in a few minutes. A junior is currently doing a number of procedures, and I'm providing remote (but not too far) support. Once they're done, I get to fly the coop, and get home for dinner and erging, probably in reverse order.

It's in that respect that I'm quite jealous of the IT(etc.) crowd that are on the site. Today, I was scrubbed from 9am to 1:30PM, then 2pm to 6:45pm. Between cases, I had to do about 6 things, and all I had time to eat was a drink of fizzy (diet!) orange. As expected, I'm not hungry now when I have the opportunity to eat. The whole six small meals thing is alien to me, simply because my working life can't accommodate it. I'd probably not do it anyway, for myriad reasons, but not having the option is galling.

Last week's average weight was it's lowest for 2006, a full 1.5kg down on the week prior, and I intend to keep the trend going. I still weigh myself daily, but trends are the important thing.

It'll be a fairly low intensity piece tonight, as I don't want to bust myself should I need to rush into work. Probably 30 mins slowly.

It's 18 days till we go off on holidays!! To one of the Costas (don't know which, my wife and mum did the booking) with family and my parents. It'll be the first holiday with my parents for about 12 years, and therefore a bit strange. I'm really looking forward to it though. A proper restful trip, unlike my usual, where you need a week to recover from the excesses.

Andrew.

Didn't get to erg last night. Got out of work at about 10:35pm in the end, and as I was pulling into my driveway, at 10:48, the phone rang, and so after a sandwich, I drove right back in again. To add insult to injury, I didn't really need to go in, except to calm some flapping staff, the muppets.

When I got home, all hell was breaking loose. Our son is 14 months old, and got his first MMR vaccination last week, he's also cutting a couple of teeth and he's got a dose of the cold. He was inconsolable last night, poor wee thing. Didn't know what was wrong with him. Jack sent me to bed at 2 so that I'd get a bit of sleep should I be called out again, and her night was crap. That's in store for me tonight, as she'll be knackered, she has a 2-11pm shift today. I really hope she gets a snooze this morning.

Work will be fairly sensible today (hopefully). We have audit tomorrow, and I have cases to present, but only one of any significance, and I should have the slides done fairly quickly. The rest of the day is one of those paperwork days that you need every so often. Car tax, training issues, travel expenses, bank stuff, logbook to update; all that kind of dull stuff that you just have to knuckle down and do.

Fully intend to be on the erg tonight, as I plan to get my weekly average down again. It's been hovering around the same value for most of the year, give or take 3-4kg, so a drop is very very long overdue. I won't look good on the beach in 3 weeks, but still, I must look as good as time and circumstances permit. Long runs the fox.

Andrew.

It's been 11 weeks since my last update, I had to rescue this fron page 5, and things haven't been too good from a fitness perspective. My weight's been hovering around the 121-124kg mark, but I've done little or no exercise since mid June. There are a few positives. The garden's complete, except for planting a tree, my first section of my thesis has been submitted to my supervisors for their comments, and my experiments should be finished this week, and Jack's pregnant with our second! Splendid timing also, the expected delivery date is Rowan's birthday, exactly 2 years after the first one.

I'm going to take part in the September 100 challenge, as a rod for my own back, so to speak. I need some motivation, so having to update daily and keep to my own rules for the month will be good for me. For October's challenge, I'll be more exacting upon myself and have to adhere to a greater level of detail.

Something yesterday really brought home my slide. I was in work, and a nurse I haven't seen for a few years (truth be told, I have no memory of her whatsoever, but she remembers me) said, 'What happened, you used to be slim and handsome?' Now, I don't believe that she was being deliberately rude, just direct. She's one of the many working here that have been brought over from the Phillipines, and they have brought a fresh sense of honesty with them. A spade is a spade. Takes a bit of getting used to however. The time she last saw me was about 5 years ago, when I was about 28kg lighter, and was working out 4-5 times per week; had much less fat, and a good amount of extra muscle.

I think I've been drifting along with my head in the sand and fingers in my ears. If you can't see/hear it, it can't be true. I have the occasional glimpse of myself in shop windows etc., and have to double-take at the fat lad I sometimes see.

For once, I didn't do the whole, 'I'm starting tomorrow' and have a last blowout. I fixed my resolve in the car on the way home from work, and had started before I got home. Today is day 2, and I've got a very long way to go, but at least I've begun.

Andrew.

It's been a fairly ok weekend so-far. I'm on-call, but not too many troublesome patients, and not too many referrals to deal with.

Diet has been much more like it should be, and I've trimmed over a kilo off in the past week. It bodes well for the 100 challenge starting next Friday. I've done no exercise, and have simply cut out the rubbish in my diet. It's a testament to just how much a percentage of my daily intake that's poor quality.

Baby steps to begin with. If I can get into a good mindset and stick there for a wee while, then I know I an accomplish great things. I have such an amount on my plate over the next 6 months though.

Finish my experiments.
Write up my MD thesis. (For those of you that actually read this, this is such a big 'little' statement.)
Lose some weight/get fit.
Get a new car for Jack, as her's has blown a head gasket.
Finish decorating the house, including a new nursery!!
Finish the landscaping of the garden. However, it's such an amount better already.
Research schools for the kid(s).
Get back to running, it has always stripped weight fastest. I'm just not in good enough shape to be confident enough to go running.
Go visit my best mate in Wales, as he's always coming home and visiting us.
And all the other things that crop up along the way.

Andrew.

We've decided on a Ford Focus C-Max. Big enough for us, and can seat 5 and their stuff easily. Just have to get the finance sorted out, scavenging bastids.

Andrew.

The daily backups did for me!!

I had a long entry written, which got lost, and I couldn't be bothered to type it all again.

In short,
I'm in the September 100 challenge, and it's going well;
the house has been decorated (mostly) and looks far better now;
I've actually managed to drag myself to do some exercise (and it was bloody tough);
our new car arrives in 2-3 weeks, and is a FAR better deal than getting it from a dealer;
the garden is now looking fantastic, the grass, sown recently, has germinated well and evenly, and is almost ready for it's first cut;
my thesis looms large, and I've a number of deadlines coming up.

Andrew.

It's been 45(ish) days since I've updated this.
Terrible times have visited us, and we're only just getting over things. Jack miscarried at 13+5 weeks, and the spiral was tough. All our family and friends know, so the platitudes have stung for far too long.

I finally have a worthy goal.
It could have been my unhealthy self (poor health means poor swimmers) was the cause, so a fire has been lit under self.


I'll be posting infrequently. but will be posting good news only.


Andrew.

This has hit me harder than I had at first thought.

Jack and I had a short trip away to Westport (pokey wee town in the West of Ireland), had lots of time to talk and simply be with each other, without the usual rigors of family and friends, and the routine day to day stuff that gets in the way. Enabled us to see what we've been missing in one-another, and allowed me to assess myself more objectively.

Not happy what my newfound vision has to behold.
I've slipped a long way down the mountain, but the only way is up.


On erg, 8624m tonight, 19517m for the week so far.
Getting better, one piece at a time.

Andrew.

Busy few days.

7555m in 30 mins on Friday, within 50m of my half-hour best.
That said, I wasn't doing longer pieces when I was fitter, so I don't have a terribly high mark to better.

Saturday was a long one, I went to Wales to pick up our new car, and it involved a 4.45am start, flight, 1h drive, then a day watching sport in a bar catching up with 2 mates, dinner out, and a 2h video-game session (old time's sake). Sunday long too. 100 mile drive, 4h ferry, 230mile drive, bed. Today in work has been fairly light so far, but I'm flagging already.

Will be back on the erg tonight, 30+ minutes planned.
The 2 mates I spent the weekend with are old housemates from university, one of whom was my best man. Both were always fitter than me, but kept picking up injuries.
James (best man) really put paid to my ideas of my fitness with a throwaway comment on Saturday. He did a 5k piece recently (cross training, just to keep fit) and it took him 16:48!! Now, I think he's wrong with his time, as it puts his spilt faster than has 2k split of 6 months ago, but even if it is 17:48, that's much better than mine currently, and I used to spank him.
Dave used to be very cycling fit, doing 150+ miles a week at one time, but has multiple joint injuries now, so had trouble running for the train on Saturday! The poor bugger needs both hips replacing soon, and he's only 33.

The battle with food will be one day at a time I feel. I had real trouble not buying junk today (so far), and so each day will be its own battle.

Ah well, off to do a bit more work, sadly.

Andrew.

It's been 45(ish) days since I've updated this.
Terrible times have visited us, and we're only just getting over things. Jack miscarried at 13+5 weeks, and the spiral was tough. All our family and friends know, so the platitudes have stung for far too long.

I finally have a worthy goal.
It could have been my unhealthy self (poor health means poor swimmers) was the cause, so a fire has been lit under self.

I think you will eventually want a bigger picture to frame this. I have some experience of this sort of thing. And yeah, it might be your health. You can get your sperm tested though, and having been a bit through the mill on this one, I'd say sooner rather than later. If you have reason to be concerned about infertility, you really want to get going on that before anyone gets much older. Voice of experience here.

So yeah, row. Get working out. Not just for your sperm either. As humans, it's a hell of a lot better if dad sticks around, and is thriving, long after the live birth.

The 2 mates I spent the weekend with are old housemates from university, one of whom was my best man. Both were always fitter than me, but kept picking up injuries.
James (best man) really put paid to my ideas of my fitness with a throwaway comment on Saturday. He did a 5k piece recently (cross training, just to keep fit) and it took him 16:48!! Now, I think he's wrong with his time, as it puts his spilt faster than has 2k split of 6 months ago, but even if it is 17:48, that's much better than mine currently, and I used to spank him.
Dave used to be very cycling fit, doing 150+ miles a week at one time, but has multiple joint injuries now, so had trouble running for the train on Saturday! The poor bugger needs both hips replacing soon, and he's only 33.

As to James? That's fast. 16:48 is way fast. Fast like I don't think I will be doing that any time soon. Makes me want to try it though.

The joint injury deal is bad. Both hips needing replacement is horrible. By 33 sounds very rare. I assume there was an underlying disease process?

I think you will eventually want a bigger picture to frame this.

Exactly.
As to fertility, no probs there. We've an 18 month old who's the picture of health (and who will be at least 6'7" if he keeps going at his current rate), and took about 2 weeks trying total for Jack's 2 pregnancies.


it's a hell of a lot better if dad sticks around

I have a personal medium-term goal in life to be Calvin's dad (Calvin and Hobbs). My dad filled me full of fantasies, and I'm dying to do the same.


As to James? That's fast. 16:48 is way fast.

I texted him whilst typing the entry yesterday. He'd got it wrong, it was 18:48, which makes me far more comfortable, as my best is 18:34. Still fancy getting down to a 1:50 split for the 5k soon, that's 18:20. A 1:45 split makes it down to 17:30, and that seems like a good goal for starting 2007 at.



The joint injury deal is bad. Both hips needing replacement is horrible. By 33 sounds very rare. I assume there was an underlying disease process?

Dave's got an odd eczema-like skin problem, which needs almost constant creams, steroids, UV, etc, etc...
When he was a little fella, he spent long periods in hospital (3-6 months at a time), and they missed Perthe's disease. It's ischaemic necrosis of the femoral head, and was probably due to the steroids. As a result, 2 things.
1....He's a foot shorter than me, with about 8 inches of that being his femurs alone, and I'm normally proportioned.
2....His hip joints look like 'rusty bolts that have been hit with a hammer for a while'. His comments about his x-rays, and James, who has done some orthopaedics, agrees.

As an aside, my housemates in 3rd and 4th year university were a great bunch. Two medics, James and I, 2 rocket scientists, Dave and Bob (astrophysics PhDs), and Damien, doing his psychology PhD. Bob was as mad as a brush, and couldn't face the real world, so still works/researches for the university, after not being able to cope with a real job. Did his PhD in 2 years too, bastard. Damien dropped out eventually, and married his girlfriend, who's a pathologist (she actually told me once, when she was still a medical student, that she didn't like patients. Got her way) and now is a house husband, and loves it. Dave's PhD was mostly number-crunching vast quantities of star observation data, for which he had to write fancy programmes. He's been a hard-core programmer since then, going nowhere near his science. James has left the NHS, and works for a research pharmaceutical company, running phase one trials. I'm the only one who's doing what they set out to do. Life's funny that way sometimes.

I'm in the lab today, doing some calculations, it's a boring as anything I can imagine, hence the surfing..

Andrew.

I texted him whilst typing the entry yesterday. He'd got it wrong, it was 18:48, which makes me far more comfortable, as my best is 18:34.

Dave's got an odd eczema-like skin problem, which needs almost constant creams, steroids, UV, etc, etc...
When he was a little fella, he spent long periods in hospital (3-6 months at a time), and they missed Perthe's disease. It's ischaemic necrosis of the femoral head, and was probably due to the steroids.

Well the 18:48 is not so terrifying. I'm only 5'7" but I have rowed under 20:00. (I think about 19:30 but I'd have to look it up.)

When you mentioned the eczema-like skin deal and the hip problems, for some reason spondyloarthropathy came to mind. But I see it's not that.

The thing about ending up doing what you thought - I'm a mathematician, and I ended up having to leave academia to continue to do interesting mathematics. Because I'm in finance now, many mathematicians think I've left the field. In reality, I left the politics. So life is weird like that.

I was very tired last night for some reason, so ended up in bed early. Still as tired today, sadly.

Fairly simple plans today, I work till 9pm, but should get away earlier than that, so than home, eat, wait a bit, then on the erg.

Long and slow tonight I think. I've been pushing myself over either 5k or 30mins recently. I fancy a change of pace, so will simply get my HR up to 160ish, and do an hour piece.
Although this is a fairly high HR for an hour long workout, I'm usually very comfy at that rate. I typically get to over 180 at the end of a 'race' against my previous times. Into bed early after that, as I want to be in work early tomorrow. I've been a few minutes late both yesterday and today due to roadworks, and don't want that to continue.

Andrew.

I didn't get away from work till 9 last night, so curtailed my workout a bit.

10740m in 45 mins.

I deliberately kept my HR to around 160 (I backed off when my HR went over 160, so my actual max was 164), and was pleased to see my total distance was only about 500m less than my best over 45 mins. That time, my HR peaked at 184, so I see it as some evidence of improvement.
Same again tonight, or maybe 60 minutes.
My best monthly total is somewhere around 91000m (I'm in work, and don't quite remember), so that's my minimum target for this month. I'd love to hit a million meters in a year, but am quite a distance behind where I'd need to be to achieve that for the anniversary of unboxing the erg. More effort required (as always).

I have nothing specific planned for tonight and the weekend, but have a pile of work to get done on my thesis, so head down for a few hours each day.

Andrew.

Very pleased about tonights piece.

11190m in 45mins.

Decided to push on a bit tonight, and try for a PB, and I did it with a comfy margin. Previous 45mins distance was 10893, so I beat it by 297m. I was spurred on by last nights piece, and the ease with which I recovered after the 45 minute effort. 11111 seemed like a nice round number to aim at, so I did it.

My peak HR was up at 186, and that's the closest I've come to being sick following a workout for years. I've got a sense of satisfaction that I haven't felt for a while however. It's been a while since I've broken a PB at anything.

I've also dropped 2.3kg (just a smidge over 5lbs) in the week.
Onwards and upwards...

Andrew.

A lovely day off to do what I want with.
I was giving Jack a lie in today, and Rowan was a wee star. He woke at about 7:30, but was happy playing in his cot till 8:30, so a reasonably long lie for me too.

On the erg this morning.

7505m in 30mins, peak HR 185.

I had intended to take it easy this morning, as last nights piece was after midnight and aim for 2:04(ish) pace, but was listening to 'The Prodigy' very loud (Rowan was out of the house). Track 3, 'Diesel Power', bloody BRILLIANT!

It's perfect for a 27 spm rate, and it just made me want to pull the handle off. I had been bimbling along at about a 2:04 split, and I just closed my eyes and went for it. I was sitting at about a 1:51 split when I finally looked. I then ended up pushing on over the last 4 minutes to get my overall split below 2:00. I'm busted now!

We had a bit of odd news last night. We had put a bid in on a house last year, and it had been accepted, but the survey showed that we would need to spend a fortune on it (100k sterling) to get it right. It was a stone farmhouse built in 1806, and it would have been perfect after the rebuilding. We made the reasoned decision to walk away, as we have a young'n, and didn't want to take on a major project without doing something a bit less daunting before for experience. A friend of a friend knows the people who have just bought it, and they have big Grand Designs ideas about the place. I'm a wee bit jealous, but overall, happy thet the house will get the attention that it truly deserves. Jack's devastated. She loved the house.

Can't win them all.

Andrew.

It's been a busy month since my last entry. I've had my head in the books, and have 2 of my 4 sections of my thesis handed in for appraisal by my supervisors. There'll be work to do on each of the sections still, but it's a marker down.

Fitness has had to take a back seat. I had a full week of 7am to 2-3am days, full time hours, then eat then sit either in the lab typing, or on my study computer typing. I handed my last section in on a Tuesday, and had 3x12 hour sleeps, almost unheard of for me.

I'm having to get caught up on all the other things in life now, and trying to get a better balance for a wee while. There will be more frantic times ahead if I want to graduate for the summer (I will hopefully graduate at the same ceremony as my sister, so we will sit next to one another, and receive our degrees one after the other), so an even keel for a while is nice.

Anyway, must go, there are letters to be opened, bills to be paid, and letters to write.

Andrew.

On the erg tonight, 5k in 19:43.2. Took alot out of me, so many more pieces to be done.
As an aside, I passed 300km last week, I'll have the 1M soon.

It's been a trying time over the past 2 months in our family.

Jack lost the baby.
Her nanny (mum's mum 91) as going senile, and went into a home last week.
Her granny (dad's mum 97) broke her femur on Sunday, and is still in hospital.
My granny (mum's mum 91) has stage 4 ovarian carcinoma, and so has only a short time left.
My mum fell yesterday and broke her left arm.
With that broken arm, bang goes our babysitter, and also our week off on holidays together.
I'm always working on my thesis, so have little time with our son.
Jack's sister is off to Brisbane for a year soon.
Jack's pregnant again (which is just fantastic), but fraught with worry.

I can't wait till Christmas is over so hopefully have a few of these issues sorted.

Andrew.

On-call again this weekend, so will be trying to get a nap in if possible. The morning's work was ok, I'm just waiting for the x-rays, so should then be out of here.

Back onto the erg tonight, not sure what I fancy. Probably a long slow piece.

I had a great piece of news from one of my old bosses. We had put alot of work into a study about 4 years ago, and then he was trying to get it published. I had heard nothing for a while until a letter arrived in my cubby last week. It's being published this month in a decent journal! Some return on the effort. It's so frustrating to get knock-backs on manuscripts you have poured your heart and soul into. And I'm a reviewer for a good journal, I reject about 80% of the manuscripts I see.

Andrew.

This last week or so, I seem to have acquired some willpower from somewhere. Long may it continue.

On the erg tonight

6000m in 23:40.0
5000m in 21:11.1

Totally busted afterwards, but feel much better for it now. I've a quiet few weeks coming up, as my boss is away for holidays, so hope to get loads of work done, and get some blubber off.

Andrew.

A couple more days and it's the Holiday Challenge. I'll be rowing that - first big rowing I've done since July or so.

I've got a new happy lactate threshold and I want to see what it can do for me on the erg.

I've got a new happy lactate threshold

I've been wondering about your calorie comments in your journal, EPOC etc. How do you come up with the details? A particular HR monitor I assume? A few sketch comments would be nice if you have the time.
Also, this holiday challenge sounds like a plan.......

Andrew.

Rescued from page 4 again...

Been quite intermittent over the past weeks. Thesis is beginning to bite, and there's lots of stuff happening. We buried my uncle last week, my granny is dying, Jack's 2 grannies are unwell (the 97 year old just had her hip replaced!!), and we've just (today) had a big scare over Jack's pregnancy. With her last being a miscarriage, we're really worried.

I'm going to be going back to a gym. A friend has moved house, and now lives a short distance away, so we're getting back into it.

Andrew.

This will be my last post in this journal.

I've got 1 month to have my thesis completed, and won't be doing anything remotely like fitness until at least then.

Unfortuntely, like always, when I'm stressed/under pressure, I eat, and my weight is terrible.

When I start Andrew M4 on the 1st of May, I fully expect to be an awful mess, so am actually looking forward to the hard (physical) work to come. I'll be grauating in early July, so that only gives me about 10 weeks to affect significant change. And yes, I know that I should have more control right now.

Should be an interesting time.

Andrew.