Went on a bike ride today with a former bandmate from Sonic I hadn’t seen in years. We had a great time. Afterwards I started sifting through some old pics.

These are me. Eyeliner and leather, bitches… Fun times.

See em all over on Flickr.

Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity

Fitness training: 5 elements of a rounded routine

• Low on sleep: need more.
• Low on muscle gain: need more. Seems it could be happening faster.
• Ongoing waistline fat: saw a little progress in the last couple weeks, but it’s mostly stagnated.

My workout routine has been a daily one. Rest on Sundays. This has limited my sleep and perhaps slowed my muscle progress.

I am still big on not being fat – at all. I want to see the muscle fibers through my skin. The best thing I’ve done lately is starting the 2 hour bike rides at night. I feel like this has the best fat attacking potential of my activities. I read a little tonight about fat burning supplements, but they sound like a bad idea for me. So cardio it is.

Diet is a major factor in fat maintenance of course. However my diet is below weight gain levels, and is very healthy (with the exception of a some greasy food last night). It should be in a place to support muscles with all the protein, but not high enough to get new fat. Even burn a little fat?

That all said, I will start alternating things instead of doing the same thing every day.

Here is what I will start doing this week:

• Hard days – Mon/Wed/Fri. Morning weights (up at 4am), evening 2 hour rides.
• Easy days – Tue/Thu/Sat. Morning sleep (up at 6am or 7am), evening 40 minute rides. This should let me sleep longer more often than not and give my muscle time to repair and hopefully grow.
• Even less carbs, even more protein. Only cereal on “hard day” nights. I like cereal at night, and after a long ride it is simply awesome, but it won’t be justifiable on “easy days.” Just protein on “easy day” nights. Also, 2 slices of toast per day instead of 3, have protein drink instead. Increase carbs if lightheadedness occurs.

So my Mon/Wed/Fri are going to be attack days. The other days will be repair days. There will be ongoing daily cardio but with alternating intensity.

Mixing it up in the name of ongoing progress. Gotta keep freaking that body out to see progress.

Sound good?

Got insufficient sleep each night this week. Earlier waking for gym. Later nights for longer biking. My quest to burn all fat and build muscle is relentless.

I really want to do all these things but being tired from lack of sleep is the price to pay. It’s all fun and games until my immune system is weakened by exhaustion and I get sick. Trying to stop short of that if possible. Hence trying to sleep in on weekends.

Tried to catch up on sleep last night. Slept almost 9 hours. Wanted to sleep longer. Tonight should be able to catch up a little as well. Was considering a nap but it’s already afternoon and I have too much left to do.

Last night

Last night we went to the Gypsy Lounge in Lake Forest and watched old pal Jameson perform. Great show of course.

Afterwards we were hungry and tempted by the fast food across the street. The Hut. We split a pastrami sandwich and part of a bag of onion rings. A grease feast. I was hoping it would pass nicely through my system, but it is more likely to cling to my waistline with the rest of the fat. Oh well. A good reminder that fast food is disgusting.

Today is Saturday

I am cleaning up my desk, after months of neglect. Receipts and crap piled almost to block part of my screens. It could use it. Had to break from all this work and exercise to do it eventually.

Here is the pile after significant progress.

There’s always an excuse to not exercise however, and I need to keep that in mind. It is easiest to do other stuff. But, as I say, I have never regretted a workout, regardless of how it starts. So I’m keeping this in mind and plan to bike today and tomorrow. Should bike to the gym a little later.

Have a good one!

CNN – Google adds bike routes to online maps

For now the local bike friendly routes are enough challenge. Good to know it’s there anyway. Maybe it will help people who actually need to get places on a bike and their existing routes are shady.

maps.google.com/biking

Speaking of workouts. The bike ride needed to get longer, so that I could at least burn 500 cals each time. 500 is an arbitrary number symbolizing a respectable workout to me. Yesterday I thought I had a nice long one but was disappointed by the calorie tally. Well today I biked even further, the route I was considering last night, in fact. It took 1.75 hours. I figure if last night’s 1 hour burned 300, tonight’s 1.75 hours must be a little over 500. I didn’t measure it, was concerned with simply finishing, didn’t want any extra weight or considerations. Some day I’ll measure it (with my GoWearFit).

This super long 1.75 hour route, especially for a weekday night, was thrilling. New scenery – expect future pics. New streets to learn. I stayed on the sidewalks. Helped me to get acquainted with things. Not to mention it’s rush hour and there are cars galore racing to get home. Everybody wins when I stay out of their way as much as possible.

Could I take this route every night? Sure why not. There is still fat to burn.

Here’s the favorite. It’s shaped like a dog. Burns 250 cals in 40 mins. Not enough.

Here’s a new route I took today. Shaped like uh.. 300 cals in 1 hour. Hmm. Well. I need to double this. Maybe tomorrow.

First: no guilt. Sleeping in made me feel guilty. The whole world was up and cranking except for me. Sure I had sufficient sleep and they didn’t, and I was really productive in the evenings, but it just didn’t ever sit totally well with me. Especially at the start of the day. I was in this pattern for years. Waking early completely eliminates this guilt.

Second: I am more active, thus more healthy. The hard part is physically getting out of bed. It helps to remind myself that my health isn’t free. I have to work at it. It also helps that I look forward to feeling pumped up and happy with my appearance. Waking early affords me a daily workout before work.

The bad news is that my favorite bike route, which takes 40 minutes, only burns 250 calories. That makes the stationary bike more efficient, burning around 450 cals in 45 minutes. Plus it’s fat zone burning.

Real biking has a more random heart rate, going up and down hills. As such, the burn keeps going even after the workout and might actually get to 350 calories total.

It’s a hit worth taking in my opinion. The air and scenery is quite refreshing. Maybe I’ll find a longer route. No way I’m stationary biking instead of real biking. Fresh air or stanky old gym? Hmm. Yeah, no contest.

Somebody knows me.

Had a morning of productivity. It was overcast but not too cold. Brought a good camera to kill some time with.

Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Watch the people lift. Watch lips move on TVs.

Pedal, pedal.

Listen to that Lady Gaga song again. Wipe away some sweat.

Pedal, pedal, pedal.

It’s okay. Only 45 minutes.

Certainly beats burning no calories playing Halo or over stressing at work. And I am ripe with endorphins when it’s over.

But there’s another option. We could be shooting for the “my top performance” ideal.

More difficult. Perhaps preferable.

Mary retweeted a good article from the New York Times, “Slimmer Doesn’t Always Mean Fitter”, that speaks to this. I think the title misleads it as an “overweight is okay” message, but it isn’t.

If I am the best performing me I can possibly be, I think I’d be okay with, or maybe too focussed on performance to worry about, love handles.