Challenge

March Update: 10 Books in a Month

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Disappointed, that’s how I would describe my March reading results.  I really thought this month would be the first month I actually  completed my goal, instead of just getting close.  Unfortunately, a vacation, a 63 hour work week, and a week and a half of being sick conspired to give me one great excuse for why I didn’t read all that I wanted to this month.  I read four books, so about one a week.  a lot more than I normally would, but still under half of what I planned.

Here is what I did get through:

March: 10 Books in a Month

Random

This month I wanted to focus on something other than a physical activity, so I decided to focus on reading more.  As a goal I am going to read ten books this month.  Since my new year resolution last year, I have been reading more., but lately it has slacked off a little.  I also just recently read the first “fun” book in a while (Inside Delta Force – good read) and it made me realize how long it has been since I have read anything other than a technical or business book.  Ten books a month is about one every three days, which might be pushing it, but I think is still realistic (I’m a fast reader).  I’m looking for good books (particularly “fun” reads) so if you have any, let me know in the comments.

So far I am planning on:

February Update: Work out five days a week

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For February I was trying to work out five days a week for a month, as a kick off for my four month triathlon training program.  it was actually a lot harder than I thought, as much because of the amount of time it took out of my schedule as the actual physical stress of the workouts.  In the end, I only worked out five days one week, but worked out four days every other week, so while it wasn’t a blinding success it wasn’t a complete failure.  Prior to this I was at most working out three days a week.  It served it’s purpose, I’m on track to be able to finish the Grand Rapids Triathlon and I know what I have to do to manage my time properly.  I’m still deciding what to try next month, so check back soon.

February Challenge: Work out five days a week

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I was having trouble coming up with an idea for this month, but decided I might as well kill two birds with one stone. I am starting training for the Grand Rapids Triathlon this month, so I figured I would make sticking to my training schedule my goal for the month.  If your interested you can see what I’m doing here, the numbers of the length of the workout in minutes. This is roughly based on a 16 week Olympic training program on a site that was recommended by some of the triathlon staff (www.beginnertriathlete.com).  I’m a little nervous about my knees and ankles as this is a lot more running than I have done in quite a few months, but hopefully after the first couple weeks they should be used to it again.

January Update: 14 pounds

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For January, I was trying to lose 15 pounds before the end of the month.  I was close…really close.  In fact, I weighed myself again after my morning swim and I had lost 15.5 lbs, but that’s pretty much cheating since I was just dehydrated.  I ended up losing 14 pounds altogether, which I’m happy with. The first week and a half I was fighting off a cold and that didn’t help matters. If your curious what I was doing, I lost the first few (5-6) just eating normally and working out, and the last two weeks or so I focused on cutting “white” carbs 6 days a week (aka slow carb diet)  The carbs are definitely the key for me, and it was interesting to see just how much of them I eat in a day.