Weighty Matters....

It's been a while since I have posted.  This is in no small part because I have recently returned from an extended overseas trip (both business and pleasure).  One of the challenges of "work travel" is that there's a constant pressure to "eat out", whether it's business related lunches, dinners and, yes, breakfasts or just a lack of good choices when stuck in a hotel room.

I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to see that I appear to have lost a couple of pounds on this trip.  Losing weight "for vanity" has never been an objective of my oddessy into the crazy world of triathlon, but I certainly recognized at the start of my journey that I needed to lose a few pounds and that this would make me feel better (OK, OK, I'll be happy to look better too, but this really isn't the primary objective!).  I do now keep a reasonable eye on my weight as both my run and bike speed should benefit if I am "carrying less".  I'm by no means obsessive about it and recognize that (a) muscle is heavier than fat and (b) everyone's weight goes up and down naturally over the course of a week or a month (it's therefore pretty crazy to weigh yourself every day - better once a week or month at the same time of day!).

So having said all of this, am I losing weight?   Yes!  I have been tracking my weight using Garmin Connect since the end of 2009.  During this period I "peaked" at somewhere around 210 lbs (I never assume our bathroom scale is any better than plus or minus a pound or two!) and am currently in the vicinity of 193 lbs.  Here's a screen shot:

I'm pleased with this - a nice steady decline since I started getting more serious about training without going crazy.  Hopefully I've also built some muscle over the same period!

I'm 6' 0" tall and reasonably thick set (or shall we just say that I'll never be really skinny!) and think that over time 185 lbs is probably a good target "race weight" for me - we'll see how I do and I'll keep you informed!

In other news, the White Lake II Sprint Triathlon is now just around the corner on May 15th.  My travel and work commitments have made it difficult for The Puppeteer to develop me a solid lead-in training schedule, so I'll be treating it as a "C" race and focus on the more challenging Bandit's Challenge Olympic Distance event in June as my primary short term target. 

Just before I headed out on my trip I did the Cary Duathlon (run - bike - run).   I feel that it went reasonably well and need to write-up a race report when I have a moment.

Finally managed to see The Dominatrix for another TRX session yesterday and was pleased that SWMBO was able to join me.   It really is a great core workout - I think that I'm going to have to invest in a set-up for home.  Tried out the new TRX "rip trainer" as well as the usual strap system.....

Finally, in a somewhat disturbing development, a member of "Team Lias" is boasting on facebook that he/she has seen another member sans clothes more than anyone else......   what's that about?  (you know who you are!)   :-)