Urban "Hiking" Adventure

So going back to my goals post (here) I had started talking about a lot of the things that I had started to think of as goals were just cool physical activities that I would like to do. Some of the things I'm thinking of now:

• Long bike-ride (Possibly from Raleigh to Wilmington)
• Week-long + hike (Something like hiking from Georgia to Virginia on the Appalachian Trail)
• Compete in a challenging duathlon (eventually triathlons when I can get my swimming more respectable)
• Complete a half-marathon (maybe eventually a full)

More long-term:

• Do a section hike of the full AT.
• Do the same with the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in NC
• Finish an Iron Man Triathlon (see above, swimming 2.2 miles is not happening any time soon)

What does this have to do with today? Thinking of cool things that I would like to do, I had the bright idea to "hike" from where I live in east-Raleigh to where my parents live in Apex. I had been thinking of it for a few weeks now. I had looked at and printed out a route from Google Maps, using and modifying their pedestrian route function. It was about an 18-20 mile track and I knew that my normal pace would put me between 3.5-4 mph, so I planned on it taking me a little over 5 hours. Given my work schedule recently, I haven't had a chance to think about attempting it yet...until today.

So work is slow today and I get off early, the weather is perfect; I figure, "What the hell? Let's do it." I came home from work, ate lunch (black beans and eggs) and started to get ready. Packed my backpack with water and some peanuts as a snack and a long sleeve shirt for when the sun went down (I was starting at 2 pm, so it would be getting dark by my hypothetical finish time). I called my mom to make sure she could take me home afterwards and then I just set off walking.

At first I was alternating running and walking but, to be honest, my legs never felt great probably from playing soccer and a good bike-ride yesterday, so eventually I settled in at a good walking pace and was feeling okay. Some observations from the trip:

• Hiking alone is boring. Especially when you are "exploring" scenery that you see almost daily.
• This 5 hours was going to go by slow.
• Hard pavement is not the best thing to walk on for hours on end.
• Nice shoes are important. My shoes are nice but they are not the newest, so maybe they have too many miles on them or maybe my feet just aren't in the shape they needed to be in.

Things I saw other than totally normal things that I see all the time:

• An actual professional-wrestling match going on behind Sadlacks on Hillsborough St. complete with ring, crowd, referee, everything.
• The State Fair; I think I saw what I needed to see of it by just walking by it. (Addendum: I like the fair but maybe I like the idea of it better than I actually like going. I'm certainly not a fair-snob; maybe next year...)
• Pretty much everything else was normal...and that was a problem.

Maybe you can tell, but I wasn't having too much fun on the trip. The only thing keeping me going was wanting to finish; and since this was pretty much done on a whim, that wasn't that strong either. About mile 12-13ish, I was pulling into the heart of Cary and decided to give my mom a call and see what her situation was and she happened to be up the street so that pretty much settled it. I walked to where she was and we drove.

So definitely didn't make it but I'm okay with that. I felt like I was developing blisters on the entire balls of my feet and I have to work/be active for the rest of the week. My legs didn't feel that great and this wasn't really a big goal of mine in the first place. That being said, I will definitely have to work on my endurance a lot to meet my bigger goals. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I didn't think it would hurt as much; I mean, I run 3.5 miles in one stretch every Wednesday night and run at least a mile almost every other day. Whatever, it's a starting point and I got in a very good workout. It also feels good to have just gone out and done it. So good day overall even though my feet and legs still hurt.


 Other Things I've Seen
That section on stuff I saw made me think of the weird things I've seen running around my house:

• The other night I'm running late-night and come within 30 feet of Bambi's dad, who is staring me down and looking like one big 200 lb., 8-point, fur-covered muscle. Needless to say it startled me, there is usually nothing else out moving.
• I say usually but that's not totally true: I saw his wife a couple of weeks ago. She passed 20 feet in front of me going about 30. She was trying to turn me into this guy. 
• About a month ago, I almost stepped on one of their poisonous nature-buddies. A copperhead had come out on the road and, as the sun had been going down, I came inches from stepping on his midsection.
• Probably the craziest thing was a giant owl just standing on the edge of the road at the end of my street. The thing looked to be about 2 feet tall and it didn't even move as I went by and I must have passed within 10 feet of it. I didn't see it until the last minute and it scared the crap out of me (I'm jumpy anyways).

So no need for any Ohio "zoo-owners" to make things more interesting around. Crazy what you can see within a mile of the Interstate. 

New Additions to My Strength Workout

My workout plan has the same overall scope but I have added some new things.

I am still working out almost every day: I try to put in at least 30 minutes but most times I want to do more than that. Running and biking are my main forms of cardio; I just got some new pedals/shoes for my road bike that I'm really liking now.

The things I have added are pretty simple, low-cost strength options. The main one is a pull-up bar. I got this one here:

It's from the people who make the "Perfect Push-up" and I have seen similar models on the market. This one was $30 but is a very high quality compared to the other removable bars that I have used. You can work out all kinds of different muscles using the pull up bar, here are some of the exercises that I do:

• Chin-ups - (This is where you grab the bar with the backs of your hands facing away from you.) You can place your hands inside the middle handles or just outside. When you go towards the middle, it works out your biceps more. Towards the outside, it works out your shoulders and upper back.
• Pull-ups - (Put your hands on the bar opposite the position of chin-ups.) The same principles above apply to these as well, I like to grab the bar on the far outside position and it really gets you shoulders and upper back.
• Grabbing the handles - This just tweaks the muscle groups and will let you totally burn out.
• As with my main strength plan, if you really want to burn your muscles, move slowly both up and down and you'll maximize you're workout time.

The other exercise is something that I saw watching a Crossfit thing on TV, it is the handstand push up. So all you do is do a handstand next to a wall and do a set of push ups in a shoulder press form. This will give you a good shoulder workout and get your balance and stabilizing muscles as well.

Couple these exercises with regular push-ups and you have a great upper body workout that you can use almost anywhere at any time.

Overview of the Blog So Far

It's been over a month now. Somewhere near 400 people have visited from 5 or 6 different countries; not really sure how it's being received but hopefully it's helping people reach their goals.

I've weighed in at 164 a few times, 43 lbs. total loss, and feel like right now I am still converting fat into muscle and seeing changes in my body composition.

What I wanted to do with this post is have an overview of links to all the past posts so they could be in one place that was easily accessible. So we'll start from the beginning...

Introduction
General Diet
Before and After Pics
Exercise Plan
Shopping/Meal Schedule
My Typical Strength Workout
Motivation, Goal-Setting and Measures of Health
Tips For Effectively Using Salad Bars
Restaurant Eating Tips

Here are the recipes:
Pinto Beans
Black Bean "Chili"
Turkey Sausage and Peppers
Chicken Fajitas

The North Carolina-themed "Get Outdoors" beginnings:
City of Raleigh Greenways
Hanging Rock State Park


My Typical Strength Workout

Get Outdoors #2: Hanging Rock State Park

I was watching a show on TV about a large vertical climb in Hawaii that has inspired people to get more active and challenge themselves. I thought this was really cool but I also thought of some stuff we have even closer in North Carolina.

About 2 hours drive from Raleigh there is Hanging Rock State Park (Link), that can give a great taste of outdoors and mountain-like terrain within an easy day-trip distance to the Triangle. (The picture on the top of the page is actually from a trip to Hanging Rock)

The main reason that I thought of Hanging rock when seeing the special on the couple thousand foot climb in Hawaii because on one trip there, me and a friend climbed Moore's Knob on the Moore's Knob Loop Trail which, after looking it up, climbs about 2,000 vertical feet to a total elevation of 2,579 feet over the course of a couple of miles. This sticks out in my head because it crushed me when we did this hike; I had to stop multiple times on the way up feeling like I was going to throw up. I would like to think I would do better now but I'm sure it would still be a good exercise for anyone. (To the left is a picture from after that climb a few years ago, I am as hot and sweaty as I look)

But Moore's Knob is not even close to the only thing at Hanging Rock, there is the namesake, "Hanging Rock," that has a pretty easy climb up and some great views. (Picture to the right.) It also has some good cliffs and rock structure if you like to explore or test your vertigo.

You can also camp here, which I have done numerous times, and form personal experience the NC State Parks are always well maintained.

But probably the coolest thing that you can see while exploring Hanging Rock is the 6 waterfalls that you can see and interact with. There are variety of shapes and sizes but all are worth seeing and you can get up-close and personal with all of them. (Lower Cascades picture to the left.) While there is more to still explore as far as trails and a swimming lake, you can see most of the stuff I've talked about so far in an event-packed day. You'll be exhausted by the end and have burned thousands of calories but while you are doing it, it won't feel like working out at all.












And here is one last picture from Hanging Rock, behind a waterfall called "Window Falls."

This is definitely a great example of why I think getting outdoors can be great as far as making sure that you are staying active and getting healthy.

Restaurant Eating Tips

It's been a few days since my last post; I've just been staying on course with my work-out/eating plan. I have been continuing to run, bike, strength-train, and fight-train for an average of about an hour everyday on top of my normal activities. I have also stayed on track with my diet. So as I predicted last week, I did weigh in at a new low of 164 lbs. yesterday morning. That is 43 lbs. of total weight loss since January and 9 lbs. more to go to my next goal point of 155 lbs. where I will have lost 52 total lbs. and over 25% of my total weight.

So...enough with the update and onto the post. I have talked about my diet in general and given examples of things that I cook at home but what about when you go out to eat? It is certainly easier to stay true to your diet when you eat at home; you can control everything that goes into your meals. Going out can make it tough but I can generally find something to eat on every menu although the selections are sometimes limited.

Here are some ideas and tips for eating out:

• Mexican places have a number of selections that are diet friendly (at least my diet). You can almost always switch out rice for beans and the other main hurdle is avoiding the chips and tortillas (which can be very difficult...especially the chips!) My two go to selections are Pollo Loco (chicken breasts, refried beans, and a guacamole salad) and Texas Fajitas (shrimp, steak, and chicken fajita meat, peppers and onions, refried beans, and a guacamole salad)
• Asian places are also good for a bigger selection of choices. The big thing with Asian dishes is that you obviously have to not eat the rice, although some restaurants with allow you to substitute cellophane noodles (which are made from mung beans) for a cost. Another thing to watch is to make sure that any of the meats are not breaded like a Sesame or General Tso's Chicken. But you can certainly eat effectively with this strategy at Chinese, Thai, Korean, or any other Asian places.
• Salads as meals can be tough at restaurants. They tend to like to add cheese, croutons, and other add-ons that do not fit with the diet and you can ask for them to be left off but at some point, you're not getting anything close to what you paid for.
• You can generally substitute a salad or veggies for the standard side of fries which allows for greater variety.
• Sometimes you have to get creative. At Hibernian, one of my dishes is hummus (chickpeas) with vegetables instead of the traditional pita slices. You might have to do something similar to find anything at some places.
• If in doubt, you can even have chicken wings, just as long as they are not breaded. Fried food is not ideal to eat all the time but if you are in a pinch, these appetizers can be your only option.

 So it's definitely easier to stay on your diet at home but when eating out, it just takes some creativity, attention to detail, and self-discipline to stay on track.