Sparrows Experiment

check it out!!! building some muscles.

Let's see some back and bicept shots for the before pics. We saw yer legs not long ago.

Now don't go getting crazy with the pics.

Big Bro
FF

I will get all caught up here, at some point. i printed your swim stuff, and the butterfly instructions I need some more help on- AFTER my event.

i will go and log my last couple days of activity in a minute. working my way there.

a full year of tri training is rather extreme dontcha think! hahahahaha I sure am glad you had the bug, so you could give it to me. ENDURANCE! WILING TO SUFFER! Strong! SMOOTH! Lean, Gliding! and beautiful. that's you Sparrow. No broken wings on this one.

FF
 
Thanks FF! I'll try and post pics. It'll be me doing the backward shot thing so not sure how well that will turn out. lol

Whiney kids. its dinner time-gotta go!
 
Took the day off. Didn't want to, but thats how its turned out. I should anyway since I went 4 days in a row. I'm trying to be more "practical" that way :rolleyes: and chill out in this off season. Its very hard for me to let up a little-even as burned out as I am. COMPULSION. I've never had an "on season" or an "off season" its always been GO GO GO with no let up for many years. I have to keep long term goals in mind though and this is how it has to be for that.

I love how I'm looking forward to these lifting days. Tomorrow is the last one of this week. Next week I'm going to a conference for 4 days with my husband so I plan on going to the gym early Monday before we leave, and then Thursday evening when we're back. Thats only 2 days off, which will still keep me on target.
Not sure how much cardio I'll be able to do while there. Maybe none-which I'll need to be okay with as well.

Eating wise I'm doing MUCH better than in previous days. I'm still weaning myself off some junk. Like my light ice cream. Instead of a small bowl, I'm having a small spoonfull. I try and have green tea in the evening so I won't snack. If I'm going crazy I have some natural PB...which has been the case the past few days. I can't believe how loose I let my diet get with all the tri training. I really could get away with so much with all the activity. It wasn't garbage but it was much higher carb.

alrighty I'm just babbling. Have a fantastic weekend everyone
 
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Food plan, hmmm. Not anything real specific. I'm am going a bit "lower carb" than before though. Morning I make a protein shake thats basically whey, some frozen strawberries, flax and water. Then go to the gym. At the gym I have accelerade. After the gym I have lean protein, salad with an olive oil based dressing or veggies, some brown rice or a low carb/ sprouted tortilla after my workout. Snack is something like PB and celery, or low sugar yogurt, or another shake (minus the strawberries this time) etc. Dinner is a lot like lunch. I can do great until AFTER dinner. Then I have issues with snacking on things I shouldn't, or eating way too late even when I'm not hungry. SO I've been trying out green tea with some ff milk and splenda at that time. Its helping

Today was workout A and we used a squat rack. It was much different, I could tell the difference in my core. We bumped up to 100 for the squats and 25 pounds on the dumbells. I used a 25 pound plate on the swiss ball and did my push ups very slowly with my head up. Felt strong today, probably the day off yesterday. Did 15 min HIIT on the stairs and then a 45 min swim. Its going to take us all of break-in just to discover our true numbers! We still both felt we could go heavier on the squats and the dumbells.
 
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Nice results you're getting - sounds like you'll definitely be stronger at the end of the BreakIn - ready to tackle the Fat Loss programs.
 
this lil chicky here does not need t loose! she is looking to gain 'curves' thru building muscle. AND if she aint we need to have a meeting.

my point-- standard advice is dangerous. Let's try to keep our lovely specimen in mind eh!!!!

thank you, thank you very much

elvis.
 
:rolleyes:

Went to church then took the kids to the park for a picnic. After picnic they played and I walked around the path the park has for a half hour. I also tried 1 min random intervals of stride work. I have a guy at my church who swears by this method to decrease injury. SO heck I tried it. He challenged me to at least get 180 strides per minute. The best I got was 160 and I felt silly doing it. Ryan Hall, the young famous half marathoner will stride 180 times per minute over the whole course of a half marathon and do 13.1 miles in 59:43. Can you even imagine?!! Thats 4:33 a MILE. :eek: My form completely changed to do it-it HAD to in order to get my legs to go so fast, and I can see how it would be a good thing regarding my injury.

So I have done NROL for one week trying to eat a bit better, but still allowing some treats. I've still had a hard time giving up the late night munchies. Today was my weigh day. I'm just tracking the trend as I do this program since I tend to move the scale UP when I lift. I saw 128 today :O I haven't seen that for over a year. I was shocked. My midsection also already looks different. How can one week do that? I just think I had some water keeping my overworked muscles protected constantly. Maybe by relaxing the cardio a bit my body gave it up. I did 4 hours total cardio this week as opposed to 8ish. However, 90% of the cardio I did do was high intensity. Anyway, not complaining, that was nice to see.
 
flyinfree said:
this lil chicky here does not need t loose! she is looking to gain 'curves' thru building muscle. AND if she aint we need to have a meeting.

my point-- standard advice is dangerous. Let's try to keep our lovely specimen in mind eh!!!!

thank you, thank you very much

elvis.
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It was the lil chicky that said she was doing the Fat Loss programs, not me :) I'd've thought hypertrophy or strength would be more conducive, but she wanted fat loss...
 
Okay okay break it up :rolleyes:

Yes I want fat loss. Fat loss is the goal right now as well as increasing strength. I believe I can do both, I've done it before. My first goal is to get in the ballpark of 15% bf and then I'll increase strength. So first fat loss programs and then hypertrophy or whatever. I "bulk" easily, and that is NOT my goal. I want to be strong and streamlined not lean with big muscles. I've been both of those before also. The "bigness" gets in the way of what I do "on" season (as well as its not great for my wardrobe!). I'm basically trying to get a pretty solid base this winter heading into the tri season next year to prevent injury and be faster. This year I all but gave up lifting during my training season and I think its what killed me.

Midsection is more defined. All the sudden abs popped out and my obliques are more defined. Like I said, I think it was the water pudge that vanished this week.
 
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I'd also suggest it's the stabilizing work you're doing with your core on your lifts. I think it's one reason that the NROL programs never have you sit if they can help it at all.
 
sparrow said:
Okay okay break it up :rolleyes:

Yes I want fat loss. Fat loss is the goal right now as well as increasing strength. I believe I can do both, I've done it before. My first goal is to get in the ballpark of 15% bf and then I'll increase strength. So first fat loss programs and then hypertrophy or whatever. I "bulk" easily, and that is NOT my goal. I want to be strong and streamlined not lean with big muscles. I've been both of those before also. The "bigness" gets in the way of what I do "on" season (as well as its not great for my wardrobe!). I'm basically trying to get a pretty solid base this winter heading into the tri season next year to prevent injury and be faster. This year I all but gave up lifting during my training season and I think its what killed me.

Midsection is more defined. All the sudden abs popped out and my obliques are more defined. Like I said, I think it was the water pudge that vanished this week.
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With this post I would guess you are dieting and weight training. My experience, which is limited, has shown this idea will make you MORE condusive to injury. your brain thinks you are getting stronger, but your not because you are in a deficit.

IMHO it would be better for you to allow a little body fat (not from sugar and flower thoigh) and build up some strength. then you can trim that down lean and strong closer to show time next season.

just my opinion, but i'm right. I have been burning muscles up with my endurance training and strict diet, but i am stronger all the time. because I has meat on my bones to burn. you really don't have much on there. You are thin and very fine!

Imagine if Stingo here was telling us he wanted to bulk up so he could do his weight loss lifting better. What would you say to him punkin?
 
Hello I'm back and the pastors conference was fabulous. More than fabulous. Indescribable

I get your concern FF. I guess :rolleyes: :) I'm actually not "dieting" I'm cleaning up the crud I've allowed for a while. I'm not doing much cardio anymore in this off-season so I'm getting my diet "clean" (which is much easier to do without all the cardio!) but I'm not in a deficit. Not on purpose anyway. Its going to take some tinkering to figure out where I maintain and where I lose with such a low output. My experience is that I DON'T lose when I lift. I actually get very strong, very lean and injury-free. Numbers go up because I pack on muscle easily. When I lifted a lot before I had my one and only season of being injury-free in running. Its when I stopped and allowed more crap in my diet that I started getting injuries. SO with that said I'm not actually TRYING to lose weight. I'm trying to clean up and lose body fat while gaining more lean muscle. Going into tri season again I hope to have a fine balance to my muscular endurnace, thanks to NROL and be able to increase my calories in a healthful way for maximum energy and performance. I don't feel I did that right this season. I'll have some specific goals to that as the time comes around again.

This week I have obviously missed a lot of my workouts but I haven't felt the effect. I actually feel leaner and hungier, but that tends to happen when I go on "vacation". Monday morning I got up ultra early before we left and did my "B" workout of break-in and then 30 min HIIT type intervals on the stairs. Each day my husband and I walked around the lake or up hills and it was just a naturally hilly place anyway with lots of walking to get where we needed to go so that was great. It was also at altitude. I ate a LOT but pretty healthy on the whole and I was 128 when I got in this afternoon.
I am going to the gym in just a bit to do my "A" workout and I'll finish my 2nd week with the "B" workout with my buddy tomorrow morning. We're only doing break-in for 3 weeks before we move on.
 
stingo said:
Yay! Sparrow's back :)

What'd you do during your conference?
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There was a speaker morning and evening and various "workshops" we could go to. There was ample free time in the between times and they fed us very well:rolleyes:Time seemed to stop up there. It was so beautiful.
They also had adventure-type activities to keep us busy if we wanted. I did a downhill mountain bike excursion-hardly any uphill and hardly any workout but it was a rush down steep mountains. Also did a "high-adventure" which was a combo of a ropes course 50 feet in the trees, the "screamer" kinda like bungee jumping but you sort of "fly" off this thing 60 feet above ground, and a rock wall. That was really fun too :)
 
I guess I did. But I felt fairly lazy! It was a good 'lazy'. I really feel rested mentally.

Tonight I did my lifting and I felt like I could have done better. Its harder to do on my own I guess? I'm so darn competitive with myself that I felt like I should be just maxing out or something cause I had tons of juice left after each set.

Had a funky thing happen that happend a tad last week too. During the reps my heart started to palpitate. I've noticed this in the past happening when I hold my breath with exursion so I'm probably not breathing right as I'm lifting. I do have MVP so it does palpitate every so often and I get it checked every couple years. Anyway, it just bothered me because it was very distracting and made me feel like I was choking or something. It was the sole reason I didn't go heavier. I'm thinking its about that time to get a check up on it anyway.

I did 30 min moving stairs:
5 min warm up
alt between 1 min level 15 and 2 min level 10
The whole thing was fairly breathless and my heart rate got up to an all time record of 170. I honestly thought my max was 160 because it takes SO much to even get it THERE. I've never seen the 170's for myself so that was an accomplishment.
After that I felt like trying to run. Got a whole minute into it and shins rebelled. Thats so darn frustrating.
I did a bit of cooldown on the eliptical and watched TV :D

Felt kinda sick the rest of the night. Forced the water and ate a good dinner. My little "goose" (I call her) developed a pretty high fever tonight so I'm up kinda monitoring her. I'm super tired
 
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Did workout "B" today and boy did I feel it after lifting so late last night. I decided to only lift. No cardio today, which felt weird.

Romanian Deadlift: 90lb 2x15

Superset
Step up: 20# dumbells step up on bench 2x15
Single arm raise: 20# 2x15

Superset
Narrow grip pulldown 2x15 80#
reverse crunch 2x20 ( I did this off a bench with straight legs. It was much more effective)

I'm really sore. My butt is very very very very sore :(
 
would it be irreverant to say

"I would be willing to rub the preacher's wife's butt"

I'm Christian like that!

hahahahahaha

rest days are soooo dangerous!
FF
 
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