Well, after much lurking, I am ready to start a log of my own. First, a little background...

I was a skinny kid up until my mid-20's (mid 80's). During my late teens, I took up cycling and raced seriously and started racing competitively until I was smoked by an olympic caliber cyclist. Immediately afterward, I made plans for graduate school as I knew I would never make the "Tour".

The 1980's were a time of school (finishing undergrad, getting a MS). Exercise, mainly cycling and a little beer-league softball was something I did for entertainment. By 1989, I weighed 183 with 15% bf. Not bad.

The 1990s were a time of raising kids (three were born from 1990 to 1994) and starting 3 businesses (two of which I still have). Less exercise and minimal cycling during the 90's. These were not good healthy years for me. My weight crept up to 218 by the end of the 90's.

The first half of the 2000's were a continuation of the 90s.

Starting in 4/05, the wife joined a gym and started using a PT, Tony the Punisher. She promptly lost 30# and went from a size 10 to her current size 5/6. I took notice. In 8/06, I too, joined the gym and started using the Punisher. I gained strength steadily but did not adhere to any proper nutrition plans and the weight came off a little concurrently with muscle gains. I guess this is what is called "newbie losses"?

By 11/06, I had steadily impoved my diet and was losing some weight and was getting psyched about the muscular gains. While exercising (climbing stairs) in a hotel in Columbus, OH, I experienced chest pains. Upon my return to Florida, I was diagnosed with a constricted artery and underweight a catherization (angioplasty plus stent implant) and was released on Thanksgiving Day (the last Thursday of November for you non-Yanks) which gives a new meaning of "Thanksgiving" to my family and me now. I took the rest of '06 off and re-dedicated myself in January of this year.

Here is what I have accomplished this year:

My cycling speed has increased from 16mph last year to 22 - 23 mph this year. My cycling endurance has increased from 12 miles being a "long" ride to 50 miles being a "ride". (I do 50 miles at least once and sometimes 2 / week now.) My bench press went from about 160 last year to 225. (Last Tuesday, I set a new personal best with 6 at 225 and I increased that to 8 on Thursday - 10 is on the near horizon.)

My workout and diet are not nearly as documented or regimented as others. My typical workout consists of these 2 - 3x/week:

hack squats
bicep curls (with bar, not dumbbells, which antagonize my elbow)
shrugs and upright rows (thanks for the suggestion, Bigstew)
ab stuff (varies, but always works the lower abs and less so the obliques)

Which I alternate with these 2 - 3x / week

bench press
calf raises
lat pulldowns
rows
reverse flies
flies

I cycle at least 1 / week for 50 miles, sometimes 2x.

Nutritionally, I eat 5 - 6 meals / day and eat fairly healthy - no or minimal fast food, no fatty foods, protein shakes after a workout. I try to maintain a small caloric deficit, but I am not sure I am successful.

The problem is, I enjoy bulking a LOT more than I do cutting. I have never in my 48 years been as strong as I am and am loving it. The thought of losing some muscle to cut is only offset by the thought of how well I will feel about myself once I do.

Currently, I am at 205# with probably 20% +/- body fat (I get different readings from different techniques) which means I should have about 10% bf at 185#. That is my goal.

I cheated on my diet last Thursday, but have been honest since then. I will post my ups and downs as they come.

I very much appreciate, welcome and trust the advice I get from my forum brothas and sistas here.

Richard

Richard, I wish you much luck with this log.

Glad to see you started one here on the forum. ROCK ON!

Today was a good day. Went mountain-bikin' with my bro-in-law who, for 57, is in decent shape. I had to stop several times for him to catch his breath, but it was all in fun. Worked up a sweat and burned some cals before he dinged the derailleur on the bike he was riding (my son's bike) and he had to limp home in one gear. Now I am considering fixing the son's bike or giving my son my K2 full suspension and buying a Specialized hard tail for myself. Decisions, decisions.

Later today, I started off with 7 pullups (parallel bars) and then did 3 sets of 10 reps of hack squats, 3 sets of 10 bicep curls (50# bar), bench press 225 x 5, 5, and 7, and those painful upright rows with 70# and ended with 6 pullups (couldn't gut out the 7th). Had a family dinner at Cracker Barrel and had the lemon pepper trout with veggies and no dessert. Felt good about my diet today. Only 3 or 4 pieces of small candies away from being near perfect.

Richard over

What your training schedule like during the week?

Sweat it out on the bike, BABY!.....LOL.......thats great! (FF getting into my head.....oh, boy... )

Chillen,

Generally, I travel out of town on alternating weeks. When I am in town, I work out 4 days during the week alternating hack squats, bicep curls, shrugs, upright rows, and ab stuff with bench press, calf raises, lat pulldowns, rows, flies and reverse flies. On Wednesday and Saturdays, I ride 50 miles each in addition to a gym workout.

When I am out of town, things are a bit different. I generally can find a gym at which I get a complimentary pass or pay a nominal daily fee. I generally work out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays before or after work and possibly Thursdays. Weekends are like the other weekends. I generally do not work out on Sundays, Mondays or Fridays when I travel.

I have improved my diet significantly during my travel days, but it is still flawed. I used to skip meals, usually having 1 or at most 2 meals a day. Now I have 4 - 5 small meals and have protein shakes at least once daily, sometimes twice.

Welcome, Richard. Great post. I feel like I know you. Good luck moving forward!

Helped my son with his American History test for tomorrow, so didn't do the traditional Labor Day stuff (cookout, boating, etc.). I bought another boat on Saturday, 1988 17' Boston Whaler Montauk, that I will prep for its inaugural trip (by me) in Tampa Bay next weekend.

Went to the gym today and worked the other muscle groups that I didn't work yesterday. Did lat pulldowns, pullups, cable rows, ab crunches with a 45# weight, reverse flies and flies. I was about to leave and I thought of Chillen and Flyinfree and they motivated me to do one more set of ab crunches.

Rep to both.

Didn't work out today - got caught doing too many honeydo's.

I called Glenn "the animal" and we're going cycling tomorrow AM - 52 miles.

Received my copy of "The New Rules of Lifting" today. That will take some time to assimilate that.

Rode 52 miles at 19+ mph. Only stopped twice for 15 minutes each. Good workout. I don't think I'll do anymore today.

ROCK ON!!!! Hope you enjoyed the workout!...........

US, young man, can still kick dat @ss!...........LOL.........

Great job!

Best wishes

Chillen

I was busy all day either helping my three teenage kids with the homework or running some errand. I planned on working out at night.

Finally got the chance at 10pm and did:

3x10 hack squats (on hack squat weight machine with 180# on bar) - this still kicks my butt, but not as badly as before.

3 x 5 bench press (225#), after 1 x 5 warmup with 135#

3 x 10 shrugs with 50# dumbbells

3 x 5 unassisted pullups (just couldn't squeeze out anymore)

Not a great workout, but I was exhausted by that time (it didn't help that I was up at 5am).

Diet today was okay, with some cheating with some hot tamales.

Nice quality time with the kids.

Nice Pre-planning.

Nice Workout

Keep it UP!

Rock on, forum Brotha!


Best wishes


Chillen

How is it going........you havent posted in a while. Everything alright?

Chill, thanks for asking. Yep, everything's fine! Been working out and trying to eat cleaner. Nothing much new to report, but I have been continuing basically what I've been doing.

As a little update, this past week, I was travelling and worked out on the stationary bike T, W, and Th. Today, I worked out on the elliptical machine and swam 25 laps in the hotel pool. When I return on Sunday, I will resume my gym workouts that I have posted before.

And I will post pics next week for an assessmen to the last two months.

Richard

The past two weeks, well, actually the last four months have been tough on me since my mother-in-law was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer in May. My own mother passed away in 1990, so she was the last surviving grandparent of my children.

Last week I was in Annapolis and wasn't able to get much done except some time on the stationary bike three times during the week. On Friday, I gave the eulogy and thought I would be tough, but my eyes welled up when my wife's 33yo niece started balling. I struggled and completed my tribute. Afterwards, just about everyone thanked me for toughing it out and doing it for them and for her.

But, these months have re-awakened my sense of love of life and I continue to ratchet down my workload, which started in November when I had an angioplasty - not life threatening but life awakening. I am going to learn to wakeboard this week on the Boston Whaler I purchased a couple of weeks ago.

Back to fitness. I posted some current pics, but am not overly excited by my cutting progress. But, the pics don't show my increased cardiovascular fitness as measured by my bicycle speed and distance. They also don't show the improvements in my benchmarks including bench press.

In this month's Men's Health magazine, there is a fitness quiz on p. 82, using 1-mile run, single-leg squat, vertical jump test, chinups, and pushups. For all but the mile run and pushups, I am in the Fit class. I don't understand why I am not in the fit class for pushups as I can bench as much as many of the safeties and cornerbacks at the NFL combine, but I won't sweat that one. I will take up running shortly and try to get my 1-mile time down from my current 8+ minutes to less than 7.