Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Three Rewards

1. One day after descending into the hell of calorie-counting, I was rewarded with my lowest weigh-in of 2006. I know, I know, it's just daily fluctuation, water weight, gut fill, and all that, but it's nice to see quick progress. And no, I'm not doing anything terribly drastic - yesterday's calories were a robust 1722. I just went to bed Very Hungry.

2. 1500 meters today in the 25m pool with open turns, sharing a lane, stopping at least 4 times, going along at an easy, comfortable pace, and I clocked in at 43:36. I know, not a dazzling time for most folks, but for me it is - my 1500-meter wetsuit-aided swim at the Columbia Triathlon last year was 48:15.

3. Today's swim brings me up to 18,362 meters for the month, my biggest swimming month ever so far, reaching my Tier 2 Goal for March of over 4000 meters per week.

Optional credit: 5 points for naming the lady in the photo and the trophy she is receiving. 5 points more for naming the short guy and 5 additional extra credit points for naming the guy holding the trophy. No looking it up.



Update: No guesses yet on the guy on the left in the photo! Here's another famous shot of him:




Ding Ding Ding! We have some winners!

Laura correctly guessed it was the Triple Crown trophy (in recognition for my day of 3 rewards!), presented for Secretariat's 1973 victory in the Triple Crown Races. (Danny guessed Secretariat from reading the photo file name.) His owner, Penny Chenery (whom I met once), is receiving the trophy, and next to her is jockey Ronnie Turcotte (whose career was cut short in 1978 by a riding accident which left him a paraplegic). Nelson Rockefeller, former NY governor, Vice President, and loose cannon, is presenting the trophy. He met his own ignominious end in 1979 in the arms of his mistress.

14 comments:

:) said...

No idea...but that's one happening hair-do!

Coongrats on the fast swim and the weight loss!

Laura said...

Hmm - tricky photo - something to do with horse racing - the Triple Crown? The short guy is some famous jockey. That's all I've got.

Laura said...

Just did some looking up - very interesting!

I'm curious to know what prompted the photo???

Cliff said...

very hungry..i know how that feels.

Julia said...

Ethel Kennedy?

1700 calories sounds about right (maybe even more) when trying to lose weight AND workout. The hungry part is usually in the first week, after that if you're still hungry you should look more at WHAT you're eating.

William said...

As long as the 1700 calories does not inculde the calories you used while swimming. (an extra 300-500 there)

Flo said...

Nice swim!! Hungry is a natural state lately :(

Una said...

Hey Nancy!

Is there any chance you're not eating enough and your body is hoarding every calorie? Your training schedule is mental (in a fantastic way), 1700 doesn't seem like a lot.

Are you aiming for a certain calorie deficit (I'm a fitdayer too) each day/week to reach that 3500=1lb or are you aiming to eat a certain number per day?

I'm battling the scales as always and trying to find the magic deficit number. Looks like mine is a deficit of 5500 calories to lose 1 lb. Ugh.

Brooke said...

I love fitday. I am so addicted to it. Good luck with the weight loss.

Nancy Toby said...

I think I've simply eaten too many calories and I need to trim them down in order to lose weight. I mean, a consistent 1 lb./month weight loss is great, but I'm a little more impatient than that because I want to improve my speed in some of my upcoming events this year.

No hard-and-fast cutoffs yet, and no major self-deprivation, just normal foods in a good balance. After I track calories for a few weeks and see how that goes, I'll decide what to tweak further.

Danny said...

i wouldn't even know how to look it up!

(but then again, you left the answer in the filename, so all i had to do was mouse over the pictures!)

Papa Tweet said...

1722 doesn't sound like many calories, let alone for someone in training for an Ironman? Are you sure your getting enough. I'm no dietician though, so I could be waaaay off. Just seems that way to me upon first glance. I tried to starve myself when I first started training and I ended up sick every three weeks or so. Since then, I don't count calories. I just eat when I'm hungry. And I stop eating before I'm full. I eat a little all day. That way, I never get tanked up, but I get what my body needs. Also, I started drinking recovery drinks and it reduced how much I ate post workout dramatically. It was like my body needed something, so I ate until it got what it needed. But, the recovery drink gives me exactly what I need, nothing more, nothing less. I also pay close attention to the carb thing. High, med, low glycemic carbs. I'm not trying to preach my lack of knowledge on you or anything. You probably already know all this. But, when I first started training, I lost a ton of weight. Then, I hit a point where I couldn't lose anymore. I added these tips and bamm, I lost 13 more pounds. Well, plus I trained my ass off for IMAZ. But, you are about to do the same thing. Hope this helps. If you think I'm full of shit, please discard this comment and I will promptly agree with you regarding my being full of shit. Take care and good luck
Benny

Nancy Toby said...

No, I appreciate it, Benny! I just haven't gotten into any really high-volume training yet, so I'm not burning all that many exercise calories. I've NEVER bamm lost any pounds in my whole damn life. :-(

But if I just ate when I was hungry, I'd be eating ALL THE TIME. Honest.

Dawn - Pink Chick Tris said...

Congrats on the weight loss and on the great swim month. April will likely be a "no swim" month for me. I have surgery (female thing)in a week and no swimming allowed for a few weeks after. Swim a few meters for me will ya.