The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Standing on the Precipice

Dare to Lose kickoff ! Standing at the precipice of change.

I participated in the kick off for Dare to Lose this past weekend and got to meet my fellow competitors. It was nice to see that we all had different goals, needs and age ranges. We have been split into two teams: North ( 2 females 1 male) and South (1 female 2 males). I am on the south team, and we will be competing both individually and as a team. I really like my team, but also really like the other women in the competition. 

Saturday morning began with me meeting my trainer: Ethan. I have full confidence that he is going to pull every ounce of will out of me, and shape me into my strongest and healthiest version possible. I may need to buy stock in Advil before this is all over, but it will be worth it. Anyway, I met him and had my Fitness Evaluation done. It was a bit disturbing, but if you don't know where you start how can you find your way to a new outcome? 

Results

Apparently I am living in the body of a 49 yr old instead of my true age of 39 yrs.  I find this highly disturbing, though it may explain why my arms hurt from simply typing.  Ethan has assured me that we can lower that number to younger than my biological age by the end of this three months. I certainly hope so!

My blood pressure is good at 108/64, and I am happy about that, but it seems to be where the good news ends.

My bicep strength is on the verge of average, but really still considered fair. It was estimated at 35 lbs and need to be at least 58 lbs to be good. With how my arms hurt today I have a feeling we are working on this one, big time.

My sit & reach flexibility is abysmal! As a runner this wasn't all that surprising, and something I want to focus on. That reminds me, I need to stretch today... On to the numbers: my sit & reach was 11.6 in and needs to improve to 16.3. So I need to reach 5 inches further. That seems like an impossible gap to close, but I am resolved to improve!

We then moved to the VO2 Max test. VO2 Max is defined as the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use/consume during exercise. The higher your VO2 max, the fitter and faster you are. Getting faster is one of my biggest goals; improving this number is really important to me.

I will say that I have taken a break from running since October. I ran a 10 mile race then, and after it was complete I hung up my shoes. I needed to recover and rest and injured foot; then my kids and I seemed to trade upper respiratory infections continuously until a couple weeks ago. I know that my O2 uptake isn't great, as I do have asthma that shows up when I catch these colds. Enough excuses, my results were disappointing! 

Assessment time: 9 min   Sub-max: 154  VO2 Max: 29.9 

In order to move into the Very Good/Elite category that we are shooting for I need to improve to a Max of 44 or higher. Ethan tells me this is possible, but I have a feeling that is why I almost passed out during our first work out. More on that later.

Lastly the ugly; the dreaded Body Fat %! My official beginning weigh in:160 lbs. with a bf%: 35.1. This puts me in the very high category. It means that I am carrying 56.2 lbs of fat! Yuck, yuck, yuck! My goal over the next three months will be to keep my lean body mass at 103 lbs and to decrease my fat mass so that I end with a healthy bf% of around 19%.

Doing this assessment was great, despite having to face the truth: I have a lot of room to improve and I am not as healthy as I want. Ethan and I were able to talk and set realistic goals. I feel that moving forward we have a plan that will lead me to my fitness and health goals. When this is over I will be fit enough to begin marathon training! I will do it! It is really exciting!

Once my assessment was over, I headed to the north Miramont location and met everyone. It was a great opportunity to talk with everyone and hear their stories. I think that even though this is a competition we are going to be great support for each other. May we all end up with a healthier lifestyle, and let the best man/woman win!