Run, Lolo, Run!

Mmmm...

In February, my brother and I were watching the Visa Championship series -- Track & Field events -- at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston. Since I admire speed and raw power, I am naturally drawn only to the sprint-based events like the 60m and Pole Vault. Lolo Jones caught my eye instantly. While I believe that Chinese women have the delicate facial features that define ultimate female beauty, African women, IMHO, have the capacity to have the best bodies of all the human races. Lolo is mixed race but I saw absolutely no weaknesses on her. Plus she has a great attitude to boot!

2077

No, I am not involved in the making of a movie called "2077". Nor is it a prediction of when I expect to acquire Sixth Sense syndrome. 2077 is the number of calories I have been consuming as part of my nutrition plan for Spring Training 2008. I don't nitpick at every aspect of my diet. For instance, I treated myself to a glass of blush wine last night. And then I brushed my teeth and went to sleep like a baby. Good manly stuff!

I use a log at http://www.calorie-count.com/. Very useful! The foods here come to approximately 2077 calories.

But...I don't eat the Quinoa and the Chicken everyday. I eat the Quinoa -- or, for a change, Pasta with roasted garlic and olive oil -- only on non-training days. I eat the Chicken only on training days. By the way, the Chicken is pan roasted in its own fat -- I add only a dab of olive oil and a select bunch of spices to it. The rest of the items in the list are consumed 6 days out of the week. So I have been eating anywhere from 1700 to 2400 calories a day. My diet gets a bit out of control on Sundays, which is when I visit my folks. But I let that be...

Cheese free and ready in 5 minutes!

1. Fiber, a whopping 75% of the recommended daily intake, is obtained primarily from the bananas (2 to 3 medium), blueberries (1 cup) and a big salad. Yay! During the BC phase -- due to begin toward the middle of April -- I will add a second salad along with either Chicken or Beef. But more on that after it starts happening.

2. I eat 4 whole eggs a day. None of that egg white only stuff.

3. Notice that there is no fruit juice in the list. I don't drink fruit juices anymore.

4. It's official! I have completely switched to organic coffee! I was also pleasantly surprised to recently find that we stock organic coffee at my office as well.

Allegro's Organic Italian Roast, at a whopping $12 a package, has a brewed texture like butter. Although, after brewing, it does not seem to be as aromatic as non-organic coffee (around $6 a package).

5. I also consume 4 servings of goat milk in a week. Each serving has 33% calcium. I never bother about my calcium intake but I thought I would mention it anyway.

Mmmm. Luxuriously delicious!

First Fishing Trip of 2008

Well, all we got this morning was a lone trout from the depths of Goose Pond in Chatham. Travis reeled it in and it surrendered without much of a struggle. Anyway, here are some photos from this morning.


Goose Pond's deepest point is 50 feet below. It was very windy and cold. The first spot we tried to cast from had the wind in our faces. So we moved to another spot across the pond where it was relatively calm and warm. Occasional gusts of wind hit the surface of the pond with a whack.


Not sure what Travis and Russ were looking at. But this was a good shot.


Travis carefully inspects the trout he had just reeled in. With the surface of the pond much colder than its depths, I suppose most of the marine life decided to stay under its thermocline.

A poignant moment for father and son (that trout probably felt otherwise).

I was made to sit down and pose...with that fish. Man, I do love that 50mm prime lens I had on my Nikon. I think that I will use it more this year. It is very light and small to carry around.

RIP - Raghuvaran (49)

"Arunachalam, mariyadhaiya pesu."

Raghuvaran is...was one of my all-time favorite actors. He always had a presence no matter how small -- good or evil -- a role he played. When I saw him in a movie, there was a feeling that everything would be alright. Kinda the same feeling I get when I watch Christopher Walken in action :)

Memorable Scenes

Errare humanum est

This huge lens was introduced at PMA 2008. It is meant for conventional photography. But even if I could afford it--its a whopping $25G before tax and shipping--you wouldn't catch me carrying it around--it weighs 35 lbs--in downtown Boston. I could be taken down by Boston Police for suspicious behavior.

Had this lens been around last year, Eliot Spitzer would have been caught doing the nasty earlier.

Ken Rockwell has a note on this lens in his website.

Spring Training 2008

Spring training actually began in early February after I had returned from India. I was done with snowboarding by that time. For me, Spring training is roughly 5 months of periodization and comprises of a GPP, a strength, a body composition (BC) and a brief hypertrophy phase. The BC phase is new for this year and I am not as interested in hypertrophy as I used to be. Let me explain.

The GPP Phase

GPP stands for General Physical Preparedness and is your ability to be prepared to do any sport on a given day. During this phase, I work on fixing imbalances throughout my body as well as attempt to recover any lost "basic" work capacity. This year, the GPP phase comprised of ice skating, some hiking and calisthenics at home.


Not I.

I ice skated about 5 times in February. I timed 3 of those ice skating sessions to be first dates as well :) I hiked 20 miles of trails in the Smokies during the last weekend of February. The calisthenics involved a lot of unilateral work--for example, lunges and single-leg squats. I hit the gym only once during the entire month. This phase is also the time when I take the least amount of fish oil--no more than 2 grams a day. The GPP phase ended March 2.

The Strength Phase

I am currently in the strength phase. This year, during this phase, I will be concentrating on a high volume of training in as little time as possible (perhaps as less as 1/2 hour per training session). I will also up the fish oil intake to around 6 - 8 grams a day. I will be using the back squat quite a bit during this phase and it will lay the foundation for the sprinting in the next (that is, the BC) phase.

Not me either.

For the first 3 weeks, I plan on doing only one movement per session for upto 3 sessions a week. As an example,

Session 1: Back Squats (10 sets of 3 repetitions).
Session 2: Weighted Dips or Push Presses (10x3).
Session 3: Barbell Rows or Weighted Chins (10x3).

The strength phase will end in mid-April and will comprise of no other physical activities. I will also take the 4th week off from training. Then the last two weeks will comprise of a modified version of the above weight training approach albeit with an important role played by Romanian Deadlifts and some direct Ab work.

I will talk about my approach to the BC and hypertrophy phases later.