Summer 2019 fitness goals

Welcome to the first day of Summer 2019! 

We’re going to have a great time here at Pierini Fitness chasing the latest round of our middle-aged man fitness, health and wellness goals.  If you read the previous post, you’ll learn of my previous goals and whether I achieved them.

Continuing with a season-timing theme of goals, Pierini Fitness will share his Summer 2019 fitness goals. He’ll train diligently to achieve them by the first day of Fall 2019.

Here they are:

Complete a 10k fun run at a 9:00 mile pace

As previously shared, Pierini Fitness will run the Wharf to Wharf 6-mile fun run next month, the last Sunday in July.  He’s training with his goal in mind and will share his results after the fun run.

Run one mile on a high school track in 7:30

An earlier attempt not that long ago at this fitness feat was clocked at 8:36. Pierini Fitness will concentrate his training for this goal after his fun run race. The goal time is much slower than when he would regularly run this distance at a 6-minute mile pace.

Complete 100 alternating pull-ups and chin-ups in 20 minutes

This is a carryover goal from Spring 2019 and one that was almost achieved but not quite.  His best time is 20:03 done earlier this week, close but not close enough.  This goal is now further refined to being able to complete the 100 count in sets of 5 rep minimums.  So, for example, 20 rounds of 5 reps would be the minimum getting the goal accomplished. 

Maintain bodyweight of 172-177 lbs. for 98 percent of Summer 2019 days

There are 94 days in Summer 2019 so to meet this goal, he needs to have a morning weigh-in weight in this range for at least 92 days.  Pierini Fitness weighed in at 172.1 lbs. yesterday, when this was composed.

Achieve 16 percent body fat

A recent DXA-Scan measured his body fat at 18.8 percent, so a 16 percent body fat is a challenging goal.  Keeping the same bodyweight of 172 lbs. will require gaining about four lbs. of muscle and losing the same in body fat.  Doing this while maintaining the same bodyweight is very challenging.  

A dozen plus years ago, last time at 16 percent?

Trim waist to 32 inches

This goal goes hand in hand with the 16 percent body fat goal.  Pierini Fitness has about 1.5 inches to taper.

My starting point a couple days ago

Bump VO2 Max to 46

Never a big tracker of his VO2 Max, Pierini Fitness now pays attention to it because his Garmin Forerunner 35 regularly calculates and updates it based on his fitness training activities.

VO2 Max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity) is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption measured during incremental exercise of increasing intensity.  The “V” is for volume, O2 is for “oxygen”.  VO2 Max is a measure of maximal oxygen consumption and, therefore, cardio-respiratory fitness and endurance capacity when exercising.

Pierini Fitness has a current VO2 Max reading that bounces back and forth between 43 and 44, ranking him in the top 10 percent for his age group.  The 46 goal means he has some work to do. 

There you go Pierini Fitness sports fans, my Summer 2019 fitness goals.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Middle-aged man chatter and white smoke

Pierini Fitness is an analytical fitness dude and likes objective measures to validate what he has accomplished or failed to accomplish.  This requires fitness, health and wellness goals that are expressed using a measurement of some type and a way of subsequently measuring results.  Anything else, the way he sees it, is middle-aged man chatter and white smoke.

Earlier this year, around the beginning of Spring, he set the following goals to achieve by the first day of Summer 2019 which is a few days around the corner:

(1)  Complete 100 pull-ups in 20 minutes.

(2)  Complete 100 bar dips in 15 minutes.

(3)  Complete a kettlebell (KB) complex using a 24kg KB consisting of 4 rounds of 8 reps each of swing, clean and push jerk with each arm, followed by 100 burpees in 20 minutes.

(4)  Enter and complete a 10k fun run and run it at a 9-minute mile pace.

(5)  Achieve a body weight of 172 lbs. with a body fat of 18 percent.

Since summer begins next week on June 17^th, Pierini Fitness has decided it’s time to report his results.

Complete 100 pull-ups in 20 minutes

Pierini Fitness chose to do this alternating between pull-ups and chin-ups for a better upper body workout.  While it’s true that chin-ups are generally easier than pull-ups, tweaking this goal, in his opinion, didn’t diminish the challenge. 

His best time thus far completing 100 reps is 20:40 on June 3^rd.  He may, or may not, complete another 100-rep workout by the first day of summer so the 20:40 is his final best result.  Therefore, he got close but failed to achieve the 20-minute goal.

Complete 100 bar dips in 15 minutes

This goal was achieved twice with the latest being 100 bar dips completed in 13:46 on June 4^th.  Goal accomplished.

Complete a kettlebell complex (described above) in 20 minutes

This goal got “parked” as the demands of running started to take more of his time.  It’s a tough goal and one that Pierini Fitness hopes to eventually tackle.  Bottom line, goal abandoned and not accomplished.

Enter and complete a 10k fun run and run it at a 9-minute mile pace

As previously reported here at Pierini Fitness, the fun run will be the Wharf to Wharf 6-mile run taking place the last Sunday of July.  It’s a run beginning at the Santa Cruz Wharf and ending at the nearby Capitola Wharf.  Pierini Fitness is currently training diligently for it with every intention of achieving his goal. 

He’ll give a report on how he did by early August.

Achieve a body weight of 172 lbs. with a body fat of 18 percent

Pierini Fitness has weighed in at 172 lbs. or less 31 days since the first time he did so on April 17^th, including yesterday when this was written.  He has since better defined his goal weight as between 172 and 177 lbs.

He had a DXA body scan done earlier this week to accurately measure his lean muscle, fat, bone density and visceral fat.  It’s a great value service provided by BODYMAP360 and one that he highly recommends.  The price he paid of $49 is far less than the valuable information provided. 

Pierini Fitness measured at 18.8 percent body fat, slightly over the 18 percent goal, but he’s nonetheless pleased with the results.  Since the last test done on April 10^th, his body weight was 0.8 lbs. less but the good news is that he lost 4.1 lbs. of fat while gaining 3.4 lbs. of lean muscle (0.1 lbs. variance due to rounding.)

So, while the goal was not achieved by 0.8 percent, it’s close enough to say that it was. 

Working with his cyberspace fitness training partner, Pierini Fitness will be defining the next round of his fitness, health and wellness goals to chase during the summer with a measurement date by the first day of fall in September. 

And, he’ll have objective measures to validate what he hopes to accomplish because anything else is middle-aged man chatter and white smoke.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum