<p>13.1 miles with my daughter with the 26 4 26 group. We had about 1200 runners, I would guess. Hard to tell what everyone was doing- lots did 1 loop (6.5) but some did 26.2. Started at 25 degrees but clear with almost no wind (thank God). Got up to upper 30s. It was still chilly in the shaded parts. My legs felt tired. We made it and it was neat to be part of this. All the news crews were there and someone baked hundreds of cookies and put them in individual baggies for the runners to have at the end. My child was Jesse Lewis, age 6. I had an “angel” with his name on it pinned to my jacket. My daughter ran for the 52 year old teacher.</p>
<p>That sounds like a great event, MOWC.</p>
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<p>dstark:</p>
<p>I don’t really think in terms of specific “upper body” and “lower body” workouts. That’s more from the body-builder school of training. Virtually every workout I’ve ever done has some warmup/flexibility exercises, some core strength/stability exercises, a push, a pull, and a couple of exercises for the legs. In the last year or so, all of them have also included some kind of “power” exercise (jumping, medicine ball slams, etc.) So, I touch all the bases in every workout. It’s a good approach for general fitness because you can alternate upper body and lower body exercises in each workout and shorten up the rest periods and limit soreness.</p>
<p>Specific measures:</p>
<p>Haaa… When I started, I coudn’t do big-boy pushups. I had to do them from my knees. Now, I do sets of 12 pushups with my feet on a weight bench, or my feet in TRX straps, or my feet on a stability ball, or (right now) my hands in TRX straps. I’ve even done the dreaded [T-pushup[/url</a>], which is one of the hardest exercises I’ve ever done.</p>
<p>The first time I did [url=<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Febn7AVEzWw]3-pt”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Febn7AVEzWw]3-pt</a> rows](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-eGCkjMtWE]T-pushup[/url”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-eGCkjMtWE), I used a 10 lb dumbbell. Now, I do sets of 12 on each arm with a 60 lb DB, and really should go up to 65 lb.</p>
<p>Chin ups were a long term challenge. Now I can do 4 good ones. </p>
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<p>I disagree with Tom that chin ups should be easy. Chin ups are one of the most difficult exercises for adults and most people in our age bracket can’t do one. BC is right, you’ve got to be very careful with them, especially if you have any shoulder or elbow issues. Inverted rows are a better place to start, because you can infinitely adjust the difficulty, depending on the angle of your body to the floor.</p>
<p>[Inverted</a> Row - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t97EjUsCFNw]Inverted”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t97EjUsCFNw)
[TRX</a> Inverted Row - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT3HawMbWnM]TRX”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT3HawMbWnM)</p>
<p>The 3-pt rows, linked above, are fantastic and safe, too.</p>
<p>TOM:</p>
<p>I’ve never tried a NordicTrack and the last time I cross-country skied was back in college. I get a little bit of that action on the rare times when I hike on smooth, level bit of trail as I am hiking with trekking poles. Alas, most of the trails are too steep and rocky to get any kind of pace like that. I’m hoping that I’ll get a little more of it snowshoeing on easy terrain.</p>
<p>Yay MOWC. That sounds terrific. Good exercise and a good cause. What’s not to like!</p>
<p>Interesteddad, thanks. </p>
<p>I definitely don’t want to hurt myself so I will start out slow. I am going to workout now so I will check those videos later.</p>
<p>"The first time I did 3-pt rows, I used a 10 lb dumbbell. Now, I do sets of 12 on each arm with a 60 lb DB, and really should go up to 65 lb.</p>
<p>Chin ups were a long term challenge. Now I can do 4 good ones."</p>
<p>That is awesome.</p>
<p>I am kind of dreading this upcoming week and a half…starting today. I know I am going to gain weight this week. Too many big dinners. Less time for exercise. It gets me a little down when I see the weight go
up…even if it is just 2 pounds. We work so hard to take the weight off, and it can go back up fast. Somebody dropped a box of Sees candy at my house. I am eating the candy even though I know it is almost a poison.</p>
<p>I know Iam not the only one here that hates to see the numbers go higher on a scale.</p>
<p>Mowc, what is your resting heart rate? What does your heart rate get to when you run a marathon? When you just run 5 miles during a training run?
That run you did for the kids must have been very emotional.</p>
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<p>You may be pleasantly surprised. I have not found that diet and exercise (more or less) correlates that directly with day to day weight fluctuations. Alas, the equations (whatever they may be) appear to be more complex that that.</p>
<p>My resting heart rate, on verge of falling asleep in my chair this afternoon, was 49, although it is typically more in the 52 to 54 range.</p>
<p>My resting HR is about 51-53. Sitting quietly in a meeting, even after some caffeine, it’s usually 54-60. My target aerobic training zone is 136-148. My max is 186 (tested). I can average 163 or a little more in a 5K and that feels like I’m about to die. Marathon really depends on hills and how much I walk! In the Monkey I averaged 141 with a max of 160, but there was a lot of walking involved. 10 miler before that I was 151/166, but I wasn’t able to race all out since I was tired. December 1 5K was 163/170. That hurt!</p>
<p>dstark–eat one piece of candy and give the rest away. Or throw it away. It’s not worth the calories!</p>
<p>I should throw the candy away.</p>
<p>“You may be pleasantly surprised.”</p>
<p>No. I wish. I might be unpleasantly surprised. I weighed 150.5 pounds before I went to sleep last night. Right now, I might weigh 150.5. I just worked out for 90 minutes too. I am going out to dinner at a friend’s house. I am going to weigh 152.5 or so after dinner. The body will get rid of a pound. Going to go to bed weighing 151.5. Might get lucky and weigh 151 tonight, I don’t think so. Then it repeats multiple times over the next 10 days.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, do you think you are going to weigh the same Jan1 as today?</p>
<p>Mowc, I didn’t realize your heartbeat goes up so high when you run. I am glad I asked that question. Those are really high rates for a long time. The other runners have their hearts beating at similar rates?</p>
<p>“December 1 5K was 163/170. That hurt!”</p>
<p>I bet. You feel that in your chest and You aren’t worried because your maximum is higher?</p>
<p>Yeah- You really need to know your max to figure out the right training zones. If my legs are really tired on a training run I might average in the high 130s, but usually I average in my target zone but over 143. In hot weather I can easily average in the mid 150s training. I can pretty much tell when I’m working too hard for whatever distance I’m trying to run.</p>
<p>Wow. Well, I am fairly certain my max isn’t 186. </p>
<p>I hate the feeling in my chest of the heart beating fast. I thought somehow you marathoners were so fit you didn’t have that sensation or the pain.</p>
<p>dstark, how many times are you weighing yourself a day, if you don’t mind me asking? </p>
<p>I weigh myself once a week. Same time, same day. That way I am not discouraged or falsely encouraged by fluctuations that may be caused by too much salt, dehydration, hormonal issues, etc.</p>
<p>Guys- never said pullups are easy. I said they are easier at 148 lbs than they are at 200 plus.</p>
<p>BC I do not have arm trouble. I rested let my elbow heal and am now doing weight assisted pullups and just some sets at body weight but less reps.</p>
<p>Sabaray, many times a day. I know it is a little ocd, but I know my body. I can’t let the weight get away from me.</p>
<p>I threw the rest of the candy out.</p>
<p>I am eating over 3,000 calories today. And many days in the next 10. Then things will normalize.</p>
<p>I don’t think I am having hormonal issues. :)</p>
<p>I burn about 1 pound during the night while I sleep. Sometimes a little less. </p>
<p>How much are other posters burning?</p>
<p>I knew one guy who burned 5 pounds a night. He was worried that he wasn’t going to eat enough, get sick one day and die.<br>
He was 6’ tall and about 130 pounds. He was in his late 20’s when I knew him.</p>
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<p>I’d like to weigh a little less 10 days from now, but we’ll see how it goes! I don’t have any desserts in the house (other than fresh fruit). Turkey dinner with stuffing is a bit of a high carb splurge, but not horrible. I’ll probably drink a little wine and maybe some single malt scotch. We’ll see.</p>
<p>My heart rate goes through the roof when I run. I’m not acclimated to running at all and I can’t bring myself to run slowly enough (slower than I can walk) to start changing things.</p>
<p>You made me add five more pounds to my 3-pt row dumbbell. 12 reps on each arm with 65 pounds. 12 reps was a stretch, but I did it. Good workout, but I cut it short by one round of strength exercises. Got late and I’m in the middle of house cleaning for Christmas with a shower still to scrub after dinner.</p>
<p>TRX pushups were really good. That exercise has been coming along nicely, although 12 reps is a lot for that one.</p>
<p>I do need to control what I eat.</p>
<p>“My heart rate goes through the roof when I run. I’m not acclimated to running at all and I can’t bring myself to run slowly enough (slower than I can walk) to start changing things.”</p>
<p>Oh boy…I don’t know about this running thing…heart rate thru the roof. </p>
<p>“You made me add five more pounds to my 3-pt row dumbbell. 12 reps on each arm with 65 pounds. 12 reps was a stretch, but I did it. Good workout,”</p>
<p>I made you? 
I am glad it was successful.</p>
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<p>That’s certainly true. Extra weight makes chin ups just about impossible unless you are crazy strong. The young whippersnappers do 'em with weight plates hanging from their waist. I don’t think I’ll be loading my chin ups any time soon!</p>
<p>I’ve actually hit a brick wall with them. Stuck at 3, 4, or maybe 5 reps. Part of that is that I do them a lot better now (less flailing around…). But, to get a decent number of reps in a set, I’ve got to do 3, then 2, then 1 or 4 then 2. It’s an all-out exercise for me.</p>
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<p>Yeah, when I went to check how much weight I had on the dumbbell, it made me remember that it really is time to bump it up a notch. I don’t try to kill myself with weight, but I do try to increase it a little bit when the sets get comfortable. With this particular workout, increasing to 12 rep sets has been enough of a stretch for most of the exercises, but the sets had been pretty smooth lately.</p>
<p>I tried to google the record for pullups and I found someone did 100 at one time and someone else did 400+ over 24 hours, I actually thought the record was more than 100 I thought a gymnast held the record. I was surprised that the record with a 45 lb weight was only 18. I think that is because no one has really tried that. I remember a friend doing wide grip pullups with 2 45 lb plates and doing sets. I actually believe my brother could give that record a run if he trained. He was a pullup machine as a kid.</p>