<p>Thanks, busdriver! Cool stuff. Too bad the event is sold out for this year, but I will definitely keep an eye for the next year’s registration!</p>
<p>I guess you gotta register early, for some bizarre reason, the suffering seems popular this year. My husband talked me into doing it, and we will probably be one of the top teams (due to the 3 other people’s time, not mine)! But hey, I can have bragging rights for participation.</p>
<p>Busdriver:</p>
<p>You definite want to practice the “rest step” before climing 69 flights of stairs. It will go a long way towards keeping your quads from burning, which will send your heart rate thru the roof.</p>
<p>It’s basically just fully locking the knee of leg to complete each step and pausing as you swing the other leg forward. Locking the knee takes the weight off the muscle with each step. You can pause almost imperceptibly or pause while you take a breath depending on how gassed you are!</p>
<p>[Walking</a> Trips and the Rest Step - YouTube](<a href=“Walking Trips and the Rest Step - YouTube”>Walking Trips and the Rest Step - YouTube)</p>
<p>[Kick</a> Step and Rest Step - YouTube](<a href=“Kick Step and Rest Step - YouTube”>Kick Step and Rest Step - YouTube)</p>
<p>[Training</a> for Kilimanjaro: The Rest Step - YouTube](<a href=“Training for Kilimanjaro: The Rest Step - YouTube”>Training for Kilimanjaro: The Rest Step - YouTube)</p>
<p><a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube;
<p>If you consciously try to slow down and use the rest step, you’ll probably need to stop and huff and puff a lot less. Once your legs start burning, you’ll have to stop pretty soon. The rest step really works to keep that from happening as often. Nice even stair steps would be the perfect place to use it.</p>
<p>Thanks, idad! We’ll definitely look at that. I need all the help I can get, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>Thanks, idad and hop, for those great videos!
I am officially down 13lbs as of this a.m., and while I’m gunning for triple that over time, I also know from past experience that the first 10-15 are the easiest, so this time I will be prepared to kick it up a notch. Your tips are helping me gather some strategies to do that, and I think mch is even starting to contemplate moving his body, which is the 7th sign of the apocalypse ;). (He’s down 15 lbs as of yesterday.) I found him online ordering some new fangled scale that allegedly does some kind of body read/bmi etc via electrical pulse or something, and he brought home an extra DVD player for the pool house. The latter may not indicate a willingness to participate so much as a desire to keep me away from our various glass tables and sculptures with the kettlebell!</p>
<p>Can anyone suggest a youtube link for simple stretching? I am a runner (5-9 miles per day) and lift weights for the upper body. I realize I am super stiff. Yoga is too advanced. I can hardly touch my toes.</p>
<p>Blech, I hate Monday. Yesterday’s numbers: </p>
<p>Cals 920
Fat 40 g
Carbs 69 g
Fiber 16 g
Protein 89 g
Sugars 5 g</p>
<p>Spent most of last evening working on taxes. I’d love to know how many calories you burn steaming over the IRS.</p>
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<p>I use some commercial videos for stretching at home but before runs, I go through a stretching routine that’s on wall charts in our fitness center at the office. It’s a quick limber up to warm up and loosen up before a run.</p>
<p>On YouTube videos for workouts - I just usually type in a few search terms and look for something that looks interesting and give it a try. I like workouts to be compatible with what I like to do or try.</p>
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<p>Me too. But my stiffness has come from years of tennis. These days, I just try to keep from getting tighter.</p>
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<p>There are easy Yoga routines out there - and Yoga has various schools and exercises. There’s a strength-building aspect of Yoga too - it’s not all about flexibility.</p>
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<p>I like to do a little at a time instead of doing it all at once. We’re still waiting for 1099 forms to come in from brokerages. I’d say that we’re about 70% done. TurboTax makes life a lot easier though it’s still a decent amount of work.</p>
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<p>Don’t blame the IRS; they’re just the enforcers. It’s like blaming the police for bad laws.</p>
<p>Blame Congress.</p>
<p>Kmc–wonderful results for you and mch! I was chuckling over your post and apocolypse comment. Very inspirational.</p>
<p>KMC- excellent work! Nice weight loss!</p>
<p>I’ve apparently really gotten myself into something for this Saturday! This race is apparently as hard as Monkey! I will really be happy if I get through it on my feet. The nice thing is I didn’t suffer through a lot of long runs in preparation! :)</p>
<p>Chinablue - prevailing thought is to do dynamic stretching prior to running and static stretching after. However every body is different. I found that I need to do BOTH prior to running. If I don’t do any static stretching for my calf muscles I end up with problems. The folks down at the Furman running institute suggested this. Their book “Run less Run faster” includes recommended strength/ stretching for runners.</p>
<p>MOWC - do a Rosie Ruiz!</p>
<p>I was thinking that you could do a Rosie Ruiz on the stair event. Isn’t that what elevators are for?</p>
<p>Or helicopter.</p>
<p>I’m not a runner, but from listening to a lot of trainer/strength coach types, the problem for runners (and really all of us) is not a lack of stretching, but an overall imbalance. </p>
<p>The classic example is the “meat head” who goes to the gym and spends all his time doing bench press, but never doing chin ups or the “balancing” exercises. He ends up looking like a gorilla, hunched over, unable to move his shoulders. Stretching won’t cure that.</p>
<p>Runners have the same problem. They are doing the same limited range of motion over and over and over, miles at a time. All in one plane of motion. Almost all thighs/quad muscles, very little glutes/butt muscles. Over time these imbalances show up as ‘stiffness’. The answer is not stretching, but doing full-body exercises that work the key joints in all planes and through full range of motion. </p>
<p>Runners especially need to work glutes/hips and upper body. These two Rachel Cosgrove workout programs, done 2 or 3 days a week, are the kinds of exercises that will help a LOT over time.</p>
<p><a href=“http://experiencelife.com/video/the-one-month-to-muscles-workout/[/url]”>http://experiencelife.com/video/the-one-month-to-muscles-workout/</a></p>
<p>[Sleek/Strong</a> Training Program With Rachel Cosgrove - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8331D8B7D2E9C256]Sleek/Strong”>Sleek/Strong Training Program With Rachel Cosgrove - YouTube)</p>
<p>I think that stiffness isn’t necessarily related to muscle imbalances.</p>
<p>I’ve seen lots of runners that are incredibly flexible over the decades and they typically do the common stretching routines before their runs (maybe afterwards too). Same thing with tennis players - some are very, very tight and some are loose. I don know that stretching helps. The problem is doing it on a regular basis as it is so easy to skip.</p>
<p>I feel really great after doing P90X Stretch-X but it’s hard devoting an hour workout to stretching.</p>
<p>“I was thinking that you could do a Rosie Ruiz on the stair event. Isn’t that what elevators are for?”</p>
<p>Who wants to get in the news for that? Though the trainers say if you can use elevators to go down, when you are training, that is the way to go. Apparently all the pain and muscle fatigue is from going down, not up. But I find that rather hard to believe.</p>
<p>Uphill is far more exhausting in terms of panting and heart rate. Downhill causes much more soreness.</p>
<p>Same thing with weight lifting. If you really want to be sore the next day, lower the weights slowly, stretching it out as long as you can. It’s the lowering (“eccentric”) that causes the soreness for some reason. Walking downhill is all “eccentric”. I feel it in the outside of my hips. Walking down 69 flights of stairs would definitely cause some soreness!</p>
<p>^^Oh yep, that would hurt! But I think they won’t even let us walk down the stairs, as there will be thousands of people going up. Jeez, could be a long line for the elevator! The trainers say that when you have to walk down a lot of stairs, to vary how you do it, from walking backwards, sideways, bow legged, anything to vary it so you aren’t using the same muscles. And you know, after running 1300 stairs yesterday and going down them all, I’m not even sore after taking that advice.</p>
<p>Day off for me today. </p>
<p>Mt Greylock would be a great hike Idad. You can also stay overnight at a place called Bascom Lodge. Some friends did that a few years ago.</p>
<p>Kettle bells can do damage–I accidentally let one go while doing swings and luckily it didn’t damage anything except my ego – felt like everyone in the gym turned around to see who created the commotion!</p>