<p>Could do a run today (yesterday was rest day) but giving myself permission to wait and go to the gym tomorrow and do the treadmill and will settle for walking the dog today for about an hour total.</p>
<p>I DESPERATELY need a haircut! Am hoping to make a hair appt this week - my very thick, very curly/wavy dark hair is currently grown out of its previous short style and I’ll be looking for a cut that let’s it be curly and not necessarily controlled for the upcoming warm weather (it WILL get warm, right?). AND a style that will now fit my new lifestyle with fitness built in - so NO FUSS!!! Wish me luck - I will need it!</p>
<p>Ruth’s Chris would be a piece of cake (so to speak) for sticking to my nutrition. All of the entrees (mostly steak and plain seafood) are good for dieters. There are good sides including fresh asparagus, spinach, and salads. Even the appetizers look pretty healthy. I could get out of there in good shape dietwise (probably not so much, wallet-wise!). In fact, their menu bears a striking resemblance to the way I eat much of the time. Either a filet mignon or a rib eye and a side of asparagus would work. Could do salad instead. That would push the calories higher, but still healthy stuff. Skip the french fries and the baked potato and the au gratins (don’t need it with the steak).</p>
<p>The restaurants that are tough are the ones where everything is battered or served on pasta or loaded up with bread and potatoes and rice. When I get stuck in a place like that, I often turn to something like onion soup or chowder and a salad.</p>
<p>MOWC – haha you’re dead on with that one. I do know I need to do more hills. Some of the mountain goats in my trail group blow me away on the hills. Give me a smooth level surface.</p>
<p>Glad to hear a fast walk is almost as good as a run since my calf muscle still refuses to run. I just walked 5.1 at 15:15 per mile in a hilly neighborhood(elevation max gain was 778 ft) against a strong wind. That makes 25 walking miles for me this week.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I just did a stint on the treadmill at 20% grade. 4 mph would be very tough. I think I was around 2.5 mph, which was not uncomfortable and I was able to hold that for 1/2 hour with another 1/2 hour on the stair master. But 4 mph isn’t a slow walk even on the flat, can’t really imagine it on that kind of an incline.</p>
<p>Today was a rest day, with the exception of practicing the Turkish get up. Girl in the video makes it looks simple, but coordinating the various steps correctly isn’t easy. Hence, the practice.</p>
<p>When I was playing around with the treadmill, I couldn’t do 4.0 mph at 10% grade. If I recall, I could do 3.5 mph, but it was a pretty intense workout and just a matter of a few minutes before I was dripping sweat and seeing very high heart rates. I actually have to really focus on walking very fast to average 4 mph on a flat, smooth terrain walk. I can’t do it if it’s hilly and, even on flat terrain, it’s not an enjoyable pace, so it kind of defeats the purpose of a nice walk!</p>
<p>2.5 mph at 20% grade is moving pretty fast.</p>
<p>Garmin GPS Watch is almost fully charged. I put it on my iPad charger - looks like it’s a lot faster than charging off a computer port. The iPad charger is 10 watts compared to 2.5 watts off the computer.</p>
<p>I keep the treadmill on flat for running. I could see setting it to a specific % incline because you know what you’re getting, but I wouldn’t be interested in trying something like random hills because if you’re outside and you encounter a hill part of how your body knows what to do is seeing what’s coming. With the treadmill it seems like it would be unexpected, blind hills, and that could make it easy to trip and fall.</p>
<p>I can comfortably walk 4.5 mph on the flats with no apparent exertion. In fact, I’ve had strong runners not be able to keep up with my fast walk, suggesting I look into competitive speed walking. I am probably way better suited for that then running, although I know that true speed walking has its own elites and is no “walk in the park”. Put me on any kind of hill, though, and it’s a whole different story! I am hoping to improve my ability there by incorporating more incline stuff and the dreaded stair master. I am hoping to join in some group hikes and I want to be able to keep up.</p>
<p>busdriver: my regular gym doesn’t have treadmills that can do it, either. Neither does the one I have at home.
The super duper gym I get to go to once a week (am in a class there, but am not a member) has Woodways that have an extra long and wide surface, go up to a very fast speed and high incline. I haven’t checked how far beyond 20% they go, but I do know they do more than that.</p>
<p>decided to just do a quick 1.25 miles run today because everything are still sore from yesterday’s long run. Walked, however, for about 1.5 miles, at a slow pace just get some leg time in.</p>
<p>I did a treadmill workout not too long ago that involved varying the speed and the grade; it was challenging for me but allowed me to avoid the unpredictable nature of the “random” treadmill, as Deborah so wisely pointed out. </p>
<p>Went to the gym today, 38 minutes on the elliptical. Walks with sabadog. D headed back to school around noon due to weather. We’re getting quite a bit of “wintry mix” here.</p>
<p>And I almost forgot this: there was a woman on a treadmill drinking a Red Bull. What are people thinking.</p>
<p>Sabaray, that workout has me intrigued. I may give it a shot sometime. I have no idea how I’d do. The hills on the trail where I usually run outside are pretty mild, and I haven’t gotten over to the hilly park (where I avoid the steepest hill ) in a while.</p>
<p>A couple of years of hiking in the mountains! I would count myself in the wimpy crowd and wouldn’t even attempt that one at this point in time. I can do 1500 feet in 2 miles or 750 feet per mile. 1000 feet per mile is steep. At least around here, anything as steep as they are describing is probably going to include quite a bit of rock scrambling.</p>
<p>Mt. Monadnock is 1800 feet of elevation gain in 2 miles. I came down that route, went up a route that was slightly longer, although essentially the same thing with an added half mile of level traverse. That was steep enough to get my attention on the rocks both going up and coming down – as in using hands and feet to climb the rocks.</p>
<p>Another one I did was 2000 feet in 3 miles. That one really wasn’t steep, it was just a long round trip.</p>
<p>One of the hikes I’m working towards is the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. It’s 2500 feet of elevation gain in 3.1 miles to an Appalachian Mountain Club hut. It is described as steep and grueling, especially because it starts out moderate and then gets really steep for the last mile. I’ve got some hikes to do before I try that one.</p>
<p>My experience so far is that hiking trail guides/descriptions tend to pretty accurate, but a bit understated. If they actually say it’s tough, you can count on it being pretty darn tough!</p>
<p>CJaneRead, that’s got to be Mailbox Peak. I’ve done it maybe 4-5 times, and it’s not that bad. The difficulty is, it’s tough going down if you didn’t bring poles, because of the steepness.</p>
<p>My dad spent about 15 years building an alternate trail to make it more accessible because of the insane elevation gain, but I’m not sure what’s left of that. The worst part is the soreness in your legs the next week, but apparently if you vary the way you walk while going down, that helps a lot. Of course, without poles, I’m just trying not to trip all the way down! What is crazy is that you see a number of people running Mailbox. On the way up!! Oh, to be in such great shape one day.</p>
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![http://images.summitpost.org/original/130952.JPG]Ammo](http://images.summitpost.org/original/130952.JPG%5DAmmo){kind=link}
