<p>Thanks for the reminder Deborah - I know of one race I was thinking about end of April, but should have a looksie for some others.</p>
<p>You’re starting to rack them up!!! :)</p>
<p>4.1 easy miles today.</p>
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<p>Yeah. What she said. When I started walking the hilly roads and paths around my house, I weighed 250 pounds. Like wearing a 90 pound weight vest. No wonder it was hard. I can do farmer’s walks now with two 45 pound DBs and can barely do a couple laps of little basement gym.</p>
<p>The paradox of walking (or running or swimming) is that, as you get more fit, you have to do more of it to get the same effect. That’s how people end up doing distances that aren’t really conducive to good injury-free health and not getting much bang for their exercise effort. I saw this as I lost weight and got more fit and could no longer elevate my heart rate on a 5K hilly walk. I never thought that going to 10K walks was really the answer because that was just going to lead to 20K walks.</p>
<p>One way I cranked the intensity up was to start doing walk/run intervals. That definitely gets my heart rate up, but I’m pretty solidly in the camp of believing that running, while great exercise, has too high an injury rate, so I don’t want to do a lot of it. In nice weather, I’ll do a walk/run 5K once a week, maybe twice tops. So, total, I’m running 1.5 to 3 miles a week. None this winter as I just don’t find walking around snowy, salt-coated, icy roads in the dark to be much of a draw.</p>
<p>I also cranked up the intensity of the walking by heading up to the mountains, where I have no problem at all getting my heart rate up!</p>
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<p>Rather than a weight vest, why not make it practical and get a backpack? Get one with a drinking water reservoir and kill two birds with one stone… no more carrying water bottles. I always carry way more stuff in mine than I really need, but carrying 20 pounds on my back does add to the workout. I was surprised, the first few times, how much of a core workout it was to keep the added weight stable.</p>
<p>I got this [little</a> one](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Osprey-034914-520-Raptor-14-Daypack/dp/B002N4PB8M]little”>http://www.amazon.com/Osprey-034914-520-Raptor-14-Daypack/dp/B002N4PB8M) that I would use for a quick hike or snowshoe outing to the Audubon Center or sight-seeing walking around or for biking. Holds up to 3 liters of water – the bladder also fits their larger packs – and is big enough for a rain jacket, a wind breaker, a flashlight, gloves, hat, and a little snack. Has a stretchy outer pocket so it’s easy to stash a top layer if you take it off. Beats the heck out of carrying a water bottle (or not carrying water on a hot day!) </p>
<p>I tried one of the little waist belts for a water bottle and hated it. It was constantly flopping around as I walked. A little backpack just works better. If you just want it to be heavy, fill up the water bladder, then add some 5 pound bags of rice (or whatever). This thing is light enough (just over 3 pounds) that I’d take it, practically empty, just for the water reservoir and a rain jacket. I don’t take this size to the mountains, just because I take too much stuff: flashlight, headlamp, batteries, little first aid kit, too many extra clothes – basically all the stuff I would want if I got caught out after dark or fell crossing a stream and got soaked. Overkill, but that’s the stuff the hiking experts say to have. So, I have one that’s roughly twice this size (34 liters) for day hiking.</p>
<p>3 plus mile run today with a half mile of added walking. The air was cool (mid-50’s) and dry. I couldn’t not try a run 
I managed to keep the HR in the low to mid 140’s which felt very good when compared with last Saturday’s workout when I couldn’t keep it below 150. I was running at about the same pace, and I know my HR training hasn’t had enough time to make a difference, so I’ll assume the 20 degrees cooler temps, the wonderful NW wind, and low humidity were the important factors in keeping it all good today. My hat wouldn’t stay on with the wind–but hair color be da**ed; I felt too good to stop to deal with a hat, and break up a good workout.</p>
<p>My poor H. He did the 2.7 mile run/walk with me on Sunday, and although his heart rate stayed much lower than mine, and he’s accustomed to walking many miles, he apparently activated some neglected rear muscles with the running. He is sore–sitting and standing, and not so happy about having participated in my HR experiment. Proceed with caution when adding running intervals to your walks!</p>
<p>Only 2.5 miles today. H is sick and tired of hearing about my bad knee. He took a look at it last night and now he is worried after he saw how swollen it is. It is feeling more and more like it did before my meniscus surgery. Don’t have time to deal with it at the moment so hoping to limp by until after D2’s graduation in May. I hate getting old!</p>
<p>I have book club here tonight and am trying a new appetizer, Crispy Parmesan Garlic Edamame. D2 said it is simple to make , delicious and healthy. Will report back!</p>
<p>Great, PlantMom! Tomorrow will be day 2 of C25K for me, but today I did 45 minutes on MOWC’s favorite, the dreadmill. No idea what my heart rate was. Alternated walking/running (if one could call it that). Two big walks with sabadog. </p>
<p>NMinn, I am sorry your knee is still bothering you. Let us know how the edamame is. I am currently rationing out some marcona almonds I bought at Costco in a moment of weakness. I have really been in the doldrums this week, but at least I’ve resisted binging.</p>
<p>6.41 miles.</p>
<p>Stretching Video, Abs, Military Press, Front Raise, Curls, Tricep Kickbacks, Pushups, Lunges.</p>
<p>5 miles outside 8:10 average pace. Temp 41-- felt like 10. Windy, no gloves, no hat—no fingers or ear lobes left. </p>
<p>Hate, hate March running. Please send sun.</p>
<p>Thought about outside. For about a few seconds. I would have needed gloves, hat, etc.</p>
<p>Back to the Basement!</p>
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<p>Hint of spring in the air, so I skipped the agility ladder and went outside for med ball overhead slams, high knees skipping, lateral shuffles, and carioca. First time in 2013, so I was pretty pleased with myself that I didn’t trip, fall down, and bust my butt.</p>
<p>Did two sets of 12 kettlebell swings, which is gracious plenty. For the first time, I was starting to feel the plank position at the top that Dan John talks about.</p>
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<p>Here’s something crazy. I saw a heart rate of 81% of my max doing [Palloff</a> presses](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpvbR_Ah8_g]Palloff”>Pallof Press - YouTube). Now, this is a core exercise where you just stand there and extend the arms. Ten 2-second holds on each side and I was breathing hard with an 81% heart rate. And I’m doing it with less than 20 lbs. I don’t know if there has ever been an exercise that looks so easy and turns out to be so hard.</p>
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<p>Otherwise, same workout I’ve been doing. I switched the chin ups to neutral grip chins, using handles with my palms facing each other. These should be easier, but the grips on my bar are too far apart, so they are actually pretty tough.</p>
<p>I was going to go out for a walk and it seemed to be raining. About 15 minutes later the sun was pouring through the window blinding me, so off I went. Just a couple of miles at the end of the day. We’re having a bit of a neighborhood discussion about fences and hedges, so I made a point of looking at them!</p>
<p>I’ve done one one minute plank on the ball and one set of kettleball swings. Might do a little more.</p>
<p>I think I’ve tried that or a similar edamame recipe - it was good! </p>
<p>Plantmom, wow is that your first 3 miles + running? Impressive!</p>
<p>Just did a great Zumba YouTube with my daughter.</p>
<p>Travel day</p>
<p>protein shake, cappuccino, tuna fish salad sandwich</p>
<p>Cals 867
Fat 50 g
Carbs 49 g
Fiber 3 g
Protein 58 g
Sugars 14 g</p>
<p>Ohio- I hear you. I need sun! 4.2 miles at lunch with hat and gloves. Some snow flurries. Craved peanut butter and jelly after the run and couldn’t think of a restaurant source at all, so went to the Publix and bought some supplies for my office. I have a mini-fridge. I got those bread rounds that keep well and are a little healthier. 2 more miles after work to try out some new Altra shoes called The One. There isn’t much to them.</p>
<p>I’ve not been traveling today, only running errands, but there are wafts of Morocco here at home (last night’s chicken).</p>
<p>Success finding a nice new short sleeve tech tee, btw, yay. :)</p>
<p>Workout at the gym: TRX lunges, rows, regular squats, curtsey squats, KB swings (150 total), pushing the sled around 3X (hate that thing), finished with planks on TRX. Later in the day, I walked 3 miles. Got my Valslides today–plan on a workout tomorrow using them.</p>
<p>Light one tonight. Just feel stale lately…</p>
<p>Bromfield, I hope you’ll give us the full rundown on the ValSlides workout tomorrow – which exercises you choose and which of them you find difficult/easy, etc. Yes, I’m considering getting some. ;)</p>
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<p>Oh, gawd. I had forgotten about those dreadful things. NROL 4 ABS warmup had me “curtsey lunging” all the way across the basement and back. You can just picture an ol’ fat guy trying to figure out to do a curtsey lunge without tearing a couple of knee ligaments!</p>
<p>[Best</a> Butt Exercises For Women: Curtsy Lunge - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsLhsPn5-HI]Best”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsLhsPn5-HI)</p>
<p>From this and other youtubes, I guess it was these curtsy lunges that were responsible for my Levi 501’s fitting better…</p>
<p>Good morning. Sounds like we’re all suffering some spring-depravation.</p>
<p>Idad, thanks for the tip on the backpack.
I’ve decided not to worry about the weight vest and instead just enjoy the trek in my little half hour morning slot and use the airdyne at night for the extra “work” part, since intervals seem to be exhausting even at my 20 intense-seconds for every 40 slow rate - I’m pretty certain that even a year from now when I work up to a closer ratio I can get adequate burn from that. No point in risking my back over some desire to optimize the time for caloric burn, because its my back that benefits the most from the daily walk, so the irony would be too great ;)</p>
<p>If summer ever gets here, the addition of aqua jogging will help. Since my goal is weightloss and general decent condition (as opposed to competitive condition and endurance) without exacerbating the back, these short bouts of low-impact movement should set up my metabolism and assist in food/weight management. </p>
<p>I’ve still not seriously dove into the kettlebell either yet. I have this vision of doing it outside in the yard before a swim. So i have a lot of options without the weight vest when I really think about it. Of course, getting home from work to not be eating dinner at 9 or 10 should be the real focus of all this ;)</p>