<p>Nice century, swdad!<br>
WildChild is doing some group track workouts in Phila and he said there is a girl in their group who ran for Duke. He said she can beat him occasionally. I asked him if she was cute and he said she’s dating a 4 minute miler. He didn’t answer about the cute part! WildChild has picked up a sponsorship for his triathlons which will pay some travel, bike shipping ad some entry fees! </p>
<p>I skipped the Valslides tonight. I’m tired. Imagine that!</p>
<p>Higher carb count than usual today for me. Strawberries and a serving of Trader Joe’s Quinoa and Black Bean Chips are responsible. At least I passed on the bagels.</p>
<p>Cals 1307
Fat 95 g
Carbs 46 g
Fiber 5 g
Protein 72 g
Sugars 16 g</p>
<p>iDad, my husband has been reading aloud excerpts from Roy Benson’s Heart Rate Training to me while I noodle around on the computer. This is the book MOWC recommended. Is that a book you have there? If you do I’m curious what your thoughts are on the info on pages 65-66. I know you’re a fan of intense intervals to get the job done you’re wanting done. This part of the book is talking about the advantage of building an aerobic base and discusses which energy stores are used during exercise. Trying to put together the pieces I hear from various sources.</p>
<p>kmc, I’m impressed. When the weather is lousy I just find indoor things to do. Today was gorgeous, but I spent most of the day with taxes, except for a visit to see clients who are buying a house and want an addition and buying a little black dress. Pretty much a thermometer dress though I plan to wear it this week, I’m sure it will look even better if I keep losing weight. All I did today was 30 pushups, 30 kettle ball swings, 30 goblet squats and 30 TRX inverted rows. I think I’ll do a plank before I go to bed which I should given what time it is!</p>
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<p>No. I haven’t read it. What’s he say?</p>
<p>Generally speaking, the high intensity interval ideas are the polar opposite of the distance running build an aerobic base at low heart rate training ideas. And, generally, the sports are very different. Interval training is very popular for team sports (or for something like tennis) where you need short bursts of anaerobic power (i.e. faster than you can maintain). The running version of those sports would be the 100 meter dash and most of the field events (jumping, throwing, etc.).</p>
<p>The reason high intensity intervals has caught on for fat loss is two-fold. First, I think anything that builds muscle is beneficial and has an impact on the hormonal balance of the body. Second, it is time efficient. You can get an effective workout in 20 minutes rather than spending an hour on the treadmill.</p>
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<p>Speaking of which, I paused the Masters long enough on the DVR, to get in a 23 minute Rachel Cosgrove workout. Four sets of five exercises (30 sec work, 30 sec rest), basically non-stop sets as my heart rate monitor gives me little or no rest between sets. Good little workout. It’s not the kind of workout that leaves my gasping for air, but I definitely feel it afterwards. I suspect that farmers walks with two 50 lb dumbbells is an awesome whole body exercise.</p>
<p>Hey guys, iPod nazi is giving away the first week workout for the Amazing Abs program I bought last year. All you have to do is give him your e-mail address (so he can send you blogs and stuff (nothing too annoying, although I ignore his raw smoothie e-mails…) and you can instantly download the video version of the workout and the MP3 audio version of the same workout and the PDF exercise sheet with photos of each exercise. You don’t have to buy anything or subscribe to something you have to cancel. Just a simple swap. You get a free workout and he gets you on his mailing list for mostly good fitness info and programs.</p>
<p>It’s a 23 minute workout that you do along with iPod nazi, with him coaching you through the exercises. It’s the first workout, so it’s not ridiculously hard. Excellent beginner core workout. Birddog, plank, side plank, 3-pt drill, and hip bridge. 30 seconds of each, three sets of the five exercises. No equipment needed at all. Just an exercise mat or carpet floor. He’s doing the workout in his back yard on the video. </p>
<p>This is not a crazy high-paced P90X workout that’s impossible to do without hitting the PAUSE button a hundred times. I found that his workouts, either the video versions or iPod versions are accessible and motivating. He’s got a good “bedside manner”, so to speak (and believe me I needed it at 250 pounds when I did his first program). Most anyone can do this workout, start to finish, although you’ll get better at the exercises when you do it repeatedly. In the actual program, you do each workout three times.</p>
<p>I did this exact workout as the core section of my usual workout, three days in a row a couple weeks ago. My plan was to do the entire program again, but I got sidetracked wanting to do some cable pulley core stuff.</p>
<p>[FREE</a> Ab Workout | Amazing Abs Solution](<a href=“http://www.amazingabssolution.com/free-ab-workout/]FREE”>http://www.amazingabssolution.com/free-ab-workout/)</p>
<p>Price is right. Worst case is that you’ll buy the whole program and your core strength will improve dramatically.</p>
<p>Yay, MOfWC! I had faith in you. 
Who cares how fast you ran the 10K - you RAN it. Huge kudos!!! The ironwoman of CC, we are all so proud of you.</p>
<p>Kudos MOWC. And speaking of iron, it sure sounds like you have the endurance with these back to back races, have you ever considered doing one? Or are cycling and swimming not your thing?</p>
<p>Thanks for the tip, idad. I may check that out. I need to get working on core, but in the current whirlwind, its all I can do to stick to the stuff I’ve started. (Super busy at work and myriad events relating to son’s imminent graduation, including 3 trips o Ann Arbor for performances, etc., and a grad party with a lot of out-of-towners.)</p>
<p>Despite the whirlwind, I’ve been tempted to take up mountain biking. Mch, who lived through my back injury and near-suicidal pain for 18 months, is dead set against this because he’s pretty certain that one way or the other I will kill myself (actually, its more likely he’s afraid I will reinjure myself, which technically, would be worse ;)</p>
<p>So there’s this Gran Fondo coming up, which is a big ride but not necessarily a race – eg there’s a short 12-mile family course (then a 40, and. 100.) My thinking was perhaps I would do the family ride for this year just to join in the fun of the event and work with the local women’s beginner mb team to see if my back could handle more. </p>
<p>I feel like I’ve let my fear of re injury dictate so much in my life this last decade that I’m just kind of sick of it. If not now, when, right? At the same time, I don’t want to get ahead of myself. So maybe I should wait to see if I meet this years goals and move slowly toward some kind of “sport.”</p>
<p>I get these crazy impulses now and then – a few years back I wanted to finally learn how to ski but met with virtually an intervention over that one 
It just seems that work has been the sinkhole of all my energy since my earliest days and while I still enjoy it, I have to face the fact that the meter is running and is that all I want to do with myself in this lifetime? Clearly, my answer is no
It’s like my body is singing the cat’s cradle song to me – use it or lose it ;)</p>
<p>^since I’m whining about facet joint syndrome (which is stupid, because I’m sooooooo lucky to be pain free these days!) has anyone ever known someone who’s had this treatment to remove bone spurs?</p>
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<p>My specialist, who is now long-retired, predicted they’d work out some kind of alternate treatment one day (to the surgery he felt was too high risk and not generally successful).</p>
<p>I hadn’t looked into this much before because I’ve been fine for so long, but if I actually got rid of the bone spurs in the five really bad joints, I wouldnt have to worry about impact/twist lockup, which is what has been the issue in the past. Just thinking out loud. Gotta find an RA doc in ths city that I trust ;)</p>
<p>Kmcmom- I did some triathlons back in the 80s (in the same races with a young Lance Armstrong who was on my swim team). I do Ok with the swimming and do swim when I get running-injured. I’m not a strong cyclist because I am afraid of falling, but in 2010 I did quite a bit with H since I was injured. It really isn’t a time efficient sport for me. I have a demanding day job, and can’t train for 3 sports at this stage in my life. Triathlon has changed a lot- need or want a wetsuit for most of them, I HATE people kicking me and swimming over me, in Texas where I was doing the tris in the 80s the lakes were disgusting…</p>
<p>I really admire triathletes, and my son is trying to qualify for Kona and is close to getting his pro card, but I don’t think I could handle it now. The entry fees are around $500 for some of them, too.</p>
<p>4 miles yesterday so I had one of my very rare 40 mile weeks (I think that I have four or five of them now). I was not able to do these in my 30s because the shoe technology wasn’t as good as it is today - back then, I ran into problems around 30 miles per week.</p>
<p>One downside for me on running more is that it pushes out the other stuff - stretching routines, strength-training, core workouts and tennis. One nice thing about running is that it is more or less predictable - if I set up my schedule correctly, it’s easy to fit in.</p>
<p>Also did my stretching video, upper abs and obliques. I had a wrist workout scouring the bottom of saucepan - amazing how sore your wrist or arm can get working on one of those for 15 minutes.</p>
<p>Weather this weekend has been a disappointment. It was supposed to be sunnier and warmer but has turned out cloudier and cooler. The business week is more promising - 60s - 70s but partly to mostly cloudy. Tuesday looks to be the best day for running outside. Monday and Wednesday are iffy for me.</p>
<p>Yesterday 12 minutes each of high incline elliptical, spinning and stairclimber. </p>
<p>Today track intervals. Mile warmup/down. 2 x100, 4 x 200, 2x100. Timed one 200 in :30. Think I’m getting more flexible and finally getting higher knee lift.</p>
<p>Running Times had an article on a 91 year old marathoner. This guy looked like he was 50. Eats a plant-based diet. I tried going vegan when I was dating a vegan girlfriend right after college. Had a steak the day we broke up!</p>
<p>Looking for motivation …</p>
<p>What do you need motivation to do, CB, and what do you like?</p>
<p>BCEagle- Congrats on the 40 mile week. I really think that is significant mileage (and not just because that’s what I try to hit). It’s nice to have those extra miles in the bank now and then!</p>
<p>I had a 32.2 mile week after 54 last week (that included the long races). I’m still ahead of the 2000 mile pace bunny which I promised myself I wasn’t going to achieve this year. 4.6 miles this morning- low heart rate ave. 134 for 11:08 pace. Some rolling hills but nothing steep.</p>
<p>iDad, let’s see if I can wrap my brain around this enough to summarize. He’s talking about how a person breathes more heavily with higher exertion and then uses more anaerobic energy or carbohydrate. An increase in anaerobic metabolism means an increase in carb usage and decrease in fat usage. He’s saying that to burn fat you exercise slower, and to control weight exercise steadily for 30 to 40 mins. </p>
<p>In these pages is included discussion of oxygen deficit and how it occurs at the beginning of exercise and when you change intensity. In oxygen deficit there’s more anaerobic metabolism and carb usage. Says it takes 30 mins of exercise to get to where you’re burning more fat than carb.</p>
<p>Hope I did an okay job summarizing.</p>
<p>Stretch/strength/core. Slight improvement on the difficult stability ball toe touch exercise (3 reps of toe touches on each side) and stability ball jacknife, which I’m seeing it called more often than roll-in on YouTube (4 reps).</p>
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<p>Thanks, Deb. That’s the old spend hours on the treadmill to burn fat spiel that has dominated exercise since the 1970s. It’s printed on every treadmill (the so-called “fat burning” zone) and is the reason so many fat people trundle along on the treadmills at the gym and never seem to lose weight.</p>
<p>It is true that, at low heart rates and low intensity, you are never shifting into the high power “anaerobic” energy systems and will burn more fat (as a % of energy burned). But, there are several problems with this from a fat loss standpoint:</p>
<p>1) it’s not burning very many calories. At higher intensities, you may be burning a lower percentage of energy from fat, but you are burning more fat. Look at the hours it takes for long slow distance…</p>
<p>2) Long slow aerobic exercise is not very good at building lean muscle. In fact, taken to an extreme (marathon runners), it actually tends to burn lean muscle. This is really not the optimum for an overweight person to change the shape of their body (or the optimum from a health standpoint).</p>
<p>3) Long slow aerobic exercise works slow twitch muscles. High intensity exercise works fast twitch muscles and tends to reverse insulin resistance. Insulin resistance prevents the body from burning fat. I, personally, believe that using exercise to improve insulin sensitivity is hugely important in fat loss and probably a big part of the reason that high intensity exercise is so helpful.</p>
<p>Having said all that, exercising for long periods at low intensity, while not very efficient for fat loss, is very effective at training the body to exercise for long periods of time. It makes the body more efficient at using its fuel. So, if you want to do an endurance sport, it’s essential. Making the body more efficient at burning fuel is not, however, what you want for fat loss. </p>
<p>For geezer fitness, there’s probably a place for some of both!</p>
<p>Thanks for your assessment, iDad!</p>
<p>kmcmom:</p>
<p>Call me conservative, but I wouldn’t schedule back surgery unless I had tried everything else and was down to a last resort option. If I were able to do the kind of stuff you are doing now, pain free, you couldn’t pay me enough to get back surgery. I don’t think the results justify the potential liabiities.</p>
<p>To a lesser degree, I feel the same way about most ortho surgerys, certainly knee surgery, foot surgery, etc. Those things often don’t make it any better. I have a particular kind of bunion on the top of my big toes that prevents them from bending up fully. The only “cure” is to go in and shave the bones down. I wouldn’t get surgery on a foot bone until I was at the point where I couldn’t even walk. I could end up worse after the surgery.</p>
<p>Mountain biking? Skiing? Running? I think we’ve all got to decide where the risk/benefit ratio of these sports is. The thing I keep in mind is that injury is what brings fitness for older folk to a crashing halt. I don’t think I could do mountain biking or downhill skiing without accepting that I’m going to take some hard falls. Heck, I can’t seem to manage walking without taking a fall (and, at my age, all falls are hard falls!).</p>