<p>Worked again today. Yay! Cranked up the bike and increased my mileage…got 15 miles in my hour. Getting easier to do the miles but the weight doesn’t come off very quickly!</p>
<p>Knocked another 20 seconds off my hilly river walk this evening. That’s a full two minutes faster than my fastest time before Friday. Was able to keep a quick stride with arms swiing for the entire walk, including the four steep hills.</p>
<p>Now that I’ve got a little more fitness, this walk at a brisk pace, is almost a perfect workout. Heart rates of 80% to 85% of max on the four hills, dropping to 70% to 75% on the flat and downhill stretches.</p>
<p>Great job, everyone! My Saturday was devoted to gardening. I wonder what my heart rate was when I was ripping out ivy and pulling weeds 
My muscles were pretty sore after that. On Sunday, DH and I took a truckload of weeds to the local composting yard, but did not bring back any mulch - we decided to have a Mothers’ Day picnic instead. We headed out to our favorite winery, sat on the lush green lawn and feasted on relatively healthy foods: red wine, garbanzo bean salad, veggies with eggplant hummus dip, Greek cucumber dip, pita slices, blueberries and just a little bit of cheese and salami. Nice…
I will resume my runs on Monday.</p>
<p>Everything my kids got me for mother’s day is edible - dark chocolate peanut M&Ms, licorice pastels, etc. YIKES!</p>
<p>CNBC will be airing “One Nation, Overveight” on May 18th. That should be interesting…</p>
<p>(I’m finishing the slice of the heavenly European cake my firend brought for me - ahhh, nice breakfast. The cake is really, really light, and I suspect it has 1/4 of sugar of a typical grocery store cake. No wonder those Europeans can have their cake and still look skinny!)</p>
<p>missypie, maybe the kids were counting on you giving the lion’s share of the goodies to them :)</p>
<p>^A lot of those European cakes use ground nuts instead of or in place of some of the flour. They also use less leavening and more egg whites. (At least this is true of most of the German kuchen recipes.)</p>
<p>Hidden nuts…what a hazard for the nut allergic person!</p>
<p>Whew! I am exhausted but feeling good at the same time. Rode the bike for 75 minutes despite some stiffness and soreness in my knee. I fear my knee has become a weather forecaster and accurately predicted the cold and rain this week. Bummer. Had some Chinese food last night and my face is a little puffy…must have had lots of sodium in it! Will drink more water today. Workout was mentally tougher for me today…really had to push myself as I almost allowed myself to quit. Glad I didn’t. Wonder what was up with that!!! I motivated myself by thinking of Biggest Loser contestants!</p>
<p>Okay, so why didn’t any of you tell me a few basics about spinning?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Pull up the seat so that it’s parallel with your hip.</p></li>
<li><p>Pull up the handle bars so they’re slightly higher than the seat.</p></li>
<li><p>Pull the seat forward so that it doesn’t feel “uncomfortable”</p></li>
<li><p>Put on the feet harnesses, pull them snug</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So I figured I’d give this one last try and a veteran spinner next to me gave me all these pointers and guess what? No knee pain. Felt a LOT better.</p>
<p>Finally, it’s important to buy cycling pants - they are not just for looking cool . . .</p>
<p>Training for my first ever 5K on June 5:</p>
<p>I posted this already on my running thread, but I’m going to abandon that thread and join you all here as you guys are a very motivated bunch!</p>
<p>Today I did a 9/1 run to walk ratio. I did 3 miles and finished in 33.50. I had to sprint the last tenth in order to finish under 34 minutes.</p>
<p>It was tough, but I’ve got over just under 4 weeks left to train. I would love to finish with a 10 minute mile, but right now my goal is just to run it with no stops for walking.</p>
<p>My D1 sent me a timex iron man watch. I was able to set my two intervals-it beeps when you’ve completed each interval, so no more focusing obsessively on the stopwatch. You can just go and not have to worry about it. It also helped in that, instead of wishing the interval would hurry up and be over with, I didn’t want it to go off too soon, before I reached what I estimated to be a good distance. That’s a total change in POV.</p>
<p>Thursday is a 12:1 run to walk ratio. I hope I’m up for it.</p>
<p>Way to go Nrdsb4! I admire anyone who can run! Good luck with your new POV!</p>
<p>How is it going idad? You keep me motivated so I always check to see how your workout went. </p>
<p>sewhappy…perhaps I need to find something to make my seat more comfortable on the recumbent bike! If I bike more than an hour I get fidgetdy! ;)</p>
<p>Increased my level and rode for 65 minutes this morning. I still get the same range of miles in but am increasing difficulty during the same time span. Is that ok? Or should I be trying to increase my speed? Right now I get 14-16 miles in an hour. Is that ok? I find I do better and feel better when I talk to my friend as we bike. I don’t check the time or mileage as much and I don’t seem to get as tired. I must be a social exerciser!</p>
<p>Bunsen…thanks for the heads up on the CNBC show. I hope to watch it!</p>
<p>eddieodessa…how are things going for you?</p>
<p>treiwitt…how’s the light headed feelings? Getting better?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, you’re fine. Just keep it up 
If you feel like you get more out of your workout when you talk to your friend as you go, keep at it. Otherwise you may get bored and quit. Doing it at the pace you’re going is better than not at all!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I missed one yesterday. Was moving some furniture around, carrying a bunch of heavy stuff down to the cellar and so forth. Burned my calories that way!</p>
<p>I had done my river walk three times in four days, knocking two minutes off my previous fast times. I couldn’t believe how stiff my legs were last night.</p>
<p>Ack, total frustration!!!</p>
<p>I don’t post on here regularly, but believe me, you are all a big inspiration for me to kickstart my exercise levels this year (after the usual “gained a few pounds in January” scenario). So I’ve been walking and walking and walking, which I love–it’s my always been my best path toward sanity, not to mention good health.</p>
<p>Until…I developed, or rather finally noticed, severe pain in my right foot, on the top, along with swelling. Saw a foot guy, and I have “degenerative joint disease” in the foot. Got a cortisone shot, pain med patches, and will be fitted with orthotics, but I gather it’s gonna be a chronic thing. I apparently have it in both feet. Dang, dang, and dang again! </p>
<p>but, I’m determined it won’t slow me for too long. Walking’s just too important to me. Anyone else have anything like this?</p>
<p>Garland, maybe cycling would fulfill the need to be outdoors and not put so much wear and tear on the feet? There’s also swimming, which is my own personal favorite form of exercise, but I can’t stand what it does to my graying hair - turns it green and bristly.</p>
<p>By “foot guy” did you see a podiatrist or orthopedic surgeon? Podiatrists are great for some people, not so much others. I was not helped by a podiatrist several years back and helped quickly and effectively by an orthopedic surgeon - who never suggested surgery. Perhaps worth a second opinion.</p>
<p>sewhappy,
“but I can’t stand what it does to my graying hair - turns it green and bristly” - you mean that you swim without cap? It is even much harder to do. I am coloring my hair because I am completely grey, I use cap because I do not want to color few times a week. I love swimming also, but I cannot swim inside, the air makes me very tired. When pool is closed, I love to walk, but more so rollerblade. It seems to be much smoother, the danger though is when you fall. It is also very addictive, I keep falling and going back rollerblading the very next day. Sometime it is the same spot on my body, so I have developed a permanent bump (so far only one). Swimming is very addictive also.</p>
<p>Sewhappy–thanks for the ideas. I saw a podiatrist. He seemed very conscientious and thorough, so I’ll go with his regime and see how it goes. What he says seems to jive with everything I’ve read on the subject. But I"m not averse to an ortho for further guidance (one of them put my leg back together after a run in with a car years ago.)</p>
<p>I love biking and swimming. I can bike on the weekends, but the area I’m in now is problematic because of high traffic, but I think I’ll try to work it out (drive bike to park, etc.) Don’t have a gym for swimming, but looking forward to summer and beach.</p>
<p>I guess basically my whine is that I love how walking integrates my movement time into everyday life, and adjusting that (hopefully temporarily), is making me cranky!</p>
<p>My knees and behind were stiff and sore this morning when I woke up. My workouts must be pushing me out of my comfort zone. Switched to the dreadmill today. Was totally grossed out that the guy before me left it dripping wet and didn’t bother to wipe it down. Yuck! Used the wipes conveniently placed by the equipment but couldn’t wait to get home and scrub! Only got 3.5 miles in. Just hurts too much to go faster. There was a marathon runner next to my friend and he told her that fat burning doesn’t happen until you are exercising for 50 minutes at 80% heart rate. Is that true???</p>
<p>Maybe swimming would be good for me but I don’t like being cold. Guess I should give it a try.</p>
<p>MiamiDap,</p>
<p>I do wear a swim cap and even put on a thick conditioner under the cap and then condition like mad when I get out but my aging hair seems to be very porous and fragile. I don’t mind swimming indoors so long as the space has a lot of windows surrounding it and the water is very clean. Good for you on the roller blading. My FIL did that into his 80s and never hurt himself seriously. He cut quite the figure at the roller park!</p>
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</p>
<p>No. Fat burning takes place at much lower intensities. In fact, working at 80% you’re not going to be burning fat much at all!</p>