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<p>Right on MOWC. I hope I could continue to be able to run beyond 60. </p>
<p>Target + 17.4. I am simply eating too much food. </p>
<p>Also, my target of losing 25 lb in 2 months may be too aggressive. I am not giving up yet. But it does not look good to hit that target as of right now. It will be lucky if I could be down 8 lbs after 3 weeks.</p>
<p>Congratulations on the silvers ohio! Great job!</p>
<p>3.3 miles walk, total of 10 minutes of running thrown in. My spasmy calf feels perfect now, but the other one is making me worry. Daily planks, girlie pushups, and some calf exercises.</p>
<p>Can’t believe we’re coming up to end of June. Eek! I’m not ready!</p>
<p>Hops, is your kettlebell class still going? I’d love to hear some of the highs and lows, etc. Do you think you’ll teach a class like this again? </p>
<p>MOWC, your post made me smile. It also makes me want to fly down to California.</p>
<p>Dad II, while it may be time to reevaluate what’s a realistic goal, it sounds like you’ve been making progress. What do you think of tracking? Do you find it helpful?</p>
<p>Well said MOWC - All though these changes have come - long may all of us run (with apologies to Neil Young)</p>
<p>The next five pound party will be the century mark!!! This totally blows my mind. It has taken 26 months, but I hope the slow drop will enable me to keep it off. The cardiac stuff does provide powerful motivation to eat better, not just eat less. The first year (pre-attack) I ate less and lost 45; since then I am focused more on what I eat. What works for me is to not eat after 6 pm unless it’s plain veggies/fruit. My metabolism just cannot handle a full evening dinner. This makes lunch my main meal, which is probably a better thing anyway.</p>
<p>Between PT for two rotator cuffs, bulging disk in my neck and bad hip and rehab, I am getting quite a lot of workouts! Am running about 25-30% of my treadmill time, which is bupkis compared to you all, but is a minor miracle for me. Not looking for distance so much as getting my heart rate up. I am also trying to get my waistline down to the AHA guidelines for reduced cardiac risk.</p>
<p>KMC:</p>
<p>Wow. Those Shaklee shake powders are 53% fructose by weight. They don’t spike blood sugar because fructose doesn’t get metabolized like glucose (most carbs). Fructose goes straight to the liver. If you’ve just run a marathon, it is converted to glycogen to replenish those stores. However, if you are not glycogen depleted, it gets converted to triglycerides (fat) and dumped into the blood stream and eventually stored as body fat. It the part of sugar that Lustig says is toxic over time. </p>
<p>The saving grace with the shakes is that at least you are drinking them with a glass of milk – although a glass of milk and a multivitamin, hold the fructose, would be a lot better option!</p>
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<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>That is so cool. I bet you were plenty fast around the old campus. Running and stirring up all those memories is probably a lot more fun than getting a plastic age-group medal!</p>
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<p>dadII:</p>
<p>8 pounds is three weeks is awesome fat loss.</p>
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<p>Unbelievable! I’m not sure, but is suspect that this most recent 5-pound party gave you the unofficial College Confidential weight loss title. I can’t recall anyone, off hand, who had lost 95 pounds - although it’s been a remarkably successful group. Your journey has certainly been among the most dramatic!</p>
<p>16 miles - if I had not been able to drag Mr B out of bed at 6 this morning, I’d been roasted by the end of my run. 80 degrees at 10 am. It is going to be a mighty hot day! :)</p>
<p>Nice job, Ohio!</p>
<p>And CD, I am so happy for your progress. 100 pounds, wow!!!</p>
<p>H, S2, and I went to the small gym this morning. I ran a few miles on the treadmill, walked at an incline, and did some upper and lower body weights. I also managed a quick hike. Alas, the I was rained out of the plant photos I was hoping to get, but I did add a little bit more elevated heart rate time as I was running off the trail to my car, trying to avoid the lightning.</p>
<p>100 pounds in two years is incredible!</p>
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<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that you were so much older than me! :)</p>
<p>Speaking of old, I’m fixin’ to climb on the dreaded Airdyne, which I’m sure will make me feel several years closer to my grave in a few minutes…</p>
<p>Dad Ii, you know 25 pounds in 2 months is overly aggressive. Why are you holding onto that goal? It’s not realistic and you’ll wind up starving yourself and screwing up your metabolism. The folks on here are very realistic and very knowledgeable.</p>
<p>CD 100 pounds is awesome. I want to see the new you! </p>
<p>I’m still working on my snail’s pace weight loss program. We’re into the CSA part of the summer, so eating lots of strange greens and weird vegetables. It’s been so hot I’ve either made them into salad or stuck them on the grill. </p>
<p>I have to say, looking at myself in the flattering mirror at the gym today while doing pullups in the gym today I looked great. And I looked pretty okay in the other mirrors too which aren’t nearly as kind. I think I’m finally making some progress on the stomach that the second kid ruined!</p>
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<p>Thank you for pointing that out!
Hey, I like the age group at least!</p>
<p>CountingDown- Very, very sincere congratulations. Excellent results and my GOD that is a lot of weight loss!</p>
<p>Not at 100 yet! That’s the next party!</p>
<p>This is way, way more weight than I ever should have needed to lose. I still find it hard to wrap my head around it.</p>
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<p>Don’t worry. I’m right behind you. The big 6-OH is just mere months away.</p>
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<p>Well, well, well. Mystery solved. For a while now, I’ve been wondering why I can be bent over panting like a dog and not record heart rates above 90% of my max. I mean, I know I’m in better shape and all, but… It was really a Garmin Premium Soft Strap going south. I knew for sure the other day on the Airdyne when I finished a 1/2 mile interval and the heart rate monitor said “71% max”. And, I was literally gasping for breath. Five seconds later, the HR said “70”, which is when I start the next interval. Then, yesterday, after 24 push presses, it said my heart rate was 55% of my max and proceeded to steadily climb the longer I sat on the bench resting.</p>
<p>So, it’s back to the old plastic Garmin heart rate strap and reliable readings on the Airdyne today.</p>
<p>My fastest set of four 1/2 mile intervals ever. Air conditioning on, big box fan propped up two feet away blowing on me. Saw a max heart rate of 99% of my maximum. Actually felt OK for a pretty hard little interval workout. 19.5 minutes start to finish including 5 minutes of warmup and cooldown.</p>
<p>If anyone is shopping for Garmins, buy it without the heart rate strap and then get something other than the Garmin premium strap – junk. Doing a little investigation, both the Garmin and Polar soft straps fail at an alarming rate. In addition to the cold dry air issues, the soft straps go south when they get soaking wet – often around the one hour mark, since most people only wear them when they are sweating.</p>
<p>The old Garmin plastic strap works. And, apparently the ANT+ soft straps from Magellen and Bontranger work well. All ANT+ sensors are compatible with the Garmin watches.</p>
<p>Now, it’s off to grill steak tips from the local butcher shop with my variation of iron Chef Cat Cora’s spicy brocolli slaw (secret ingredient: Frank’s Red Hot Sauce).</p>
I have only had a problem with one of the soft-strap Garmins and my others have worked fine. I occasionally have a problem with certain tech tops, but once I sweat things seem fine. Did you check the batteries and the connectors? (I’m sure you did, since you are good like that…
) Also, there is one Polar strap that works well with the Garmin sensor.
<p>2 mile walk. 3 mile run slow. 2 mile bike ride. Around 200 pitched balls to my son’s old hs friends at the ball field. Got pummeled by 3 line drives. Quit after the 3rd one. Really creaky and sore hips, hammies, calves tonight.</p>
<p>Weekend away so need to find some time tomorrow to catch up, but want to "log in " - 1.5 mile beach run on rocky, squishy, sandy ground- that’s tough! Followed by the first kayak cruise on the lake for some good upper body - such a nice exercise change!!</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ve been trying pretty much all the tricks with this soft strap. I’ve got a tube of the electrode gel. New battery – although I’ve only been using it since February.</p>
<p>I’ve been seeing the occasional anomoly on hikes: it’ll be working fine and then, for no reason, it will stop showing my heart rate completely for a moment. Then, start again.</p>
<p>I have a software plug in that basically turns the computer into a Garmin watch. Uses the little Garmin USB antenna thingie to directly latch onto ANT+ devices like a heart rate monitor, and the sensors on the Airdyne. It can then display all of that in real time on the computer screen and record it. It also show the process of acquiring a signal when you sync to one of these devices. Even with electrode gel, it was taking forever to find the soft strap and, when it did, it was showing a lot of dropouts (it gives a readout of “percent connected”). As soon as I switched to the old plastic strap, it found it instantly and reliably. So, something is causing this soft strap to put out a weak signal.</p>
<p>There’s another issue, apparently, with the latest Garmin and Polar soft straps – the one’s that have fabric connecting the two snaps – with the strap actually running behind the module. Apparently sweat and salt builds up, establishes some kind of conductivity between the two attachment points. That causes an issue where the readings go haywire after an hour when the strap is soaked – I think that’s what got me yesterday on the 1.5 hour hot sweaty strength workout. Some people have fixed that problem by cutting the strap between the two electrode snaps – but basically, these soft straps seems to degrade over time. My last effort to salvage this strap was a good washing – as suggested by Garmin customer service. But, even after the washing and the new battery, the behavior of the soft strap and the old plastic strap was dramatic.</p>
<p>Fortunately, all of the ANT+ straps are interchangeable. It looks like the version that Magellan, Bontrager, and Wahoo sell are the most reliable, so I may try one of those. Or I may just stick with the old plastic strap. The only issue with that one is the ultra-dry winter problem at the start of a workout – pre-sweat. That is predictable enough that I can live with it.</p>
<p>An intermittent HR strap is useless to me on any workout where I’ve got the intervals set to stop and start based on my heart rate.</p>