<p>I do not think that was stupid. It tells you theoretically what can be done in a unit of time. Even a person with only elementary school math skills can do fractions. It does not say that anyone HAS TO do that for the entire hour! For example, I can walk at 4-5 mph up a 10% hill for about 15 min. That means I will burn a 1/4 of what is projected for an hour. Is the math so hard or is everything should be dumbed down for the general public? </p>
<p>Holy guacamole, it is close to 15%! And my walk is close to 1.3 miles, which I do in about 15-20 min depending on how good my timing with the traffic lights is. </p>
<p>That’s like the San Francisco hills that about killed me! The problem is that people go and buy machines and are going to burn all these calories, but can’t last more than 3 minutes.</p>
<p>Well I threw in the towel today. Last two days seems like I’ve regressed on my low hr training and my mile pace is getting SLOWER. Today after a frustrating first mile of spiking hr’s of close to 220 in the first mile and 13/14 minute mile paces where I’m walking 1/2 the time, I decided enough already. Ran the last mile in 7:00 at 161 hr. It felt good to run again. Undecided if I’m going back on low hr tomorrow.</p>
<p>I didn’t think the concept of hills in the article was silly, just the literary straight face of the presentation.</p>
<p>BTW, I looked it up. The record holder of the Mt. Washington road race (7.4 miles, average 11% grade) finished in 59 minutes and change. That’s 8 minute miles running uphill for an hour. So, what is described in the article is probably doable, just not by very many people!</p>
<p>I had Pilates this morning but with dog duties couldn’t run beforehand so, 6 and change after work. I really prefer running in the am so will need to tweak next week’s schedule so I’m not doubling up on Thursdays. </p>
<p>I know you’re all surprised, but I will not be attempting to break the Mt. Washington road race record. Even though my hills skills are impressive (sarcasm), 8 minute miles are something to aspire to at this point! </p>
<p>There’s still hope. 1 hour 10 minutes time for the aptly named woman’s winner this year. That’s nearly 10 minute miles. And, the motto of the race is “Only One Hill”.</p>
<p>I always get a hoot out of generalized pronouncements of caloric burns from exercise. Of course, it’s never accurate for any particular individual. There are so many variables on an individual basis. One of the better heart rate based technologies developed to determine caloric burn comes from a company called First Beat Technologies <a href=“http://www.firstbeat.com”>www.firstbeat.com</a> . Their website lists a number of devices that incorporate their algorithms. For cyclists, as I’ve mentioned before, kilojoules of work is a very accurate way of determining calories burned with a close to 1:1 correlation (which applies only to cycling). Cycling devices like Power Tap hubs and certain aftermarket cranks provide pretty accurate wattage and kjoule measurements using built in strain gauges. My Garmin GPS has the Firstbeat algorithms programmed in and also links with my Powertap hub. I’ve run the 2 technologies in tandem and compared results. Surprisingly, the Firstbeat heart rate based measurements are more conservative than the kjoules from the Powertap which gives me a lot of confidence in the Firstbeat HR based measurement.</p>
<p>The last time I tried to run on an incline on a treadmill was when I did a Bruce Protocol stress test and at 21 minute, I felt like George Jetson holding onto the rails for dear life! </p>
<p>Idad, sure, I can see how the presentation might undermine some novice’s exercise goals -
someone new to exercise, after seeing those numbers, can give the 15% incline a shot, but after 2-3 min just throw in the towel and say that if burning calories is so hard, they ain’t doing it. Crash and burn. </p>
<p>BTW, I had no idea how steep some of the hills here really were until I actually googled it. Yikes. I’m getting a serious workout on my walking days! :D</p>
<p>Ohio, maybe the answer is that this low HR stuff is not your cup of tea. If it drains you mentally, it may not work well physically, if you know what I mean. I hope your knee is better. </p>
<p>Me too! I’m a beginner, but I’m loving biking. I’m doing a trail which is 3.5 miles of straight incline, and I’m working very hard. How does anyone determine that any particular speed is “light effort” without knowing the people who are making that effort? I’m sure my route would be very easy for Lance Armstrong, but how is that relevant for me?</p>
<p>I love watching trail runners “school” the competitive road runners on hills (on both the steep inclines and declines).</p>
<p>These human mountain goats glide up and down hills effortlessly while us track/road newbies are sucking air. I think hill running is a lot like cycling in terms of spending a lot of time to get good at it. I’m more amazed at the downhill speed of some of them. Scares me and I got injured running downhill.</p>
<p>Bunsen, my knees are now totally pain free. I took the CEP knee braces off once for the first time this week, but I’m thinking I should still continue to wear them for most of my running. I was wearing them all of time, even at work. Think they help for moving things and heavy chores around the house. Don’t think I really need them for cycling. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow about continuing with low hr training. I’m a terrible whiner. </p>
<p>It’s actually a fairly “gentle” grade given the terrain. It “only” averages 614 feet of elevation gain per mile. But, it never lets up. It’s literally only one hill that starts at the beginning and ends at the finish line.</p>
<p>ohio:</p>
<p>I get blown off the hiking trails by runners from time to time. I am not worthy! ^:)^ </p>
<p>Here’s a video of a guy running down Mt. Monadnock. 2 miles, 1700 feet of descent. 13 1/2 minutes. On ice and snow:</p>
<p>Running down?! Yikes. Accident in the making. I was late for the meeting on my other hill, so I decided to run, rather than walk, down my first hill to the bus stop. Omg, my legs are so sore! I officially walked 3+ miles today. Good enough, I earned my dinner salad. :)</p>
<p>That video of the guy running down Monadnock started to make me dizzy! Worked out in the gym today (core work, planks, upper body work, and exercises on the Bosu balance ball. My plans for walking home from the gym were scuttled because of rain.</p>
<p>The rain is thwarting me too today. I will normally do my hill in the rain, since its only a mile. But when there’s lightening and wind, I don’t…because one time when a t-storm started when I was up there I kept hearing ths profound CREAKING. The next day, there was a tree down across my trail ;)</p>
<p>With today’s storm, there’ve been several rounds of thunder and lightening, so I suppose its the dreadmill for me.</p>
<p>I do have the dreadmill set at its maximum incline…the number “says” ten but I find it hard to believe its actually 10% because its nowhere near as hard as the hill. I think I would hate the dreadmill less if it had the moving arms to get the same kind of motion I get on the hill with the ski poles. I used to have one like that but it died.</p>
<p>I realize that artice might intimidate some (4 mph for an hour at incline) but when I started, reading those kind of calculations helped me settle on a method that was 20x more effective for me in terms of muscle tone and caloric burn in a short amount of time than the prior flat walking I’d been doing. Mind you, I’m not doing it for an hour. More like 3 mph for 20-30 min. depending on my route, and only HALF of that is uphill, and the slopes vary widely once I’m on the top of the hill (a gentler slope that runs alone the top corridor to an overlook I like.)</p>
<p>But I think its good for people to know they can virtually doube their burn by things like slope/terraine, using ski poles for increased heart rate, and even wearing a weight vest…which I am considering for this winter given that I’m not hauling quite as much of myself up that hill I suspect intensity makes a big difference.</p>
For example, I can walk at 4-5 mph up a 10% hill for about 15 min. That means I will burn a 1/4 of what is projected for an hour. Is the math so hard or is everything should be dumbed down for the general public? </p>
</p>
I suspect intensity makes a big difference.</p>