Thank you idad for the Patagonia Capilene shirt recommendation. I ordered a white one from the Women’s line. I also ordered a Coolibar shirt. Their color choices are bright and brighter, so if anything, I’ll stand out in the forest and won’t confuse the hunters
I am in complete agreement with your assessment of the old gym classes, PG. In junior high we had cotton onesy outfits in red and grey pinstripes–mandatory. The locker room was the most humiliating place in the whole school…Our gym teacher called me a klutz the first time I tried to play basketball, in front of the whole class, and I felt like I wore a shameful posterboard saying “klutz” through all of high school.
Ooh, 55 degrees and sunny sounds perfect abasket and Deb922. Unfortunately for us, we won’t see that for six months.
Wow, C3B–that is a fast five miles. My cardiovascular system still couldn’t handle that pace for that long. Good job!
I went to the gym today with my son. I warmed up with a 1.5 mile run walk, pushing the run interval pace; then I did that old favorite Cosgrove workout of side planks, active leg lowering, reverse lunge with cable row, Romanian deadlift, pushups, hip flexor stretch with rotation, stepups, pulldowns, double leg hip bridge, and mountain climbers. Whew–think I need to do this one more often!
We had swimming in gym class for certain units. We had to wear school issued swimsuits and they were color-coded by bra size! The big sizes were hideous colors like fluorescent orange! All the boys knew the size codes so it was very mortifying. Girls would claim to have their periods week after week to avoid the suits and the swimming. Not to mention the whole wet hair-thing and trying not to look horrible the whole rest of the day. I wish some of my gym teachers could see me now! I was fine in the sports like kickball, softball etc., did OK in running stuff (although I didn’t like it), but was horrible at the interpretive dancing stuff that required grace and balance, and was afraid of some of the apparatus stuff like handsprings over the horse.
OMG, MOfWC!!! That’s horrendous, but it made me laugh! I too really hated PE until I went to a different school where the teacher made a lot of emphasis on personal improvement versus those dreadful team sports.
Yikes, I was afraid of that vaulting too. My long legs were a problem for that apparatus! What a nightmare with the swimsuits :o !!! The sports I liked and did alright with were badminton and archery.I became decent in field hockey once I figured out that to survive and even excel, it was necessary only to whack back at the aggressors’ legs with the plastic hockey stick. Oh, and bowling. Can you tell I grew up in the midwest?
I went to a health spa weekend years ago with a girlfriend of mine. My girlfriend was about 100 pounds overweight and we were kind of jumpstarting healthy living / diet / exercise together, and sharing the same struggles, even though I was in a different position with just a few pounds to lose. In any case, they issued you clothing (kind of like scrubs) and you wore that the entire weekend. Except they were color coded by size. So I walked around in the color that corresponded to a medium and she walked around in the color that corresponded to, I don’t know, XXL or whatever. What an awful thing to do IMO.
Wow. Awesome hike today. Mid 60s, cool breeze, deep, deep blue sky, not a cloud to be seen, trees just starting to leaf out. Did one of my favorites, the Welch Dickey Loop near Waterville Valley. It’s widely regarded as the best “family” hike in NH. A little over 5 miles total. up one mountain (Welch), down a bit, up a second mountain (Dickey), and back down to the parking lot. Much of the hike is on exposed smooth granite ledges and slopes so the views are non-stop. Steep enough to get the heart rate up (my ol’ school Garmin strap worked perfectly!), but not prohibitively grueling now. This was the first hike I did in the White Mountains a few years ago and it kicked my butt that day for sure, but I’m in a little better hiking shape now.
Pretty much the perfect hike on the perfect day.
Big Parking lot was full. Half of NH was there on the Thurs afternoon. Seemed like a lot of college kids mixed in with the geezer set. Got a compliment from a young 20-something hiker girl on my neon yellow bro’ cap… Made my day…
Looks like I even got a little sun as I can see a bit of a white stripe on my arm under my watch. Went with the long pants and long sleeves. Could have gone shorts and t-shirt, but it was fine with the sleeves pushed up.
Sounds like a great hike, iDad. I am still so impressed by how far you have come since this thread started and what an inspiration you are to all of us and how much you know about exercise, clothing and healthy eating!
Good morning! Yesterday while I was out and about, I stopped in a running shop and happened to get a bit of the scoop about Suunto watches. I was speaking with a very experienced runner, and from what he was explaining the Suunto sounds impressive, particularly how it measures in more remote areas that one might think of as not picking up a signal well. Perhaps someone here could expand on this? I’m not familiar enough with the technology he was describing and am not currently needing a new GPS watch, but I thought this might be of interest to a person or two here. Also the HR monitor part.
Those watches are very attractive, Deborah. I haven’t heard of them but I’m sure others here have. I would like to try heart rate training but am a little intimidated - okay, a lot intimidated. For me, the simpler the device the better.
It looks pretty complicated but lots of neat technology.
Sabaray- heart rate training isn’t complicated but you do need to know your max heart rate and resting heart rate. The straps can be annoying, which is why I’m really liking my Mio Fuse wrist sensor. The new Garmin (which I’m not getting for awhile) will solve all that, too. Heart rate training is a really good way to keep your easy runs easy.
I’m really struggling with keeping the easy runs easy and that will be a problem when I’m actually in training mode. When I’m running with the group, I have a tendency to just do what we always do at the pace I always run at. In a short while, that will not be feasible if I want to actually train following the Higdon plan. Several of the women I run with think that the plan is too much running for someone my age, but I’m going to start with it. I have no injuries and have been eating right, hydrating and cross training in addition to maintaining a base, so I feel well prepared. If it is too much, I will just substitute cross training for one of the run days.
I will look at the Mio. I don’t like straps but am really tempted to wait for the new Garmin.
It’s been raining for a couple of weeks now, it seems like. It’s going to keep raining for the next week, they say. So I went for an hour bike ride in the rain (dedicated trail, not in city traffic) and didn’t do anything crazy, so it was fine. Going out of town again for the weekend, so I was determined to get a good ride in.
Well, finished the 25 minute run today (I use the term run loosely; it’s more like a consistent jog!) with none of the breathing issues from last week’s 20 minute version. I actually am beginning to feel like I can do this. For those who have completed the C25K program, is it easier to build a little better speed/pace after completing the program? I’m thinking my best bet is to keep these longer program runs nice and slow to build my endurance and then figure out a way to up the pace. I suspect faster will come naturally when i move off the treadmill and head outside since my walking pace is much quicker than my treadmill jogging pace. I heard all the little birdies in my head this morning when I was contemplating putting off until tomorrow what I could do today! Still experiencing some of the pain on the top of my foot and what I’m calling dead leg syndrome, but it all feels better after I’ve run.
Tomorrow my S runs the Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon in what is predicted to be lousy weather. I promised to come watch him finish, which means being in Coney Island early…really early. He’s in the first tranche, and expects to finish in 1:40-1:50, so we need to head out from here by 7:30am. I’ve watched him play football and lacrosse in much worse weather, so what the heck! At least it’s projected to be in the 60s. Any advice from the veterans here for running in rain? How do you prevent feet from rubbing and blistering in wet socks/shoes?
Congrats on the 25 minutes. Yes- don’t worry about your pace at all for now. As you build endurance, the pace will drop and when you have more of a base, you can add in a little faster running.
I haven’t had issues with blisters from wet feet. Socks should NOT be cotton- if they are the good running socks, they can handle getting wet. I hate running in rain. I always wear a cap in the rain. Somehow if the rain isn’t beating in my face I do better.
I run in the light rain a lot. A hat is a must (thin synthetic one; Nike and brooks have good ones). I also like to wear my sunglasses (the lightest shade possible) - even if they get droplets of rain on them, it is still better than getting water in your eyes. I wear tech tees and shorts; when I run, I generate enough heat to evaporate the water out of my clothes! Absolutely no cotton anywhere on your body, as MOfWC said. He will be fine!
Oh, and I bring a garbage bag to hide under before the start, then I ditch it He will not get cold during the run, but there is nothing more miserable than waiting for the start and feeling your muscles lock up under pouring rain! The garbage bag trick will keep him nice and dry!
