<p>MOWC…Oh, no! I hope you are icing and stretching! Sending healing thoughts your way!</p>
<p>Things are finally back to normal around as we returned D2 to college this weekend. Seemed like my exercise was walking up and down stairs and across campus lugging boxes and suitcases for the past few days. Back in the gym this afternoon…that was different. Didn’t recognize any one at this time of day. Started slow on the bike but cranked it up after about 15 minutes and finished strong at the hour mark. Hopped on the dreadmill to cool down and try to burn 100 more calories. Then over to the machines for some weights. Good feeling when I was finished. My next workout goal is to start some core exercises. I am embarassed to admit that I have stayed away from these at the gym because I have a hard time standing up once I am down on the floor! Now that my knee is feeling stronger I think I will try to find some routine online to follow. Any suggestions??? idad…I think the ipod nazi is still too much for me at this point! ;)</p>
<p>Well, it was so gorgeous here today that I was tempted to walk for the third day in a row, but I figured the lower temps and humidity provided the perfect opportunity to attack the iPod workout that kicked my butt last week.</p>
<p>I’ve been doing this workout, but with all three sets of exercises at the start and then finishing with the Airdyne intervals. It’s much harder with the intervals in between sets because the Airdyne takes everything you’ve got. I tried it in proper order last week and couldn’t finish the third set of exercises.</p>
<p>Today, I did the whole thing, with just one concession. I took 4 minutes between the intervals and the next set instead of the allotted 2 minutes. I did all 3 sets and even finished the third set with 40 ball crunches in 45 seconds.</p>
<p>The exercise circut is:</p>
<p>Step up and press dumbell with opposite arm
Reverse flys
Pushups
Squat with curl and press
Plank on the stability ball
One-legged hamstring roll-ins (stability ball)
Side plank (45 seconds on each side)
Ball crunches</p>
<p>I think it all has to start with learning how to brace the abs and do plank and side bridges. These two innocuous looking exercises are absolutely brutal, even doing the side bridges from the knees, which I did for the first six months. I’ve been doing both of these exercises three days a week since February. I can do 45 seconds now, but it is still not easy. You can feel the results on core stabilty.</p>
<p>Well, I’ve glanced ahead and Phase III of the iPod workouts are supersets with bodyweight exercises alternating with burpees, jumping jacks, etc. The challenge is to be able to do the very demanding bodyweight exercises while still recovering from high intensity cardio. It’s basically intervals with weight lifting exercises as the “recovery”. That’s why I knew I had to press on and get the Airdyne intervals in between sets. The problem has been that the bodyweight exercises themselves are right at my limit. Big boy pushups are hard. Squats with a curl and press are really hard.</p>
<p>The nice thing is that these workouts are scalable, so I might do this current workout for another two weeks. There comes a point with many of these exercises where increasing fitness “clicks” and I start doing them in a much stronger way.</p>
<p>Over the summer my H and I got serious about cleaning up our diet, which is generally healthy but lacking in some areas. Last week I started to focus on portion control and cutting back on or eliminating certain foods. I’m down 3 to 4 pounds–I’m not sure exactly how much because I don’t trust my old scale (we got a new one this weekend). I know the ongoing loss won’t be this big. A pound a week would be nice, but all I really care about is a consistent downward trend. I also got up the courage to measure my waist yesterday. It was not a pretty number, so that’s even more incentive to press on.</p>
<p>Our weather was beautiful over the weekend. We took a short hike in a park on Sunday, and I walked in our neighborhood yesterday. I try to find smooth, even sidewalks, but since most of ours are brick, that’s hard to do. My knees feel it (one of many reasons to take off pounds). I usually walk on an indoor track at the gym, but I hate to miss the fall weather.</p>
<p>idad, you’re an inspiration to keep moving!</p>
<p>Maybe not if you have actual knee injuries, but the minor aches and soreness of walking outdoors goes away as you do more of it. My first few times out, my legs were tied in knots after a half mile. Now, I really only feel it when I make a jump in distance. I feel my legs after a 4 mile hike, but not so much after 3 miles these days.</p>
<p>Uneven surfaces are a challenge (I’ve turned my ankle twice now). You just have to force yourself to slow down a bit and pay attention to the foot landing each time. I don’t like soft surfaces like gravel or sand. Asphalt’s fine. Hard pack dirt is fine.</p>
<p>The downside of walking on an indoor track is that you don’t have any hills. I know from my heart rate monitor that hills change the exercise equation exponentially.</p>
<p>I made a delicious (to me!) salad yesterday. I bought a bag of the broccoli slaw and added a handful of chopped nuts, blackberries and raspberries and some leftover grilled chicken breast. Used some low fat raspberry vinaigrette…Yum! Still trying to get more fiber!</p>
<p>Today I tried idad’s core exercise link after I came home from the gym. Pleasantly surprised that I could do most of them although crouching on my knee was uncomfortable. I was feeling pretty good until I did the glute lift one.Seems my brain has difficulty getting my body squeezing, lifting, holding in abdominals and breathing all at the same time! I was holding my breath and that wasn’t a good thing! Made me start to laugh and then it was all over! Will have to work on that one!</p>
<p>I’ve been using the tech stuff for a month and thought that I’d comment on them now. I was initially skeptical but I’ve put away my cotton running shirts and am just using the tech stuff. I have four for running - three at size XL which fit loosly and one at L that is snug. I use the three XLs for running and three is a good number as it allows me leeway on laundering. I can do a morning and evening run and still have one left over for the next day.</p>
<p>They are comfortable and light which is nice but they allow me to hand-wash them in the evening and they dry by the next morning so I’m well-supplied, even if I skip a day before washing them. I have also moved a bunch of t-shirts out of my bureau as I don’t need as many to get me through the week - I bought two tech t-shirts (with sleeves) that I use from time to time. I also hand-wash these unless it’s near weekly wash time and I have a delicates load to do.</p>
<p>I never did hand-washes with the cotton stuff because it could take much longer to try and I don’t know if hand-washing is that effective on cotton. The dirt seems to come out of the tech stuff pretty easily.</p>
<p>I have tech shorts but I’m not using them because they take too long to dry after hand-washing. I guess that it’s the thick part of the shorts that take a long time to dry. Perhaps there are tech shorts that dry faster. I will use them for races but not day to day.</p>
<p>OK…I’m not crazy about tech shirts right now. My DH and DS have many that seem to be beyond the point of redemption if you know what I mean. And one of my bike shirts is now in that category after numerous long-distance runs in 90+ (even 100+) temps. I tried some home remedies that I found (rubbing alcohol, baking soda, even vinegar) but no go. </p>
<p>I just ordered something called Oderzout from Amazon…a laundry additive that I hope will save these shirts! In the meantime, I am liking the old soft cotton shirts… :)</p>
<p>I haven’t run into that problem (yet) but maybe different brands are easier to get stuff out of than others? Or maybe you have to wash them shortly after wearing them? I know that you’re not supposed to use bleach but I wonder if a small amount of powdered bleach would get out the odors.</p>
<p>I put my compression shorts (mostly tech) in with the regular wash and I throw in powdered bleach and they seem to be fine. It may be that it shortens the life of the garment a little but I haven’t noticed any wear on these clothes.</p>
<p>I noticed that you mentioned bike shirts. I believe that those are a lot heavier and provide compression compared to running singlets. My running singlets are pretty thin, are see-through and are very, very light. I think that they are porous as well. Perhaps heavier tech fabrics are harder to clean compared to the really light running stuff.</p>
<p>I’ve been wearing tech t-shirts for workouts and walking, too. They are cooler when sweating buckets… plus I like to show off my abs of steel! Marshall’s a TJ has had a bunch of them on the racks at $9.99. Mostly Reebok, in plain colors that fit me fantastic. Long-sleeve are a different story. I’ve taken advantage of a Kohl’s buy one/get one free deal to get a couple of solid color Fila long sleeve tech t-s in solid colors – I hate the stripes.</p>
<p>I spent the weekend sewing Scotchlite reflective fabric stripes on my new $19 Columbia rain/wind shell. The thing is blinding when car lights hit it. Me working the sewing machine is about as ridiculous as me doing intervals on the old yard sale exercise bike!</p>
<p>6 miles, broke 10 minutes. It’s amazing how a small change in speed (2%) results in noticeable additional wear and tear in the joints. My usual approach to improving speed is to run faster one time, then back off back to previous levels and then inch my way back up. I don’t think that I want to increase times too quickly until my weight goes down as that’s how I mess up joints. I have to run an errand for a friend and then will do some core exercises later on.</p>
<p>Diet has been crazy lately. Sunday, 3,000 calories (maintenance), Monday, 1,500 calories, today 1,900 calories. On Monday, I didn’t have a lot of opportunities to eat something and I guess that I was coasting on Sunday’s excess calories. Right now I feel stuffed on a Quiznos veggie sub.</p>
<p>Fantastic for doing the plank and the side plank. Those bring a lot of people to their knees. </p>
<p>The hamstring/glute bridge is really hard. I found that I had to actively breath – breath out while pushing my hips up and breath in while relaxing just a bit. Then, breath out and push the hips up again. Same thing with the side bridges. Breath out and push the hips up, breath in a relax just a bit. That’s a trick with all weight exercises. Breath out when lifting the weight, breath in when returning.</p>
<p>The glute lift is an exercise that will evolve over months. I now do it with my feet on the stability ball, lifting one leg off the ball. I’ve been doing it that way for a month and it just “clicked” to have enough hamstring strength to really control it.</p>