<p>I agree that running comes with a huge risk of injury, especially if you are a larger person or inefficient with your stride. Just about everyone I know (runners) has struggled with an injury. I think if you are reasonable in your training (do as I say and not as I do) it can be avoided- or at least the chance can be greatly reduced. Not running more than 3 or 4 days a week is a good idea for a newby. Doing what I did in 2009 is exactly wrong. I am not saying I wouldn’t have gotten hurt anyway- who knows? However, for my age I completely was stupid. 387 days in a row, 5 marathons (one of them The Monkey, which is right up there as one of the hardest road marathons in the country), racing too many weeks in a row, not enough rest…did I mention the 387 days in a row?</p>
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<p>No way. I’m a wimp. I had grand plans to go for three full sets of Spartacus tonight. Didn’t make it. Did two full sets with a 5 minute Airdyne warmup and a 5 minute Airdyne cooldown. I was a above 90% heartrate for all ten exercises of the second set and threw in the towel on the notion of a third set.</p>
<p>I’m doing the cheater version. No pausing the iPod soundtrack at all in today’s workout, but instead of 60 seconds of exercise and 15 seconds of rest, I was stopping at the 45 second mark, and taking 30 seconds of rest. I can do that and the exercises are getting a little stronger. The only one that kills me for 45 seconds is the split jumps: starting from a lunge, jumping up, and scissor kicking, landing in the opposite lunge. Not only do I practically fall over, it’s just a cardio nightmare. I can’t do the side lunges for beans. It’s like my legs just don’t bend that direction so I don’t come close to getting the dumbells on the ground, unless I just bend my back down, but I’ll keep working on them. Great exercise.</p>
<p>The whole thing took me 40 minutes, average heart rate 80%, max heart rate 96%.</p>
<p>It was 108 degrees here today. My air conditioning isn’t working. I’m having ice cream for dinner.</p>
<p>Somewhere I think there is a young man who posts on a site under the name SonofWildMom.</p>
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<p>I think that’s good advice no matter what exercise you are doing. A day off to recover between workouts seems really important, at least for a guy my age. Mix it up.</p>
<p>idad, my husband swims laps for exercise. He has two knee replacements, so he needs low-impact cardio. We belong to a local college’s gym that has community memberships–extremely reasonable. If you have one of those in your area, you might want to look into it. (I wish I liked to swim, but I don’t. It’s on my list of things I should try to like.)</p>
<p>I’ve lost either 5 or 6 pounds since September 1. I am not sure what my starting weight was. I feel encouraged! Thanks to my trusty LoseIt! app, reduced carbs and sugar, huge amounts of vegetables, and increased exercise, I do believe I can keep going. Family Weekend dining wasn’t as much of a challenge as I thought it would be, and that was good, too.</p>
<p>geezermom:</p>
<p>Five or six pounds in less than a month is fantastic. That’s how it all started for me. It was all about getting that slider weight on the scale moving to the left instead of the right. Once that happened, it was a lot easier to stay motivated. There’s momentum in weight changes – in both directions!</p>
<p>I’ve tracked my food this month on [LIVESTRONG.COM</a> - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle | LIVESTRONG.COM](<a href=“http://www.livestrong.com%5DLIVESTRONG.COM”>http://www.livestrong.com). Averaging about 1700 calories a day, making a diligent effort to count every taste and nibble. It might be 1800 a day, but that’s close. Looking at it, I’m definitely “low-ish” on the carbs, averaging a little over 100g of carbs a day, but with a pretty wide variation (low of 55g, high of 260g, not counting the gatoraid that was all carbs). I’m higher on fat (mostly olive oil, butter, blue cheese, parmegianno reggiano cheese, and half n’ half in my coffee). I’m higher on protein, eating large portions of meat, chicken, seafood, etc.</p>
<p>I didn’t plan to eat low carb, it’s just the way the cookie has crumbled trying to take calories out of my diet, eliminating breads and starches and junk food for the most part while keeping the dinners that I love. Tracking it for a month, I can see that a weekly treat of pizza or ravioli or a hamburger on a real kaiser roll is OK to balance out very low carbs other days. I’ve read some nutritional gurus claim that you need the shot of carbs from time to time to keep your metabolism from going into a mode of stopping weight loss. Might be true, I don’t know.</p>
<p>I eat massive quantities of vegetables and salad. I figure that once I’ve got my calories in a fixed amount of salad dressing and croutons, the more lettuce and raw veggies I pile on, the better. I feel stuffed and it’s good for ya.</p>
<p>I regressed a pound which is understandable as I’m away from home for a week, desperately trying to avoid the crap at the local eateries. Oh well, I expected this.</p>
<p>Ran six miles at my best pace AF (After Getting Fat). It felt reasonably good.</p>
<p>I had a lot of Udon noodles last night so perhaps those gave me the carbs to run on today.</p>
<p>That’s what is working for me too, idad! I am always on the lower end of carbs unless I splurge on fruit. I always go over on protein and fiber and I can hardly believe I am never hungry! I do have to force myself to add the fat by cooking in oil or adding avocado to something. I have a hard time adding the exercise calories back in to get to my suggested calorie goal for the day. I tend to get those calories back when we go out on weekends so my Monday weight is high but then it falls right off as the week progresses. For example when I weighed in today I was down 2.8 pounds from yesterday. That’s a lot of water weight! Still experiencing a small plateau but hoping the scale will continue to move down this week!</p>
<p>I am a little stiff this morning. Upped the resistance on my bike yesterday and today. It was brutal but made it for my regular time. Walked on the dreadmill for 40 minutes today to counter the bike stiffness. Now my glutes are sore! Ah well…needed to shake things up!</p>
<p>I was on a little plateau after losing 4 pounds, which didn’t really bother me. Then last week we ate out more than usual. Though I watched what I ate, I suspect that the high sodium content of restaurant food was a culprit. I don’t expect 5-6 pounds every month, for sure, but a pound a week would be nice.</p>
<p>I have been low-ish on the carbs, too. My doctor recommended that I cut back on fruit (I was really overdoing it during the summer), substitute more veggies, and watch the sugar content of everything I eat. I have avoided white stuff for a number of years. I wasn’t eating enough protein, either, so now I’m making sure I have protein with lunch.</p>
<p>OMG, I’m going to have nightmares hearing that voice say, “You have completed 3 intervals, get ready to crank it in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…”</p>
<p>I can’t believe I did the whole thing. New Workout Muse iPod interval track. This is one they did for a Mixed Martial Arts exercise program. It’s an interval pyramid. I did it on the Airdyne.</p>
<p>5 minutes of warmup</p>
<p>4 intervals: 6 seconds hard, 18 seconds easy (80+ rpm)</p>
<p>4 intervals: 20 seconds hard, 40 seconds easy (70+ rpm)</p>
<p>4 intervals: 40 seconds hard, 80 seconds easy (65+ rpm)</p>
<p>4 intervals: 60 seconds hard, 120 seconds easy (60+ rpm)</p>
<p>8 intervals: 10 seconds hard, 20 seconds easy (75+ rpm, 80+ for the last two)</p>
<p>5 minutes of cool down</p>
<p>42 minutes of pure hell. I staggered off the bike, but I feel great. Now that’s an easy cardio off day!</p>
<p>That sounds brutal.</p>
<p>It’s doable. The rest periods are long enough to recover your heart rate in between intervals (except those final eight). Intervals are really brutal when the rest period is too short to get any recovery. For example, the infamous “Tabata Protocol”, named after an exercise research study using Airdynes, calls for 20 seconds of all out sprint followed by 10 seconds of recovery. That’s brutal because you are still gasping for air when the next interval starts. For the most part I was recovered back down in the low to mid 70% heart rate range at the start of each interval (except the last eight, where I just stayed near 90%).</p>
<p>The key is knowing how hard you can pedal and make it to the end of the interval. Starting out like crazy and getting gassed after 10 seconds is no good. I thought I could do 60 rpms for 60 seconds because I’ve been doing 55 as an aggressive warmup pace. 60 seconds is enough to get a serious muscle burn going.</p>
<p>I kinda liked doing it with an interval soundtrack. No watching the clock. I could just close my eyes and pedal on the longer intervals.</p>
<p>Terwitt–I use edamame in veggie stir fry dishes–one of my favorites is to use carrots, asparagus, artichoke hearts (not fresh from a bottle), and edamame along with garlic cloves and thyme. It’s a Moosewood recipe.</p>
<p>I buy frozen shelled edamame and thaw and use in salads. We love it!</p>
<p>I am exhausted! Had a great bike workout and cooled down on the treadmill and then lifted weights. Upped my weights so my arms are like jelly! Beautiful day here with lots of sun. May try to get another walk in on the trails and look at the fall colors.</p>
<p>I mix shelled edamame with cooked quinoa, chopped scallions, halved cherry tomatoes and whatever herbs I have. Toss with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. Yummy warm or at room temperature. Add drained canned tuna and call it a meal.</p>
<p>NMinn, you are an exercise demon! I did my B210K workout today. Run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, repeat x 4. Start and finish with a 5 minute walk. It’s weird to be back to intervals, but changing things up has helped keep my interest in my running.</p>
<p>I lost 20 pounds in the past 4 months!
The key thing is “EAT LESS AND MOVE MORE”.
Bought a 2-year membership (gym) from a wholesale store-only $12.50 per month.
Really love the classes: Steps, Zumba, Zumba toning, Nightclub Cadio and Kickboxing.
Learned a lot from this thread-thanks to everybody!</p>
<p>hairspray:</p>
<p>That’s fantastic! Keep it going. You ladies are out of my league with those classes. I’d last about five minutes in a Steps or Zumba class. I’d be the old fat guy over in the corner trying to gasp for air.</p>
<p>chintzy:</p>
<p>Hah, I’m not quite at your level. I’m on more of a jog for 1 minute, walk for 10 interval protocol. Actually, the National Geological Survey has contacted me and asked me not to run for more than 60 seconds at a time. Apparently, I cause all the seismographic plotters to overheat. They could film a Discovery Channel thundering herd nature documentary of me running. All they’d need is a muddy watering hole and some wildebeasts grazing.</p>
<p>Spartacus again today. I rather liked the exercise for 45 seconds, rest for 30 seconds interval pace from Monday, so that’s the plan again. I’m gonna try for three sets, but we’ll see how that goes. I think I can safely skip the Airdyne intervals, with the Mixed Martial Arts intervals yesterday and probably again tomorrow with rain in the forecast.</p>
<p>90 minutes of tennis today. I used my heavy racquet - this thing is a beast - about .4 oz heavier than any production racquets out there. I could feel some strain on my elbow from the additional weight but I played two sets with it. My elbow might be better off with something lighter. At any rate, I felt very quick today. Got back a lot of shots that I may have given up on before and lasted through several long points. I’m hoping that the stress of the heavier racquet promotes muscle growth and maybe elbow healing.</p>
<p>Hairspray- Wow! That’s great. Keep checking in with your “virtual gym” as well. We want to hear about your progress.</p>
<p>Chintzy - going back to short intervals isn’t a bad way to rest from your 5K. I was back out on Monday & Tuesday, but I am just wiped out today, so I think I am taking a rest. When is your 10K scheduled? I forget. I am thinking of doing something longer in November - there is a 5 mile or 10 mile choice. It’s at Coney Island, the 100th year of racewalking there. How funny is that??</p>