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<p>Yeah. Me and Richard Simmons! </p>
<p>Sausage casing workout shirt? Yes. Little tank top? No.</p>
<p>For indoor workouts, I’ve been wearing the Brooks running pants and a long sleeve tech t. I picked up a couple of black adidas half zip tops at Marshalls that look like a warm up top, but are more shirt weight. I layer those as a top layer for warm up and afterwards.</p>
<p>So great to hear about all the progress in 2010, especially from the “lurkers!”</p>
<p>teriwitt – your trip to HI sounds wonderful, and brings back great memories. H & I have been to Maui 4 times, twice with D & S. We’ve done the road to Hana 3 times, and drove all the way around the island each time. It’s never been an issue with the car rental company. We nixed the idea of doing the bike ride down from Haleakala, but on one trip with D & S we did a horseback ride down into the crater. That was an adventure! Very cool that you met up with BB.</p>
<p>I think I started posting on this thread in July. I had been reading it every now and then, and have to say all your workouts and stories really did inspire me to get back to exercising. I have been involved in some kind of sport or dance all my life until the last 2 years, when I started a part time job. I gained some weight, not a lot, but had become kind of, oh let’s call it flabby :). The more I read this thread, the more I felt motivated to find a new activity to get back into shape. The biggest revelation for me was the livestrong site. I had a vague idea of how many calories I thought I was eating, but tracking my actual food each day was eye opening.</p>
<p>Now I am working full time, so my challenge this year is to find a way to restart my workouts and keep them up. But after reading that Mansfield gets up every day at 4:50AM to run, even when it’s 6 above, I guess I have no excuse.</p>
<p>On the weight loss thing, according to livestrong.com, I apparently have the daily activity level of a dockworker, because I have to eat that much or more just to maintain my current weight, and I am trying to gain some back because people are starting to comment in a worried sort of way. I can’t figure out how I went from the high side of normal to slightly underweight when I feel like I am eating more than I used to.</p>
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<p>Pringles, Sour Gummy worms, roasted peanuts, and donuts will put that weight on! :)</p>
<p>Didn’t do anything yesterday but got lots of rest. Played 140 minutes of doubles today which was a pretty tough workouts. I’m wearing those knee brace things with the cushions near the hole. It’s much safer to play tennis (or lift weights) with those things on as recovery is much faster.</p>
<p>So I broke out my new HRM for today’s work out. Can’t really breathe without coughing up a lung but I was hoping the workout would loosen things up. After a little mistake I figured out this new technology and am happy to say I am now tracking my workouts on the Polar website along with my LiveStrong Plate. I am doing way more fitness level training than fat burn training which was quite a surprise to me. Need to fiddle with this thing a little more to learn how to get better at tracking my improvements. These next few goals have been hard to reach over the Holidays and I am hoping this will be the push I need. </p>
<p>No geeky fitness clothes here. My workout buddy and my family keep saying I need new clothes so I bought some inexpensive yoga pants at Target but still wear old baggy teeshirts. Think I will reward myself with a new ensemble when I reach my next goal! ;)</p>
<p>Wow! Way to go Mansfield! Congratulations on your reaching some of your fitness and weight loss goals! You should be proud of yourself! Yay!!!</p>
<p>All of you runners are making me think I should try a little jog on the dreadmill. My knee is feeling pretty good as long as I bike/exercise every day. Maybe I will try this week for just a few minutes…if it hurts I will stop. chintzy/MOWC and now Mansfield…you have really inspired me!</p>
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<p>That’s good, because the so-called “fat burning zone” is a joke if you want to lose fat. The idea that you should keep your heart rate below 70% to burn fat is exactly the opposite of what really works to lose weight. It’s all about intensity. </p>
<p>As Rachel Cosgrove says, “If you want to look like a fox, you’ve got to sweat like a pig…”</p>
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<p>I don’t do ensembles, but I have become a big fan of these polyester fitness shirts. The long sleeve versions are surprisingly useful. It’s too damn chillly in New England for a short sleeve shirt, but you know you are going to sweat during a workout. These long sleeve tech shirts have the remarkable ability to be both warm and cool. Easy to wash. No iron.</p>
<p>Marshalls and TJ Maxx are the best place for men. $10 for short sleeve, $12 to $15 for long sleeve, even lower out of season. They have the Reebok short sleeve shirts in solid colors now for $7.99 on the clearance rack. I don’t know about the womens versions.</p>
<p>All the athletic companies (Nike, addidas, Reebok, new balance, Fila, Champion) and all the outdoor companies (Columbia, North Face, etc.) make them – same stuff – and stick absurd sticker prices on them, but for $10 at Marshalls, why not?</p>
<p>Disaster of a “run” this morning. Clear, sunny, cold morning, and my hacking chest and I decided to try 8 miles of low HR running. The combination of the bronchitis and the meds (I guess) were too much for my heart rate, and I could, basically, not run without my HR going over my target. It was so frustrating. I would jog a little, get notified (my new Garmin vibrates AND dings when I am over my heart rate target) and have to walk. My average pace was pathetic and I never felt OK. The only positive was that I did complete the distance and got a good long workout in as a result. I’m also ahead of the pace bunny in my 2000 mile running group. Of course, it’s only January 2… (just to give you an idea of how frustrating this kind of training can be for a runner who is used to training too hard, one of my running friends admitted to trying low HR training and getting so frustrated that she ripped off her HR monitor strap and threw it in the bushes.)</p>
<p>Mansfield, this one made me laugh: “Excuse me, those are the larger sizes. Petites are over here.”
Also, congrats on lowering your glucose level! </p>
<p>I’m inspired to take better care of myself – my body shape seems to have changed lately (everything seems to be moving to my belly), and I’m very flabby. Also, I have high cholesterol. I’ve started a new regimen of exercising every morning, first thing (see my 21 day habit thread). That is a huge change for me, to get out of bed and start moving right away. I think I like it. Anyway, today was my second day and it sure is a psychological lift to start the day this way.</p>
<p>idad and MOWC…the heart rate zones are really confusing to me. According to the Polar calculation my max HR is supposed to be 149, based, I assume, on my information plugged in to the monitor. So in my workout this morning my average HR was 130, max 148. Says I was in fat burn for 3:17 and Fitness for 57:23 minutes. So now what do I do with that? Is it good, bad or indifferent?</p>
<p>I don’t believe you can put any value in the stock heart rate formulas. You simply MUST know your own personal max (or close to it) and your personal resting heart rate. Then you use the formula where you back out the resting heart rate before you calculate your zones. I can look it all up for you if you want. Next time you are on your bike, push yourself to where you hit as high a HR as you can stand and where you feel you can’t go any further- gasping for air etc. The “stock” zone calculations can be off so much that they are useless. My own max is 185-187 (max is not a sign of fitness, it’s just what it is) and my resting is around 50. My aerobic zone is 136-148.</p>
<p>Google Karvonen formula. There’s a book I really like called Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot by John Parker. It might be hard to find, unfortunately. Alternatively, Roy Benson is another good (easy to understand) heart rate training guru.</p>
<p>Basically, the Karvonen formula calculates zones (using 70% as an example) like this:</p>
<p>(MAX-Resting HR) x .70 + (Resting HR)</p>
<p>Thanks MOWC. Just googled idad’s Alwyn Cosgrove and he has the Karvonen formula and some instructions:</p>
<p>3) Maximize your cardio training by using a heart rate monitor. You wouldn’t lift weights for a completely random number of sets and reps with an arbitrarily chosen weight – but many people follow up their resistance training with a cardio program that involves just riding the bike or running on the treadmill. Get specific with a good heart rate monitor and work at a given heart rate intensity. A good rule is to use the Karvonen formula (220-age-resting heart rate= HRR – heart rate reserve). Work at 85% of your max (0.85 x HRR + resting heart rate) for 60s and then recover until your heart rate is below 60% of your max (0.6 x HRR + resting heart rate). Repeat that for 4-6 rounds</p>
<p>Compared this way to the Polar setting and they are fairly close…Max difference of 3 bpm for me. Will definitely try his intervals tomorrow when I work out tomorrow. Will be interested in seeing if my HR is different after I am recovered from my bronchitis.</p>
<p>You may want to check… I believe earlier in this thread it was mentioned about the HR formula being different for women than it is for men.</p>
<p>Here is the booklet TIMEX ships with their monitors that explains the heart ranges and a simple physical test to estimate your max. Other than the fact that it has the nonsense about the “fat burning zone”, it’s a pretty informative booklet:</p>
<p><a href=“http://assets.timex.com/user_guides/Tools_For_Success_ENG-SPA.pdf[/url]”>http://assets.timex.com/user_guides/Tools_For_Success_ENG-SPA.pdf</a></p>
<p>To be honest, this stuff isn’t really all that precise. I think that it’s “close enough for government work” or for armchair fitness, to use the old formula of 220 minus age or the new one for women of 206 minus .88 times age. Plug that in as your max for a while and see what you get. If you see heartrates over 100%, then you know it’s too low for you – as it would be for MOWC. In my case. I’ve hit 100% four times since February (and I was completely gassed beyond belief to get there – like one step away from hurling, gassed), so I would say that the age formula was right on the money for me.</p>
<p>Mike Boyle also recommends the heart rate monitor for intervals, sprinting, then resting until you heart rate is back to 60% of max. I’ve done that and I think it’s a terrific way to do intervals because it optimizes the timing for any fitness level. If you calculate 60% using the Kavorian method, that works out to 73% of max heart rate (the way the Timex calculates it). That’s about where I’m fully recovered and ready to go again.</p>
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<p>Hah. He doesn’t introduce his diabolical “metabolic intervals” until phase 2 of this new program I’m doing.</p>
<p>I’m already starting to sweat just thinking about it:</p>
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<p>Doing 6 burpees, on the minute, every minute, for ten minutes, is just brutal. The alternate workouts have a similar metabolic exercise, only swinging a kettleball or dumbbell between your legs and up to your shoulder. That’s brutal, too.</p>
<p>That’s “cardio” in Alwyn Cosgrove’s world! Which is why clients at the Cosgrove’s gym shed fat.</p>
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<p>I’m really excited about this new workout program – about 12 weeks worth. It came at the perfect time. I just finished the final phase of iPod nazi and I’m starting to get solid with Spartacus. This program is like iPod nazi and Spartacus all rolled into one. Both iPod nazi and Cosgrove are really big on assymetrical exercises – one arm dumbbell lifts, doing squats with a big dumbbell on one shoulder and a small dumbbell on other, etc. A lot of the exercises I wanted to start addiing to my workouts are already in this program. I expect to see pretty signficant fitness gains from this stuff.</p>
<p>Where is everyone?</p>
<p>I did a hard, hard workout yesterday – nothing dazzlingly new, just did everything more than usual and with heavier weights than usual – and I’m feeling delightfully sore today. Taking a lovely day off – from the gym and, even better, from work.</p>
<p>I forced myself out of bed this morning in the dark and went over to the little gym to the dreadmill. I think my coughing does better without 15 degree cold air. The 4 miles went a lot better than Saturday, but I am still feeling the effects of this cold/bronchitis. I was planning 6 miles outside in the morning, but just got an early work meeting thrown at me, so that’s out. I may try a noon workout, which isn’t great due to logistics, but can be done in a pinch. I have PT after work, so that time slot is out. I seem to think that a day off will kill me- and will put me behind the stupid 2000 mile pace bunny, which if I were smart I would kiss goodbye anyway.<br>
In honor of idad, I’m going to the gym after work today for weights and PT exercises. No burpees, though.</p>
<p>We’ve been in NH visiting a different gym. Most of their machines are similar, but different. Frustrating, but we did get out twice and did plenty of dancing New Year’s Eve. No gym today, but I will probably do some of the core exercises and jumping around with weights stuff I-dad keeps telling us about. If I can find the links. I don’t seem to have bookmarked all of them. I might even do a few burpees!</p>
<p>Did a short run this afternoon - coughing along the way too. I guess that there’s a cold or flu going around. Son complained of headache and achy joints a few days ago and my wife is coughing a little.</p>
<p>After the run, did curls - right hand could do 12 pounds. Tennis elbow is steadily improving. There’s been more improvement in the last week than in the previous six months. Also did 95 pounds bench press on the Smith Machine. 95 pounds is not that much weight for guys that hang out in the barbell section of the YMCA - I think that 140-200 is what the muscle guys do. I’ve never had a lot of upper-body strength.</p>
<p>Also did squats and the military press. Felt like a good workout despite the short run.</p>
<p>Will do weight machines at the YMCA tonight.</p>
<p>At the office, we have 8, 10, 12, 12.5, 15, 17.5, 18, 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30, etc. for dumbbells. They are two different sets with different weights. We have duplicates on the multiples of five. Good for weight granularity.</p>