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<p>Well, nothing (low fat, low carb, diet-of-the-month, etc.) has a good track record, other than a lifetime commitment to better eating and exercise (for whatever definition of “better”) that seems to be in rather short supply among the general population. Physicians are probably jaded and cynical about it because most patients who come in having lost some fat come back the next time having gained it all back and more.</p>
<p>We buy uncured turkey bacon at Trader Joes. They have uncured beef and uncured pork bacon too. So you can have your bacon and it it too without nitri/ates. Maybe I’ll skew a little more over to the white meats from the red meats. It’s just that red is more convenient in the supermarket.</p>
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<p>True. Maybe the health focus should shift to strategies to encourage sustaining the changes when they occur. That’s gotta provide more bang for the buck, to keep successful people going, than to try to get unsuccessful people started.</p>
<p>I’ve always felt that the smoking cessation efforts should concentrate on people who have actually put them down, rather than on smokers who say they want to quit, but haven’t managed to walk away for so much as a day.</p>
<p>Ran 4 1/4 today. I’m fairly worn out now (not from the running - I had to get up early this morning to take care of a few things) so maybe just some pushups at home. I don’t think that I’m up to doing weights.</p>
<p>I’m saddling up to ride the NROL4A horse for the next hour or so. I can’t believe how sore I was yesterday. Not painful as in “I hurt myself” sore, just muscle soreness that I haven’t experienced in a while.</p>
<p>Well, I’m done with today’s ride and I think it’s safe to say I feel like I’ve been rode hard and put up wet. Either I’m getting older or these workouts are getting harder.</p>
<p>Actually, today was OK. Tough exercises all around, starting with the farmers walks carrying DBs up and down two flights of stairs with ValSlide alligator drags in between (those thngs are brutal), and ending with a 10 minute superset of 1 and 1/4 squats and chin ups. I bumped the weights up on the incline bench press (2 x 35) and felt a little stronger on a few of the exercises. Lots of heavy breathing, lots of sweat on the mat, so chintzy’s trainer would be jumping for joy.</p>
<p>Seeing some real progress on the band-assisted chinups. I did four solid sets of 6 with about 60 pounds of band assistance, so probably time to remove a band and go down to 50 or 40 pounds of assistance. I’m going to get there one of these days, it’s just been a long slow journey. Of course, losing 10 more pounds helps, but I can feel a big difference in my arms, shoulders, and back.</p>
<p>Pyramid workout today:</p>
<p>1) 10 Burpees
2) 15 KB Swings (30 pounds)
3) 20 crunches
4) 25 Air Squats</p>
<p>Do 1, then do 1 and 2, then 1-2-3, then 1-2-3-4</p>
<p>11:21 time
166 Average HR
185 Max HR</p>
<p>Three CrossFit-style workouts in three days; we’ll see what happens tomorrow :)</p>
<p>Went to my exercise class this morning…between house guests and a sinus infection I haven’t been doing much. And it’s been raining so we can’t even go for a walk. The one time we went out it was drizzling and we walked at a toddler’s pace for a block to visit neighbors. The kid was happy, anyway!</p>
<p>I am so impressed by some of the workouts I read about on here.</p>
You must be absolutely dying during these workouts to sustain those kinds of average heart rates for 11 minutes. I can’t do it.
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<p>Sometimes that’s just the way it works out. I can’t exercise when I’m sick. I took some time off with the vertigo a couple weeks ago. The world didn’t come to an end!</p>
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<p>It’s just a glacial progression. Fifteen months ago, my shins hurt and I was breathing hard after a quarter mile stroll. It’s just slowly stepping up the challenge a tiny bit at a time as the body adapts. It’s really helped me to do several structured programs that have raised the ante at regular intervals, whether I was ready or not. I’ve probably made most of the easy progress. I feel like the gains are coming a little slower now. The gains always come rapidly in the first year of strength training.</p>
<p>I’ve had a little front hip soreness the last few days. I’ve been doing a little speedwork (well, it’s fast for me) this week with sprints in the 7-7.5 MPH area. My normal running speed is just under 6 MPH. The fastest that I’ve run is a tad under 10 MPH but that was when I was in my 30s. I’m shooting for 20 miles this week and then I’ll probably relax on the running next week and amp up the weights. I find it quite difficult to do both running and weights on the same day when my distance is about about 3.5 miles.</p>
<p>Today is tennis day - arm is better, knees should be better but I’m wearing knee braces anyways.</p>
<p>I’m still limping along trying to get 3 workouts a week in. I like to check in every once in a while just to keep me on track. I’ve gotten a lot of good exercise ideas from you guys, especially idad. I do burpees now. I had never even heard that word a year ago.</p>
<p>For the time being I’m just doing my strength and core stuff. I’ll go back to running once I send this last kid off to college. I wasn’t working when we did all this with my d, so I didn’t have to fit everything in around work. I am so impressed with you all who manage all this and keep up a good workout schedule.</p>
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<p>Kinda puts the pace of the Boston Marathon into perspective, huh? They ran 26 miles at an average pace of nearly 13 mph. </p>
<p>4 minute 40 second miles, twenty-six times. </p>
<p>That’s faster than the top speed on a lot of treadmills, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Three workouts a week is fantastic. That’s all ya need. Throw burpees into the mix and you are probably in the top 1% of all Amercans’ workout programs! :)</p>
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<p>We have a fair number of marathoners in our building and I’ve run on the treadmill next to a few of them in the past (in the winter), and, yes, they run at a very fast pace and can keep it up for a long time.</p>
<p>But I can beat everyone in the building in tennis, even being overweight. I can sprint pretty fast because tennis trains you for that. I just can’t maintain it for over a minute.</p>
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<p>I’d guess that the top speed on club-quality treadmills is 10 MPH. I’ve read that some go up to 11 MPH but I imagine that there are safety issues at these speeds. I think that running on solid ground is safer if you’re going really fast.</p>
<p>Most club treadmills will go to about 5:30 pace. My former CEO/coach in Dallas broke a few treadmills at our club! You could hear the whirring ramp up when he ran. He was a gorgeous runner and at age 58 beat Frank Shorter head to head in a 2 mile race. Frank was about 10 years younger at the time, I think. It was awesome. Whenever I’m on a dreadmill I think of Brian and the whirring sound. I would get flipped right off the back of the thing!</p>
<p>You have to worry about keeping your feet on the moving part too. Imagine scratching an itch on your side or back and your foot going off the moving part. One of the treadmills at my office is about 20 years old. The rest are about 10 years old. There are some very old models at the YMCA too and they have a maintenance guy (not factory) that works on them. I really don’t think that I’d want to go really fast on some of the older ones.</p>
<p>Tennis today: won 6-4, 4-1 (retired). He had some heel pain. I asked him how old his sneakers were. 1.5 years. I told him to replace them.</p>
<p>Arm and knees are fine. I’m playing with a new string and it’s easier on the arm but seems to generate less power. I guess I’ll have to live with that compromise. The previous string I used was extremely stiff - very good at transmitting power and very rough on the arm.</p>
<p>It was about 70 degrees - air temp. For some reason, they had the heaters on indoors. I was sweating buckets.</p>
<p>It’s nice to be able to play again.</p>
<p>Ran 5.6 miles to test the new path, about 8 min pace. Man, I’m not used to running in 70-degree weather! On Saturday I will have to do two laps on this trail. I’m planning on getting up really early to beat the heat and the crowds.</p>
<p>I’ll probably be singing a different tune this summer, but I’m kind of enjoying being able to work out in shorts and a t-shirt. Yesterday was a bit odd, though. I did part of the workout on the second floor where it was 73 degrees and warm. Then I did the rest of the workout in the basement, where it was probably 60 degrees and cool.</p>
<p>After seeing all the video from Tuscaloosa, I’m just glad that I’m not having to out-run any tornados. What a mess.</p>