<p>I found my magic wand this morning at CVS. I was complaining about the knee braces coming in S/M and L/XL. I went in this morning and they now come in S, M and L so I bought a pair of Ls and put them on at the Y and played tennis. I won 6-2, 6-2. It was wonderful having the confidence to move laterally without worrying about pain. I imagine that wearing these while doing weights (mainly squats) will result in no damage during those exercises and just wearing them for a few hours during the day will promote healing.</p>
<p>I’m tossing the old ones out as they are spent.</p>
<p>These things cost $27 each but they feel like a dream for knee problems.</p>
<p>One other thing today - I didn’t get tired - even while getting run around the court.</p>
<p>I could have done better with hydration. A separate bottle with ice-water would have been perfect.</p>
<p>Brilliant blue sky called my name and I opted for the 5k hilly romp in the park. Instead of nine 1-minute jogging intervals, I stretched them out and did five 2-minute jogging intervals. Well, three of them were 2 minutes. One was 2.5 minutes and one was 1.5 minutes (ran out of terrain before a very steep downhill grade that I have no business running down).</p>
<p>Definitely gave my old ticker and lungs a workout. I’m trying to improve my longer interval (several minutes) capacity. This is back to being a pretty good little workout as it’s now pretty much all warmup, jogging, uphill walking, and cooldown. I jogged three of the long downhill stretches today.</p>
<p>My jogging pace looks like it picked up a bit today.</p>
<p>[SlowGeek</a>! Runs for 743523633](<a href=“http://slowgeek.com/ru/743523633/2105760798?unit=miles]SlowGeek”>http://slowgeek.com/ru/743523633/2105760798?unit=miles)</p>
<p>That’s 100% increase in running. I think that the usual recommendation is to increase by no more than 20% per week whether speed or distance. Sounds like you’re fit enough to ignore that though (I’ve certainly ignored it enough times).</p>
<p>Last night as I was running on the track, there was an older gentleman who ran on one long straightaway and then walked the rest of the way on the track. I think that he went for two miles. That’s a nice way to get the heart-rate up followed by plenty of time to recover.</p>
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<p>The intervals were twice as long, but I did half as many. Well, a little more. So today was ten minutes of running versus nine minutes last time. I cut the first interval heading out on my street because I realized that it was before I was even warmed up from walking – probably not a good idea. I didn’t run today until I’d walked half a mile and climbed one steep hill.</p>
<p>The one downside to the jogging intervals is that I don’t push the pace on the walking bits as consistently. Overall though, it’s great for cycling my heart rate up and down.</p>
<p>How about the local high-school track. The long straightaway on a quarter-mile track should be perfect for intervals.</p>
<p>Just discovered tofu in LiveStrong. I like tofu but have never cooked it myself. Wife cooks it sometimes. I’m going to look for some directions on how to prepare it - it’s good as a protein source with stir-fried veggies.</p>
<p>I’m at 1,000 calories today with 29% carbs. I’m actually not hungry right now - for some reasons, there are some tennis days where I don’t feel that hungry even though I’ve expended a huge number of calories.</p>
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<p>Yeah, that’s where I calibrated this little Nike/iPod thingie last fall. I’m probably due to go over and calibrate it again, maybe with jog/walk. I think my jog intervals today were closer to a quarter mile or a complete lap around the track.</p>
<p>My problem is that my walking route is so gorgeous. Except for crossing one two lane road it is unusual to even see one car on any of the roads I walk. On the other hand, I haven’t jogged a full lap around a track since high school soccer practice in 1971, so It would be kind of fun to go run one for ol’ times sake. :)</p>
<p>BCEagle – Congrats on being able to slip on your wedding ring. That to me is as big an achievement as slipping on smaller pants!</p>
<p>I-dad, I think you need a Garmin watch. :)</p>
<p>I think he does, too. Good work on the running intervals, iDad.</p>
<p>Ran my allocated 4 miles tonight, sweating like a dog, even though I was not going too fast. Rest day tomorrow.</p>
<p>Which Garmin watch does an ol’ (formerly) fat guy need? :)</p>
<p>This is what I got from Costco:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Garmin Forerunner 405CX GPS Sport Watch with Heart Rate Monitor (Blue): Electronics](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Forerunner-405CX-Sport-Monitor/dp/B0025UHKNS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1305264313&sr=8-4]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-Forerunner-405CX-Sport-Monitor/dp/B0025UHKNS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1305264313&sr=8-4)</p>
<p>My eyes are pretty sharp, so the small dial is not a problem for me. It displays my speed, time, and distance. You can race a virtual partner, or you can race yourself, download your run statistics on a PC and tabulate the heck out of the data! 
There are other Garmin models that look differently but work similarly. If you have an REI store nearby, you can pay them a visit and check the watches in person.</p>
<p>201 (-2.5). Should be < 200 by next Friday unless I have an XL Pizza Binge.</p>
<p>thanks Bunsen. That looks like winner with the closeout pricing. Looks like the only complaint is trying to fiddle with the touch screen while running, but I’ve learned long ago with the iPod to just leave well enough alone and save the fiddling for afterwards. I ordered one and a sensor (Wahoo Fitness) to go on the Airdyne.</p>
<p>What sold me was not the GPS, but the ability to do totally custom intervals on the computer and upload them to to the watch – stuff like a warmup, then 6 intervals of 30 seconds work and 30 seconds rest followed by a 2 minute rest and then 6 more intervals, then a cool down – and it will track my heart rate and pedal speed on the Airdyne automatically. What’s really incredible is that you can have the intervals last until your heart rate reaches, for example, 90% of max, and then rest until it falls to 60% – for a totally heart rate driven interval program. That is very cool.</p>
<p>BC: We’re gonna have a party for you when you bust through that big 200 barrier! Fantastic. You’ve been dropping some consistent weight here lately.</p>
<p>I stopped buying those damn mandarin oranges this week. I was eating 200 calories a day of those things. Organic candy bars! Now, I’m having trouble getting my calories up high enough. Time to eat some peanuts and cashews!</p>
<p>BB and idad: You guys are too high tech for me. I just exercise. I don’t keep track. The jeans test is what I go by.</p>
<p>Ahh, VeryHappy, I’m not as technical as idad. I just hit the start button and off I go, checking my speed and distance once in a while. I also do the jeans test. The jeans have been a bit too loose lately, but the boots became too tight in the calves. I need to watch all this running carefully, or it might cost me a fortune again!</p>
<p>IDad. I would recommend 305. I hate the touch bezel. Price on 305 has come way down and I think you would like the HR monitor that is on it.</p>
<p>No workout today. I was really tired this morning. Daughter graduated from grad school today so we had a lot going on, to say the least.</p>
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<p>Keeping track is one way I stay motivated and make exercise “fun”…</p>
<p>One of the things I like about intervals is that I can use them to keep plugging along during a workout, with the beep of an interval timer serving as my own kinder, gentler Jillian Michaels urging me to get moving. I use them for just about every kind of workout now: strength training supersets, Airdyne bike intervals, and now these walk/jog intervals. If I plan to jog for 120 seconds, then it keeps me going when I feel like stopping after 90 seconds. Gutting it out until the beep is only way to complete an interval on the Airdyne. It’s just too tempting to pull up short. By the same token, I don’t really want to keel over dead exercising, so I do try to pay attention to heart rates.</p>
<p>Keeping track is a major factor in our modern way of life. William Deming was instrumental in helping the Japanese turn their crappy cars in the 1970s to world-class quality levels today. All of the wonderful precision things that make life easier benefit from keeping track of things.</p>
<p>I was so excited by Livestrong because I’ve seen the benefits of keeping track of things.</p>