<p>It’s very important to have a nice-looking lawn when the end arrives.</p>
<p>At D’s graduation from Div School last Friday the keynote speaker (a very popular prof) said, “Wouldn’t it be a shame if you only get to have your degrees for 9 days and then the world ends? And you are Raptured? Or, in the case of graduates of THIS Divinity School, Left Behind??” It was pretty funny (point was the rather liberal focus of Vanderbilt Div School).</p>
<p>It’s time to buy a new pair of running shoes and there are two running shops near me. One has you run on a treadmill and then gives you a selection of shoes that are supposed to be right for you. The other just has humans, but they are experienced, long-time runners. My son’s cross country coach sends them to the humans for shoes. Is one place better than the other for a rather casual runner like me? Or does it even matter for someone like me?</p>
<p>I just go to the New Balance Factory Outlet and look for something that fits well. I’ve worn all different styles and types of shoes for running and I can’t say that it seems to matter all that much for this casual runner.</p>
<p>blankmind- Either store sounds fine. The humans can watch you jog around the store or outside and will look at your feet to determine the best shoe. I DO think it is helpful to have the correct shoe. Some people are happy in a variety of shoes, but others have unique feet and the right shoe can make a lot of difference. Then there’s me- different shoes for different moods or different types of runs.</p>
<p>The good news is that it’s 200; the bad news is that it isn’t 199.</p>
<p>Might have been the big burgers that I had for lunch. But they were very tasty. My calorie counts were up last weekend and earlier this week as the kids came home and brought a lot of snacks with them and my wife cooked stuff that didn’t mesh well with my diet. She’s on board with my [new to her] diet so she’s making stuff that works for me. I will still cook for myself [I get up a lot earlier than she does and take care of any dishes that need to be taken care of, throw out the trash and otherwise tidy up before going down to my office to work], but it looks like I might not have to do so much of it.</p>
<p>I also think that my running and tennis workouts aren’t consuming that many calories anymore. I feel quite good after a workout with far less joint pain than before. Carrying around 15 pounds extra while running around the court probably uses a decent number of calories. So I may have to crank it up a bit on the running. I can’t really crank it more on tennis without more time on the court.</p>
<p>I’ve been running with cross-trainers for the last 200 miles. These are heavy, sturdy, and supportive and they are fine for tennis. It’s just another potential option combination.</p>
<p>You’ll drive yourself crazy trying to attribute a pound or two to any one thing. There’s a lot of variability that is above and beyond any ability to correlate on a short term basis.</p>
<p>With your knees, I would leave well enough alone and be happy that you can run and play tennis right now without long, painful recovery! Once you are an experienced runner, trying to accelerate fat loss by running more miles is an exercise in diminishing returns. Running would work for me right now because it is a completely new stimulus with very high heart rates, but just walking longer and longer distances probably wouldn’t do bupkis because I’m adapted to that. If you really want to crank up fat loss exercise, figure out something that gets your heart rate through the roof and back down – something you can cycle up and down for half an hour.</p>
<p>My day of reckoning is tomorrow – no, not the Rapture; I’ll get on the scale after a week away and see if my extra weight has magically disappeared. My ankle seems much better and I was able to use the elliptical three times this week. And I gave up the Butterfingers 
except for one day. I know you’re all anxiously waiting for my report.</p>
<p>Right?</p>
<p>Go VeryHappy!!!</p>
<p>I almost signed up for a long race. 
almost, because I filled out the form, put my payment check in the envelope, but have not mailed it yet. Someone, please, tell me to get my rear end in motion and run down to the mailbox!</p>
<p>Run, BB, run!!</p>
<p>OK, here’s my first Airdyne interval workout with this new fangled contraption. </p>
<p>
<a href=“http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/Airdyne-90x6intervals.jpg?t=1305944274[/img]”>http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/Airdyne-90x6intervals.jpg?t=1305944274
![http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/Airdyne-90x6intervals.jpg?t=1305944274[/img]](http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/Airdyne-90x6intervals.jpg?t=1305944274%5B/img%5D){kind=link}
</a></p>
<p>This chart shows pedal cadence (RPM) and heart rate. Five minute warmup at an easy pace. Then, six 90 second intervals at ~65 rpm. That’s a little over a half mile per interval.</p>
<p>I set up the workout to give me recovery periods until my heart rate fell to 70% of max. To be perfectly honest, that’s really not quite enough. You can see that I was pretty gassed for the last few intervals, with my pace starting to trail off. I was still breathing a little heavily at the end of each rest interval. I’ll change this workout to recover down to 65% next time.</p>
<p>The recovery intervals were:</p>
<p>45 seconds
77 seconds
72 seconds
98 seconds
86 seconds
94 seconds</p>
<p>So, this was essentially a 1:1 work:rest ratio interval workout, approximately 90 seconds of work followed by 90ish seconds of rest.</p>
<p>The graphs show what a perfect interval machine the Airdyne is. If you want to cycle your heart rate, this is the machine to do it. Pretty amazing how the heart rate rises and falls the same on every interval.</p>
<p>Tonight was a fast workout, but a good one!</p>
<p>9-7-5-3 Front Squat
4x4(per side) Single Arm Swing (SAS)
4x4(per side) Split Squat</p>
<p>Twenty minutes in and out…</p>
<p>I like 20 minute workouts!</p>
<p>Well, BB, perhaps you should wait to mail the entry until after 6 PM today? You know, just in case … :)</p>
<p>BB- I don’t see why you wouldn’t do it. You have all the training!</p>
<p>Because you’re all holding your breath, I won’t keep you in suspense anymore: I’m back down to my fighting weight!! (Too light to fight, but you know what I mean.) This is good. I feel thinner already.</p>
<p>And it’s a gorgeous day in CT, and I’m going to take full advantage of it!!</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I’ve been following along but haven’t had much to contribute. Congratulations to everyone single one of you for all your hard work! I’ve been maintaining my weight, which is a big deal for me. It was very scary to have to start adding calories! </p>
<p>I actually broke down and made a doctor’s appointment for the glute/leg pain that’s been bothering me since late November. The drive to and from North Carolina to fetch D was painful enough to push me over the edge.</p>
<p>My trainer is leaving our Y at the end of June. I will miss him; he’s such an integral part of my success.</p>
<p>The point of no return has been reached. I shall be running a long distance in a race that does not allow dogs, strollers, kids under 14, earphones, and all this other stuff. Now off to train!</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I know the feeling. Glad you’re back to goal.</p>
<p>It appears that we’re all here. I’d hate to think that all of that exercise was for nothing.</p>
<p>The guy that runs this thing has a church worth $72 million. I guess a lot of people believed in his thing.</p>
<p>Ran 3.25 yesterday. Doing the home weights thing in a shortly. I plan on a short run at the YMCA in a few hours (just had a big lunch).</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>The last time I went from 210 to 170 was from running and tennis though I played tennis two or three times per week. That was possible because my family was overseas for an extended period of time.</p>
<p>With running, I could just increase my speed and/or distance to increase the calories burned while weight is going down. The downside to increased distance is that workouts take an hour instead of half an hour. That just requires better planning. I currently do most of my running in the office on the treadmill and I have my favorite treadmill and my second favorite treadmill. I don’t use the other two. I try to plan my running time when I think that the place will be empty or near-empty. My other options are the indoor track at the YMCA, the outdoor track at the nearby Junior High-School, the treadmills at the YMCA and we have a new YMCA betwee home and work (but closer to work) that just opened up that I want to try.</p>
<p>One other thing: the showers in the office are wonderful - unlimited hot, hot, hot water. Sometimes I workout at the YMCA and shower in the office. That reminds me, I need to call up the new Y and get their hours and bring the family to check it out.</p>