<p>I switched my posts per page recently so it’s only 376 pages for me. :)</p>
<p>After days of being trapped at home with no power, no internet and impassable roads (do have a generator and gas - so some lights, fridge, stove top and heat), finally got a workout in.
We’ll just skip over the fact that the weights staring at me in my exercise room didn’t require power to be used and focus on the fact that I got 5 miles done on the treadmill today per my 10K training plan. I had REALLY hoped to be able to run them outside today, but too much slush and wind to make that realistic.</p>
<p>Also, because I am still on a weight loss plateau, I am back to meticulously measuring with my digital scale and logging. Wasn’t doing that while on vacation and then got out of the habit over the holidays.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone on their continued progress. Some really great new results posted and of course, excellent consistency, as expected, from the veterans.</p>
<p>I was bad. (First- I felt like BCEagle yesterday when bagels miraculously appeared in the coffee area near my office. Unlike BCE, I did not resist them. Flavored cream cheese and all.) So-woke up to a gloomy day this morning but only 3 miles on the schedule (plus moving about 100 boxes down into the basement. (not many people in TN get to say “basement” 
) I asked H to give me a head start and pick me up on the way to Dunkin Donuts. Worked great. At 3.2 miles, there he was! Donuts and then Starbucks. Then boxes.</p>
<p>Feeling sorry for myself because we have our church supper group tonight and I can’t go to the Vanderbilt game. Gave my tickets to my daughter. She’s taking a friend because son in law is in Kenya for a month doctoring for Vanderbilt. The supper group host (a big sports fan, but for the bad guys, UTenn) is going to put the game on for me and I promised not to be obnoxious.</p>
<p>Did some Pilates and some mobility exercises today. Pretty low-key workout for today. Enough to get the body moving…</p>
<p>Heh, I’m doing some Dunkin Donuts, too! Came in from snowblower duty (whopper of a 2 inch blizzard) and am trying to avoid a nap by chugging a tall cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee. Trying to rev up for a little “metabolic interval” action in the basment: kettlebell swings, burpees, and med ball slams.</p>
<p>Cold out there snowblowing. 19 degrees. Almost cold enough to put the liner in my winter parka, but I was already wearing a mid-weight fleece Did swap the jeans for fleece pants under my [Nike</a> ghetto snow pants](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube). That’s a great combo. Did opt for the silk glove liners to keep my fingers warm.</p>
<p>I admit to not paying much attention to the posts about clothes–I walk/jog on the treadmill in whatever T-shirt and shorts happens to be clean. I am getting ready to do a few 5K walks/runs (outside, of course), and I happened to be in Kohls today and noticed that they had a decent-sized section of exersize wear “on sale.” I noticed that there is a pretty big price different between the name brands I recognized (Nike, addidas) and what seems to be Kohls brand (Tek Gear, I think it was). I also noticed that some of the shirts (and probably shorts and pants, too, but I decided to think about shirts first) are 100 percent polyester (or some other synthetic material) and some are a blend of polyester and cotton.</p>
<p>So, my questions are, Are the name brands better enough that I should go ahead and pay the extra for them? And what about polyester compared to a polyester/cotton blend? (Only doing a 5K, not a marathon, in fairly mild conditions–not below freezing, for sure, and probably more like 40s or even 50s.)</p>
Fitness tech clothing is just a fancy way of charging an arm and a leg for 100% polyester shirts and shorts!
In this case, polyester is the way to go because it wicks sweat away and dries quickly. Cotton absorbs moisture, gets wet, clammy, and heavy and stays wet, clammy, and heavy when you are sweating buckets. Polyester does not absorb moisture, dries faster, and is much lighter. This is one case where polyester is preferable.
This is important for winter and summer. When I used to wear cotton shirts under a parka for skiing, I would end up soaking wet. The polyester (theoretically) wicks the moisture away from your skin, so it can evaporate better. It also is going to preserve some insulating capability when it is wet, unlike cotton and wool and down which go downhill fast as insulators when wet.
Basically, if you are going to be sweating, polyester is the way to go.
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Is there a difference between the name brand stuff and the private label brands? No, probably not. Same fabrics, same factories. The Champion C9 shirts I have (Target’s private label) are every bit as high quality as the adidas and Nike and Reebok shirts. There may be differences in styling and fit that makes you prefer one brand or another.
If you have a Marshalls or a TJMAXX in your neighborhood and you don’t mind a little bargain shopping, then you can get the name brand stuff for the same price as the Kohl’s private label brands – short sleeve tech shirts (adidas, Reebok, Nike) are generally in the $9.99 to $14.99 range.
I would not generally buy the name brand stuff at Kohl’s. I bought an adidas long-sleeve tech shirt because I had Kohl’s bucks that were going to expire. It was “on sale” for $27.99. With the Kohl’s bucks, it was $17.99. I pay $14.99 for the same shirt at Marshalls and bought one recently on the clearance rack for $10.
<p>OK, so the coffee worked and I did a Burpee Fusion workout. Changed it up a little. Three 6- minute sets, starting an new exercise every minute on the minute. Full heart rate recovery between sets. Each set consisted of:</p>
<p>12 kettlebell swings (38 lbs)
6 burpees (w pushup)
18 medicine ball overhead slams (8 lb)
12 kettlebell swings (38 lbs)
6 burpees (w pushup)
18 medicine ball overhead slams (8 lb)</p>
<p>Heart rate wasn’t super high (max of 90%), but I was pretty much blowing snot-bubbles by the end of the third set. That’s a heck of 20 minute workout. Definitely gets me breathing hard and works nearly every muscle in my body.</p>
<p>Took a good chunk of the week off but finished with the weight machines and some free weights. It felt good to get the blood pumping.</p>
<p>I got a lot of sleep last night so hopefully the immune system is somewhat recharged. My left knee is still sore so I’ll be careful with that for a few more days.</p>
<p>Very, very cold out today and there were a lot of minor accidents in my area today. I’m enjoying watching some of the Australian Open where it is very, very sunny and very, very hot.</p>
Iced over here…H spent a good amount of time chipping ice off the car which was not parked in the garage. I thought about helping him, but decided he needed the exercise. 
<p>Played with the kettleball and dumbells on Friday. Today my exercise was emptying out my bedroom dressing area - for a bathroom/bedroom renovation that starts next week. I found lots of missing socks!</p>
Shoveled the front path. Enough workout for one day. We got five inches, for goodness sake.
Enough winter, too.
mathmom, that’s exciting. I hope they finish well before they promise.
<p>Ran my interval workout, 11 x 400 with 1 min rest in between. I ran it on the treadmill, since I had to go after work and it was kind of late, but I got it done. My pace is a whole minute slower for these than it was in November :(. It’s taking a while to get back to where I was. I did the evil planks though.</p>
<p>Still doing gentle streching exercises for my back and side muscles. Now have left front abdominal pain and swelling. What the heck!!! Almost made it thru yesterday without pain meds. Broke down at 4 and took one…darn! I was starting to think I might be able to have a glass of wine. ;)</p>
<p>NMinn, your poor back. I hope it gets better in time for your trip.</p>
<p>Poor NMINN! Sounds like it’s one step forward, one step backward.</p>
<p>When I had to take a few days off for “back pain” a couple week ago, I finally decided that I had probably tweaked a “latissimus dorsi” muscle – the large muscles down the sides of the back. If you are having pain there and compensating with muscle spasms in surrounding areas, that could easily get the “obliques” on the front sides.</p>
<p><a href=“http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Latissimus_dorsi_.PNG[/url]”>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Latissimus_dorsi_.PNG</a></p>
![http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Latissimus_dorsi_.PNG[/url]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Latissimus_dorsi_.PNG%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>Who knows? This stuff is so hard to pin down.</p>
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<p>All it would take is following this College Confidential thread to realize that minimizing injury and dealing with aches and pains really is the bottom line for all of us trying to enjoy a little geezer fitness. I don’t think anyone here has escaped some time on injured reserve. I think it really does take an aggressive plan to manage reps and workload over the long haul.</p>
<p>Started back to the world of the healthy living yesterday. Did a 30 min home yoga video and a “muffin top meltdown” video… Today I ache everywhere but will try and go for a walk later… I have a long road ahead of me</p>
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<p>Don’t worry about the long road. Just take it five pounds at a time! As soon as you lose five pounds, we’ll all have a big 5-pound party for you and then you can decide if you want to go for another five.</p>
<p>Thanks interesteddad! That will be a good motivatior for me. The 5 lbs at a time is a much easier goal to work towards then my desired end result!</p>
<p>Yep. No matter how much weight you have to lose, to get there, you have to start by losing five pounds, so focus on that and let everything else take care of itself. Plus, it’s a lot easier to put the junk food back on the shelf instead of into your shopping cart if you only have to wrestle with not eating that stuff for a little while. Even that works to your advantage because the way to stop eating junk food for the long haul is to not eat it for a little while – and then another little while, and then another little while, until suddenly you realize you don’t even want it! </p>
<p>When I was losing my first five pounds, I used to stand in the grocery store with a tube of Pringles in my hand, read the nutrition label, and put it back on the shelf, thinking I’d just hold off a week or two.</p>