I’ve got a footprint tatoo’d on my rear end from the Airdyne kickin’ me like a rented mule…
It never gets easier. As you get in better shape, you pedal just a little bit faster and you are right back into it. I guess that’s why it works equally well for crippled up ol’ grannies and ripped NFL players.
<p>Did 50 box jumps tonight, along with a bunch of other leg stuff. Really enjoying them. I’m going to have to increase the height. I think the step stools in my CT gym scare me because they aren’t solid – they’re open underneath the platform. The box in my NJ gym is a real box. Tonight I used the contraption with open boxes underneath on either side and the platform across the top, that one can make as high or low as one wants. (I’m sure it has a name, and I’m sure idad knows it.)</p>
<p>That’s what I tell people about spin class. It doesn’t get easier- you just get better at it.</p>
<p>Today’s run: 3.32 miles, 9:31 pace. I was supposed to do intervals today, but I just wasn’t up for it. I did my hilly lake run and didn’t push it too much.</p>
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<p>It’s difficult only because processed food has the fiber removed to increase shelf life. Specifically, fiber doesn’t freeze well at all.</p>
<p>I tend to eat 25 - 35 grams of fiber per day, including the 10 grams from psyllium husk powder. I also eat almost exclusively whole foods – fresh veggies, fresh fruit, etc. Very little grain. Fruit is a big source of fiber so, if you have to eat sugar, fruit is the best option.</p>
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<p>It would be hard on a typical American diet which is mainly low fiber foods like added sugar, added fat, refined grain, and meat.</p>
<p>It would not be as difficult if you chose fibrous whole foods for your carbohydrate foods. If you do a low carbohydrate diet, you need to eat a lot of low calorie vegetables to get fiber without a lot of carbohydrates.</p>
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<p>[NDL/FNIC</a> Food Composition Database Home Page](<a href=“http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/]NDL/FNIC”>http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/) has data for many foods, including base foods like vegetables, meats, etc… Included is dietary fiber information.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“SELF Magazine: Women's Workouts, Health Advice & Beauty Tips | SELF”>http://nutritiondata.self.com/]Nutrition</a> facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com<a href=“ignore%20most%20of%20the%20page%20and%20put%20the%20desired%20food%20in%20the%20search%20box%20on%20top”>/url</a> has the same data in what some may consider a more friendly format.</p>
<p>Do we really need a third diet and fitness thread constantly running on the Cafe?</p>
May I ask the experts before this thread merges—
does anyone have info about PVCs ? Benign PVCs, Cardiologist wants to start betablockers, and I am very resistant.
<p>Just found this for fiber content…
[High-fiber</a> foods - MayoClinic.com](<a href=“http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-fiber-foods/NU00582]High-fiber”>High-fiber foods - Mayo Clinic)</p>
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<p>Have you discussed your reticence with your cardiologist?</p>
<p>Didn’t make it to weight watchers last night due to miserable week and my only day off to rest. According to my scale I lost 1 lb this week but I don’t want to make it “official” because it isn’t the WW scale! lol</p>
<p>unofficial current weight= 154.6</p>
<p>total loss is 23.2 lbs (unofficially or course!!)</p>
<p>Have had sore knees the past couple days and have not exercised for 4 days!! But I got a 45 min workour in today and my knees are much better. I don’t know why they got so sore, I have never had knee pain ever…maybe working out too much too fast?</p>
<p>OH! and only 2 more nights to work and I am off for 9 glorious days.</p>
<p>So, I bopped over to the world’s worst gym and tried out this Bruce protocol treadmill stress test on their Life Fitness treadmills. Here’s what I posted yesterday:</p>
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<p>I wasn’t looking for an all out kill myself stress test after Airdyne intervals yesterday and my usual Friday strength workout later, but I wanted to get a sense of what this thing is like.</p>
<p>a) This is only the second time I’ve ever been on a treadmill in my life I really struggled just to get in a groove on the thing, especially trying to change the speed and incline. I never really got a good arm motion going, so it was kind of awkward to be cranking along with no arms working.</p>
<p>b) the treadmill only goes up to 15% grade, so I stopped at the end of stage 3 – nine minutes. No big deal, I probably had another minute or two left in me. I seriously doubt that I could complete stage 4 for three minutes. Especially becasue that was going to be at a very awkard in-between pace, too fast to walk, too slow to jog. I’ll try 4.2 mph at 15 degree incline sometime and see. So, I figure that if I were determined, I could do somewhere between 10 minutes and 12 minutes on this test. </p>
<p>d) It would be really easy to peg my heart rate. Just go to the 9 minute mark at Stage 3 and then crank the pace up to a jog on the 14% grade. It would take under a minute to hit 100% of my max heart rate.</p>
<p>e) This test is harder than I thought it would be. These inclines are no joke. Stage 3 is 3.4 mph at a 14% grade. That’s a pretty brisk walk up a very steep hill and my legs/hips were feeling it. I hit 94% of my max heart rate (160 bpm) at the three minute mark. Walking intervals would be a piece of cake on this thing cranking the incline up to 15% and then back down. But, good lord, is it boring!</p>
<p>f)I tried to get a decent “recovery” measurement, but I was totally flumoxed trying to drop the speed from 3.4 at 14% grade to 1.5 mph at 2.5% grade. I had to work my butt off just to stay on the thing at that speed. Next time, I’ll just step off and start the countdown. My official “recovery” according to SportTracks was 18 bpm – not very good.</p>
<p>Here’s [the</a> graph](<a href=“http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/Bruceprotocoltreadmilltest2-17-2012.jpg]the”>http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/Bruceprotocoltreadmilltest2-17-2012.jpg) The first three vertical lines are at 3 minute intervals and mark the ends of each of the first three stages.</p>
<p>I’d guess that using a stair machine regularly would make this test a lot easier. My regular daily work routine is two flights of stairs with 20-25 pounds of stuff with me. When I’m doing the stair machines, even the elliptical, the office stairs get easier.</p>
<p>1:45 of tennis, three sets, pretty easy. I tried a new racquet today - much higher swingweight than what I am used to. It was a fun play-test.</p>
<p>3.7 mile run. Better than nothing…</p>
The treadmill stress tests are extremely difficult if you go to max. H and I have both been in studies led by Kenneth Cooper in Dallas. They kept records by age groups and it was usually pro runners/cyclists that held the records. H held a record for a few months until someone came and broke it. We were monitored by MDs while we were on, and we were to go to exhaustion- literally until we were going to fall off. We were all wired up with electrodes. People used to train for the thing, since that steep of an elevation is NOT natural and the trick is to stay at a walk for as long as you can without breaking into a run. I’m pretty sure this is a true story- Dr Cooper’s father in law died during the stress test. So- iDad, practice a little and try it again (but be careful).
They would cheer for us during the test to keep us going to true max. It was pretty awful. WildChild was tested at age 9 since he was sort of a celebrity runner in town. The electrode and the box that was strapped around him weighed as much as he did. It was pretty interesting. He had results that predicted him as the next Lance Armstrong, which didn’t quite happen, but it was pretty fun.
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<p>Yeah. At the 14% grade, I was feeling it in my hips. I was just such a spaz on the treadmill, that I not able to get any kind of natural gait going. I probably needed to shorten up my stride, but I just wasn’t able to make those kinds of adjustments when I was so focused on just trying to stay on the thing. I kept ending up too far forward and, when I dropped back, I’d feel my foot hit the back of the treadmill.</p>
<p>I’ll play around with it. When I stopped at 94% of my max heart rate, I was breathing hard, but nothing like when I stagger off the Airdyne or do those running intervals. I would have been at the next level, though…and I need to get a little more comfortable on the mechanics of the treadmill, first. Like I really don’t need to learn the transition from treadmill walk to treadmill jog for the first time at 15% grade! I’ll end up in the next county.</p>
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<p>Tough workout for me in the basement tonight. Did [one-leg</a> squats](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftTRZT3rsT8]one-leg”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftTRZT3rsT8) again. This time to a 17 inch height – actually standing on one foot on top of the 16 inch bench and touching my butt down to a 33 inch step ladder next to the bench. This lets my free leg hang rather than having to hold it up off the ground. That parts a little easier, but I was going another inch lower. The goal is to remove the ladder and just do the full one-leg squat without any crutch at the bottom, but that’s going to take some patience. Even if you can do it, it’s hard to convince your brain that you can do it.</p>
<p>Also did the step ups to the 16 inch bench with two 35lb DBs. That is ridiculously tiring.</p>
<p>Went to bed early last night as I was so tired. I think that using the heavier racquet tired me out more than usual. The good thing is that my knee feels pretty good this morning. I think that my knee and ankle problems were exacerbated by me switching to shoes without aftermarket insoles which I did last fall. Maybe it was a cumulative effect. I started using the aftermarket insoles early this week and my feet and legs feel better overall.</p>
<p>I don’t think that I could do the treadmill climbing stuff with knee problems - hopefully they quiet down a lot more soon.</p>
<p>InterestedDad, are you just so fit, no shin splint problems with that “challenge”-and MOWC- you are amazing.</p>
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<p>I do a similar exercise using 2 Kbs (about 35 pounds–one in each hand) and walk up and down a flight of steps 3x. It’s hard!!</p>
<p>Good week so far: TRX for 30 minutes and cardio on Tuesday, spinning for an hour along with an hour of yoga on Wednesday, power class (weights) on Thursday, and a long walk (6 miles) on Friday. Plan to go to the gym today and do cardio intervals on the thread mill.</p>
<p>Cardiomet stress test I took moved up to a very high incline pretty quickly. It’s a bit disconcerting to have all those wires hooked up to you while you’re trying to walk up-hill as fast as you can. I also had to wear a mask thing, which I found bothersome. I was truly surprised that my results were so good (80th percentile) because I was very uncomfortable for the entire duration of the test (and it wasn’t very long). During this test, a nurse would take my bp every few minutes so I had to keep my arm up (they didn’t stop the thread mill)! Now that I know what to expect, it might not seem so uncomfortable if I were to do it again.</p>
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<p>Hah. Not hardly so fit! I’ve been a little lucky. I don’t have any serious chronic injuries to deal with. The worst were flat foot issues that have plagued me with sports (soccer, tennis, skiing, etc) since high school. I got those resolved two years ago with SuperFeet insoles.</p>
<p>I have had shin pain for two short periods: the first few times I went for walks at 250 pounds (1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, 1 mile). That cleared up as I walked regularly. I also had some mild shin pain on the first running interval each time when I first started doing walk/jog outings. This was the first time I had run any distance in 40 years. That, too, has cleared up, although I might have a bit of it if I were to start running right out of the driveway without walking to warm up. I’m not testing it. I’ve been doing so little jogging this winter (and it’s so cold) that I’ve dropped the first jogging interval from my route. I don’t jog now until I’ve walked a half mile and gone up one steep hill, so I’m warmed up.</p>
<p>I started out with what I thought were serious knee issues (a sensation that kept me from kneeling down and bending one knee. But, those were clearly just poor conditioning, as they have completely cleared up as I’ve lost weight and exercised.</p>
<p>The only discomfort I felt yesterday on the steep 14% grade on the treadmill was the sides of my hips – basically the sides of my butt – from the glute muscles working hard. Not pain, just feeling the burn from working those muscles. I’ve felt that on the steep hills walking outside. I used to get knee soreness walking up steep hills, but not anymore.</p>
<p>One of the things that I think has helped me stay largely pain free is that I almost never do the same kind of exercise two days in row. I won’t lift weights two days in a row. I won’t jog two days in a row. I won’t do the Airdyne bike two days in a row – with very rare exceptions.</p>
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