<p>Yeah…we hang dry everything here at home too. But not much room to do so in college housing. When she played college soccer the University sports people washed all of her workout/practice gear for her. They ruined many Nike sports bras, shirts and nylon shorts. Nike actually had to replace some uniforms because they didn’t hold up for the season. I imagine it wouldn’t matter what the brand was !</p>
<p>Air dry? No way. The reason I like this tech stuff is that it dries beautifully in the dryer on low and doesn’t need ironing. I haven’t worn any out yet, but – if I do – I’ll just go to Marshalls and buy some more!</p>
<p>Speaking of expensive workout clothes, i had to try my new $9.95 Mizuno shirt, so I did a really easy 13 minute Airdyne workout. Set the heart rate monitor to stop each interval when I hit 85% of max heart rate and then recover until my HR fell to 65%. Then, go again to 85%. So, not really my usual brutal 90%+ heart rates and each interval got shorter and shorter. Kind of a nice mellow low intensity interval workout in keeping with my current health status!</p>
<p>The shirt is fantastic. The sleeves are shorter than most long-sleeve tech shirts, which is great for the Airdyne or for weight lifting.</p>
<p>4 miles, 8:40 pace, much more relaxed than yesterday but still not a walk in the park. Wore the new shorts - they definitely run smaller than Nike - they’re like New Balance - but they were fine for performance. The back zippered pocket worked well with my iPod. I may try the side back pocket next. I’m starting to think that I should retire some of my XL tech shorts.</p>
<p>Also worked out on the Smith Machine and did my free weights. It turns out that the 27.5 pound dumbbells are missing. I’m a bit amazed that someone would walk out with a pair of these. I’ll ask the fitness center about them tomorrow.</p>
<p>At the moment, I have 5 pairs of M shorts. Four have pockets so that I can run with my iPod. I also have two L shorts (New Balance). Everything else is XL. I’ll still need some of the XLs for tennis until I can replace them.</p>
Holler when you or your son gets close to 16 of them. I’ll do the same, but I think it will be a while! That is a staggeringly impressive number. Heck, doing one is impressive!
<p>Stopped at TJMaxx after work. The layout was different (from Marshalls) but the feel of the store was similar. They had a ton of Pro Combat but only a few Drifits and they were all in black. They had a lot of BC stuff at excellent prices. Typically 70% off. Very nice stuff by Izod but I prefer the tech materials and passed. Nice stuff for kids in their 20s though. So there’s another place to try. Of course spending 20 minutes shopping for something is a bit of a waste of time value to save $10 but part of the fun is the treasure hunt. That’s the reason given why Kohls is doing so well financially.</p>
Nike seems to be priced on the high side, and usually does not go on sale until the item is being closed out. Adidas is a little cheaper, but seems to go on sale more often. Champion, C9 by Champion (Target), and Starter (WalMart) are cheaper still.
But Lulumon seems to be much more expensive than any of them.
<p>Ordered two more of those Road Runner Sports shorts - they cut the price another $4. I think that’s all that I will need - I usually only run four times per week with some short runs on the weekend. For the short runs, I don’t care that much about what I wear.</p>
<p>Crazy schedule today so workouts will be in the late afternoon or evening. It’s is absolutely gorgeous out today and I cut way back on clothes for our mid-50s + sunny February Winter Day.</p>
I am very tired. Today my only shot at running was early this morning- and I mean EARLY- since I needed to be at Ash Wednesday church at 7am. Up at 5 and out the door for 4.2 miles with headlamp. 43 degrees and I thought I saw some lightening off to the south as I was finishing. I thought the sky (pretty dark, but still…) looked only partly cloudy. Got home, in the door, immediately let the dog out. When he came back in 2 minutes later he was wet! It was pouring. I JUST missed it! I guess the weather gods gave me a break.
I wish Bunsen would come back. I hope everything is OK.
<p>Heard a short piece on the radio this morning about Ash Wednesday to go. Apparently a priest does the service in one minute for those in a real hurry - including essentially drive through and run-through service for runners.</p>
<p>I checked Bunsen’s last posts and they were mid-January, in the shopping thread I think. Nothing to indicate a problem.</p>
<p>Glad you dodged the rain MOWC. I don’t know how you guys do it, running at o-dark-thirty in the morning. I’m just not a morning person!</p>
<p>We have a few hours of glorious weather here – low 50s and sunny before rain moves in off and on for the next few days and then back to winter cold. I’m assessing my little head cold and trying to figure out if it’s going to be a 5K walk/jog, weight lifting, or nap. My little Airdyne session yesterday was OK, but I could tell that I didn’t have a lot of energy for it.</p>
<p>The lure of the sunshine was too much to overcome, so I did my 5K hilly walk/jog route. Of course the clouds rolled in and I was a little chilly at 55 degrees with no gloves or hat. I did look good though – Brooks running pants and my new black/gray fitted Mizuno shirt. Forget fitness. Looking good in the exercise fashions is what really counts at my age!</p>
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<p>I tried something a little different. I’ve been running six 2 minute running intervals and seeing heart rates typically at or above 95% of my max. Today, I set up the Garmin to run the intervals just until my heart rate hit 90%, whatever time it took. I also ran them much faster with a slow interval of 9.3 min/mile and a quick of 7.8 min/mile. This meant that the intervals were ending at about half the distance of my slower intervals. It also meant that they weren’t as “painful” – 95% to 100% heart rate just sucks, no matter how you slice it! I enjoy these a lot more. I would rather run faster and be done with it!</p>
<p>I’m going to rethink my route and try to figure out where to plunk down 8 to 10 of these shorter, faster intervals – there is terrain on my route that I really don’t want to be running on!</p>
<p>^I just yesterday read about a study which had half the people doing brief but intense intervals and getting done quicker. The study showed they were in as good shape as the people doing longer workouts without intervals, and they had the benefit of being done in less time! :)</p>
<p>The other half, of course, looked longingly at them as they left the gym earlier!</p>
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<p>They need better music or better scenery.</p>
<p>Obviously you have to do something that doesn’t seem like a chore. Ideally, you’d even love doing it.</p>
<p>They were part of a study, so they were probably being paid to do it. Still, better music or better scenery would be nice. :)</p>
<p>Did a cardio interval workout at home on our treadmill. Health club has better ones, but I didn’t have the time to get over to the club. Found some fun workouts varying incline and speed on the internet. Also, plan to do yoga tonight. Checking out a new studio–this class says it’s geared to teaching the basics. Even though I’ve done a number of yoga classes, I’m hoping to get a better feel for the poses through a class like this. My D (the one who is into yoga) says that I’m over thinking this and I should just go with the flow. She’s probably right. . . .</p>
<p>4 miles, 8:36 pace. Smith Machine and free weights. I wore the shorts again and I’m really comfortable with them. The only potential problem which I just realized today is the velcro pockets. I may have to wash my textured running shirts in a different load - not too much of a problem as I only have four of them.</p>
Yep. Velcro is hell on tech shirts in the washing machine. However you can probably mitigate the danger by making sure the velcro pockets are carefully closed before washing.
Brooks makes a reflective running vest that closes with velcro around the waist. It’s just an invitation to destroy running shirts with the velcro snagging the fabric. I got rid of the velcro and added elastic strips with a snap buckle closure.
<p>Bromfield, can you post a link to where you found the treadmill workouts?</p>
<p>I have used a couple of iTrain workouts for the treadmill and have laminated several 30-40 minute treadmill workouts that I have schlepped around with me for years, because I like them so much better than the pre-programmed ones on the machine, but I am always on the lookout to make the 'mill more interesting.</p>
Went to the Y last night for more weight-training.
This morning I was in one of the kitchens at the office chatting about tennis when a lady walked in with four boxes of donuts and muffins. So now I know who brings them in.
She told me that she has a friend that owns a donut shop and she gives them to her for free. She started opening up the boxes and I had to get out of there or I’d be overcome with temptation.
<p>^^^^
Aren’t donuts and muffins ** “healthy whole grains?”** :)</p>