<p>^ thanks for posting that, idad, because I think Bromfield’s situation is similar to mine.</p>
<p>The only part I am waiting on is
</p>
<p>Weights, weight machines and split squats at the Y. I took an aspirin earlier this afternoon - I don’t know whether it helped or not but getting the blood flowing has helped and I’m not feeling achy and sore now.</p>
<p>I even ran into someone doing my side pull exercise in the fitness room. I saw her doing them so I grabbed a 50 and did two sets. Normally I’d grab 75s in the main freeweights area but there were a few teenagers in that area and 50 is enough.</p>
<p>For some reason, there were a lot of teenagers in the weight area - might have been the temps outside.</p>
<p>Schwinn Airdyne 1
Ol’ (formerly) Fat Guy 0</p>
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<p>Wow. These intervals are diabolical. Go hard until the heat rate hits 90%, then go easy 'til it falls back to 65%. Lather, rinse, and repeat for a total of five times. There is every incentive to go as hard as you can because the faster you go, the sooner the interval is over, plus you know that stopping at 90% is not ridiculously painful.</p>
<p>This is the third time I’ve done these. First time, I averaged 68.5 rpm for the five intervals. Second time, I averaged 70.5 rpm. Today, I averaged 75.7 rpm. Legs burning in under 60 seconds each time. I don’t know how much more I’ve got.</p>
<p>I literally could not stand up for a few minutes after getting off the bike – from slightly less that five minutes of all out pedaling. Those are seriously high intensity intervals. Yeow.</p>
<p>Oh, did I mention that the Airdyne is stupid?</p>
<p>My 5K was underwhelming today. I was shooting for 27 minutes (ran 27:22 at Thanksgiving on a harder course) and ran 27:53. I just didn’t have it in me. Didn’t fade- in fact the 3rd mile was the fastest, but that’s it. I was 4th in my age group, so no hardware. Interestingly, when I age up in Sept I would have won that age group by 10 minutes! That’s pretty amazing for a 5K. It felt horrible- HR average 170. I ran a mile warm up and a 2.7 mile cooldown for a 7 mile day. My daughter ran the Very Important Half Marathon that is the “main” race at this event and did a 3 mile warm up to get a 16 mile training run in. She did pretty well in the half so is very happy with her training. H (who has been running once a week) was right behind me in the 5K and also missed out on awards. </p>
<p>Running is more stupid than the Airdyne! (I wish I could find/post the picture from the 80s of my corporate teammate clinging to a pole after he got off of the Airdyne in our “mini-triathlon” competition that was part of a corporate fitness festival against other companies)</p>
<p>Ok… I had some chocolate today…just being honest…I did not have an excessive amount of calories today…but I did not help myself either.</p>
<p>I don’t plan on having any more chocolate for awhile. If my weight isn’t down Monday…I am going to reevaluate what I am doing.</p>
<p>VeryHappy, I have got to get more exercise because I am going to start gaining if I don’t reduce my intake further! DH’s work schedule when he is home is throwing me off. He’ll accept that “I’ve already eaten” a couple of nights a week, but he finds it irksome as a regular practice. He easily eats twice what I do. I’ve noticed a 4-5 lb swing when I eat 2-3 hours later than I do when he is traveling.</p>
<p>I am still what you all would call terribly overweight. I don’t want to lose my momentum.</p>
Don’t go only by weight. Check at least your waistline (at navel level). If you stay the same weight, but soft stuff at your waistline goes down, that means the abdominal body fat is shrinking, which can only be good (and which means that you likely gained muscle elsewhere, which is healthy).
<p>I am going to go by the size of the waste too.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That is usually positively correlated with fiber intake. Or do you mean “waist”?</p>
<p>My workout involved carrying a man across the gym room. Kettle balls, medicine balls, heavy bags, squats, etc. I loved it. </p>
<p>I am within a couple of pounds of ideal weight, but the stuff around the middle is frustrating me. </p>
<p>Jean shopping is a nightmare. </p>
<p>Anyway, lovingmmy grouoon type deals, do best when I meix it up. Krav maga, well, if znyone wants to push themselves, this is hard core. Three girls and twentynguys, and it’s fought. But I could have done more after the hour. Bur pees with fifteen pound medicine ball. Gotta love it</p>
<p>Today’s numbers:</p>
<p>Cals 1098
Fat 51 g
Carbs 66 g
Fiber 3 g
Protein 90 g
Sugars 20 g</p>
<p>Not bad, considering I had a major carb craving that would not be ignored. Cold, wet, rainy day and I could not shake my craving for something warm, sweet and baked. Usually I can allay the sweet tooth with a splenda sweetened tea or make something with almond meal. Today I felt like I had to have something sweet made with flour, for some reason. Didn’t want to bake up a batch of something, because I had no one around to fob it off on, so decided to get a little creative. Based on the “brownie in a mug” recipe, I came up with a non-chocolate, type of muffin or streusel cake in a mug.
1/4 cup of flour, some butter, egg, splenda and splenda brown sugar, prepared single serving in the micro. Hit the spot and did very little damage diet-wise.</p>
<p>No workout for me today-- unlike all of you airdyne, racers, krav magaers, etc. so the low calorie count isn’t a big deal for today.</p>
Ucbalumnus… Lol…yeah…I meant waist.
<p>CJane, I haven’t done it in years, but when i used to crave carbs and sweets and fat, I’d cream a little butter and sugar together, then throw in some uncooked oatmeal. It was like eating oatmeal cookie dough. Yum.</p>
<p>Bagged up some clothes in the basement for donation and moved a pile of XL t-shirts (corporate logo) and shorts to the basement from the bedroom. Those get saved in storage for sentimental value. Spring cleaning is around the corner and I guess clothes are a good place to start.</p>
<p>Worked out hard this week–6 days, including one day (Friday–when it was 55 degrees) when I did spinning and also did garden work (which burned more calories than I would have imagined–spring raking and cleanup for 90 minutes and I burned 250 calories per my HRM). I’m taking today off and planning on going to see George Clooney (well . . . his movie). H thinks The Descedents is a chick flick, so I’m going with a friend.</p>
<p>IDad–Redbones is good barbecue–oldest D graduated from Tufts and we’d go into town and meet her there fairly often.
CJ–you inspired me to get the Paleo book. Just started reading it–interesting.
MOWC–third place is good! I know you were shooting for a higher place, but you’re still way above average (just like all the kids in Lake Wobegon).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, I would have been happy with 3rd, but I was 4th. I didn’t rest up for it and 5K isn’t that easy for me when I’m in marathon training, but it sure felt awful!</p>
<p>Did have a pretty decent 8 mile run this morning- tried to keep it easy, but 8 miles is 8 miles and is never all that easy.</p>
<p>Question- for those of you who do planks. How many do you do and for how long?</p>
I was up to 60 seconds, but it’s boring as hell. And, Stuart McGill recommends shorter duration holds for plank and side plank, even doing multiples of 10 second holds as you build up endurance. His theory is that it’s all about the initial contraction/stiffness, not about how long you can hold it in an endurance contest. So, he approaches it as a series: contract, hold, relax, contract, hold relax, etc.
<hr>
My regular planks now are with my feet in the TRX straps or up on the weight bench. I set up my interval timer for four 30 second intervals with 15 seconds of rest in between.
I do 30 seconds of plank, 30 seconds of side plank on one side, 30 seconds of side plank on the other side, and finish with another 30 seconds of plank.
This week, I’m doing the same 30 seconds x 4, but doing plank on the stability ball then side plank with the bottom leg off the ground doing knee drives.
Took advantage of the nice weather (58 and sunny) to do a walk/jog. Couldn’t do my complete 5K route because the park trails were too muddy from melting snow. So, I stayed on the pavement. My plan was to do 12 running intervals 'til my heart rate hit 90%, but I think I was getting static electricity false heart rate spikes early on until I started sweating. The first three intervals took about 4 seconds to hit 90% heart rate. I may not be the cardio king, but it takes me longer than 4 seconds to get my heart rate up! Things settled down after the first three. I’ll have to dig out that can of anti-static spray I bought.
These intervals may not be tough enough for running as 90% heart rate is not that high for me when I’m jogging. I did push the pace though, doing the intervals at between 7.5 minutes per mile and 9 minutes per mile. The good thing is that I can do a lot more intervals with a lot shorter walking recovery because – within reason – it really doesn’t matter if the jogging intervals are uphill or downhill.
It was nice to get out in the fresh air.
<p>
</p>
<p>iPod nazi had me doing that 30 second sequence with no rest in between and never going to the ground. 30 seconds of side plank straight into 30 seconds of front plank straight into 30 seconds of side plank and back into 30 seconds of front plank, hips in the air the entire time. That is BRUTAL.</p>
<p>30 minutes of weights in various forms including split squats with 2x10 pounds. The knee is generally feeling better, even after tennis and that helps with balance. I should be well rested for a regular run tomorrow.</p>