<p>I was going to say that there is little chance of me wearing either of them, but I looked down and – much to my horror – realized that my SuperFeet flip-flops are “vegan”. :)</p>
<p>^^^ I live in my SuperFeet flip flops (except for work and running). Those are some comfortable shoes!</p>
The thing with writing synthetic is that it doesn’t necessarily cut it with hardcore vegans, who might worry about the glue on the shoes or something. Vegan is an easy and reassuring term. I hate buying shoes and I try really hard to avoid leather, and there are many shoes that have a synthetic upper and leather sole, for example, so it can be hard to see what they actually are (because shoeboxes are so descriptive).
Strict vegans avoid wool, leather, silk, and anything else you can think of that originated as part of an animal in their clothing.
<p>In other news, I may spring for a 5 lb dumbbell here pretty soon.</p>
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<p>I’m either in my SuperFeet flip flops or my SuperFeet Sperry Topsiders! I still can’t believe I paid $80 for a pair of flip flops. They are wicked comfortable!</p>
<p>I didn’t need to take SuperFeet to try on hiking boots yesterday. EMS had a full display of SuperFeet demos – all colors, all sizes. There was another geezer trying on boots, who saw me shoving the insoles into every boot. He tried a pair and loved 'em.</p>
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<p>So all my TJ MAXX workout clothes are vegan! 
Heck, I think half the leather that is sold today is probably vegan, too.</p>
Go for it! You want to be using a weight where somewhere between the 6th and 12th rep is almost too hard to do. My wife had a pair of 5 lb dumbbells when I started, but I remember buying the pair of 8 pounders at KMART. They were too heavy for a lot of stuff.
<p>Deborah:</p>
<p>I meant to get back to you yesterday on your exercise request. Sounds like you’ve go the core stuff covered. And, fantastic on the incline pushups. As you do more of them, you can switch to the stairs – maybe start with your hands on the third step and then gradually work down to the second, to the third.</p>
<p>The matching pulling exercise is the inverted row. </p>
<p>[Inverted</a> Row - YouTube](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>You’ll have to use some ingenuity to find a place to do them at home. A railing? Jungle Gym at the park? It’s just like the incline pushup. The higher the bar, the easier they will be.</p>
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<p>With weights, the next exercise to add is this one:</p>
<p>[DB</a> Row - YouTube](<a href=“DB Row - YouTube”>DB Row - YouTube)</p>
<p>Putting one hand on a bench, or chair, or sofa, or whatever takes back issues out of the picture. You want to really push yourself to increase the weight as you can, but it can be any weight: a book bag, a box of cat litter, a dumbbell.</p>
<p>My favorite press with DBs – either lying on the floor, or a bench, kneeling on two knees, or standing up is to press both weights overhead, then keep one extended while you lower and raise the other. You can either do all the reps on one side or alternate. It’s a super tiring way to do them because holding one arm extended is a challenge. I did the standing version today.</p>
<p>Another really great exercise is the squat press. Two DBs at your shoulders. Squat down into a squat and as you push back up from the squat, press the DBs overhead. Great full body exercise.</p>
<p>If you don’t have knee problems, I kinda like the step press, too. DB at right shoulder. Step up onto a step with one foot and press the DB up overhead. Step back down. Do 10 reps with the right arm/foot and then 10 with the left arm foot.</p>
<p>Went for a run tonight. It’s been awhile since I’ve gone for a run due to the heat. I did about 20 minutes of interval work and then walked for 20 minutes…</p>
<p>TJ Maxx had an 8% sales increase for July and raised full-year guidance.</p>
<p>That’s why I can’t find any shorts there!</p>
<p>Watched a story on a hiker in California that took a wrong turn and was stranded on mountain face for 2 days! :eek: Be careful idad!</p>
<p>[California</a> Hiker Clinging to Cliff for Two Days Rescued Just in Time - ABC News](<a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/08/california-hiker-clinging-to-cliff-for-two-days-rescued-just-in-time/]California”>California Hiker Clinging to Cliff for Two Days Rescued Just in Time - ABC News)</p>
This stuff can be pretty serious business.
[Maine</a> college student falls to her death while hiking*Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park - NY Daily News](<a href=“http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/maine-college-student-falls-death-hiking-precipice-trail-acadia-national-park-article-1.1125582]Maine”>Maine college student falls to her death while hiking Precipice Trail in Acadia National Park – New York Daily News)
Shirley Ladd, a psychology major from Barnstead, N.H. was hiking with a friend Saturday morning when the tragic accident occurred. She had just scaled a laddered section and was preparing to climb another set of rungs when she slipped from a rock shelf, falling to the trail below, according to the Morning Sentinel.
<p>Strange - just received an email ad from Backcountry for Keen. I wonder if there’s a connection to this thread.</p>
Good lord, this ol’ (formerly) fat guy is not going to hike the Precipice Trail in Maine. Yikes. I have sense enough to read up on the trail reports before I pick a hiking route:
[Precipice</a> Trail Acadia National Park Hike - “The Best” - August 2010 - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdqE-ArH848]Precipice”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdqE-ArH848)
In this case, the name of the trail itself might have waved a red flag…
Went to see Doctor yesterday. Two major issues are all normal now. Doc actually asked me to eat more while doing the same exercise routing.
Being the only runner on track yesterday, I lost tracking how many laps I did. It seem now the first two are the hardest. Once warmed up, I could 8 or 10 lap now.
One more week in the weight lose program. Going to a big buffet next Wednesday.
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<p>24 mins (my short day).</p>
<p>iDad, thanks for the recommendations. I think I have the perfect “bar” for the inverted rows. The table on which this here 'puter rests used to be our dining room table but now lives upstairs. It’s sturdy and should work just fine. </p>
<p>Yeah, the 8 lb weights (because they’re already here) are what I tried doing exercises with daily back in April (not very many reps!) and ended up so sore. I definitely was nowhere near ready for those. </p>
<p>Now I’m figuring if I’m comfortable doing 3 sets of 8 reps with my lighter weights on a given exercise I’m good to bump up a notch.</p>
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<p>Several of the exercises you mentioned will do that. Bicep curls, kickbacks, and especially the dreaded lateral raises. I quite doing lateral raises because they made me so sore. I think the hardest exercise I’ve ever done was walking lunges with lateral arm raises on every lunge. Wow. Halfway across the room and my legs and arms would be on fire!</p>
<p>They all put the weight out on a lever and require using just arm muscles. Just a little weight will do you in pretty quickly. The irony is that they aren’t great exercises. Better to do stuff that engages the big muscles, especially the shoulders and back, with heavier weights. The arm muscles get plenty of work in the process.</p>
<p>It’s kind of a shift from the old bodybuilder approach where you isolated one muscle and worked it to death to increase its size to a newer functional fitness approach that favors exercises using multiple large muscles. For example, those 3-pt rows work the upper arms to be sure, but they also work the lats across the backs of the shoulders and all down the sides.</p>
<p>3 miles, intervals: 1:34, 1:33, 1:41, 1:41, 1:39, 1:36, 1:42</p>
<p>My legs were Jello on the last quarter. I was at Trader Joes last night and stared hard at the bananas. We haven’t had bananas or potatoes in several week but I didn’t buy any because there were a bunch of people around the display. My wife complained of leg cramps last night and I suggest Na or K.</p>
<p>The Higdon program also doesn’t have you do speed work two days in a row which I did. Yesterdays running and tennis which was essentially speed work for 2 1/2 hours.</p>
<p>I need to get in a long run either tomorrow or Saturday. I have tennis tomorrow. So we’ll see - maybe 3 tomorrow and 3 Saturday.</p>
<p>Some Keen hiking boots on sale for men and women at 6pm.co</p>
<p>[Keen</a> Mens Shoes](<a href=“Men's KEEN Shoes | 6pm”>Men's KEEN Shoes | 6pm)</p>
<p>^^ Too fast for both your goal 5K time and what the rest of us think you can do! 
You might want to look at the McMillan pace calculator and it will tell you how fast you should be doing various kinds of workouts. I just don’t want you to get hurt or too worn out. VERY FAST, though!!! Get the friggin’ bananas! :)</p>
Thanks CJANE. Those Keen Gypsums are a definitely possibility at that price!
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I wanted to try my trekking poles. And, it was way too hot and muggy for this ol’ guy to jog, so I cruised up to the Audubon center and did a quick 4 mile hike along the lake. Two thumbs up on the poles for the rough stuff and for the uphill bits.