As mentioned in the last blog entry, I had dental surgery last Wednesday. By Friday, I was feeling pretty good, so I went for a run that day and the next. However, my body was obviously not as up to it as I thought.
The first thing that happened (actually on Friday morning and then again on Sunday) was that my lumbar area decided to give me a good crack. OUCH - this made standing ok, but everything else somewhat painful. The one on Friday was not so bad, but Sunday's was quite bad.
Then, on Saturday, I started finding that I was feeling a bit under the weather and by Sunday a full-fledged cold developed. Arrgh. So - no runs since Saturday and likely none until Friday or Saturday of this week.
During my forced rest, I read some sutff about core strengthinging. I'll be adding this into the workout regime.
Also, I started reading the "NYRR guide to running and fitness". Worst running book I have ever read. Keep in mind, I have an engineering/scientific bent though. This book just seems to ramble on, has a variety of workouts without rhyme or reason and is just a pain to read. Thankfully, I got it from the library rather than spending good money on it.
On the good side, my appetite has decreased significantly (no fun trying to chew on only one side), so my weigh in this week was 206.5 lbs, 29% fat. The pants are also definitely looser.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
An unexpected way to lose some weight.
This post is a bit of a summary of the past three days.
First, I went for another Chiro / Massage on Monday. The most gratifying thing about that was they could see a significant improvement in the mobility and strength of my left leg.
Digression: I don't believe I have described what happened with that leg. About 20 years ago (early 30s), I decided to take up skiing. So, I bought some skis and together with a former girlfriend, we headed up to Lake Louise ski hill. My intent was to take some lessons while she had a good day skiing.
I did spend the morning on the bunny hill (You can see it to the right of the webcam link above) and really did a good job learning how to snowplow. So, at lunch, I said, "Let's go do a green!" BIG MISTAKE :). I was not prepared for anything bigger than the bunny hill and soon found out after we got off the lift. Unfortunately, one of the things that happened on the slow way down was that I really twisted my left hip and now have some bursitis in that area. While I was running it didn't bother me. Apparently, the hip is a happy joint when the muscles supporting it are strong and supple. When they weaken, it can exact a lot of revenge - hence my last few months of massage and chiro treatments. - End of Digression.
So, that was Monday. On Tuesday, once I got home, I went for a nice run. I set a C2 target of 126 and headed off. However, at about 2/3rds of the way through, my hand hit the @#%@# safety cord and brought the machine and the workout to a screeching halt. Sigh. I finished off with 12 minutes of manual control. At least I did confirm that manual control does show the heart rate at the same time. The really irritating thing was that all record of the workout disappears when the cord is pulled. I will have to just estimate the total workout.
Now, from the "Be-careful-what-you-wish-for" department. I was mentioning to my wife that I thought I should take a few light food days to get past some intestinal issues I've been having the past week and a half. Remember this....
Wednesday morning, I head to the Peridontist for an exam. I have an old root canal that is going bad. At least, I thought it was going to just be an exam... - but no, we proceeded with the extraction (at my choice). Well, that left me with a hole in my head (ha ha :) and no appetite. So, since then, I've had a yogurt, 2 scrambled eggs and a banana. I suspect I will be under the 209 mark this Saturday.
The downside, of course, is that I really can't run or do weights for another day or two. The wound where the extraction was done needs some time to heal first. So, a couple of days off before getting back to it.
First, I went for another Chiro / Massage on Monday. The most gratifying thing about that was they could see a significant improvement in the mobility and strength of my left leg.
Digression: I don't believe I have described what happened with that leg. About 20 years ago (early 30s), I decided to take up skiing. So, I bought some skis and together with a former girlfriend, we headed up to Lake Louise ski hill. My intent was to take some lessons while she had a good day skiing.
I did spend the morning on the bunny hill (You can see it to the right of the webcam link above) and really did a good job learning how to snowplow. So, at lunch, I said, "Let's go do a green!" BIG MISTAKE :). I was not prepared for anything bigger than the bunny hill and soon found out after we got off the lift. Unfortunately, one of the things that happened on the slow way down was that I really twisted my left hip and now have some bursitis in that area. While I was running it didn't bother me. Apparently, the hip is a happy joint when the muscles supporting it are strong and supple. When they weaken, it can exact a lot of revenge - hence my last few months of massage and chiro treatments. - End of Digression.
So, that was Monday. On Tuesday, once I got home, I went for a nice run. I set a C2 target of 126 and headed off. However, at about 2/3rds of the way through, my hand hit the @#%@# safety cord and brought the machine and the workout to a screeching halt. Sigh. I finished off with 12 minutes of manual control. At least I did confirm that manual control does show the heart rate at the same time. The really irritating thing was that all record of the workout disappears when the cord is pulled. I will have to just estimate the total workout.
Now, from the "Be-careful-what-you-wish-for" department. I was mentioning to my wife that I thought I should take a few light food days to get past some intestinal issues I've been having the past week and a half. Remember this....
Wednesday morning, I head to the Peridontist for an exam. I have an old root canal that is going bad. At least, I thought it was going to just be an exam... - but no, we proceeded with the extraction (at my choice). Well, that left me with a hole in my head (ha ha :) and no appetite. So, since then, I've had a yogurt, 2 scrambled eggs and a banana. I suspect I will be under the 209 mark this Saturday.
The downside, of course, is that I really can't run or do weights for another day or two. The wound where the extraction was done needs some time to heal first. So, a couple of days off before getting back to it.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
The Sunday workout.
Mini-measure Sunday - Weight 210, fat 28%. Gained a pound, but lost 2 pounds of fat.
Not truly likely - I could tell the meal at Atlas the night before had a lot of salt as I was puffy city in the morning.
I went for another run on the treadmill today, with the same settings as Saturday - 30 minute C2 workout at HR 122 - Max elevation 1.5%, max speed 5.0 MPH.
I noticed it still hunted a fair bit. I also notice my HR would occaisionally spike up to 127 or so. The machine had fun with that - crash down to 0% elevation, speed of 3.3 MPH. Calories burned were 191, 1 less than yesterday.
One minor puzzlement is that the post-workout readout showed 29:00 for the time. I'm mildly wondering if there is something wrong with the machine.
Following that I did a light dumbbell workout. We have been unable to find a bench we like, so for the moment, we use the exercise ball for things like chest press etc..
Finally, we went to the library and took out a gaggle of books on running, training and exercising.
Not truly likely - I could tell the meal at Atlas the night before had a lot of salt as I was puffy city in the morning.
I went for another run on the treadmill today, with the same settings as Saturday - 30 minute C2 workout at HR 122 - Max elevation 1.5%, max speed 5.0 MPH.
I noticed it still hunted a fair bit. I also notice my HR would occaisionally spike up to 127 or so. The machine had fun with that - crash down to 0% elevation, speed of 3.3 MPH. Calories burned were 191, 1 less than yesterday.
One minor puzzlement is that the post-workout readout showed 29:00 for the time. I'm mildly wondering if there is something wrong with the machine.
Following that I did a light dumbbell workout. We have been unable to find a bench we like, so for the moment, we use the exercise ball for things like chest press etc..
Finally, we went to the library and took out a gaggle of books on running, training and exercising.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Another day, another run
Friday was probably not the best day for me food-wise. Supper at Juan's Mexican restaurant which is always tad too many calories, cheese, fat etc. Ah well.
This morning, I calculated my Karvonen numbers. Based on age of 52, my resting heart rate of 55 (taken in bed before rising), my 50% intensity is 111, 60% is 123, 70% is 134, 75% 140 and 85% 151.
As the article linked off the previous post noted, when in poor shape (i.e., me :), shoot for 50-60% intensity. My first workout was right around the 77% intensity, which is fine once one is fit. So I programmed up the Pacemaster to do a 30 minute C2 workout at HR 122.
This is 5 minutes warm-up, 20 at target HR and 5 minutes cool-down.
Once again, the machine was a joy to run on. I did note that it did a lot more hunting than when my target HR was 142. I set the max elevation to 2% (Knocked that back to 1% halfway through) and the max speed to 5 MPH. It never got over 4MPH the whole run. At times, it was as slow as 3.2 MPH, staying mostly around 3.7 with an elevation of .5%.
Another cool thing is that I can get the details of my last 7 workouts from this puppy :). So the first two are:
Yes, I know the last one says 29:20. No idea why.
So, weights tomorrow (and a weigh-in - exciting!!!).
This morning, I calculated my Karvonen numbers. Based on age of 52, my resting heart rate of 55 (taken in bed before rising), my 50% intensity is 111, 60% is 123, 70% is 134, 75% 140 and 85% 151.
As the article linked off the previous post noted, when in poor shape (i.e., me :), shoot for 50-60% intensity. My first workout was right around the 77% intensity, which is fine once one is fit. So I programmed up the Pacemaster to do a 30 minute C2 workout at HR 122.
This is 5 minutes warm-up, 20 at target HR and 5 minutes cool-down.
Once again, the machine was a joy to run on. I did note that it did a lot more hunting than when my target HR was 142. I set the max elevation to 2% (Knocked that back to 1% halfway through) and the max speed to 5 MPH. It never got over 4MPH the whole run. At times, it was as slow as 3.2 MPH, staying mostly around 3.7 with an elevation of .5%.
Another cool thing is that I can get the details of my last 7 workouts from this puppy :). So the first two are:
Yes, I know the last one says 29:20. No idea why.
So, weights tomorrow (and a weigh-in - exciting!!!).
Friday, January 9, 2009
The first run
After picking up new Gel Kinsei 2's from Gord's, I got home and tried out the new treadmill. First, we adjusted the band a bit during the initial test. It is a little bit to the right of center, more so at the front than the back. Interestingly, one can only adjust via bolts at the back of the machine.
After all that, I programmed my userid, weight and age, strapped on the heart monitor and got on. I had planned to just do an easy 20 minute run, with HR monitoring. From what I read, I thought I needed to select program C1 (HR monitor) and then manual. Doesn't work. I suspect that I didn't need to worry about the C1 part, just go straight to manual and it would have been OK.
However, with all the excitement, I didn't think of that at the time. So, I switched over to C2, the "Set target heart rate" program. I punched in 142 BPM (75% for my age assuming a max HR of 168 using the old 220 - age formula. Newer formula include the .67 formula, giving me a MHR of 169 so the same percentage and the Karvonen formula, which takes morning resting HR into account. Since my sitting in the afternoon HR is 58-60, I assume a morning resting HR of 55 giving me Karvonen numbers of Max HR 168, Max training of 145 and Min training 123.)
So, the default for the program is 30 minutes - a bit too long for me at the moment. I switched to 20 minutes, reduced the max elevation of the program to 1.5 from 10% and upped the max speed from 4mph to 4.5mph.
The machine performed beautifully.
It started with a 5 minute warm up to get me up to speed and target HR, followed by 10 minutes where it varied speed and elevation to keep my HR at target and then a 5 minute cool down. It kept me between 139 and 143 for the entire 10 minutes with no problem. Very nice machine.
After all that, I programmed my userid, weight and age, strapped on the heart monitor and got on. I had planned to just do an easy 20 minute run, with HR monitoring. From what I read, I thought I needed to select program C1 (HR monitor) and then manual. Doesn't work. I suspect that I didn't need to worry about the C1 part, just go straight to manual and it would have been OK.
However, with all the excitement, I didn't think of that at the time. So, I switched over to C2, the "Set target heart rate" program. I punched in 142 BPM (75% for my age assuming a max HR of 168 using the old 220 - age formula. Newer formula include the .67 formula, giving me a MHR of 169 so the same percentage and the Karvonen formula, which takes morning resting HR into account. Since my sitting in the afternoon HR is 58-60, I assume a morning resting HR of 55 giving me Karvonen numbers of Max HR 168, Max training of 145 and Min training 123.)
So, the default for the program is 30 minutes - a bit too long for me at the moment. I switched to 20 minutes, reduced the max elevation of the program to 1.5 from 10% and upped the max speed from 4mph to 4.5mph.
The machine performed beautifully.
It started with a 5 minute warm up to get me up to speed and target HR, followed by 10 minutes where it varied speed and elevation to keep my HR at target and then a 5 minute cool down. It kept me between 139 and 143 for the entire 10 minutes with no problem. Very nice machine.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
It's heeeere....
Ahhhh - the new treadmill. However, no running today - it has to adjust to coming in out of the cold. Also, new shoes are required. No outdoor runners on this baby!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Getting ready for the treadmill
Interestingly, when my sweetie picked me up today, she told me I had to watch Oprah tonight as it was all about "Getting healthy in 2009". So, I said, "Sure, I watch it while I'm doing my dumbbell exercises.". I did watch it and it was actually reasonably interesting, especially when it mentioned about thyroid imbalances causing low energy, weight gain and malaise. I wonder if that might be (have been?) applicable to me.
Anyway, I did my workout and recorded it with this great iPhone/iPod touch app called "iStayFit". Fantastic app, only $1.99 when I bought it ($5.99 now and still well worth it). Comes with a variety of exercises built in, easy to build your own exercise regime and super easy to record. I'm just waiting for them to add emailing the logs to ourselves.
The PowerBlocks worked extremely well. Easy to change the weight and currently more weight than I need.
After that, while having supper, I asked if they had phoned to schedule delivery. The answer was no, and then about a minute later, They phoned!!! Yaaayyy - they deliver tomorrow afternoon, so tomorrow night, I'm going running!
Anyway, I did my workout and recorded it with this great iPhone/iPod touch app called "iStayFit". Fantastic app, only $1.99 when I bought it ($5.99 now and still well worth it). Comes with a variety of exercises built in, easy to build your own exercise regime and super easy to record. I'm just waiting for them to add emailing the logs to ourselves.
The PowerBlocks worked extremely well. Easy to change the weight and currently more weight than I need.
After that, while having supper, I asked if they had phoned to schedule delivery. The answer was no, and then about a minute later, They phoned!!! Yaaayyy - they deliver tomorrow afternoon, so tomorrow night, I'm going running!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Balls
Today, the first positive thing I did towards running was reinstate my balance ball at work. For the last 6 months, I've been sharing an office with two others. During that time, there really was not enough space to use my chair for part of the time and the ball for the other part. I sometimes wonder if that didn't exacerbate the IT band issues I've been having. Of course, the chair I had was set too high for about 5 months and that really did not help.
As it turns out, that was it for today. Intestinal issues compromised the possiblity of anything else.
As it turns out, that was it for today. Intestinal issues compromised the possiblity of anything else.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Measuring and shopping
Well, today, we did get the treadmill, and some weights, but not an exercise bench. Actually, got all this at the Fitness Depot at Dalhousie. We purchased a Pacemaster Platinum Pro. It has a really good feel, incline and decline settings, a 3HP continuous motor and a nice smooth feel.
It was interesting going through the decision process, as we naturally would liked to have spent less. At one point my light of my light asked: "How does buying this make you feel?" and the answer was "Like a great weight is off my shoulders." Honestly, the answer somewhat surprised me. I had no idea that I was waiting for one this much. (It should be here in about a week). Now I just have to dig out my Polar chest strap :).
I do have to mention the weights I bought as well. I got these PowerBlock contraptions which double as dumbbells and toys ;). Very cool and I'm looking forward to using them.
My leg feels much better today. Marie gave it a wand work massage last night and I didn't do any stretches. I am sure something in the way I am stretching is causing the pain. I'll have to review that with Chiro/Massage tomorrow.
Finally, today was first Sunday of the month - otherwise known as Statistics Sunday.
So we have:
It was interesting going through the decision process, as we naturally would liked to have spent less. At one point my light of my light asked: "How does buying this make you feel?" and the answer was "Like a great weight is off my shoulders." Honestly, the answer somewhat surprised me. I had no idea that I was waiting for one this much. (It should be here in about a week). Now I just have to dig out my Polar chest strap :).
I do have to mention the weights I bought as well. I got these PowerBlock contraptions which double as dumbbells and toys ;). Very cool and I'm looking forward to using them.
My leg feels much better today. Marie gave it a wand work massage last night and I didn't do any stretches. I am sure something in the way I am stretching is causing the pain. I'll have to review that with Chiro/Massage tomorrow.
Finally, today was first Sunday of the month - otherwise known as Statistics Sunday.
So we have:
| Stat | Value |
| Weight | 209 |
| Scale fat % | 29% |
| Waist | 40.5 |
| Skinfold x4 | 66 |
| Skinfold fat% | 30.4% |
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Lazy Saturday
I did all my stretches last night and the leg is somewhat sore. I considered going into the UofC for a workout, but let Marie talk me out of it. I did at least get a new ab ball for her.
Weird sizing on those things though. The size I got is supposed to work for 5'5" to 5'11", while the previous size is for 5'0" to 5'4". She is just over 5'4", so I decided on the bigger one. Here's hoping I don't have to change it again.
Weird sizing on those things though. The size I got is supposed to work for 5'5" to 5'11", while the previous size is for 5'0" to 5'4". She is just over 5'4", so I decided on the bigger one. Here's hoping I don't have to change it again.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Setting it up
I am a marathoner.
I say that as I have successfully completed 4 marathons over the years.
I am not too active of a marathoner though.
About 10 years ago, I started having trouble keeping my running energy up. Over the past 10 years I've been plagued with a plethora of minor injuries, sore spots, lack of will power and too much weight. Right now I am 210 pounds and 29% fat. With a height of 6', this gives me a BMI of 28.5, solidly in the overweight (But not obese, thankfully) category.
My marathon running weight is 165, making a BMI of 22.4.
I had decided three years ago to train for the Hawaii marathon as it runs right near my birthday and I thought that would be a great 50th birthday present to myself. Didn't happen. Similarly, exercise for the last two years has succumbed to job/school pressures, TV watching, life and whatever.
In the last month, however, I feel like I've made some solid progress. One of the biggest issues with running for the past while has been pain in my legs and hips. My sweetie finally got me to see a chiropracter and massage therapist. So, I am now going about every 10 days, doing about 30 minutes (or more) of stretching daily and my legs are beginning to feel better.
Tomorrow, I'm going treadmill shopping.
I say that as I have successfully completed 4 marathons over the years.
I am not too active of a marathoner though.
About 10 years ago, I started having trouble keeping my running energy up. Over the past 10 years I've been plagued with a plethora of minor injuries, sore spots, lack of will power and too much weight. Right now I am 210 pounds and 29% fat. With a height of 6', this gives me a BMI of 28.5, solidly in the overweight (But not obese, thankfully) category.
My marathon running weight is 165, making a BMI of 22.4.
I had decided three years ago to train for the Hawaii marathon as it runs right near my birthday and I thought that would be a great 50th birthday present to myself. Didn't happen. Similarly, exercise for the last two years has succumbed to job/school pressures, TV watching, life and whatever.
In the last month, however, I feel like I've made some solid progress. One of the biggest issues with running for the past while has been pain in my legs and hips. My sweetie finally got me to see a chiropracter and massage therapist. So, I am now going about every 10 days, doing about 30 minutes (or more) of stretching daily and my legs are beginning to feel better.
Tomorrow, I'm going treadmill shopping.
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