Exercise/Fitness Log

[Thegoblinchief]

Started reading this thread last night and decided to jump in this morning.

I've been bike commuting since October, but I only work weekends (stay-at-home dad and homeschooler during the week) so I added some "fitness" rides that I take by myself after the goblins go to bed. Late night winter rides can get miserable at times but I've actually come to enjoy the solitude on my route.

My commute from work is 8 miles each way. When I first started riding I thought I would die on the rides home. Some days the ride home is still hard, especially when it's below 20F, but I'm getting quite a bit stronger.

For my "fitness" rides I'm up to 21 miles roundtrip with no breaks, or if it's super cold that night, occasional walking breaks to get feeling back in my toes. I do commutes Sat-Sun and the longer rides Tues+Thurs, so that's about 80 miles a week.

If I want to ride more per week, should I aim for longer individual rides? I feel like you really need rest days to recover, but maybe it's my current conditioning that's at fault. I also will try an add some clean/pushpress HIIT soon, but I have to be really careful with upper body lifting since I've had pinched nerves on and off for almost a decade.

[Thegoblinchief]

Adjusted my saddle height based off of the tips Jacob gave in his recent post and shaved 30 seconds a mile off of my 20 mile loop. At one point I was over a minute ahead per mile but I got greedy on the front 2/3rds and paid for it with a miserable final 5 miles.

Going to give myself a few weeks at 20 miles and then see about upping the distance again. The loop itself is good, so I might resort to doubling back a section to add mileage.

[Ego]

I was a little worried we would find it difficult to exercise in Mexico City. Surprisingly, we found a great place to run around the Alameda park near the historic center. I didn't want to lose my pullup gains and found a scaffolding that works well as long as I don't mind being a spectacle. My wife always does better with altitude than me. She's kicking my ass on the runs.

http://youtu.be/DnEyEfufelY

[sshawnn]

I got back in the pool with my triathlon buddies this morning. It has been a while since I have consistently swam with them. Just like this thread, group pressure is helpful with my weakest aspect, consistency.

Triathlon training is probably a good idea for me right now. I do not aspire to do another IronMan soon but the three disciplines are good for all the other upcoming activities I want to be involved in. I may set sights on an Olympic distance summer event to foster participation.

[jacob]

#27.0 again.

FT = 3.66W/kg.

[George the original one]

It's funny how underused muscles are total crap when you begin a new exercise... gave my wife an exercycle for Christmas (last minute gift, so not at ERE-friendly price) and have been using it myself.

At least after a week of regular small efforts, I'm seeing progress in improved knee strength and endurance. There's still a long ways to go before my expectations are matched by reality <ahem>.

[m741]

I'm lifting again. I lifted a bit at the start of December, but was feeling some Achilles/ankle pain and stopped for a while. I've gone twice now and feel better than before. I'm following a very simple program - 5 minutes on the elliptical to warm up (no impact); then squats, overhead press/bench press, and finally deadlifts. 5 sets of 5 reps on each. I plan on keeping this particular program up for about a month, then potentially lowering the amount of deadlifts. At home I sometimes do push-ups to help my bench press numbers.

My ultimate goal is a combined lift of 1000 pounds on bench+deadlift+squats, which will probably take about a year.

[jacob]

@m741 - Is the ankle problem related to your marathon?

[m741]

@jacob - I believe so. I only felt knee pain during my marathon and general soreness afterwards. I lifted a few times at the beginning of December (about 2 weeks after the marathon) and after the third session, really felt this ankle pain, which persisted for about a week even while walking around. I didn't feel it before the lifting, but none of the lifts really hit those tendons, so it's a mystery to me.

It seems to have resolved itself after 4 weeks of rest. But I'm being cautious with the lifts so the injury hopefully won't recur.

[Ian]

I trust it's forgivable that I didn't read through this whole thread. Does anyone have things to say about the 100 push-up challenge? It appeals to me because I usually do diverse exercises, so something this focused and goal oriented will be a good change of pace.

In any case, I plan to do the routine MWF starting on the 6th. I managed 23 push-ups, so I will be trying the third column. Maybe I could have done more with a gun to my head - I think I'm not very good at pushing myself hard. Hopefully the daunting progression over the coming weeks will help me overcome this.

[FingerPointsAtMoon]

I'm currently doing an extremely slow 100 pushup challenge. Every day I do a set of x pushups, and x goes up by one every week. I'll get to 100 a day in less than two years!

Just hit the gym for the first time this week.

Feeling the DOMS from trying out the machines. I'll stick to free weights, plus probably the lat pulldown machine every now and again. I hope to be able to do a whole lot of pullups, and start working on bench/squat/deadlift stats.

I tried a recumbent bike today, it was easy for me, but it got challenging after 25 minutes. I guess the strength/endurance doesn't transfer directly over from regular cycling.

I'm also going to try running. I got myself a pair of "barefoot" shoes, so I'm going to begin very, very slowly. Today was day 1, and I ran for 10 minutes at a very slow pace. I could have gone harder, but I'll give myself a few weeks to get used to the impact.

My goals are simple:
1) Lift a lot and have fun doing it.
2) Do a bunch of cardio to stay sane. Too much immobility makes me jittery and anxious.

[riparian]

Oh man. I've been in the city so long I'm way out of shape. Yesterday I broke trail and today I cut wood and pulled a lot of heavy stuff over my new trail.

My legs might die.

[m741]

Figured I'd post a short update. So far this year, I haven't missed a gym session. Granted - that's just 4 sessions . However, one of those sessions was the day of the big blizzard here in NYC, and the gym was empty. I was the first non-employee there, which was cool.

I've been posting steady gains, incrementing squats by 5 pounds each session (feels comfortable), and deadlift by 5 pounds as well (also comfortable). I mixed up numbers for bench and forgot to up the weight, so that's been stagnating a bit. Total I've bumped my combined lift from 380 to 450 (goal: 750 by July 1).

[Ian]

Beginning the 100 Pushup Challenge as planned. Week #1 is down, but that's unsurprising because I started with an edge. We'll see how far that persists.

Total Pushups So Far: 184

[Ian]

Barely finished week #2. This weekend I'll see if my exhaustion test is up and then try week #3, but those numbers don't look possible to me right now.

Total Pushups So Far: 401

[henrik]

@Ian-- maybe it's better to repeat week 2 until you're comfortable and then move on to the next stage?

[Ian]

Maybe that's a good idea; I don't have much experience with this. I didn't have to increase the amount of rest time at any point and I didn't feel like I was going to injure myself, but I wasn't able to do much more than the recommended minimum on the last set. So it felt very difficult, but maybe that just means I'm exerting myself as much as I should be.

[jennypenny]

It turns out that the leg fracture was from other, undiagnosed problems. Addressing those now, but it means I can't run or even walk. Stationary bike or swimming only. I've been encouraged to increase my strength training instead. I'm hitting the gym or using the weights in my garage almost every day, but I don't feel like I'm accomplishing much. I keep going through the motions though. It's more about keeping the habit of exercise in my daily routine than any specific goal right now. My diet is also restricted, so I'm basically doing a paleo diet with white rice but no nuts and limited dairy. I've also had to stop all supplements. And no more IF.

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Which stationary bike do you all recommend? There are four different types at my gym. A regular one, one that looks more like a racing bike where you lean forward, a recumbant (sp?) bike, and one that almost looks like a unicycle with hand pedals. I've been using the regular one so far.

I'm having trouble finding my groove on the bike (it's dreadful, really ) so I've been mixing up my music frequently. I added funkier stuff to the mix and that seems to help. I have an embarassingly large collection of '70's music and I've been listening to that while I bike--everything from Saturday Night Fever to Hot Stuff to Brick House. What can I say? This girl's a little freaky.

[jacob]

Watching actual training videos works for me. As mentioned above, I really like Spinervals. Beats looking at the TV or the wall. Putting a regular bike on a trainer allows me to play with gears (compared to dialing a tension knob) and clipless pedals, so that's what I prefer. Besides, I already had the bike. So I bought one of these
http://www.kurtkinetic.com/road-machine-p-198-l-en.html
The preferred/most popular stationary bike on the spinervals videos seems to be the Lemond Revmaster.

[Ego]

Which stationary bike do you all recommend? There are four different types at my gym. A regular one, one that looks more like a racing bike where you lean forward, a recumbant (sp?) bike, and one that almost looks like a unicycle with hand pedals. I've been using the regular one so far.

I'm having trouble finding my groove on the bike (it's dreadful, really ) so I've been mixing up my music frequently. I added funkier stuff to the mix and that seems to help. I have an embarassingly large collection of '70's music and I've been listening to that while I bike--everything from Saturday Night Fever to Hot Stuff to Brick House. What can I say? This girl's a little freaky.

I don't think it matters all that much which bike you use. The least dreadful would be the best. Are you running in the pool? That may be a good alternative.