For January, Concept2 is doing a virtual team row, with each team member logging their rowed distance and time and each team being ranked against other teams. Needless to say, my team is not in the top 100 (some of the teams are 200+ members!) But at any rate, it is a good way to keep yourself motivated. I’ve tried to shoot for a goal of rowing once per day, but have fallen woefully short. Will continue to strive for it, however.
Additionally, my wife and I bought toe socks, for use when we get our Vibram Five Fingers, which are getting very hard to find. Ours are on the way, from two different places. She is going with the Sprints, while I have opted for the KSOs. Should be a fun learning experience, and, since we both already like to move around the house without our shoes on, should be a nice and natural extension into the rest of the modern world.
Also, picked up a couple of different books. One is called Play, and is about playing and the good that it does for people of all ages both mentally and physically. Another is called Exuberant Animal and is about how a human should work out, what kinds of things they should focus on, and most of all, and probably most importantly, how most all working out should also be playful and beautiful.
Additionally, my wife and I have a new little one to teach the wonders of his body and this earth. Should be quite the exciting next 18 years.
Today I rode home from work with my buddy Clay. The ride is not a short one. Today, my ride was 40.21 miles long, putting me at 281.2 miles for the year, leaving 2218.8 miles to go (88.75% remaining to my goal). Instead of pressing ‘lap’ on my GPS, I pressed ‘Start/Stop’, so my data is missing 4 miles, a total time, and an accurate total calories. At 36.21 miles (what my GPS ‘total’ mileage reads), I burned 2758 calories, or 76 calories per mile. By extrapolation, I can say that I burned 3062 calories total, including the miles not recorded on the GPS.
Another annoyance on the trip was that the speedometer attached to my bike kept fritzing out. That was the worst part of the day. Other than that, it was a nice day riding. My wife says that my face got too much sun, but it felt more like windburn to me.
My goal is to be able to ride home at an 18 mph average, instead of the 16.4 I have been averaging. Well, there’s always next time.
Also, my core is STILL sore from the tabata burpees earlier this week. The fallout from that has been an experience. I will continue these for six weeks before deciding on how useful they are to me.
Times a countin'...
Today was my first foray into the world of Tabata. It remains to be seen how successful it will be, but I can tell you about my experiences.
First a brief description (for a more thorough description, check here): The Tabata method involves a series of 8 repetitions each lasting 30 seconds. The first 20 seconds of a repetition is spent going balls to the wall doing an activity of your choice. The ten seconds following are for resting. Repeat ad nauseum. Literally.
So for my activity, I chose to do burpees. This is the full burpee - stand, squat, pushup, squat, leap (also sometimes called a squat thrust). I went seven rounds, instead of 8. My lungs were fire, my heart pounding, and my stomach unsettled. Oh, and I got that fun metallic/blood taste in my mouth that I get when I run hard. So I laid on the floor and tried to think of a happy place. My score - 3. That’s right. 3 friggin burpees. (I suppose it should be zero since I didn’t run the last round, but since it was my first trip to flavor country, I’m gonna call 3 good).
Here’s my overall rep count: 6, 5, 5, 3, 4, 3, 4, 0
Not bad, and at under 5 minutes, It almost feels a) like cheating, b) like it’s not worth getting suited up for, and c) medieval torture. But this time it’s even better, because you do it to yourself!
It's a killer
Please feel free to donate and help me reach my goal of (at least) $150 which will go to support diabetes research. I will be riding 100 miles the day after having ridden about 70 miles (for ride your bike to work day). Sound like fun? Yeah, to me, too.
Help would be greatly appreciated, both by me and by diabetes researchers and sufferers everywhere. Donate here.
Did the Vicious Cycle today at Seattle Fitness. It was good to get back in there, but every time I go I’m struck with how different it is from actual cycling. My freaking quads were burning. Lots of sprinting, lots of climbs - I kinda like the climbs, because they just let you dig in and go. But, as expected, it was a little bit ass kicky. So thanks to Tija down at Seattle Fitness for running the whole thing. It’s a great alternative to cycling (when the weather’s nasty and/or there are not enough hours in the day) and a good bit better than doing the same thing at home. Tomorrow, however, I’m gonna run some tabata burpees. Or something. It’ll be interesting to see what kinds (if any) of performance gains I get out of them.
I’ve at least peripherally known about tabata, but haven’t really given it much thought. In retrospect, I have no idea why I never gave it any thought. Perhaps it was the counter-intuitiveness of it all. Working insanely hard for 4 minutes and having it be more beneficial to your body than an hour of moderate aerobic exercise seems crazy. But, as Tabata’s research clearly shows, there’s a clear advantage to the high intensity interval workout. So I’m willing to try anything, and I definitely think that something like this will get me out of the rut that I’ve been in for the last 6 months or so, and really get me moving towards my goals. Wednesday I will be doing some tabata burpees - as many as I can in 20 seconds, then rest 10 - for 4 minutes. I’m already feeling sick to my stomach.
Read more about tabata here.
Another thing that I was sent was a how to on making your own sports drinks. Since I cannot speak to their quality or taste, I’ll simply post the article here.
Tonight I’m just doing some balance exercises, along with a plank or two. Keeping it easy as tomorrow I have a midafternoon spin class. It should thoroughly kick my ass.
Me pulling hard
Today I sat down to take a little row. And my little row had me sweating in no time. This is my first real exercise since Friday, when I rode nearly 36 miles from my work to my home. I actually didn’t feel too much of my ride today, which is good, but there is some residual soreness in my neck and upper back. Nothing 30 minutes of rowing shouldn’t take care of, right? At the end of those 30 minutes, I had covered 7246 meters. My time for 5000 m was 19:43. All in all, a good row. I also found that magical pace that I could do all day long. Right now, when I settle into a nice groove, I run about 2:14/500m. Not bad, but definitely room for improvement. And since improvement is the name of the game….
Additionally, I will be riding in the Tour de Cure with a small group of friends and family. It’s a fundraiser which helps battle diabetes, which my dad is currently afflicted with (Type II). To find out more about this fundraiser and to get involved with the tour near you, check out their website at http://tour.diabetes.org/.
It’s shaping up to be a fairly busy cycling year for me, as well, as I am planning on at least 4 separate rides, with a possibility for 3 or 4 more. Should be fun…
This is where I will be posting all my progress from now on. I’ve moved away from Blogger and am now working with wordpress hosted on my own service provider, so it should allow me a much greater hand in the development of my fitness blog as well as the overall increase in general technology. I hope you enjoy it.