| |
|
RG_DFW's Recent Blog Entries
|
 
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Cardio Streak Day 341
This is going to be short... I did 3.10 miles today then we got slammed by 19 tornadoes!
No power, no cable or internet, my car is trashed, but I'm luckier than the guy whose house is no longer there!
== == (actual blog written Wednesday) == ==
Cardio Streak Day 341
40 minute run/walk
1140hrs
At about 1140hrs I started the workout. The skies were cloudy but not threatening. During the workout, the sky got darker.
At the two mile mark, I was about to turn left and go up Cardiac Hill and farther from my house when something changed my direction. It was a feeling that I should head back toward the house... one of those unexplained things where you are steered in a different direction than the one intended. As it turns out, up that hill was in the area where a tornado would pass a little later.
I got back to the house and could feel a couple of light droplets and I could hear thunder in the distance. I did a stretch for several minutes then went indoors, had a couple of glasses of no-name water, then showered.
As I got out of the shower, I could hear thunder and rain. I like rain, I like thunder, I like storms, so I made a sandwich and settled in on the computer to compose the blog for the day. I never got that far.
The warning sirens started and I thought, 'what the heck' and turned on to watch one of the local major stations because they always break in with weather updates. The first thing I heard was a possible tornado on the ground nearby. They then cut to live helicopter views of a major tornado on the ground over on the east side of the Metroplex.
Before they got back to the tornado on the west side (near me), both the cable and internet went off. About a minute later, the power went off. That left nothing but the drone of warning sirens and the roar of weather. Part of the noise, apparently, was a tornado.
For about thirty minutes the warning sirens continued, followed by the sounds of emergency vehicles in the area which went on for nearly an hour. I didn't know at the time, but the tornado passed within 0.70 mile of my house.
We're fortunate. Thanks to all of you who sent messages and emails.
The workout was:
3.70 miles
50 minutes
360 calories burned
Monday, April 02, 2012
Cardio Streak Day 340
30 minute jog
1300hrs 70F
It's cloudy today and it's sunny today at various times. A friend sent me a txt msg picture from East Texas where lightning had just struck an office building but there is no weather like that here although the sky is unsettled.
Today was a slow jogging day and is anywhere from 25 to 40 minutes depending on how I feel at the time. Today was 30 minutes. I completed 2.30 miles in that 30 minute time.
With walking warm up and cool down, today's total was:
3.20 miles
40 minutes
420 calories burned
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Cardio Streak Day 339
20 minute walk
0700hrs 65F
It's a good thing today is my "off day" but I'll explain that in a few paragraphs. I don't really take a day "off" from cardio because about a year ago I started a daily cardio streak that is now getting close to one full year. My streak includes exercise that counts as cardio that is done for at least twenty minutes at a speed of 18 min/mile or faster.
Most of the literature seems to indicate that a rate faster than a mile in twenty minutes counts as cardio but I personally move that number to eighteen minutes. Why, you ask? Although the Aerobics point chart begins with one mile in 19:59 (20 minutes), eighteen minutes works out to about 3.30 mph which is the treadmill speed (for males) when doing the Balke Protocol treadmill stress test.
I've done more than a few of those. At 3.3 mph the test starts out at zero incline and at one minute, raises to 2% while keeping the speed constant at 3.3 mph. Each minute thereafter, the incline increases by 1%. After 25 minutes, the incline remains constant but the speed increases each minute. Anything over 25 minutes, by the way, is a bear (or some other word that starts with the letter B)!
The very first test I did at the Cooper Clinic, way back in the day, produced a nine minute test. I thought I was going to die (not really), but the test is designed to take you to exhaustion and it did. I had been jogging a little but I really wasn't prepared for the physical demands of the test.
A few years later I went back and doubled my time... it's much less embarrassing to do 18 minutes! Several years later, the last time I ever did the test, I lasted a full 30 minutes. At that point in my life I had been jogging 3 to 6 miles a day and being pretty consistent about it but it's been a while since that test.
Today was the low end of the workout spectrum, a walk, and still qualifies for the streak even though it's my official "off day" if you will. I still get in a full 20 minutes at a pace faster than 18 min/mile but it's easy and allows me to effectively rest the jogging and running muscles.
To bring this around full circle, I said it was a good thing this was my "off day" because yesterday I bumped up the mileage and did about 6.65 miles total. Afterward, I really didn't stretch enough - it's one of my shortcomings. I do all the work but tend to eschew the stretching routine.
I had to stretch this morning right after I got out of bed... "pay me now or pay me later" reminds me of the old commercials for auto repair. Do the stretching routine after the workout and feel great or wait till the next day and when it's hard to get out of bed, everything hurts, and the stretching is much longer, slower, and more painful. I'll learn eventually!
Oh yes, I DID stretch after the walk today!!
The walk today was:
1.20 miles
20 minutes
120 calories burned
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Cardio Streak Day 338
4 mile run/walk
0920hrs 70F
Today is Saturday and I got going early. The temp is great but the humidity is up so I wanted to get out before the sun was too high in the sky.
I decided to continue with my scheduled run/walk today at 30 sec / 60 seconds. Prior to starting, I really had not decided how far to go and thought I would let the day dictate the distance.
At two miles I turned farther away from the house, knowing that I would go somewhere around the four mile mark. At 50 minutes, I hit 4.00 miles and decided to make the rest of the day a walk, mostly to limber my legs after the workout.
Total walking distance today was 2.65 miles, all less than 18 min/mile. With the run/walk, the total workout today was:
6.65 miles
95 minutes
623 calories burned
Friday, March 30, 2012
Cardio Streak Day 337
25 minute jog
1300hrs 72F
Today I decided to do a light jog again and was aiming for somewhere around 30 minutes. When I started, however, I knew it was going to be a little shorter, I could just tell by the feeling.
Since I do cardio every day, there is no rest time to speak of. I usually vary the workouts with run/walk days alternating with light jogging days but sometimes it catches up a little. By the Sunday "rest" day (walking only), I'm usually pretty happy about it, so on days like today I listen to what the body is telling me and adjust accordingly.
I should have gone a little earlier, but I'm trying to get acclimated to the sun and heat and I could feel the heat of the sun on the back of my neck today. Maybe that had a little to do with shortening the time, too.
The distance today was 2.25 miles in twenty five minutes. Add the warm up and cool down, and the total expenditure for the day was:
3.15 miles
40 minutes
409 calories burned
First Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
Last Page
|
|
Get An Email Alert Each Time RG_DFW Posts
|
|
Member Comments About This Blog Post:
