Monday, April 29, 2013

Exercise 04/22 - 04/28


I had another good week although I felt like I ate more (and worse) than I should. That probably shows in my weekly weigh-in (I gained 0.9 pounds at weigh in Saturday).  Still:

Monday - I feel like I probably walked around at lunch hour but I'm not seeing it on the graph.  I also did a 30 minute core workout. I combined exercises from pre-dawn and the box of cards I got. 
Tuesday - 4.2 in 50 (11:54) plus walking warm up/down.  The phone GPS showed less but it was obviously off so I mapped it and came up with slightly more than this. I sort of split the difference.  Ran 1:30/:45 intervals on the hills by the university.  Very humid.
Wednesday - 11.5 in 1:00 biking.  Easy heading out and then hard coming back. Either I hit the wind or was having trouble with my bike again.  Or some combination of the two.
Thursday - 4 miles in 1:00. Mostly just walking with a few minutes of running. Very tired legs. 
Saturday - 4.2 miles in 1:20. All walking.  Very humid out. 
Sunday - 16.28 in 1:20 biking.  Very nice ride but the ground was wet. I hit one spot of mud and started to skid out. I kept myself upright and was quite impressed. 
Sunday - 30 minutes core work.  Very challenging. I mixed the Pre-dawn and the box of fitness cards.  I was already feeling too hot in the house and was pretty much drenched by the end of the core work.  Later ChocolateWife wanted to try some core exercises and noticed that the box shows a few other core moves mixed in. 

As I said my weight was up .9 pounds as of Saturday. But I had worse diet as well as getting my period on Sunday so that probably had some effect. 

I'm still using my phone and Noom to count my steps. I find it very motivating but I'm also aware that it is not all that accurate.  I went for a walk on Saturday and did a few spot checks.  My actual step count was about 120 steps per minute and the phone was logging 70 steps per minute (a very big difference).  Still, it's fun to sort of note the steps and strive to reach the (increasing) goal every day.

Monday - 7,808
Tuesday - 15,320
Wednesday - 9,305
Thursday - 11,652
Friday - 9,502
Saturday - 12,013
Sunday - 9,007

Total: 74,607

As you can see, it is obvious that it's not an accurate count and it awards some steps for bike rides (Wednesday and Sunday) but it's still fun to look at.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Exercise 04/15 - 04/21


Monday - 1.82 miles in 30 minutes. Easy lunch time walk.
Tuesday - 3.7 miles in 1:10 walking. I was going to run but my stomach was very iffy so I walked instead.
Wednesday - 3.6 miles in 45 minutes (12:30) run/walking plus .65 in 15 walking warm up/down.  I started at 2:00 run/1:00 walk but ended up dropping to 1:30/1:00 and finally 1:00/1:00 because of the humidity.  I've got to acclimatize.
Thursday - 2.5 miles in 45 minutes walk to and from lunch.
Friday - Core work for 30 minutes. I combined the exercises from the Pre-dawn runner routine from the ones in the the cards I ordered last week.  It was a nice workout (or as nice as a core workout can reasonably be) and gave me some new exercises. 
Saturday - 20.4 cycling in 1:42.  Lovely ride. I feel like my legs are getting stronger. I'm riding more in 12th and even 13th than a month ago.  I think this was my longest ride ever. 
Sunday - 5 miles hiking/running at Walnut Creek part in 1:40.  Not fast but it was hiking so that's to be expected. The first hour I did 2:00 walking/1:00 running, then I just walked (hiked).  I was going to meet up with a friend and her dog but some days our phones/texting don't play nice together and this was one of those days. 

Other notes about the week:
* I'm really enjoying the combination of the meditation bell reminder to move around and the pedometer tracking.  It's hard to track at much at home because I don't wear pants with pockets that often and it's strange to carry my phone in my hand to get the laundry or get a drink.  Still, my steps according to the phone were:
Monday - 6724
Tuesday - 11,388
Wednesday - 11,199
Thursday - 12,001
Friday - 6,567
Saturday - 7,562 (biking not counted or sort of counted)
Sunday - 14,107

Total: 69,548

Obviously the goal is to get every day > 10,000. 

* I lost 2.6 pounds between my weigh-in 4/14 and 4/21! 

* My heel is acting up.  It gets tight progressively the more I've run and walked.  A day of rest helps tremendously but I don't want to rest my heel. I want to be active every day.  I actually suspect the issue is walking in my running shoes which are low (4 mm) drop shoes.  They are fine to run but I don't think good for walking. I need to just go buy new/more traditional shoes.

* As a part of the running community and the community of Americans and humans, I'm upset by the Boston Marathon bombings.  I think it's particularly scary because it could be anywhere: a race, a little league game, an art show-- any place people are gathered.  Nonetheless, I'm impressed and proud of the running community's reaction that the way to go is to be strong and proud and keep running and cheering. 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Exercise Report 04/08 - 04/14


Monday - I took a quick walk at lunchtime.  1.5 miles in 30 minutes and jogged up the stairs to end it. 
Tuesday - Walk/Run 3.5 miles in 55 minutes.  Again, I mixed in running with walking to do a 1:00/1:00.  I ran over at the track and it was just lovely. 
Wednesday - 1.7 mile walk in 30 minutes ending with the stairs.  It was 40 degrees and had just rained a lot but I walked over to the library to return some books and then to 7-11 for some bananas.  Perfect walk for lunch time.
Thursday - 3.5 miles running in 47 minutes plus warm up/down.  I went to Pease Park and ran on the trails.  Still a 1:00/1:00 so I'm not pushing anything but I'm increasing mileage and calories. 
Saturday - 17.5 miles riding in 1:28.  A lovely day for a bike ride. I adjusted my read wheel and cleaned the brakes so that it was a really smooth ride. 
Sunday - 15.1 miles riding in 1:15.  It was windier and sunnier than the day before but I had a nice ride.  I usually ride in 10-11th gear depending on hills and occasionally 12th.  I noticed that this weekend I was riding primarily in 12th with a few downshifts to 11th for hills.  So I have to assume that my legs are getting stronger. 

I'm maintaining my calories and calorie count. I think I went over calories one day last week by maybe 100 calories. Most days I'm under by 100-300 calories.  I get a baseline allowance of 1500 from the app and then whatever exercise I do, I get 1/2 those calories.  My clothes feel a bit more comfortable but the needle on the scale hasn't moved yet. 

One of my co-workers came by my desk the week before last.  She was one of the people really interested in the stand-up desk and she asked about it.  Then we were talking and she said that she read that you really should get up every 15 minutes - that even every hour is not enough.  Thinking about that I installed a meditation bell timer on my phone. On silent, it lights up every 15 minutes (approximately) and I try to stand up (at minimum) or walk around a few minutes (at best). 

I also started using the Noom app to count my steps daily.  That has some limitations including:
  • Obviously the app only counts steps if you have the phone with you.  If you're going to the bathroom or shower or whatever, no counting.
  • The step count does not seem accurate when on a run/walk.  One day I calculated that my steps during my lunch time run/walk should have been around 7500.  The app counted about 3500.  It seems to do better in a walk without any running and seems to do better if the phone is in my pocket than if it is on the armband.
  • It adds some number of steps to the count when I ride my bike but it's not a # equal to my cadence.  My riding cadence is probably 170-175 per minute (10200 per hour).  It probably added 3500 - 4000 steps per hour to my counts. 
That said, I think for me the two things - meditation/move around reminder and step counting are good for me.  My step counts last week (such as they are were):

Tuesday (partial day) - 8689 (only about 3500 steps for the run/walk).
Wednesday - 7927
Thursday - 12,741
Friday - 7,586
Saturday - 8,482
Sunday - 5,029

So obviously you have to take the #s with a grain of salt when considering the bike riding as well but I think it's a nice measure and incentive, particularly when I'm at work.  Perhaps my goal should be 4000 steps while at work? 


Monday, April 8, 2013

Exercise Summary 04/01 - 04/07


Last week was a better workout week with an unexpected hiccup at the end. 

Monday - I walked 1.2 miles at lunch time. Then rode 8+ miles when I got home from work.  It was all I could manage in the time I had and I don't feel like my bike is as smooth as before I changed the tire.  I need to see if the wheel needs better adjustment.
Tuesday - 3.4 miles walking at lunch time. It was very humid.
Wednesday - 3.15 in 46 minutes.  I did mostly walking but with a little bit of running. 
Thursday - 3.15 in 1:01. Lovely lunchtime walk.
Saturday - Trail hike/run.  4.5 miles in 1:25.  Mostly hiking with a bit of running thrown in.  Basically 1 minute run for every 2 minutes hiked when I was doing that.  Took some time with just walking in the middle when ChocolateWife called to say that ChocolateDaughter fell and hurt her arm. 

I planned the day off on Friday after donating a triple of platelets on Thursday. I'm happy to be able to donate triples the last two visits but it takes longer and I need to account for the extra time.  Technically I could workout on the day after but I was ready for a day off anyway. 

Sunday I missed after being up part of the night and then the entire family going to the ER with CD who has a broken radius.  She got it splinted and we're waiting for a follow up with an orthopedist to get a cast.

My weight is unchanged but I'm optimistic nonetheless.  Even without my weight dropping I actually feel slightly more comfortable in my pants so that's always a good thing.  I'm tracking my food in Noom and my calories burned and trying to do little things that burn calories.  I'm probably nearing the point that I need to change my work schedule and either run/walk in the morning before work or the evenings because it will be too hot and sweaty to go at lunch (even with a shower).  Right now I'm mostly doing my lunch time as walks so I don't have to shower but if I want to intersperse any running, I need to bring my pack and shower. 


Monday, April 1, 2013

Training 03/25 - 03/31

I've been using RunKeeper for my exercise logging and not daily mile.  I'll tell you what: it is not as summary-friendly as DailyMile.  According to RunKeeper, I walked 14.5 miles and it's not easy to see how much on which days or how many days of walking that included.  I'm going to go back to using DailyMile in addition to RunKeeper. I use RunKeeper for 2 reasons: I can track my miles on the GPS and it links to Earndit. 

So...

I don't have my day by day breakdowns but according to RunKeeper, I walked 14.5 miles last week.  That seems low but I can only believe it.  On Friday and Sunday when I walked, I actually did a few minutes of running.  Both days I basically did 1 minute run, 2 minutes walk.  I took it very easy.  What's amazing is that usually in an hour of walking I burn about 450 calories.  Sunday I did 1 minute run/2 minutes walk for 40 minutes so about 13 minutes or running. Instead of 450 calories, I burned 832.  I continued with my stretching and did some core work this week. 

I have nearly finished my Mind Masters Journey program. All I have left to do is the written/journal exercise for day 21.  At the end of the program it did turn into a lot of steps and calorie counting and exercise tracking and all that stuff but I think what makes it different is having the ability to address the habits in a new way and not get discouraged. 

So my weight is 170 now and the goal of my Mind Master Journey is to weigh 150.  I don't have a timeline on that but that's the goal...