Cycling, Fitness and Other Things
Posts tagged Fitness
Run – Home to H Avenue (day 2)
01357 days
Today, I stretched and went running. My knees felt a little sore, but It was a good run. My breathing was much better then yesterday when it seemed so much more labored. I thought I was holding back until the very end, where I was going add in my kick. I ran well, felt it was my best run for this little circuit, but when I processed the results, it was slightly off from yesterday. My pace was 9:21 (yesterday was 9:16). I am bummed, but, oh well.
Stretching…
01357 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
When my friend Clay (owner of Valley Physical Therapy Group) works with me, he tells me how stiff I am. Which I refer to myself as being an Oak. He is working with me to loosen me up. He has given me some exercises to do, which I am doing. Mostly the exercises are to stretch my Gluts and Hip Flexors.
To supplement his work, I was at Barnes and Noble yesterday and was looking at books on stretching. I purchased, “the Stark Reality of Stretching”, by Dr. Steven D. Stark. I like that is was a small and easy read book, I do not need a ton of medical information, but was looking for stretches for the lower extremity and things to avoid. I am about three fourths the way through it now. I did what I read so far before this mornings run. I will post wha t l liked in another post shortly.
Run – Home to Avenue H
01358 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
Being the first day of a three day weekend, I wanted to start running again or start running consistently. I got out and ran from the house to the Avenue H and back to Starbucks. It is two miles. I felt pretty good, but my breathing was labored. My pace was 9:16, the fastest to date on the run to H Avenue.
Ride to Work
01362 days
This morning ride was nice, not much to report. I still did not get up to 18MPH. Here is the motionbase results.
Rethink the Drink
31363 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
Tracy, my fitness partner was talking to me the other day about drinking. She did not come out and say it directly that I drink too much. I confess, I like to drink. I have almost cut out grain alcohol for a few months. I am not drinking much beer (I like dark ales, and that does not seem tasty when it is over a 100 degrees outside), so what is left is wine. I love wine.
I also love Diet Coke as well, I talked to my wife’s cousin Patty (saw here on my vacation), who gave up Diet Cokes and other products containing aspartame. She was convicted by watching a film called, Sweet Misery. I watched the hour and half film and I did not agree with everything in the film, mostly the political conspiracy stuff, but the point that aspartame seems more like poison than a sweet treat, made sense. Folks who consume a lot of this stuff seem to have really, really, bad health issues, like brain tumors. Wow, that’s got to ruin your whole day.
Ok, I love coffee as well. I like to drink it in the morning. I get in trouble with coffee as I drink it and I do not eat around the same time. I get buzzed and jittery.
So… Starting today August 25th, I will be reducing my coffee to a few cups and have it with food. I will cut out the aspartame until the end of September or longer (I have a few Diet Coke to finish in the frig, first). I will see if I feel better or “different”. Oh, the thing I do not want to do, but will, is cut out alcohol until the end of September.
The over reaching goal is to be in better health, but it is the test. I plan in September to focus on weight loss. Cutting out alcohol should help a lot. I have been in weight 186-190 for sometime, I want to be in the low 180s and actually break into the 170s.
I know me, when I abstain from drink or food, I most likely will over react being hungry, I will than over eat in the evening. I will try to have some strong self-control this month. Eliminating the above drinks, leaves me with really two choices, water and tea. Ice tea has never made me jittery and I love it. I know that juice is still an option, but I cannot drink too much because of those calories.
Push-ups, Reassessment
01369 days
Today, I wanted to do a reassessment of my level with push-ups. I did again 42 or the same as last time. I am disappointed, plus I talked to Tracy about repeating the current week. This reconfirms that I should repeat. I am still sore from the Splash and Dash, so I figure this a good thing that I repeat.
Splash and Dash
01372 days
by douglaspaulwade
in Fitness
Splash and Dash - Grace Chapel Folks
Today, the crew from my church Grace Chapel got up early (we all met at the Standerfer’s house at 5:45am) to make the drive to Ventura Beach to the Splash and Dash. We carpooled together, from Lancaster. From left to right, Chris Johnson (my pastor), his wife Christin, John Standerfer, Steve Standerfer, Carolyn Standerfer, me, and Dave Jackson (our youth director).
Arriving at the beach early, we set up in the transition section and waited to start around 9:00 am. At 9:00 the first group of men did the long course, followed by the women. I was next, the men doing the sprint course followed by the women doing the sprint.
The swim for the Sprint was 400 meters. We were to swim out to the orange ball, turn left, swim parallel to the beach and turn left again at the second ball and swim back to shore. I started and it looked long, I swam the breast stroke. It is strongest stroke and two reasons, I could get me head out of the water to breath and see; and the leg stroke would be different so to save my legs for running. I managed to breath some salt water as well.
The swim was very hard on me. It took a lot out of me. I walked out and walked across the loose sand. My friend Clay told me not to run in the sand, it would hurt my calf. I was trying to recover, so even if I could run in the sand, I would not have.
My Bib
Made the change to running. The run was 3K, so it was not far. I told myself, I would walk, but then thought, I will run until I feel any pain. The running went OK. I experienced some de-training due to me not running much for a couple of weeks and I also had a side stitch.
I finished the race in 36:52. I think the numbers are off, but that is what was posted. I also, won best time in my age group (45-49). I checked the results, and I was the only one in my age group, so I was also the last in my age group. I won a shirt. The order of finishing from our Grace Chapel group (and age), was David Jackson (25), John Standerfer (16), me (49), Chris Johnson (39), Steve Standerfer (50), Christin and Carolyn Standerfer (the ladies walked the running course).
My daughter Hannah gave me this little note to encourage me.
A Note from Hannah
Push-ups (Week 4, Day 3)
01373 days
This day on the schedule seemed easy, but it was not. I did not get a chance to do my push-ups at work, so I did them at home. Today there were eight sets to do and I did all in the seven set, but the last set I could not do them all. Total amount of push-ups were 132.
The results are:
- 18 (18)
- 18 (18)
- 16 (16)
- 16 (16)
- 14 (14)
- 14 (14)
- 12 (12)
- 40 (24)
Ride – From Work to Home?
01373 days
I had to pick up the 4-Runner from the auto repair place. It was just under 6 miles from work. I rode North and had the wind on West side. It was nice not having the head wind. The average speed was 19.7MPH. I liked it.
Ride from Home to Work
01374 days
Today’s ride was not very eventful, I just rode. My legs are tired, mostly, I believe from being stretched by Clay last night, (an owner of Valley Physical Therapy Group). He as a physical therapist is always concerned about my proper form, and proper balance. My hips are not doing the work and passing some of that work to other parts of my body. My calf injury is mostly likely due to the extra work they preform, so Clay wants me to stretch and do different execise, to help me find the proper balance. With that, he bent me and with the stretches I have been doing during the last week, my knees and hips have soreness from the rotation (stretch) of those parts. It will take a little time to acclimate the joints.
I rode an average of 17.4 MPH, still off from my goal, but I will get there. On the lights being red, require me to slow down (lowering my speed). While, I still run them when safe. My stopped time on my GPS is only one minute, so you guess, I am not “waiting” at red lights. One day, I will get pulled over.
