Repetition repeats repetitively

The StairMaster has a name!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9257275

After having a great day at work - not too busy but not too slack. I'm still buzzing from the good report from the health check up - everything except for BMI is right where it should be and the Nurse could tell from the various readings that I was exercising properly. This is the first time I've had a entirely positive experience with a medical prognosis ( previously I smoked, or was not too active, so one thing or another was working against me,) but the nurse actually "poo-pood" my 30.5 BMI saying that I'm on the perfect track to an acceptable lower 20's BMI. I know I've been on this for over a month now and I'm still working, I'm not too worried about how much I eat, but that is coming down too, it's also a matter of what I eat. Fruits and veggies, Tuna, Chicken, not much processed grains. Like today, I woke up, got to work and had my normal "Black Coffee and Stomach Acid" for breakfast, for lunch around 12:30 I had a bag of planters peanuts (it's easy to eat small at work if you are busy) The peanuts I eat after noon because I want to hit the workout with at least some energy, but nothing that would stuff me. After the workout I have my reward: 10-12 strawberries, one banana, a 1/4 cup of cream (soon to be 1 cup strawberry yogurt) a scoop of protein powder and water, blended. It makes a utterly awesome smoothy. and I also had a good sized tunafish salad.

Meanwhile back at the workout - I took the StairMaster's advice to heart to day, I sent John, Dorsey and JJ an IM saying that I'm hitting the trail and proceded to head out. I waited a bit at the trailhead but I really wanted to get working and I figured they'd catch up. I got to the stairs and went down to the bottom then started my way up- first time was not too bad as my heart was pounding, but much slower than when I normally hit it. I turned and headed back down, I was breathing hard, but by the time I got to the bottom I was ready to test the theory, I go up to the top and was winded, but no more than usual so down I go again, I get to the bottom and as I head back up, I hear my friends making their way down from the top. They are impressed, I am impressed, the lady that was coming up my first time had come back and SHE was impressed lol. so I pass them on the way up and they start doing the stairs too (except the lady, she said she would try multiples tomorrow) I get to the top and my friends aren't far behind, John packing JJ in the back pack - JJ is into this exercise stuff and cheers dad on! We head down and do it again. I'm at my fifth time up! and on the way down we all start get wobbly rubber-band knees we continue the hike to the end of the lower trail and back. On the return leg we run into the StairMaster, I tell him that his advice is awesome, I did more stairs than I thought possible! He laughs and says its all a matter of doing it, just keep going. I thank him again and as we are heading back I say " I'm sorry I don't know your name, I'm Sam. The StairMaster said "I'm John" - we hit the stairs and I talk them into doing the loop. After that it was heading back down to the cars and home. All in all a great day of work and friends and now a more indepth knowledge of "The StairMaster"

7 miles! My Feets Hurt!

Another 1st for me - although I think I'll take it a bit easier for a while

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9121748

The Garmin is pushing me, pushing me further and further! I did fairly well, I stopped at the truck at the 3.5 mile mark to pound a bottle of water, but that took all of 30 seconds. I wasn't actually going for speed, I was more focused on heartrate and maintaining it at the 140 target, while keeping it low enough that I wouldn't burn out. Mission Accomplished! On the walk I noticed a guy who must have been around 55-60, who I've seen on many previous days, he says "hello" and I say "Good afternoon" and we pass each other. It happened this way as well today but since I was doing the trail twice I passed him again - at the stairs. He was climbing the stairs multiple times. He told me it was a "Mind game" as you are very winded when you arrive at the top, but as you head back down you get to recuperate. having hit over five miles at that point I said "I'll try that another time." and proceeded on to the turn around point and came back - this guy was still doing stairs! I told him "You either are committed or you should be." I think I might try that Monday. And when I see him again, I'll ask his name - for now he shall be known as "The Stairmaster"

Doubling down....

When in the course of human events....

it becomes necessary to change one's tack in exercise - I achieved a goal of 4 mph, and without running the whole thing including the dratted stairs I do not see the return on investment increasing the speed. I'd actually be shortening my workouts. Today I'm going to slow down a bit - instead of looking at avg speed, I'm going to focus on heart rate and double the course, 5 miles in total and two times up and down the stairs. I'm going to keep my heart at the target range of 140 but I will try to avoid (for now) the 160+ range, except on the stairs. This is to ward off any "plateau" from stopping progress.

I am enthused with my progress so far, I haven't really weighed myself, I've been using a different determinant - how my rings fit. My wedding ring had to be resized 3 years ago and started to be tight enough to be concerning. My wife also gave me a ring for our 25th anniversary, that while it fit, I knew it was not going to come off without a lot of work. Both rings now slide easily from my fingers. I will know when my plan is fully changing me when the rings fall off. That is now sometime off in the future, but I am on my way.

Another reason to change the focus is not to burn myself out. I want to make this a life-change, not a fad or mood. to do this I need to focus on attainable fitness goals and ones that support the main goal of reducing.

Personal Best!

I hit the trail this morning early, the sun was up but it was still cool out. The park's parking lot where I normally start out from was closed - City of Kent sleeping in! I drove to the other entrance to the park - the one right off of Reith Road - and pulled off to side of the road at the parks North entrance. I was rather circumspect about changing up my hike - this was a big shift, going up the stairs first was definitely a different feel. Well, nothing ventured... I noted that my initial jog felt different, not as draining as normal, this was goodness. This was also my first time doing this in the morning, so where the sun normally was there was shade - made for easy running on the boardwalk. After about 1/3 mile I noticed my pulse rate getting up into the mid 160s and busted back to a fast walk. Not a quick step, more along the lines of longer strides.

I'm checking my Garmin for average speed which since I started out at a good jog, was up into the mid 5mph range. As I slowed it dropped and was at 4.6 by the time I hit the stairs *the velocity suck." After grinding to the top my average was 3.8, not bad.. I can make this up! I head to the right at the stairs , reach into the foliage and grab my prepositioned "web-wacker" ( a two foot long tree branch) and proceed around the deer-trail loop flailing the stick in a not altogether unsuccessful war against the morning's spiderwebs strung between the path's foliage.

By the time I get done with the loop (and dutifully return the web wacker) I'm still sitting at 3.8. I've got my breath back from the stairs, so I take it up to a jog until I get down the "pallet stairs" stuck on the trail on the hill next to Lake Fenwick. The "pallets" are a sort of trail stair and in order to run them you need to adopt a different metre "step-step-step, step" with the last step bringing both feet down very close together. Repeat 4 or 5 times and you are at the bottom . After this run I and at 4.0, my heart rate is at 168 and I slow back to a fast walk. I know it's a fast walk because my heart rate is reticent to come down.

I get to the half-way point, seeing my avg at 4.0 is mind blowing - my previos best of 3.8 was for the whole course and I just did the hardest half first! Iknow that I will not be able to maintain a run back up the hill. but I don't want to knock my average, so I follow my pulse: I run if my pulse gets into the 150s and walk if it hits 170. I power walk up for the most part but there is a good section of jogging. when I get to the "trail steps" I walk, but I walk fast, and just by walking my pulse taps 170 at the top of the hill. That's OK, I'm on level ground now and the rest is mostly down hill.

I still have the 4.0 avg going on. I complete the deer-trail loop and head back down the stairs, I can go down the stairs fairly fast. but not 4 mph, and when I get to the bottom the average reads 3.8. Time to kick butt and chew bubblegum, unfortunately, I'm all out of bubblegum. I jog on the trail after the staircase, it's downhill and makes for good speed without a lot of exertion. I stop when the trail wanders up hill a bit but I've added a 10th to my average. Finding another slight downhill,I jog - even though the heart rate is still mid 160s - and head down the big dip in the trail about 1/2 mile from the finish line, ding! I'm at 4.0 but my heart is in the mid 160s and I need to walk! so I do, I'm still tasting the goal and walk with long strides to maintain the average.

Hitting the boardwalk I'm in the final stretch. one third of a mile to go - pulse is down to 155 so I hit it... jog about 2 10ths and hit 166 then power walk down to 155 and hit it again, this time I keep it going until the end and when I hit the stop button, the garmin reads 4.1. My pulse taps 170, I am euphoric! I am triumphant! I am gasping for air! This was a good workout!

Tools to Rebuild

How shall I rebuild this bag of mostly water?


The Garmin Forerunner 305

A marathoner at work told me about the Garmin Forerunner series of GPS enabled watches, The way it breaks down your workouts - knowing at what level I need to be to produce the maximum effect without overworking has really helped me. At my age my target heart rate is 140, so if I'm cranking out 170 I'm going to want to stop and wheeze a bit, If I keep it between 150 and 160 I don't need to stop, unless my legs give out - being a video gaming couch potato my leg muscles need time to build up. I want to give them enough exercise to strengthen them as quickly as possible, so long runs become possible. I do use the watch for mile marking, and speed too, but mostly as a heart monitor

Lake Fenwick Park - Kent, WA

Another tool is a place, a place of resting and testing - the forge where I can refine and shape myself. Most of the walk/run is dense forest, the paths are dirt - no ruts or roots, so it's easy to concetrate on your cadence.
It begins with an 1/3 mile upward slope leading to stairs (more on the stairs later.)

With the added fun of elevation change it really works aerobically while strengthening the legs. The environment maintains a much cooler temp on hot days and the scenery is much better than running around a track. After a month of using this trail, I grow more accustomed to the elevation changes and turns and general features - the board walk on the north side before the entrance on Reith Road, the quick dip about half way through that drops down ~20 feet and pops back up 10. Although it is close in (30 minutes out of downtown Seattle) the park has kept it's forest feel.


The Stairs

The Stairs of Lake Fenwick are it's best and worst feature - A true love/hate relationship has developed. 256 beautiful, painful, euphoria producing/agony inducing steps lead the way down into/up out of the thick forest valley. At first my goal with these was to make it all the way to the top without stopping. Now I do not stop when I get to the top (Progress!) The day before yesterday, I was passed by a kid on the trail, and I thought to myself "If he runs up those stairs, I know he's a spawn of Satan sent to dishearten me." I get up to the stairs and I see him about halfway up, chugging away at a jog up the stairs... "You go ahead Satan, If I do get thee behind me, the least you could do is push!"

Upon reflection "Lachesis Jr." motivated me to keep going, and that was the first day I did not stop at the top. Oh I wanted to, but I wanted to keep going more to prove to myself that I could do it.