I don’t know if this is a common preconception, but before I knew better, I thought interval training was a bunch of bullshit used by soccer moms to avoid the mundane monotony and increased effort of a sustained consistent training pace.
The reality is quite different. Interval training benefits heart health, burns fat efficiently, and has other health benefits. If you’re going to spend time in the gym, you owe it to yourself to get the best results the most efficiently. Nobody wants to put in the effort for so-so results. high intensity interval training gets you better results in less time (granted, you need to exert more effort during the high intensity portion). Double up on the efficiency by combining cardio and strength training, and you’re going to see great results quickly.
HIIT workout of the week
It’s build your own HIIT workout week!!!
Healthy meal of the week
Glib Fit.*
http://archive.is/L43On
*not actual users of Glib Fit because, as everyone knows, TANLW.
#2 isn’t really my type, but for some reason I’m picking up every single thing she’s puttin’ down.
25 has not been skipping squats, but that’s a really impressive bunch overall.
Weight: 156.2#, HR: 48bpm
Today: 13.11 mile pack run, 40# pack, 2:17:04, 131bpm, 10:27 min/mile
Saturday was Javelina Jundred: 99.9mi, 20:10:40, ?120bpm?
JJ100 went well, but my HRM was inaccurate, so I played it by ear. I made many mistakes, the biggest being tripping, second largest: eating too much. Plenty of room for improvement next year.
While in greater Phoenix, I spent a few days with my dad, whose dementia has destroyed his short-term memory. JJ100 2012 was my first 100 miler and I’ve been back every year, since I get to see my dad. The first few years he was healthy and came out to watch. Now he’s in an assisted living facility and doesn’t get out much due to seizures.
On this trip, I asked him how far he thought the event would be. “A couple miles” he replied. I said “100 miles” and his eyes widened; he had no recollection that people ran that distance. As an experiment, I waited ten minutes and had the same conversation and reaction.
On the good side, he knew who I was both by name and relationship. Ditto for my sister and for my wife (of 26 years), but not his grandkids (eldest being 16). Overall he’s doing much better than a couple months ago. We know his improvement is temporary, but we’re hoping it will last months.
As for Glibfit, taking dad out to eat a few times, combined with various race-related drinking and consequent eating, unsurprisingly, led to weight gain. C’est la vie.
Saturday is Deadman Peaks Trail Run (a local 53 miler).
So on one of the long bike rides I did, they had a sign up at the 26.2 mile mark saying, “If this was a marathon, you’d be done already.” Any signs like that up on the ultra long runs for runners or cyclists?
I have a terrible memory, but I think I’ve seen a sign on a 100 miler course that mentioned “only” two more marathons to go. The phrase “only a (or two) marathon(s)” is definitely used in half-jest by ultrarunners.
Other signs: Mt. Taylor 50k puts up a few signs, mostly inspirational, although my recollection is a few are self-deprecating and/or borderline demotivational. The only one of those that I can think of right now is “Don’t look up” at a spot where if you do look up you see the imposing summit of Mt. Taylor in the distance. JJ100 has “Remember, you paid for this.”
Sorry to hear your Dad is having memory issues. My MIL is the same. It’s really sad.
On the bright side, unlike the rest of us, she never tires of OMWC’s jokes. 😉
HIIT is also great if you are training for a sport. I’ve realized that almost all sports (besides long distance running, etc.) follows the same pattern as HIIT – bursts of hard work alternating with short rest periods.
I don’t know if it counts as HIITs, but back when I was a really fast miler in HS, we did 4xmile repeats for base conditioning and 12x400m for actual training. You want to get a set of lungs that can handle anything do 12x400m as fast as you can and maintain pace. Wait. If you can’t run 5 miles in good condition start with 4 and work yourself up. Don’t die of a heart attack taking my advice.
These days I do 12x 75 second all-outs with 30 seconds of rest between them in the middle of an otherwise 130bpm 13.1 mile run every Monday. After the run I then compute various stats and compare them to the same stats from previous Mondays.
I realize that’s a compromise and that having less slow running before and after would give me some of the interval training adaptations quicker, but I’m in this for the long game.
I’m looking forward to November 19th, when I’m going to try to do the above with my forty pound pack. My guess is that will be worthwhile (in which case it’ll be my new Monday training), but only one way to find out.
I do kb swings as HIIT sometimes, usually on my “heavy” day. Shit is no joke, but I did notice that besides the obvious benefits it really teaches you to manage your breathing and heart rate. If you’ve got 15 seconds to rest, you’ve got to try to get as much oxygen as possible and ramp your heart rate down quick to be ready for the next 15 seconds of effort. When I started running again I noticed that being able to force myself to keep a slow, steady breathing cadence really helped keep from getting gassed, and it helped when I needed to adjust my pace.
I’ve been using the stationary bike for HIIT. I’m trying to decide what’s the better approach, trying to keep up a steady cadence while the difficulty changes, or stepping up the cadence for set intervals. I’m leaning towards the steady cadence while the difficulty changes, since it’s the approach most taught for long distance rides.
I don’t know how stationary bikes work, but on the road I’m always shifting to keep cadence around 100 for my knees: the same total load can be achieved with lots of little revs instead of suing fewer big steps (I call those guys “mashers”). On the way to building up your stamina with repetitive motion, I’d try to go as easy on the joints as possible.
I do the same on the road, and keep my cadence around 90-100 as well. The biggest issue for me is that the stationary is a recumbent, so it’s a different motion. I haven’t set up the trainer yet (and probably won’t until after Thanksgiving due to space concerns).
Counting calories
Thank you, Gustave. However, ? Fuck that.
I gave myself permission to have Saturday off from vegan world since I was visiting RAHeinlein and they have a kickass pizza setup. (And the pizza was indeed excellent!) It continued on into Sunday because of the lack of availability of healthy vegan offerings at the gas stops we chose on the way home. Love’s truck stops usually have fresh fruit and salads, but the only one we hit on this trip was out.
On the upside, we did walk around quite a bit on Saturday viewing some art installations. It was a perfect autumn day.
Last night I made a vegan pasta dish with mushrooms and asparagus in a creamy sauce. Didn’t suck. Tonight is likely to be Beyond Meat “Brats” with some homemade (by Spudalicious!) sauerkraut and an arugula salad.
We went out to see Spawn 1 this weekend and I ended up losing a few pounds, despite a less than stellar diet. Massive amounts of hiking, FTW!
Speaking of physical education…
https://www.fox19.com/2018/10/30/sycamore-high-school-teacher-indicted-having-sex-with-student/
So if Ohio’s age of consent is 16, where’s the crime?
Age of consent is there, but you’re not allowed to sleep with those you are a teacher or supervisor of. My first boss (manager of a McDonald’s) knew this well. Hired the hot 16 year old females, and started nailing them when they turned 18.
Special ed teacher. Possibly the student lacked capacity to consent regardless of age. Also, this seems like they aren’t taking it super-seriously:
Walsh was arrested and posted $100 bond before she was released from jail.
One article stated that the “victim” was not a special ed student.
One article stated that the “victim” was not special ed.
Those eyebrows?
Got down to 262 last week, but up to 264 today. Cravings have been a bitch lately. I do well during the day, but in the evening I can’t resist sweets. I haven’t completely blown my calories every day, but definitely been over most of them. Have to recommit and try to do better.