I went to the gym tonight with great intentions.  My plan was to run for 40 minutes and perform some intervals.  Then, I was going to swim 30 – 40 minutes with as many back-to-back laps as I could link together.

Well, I got the running in with the intervals at various rates between 8mph to 9mph.  That part went really well and I can feel myself getting more and more comfortable with running.

However, the s wim fell off the map as I couldn’t keep my blood sugar up!  I set my basal to 0% about 40 minutes before working out and ate a bunch before I left… I still was bobbing south of 100mg/dl.  My stomach was so full of Acclerade that I packed it in and figured I’ll make up the swim tomorrow.  I have a lot of work to do on it, so I better start swimming 3x per week — and quick!

I got home and figured it was time to recalibrate my basal rate given my new found consistency with working out.  My body has always been highly insulin sensitive given changes in activity levels, so this is no surprise.  My basal rates are now at an all time low, so we’ll see how the next few days go.  If you’re interested, here they are…

• 12am – .55
• 3am – .85
• 7am – 1.05
• 11am – .45
• 5:30pm – .3

If you have never experienced storm preparations in the DC area, then you don’t know what kind of insanity you are missing.  It all started Thursday night/Friday morning when we were first alerted to warnings about a big snow storm headed our way.  Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that before (I don’t get too worked up about meteorology reports).  But people around here take storm preparation very seriously.  Who am I kidding; its complete madness in and around the beltway with even the smallest threat of snow, so you can imagine the lunacy that erupts when newscasters start predicting the snowstorm of the century.  Now mind you I grew up in the Midwest and lived many years in Chicago, so I might be a wee-bit jaded when it comes to snow.   

This is the text I receive at work Friday afternoon from PJK who was at Trader Joe’s where he innocently went to pick up a couple of groceries since his bro is in town visiting us:    It is a freaking disaster! People are so stupid! You’d think it was the end of the world.  Each line is backed up 10 carts each.  We can just live off water.

I arrived home Friday evening to find the following snowstorm-supplies on the counter:  beer, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, chips, salsa, trail mix and ice cream sandwiches.  Turns out it was too crazy at Trader Joe’s so the grocery shopping had to be completed at 7-Eleven.  Excellent.  So much for eating clean this weekend…bring on the Cinnamon Toast Crunch!   

I doubted we would get as much snow as they were predicting.  Um, I was wrong…very very wrong.  Needless to say, our 10am Spinning class was cancelled this morning.  So instead of spinning I spent the morning snuggled in bed with the pups and the afternoon playing in the snow (by playing I mean shoveling) and walking to Shirlington for lunch and proper groceries.  Lucky for you I chronicled our Day After Tomorrow journey.

Snow, snow everywhere!

PJK and his bro.  Check out the rolled pant legs…fashion takes a back seat when faced with 2 feet of snow!

 And so the journey begins….

 Look closely and you’ll see some serious dissapointment at the “Closed” sign on The Curious Grape wine store.

 Our attempt to thaw out…yum!

 Success at the grocery store…our trek home (we are actually walking uphill–in the snow)

Here is the profile I was planning to teach on Saturday.  Our goal with this class is to increase aerobic fitness and the body’s ability to burn fat more efficiently while working in the Endurance Energy Zone.  This is a very simple pyramid profile, but it works.  Well, I think it works, I didn’t actually have a chance to test it out on Friday night like I had planned because as PJK said….we can’t go out, it’s freaking Armageddon out there!  You can find this playlist on iTunes iMixes at Spinning Spincycles Snowstorm!  I will likely use this profile on Tuesday morning with a few modifications to keep us at the 45minute mark.    

Warm Up

Slow Poison—The Bravery (3:32)  65% MHR.  RPE4 (moderately easy)

Pyramid #1

This Is War—30 Seconds to Mars (5:27)  Few upper body stretches during the beginning instrumental portion. Stay in the saddle and progressively add resistance to bring heart rate to 70-75% or RPE 5-6 (moderately hard, conversation requires a bit of effort).  Incorporate cadence changes if you are feeling it.  The final 1-2 minutes is a seated climb. 

Wish—Paper Route (3:51)  75%MHR/RPE 6 (moderately hard) standing running flat X 30 sec.  Then dial down to a medium resistance seated flat for rest of the song.

Pyramid #2

Darling, It’s True—Locksley (3:06)  Dial up the resistance again and raise heart rate to 70% MHR.  Seated Climb—heavy resistance.  Final 45 seconds: Standing Running Flat (75%MHR/RPE6)

Oversleeping—I’m from Barcelona (2:18)  Medium resistance seated flat.  Get back to a 65% MHR. 

Pyramid #3

Quiet Dog—Mos Def (2:57) I am so obsessed with this song, love it, makes me want to mooove…seated climb, heavy resistance, find the beat and find a 70% MHR.

Dance, Dance—Fall Out Boy (3:00)  30 seconds standing running flat (75% MHR).  Then, simmer down for a seated flat with medium resistance for rest of the song

Pyramid #4

Good—Better Than Ezra (3:05)  It’s time for another seated climb, raise your heart rate to 70%MHR

Automatic—Tokio Hotel (3:17)  Raise it up to a standing climb for first 30 seconds.  Then….standing flat run with same resistance x 30 seconds.  Don’t give up yet, we will move right into a….seated flat….drop resistance to medium & keep moving for the rest of the song

Pyramid #5

To Lose My Life—White Lies (3:11)  Thank you Vampire Diaries for another excellent musical idea.  Heavy resistance for yet another seated climb.  I’m looking for a heart rate of about 70% MHR.

Helicopter—Bloc Party (3:40)  Keep that resistance and run on a standing flat for 30 seconds.  Back off, have a seat and enjoy the fast cadence of the rest of the song. 

Final Push

Touched—VAST (3:58) PJK’s brother made this song suggestions, and I love its driving beat.  Start in a heavy seated climb, end in a heavy standing climb and let the beat drive you to the finish line.

Cool Down 

The Man Who Can’t Be Moved—The Script (4:01)

Stretches 

Chances—Five for Fighting (3:35)

There will be class next Saturday December 26^th (well, assuming there isn’t another blizzard wreaking havoc on the East coast), but Glenn will be taking my place as your fearless leader.  If you really miss me you can always set your alarm bright and early to join me for Spinning on Tuesdays at 6:15am!

Have a great holiday! 

Starting to get over this cold.  I am glad I kept working out through it, I believe it helped.  None of these workouts mind out have been very strenuous but just enough to get my body temperature up a little bit.

From the exertion standpoint this workout is pathetic.  I don’t think my heart rate broke 100 bpm which hardly even qualifies as a workout.  But it enabled me to test the old Polar SD200 watch I have been using lately.  Not that I don’t like the Garmin 405cx, I love it, but the Polar heart rate monitor is picked up by the elliptical machine (PreCore) and I can see my heart rate on the display console.  That is a big plus when I start getting more serious about hitting my heart rate goal.

And the Polar is water prof to 50 meters so I can swim with it.  The Garmin is good only for 10 meters which basically means it can get rained on and you can wash it.

I any case this is going to be my workout world for the next five weeks.  No running just swimming, ellipticals and bicycles.  And once I return to running I need to be much more careful not to repeat this incident.  There is really no excuse to get an overuse injury.  I should have had the since to back off.

Keep ********** my friends.

I know it is probably not the swim itself but I started feeling something in the back of my throat after Sunday’s swim.  Now is has bloomed into a cold.  Not a real bad one but my nose is running.  Didn’t feel so bad that I couldn’t workout though.  Just could get my heart rate much above 130 bpm.  It was still fun watching the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner land on its maiden test flight as I was peddling away on the elliptical.  That is true multitasking.

Keep running/swimming/ellipticaling my friends.

AM: classic ski intervals with the team @ Trapp’s. 6 x 2′ at L3/L4 intensity.

PM: shoulder press (+10 dead-hang pullups)…started with weight on the floor, so all SP’s were begun with a Power-Clean.

8 x 45
5 x 65
5 x 65
5 x 80
5 x 80
5 x 90
5 x 90
1 x 100
1 x 105
1 x 110 * ties PR

…pretty good for the first time in a month!

PM. Cycle 30km (turbo) inc. 3×6km (2km rec.)

5km w/u
6km/11:50 (30.4km/h) __ HR148(152)
(2km)
6km/11:50 (30.4km/h) __ HR152(155)
(2km)
6km/11:47 (30.5km/h) __ HR154(158)
3km w/d

At lunchtime today I took my trike over to www.trykit.com to have Geoff convert it to two wheel drive. I’m hoping that it’ll make it easier to control over rough roads and also even out the wear on the rear tyres. I felt like I wasted a bit of energy on the minor roads in both the 12h and 24h TTs this year merely trying to keep the drive-side wheel in contact with the ground and trying to even out my pedalling effort. I’d also like to be able to run nice, light Veloflex tyres on both rear wheels and at the moment I’ve got a fairly heavy-duty Continental on the drive-side. When I got there Geoff was in the process of brazing some new tubing into a trike frame repair. He showed me a couple of other frames he was working on – his craftmanship is excellent.

Upper body a bit stiff from last night’s weights, so I hopped on the turbo after work. Bored with just ploughing through an hour in zones 2 and 3, I did some sub-max “intervals” (zone 4 starts at 148 bpm). Today I clocked my 11000th km on the bike for the year.

74.0kg

Understand Scales in a different way

Almost anyone who plays music or is involved with it in any form have heard or know about scales, we all know what they are and probably everyone has learnt to construct them in the same way, or by memorizing.

While I was reading about jazz theory, chords and harmony, I had the chance to come to a better understanding with how scales are constructed and the relation to the songs, then I thought about jazz musicians and the so many hours they must have spent practicing them on their instruments or just studying all the theory behind.

I only play panpipes, I can’t play keyboard or drums or anything other instrument apart from the woodwind bay, however I love reading about how songs are done and theory and interesting things to know, that you never know when they may be useful to you.

I think scales are useful to know, specially when improvising or composing your own melodies, but please don’t think that knowing and mastering the art of scales is going to make you compose great melodies straight away, that’s nonsense.

My point is, that know how the notes relate to each other and most important how the intervals sequence to each other will help you have a deeper understanding and meaning of what you’re doing when you’re playing. Be it performing a common song or something you’ve written for yourself, also this is good for generating ideas and gives them a concrete form.

To understand and deal with scales, myself I have found that the best approach is to think of them not in a memorized sequence of notes, but in intervals.

For example: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 any note following this pattern will form a major scale always.  (The b indicates a flat)

1 2 3b 4 5 6b 7b any note following this pattern will form a natural minor scale

1 2 3 5 6 any note following this pattern of intervals will form a major pentatonic

1 2 3b 4 5 7b this is the one which makes a minor pentatonic.

1 2 3b 4 5 5b 7b  This is the same pattern like the minor pentatonic, however, notice one note added, a flattened fifth, or the so called blue note, this is the blues scale.

1 2 3b 4 5 6b 7 #  In here the natural minor becomes harmonic minor by raising the seventh step

Now, thinking of scales with this approach makes it much easier for you to construct and know the scale instead of memorizing it like a mindless moron and believe it just like you saw it on a book don’t you think?.

You can look for other complete different scales from all around the world, but as long as you use the creative approach of knowing the interval pattern they follow, you will quickly learn them and know them when to use.

This is true if you’re thinking to move to jazz or blue or any other modern genre, also to play modally.

Experimenting with your panpipe is great fun.
If you are looking for some panflutes for your experience check the link below, well worth it.

Well, we started again. My wife’s quads were super sore after our first workout. I’m not sure if it was the squats or the intervals on the stationary bike. Several days to recuperate turned into 3 weeks

Anyway, we began again yesterday with the same Turbulence Training workout we tried before. However, this time she only did one set of each exercise. Also, she postponed her intervals until today.

I weighed myself this morning. I’m at 255 which is 10 pounds less than my heaviest weight but 10 – 15 pounds heavier than what I had achieved last summer. My wife and I agreed on a goal of losing 3 pounds by 1 January 2010. I’ll keep you posted.

As far as nutrition is concerned, I’m going to resume using Eat Stop Eat as well as transition to a Paleolithic type diet. In fact I have already begun the latter transition by eating fruits and nuts for breakfast over the last week.

My BodyPump video is complete!  Whew!  Cue the biggest sigh you have ever heard right now.  A huge, giant thank you goes out to the BodyPumpers who participated in my video:  Jennifer, Christian, Roxane, Holly, Gigi & PJK….I couldn’t have done it without you! 

(Check out my mad-poster making skills.  And it doesn’t show up in the photo but I was rockin’ some serious Princess Leia hair puffs!)

Now, if only I can figure out how to get the mini-DVD to transfer to a standard DVD!  I’ll hold on to a little of my anxiety until I see my BodyPump DVD disappear into the mailbox…then watch out ’cause you will really see some celebration!   

Saturday’s spinning class was a throw-back to a playlist from January 31, 2009, though I don’t think it ever made it to this blog.  Surprise!  It may not be new to me, but it will be to you!  You can find an incomplete version of the playlist on iTunes iMixes Spinning Spincycles 12.12.09.  I don’t know why all of the songs didn’t transfer to iTunes and frankly I don’t have the energy left to figure it out.  If you use my iMixes link you will find All Good & Rosyln missing from the playlist. 

This Is Your Life—The Killers (3:39)  Burr, its cold outside…lets warm up.  We are going to shift our focus to resistance rather than speed today

Snakes On a Plane (Bring It)—Cobra Starship with The Gym Class Heroes (3:21)  Bump up the intensity by finding a medium resistance in a seated flat.  Short bursts of speed with the chorus.  Stand in-between the speed bursts and slowly start to build resistance after each interval.  Fast forward the last 20 seconds…there are some not-so nice words at the end.  (well, depending what your definition of “nice” is)

Rock & Roll—Eric Hutchinson (3:59)  Focus on keeping a strong steady cadence the entire song.  Stay in the saddle and resist the urge to slow down.  Increase resistance every 30 seconds.  We want a light burning in the legs.  Hold it steady and seamlessly transition to the next song.

Everlong—Foo Fighters (4:10)  Standing climb with 15 seconds of sitting every minute to really burn up our legs. 

Desolation Row (From “Watchmen”)—My Chemical Romance (2:59)  Back down to a medium resistance, seated flat.  Enjoy the wide open road!  Start to add on more resistance for the final 40 seconds. 

Figure.09—Linkin Park (3:17)  Heavy tension.  30 second standing run alternating with 30 second sitting.

All Good (Radio)—Zeroleen (3:02)  Medium resistance.  Jump on the chorus.  You decide your jumping pace…just make sure you are maintaining control at all times.  Standing jog in-between the jumps.

Ladies and Gentlemen—Saliva (3:37)  Keep the medium resistance.  Alternate between standing jog and standing climb.  Push the resistance during the climb portion.  The music gives you a lot to work with. 

I’m a Believer (Radio)—Smash Mouth (3:03)  Pick up the speed again.  Medium resistance fast…now faster on the chorus.  Do this in all three hand and body positions

Bring ‘Em Out—Hawk Nelson (3:23)  Find a resistance between medium and hard.  Standing run with jumps for 30 seconds every 30 seconds.

Beer—Mustard Pug (3:41)  I don’t remember what we did for this drill and the notes I wrote myself back in Jan ’09 made no sense to me on Saturday morning & make no sense now….so…free-for-all?!?!

Comes and Goes (In Waves)—Greg Laswell (4:14)  This is an incredibly moving song.  Last working effort of rolling hills.  Heavy resistance x 30 seconds alternating with medium resistance x 30 seconds.  Riders’ choice of sitting or standing.  Last 30 seconds push yourself a little more and make it even heavier!

Down—Jason Walker (4:05)  Seated easy flat cool down

Rosyln—Bon Iver & St. Vincent (4:50)  Stretch

DVD UPDATE:  after PJK struggled for hours (seriously, like 2 hours) to get the mini DVD to finalize we were forced to take a trip to the Old Town Ritz Camera for professional help.  After another 30 minutes at Ritz (during which I was trying hard to keep it together and avoid throwing myself on the floor crying “I can’t tape this again, you have to figure out how to fix it!”) we finally found the answer.  Thanks to my new friend at Ritz Camera and Google we realized the camera had to be plugged in to finalize!  Who knew??!?!  It doesn’t specifically say that in the instruction manual, (which is so poorly written I don’t have the words) and based on the web feedback we weren’t the only ones pulling our hair out over this issue.  So let me save you the headache…if you own (or are borrowing to tape your BodyPump video) a Canon DC210 you must have the camera plugged in to finalize your mini-DVD.  You’re welcome.

This is usually one of my busiest months at work.  There’s a lot of stuff that has to be completed before the end of the year, and a lot that needs to be ready once January arrives.  Add in the holidays and the cold, wet days and it can be hard to be as consistent with the workouts as I would like.  Everything right now is just conditioning work, so it’s not the most exciting training to do either.  So far I’ve been doing OK, but I’ve skipped a day here and there and cut some workouts shorter than usual.

My running workouts have been going well.  I started a new 6-week cycle of interval runs today and ran four 800s @ 10.7 mph.  I was a little more conservative in ratcheting up the intensity for this round; I feel like I’m slightly ahead of where I need to be, so I thought it might be good to stop pressing quite so hard.    While that makes complete sense when I’m writing it down, it all seems to go out the window once I start running.  It’s just so much more fulfilling to run better times that I usually end up pushing extremely hard.

My hamstring injury has been in a perpetual state of “medium” soreness lately.  Unfortunately my rehab exercises and stretching are the first things to go when I shorten my workouts.  I have been doing my elbow exercises regularly, and my forearms are much stronger than they were before.  It’s been about two months since my cortisone injection, and I’m starting to get some feelings of discomfort now and then, but nothing serious.  What I do feel seems to be in different locations than where it bothered me before, so hopefully it’s going to be alright.

My shoulder seems to be handling the push-press exercise I started doing, and my strength is steadily increasing.  I would hit a wall with every other exercise I’ve tried before, so I am hoping that this one will be different.  I an anxious to get out and throw the shot put to see where I stand.  It would sure be nice to feel strong and throw without pain.  If we get some decent weather I will try to get out and give it a test.

About a week ago after working legs I was doing some jumping drills and decided to do a quick test to measure my vertical.  I went into the basketball court at HealthQuest and grabbed a volleyball-sized ball and tried to dunk it.  I couldn’t quite get it done off of one leg, but was successful off of two.  That’s an improvement from the last time I tried, so the leg workouts seem to be working.  I did find out that getting my arm bent back when I came up short and hit the rim was quite painful, so I guess I better make sure I don’t miss any more!

I’ll probably try to get some video of that sometime soon.  I’m also working on a new bar dips stunt, but i still have a way to go on that one.  These things aren’t really important to my training and I don’t spend a lot of time on them, but they keep me amused  and provide a break from the other more serious training.

Hi everyone! This is Meg from Be fit. Be Full. First, I would like to thank Christina for asking me to do a guest post on her blog.  And second, I want to congratulate her again for completing her first marathon and for qualifying for the Boston marathon! That is no easy feat if you ask me. She rocks.

So I was torn over whether to post a recipe, or write about interval training. At some point I finally decided on the latter.

Like Christina, I love to run! Only when I’m forced to run on the treadmill (when it’s raining or cold) I get really bored. My solution? Mix it up with intervals!

What are intervals?

Interval workouts involve both high intensity intervals and lower intensity recovery periods.

What are some of the benefits of interval training?

• Increased speed & endurance
• Improved cardiovascular fitness
• Burn more calories
• Prevents boredom!

How to do intervals?

The timing of your intervals completely depends on what you’re comfortable with. If you’re an intervals newbie, start easy. Don’t begin with 5 minute intervals! Start with something more like this:

• 5 minute warm up jog
• Alternate 30 minute high intensity intervals with a 2 or 3 minute recovery jog in between
• Repeat 4x
• 5 minute cool down jog

*NOTE* – Your high intensity interval pace doesn’t always have to be an all out sprint. But it does need to be a pace that is challenging enough so that you’re not able to hold the pace for miles and miles. If you are not able to have a conversation during your intervals, that’s a good sign that you’re going fast enough.

Your recovery pace should be slow enough to be able to have a conversation with someone.

I don’t limit my interval training to just running. I also do intervals on the elliptical, on the bike, and when I jump rope!

Here are two examples of my treadmill interval workouts:

Example #1

• 5 minute warm up at 6.5
• 2 minutes jog at 7.0

• 1 minute sprint at 8.5
• Repeat bullets 2 & 3 five to eight times (or whatever you’re comfortable with!)
• 5 minute cool down at 6.5

Example #2

• 5 minute warm up at 6.5

• 2 minutes – Jog at a pace of 7.0
• 2 minutes – Run at 7.5
• 2 minutes – Jog at a pace of 7.0
• 2 minutes – Run at 7.6
• 2 minutes – Jog at a pace of 7.0
• 2 minutes – Run at 7.7

…. you may see a pattern forming here. I increased my fast intervals by one until I reached a speed of 7.9, then a decreased my fast intervals by one until I got back down to 7.5. I ended with a one minute 6.5 jog.

Looking for a way to mix things up on the elliptical? Do an elliptical pyramid!

What’s an elliptical pyramid you say?

It’s when you gradually increase the resistance at equal intervals, and once you reach your peak resistance, you being decreasing it at equal intervals until you reach your starting speed.

Example:

• Minutes 1-5: Level 5
• Minutes 5-10: Level 6
• Minutes 10-15: Level 7
• Minutes 15-20: Level 8
• Minutes 20-25: Level 9
• Minutes 25-30: Level 8
• Minutes 30-35: Level 7
• Minutes 35-40: Level 6
• Minutes 40-45: Level 5

So there you have it. I really enjoy making my workouts more challenging and fun with intervals. Please remember to choose your intervals based on your level of fitness. I have been running for a few years and the examples above are not for everyone.

Also, if you are not a strong runner, don’t be afraid of walking/running intervals, rather than jogging/sprinting intervals.

I hope you enjoyed my post! Feel free to stop by Be Fit. Be Full. at any time. I’d love to have you!

p.s. check out this giveaway!!

Harmonizing scales with intervals.

In the broadest sense of the definition, interval training is an exercise regimen that deliberately alternates between periods of lower and higher intensity levels during a workout for a specified period of time. The two components are the high intensity portion, which is the brief, yet intense period measured by either distance or time, and the rest interval portion, the lower intensity period which allows for recovery while still exercising or performing. The level of high intensity training and length of the rest interval portion is determined primarily by the fitness level of the individual.

Interval training can be done by all fitness levels. For the athlete, interval training is a great way to improve competing times, performance, stamina, endurance. For the gym member, the weekend warrior and those just starting down their path to fitness interval training is a great way to burn body fat, boost metabolism and reach your goal faster.

For this discussion, I’m going to use as my example the beginner doing a cardiovascular program on a treadmill. The first thing you want to do is determine how long your program is going to last. You want to try to exercise for a minimum of twenty minutes. The second thing you want to do is write down the numbers 1 through 10 on an exertion scale. 1 would represent almost no activity and 10 perhaps at the level of having an out-of-body experience. This scale is based on your own individual ability. The final part is to put down on paper the program you are going to do. It could be something as simple as walk two minutes then jog thirty seconds (or one minute if you don’t want to worry about the math). Perhaps you’ll walk at a pace of 2.0 then jog at a speed 4.0 to start. Keep in mind that I am using a beginner as a case scenario. You can adjust the speeds to whatever you feel is adequate for you. For those who may be older or not capable of jogging, simply adjust the incline for your high intensity portion.

To get started you want to get on your treadmill and start walking at a slow pace. I recommend two to three minutes as a warm up before getting into your interval training routine. Some treadmills have a basic interval program. I am not necessarily a fan of the interval programs on cardio equipment, but you might want to try them out to see for yourself. When designing your own interval program, however, you cannot use the treadmills programs. As you go through your interval training routine, try to keep in mind how you feel based on the exertion scale you put together. You need to work harder than a 1, but you shouldn’t be exerting at a 10 as a beginner. I would try to set levels from 3 to 8 as a starter.

After you’ve done your routine, grade yourself on how you feel. How did you feel during the high intensity portions? How well did you recover during your active rest periods? I would also use the treadmills’ heart rate monitor and check your heart rate throughout the course of training. (Note: Only check your heart rate during the active rest period). Here’s where your record-keeping comes into play. The way you determine if your interval training routine is benefitting you is this: This same routine should be getting easier the longer you do it. Give yourself a month then review your program. Your heart rate should decrease during both the high intensity and the active recovery periods. You should not feel as exhausted as you did when you first started (according to your exertion scale).

After a month, I suggest changing your program. Perhaps you need shorter active rest periods. Maybe you can increase the intensity on the high intensity portion. Whatever you change, I hope you see how this program should evolve with your capabilities. You may even need to adjust your program inside a couple of weeks. Once you get proficient on the treadmill, carry this same line of training with you to other pieces of cardio equipment your club has. In our club, Keystone Health Club, we have Arc trainers, treadmills, elliptical machines, upright bikes and recumbent bikes. This gives our members a variety of ways in which to do this style of training.

What should you expect? You should feel worn out, yet refreshed after this style of training. You should sweat. Expect your body composition to start to change. What I mean by that is you may start to see your clothes get a little baggy on you. I’m not saying that you’re going to lose weight, but as you burn body fat, your total body mass will decrease. And from a healthy point of view, isn’t that important? You should also expect to see your endurance increase as well as your attitude change for the better (because exercise is a great mood enhancer if done properly). For beginners, I recommend doing this three times a week. As a beginner, there’s no real threat of overtraining. It’s more important to get your body accustomed to this style of training. As you ramp up and become more efficient you will work harder. For those who are advanced, I recommend doing this only twice a week. You want to give it your all as you become better. Twice weekly is sufficient enough to still reap the benefits of this discipline without fear of overtraining.

I suggest you do this for a minimum of two months. I’m not saying to stop after two months. I’m saying that for you to really reap the benefits for any program, you need to give it an honest effort. In two months you should notice measurable changes.

For those wanting more specific advice, I am available for online coaching and training. Also, I’d like to get feedback from those of you who adopt this training technique to see how you’ve improved. Please send your email inquiries to: tim@keystonehealthclub.com or respond to this blog.

Generic treadmill picture

Ah!  Where has the time gone?!  I really want to be committed to posting my workouts, but man, it’s hard to carve out the time some days.  So… here’s a recap of the last few days:

Saturday – Long Run Day!  I woke up bright & early and ate a sandwich thin with peanut butter on both sides… and drank plenty of water.  Then I packed my Gu Chomps and headed to the gym around 7:45.  My scheduled run was for 12.0 miles at a HPM + 30 seconds.  I set the treadmill to 6.4 mph and started out.  My legs felt good & rested and the run felt pretty easy.  The frustrating part of this run was my stupid treadmill.  It kept resetting!  It reset at (roughly) 30 minutes, 32 minutes, & 25 minutes.  At this point, I switched treadmills.  The treadmill that I was on doesn’t display the distance you’ve run unless you push a certain button… so I just had to guess how far I ran!  Ah!  Not easy to do when you’re running.  I had to stop at go to the bathroom 11 minutes after I started on the new treadmill and when I jumped back on, I decided to finish the run with 19 minutes, knowing that would bring me to at least 12.0 miles, and probably a bit more.  Yeah!  I finished and really felt good.  I calculated (conservatively) that I ran about 12.48 miles.  Really made me feel more confident about the half marathon!

Monday – Cross-training!  I decided to cycle on a spinning bike.  I warmed up with an easy 8 minutes, cycled harder for 30 minutes, and then cooled down at an easy pace for 7 minutes.  Cycling really works different muscles, so this workout was challenging, but felt doable.  A plus of cycling was that I was able to catch up on a little magazine reading.

Tuesday – Key Run #1 – Intervals!  After last week, I was feeling a tad concerned that I wouldn’t be able to finish this full workout… but I did!  The scheduled workout was 10 minute warmup, 2 x (6×400 w/ 1:30 RI) (2:30 RI sets), 10 minute cooldown.  I warmed up for a mile, slightly less than 10 minutes, completed all the intervals (YEAH!!!), and cooled down for 10 minutes.  My interval speed was set at 8.2 mph (7:19/mi.).  I jogged at 6.5 mph in between intervals.  This definitely was a challenging run, but the time flew by and I finished 7.0 miles in 58:43.

Today’s workout… cross-training… planning to do it after work.

Tuesdays signal that it’s time to head back to the track!

Since a good number of us ran through that half-marathon on Saturday, we had something easier scheduled for our workout last night – 2 minute intervals (2 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy), for 30 min.  After a very slow 1.5 mile warm-up, and some plyometrics to get the muscles warm and heart beating, we toed the starting line.

Seeing as I have not been sore at all after Saturday’s race, I didn’t think it would hurt to push it a little for some speeeed. Wrong. My legs did not agree with this logic, and were happy to let me know during that first HARD two minutes!  To reconsider, I thought – wait and see how #2 panned out? And my legs were like, Okay fine, we’ll play along…!

Here we go:

2:00 – 0.31 @ 6:35 m/m, 2:00 – Easy
2:00 -  0.32 @ 6:22 m/m, 2:00 – Easy
2:00 – 0.31 @ 6:24 m/m, 2:00 – Easy
2:00 – 0.32 @ 6:14 m/m, 2:00 – Easy
2:00 – 0.32 @ 6:20 m/m, 2:00 – Easy

We had 3 intervals left, but I knew my legs had done their work for the night, so it was Easy jogging for the rest of my 30 minutes. These actually got easier as we kept going, but I really didn’t want to over-do it, and thought I’d stop while I still felt strong (rather than stopping when I felt something tear/break/pop/give out).  I liked this workout a lot more than I expected to; we’ll hang out again!

******

Hurrying from the track to the TV for THE BIGGEST LOSER FINALE!

This episode is what keeps us hanging on all season; it’s all about seeing what each one of them have accomplished after being let back into the “real world”! As usual, most of them look fabulous and have come SO far; some are unrecognizable (hello, Rebecca?! holy different hairstyle….) and some still have a good part of their “journey” ahead of them (Can’t wait to see Shay back again!).

To break it down:

Likes: Obviously, the transformations and watching them all weigh-in with that BIG grin full of Success on their faces. I also liked that they finally realized the Finale does not need to be 3 hours long! Two was just fine with me and my commercial-ADD!

Dislikes: Tracey’s dress. Just sayin’.

WTH moment:  Blonde Rebecca?…..what?! I loved her dark hair! And while she can definitely pull off the chic-style, I just cannot support that platinum color. I didn’t even recognize this chick!

Does anyone else think Danny “secretly” already knew he won? That his facial expressions during Rudy’s weigh in were a little too “worrisome”? We were speculating…

Surprise! Proposal + Engagement! Cheesy, but it was better than another commercial.

Wow-moment: Everyone looked great, but those 3 Finalists? W-O-W. Rudy and Danny look like completely different people; Amanda is smoookin’! Get it, girl. Geeze! Loved how well they all did with their time at home!

I don’t want to spoil any of the results for those who don’t sit in front of their TV for two hours every Tuesday night with the rest of us!  But, I’m VERY happy that those who won took the top prizes!
And, if you caught the preview for next season? Um, CRAZY much? Whew….

For the last six months, my procrastination method of choice has been to try out different task management tools (closely followed by data visualization techniques – but that’ll have to wait till another day).

So while this post isn’t related to LaTeX, I thought it might be useful for those of you managing a long-term project like a PhD.

Software Requirements

In searching for task/time/project management tools, my criteria were:

• no fees/open source
• ability to schedule tasks and milestones with due dates and priority levels
• tags or categories for tasks
• clear visual interface
• compatibility with Google Calendar

I have tried a lot of different packages that do a lot of different things – from Basecamp to Open Workbench, from Manymoon to Zen. But at the beginning of October, I finally found something that works really well: it’s called Intervals.

Task and Time Management with Intervals

I have used Intervals daily for the past two months and it has really helped me to plan my work and get more done.

On the company’s website, it is described as ‘web-based project management software that marries time tracking and task management in a collaborative online space with powerful reporting.’

In comparison with the other software I have tried, the most useful features of Intervals for my project are:

• time tracking and reports
• ease of adding tasks to a milestone
• clear and intuitive project dashboard
• ability to categorize project phases (called ‘modules’ in Intervals) and work types
• daily email showing my tasks for the week

Time tracking and reporting

Before I came across Intervals, I didn’t think I needed a time tracking or reporting feature. But now I have changed my mind – for three reasons:

• No more procrastinating. Once I sit down to do a task, I start the timer for it. This helps me to focus on that task alone – no checking emails, no unnecessary internet browsing. And if I get a phone call or am interrupted, I pause the timer.

• Now I know where my time goes. The reporting feature allows me to view the time I have spent on tasks that day, month, quarter, etc. I can view this by project module (e.g. literature review or writing-up), or by work type (e.g. translation, reading/note-taking, correspondence).

• I am better at estimating how long different tasks take. Once I’ve completed a task, I can review how many hours I spent on it and compare that with how long I estimated it would take when I first created the task. This then helps me plan future phases of my project.

Project Dashboard and Tasks Email

The dashboard (‘home’) is clearly structured and shows me:

• A weekly or monthly calendar view with milestones and tasks displayed. Colour-coding indicates high, medium and low priority tasks, and overdue items.

• A graph of how many hours I have worked in the current week. This is updated whenever I add time to a task, so I can see if my day’s on track, or if I haven’t spent as much time working as I planned to that day.

• Navigation short-cuts to add a new task or to add time to a task.

The daily email includes a copy of the weekly view of my calendar, so I can see what I have to do today and for the rest of the week.

Unused or Unsupported Features

Intervals does not support task dependencies or auto-scheduling – there is no Gantt Chart-like feature. But for my straightforward PhD project, I haven’t found that to be a problem.

As the software is designed for small businesses, there are a lot of features I don’t use, such as: invoicing, file storage and allocating tasks to other people on a team.

Intervals is also a bit heavy for managing lots of little tasks. For this kind of thing and for displaying external deadlines on my main calendar, I tend to use Remember The Milk.

To-Do Lists with Remember The Milk

This is a nice little online tool for managing multiple to-do lists. The best feature is that it’s compatible with Google Calendar, and according to their website it also works with Twitter and Blackberry.

I tend to use Remember The Milk for funding or conference call deadlines, to-do lists for calling or emailing people, or keeping track of meetings or seminars.

Getting Started

Intervals and Remember The Milk are pretty easy to set up once you’ve registered with them. I was able to get the hang of both within a week. They also have good customer support and help forums.

Note: both these tools are web-based, so they cannot be used offline.

Useful Links

• Intervals: http://www.myintervals.com/
• Remember The Milk: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

(photo source)

Ah, procrastination…you’ve gotta love it.  Why didn’t I just post this playlist yesterday.  I was on WordPress and everything!  But nooo I didn’t, I just promised I would post it tomorrow (which is exactly like when I leave a note for my dog walker—sorry about the mess in the kitchen—wouldn’t it be easier just to bite the bullet and clean up the kitchen rather than going to the trouble of writing a note to apologize about it?)   

So once again I have waited until Sunday night to post.  The good news is that part of my procrastination today included putting up the Christmas tree!  No, it’s not real (and by real I mean that it didn’t used to be a live tree…it’s certainly real and not a figment of my imagination), but in addition to my peculiar fear of fire (dry pine needles + hot lights = fire), you just can’t beat a tree that is pre-lit and comes in three easy-to-assemble pieces.  Speaking of easy, notice there are no ornaments.  Decided to keep it simple this year…’.cause simple to put up makes it simple to take down.  Though PJK and I adamantly denied that this was the real reason for omitting the ornaments….it looks good…yeah, clean and modern….definitely…     

Find Saturday’s playlist on iTunes iMixes at Spinning Spincycles 12.5.09

Your English Is Good—Tokyo Police Club (3:12)  Warm Up.

Slight Figure of Speech—The Avett Brothers (2:22)  Moving the heart rate on the up and up! Moderate resistance in the saddle x 1 minute.  Stand with hands in position 2.  Find a moderate resistance in this position.  Focus on keeping head steady…no bouncing around.  Keep the work in the legs and the legs only.  (I saw these guys on Jimmy Fallon last week & they were fabulous, I would love to see them perform live)

Put Me Back Together—Weezer (3:15)  Slow down, sit down.  Start a climb in the saddle.  Start to accelerate at 30 seconds.  Hold on to that resistance.  At 1:23 pick up the pace again.  Keep away from the resistance knob and think about our powerful pedal stroke.  Stand at 2:15 and run with resistance (remember…keep your head steady)

I Will Not Bow—Breaking Benjamin (3:37)  Keep the resistance, now add more.  Standing climb.  Hands position 3.  Sit and power through the chorus.  It’s short, we can handle it  (“I will not bow” is our musical cue.)  Form check at 2:40 (instrumental).

Drive Me Insane—Billy Boy On Poison (2:52)  Working recovery.  Back off on the resistance so it’s moderate while you are standing.  Jumps alternating with standing jog. 

I know what I Am—Band of Skulls (3:18)  Same resistance, but have a seat.  We are going to work on pedal stroke.  Focus on left leg when the man sings….focus on the right leg only when the woman sings…both together on the chorus!  Isn’t this fun??  Stand and jog when no one is singing (around 2 min mark)  Advanced riders add more resistance for a challenge…finish with both legs working together. 

Debaser—Pixies (2:52)  Light-medium resistance in the saddle for a seated flat x 1 minute.  Add resistance and stand until 2:15.  Lighten the resistance, have a seat, keep your legs moving but just chill till the end of the song. 

Enjoy the Silence—Anberlin (3:32) 

• Light Saddle till 30
• Heavy Saddle till 1:05 (accelerate with the music)
• Stand till 1:40
• Heavy stand till 2:00
• Climb  till 2:35….and more resistance and finish

Where Is My Mind?—Pixies (3:53)  We are going to stay with this resistance and on the hill.  Slow down your cadence.  Though we are still working we are finding our focus and allowing our heart rate to recover slightly.  We are going to use the beat of the song to propel us through.  Ready for this?????? Back off the resistance a little if you need to and sit at 2:10….it’s still heavy, we are still climbing.  Find the strong pedal stroke.

(it’s a Pixies sandwich!)

Hot Mess—Cobra Starship (2:52)  Medium resistance in the saddle…jump on the chorus at your own speed.  Increase resistance stand with hands in 2….jump on the chorus.  Increase resistance to climb-worthy heaviness…jump on the chorus (at 2:09).  1 minute to recover.  We have more work to do.  After you catch your breath, add a medium resistance stay on the seated flat x 30 seconds alternating with 30 seconds of standing jog. 

By the Way—Red Hot Chili Peppers (3:37)  Dear legs,  I need you to do one more thing for me….accept the challenge of adding medium-heavy resistance in the saddle.  Stand and run through the thickness when music accelerates.  Music accelerations=Cadence accelerations! 

Sober—P!nk (4:12)  Put the brakes on.  Slow it down & cool off.  Drop your resistance. 

Love Is the Answer—Weezer (3:43)  Stretch it out to what may be my new favorite Weezer song. 

I have a lot going on this week.  In addition to 6:15am Spinning on Tuesday I’m teaching 6:30pm Spinning on Wednesday too.  And in-between that and my real J-O-B I will be BodyPumping my brains out to get ready for my big video debut on Saturday! Which, by the way, I’m insanely anxious about.  How anxious you ask? So anxious that I am having nightmares about it!  Get this….last week I dreamed (dreamt??) that I was getting ready to teach BP for my video but couldn’t keep the weights on my bar.  I would bend down, secure them with the little plastic clip, but the instant I stood up the weights would fall and crash to the floor. No matter what I did I couldn’t get them to stay in place. I ended up having to concentrate on balancing the bar perfectly to keep the weight plates from falling off!  Arhhh, anxious much?  It’s just a dream, right?  Right.  It’s going to be great!

Have a great week spinners.  No new playlist from me next week, but I’ll be happy to take requests for Saturday’s class.  What are you in the mood for?  A mountain bike loop, intervals, climbs?  I’m up for anything!   

P.S. I have an answer for you about Tuesday morning’s playlist.  It was a repeat from July 11th..you can find it here. Sorry I drew a blank on Saturday.   

I am not a runner but would love to be.  Do you want to be?

If you’ve thought about doing the couch to 5K program but don’t want the hassles of keeping up with the run/walk intervals then I have just the “gift” for you.

I have found a FREE download podcast from Podrunner here:
http://www.djsteveboy.com/intervals.html

The podcast correspond with the training interval for the couch to 5K program. There are chimes for when it’s time to speed up and chimes for when it’s time to slow down. It includes music for the warm-up and cool-down.

And it’s FREE.

I’m starting tomorrow!!! I will probably kill myself that’s why I’m telling you about it now.

The music is techno club mix style stuff but he’s done the work for us and it’s FREE. If I hadn’t found this I would have had to buy a new watch and carry cue cards for when to run and when to walk and then I still would have messed it up or I would have sat for HOURS trying to splice music together in intervals.
If I survive, then I’ll come back and tell you how it went.

So what are we waiting for?

Let’s do this thing!

All Levels:

We started off the class with all of you filling out a practice assessment. This will let me see what areas we have to focus on to make sure you all complete the requirements for your current level!

After this, you headed over to the pianos, Level 1 worked on Clementine and Let it Be, and Level 2 worked on Daydream Believer and Here We Go in a Row.

We then got together and reviewed note reading, and intervals. To read the notes on the treble clef, remember the following:

Lines = Erny Gave Bert Dog Food

Spaces = F-A-C-E

Bass clef is as follows:

Lines = Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always

Spaces = All Cows Eat Grass

To figure out an interval, just count every letter from one note to the next. Don’t forget that if the notes are played together, the interval is harmonic, if they are played one after another, they are melodic. Good work everyone!

Level 1 Assignments:

1- Name these notes.

2- Name these intervals.

3- Practice Get Up.

Level 2 Assignments:

1- Practice this technique sheet.

2- Keep working on your legato staccato exercise!

3- Play piano every day!

I missed two runs this week. Tuesday, I was just absolutely exhausted and just did not have the energy to run even three miles. I did start physical therapy on Tuesday however. I have some messed up legs. Very tight calves, hips etc … I overpronate slightly with my left foot and I have some weakness on my left. I’m also not flexible. But we’re going to work on it and hopefully it will improve my running.

Then I was supposed to get up Wednesday morning and run before work but I slept in and then the boyfriend and I went apartment hunting after work, so no run that day either.

I finally ran tonight after work. I did 3×1200 with 400 recoveries for 4.5 miles total. I needed to do intervals because I have been feeling incredibly lazy and wanted to work hard. So I did. I think my 1200s were5:51, 5:47 and 5:41 which is faster than the 5:55-6:08 I should have been doing but whatever it wasn’t too hard. I walk/jogged my recoveries and did 1 mile to warm up and .5 to cool down. Then I had to do all of my PT exercises! Funnnnn. They’re actually pretty difficult for me so hopefully that means they will help.

Tomorrow – I need to lift — deadlifts, shoulder press, lat pulldown, lunges and stability ball crunches. I’ll have to head to the gym for that workout right after work but I like lifting so it’s not too bad.

Anyway, so excited tomorrow is FRIDAY!

It seems that every time we look at a fitness magazine there always seems to be a picture of a person showing off their flat stomach.  The truth of the matter is that 6 pack abs are the holy grail of the fitness world.  Without a flat stomach your toned biceps or legs do not give you justice.  When people look at someone the first thing they look at is their stomach.  If people look at your stomach you want them to be envious of it.  Super-set exercises and interval training are two workouts that deliver results fast.  These are the only love handle exercises you need.

When you step into a gym the first thing you want to do is weight lifting.  Weight lifting packs on muscle and the more lean muscle you pack on then the more calories you will burn even when you are not working out.  The best weight lifting exercise is super-set training.  The reason why this method is so good is because it delivers fast results and it only takes 20 minutes to do it.  The best way to do your super-sets is to target large muscle groups so that you will burn more calories at a faster rate.  An example of a quality super-set is dumbbell squats followed by dumbbell incline chest presses.  The reason why this would be considered quality is because it focuses on large muscle groups.

The next thing to do is intervals.  Intervals can be done right after your weight training or on a separate day.  If you want more off time during the week then it is best to do them right after your weight lifting.  Intervals are meant to target belly fat at the core and a complete workout only takes about 20 minutes to complete.  The easiest way to do this exercise is on a treadmill so that you can monitor your time and speed.

As you can see,  when you combine these two workouts you get fast results.  You only need to do each workout 3 times a week to get a flat belly in 12 weeks.

When it comes to our body we always want fast results.  Many people tell you that fast results are impossible but I am here to tell you that fast results are possible.  How are fast results possible?  When you combine the power of super-set training and intervals you can have a flat stomach in as little as 12 weeks.  For a twelve week period you might think that you are going to have to work out every single day, but this is not the case.  For 12 weeks straight you only have to work out 3 times a week for 40 minutes.  If there is one thing I want you to learn is that quality exercises are always better than the quantity of low level exercises.  Super-sets and intervals are the only love handle exercises you will ever need.

Super-sets are great because they allow you to build muscle fast and the more lean muscle you have the more fat you will burn even while your body is at rest.  The best way to perform your super-set workouts is to combine lower body exercises with upper body exercises.  By doing this you are getting a total body workout.  This means that you will shed fat evenly throughout your body.  An example of a good super-set is dumbbell squats followed by dumbbell incline chest presses.  As you see here, the muscles being targeted are the legs and chest which are two of the largest muscle groups of your body.  If you want maximum results then always focus on large muscle groups.

Another exercise that will help you get ripped fast is interval training.  Intervals are made to target your belly fat.  The awesome thing about intervals is that a complete workout can be done in about 20 minutes.  Six intervals are plenty for your cardiovascular workout.

As you can see, intervals are are a great way to shed belly fat and super-sets are a great way to pack on lean muscle.  Remember that each workout should only last about 20 minutes.  If you do these workouts back to back then you are looking at a 40 minute workout.  Three days a week is all it takes to have a flat stomach.