Exercise Goals for 2008

Plan for February --

Walk on even days, lift on odd days.

Feb 8 -- shoulders, abs, back, chest
Feb 4 -- treadmill 4.0 miles with varying elevation, 675 calories avg, 66 mins avg
Feb 6 -- biceps, triceps, quads, hamstrings
Feb 7 -- treadmill 4.0 miles with varying elevation, 675 calories avg, 66 mins avg
Feb 1 -- calves, gluts, inner and outer thighs
Feb 2 -- treadmill 4.0 miles with varying elevation, 675 calories avg, 66 mins avg

JPB--

Good for you. That must have been a December mirror of great power.

fb -- I've started walking with 2 colleagues at work. At home, I'm generally on my own though RP and I walk together on the weekends when weather permits. I do actually like doing it on my own. That way I get to grunt in a most unladylike manner.

This morning -- let's see if I can sustain this until my Monday checkin/weighin -- it appears that I have lost my first 10 lbs!!!

PS Get better soon, sozlet.

Snowy George! Six-mile Joe! Noddy, you can do it!

I'm extra cheerful today as the scale actually said > 10 lbs but I'm being conservative about this. A 10-lb loss would be great, even more, dynamite, but I'm not counting the chickens just yet.

PPS The long undies I'm wearing (TMI!) were too tight a month ago. They are now baggy. I am shedding my cocoon all right ...

Plan for February --

Walk on even days, lift on odd days.

Feb 8 -- shoulders, abs, back, chest
Feb 4 -- treadmill 4.0 miles with varying elevation, 675 calories avg, 66 mins avg
Feb 6 -- biceps, triceps, quads, hamstrings
Feb 7 -- treadmill 4.0 miles with varying elevation, 675 calories avg, 66 mins avg
Feb 9, Feb 1-- calves, gluts, inner and outer thighs
Feb 10, Feb 2 -- treadmill 4.0 miles with varying elevation, 675 calories avg, 66 mins avg

Noddy, she's gone but her image is a permanent fixture.

Jes -- wow, simply wow!

JPB goes marching on!
Have the treadmill sessions been getting easier as you go?

Jes--

Impressive progress--and the weather is improving.

Soz--

Have the Fates announced whether tomorrow will be an effortless gym day or not?

Thank you. It went up slightly this AM (I've really got to kick the habit of checking the scale every morning) but I'm still in my range. Unless I gain 2 lbs. between now and tomorrow AM, then I've lost 10 lbs.

George, don't you know there's hamburger (er, sorry hamburger) all over the highway in Mystic, Connecticut?

Mixed bag. Sozlet's illness was blessedly brief -- amounted to a few hours of unpleasantness Thursday night, then recovery. She's still stuffy but otherwise fine.

I, on the other hand, don't feel well. Not so bad, not so great. I have all of today to try to get up to speed and then will see what happens tomorrow. Remind me that last time I tried to work out while feeling iffy it didn't end very well.

How are you doing?

oops, just noticed that I put 2/10 for yesterday's walk. I'll fix it next time. I doubled up yesterday, doing both cardio and strength training. Today's a slug day.

Yes on getting easier. I've up'd my starting elevation a couple times so that I'm starting at 5.5% going up to 12% (steep enough that I have to hold on to avoid sliding backwards). I use a max pulse of 160 or less to let me know it's time to notch it up another tick. The first level (4.5 - 11) took me three weeks to 'pass'. The next two levels took two sessions each. At first I thought it was because I took a break for a few days when I was on the road but I think it's more that my stamina is improving. I'm also down about 15 lbs so notching up the elevation keeps the calorie burn per workout where I want it.

jes -- there are two schools of thought on daily weigh-ins. The long held one that tracking fluctuations is discouraging and self-defeating and a newer study which indicates that folks who weigh in daily are more likely to respond positively and stay focussed on the larger goal. I've weighed in daily for years. The small changes are only a problem if they continue in the same upward direction. Daily fluctuations are expected. The goal, of course, is to have a greater net loss than gain over the course of time. As a data person I've always felt that data is knowledge and knowledge is power. Use the fluctuations to empower yourself.

soz -- heal thyself before going to the gym. You'll be happier for it.

noddy -- thanks. How are you doing?

Too steep then, ...... holding on reduces your effort (and the benefit of it) by 40%. just saying.


This has been a snowless winter thus far here in New York City.

I listened to the forecast for today and it said there was a Cold Front coming sometime after 12pm and that the warmest time of the day would be about 7AM. They look to be right. At 7:15A in the park the winds were light, temperature about 41F with scattered sunshine. By the time I got to the North Woods, seen above, the sun was gone and the winds were picking up.

Present conditions are 20mph winds and the temperature and barameter are both dropping.

Midway through the run, I heard some honking above me.

Joe(the picture later)Nation

Oh, yeah//// 6.7 miles

Soz--

Where are you encountering all these new microbes?


Jes--

I agree with JPB about daily weigh-ins. A one or two pound gain shouldn't provoke panic, but if you're up one or two pounds above base weight for a week or so those pounds are looking to bond with the rest of your too-too solid flesh.

Ignoring most kinds of unpleasantness is great for mental health, but when the unpleasantness comes in ounces and pounds....

JPB--

I'm having another attack of the Wamblies and all good resolutions are on hold until I can move food out of the stomach in a downward direction.

Mr. Noddy fitted the treadmill with a reading rack. Perhaps today I'll have the stamina to get the proper angle to display magazines from November, December and January.

Thank you for asking.

E.G. is the vector this time. He is only "sick" if he is in bed with a raging fever, unable to move. His brand of "sick" often results in a trip to the emergency room.

Otherwise he is "fighting something off" -- this involves going through Kleenex boxes by the gross, low energy level and an increased need for sleep, and various aches and pains that he won't admit to. But he still goes to work and does everything else he would normally do.

Mid last week he announced that his whole office was sick and he was "fighting something off." That something seemed to have first been caught by sozlet, then me.

Soz--

Undoubtedly his students come from across the Great State of Ohio, across the country and even around the world.

Every one of them that went home for Christmas returned with alien microbes.

There you are, breathing in the Center of the Universe.

How is the humidifier working?

Sunday, 8:30am ... Honkers. Great Northern Geese by the sound of them.
Headed North I might add, so the predictions of the Groundhog of six more weeks of winter might be wrong. That is an untouched color photo of the gray of this winter's day.

Soz: you may be suffering from the same bugvirus which marched across Manhattan in January. Rest seemed to be the only medicine. Get well soon.

Map plot this morning puts me just outside of Westport, that's about eighty five miles West of Mystic. I'm aiming to be in New Haven by Friday.

Joe(about 20 more miles this week)Nation

Feel better, soz family singers!

Joe, lovely photo, I bet Roberta would like it.

Official for the record book: 11 lbs. lost so far. Got a round of applause this morning.

Reporting progress with strength training in the mighty acorn division:

I buy frozen wild salmon by the case. The fillets weigh about 12 ounces each and are frozen separately in plastic sleeves. In the past I could only break them in halves. Six ounce servings were a bit more than I really wanted but....

Now I have the muscular strength to break them into thirds.

Temperatures in the teens (F) today with wind chill in single digits.
I stayed in and cross-trained.

Saturday was reasonable and I got an eight-miler in.

Week 6
19.6 miles for the week.

Scheduled cumulative mileage: 120
Actual cumulative mileage: 127.5

[Crossed the Thames River from Groton to New London CT]

Jes--

Congratulations.

George--

Your devotion is impressive.

*******

Our furnace conked out--the oil jelled in the tank. This provided much inspiration for exercising.

noddy is getting dangerous !
first she chops the salmons to pieces and now she begins to exercise - BEWARE , BEWARE !
hbg

Oh she's been exercising for a while, hamburger -- beware!

30 reps again, I know I'll be sitting at this level for a while as it seems to be working for me.