First 5 mile run

Encouraged by yesterday’s effort to hit the one hour limit, today I ventured to run the first-non-stop-five-miles of my life.

Machine : LifeFitness 95Te

Warm up time : 5 mins
Warm up distance : 520 m
Running time : 55 mins
Distance covered : 5.1 miles
Inclination : 0 degrees
Cool down time : 5 mins
Cool down distance 460 m
Calories burnt : 635

After effects :
- A few people asking me if I was training for the half-marathon
- A ravenous appetite despite drinking a litre of water
- 1000 calorie breakfast
- 3 hours of sleep after breakfast

Where all does it still hurt?
- Calves
- Hamstrings
- Lower back

My first full hour of cardio

Date : 4-Oct-08
The machine : Lifefitness 95Xe Elliptical bike

Workout time : 63 mins
Distance covered : 12.0 kms
Height covered : 1698 m
Calories burnt : 578

Excellent cardio workout, and my knees didn’t even hurt.

Running the extra mile

For the last couple of days I’d not been eating my veggies and had been binging excessively on rice, oils, fats and chicken. Of late I’ve been irregular to the gym and my weight is on the increasing trend.

I got a bit worried and today I decided that I had to burn some calories and I decided to stretch myself to run 4 miles instead of the 3 point something miles I usually run.

I warmed by walking with increasing speeds for 5 minutes. Then ran at 5 miles per hour for a couple of minutes and then I set to do 6.1 miles per hour and ran steadily for 40 minutes. The surplus of carbs I’d been seem to make it possible for me to run more. At the end of 40 minutes it looked like I could run for a few more minutes, but I decided not to stretch my luck too far and dropped to cool down for 3 minutes before I pressed the stop button.

In 48 minutes, I’d covered 7.2 kms and burnt 500 calories.

But that is a mere 6% of my target. I know I need to burn 7500 surplus calories before I drop the extra kilo that I gained in the last couple of weeks

Why the hell do people make desserts?

Eat your good fats

These are a couple of excellent articles on dietary fats by Harvard School of Public Health I read recently.

1. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html

2. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-table/index.html

Best time on a treadmill

After 15 years, today, I ran 5 kilometers. I was on a tread mill belt and not on terra firma – like I used to in “those days” when I ran before my Karate practice sessions.

I walked 500 m in 5 minutes to warm up. After 5 minutes, I started to jog at 8 kmph, slowly picked up speed in steps to 11 kmph in steps. As pain set in after 15 minutes of running, I reduced my speed in steps to 10 kmph, 9.5 kmph, and so on till I was running the last 500 m at 8.5 kmph. The whole thing lasted 32 minutes and 19 seconds and the belt had rolled 5000 m. When I crossed 5010 m, I hit the cool down button and dropped to 6.8 kmph. I cooled down by walking 420 m in 5 minutes.

It was the first time in years that I had run non-stop for 5 km. On earlier occasions where I’d run 5 km non-stop, I’d not timed myself. So this automatically became my personal best.

When I stepped off the treadmill, my calves where still beating to the rhythm of my heart. I could feel pain and I sat on the large steel frame of a rowing machine panting for a few minutes.

My instructor didn’t even seem to notice. He walked up to me and said, “Enough of rest. Now go pick the barbells, do four sets of 12 reps each and then do 3 sets with dumbells and wait for me”. When I hit the shower, it looked like another day at the gym. But now I feel good about it, despite my aching legs.

Daily values of nutrients

Which nutrients do we need daily and how much? I put this list together from the information provided by a dietary supplement manufacturer.
The daily values of the following nutrients are established.
Nutrient	Value	Unit
Vitamin A	5000	IU
Vitamin C	60	mg
Vitamin D	400	IU
Vitamin E	30	IU
Vitamin B1	1.5	mg
Vitamin B2	1.7	mg
Niacin	20	mg
Vitamin B6	2	mg
Folic acid	500	mcg
Vitamin B12	6	mcg
Biotin	300	mcg
Pantothenic acid	10	mg
Calcium	200	mg
Phosphorous	125	mg
Iodine	150	mcg
Magnesium	417	mg
Zinc	15	mg
Selenium	70	mcg
Copper	2	mg
Manganese	2	mg
Chromium	120	mcg
Molybdenum	75	mcg
The daily values of the following nutrients are typical and are not established.
Nutrient	Value	Unit
Nickel	5	mcg
Silicon	4	mg
Tin	10	mcg
Vanadium	10	mcg
Lutein	250	mcg

The long road to fitness

There seem to be literally thousands of ways to keep fit.

I was very proud that I kept up a real small cardio routine for a couple of months now. I seem to have lost 3 kgs. Just when I was feeling proud of running a few minutes a day, I saw a gym friend do a full one hour on the treadmill. Ego was broken. Then my instructor introduced me to jumping and aerobics. Whatever was left over of ego was broken. Then today I was made to go into the Yoga class for an hour or so. Clearly, I was the clumsiest in the class with the least amount of flexibility. Without knowing a thing about Surya Namaskar, I practically stopped the whole class from making progress. The yoga instructor was kind enough to ask me to stop after three sets.

But doing those three sets, seems to have really stretched my legs which were already aching from the jumping and aerobics. But Yoga is a truly amazing thing, it really made me feel good.

The least amount of any left over pride was swept clean with a dry cloth.

Fitness today seems like a long distance journey.

Bicycle crunches

How do you do bicycle crunches?

This is how.
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/1508_abs-bicycle-crunch.htm

Resistance training

Alright!

For those of you who are into fitness, here are three great sites:

1. http://www.abc-of-fitness.com/info/fitness-exercises.asp – has animations
2. http://www.uwlax.edu/strengthcenter/videos/video_index.htm – has videos
3. http://www.thetrainingstationinc.com/freeweightexercises.html – has illustrations

Inspiring!

I read this in my daily health email newsletter today:

—————————————————————

You can’t do anything to change the past, but by changing your thoughts,
attitudes and actions in the present moment, the future is yours to create.

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto
—————————————————————

Peace and quiet

Some time when I work out more than I should have on that given day, my mind goes blank. Like today. It feels like your body turns off all the voices in your mind. All I wanted to do was sleep after break fast. I kept myself up to keep up an appointment. But soon after I just crashed for a couple of hours. I was supposed to go to office today but didn’t.

I feel so relaxed now that I feel I can retain what I read.

I wonder if others feel the same way after a little bit of stretch too.