One Hundred Sit Ups, Week 5…again

I thought day 2 and 3 of week 5 were not very hard.   It turns out I was doing them wrong.  I didn’t notice there are two extra sets I didn’t complete.  I have restarted week 5 to try again.  Day 1, which was torture before, wasn’t too bad today.

In truth, I looked at week 6 with sets of 60,56,45,42,40,56 sit ups and don’t see how I could get through it.  I need more time before taking it on.

Meanwhile, LeeAnne, my wife, looked at day 1 of week 5 and decided to do all 167 sit ups in a row.  She was going strong when she counted 210 and got bored.  Wow.  That’s what doing 100 in a row EVERY DAY can do for you.

One Hundred Sit Ups, Week 5

I completed week 4 of the program and started on week 5. I did the test two days later to find which column of week 5 to execute. That was too soon. I was still sore and not at full strength. I could only complete 50 sit ups in a row which is about the same as before. Anyway, to my dismay, it is still enough to qualify for the hardest column of week 5. It is a very big jump in difficulty with sets of 40,32,30,25, and 40 sit ups. That is 167 sit ups!!! I couldn’t finish it the first time through. So I repeated day 1 today and made it. I thought my stomach muscles were going to rip apart. The rest of the week will be a breeze.

One Hundred Sit Ups

I’ve been reading a number of fitness blogs this year to help educate and motivate myself. A bunch of the bloggers have taken up the One Hundred Pushups program. It is a six week program designed to take you from very few to 100 pushups in a row. I was tempted to take on the program. But I was already pretty good at pushups and was focusing on increasing my upper body strength with bench press and incline press among other exercises. I found out last week that I have torn some cartilage in my shoulder and need to stop these exercises for a while.

I’ve decided to use the pushup program for sit ups. It looks like a nice progression; not too fast, not too slow. I am going to take a bit of a short cut with the program by skipping ahead to week 4. You see, I can already do 50 situps in a row. It seems silly to start at the beginning where it would have me doing sets of 10.

Today was my second day of week four at the highest level. I did sets of 27, 21, 21, 18, and 30. That’s a total of 117! Not bad but it was a struggle. My stomach is still sore from my first day two days ago.

I have found it helps me stay with it when I have a fitness goal. I currently have a weight, % body fat, and now one hundred sit ups goal.

Advice for Runners, Part 2

I forgot to mention a few things in my first post.  Since it has been one of the most read posts on my blog (really!), I thought I would follow up with more sage advice about running.

Advice #6: Achieve runner’s high. This is what it’s all about. Runner’s high is your reward for suffering through the pain.  Running is pain and more pain. It is the kind of pain that only goes away when you stop running and walk for a bit. Then it comes right back when you start running again. I’m not joking. If you can’t handle pain, don’t take up running.

Runner’s high is a real thing and it is great! It is a feeling of euphoria, peacefulness, and well being. It isn’t as intense as some illegal substitutes but it is free and healthy. I think it is the reason many people keep running for so long. To achieve this, you have to work yourself up to a 45 min or so run and get used to that level or a little more. Once you do, you can put yourself into maintenance mode (stop increasing) and start to really enjoy your runs.

Advice #7: Shoes. For me, 45-50 mins is about as long as I can go before my feet and legs start to hurt a lot. This isn’t from muscle soreness but from pounding the pavement for so long. But one thing that can help through all stages of running is proper shoes. If you don’t know what “over pronate” means, you shouldn’t buy shoes without help.  Y should go to a running store such as Footsteps in Reston and get help. They will look at your gait and recommend the right type of shoe. I am an over pronator which means the outside of my heel hits the pavement first. I need stability shoes. If run in the wrong shoes, you will have more pain and possibly injury as a result. You will pay retail prices at a specialty store but it is worth it for the service.

Advice #8:  Don’t push until you are dizzy and see black spots.  If you are a beginning runner, use a heart rate monitor.  I did mention this in my last post but it bears repeating.  I used to push until I felt dizzy and saw black spots in my eyes. I know for sure I had exceeded my limits. It’s best to get a heart rate monitor so you know when you are approaching a limit and what it feels like.

Advice for Runners

Spring is here and it seems like a bunch of people I know are taking up running to get in shape. I have been running for more than 30 years and know a few things that work for me. I have had to bite my tongue to keep from sounding like a know-it-all when talking to people who are new to running. So my advice is here and you can take it or leave it. Again, this is what works for me. It should work for you too.

Advice #1: Call it running not jogging. Even though my pace is more like jogging these days, I still say I run. Jogging sounds kind of wimpy.

Advice #2: get some gadgets. There are plenty of gadgets and things to spend money on. You don’t NEED any of them but there are a few that help — a lot. I use a heart rate monitor, an iPod, and the Nike+iPod running kit. The heart rate monitor is by far the most useful training device you can buy. It will help you know when you are over or under training. I set my treadmill to keep my heart rate at 145 beats per min and the treadmill adjusts the pace and incline to keep me there. 145 bpm is about 80% capacity for me. Any more than that and I start to breath hard. Less and it is too easy a workout. This let’s me increase my fitness level without much pain.

iPod. I said the heart rate monitor is the most useful device but an iPod may be more important. I listen to music and sometimes audio books when I run. If you get bored running, you will stop doing it.

Headphones are tricky for runners. The bounce out of your ears or cause your ears to sweat if you don’t get them set right. I use an over the head headphone, a Panasonic RP-HS35. If you know of a better set, please leave me a comment. The sound quality of these isn’t very good but they are a good combination of ear bud and over the head. Over the head is important. I put them on from behind so the cord is on my back instead of in front of me where I can catch it by accident. Then I put a sweat band over top of headphones to keep them in place. I never have to worry about them moving or bouncing around with this set up. I also use an arm band to carry an iPod Nano. Wrap the cord around the nano and tuck the excess in the arm band and I have a no fuss setup. It looks like this:

The Nike+iPod kit is my final gadget. I just started using this. It costs only $29 and is worth every penny. It is like a next gen pedometer that monitors and records your pace, time, and distance. It can tell you all of these with the press of a button. And best of all, it records and tracks all of this on the Nike web site. Here is the graph from my run today:

You can see where I run up a steep hill because my pace drops.

Advice #3: Go slow and run for time, not distance. You can see from the graph above that I ran three miles in 36 mins. That is not very fast but I am kind of ok with that. The biggest mistake most people make when they start running is they go too fast. You have to start out slow and pace yourself. You should start with maybe 20 mins of running. Run two or three times a week and increase your time (not distance) by 10% per week. You will be surprised how long you can go after only 8 weeks. Your pace will naturally increase as well. I have used this method over and over to increase my time, distance and speed.

Advice #4: If you are overweight, start by walking. Lose some weigh and build the muscles in your legs. Running is high impact on feet and knees.

Advice #5: Running uphill and downhill. There are slightly different techniques for running on hills. When you run uphill, put yourself in low gear. Take shorter steps and run from your butt. Trust me, it works. When you run downhill, keep your legs a bit straight and stiff. You want to feel like you are bouncing down the hill. You shouldn’t actually bounce but it will feel a little like that. It uses less energy this way.

Well, that’s all I know about running. Want to know about anything else?