Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I was meeting my brother Jeff at the park to take him through the survival workout. He’d been listening to me talk about it long enough that his good nature required him to join me and see it first hand. I rode the bike to our meeting point and when he arrived, described the vents we were about to do. Jeff has been through quite a bit in the past couple of years. Treatment for prostate cancer left him very fatigued last fall while training for the New York City Marathon and caused him to drop from the race at the 16-mile mark. Since that time, he has found it difficult to do any physical task without getting exhausted rather quickly. He’s not anxious to return to the doctor’s early to complain of the situation and…for the first time in many years…is content to take it easy…and that’s what I’m all about.
We started with the push-ups with me again setting a pr…moving past the big fifty mark and collapsing at 51. I was psyched for the rest of the workout, to say the least. We headed down the trail where I introduced him to Mr. Rock and Mr. Log. We climbed the steep hill off the horse trailer parking lot, and talked as we went. “I’m not sure why I get tired so easily, but I don’t really want to find out, either,” he told me. I wasn’t noticing any fatigue and told him so. “Maybe its not fatigue…I mean who wants to tear out grass around a garden…maybe you just aren’t motivated to do it and you’re giving in to the early fatigue everyone feels when they start doing something physical. I’m not noticing you’re having any trouble with the workout so far,” I said. He pondered this and admitted that there could be some truth. “Having cancer puts a whole new perspective on how you want to spend your time,” he concluded.
He did everything I did and only struggled when he was working against gravity…like the picnic table hop and the high skips. He’s gained some unnecessary fat (as if anyone ever gains ‘necessary’ fat) over the past 8 months and it has a way of reminding you it’s there when you start running, jumping or doing anything vertically. In any event, he got a taste and enjoyed the environment and being able to use it to get a total body workout.
I rode the bike home with an eye to the blackening skies in the west. I don’t know how I managed it, but I pulled into my driveway and rolled into the garage as one of the season’s more violent storms descended on Highland Heights. I went inside to grab a shower and decided to do something I haven’t done in about a year…I weighed in. I figured I’d be down since my clothes were slipping down on my waist. I was pleased to see the tally…190. I know I’ve gained some muscle mass, so the fat weight is down even more. I believe the diet has made the difference. I’ve eaten more fresh fruits and vegetables in the last six weeks than I would normally consume in a year. Eliminating the desserts almost entirely hasn’t hurt either.
Survival Workout duration: 70 minutes. Bike workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm for workout, 130 bpm riding.
Calories burned during workout: 700 for survival workout. 900 biking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment