Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving Day and what are my intentions?  Quite simply to overeat all the wrong kinds of food for the entire day and without a single pang of guilt.  Oh…and sitting around watching football to burn off the excess calories.

But I didn’t do just that.  In fact, I was up early and dragged Jack and Dakota (my amazing dog) to the North Chagrin Reservation where we went through the Survival Workout in two inches of snow and temperatures in the low 20’s.  Jack was in a talkative mood; discussing what he should do with the rest of his life and how best to approach college.  I didn’t do as many sets as I would have normally, but thought answering his questions and giving him my focus was more important.  Until I got home again.

I hopped on the trainer in my office and loaded Netflix onto the computer, picking a movie starring Robert DeNiro and John Travolta called ‘Killing Season’.  I love both actors and it was filmed in the Appalachians, so I figured it had to be good.  It really wasn’t, but it kept my mind off the fact that I was riding a stationary bicycle indoors well enough for me to get 80 minutes of riding.  Now I felt like I could eat with reckless abandon.

But I still didn’t.  I went to the kitchen with the aroma of a baking turkey and fresh pies and put together a blender of fruit smoothie.  I downed the whole blender an hour before dinner was to be served as a way to keep myself from gorging on graving, dressing, mashed potatoes and pie.  When we did finally sit down, I put only turkey, sweet potatoes and corn on my plate, still somewhat satisfied from the smoothie.  I knew I didn’t need to eat all the turkey at one sitting; I’d control the leftovers.

I skipped dessert following dinner, but had a huge slice of apple pie with a couple of scoops of Breyer’s Vanilla ice cream with Natural Bean Specks a couple of hours later.  It was Thanksgiving, after all, and I would have felt guilty if I hadn’t. 

Survival Workout:  45 minutes.  Bike duration:  80 minutes. 
Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm for SW and 120 bpm on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  450 for SW and 1100 on the bike.

Back to stay...

Tuesday, November 26, 2013
For anyone who has been reading this blog...sorry for the repetitive information. 

I’ve been writing an exercise blog for three years now, though I’ve let it slip as a result of Tour Ohio and taking on the job as CEO to the Trumbull County YMCA.  It’s time to stop with the excuses and get back to working out…and writing about it…every day.

Okay – YMCA folks – I suppose you need a little history.  I earned my Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology in the early 80’s.  I worked for the Cleveland Athletic Club as their Athletic Director for a number of years conducting fitness tests, writing training programs and generally helping folks to get…and stay…in shape.  I believed it was really important to make sure exercise was fun, though goal-oriented and that if you couldn’t laugh some, you wouldn’t be doing it for long.  I remain dedicated to those principles.

Personally, I know I’ll struggle to stay with a routine without some kind of goal or event.  I began by training and completing the Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, 26.2 mile run) twice.  I figured I needed to walk the talk and wanted to inspire people I was training.  It worked.

For many years, I was the guy running, riding and swimming long distances, and playing any and every game in between.  As I grew older though, I found that I was getting bored.  Then I discovered backpacking, kayaking, climbing and camping.  I refocused my training to have me ready for long trips into the back country of the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York.  A different goal, but it kept me focused.

Now we’re almost to the present.  I needed a new challenge and wanted to create something – a trek – that others could train for and follow.  I wanted it to be outside, long, interesting and use multiple disciplines.  Enter – Tour Ohio.

Tour Ohio was a combination of cycling, kayaking and hiking.  I laid out the trail and began the trek this past August.  I started with a 1,100 mile bike ride on a course that circumnavigated the state as close to its perimeter as I could find passable riding roads.  I camped along the way and made the trip in 11 days.  I moved to the kayak and paddled 45 miles of the Grand River in two days.  Then I took a break to interview for this job, but was quickly back on the trail and hiking from Cleveland on the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail with a destination 84 miles to the south near New Philadelphia.  I was carrying a pack with camping gear and hoping to complete the journey in four days.  By the second day I was suffering from a hip injury that has been bothering me since I’d suffered a stress fracture two years earlier, and was forced to the sidelines when I could no longer walk.  I’ll get back to it and the next time out, train more appropriately so that there will be no stopping on the journey.

So…here I am at the Trumbull County YMCA as the CEO and trying to learn the ropes of the position while spreading the news about the mission of the Y.  In so doing, I began to neglect my fitness regimen.  Totally unacceptable.  I have found that writing about it forces me to do it.  Hard to write a column that says I bagged the workout because I was too busy.  Anyway, here’s what I did for yesterday’s workout (I’ll be writing about the day before as a matter of course). 

I do something called the Survival Workout, which is a functional regimen that normally takes place in the North Chagrin Reservation, Cleveland Metroparks, and includes push-ups, dips, lifting heavy rocks and logs, jumping over things, pull-ups on tree branches, climbing steep hills, sprinting, core work and other miscellaneous moves that leave me gasping after 45 minutes.  I’ve adapted it for an indoor YMCA workout for days when I can’t get to the park before dark on my ride home…which is basically every day in the winter.  I moved around the facility hopping and lifting and then finished with 15 minutes on a stationary bike and rowing another 6.  I was drenched in sweat and exhausted, but felt great.

I’ll likely report on more than the workout.  I tend to think what’s happening in my life is inordinately interesting…like going to see the new ‘Hunger Games’ movie with Savannah and Jack – two of my children – last night.  I’ll also share what I’ve eaten, particularly when it’s something good for me.  Finally, I’ll post the amount of calories burned during the workout with a goal of burning 7,000 calories a week with my exercise routine.  Hope you’ll find the stories interesting to read and inspirational with regards to your own training.  I’m available at the Y for fitness testing and program design and look forward to helping any and all who may be looking for assistance getting started, something fresh, or a way to stay committed.  Thanks. 

Survival Workout:  60 minutes.  Bike duration:  15 minutes.  Rowing: 6 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm for SW and 120 bpm on the bike and rowing.
Calories burned during workout:  600 for SW and 300 on the bike/row.