Fitness Testing at The Achilles Running Shop

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

I arrived at the Achilles Running Shop in Mentor fully equipped to conduct fitness tests on their staff.  We’re doing some work together to include fitness testing, and seminars to include topics like, well, running of course, Survival Workout/Paleo Diet stuff and whatever other creative things we can devise to provide their population with health and fitness information they might need to improve their fitness routines and lives.  I’ll be working with their staff and my partner, Bob Iafelice, MS/RD.  He may be the most fit nutritionist on the planet and is the only guy I know that walks the talk 100% of the time.  He can be very inspirational and is as knowledgeable as a person can be on his area of expertise.

Let’s call the people I tested David, Kyle, Nick and Kris to protect their privacy and because that’s what their names are.  David and Kyle are both avid runners who have competed for many years, though they’re both in their early twenties.  Nick is a high school runner at Chardon who placed fourth in the Ohio Cross Country State Championships this past fall and then qualified to the Foot Locker Nationals where he took 30^th in the country…and he’s only a Junior.  Kris is the wife of Mark Mendeszoon, owner of the store and my sports doc. 

All four were in excellent shape and by no means, a snapshot of the average American.  Their body fats were low, their aerobic scores were high (except Kris whose workout routine does NOT include very much cardio) and their muscular endurance fluctuated based on the routines they followed.  All scored extremely well for overall fitness and all had at least one area upon which they could improve if they were looking to maximize athletic performance (well…maybe not Nick).  And here’s the thing…they don’t really need to change anything since they’re routines are keeping them in good shape, but if they should be looking to excel in an area or sport, they now have the baseline of information against which they can measure their improvement.  More importantly for me, they now have a clear understanding of what the test entails and how it could benefit a potential client.

Bob had joined me towards the end of the testing and we discussed our ideas of how the Paleo Diet and Survival Workout could benefit the average runner.  The discussion continued until the store was ready to close and by the time I returned home and had some dinner with Holly, it was beyond my training time again.

Well…two days off in a row is pretty unusual for me, but it feels good.  I’m looking forward to getting back on track tomorrow, though.

The crazed snow shoveler...

Monday, February 4, 2013
I stopped by Mimi’s place to re-attach her garage door opener, which she’d disengaged when her power had gone out.  She’s short and doesn’t climb ladders really well and I’m taller and don’t have trouble with them, so I pulled out the ladder and 10 second later, it was fully functional again.  She also has a snow plowing service, which does what all snow plowing services do…I think…which is that they leave some snow immediately in front of the garage door for the car to roll over, pack down, and turn into about 4 inches of ice.  This makes me crazy…I try to keep my driveway shoveled to the pavement all winter…so I asked her where her snow shovel was.

“Well...I use that one over there,” she said, indicating the large, plastic shovel I use when moving mulch in the summer.

“That will NOT do,” I said and started for the tool shed with the large, plastic shovel in hand. 

I began to dig through the other thing the snow plower does, which is to pile up five feet of snow on the edge of the driveway and blocking my path to the tool shed where I was sure to find a steel shovel.  I spent the next ten minutes cutting a swath through that snow bank…it would have been a great bank to build a snow cave though I doubted Mimi would have gotten much use from it…to the shed beyond.  Once in the shed, I retrieved the steel shovel I needed and then cleared the ice from the front of the garage door.  When I was finished, I stood back and admired my efforts at reaching the pavement.  It would remain that way at least until the snow plow returned.

I went home with the intention of riding the trainer, but Holly was there and since we hadn’t seen each other in 10 days, spent the next couple of hours catching up and eating dinner.  I ended up missing a workout, but re-connecting with my wife, which is a good use of workout time.  And I did break a little sweat clearing the driveway at Mimi’s and returning her Christmas decorations to the basement so…I had that going for me.

Lowdown on UB...

Sunday, February 3, 2013
I went to the Metropark first thing in the morning for a Survival Workout and found another couple of inches had fallen overnight.  Other than having to uncover my rocks and logs and deal with snow falling from them as they were hoisted, I liked having more snow to up the difficulty factor of the workout.  I began with push-ups and again found myself way short of 100.  I’ve been starting in different places and not using the same gate on which to prop my feet while doing the first set and maybe that’s the reason.  I won’t know for sure until they plow my spot where I’d normally park and since that’s not likely to happen, I’ll need to wait for the next thaw.

The Performance Bike repair guy, Brian, called to fill me in on all UB Express would need. 

“Cables.  They’re all stretched.  And your chain is about 60%.  I’d say that you might want to consider repacking the headset to make sure that the rust I’m seeing on the top isn’t affecting the bearings.  Probably ought to rewrap the handle bars with some tape that doesn’t have a foam backing.  Better for people who sweat a lot,” he said.

“Look…take whatever you think you know about sweaty riders and multiply that by a factor of 10 and then you’ll have some idea how much salt pours from my body and onto a bike.  Anything you can do to protect it from me will be money well spent,” I said.

I’m sure he thinks I’m kidding, but having rusted through 3 frames already, I’d like to keep UB intact for awhile.  Its 22 years old now, but it’s never seen the likes of me.  It is carbon, which doesn’t rust, but there are steel parts on it and those are susceptible.  He also said he could add a new, 28-tooth sprocket to the rear cassette, which will make climbing hills so much easier.  I can’t wait to get it back and try it out on some dry roads.

I climbed aboard the trainer and continued to dump sweat onto a frame that is already shot through with rust.  I’m waiting for the day when I find myself sitting on the floor as the rust finally corrodes the frame to the breaking point.  That could be unpleasant.  I managed another hour while watching my fifth episode of the ‘West Wing’, which is living up to its billing as an outstanding drama series.

Survival Workout:  60 minutes.  Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm for  SW and 120 bpm on the bike.
Calories burned during workout:  600 for SW and 850 on the bike.

Paleo Man

Saturday, February 2, 2013
I met with my nutritionist, Bob Iafelice, for breakfast at Kleifeld’s.  We get together regularly to discuss health and fitness and things we’re planning to do together.  He was excited to share his ideas on doing a ‘Paleo Diet’ presentation.  He’s been doing a lot of research on it since I first began following it and is ready to work with me in presenting.

“The diet ties in perfectly with your Survival Workout.  We’ll become the ‘Primal’ guys…or something,” he said excitedly.

He’s right…it does fit perfectly with my workout since both look to recreate what the Paleolithic Man’s diet and conditioning regimen were like.  That’s not to say the Paleo man worked out, far from it.  What he did do though, was live a very active life style that honed his muscles, power, balance, speed and agility to keep him in food…or from being food.  Those that survived infant mortality lived long, fit lives and died of accidents or the lack of medicine when it was needed instead of high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity.  They were extremely functional throughout their older years (read ‘Younger Next Year’) since it was that or die, and since they always used it, they never lost it.

I invited him to join me Tuesday night at The Achilles Running Shop where we’d be doing some fitness testing on the staff and selling them on the concept of a seminar in becoming ‘Paleo People’.

John and I tried driving to Youngstown where I intended to pick up the biking trail for ‘Tour Ohio’ that I’d begun two weeks earlier.  We were hoping the snow that was falling at home would dissipate, but as we headed southeast on the Ohio Turnpike, it only got worse.  We finally abandoned our quest and returned home.  I tried to convince him to join me in the park for a hike through the deep snow, but he wimped out.  Dakota and I didn’t and 70 minutes of hiking through 12 inches of unbroken snow had us both panting.  Once again I was thinking I’d ride when I got home and once again, I took the easy way out, opting for food and TV over more exercise.  I had shoveled the drive two more times though, so with the hike, I’d done quite a bit.

Hike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  90 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  350.

Lot's more snow...

Friday, February 1, 2013
I went out to grab the paper first thing in the morning in whiteout conditions.  After shoveling the drive, I drove Jack to school in conditions that were causing fender benders everywhere.  The 10-minute ride took almost 30, which didn’t bode well for the time it would take me to get from the school to work. 

Which was also horrible.  I made it to the office in 40 minutes (15-minute trip) and spent the day handling paper work since none of my clients made it through the weather to meet me…and I didn’t blame them one bit.  It was one of those mornings where, if you didn’t HAVE to leave your house, you shouldn’t. 

I went back home and parked in the road so I could clean the driveway again, then changed into my workout clothes, grabbed Dakota and headed for the park.  I was thinking of doing a double…Survival Workout followed by an hour on the trainer when I returned home…but between the shoveling and the workout in the snow, I was exhausted and frozen when I returned home and opted for a hot shower, a bowl of chili and some time watching ‘Office’ reruns instead of cycling.  Yes, yes…worthless and weak…and it wasn’t what Lance would have done…but it sure felt good. 

Survival Workout:  60 minutes

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm.
Calories burned:  600

Baseball, steroids and spaghetti...

Thursday, January 31, 2013
John, Don and I gathered to watch the next segment of the Ken Burns’ baseball documentary, ‘Tenth Inning’, which picked up in the early ‘90’s and focused on the steroid era.  As it does with all baseball statisticians, this got the three of us to discussing the inflated power numbers this era generated and whether and how it affects the Hall of Fame.  As is the cycling controversy regarding performance enhancing drugs, the question becomes how wide spread was their use.  In baseball it must be remembered that, until the early 2000’s, there was no testing for PED’s and their use wasn’t banned.  In other words, players using them, unlike the riders in the Tour de France, weren’t cheating.  We discussed at great length how ALL power hitters in this era were likely using, but agreed that some of them would have achieved Hall of Fame numbers without steroids.  Barry Bonds was already there when he is supposed to have began using, as an example.  He would easily have been a first ballot (elected the first year he was eligible…five years after retiring) HOF’er, and rightfully so.  Now, he will never get elected.  There are half a dozen players that fill the same bill and I think it’s a shame that they’ll never get in.  I suppose there could be a way of looking at their numbers and subtracting 20% of their production to account for the steroids, and if after that, their numbers are still good enough…put them in.  It wasn’t their fault that baseball retrospectively condemned the use of performance enhancers.  If they stopped using when they were outlawed by the league, they should not be penalized.

I spent an hour on the bike and another hour shoveling, so I managed to burn some calories before eating the spaghetti and garlic bread dinner.  I did wash it down with a smoothie, at least.

Bike duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm.
Calories burned during workout:  850.

New goal...

Wednesday, January 30, 2013
It remained unseasonably warm and I considered taking out ‘Big Red’, the bike I’d given Jack for Christmas since UB Express was on its way to the repair shop.  The roads were nasty though, and somehow that didn’t seem right since he’s yet to ride it himself.  Instead, I went to the Metroparks and dove into a Survival Workout.

Since doing 101 push-ups last week, I haven’t come close.  I started with 86 for the second straight time and am now wondering if I just dreamed I surpassed 100.  I have decided that my next goal will be 125 and then maybe I’ll change it up to some other form of chest exercise.  As long as it took me to hit 100, that should keep me busy into the summer months, at least.

I keep eating crap with Holly traveling.  I don’t know why except that I can.  Jack is the only one home and I don’t really make food for him since he’s self-reliable, but he keeps making things that smell good…like grilled cheese with turkey sandwiches…and I just follow his lead and make the same thing.  I did manage a large smoothie, though.

Survival Workout:  60 minutes

Training Heart Rate:  100-150 bpm.
Calories burned:  600