J's exercise log

There are several different changes that occur when moving from lower reps to higher. I don't pretend to know everything about all the physiological changes that occur as even how a muscle grows when you exercise is still debated, but some things that do occur are:

1/ changes in energy usage - after the first few seconds (say 10, but it can vary) you can use the Anaerobic Alactic Energy, then from there to about a minute (again it varies) you move to the Anaerobic Lactic Energy. After that the amount of aerobic energy goes up & slowly replaces these other sources (although all 3 go on all the time to some extent, just the balance shifts).

2/ Next there could be physiological make-up. At higher reps (above 6) you usually start building a lot more non-contractile tissue in the muscle (stuff that causes hypertrophy, but not direct strength increase), capillaries might grow, mitochondria might increase etc. At lower reps you mainly build a better mind/muscle link (better muscle firing patterns etc) & actual muscle fibre. Again, this is 'on average', so people will get large amounts of hypertrophy from low reps, but on average lower reps builds strength, not size so much, while higher reps (up to say 12-15) build size, but not such pronounced absolute strength increases. Above that you start to enter the world of muscular endurance where it's as much aerobic as anaerobic training (what is often called 'conditioning' by some people).

3/ With multiple sets, one theory is that you can 'dig deeper' into the muscle fibres by resting then going at them again, like empting a hole of water where it is trickling in, you say half empty, rest a bit (meanwhile it fills up again by a quarter, so you go again, empty as much again, so now it's three quarters empty, again you rest & it fills up a quarter (so now it is only half full), finally your go again & this time empty the hole. There's no way you could empty the hole in one go, but attacking it several times empties it. It's a similar thing with muscles (at least in this theory).

Personally I don't see why you'd have to do the same exercise each set, you could try say a DB bent over row, a chin-up & a pull down to do the back, or BB bent over row, high pull & deadlift, any combination should progressively work the back , the other muscles the same if you wanted to progressively work it over several sets.

The main issue would be your heart issues, keeping stuff at 3-6 reps (low enough you get no symptoms) is going to mean it will soon get pretty taxing on that organ, I'm not sure what I'd like to suggest without a doctors all clear.
Hmm, pumping causes one issue, low reps another...it's a tricky one without knowing what the issues are?
In this situation, if it was me, I'd do just enough to keep my general condition. I'd save any growth or full-bore stuff until I had a better idea about what is going on inside my body. I wouldn't do so much it affected sleep, I might also work on some bed time planning, maybe with some mediation & de-stressing before sleep. I'd also start a food log, just in case I notice any foods or combinations that might be triggering these affects.

This is a really hard situation & I think you're just going to have to do your best until a solution is discovered.

Thanks very much for the info. I vagely remembered there were 3 different energy stores but couldn't remember names. Had been wondering if it's just something about my body's ability to clear itself of lactic acid.

I have been watching pretty closely what I'm eating. Have removed all caffeine and chocolate from my diet. Strangely I've noticed a possible correlation between cinnamon and having some irregular heartbeats. I know cinnamon somehow can lower blood pressure, so I do wonder if it has other effects. Also supplementing some potassium and a multivitamin. And I've actually been feeling really good. Working 12 hour night shifts I was usually getting very tired by morning but the last week or so have had so much more energy.

Well anyway, thanks very much for the info.

Had been feeling really good with the one set thing. Also strangely enough it seems I have to avoid cinnamon. I love cinnamon. Have regularly eaten it for years. But it's the best I can come up with for the heart issue. Perhaps it was an accumulation of many things. Not sure. Anyway was feeling really good then got the flu three days ago. In truth I've done a bad job at eating green vegetables for a few months. Perhaps it caught up with me. I rarely catch colds/flus. Have to get back to at least eating lots of broccoli. As to leafy greens, not sure. I've noticed multiple times now I get a splitting headache after eating spinach. I developed a thing where peanuts or peanut oil started giving me a headache (that would last for than a day) 18 months ago. Now I'm worried my list of food ..."allergies" is growing.

Oi vey, I'm kind of a mess. Heh. But anyway felt great for about a ten day stretch there. Now that I'm about over the flu will try again, maybe a bit less intensity and with better eating.

Was just doing closegrip benches and chinups.

Heh. The chinups sometimes tweak my neck. I think my arms so straight above my head bunches things in my neck too tightly. I need to instead do widegrips and try to get to work on building that pulley system to do one arm at a time.

Also started getting (again) these breathing related sharp pains in my chest. Perhaps it's the benching. Only happens a tiny bit here and there. Just a few times a day someday. Still I hadn't had them in a long time, I start a bit of benching again and they come back.

I'm not as falling apart as this makes it sound...

Hi Jay,
if your list of food allergies is growing that is often a sign that you are including one allergy food that you have issues with.
Here's how the pattern goes:

First of all you have one food that you have problems with. This causes a reaction in your gut, it becomes inflamed or you upset the normal digestive function. This disrupts proper breakdown of proteins in the stomach. Now the proteins in several foods pass through the stomach not completely digested & move into the intestine. In the intestine the food you are allergic to has caused inflammation & so has created 'holes' in allows larger proteins to pass into the blood stream, so now both the allegen & some foods you were not allergic to pass into the blood. Obviously the body spots these proteins & attacks them (in the process you can begin to create new antibodies to these new foods), so you can develop new allergies or intolerances.
Something that you are eating could be causing this increase in allergic response. I would try to get on top of it before more things become an issue. Sometimes finding the original allergen & cutting it out will clear up the issues with the newer foods you have problems with, sometimes you are stuck with added allergies (it depends how your body reacted to them).
I'd look for foods or a food that triggers these reactions. There are many food allergy diets you can try out where you slowly add foods to check for reactions. I'd consider giving them a go.
Some common allergy foods that you might be eating are:
wheat (or possibly all gluten type grains)
soya
peanuts
strawberries (or sometimes other red fruits)
yeast

but to be honest it could be anything, so you'd have to check. It's also possible you don't have a classic allergy to anything, but an intolerance to too much of one type of food - this is fairly common as well, so try to vary your foods a bit a well (you should be doing that anyway for maximum health).
Hopefully you can sort it out. If you can find the cause you'll be well on the way to controlling the problem.

Thank you Pete.

Lately been feeling really good. I've been building a small pond (5x14 feet, 4 feet deep). The ground is very hard, rocky, clay and I've been having to mainly use a big pickaxe for the digging. This is great exercise. I'd probably be best off if I could manage to spend the rest of my life regularly using a pickaxe, building ponds. I didn't do any chinups or closegrip benches for a week or two. Yet today I tried them and was stronger at both. Got up to 16 reps for 120 pounds on the closegrip bench. I don't think it was the rest from conventional weightlifting. I think it was swinging that pickaxe. And also then pushing it forward to pry out chunks of the ground, which required serious effort as the ground is extremely hard.

Now going to try to just do a single set of close grips maybe 3 days a week (5 to 7 days was too much) along with a one arm chinups attempt. Otherwise curious about maybe getting a sledgehammer and a tire to pound on. Ridiculous as that probably would look, it is such good exercise, IMO. ...Eh. Probably won't do that. But it does make me reflect on what man has spent his history doing, getting probably many hours of exercise on a daily basis. It seems that conventional weightlifting doesn't make me feel good like the sort of physical activity man has spent most of his history doing.

I've got a DVD called "Hammer Mania" (scoot down the page to find it)...I was going to get a big tire & hammer, but my girlfriend drew the line at me also filling the garden with junk (the shed is already filled up with several wheels that fit onto an barbell, some old weights I use outdoors etc), but yea doing that, a bit of farmers walking (both with 2 hands & suitcase style), use the tire for some tossing & maybe add in some dragging & you'd have a good old outdoor fun program!
I you think about it digging by itself would cover the swinging upper body you'd get from the hammer, the farmers walk if you carried the earth (even a heavy wheelbarrow would be similar enough), the upper body lift would be tipping the earth into a skip (not sure if you call them 'skips' in the US, those big bins you hire that lorries bring & you fill with any rubbish you want taken away).
I'd say go for the tire, if you enjoy it. It'd be fun as well (assuming you have room of course).

Thank you Pete. Still not decided on the chopping motion as exercise thing.

Generalized update: my health continues to be good. Back feels very good. No heart issues. No knee issues. These are things I don't take as much for granted as I once did. Have started jogging again. I am going very slowly right now. My main goal is to manage to stick with the running for the long term. Usually I give it up in a couple of months tops. So trying to think about keeping it "comfortable". Which almost means not breathing hard, but I guess not quite. Maybe occasionally one can breath hard and still feel comfortable. But I seem to end up pushing myself into "uncomfortable" every time, every workout. And eventually crashing and quitting. So this time, really going to not worry about going so slow.

Hoping to run 4 times a week. Hopefully with an 8 pound dumbell in each hand. Really get sick of starting exercises which I just quickly quit. Hopefully this will go well. So far it's been pretty good.

Yea jogging, even brisk walking can be pretty good as a cardio style exercise. I've got a book called "Heavy hands walking" (somewhere, haven't seen it in a while - might go & have a look a little later). It was the book that started the whole walking with light weights. When n Steve Reeves repeatedly dislocated his shoulder & had to give up lifting weights (doing a stunt on a film set) he was a big proponent of walking with weights, so the idea of walking/jogging with weights is a good one that has been about a while now.

The running with weights gave me bad insomnia, although I've done it in the past. Sometimes I was fine, a few times got insomnia. Anyway I started drinking blueberry smoothies and they've really helped my insomnia. Won't yet say they are The Cure, but they certainly help a lot. I guess one works out and builds up free radicals in their body as a result and the antioxidants from the blueberries help clean out all the toxicity. I guess free radicals can maybe help cause insomnia?

Have slept great these last few days. Now will cautiously add in exercise that has caused insomnia in the past. Today actually did three sets of 15 reps on the bench press. That in the past would quite often cause extreme insomnia. But I feel like I shall be able to sleep tonight. We shall see. I actually really need to stay up late for a night shift the next night so some insomnia won't be so bad anyway.

I took a pickaxe out a week or so past after working a night shift and whacked the ground a bit. Again a big reason for thinking of doing that was to help me sleep. Instead I stayed up for about 32 hours straight as a result!
Had got up at noon. Went to work at 5pm, got home at 8AM. Did this exercise and then simply couldn't sleep all day. Finally fell asleep at 8pm. So then there's nothing really special about the chopping motion for helping one sleep. It was probably just more the general hard labor of many, many hours when digging the pond, shoveling, pushing the wheel barrow, etc. Anyway, exercise right before bedtime is generally a bad idea for many people, certainly including me.

You should have my young niece round (she's 5). She was here today & I'm REALLY ready for bed! We were hill running around the park, going on the stuff in the swing park & generally doing stuff non-stop. Hectic times! Maybe I should hire her out for people to get GPP (General Physical Preparedness)

My 7 year old nephew is coming over Sunday to spend the night. He wants to play basketball, write a song, and play videogames with me.

Anyway the blueberry smoothies have been wonderful. Never heard of them as an insomnia cure but they work for me. Looking at getting a lot more active then I've been the last 4 years since I started working at the hospital. Hoping to start each day with a "comfortable" run and then some weightlifting at least 3 times a week. Want to do somewhat higher volume, higher rep stuff. Looks like with the smoothies I can do this without getting insomnia. (Fingers crossed.)

So the goal workout is to run on my treadmill at a 2% incline at a "comfortable" pace for like a mile or so. Then alternate 15 rep sets of bench presses with supinated pulldowns, with basically no rest inbetween. Followed by close grip benchs alternated with wide grip pronated pulldowns. Hopefully want to get up to a minimum of 24 total sets of that. Finishing off with at least 3 sets of power cleans.

I vaguely recall doing this (without the power cleans) over ten years ago. Then I seem to remember using 115/120 pounds and feeling really really good. I quit then because it didn't give one much maximum strength. Now as I'm getting older I care more about energy and general health then maximum strength.

So far this workout is improving. Just using 90 pounds on the bench/pulldowns. Managed 16 sets today (not pushing myself hard.) Slowly improving and feeling pretty good. The blueberry smoothies have been essential.

My back is feeling very good. Otherwise I'm probably mainly just feeling good because of the blueberry smoothies more so than the workout.

Working nightshift, by the way, really gets in the way. The day after I work the sleep I get is such that it seems a waste to bother working out. But I've been accepted for a new job where I'll only have to work one nightshift a week instead of three. That starts in a few months. That should really improve my exercise and life in general.

Since a day or two after the previous post, I've been running every day. 5mph on 2percent incline for 6 minutes was the absolute minimum. But now adding in a lot of 7mph running and usually doing 1 to 2 miles. Trying to remember to not take the intensity too high. Continue to have plenty of easy days and make sure to run everyday. So far feeling really good. Really a good idea to do this. Sleeping very well. The daily running plus the blueberry smoothies have me sleeping much deeper and continous. I had been worrying I was getting old and just wasn't going to sleep as well anymore. But now am sleeping like a teenager again.

Love the treadmill also. Bought it for my wife. It's really nice to know my pace, watch TV and feel secure while I run still in my boxer shorts with bedhead.

For weightlifting I have been trying to do pulldowns and closegrip benches every day. Trying to figure out what's the heaviest/most intense I can manage for a minimum daily workout. 90lbs for 10 to 12 closegrips and 120 for 8 to 10 pulldowns, alternating with a set each minute proved to be slightly too much at this time. After 4 days it seemed like I was having trouble digesting food. Started having gas/bloating. Like my parasympathetic was turned off too much in favor of my sympathetic...?

Now doing 70lbs and 80lbs. 20 rep sets alternating and beginning each minute. Minimum of 3 sets of each. Trying to slowly add sets. And with the occasional heavier day.

Again feeling quite good. Although I think some chemical at work triggered a headache for me. It's just slight but I've had it for two days now.

I suppose 'comfortable' is the word? Thinking the majority of one's exercise has to be 'comfortable'.

Ah well the above weight lifting program lasted a piddly 16 days. Seemed a long time. It went good for that time but I finally had a bad insomnia day. I suppose primarily because I increased the intensity, but the increase was so slight that it seems this workout is maybe still a bit too much like playing with (insomnia) fire.

On the bright side I'm feeling better and better with the running. Today ran a ten minute mile at a 2% incline and it wasn't very hard. Could have probably ran two more at that pace. Trying to keep the intensity down though still. Trying to be very gradual. Trying to stay patient and take it slow.

Also should mention I switched to working only one nightshift a week instead of three. This means better sleep. Felt really good to wake up in the morning today.

For weightlifting... I don't know. Just back to single sets for now. Was thinking occasionally to do multiple sets with much heavier weights/lower reps. Today just closegrip benched 80 pounds for 35 reps (could have done more) and wide grip pulled down 90 for 41 (could have done far more but certainly not interested in doing something that light to failure.)

You're just about running a half Marathon mate! That's great on an incline too!!! Maybe thinking about some 5, 10Ks & half marathons for 2011 might be a fun goal. No need to even push crazy, just doing a respectable time will focus you on a goal without pushing too hard?
From the sounds of it I'd stick at lower sets on the weights as you seem to go up & have issues. Maybe focus on nailing a set & rep level for longer before going up. Maybe trying some other variety like keeping the rep & set rate the same, but slowing the reps, so you can keep the challenge high, but not overdo things? You could also reduce rest between sets (unless that gives you problems as well?).

I didn't run ten miles. Just a ten minute mile. I'm keeping the time spent running at a maximum of 25 minutes and just trying to gradually improve my speed for now. I think it's more worthwhile for my waistline/fat percentage to be able to eventually run a couple of miles pretty fast than it is to worry about longer distances. Although perhaps eventually some 5k/10ks.

Reducing rest time between sets actually slightly reduces the issue although I think just because it means lifting a bit less weight. I think though if I go back to lower reps, combined with the blueberries I should be OK. Will try to do that once every 4 or 5 days.

Quote :

I didn't run ten miles. Just a ten minute mile.

opps misread! That would still put you at just a little under a 5km run already & plenty of time if you wanted work up to a 10K for spring 2011 (I say spring because who the hell wants to race in the winter?!?).

I'm also considering maybe doing a few 5/10Ks in 2011 myself as I working with a runner & we meet up with quite a few Vegan Runners (VR) here & there. I know Coach Gary reckons he can beat a few of the VR crowd & wants to hit a few in 2011, so I'm pretty sure with those 2 pressures I'll be at least doing a few next year

I've managed to go quite a while since posting in my log.

Two weeks back I ran two miles at a 6mph pace (could have kept going) then I started working on 6.5mph. At first for that I was having a fast day which was alternating between 6.5mph for a couple of minutes and then down to 5mph back and forth for two miles then an easy day which was just 5mph for two miles. But then I had a day where I had no time for the easy day and instead just ran 6.5mph for 5 minutes as my easy. And I found that it gave me a boost. The hard day was then easier. I expected it was just a short term effect but have been sticking with that such that today my "easy" day was running 6.5mph for 9:15.

Which is to say I'm getting away from having easy days which is a mistake on my part.

I have to remember I'm doing this so that:
1. I'll have more energy for my long hard work days.
2. My back will stay good.
3. I'll sleep well.

What eventually happens though is I forget and/or take the main reasons for granted and then instead start focusing on running faster combined with looking good. Those aren't really good reasons though and as they become The reasons what happens is:
1. I start questioning why I'm bothering to exercise and lose the motivation to bother.
2. Or I start working out too hard. Which means instead of having increased energy for the rest of my day, I end up feeling more tired than I would if I just didn't work out at all.

The latter is what I'm falling into right now. Have been a bit tired at work lately. And even beyond that (or perhaps highly related) I think I was having some premature ventricular contractions Sunday morning. Perhaps if my heart rate gets really elevated day after day it starts getting it worn down..? Also with breathing hard everyday I start getting the occasionally sharp pain in my chest which seems to be almost like pluerisy. Like the pluera starts occasionally catching on something.

Anyway, thing to do is I should be running at a slower pace on my easy day. Obviously. I just seem to lose patience though. Always start pushing things too hard.

So today my "easy day" was really a hard day, although it wasn't particularly hard. I could have run another mile at that pace, possibly another two. But it's too hard when I'm running at least that hard 6 days a week... So tomorrow I'll go back to having a truly easy day even though 5mph seems like such a pitiful shuffle.

For weightlifting I'm going extremely light. Alternating between pulldowns and closegrip benches each for 150 seconds straight. 3 sets each. Using 40 pounds on press and 57.5 on pulldown so far, 2 to 3 times a week.

I think you're like most of us..if we could we would have everyday as hard day, going light seems to make you feel you've not done your best, when really it's exactly what you need to do sometimes - which is strange as it's hard to go easy & easy to go hard...which to 'normal' people probably sounds stupid (maybe it is, but we're a funny old breed! ).
I'm actually feeling it a little myself today - I've had an illness (just a cold), but I hit the gym yesterday & did squats, then later in the session some shrugbar deadlifts (trapbar, parallel grip bar whatever you prefer to call the bar), all in all the session was way too intense for my recovering body & todays jog was a bit of an 'adventure' now I'm still feeling hammered & it's the next evening-so I think we all suffer from that a little bit.

I've been learning how to play the cello by the way the last 4 or so months now and I had just an absolutely lousy lesson with my teacher the other day and I was wondering why was I suddenly playing so bad, the last week or so. Today I went back down to just running at 5.1 mph and I played the cello wonderfully. So I'm convinced overtraining leads to bad cello playing amongst other things.

Monday (ten days ago) I started developing a slight headache that in retrospect was caused by a carpet cleaner my wife used. Thursday I took a nap on a couch right by where she had used it and that evening had a very bad headache. First I took two tylenol and 90 minutes later, considering I was getting nauseous and had a research thing that it would have been very bad to not got to the next day, I took a lortab.

That Friday I ran 1.5 miles at a 6.5mph pace on the treadmill at a 2% incline. Felt very easy. Easily could have gone further but I had previously only ran 1 mile at that pace and I know if I don't keep things gradual I'll have a harder time recuperating. Still I had handled 6.5mph so easily I decided to next go ahead and move up to 6.8mph.

I think it was Sunday that my right knee started hurting. Sunday night though I still went running. I ran 5.1mph for 3 minutes then 6.8 for 2 minutes then repeated the same once more. The very first minutes my knee hurt a bit but then I felt fine. But walking around and up stairs it was hurting a bit.

Still hurt Monday a bit. Ran anyway. Ran 5.1mph for 16 minutes. A shorter run than otherwise because concerned about the knee.

Tuesday ran 5.1mph for 2 minutes then 6.8mph for 3 minutes then repeated once. My knee was still bothering me although again, not while running on the treadmill. Still I maybe should not have been running. But I did so because I was of the opinion that the knee was hurting because of the lortab I took. Not because of the running/running faster.

Worked a night shift Tuesday night plus had to take parents for doctor's appointments Wednesay. Ended up without sleep for 30 hours. Then slept 6 hours, up for a couple and then slept another 10. And this Thursday, indeed my knee feels fine. Today ran 5.1mph for 2 minutes then 6.8 for 3 minutes then repeated twice more and knee feels perfectly fine.

I do think it was the lortab. I think I had noticed this happening once before quite a while back. The faster running though may also have contributed. Anyway feel great now. In the future unfortunately I might just lay in agony instead of taking pain medicine as I really don't want to lose the ability to run.

Perhaps whiskey next time.

Anyway really enjoying the running and improving faster than I expected. I think the thing is in the past I usually would try to run too fast. Now I'm of the opinion I should never be gasping for breath. 2 or 3 runs a week the breathing can be a bit elevated but no more than that.

Nice one. I'm glad you figured out what was causing the knee issue, even if you can't find an alternative solution, at least you know that it's a possibility. Your running is improving really well, you're right to take it slow to get faster. Like lifting, running should be something you think about as a lifetime activity, not a short term activity you rush to get up to a speed, then quit (like most people seem to do).

Unfortunately now that I think further, I think I'm wrong. I think it's mostly just going too fast too soon. My muscles can handle it but my joints need a more gradual increase in speed. So I'm going back down to a fast day of 6mph and increasing by a maximum of 0.1mph per week, which is still probably too much. (Knee quit hurting for just one day and then started hurting a tiny bit again...)

Noticed that I've been landing on the outer edge of my right foot as compared to almost dead center on my left. Maybe THIS is actually the main reason my right knee has been bothering me! Been trying to concentrate on being symetrical(sp) last couple of days and right knee is feeling better. I want to get a large mirror and put it in front of the treadmill so I can scrutinize my form better. I think I'm maybe leaning a bit to the left...

BTW, all last week slowed down to 6.1mph and my body felt... flabby. Upon realizing the form issue I jumped back up to 7.0mph and immediately I just feel more muscular and today had my second 7.0 mph run. (3minutes at 7.0 then 2min at 5.0mph and repeated twice more) I guess now that I think about it I recall the same sort of thing from many years back when I used to do a lot of sprinting. Faster running just does good things for the body, provided you don't destroy your knees, etc in the process.

Also want to mention I've almost always been a bad runner I think because I push things too hard. I always run to the point of gasping for breath and that's overtraining. Here these last few months I've kept the intensity way down and I've steadily improved such that if my knees stay good I expect to be finally doing some decent running next summer like I haven't ever managed before. Really loving this running now.

I recall only one other time did I really get good at longer distance running. That was in the military when I was 17. Back then I always had to run in step with the other 45 guys in my unit. Always had to go slower that I wanted to, but by the end of the six weeks I very easily ran 1.5 miles in 12 minutes and I could have gone way way faster. (I was still stuck running with my unit and was kind of annoyed that we had a couple slow guys slowing us down so much.)

So after basic training I could finally go running on my own and of course immediately seriously ramped up the intensity and very quickly my running went to absolute shit. Such that I vaguely recall really struggling to run 1.5 miles in 14 minutes about 6 months later. I was really worried I had developed some serious sickness at the time. In retrospect I guess I'm just really bad about overtraining my body.

I wonder how much such issues cross over into weight lifting? Which, with so fewer reps and shorter sets it might be far far easier to have some level of overtraining without realizing it.

...I recall right out of basic training running on my own I had this one run on a track where I was just smoking. Can't remember my time but I was seriously moving. Remember it was a two mile run.... Definitely the miles were under 6 minutes each.... Well anyway, of course being clueless I then attempted to run like that each time, always pushing myself to the limit and I just ground my body to dust basically, lol. Never had another run as good as that first one out of basic training.

Based on the site powerrunning.com I've decided to only run three days per week, dropping my easy days. I do wonder if even less often than that might work best for hte average person (or at least for me.) Beyond that not sure about some things. Not so sure I want to only have one speed day a week. Just really like the faster running, not as much the longer distance stuff....

My knee still not perfect. My right leg is weaker. I'm trying to correct this imbalance. Not sure how though. Can't find a decent exercise bike, strange as that may sound (have to try it before I buy it and I can't find anything decent nearby to try...).

Ran at 8mph last two workouts. Just 7 60 second intervals the first time and 6 90 second intervals today on a 3% inclince. Last week I did longer distances with so so times (2 miles at 6.5mph with 2.5% incline) thanks to an increase in the incline. Really felt good except the last workout I over did it.

Also bought a heart monitor but it seems to keep mistaking my stride rate for my heart rate.

Did some heavier lifting and the time away from the heavy weights (instead benching 40 pounds and 60 pound pulldowns) didn't hurt my strength much. Very easily did 10 chinups and was able to closegrip bench 120 for 17.