Fartlek!

[Colorado Belle]

While I admire you marathoners...it's just not something I want to ever do myself. I am philosophically opposed to running that far that long. So be it.

BUT

No amount of walking has convinced my body fat to decrease, so I have to up the fat burning ante.

I've decided to make use of FARTlek which is a swedish word for interval training. It seems to be really easy on the treadmill...I walk for 5 minutes at 3mph then jog at 5mph for 2 minutes, then walk at 3.5 mph for 5 minutes and jog at 5 mph for 2 minutes , and so on. When I start my heart rate is @ 110 and when I'm jogging its @ 147 and then back to 120 in about a minute.

I've read that this induces much more fat burning than long and slow. And i fiugre I can do most anything for 2 minutes. I guess I 'll try to increase the mph, altho my flip flop crocs might not let me full on run.

[PoohsPal]

Ummm...might I recommend some real running shoes? :innocent:

Great job at upping the effort!

[YesDear]

Great for you picking up the pace. Congratulations. While I am no expert I am using interval training as well. I am using at trainer and he is having me do upper body, lower body and cardio in quick bursts. It will increase your fat buring as well as improve your cardiovascular abilities. You might also want to check with your Dr. regarding your workouts. You should figure out your optimum heart rate for fat burning.
It is my understanding that your optimum heart rate for fat burning is around 60% of your maximum rate. The math is simple. Take 220 minus your age. Then take 60 % of that. The longer you can maintain that heart rate the more FAT you burn.


Once again congrats and good luck

[Colorado Belle]

THanks you guys for the spirit lift!!!

I always thought that too, Yes Dear, but for me that just doesnt' work.
I'd fall asleep walking at that slow a rate and I've already learned that walking at 3.5 and 4.0 does NOTHING for fat burning for chubby moi.

The latest studies say that interval training puts your body in fat burning for 12-20 hours after the elevated heart rate periods.

It's just damn hard at my age to gain muscle and lose fat. I was super skinny til 33 and then 'on the skinny side' til 45. So carrying weight around my middle is uncomfortable territory...yet it refuses to budge. ARGH.

Pooh....you KNOW I use my Crocs for EVERYTHING....running shoes? at least I'm not walking in my bares anymore...

[nono]

CB,

Running shoes are evil... :upsidedow

http://runningbarefoot.org/

(I'm actually a "mixer" -- barefoot, Nike Frees, and New Balance 825s).

[Colorado Belle]

Well, I'm glad to report that while still in my Crocs I'm up to 7 mph sprint speed. But I'm a bit concerned about something.

First, I think I drink a lot of coffee. I slow it down when I get dizzy spells playing tennis and also started eating something in the morning before I play. Didn't like the OTHER reasons for dizzy spells...so I decided it was coffee:thumbsup:

Anyway, had a dizzy spell the other day in the middle of a match. No one seemed inclined to stop the game, so I kept on playing. I got dizzy and THEN I felt my heart RACING and then, I think I got scared a little so I started hyperventilating trying to catch my breath. I had a hard time walking to my car, but driving home I felt better so I decided to go grocery shopping. Now this was about an hour after the dizzy-tachycardia thingie. In the grocery store I took my bp 3 times....I'm overweight, but have always had fairly low bp so wasn't shocked at 100/70. But it also took my pulse...my resting pulse.
And :scary: :( it was 100 and 105. Since then, when I first start on my treadmill I take my bp and it is 105.....Am I using up my heart beats too fast???? When I do my 7mph 'sprint' it climbs to 150 and then within a minute is back down to 112 BUT i don't think it ever goes less than 100 and I'm wondering if I'm about to keel over??????? Anybody know if there's something other than coffee going on here...and yep I am cutting down on coffee for the next two weeks to see if things start to mellow. I swear my resting pulse used to be low 60 .

The good news is that this sprint thing seems to be working a bit on the weight issue. I'm going to try to do three of these short sessions a day and see if that melts a few lbs. wish me luck!

[KNWVIKING]

FART lek ???

That's what happens when you pull my finger.

[KNWVIKING]

While I admire you marathoners...it's just not something I want to ever do myself. I am philosophically opposed to running that far that long.

Amen. Maybe, just MAYBE, if someday I see a jogger with a smile on their face I will consider jogging from my car to the McDonalds entry door. Maybe.

Be carefull trying to raise your heart rate. Remember: You are DEAD when you use your last heartbeat. God only gave us so many. All you are doing by exercising is robbing yourself of The Golden Years.

Relax. Slow down. Live Loooonger.

[AFMom]

CB - I've had problems with my pulse racing for YEARS and the dr's have never been able to give me an answer. I routinely have a resting pulse of 100 - 115. Resting as in laying down in bed for 30 minutes prior to taking my pulse.
In fact - I've been having dizzy spells and shortness of breath (pressure on my chest) lately, and am thinking I need to go get re-evaluated. But I hate going to the dr!
Anyway - the least you should do is go get a physical - especially with the change in your exercise program. It could just be that you are becoming more sensitive to caffeine, or something else just as benign.
Then - when you get an answer - you can tell me!!!

Viking - :laughing:

[KNWVIKING]

In fact - I've been having dizzy spells and shortness of breath (pressure on my chest) lately,

Your bra is too tight. Dr Viking recommends ........

[nono]

Amen. Maybe, just MAYBE, if someday I see a jogger with a smile on their face I will consider jogging from my car to the McDonalds entry door. Maybe.

Be carefull trying to raise your heart rate. Remember: You are DEAD when you use your last heartbeat. God only gave us so many. All you are doing by exercising is robbing yourself of The Golden Years.

Relax. Slow down. Live Loooonger.

Well if you'd get down here early enough to see me run, you'd see me smiling. ;)

[KNWVIKING]

Well if you'd get down here early enough to see me run, you'd see me smiling. ;)

But only because your kids are at home with H.

You run the beach, boards, sidewalk or all the above ?

[nono]

But only because your kids are at home with H.

You run the beach, boards, sidewalk or all the above ?

D. All of the above. Today it was all 5 of us (yep, including the new dog) out for the run. I take mercy on the new one as he can't walk yet, but even D gets out of the jogging stroller and runs the last block home! Come to think of it, she's smiling too. But as you know, running in the flatlands with all the scenery isn't too much work! :cheers2:

I know what you mean though -- I wouldn't run if it made me grimace like so many folks I see out there!!! :yuck:

[Colorado Belle]

Well, ya go away for a few days and ....

there is actioni on this thread.!!!

Kristy,are we sisters? I never took pulse before..just assumed it was low because I had low blood pressure. I don't do doctors anymore, in both senses of the word, so it is unlikely I'll find out about this before you do...but I'm older and have fewer beats left. I'm monitoring coffee intake though.
New motto: all margaritas all the time!:margarita :margarita :margarita

[7swans]

CB I have had similar symptoms I know it happens when I am dehydrated. I have found that taking a multi vitamin with a big glass of water before I go to bed particularly helpful if I have had any alcohol.
I also had really scary heart beat stuff with dizziness when I was taking an herbal weight loss supplement. I was hoping to remember the name of it, but that file in my brain seems to have been deleted!
I have tried Cortislim with no adverse effects and it does seem to work at least a little!
I wanted to tell you that going to the doctor for me was useless, cut down on the coffee was all I got.
I hope your symptoms subside and congrats on upping your workout intensity, good job!
Chris

[Colorado Belle]

Chris..thanks for posting. Safety in numbers...or at least it helps to know that I'm not the only weirdly beating heart on the planet!

I know I was drinking way too much coffee. Come to think of it, I never drank coffee until I was 25 and then only a little bit for a long time after that. I was hooked on iced tea all my life , and tho that has caffeine, it's a different kind of caffeine. After I separated from my X, I just stopped drinking tea for no reason that I can think of...cold turkey. And I've been drinking a pot of coffee a day since...mostly in the morning while sitting at the computer.

So...I'm going to limit myself to 2 cups of coffee and then start up my tea habit again. (Coffee has antioxidants that are good for you, but drinking 5 Cups of tea a day makes you 68% less of a cancer risk. Two big Gulps of tea a day ain't nothing, tho on top of that it's hard for me to drink water too and that might be why I stopped the tea in the first place. I don't sweeten my tea, so it really is quite healthy for me to drink and it quenches my thirst better than anything, even water.

Nono...just got to visit that site! I am always barefoot. Leaving shoes at the door isn't just a Japanese,Chinese, Korean custom! But I admit that although I have never been into shoes, I did live for a while in Hawaii, so that is probably where I got my 'slippers at the door' philosophy. I like that barefoot site...tho I'm still not gonna run any marathons!! Once when I was young and stupid, I was running with now X and his bud on a South Carolina beach. I'd never run before but was an athlete (skiing/volleyball) so it wasn't hard and not a difficult pace. BUT OH MY GOD..the next day my ankles were so sore...I think from running on a slant of the wet sand??? And that's when I turned my back on running. I like to walk fast though, and I am already feeling better about my little one minute sprints and upping the pace...tho I'm stopping when my heart rate reaches 150 cuz at my age, I 'm supposed to be dead then.:ROTFL: :ROTFL: . I'm gonna go back to that site when I don't have an appeal due in a week and a half.....sounds like a nice place to visit.

Viking: yes, you have the number of heart beats you are allotted in this life tattooed on your inner ear canal. So I agree that we must chose carefully how we want that old pump to use itself up! Mine needs to last til I'm 100, so I think I need to get my pulse down to 20 beats a minute. ...Buddhist monestary here I come!

[7swans]

[QUOTE=Colorado Belle]

So...I'm going to limit myself to 2 cups of coffee and then start up my tea habit again. (Coffee has antioxidants that are good for you, but drinking 5 Cups of tea a day makes you 68% less of a cancer risk. Two big Gulps of tea a day ain't nothing, tho on top of that it's hard for me to drink water too and that might be why I stopped the tea in the first place. I don't sweeten my tea, so it really is quite healthy for me to drink and it quenches my thirst better than anything, even water.


I too love really strong brewed ice tea in the summer!
Nothing better IMO and no calories!
It is also a mild diuretic though so I still need to drink some water, boring though it may be. :sunny:

[nono]

CB, Glad you liked the site. I'm actually a hybrid -- I do run barefoot sometimes, but there's no way I'll go without in the dead of winter! But I run in training flats which according to many "experts" are not engineered enough. Funny thing is, I'm the one running with a smile on my face, and they are not. Also, I've been injury-free since dumping the highly engineered shoes.

This summer, most of my barefoot running is either to the bathrooms which are far away on our beach or up to put money in the parking meter, also while on the beach (new son is too floppy to ride all the way to the beach in the red wagon), so we're actually driving the 6 blocks this summer. :thumbsway

[KNWVIKING]

This summer, most of my barefoot running is either to the bathrooms which are far away on our beach or up to put money in the parking meter, also while on the beach (new son is too floppy to ride all the way to the beach in the red wagon), so we're actually driving the 6 blocks this summer. :thumbsway

Ah.... just use that big Altantic toilet that's only a few feet from the purple and yellow umbrella.

[Colorado Belle]

:hahahaha: I'm thinking of Nono barefoot in snow up to the red wagon with 'floppy son' in his snowsuit eating icicles and DD throwing snowballs while running behind mom. What an image!

I could never afford $100 tennis /running/walking shoes and still wear my 5 year old broken in tennis to tennis, tho the sole is kinda holey. But oh the comfort and speed! I worried for a while when I had bad foot neuromas that I wasn't taking care of my feet, and now that I weigh far too much I worry about fallen arches:hahahaha: :hahahaha: , but honestly, my feet breathing free is a wonderful feeling.

I like what the site said re the bottoms of our feet are meant for rough wear and can be 'padded', but that the rest of the foot is very soft and isn't meant to be enclosed . Not sure if runners get blisters on their soles, but my blisters are always on the upper or back of the foot. Makes sense to me. For years I played beach volleyball, of course barefoot, and I thought it made my feet and legs strong. So I'm a believer.