Category: Health

Joe’s Sunday Boot Camp week 1

58 and sunny in Silver Spring today.  I had to take advantage of a lazy Sunday and put it to good use. After some quick research on the net (@ Runner’s World reading up on how to get a little faster and stronger in the newest Men’s Health (nice article about Howard Schultz at the end) I decided to put my Sunday (and legs/arms/body) into use. Here’s the routine I tried out:
  • ~1.5 mile warm up, slow pace (this was the job to the track)
  • 16X 1/8 mile alternating fast pace/slow pace
  • 5X the following circuit with 60 second rest between circuits
    1. 60 seconds jumping jacks
    2. Spidey-ups (to exhaustion)
    3. 15 reps reverse lunges ea. side
    4. 10X squat thrusts
  • ~1.5 mile cool down (the run home)

I ran to the local high school which had a 1/4 mile(?) track which I split in half and ran alternating fast/slow 1/2s for a little more than 15 minutes.  The fastest “lap” was about 41 seconds and the slowest “fast” about 50 seconds (definitely room for improvement and I’m glad I had my Garmin to keep track of the lap times for me).

After the run I slipped right into the circuit/strength training.  I did about 10 each set of Spidey-ups which were pretty tough after the jumping jacks.  All in all though it was fun and flew by.  The jog home through downtown Silver Spring was a nice cool down.

Grand total: 1:15:00 and I was dripping with sweat.

Note: there is also a soccer goal (sans net) setup in the midfield of the track, works great for pull-ups and chin-ups (maybe next time).

run fatboy, run

I ran a marathon.  Faster than I ever imagined.

Probably helps that I started jettisoning the extra weight I was carrying around starting this past July.  In any event, running this 2nd marathon was a lot of fun and I owe a lot of thank yous.

Thank you to:

  • Molly: for cheering me at mile 14 and joining me for a memorable trip to Philly (and carting my butt back home the day of the race)
  • Clif Bar: for your oaty, delicious (and sometimes caffeinated) energy bars
  • Nike: for making shoes that didn’t do a bit of damage to my feet in nearly 700 miles since July — not even a blister
  • Saucony: for the sweet running pants that kept me from freezing so many 5am mornings this fall
  • Music: for making the runs not-so-boring (specifically John Butler Trio, Jeremy Messersmith, Civil Twilight and Kings of Leon, whose albums I listened to one after another over the nearly 4 hour run)
  • Philly Cheese Steaks: for being my end goal/reward (btw, cheese whiz is the only way to go)
  • The Society Hill Hotel: for being such a sweet hotel

And last but not least:

  • Nip tape: for preventing countless “gun shot” wounds

Looking forward to PGH’s 26.2 in May 2011.

Quote – Michael Pollan

That such a diet makes people sick and fat we have known for a long time.  Early in the twentieth century, an intrepid group of doctors and medical workers stationed overseas observed that wherever in the world people gave up their traditional way of eating and adopted the Western diet, there soon followed a predictable series of Western diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer.  They called these the Western diseases and, though the precise causal mechanisms were (and remain) uncertain, these observers had no doubt these chronic diseases shared a common etiology: the Western diet.

Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food

Drink this, not that.

“Eat this, not that” is a recent guilty pleasure.  Reading the name and discovering the stats of those entrees and meals at the pinnacle of the obesity epidemic is similar to rubber-necking a car accident.  After all, what’s not to love about White Castle’s “Surf and Turf Sliders” which feature both a fried fish patty and a burger (yum?).  2 are only 1080 calories! [http://eatthis.menshealth.com]

Anyways, recently I’ve been watching and counting what I eat (almost obsessively) in an effort to be healthier, lose a little weight and look better.  I’m stoked with the results; but the downside is that I’ve become hyper-aware of calories I ingest (or consider ingesting) and guilty for deviating from my prescribed daily diet.  Which makes drinking beer (my favorite beverage/food) very difficult.

In celebration of a great 2 months of healthy living recently I went out and bought some expensive beer favorites: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout (perfect for breakfast…jk) and Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA, which I would agree is possibly the best IPA.  Ever.  Accordingly, while kicking back to enjoy one I unlocked my phone and looked up the calories in a 12 oz bottle (like I said, I’m a little obsessed).  Well, in the fashion of “Eat this, not that” 1 bottle of 90 Minute has a greater caloric impact than eating a Snickers.  No joke, the sweet hoppiness and high ABV (9%) pack a lot of sugar (~ 35 grams of sugar/carbs) which makes this a great and amazingly flavorful beer.  If you’re saving the beer for dessert (like I did) it’d be slightly better than eating a half pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia Frozen Yogurt.

If you have more than one, multiply accordingly.

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, one 12oz bottle = 294 Calories (9% ABV).