Cold water… Right?

It’s been a full week of Boiling frogs at the gym. What have I found so far after only five days of doing this?  It’s easy. There has been zero DOMS, so nothing is sore. Probably, I am building nothing but a tiny bit of endurance so far. So as far as body change, I see no change of course. 

As far as life change, 5:30am wake ups are not the best at first, but it’s growing on me. I find myself extra sleepy, but it’s fading. (Also the time change had my body feeling like 4:30 wakeups)

Food has been to a minimum as I don’t seem to be hungry like I am when I go nuts at the gym like before. 

It’s science and geeky and that interests me. I have a heart rate monitor watch so I’m able to make sure I don’t go above my heartrate goal for the day, which has raised today to 111 bpm from yesterday’s 110 bpm. It’s hard to star at such a moderate heart rate! 

I’m excited to watch this grow into heavy strenuous exercise without really noticing it. 

The 1 push-up this week is pretty funny too!  I feel foolish at the gym getting out a mat to do a 14 second plank and one push-up and putting it away. 

I also feel silly lifting a 5 lb weight over my head. This big powerful man. Hahah. !!!

As far as resting heart rate, it could be a coincidence, but my resting rate (daily avg) has gone from 67 to 66 to 64  through this week  could that be coincidence?

If you asked my how I feel? I’d say “the same”

It Takes Two Hours to Boil a Frog

Second day of Boiled-Frog-Routine and it was a lot like the first day.  Super easy. I laugh at myself as there are wobbly grannies working out harder than I am.  But still after 30 minutes I am sweating and I do feel like I exercised.  I'm just excited for the science to kick in! 

I wonder if I will be able to notice the gains I am making in endurance?  Going from 110bpm cardio up to a sustained 130 in June or something like that.  The way I see it, I could have spent the year doing what I did last year which is almost nothing, or I could do this!

I realize why a lot of people don't do exercise every day.  Up at 5:30 it wasn't until 7:30 when I was done.  How can that be?  All I did was wake up, get dressed, drive to gym, exercise, come home make some eggs, make a coffee, eat.  Boom! 2 hours.  and no shower yet!

I used to wake up, shower, get dressed, and start work.  Took me 30 mins tops. I am going to have to get over the time to know I am healthier.

Started tracking Resting Heart Rate too to see if that improves.  They say that your Resting Heart Rate should be between 50 and 70 to be healthy.  Mine's at 66.  So top side of healthy.  Lets see if this routing will bring that down to a moderate 60.  I know at one point in my life it was 55. 

TODAY'S EXERCISE

• 30 mins Elliptical @ 110 BPM
• 2 second plank (hahaha!)
• 5 squats
• 2 perfect Pushups

WHAT DID YOU EAT YESTERDAY?

Coffee with cream

2 egg omlette cheese and veggie

a 'lil marshmallow square

Two peanut butter rice cakes

Home Made Beef Fried Rice

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

Calves and knees are still sore, neck is still a bit stiff.  My writs feel better.  I was not horribly tired yesterday.  Overall OK.

Incremental Fitness

There is talk of an experiment that took a little frog and dropped him in hot water, and he jumps out right away (please don't try this).  But when the scientists put the frog in cold water and then slowly heated it up, the frog was happy until he was dead.  The reaction to jump didn't kick in, he was used to it.

This (rather macabre) thought got me thinking about how I approach fitness.  I go hard until I hurt something then I rest, and eventually quit.  Thinking about how much it will take to get back to that point I was at when I stopped.  This time will be different.

I started my planning like I start everything.  With a Google Spreadsheet.  Wrote down 365 days.  From today until next year.  Then I researched baseline fitness for fat, lazy, old people.  What is the most elderly workout one can do in cardio.  It turns out that from my age, 110 BPM heart rate for 30 mins a day is low/moderate.  That what I hit for today.

I then found out what a max BPM heart rate would be for someone who is one year older than I am. Turns out 160 BPM Hear rate is a rigorous heart rate for someone of my vintage next year.  That is what I placed as my 365 day target.

Then I simply subtracted 110 from 160 and reached a 50  BPM increase of a year.  Divided by 365 and got 0.13 BPM every day.  Plugged that into my computer as well.

I did this same thing with pushups, squats and weight.  

The most fun is going to be planks.  Amanda Minchau, my wife, saw an old man doing a 6 minute plank.  He said he has been adding one second on to his time every day.  That's pretty cool, so I am borrowing that.  Today I did a laughable (but perfect from) one second plank! 

Here is my workout for today:

• 30 mins Elliptical 110bpm
• 1 second plank
• 1 perfect pushup
• 5 perfect squats

Workout Results: I actually sweated during the 30 mins.  The plank was just funny. the pushup was actually hard and proved I need this. The squats weren't terrible but my knee is sore from skiing injury.

WHAT DID YOU EAT YESTERDAY?

Some Open House Snacks

Two peanut butter rice cakes

Overall, not a healthy eating day.

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

I am sore everywhere.  Parts of my feet are just sore, calves are sore, right knee is injured a bit, left knee is sore, left wrist has a ski injury (minor) right thumb is super stiff.  Neck is night.  Back gets stiff when sitting too long.  Getting tired a lot after 12 hours of work.  Really, I feel like base-line crap.